As soon as the light faded, Goddess Blanc moved and erected a multicolored barrier around us. It was so fast that I couldn’t even see the moment it was created, like the barrier appeared instantly.
*TANG!* *CLANG!*
As if they were waiting for our appearance, myriad attacks fell right on top of us. Thankfully, the barrier was holding up well, not budging an inch against the barrage of attacks.
“As expected… this is a bit sad, King Leonard.”
God Zeshion muttered in a sad tone, his expression as if he was about to cry.
Before us was the prided Royal Army, each being at the 7th stage and above. Not only them, but even their tamed monsters joined the fray, firing attacks one after another as if they didn’t mind running out of energy.
While looking at them, however, I noticed something weird.
“Why… do they all not have signs of vitality?”
They do have their energy circulating inside them, but other than for attacks, there was no other flow present in their body. In short, no blood flow could be observed.
“Are they all…”
Before I could finish what I was about to ask, Goddess Blanc tapped my shoulder. She was shaking her head sideways, as if telling me not to say it.
I now understand why Zeshion felt sad. Everyone before us was already dead. They’re something like zombies—dead bodies that were still moving beyond reason.
“I guess this is the first time you and Yu Na saw this. This is without a doubt Noir’s doing. The special effect of his God Domain, the Death Army.”
“…”
Using other humans and monsters as literal puppets, Noir really does have a bad taste. Seeing the atrocity he’s done, even I started to feel anger welling up deep within my soul.
“No choice. We’ll proceed as planned!”
Zeshion, sighing deeply, raised his voice and announced. Hearing that, nobody raised an objection. Everyone’s resolve was firm.
“Then I’ll go handle the small fries,”
Goddess Zeta muttered before snapping her fingers. As soon as she did, most of the attacking army’s members vanished from their spots. Their current position was probably either several thousand meters straight up or straight down. Either way, instant death was the only possible outcome for them.
‘But they’re the death army, practically zombies. Would that alone be enough to kill them?’
Such doubts crossed my mind, but I kept them to myself. Goddess Zeta was more experienced than me regarding the death army, as she had fought god-tamer Noir before.
The only ones left behind were those of the 9th stage, those who are of the space element, and some of the rarer elements that could cancel, divert, or hinder the effects of Zeta’s forced teleportation.
As expected, King Leonard was among those who survived the “screening” that Zeta did. Other than him, there were also about a hundred or so zombies that survived. It was a pretty small figure, knowing that there were tens of thousands of them before the goddess Zeta’s attack.
“Uuuuh…”
King Leonard, as he currently is, could only groan. His movement was completely devoid of any sign of intelligence. However, despite that, he was waving his hand and sending orders to the soldiers around him.
Following his orders, all the soldiers, even the prince and some unfamiliar faces, quickly sent another wave of attacks. Goddess Blanc’s barrier was still going strong, blocking everything easily.
“Then, I guess it’s my turn!”
God Ajax showed a vicious smile before he vanished like a mist from inside the barrier. Even through my eyes, I completely couldn’t see his figure. No, rather than not seeing him, it was close to him melding with the environment. His presence was all over the place, but nowhere at the same time.
His presence spread thinly but widely, covering all the soldiers and other zombies within its range. After that, he started manifesting his body behind one of the enemies, sending heads flying, before returning to being scattered all around. In just a few seconds, the number of enemies dropped by half.
His targets were limited to the former humans, however, intentionally leaving out the tamed monsters who were similarly turned into zombies for the others to handle.
“Picky as usual. Why don’t you just wipe them all out? It’s the same either way.”
Goddess Vermeil sighed in exasperation before flying out of the barrier. Unlike Ajax, who was being stealthy while moving around, she was the very definition of conspicuous. Flying around in a fiery blaze, she was literally burning everything along her path.
Dozens of enemies turned to dust, barely able to do anything against her.
As the two were wreaking havoc in the middle of the enemies’ formation, a powerful wave suddenly washed over them. Both gods stopped in place as if they were held by an invisible hand, completely taking away their freedom.
The two simultaneously turned to the “former” King Leonard’s side, where a simple-looking hourglass was floating. That hourglass wasn’t really an object, but a monster. The extremely rare time-element monster of the king, the timekeeper Rivet.
That little thing was the most feared enemy by the god tamers. After all, it was extremely hard to counter time manipulation. Vermeil and Ajax were both proof of this, as they both were locked in time, unable to move as if a character in a paused movie.
Ajax was one thing, but Vermeil had a way to break out of the time control. From the void of space around her, raging flames started converging. It started off as a small flame circling around her until it became a gigantic ball of fire.
“Ugh… Hot!”
Furthermore, just because of that ball of fire, the temperature around it jumped up, reaching almost unbearable levels. Seeing the ground below her starting to liquefy, it was easy to imagine just how hot it was at the center of it all.
Slowly, Vermeil’s body started moving once more. As soon as it happened, her clothes started to completely burn off—a familiar scene to me.
“Is that [Flame Clad]?!”
It wasn’t that rare of a skill, but comparing Igni’s version with Goddess Vermeil’s was like comparing a match’s flame to the sun!
“That’s Raven, alright. Bruteforcing everything.” 𝑖.𝘤ℴ𝘮
Goddess Blanc’s words echoed as another layer of barrier was cast, making it so that the radiated heat from Vermeil would no longer affect us.
The large ball of flames around her started to condense, creating a bright and hot flame covering her entire body like full-plate armor. The surrounding soldiers, even King Leonard, and his tamed monster, the timekeeper Rivet, were visibly melting from the heat she radiated alone.
Still, as expected of a rare element, they didn’t go down with just that. With their figures returning to their previous state, like skipping frames and turning back time, all members of the Death Army recovered. That included the ones that Ajax had supposedly killed and the ones that Goddess Zeta had sent to an unknown location.
Furthermore, there’s now a layer of protection around them, blocking off the radiated heat and any and all attacks by stopping time a few inches from their bodies. Seeing this, Vermeil frowned deeply.
“You pesky little thing, why don’t you simply give up?!”
However, like a strand of plastic exposed to a raging flame, the revived zombies couldn’t do anything before they melted away, burning away until nothing remained. The barrier covering them couldn’t do much against the intense flames that she was releasing.
“Zeta, drag Ajax back here. He’ll get swallowed by the following attack.”
Zeshion calmly ordered, upon which Zeta acted instantly. With a snap, the body of Ajax, still frozen in time, appeared in his previous position. As if waiting for that, Vermeil’s excited voice echoed loudly.
“Let’s wrap this all up! [Flame Clad: Supernova]!”
After that… I don’t know what happened.
Goddess Blanc’s barrier suddenly turned black, but before that, I think I saw a bright flash covering my entire field of view. Although it was just for a short instant, I felt like my eyes got burned by the intense light.
*PSSSSSSHHHHHHH!*
All we could see was darkness, but outside, the sound of something evaporating rapidly, like water dropping on a hot stone, echoed loudly. About a minute later, Ajax was no longer stopped in place. The barrier’s dark color also faded, returning it to the semi-transparent appearance it had before.
However, the scenery had already completely changed.
As far as the eye could see, everything started to turn into glass. The intense heat from Vermeil’s attack literally changed the terrain, deleting the beautiful forest and almost evaporating half of the castle town ahead.
“That’s how you clear up swathes of enemies!”
She muttered as she landed before us, her body still covered by the [Flame Clad]’s flame armor. The heat she was exuding was now restrained to the point that it didn’t bother anyone near her.
I was wondering why she wasn’t turning off her skill, but then I recalled that her clothes had all burned up. She’s practically naked underneath the flame armor right now.
Anyway, now that there’s nothing else blocking the way, we can safely head to the Royal Castle without worrying. Just as we were about to approach, something unbelievable happened.
“The castle… is floating! Is that Lap*ta?!”
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