Butcher's Graffiti

The creatures who thrive there have gone beyond what means of survival evolution could possibly provide. It was Nature at its truest form, unfiltered cruelty that pushes all living things to the brink and forcing most to become monsters and embrace abnormality.

Death was plentiful in the midst of chaos. An alluring choice over a struggling existence of pain and suffering. Yet there are those who thought otherwise and chose to conquer the havoc, gaining unrivaled power and strength.

These fiends who have a.s.serted their dominance and established a personal spot in the steep cosmic food chain of the abyss are revered to as Evil G.o.ds.

"The Named Ones", they are called.

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With the sudden appearance of an absurdly enormous summoning circle, Gregory"s Spells were dispersed. The portal between dimensions was causing a convergence event and reality started to decompose due to the paradox. Transparent cracks spread like webs around the circle as the abundant Chaos Mana seeped through the opening.

DDRRRR

A deep guttural bellow shook the very earth as a forgotten myth emerged from the depths of h.e.l.l. The leviathan was indescribably t.i.tanic. A black dragon-like serpent greatly exceeding a kilometer in length slithered through the path. It had four, blood-red eyes, tusks protruding from its unnaturally wide jaw, and webbed sails running down its spine while the edges of its scales glowed a reddish hue.

Apophis, The Gluttonous.

Upon seeing the ridiculously gigantic monster, the spectators from within the Inst.i.tute"s premise froze in fear as a hair-raising chill p.r.i.c.kled their necks.

u003c"It"s too powerful to control."u003e Ivan thought. u003c"But that doesn"t matter. Fiends are helplessly attracted to high concentrations of mana and right now the most alluring choice would be..."u003e

DRRRHISS—GYAAAAAARRRGGH

Everything made of gla.s.s from everywhere in the Inst.i.tute shattered from the deafening roar. The crocodilian snout was loaded full of rough metallic teeth that was individually as big as a house, making its mouth look like a collosal shredder.

u003c"The Sanctuary"s Core."u003e

Just as Ivan predicted, the Apophis was now intently looking at the Professor as it flicked it"s tongue out like a snake would.

The predator had found prey.

With his many years of experience in facing against opponents of all sorts, Nikolai was instinctively able to gauge the Named One"s combat prowess. He was confident he could take the serpent on, but the current situation demanded for alternative choices.

"MATROS!" he yelled, unceremoniously lifting the professor by grabbing his torso from behind like a child would hold a toy.

"UNLEASH...FIFTH AND...FOURTH SEAL!"

Nikolai"s shadow stemmed out and went full black, cloaking the ground around like an empty veil. A pair of golden eyes peeked open in the shadow, gazing towards the serpent with unsettling animosity.

"That"s...!" Ivan thought out loud, evading in the split-second that Nikolai"s Mithril Axe nearly relieved him of his head.

"YOU"RE. MINE." The Ogre"s voice thundered, slitting his thumb ominously across his throat. "I"LL...RIP YOU... APART."

Matros was now over 300 meters tall on all fours with a skeletal face and majestic antlers sprouting forth between her wolf-like ears. This was partly how her original form was, ethereal and constantly shifting into shadowy mists.

"The Dungeon King, "Megalykantros"."

But despite the timely transformation, Matros was a mere pup compared to the overwhelming size of the Apophis.

GRRRRR

Noticing the appearance of a challenger, the serpent seemed to chuckle at the puny cub trying to a.s.sert dominance with its miniscule existence. As if to mock the wolf"s size, the leviathan rose up to the sky and menacingly hissed. Striking without warning with it"s fangs and tusks bared, ready to devour the insignificant canine.

Matros was average in terms of size compared to other monsters within the Underground Labyrinth of Hamellin, but she was definitely was the most powerful among them. After its defeat at the hands of Nikolai and company, five "Divine Seals" were placed upon the Dungeon King to moderate the amount of influence its power had over its mind.

Thus stabilizing her psychological state and allowing Matros to live a peaceful life. The terrible strength that had controlled her before was kept dormant over the years.

Just before the Apophis could land it"s strike, the wolf snarled.

WROAAAAAAAAAAARR

The leviathan was met with a shockwave strong enough to blow it away helplessly, tail and all. The surroundings weren"t exempt from the quaking blast unbelievably caused by a single roar, further decimated into absolute ruins.

"...that wasn"t magic." Gregory watched in awe as he retreated back within the safety of The Sanctuary, teleporting back to his laboratory.

"Right on money, Professor." Phillis"s voice sounded enthusiastically through one of the beads on Gregory"s wrist.

"It"s a unique move where the Megalykantros, or "Matros" as Nikki likes to call it, concentrates its extremely loud roar into a single direction to create a high-frequency noise strong enough to shatter even diamonds. A Super Oscillatory Blast, of sorts."

The wolf stood proud before the destruction, eyeing the serpent who was blasted towards one of the gigantic pillars erected at the Inst.i.tute"s outside perimeter. Rising from the rubble below the unaffected tower, the Apophis was burning with hatred.

It received no damage from the blow but its pride as a top predator was now harshly wounded.

The sands of of the Taratect Desert brewed into a ravaging storm as the world stood witness to the incoming brawl. Steam spewed from the serpent"s nostrils as an orange glow buzzed through the tight s.p.a.ces between its scales, preparing to release an attack of its own.

Greetings should be returned after all.

BWOOOSHHH

Red flames erupted from its jaws and soared straight towards Matros like a flamethrower. But the king was prepared. A spiked golden Halo appeared above her antlers, this was what the Fourth Seal contained.

Primordial Arts; Void Magic.

Dragonfire, which is what composed the Apophis"s breath, was a weaker variation of the Promethean Flames of Wrath. A version that could actually be used by mortals. Geisler was a special case in which he sacrificed billions of souls to gain control of the Forging Flames, a cheat in other words.

As the stream of red flames was about to reduce the wolf and everything else around into steaming ash, the heat evaporated into nothing but trails of smoke.

.

"AAGH!!" Geisler did his best to cope with the injury, his right arm dangling and bent in a weird angle.

Upon seeing the giant monsters, he a.s.sumed that they were hallucinations due to the pain he felt as the broken shards of bone from his ribcage pierced his lungs. The impact of the punch was so sudden and incomprehensibly strong in his perspective that it knocked him out cold for a bit.

The shards of bone in his elbow had penetrated through his skin, causing flames to burst out of the wounds. This forced him switch off his new form for now and was trying his best to heal the injury.

"Wait!" Ivan"s voice called out, gliding down safely to Geisler. "Flamel"s Stone is just like a concentrated amount of Life Force harvested from souls. You can just expend some of it to heal your injuries."

Heeding the advice, Geisler tried his d.a.m.nedest to ignore the pain and meditate as he began to manipulate his Life Force. Just like Nikolai"s Healing Factor, small fibers began to weave like threads. Anything useless was expelled out of the body like exposed bone marrow or contaminated blood, resupplied and replaced with perfect copies.

"Well done! Quite impressive for a first-timer."

"...how odd. There"s not even a scar." Geisler said, observing his healed arm.

"You"ll have all the time to admire your new abilities later. Right now, we"ll have stall for more time." Ivan responded, helping him back to his feet.

Heavy gallops could be heard despite the ongoing brawl between the monsters. Nikolai, with his Gaunlet on one hand and axe on the other, charged towards the two like a mad bull.

"Màs ràpido, Toro! Ràpido!! Hahahaha!!"

Phillis was sitting on Nikolai"s nape having the time of his life, riding like a cowboy as he laughed out loud. He was waving up his cane, revealing it to be a sleek sword as he unsheathed the blade.

DWIZZZ—TWHANGK

With her target distracted by the monkey business, Althea was able to catch the villains off-guard. Although, Ivan inhumanly dodged at the last second while the bullet that nearly splattered his brain subtly seemed to bend its trajectory.

The projectile shattered as it hit the debris on the ground. The High General"s ingenuity couldn"t let such an opportunity pa.s.s, a s.a.d.i.s.tic smile creeping. With the help of some silent casting and a basic earth spell to move a metal debris towards the bullet"s trajectory, some of the shrapnel ricocheted and grazed Ivan"s right eye.

"!!?—KUH!!" the android fell to his knees in pain, holding his bleeding eye.

Noticing his partner"s distress, Geisler immediately erected an flaming wall to the direction of the sniper"s vantage point. But in doing so he allowed for the rampaging bull to instantly close the distance between them.

For a moment, Geisler flinched as he saw it.

In the battlefield, talent and strength only ever mattered when a warrior carries the resolve to enforce it upon his opponents. It was not the threatening gleam of the gigantic axe nor the golden gauntlet that was strangely morphing into other forms that scared him.

Rather, it was the murder in the Ogre"s eyes.

Time came to halt.

Geisler struggled to breathe as the taste of iron filled his mouth and cold, chilling sweat p.r.i.c.kled his back like hundreds of poking needles. It was the human body"s natural reaction to intense bloodl.u.s.t. The mind had shut down due to the fear overpowering his senses to the extreme, but the body of a veteran that had been trained and weathered by countless struggles and experiences instinctively fought to survive the current ordeal.

The Baptism hadn"t just bestowed upon him superficial knowledge, it infused the information about the capabilities of the Promethean Flames to the very core of his cells.

PZZZZZRRRTT

From the glinting fissures that ran through his blazing body, high density, paper-thin lasers that entirely disintegrated everything in it"s path shot out. It was partially able penetrate the Sanctuary"s shield even with Gregory"s direct control, setting a few of the conifers ablaze but thankfully there was no casualty.

Even the dueling monsters took time to shield themselves while Ivan remained unharmed, giving him an opportunity to escape along with his blinded partner-in-crime. Phillis and Nikolai on the other hand, took the full brunt of the attack at point blank. Dust kicking up around them as devastating explosions travelled across the desert.

Learning and growing one"s Original Skill usually took months or years of focus and hardwork. But Geisler had once more evolved a new form in a matter of moments from his initial breakthrough, an ability unique to his abnormal Baptism.

There was no time to remodel Ignitia"s gauntlet form into a shield, so Nikolai had to improvise. After flipping the bloodsucker behind him, the Giant crossed the Mithril Axe over his Gauntlet as they were pushed nearly 50 meters back. The vampire tried his best to help by conjuring a ten-layer barrier of ice while a final shield of light that was concentrated on the point of impact, but the beam of purple laser rendered all of it null.

Nikolai was gritting his teeth, wincing from the damage. His tolerance over pain helped him ignore fatal wounds caused by stabs, slashes or any sort of blunt physical force, but burns were another thing.

The remaining half of the melted axe fell down with its handle gone along with Nikolai"s gauntlet-clad left fist, a gaping hole open in his chest.

"BLEUGH! ...GARR!!"

Phillis had gotten off lightly with a third-degree burn on his shoulder, immediately casting healing arts on himself as he kept his cool and was already thinking about how they could handle the escalating situation.

Silently walking towards them, Geisler"s new form exuded so much heat that the ground around him turned into lava. There was not a single resemblance of his human self as the flames enguled his now skeletal head adorned with horns, blazing from the split running from shoulder to shoulder. His body had been restructured completely to handle the heat while his feathery tail grew even longer, demonic eyes flashing in his empty eye sockets.

"You want him?" Geisler spoke in an otherworldly voice. "You go through me."

Without warning another supershot came zooming from 4000 meters away. This time, the flaming demon was the target.

DWIZZZZ

But the bullet melted before it could even get close to it"s mark, drooping like slime due to the heat. The demon shifted it"s gaze to the origin of the shot, staring right at the shade as she looked through her scope.

"Althea! Look ou—!!!"

BWAP—PIRRZZZZZZZ

A giant ray of violet beam blasted through the Sanctuary"s barrier once more and instantly eliminated the sniper, blowing up one of the structures in the process. It was the first time that the Professor had encountered something that could go past his barrier and it caught him unprepared.

The two men stood in silence, both stupefied at what had just transcended.

"Hahaha...AAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Following his display of might, Geisler rejoiced for he now believed that there was nothing on this world that could stop him and his powers.

"YE MIGHTY GAZE AT ME AND DESPAIR!!!! FOR IT IS I, THE POWERFUL DUKE OF h.e.l.l."

While relishing in the ecstasy of his accomplishments, the demon failed to notice the two ouminous and powerful auras growing rapidly.

"Professor..." Phillis"s voice was different, distant and murderous. The air around him rippled rhythmically as the veins in his body bulged with an abnormally sudden increase in blood flow.

"Containment of threat... is no longer possible. Forgive me..."

He laid his hand on Nikolai"s back, a rippling sensation of euphoria spreading throughout his body as the Vampire pushed the Ogre"s circulatory system beyond inhuman limits with only his healing factor barely keeping his body whole.

GHAAACCKK

"But there"s no hope for this imbecile that"s your brother; and he shall die a dog"s death."

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