Chapter 388: Looks Can Be Deceiving
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Black smog began to converge around Baiyi as he chanted; the smog seemed opaque sometimes, and other times, it seemed as ethereal as a veil.
The Abyss Lord did not stop the spell bombardment, but, like Svallin, none of them were able to penetrate the black smog. They were as ineffective as rocks being hurled at the sea.
When Molocchus saw this, it stopped firing spells, and the eyes on its body gradually closed. Only one eye remained open: a very large eyeball on its forehead. All the energy it had left, surged towards that eyeball.
The Abyss Lord roared fiercely, and a thick green beam of light burst out of the large eye towards Baiyi. It smashed into the black smog almost instantly.
Dark ripples appeared on the misty surface of the smog. The impact created by the collision stirred up a ruthless gale, which carried with it pebbles, sand, dust, and other debris. The green beam had also left a long gash on the earth. If someone were to spectate the battle from above, they would see Baiyi and Molocchus at the center of the enormous tempest that had just formed.
This was Molocchus’s strongest attack, which took all its energy to create. Anyone at the receiving end of the attack would be reduced to dust, even DemiG.o.ds.
The attack stirred up as big a storm as Baiyi’s last huge attack, which almost damaged the realm. However, Molocchus could not keep its attack up for as long as Baiyi kept his. A minute later, the energy around Molocchus’s eye dissipated, leaving the Abyss Lord panting.
Molocchus was desperate. It had just used its strongest attack, yet Baiyi’s smog barrier seemed to have received no damage whatsoever.
“What is he?! How could he even—” The Abyss Lord’s eyes widened as the black smog began to disperse, revealing a silhouette just as huge and muscular as Molocchus’ divine body was. This made it feel a sense of urgency.
When the smog cleared, the Abyss Lord trembled. Facing it was an enormous hammerhead shark plus.h.i.+e!
A chibi version of the hammerhead shark plus.h.i.+e, to be precise. Its body was spherical, and its fins were short and stout, making it look really adorable. However, this gigantic plus.h.i.+e did not have the soft, furry skin and snow-white belly that Mia’s plus.h.i.+e had.
Faraway from the battlefield, in the temporary abode of Eom Village’s displaced fairies, a concerned Mia waited for her Soul Armature to return. Suddenly, her pupils dilated; she was the first to notice the huge figure that had just appeared in the sky. She hurriedly looked at the hammerhead shark plus.h.i.+e in her lap, and then she looked at the one in the sky, her mouth open in shock.
‘So there was a larger and even powerful Sharkie all along? Can I hug it?’
“What… the… h.e.l.l is this thing?!” The Abyss Lord was appalled, and a bit embarra.s.sed. Moments later, it began to guffaw. “Hahahahaha! Turning yourself into a b.l.o.o.d.y toy, do you think you are here to perform tricks for children or something?”
“Heh. Why not come and see if this is just a toy or not,” the huge hammerhead shark plus.h.i.+e coldly replied. Its voice sounded strange; it was as though five people were speaking in unison.
Something that resembled a black rod appeared on the huge plus.h.i.+e’s leftmost fin, but on closer examination, it turned out to be a sword, whose blade emitted red, yellow, and blue rays of light. At the same time, a large tome, which had different formations...o...b..ting it, appeared above its rightmost fin. A moment later, the chilling image of a skull appeared close to the plus.h.i.+e’s dorsal fin.
“Charge!” The huge hammerhead shark plus.h.i.+e roared. Its caudal fins moved like human legs, in a manner that made it seem as though it was skipping forward.
The sight of a skipping hammerhead shark plus.h.i.+e — which had a round body and short fins, with which it held weird objects — made for comedic gold.
Baiyi had not intended to transform into a plus.h.i.+e. When he suggested the use of this spell to the Voidwalkers, they disagreed on what to transform into. The Caveman Walker wanted them to transform into a large beefcake; the Lich Walker wanted them to transform into a Spartoi, and the Archmage suggested that they transform into a character with Super-Super Rare alt 1 . They would not entertain ideas other than their own, despite having barely any time to transform.
Unfortunately, the secret spell was doomed to fail if its partic.i.p.ants could not come to an agreement. Left with very few options, Baiyi decided that they take the form of his Black Meatball Mode, albeit much larger; however, he could not remove the image of Little Mia’s hammerhead shark plus.h.i.+e from his mind.
Whatever form the Voidwalker chose to a.s.sume had no effect on the amount of strength they could exert.
After all, the secret spell they had used was an improved version of the Pseudo-Descent secret spell. The inspiration the Voidwalkers gained from the way the Dragon Knights battled was also implemented in this spell; in that Baiyi would act as the dragon, and the Voidwalkers would act as the human rider. In the united form they all shared, they would all be able to display their skills and complete the shortcomings of others.
The spell granted the Voidwalkers the capability to cooperate with themselves even better than Dragon Knights cooperated with their dragons. Furthermore, Baiyi had linked the consciousness of all the Voidwalkers, allowing them to gain access to each other’s thoughts, like a powerful hivemind. This was a grand chance for the Voidwalkers to show how strong they were when they worked together!
The Knight Walker had control over the left fin; the Archmage controlled the right fin; the Lich Walker was in charge of the dorsal fins, and the Caveman Walker was essentially the caudal fins, which controlled the speed and movement of the large hammerhead shark plus.h.i.+e. Baiyi, as the leader, a.s.sumed control over the head.
Normally, in difficult battles, Baiyi would resort to using his fists, and when those were not enough, spells; if this also failed, however, he would use his Void Energy Meatball form. However, this spell allowed for the use of different fighting styles at the same time, which was a ma.s.sive upgrade from manually switching between fighting styles — something Baiyi was used to. Before now, he had not met anyone who had pressured him enough to use this secret spell.
Today, however, Molocchus had forced his hand. Hence, Baiyi had no option but to use this spell to try and seize victory.
Baiyi had christened this spell ‘Khalah’s Light’. As the enormous plus.h.i.+e charged at Molocchus, it exclaimed, “We are bound by F2 + A — wait, no! I mean, we are bound by the Khalah. The sacred union of our every emotion and thought…” 2
Although Khalah’s Light looked funny, its power was the real deal. The large hammerhead shark plus.h.i.+e looked adorable as it swung the tri-colored War G.o.d’s Sword with its short fin. However, to Molocchus, the hammerhead shark plus.h.i.+e looked frightening. The Abyss Lord initially thought that the large hammerhead shark plus.h.i.+e’s attacks would not hit because its fins were short, but the plus.h.i.+e performed physics-defying maneuvers and cut Molocchus with every swing.
The huge plus.h.i.+e looked cute swinging its right fin around, but unfortunately, every time that fin moved, it fired off a forbidden spell at the Abyss Lord’s face.
The plus.h.i.+e’s caudal fins, which acted as its legs, moved swiftly and nimbly. The plus.h.i.+e moved even faster than top-ranked elite knights!
Meanwhile, the plus.h.i.+e hurled curses at the Abyss Lord with its dorsal fin. These curses were actually disguised necromancy spells, which directly damaged Molocchus’ soul.
However, the plus.h.i.+e’s head proved to be the most dangerous part of its body. It spewed bolts of black lightning, black spears, and black beams of light; these inflicted more damage to Molocchus than the attacks coming from plus.h.i.+e’s other body parts.
Molocchus was basically fighting five experts at once. These experts complimented each other’s attacks, as a result of the deep understanding they had of each other’s intention. This left Molocchus doing its best to fend off five different types of attacks at once!
This was just how the Abyss Lord felt. It believed it was battle an elite team containing the best experts, not a huge plus.h.i.+e.
Despite the knowledge and power it had spent a millennium acc.u.mulating, as well the seemingly-indestructible divine body it possessed, Molocchus found itself completely overwhelmed by the combination of Void Energy, Forbidden Spells, unparalleled swordsmans.h.i.+p, necromancy, and intuitive physical attacks. It could not even get time to think.
Fed up of getting attacked without reprieve, Molocchus threw a punch at the gigantic plus.h.i.+e. The Knight Walker — who controlled the left fin, which held the War G.o.d Sword — did not miss this opportunity. The gigantic plus.h.i.+e swung the tri-colored War G.o.d Sword at Molocchus’ outstretched arm, severing it cleanly.
The Caveman Walker, who controlled the caudal fins, used this opportunity to propel the gigantic plus.h.i.+e into the air, and as though that jump was pre-planned, the Knight Walker, controlling the left fin, swung the War G.o.d’s Sword at the large eye on Molocchus’s forehead, chopping it off!
The Archmage, who was controlling the right fin, saw this as an opening. He began to chant the incantations for a forbidden binding spell, which he used to bind the eyeball back to the head. The Lich Walker, who controlled the dorsal fin, cast multiple high-leveled curses at the Abyss Lord, which caused the speed of its bodily functions, including regeneration, to slow to a crawl.
Suddenly, the gigantic hammerhead shark plus.h.i.+e opened its maw and bit down on Molocchus’s head, and then a powerful beam of Void Energy erupted from its mouth, blasting a hole through the Abyss Lord’s eye and head. The Knight Walker made the left fin stab the War G.o.d’s Sword into the plus.h.i.+e’s own mouth, and through the Abyss Lord’s neck.
The left fin moved the blade sideways, decapitating the plus.h.i.+e in the process. However, Molocchus’s head and huge eyeball, which the plus.h.i.+e held in his maw, were also decapitated.
All this happened at the very last second of the War G.o.d’s allocated time. As soon as the plus.h.i.+e was decapitated, it turned to dust, which a pa.s.sing wind blew away, revealing the silhouette of a Soul Armature.
Beside him was the corpse of the Abyss Lord Molocchus, the toughest opponent he had ever faced.
Its consciousness had vanished completely, and all that was left of its body were two halves of a huge eyeball, as well as an ashen grey headless corpse, which was being burned by green flames. Soon, even the corpse itself began to break apart and vanish.
Baiyi had won the battle, but there was no joy on his face. He turned his attention to the Lich Walker, who had returned to the Void, and coldly said, “Lost your chance?”
The Voidwalkers involved in the battle had initially planned to annihilate the Abyss Lord Soul the moment its body was destroyed. The Lich Walker was supposed to do this, and he did cast the appropriate spell, but the soul of their foe was not completely obliterated.
“Partially, but not really,” replied the Lich Walker. “Just like you, that demon did not infuse all of its consciousness into the body it had in this realm. A small part was left in the Abyss. This is a strategy befitting of Molocchus, who is known the world over for being very cunning.”
“Meh, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d has kissed its powers goodbye. All it has managed to save is that weak bit of consciousness,” the Devil Walker explained. “It’s impossible for one to control a powerful body except they a.s.sign an immense amount of power and consciousness into it. Molocchus did the same, and you obliterated its large cache of power and consciousness. Hence, I would say the Abyss Lord is as good as half-dead. Its life will be dangling by a very thin thread for a very long time.”
Baiyi frowned. “Even if it is true that Molocchus would not trouble us for the time being, the Abyss Lord will still retain its memory of this fight. Not only does it now know the powers we possess, but it had also gotten the opportunity to interact with a Law — a complete, functioning Law — unlike the Law Fragments we have come across and studied. Who knows how much enlightenment the demon gained from that! If we ever see Molocchus again, we might be in even bigger trouble.”
“Hee hee hee! Oh, if I were that little snake, I would be more worried about the dangers lurking in my own home. When those demon thanes find out how weak their boss has become, you will not believe how keen they will be to rip it to pieces. In fact, they will be more delighted to do the honors than you will!” The Devil Walker replied optimistically, convincing Baiyi to abandon the idea of traveling to the Abyss to destroy the rest of Molocchus’ consciousness.
Molocchus would not fare any better than Thaas, who was reduced to a beating heart — something the Devil Walker’s memories had proven. Demons delighted in rebellion and betrayal, even against their own kind. Molocchus had invested too much of his power and consciousness into the body that Baiyi had destroyed, hence the Devil Walker did not believe the Molocchus’ leftover consciousness could overpower a mediocre large demon. In other words, there were currently too many beings in the Abyss who could crush the weakened Molocchust into dust.
Baiyi shook his head sideways, a little helplessly. Frankly, he was not satisfied, but it would be impractical of him to charge into the Abyss right now.
Hence, he changed the subject. “Well then, I guess we can begin to reap our latest rewards.”