Chương 123: Chapter 122: Inferna’s Resolve
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"RAAAAAH!"
With a monstrous scream, what remained of Emiliette, now mutated into a gigantic, muscular aberration covered in tendrils, tentacles, and eyes as tall as ten meters, groaned ferociously, her head resembling that of a worm with countless sharp fangs spiraling inside of its maw.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
Her enormous bloody fists crashed against Inferna, constantly trying to demolish her entire body into pieces. The parasitic beast that had taken over her body was born from the manifestations of The Bleeding Scream, feeding off her soul's rage and despair.
"HYAAAH!"
However, Inferna wasn't being pushed back as much as before. Barely avoiding her sure death at the hands of Emiliette's attack, her wounds were regenerated through the adaptive body of the Doppelganger Anna, which, as a result, also gave her temporary access to most of her skills, which she inherited from the real deal.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Several Sunlight Blades were fired, summoned by Inferna, as they rotated around her body and then reached her foe, piercing Emiliette's aberrant arms and slicing through them.
However, as they sliced through her flesh, the wounds quickly regrew new tendrils almost instantly, splattering blood everywhere, which quickly gathered into dozens of spheres around her.
"Inferna, create a shield!"
With the Doppelganger's command, Inferna's eyes shone bright gold, imitating a small fragment of the inherited Eyes of Truth. Even if it was just a temporary power, it was very useful.
Thanks to the insight of both Doppelganger Anna and her Eyes of Truth, Inferna was able to evade dozens of rapidly moving Blood Bullets, which pierced through the ground as they attempted to land on her, leaving enormous holes!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Those that managed to get to her were instantly blocked by several shields, both made of light and darkness, one of Inferna's natural magic talents, which she had yet to develop, as she concentrated more on wielding her spear than anything else.
"RAAAH!"
A huge tentacle arm emerged out of nowhere, piercing through Inferna's shields and then grabbing her by the neck, trying to grasp her tightly and crush her!
"{Infernal Jab}! {Sunlight Blades}!"
By swinging her spear vertically several times while complementing her attacks with a dozen blades made of sunlight, Inferna barely managed to escape her death as she sliced through the entire arm and shredded it into pieces.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
"GRYYAAAAH!"
Giving out an agonizing shriek, the beast glared at Inferna furiously, suddenly leaping towards her like a wrathful gorilla, raising its unscathed arm, and it's still regenerating one and attempting to pummel her entire body to death!
CRASH!!!
The meteor-like descent came accompanied by a tremendous shockwave, with blood splattering everywhere as it took the shape of hundreds of Crimson Spears, which instantly flew towards the retreating Inferna!
"S-Shit!"
"Inferna, you have to attack too! You're too used to retreating! Be more aggressive!"
"It's easy for you to say that…"
"Come on now! I'll cover your back!"
"D-Dammit! Okay!"
Inferna had no time to pussy out of this; she gritted her teeth and started running directly towards the monster in front of her, evading and blocking the spears as they came. Sometimes they would manage to get through her defenses, piercing her shoulders, only for her shoulders to easily regenerate as purple slime filled them up!
This was a super regeneration power she gained by the Doppelganger fusing with her, but it wasn't going to last forever, and it had its limitations. Nonetheless, it was one of the things that she had to abuse to win this fight.
"RAAAAH! {Demonic Dragon Spear}!"
Her Demonic Energy gathered within her Spear, her weapon suddenly erupting with a dragon-shaped aura as it opened its fiery jaws, about to strike Emiliette. The aberration swung its enormous arms against her, attempting to block her strike with its punches!
CRASH!!!
RUMBLE!
However, it did not work! The Draconic Aura engulfed half its body as Inferna's piercing strike reached the beast's heart and destroyed it, blood splattering everywhere as a dozen Sunlight Blades materialized around her and then pierced the crazed beast!
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
"GRUOOOHHHH…!"
With a monstrous roar, Emiliette fell to her knees, the blinding light burning her flesh as Inferna's spear was about to strike her head!
However!
CRACK!
With a horrendous sound of bones snapping and flesh opening, half of her gigantic body opened up, revealing even larger jaws extending all the way down to the aberration's waist. Numerous tentacles, each one with sharp spear-like tips, attacked Inferna and pushed her away.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
Inferna was unable to evade all the attacks that came to her, like rampaging lightning strikes one after another. Even with the borrowed Eyes of Truth, her body was not strong enough to move fast enough to match her improved senses, even with the boost that Doppelganger Anna gave her.
"Inferna!"
However, in that very moment, Inferna's stomach grew out a small Anna-like torso made out of purple slime, shaping into a bubble, and protecting her from the attacks!
BAAAM!
Her entire body hit the floor with a loud thud as the beast slowly walked towards her. While burning and slowly breaking apart, its insides were constantly regrowing anew.
"GRYYYEEEERRRHHH…"
Hel's Grimoire flipped its pages as it floated in front of Inferna, its Deathly Powers beginning to wrap around her as she slowly stood up, her eyes flaring with red light.
"Anna has so many skills that it's hard to even use them all properly…" She thought. "But I cannot give up after her Doppelganger gave her own body to save my life!"
She quickly started to recall more and more of Anna, reinforcing her Skills inherited from her Doppelganger. It seemed that whenever she visualized what Anna did whenever she used such Skills, the inherited Skills would spark from within her body, allowing her to use them with more proficiency.
It was all about visualization!
"SHAAAAH!"
Gaining a boost of speed, the aberration confronting her leaped towards her, utilizing its own self-growing tentacles to spring itself into the air and then descend and crush Inferna's body with their sheer weight.
"Visualize it, visualize it!"
Suddenly, Inferna and Doppelganger Anna's minds connected together. The Mimic smiled, her mind suddenly beginning to control Inferna a bit as Inferna responded to her commands!
"You're all open if you leap over us like that!" Anna laughed, and suddenly, a massive sword made of combined light and darkness emerged, and swirling chaos materialized!
"{Chaos Blade}!"
SLASH!
The blade was fired upwards, piercing through the aberrant beast and slicing half its body as a huge explosion engulfed the two halves!
BOOOM!
One of the halves was instantly vaporized into ashes, as the second one started crawling out, gathering the lost blood, and materializing them into new, gigantic claws, tentacles, and legs, resembling a golem made of flesh, broken bones, and blood, which it used to attack Inferna and Anna tenaciously!
"You sure don't like to give up, don't you?!"
Inferna and Anna roared at the same time, their demonic and angelic powers converging together as another Skill suddenly activated within Inferna, her entire body beginning to be covered by black and purple scales as she grew a long reptilian tail and even wings and a horn!
Ding!
[The Effects of the [Half-Beast Demonic Transformation (B): Lv6] have been activated!]
[The Innate Beast within {Inferna} has Awakened, transforming her body!]
[Mana, Ki, and Demonic Energy are being consumed each second in exchange for a great boost to All Stats!]
FLASH!
This was Inferna and the Doppelganger's last shot!
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.
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(Anna's POV)
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
I kept rushing across the halls of Blednica's castle, slicing through her monsters, most of them being B Rank, with a few A Rank scattered here and there.
The Blood Phantoms and Screaming Wraiths were the easiest to slay; using my Sunshine, it was possible to instantly vanquish them from this realm.
However, the Living Armors proved to be the mightiest obstacles, heavy and strong; they put themselves in front of my path and swung their weapons, unleashing powerful weapon techniques.
CRASH!
I had to use Gram and my daggers to block some of their attacks while parrying a few and ending up having to tank some as they tried to gang on me by the dozens!
I had to hurry and find Blednica as fast as possible. The more I advanced, the more I sensed her presence beginning to constantly grow larger and stronger.
Was she already in the process of ascending into becoming an Apostle of Death?! But she never appeared in the story I read.
Does this mean that her chance of ascension was provoked by The Bleeding Scream, who only showed up here because of my intervention?
Ugh, the Butterfly Effects are getting out of hand, as usual.
"We won't let you get through, you filthy Celestial!"
A large army of crimson knights appeared, but they were no Vampires, but their empty armor, and sealed within were the souls of the Vampires themselves, overflowing like ruby-colored phantoms.
[The Last Bastion Greets you!]
[An army of over fifty [Blood Knight Living Armor (Rank A+)] stops you from advancing further!]
[The ever-growing powers of their Countess have increased their Phantasmal Powers, increasing their All Stats by +50%!]
[Their {Phantasmal Vampire Auras} exudes a chilling atmosphere that drains your life away. All your Stats have decreased by -20%, and you lose 0.01% HP every second!]
Huh, fantastic! They got some rather neat tricks going around. Seeing how the gate leading to Blednica was right behind these guys, it makes sense she sent everything she had to stop me.
It's a race against time pretty much, and one I won't lose against a bunch of empty shells either!
"Move aside if you don't want your very souls to be purified and exorcised. And let me tell you, the afterlife is not what you imagine."
I pointed Gram at them while holding the Holy Frost Wolf Fang Dagger with my other hand, the Aura of Protection of my Privilege activating as it coated my weapons, giving them a further boost in strength.
"It doesn't matter if we can give up our very souls if it's for Lady Blednica's hope to meet her brother again!"
"We will give up our souls if necessary!"
"Die, you filthy Celestial!"
The army of Blood Knight Living Armors charged forward, swinging their swords, spears, and halberds at me while unleashing explosive slashes of crimson-colored phantasmal energies. Undead Vampires of this caliber were able to combine Blood Energy with Phantom energy—something rather interesting!
CLASH!
However, I swung Gram and my dagger swiftly, blocking and parrying their blows rapidly. I utilized the power of my Arcane Hands too, registering some new Spells into them.
[You have activated the powers of the [Arcane Hands (SS)] Skill!]
[You've engraved the [Holy Exorcising Light] and [Sunshine Blade] within your Right Hand!]
FLASH!
New Runes were engraved into my right hand as I quickly summoned the Spells engraved within, fusing the Sealing Chain with the Holy Exorcising Light and the Sunshine Blade, conjuring giant chains made of holy light that swiftly wrapped around five of them.
"Urrghhh?!"
The chains ended in sharp blades of light, which quickly pierced their heads and chests, loading with my Mana and then exploding into many flashes of light!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The flashes of light blasted the Blood Knights, their souls being exorcized rapidly one after another. The others roared furiously, hissing at me. Some began to make their body parts levitate, attempting to stop me as they shot down pieces of armor and weapons enchanted with their auras.
"Not enough."
I conjured a barrier made of highly pressurized winds, combined with Sunshine Blade and Exorcizing Light. The result was a huge mass of spikes, protecting me from their projectiles and destroying them as they touched the sharp blades!
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
"Her magic has become so powerful!"
"Just what are those hands she has?!"
"S-Stop her! STOP HER!"
They grew desperate, rushing to me by the dozens at once, attempting to stop me with their sheer numbers, but my eyes only shone brightly as I decided to go all out!
"{Starshine Rush}!"
I unleashed all of my techniques with Gram in quick succession, changing my stance with each attack as I blocked their blows with my barrier. It wasn't going to last forever as it was gaining several cracks already, but it was good enough to give me the time to keep moving forward.
SLASH!
With the spinning attack of {Sunlit Arc}, I sliced three of them into pieces.
SLAASH!
Then the piercing attack of {Sunlight Blade} struck the souls of five of them in quick succession, making their entire souls explode as they overflowed with light.
SLAAASH!
The devastating blunt strike of {Heavenly Decapitation} clashed against seven of them, their armor cracking into countless pieces and exploding everywhere.
SLAAASH!
And lastly, the explosive, bright light of {Eclipsing Arc} burned through their phantasmal souls as they attempted to engulf me into their very souls to stop me!
FLASH!
"Blednica, enough of running away!"
I rushed towards the gate, kicking it wide open.
BAAAM!
"You're already here?!"
Blednica's face was filled with shock; her entire body was overflowing with a red and black aura, as a huge black mass of energy above her, floating below the ceiling, was gathering the souls of many of her victims.
[The Bleeding Scream] greets you, swirling their appendages in excitement…]
[You are about to witness the birth of yet another of their precious children.]
As I received those messages, the sphere of darkness above Blednica suddenly started to move, materializing dozens of red tentacles and rushing towards her.
The Vampiress' face changed from surprise to confidence.
"Well~ You're a bit too late!"
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