Chapter 1015 – The mystery of the Death Zone 9 – Back against the wall
Stemming the tide of Lorylim had been a difficult task from the beginning. The group had a lot of practice in fighting off a continuous assault of enemies, but even though these Lorylim were weaker from a pure level perspective, they struggled. The impact of the Arcana Strike had alleviated the initial burden. Although it had to be fired prematurely, it still killed three Lorylim outright, which activated Whisper of Mana and gave John the burst of resources he needed. Those were spent on letting Gnome set up the perimeter for their fight.
Beyond that, things had steadily tilted in the Lorylim’s favour, loathe as he was to say it. Assaults spawned numbers the group could handle, as long as they fought properly. The Lorylim weren’t bound by such a concept of fairness. Further, they were incredibly difficult to kill. Whenever they thought they succeeded, the ‘corpse’ and the next enemy just melded together. By this point, the incapacitated Lorylim lined the walls, making the environment they had freshly erected the group’s enemy. John thoroughly regretted that he hadn’t gone with Salamander’s unique anti-Lorylim evolution.
It also occurred to him that the reason he hadn’t and why Undine had supported him in that choice was strongly related to the remaining corruption that had been in their minds at the time. That was a theory to confirm another time.
While he and the girls around had been gradually worn down, he was also worried about Rave and Nia. He had no way to know what was happening with them. The last intel he had gotten was that Aclysia had been killed following their victory over the corrupted Metracana. What exactly had done it, he hadn’t been able to perceive, although he could make his guesses.
Then Thana had showed up. Despite the goddess of genocide not being the reinforcement he had hoped for, he couldn’t deny that she had slaughtered a whole bunch of enemies and brought them a moment of respite with the ensuing conversation. That being said, her presence, be it only as an observer, had a profoundly negative impact on the Gamer.
As the only pure human around, the aura affected him the most. His health regeneration was entirely offset and healing greatly diminished in effectiveness. The Lorylim, particularly those attached to a human host, also took continuous damage, meaning that quite a few that the group didn’t have time to finish off died on their own. Meanwhile, the elementals and Artificial Spirts were doing ‘fine’. Fundamentally, Thana’s presence was a net neutral.
“Out of my sight!” the goddess of genocide shouted, loud enough for John to hear, and grabbed a flying Lorylim in the middle of their dive. Mercilessly, Thana broke the Lorylim’s body on the wall she sat on and then tossed it behind her like a discarded handkerchief.
‘Perhaps she is a bit more than a net detriment,’ John thought, unsure what to think of the goddess. The flimsy excuses she so audibly announced were all the evidence the Gamer needed to know she was not entirely committed to the decision she had made. Regardless, it was what she had gone with and it was on them to adjust. Assuming that she would come down to help if he was about to die would have been nai?ve at best.
This entire situation was why he hated dealing with problems on low intel. There had been no way to know how well he had to prepare for this and it currently appeared that his estimate had been insufficient. Had he known what awaited him here, he could have steeled himself to sacrifice fully half of Fusion’s territory to get another couple of days of time-dilated training out of it. In an information vacuum, he was not willing to make such a terrible choice. Now, it appeared that would have been the wise one.
‘Great hindsight,’ he mocked himself and cast another Unstable Arcana. The silver energy waves covered the entirety of the corridor. The damage taken didn’t bother the Lorylim whatsoever; three of them lined up, exposing the red bodies their teethed, fungal growths were attached to. ‘Gnome!’
‘On it!’ The season elemental hastily erected a wall of stone, on which the flame breath of those Lorylim broke before it could reach them. This was another difficulty of the fight: they were fighting elementals. There was more to look out for than physical force.
Gnome had to keep her hands up, focusing her magic on keeping the wall where it was. There were other earth elementals trying to push it in, causing it to quiver and slowly inch closer to the group. Powerful as Gnome was, she was up versus many and John had little mana to still send her way. He only had about 2000 remaining and, thanks to Thana, his regeneration was negative. There would have been ways to amend this, primarily Arcane Rejuvenation. That would have required John to go into melee range, however, and with healing being so costly now, he did not have the confidence to get that close.
‘One more minute,’ John thought, counting the seconds in his head. The 5-type Combination only lasted five minutes. The amount of destruction they could cause in even that short timeframe was evidently massive. This was the first time he actually used one of them, rather than just reading their descriptions. ‘Sally, could you come over here?’
The request was outright ignored, if it was even heard. The annihilation elemental was entirely consumed by her desire to burn all that she could before she stopped existing again. As the Perk had warned, 5-types were somewhat disobedient, which made them riskier to use than less powerful Combinations.
Those Lorylim in pursuit were now collapsing, one after the other, their bodies burned to such a degree that they could no longer move and sunk into the lava lake. John, Metra and Beatrice had finally made their way to the edge of it and jumped on the roof of a halfway intact building to get a good view of the final moments.
In the distance, the annihilation elemental flew her last circle and then stopped in the middle of the scorched field she had created. There was nothing left. It was just a plane of molten rock and the remains of monsters, set alight. A sphere of smoke and fire, the 5-type Combination grew brighter and brighter with each second, until the smoke could no longer contain the incandescent light.
A massive bang turned John deaf for just one moment, then Gamer’s Body fixed that issue and left him to experience the full volume of the howling wind that followed from the shockwave. An explosion consumed the lake of lava, annihilating fully even what the elemental had eradicated in the first place. The shockwave was so intense that it blew down the house they were standing on.
The trio managed to catch themselves quickly and the shockwave petered out behind them. Left behind from the explosion was nothing but a massive crater, at the centre of which five bodies fell. As for John’s current environment, it was an utter ruin.
“What a show,” a well-known voice said with the unfamiliar tone of a predator. John looked up to see Thana sitting on top of a toppled over roof.
He wasn’t sure when the goddess of genocide had arrived next to them, but the fact that her aura had never stopped affecting him had let him know that she was never too far away. “Sorry to disappoint you,” the Gamer said.
“Disappoint...? Do you think you’re safe?” Thana sounded genuinely baffled by that idea. “Watch your feet.”
John just barely noticed the rumbling underneath him thanks to her warning. Magus Step saved him from a maw that burst out from the ground, while Metra and Beatrice dodged the traditional way. Infected earth elementals groaned grotesquely as they unburrowed themselves. At first it was only three of them, but more and more poured out of the tunnels. The abominations surrounded John and his group on all sides. The elementals were called back via teleport.
After all the Lorylim had left the tunnels, a tar-like material came gushing out of the holes. Before a single drop could hit the ground, the pillars turned into trunks, growing branches and leaves. Blood pulsed through visible veins on the surface, spores were breathed out through gills, both combined to give the three trees something that approximated bark. Hollow, grey vines expanded from the branches, connecting to the other Lorylim around. The colour of those connections shifted red as the blood began to pulse through them as well. Under his feet, John could feel a distant heartbeat.
Whether the Swarmhost had lain in wait or been stirred to action by the destruction Sally had caused, the group was now in the exact same, dire situation as before. Worse, they were lower on resources and Thana’s presence still continued to wear them down. John could feel his own life decay by her presence alone, a fact currently neutralized by Undine’s presence. Mana would eventually run out, however, and that would be the end of them.
Despite their desperate situation, John thought, ‘I hope Jane and Nia are doing okay.’