NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 1136: Mercurian Long-Snout! (5)
Chapter 1136: Mercurian Long-Snout! (5)
An annoying thought rang in Caxellac's mind as he felt the power of the creature in front of him surge dramatically.
This... this had to be the influence of yet another Class in the Mercurian Long-Snout's possession.
He didn't know which Class it was specifically, as there were several that had that basic effect of increasing the power of subordinates or vessels, but the matter still stood.
Wary and livid, Caxellac attempted to move as quickly as he could to defend while using his depleting Null Life Essence reserves as efficiently as possible, and at the same keeping a keen awareness of any changes to his environment.
These layered strains made sure he wasn't faster than the Sallow Face, however.
Indeed, the masked creature before him, adorned in a cloak of straw, acted quicker than him, expelling a massive burst of Nitros. Because it was a Cluster General, it possessed immense reserves of mana enough to keep its Cluster stable, and thus, when its volumes of white Nitros manifested, they appeared as vast as the seas!
The Null Devil King anticipated how he would deal with the effects of the Territory that was coming.
He had the BoneTender's memories.
While a Territory couldn't hamper his use of Null Life Essence or touch something like his soul because of Serenity's influence on all Null Lifeforms - evidenced by how even Actuass' Territory failed to do so - it could still harm his body. In the position he was in, he couldn't afford to be trapped in some treacherously disadvantageous environment while fighting an invisible dragon, a high-tiered Cluster beast and Serenity forbid, the Warmoth Progeny as well!
Luckily for Caxellac, his concerns appeared to be unwarranted, but that didn't mean he was safe.
The Nitros that exploded before him did not condense into one Majestic Territory.
No.
With the Sallow Face's influence, it all turned into hundreds of thousands of miniature white orbs that gathered around him and then condensed into hundreds of thousands of miniature Majestic Territories!
...!!!
Caxellac was alarmed.
He couldn't understand what kind of attack this was meant to be, much less fathom the sheer briskness in the way it was executed.
But that was the least of his worries.
The plethora of tiny Territories expelled strings of pale lights that smashed into the Null Devil King in the same fashion any normal kind of light would. But of course, it couldn't have been that simple.
...!!!
The Null Devil King was shocked when he saw his skin's properties start to change, as well as those of his armour!
They were turning to emerald!
Slowly yet surely, Caxellac's body was attaining rough, green, rocky properties!
As he cursed, it was only now that the Null Devil King managed to act.
He soared through a corridor of unfamiliar space, rushing away from the layer of Territories, but not before efficiently manifesting a swift, lightning bathed, carapace-covered mosquito and sent it shooting towards the Sallow Face. At the same time, he created a grey, red bull that huffed while expelling great winds beside him.
Unfortunately, neither of these actions by Caxellac deterred the Sallow Face's own.
Its figure vanished just as the zipping, lightning-coated insect sped through it, and it flashed behind Caxellac, a dark, spindly, muddy, arm shooting out from under its cloak.
Said spindly arm was suddenly slathered in hot mercury and it extended like a silver pole towards Caxellac's face at shocking speed.
The Null Devil King was alert.
He dodged despite having the protection of his bull.
The incoming attack, as he feared, somehow swept past his bull's furious winds and shot inches from his head, but a split moment later, Caxellac realised...
'It's not real?'
Above him, another attack like the last rushed towards him. Another Sallow Face appeared and cast an elongated mercury fist towards him. Instinctively, Caxellac dodged, but as the attack rushed past, he confirmed that it too indeed was... an illusion.
Tens of these illusions began to appear every half a second for the next minute, multiplying with each manifestation.
It was odd.
Caxellac gathered that it was a tactic to confuse him. And he was right.
Just as he grew annoyed by the flashing illusion, the hundreds of thousands of tiny Territories sneakily moved towards him, surrounding him, hidden in-between the countless illusions!
The intensity of the light coming from them worsened, but of course, the bull Caxellac had summoned endured, warding their odd effect away.
'This is all making me uneasy. What's the point of it all?' Caxellac wondered as he held out his Bastard Sword and infused a large amount of Null Life Essence into it. 'It's a waste of a significant amount of mana, I imagine. Illusions. Miniature Territories.'
And indeed it was.
However, the payoff was well worth it.
Caxellac couldn't have anticipated what came next.
The hundreds of miniature Territories, unbeknownst to him, were expelling the effect of the Sallow Face's Primary assault function, which was a form of extreme Transmutation Magecraft that turned any materials to emerald, down to the molecular level!
Normally, this was impossible to do as a Territory's attacks were limited to the borders of its Imaginary GeoScape, but the Sallow Face had been imbued with inspiration.
As per a few moments ago, it had been promoted to the cond host Snout Legend, Beyrmir, and shared his abilities and memories!
rcurian Long-
The Apostle Beyrmir in turn, had access to Replicus' memories, and he remembered an odd sort of Territory the Warmoth's Progeny had once seen the Ardent Curse Dander perform, where the Territory borders were miniaturised, and its effects applied outside of it, instead of
inside!
(A/N: Refer to Ch.892-893).
Thus, using advanced Magecraft to split its Nitros into hundreds of thousands of portions, the Sallow Face recreated this unusual phenomenon.
However, there was an added twist.
...!!!
Caxellac scowled when he found himself looking at a hundred thousand four-armed, ceramic-skinned creatures leaping at him from the vast number of miniature Territories
around him!
At once, he recognised how screwed he was.
The illusions flitting around him persisted, and he couldn't tell them apart from the copies of
the Warmoth's Progeny!
Was this really happening?
How was it possible to create so many copies of so powerful of an entity?!
They were all not even week judging by any metric!
'Curse you!' the Warmoth Progeny thought hatefully as his face was bathed in a blinding
yellowish red light; Ju`wtte poured from the clones of the Progeny as they all gathered their
fists to pummel the Null Devil King!
It was a treacherous predicament, but it was only made worse when a thunderous noise exploded from the open skies above.
A great, transparent flame bore down and drowned everything in sight in its vicious scorch!
...
Caxellac hardly recalled exactly what he had felt in that moment.
He did remember, however, that the Ju`wtte he saw from the copies of Replicus wasn't the real thing and neither were the copies.
That said, it seemed to him that Beyrmir and his master had exploited the weakness of his Forcemancer Class: brute force.
Even if the copies of the Warmoth's Progeny were not even half as strong as he was physically, their combined physical might was more than enough to overcome the ability of one wind- kissed bull. Well, their might plus the Transmuting effect of the Territories and Beymir's fire. Caxellac had many thoughts in that moment when the force of so many blows struck him at
once.
He could have attempted to summon even more bulls, but he knew that's what Jerthrax wanted. He and his master wanted to make him use up his reserves of Null Life Essence and constantly spamming his Forcemancy, which took an absurd amount of Null Life Essence each time (Caxellac was sure Replicus also figured) was a sure way to do it.
Thus, the Null Devil King weathered through the physical attacks using the resilience of his armour and instead poured all his focus into defending himself from Transmuting effect and
the Clear Fire.
After a full minute of fireworks bombarding the open space and skies, Caxellac's form
emerged from the wreckage - the shattered sky, the blotched space and the evaporating
ebony waters.
He stood on the corrosive sea, looking rather pitiful.
A dim, furiously cold sort of Null Life Essence coated his body which was partially Transmuted into emerald. His right arm was missing and his face hissed of dark smoke.
The ethereal hair of Null Devil King looked lousy at best. It seemed to have turned mortal,
attaining traits of simple, blonde strands.
Caxellac sighed and then he laughed. "You're formidable. Formidable indeed," he said.
"I wouldn't say that, considering you almost killed me more than a handful times."
The one to answer was Replicus, who was standing fifteen meters away. Caxellac hummed in amusement and then, just as he attempted to raise his hand and say,
"Null Extraction", Replicus beat him to it.
Of course, the Warmoth's Progeny knew Caxellac didn't intend to use [Null Extraction] on
him.
He aimed to use it across Aigas to extract all the Null Life Essence available.
Replicus had been anticipating this since the beginning and was ready. Because his [Null Extraction] had been upgraded since his evolution, it now worked on a
global scale!
In an instant, Replicus absorbed all the Null Life Essence from freshly dead living creatures all around Aigas, all of it bounding toward him as a vast unit that fed into him.
Caxellac chuckled.
"Well, there goes my ticket," he said before standing up straight. "And here we are."