Chapter 173: [Grip]
[Grip], the only spell of the King of Aerendil, or any elves in that regard that uses dark magic and utilizes it's most potent de-buffing capabilities to cause an existential failure of anyone who got latched on with it, another feat that flexes the genius of the godless prophet, well rumors has it that he have stolen the spell during the first elven undead war, but the undeads that didn't or rather can't defended themselves against rumors just let it be, thus the validity of the rumors are irrelevant and in the eyes of the world, King Aerendil is the creator of such a daunting spell.
The mechanics is simple, in essence black chains will grip the heart of anyone that it got locked-on and inside the spell's structure will be one or two "demand of absolute importance", in this case the "demands" of the [Grip] latched inside the hearts of the human army are "Die for the purpose of King Aerendil" and "Don't hurt the elves", or else, not only their heart, but their whole existence will meet an inevitable end.
It is important to note that existence means the memories of the victim's family, lover, and children about them will cease to exist; that is how terrifying the spells created by Aerendil are.
Of course, every spell has a weakness, and the weakness of this spell is that it uses dark magic as the base of its existence. That means in order to be activated, the spell needed a medium to convey the effects. That's why King Aerendil offered free augmentation of the humans' armor, making them more resilient, and covertly planted a spell that would essentially make them an army of obedient robots to the elves.
This measure wouldn't have been needed if they had not caused a rebellion with their dark counterparts, but well, past is past, thus King Aerendil chose to use the spell that he, in fact, hates the most.
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Stardust Kingdom, away from the main battlefield of the second elven undead war, a place that can be said to be the "true battlefield", the king of elves, the False Prophet, Aerendil is being put into illusions, one after another by his opponent, Sophia Demiurge that he then, at the same time breaks again and again, suddenly felt his mana deplete a considerable degree, more that what it was required to break hundreds of potent illusions in a single second, the loss is nothing significant and did not affect his combat power whatsoever.
However, he still cannot help but frown, for him losing such a large amount of mana in a single sitting means that the detestable spell [Grip] that was imbedded in the armor of the gullible humans has been activated, a protocol that the first demand "Die for the Purpose of King Aerendil" of the spell was about to be violated by at least one person in the human's side, and of course, as the smartest man in the world and the only leader who's army arrived 100 meters near the entrance of Thanatos and even cracked the undead crystal and sealed the whole Undead's Safe Haven, it was normal for him to know the reason of such attempted betrayal.
Not to mention, he is the creator of the artificial Hero Prospect crystal, thus making him certain of his guess.
_Tsk, 4 out of 5 generals are already out, causing the cowardly humans who were being placated of their emotions without even noticing it due to the death of King Tydings to finally resolve themselves to escape, meaning my elves cannot contain the panic of the humans anymore._
The frown in the face of Aerendil deepened as he continuously thought of his arrangement and fought against the potent, well-crafted and consecutive illusions of Sophia, he have never imagined that he would need to use such an accursed spell coming from his enemy and the only spell that he cannot modify as it reached absolute perfection twice as a contingency plan, it was even more despisable as when Sophia was caught on it, the spell [Grip], a spell that was supposed to be one of the strongest of the False Prophet was countered right on the spot, and if that is not enough, when Sophia saw such a spell she cannot help but smirk as if she have somehow confirmed something.
Such is the reason for Aerendil's frown, he did not fret on the well being of his denizens, after all, even though the gullible Tydings IV is not aware, the elves were already planning to evacuate the whole Kingdom immediately as preparations for the fight against him and Sophia, well, as ruthless as he is, Aerendil is aware that all of this war is nothing but a personal vendetta and he cannot make the white elves suffer alongside him.
It sounds hypocritical coming from a man who has enslaved the dark elves, but still, that is what he believes in, the prosperity of the white elves, the elves molded in the likeness and image of the goddess of nature.
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The humans looked at their chests, in it are several illusory chains, black in color latching on them, piercing through it as if to grip their hearts, it was as if their very soul is on the line, they felt their whole body trembling, their knees buckling ever-so-slightly, yet consistently, they looked at the small number of elves in their vicinity, some are armored, the so called exemption to the rule, but the majority are mages, all of the living stopped marching, and strangely, the undeads, except Bakunawa against Damaso stopped their assaults as if only animated by the aggression of their foe, yet it was evident by their ready stance that they are just giving a leeway to the living to sort out their emotions.
This is severely contradictory to their very decisive actions a while ago, something that the dark elves are commanded by their leader, Luna, to be sensitive about.
_This is definitely an abnormal behavior._
The two wing generals of the dark elves squad that is assigned in the sides of the marksmen of death as a support force when there is an attempt to attack them thought in unison, they immediately pressed their ears to activate their comm crystals, however just after they injected mana on it, the comm crystal glowed, alarming the two generals, they immediately threw them aside, making a small, yet surely damaging explosion.
"Wha..."
The two of them were shocked, however, they did not even have time to make their shock evident, for they saw the comm crystals issued in all of the soldier dark elves glow simultaneously. Their eyes widened and their alarm heightened upon seeing such a scene. Again, in unison, the two generals shouted.
"Throw them out!"
The dark elves doesn't need any kind of orders, they saw what happened to the device of their generals, thus the somehow became defective comm crystals were already in their hands and were thrown in the air, causing fireworks like smoke, at this sight, the living army of the enemy or the dead army of the dark elves' "allies" did not even looked at them, their focus in each other, seeing this, the dark elves frowned as they clutched their weapons in anger and indignation, for in this war, not only is their allies are planning of becoming their next oppressors, their enemies also slapped them of their real position in this war.
Their position as bystanders.
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"What is the meaning of this?"
A captain, the very first one to recover from the primal fear of existential disintegration looked at the two elves besides him, his teeth in a grit, his eyebrows furrowed in anger and concealed fear, he is glaring at the elves who is looking at him with his chin up, obviously indicating his superiority compared to the humans as they did not even noticed the anomaly in the magic circle imbedded by him alongside numerous fellow elven mages, the elf simply smirked, making the captain draw his sword.
"What the fuck is the meaning of this!? Don't you understand!? Why did you give us a curse that gives us soul-shuddering fear!?"
The elf's eyes widened, seemingly surprised; however, a snort suddenly came out of his mouth, it became louder and louder and louder until it could now be considered a laugh.
"HAHAHHAHAHAAHAHAH!"
Several elves also started to laugh as if such a question is dumb yet adorable inquiry from a child, causing the piercing fear that was felt by the captain who first spoke as well as the other human in vicinity to vanish, their face now had their face crumpled due to anger, the captain that already pointed his weapon brandished it straight into the shoulder of the mage in a feat of irrational anger, his sword grazed the mage's skin drawing a drop of blood.
Yes, a drop and at first, the human captain smiled, desperate in proving a point against the elven mage, however, in the next instant when he raised his head, he saw the mocking face of the elf, as if he is looking at an idiot, such is the last sight the captain saw as his vision became black for all eternity, his body solidifying into that of a brittle statue, the elf who have his skin grazed by the blade blew a mild wind magic, causing the brown-colored statue to be swept away, chunk by chunk, as if a statue made of sand.
"Sigh..."
The elven mage sighed, as if contemplating the stubbornness of a child.
"You humans don't know your place, huh? You already felt the overwhelming fear inside your hearts when the chains of [Grip], a spell created by our great ruler, Aerendil, and you still dare to question and hurt us? Even asking what is the meaning of this? Haven't you heard something when it was activated, or are humans' ears not that sharp because of it being egg-shaped?"
The elf who was hurt asked, sounding genuine as if educating the foolish, causing the humans, who were once angry, to feel an indescribable sense of inferiority, prompting them to lower their swords.
"Face the undeads, "kill" them or get killed by them in the name of the False Prophet Aerendil."
The elves paused.
"Do you understand?"
The last two words were as if bolts of lighting that struck all humans square in the head, it was as if all their wills, due to the fear earlier and the reality check of their situation right now has been vanquished, finally accepting their inevitable fate of fighting until the last drop of their blood against creatures superior to them, it's about the question of dying in the flesh or becoming a pile of sand, with such a ridiculous inquiry, the answer is obvious.
Thus, with newfound motivation, the humans, blocking the mages out of danger, charged as they bellowed shouts, though unlike before, their voices were hollow, something that their enemy didn't mind.
_The elves are about to escape._
Such were their thoughts.
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Such sequence of events is a critical turning point of the war, predicted by [Guide], the time when the elves, somehow, someway, will entice the humans to cover for their escape, this is in string with the reports of the spider spies in Tydings that a large flux of white elven migration to the side most province of Tydings, they then overthrew the noble that governs the capital city and made themselves the upper class there, meaning this will be the base of the elves to recover in their disastrous loss if Aerendil was also defeated.
Of course, as [Guide] have predicted it, he have already incorporated it in his strategy, in fact, this occurrence is the ready signal of the manananggals to be introduced in the world of war waging, however, despite it's significance, two individuals, one human, one monster in a form of a human is too engrossed in their battle, so engrossed they were in fact, that they used all of this happening as if a backdrop of their fight that raged from sunrise of the third day of the war and even now that the sun of the 4th day of the war reared, one of the fighters is wearing a grim expression as his fists were clad in flames, Damaso punched as Bakunawa blocked with his skin covered in silver scales, after which a spear made out of black flames, capable of consuming the flesh and won't stop until nothing of it remained pounced towards his enemy, this sequence became the norm of the fight, Damaso attacked and Bakunawa blocked, depending using his scales and ice to do so.
However, despite his seemingly advantageous position, Damaso is gritting his teeth; he can sense it, as if a mocking laughter from his very enemy or a jeering stare from the ones who have arranged him against such an insurmountable mountain.
_What is this? How can she block all of my attacks? How can her ice not be able to be consumed by my flames? This flame is supposed to be the strongest!_
Spears and punches continuously thrown as it was blocked, again, continuously by casual flung of the back of Bakunawa's palm, intercepted by yet again nonchalant toss of ice that seems to glow an aurora-like light inside against the spears, she did all this without a single mistake, in full speed and full power all day long.
Damaso felt inferior, and in his inferiority complex, a past he had never wanted to remember unconsciously resurfaced.
That time when Sisa made him, a lofty young man, realize the disparity of natural talent and futile hard work.