Chapter 174: Familiares

During the era of the continental wars, when the system were just then introduced, the world of Pentateuch was dominated by people called "Familiares", people who are born with a weapon familiar, whether it was used as a literal weapon, or just miscellaneous, these type of people were like mushrooms, point your hands to a random place, and you will see a person having a nail cutter that never rusts or a bubble wand that doesn't need soap to create bubbles, it was like the world were just dropping random abilities, in any case, except for the ancient calamities that roams Genesis, the continent of Numbers, hailed as the land of blessings is the place with the highest concentration of Familiares, and because of this, alongside the fact that the system were just introduced, the kingdoms of Numbers have the strength to fight against anyone they want to fight against.

After all, they have weapon familiars. What fight does the system use to contain the ancient calamities, making it harder for them to become gods, can do against them? If anything, the system would help them spread their influence, the only problem is that all kingdoms at that time are embroiled in a war against each other because of the remnants of the war of gods, thus they cannot make a move.

Well, of course, no matter the circumstances, mortals will be teeming with greed, the more they suppress it, the more it will explode into proportions they cannot control, and later on, regret reckless actions they have made because of it their whole life, in the continent of Numbers, there is a Kingdom in the verge of divide named Caboloan, and with the influence of the factions between Kasikis of the Left and Kasikis of the Right, the two princes' forces invaded the then north eastern countries of Genesis that are being fought for by Valentine and Kamatayan, they thought they were smart, and, normally they are, if not only the main fighter of Gjallarhorn, Urduja had one of her wives perish in their assault, not only that, they also managed to kill the mother of Arachne, this resulted in the total wiping out of the kingdom of Caboloan, from the buildings down to its tectonic plates by the combined force of Loki and Urduja, causing the princes of left and right to be stuck in their invaded land.

They thought it was the end of the line for them, there were a lot of civilians originating from Caboloan, thus they have to protect them alongside themselves, if not for the fact that Valentine is fighting against humans with Urduja that is being fought against by Eris and Loki multiple times as well as Mizukuni one time, the older and strongest generation of generals of the elves as well as the prime time undead army, Caboloan, that later will be fighting as two empires named Apolaki and Mayari would have never existed right now.

They were like clowns, calling themselves empires when they were just basically unclaimed colonies of Valentine and Gjallarhorn.

Such a fact, is known by Damaso, and right after the new territory of the two Kasikis Emperors was stabilized and officially established after a long period of cold war 15 years ago, he migrated to Tydings, a human kingdom not as powerful as Gjallarhorn, but a good start for someone like him, a hopeful who wanted to become rich and famous using the waning influence of Familiares, he went their with nothing but his dreams, a lofty dream made by a teenager, he doesn't have food or clothes, and adventurers are just a Gjallarhornian thing at that time, so with his expertise using his weapon familiar, he was able to become a sacristan in the church of the not yet abolished church of the god of the underworld.

The process of acceptance is easy, you just have to be hardworking in training (as friars participates in wars at times) as well as serving the lord, in which is, for Damaso is what all he have, you see, he is not a soldier in his home country, he is also an orphan with only a ring that spews meager black flames that eats up anything it touches until nothing of it remains at an atomic level, in Sophia's world, it's called amaterasu, but that is beyond the point.

That's why, as intended, Damaso worked hard, he strained his mana to conjure bigger flames again and again, day in and day out almost without break until he passes out so that he can make his ring explode flames big enough for him to control for several hours, and all of it paid off, seeing his determination, the pope demanded his promotion (that is of course should be proportional to his strength) into an official friar, he became rich, he became owner of lands and can touch women randomly and they would say thanks (an exaggeration).

Ultimately, he became strong enough to be an honorary general of the military, giving him roles active in frontlines against enemy countries besides fighting heretics.

He felt amazing for all his hard work paid off, all of his passing out due to exhaustion, all of the sucking up he have to do and all of the humiliation he have to endure against the opponents he have to overcome to become stronger, all of which for the sake of him being able to become successful, has become fruitful.

Indeed, it became fruitful, however, one incident, an incident so shameful that it was scrapped in any history books, so shameful that not even the black market authors have the face to write about.

One day, in a sudden fit of anger, Sisa, at the time the second assassin to have been able to boast a perfect record in her missions scooped up a portion of the capital and spat out the land with all of its population dead except 1, which is Thales. Yes, Damaso, who is present at that time have described what he have seen as such, the chunk of land was scooped, eaten and puked out as if a bad dish.

Damaso has never seen such power. Yes, he has seen Urduja sink islands and destroy tectonic plates, but at least, those phenomena have happened by exerting visible, tangible force. How about Sisa? Nothing, what she exerted was anger, pure, unadulterated primordial fury of a mother who have lost her children, she doesn't need hard work nor does she need to pass out again and again, she just needed the will, and her natural strength will give her the power to do anything she wants. Damaso knew Sisa, for he was the one who planned her whole situation; he was out of the capital at that time and just got back, just to see such a morbid scene that, somehow, someway, shattered his prided hard work.

One can only imagine what would he do to himself if he saw Sophia stream rolling her study of magic, in any case, the day after that incident, Damaso have fallen into depression, a depression that translated into desperation, he felt betrayed, betrayed by the hard work he oh-so-trusts, betrayed by his ideology, betrayed by the world.

That, alongside his desire to prove himself once more may be the reason why he have readily accepted the status of experimental subject of King Aerendil, and to his delight, he was able to upgrade his mana count significantly as well as the volume and density of his flame, though he is still quite traumatized by Sisa, it is not as intense as before, he even tacitly agreed to the conspiracy against Sisa, and in the daytime, he can lay waste to enemies multitude times bigger in number.

Finally, he have become truly strong, and in his drunken state, he have gaslighted himself that this strength came from hard work too.

In any case, it feels good to feel strong again.

That is until he was attacked by the woman he is gassing out to fight all out for days now, apparently named Bakunawa, he doesn't know how she is doing it, but his punches made out of supposed all consuming flames can be blocked by her silver scales, it was unfathomable, and in his life, there was never a defense that can block this feature, not only that, the spears that are coming out of his back is also blocked and successfully neutralized by blocks of ice that is shining in aurora like light.

Damaso is getting increasingly frustrated as the fight goes on.

He was supposed to be strong!

Why are all of you stronger than me!?

I am a hard worker!

You're not!

Unreasonable questions started to cloud the mind of Damaso, for not only is his enemy stronger than him, she was so, so much stronger than him that the lady with scales have been coaxing him to give her more, making his efforts for this fight as if a futile struggle against a one-sided rivalry.

"You! You! You! You! You! You! You! You! You! You! You! You!"

Damaso started to say gibberish, intensifying his punches as Bakunawa continued to catch them with increasing speed, and in her mind, she speculated.

_This person has gone crazy, it's time to end this._

Bakunawa sighed, such is her hero's test; it felt too easy, and if not for the fact that her opponent was a little stronger, then she would have never had fun. She even felt kind of regretful as she couldn't fight Sisa, who is now a captive of her queendom.

Truly a shame.

Such is what's in her mind, besides the wish for a stronger opponent, as she finally "slipped up" and let herself get punched square in the face, causing Damaso to grin.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! YOU WILL SOON SLIP UP! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The maniacal laughter of Damaso, who's skin started to crack and ooze out plumes of black flames resounded in the whole battlefield, however, Bakunawa, with the composure of a mountain, stood up, looking at Damaso whom she successfully broke down.

"YOU BASTARD THINK THAT YOU'RE SO GREAT!? WHAT NOW HUH!? DID MY PUNCH HURT!? I BET IT DID! I BET IT DID! PUNCHES ARE SUPPOSED TO HURT! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Damaso has completely gone bonkers, in her chest appeared a crack that exposed his artificial hero prospect crystal, and in that crack appeared huge clumps of flames that incased him from chest down to the waist, not only that, gigantic cracks in his back, arms and feet materialized as well, flesh and blood spewing out that is immediately incinerated by the big black flames that encased Damaso's whole body until his whole countenance, even his face are covered with all consuming black flames, Damaso, in this feral state stopped being a bipedal at this point, he is crouched down in all fours looking at his opponent with maleficent glare and low growling sounds made out of incomprehensible words that seems to threaten and mock Bakunawa.

This form is something that the normal and not forever high strung Damaso will never use, it is called [Cerberus], one of the abilities of his weapon familiar, the ring that he wears all the time, this form will burn out his life span, and in this juncture, the determinant of his lifespan is the core in his heart, of course no matter how crazy of a general Damaso is right now, he would have just retreated if he faced someone who is just toying around with him, however, he is anything but sane at this point, the frustration and disappointment he feels on himself as well as the anger towards his enemy boiled up into this final spurt to take down his enemy, and prove his worth to himself, the only family he have by taking the enemy down alongside him.

"Quite formidable... if only we don't need that accursed crystal to power it."

Bakunawa, still calm chortled after the transformation was over, as if she was sure of her victory even though Damaso has transformed into his final and strongest state, which caused Damaso who, somehow have not lost his auditory sense to growl in anger, he leapt as he formed a claw, finding itself inches away from the heart of Bakunawa.

One of the effects of the [Cerberus] is heightened speed and physique in general like the multitudes of weapon familiars that offers berserker-like abilities, yet still, Bakunawa was calm, with her newly acquired aurorean frost that effectively syphons that massive amounts of energy from the black flames, she caught the hand of her assailant, causing the frost in her hand to melt slowly, this is evidence that the assault will and has to work, thus Damaso, in his feral state followed up with another claw strike that was once again caught.

At this moment, Bakunawa inhaled deeply, so deep it was that her chest swelled up and in the middle of her chest is a blinding, yet captivating light made out of ionized oxygen, auroras, not only that, her throat as well as her cheeks glowed a mind boggling color scheme too, and just when Damaso, was about to use his legs for another attempt to strike her now swollen chest, she shoot out a beam of super condensed aurora from her mouth, hitting Damaso square in the chest, seeing this, the former friar's eyes that is glazed with anger widened in shock as Bakunawa let go of his two limbs, making his whole body who faced the brunt of the first "aurora beam" shot out by Bakunawa fly away horizontally, a crazed roar trailed him that soon dimmed until the shout, and ultimately Damaso is nowhere to be found.

The last general of the living army, Damaso, is dead.

Knowing this, Bakunawa looked at the sky, squinting.

She has been waiting for someone, someone who never came, despite her fight being finished a long while ago.

"Where the hell is Eleanor?"