Chapter 223: The Power Of The Twelve Labors
Listen While Reading: Well Matched
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BOOOM!
The robot blew up into tiny bits, and the shockwave of the explosion sent me far away, making me quickly fall over the floor. If it wasn’t for all my layers of protection, that explosion would have burned me into cinders; it contained the power of an, albeit minuscule, fragment of the black heaven after all.
“Ugh… Damn, it was more intense than I imagined.” I groaned, finding myself being protected by a barrier of Light Ki conjured by Shiro, floating above me.
“Kyuuh!” Shiro started licking my face as my wounds slowly regenerated.
“Calm down; it's fine.” I said, touching all my burn wounds with my bare hands. “{Healing Touch}”
This was an active skill that required no mana or other energies to activate, and it slowly healed wounds when touched. I could amplify its effects with Ki, but it alone was enough.
The battle was still going on. I think I had passed out for a few seconds when I fell down and hit my head on the ground really hard.
I was grateful I had companions around to rely on.
“Master Anna! You’re okay?!” Fang Shuan asked. “I saw you falling, and I came running here!”
“Did I pass out?” I asked.
“Maybe a few seconds?” He wondered. “But look! You have to see that!”
“What is it?!”
I ran outside the barrier as Shiro followed me from behind. Making our way through the swarm of robots, we found something the Death Apostles were protecting: a small, apple-sized black cloud floating over the ground.
It created a distorting black aura from its body, which seemed to create a small void domain surrounding its existence.
“T-That’s a Black Heaven Fragment! So that robot didn’t blow it up?!” I gasped. “We have to secure it! Quickly, let’s break through! Holy Undead, rise!”
I kept rising more and more mechanical Undead, as we made our way back with the Death Apostles. They greeted me, saying they’ve been guarding this from falling into the hands of the robots again.
“Be careful how you handle that, brat!” Bael said. “Place it inside the Purgatory for now; if you try to absorb it, you’ll blow up into pieces.”
“I know!” I crated a big hand made out of my Demonic and Dark Ki and grabbed the Black Heaven fragment, placing it on a desolate area of the Purgatory Realm, between several mountains.
Ding!
[You have placed the [Bestia’s Black Heaven Fragment (??? Rank)] x1 inside of your Purgatory Realm!]
[The Heaven Fragment is in a dormant state due to its lack of Primordial Energies.]
[Please gather Primordial Energies of similar elemental affinity to activate its powers and even regenerate its entire mass.]
“Interesting, this Black Heaven Fragment…” I smiled as I looked at the system window. “Perhaps we could use it on my Purgatory Realm? Or maybe the right thing to do is help it regrow into a new Black Heaven inside of Bestia.”
Well, always doing the obvious good thing is often rewarded by the System. Although it lets me freely do as I please, whenever I sacrifice something to help others and so on, I always get more rewarded. By just remembering the previous Trial, I was given so many rewards for doing nice things. So I suppose it won’t be any different now, right?
“For now, let’s blast that thing already.” I charged forward, utilizing my combination of Martial Arts, Skills, Spells, and Equipment Abilities to lay waste upon the mechanical beasts getting in the way.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions of darkness and light constantly permeated our foes, as Fang Shuan and the Primordial Yang Beast remained at my right and left sides, taking down any foe with their immense strength. Fang Shuan has been a real help as a new Familiar, his stats were really high, and his abilities suited a Murim Worldline really well. Meanwhile, this big cat over here was also very strong, incredibly so. Even if it's a temporary pet, I’ll gladly have it around as much as possible.
“Master Anna, it looks like that factory is producing less and less golems!” Said Fang Shuan.
“Mereow!” The cat roared.
“Alright, let’s charge and destroy that thing! Go all-out! We’ve got two more of those to destroy after all!” I said.
“Very well!”
“Meow!”
Both of the Familiars leaped into the skies and then descended like golden meteors, piercing the factory’s barrier with their sheer amount of prowess. Once they pierced the barrier, they fell inside the factory and blew everything up with golden flames produced by their Ki Auras.
I didn’t have to do much myself at the end; the entire factory was completely destroyed! However, there was still a lot to do. As the factory was blown up into pieces, I stored all the rubble behind inside my Inventory and moved on.
With the Death Apostles and the rest of my Familiars, plus the Undead Robots, we destroyed every single robot left in the surroundings and rapidly moved across the underground caverns.
I was still on high alert as the second factory appeared within sight. I cautiously let all the Undead Robots charge first, as their metallic claws and fangs clashed against their former brethren. I only watched from afar, expecting another Heaven Fragment robot to appear.
However, after continuously fighting over three thousand robots, there were no signs of an “ace” appearing, so I quickly decided to advance further while firing long-ranged attacks to wear down the electromagnetic barrier.
“Death Apostles, quickly! Destroy that barrier and the factory!”
As I made my way through hundreds of robots by spinning my entire body constantly while slashing and smashing them into smithereens, the group of Death Apostles nodded, quickly rushing towards the barrier. They started hitting it with their strongest attacks, and the explosions produced by their demonic techniques continued spreading the cracks until finally...
Crack, crack…!
CRASH!
The barrier shattered, the Death Apostles rushed towards the factory, and then the gates of the factory opened. From there, a similar robot to the one before appeared, but this time it was almost completely white, with three golden jewels on its chest.
Fuck.
“RUN!”
As I ran towards the Death Apostles to stop them from charging, the robot rushed towards them; instead of emanating the power of the Black Heavens, the White Heaven power surged from within. White clouds are spreading around and covering everything with a curtain.
I heard the screams of the Death Apostles as explosions of white light and piercing blows reached them. I ran, and when I got there...
[Astaroth, the Tenth Apostle of Death and King of Brutality] has perished!]
[Aim, the Twelfth Apostle of Death and King of Anger] has perished!]
[Neberius, the Eleventh Apostle of Death and King of Cunningness] has perished!]
[All three of your Sealed Demons Manifestations have died; their Souls have returned to the Purgatory to heal back.]
[Manifestation Restructuration Duration: 24 Hours.]
“Dammit!”
All three idiots died already; I should have guessed the dumbest of them all would die quickly. These guys will just mindlessly charge at anything. The two knights, however, Bael and Agares, were much stronger and also much better at fighting, even in difficult situations. I noticed their silhouettes being stuck, back-to-back, as they clashed against the rapidly moving robot.
Although they were surviving for longer than the other three, they didn’t seem any better. Jeremias hadn’t been summoned, though; his magic requires Mana and there’s none here, so he was still safe inside the Purgatory.
“I’m not going to make it in time like this…!”
Fuck it.
“{Third Labor: Ceryneian Hind’s Golden Horns}!”
The Nameless Axe-Sword shone brightly, bright red runes appearing across its entire body, which then flowed into my body. In a second, a giant pair of golden horns grew out of my head as I felt an immense amount of power rushing through my entire body.
With a single kick into the air, an explosion of golden energy was unleashed as I redirected the power of these golden horns all the way into my legs, running like an actual hind.
FLASH!
I reached the robot a second before its giant, spear-like arms were about to pierce the head of Bael. My horns grew even larger, ten times their original size, resembling a pair of enormous golden spears.
“Surprise.”
CRAAASH!
“E-ERROR…!”
The robot’s left arm was completely shattered, and its right shoulder exploded into golden light. Its body was thrown away like a ragdoll as it collapsed on the floor. The curtain of white clouds quickly disappeared as I looked at the two Death Apostles.
“Your regeneration takes way too long, you two. Don’t just die on me.” I touched their shoulders, activating my Healing Touch Skill. Their wounds rapidly closed. “Can you guard my back?”
“That, we can.” Bael nodded, materializing a black demonic sword out of his own Radiance Aura.
“Leave it to us!” Agares roared, his shiny crimson armor regenerating back around his body.
“Good, let’s do it.” I smiled; the robot was already up.
Eternal white brilliance shone from its entire body, channeling, but a tiny fragment of the White Heaven of this world was enough to give it an immense amount of power.
For fuck’s sake, I never expected these robots could just channel such power.
This is getting way too out of control!
But thankfully, I got these horns; they’re actually pretty cool.
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{Third labor: Ceryneian Hind’s Golden Horns}: You grow a pair of gigantic golden horns, which the Ceryneian Hind is so proud of. You can manipulate them as you wish and make them grow up to ten times their original size. If used defensively, they can absorb up to 500.000 Damage and if used offensively, they can deal up to 600% Piercing Damage and ignore 30% of the foe’s defenses. When struck by the horns, your foe’s Movement Speed and Agility decreases by -90% for 1 Minute, cannot stack. Once the durability of the horns is depleted, the Ceryneian Hind will seal one of your Skills for 1 Hour. Daily Uses: 2/2}
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“KILL… EXTERMINA… TE?”
The robot realized, slightly too late, that something was off. It tried to dash towards us with its usual superspeed, but it couldn’t. Golden runes spread across the wounds left by my horns, which slowed it down a lot.
And I mean a LOT!
[The [White Heaven Android Prototype (SS+ Rank)] has been affected by your Third Labor’s Effect!]
[Their Movement Speed and Agility has decreased by 90% for 1 Minute.]
“It got slower!” Bael said.
“Is this the power of those horns?” Agares asked.
“Yep.” I nodded. “Now, let’s kill that thing and get that Heaven Fragment.”
We leaped into action. Bael went for the left, and Agares circled the robot, aiming for the back. Meanwhile, I rushed to its right. The robot had little things it could do. It was unable to move rapidly anymore, and it had become incredibly sluggish.
So it did the only thing it could now: release as much light as possible.
“EXTERMINATE THREAT!”
FLAAASH!
Its entire body flashed like a burning sun, with several rays of white and golden light coming from its entire body. The Death Apostles, naturally weak against this element, groaned in pain as the light burned their bodies. Only for a second, though.
“{Ceryneian Hind’s Golden Horns: Shield Form}!”
FLUOSH!
The gigantic golden shields changed their form completely, becoming a pair of enormous hand-shaped golden shields growing out of my head, which I used to shield the two Death Apostles while my Physique absorbed the light, powering me up a lot.
“I feel like new; thank you for the meal!”
I swung both Gram and the Nameless Axe-Sword against the robot, and the robot quickly tried to run away as its speed was slowly coming back to it. Only for Bael and Agares to stop it. Sword slashes and axe strikes covered the robot’s body with cracks as they pushed it right towards my swords.
“This time, we’ll deal with you quickly!”
With a barrage of consecutive blows, I spread the cracks over the robot while it frantically released beams of light. Using my horn shield, I protected the Death Apostles as their powerful attacks kept helping me spread the damage across the robot’s body.
It was a tough foe nonetheless, trying to use light and its clouds to quickly retreat or hide, only for our triple-team to find it and push it into the ground. Bael and Agares proved to be incredibly good fighters; their cooperation was great, and they were able to adapt to my fighting style very fast.
Eventually, I pierced that thing’s chest with my horns, making it explode right after.
CRASH!
“A-AHHH…! ERROR…”
BOOOM!
I shielded the two Death Apostles from the explosion of light as my Physique absorbed it all without problems. I then manipulated the light generated by the explosion and repurposed it into a giant Sunshine Sword.
“Goodbye.”
I fired it towards the second factory, piercing it with the massive Sunshine Sword and then blowing it up as well.
“Two gone, one more to go.”
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