Chapter 298: Anna Goes All-Out
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The cocoons broke open, and as Anna and the rest of her party glared at the scene in utter disbelief, the powerful presences coming from inside the cocoons were overwhelming; the {Radiances} and the Cosmic Auras were at least twice as strong as the previous Incarnation/Avatar they fought before. The two insect-like monstrosities overflowed with tremendous power, born from the sacrifice of thousands of machines.
Their huge, insect-like eyes began to glow bright red, glaring at their surroundings. Both of them resembled humanoid insects, like the combination between grasshoppers and praying mantises given a human-like frame. Their antennas twitched, analyzing their surroundings as they slowly tore through their cocoons.
[The Cosmic Throne {Mechanical Librarian} tells you to properly greet their new prototypes.]
[The Cosmic Throne {Mother of Artificial Life} says that if it wasn’t for you, they would have never been able to create these new, much more powerful models.]
[Both Constellations wish your demise!]
“Those damn piles of metal junk… Even if this is a simulation, they’re so damn annoying!”
And Anna couldn’t help but feel madder as she saw the two Constellations mocking her right now, but she even gives herself a time of respite?
FLASH!
Even less when one of those insect-like machines was right in front of her, within a single blink of her eyes.
“Wha…?!”
Her eyes widened as she saw the thing looking down at her, immobile, as if analyzing her, confident enough she couldn’t harm it so easily.
This only made her both more cautious and more angered than she expected. It seemed that the axe-sword and her demonic ki, combined with her cursed seals, really made her rather quick-tempered.
“I have to move quickly!”
Anna immediately swung both of her swords against the machine in front of her; the machine reacted faster, disappearing in a flash of bright blue light, appearing above her within that split second, and swinging its legs down.
BAAAM!
“Ugh?!”
Anna was immediately sent flying, almost feeling like her skull would have shattered if it wasn’t because of the helmet she was wearing, which was already broken, all its durability disappearing.
“Fuck they’re too strong!”
Before she could respond, the machine appeared below her, moving at a speed she could hardly recognize! It was completely insane!
“So these are specialized in speed above all else?! Hah!”
However, against adversity, Anna smiled.
It was finally time for her to show off all her trump cards!
“Golden Dragon Shield!”
She summoned her shield out of her inventory, pointing it at the machine below her within that split second, and once both were almost touching one another, the machine aimed to tear her head apart.
“{Divine Heavenly Harmony Dragon’s Breath}”
The machine saw the shield open its dragon maws, moving away before it was to hit it with its mighty breath attack, disappearing from the scene as the shield fired its attack.
TRUUUMMM!!!
However, the beam quickly moved upwards, chasing the machine around! The insect-like machine realized it was a homing-type attack, something that Anna herself was doing by manipulating it using her Ki.
The power of this breath was deadly, carrying all the damage the shield took when it was hit by that cosmic beam plus another 500% more damage to it, capable of ignoring 50% of a target’s defenses and even leaving them with some nasty aftereffects.
“SHAAH!”
However, the machine gave a loud insect-like screech, gathering cosmic energy into its legs and stepping across the heavens, trying to escape and escape some more! It felt utterly frustrated; it had to run away already!
It rushed back to Anna, aiming to hit her in the back and then let her block the beam against him instead!
And as it reached her, Anna greeted him happily as her Axe-Sword flashed with red-colored runes resembling a beast.
“{Third labor: Ceryneian Hind’s Golden Horns}!”
Beautiful golden horns grew from her head, aiming to pierce the machine with them, but the machine simply groaned, attacking the horns, aiming to slash them away, only to find out they were…
CLANK! CLANK!
Pretty damn tough!
“Yeah, they’re tough, bastard!”
Anna swung all four of her swords against the machine, releasing a Thousand Blades Dance, combining several techniques at the same time as she aimed to pierce its body with her horns.
And all while her Aura of Uroboros Gluttony emerged like hundreds of giant crimson snakes opening their jaws, aiming to devour the snake.
“GRAAAHH!”
From attacks coming from all angles, the robot super charged its body with cosmic energy and unleashed a devastating shockwave!
Just what Anna waited for.
As the dragon breath came rushing from behind her, she smiled, and the shield’s ability activated again at the same time as the attack hit her at full force.
BOOOM!
The explosion of golden flames erupted, engulfing her completely; the machine didn’t step back as it was confident Anna had been at least greatly wounded.
Yet, as his shockwave moved towards her to finish her off, suddenly…
“{Golden Dragon’s Palace}!”
A giant palace of golden dragon Ki surged, materializing out of the golden dragon shield, completely protecting Anna.
“GRAAH?!”
At the same time, all of Anna’s thousand blade attacks—spells she conjured just now—and then her snakes of gluttony attacked the beast from below, above, and behind, pushing it towards her.
The shockwave of cosmic energy hit Anna’s Golden Dragon Palace, which she had conjured by transforming the breath into it at the last moment.
After all, both abilities worked by the same principle of accumulated damage dealt in their shields!
“I got you.”
The machine was attacked from above, below, and behind and pushed towards the palace as it was impacted by the machine’s own cosmic shockwave.
All according to Anna’s strategy.
No space to escape, and the palace did the rest!
FLUOSH!
The palace gained cracks but resisted the shockwave and then unleashed back 30% of the damage dealt back at the machine as a giant beam of azure cosmic energy.
“GRAAAGGH?!”
The machine gave a loud metallic scream as the beam hit it directly; a huge explosion of cosmic energy erupted, lightning erupting everywhere.
BOOOMMM!!!
Of course, it wasn’t dead yet, but the impact alone ought to weaken it severely for a couple of seconds! Anna quickly set her eyes on the other machine, finding it fighting Fang Shuan, Zero One, Wai Tian, and Yin Sheng.
All four of them were a force to be reckoned with, but they were clearly not enough; both machines were tremendously strong, and if it wasn’t because Fang Shuan was made of metal too and could regenerate or allow himself to be cut down, one of them would have died already.
“{Myriad Egos}!” roared Anna. “Start the concert! Give them all my buffs again!”
From Anna’s Aura, three Egos emerged from her! The Demonic Ego Cambion, the Angelic Ego Nephilim, and the Beast Ego Bastet, all three at the same time nodded, rushing towards the skies and then beginning a crazy concert.
A giant stage materialized out of thin air above everything, and the machines below were suddenly shocked as a loud sound that suddenly made their internal functions lag and become paralyzed started to echo everywhere.
“YEEAAAH!” The demonic ego roared with a demonic and guttural scream.
“LET’S GET THE PARTY STARTED!” roared the angelic ego.
“Yeeah…” Only the Beast Ego wasn’t particularly enjoying it.
RUMBLE!
Giant sound waves echoed everywhere. Anna’s buffs were instantly shared with all her allies listening to the loud song, while deadly vibes rushed at all machines nearby, making them become paralyzed or even outright explode into pieces!
Ding!
[You have activated the [Little Princess of Rock’s Heart Throbbing Concert (A Rank Privilege)]!]
[Summon your band, grab your guitar, and scream your heart’s contents! It’s time to rock, and it’s time to make all of your fans have their hearts THROB with excitement.]
[When activating this Privilege, an {Illusory Concert Domain} is created within 100 meters around you, and your {Rock Band Spirits} come to assist you with all the music set-up, no problem! Any weapon you’re holding will transform into the {Little Princess Rock Guitar of Love and Death}, which will unleash devastating sound waves to your foes and amazing vibes to your allies.]
[Allies that listen to your Heart Throbbing tunes will be able to share 50% of any buff you possess, alongside an additional buff of 25% of your Total Stats (Equipment Bonuses Included, baby!). While listening to the music, if they attack and move according to the tune, their attacks will deal an additional +50% damage up to a bonus of +500%.]
[Meanwhile, the very annoying HATERS that listen to your wonderful song will have their ears BLEED! All their Stats will drop based on 50% of your Total Stats (Equipment Bonuses Included, of course!). And their Skills will randomly be sealed every 1 minute; only one skill can be sealed at a time!]
[And as if that wasn’t enough, listen carefully! If you have lots of fans listening to you, you also receive a buff based on 30% of their total stats.]
[Maintaining this rock concert takes a lot of energy. Not only Mana is consumed constantly, but also some Cosmic Energy, Ki, and Spirit Energy, so make sure to not keep it up for too long if you don’t want to be DRAINED!]
[Now go and get em’, girl!]
Machines became weaker, including the overpowered insectoid machines, all while her friends became stronger! Yeah, her cosmic energy, ki, and spirit energy were being drained constantly.
But she could afford to lose some of it anyway!
“GRAAAHH! HORRIBLE SOUND DETECTED. CIRCUITS… MALFUNCTIONING. UUGGGH!”
Both insectoid machines screamed in agony as rainbow-colored auras encompassed her friends, which helped them out in handling its powerful attacks and damage through its defenses.
At the same time, Anna rushed towards the one in front of her, which was trying to recover from the damaging sound waves.
Using the golden horns, she struck its head before the machine quickly disappeared from the scene and appeared above her, moving its claws down to hit her.
“Are you sure you’re as fast as before?”
“GE-GE-GEH…?!”
The machine groaned in disbelief as its movements became… strangely sluggish, almost at the same normal speed as Anna herself!
Ding!
[The Ability of the {Third labor: Ceryneian Hind’s Golden Horns} has taken effect! The foe you’ve struck with your horns has their Movement Speed and Agility lowered by 90% for 1 Minute.]
This, coupled with the debuffs of the concert…
“Oh my, what’s wrong? You suddenly got all sluggish! Are you sleepy? Wanna take a nap?!”
Anna reached the machine with a ferocious charge, this time deciding to once and for all combine these two Skills to get a better result in terms of speed!
Ding!
[You have used the [Skill Fusion Ticket (S Grade)] and the [Skill Fusion Ticket (A Grade)] to combine the Skills: [Celestial Body (A)], [Thunder Queen (S): Lv4], and [Spectral Body (S): Lv5] and create a powerful result!]
[Due to the Special Effects of [Divine Eye of Truth (SS)] Skill {World’s Library}, you can keep the Skills used for Skill Fusion.]
FLAAASH!
Suddenly, Anna’s entire body flashed with golden lightning and spectral power, melding together with even more power than before and finally reaching a perfect stage.
She caught up to the machine, reaching it in an instant!
Ding!
[You have created the Fusion Skill: [Divine Thunder God Body: Raijin’s Embodiment (SSS): Lv1]!]
[The [Divine Thunder God Body: Raijin’s Embodiment (SSS): Lv1] Skill has been activated automatically, transforming your body into the body of the Thunder God Raijin!]
[In this state, your Cosmic Energy and Ki are being rapidly drained…]
RUMBLE!
Anna’s body changed as she became a beautiful golden Oni-like being, with long blonde hair and pointy golden horns coming from her forehead.
Her clothes changed, resembling cloaks and Japanese robes of gold and silver color, while a circle of ten golden drums showing the sign of thunder emerged behind her.
Her Cosmic Energy surged, exuding the temporary divinity of a Thunder Constellation!
“GE-GAAAH!”
The furious machine unleashed a barrage of explosive beams of cosmic energy, trying to get to Anna, but Anna rapidly evaded all blows, reaching him from behind.
“Unfortunately for you, I’m the fastest one now.”
“GEEEHH?!”
Anna used her many thunderous hands to hit the drums behind her.
And then…
BAAM!
BAAM!
BAAM!
“{One Hundred Thunderstorms: Kaminari}!”
TRUUUM!
One hundred lightning bolts emerged from her entire body, reaching the machine and hitting with immense prowess. The lightning was so strong and loud it made the skies split apart.
TRUUUMMM!!!
“GA-GA-GA-GAAAHH…!”
Barely alive, most of the machine’s body and internal circuits were fried; its body was falling apart. Anna’s swords combined with her thunderous, divine body as she reached the machine and swung them down.
“{Divine Thunder Dance of a Thousand Blades}!”
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
She finished the machine off with countless slashing blows—an overkill! Just to piss off the Constellations even more.
BOOOMMM!!!
As Anna went to help out her friends, she noticed something.
There were several more cocoons being formed.
“What?!”
And over a dozen of the same machines as before emerged.
[The Cosmic Throne {Mechanical Librarian} says that this is just the beginning.]
[The Cosmic Throne {Mother of Artificial Life} admires the resilience of the inferior lifeforms.]
“You’re kidding me…”
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