Chapter 316: The Last Battle for the World of Bestia Begins: Act I
Listen While Reading: [B] pa-t
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As I charged with my friends and the machines that joined us, quickly summoning several Egos to activate the Concert Buff so everyone can get stronger, I noticed a new notification.
Ding!
[A New {Special Quest} has been generated: {The Last Battle for the World of Bestia Begins: Act 1}!]
[Rank: SSS]
[After learning everything about the world of Bestia, meeting the two Venerables and their son, and making many friends, including the machine lifeform, Zero One, you have grown stronger beyond your limits, reaching an even higher height, level, and realm than before.]
[Now, the Final Battle to save the world of Bestia begins. Your mission is simple: either destroy the Mechanical Tree in this island or help Zero One hack it and take over it, making the entire Mechanical Tree, a Machine Lifeform Factory, your ally.]
[Either destroy it or make it part of your allies; it’s your choice!]
[Completion Rewards]: [???]
[Failure Penalty]: [Favorability with all Allies so far: -1.000]
[Time Condition]: [4 Hours.]
[If you cannot complete the quest within 4 hours, it will be automatically shown as a Failure.]
Under four hours, hah, we’re going to get this done in less than an hour!
RUMBLE!
The sound of hundreds of machines rushing towards us echoed, making the entire world tremble around us. The Mechanical Tree wasn’t on our side either, quickly glowing red.
Its gates opened, revealing several new Machines coming from there; it was probably going to exhaust all of its resources and create hostile Machines until we’re defeated.
That’s why taking too long is not recommended. We have to break through these machines, both flying and on land, and then reach the tree’s entrance with Zero One.
Once we were inside, Zero One told me someone has to guard her from attacks while she hacks the Mechanical Tree.
Alright then, not so hard anyway!
“LET’S ROCK!!!”
At the same time, a giant floating concert materialized out of thin air as three of my Doppelgangers started playing different instruments and singing a melody.
Pink-colored sound waves emerged from the song and the giant concert area, rapidly reaching all allies. All the machines were startled, shocked by the loud sounds.
The allies were also surprised, but once they realized rainbow-colored auras encompassed them and strengthened them, they calmed down.
Yes, all the buffs from my equipment I activated previously were shared with everyone that was my ally and that was listening to these sound waves.
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 rocking 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!]
But not only that, but enemies felt incredibly weaker, their stronger auras of electromagnetic energies dropping and becoming much thinner; the robots couldn’t understand what was happening.
And even more, I gained 30% of the total stats of all boosted allies. And that didn’t just mean the friends I had with me anymore.
No, I also gained the shared stats of hundreds of machine allies.
FLAAASH!
My Aura grew to a tremendous size, resembling a rainbow flame that reached the heavens.
But this army might not be enough, so we might as well go one step further.
“Come!”
RUMBLE!
From the ground, infernal flames surged as giant demonic knights materialized, holding large weapons and crimson and black armor.
FLASH!
And from the skies, angelic knights descended, wielding spears, bows, and holy swords, some even staffs as if they were magicians.
I used my two Privileges, [A Being Between Heaven And Earth (A Rank Privilege)] and [A Being Between Hell And Earth (A Rank Privilege)], to bring Demonic Spirit Knights and Angelic Spirit Knights into the fray.
With them at my side and joining the battle, the machines in front of me suddenly froze.
I held all three blades with my two hands and my tail.
“{Myriad Self Arts} + {Thousand Blades}”
All three blades suddenly glowed brightly; my aura itself divided into dozens of “me” and merged, turning into a massive Aura Blade.
“{Earth-Splitting Heavenly Blade}!”
I swung all three of them at the same time, the divided effect of the Thousand Blade Skill activating, unleashing a gigantic wave of pure rainbow and golden light, slashing through it all.
SLAAAAASH!!!
The earth split apart as an enormous fissure was formed; the wave cut through all machines within my range; over two hundred died instantly, sliced apart and then exploding as their cores were shattered, releasing all the energy stored.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The explosions that my attack generated spread through the army of machines, eliminating several dozen more. The rest of the surviving machines were burning, covered in rainbow-colored flames; I had eliminated at least thirty percent of them.
“Woah!”
Zero One and the rest of my friends were left startled after they saw that initial attack; maybe I went a bit too hard there; forgive me.
“I’ve opened the way, Zero One; let’s go directly to the Mechanical Tree! Everyone else, please cover our backs!” I said.
“Got it!” Wai Tian nodded.
“Easy enough!” Fang Shuan readied his spear.
“Please go! Leave the rest to us!” Yin Sheng said.
“I needed to practice all the things I’ve learned so far, so thanks for the opportunity, Anna!” Sara said. “Please go and do what you must do!”
“Primordial Beasts, you accompany us as well! Violet, Snow, Shiro, help out the rest of my friends!” I said.
“GAAOO!”
“WOOF!”
The two Primordial Beasts accompanied us as we ran with Zero One across the battlefield. The bodies of hundreds of molten machines made her a bit sad, but her eyes were still prepared for this, her resolve unwavering.
She has truly changed, hasn’t she?
“I think it would be faster like this!” I said. “Can we ride you guys?”
“Woof!”
“Gaao!”
The two seemed to agree, as I quickly leaped over the black wolf made of crystals and Zero One reached the golden lion made of jewels.
FLASH!
Their Auras of Primordial Ki surged, enhancing our abilities and our own martial arts and auras related to Ki.
To think they can share their power so easily like this, this is amazing!
“Anna! There’s more coming! They’re too hostile; they won’t listen to my signals!”
“Then we fight! {Myriad Self Arts}: {Nirvana Hands}”
I renamed this technique, as I created several hands made out of glistening divine rainbow light from my Aura, a combination of both equipment buffs and enhancements and my own abilities and energies.
The enormous hands held several weapons at once, while my right hand grabbed Gram, my left hand held the Axe-Sword, the rest of the Nirvana hands held all other weapons in my possession, even holding my shield for convenience.
Yes, I’ve already realized that Myriad Self Arts is a Martial Arts born for convenience! Innately, this was my wish all along—to use all these powers and equipment I’ve been stacking for so long at once.
“ELIMINATE! EXTERMINATE!”
As we advanced across the battlefield while I saw Wai Tian, Fang Shuan, Yin Sheng, and my Families sweep the machines like nothing, a large group of flying machines started flying towards us.
These weren’t the normal flying drones either, but larger, bulkier machines, equipped with giant cannons, and… are those machineguns?!
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
A barrage of hundreds of bullets started falling towards us at lightning speed. I quickly expanded my Aura into a Pseudo-Domain and decided to counterattack.
They were far away, but that did not matter!
I combined the effects of [Thunder Queen] with [Spectral Body], temporarily becoming a mass of spectral thunder as my Nirvana Hands expanded into thunderous hands that could move anywhere, rotating around my body.
Yes, the greatest strength of Myriad Self was the power to adapt to any situation and seamlessly combine itself with my Skills and Techniques.
Any idea I have can become real with Myriad Self Arts!
And like a calamity of my own, I unleashed a dance of swords of all colors and elements.
“{Divine and Demonic Dance of a Thousand Blades}”
Like a spinning storm of slashing attacks, demonic flames, holy light, darkness, thunder, and shadows engulfed everything; the bullets fired at us disintegrated, and gigantic blade slashes reached the flying drones.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Within seconds, they were all cut down to pieces, falling from the skies like mere junk. Not even a good warmup, it seemed.
“I think I’ve grown too strong now.”
The training that my masters imparted upon me and all the battles I’ve had so far.
I’ve grown so strong it’s ridiculous.
When I got here, my Ki was completely lacking.
But now?
It’s overflowing, like it’s endless!
“You’ll have to bring an Avatar of a Constellation to even become a bother, Mechanical Tree!”
I was taunting it; I wanted a greater challenge.
Please send me something stronger!
Your machines are simply…
Too weak!
At the same time, Zero One responded against the incoming Machines, as they started fusing into giant Titans, she simply overcharged her hands with her Electromagnetic Energies from her developed core and then.
“{Electromagnetic Energy Manipulation Arts}: {Photon Cannon}!”
Several beams were fired at once, piercing through the Titanic Machines like a hot knife through butter; their entire bodies collapsed into pieces, melting away or even vaporizing.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
As we continued, the Mechanical Tree grew restless, continuously pouring hundreds of smaller machines against us and then beginning to fuse them with its own electromagnetic energies.
“Huh?! What’s that!”
I was a bit surprised, as the Mechanical Tree began to melt all the machines it was creating and then merged them together into enormous limbs attached to its body?!
“Is the Mechanical Tree its own robot and not just a factory?”
“But of course! I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I never imagined it would do this!”
RUMBLE!
Suddenly, titanic mechanical hands of over two hundred meters each reached us within an instant; a mere swipe from these would definitely crush us to death!
“Hah, good enough.”
I leaped into the skies, greeting the four gigantic hands reaching down towards us, hypercharged with electricity, aiming to fry us and crush us alive.
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
“{Demonic Seven Cursed Seals Arts}: {First Seal: Hatred} {Third Seal: Frenzy} {Fifth Seal: Frustration}!”
Several Demonic Cursed Seals in my body were unsealed, filling me with even more dreadful prowess. I felt wrath coursing through my body—anger, frustration, madness!
With power swelling through my entire body, I attacked the titanic threat on my own.
Gluttony’s Snakes, Celestial Angelic Powers, Demonic Cursed Seals, the Essence of Hope, Ki, and my Thunder Goddess Body.
All into one.
Let’s do that again, shall we?
“{Ten Thousand Heavenly Snakes that Swallow the Heavens}”
RUMBLE!
My blades, my Aura, my powers, all transformed into a thousand-headed white snake just like before! Opening their jaws, they held on to all four titanic arms and then started biting through it all.
CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
However, each bite was like a slashing attack, slicing through the titanic mechanical arms and hands! The Mechanical Tree was unable to respond in time, as its attempt to defend was and utterly… ridiculed.
“There it is, the entrance, Anna!”
As Zero One glanced at my techniques destroying the titanic mechanical arms, she pointed at the distance; we were less than a hundred meters from the Mechanical Tree entrance.
“Then let’s go! Primordial Beasts, hurry!”
“ROOAAR!”
The two roared in unison, running right at the side of the other, their primordial auras combined, rapidly reaching the entrance of the Mechanical Tree.
“There! Leap inside!”
FLASH!
As more Machines followed us from behind, we leaped towards the entrance, which was trying to close before we could get in.
“Not happening!”
I redirected several of the snakes of my aura and blasted that entrance open.
BOOOM!
As we reached the interior, filled with cables and wires everywhere and countless computers and flying drones, which ran away from us.
We were welcomed by someone.
A voice.
“So you’ve made it inside, as calculated.”
A person—no, a machine—sat over a large metallic cube.
It looked almost exactly like a human, a young woman.
Almost to the same age that Zero One looked like.
Except her hair was longer and black.
And her eyes were red.
“H-Huh? Wha…?!”
Zero One took a step back, shocked beyond belief.
“Let me tell you something… Zero One.”
The woman stood up, slowly walking towards us.
Her long black hair moved like tentacles.
“You’re only the first model of a series of machine lifeforms.”
She smiled at Zero One as her crimson eyes glowed brightly.
“You’re not unique, and I’m better than you.”
Her hand opened as nanomachines gathered and materialized into a long photon sword of red light and black steel.
“I’m Zero Two.”
And then she charged at us, swinging her blade.
“Nice to meet you, my older sister. Please die.”
SLAAASH!
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