Which leads to me fighting as I was. Once I saw the two foxes charging, their tails surging with flames, I calmly raised my twin guns and began charging them. At the same time, multiple magic circles spread out under my feet, signalling the spells that I was preparing to cast.
The first effect to launch was a wave of water that surged from the ground around me, rising into the air and falling onto the two Fire Foxes. On its own, this was a relatively harmless effect, but it weakened their fire abilities considerably. Next, a wave of cold followed to freeze the water, slowing their movements enough for me to release the fully charged Magi Guns. I had also prepared a barrier and speed enchantment if the first plan didn’t work.
Naturally, with the enemies unable to move out of the way, they were devoured by the large spheres of magic. At this point, some people would start to question why this fight was so important, and why the previously mentioned red flags would come into play. Well, right around the time that the smoke cleared, I heard the all-too familiar noise of a sword being drawn followed by a shooting pain through my head. No, I wasn’t decapitated.
Fatal attack detected, Barrier automatically activated.
2,550 mana consumed
“Jin!” I heard Denise call out, and then the creaking of wood as she launched herself out of the wagon. I turned just in time to see my attacker preparing for another strike. Like hell. Rather than my previous plans, I focused my Dominion for something I had been wanting to try for quite a while, and only risked because I already possessed a familiar spell.
Without delay, I vanished from my previous position just as the sword was passing through it, to appear five meters away. My would-be assassin stood two meters tall, with a muscular build and a full suit of armor, preventing me from seeing his face. However, the unmistakable glow and large white wings, as well as my Worldlore, immediately identified it as an angel.
Well, shit… guess the trip’s off. I sighed, readying myself for battle again as Denise and Cynthia came to my side. “You know, I always thought you righteous types were supposed to announce yourselves before attacking? Or is there no honor in heaven?”
I couldn’t see his face through the helmet, but I could hear the sneer in his voice. “And what would filth like you know of honor? You, who sides with hell itself.”
“Well, I guess my reputation has preceded me.” I chuckled slightly, putting my Magi Guns into the Artifact World in favor of my much more useful revolvers. Dialog really wasn’t necessary here, but my mana had dropped to half when he launched his surprise attack, so I wanted time to refill it. Besides, the holier-than-thou characters never could resist talking.
“Enough. I’ll finish you quickly.” The angel raised his sword to the sky, which began glowing brightly. Glowing swords… don’t want to get hit by that.
“Cynthia, full attack, don’t let that guy hit you. I’ve got a feeling.” These feelings are never good, and my trusty companions are aware of this. Of course, my feelings are also known as stating the obvious. Cynthia had already switched to her most powerful gear, a mix of infernal armor, as well as one infernal weapon and one normal. Denise had also pulled out Omen, her infernal scimitar.
Not one to be outdone, I switched out my robe for the Hellfire Robe, which had gone nearly forgotten in the Artifact World. Right away, I noticed that I wasn’t burning like I had expected. Instead, my body immediately shifted as if I had cast Demon’s Cloak. My skin turned black, and I grew a few inches taller, with three horns jutting out of my forehead. I could sense that the robe was pleased I had finally brought it out, and also that it had a new name, Hell’s Embrace.
The Hellfire Robe was definitely not an infernal item when I put it into the Artifact World, but it seems that it bathed in its own hellfire to become one. And that its ability was to bring out the demon inside of people.
You have transformed into a Rune Lord
Dominion has temporarily increased by 15
Intelligence and Wisdom have temporarily increased by 500
Now that… is a really nice racial buff. I couldn’t help but let out a grin as I finished transforming, but the process seemed to sicken the angel, who immediately charged at us, his glowing sword held high above his head. For some reason, the change effected my guns as well, turning them black with the barrel seeming to form a small mouth.
Before the angel could finish his charge, both Denise and Cynthia had vanished from their former positions, appearing on either side of the enemy. Denise I could understand, but I hadn’t expected Cynthia to be able to move like that. And each of them were slashing down with their weapons at the angel’s large wings.
However, it didn’t seem like it was going to be that easy. As soon as the angel noticed them, he pulled his wings in tight to land and avoid their attack, pushing off with his leg to maintain his momentum. His sword had also changed positions, now aiming straight ahead of him to attempt a stab rather than a downward slice.
This angel was fast, fast enough that it dodged Denise, but I still had a shot. After all, all I had to do was raise my arms and pull the trigger. In every sense of the term, this angel brought a knife to a gunfight.
Once the barrels were pointed at the angel, it was a mere two meters from stabbing through my body. Naturally, I wasn’t willing to risk everything by playing chicken with an angel, so I had another short range teleport prepared for if this didn’t work. However, the angel seemed to sense something dangerous about the weapons, and quickly changed his course as I fired a pair of lightning bullets. By placing his foot on the ground and twisting his body, the angel shot off to the side, dodging my attempted shots.
I had been just about to activate my prepared spell when he changed course, so I let out a sigh of relief that my attack worked. Still.. to have seen through it that quickly. I followed the angel with my guns, who was quickly backing away now. “Something the matter?”
This time, it seemed he really didn’t want to talk, and instead flew up a dozen meters into the sky. “Heaven’s Slash!” The glow of his sword intensified, and extended over a hundred meters into the air, as if it were a single solid sheet of light. Then, the sword was brought down, slashing towards me with an insane speed.
Without a moment to waste, I activated my prepared spell, vanishing and reappearing a dozen meters away, out of range of the slash. Where I had been previously, there was now a deep hole cut into the earth. “Damn… really do not want to get hit by that.”
Judging by this guy’s speed, arrows won’t be able to catch him. And if he doesn’t come down to the ground, melee won’t work. I couldn’t help but let out a sigh, while the angel was recharging his sword. “Sorry, but you’ll have to forgive me for being a little cruel here.”
My body vanished again as I used another short ranged teleport to travel fifty meters away, well within his line of sight, and then again another fifty meters. The angel laughed, and then began chasing me, apparently thinking I was running away from him. “All things must end. Crumble, decay, return to your natural state and deny the laws of this land.” I held my hand out and pointed towards his sword, which immediately shattered from my Arcane Inversion. That alone was enough to make him pause while I began my next chant, preparing another teleport.
“Ancient laws which bind this world, rules set down from god to man.” My words broke the angel out of its trance, and he roared at me, charging with his armored fists on display. “Twist, unbind, destroy the old world with my fury.” With the angel rapidly approaching, I didn’t dare to hurry through the incantation, making sure I got it as accurate as possible. However, I did raise my guns to fire a couple shots, making him dodge left and right to avoid them.
“Let he who walks before me and all among him turn to ash at my will.” Now, my spell’s effects were starting to become visible, the sky above us darkening while several rings of light appeared. The angel, catching this development, renewed its charge, willing to get hit twice by my guns to close the distance. However, I had already prep
ared a spell to escape, and immediately used it, reappearing beside the others near the wagon.
“Let the sky itself be overturned and forsaken, and shatter the world below.” With that, arguably the most powerful spell in my arsenal was activated, and before the angel had a chance to retreat, a massive beam of light shot down from the circles in the sky. This spell, my Magus Wrath, currently showed its power over a radius of eighty meters. That was far more than even this angel could hope to cover in the time it took me to say a single sentence.
From within the field, we could see first the armor dissolving under the light of the spell, and then the angel. At the same time, every blade of grass, every bush and beast were washed away. All that was left when the light was gone was a hole in the ground, a hundred and sixty meters wide and ten meters deep. The truly frightening thing about Magus Wrath was that it did the same amount of damage to everything within the area of effect, whether it was an object or a creature. That meant only the greatest of armors could protect you against it, and few had the health to survive it.
Dominion has increased to 21
Mana Pool has increased to 17
Arcane Marksman has increased to 20
I gave a chuckle as I watched my mana rapidly refilling, reminding me that I had an increased mana pool in this form. The damage I did should have been ten thousand with that spell, so it was no surprise that it consumed the angel.
“Jin… Hey Jin.. What was that?!” Cynthia turned to look at me, returning to her normal outfit. Denise and I did the same, seeing no reason to stay in ‘battle mode’.
“Ah, that was an angel. Sorry, didn’t think they’d show up this fast.”
“That fast? You mean you were expecting them?” Her face seemed to start turning red, as if she could explode any minute.
“Yeah, sorry again. I couldn’t risk telling people, since the King of Heaven can hear anything spoken in the light, and I’m not sure how much light is needed.” That seemed to calm her down, but not by much. “The treaty between Heaven and Hell has dissolved, and it looks like Heaven just found out about it. Sorry, but looks like we won’t be able to make it to the mountains quite yet.” I smiled apologetically at Cynthia, who just sighed in resignation.
“That’s fine. But what’s not fine is… what was that?!” She waves her arms to the remodelled landscape, and I nod my head to acknowledge her.
“Ah, yeah, that was me making some renovations. I try not to use that spell… for obvious reasons. I can’t really control the amount of damage it does.”
“...I give up. It’s official, we’re all a bunch of cheats.” Cynthia shook her head helplessly, causing Denise and I to laugh.
“Well, let’s get going before they send more.” I pointed off to the side, silently summoning an obsidian gate to Hell. “Lilith should be expecting us, and I’m guessing that we weren’t the only ones attacked. Most likely, Heaven launched a full scale attack against every demon on the surface, but they should have had time to get away.”
As soon as the gates were opened, the three of us, plus one horse, walked into Hell to prepare for war.
Chapter 32
As soon as we entered Hell, I noticed a clear difference in the atmosphere. No longer were there any playful imps running through the halls of the palace, or guards chatting calmly with each other. As usual, I entered through the throne room’s Hellgate, which is typically reserved for emergencies or Lilith herself. I didn’t make it five steps into the throne room before the gate opened again and a pair of demons limped through. Well, I assumed they were demons because they used the gate, but they looked entirely human.
“Ah, there you are! I was worried that you would get caught up in this too.” I could hear Levy calling out to me from a nearby crowd, so I moved over to greet her. “It’s been like this for the last hour or so. Mom lifted the restrictions on gate traffic to let everyone through, and we sent out some people to retrieve the ones that couldn’t come back by themselves.”
Looking around, I could clearly see the amount of refugees that were pouring in through this one gate alone. “I take it the angels hit everywhere?”
Once she pushed her way out of the crowd to stand in front of me, Levy nodded her head. Unlike her usual attire, she was wearing a very plain black robe. “That’s right. And even the ones that were able to fight off their attackers were chased out of town by the locals for being exposed.”
“They organized this pretty well.”
Denise glanced to a nearby family that had just come through the gate. “I’m glad so many people were able to get away in time.”
“That just goes to show how many of us were on the surface. Even with all of this, we think we’ve lost at least a thousand demons so far. You should be one of the last ones through.”
I couldn’t help sighing at those words, shaking my head. “Okay, so how long until everything is ready for the counterattack? Now that the angels are so invested in the religion of this world, I doubt they’re just going to go back into hiding after pushing the demons out.”
“We’ve already made plans for that.” I heard another voice this time, and turned around to see Lilith smiling at me. Unlike Levy, she had no problem wearing her usual attire, as little as that was. “We’re going to lure them into an all out battle to force them to back down. If we can’t trust them to sheathe their swords with words, then actions will have to suffice.”
Honestly, I still didn’t like the plan of an all out battle, but I knew my part to play in this. “How long?”
“Three days. I already took care of making sure your foreigner friend knows he won’t be participating in the main fight. And while I’m at it, I should let you know that I really do hate your plan. It could work, but I still don’t like it…”
I smiled, patting her on the head. She scrunched her shoulders a bit, pouting at the touch, but didn’t openly object. “That’s alright. I’ve got a few last minute preparations to take care of before I’ll be ready. Have you already determined the field of battle?”
At that question Lilith gave a… well, devilish grin. “Why shouldn’t it be the same place as last time? The original Hellgate and Heaven’s Gates are about four days journey south west of the Wynterrose capital. And what’s this that you have to prepare? Did your plans change or something?”
I felt my smile widen, but I stayed silent. I could almost feel the probing of my thoughts before Levy let out a surprised gasp behind me. “Now that’s cheating…”
I couldn’t help but laugh at her words, nodding a bit. “You can fill her in while I go and get ready. I should let our allies know what’s going on before the fight.”
With that, I left the palace accompanied by Denise, Cynthia, and Midnight. Once we were out, Denise vanished to join up with Krath at the training ground for some quick drills. Cynthia left to go to the forge so that she could see if they needed help. As for myself, I went to a familiar cavern, the same wide empty space where we revived Denise.
“Let’s hope he’s not too disagreeable…” I shook my head, rubbing my temples while recalling the person our plan most depended on. “Wings of light, signs of beginning, may my voice reach the farthest corners.”
A few moments later, I was greeted by the deep voice of an elderly man. “Who is this?”
“My name is Jin. I’m--” I started to introduce myself before he interrupted me.
“I know who you are. The so called Wordsmith, right? What are you calling me for?” There was no trace of mirth in his voice, as if he was considering destroying me through this simple call.
“You want to preserve the balance, right Kor?”
That got a chuckle out of the fallen angel. “And what of it? I know that the angels have broke the truce. Are you perhaps wanting my help to defeat them?”
“No. I just want your help making it a fair fight. Angels against demons, with no outsiders involved.”
There was a long pause after I stated my intention, but eventually he spoke again.
“No help for either side, angel or demon?”
“Right. Me and my group will do nothing to help the demons, but we need to make sure that the angels don’t get their help either.”
“How many other people are you asking?”
I smiled slightly, realizing that this meant he was at least somewhat interested. “Including myself and you, there will be six people present on our side.”
“Your demon friend, then. And I assume you won’t be counting the horse. So who is number six?”
“The Prince of Blades. I formed a summoning contract with him a short while ago, though I didn’t expect it to be needed so soon.”
I could hear Kor laughing merrily on the other end of the spell. “Kirinad, huh? Good choice. Alright, then. When is this battle taking place?”
The Dive: Birth of a Hero Page 46