BXBX NOVEL Chapter 398 Tribulation Quest Brance (3)
*I wrote this chapter while listening to Ezio's Family, so if you want the best experience, listen to the 10-hour loop I will post in Discord.*
The world inside the barrier suddenly shattered, revealing the horrifying sight of the entire Fallen Army in ranks and prepared for battle, but that alone wasn't enough to shake Brance; instead, it was the sight of all 50 of his SpecOps troops.
Their bodies had been hacked to pieces and stabbed into pikes, one for each arm, leg, torso, head, and, worst of all, their wings.
"ALL TROOPS RETREAT; FALL BACK THIS INSTANT!" Brance roared, breaking his stealth skill and flaring up with HolyFire.
"Hehe, General Demiurgos, it is far too late." Striding forward with his hands behind his back, Demon Lord Livyatan came forward, and his chilling voice had overridden Brance's. Floating behind him were the spines of all fifty of the LightBringer Warriors that Brance had unknowingly sent directly to their death.
Rage, fear, sorrow, these three feelings welled up in Brance's heart as his eyes flicked from Livyatan to the 50 spines floating behind him.
Brance's golden white Aura erupted from his body as all six wings on his back flared up in bright light. Making a silent decision, in a single move, Brance unsheathed his Greatsword, channeled a massive amount of Mana into it, and lashed out, generating an absurdly huge arc of sword light that instantly connected and shattered the impressive Mana Barrier.
"ALL TROOPS EVISCERATE EVERY LAST ONE OF THESE FALLEN BASTARDS! FOR THE GOD OF LIGHT!" Roaring with the aid of Mana carrying his voice, Brance's order was met by hundreds of thousands of angry and prideful chants of "For the God of Light" as his whole army descended to the ground and engaged the Fallen Army.
Along with the movement of his troops, Brance flapped his wings and raced forward to square off against the Demon Lord.
Unfortunately, before he could reach the ground, Brance was suddenly struck by a blast of BlackFire. Because he was blinded by rage and still mentally incompetent after the brutal massacre of his powerhouses, he was caught entirely unaware and streaked through the air like a meteor.
Brance tumbled head over heels for hundreds of kilometers due to the blindside attack until he eventually crashed into a mountain range, destroying the terrain as his body smacked into one rocky feature after another.
Struggling back to his feet and witnessing the sheer destruction caused by his "crash landing," Brance didn't have the time to admire how he was still in one piece because, half a breath later, The Demon Lord appeared from the ground out of an inky black shadow.
"Come now, General Demiurgos, tell me you don't honestly believe I would allow you to run rampant within my ranks." Flashing a sinister smile and slamming his hands down to reveal each of his arms was covered by BlackFire Mana construct claws, Livyatan made himself known before kicking off the ground and appearing in front of Brance.
Being on defense, Brance pushed HolyFire Mana into his WFD, lighting up the dark and destroyed mountain range, and received several hundred attacks in less than a second.
'Fuck, FUCK! This bastard segregated me from my troops, leaving them utterly defenseless against his powerhouses; not good, NOT GOOD!' Brance screamed internally as he barely kept up with the clawed attacks from the Demon Lord, who appeared capable of disappearing and reappearing anywhere he pleased.
Ducking under an attack that broke through the spatial barrier of the planet, causing vicious cracks which began to mend the moment they came into existence, Brance braced WFD against his shoulder and rammed into Livyatan only to phase through the Demon Lord. He had shifted into Dark Mana particles.
"Hehe, this is all the famed ArchAngel Michael Demiurgos has to offer. for a supposed Tier-6 LightBringer; you seem weak, so weak that I would have believed you were only a pitiful fourth Tier Being." Appearing behind Brance, Livyatan lashed out with his left leg and executed a twelve-hit combo, juggling Brance like a fighting game character, never letting him hit the ground.
That is until he planted a fully charged orb of BlackFire into Brance's abdomen and blasted him through several more mountains.
By the time Brance finally stopped, his armor had been cracked open like a lobster shell, blood was gushing from his eyes, mouth, and ears, and most of all, his entire torso was scorched black, practically incinerated by the Demon Lord's attack.
Coughing up a mouth full of blood and feeling nearly every bone in his body had been shattered, Brance quickly began healing himself with the multiple Light Affinity skills he had learned.
'Damn it, dealing with this bastard is like fighting a fusion of Cyn and Selene while hyped up on drugs and overpowered beyond belief. If it weren't for my armor, I would have already been charbroiled, let alone having gone through the rinse cycle." Struggling back to his feet, Brance flung out his right hand, drawing WFD back to him instantly just as the Demon Lord stepped out of some nearby shadows.
"See, this is the problem with you, Birdfucks; all of you are practically immortal so long as you have Mana, thanks to your pesky Light Healing skills." Frowning after seeing Brance back on his feet and completely healed, Livyatan began pressuring the shaken Brance once again.
Like before, it was a complete one-sided beatdown, with Brance only able to stop 1/8th of the attacks sent his way and relying on his posturing and armor to mitigate as much damage as possible.
'Damn it, if I just had a single [White Dwarf], I could buy myself some time to aid my troops, but because the skill doesn't exist, and I don't have my Terra or Wind Affinity, I have virtually no answers.' Using the momentum of one of the hits he received, Brance threw himself backward and took to the sky before channeling a massive amount of HolyFire and Light Mana into his Greatsword and raining down a seemingly never-ending amount of Sword arcs on his opponent.
'Think Brancie, think. How would you deal with Cyn and Selene?' Using [Mana Sight] and following the erratic movements of his opponent, Brance didn't let up and burned a large amount of MP to buy himself a few seconds to think. His arms never stopped moving as he fired off what could only be described as terrifyingly large Golden/White Getsuga Tenshous, one after another from above.
From the sky, Brance witnessed his opponent expertly dodging over 90% of the attacks he unleashed. Meanwhile, the other 10% was hacked apart by high-Tiered fire attacks. The amount of effort Livyatan was expending was negligible, as even Brance could tell that the Demon Lord was simply buying time while making sport of his attacks.
'This asshole is toying with me,' Brance thought, only to be caught off-guard by a single notification that made his heart drop.
-20 percent of your Military Might has been destroyed.-
Whipping his head around, Brance looked off in the distance and saw the horrendous sight of his troops, all of which were under Tier-4, being slaughtered like chickens by the much larger enemy force.
'DAMN IT!' Brance screamed in his mind as he balled up his left fist, channeling over 20k of HolyFire into it, and punched at the ground where Livyatan could be seen dancing around with his arms crossed over his chest.
BBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM
The effect was disastrous for the surrounding mountain range, as Brance's improvised attack held the force of a nuclear missile. With a bright flash of light, an area of over 10 kilometers was decimated and turned into dust, leaving a crater burrowing over a kilometer deep in the ground.
-40 percent of your Military Might has been destroyed.-
With nearly half his army destroyed, Brance turned and raced in the direction of the battle without bothering to look and see if the Demon Lord had avoided the powerful blast.
-60 percent of your Military Might has been destroyed.-
'No, no, no, no, no!' Brance screamed in panic as all six of his wings beat faster than the eye could see, propelling him forward. With the first couple of beats, he broke the sound barrier, creating a visual effect as he tore through the air.
-80 percent of your Military Might has been destroyed.-
Traveling as fast as his wings could take him, Brance arrived on the battlefield only to find the last of his troops being cut down. Having sensed his arrival, several of their heads turned in his direction before locking eyes with him and sending him a bitter smile.
"Till the end General, For the God of Light." A certain Silver Armored LightBringer Warrior Brance had seen several times moving resources from point A to point B, said with a resolute expression plastered across his face.
Seemingly sharing the same thought and speaking the same line, the remaining troops held up a glowing white fist, punched themselves in the chest, where their Codex was located…and detonated their bodies.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! BOOOMMMM!!!
A chorus of explosions lit up the night sky. Thousands of brave warriors chose to take death into their own hands to eliminate as many foes as possible, rendering Brance speechless as he slowly sank from the sky and collapsed to the ground on his knees.
Heartbroken and devastated, Brance didn't even notice the notifications rolling in his peripheral vision.
-Rather than fall at the hands of the tainted souls of a lesser being, the remaining 20% of your Military Might have chosen mutual destruction.-
- Their brave efforts led to the destruction of 95% of the enemy military and their base of operations.-
-Even though you have lost your forces, you have won the final Large-Scale Battle at a high cost.-
-You have Cleared the final challenge of your Tribulation Quest; your consciousness will now be separated from the Body of Michael Demiurgos as the Memory Fragment Synchronizes with what occurred during your Tribulation Quest.-
Brance felt a tugging motion as he was ripped out of the body of Michael and transformed into an Astral Projection kneeling beside the ArchAngel.
-Synchronizing the Events that have transpired with the fused Divinity Fragment located within the Host's Soul.-
-Now continuing playback of the final Memories of Michael Demiurgos.-
Ignoring everything happening with Tobs and the Passing Down Interface, Brance slowly turned his head and looked at the broken visage of Michael kneeling beside him.
"Where…where did it all go wrong? My plan was flawless; we took one encampment after another, only to have it all fall apart in the end." Micheal whimpered as his Greatsword fell from his hand and crashed into the ground, burying itself several centimeters into the dirt due to its immense weight.
"That is something you should have figured out long ago, Michael," Livyatan stated as he appeared from the shadows behind the beaten and broken ArchAngel.
"Traitors? In my camp? That can't be.." Michael started to say.
"Indeed, did you honestly believe everyone under your control shared the same sentiment as you, a cold-hearted and ruthless leader that cares nothing about his troops? Thousands of your men silently defected to our side ages ago, but it wasn't necessarily from your troops alone." Grabbing Michael's head with his BlackFire Mana-Clad claw, Livyatan cut him off before continuing.
"Lucifer's forces have long since invaded Yahweh's Armies and have been feeding us information from the moment you began your Crusade."
"You may have technically won here by killing off the bulk of my troops; however, it is too little too late. As we speak, the joint armies of Lucifer, Osiris, Pluto (Roman), Hel (Norse), and Ah Puch (Mayan) have made their moves. Your Deity has lost this Legacy Strife, and your death will be the nail in his coffin." Grinning from ear to ear and flashing his sharp teeth, The Demon Lord Livyatan reveled in his victory.
"I see…so this is the end…." Michael thought aloud as his mind flashed back to his troops' faces, his colleagues' faces, and even the friends he had made over the last thousand years; at that moment, his mind was Shattered completely, and his pride along with it.
"Take solace in that you will soon be a part of your Deities Divinity, at least in that sense you will…huh?" Livyatan was in the process of his final monologue before killing Michael when he suddenly sensed immense danger coming from who he thought to be a broken man.
"For the God of Light," Michael whispered as he jumped to his feet, spun around, grabbed Livyatan in a bear hug…and self-destructed his Codex, killing himself and taking over 25% of the planet along with the Demon Lord to the grave in a bright flash of golden light.
-Ending Memory Playback. You have Passed your Tribulation Quest, now commencing Tier-3 Evolution.-
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