Book 8, Chapter 42

Dizmason, Destruction

Richard’s followers climbed a cloned brain and crossed the barbarians’ line of defence, attacking them from behind. Tiramisu jumped down from the sky and crashed right into the middle of their formation, his momentum creating a huge crater and flattening a few barbarians nearby.

Dark fog covered one section of the battlefield as Zendrall finished his summoning array, undead knights walking out one after the other. There were more than a hundred at level 16, a force that was much more impactful than a single grand mage. The knights got into formation and stabbed into the left flank, leaving Richard and the broodmother to take care of the right.

The broodmother constantly sprayed out a dark green mist from her body, the corrosive fog causing the barbarians caught within to howl in pain as they collapsed. Those clinging to her body fell off as well, their hands melted down to the bone until they couldn’t hold onto their weapons anymore while their faces had been reduced to drooping meat.

Richard moved right through the fog while remaining completely unaffected, a thin barrier around him deflecting the acid that even heavy swings from the barbarians could do nothing to. This was another advantage that came from having shared their souls; just like his flames didn’t hurt the broodmother too much, he understood the properties of her mist and could push it away easily. Even if he wasn’t pushing it away, he would still barely feel an itch.

The broodmother turned around in a circle, a simple move that caused enormous ripples all around. Every obstacle in her way was flattened in an instant by her unparalleled mass, two metres of the earth being gouged out in the process.

“CAREFUL!” Richard shouted at her as he flashed to the skies; even with his powerful body, he wouldn’t dare to take on a physical attack from her. At the same time as taking out hundreds of barbarians, she had also squashed some winter soldiers and arrowbeasts as well. She never really cared about her own drones during battle, and that sentiment extended to Richard’s warriors as well. Outside of Richard himself and the few followers who had made an impression on her, everyone else was expendable.

He floated above the battlefield and lava surged in his eyes, a short chant forming a barrage of lava fireballs that rained down on the barbarians below. Numerous explosions rang out as flames covered the battlefield, all connecting to each other and spreading outward with Richard at the centre. The earth beneath his feet had already melted, the searing flames spreading wider and wider to engulf the barbarian warriors.

On the outer edge, Richard’s rune knights were done with their gunpowder javelins and had picked up their weapons for melee battle. They were slowly wrapping around the enemy, pushing in and forcing the barbarians into Richard’s world of flames.

Blocked by a powerful melee force on one side and an impassable mountain of a creature on the other, the barbarian warriors maintained their aggression even amidst the flames. Green light surrounded them as they tried to stay alive, attacking the rune knights or just jumping onto the broodmother and peeling off her armour as much as they could.

The battle soon reached a stalemate, but Richard wouldn’t have that. He suddenly pointed a finger at the sky and activated the power of Dizmason for the first time since he had become a legend, astral fireballs the size of a fist gathering together and absorbing an endless amount of energy from the sky. They quickly turned blue as they expanded rapidly, going from a metre in diameter all the way up to twenty!

Space itself was starting to be affected, sections of darkness appearing in the middle of the sky as it folded in on itself from the sheer amount of energy nearby. The rune knights on the outer flanks were ordered to run as far away as they could, something they would have done even without a command. Although they didn’t know what spell Richard was using, they could sense its sheer power.

“Master!” the broodmother shouted from down below, trying her best to curl up as she shouted furiously, “You’re being petty!”

Zangru faded into visibility from upon her back, not saying a single word as he shot away like lightning.

It was at this moment that an extremely loud voice rang throughout the plains, “STOP!”

A huge figure appeared on the distant horizon, a true giant that was a hundred metres tall. His silhouette towered over everything even from kilometres away, but the anxiety in his face was evident as well. Every step left a huge hole behind as he rushed forward.

Seeing the mastermind showing himself, Richard smirked, “Too late.”

The power of Dizmason finally reached its peak, the enormous fireballs combining into one huge orb of blue liquid flames. As he was about to bring it crashing down, Richard felt his bloodline boil as the divine symbols of his truename shattered into small fragments, falling into his bloodline to form huge waves of lava. A demonic face was formed within him, far more elegant than any ordinary demon while still retaining all of the ferocity. It was strangely majestic, almost perfect even, and as he roared a devil and angel flickered on either side.

The head looked like a combination of the three faces that appeared during the Apocalyptic Triad, but Richard knew that it was almost entirely different. Every face of the Triad represented a different domain of laws that he controlled, but this face only had the law of destruction. This was instead three different aspects of destruction.

He let out a strangled grunt in mid-air, body shaking as he closed his eyes in pain. When he opened his eyes again, his left eye had turned a dark gold.

The huge fireball crashed down onto the earth, a dark gold glow at its centre. It crashed into the middle of the barbarian formation and exploded like a water balloon, spreading waves of liquid flame that leeched all colour from everything they touched. The warriors still remained in position, expressions still life-like, but one that was in mid-jump crashed into an ally of his and cracks started appearing on their bodies. Moments later, both bodies shattered and crashed to the ground.

The blue waves continued to spread out on the edges, the rune knights running for their lives to avoid the flames chasing them. The broodmother finally managed to curl up as the waves struck her body, crashing across her before rushing to the other side of the battlefield. Her shell rapidly dissolved to the power of destruction, a faint scream ringing out as it warped and distorted.

Even with their powered halved by the obstacle of the broodmother, the flames still devoured hundreds of barbarian warriors and dozens of drones. Even two rune knights were swallowed by the waves of fire. The barbarians lost all colour and turned into grey statues, the winter soldiers and arrowbeasts managing to hold on for a few moments longer, but even the rune knights couldn’t withstand this power. Both of them were thankfully Savage Barrier knights and managed to use the set ability to survive, but after a few steps all of their equipment exploded and their exposed skin turned grey. They remained breathing, but they would never return to their peaks.

The battlefield suddenly went silent, both sides temporarily pausing their battle to look at the aftermath of the blue and gold fireball. Although the barbarian warriors were almost zombies and couldn’t think properly, they still had instincts that screamed about the unstoppable power of those flames.

2,000 barbarians were eliminated from the right side of the battlefield. Richard considered it a mercy to release them from their strange state of servitude, but even so he shivered at the hellish scene before him. The attack had been many times stronger than he had expected, something that he surmised must have come from that image. The blue fireball was originally inanimate, but the golden flames in its core had given it something akin to a soul.

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