Free Web NovelChapter 68: A Snow Ball’s Chance (9)
"Argh..."
Kaelen’s legs trembled as his eyes reflected the breathtakingly beautiful scenery of his cherry-pink flames blossoming, engulfing everything in sight.
He held his breath, patiently waiting for the status notification to chime, announcing Charymos’s death.
But... He knew deep down inside, that his attack was not enough to take down the Kraken Spawn.
[I had no other choice but to master up until the fourth claw since Charymos had only seen up until the third.]
[It was grueling... I literally had to deconstruct my muscles and bones over and over again... I was only able to master the fourth claw this quickly thanks to my regeneration abilities.]
[But I guess even that wasn’t enough...]
A scowl formed on his brows. You see, he had yearned for a poetic revenge, where he killed Charymos using a skill passed down to him by Julius.
But reality isn’t so kind as to conform to a fairytale.
"..."
Finally seeing Charymos standing idly in the dying inferno of pink flames, Kaelen readied his posture for another bout.
Sizzle... Sizzle...
The acidic slime oozing from Charymos’s every pore bubbled under the intense heat, blood dripping from his shoulder but he seemed unbothered.
The Kraken Spawn was eerily quiet, his anger stilled into something deeper, like a dead calm that swallowed anything foolish enough to approach.
He then slowly raised his right arm above his head:
■■■■■ Fifth-Circle Magic: Acid Rain.■■■■■
Rumble!!
At Charymos’s command, the skies above the opening to the First Floor were darkened and blanketed by malicious-looking clouds.
[Shit...]
Kaelen could only dread what was to come, for he knew that there was no escape.
"That’s it... I’ll just destroy everything and start anew."
Charymos’s voice was as calm as his demeanor, his arm lowering like a conductor’s baton, ushering the symphony of wails that was to come.
The skies cracked open, thunder struck and the first drop from Charymos’s spell fell on Kaelen’s forehead, trickling down his —
"Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!"
That single droplet dissolved the skin on Kaelen’s face, peeling him open like a zipper, revealing muscle, tissue and sinew.
[!!]
In a desperate panic, Kaelen spun his spear overhead with all the strength that his tiny arms could afford him.
Shaaa!
Then came the downpour, everything it touched dissolving like ice introduced to a pool of magma —rock, stone, steel, nothing was spared. Nothing except...
"You are only able to prolong this because of your weapon, Kaelen... That too is an extension of my mercy."
"But for how long? Are your hands able to regenerate faster than the acid can dissolve them?"
Charymos’s tone became even calmer as he lowered his gaze to the ground.
"What will you do about the acid that will inevitably flood at your feet?"
"Aaargh!!!!" ƒгeewebnovёl.com
Kaelen’s feet were almost instantly dissolved up to his ankles, but he did not falter, how could he? Knowing that the moment he falls he would be instantly turned to soup.
[Now then... Where is that insect?]
Charymos calmly glanced around.
[Did they really think I wouldn’t see through such an obvious ploy?]
[First the Pest weakens me, then Kaelen takes his place, allowing him to go drink potions and recover away from my sight... Then he attacks me just when I have lost my composure and am about to kill Kaelen, no?]
Charymos’s reptilian eyes, red with anger, scanned the surroundings, indifferent to Kaelen’s incessant wails.
[...Hm?]
His webbed feet picked up vibrations from the bubbling ground beneath him.
"Sigh... So unbearably predictable."
He muttered and calmly took three steps back.
Crack!!!
Megaloblatta tore through the ground, his claws missing Charymos’s face by a mere few inches.
Brrr —rrrap!!!
Megalo didn’t stop there and beat his wings, soaring high into the air until he reached the clouds above.
■■■■■ Alpheidae Detonare! ■■■■■
Megaloblatta’s fist punched a hole in the sky, scattering Charymos’s dark clouds, replacing it with a blanket of flames.
"You fool, you took all that time to recover your Mana and for what? Just so you could waste it on destroying a spell that barely even affects you?"
"To save Kaelen?"
Charymos muttered to himself and stole a glance at Kaelen who was still screaming in agony, doing his utmost best to regenerate his dissolved limbs.
[If he’s that desperate to keep Kaelen alive, then does that mean he wants to present him as his creation and take credit for him?]
[To think you have always been so ambitious, you pathetic insect.]
[!!]
A sudden spike in Mana from the skies above demanded Charymos’s absolute attention, contradicting his deductions.
[Why is he gathering so much Mana?! Did he not want to keep Kaelen safe?!]
Charymos squeezed his own Mana Veins in order to cast a spell of equal magnitude to the threat in the skies.
■■■ Summon Superior Intrusion: Carapax Blattae, Quadriga Aeternum! ■■■
[!!]
Charymos heard Kaelen cast a spell, and turning there, he saw a jet-black cocoon form from four exoskeletons layering upon one another.
[Sealing magic?!]
[So this was their plan all along?!]
Enraged, Charymos summoned all eight of his remaining tridents and they began levitating, spinning and whirring around him like the heads of a serpent.
Brrr — rrap!!
Megaloblatta beat his wings ferociously to increase the speed of his descent, and he moved so ferociously fast that the friction he caused by tearing through the air ignited his entire being in flames.
"This is the end, Lord Charymos!!!!"
■■■■■ Ignis Bombardier: Ultima Detonatio!■■■■■
Megaloblatta clasped his hands together, unleashing a powerful explosion that would put even a meteor to shame, raining down a gigantic ball made of an inferno of flames that can only be compared to the embers of hell.
"Rise, O Tyrants of the Deep...
Let the sky fall. I will return it to the ocean!!"
■■■■■ Thalassa Tyrannis: Ninefold Cataclysm of the Abyss!!■■■■■
As soon as Charymos cast that spell, the ground fractured, not outward, but inward, and a vast ocean suddenly appeared, collapsing the entire Basement Floor into a spiraling abyss.
Then, a colossal vortex formed; the maw of Charybdis —swallowing light, heat, and even the shockwaves of the oncoming hell flames.
From the edges of the vortex, the serpentine necks of Scylla emerged, each head snapping, tearing apart whatever spark or flame that managed to escape the pull of Charybdis’s maw. freewebnøvel.com
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!
The hell flames, refusing to be tamed, exploded once again, attempting to devour the vortex.
But beneath it all, the vortex and the giant ball of fire it resisted, something stirred...
...The Lernaean Hydra awakened, its coils unfurling through the deep, its many heads rising without end. Whatever survived Scylla and Charybdis was met by it, and there, it didn’t stop. It fed, split, multiplied, again, and again, until even the concept of destruction was devoured.
/
Everything returned to normal, and there was not a single drop of ocean water visible as proof of the Basement Floor being drowned by the deep, nor was there a single square meter of scorched earth as proof of the miniature sun that had descended.
"Gargh!!"
Charymos vomited blood. His nostrils and eyes trickling with even more blood, but proud as he is, he refused to collapse to his knees.
"To think you would push me this far..."
"... But even the sun drowns... When it falls too deep."
His lethargic eyes reflected the insectoid grotesquely torn to pieces on the ground —Limbs, intestines, antennae and exoskeleton sprawled all over.
"Wheeeze... I hate you... L-lord Charymos."
And yet, he still lived.
"I fucking hate you too."
Charymos wobbled over and raised one of his tridents to finally put an end Megaloblatta.
But...
Ta! Ta!
■■■ Tempering Arts: Fourth Claw —
"Enough of you."
Squelch!
"Gargh!!!"
Charymos skewered Kaelen in the abdomen, scattering his innards through his spine.
"Aaargh!!!"
Charymos sadistically raised Kaelen even higher, watching him suffer as he squirmed, desperately trying to stop himself from sliding down the shaft of the trident.
"Why... W-Why can’t you just die to this s-skill, damn it!"
The physical pain Kaelen felt was unimaginable, but nothing quite like the iron splinter in his heart.
[I’m so stupid...]
[...I know I probably could have ended this already, but I just...]
Kaelen wept.
"Guess what, Kaelen... I fucking hate you as well. I will enjoy the rewards I get from selling you off to Skadi."
"Ah, and Veylith? That girl you’re so fond of and have corrupted her? I’ll sell her off to Veladreth! Do you know what he plans to do with her? A concubine! He’ll turn her into a concubine and fill her belly the moment she bleeds on her first moon!"
Charymos spewed those poisonous words with a wide grin on his face.
"And I’ll be living like a king! So just do what you were fucking made for and stop fucking resisting!"
Charymos coughed out even more blood, but his internal injuries were the last of his concerns, not when his future was so bright.
[... I just wanted to avenge you with your own power, Julius... I’m so sorry...]
Kaelen continued weeping, and Charymos laughed out loud at the sight of it.
[I... I’ll avenge you with my own strength...]
Kaelen stretched out his hand and grasped at nothing... But...
[!!]
Charymos could feel a cold, tiny hand grasp the inside of his chest, and glancing up, he saw Kaelen holding a heart that flickered as though it were a holographic.
"W-what is that?"
Charymos felt fear... Fear that caused him to grow weak in the knees. Fear that paralyzed him.
"Just die. You mob NPC."
■■■ Phantom Grasp: Void Touch.■■■
Squelch!
Kaelen crushed the holographic heart and Charymos died instantly.
