Free Web NovelChapter 201: Chapter 200 - Conviction
Point-of-View: Neo Cronje
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You’ve gotta be kidding me. I mean, seriously, what the actual hell did I do to deserve this?
The world has been flipped on its head recently. Every single person in the world now possesses Meta powers, and it hasn’t been pretty.
Thousands of accidents where people have had their powers go out of control have been reported all across the world, crime rates have sky rocketed to unprecedented levels, super powered brawls have left many injured...and that’s all aside from the Monster outbreaks and Deities running amok in response.
The number of Monsters have been whittled down to almost nothing in the last few days, the Deities have been working pretty efficiently in that regard. But the number of human casualties as a result of that have continued to pile up.
However, in the couple of days since Aurora defeated Vapora, the Aqua Dragon Deity, the rate of casualties dropped significantly. Most of the Deities have made an effort to ensure that their destruction is less widespread.
Still though, over two billion people have been killed. And while that number isn’t likely to increase too much since the Monsters are all but dealt with, that’s still an absolutely staggering number of dead people.
With no room to bury so many corpses, most of them have been burnt to ash, to prevent any epidemics from spreading out and making the situation even worse.
The number of awakened Deities is unknown, keeping track of such things is hardly a priority for most people when they’re more focused on doing everything they can just to stay alive at this point.
Sightings of the reclusive Demi-Human species have also been pretty frequent lately. Witches, Werewolves, Elves and Vampires, they’ve all been forced out into the open in order to defend themselves against the Monsters.
Today’s the 27th of September, and I was currently in my hometown of Johannesburg in South Africa. I’d been in a supermarket, buying some groceries plus some stuff requested by the Outliers, when a commotion rang out in the streets.
It was a group of Monsters, around thirty or so of them. They were all Common-Tier Monsters, easy enough for me to handle on my own, but before I could do so, a Deity showed up.
One of the Rival Elemental Deities, Cereberus the Hellhound, the Rival Pyro Deity. A towering, thirty meter tall three headed dog creature that could breathe fire.
And a very aggressive Deity, one of the few that hadn’t bothered to limit human casualties even after Vapora’s defeat. So far, the Deities had only appeared in areas where thousands of Monsters had shown up.
But now, since the vast majority of the Monsters in the living world are gone, the Deities are hunting down the stragglers, and because there are so few Monsters left, the more aggressive Deities like this one are more likely to end up causing more human deaths than Monster deaths at this point. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
So, yeah, the situation isn’t great. This current group of Monsters here had caused panic, people firing off haphazard Elemental attacks at them, managing to kill a few of the Monsters, but also inadvertently hurting each other in the process.
And then, panic had erupted into a frenzy as soon as Cereberus appeared. He’s been staking out Africa since awakening in Morocco, he’s dealt with Monsters in other parts of South Africa, but was appearing here in this area for the first time.
The Monsters have all scattered and spread out, so he’s blasting out flames all over the place, burning several people to ash as a result. I’ve managed to protect myself from the crossfire using my portals as defense, but I’m hesitant to fight this thing directly.
Because if it comes after me, my only choice will be to retreat immediately. Damn it...what do I do!? This situation is the worst, should I leave and return with some back up? No, it’ll be too late by then...
"H-hurry up, kill all the Monsters so that this creature will leave!" Cried a panicking woman, as she fired out an uncontrolled wind blast at a Goblin.
The Monster managed to leap out of the way, losing its left leg with a snarl of pain, right before the wind blast struck another civilian, tearing open his torso as he let out a choked gasp of pain and collapsed onto the ground, the woman letting out a scream and stumbling back in shock while trembling in horror.
Cereberus then noticed the Goblin and stomped over this way, the Monster desperately trying to scramble away in response.
But there were people in the way, some of them running away in alarm, but some frozen in fear. A woman with a young boy was running away, before she tripped over and fell down, pushing her son away just in time as Cereberus stepped on her, crushing her body flat as blood, guts and bone fragments burst out, splattering the kid who had a horrified look on his face.
"N-no...no, mommy, no! You...you evil monster, you killed my mommy!" He cried, firing out unstable lightning bolts at the Deity, harmlessly zapping its side as he yelled out in a fury.
"Hm? You dare attack me, human child?" Growled Cereberus’s right head menacingly.
"Pay it no mind, it was little more than flea bite," Scoffed the middle head.
"Oh, who cares? Come on, let’s just end this quickly so that we can take a nap, I’m sleepy," Yawned the left head, earning glares from the other two heads.
"That pathetic Dragon, Vapora...she was defeated by a human and implored the rest of us to pay mind to humans in our surroundings. No doubt that incident has inspired these insects to defy us Deities. I refuse to allow that," Responded the right head, as it raised its front foot over the boy, who continued to fire out lightning bolts in vain.
As he drove his foot down towards the kid, I swiftly opened a portal beneath him, dropping him into it before he could get flattened and opening a connected portal beside me, the boy falling onto the ground next to me with a slight thud.
"Go on, get out of here, kid," I remarked, as I stepped forward.
"Another one? Perhaps you’re right, this defiance of us is rather vexing," Growled the middle head, as they locked their gazes onto me.
"Please, leave. We can handle the Monsters ourselves from now on. Save your strength for when the denizens of Hell appear. Dealing with a few Monster stragglers, surely a being as powerful as yourself-...er, selves...-finds such a task to be beneath you?" I addressed them, doing my best to keep my wits about me.
They’re so intimidating, it’s freaking me out...well, the left head, not so much, but the other two are menacing as hell.
"Do not presume what is or is not beneath us. However, we can assure you of this...you are beneath us. And we shall crush you underfoot!" Snarled the middle head, before they charged towards me at an alarming speed.
I quickly dropped into a portal and emerged several meters up in the air, Cereberus immediately halted and glanced up, its noses twitching...tch, it’s locked onto my scent, huh?
"Everyone, get out of here, quickly!" I yelled out as loudly as I could...I’ll buy some time and then retreat myself.
There’s no way I can take this beast on myself. All three of its heads then fixed their gazes onto me and opened their jaws, charging up flames.
I opened a large portal as fast as I could, connected to the bottom of the ocean, blasting out a massive amount of highly pressurized water down at the Deity.
It quickly sprang up in response, leaping high up into the air and evading my attack, right as I let a portal swallow me up and emerged back down on the ground, before opening another large portal connected to the bottom of the ocean, aimed at Cereberus while he was still in mid-air, while also opening up a massive portal behind it as fast as I could.
If this works, I’ll blast it straight into the middle of the ocean! But, well, somehow I seriously doubt this’ll actually work. But if nothing else, I can at least keep it on its toes while I buy some time!
The air around its jaws began shimmering as it intensified the charged up flames and blasted out powerful waves of fire from all three jaws right as the pressurized ocean water closed in on it.
In the blink of an eye, a devastating steam explosion burst out, sending me flying back several meters at a breakneck speed, before I slammed onto a car and let out a gasp of pain, collapsing onto my knees with a dazed groan.
Crap...I gotta get out of here. But...I can’t focus enough to open a portal. My back’s in pretty bad shape, and on top of that, my head’s spinning, my ears are ringing, and my vision’s kinda blurry. I feel like I’m gonna puke my guts out...
"How fragile, such a meagre force has rendered you vulnerable. Still, that was a decent attack, for a human...but know your place, for it is beneath us," Remarked the right head menacingly, as they approached me.
Damn it...it’s no good. I...I can’t-...huh? My eyes then widened, as Magic Circles appeared all around the Deity, before chains with a purplish hue burst out from them and wrapped around his limbs, torso and neck, restraining him.
"My, my, what a mess this is. Is it too much to ask for things to be nice and quiet around here?" Came an exasperation sounding woman’s voice, as I heard footsteps approaching from behind my left.
"You’re...a Witch, aren’t you?" I grimaced, as I stood up with a twinge of pain erupting down my back.
"Hm? Oh, I know you, I’ve seen you on TV, you’re that Harmony representative guy or whatever, right?" She responded, as she stepped out in front of me.
She had closely-cropped hair that was dyed green, the roots a dark blonde, with several piercings across her ears, a stud in her left nostril and a lip ring.
She had dark green eyes, wore black lipstick and her eyes had heavy dark eyeliner around them. She was wearing a white tank top and black ripped jeans, along with open-toed dark brown boots.
"I appreciate the help," I replied gratefully.
"I just didn’t want my favorite store to get torn down," She shrugged, nodding at a nearby clothing store, before adding as some of the chains restraining Cereberus began to snap, "You know, with your mastery over that Portal technique, you should be a bad match up for a creature like this, it should be at a disadvantage against you. It seemed like you were fighting with zero expectation of winning, the hesitation in your attacks was obvious to see."
...how long was she watching for, anyway? But, I have to admit...she isn’t wrong. I didn’t even once consider that I could defeat this Deity. I still don’t, for that matter.
But maybe if I’d attacked with more conviction...who knows, I might have been able to pull it off. Oh, well, no point in wondering about hypotheticals. Because he’s almost freed himself from the chains...
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