Chapter 868 - Nevermore: Emperor vs. King (Patreon)

The power of every being’s soul varied widely. Levels were far from everything when it came to determining their fragility or susceptibility to manipulation, even if it was a factor. The Fallen King had encountered beings well into the 300s with incredibly malleable souls who fell to the slightest touch and crumbled before the slightest manipulation.

Those of the enlightened races had more powerful souls than the average beast. Unique Lifeforms were naturally in a league far beyond even these. Creatures with no true sapience had weak souls by default, though it was not necessarily a rule.

Making comparisons with anyone in the Fallen King’s party had little meaning, as all of theirs – save for perhaps Sylphie – were not ordinary. Ordinary in the way that they weren’t mutated in some way, either through a Bloodline or a Transcendent skill.

Variants of all races could appear with more powerful souls – even if they were not utter anomalies like his party - and the nature of their magic and affinities also played a huge role. Casters were naturally more resistant to soul magic, with the Willpower stat alone having a huge impact. All in all, there were many factors, but few set rules.

The only true rule was that the power of a soul was heavily related to how powerful the creature was… and if a creature happened to be both a powerful variant, had a Path that naturally resulted in a powerful soul, high level, and a further mutated soul… they would become an absolute nightmare if the goal was to cause any soul damage to them.

This was the exact type of opponent they faced with the Twinhead Emperor. Never before had the Fallen King seen such a powerful soul in another C-grade. Sure, Jake and the others had strong souls, but their real power lay in the quality of the Truesoul, not the pure quantity and overall power. This event boss was at a whole other level compared to them. It truly was as if they were fighting two souls in one body.

At the beginning of the fight, the oddly mutated soul of the Twinhead Emperor had been… off. It had been unstable as if it didn’t really fit fully together, and each segmented part of the soul was in conflict. However, now, everything seemed to have snapped into place, as the Twinhead Emperor had one of the most stable and powerful souls the Fallen King could ever imagine a non-Bloodline-having C-grade possessing…

Besides his own, of course.

While buying time for the hunter to unleash his attack, the job of the four others was to keep the boss busy, but the Fallen King didn’t plan on not also doing some damage of his own. Entering semi-close range, the Unique Lifeform summoned two hammers of golden energy as he slammed it into the boss. The shaman side of the ogre raised his now-glowing staff and blocked, as the warrior side swung his blade upwards, unleashing a dark wave of pure death energy to deter Sylphie.

This proved to be a mistake. While a torrent of wind-infused stone shards shot up from the ground toward the human swordsman, he didn’t even hesitate as he continued his charge. Right before he was struck, a powerful green barrier appeared around him, deflecting every single stone shard the man couldn’t dodge. The swordsman managed to get close as the ogre swung his blade down once more, aiming to crush the swordsman.

The boss swung down with force the Fallen King wouldn’t even dare to try and block, yet the swordsman merely met it with his own thin blade. If the Fallen King didn’t know this swordsman, he would have expected to see the small blade shatter and the man crushed, but instead, the large blade merely slid down the side of the small one as it struck the ground; the swordsman now having a clear opening as sliced his sword upwards.

Blood mixed with water flew into the air as the Twinhead Ogre had his arm cut halfway through, the swordsman not able to cut fully through it. Not because his blade wasn’t sharp enough, but because he had to retreat as a beam of condensed death energy shot out from the eyes of the warrior ogre, launching him backward, with Dina hurridly coming to his assistance.

Not wanting to be outdone, the Fallen King also got more serious. Swinging his golden hammers again, the shaman kept blocking, not getting distracted by his counterpart in the slightest. The Fallen King kept swinging, as every hit was easily blocked, the shaman even finding time to shoot lighting bolts toward Sylphie in between blocks.

That is, until the Fallen King suddenly mixed things up. A hammer flew for the shaman, and once more, he blocked. However, at the final moment before the hammerhead hit the staff, it unraveled into a net of chains that wrapped around the staff. Before the ogre had much time to react, the Fallen King made the side he was holding into a ball and shot it behind him with a massive wave of force.

The staff was yanked away, but the ogre kept a firm hold, which resulted in him getting lifted off his feet and forced to move for the very first time. With the staff disabled, Sylphie also finally found her opening as a green bullet flew down and flew by the outstretched arm holding the staff. Dozens of large, deep gashes were left across the left arm as the ogre groaned in pain, Sylphie turning in the air to do another fly-by.

Wanting to also attack again, the Fallen King prepared to strike, but suddenly stopped himself. And just in time, too.

A lighting bolt struck down right as the King was about to move, making the ground erupt and sending the Unique Lifeform floating backward while defending himself. Sylphie was more unfortunate, as a torrent of lightning went for her, forcing the bird to scatter her body to avoid taking too much damage.

On the other side of the ogre, the human swordsman had also been pushed back as he fought the large blade with the assistance of the dryad. There was a temporary lull in the battle as the Twinhead Emperor scoffed loudly.

“I do not know who any of you are or why you are here… but I do know that you made the worst and final mistake of your lives when you forced me into this state,” the two heads of the ogre said, speaking in perfect unison.

The many tattoos across his body began to glow as he took a new stance and raised the staff into the air. “I have seen enough… now perish.”

With those words, the ogre released a burst of magic as he slammed the staff into the ground before he disappeared. The Fallen King was taken by surprise as a warning came through the Golden Mark right as he felt the reappearance of their foe’s soul. “Behi-“

Already raising his hands to block, the Fallen King was barely in time as he was struck in the side, the claws on one of his hands cracking from the impact of the large blade clad in death. Sliding across the ground, tearing it up in the process, the Unique Lifeform turned to face the ogre, who had fully shifted his focus to slaying him. Right as they were about to clash again, a message came.

“Arrow incoming… arriving in five…”

The Fallen King blocked again as he was sent flying even further. By now, his boosting skill was already fully active as he was forced to face the full wrath of the boss alone. Magic and physical force both slammed into the Unique Lifeform as he was to fully fend for himself due to the magic the ogre had used just before he teleported.

The old swordsman found himself within a prison of stone, as the hawk far up in the air was surrounded by black clouds, impeding her movements. The dryad was trying to assist as best she could but was significantly limited as a tornado of deathly wind whirled toward her, forcing her back. For now, he would simply have to handle the Twinhead Emperor on his own.

“Four…”

Raising both his glowing golden hands, the Fallen King faced the ogre as best he could, as the large blade came down with incredible force with every strike. Using his own golden weapons, the Unique Lifeform refused to back down, clashing with the ogre, who was clearly also using some type of buffing skill to make him significantly faster.

The King had parts of his natural armor ripped apart as he simply couldn’t block the attacks of what was effectively two people. His bark-like armor was cracked and torn as strike after strike sent him retreating further and further away. He also landed his fair share of counterattacks, but the battle could only be described as one-sided.

“Three…”

His party was still struggling to assist him, as the Fallen King had one of his legs entirely burned off by a powerful torrent of flames. The Unique Lifeform did everything, but his soul attacks proved useless against the effectively two-souled creature.

Finally, as the Fallen King found himself slowed by a blast of cold air mixed with electricity, he was no longer able to fully block as the Twinhead Emperor stabbed the large blade of death forward in a vertical position. Simply unable to resist, the Unique Lifeform was impaled as the power of death spread throughout his body.

“Now die,” the two heads of the ogre said as the energy of death intensified even further.

“Two…”

The Fallen King felt the energy invade his body… as he scoffed.

Both claws began glowing with intense light as he struck forward, clasping his claws around each head of the two-headed ogre. Piercing into their skin, the Fallen King taunted the boss.

“Do you believe I fear your energy of death? That my soul is so weak as to crumble before such a pathetic concept?”

The Twinhead Emperor did not use words to respond as all four eyes began glowing with power. Instantly, both golden claws had holes burned through them as the Fallen King was struck by four beams straight at his mask.

“One…”

Despite the two sets of beams burning into his mask, the Fallen King was undeterred as he refused to let go. His claws were damaged, yet they kept piercing deeper and deeper into flesh as destructive soul-destroying force spread through each of them.

The ogre had already let go of his sword, which was piercing through the Fallen King, and didn’t even try to use magic as powerful impacts struck the already damaged body of the Unique Lifeform over and over again, the Twinhead Emperor having resorted to punches. Partly because hitting with his staff was difficult at such close range and because focusing on magic while having scorching golden force spreading through one’s brain made it difficult.

Golden pressure also began to bear down on them as the Fallen King made sure they weren’t moving a single step, even as his body was slowly getting torn further and further apart. The three others had just about broken out of their restraints by now and were making their way over… but not before something else finally arrived.

The Fallen King barely noticed the attack due to how fast it flew. At one moment, he felt the energy in the air above, and the next, it was there. The Twinhead Emperor was even less aware and only reacted right before he was struck. Instinctively, the Twinhead Ogre wanted to move the head that the arrow was coming for, but the Fallen King naturally wouldn’t allow such an action as he held it firmly in place with a vice grip.

Watching on, he saw the deathly attack strike as it penetrated through one of the skulls of the Twinhead Emperor before continuing its descent through the ogre’s body. However, right before it would exit out the other side, the entire arrow exploded within the body of the Twinhead Emperor.

This was his cue to let go as the Fallen King allowed himself to get blasted away. The destructive arcane energies washed over him, but he felt as if none of it wanted to even harm him. No, it sought only to destroy the ogre. Observing the sheer power in that one arrow as he was sent flying, the Fallen King could barely believe it belonged to a mid-tier C-grade.

After flying backward for a few hundred meters and landing, the Fallen King only now allowed the damage he had sustained to affect him. He barely managed to keep himself upright, not even bothering to try and keep his dignity by floating. He only had one leg to stand on, and looking at his arms, they hung limply down his sides; the energy he had channeled through them too much to handle.

“Are you alright?” the dryad quickly asked, as he felt her soothing presence begin to surround him as plants appeared around him.

“This vessel will need to be rebuilt entirely,” the Fallen King responded. It was truly a mess, inside and out. In many ways, he had been lucky the ogres had decided to strike his mask. Perhaps they knew destroying it would be the one way to ensure his destruction. Sadly for them, they were far from capable of doing such a thing. In fact, besides a few burn marks that could easily be washed off, not a single mark had been left on it. But, again, the same could not be said about the rest of his body. Alas, he had done his job for now and would adopt a more passive role… because he still had a role to play.

The strike unleashed by the hunter had been powerful beyond belief, but as he observed the flayed form of the Twinhead Emperor, he saw not only the vicious injuries inflicted upon him but also the soul. One part had been severely damaged…. however, the other remained stable, making it clear the fight was far from over.

--

Fuck he’s tough, Jake thought while flying down at top speed to rejoin the fight fully as his arrow struck true. He wasn’t just talking about the Twinhead Emperor, but the Fallen King, who had handled the boss for a good while alone. He had been worried for a little while, but the King had done damn well and allowed his arrow to land as well as it could.

The arrow had torn apart the left head of the ogre, Jake deliberately aiming for the shaman version of the ogre, as he was the one best at healing. Right before his arrow struck, Jake had slightly manipulated its movements to ensure he struck true, the King helping immensely by making sure the boss couldn’t as much as move an inch.

Below, the boss stood with one head nearly entirely destroyed, with a huge hole in his belly from the following arrow explosion. The damage was utterly immense, yet the ogre was far from down. To a C-grade, losing the head wasn’t necessarily fatal, but it did nearly always result in the person losing control of their body, making them easy pickings. This meant that to most, losing the head was still a death sentence… but things were a bit different if you had two.

Despite taking tremendous damage, the ogre didn’t leave a single opening for Sylphie and the Sword Saint, who tried to follow up. Stomping hard on the ground, the Twin Emperor made the ground erupt with blackened rock infused with death as he sought to protect himself by wrapping all the rock around him. At the same time, Jake detected odd movements of energy within the ogre, the Fallen King explaining what was going on a second later.

“One soul is healing the other, sharing the damage,” the Fallen King explained. “Strike now when we have the opening and force them into desperation.”

No one had to be told that twice. Jake began shooting arrows while flying down, as Sylphie, the Sword Saint, and Dina also all went on the offensive. The shell of stone surrounding the ogre was quickly torn through, forcing the boss to defend himself as he retreated from the onslaught.

The left head was rapidly regenerating, and before it was even fully healed, Jake felt the presence of the shaman begin to reappear as elemental magic was unleashed. Seeing the ogre still fit for a fight was a bit discouraging, but Jake knew they had done some serious damage… and things were only about to get even better as the Twin Emperor did something they had hoped would happen.

Retreating back to where the fight had begun, the Twin Emperor landed right in the center of where the ritual had taken place. Despite the ground being torn up several times over and every remnant of the circle itself visually, it was still there… and while the boss had absorbed much of the energy of the many bone spheres, some still remained. Not enough to raise the ogre’s power, but enough to help rejuvenate him.

“That got dangerous for a moment,” the Twin Emperor said as the mouth of the left head had regenerated, speaking even if the top half of the skull was still healing.

“Sadly, you missed your opening!”

Slamming his staff into the ground, the ogre reactivated the ritual one more time… Jake grinning as he did while sending a message to the Sword Saint.

“Our turn, go!”