Third Battle: Song Of The Forlorn, Broken And The Fooled (1)
From fighting an abnormal war, with fights having numbers that go against common sense and whose trajectory shouldn't have taken so fast; for a normal world that is, as this one was a magical and game world instead. To then finding themselves trapped, out of any sorts or retreat since the Guiding Voices were gone and forced to deepen their positioned into the Demon's so-called 'headquarters'.
None of that would have been possible to be taken, understood and processed by a completely experienced general of the Royal families, let alone players from New Earth that now nothing but of peaceful times at worst and of street fights and some accidental deaths once or twice in their entire lives at best from the worst.
Watching the rest of t heir allies suddenly 'break' away into what they couldn't even fucking tell what it was, since no systematical prompt was given out to anyone; at all. It caused tons of players to grow dispirited at once and even more so since the feeling pf being attached to them was the strongest, to the point of this one event being much more memorable and cherished by most more than the first event.
But now, to watch them all turn into a disgusting 'something' spiral of energy that for some reason, really looked damned and hideous and then for that thing to hit the totem that was the source of the NPCs' suffering and the players' emotional trip. To then, instantly and even more bizarrely see how it exploded out enormously and with abandon, its blasting radius quickly going over the tens of thousands of meters in a sole moment.
That was another heavy load on their heads, one that they wouldn't want to witness and that made many want to stop playing altogether, a person's mind has to be focused on having fun while playing a game they like, not to torture themselves, right?
Some directly allowed themselves to be instantly killed as they either stopped on the spot or charged right back at the incoming shadowy explosive energy, some of them had already died once, while some other were so damn good that they didn't died even once at all. But all of those parties who chose to 'give up' right away this dumb event were in for a full damned and cursed surprise.
Those that had already died once, found themselves trapped in a cage full of temporary pain, to which they felt each of their extremities, along with their necks, their whole fingers, same with toes and sexual organs such as breasts or whatever it was on their crotches. Each part of those felt electrified at once, but an instant later, it would turn into a type of 'corroding' sensations that would linger on their bodies before... being forced to log out entirely.
While, on the other hand, those that didn't even die once but chose to quit right away were even more shocked, even more awestruck... and much damn more terrified.
They at once, felt the same pain but took much longer to 'die' and then be forced to log out; in one way, it was nice since they wouldn't have to resurrect and do just the same to truly give up, but on the other hand... they felt at least more than 3 times the duration of what the former group of players that gave up suffered. The same level of pain, but for a longer period of time and in a much more incredibly scary manner.
The same was now happening to Raoundozia, he felt his pain different though, as though prickles on his back from the inside out that felt so real he could damn swear he would right away feint at the prospect of enduring this more than 1 second. But he then heard Delette's voice, and at once, his eyes shone strongly as his curled body in midair slowly had its limbs extended out.
Vwong! Vwong!
But that definitely wasn't going to be enough, and just as if in a slow motion with Delette's terrified face and Baston's confused one since only Delette was the one to experience what it was to be not only reached out by that explosion's blasting radius but to also be pulled back seemingly from itself!
And while Raoundozia had his noble aura and appearance give off more of a scary and brave presence instead, a pair of more than 2 meters long dual swords were sent his way before...
Pfruiyl! Pfruiyl!
One gladius sword penetrated and remained below his right pectoral, as if stuck and not going to either move back nor forth yet, while another one went straight ahead for his trapezius muscle and buried itself deep into it and did the same as the former gladius sword.
No one saw these coming, barely could even heard something before they suddenly appeared on Raoundozia's chest and shoulder and neck. But before any of them could have even their eyes widened completely while seeing this occur, Raoundozia's body began to move right after a couple of green numbers appeared above his head and as the same sound before went out once again; twice.
Vwong! Vwong!
+122,100, +122,100.
From his previous about to start depleting HP, Raoundozia had his entire body feel a rejuvenation incredibly and utterly powerful as he also then felt his body be 'levitated' amidst the intolerable pain of his left shoulder and neck and his torso. In the same manner and at once, everyone saw Raoundozia suddenly begin to move towards them while the pair of dual swords 'moved' as if with life themselves.
Thud.
Delette grasped and hugged tightly at the body that was sent towards her before she could even notice after a second of hesitation, and right away, she, as if understanding something, looked behind and tried to speak out in vulnerability. "Thank y-"
But Yun Beishang's words were sent at her, instantly shutting her up and waking up the rest of them to resume their insane running out of fear from their very own instincts, "Nay, it's not over yet, thank me later."
"!!" Without waiting for anything more, all players that even felt slightly slower before were now running at beyond their fullest speeds, they even felt no longer an exhaustion form using their full Movement Speed for some long ass minutes but instead felt very refreshed. As if even in-game, they could somehow eat away their sweet potential and make wonders as well, just like in dear old life, before dying that is.
Swish, whoosh! Step, step step-stomp stomp!!
"... ... ... ..."
It wasn't only until a long time that seemed like an eternity to those poor souls who were being seemingly chased and or targeted by the shadowy explosive energy nonstop, more than 15 minutes happened for sure. Demons? No longer visible anywhere near, Journeyers? All exhausted, mentally more than physically at the random-like and derisively erratic success of events.
Inhabitants? Long gone, there were no other left. Be it the traps or this new scenario, none of them were left alive by now, and there was even the disappearance of their corpses and equipment as the shadowy energy went past by before, leaving nothing to loot nor to at least grieve upon as if it was all a good but damned dream; ah.
"No, wait even more, it is really not over." Yun Beishang's voice was suddenly heard, as everyone rose or turned their heads and bodies to look at the idle Tongqiu, some in exasperation due to his absence and selfish as well as childish reasoning, some others in confusion but also expecting something from him; almost none were directly attracted by the meaning of his words.
Only Delette and the pained Raoundozia who could barely move himself were more or less and somewhat understanding, as unlike some other Journeyers, they looked at where Yun Beishang was staring at, which was the west of the battlefield while more and more players just kept on looking at their backs or surroundings to either search for the shadowy explosive energy in case it was still chasing them somehow or to sight any Heavenly grade BOSS Demon that was coming right to their side to 'finish the job' to their utter misfortune.
"!" Delette's and Raoundozia's eyes felt fully shaken, as their pupils constricted enormously when they saw an extra 10,000 powerful, mysterious and wise-looking Demons clothed with robes that were of a poorer quality than those generals or from the council of the Main Kingdom Vanguard, much to say that these Demons weren't as superficial nor fake as the latter.
Slowly, Baston, then Yin Xiong, Selina, Sylda, Kalen and so on; began to look in the same direction, only for their pupils to also slowly shrink.
As for what they were seeing, first of all, the remaining Journeyers were now downed to just a few tens of millions, for as that previous savage, incoherent and self-destructive explosion of 'disgusting' energy was too much for their little legs and with most their buffers dead. As such, there were barely any who could buff themselves, let alone others, their Movement Speed was but deplorable when compared to the insane speed of the shadowy explosive energy's speed of spreading out.
And in truth, what their eyes were taking in was the sight of all those 10,000 or so Demon shamans glowing with their austere robe still looking ordinary, but with an ordinary pale orange and black flamy aura emanating strongly from them.
From the whole lot of those Demons that were all the way to the utmost extremes of the west side of the humongous battlefield, one in particular stood out from the rest, it was the oldest Demon on their ranks and, as they looked grievously at wherever the shadowy energy passed by, contorted faces by pain but restrained at the same time were exposed to the Journeyers as they had a premonition.
The oldest Demon shaman had a 3 meters tall staff, but with most of those Demon shamans being of a maximum height of 2 meters, this oldest one was merely of 1.35 meters tall, with his age obviously showing as he even showed signs of deterioration. How old would does a Demon has to be to grow this weak and gain such a deteriorated body, considering their larger life expectancy according to lore?
Nevertheless, the grieving from the Demon's side was overtaken by something else, as if these deaths were more than expected, but that it was only the way that they left that made them truly grief upon them. As the oldest Demon shaman took 3 smallest steps forward and lifted his head to gaze at the faraway Journeyers, his voice magically transmitted all the way to where they stood at.
"TRAITORS!!!"
"!!?~" Instantly, Journeyers felt their ears buzzing as their hearts seemingly stopped for a fraction of a second, but painlessly. However, before any sort of countermeasure could be done by the Journeyers that were more than afflicted and mentally fatigued, prompts from the system almost drove them crazy at once while Yun Beishang himself had his left eyebrow be lifted in contemplation.
*PING*...Local System Announcement: Attention to all battling Journeyers!! The Demon Race has used the young and old, strong and weak lives of several thousands Demons to summon and create a flame so powerful it could rend even a Mythical grade BOSS useless against it; namely, the Inextinguishable Devilish Flame! All Journeyers are advised to take shelter and avoid all possible contact with this overbearingly mighty flame, possible real mental damage and trauma may surface due to being in contact or reached by this flame.
"The... the system, oh shit, it's been so long since I've heard it 'speak'..."
"Yeah, ever since the start of the Warmonger expansion and the... heavy interaction with the Guiding Voices, I..."
"What are you saying? They are our helpers, obviously, the system just doesn't need to pop out every time tha-"
"Shut up, enough." Raoundozia's voice was suddenly heard among some rambling of the crowd, turning everyone silent and very damn respectful, even they couldn't help but feel utterly astounded at someone daring to touch a thing that made more than an entire billion of Journeyers afraid for their lives for real just now.
"Look," said Raoundozia as he signaled with his nose and chin towards the faraway Demons, the previous scream from before seemingly not doing much to the lot of Journeyers.
Sss...phowmp!
Phowmp! Phowmp! Phowmp! Phowmp! Phowmp! Phowmp! Phowmp! Phowmp! Phowmp! Phowmp! Phowmp! Phowmp! SSSSSS~!!
Suddenly, they saw the each and every single one of the Demon shamans turn into literal clusters of fire with black and pale ordinary orange, black being the dominant color as only its perimeter had the pale and ordinary orange instead. Soon, all thousands of 'sacrificed' Demon shamans turned into a huge image made of flames from the same colors with the black flame colors being once again the dominant one.
"Hah, what is that...?"
"Should w...should we run again?" One of the players asked with clear desperation and in exasperation, clearly not wanting to go through something just like before once more and right after the previous one at that.
But, it was at that moment, that as the 'few' Journeyers all around all began to turn increasingly joyous over a matter that was finally happening and that they seemingly almost completely forgot about!
"Hahaha, it's the Guiding Voices, I knew it, I knew it!"
"They're here back again, they've come to rescue us, hahahaha!"
Yun Beishang's ears prickled way before the Guiding Voices began speaking once again at the Journeyers a bit far away from his current position, but not only that, as he was also able to hear some of their conversation. Right away, he noticed that their pretense was truly over, with some lot of their tones being simply annoyed, irritated and having gone back to their rude, commanding and cold tone that it once was long, long ago.
"Keep it, quiet!! Journeyer, we were all fooled, this place is in fact not the one where the Demon Race's headquarters resided, but only one where it used to be their base of operations, or at least just one of them. But all of that changed the moment you Journeyers began to come into this world, with time, they manged to move all their men and women to this place, successfully driving away our attention from their real headquarters."
"Hmph! But what a puny, unnecessary move. For not only us, your Guiding Voices, were capable of finding their true headquarters, we even managed to spurge out the most of the recently acquired power to construct a portal that'll direct you all straight towards it, right in the middle of it all."
"Haaha, those foolish Demons, thinking that they could hide forever even as they were so close to this place, hahaha. Now, what are you waiting for? Even if you want to die, die while killing more Demons instead! Die killing Demon, die killing Demons, just die killing Demons you lot of trash!"
"..." Yun Beishang's face turned helpless when taking in such information from the 'ears' of the other players, he gazed high up at the sky as he even seemingly looked as if he was saying 'I see, it can't be helped then'. And as his face grew worried furthermore as he heard the words 'Wish Forging' headquarters, which was indeed the true base of the Demon Race's actual last hope, the rest turned excited, revengeful, bloodthirsty and glad instead.
"We knew it, we all knew it! How could we have forgotten our Guiding Voices?! They've always been there for us."
"Forget it, this matter really made them and us, furious. We were tricked and had our people reduced to this extent, intolerable!"
"Brothers, sisters; as the last fellow Main Kingdom Vanguard alive, we must all take this task and exterminate the rest of the Demon Race. Seeing how there were so many strong Demons around here, the remaining warriors on their sides must be much weaker. Let us go and destroy them all!"
"Yeah, let's!"
"Let's go!"
"!!!!!!" Suddenly, the Inextinguishable Devilish Flame hovering in midair began to tremble incessantly, the entire black flames began to make a gigantic, stern and crying but also laughing face with the pale ordinary orange flames as it visibly contorted in unknown pain as if it was fucking still alive!
PHOO-SWISHSWISHSWISHSWISHSWISHSWISH~~!!
Right after and at once, the face made by the entire summoned Inextinguishable Devilish Flame began to destroy itself as several different trails of flames spread out through everywhere. First touching and hence setting ablaze the entire western wooden walls at once without there being a single second in retardation, as but all of the entire western walls were truly set ablaze fully at the same time!
Following that though, more and more clusters of the Inextinguishable Devilish Flame began to head out towards any other angle of the rest of the walls, successfully setting them and most of the entire walls ablaze in but a mere few set of seconds.
"Damn, hurry up everyone, let's get out of here!"
"These motherfuckers all wanted to delay us, we must not take more time, Guiding Voices, pleeaase!! Let us prove our worth to you, we will never fail you!!"
"We implore you, oh mighty Guiding Voices, please let us fight for you once more!!!"
Yun Beishang then heard a series of crackling laughter, some restrained, some from the nostrils; as they all uttered out several 'good, good, good' and could also even imagine them having a wide grind from ear to ear on their faces. Disgusted, Yun Beishang parted his eyes and looked at the western walls without thinking about anything.
Boom-waaaaaaaaaaang~.
Suddenly, without any warning nor intervention of what was happening below, a large and pale light blue oval shaped portal appeared above the Journeyers, to which it encompassed from where Yun Beishang was seated down at to the Journeyers farthest away from him, much more bigger than the portals used before to transport them from their base of operations to the battlefields.
"Move!"
"Move, move, move!!!"
"Let's go, I can't fucking wait to get out of here and get rid of all those Demons!!!"
Several different phrases went out one after the other, not knowing what was laying in waiting for them on the other side. Baston looked at Yun Beishang while the latter looked still at nobody, and completely without a warning, the portal directly smashed down towards the Journeyers just as the items on the floor were about to blaze up in the same manner that the walls of this entire 'place' and with the same colorful flame were about to reach the area were Journeyers were mostly at.
Yun Beishang felt this was going to happen so he didn't even bother to move nor to voice out some superfluous words, instead, he extended his left hand out and then retracted it back. A black and pale ordinary orange flame danced all around his palm joyously, but filled with endless regret, boundless pain and inexplicable torment.
FWAMP!
The pale light blue portal genuinely just 'slammed' itself down onto all Journeyers, definitely not giving any a chance to take their words back...
...
Let It Rain's Note: *does breathing exercises, crackles knuckles* Okay, here I go.
