Apocalypse Redux - Chapter 314: Devil Snake

For an entire week, [Final Defiance] had been pulsing away in the back of his mind, to the point where he’d feared it was having a deleterious effect on his sanity, and as it turned out, it partially did.

But it was simply not a supernatural effect altering his mood, just stress. Stress over the situation that wasn’t being helped by a constant reminder of how bad things were.

The [Skill] had been a pain until just a few hours ago, when it had calmed down and synchronized with his heartbeat, spreading gentle warmth throughout his body.

It seemed he wasn’t the only one eager to finish this.

As long and difficult as the road here had been, they’d reached this point.

Of the forty-four aircraft carriers currently in existence, thirty-seven were here, the remaining seven being pre-[System] relicts that had no place in this fight. Their air wings were here, though, based on any ground-bases that had space for them

Of the seventeen battleships that had been built since design ideologies had shifted, the only one missing was the Portland, which had had a nasty reactor accident three weeks ago and was currently stuck in the dry dock.

There were more small vessels here than Isaac could count, from Germany’s flotilla of frigates to Singapore’s entire fleet of torpedo boats.

The ratio for S-Rankers was quite a bit crappier, with only three hundred and fifty of the five-hundred official ones, and presumed seven-hundred-and-fifty having shown up, but S-Rankers were an individualistic lot, some didn’t want to take part in a military operation, others wanted to stand out in a way that wasn’t possible in such a big group, and then, of course, you had the people who were so used to punching miles above their own weight class that they felt the monster was only a threat to the “normies”.

Plus, you know, some S-Rankers were bound to their regions in some manner or had fabrication [Classes] that had helped during preparation but would be supporting the war effort without being physically present.

Lieutenant General Gibbs was in charge overall, mostly because he’d worked out fine during the last big international operation, the one that had practically wiped out the cult. He was fairly capable, inoffensive in a way that ensured no one hated him on general principle, and listened to experts.

He didn’t have the highest Level, sure, but those people tended to have issues.

Cough, Ardouin, cough.

But there were a lot of people here with weird or unexpected origins. A warlord based in the Congo basin had offered to bring his full force to bear, as long as someone was willing to guarantee that people left his holdings alone for the duration.

The next morning, he’d received a very nicely worded acceptance letter, and all his rivals had found a whole lot of decapitated rats in every place of “safety” imaginable, along with notes detailing just what would happen if they picked a fight while their opponent was off saving the world.

As tough as this fight was going to be, Isaac had to wonder if Jason’s and Zambon’s task wasn’t a million times harder. It was their job to stabilize the world, stomping any idiot who tried to make a profit.

However, all of that shit had been dealt with as far as he was concerned, there was nothing else to be done here.

The last week had been utterly insane. The half-hour it had taken to save his family had been his longest break all week, his and Elena’s “stuff that should be said” talk had lasted a mere five minutes and ended with a simple kiss, neither of them had had the time for anything else.

At least they seemed to be on the same wavelength about their relationship. “Let’s go all the way, just not when the world is about to end” summed it up pretty nicely.

No break until now.

Isaac was pretty sure that everyone who would be here was here, that now was the optimal time to do this, and activated his incredibly powerful boosting [Skill].

[Call of the Gjallarhorn] was an interesting [Skill], but also one he’d never used before, making him practically jump when a massive horn appeared in his hand, made of something akin to ivory, inlaid with gold and silver.

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Well, the name did have “horn” in it, didn’t it?

“About to use the boosting [Skill],” Isaac warned throughout the party, waited five seconds, and blew the horn.

The “thrum” that the horn produced sent the water below him dancing, vibrated his chest, and echoed across the ocean. Even with the warning, he’d still startled a whole lot of people, with individuals slipping, tripping, letting go of ladders in surprise, and more like it. And that was just the stuff that happened where he could see.

Now everyone else had a new task to do, namely, take advantage of the boost.

Not him, though, he could just rest here, try to calm down … until the world-ending threat appeared.

It was just him, sitting on the bowsprit of the Flying Dutchman, legs dangling above the black water below, awaiting a cataclysm.

The battleships, and most destroyers and frigates surrounded the island of Bacan at a distance of 50 kilometers, far enough away to hopefully endure the initial attack.

The carriers were further back, almost a hundred kilometers, to ensure they weren’t swiftly smashed.

The Dutchman was, of course, in the front row as well, ready to dish out devastating damage with its belly full of nasty ordinance.

On the aft deck, Jones paced, unable to sit still.

Isaac, meanwhile, just sat down, trying to meditate, waiting for shit to go down.

[Book with Seven Seals] had updated the prophecy to include that the monster was “tough beyond measure” in some way, but despite that, it would “die if slain but a single time”.

Only needing to kill it once was a relief, but between that warning and the fact that Isaac already knew a [World Boss’] durability would be a massive step up from what a [Raid Boss] had, he dreaded what unearthly power would be required to hurt that thing.

He pulled an old-fashioned pocket watch from the breast pocket of his polo shirt. It had been a gift from his father during the evacuation. An old, outdated, watch that had nonetheless been kept around and intact since it had once belonged to his great-grandfather.

Two minutes to go. That estimate would likely be not one hundred percent accurate, but it was a clear indication that it was time to get ready.

His jeans and polo shirt vanished, instantly replaced by his draconic armor.

And then, he went right back to waiting, absentmindedly pawing through the party menu. Gibbs’ [Skill] was insanely encompassing, granting all sorts of options, including direct satellite feds and separate channels for “expert advisors”, of which Isaac was one.

He could now … Isaac froze as a [System] message filled the entirety of his vision.

Humanity beware, a World Boss has been summoned! Bear witness to his name and tremble:

Leviathan, Primordial Sea Beast, Demon Prince of Envy, The Living Hellgate

This is a monster meant to be an opponent for your entire species, and in your own words, “hang together or hang separately”.

Good luck!

Current location: Former Island Bacan (Southeast of Papua-Newginea)

Well, had to happen sometimes, didn’t it?

Hol’ up, former island?

Isaac’s eyes bulged as he saw the monster erupt from the island in the distance, a draconic head rising towards the heavens, perched up on a long, serpentine, neck.

The island was over the horizon, but the monster had raised itself high enough to be more than visible.

The Leviathan was just as long as Isaac had predicted, the coil of scaled flesh that had erupted from the summoning circle having been enough to sweep away the entire island, but it was comparatively thin, a mere two hundred meters across.

That was still enough to stare into the window of a skyscraper while its chin still rested on the ground, but compared to its length, that was nothing.

In fact, the satellite image made it look like an angry shoelace, but it was an angry shoelace that could be seen from space. This was no laughing matter.

Normal snakes like the King Cobra or Black Mamba could rear up to a third of their body, which meant that if that thing was capable of anything even remotely like it, that thing’s jaws could reach up to a hundred and fifty kilometers into the sky.

It was big on a scale that Isaac could barely conceive, but then again, that just meant there was more to attack.

The head was the primary target, obviously, with its four eyes being the biggest targets of them all. It didn’t look like a snake, more like a dragon, with its height being greater than its width.

Behind it, the neck barely narrowed, the two hundred meter diameter that continued down the entirety of its body.

Every inch of its body was covered in heavy, metallic-looking, scales, whose color was something between azure and black, deeply reminiscent of the ocean, somehow.

It held there for a moment, staring down at the ships even as they opened fire, unleashing an absolute storm of steel and fury.

The snake seemed to grin before it lunged forward, fire beginning to glow at the back of its throat.

Isaac grinned back. His heart felt like it had caught fire, flooding energy through his body.

Challenger of the Apocalypse, the worst has come to pass!

A monster of the end times has appeared, and if it is not stopped, your world will end.

As such, your last resort Skill, Final Defiance, has triggered!

Available mana: 5,154,639/1.000.000.000

Bring it, asshole!