Apocalypse Redux - Chapter 316: Round 2

A titanic spike of earth and ice rose from the ocean, but it was far deeper than what was visible, extending all the way to the bottom and two kilometers into the bedrock beneath that, with reinforcement [Skills] covering not only the entirety of the weapon, but all surrounding rock for several more kilometers.

All in all, the entirety effort of twenty cryo- and geokinetic S-Rankers, 3 S-Ranked [Engineers], and every combat engineer of the combined forces of humanity had gone into that singular construction.

The Leviathan fell backwards under the force of Sun’s impact, but not quite right on target, and on top of that, it was trying to contort to avoid the impact.

So Patrick fixed that. This spike thing had been planned for days and in the works for half an hour, during which he’d pre-cast multiple spells, preparing a truly legendary work of magic that could tie down even this [World Boss].

Several arcane circles wrapped around the monster’s neck and forced it into place, and two seconds later, it impacted the spike, which plunged into the hole Isaac had left earlier and broke the hole open further, to the point where it damn near came out of the bottom of its jaw.

All of Sun’s clones transformed into literal mountains, holding down the beast while the main body raised all three copies of Jingu Bang, the staves’ mass dialed up as far as they would go. And then, he brought them down on the bottom of the Leviathan’s head, driving it deeper into the spike, again and again.

This should have been the end of it. In a sane world, it would have been. The monster of the biblical apocalypse was pinned down like a butterfly in a display case, with the pin going through its brain. But it wasn’t.

The monster’s body trashed back and forth, splattering ships completely by accident. Some of them were capable of enduring glancing blows or accidentally getting dunked hundreds of meters underwater, but far from all of them.

For about twenty seconds, things were looking golden.

Every time Sun’s staves hit, bones crunched and the Leviathan screamed, and countless strikes landed in that time when it was easier to target.

Amy used this as a chance to launch her own trump cards, [Arcane Union] combining all spells in range, which were the strongest abilities anyone in range had.

The result of that would normally be a glowing sphere of power, sure, but this one glowed like the sun and expanded to the size of a car the instant it was no longer contained between her hands.

And then, it struck. The initial impact burned through one of the few scales left on the Leviathan’s neck, blew through the skin underneath, and detonated after piercing almost twenty meters into the flesh beneath.

That alone would have been an incredible feat, but that was when the second cooldown [Skill] in play triggered.

[Spellwoven Gestalt] split apart the spell bomb into its components, empowering some at the cost of others, and finally, detonated them in sequence to cause the maximum amount of carnage.

Water filled the hole in a flood, created from a spell that did its damage via immense pressure. Which was then frozen solid, brought down to a mere ten degrees Kelvin, expanding and thrusting razor-sharp spikes through the flesh beyond.

That alone would have been an effective attack, but the spell Gestalt was only halfway done.

A shockwave spell used pure kinetic force to punch those spikes deeper into the flesh, spikes that were still spreading cold through the surroundings.

Purple light flashed, transmuting the ice deeply embedded in the monster’s flesh into an acid of ungodly power, smoke flooding out of the hole the initial spell bomb had left. Flammable smoke.

Half a dozen overwhelmingly powerful fire spells detonated, the power of the explosion being further enhanced by the burnable matter, spraying blood and fleshy chunks across the ocean.

Sadly, it looked like that had been the final straw for the Leviathan.

Even with its mouth largely pinned shut, the monster breathed fire, partially choking on its own flames, but completely erasing the ice spike.

The monster tore itself free with a furious roar and tried to go after the battleship Amy had fired from.

But Sun Wukong had a very different tanking style than Isaac. He didn’t zip all over the place, drawing the snake after him, he just, well, tanked it, smacking staves at wherever seemed like it would be the most painful. Three of the four eyes had burst under the impact, but the last one had been destroyed one too many times to be taken out that easily.

And so began the second great phase of the battle.

The Leviathan’s flame was a variant of hellfire, thus had elements of both elemental and curse magic, and as a result, it triggered two of Sun’s immunities.

But he wasn’t going to stand right in its line of fire and was still ignoring half the damage the attack should normally cause. And being made of stone, the ability to ignore the water in the human body wasn’t coming into effect against him.

For the five minutes that Sun’s transformation lasted, they had a good shot at the monster. Hell, they likely had a better shot than they’d had with Isaac since the monster wasn’t moving around so much.

While that went on, Isaac looked at his notifications. He’d gotten multiple Evolutions, but didn’t want to get too distracted focussing on them, so he just got the highlights, the new effects.

[Divine Fire] had jumped up a whopping nine levels by deflecting a [World Boss’] attack, twice, and maxed out.

Divine Fire (legendary, Level max)

***

And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. The user gains the ability to exert power over all flames, manipulating all flames around themselves whether they’ve been generated by them, subsumed, or are completely independent.

The control cost for user-generated flames is entirely negated, and the creation cost is reduced by 25%.

For hostile flames, a mana cost will need to be paid. However, it is possible to erase enemy flames by forcing them to cannibalize their own mana after paying a small initial “deposit”.

So he’d still be able to block flame breath, but it would likely be expensive as fuck. And his flames had just become a hell of a lot cheaper.

However, in his mind, the

I Am The Sword (legendary, Level max)

***

And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, being able to be cast freely and with far fewer restrictions. For 2,000 points of mana, I Am The Sword may be cast even while it is on cooldown.

Cost: Major Stamina Drain, 1,000 banked mana/2,000 mana

He’d regenerate that much mana in less than five minutes, and be able to all but spam his power during this fight.

The fact that the cost increased whenever he didn’t use the [Skill] as a cooldown ability was weird, and implied some odd things about how the [System] functioned, but that just meant they still had stuff to investigate after this current affair was over.

[Fire Soul] had also grown, but its upgrade had only been a single line long.

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Fire Soul (legendary, Level XV)

***

In addition, you gain inspiration on how to creatively use your flames.

Cool, but minimally useful.

Sun’s transformation ran out mid-attack, and he was headbutted by the giant snake. It barely did any damage, but he did land in the ocean, where he’d likely be stuck for the foreseeable future.

“Could someone please fish Sun out of the water,” Isaac asked, using the channel that led to the support part of the group.

Sun Wukong was a member of a species that existed outside the normal groups of beings, its only member, a singular existence, one of the four spiritual primates. The Intelligent Stone Monkey.

And as a literal rock, he was unable to swim, far too dense to ever float even with the help of his transformations. Normally, his counter to being stuck at the bottom of a body of water was to either jump or, if he was too deep, climb, but the water was currently far too turbulent for either of those strategies to work.

“The water’s too messy to risk it.”

… And apparently, no one was willing to help.

What were friends/allies for?

Isaac shot from the sky, mana pool full, and unleashed [I Am The Sword], blasting through Leviathan’s neck, and continued his flight towards where Sun had been dunked.

He plunged into the ocean and shot down so quickly he was almost a kilometer deep in a matter of seconds.

The conflict was distant enough that [Continent Striker] worked, so he just used that to dump the Monkey King on the nearest intact island. Based on what he’d seen, Sun’s mood at being stuck at the bottom of the ocean made a wet cat look like a saint in comparison.

And then, he flew back onto the nearest carrier to wait until his mana topped back up, so he could go straight back to using [I Am The Sword].

As he was in the air, he saw a bright flash in the distance as another nuke went off. But this time, it hadn’t been launched at long range, instead having been teleported straight into the monster’s phase by Ardouin. Nations had been staggeringly willing to contribute to this fight, but something that had been starkly off-limit had been direct access to their nuclear arsenal … a stance that had lasted for only ten minutes once they’d seen the monster.

The next flash was blue, the Leviathan’s fire being unleashed in a thick stream that annihilated a battleship … and turned the island behind it to slag.

With an earth-shaking roar, the beast rose further out of the water and then stared down into the ocean for a long moment. What was it doing no- …

Another breath attack went straight down, seemingly aimed at the ocean floor, but this time, it wasn’t fire, not exactly. More like … a heat haze, maybe? Certainly, it was more akin to a heat ray, one that shared the flame’s inability to interact with water.

“It’s the Ring of Fire.”

Isaac wasn’t sure who’d spoken, the statement had been delivered in a strangled gasp, or what it was about, but it seemed to be serious.

Triggering [Blessing of Innovation] let him borrow a generic scientific terminology [Skill], that then let him zero in on a geological knowledge [Skill] which then further told him to grab one that specialized in volcanic activity.

And that last one … it gave him information he’d really rather not have learned.

The Ring of Fire was a ring of volcanoes all around the Pacific Ocean, a place where the Pacific Plate met others. And it lay right below where they were fighting.

“Retreat to the designated positions,” Gibbs ordered, pulling back everyone to various positions highlighted in the party.

The tactical retreat was closer to a complete rout, but due to the fact that the monster wasn’t going after them, it wasn’t that bad. Yet.

At the bottom of the ocean, rock liquefied and was kept liquid by the heat constantly being poured into it and piercing deeper, all the way down to magma. Admittedly, the magma was barely five kilometers below the surface, but burning that deeply was still an incredible feat.

And then, the magma began to flow, turning into lava. A brief moment after the heat hit the lava, it began to be transferred into the water, instantly vaporizing it into steam, creating a pocket that the lava then flowed into. Again and again, until after a mere two minutes, a new volcano breached the surface, spewing ash into the sky.

Oh, that was not good.

It would obviously have less of a negative effect upon the planes of today, but it would still, in time, make flying a little more tricky. Also, breathing that crap would eventually cause serious trouble.

Above the monster, the sky turned orange from all the portals that Ardouin was opening in rapid succession. The other end? A large portion of nuclear bases of the People’s Republic of China, countless missiles or even just warheads simply dropping through a moment later.

However bright the previous explosions had been, this took the cake.

Dr. Han might have used his [Tyrants Die] already, but Arthur still had a copy, which he now used.

By the time the light faded, the communications channel that led beyond the immediate military grouping had already exploded with complaints, though it was usually ignored. Isaac had just been curious about what was being said. It was largely just furious whining about the extensive use of nuclear weapons, but there was more constructive criticism as well.

The sea around there would glow soon enough, and if they threw around enough nukes, they might literally wind up unleashing so much energy that the Earth literally got warmer. Not to mention the titanic wave the detonation had unleashed.

But the radiation would have been the main issue, if it hadn’t been part of the plan from the start.

A lance of green fire burst from one of the Arizona’s gun barrels. A shell containing the fire of one of the radioactive phoenix varieties, which would ignite anything with a high degree of radioactivity. That matter would then decay as far as it physically could before reaching the point where science no longer labeled it as “radioactive”, and do so in a matter of seconds.

And what do you know, the vast majority of the radiation had been directed into the Leviathan by anyone with [Skills] that could even remotely help the situation.

Venomous green flames spread across the already badly burned skin of the monster, incinerating the outermost meter or three, visibly shrinking the thing.

While that had gone on, Isaac had made his way to the Flying Dutchman, from where they’d be trying yet another stunt. Davy Jones had never been allowed to carry any nukes on his ship, being an independent … a rule that had survived for only minutes after the pencil pushers had caught sight of the monster and crapped their collective pants.

But now that they had them, they’d try something.

The ship sailed straight at the monster, aiming straight down its throat, which was already beginning to glow with the light of another flame breath.

Isaac stood at the tip of the bowsprit, ready to counter, but the fact that the monster was looking pleased with itself was making him a little nervous. Perhaps it hadn’t forgotten that he was able to counter its flames earlier, it had just believed he wouldn’t be able to pull this off more than once.

In theory, it would have been right. In practice … well, [Skills] that had evolved through insane deeds tended to be able to make those deeds even easier to repeat.

The instant the plume of fire entered his range, which extended almost a kilometer from him, he took control of it and made it vanish, though his mana was continuously ticking down. Hot winds blasted across the Dutchman, hot enough to ignite a normal ship that had any wood components, but it wasn’t the devastating flame of a [World Boss].

Sure, that left the imps contained in the fire to deal with, but those weren’t exactly an issue, just like the previous times. They always fell to CWIS, planes, or soldiers.

The Dutchman did have guns, but they’d already been unleashing everything they had at the monster itself. Modern alchemical weaponry filled into cannonballs were most of what was used, but there were also ancient cannonballs fired from literal antiques, that were somehow more damaging, not less, the literal weight of history, the importance of the munitions being turned to raw destructive capacity by Jones’ [Skills].

They were literally burning up their past to safeguard their future. At least these things were just old balls of lead, not actual artifacts, but it was still an irreplaceable loss every time a cannon roared.

All around the ship, a cloud of blue fire washed past, the only thing keeping it intact being Isaac.

After thirty seconds, the flames cut off to reveal the maw of the Leviathan bearing down on them, ready to swallow them whole. Oh, this could not have been more perfect …

Davy Jones replaced Isaac on the bowsprit, drew his sword, and slashed the empty air to tear open space, both the wall of flesh that was the inside of the Leviathan’s throat and the ship itself getting yanked towards a point between them.

But the snake was too big to be drawn into [Davy Jones Locker], instead, a large chunk of the lining of its throat was torn free as the ship vanished into the vast expanse of sand, escaping the explosion of the hydrogen bomb they’d kicked overboard.

They exited the locker after waiting a couple of minutes, coming out to a scene of utter devastation.

The bottom of the Leviathan’s jaw was practically torn off, its mouth permanently hanging open in a grotesque sight that likely had the peanut gallery seriously regret being voyeurs.

Of course, the snake knew exactly who to blame for this and turned to chase the Dutchman while Isaac triggered [I Am The Sword] with his mana pool to blow another hole through the monster.

That was how things continued for the next two or so hours. He spent mana and cooldown [Skills] like water whenever he could, while the task of holding the snake back rotated between S-Rankers.

Arthur managed to combine one of [Mythical Action’s] sub-[Skills] with one borrowed from Yoo-jin to summon a massive frost sword, ram it through the hole that already existed in the monster’s head, pinning it briefly, but that was all he was able to do. Good damage, but lacking in the restraining department.

Two of the Greek S-Rankers were up after him, and utterly ruined the thing’s day.

Areti Tassa, the [Champion of Atlantis] summoned [Atlantian Bastion], dumping a spectral Atlantean building on the monster’s head. Well, sort of. The massive castle actually manifested around its head, and was sufficiently well anchored to the sea floor that it held the beast fast.

In the meanwhile, Lena Zeneli, manned the castle and tore into the Leviathan’s head. Her [Class] was named [Phalanx Pneuma], though in this context, the word meant “soul” rather than “breath”.

Countless spectral copies of her, armed with round shields and spears, tore into anything they could reach, hacking and slashing and utterly ruining the monster’s day even more.

Extraordinary power after extraordinary power was unleashed by anyone who thought themselves capable of holding the beast. Some … some were overestimating themselves.

But massive algae blooms appeared and turned toxic as the bleeding beast swam through them, immense kelp forests tied it down, volcanoes rose, by mankind’s hand, this time, runic circles flared to life … it usually did something, but it never lasted.