Apocalypse Tamer - Chapter 136: Man vs Tribulation

Ash and dust covered the world.

Basil could hardly see anything in this storm. Embers slipped into his armor’s chinks, heating up the steel plates. Without Bugsy’s protective magic, he would have boiled inside his own equipment. The Neurotower’s shadow loomed over him like Mount Megiddo’s, great and terrible, while the earth shook beneath his feet.

“Basil!” He heard Plato calling out to him from somewhere in the dust storm, his best friend’s voice carried by the wind. “Basil, where are you?!”

“Here!” Basil shouted back, using his Moon Shield to protect himself from the ashen storm. His first instinct was to summon his allies to his side, but gathering them in one place with little to no visibility might leave them exposed. He was better off healing their wounds from a distance. “Monster Cure.”

[Monster Cure] negated by [Apocalypse Force].

His failure was answered with a challenge.

Mighty tremors shook the ground beneath Basil’s feet. The dragonknight readied his weapon as a colossal shadow lumbered into view, the dust swirling around its wings and mighty sword. The enemy towered over Basil like a castle on legs, his two voices a howl carried by the wind.

“I asked you a question once, to which I will now have an answer.” The Maleking raised his titanic sword to the booming tune of seven trumpets. His blade cut through the storm itself, its steel shrieking with the screams of damned souls. “Will you be nothing again, Basil?”

[Apocalypse Trumpets] buffed all of the Maleking’s stats, [hastened] him, and will negate enfeebling effects for seven minutes!

Basil answered with a roar. “Accelerated Flash of Prescience, Bless Weapon!”

[Flash of Prescience] increased your accuracy and evasion for five minutes! This stacks with your [Mirage] status! [Bless Weapon] increased your halberd’s stat bonus by 12!

The Maleking brought down his titanic sword in a thundering blow, but Basil moved like true lightning. The apocalyptic blade smote the ground with such force that even the Neurotower nearby appeared to waver for a second. Its bridge-long edge carved a canyon into the earth, from which flames and darkness erupted.

Though Basil managed to dodge by crossing half a hundred meters in a single leap, the shockwave blew a mighty gust of wind into his face. He attempted to close in on the Maleking to retaliate, only for the demon lord to swing his sword horizontally. The blade surged through the air like a tidal wave of steel and forced Basil to fly up so as not to be carried away by it.

It’s like I’m dueling Mount Everest! Basil cursed in his heart. Unable to close in to the Maleking due to the colossus’ immense range, he settled on instead throwing his halberd. At least he’s a big target!

His soulbound weapon nailed one of the demon’s wings. The divine halberd looked as small as a needle in comparison, but it left a wound nonetheless. Drops of thick black blood stained the earth below. The halberd’s power activated, allowing Basil’s Perks to affect the Maleking as if he were a dragon.

Supereffective hit! 4244 [Physical] damage! Additional [Soul] and [Earth] damage negated by the Maleking’s immunities!

Your supereffective hit triggered the Maleking’s [Mark of Cain]! His counterattack will hit you for sevenfold damage with perfect accuracy!

Basil’s eyes widened in shock. “Wh–”

A metallic tsunami carried him away.

The Maleking’s blade surged at Basil in the blink of an eye, too fast even for his hastened senses to register. The edge alone was larger than him. His feeble shield, raised in an instinctive attempt to cover his face, folded like paper. Such was the blow’s power that the resulting shockwave silenced the entire world. The dark power surrounding the sword swallowed Basil whole, drowning him utterly. He felt a bitter cold needle at his intangible flesh and soul alike.

[Physical] damage negated by [Intangibility]! 4924 [Soul] damage!

Had Basil kept his Soul weakness, that blow would have inflicted nearly five-digit damage.

Even weakened, it was still more than all his HP combined.

The blow shattered Basil’s shield, rent his armor open in half a dozen places, and turned his vision white. There was no pain—a squashed bug usually died instantly when crushed by a knife ten times bigger than them—nor suffering. Only the cold kiss of death.

Yet Basil did not die. He felt a holy warmth surge from within his heart and return his flesh to life. A golden light swallowed his vision and imbued him with newfound strength.

The [Holy Grail]’s effect resolved before [Duty Beyond Death] could activate! The [Holy Grail] revived you at full HP and SP before vanishing from your inventory! Your stats have been greatly buffed for three minutes! [Permanent Buff] renewed your buffs!

Warning: Your Moon Shield is [broken]! You’ll gain no benefit from it until it is repaired! Your armor is heavily damaged! Another blow will break it!

When Basil regained consciousness, he found himself flung him across the land. The Neurotower was shrinking from his sight, while a winged mountain charged after him.

“Interesting strategy.” The Maleking’s four legs carried him forward faster than the wind. Each of his steps left a crater in its wake. “My field prevents healing of any sort, but I suppose reviving oneself does not count. How unfortunate Belphegor is not here to see it.”

Basil adjusted his flight with double-jump and activated Monster Insight, trying to glean anything he could from the Maleking’s ability.

Maleking Malacoda, Beast of Revelation

Elite Level 96 [Demon/Beast]

Faction: Apocalypse Force

HP: 62356/66600.

Immune: All Ailments, Insta-Death, Fire, Earth, Soul, Darkness.

Resist: Physical, Corrosion, Metal, Water, Wind, Lightning.

Weak: Demonslayer, Beastslayer, Wood, Frost, Light.

The Apocalypse Force’s demonic overlord, whose immense power and limitless ambition had earned him the title of Beast of the Apocalypse. His Mark of Cain will punish supereffective hits, his field will weaken you over time, his Fruit of Knowledge lets him see your stats to strategize around, his Doomsday will kill you swiftly, and his other attacks are each worse than the last. Give your all or be pounded into the dust.

Basil’s surprise was only matched by his dread.

The Maleking had slain him in a single blow.

Any mistake meant death.

Basil cursed under his breath. His entire build revolved around targeting a foe’s weaknesses for massive damage. Here he faced an enemy who punished that strategy with lethal force. Even the Maleking’s strange vulnerability to critical hits—perhaps a necessary drawback of his other abilities—could hardly be exploited safely.

Basil recalled his halberd to his hand but kept his distance from the Maleking. No longer intangible, and with no way of protecting himself with it either, he tossed his broken shield onto the earth. His speed would be his only defense.

It didn’t prevent the Maleking from catching up to him.

A castle-sized monster had no right being so damn quick. His sword’s immense range only made it worse. Basil’s Flash of Prescience foresaw the Maleking’s next attack, showing him a titanic sword falling upon his head like a collapsing tower. The dragonknight soared across the air and watched the executioner’s axe miss him by a few meters. The Maleking rent the ground of Athens and bestowed a scar upon the earth. Two tides of stone and dust rose on both sides of the blade, swallowing burning trees and destroyed houses.

At this point, Basil discerned lights above his head flashing through the dust storm. Some of his teammates must have engaged Wyrde in battle. He would have gladly moved to help them, but the Maleking quickly recovered from his last blow and pursued him relentlessly.

“There is no escape.” The Maleking sneered at Basil’s attempts to evade him. “Stand up and fight.”

A mighty gust of wind came with his challenge. The dust storm and its ashes were wiped away, unveiling a devastated battlefield under a clear bloody sky. No more embers slithered into Basil’s armor. Instead sharp blades of wind left small gashes in his flesh.

The Maleking’s [Elemental Hell] changed his field’s passive damage to [Wind]! 180 [Wind] supereffective damage! [Wyrm Spirit] activated!

No escape indeed, Basil thought grimly. The Maleking’s field covered the entire world, its deadly power cursing the sky and earth alike. If he can’t kill me quickly, he’ll do it slowly.

The Maleking’s change in the field let Basil see the rest of the battlefield. Wyrde was fighting a high-pitched duel of lasers and spells with Vasi and Rosemarine. The latter carried Steve among her roots, with the robot blasting away at the Grandmaster’s drones with its Gehenna Cannon.

The rest of the team announced their presence with a bang.

The ground ruptured beneath the Maleking’s feet, raising sharp spikes of earth from below him. Each rose like waves of stone crashing upon a shore of flesh, only to shatter upon the giant’s skin. The Maleking briefly paused to look at the source of the attack.

“Boss!” Bugsy soared across the landscape, his wings leaving a trail of fire behind him. Shellgirl and Plato ran below him on foot. “We’re here!”

“Lapponian Winter!” Shellgirl clapped her hands and altered the weather. A chilling cold followed the Maleking’s wind, hastening the mimic until she became quicker than lightning.

Shellgirl changed the weather to [Lapponian Winter] for eight minutes! [Frost] and [Water] are empowered, [Fire] is weakened, and individuals with a strong [Frost] affinity will have their evasion increased!

Shellgirl, Plato, Vasi, and Grandmaster Wyrde gained increased evasion! Shellgirl activated [Ice Spinner]!

You took 180 [Wind] supereffective damage from the wind!

Bugsy looked like a normal centipede compared to the Maleking’s overwhelming size, and Plato seemed no larger than a kitten. From an outsider’s perspective, the prospect of the Bohens defeating such a terrible titan would be laughable.

They stood their ground anyway.

“No doubt your journey was a trying one, mighty warriors.” The Maleking raised his sword at the new challengers, his four knees bending like those of a tiger ready to pounce. “But what lies at the end of your path?”

“What lies at the end of yours?!” Basil shouted back as he formed an elemental orb of water. Since the Maleking resisted it, it shouldn’t trigger the Mark of Cain. “What do you hope to find atop a mountain of corpses?!”

“Strength’s crown and might’s throne.” The Maleking brought down his sword upon Basil’s allies, his cursed blade a roaring landslide. “To challenge myself, to devour the gods, to conquer all that there is. Such is my purpose.”

“And then what?” Plato shouted back as he and the others spread in all directions. “What will happen once you’re killed everyone who could possibly challenge you? What next?”

Their swift speed and coordination saved their lives. The Maleking’s blade rent the earth asunder, but smote only barren earth. His blow unleashed a hurricane in its wake that scattered the Bohens to the four winds. The pulsating cables of Dis buried beneath Athens’ crust lay exposed for all to see.

Bugsy steadied his flight’s course. His eyes burned with the fires of his determination. “Apollo’s curse!”

[Apocalypse Trumpets] negated Plato’s [Catnapping] and Bugsy’s [Apollo’s Curse]! You cannot weaken the Maleking before the time limit’s end!

“Don’t target his weaknesses!” Basil shouted a warning to his allies. Shellgirl and Plato landed on their feet and moved to flank the Maleking from two different sides. “His counterattacks will slay you! No Frost, no Light, no Wood!”

“What?” Bugsy cursed as he flew out of the Maleking’s range the best he could. “That’s cheating! I don’t have anything else, Boss!”

“I do!” Shellgirl opened her bag and sprayed the Maleking with a stream of pressurized water. Basil assisted her with his elemental orb, the two attacks splashing the demon lord’s fur at the same time.

They might as well have been droplets thrown at a hill. The liquid projectiles glided over the Maleking’s titanic body without inflicting any noticeable damage.

“Should mortals stop dreaming for fear of what will happen once they fulfill their ambitions? What kind of half-life is that?” The Maleking removed his sword from the ground and turned his baleful gaze upon Plato. “A dreamless existence is no more than living death!”

Instead of dodging as he did before, Plato froze in place and adjusted his stance. The Maleking’s blade fell upon him with the strength and speed of a lightning bolt. The size difference meant the feline would be squashed into a bloody smear.

Basil’s eyes caught Plato vanish out of sight a few seconds before the tide of steel could crush him. The Maleking’s blade hit the ground, its edge wreathed in screaming souls. Instead of tearing the ground asunder as they did earlier, this shroud of death exploded back into the Maleking’s surprised face.

Plato’s [Counterstance] let him dodge the [Physical] assault and counterattack! [Shieldtail] reflected the Maleking’s [Soul] power back at him!

The Maleking’s immunity to his own element let him shrug off his own deflected attack. However, he couldn’t say the same for Plato’s counterattack. The feline reappeared a few meters behind the titanic demon lord, whose two left heels had both ruptured open. The gashes were small, nearly imperceptible, but they were wounds nonetheless. The Maleking’s blood turned to ice long before it even hit the ground.

2805 [Physical] damage! 841 [Frost] damage!

The Maleking grunted in surprise, but no lightning-quick blade strike smote Plato in retaliation.

You took 108 [Wind] supereffective damage from the wind!

Counterattacks don’t trigger the Mark of Cain. Basil wondered if indirect damage would also function as a loophole. “Bugsy, use your Star Bomb!”

Bugsy looked at him in confusion. “But you said no Light damage, Boss!”

“Don’t target him directly!” Basil explained. “Aim for the ground beneath his feet! Turn it into a Star-Scorched Field!”

Bugsy followed the order to the letter and breathed light upon the desolate ground. The Apolloworm flew over Athens and bombarded it utterly. Each plasma bomb that he dropped upon it exploded into a scorching pit of bright light. Though each was barely larger than a puddle when compared to the Maleking, they soon formed a burning road carving across the land. A true sea of landbound stars.

Shellgirl and Plato alike danced around these dangerous patches, while the Maleking’s size forced him to step on them. His feet burned at the plasma’s contact, much to his annoyance.

“Even should I fulfill my desire, I will find another. There are always greater heights to aspire to.” The Maleking’s four eyes shone with a baleful black light. “Doomsday.”

Basil felt a sinister presence wash over him and his team alike. An invisible force tried to sink its fangs into his soul, but failed.

Charisma check successful!

Basil’s relief lasted until he noticed a fiery sign appearing over Shellgirl’s head. Black flames gathered in the shape of the number sixty-six.

The Maleking’s [Doomsday] cursed Shellgirl with the [Mark of the Beast]! Calamity will strike her at the countdown’s end!

You took 108 [Wind] supereffective damage from the wind!

Shellgirl grabbed an X-Dispel item from her bag and applied it to herself. To Basil’s horror, the number did not fade away. It fell to sixty-five, sixty-four, sixty-three!

[Mark of the Beast] cannot be removed so long as the Maleking lives!

With no other choice, Basil dived after Shellgirl. He had seen too many friends die already, and he would wager everything to save another.

“Shellgirl, invest in me!” he shouted before activating his trump card. “Time Acceleration!”

The very fabric of reality broke and bent to his will.

Your Agility stat will slowly increase until it doubles!

Basil already perceived the world as it slowed down thanks to hasten, but it now all but stopped to a crawl. The dust and earth carried by the wind appeared frozen in place. When he had been frighteningly quick before, the Maleking now appeared heavy and clumsy.

A pity his All For One Perk only affected buffs and status effects similar to Death’s Banner. Much like Lethal Vigil, Time Acceleration only affected Basil. It would have to be enough.

[Permanent Buff] renewed your buffs and status effects!

You took 180 [Wind] supereffective damage from the wind! You have lost a third of your HP!

Plato was forced to rely on Counterstance to inflict damage, since his Frost-empowered claws and fangs would immediately trigger the Mark of Cain otherwise. The Maleking appeared to figure out his fighting style, for he turned his attention to Basil next.

“I care not what I find at the mountain’s top, or if there is even a summit to reach.” The Maleking’s slowed words sounded stretched to Basil’s ears. “The climb alone is reason enough to live!”

The Maleking swung his sword, but the relentless tsunami of steel now became easily avoidable. Basil easily dove below the giant sword, but did not retaliate immediately. He instead flew closer to the ground, near Shellgirl. Her enhanced speed in the weather let her move nearly as fast as he did.

“Here I go!” Shellgirl, whose number had fallen below thirty seconds, blessed her Tamer. “Joyful Spirit!”

Your next hit will always be accurate if physically possible, [Charged] (x2 damage), and inflict a Critical Hit!

I can predict him, Basil thought as he ran around the Maleking. If I’m quick enough, I can avoid the fatal blow with Time Leap.

The Maleking’s swing and momentum had briefly left him open. Mustering all his courage, Basil closed the gap between the two of them with a roar. His halberd burst with divine power, its blade shrieking as it cut through the air.

The six lion heads covering the Maleking’s lower half gnarled and snarled in his direction. Their jaws opened to reveal gullets drowning in fire, each of them large enough to swallow him whole.

Basil struck them all in a single blow.

His hands carried not only his strength, but that of all the allies who had put their hopes in him, of the friends who had given their lives for him to reach this point. He put all his might, all of his grit, and all his resolve into this strike. Basil became a flying knife tearing through all that dared stand in his path.

His divine halberd sliced one head, then the other, and another. It sliced through skin and flesh and bone at the speed of time itself, never slowing down.

Critical hit! Supereffective hit! You inflicted 33103 [Physical] damage!

But eventually, it stopped.

Six colossal heads fell to the ground and a sea of black blood showered Basil from head to toe. However, his halberd remained embedded halfway into the Maleking’s gargantuan waist. He had hoped to slice the monster in half, to slay him in a single blow against all odds.

He had failed.

You have brought the Maleking below half-health! Your supereffective hit activated the [Mark of Cain]!

The Maleking still lived, and his sword of retribution fell upon Basil. An advancing great wall of steel appeared to his right, its mere momentum wiping a hurricane in its wake.

Flash of Prescience showed Basil a vision of his body splattered against this tsunami of metal. That was enough for him to activate Time Leap.

To his eyes, the world skipped an instant forward. The Maleking’s colossal sword was charging at him from the right one second and then continued its course to his left the next. However, its momentum carried so much power, so much might, that the air itself carried Basil away. Neither Double-Jump nor any of his abilities let him escape this hurricane’s pull.

A cataclysmic shockwave threw him halfway across Athens in the blink of an eye. His back hit through three broken houses in succession before one of Dis’ exposed cables stopped his flight. His armor’s chest plate ruptured under the impact’s strain, leaving the shirt underneath exposed. Basil’s immense vitality let him survive in one piece, though dizzied and unscathed.

245 [Physical] damage from the collision! 104 [Metal] damage!

Warning: Your armor is [broken]! You will gain no benefit from it until it is repaired!

The Maleking’s wrathful roar shook the land and sky. A black ocean poured from his wound, yet he stood proud on the horizon, a mountain challenging the heavens.

No time! Basil swiftly jumped back to his feet with a sour taste of blood in his mouth. His blood. No time!

Shellgirl appeared next to Basil in a flash. Her expression was grim, and the number above her grimmer still.

5, 4, 3…

No. Basil refused to believe his own eyes. No, no, no…

“I guess this is my last bet, Partner.” Shellgirl smiled sadly. “Joyful Spirit.”

2, 1…

Her spell blessed Basil right before her countdown hit zero.

6666 [Soul] damage!

Darkness consumed his friend before his very eyes.

A pyre of wicked, screaming purple ghosts erupted from the ground below Shellgirl’s feet. Dozens of spectral hands surged from her own shadow, snarling ectoplasmic jaws opening from the center of their palms.

Under normal circumstances, the gruesome scene would have seemed instantaneous to outsiders. Basil’s time acceleration allowed him to see every step of the ghastly process happen in sharp detail, yet too quickly for him to intervene.

The hands grabbed his friend from all directions, their teeth sinking into her flesh and clothes. They ravenously tore her apart limbs from limbs, peeled her slimy flesh like an onion, dragged every single piece into the shadow that birthed them. Clothes, wings, and bags alike were promptly torn to shreds or devoured in a hundred quick bites. Shellgirl made no sound as she was torn apart, nor did she seem to react. In contrast to Basil’s accelerated perception, the attack was so swift that her mind simply couldn’t register it.

When the souls dissipated as quickly as they appeared, nothing remained of Shellgirl; not even her final smile.

Nothing remained, but a single screen.

Shellgirl has left the Party.