Chapter 176: Loyalty in Despair (1/2)
After receiving Zomatsu's advice to learn some illusion magic that would complement his swordsmanship and fighting style. Albert considered doing just that but had failed to find any suitable mid-tier spells that could help him in a fight and had thought learning low-level illusion spells would be a waste of his limited spell count and would end up being useless to him. He had then decided to focus on improving his secret techniques as well as his stamina instead.
However, his mindset had changed when he suddenly remembered one of his first Secret Technique, the Mirage steps. It was a technique that allowed him to create an afterimage of himself and imbued his presence and aura into that image, temporarily giving it back to his own will for a few seconds while his real body is hidden by a mirage so it could launch a surprise and critical attack.
Of course, the mirage was comparable to a low-grade skill effect and was easy to spot once one knew what they were looking for. Thus, this technique wasn't effective on opponents of high standards and due to that, he had almost forgotten about it. However, he was inspired by what lord Ty had done in the practice fight against Rain in the practice hall where he had used a low Tier illusion spell and succeeded in fooling all of them just by distorting the space around them a little.
While he could not use spatial distortion, he should be able to achieve the same results with a simple Tier 2 illusion spell. The mirage effect of his technique was the only weakness and made the technique almost useless to him at this point. However, if he could reinforce the mirage with an illusion even if that was only a low-level illusion spell, he would be able to fool almost anyone as the technique already erased his presence and created a distraction with his after image.
Up to this point, he had not yet tested his theory on an opponent so he was a little hesitant in using the technique in such a high-speed battle. However, he knew quite well that he would have to take the risk if he wanted to end this fight as quickly as possible before the others generals of Greed would decide to join in, or even worse, if Mammon moved himself.
Still, the technique carried a lot more risk than just failing to fool his opponent because if his first strike after using the technique was blocked or deflected, he would be leaving himself wide open for a counter.
He also couldn't use the technique on an opponent twice and needed to time it right which was not an easy task. Lucky for him, he was able to use the technique the moment his first attack on Nessi had failed.
He then had to move quickly into her blindsport as well as find a way to one-shot an opponent of her level. That brings us to his next technique, the Nine Abyssal plunge. Basically, a piercing attack that gathers abyssal every around his weapon and strikes at nine vitals of his opponent in a single strike while bypassing all their defenses.
Such a technique could not be blocked, only dodged and Albert had made sure she wouldn't be able to do that. He pulled out his sword from the dead demoness and her body dropped limply to the ground.
Their battle had only lasted a few minutes and the only ones paying attention to him were the four generals of Greed and Mammon himself. A look of shock was plastered across all their faces as they surely hadn't expected Albert to win so easily.
Albert needed to take advantage of this momentum and take down another general as the 51 goons that attacked his group was steadily being taken care of by his men under Zomatsu's lead. He had understood Albert's intentions and didn't try to overwhelm the lesser opponent, trying his best to delay their fight and put up a show for Mammon until Albert was done.
However —
While everything had gone to plan, the worst was yet to come as the atmosphere around the castle suddenly changed. The air got thicker and stifling as the battlefield immediately grounded to a halt. None of the less than 40 goons could move and even most of Albert's men had frozen in fear.
Albert hesitated as an absurdly powerful aura the like of which he had only felt ones exploded from the Behemoth of Greed, Mammon. A pressure that only those that were no longer in the mortal plane could withstand engulfed the area. He found himself unable to even move a muscle as Mammon took a step forward.
”I was hoping I wouldn't have to destroy part of my new castle after making it this far. And yet, for a mere mortal to dare stand against me. For trash like you to get in the way of my birthright, YOU'RE ALL DEAD!”
Countless orbs of light suddenly appeared around him as his four generals quickly took steps back. The orbs suddenly expanded and shot out like cannons in all directions with great speed.
•Thousand Shooting Stars•
The orbs fired indiscriminately and would kill everything in front of Mammon, including the remaining goons. Albert panicked but was still paralyzed by Mammon's aura that transcended the mortal plane. 'Damn it, I have to, no, I need to do something. I can't just let it end here.'
He was desperately trying to resist the aura even though he knew that there wasn't much he could do to stop such a wide-ranged attack. However, someone else had stepped up to the fray as Zomatsu bit his lips and took a risk he had never done before. He wasn't the type to act rashly but for some reason, his legs had moved before he could even think of stopping it.
His gauntlet was a Celestial Grade Magic Artifact and had an effect that protected him against negative status effect even from opponents far stronger than him. He quickly activated a skill:
•Ten Fold Crystal Dome•
The range of the skill wasn't large and at most, it had only protected half of his forces but this was all he could do with his limited strength. A few of the ogres and beastmen that hadn't been protected by the barrier ran behind the Frost Giants as their last hope and the Behirs Lightning Zone protected some more. However, about a third of their force was left unprecedented as the giant orbs of light slammed into the ground and exploded in a limited but powerful burst of energy that turned anything caught within it to dust.
Albert was also out of range from Zomatsu and the Behirs but had successfully activated his defensive multilayer barrier skill. It was only a two-layer barrier but had managed to keep him alive even though he had taken some damage.
Panicked by Mammon's attack, the rangers on the towers hastily fired their arrows and spells at him. However, their attacks hadn't even reached him as they all stopped a few inches around him— arrows and spells alike — and immediately shot back at them with twice their original power.
That was the effect of Mammon's skill, •Reverser• as rangers attacks from opponents that were far weaker than him would be sent back at them with twice the Atta my original strength.
Those that were fast enough to react managed to duck and avoid the attacks while the others died instantly by their own attacks. Mammon saw the crystals dome that had managed to stop his attack and furrowed his brows. Reddish black flames suddenly appeared in his hand as it shot out at the dome-like a bullet.
Upon impact, the flame exploded in a massive dome that encompassed the barrier as it burned with an insanely high temperature, burning at around 5,000° C. The high temperature burned all the oxygen around and killed off most of the ogress and beastmen that managed to survive along with the 13 Lesser Frost Giants, although the Behirs had managed to survive.
As the flames disappeared, Mammon frowned. The dome had shattered but several layers of them had been made underneath it to keep them safe. He was just about to use several more skills when the two Behirs by the side had opened their maws wide and a massive beam of lightning had shot out of them at him.
•Lightning Breath•
Mammon narrowed his eyes in annoyance as he was about to counter when someone from behind him suddenly yelled and dashed past him as he activated a skill.
”You insolent worms! Learn your place!”
Badgil, one of the male demons amongst the four yelled in rage as he dashed past Mammon and spun his long heavy magic spear-like weapon around before swinging it several times and activating a skill alongside a secret Technique.