Chapter 92: Fallout (1/2)
Vainqueur had a strange feeling at the sight of this bandaged corpseling.
The exact same pressure that came off from Wotan, if not worse. His minions seemed to recognize the newcomer: Manling Victor had turned paler than a corpse, and Untasty Allison was speechless.
“Oh, Great Sablar, is it apocalypse o’clock already?” the mummy minion asked his master. “Is it time to lay waste to the living?”
“Start with these five,” the worm said, before raising a barrier around his toy hoard and himself. “Kill them all. I do not care how.”
“Ah, nothing better than a massacre in the morning.” The strange undead turned to the group, glancing at Manling Victor in particular. “I see that you have gotten far in the world, cultist. Mayhaps you can entertain me before we start indulging in violence?”
The Vizier, who had remained a silent statue since the mummy’s appearance, recovered his words. “In hindsight,” he finally spoke up. “This may have been a mist—”
The mummy quickly raised his finger and zapped Manling Victor with a ray of green light in the middle of his sentence. The magic blast sent him flying through the threshold and out of the pyramid, the Vizier’s flesh burning where the spell hit.
“Vizier stratagem six,” the corpseling mused, his finger still shining. “‘The law of no talking.’”
Vainqueur immediately lunged at the cowardly mummy, only for a screen to appear before his eyes.
Akhenapep’s [Spell Trap] triggered.
Instant casting of the spells [Timeleap], [Sablar’s Repulsion], [Meteor Rain].
Vainqueur barely had the time to watch the undead glitch out of existence, before an almighty invisible force propelled everything backward. The temple exploded, its walls shattered, and all people present but Sablar were repelled in all directions.
The dragon ended his brief, uncontrolled flight by smashing into a lead pyramid, crashing through the outer walls. The dragon grunted as he recovered his bearing, the top of Sablar’s pyramid having been blown apart. While the deity calmly read a book from within his barrier, the dragon could see neither the enemy nor his minions.
He did notice the rain of stones in the sky though.
Dozens of meters-wide fiery stone fell from the heavens towards El Dorado and the surrounding jungle, ready to devastate it on impact.
His minions! His goldified minions!
Vainqueur immediately flew up and started blasting the falling stars with his breath, destroying them before they could hit the ground and devastate the city below. He couldn’t vaporize all of them, some hitting gold pyramids and collapsing them, others devastating the jungle beyond the city walls. Mighty forest fires started everywhere.
The sound of magical explosions caught the dragon’s attention, as he noticed the mummy engaged in an aerial, magical duel with the vile Furibon. While the lich flew by his own means, a dust tornado carried Akhenapep up from the ground. Furibon unleashed fiery stones of his own and ice spikes; the mummy casually blasted the projectiles with green rays, while coating himself in protective spells. Activating his Blinkblink ring, Vainqueur prepared to attack from behind.
“[Za Warudo]!” Furibon briefly blinked out of existence, only to reappear with his jaw broken, Akhenapep’s fist within an inch of his skull. The lich went flying down, near a meteorite crater.
The mummy then turned to Vainqueur, and the dragon realized that the creature could see him even while invisible. “[Accelerated Entropy].”
Instantly, Vainqueur’s rings crumbled to dust, his Blinkblink effect cancelled. The dragon let out a roar of rage at the undead’s cruelty while flying straight at him, claws extended.
“[Nuclear Winter].” Akhenapep unleashed a mighty storm of shining green ice at Vainqueur, damaging his scales and inflicting excruciating pain.
Warning: You are losing 100 HP per second of sustained fire! You have been [Irradiated]! Healing effects will be greatly weakened for you!
You have lost a quarter of your HP.
Vainqueur activated his [Spell Purge], his defense pushing away the biting cold. Even better, the negation of the spell activated the new benefit of his [Witchfinder General] class, burning off the mummy’s hands. The dragon opened his mouth, ready to blast him apart.
“[Greater Seal: Dragonfire], [Accelerated Minor Seal: Holy Fire].” The dusty undead quickly covered himself with protective spells, his scroll-skin turning to black steel and a complex symbol materializing on his chest. “[Adamanskin], [Accelerated Glyph of Sablar].”
The dragon immediately unleashed a stream of fire; but instead of consuming the mummy, his witch-burning flames swirled around him like harmless flickers, absorbed into the chest tattoo. Vainqueur wisely chose not to activate his [Fire Crown]. Instead, he used [Shining Majesty] to radiate light with his scales while getting closer.
His golden beauty was too much for the mummy, who hissed in pain and retreated before the dragon could grab him. “[Alacrity], [Accelerated Hasten].”
Akhenapep’s spellcasting time is drastically reduced for all Tier III spells and below for thirty minutes.
Tier III? What purpose did it serve—
“[Piercing Magic Arrow].” Akhenapep fired a volley of five golden arrows at Vainqueur, and they hurt. The mummy unleashed a second, then a third group before the dragon realized that these spells somehow bypassed his [Spell Purge].
Furibon, who had recovered enough to fly back into the fray, shouted a warning at his 'ally.' ”[Pierce Magic Arrow] ignores all magical protections, wyvern!”
“[Piercing Magic Arrow], [Piermagarrow], [Pimarrow], [PMA]!” The more Akhenapep cast, the shorter the name of his spell, until they became incomprehensible noise. The constant magical artillery barrage only increased in violence, the rain of golden arrows itching his body and piercing his hide.
Warning! You have lost half your HP!
As his HP dwindled faster than Manling Victor’s pants during breeding, Vainqueur had no choice but retreat, only for Akhenapep to direct his magical artillery at his left wing, shredding its skin. The dragon lost control of his flight and crash landed into a goldified street.
He couldn’t fly anymore.
He couldn’t fly!
All dragons could fly! This was heresy!
Akhenapep attempted to nail Vainqueur on the ground, but lightning bolts from Furibon forced him to focus his rain of arrows on the lich. Furibon teleported away each time the artillery barrage threatened to hurt him, causing the mummy to adopt a new strategy.
“Come to your Ur-Pharaoh, armies of Sablar!” Akhenapep raised his hands from the top of his dust tornado, while his meteor rain subsided. “[Ur-Pharaoh Defenders], [Accelerated Uranium Elementals Summon].”
In a flash of light, animated masses of green, shiny rocks appeared around the mummy, instantly rushing at the grounded Vainqueur. At the same time, two giant gates of stone rose around the left and right sides of Akhenapep, opening to reveal a dark, underground tomb on the other side. Giant, armored undead knights and rusted copies of Rolo the Golem walked through in regimented battalions, trampling the golden street under their footsteps.
“This is cheating!” Vainqueur protested, blasting the green rocks with his searing flames before they could approach. “Minions cannot summon more minions in a minion battle!”
Dodging a spell from Furibon, the mummy spat on the ancient tradition and vanished inside his dust storm with a final curse. “[Radioactive Sandstorm].” The dust tornado turned greenish and radiant, before slowly expanding across the city, forcing his lich foe to fly back.
The undead’s minions noticed Vainqueur and charged at him. The dragon rose on his back legs and activating [Victory Fist] as they closed the gap between them, punching an undead knight through the chest and then another. The smaller golems, though, jumped at him, hanging from his shoulders, wings, and neck. Vainqueur snarled as he took a few steps back, the minions threatening to overwhelm him.
Blasts of black fire and jagged beams shot off most of the golems, while hordes of insects started eating the undead alive, disrupting their battalions.
On the right side of the devastated street, Tasty Malfy and Untasty Allison appeared, the first summoning demonic locust clouds, the other vines to entangle the mummy’s summons. The wicked Furibon flew above them, containing the expanding sandstorm with a purple barrier.
On the left, Friend Victor led the group of demons he had called against Wotan, having himself transformed into his overgrown goat form. They immediately engaged the undead knights, turning the entire area into a warzone. Dozens of gold statues shattered or broke from the fighting, the dragon thankful they had brought the battle away from Sweet Chocolatine and Felix’s trapped forms.
“Take a message to… don’t care about extra cost… transport them…” Vainqueur barely heard Demonling Victor's conversation with his troops, their words drowned by the noise of spells and weapons clashing. A succubus opened a portal to Happyland and fled through, while Demonling Victor raised his scythe to cast a spell, “[Control Weather: Sunny Day].”
Demonling Victor immediately negated the mummy’s unnatural sandstorm, causing it to collapse before its diseased winds could reach Vainqueur. The skies cleared, the sun shining brightly on the disoriented Akhenapep and the warzone around him.
“[Permascan].” The wicked Furibon cursed the mummy with his magic by surprise, a floating screen appearing above his head.
Akhenapep, the Ur-Pharaoh
Type: Black Pharaoh (Undead/Eldritch)
Level: 85 (Ur-Pharaoh 20/Sablaris 20/Chronomancer 30/Dark Lord 10/Sealmaster 5)
HP: 2214/2550.
Weaknesses: Spirit, Life, Holy.