Chapter 1375 (2/2)

Seeing that the other attacks weren’t effective, Lucifer stepped forward. And his signature hellfire swirled around him as he raised his large saber in challenge. With a shout, Lucifer brought his enormous weapon downward and released a swirling strike of fire that ripped forward across the ground. The monstrosity he had targeted noticed the assault but didn’t seem to regard it as a threat at all. Instead, the monstrosity accelerated forward, spreading its arms wide as though it was about to embrace the attack like a long lost brother.

Yet when the attack hit it, for the first time, the strange beast began to scream.

Unlike its fellows that had rapidly recovered after being hit with a Skill, this monstrosity fell to the ground and writhed in obvious agony. Lucifer’s strike had split it from shoulder to waist. One of its arms and a sliver of its torso flopped on the ground beside it, hellfire licking at the wound. The defenders on the wall raised their weapons and shouted their approval; this was their pride as people of Franksburg. Then they unleashed another volley of Skills to streak across the space and strike the shimmering beings of darkness.

The dark monstrosities surged forward, the frequent attacks having firmed Franksburg as a threat in their eyes. The practically trampled the wounded silhouette on the ground in their haste to attack the defenses.

But through the press of bodies, Tessa couldn’t help but notice that the wounded monster on the ground didn’t immediately die. It struggled and shifting, resisting the deadly properties of Lucifer’s Hellfire.

Yet before the monstrosities arrived at the defensive fortifications, another change occurred on the battlefield. Among the continuing stream of silhouettes coming out of the smoking crater, an ominous figure parted the dust cloud still hanging in the area and walked forward. All other monstrosities avoided it, deferentially giving it space. The visual distortions in the area around it intensified, drawing Tessa’s gaze. Immediately, this new horror gaze slid along the wall until it located Lucifer.

It raised its arms and howled. Very soon, every one of these strange monsters of darkness joined its call and the air was trembling with their warbling cries. The glass pane underneath Tessa’s hand began to tremble. The visual distortions spread, beginning to creep nearer to the defenders on the walls. Then the new, obviously more powerful arrival pointed its claws and the monsters surged forward-

“Really? Just one Nether Gatekeeper? I guess the attack is really focused on the Nexus…”

The visual distortions shrunk and disappeared all at once. It was only for a brief second that Tessa saw Randidly Ghosthound’s now unfamiliar figure appear on the wall next to Lucifer before her vision was blinded by a vast tree that appeared around Randidly.

It almost looked like this titanic plant was three was thousands of trees wound together, with vast chestnut-colored roots winding their way from the ground to merge into an enormous monolith of the tree. The trunk was as thick as an entire city block, extending upward to such a height that Tessa needed to press her nose to her window in order to see the leafy emerald canopy.

And the whole thing radiated light from the spiraling, shifting symbols that covered every inch of the trunk. The longer Tessa looked at the bark of the World Tree that Randidly had imagined, the more she was struck with a certainty that if she looked for long enough, she would be able to understand the secrets of the world. That tree contained deep secrets.

The magnitude of the temptation to lose herself in those twisting symbols quickly brought back the fear that had cause Tessa to tremble for the last hour. This was why they needed Randidly Ghosthound. Because he was the monster that could scare away all the predators circling around in the darkness.

“A necessary evil,” Tessa whispered to her own reflection in the glass pane of the window. But even to her own ears, her voice was weak and feeble.

Suddenly, the light from the World Tree dimmed and Tessa found that she could see through the manifested image when she looked at it directly. It was like one of those pictures that changed depending on the angle of viewing. If Tessa looked directly, she could see through it and out onto the battlefield. But if she viewed through her peripheral vision, the World Tree remained steadfastly present, radiating a warm and reassuring glow.

Which was why she saw a few of the previously impervious monsters that had been caught in the Ghosthound’s image writhing and melting beneath that steady golden light. Their limbs twisted and cracked as they practically melted before that light. Of course, Tessa also saw that furious figure that had emerged raising its hand to focus now on Randidly. It howled its fury and more and more monstrosities emerged to form a veritable tide of inky-black silhouettes that surged toward Franksburg.

Looking unmoved, the Ghosthound waved his hand. From behind the wall, several hundred figures leapt up and crossed the barrier of the wall to land on the battlefield. Then each exploded in a powerful image that made Tessa gasp.

Even the weakest of these is at least as strong as Lucifer… maybe even stronger… Tessa thought in wonder. Where had Randidly found so many powerful Classers…? Was this the true power of the Order Ducis…?

What was even stranger was that each of these figures appeared as much animal as human. But Tessa was quickly distracted as Randidly hopped down off of the wall as well.

“It feels like it’s been a while since I fought against a Nether Gatekeeper… but it really hasn’t been, has it?” Randidly raised his right hand and flexed it, the knuckles of his fingers cracking. “Well, I’ve been training for a foe much more intimidating than you. Time to see how much I’ve improved in the last two months.”