Chapter 144 (Still needs editing) (Patreon)

Before the chapter beings, I just want to say thanks for all the input!  I'm likely going to add another chapter (Chapter 142.5? or I'll have to re-order the chapter numbers) prior to the last one with a demons POV, where Azmoth's one on one fight with tiklik happens before the monster escapes using a dao treasure of some sort.  Meanwhile Fay and Riven can be focused on more as they build up to the upgrade / as riven contemplates the dao a bit longer than just 1 chap before the upgrade.  We'll see.  Anyways here's the chapter, thanks for reading and i'll be sure to post a lot these upcoming days :)

- Also this chapter still needs editing so sorry for any typo's, I'm a bit tired and will edit in the morning :P

Chapter 144

Battle targets for ATTACKERS: AZAG HIVE CLUSTER (3 of 5 Remaining)

• Richard Longhollow - (Azag Overmind)
• Clidra Mutishbane - DECEASED
• Scythewalker Trik Trak - (Azag Broodfather)
• Tiklik Longjaw - DECEASED
• Everkill Gorgemonger - (Azag Bull Champion)

Battle Targets for DEFENDERS: THE POPULATION OF CHICAGO (2 of 5 Remaining)

• General Florence - DECEASED
• Lieutenant Cliff - DECEASED
• Lieutenant General Bruner - (Human Military Officer)
• Governor Banks - DECEASED
• Riven Thane - (Pureblooded Vampire Prince, Allied unit: The Thane Necropolis)

Officers shouted orders while machine guns rattled, heavy artillery explosions and plasma weapon fire consumed the other noises outside.  Large mechs of various designs stood tall over the defenses and projected one way barriers to help negate the oncoming horde’s barrage of acidic spines, while both helicopters and fighter jets zoomed overhead - trying to beat back the ocean of enemies using missiles.

Lieutenant General Bruner, the second in command concerning Chicago’s military and the graying man at the head of the rectangular table, continued to get feedback reports from his scouts on the outside.  Even with the live feed going on now, there were many eyes and ears that gave him an advantage over what the system showed from his operatives - and for the first time since the battle started he was hopeful.  Moral had been shattered across their entire force when General Florence and their most powerful combatant Lieutenant Cliff had been killed almost immediately upon the battle’s start, but now that moral was skyrocketing again.

“His magics are actively ignoring our operatives, sir.” One of the intelligence officers further down the table confirmed with a nod of his head.  “At most it’s just an uncomfortable pressure.  They’re able to move freely inside the blood storm without much issue, and we also have recently confirmed reports that groups of independents are using his blood storm to more easily kill off the invaders.”

“Independents?”

“Guild mercenaries and civilians, sir.”

“I see.  Then I want all sniper teams to support him at a distance too.” Bruner said with a gruff command, his hand shakily rubbing the stubble of his beard while he glanced between various screens - both system made and not.  “They should be safer inside his field of influence anyways.”

“Should I call in the F35’s and drones to lend aid as well?”

“No.  Keep them here, we’re barely holding the swarm back from overrunning our base defenses even now and the last two jets we used to target their leaders were blasted out of the sky instantly.”  Bruner held up his robotic right hand, grimacing down at his cyborg appearance and hoping it would be enough if things came down to close combat.  But if the defenses didn’t hold here there was little hope for the residents of the interior, as most of their scattered forces on the outside were disjointed and recollecting themselves after the sudden ambush attack on their city.

His eyes lifted, gleaming with orange light as the cyborg half of him analyzed various information across the forums at a rapid speed whenever he linked to Elysium’s database.  It was one of the perks of using the Machine pillar, and it suited him wonderfully from a command perspective in the unique situation he found his city in.

But just who was this Riven Thane?

He knew little of the man other than his superior officer General Florence had named Riven as the assassin who’d attacked their senator.  But Bruner had always had an uneasy feeling about General Florence from the get-go, especially after integration, and his suspicions for treasonous takeover had run high ever since arriving on Panu.

Now, seeing the man who was supposed to be the enemy of their city fighting entire armies of these creatures with earth-shattering waves of death and destruction on a level he’d not even thought possible - Lieutenant General Bruner found himself at a loss for what to think.  He watched as swaths of Azag hive cluster forces were cut down in the blink of an eye, rippling waves of black and red magics carving a path towards the point where the remaining three battle targets on the enemy side had congregated.

They were out there, somewhere just outside the city’s perimeter, waiting for Riven and his demonic servants to meet them in battle.  They had no doubt realized just as Bruner had - that this man who faced them was uniquely suited for killing armies.  It’d taken him ten or so minutes to realize it, but after watching this warlock  continue to grow, and grow, and grow in power as he collected more and more blood from the bodies of the fallen - Bruner finally confirmed it.

What they’d all thought was a limited mana pool was something entirely different.  This warlock was somehow converting environmental resources to feed his magics at a far, far greater efficiency than any other magic user the intelligence unit of Chicago had ever heard about before.  So without realizing it until far longer into the battle than what the hive cluster would have liked, Richard Longhollow - Overmind of the Azag Hive - had started ordering his forces to completely avoid Riven.  They’d only been fodder for Riven’s building storm, and the spike of energy had significantly declined in rate ever since the retreat.  All weaker units had been sent towards the military base where Bruner was now, and Richard Longhollow had condensed only his most powerful people to meet Riven in battle over the upcoming hour.  That way Riven would have less bodies, less blood to feed on to build his ever-increasing storm.

Bruner regretfully applauded Richard Longhollow for the insight.  He’d hoped the hive overmind would not notice it, but unfortunately that’d not been the case.  The graying cyborg sighed, looked out over the walls of the military base, over the explosions and din of battle where mountains of bodies flooded towards them with reckless abandon - to where a writhing cyclone of ominous energy ripped across the city limits on their western border under the multicolored dome.

Bruner could only hope that Riven would win.  He hoped the warlock had collected enough of the energy to end these monsters just as fast as he’d ended the last one, or hoped that Riven would at least kill one or two of them.  Because if not, Bruner wasn’t sure Chicago’s forces would last the night.

***

Dearest descendent… You have chosen poorly, and I am not sure it is not a choice you can take back.  The Path of Red and Black is a boundless road leading into the eternal maw of oblivion.  You have been tricked, you have been swindled, and you have been led astray.  Gluttony awaits you, Sin-bearer… And though I hope that your soul is up to the task, I doubt that you will make it out of this alive…

Riven’s eyes snapped back to reality as the whispers faded and he blurred left, dodging the strike of another mantis elite and countering with a whiplash of his staff.  The fleshy cord flexed and extended, tearing the monster and a chunk of concrete apart instantly only for the blade of his staff to slam back into the black wooden shaft of Vampire’s Escort.

Then all went quiet, with only his minions and the swirling mana around him causing ripples of air in the surroundings  as he beheld the carnage.

Thousands of mantis lay dead, permeating the area with unholy taint that was so thick the people who’d been following Riven at a distance to lend whatever support they could had to stay back.  Crowds of Chicago’s citizens with various weapons, classes and build compositions had come out of the woodworks to help him crush the invading forces even despite losing hundreds of their own - but the enemy had lost far more thanks to Riven.

“The overmind has figured out your trick…” Athela mused while licking one of her bloody claws - frowning as the remnant blood was sucked off of it to add into Riven’s swirling vortex overhead.  “They figured out how you tick.  They are waiting for you… Will you go to them?  Or will you wait out here?”

Azmoth slammed his maul head-first into the ground, waiting expectantly like an unholy paladin of legend, and Fay hesitantly swayed back and forth in the air while repeatedly adjusting her invisible landmines to keep a field ahead of Riven’s position at all times.

Whispers from beyond echoed through Riven’s thoughts, and the visage of a great maw screeched with a flash inside his head - causing him to clutch at his mask while his soul apparatus shivered.

Athela gave him a concerned look, but he shrugged it off and looked back over to where the three red dots were positioned in the sky not far off from where his own blue dot was.  To match the congregation of three was a large hill, with numerous newly created cave entrances where the swarm had burrowed out to attack the city.  Wafts of thick green mists were in abundance, clashing with Riven’s own tidal wave of red as a deep aura of malice oozed out to rub up against Riven’s soul.

Riven only sneered, his seven feathers flaring out to all sides and his great maw across the front of his chest shrieking out in challenge.  “I will wait here.  And if they do not want to come out, I will force them to do so.”

He closed his eyes, steadied his soul, and began to concentrate with his staff planted into the ground before him and clutched in both hands - using it as a conduit to better conduct mana through his pillars.  Slowly, ever so slowly, his cyclone of rapidly swirling blood, crimson ice, necrotic clouds and black lightning all came to a standstill.  It was like he was standing within a zone trapped in time, where everything around him stood almost completely frozen in space.  He felt the runic inscriptions on his pillars flare, he felt the mana channels burning with power, he felt the newly formed connection between his pillars circumventing his soul’s core to more rapidly process and integrate power with one another, and the magic let out a breath of contentment as the world around him sighed.

With the eyes of the city on him, Riven raised the tip of his staff overhead.  “Come to me.”

The world howled and a roar of violent energy pulsed before rapidly beginning to condense.  The miles-wide storm of mutated, twisted blood mana was sucked into Riven’s position like a black hole - coalescing and packing into a globe of energy a few meters across at the tip of Riven’s staff above him.

Ribbons of red liquid, flurries of crimson shrapnel, and torrents of dark lightning were all sucked in and crammed into a far, far smaller area than what should be able to hold a power of that magnitude.

The ground cracked underneath the weight of Riven’s power, and the cement he stood on began to decay faster and faster - turning into dust that floated up into the air while the winds of incoming magic howled and crashed around him.  His horned pauldrons glowed brightly, infused with as much blood mana as they could possibly hold, and his cloak whipped about him while he struggled to maintain the condensed storm.

And just as the last of the energies tore from his surroundings to feed his building spell, Riven settled his gaze on the riddled hillside where the aura of malice continued to pour forth.  He let go of his staff, maintaining the collecting power through a mental connection with his weapon.  Fingers began to quickly turn and twist, incorporating two-handed patterns that unlocked profane seals necessary to complete the call.

Riven could feel the energies within the hillside retract just when he finished his necessary hand gestures, and he uttered the words to set it all loose.  “Nefajia crecus blood nova.”

It was unlike anything Riven had ever created before.  The multicolored dome overhead went bright red for a split second, and the ball of power he’d collected blossomed into a cataclysmic strike that flashed forward to strike the hillside.

There was a brief, deep blast of sound before his eardrums shattered and caused everything to go silent with a high-pitched ringing.  The entire city shook under the impact, and the landscape along the western edge blew like a super-volcano.

Debris and roaring, searing power hit the outer wall of the multicolored dome encompassing the event before the backlash of power sent aftershocks into Riven’s positon.  Riven’s mending eardrums abruptly popped yet again despite his vampiric regeneration, and the howl of his own energies rebounding off the event’s domed cage caused him to nearly stumble back.  Smashing the pointed end of his staff down into the ruined cement, the blade cut deep and he held on to keep his position while the onrush of power blew by.

[Scythewalker Trik Trak has been killed in battle by Riven Thane.  2 of 5 battle targets for the attackers remain.]

[Everkill Gorgemonger has been killed in battle by Riven Thane.  1 of 5 battle targets for the attackers remain.]

As the dust and swaths of rampaging energy eventually cleared, the remnants of Riven’s attack were finally revealed.  A deep crater, crackling with red and black energy, had been left in the wake of his strike - encompassing well over two miles of space with black and red glass forming along the crater’s underbelly due to how compressed the magic had been upon release.

Two glass-encased figures, each far larger than normal mantis monsters belonging to the swarm, had obviously perished underground where they’d attempted to draw Riven inside.  The figures of Scythewalker Trik Trak and Everkill Gorgemonger, Riven assumed, but the figure of Richard Longhollow was nowhere to be seen… and the system notifications indicated he was still alive here somewhere.

Riven glanced up just in time to see the red dot rapidly closing in on his position, and his eyes widened in alarm at the speed before  a portal flared to life.

Riven vanished just in time to avoid a huge chitinous claw whistle through the air so fast that it sent shockwaves out from his old position - and he exited only to barely dodge by creating a pillar of ice underneath him that launched him skywards.

[Richard Longhollow has been engaged in battle.  Click to view.]

[Your minion Fay has died.  She will be returned to you 24 hours after you pay the blood price for your minion.  To resurrect your level 27 succubus, you will be required to pay Elysium directly with a sum of 27,000 Elysium coins.  Simply will this transaction to happen and make sure you have the required payment to further this agenda.]

The pillar of red ice shattered from where it’d propelled him skywards along with the torn body of his succubus, and Riven saw a blurring, hulking figure flash through the air only to have it disappear - and then he felt himself crash back down into the road below.

What was left of the road shattered in a spray of debris as Athela screeched in rage and rushed to meet the attacker, and Azmoth abruptly catapulted towards Riven’s position before slamming a fist down into the ground beside them.

The shattered floor Riven was flattened into turned to magma and a dome of flames encompassed their position just in time to intercept another incredibly fast claw-swing from a shadowy figure.

Cursing and pushing himself up with a glare of irritation and aching bones, Riven picked up the staff he’d nearly dropped and glared out to where Athela had just been launched three streets over.   Standing there, in the middle of the ruined suburb bordering the hills on the city’s outskirts, was a grotesque half-man half-monster hybrid.

Despite his speed, Richard Longhollow was abnormally large.  Four chitinous legs with barbed ends, a thick brown armored carapace, bulging muscles and a humanoid upper body made this creature look like an insectoid centaur of some sort.  Antenna that came out the ends of his forehead flicked back and forth, evaluating Riven and his minions with four yellow eyes, and three rows of mouths with sharp teeth stacked on one another while he hissed in irritation.  He held a large black orb that swirled with unholy green light in one of his two humanoid hands, while four scythe-like mantis arms also protruded further out to the side.  Lastly, a large stinger was positioned at his back - and it hovered like a scorpion’s would right before the strike was plunged.

All of this being said, and even after all that Riven had unleashed on the hillside, Richard was somehow completely unscathed.

“Hehehe… To think…” the voice of Richard Longhollow echoed out in a deep, raspy laugh.  “That another of Chalgathi’s chosen has already been sent to hunt me down.  That apocalypse beast is rather melodramatic over a simple artifact being stolen, wouldn’t you agree?”

Riven turned where he stood, feeling his bones cracking back into place and the teeth of his maw grating against one another.  His staff crackled with black lightning, but he remained where he was as Azmoth’s barrier died out.  This enemy was far faster and far stronger than Riven would have liked to believe, matching or even overpowering himself in both categories even despite the wisps of black and red blood flaring off his body via Blessing of the Crow.  Unlike Riven, this man-turned-monster had no doubt applied all his points into physical attributes… that or his bloodline was heavily oriented towards strength, speed and defense.  It was the exact opposite of Riven who’d applied all his free points into Intelligence, Willpower, and to a smaller extent - sturdiness.

“You’re rather stealthy for being so big.” Riven commented, his right arm flaring with tendrils of mana and producing a blood lance that crackled with encompassing black lightning.  “Just how did you survive that attack?  Did you dodge it?”

“I’ll answer your questions if you answer mine.” Richard retorted loudly with another crazed cackle, and the sound of artillery fire picked up from deeper in the city where the military base was under siege.  “Tell me, how did you find me to begin with - and what did Chalgathi offer you to kill me?  How did a vampire end up enrolled in Chalgathi’s quest, when all of the vampires on Earth had been long extinct according to the cult records?  I’m curious, and before I cut off your head I’d very much like to know.”