NOVEL WEB Chapter 20: Late.
The sounds of squishing can be heard throughout the entire tunnel.
Rintan continues to punch the spider without end. It's unsightly, but we still observe the fight anyways.
Suddenly, her punches makes a sound similar to hitting a hard metal surface. Has she gone weak? No. The monster has become stronger! It's going into its second form, turning it's skin into diamond.
"RINTAN, WATCH OUT!!!"
But it was too late. It's sharp limb pierces through Rintan's shoulder. But wait! She's... She's grabbing it?!
"Don't worry. This arm is fake. I was lucky to get hit here."
Fake..? I see... That kind of explains why there's fireworks in her arm.
She then proceeds to twist the limb, tearing it off and smashing it into the monster. I guess that's one way to use a weapon.
"Huh..?! Should we help?!"
"No need. I've already won this fight before it even started. Just make sure that the others are okay."
"R-really??! But alright! We'll be back later. The others don't have any serious injuries, so we'll just protect them in case the ants attack!"
"Good. Now-... Hm? What are you doing, Vampire? Won't you help them as well?"
Den and Feradon runs back, leaving me behind. This has become kind of awkward. I guess I'll just sit here and watch her fight.
"I don't understand what you're doing. But if you don't plan to help them, then why don't you help me instead?"
Huh? Help her? Alright. The Void Trilobite is still buried in the ground, it should wake up after a few minutes. But what am I supposed to do? I don't really have full control over my Blood Magic spells so there's a chance that she'll get affected by my attacks.
"This creature is a tough one. My fists won't be able to break it even if you gave me more of this armor. So that's why, I'll use it's limb, and you use your weapon, so that we can hit it again and again, until it breaks."
Hmmm... It's simple but it'll work. I grab Divine Intervention and take a stance.
"Ready? Here we go."
Rintan swings the limb at the sleeping monster. It launches the spider towards me so I can hit it. Rintan catches it and strikes again.
We repeat this again and again. Seems like the monster has already woken up, but is unable to move. It's an odd way to defeat a monster but it works somehow.
"It's being knocked out for a second every hit. It's effective for a creature like this, who is extremely fast."
Finally, with a final blow, the monster is crushed into tiny pieces, splattering everywhere on the tunnel.
"Phew... It would've been better if we didn't destroy beyond recognition... But I guess this is okay too."
We rest for a while. Afterwards, we head back to where everyone was at. They're not far from here, but I can sense dangerous amounts of bloodlust coming from their direction...
As we arrive at the scene, visions of dread and horror is perceived. What on earth happened here? Dark, red blood is smeared on the floors. There's cloth, that looks like a place to sleep in, but it has more gore placed on it. Meanwhile, Den and the rest are trying to help Lare, who seems to be in a lot of pain.
"AAAaaghh!!!"
"Hold still! T-this shouldn't even have happened...!"
Rintan walks up to them and checks what's going on.
"Yo. What's happening?"
"R-rintan..! You've finally defeated that monster?!"
"Right. Could you please explain the situation?"
"Sigh... When Lare was thrown into the ocean...... W-w-we're too late, everyone. The Blood God's revival i-is..."
"What?"
"AAAKKHH!!"
Lare continues convulsing. More than half of his skin is gone. It's a horrible sight. What could've had happened to him? Is it because of the Void Trilobite's attack? No way that a mere impalement to the shoulder can do this.
"Just keep doing what you're doing. By the way, where's the talking ant? It disappeared suddenly before we even fought the spider."
"Ant? Oh. I have no clue. Why? Is there anything you want with that ant?"
"No... I just have a bad feeling about all of this..."
Out of nowhere, the place begins rumbling. A large explosion breaks through the walls and a huge monster emerges from the destruction. Looks like Rintan's intuition was right.
It's Lide Via!
I wonder what had happened to it? For such an ant to turn into this abomination. It must've hurt. But the only way to stop it now is by putting it out of its misery.
"Ant..?"
"ANT!? NO..! ITS A BLOOD BUG!!"
"This is bad! Run!"
Everyone scatters around as the monster punches the ground. It is strong... But unlike the Void Trilobite, who is very fast. This thing wouldn't take much work to defeat. Only a little bit of Blood Magic can tear it apart.
"Goodbye, Lide. Blood Magic: Blood Hardening."
I run up to it as it retracts it's huge arms, before jumping up and punching it in the face. It's hard. Is this diamond? How does an ant become this strong?
It's too late to think about such things now. A huge fist crashes into me, but I reflectively use [Barrier II], though, it easily breaks through and sends me tunnelling into the wall.
"Vixen!!!"
"V-Vampire..!"
They all yell. But my body is in pain. Best I can do is take back my blood and repair myself.
"This is bad! Flame Turbine!"
Feradon shoots Fire Magic spells at the monster, which doesn't work, as expected.
Ouch... It pains... I must help them though...
Wait no... Rintan is still there, isn't she? But her fake arm is probably broken now. I doubt she could use any of her attacks from earlier. Rayan and Crowler are out of the question, they're both too injured to fight properly. Looks like Den is the only one who can save us now.
But why..? Why..? Why isn't he doing anything..? I thought he was one of the most powerful people alive right now......
"This is very bad... This situation it is..."
"AAGHKKK!!"
Feradon is hit into the ground. Rintan sends multiple slashes with her sword but it doesn't deal enough damage. Another punch smashes her into the roof. For Rayan and Crowler, they simply retreat with Lare.
It isn't too long before I fell unconscious. I would like to help but... Wait. Den is still fighting, isn't he..?
Zzz...
As I wake up, my body is already fully recovered. I jump up and look around.
Eh..? What happened here? Did we survive? But it's good news at least... Everyone is alive. And the Blood Bug is dead, laying on the ground. Though, I can't really see any damage on it, but Rintan is already inspecting it's body.
"Ah. Vixen, you're finally awake!"
Den says, as he walks up to me. His sword doesn't even have any damage, or any stains on it. There doesn't seem to be any traces of him getting hit, or him hitting the enemy either. So how..? How did he manage to beat that monster..?
"Everyone is okay. You don't have to worry about anything now. Good news, Rintan just got trapped in the ceiling so she wasn't even damaged! For Rayan, I've already returned her lost hand. And for Lare, most of his wounds are gone now. Crowler is still out looking for enemies so that everything will be safe!"
Hmmm... I feel like we've forgotten something again...
Well. We've won, and everyone survived. You know what they say? All's well that ends well.
We proceeded to head back into the tunnel where we fought the Void Trilobite. It's remains are still there, and the smell is awful.
"Woah... This is really disgusting... But I'm glad you guys managed to defeat that thing."
"My subordinate should be waiting outside. That is, if that anomaly didn't notice them."
Walking towards the light, we soon realize, the cause of almost everything.
"Yeah... When we dodged the Void Trilobite to get back Lare... The sky was already like this... We didn't have enough time to think about it though..."
What on earth is happening..?
The sky is crimson red. It's not an ordinary event that happens in this world. At first glance, everyone can instantly figure out the situation here.
The Blood God's Curse has become stronger. There won't be much time left to prepare for their revival. We must get back to Rintan's kingdom as soon as possible, through this red ocean.
The Dessert Rover has told us about this already. First, it was Bloodhounds. Now...... This is just too much. How didn't we notice anything while we were still in the salt mines?
"The Blood God..? Looks like they're almost here. We have to hurry up before everyone dies."
"Let's go... But first of all... It's all just water down there. Where even is your subordinate? They should be in a boat right? Don't tell me that they're already dead."
"No... This tunnel did lead outside, but my subordinate wouldn't be around here. We'll have to look- oh. There they are."
A person in a plane waves at us. Looks like their kingdom does have planes too. And this way, it would be quicker than using a boat.
"Ayo!! Hop on the raft!!"
We head over to the floating plane, where we climb on and sit down. Though, I wonder how does these types of planes work in this world. By magic? Or by science? Or maybe both?
The plane begins to take off.
Finally..! We can rest after fighting two really strong monsters..! Though, we're probably going to fight things stronger than them later, but until then, we'll have to rest and prepare.
"Hah... It's really windy huh... For such a depressing looking environment... By the way, Rintan, what are we going to do in your kingdom?"
"My people, and everyone else are waiting. I never told them about my leave, but now in this situation... I doubt they'd like my return."
"Don't be so negative..! We'll go to that pyramids, or whatever, and then defeat the old Hero, and whatever goes against us!"
"Hm. You're right. It may be near impossible, but we'll definitely win. My soldiers will be a big help in this war, though, we'll only save lives, and we won't take any sides. Once we return, we'll take a few soldiers with us, both for sacrifices, and for defending us."
"So, our plan is to stop the Blood God from reviving, right?"
"No... We'll kill the blood God."
What..? Isn't that impossible..? It's basically just the same as fighting an actual god...
"Are you insane? There's no way to kill that thing. There might be a chance if we have the old Hero on our side, but even then, it's still almost impossible."
"So you're just going to let them destroy the entire world? I've told you already, we're going to defeat the old Hero, the Baphomet, and then the Blood God. It's either we die, or we win. Besides. We can probably find a way to defeat all of them if we can just talk to Ruthenoceras Ptychodus. There's a ton of important information that she has."
"Alright alright... Sigh... I just want this whole thing to be over with..."
Well. Everyone does, and that's why we're fighting the old Hero, and the Blood God anyways.
The plane continues flying below the clouds. I can see a lot of fish down the red ocean. Though, they're probably not even normal fish anymore. The curse of the Blood God has gotten too strong in just a few days. I wonder what will happen in a year...
Will we even survive for a year? The progress of their revival is going a bit too fast, but I guess we'll just have to worry about surviving for now.
"Hello everyone..! Once we get back to land, I'll need a lil bit of payment, you know? 100 gold will be enough for this flight, fuel isn't cheap, haha!"
Payment-? uh oh... I don't have enough coins! Not even 1 gold coin... Hmmm... Only option I have now is to get coins from the others. They have enough, don't they-? They don't even have anything!!?
"Uhh... Isn't this flight supposed to be free? The world is ending, you know?"
Says Rayan. She's right. Why even care about it? We're the heroes, doesn't the pilot know that?
"Well then. Im afraid I'll have to throw you guys off the plane, meow meow!"
Thrown off the plane?! Meow?! Is the pilot a cat? Also, can't Rintan figure this out for us? She's the one who brought us here, isn't she?
"Rintan, who's the pilot? I've used a plane before so it wouldn't be too bad if I took control right?"
"Calm down, Feradon. The pilot is Captain Cantaloupe. They're one of my most trusted allies. Also, they're just joking, obviously."
"What? Phew... I thought they were being serious..."
What a relief. It would've been bad if they were being serious, especially during this time, when the world is literally starting to end.
"Fwahahah..! You thought I was being serious? Why would you guys get frightened by a 100 gold payment anyways? Could it be-....?"
"No no no..! Focus on your job, pilot."
"Meow meow? I am. I'm merely just talking to you. This flight will continue for a while, so it wouldn't be too bad to focus on something else..!"
"What if-... What if a dragon shows up or something..?! We'd crash if you didn't look forward..!"
"Don't worry. I have good eyes."
We do hope so. Cats do have good eyesight don't they? Though, Cantaloupe is probably not even a cat. Not like I have already seen them, I can see a part of them, but since we're sitting back here, it's a bit difficult to view them.
We proceeded to head towards Rintan's kingdom.
"Liefs". The kingdom, which located near the giant hole made by the Great Catastrophic explosion. It is connected with multiple other nations, and is allied with most of them. It's one of the most powerful kingdoms right now.
The daughter of the King "Ghundz' Loann Firanha" is Rintan Firanha. Greatest successor of the Firanha royal bloodline. Soon to be the next inheritor of the throne.
Hold on. What's this? I'm sensing interference within the magic waves- no... Electromagnetic Magic waves, specifically... Is this Frelhr?
Wait. Come to think of it. Aren't we going to betray Keasius, or The Tale of the Great White anyways?
Fighting the Baphomet means......
"Vixen. It's me, Frelhr. Manta is dead. Keasius has turned against us. And everything has gone wrong. Seems like your plan with the princess really messed up our own plans."
What..? Manta..? Dead..?
"The project is cancelled. Most of my men died, but with the magic amplification device, we managed to flee from Keasius. But do not fear, Vixen. For we will come again and stand back up to defeat those who we go against."
But are the others okay..? How had I not realize this earlier..?
"It's not your fault, Vixen. Keasius' betrayal was inevitable. No... He had known this from the start already... Might it be that he wanted us to stray from fighting the Baphomet and join them in defeating the Demon Lord instead? Another possibility is that he was just a spy gathering information from us."
Whatever it is, we must prepare for their next move. Was the entire project destroyed? Do we still have anything to rebuild it? How far were you in creating the device?
"About 74.89% complete. Until that walking menace just barged in and destroyed everything. Using all that we could we use, we put the machine at 100% success rate, so that we could teleport into another place."
Where are you right now? Is everyone still with you?
"Of course. Sting and Fin are with me. Though... The thing is... We're in the deepest depths of hell."
What? What do you mean by that?! The demon realm?!
"Yes. Anywhere in the mortal realm, Keasius can just find us through a tiny bit of magic that he put on us. Though, ridiculously smaller than an atom, it's still enough for him to find our current location. In the demon realm, the chances of him finding us are lower, and the fastest time he could find us is approximately 20 years."
20 years? Hmmm... I guess that could be enough time for you guys to find a way back home or defeat him, right?
"Correct. But incorrect. We can only do one. To either, get back to the human realm, or to defeat him. And we only have one option to survive. Going back home without defeating him would mean death. But staying here would also mean death, due to the dangerous creatures roaming around the demon realm."
So? What's your plan? Though, I can probably guess it already.
"You're our only hope, Vixen. Defeat Keasius and the Baphomet. So that we can then return. We don't have enough time, the longest we could stay here is 10 years. That is, if we don't encounter anything dangerous."
I see... I'll do my best- no... I'll definitely defeat the Baphomet, and bring you guys back here no matter what.
I really don't want to lose anymore people, you know..?