NOVEL WEB V1 Chapter 64: Tainted Wasteland
- 1st Person POV (MC)
-Present Time-
Before the worms can approach within melee, Siegfried flanked from the side and emits a loud rumbling roar that reverberates the air as these worms stop in their tracks then they start to slither to Siegfried as my {Spell} completes.
The light surrounding Hell Broodmother grew brighter and brighter before...
*ZIIIINGGGGGG* *HSSSSSSSSS*
A bright golden beam of sunlight appeared akin to someone placing a magnifier to focus and intensify light hits directly the boss. Including sizzling noise and smoke causing the scent of sulphur to get stronger. Leaving behind glimmering yellow-red fires surrounding this creature.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!!” -Hell Broodmother-
Scream, a scream of a thousand voices echoed as its HP dropped by several bits. It echoes around the castle grounds and I felt a stinging ring in my ear.
Glancing at the top left where the boss added a new {Skill} named ‘Foul Shriek’. I didn’t take any damage...
“Sieg? You okay?”
He didn’t reply and I got worried as I changed my attention to him.
He stood there, muscles pulled taut, trembling as if trying to move but his body did not want to move held by something. Without further ado, I commanded one of the fragments to cast [Cure] as he let out a relieved gasp.
“Thanks!” -Siegfried-
I gave a thumbs up and Siegfried took care of the worms by punching the ground activating an AoE {Skill} that deals damage to all of them, he maintained punching the ground to continue that AoE as the ground quaked and trembled until the worms dissipated.
It seems their purpose is just to be annoying so they have tiny HP.
Meanwhile, I focus on dishing out constant DPS to the boss by weaving several [Holy Light] using the fragments as the medium while myself is on alert if the boss uses some kind of powerful moves.
(“Hm?”)
My eyes noticed, its mouth expands and gives out some kind of sucking noise then gargling as I see a greenish-yellow liquid bubbling up then...
“KHAKKK!!!...” -Hell Broodmother-
It spilled and in that moment, I heard a sizzling noise as it spewed a mouthful of acid. Drenching me and Siegfried in heaps of acid, though it simply slough off from my body not touching my skin due to the prismatic barrier.
“Ah, Fuck! That burns!” -Siegfried-
Siegfried pursed his lips, shielding his face but still took significant damage from that ‘Dissolving Acid’ attack as I delegated one of the fragments to cast [Maximize: Highness Heal].
The ‘Hurting’ visual effects in the form of acid burns vanish as his HP went to 75% full. While I bombarded the creature with a machine gun [Holy Light].
Siegfried signals a thumbs up of appreciation before changing his form once more into a lithe lower body still maintaining his bulky upper body. His arms and fingers fuse into a spear-like shape coated by light enchantment as he dashed forward jabbing in quick motion using his spear-like hand.
A distinct noise indicated he made almost constant critical hits from those jabs while tanking the boss’ hits.
“[Maximize: Solar Flare]”
Simultaneously, I commanded 3 out of 5 fragments to cast the same {Spell} while leaving 2 of them on standby as pocket bishops.
Siegfried continued to take the boss’ aggro while I was immobile during casting.
But before my {Spell} completes, the boss’ tentacles split into more and more tendrils then...
*WHAAAAM*
Dust billows as Siegfried is slammed by that myriad of tendrils and a new HP bar appears below the boss aptly named ‘Tentacle Hooks’.
“Gh!!!” -Siegfried-
“Sieg!!!!!!”
The tendrils wrapped around him and then lifted carrying him around. Siegfried is officially grappled...
(“What should I do?”)
I ruminated my options and decided on my method, if I managed to dispatch Tentacle Hooks I believe it would let Siegfried be free.
(“All right!”)
2 standby fragments hover in front of me and begin casting a different {Spell}.
(“[Triple: Wind Cutter]”)
Since it’s a pretty quick {Spell}, the crystal glows for a fraction of a second then unleashes gusts of wind that form a crescent shaped as they target the tentacles.
*FWOOOOOOSH*
6 blades of wind slash through those tendrils cutting several pieces. Its hold loosens and Siegfried falls gracefully in a three-point landing.
“Sieg... I think this creature is also weak against Slashing.”
“Got it!” -Siegfried-
His fused fingers & hand unfurled looking like a normal one and along his forearm, a bump appeared then sliced open revealing a crescent-shaped bone blade.
Just in time...
Three beams of concentrated sunlight slammed down towards the boss creating an intense sizzling noise and its loud screech echoed on the castle grounds using its ‘Foul Shriek’ again.
Thankfully, this time Siegfried and I didn’t get afflicted by the [Paralyse] effect so I continued my bombardment of [Holy Light] while Siegfried maintained the aggro and his DPS.
Each time the boss drops a certain amount, it spawns more of those worms which I promptly take care of by blasting an AoE {Spell}.
Managing between drinking MP Potion, protecting Siegfried using a shield {Spell} against its acid spit attack, constantly dealing damage, and observing the battlefield. We rinse and repeat until the boss finally lies defeated unleashing its final throes and vanishing leaving behind glimmering orbs.
“Haaaa...”
I sat down for a bit, dismissing my fragments and prismatic skin. Before starting to pick up the boss’ drops.
“We did it!”
“Yep.” -Siegfried-
He grinned, looking quite satisfied with the loots. I got a Spellbook from this boss so I immediately opened it.
It shows a glimpse of the {Spell} and its description and in a hurry, I write it into my players’ journal.
(“Got another summoning {Spell}, I can call a fiend type creature with a risk of them ‘Go Rogue’.”)
“Wanna explore the castle?” -Siegfried-
He points his thumbs to the entrance of the castle with a broken grand staircase and decayed wooden gate.
“Sure, why not?”
Siegfried touches the wooden gate before pushing as hard as he can managing to cause that gate to crumble due the decay.
Then we saw the interior of this castle, first its quite dark and to combat it. I cast [Dancing Light] with Triple Metamagic and commandeer them to stick on walls essentially creating wall lights.
Hmmm...
About 30 or so paces in front of us, there’s a grand staircase that splits into left and right leading to the second floor.
Knowing us, we’ll probably going to ignore that and explore the first floor.
To our left and right before the grand staircase, there are long hallways with partially broken or singed doors leading somewhere.
Siegfried gestured by pointing his index finger as I nodded in return. We then begin exploring this ruined castle where Hell Broodmother resided.
(“Ew...”)
Most doors lead to random chambers that have nothing in it but we did see a nest of some kind. It seems to be a spider’s nest albeit those webs have flesh-like colouration and texture.
(“I wonder what happened to this castle?”)
My mind ruminated a little bit, rummaging some leftover Zenis and random miscellaneous objects in chests around this place. We decided to move upstairs as there’s nothing left to be found on the first floor.
“Huh... Whoever owned this castle is certainly high ranking noble.”
I mentioned and gestured towards Siegfried as the berserker used my shoulder to rest his elbows, staring at the massive painting just before the staircase split into two.
“He looks important...” -Siegfried-
He pondered while rubbing his under chin as I stared at this painting. One thing I noticed is how pristine this painting is compared to the rest of the castle.
It depicts the full body of a man in his 40s or 50s, wearing some kind of lavish coat decorated with several intricate embroideries and long tight-fitting pants having the same embroideries.
The person has a well-chiselled face and a neatly shaven beard, including piercing blue eyes amidst the brown of his hair. In a closer look, I can see several scars of battle... how fascinating!
The way he’s standing upright with his right hand resting on a sheathed sword beside him indicates he is a man of battle although I assume all of these are just decorative purposes.
Still... it’s strange to have this portrait pristine compared to the rest.
“Hey, Let’s go up!” -Siegfried-
The berserker chose the right path as I nodded and chose the left one just so we could cover more ground.
There are several notes here scattered between crushed shelves or bedside tables of the guest room.
(“Ooooohhhhh...”)
Now I know why this place is abandoned, based on these notes the Lord of this castle was currently at war with another region’s lord due to territory reasons.
Soon after days and days of battle, it is clear that this Lord is losing based on the desperate behaviour of the Lord from these servant’s notes.
At some point though, they began to see the Lord’s behaviour change. Becoming more confident and displaying strange powers of controlling fire much more powerful than an average mage. They said that in desperate times might ignite someone’s latent power and they presume it’s the Lord’s power.
The other notes said that several servants had been missing and were told to hire more with strange preferences like... ‘Orphans’ ‘Slaves’ et cetera.
From here on, my mind already connected the dots. Most likely, the Lord of the Castle made a pact with a friend and gave him incredible magical strength related to fire.
(“That’s why I kept seeing scorch marks everywhere? Did he go haywire or... maybe even worse?”)
“Oi, Mag!! You should see this.” -Siegfried-
Hearing that, I harry along to the berserker who’s in front of double doors. Judging by the placement, I can assume it is the master’s bedroom as it is located at the centre of this second floor.
He hunched over near the door and currently peeking at something as I tilted my head in confusion before Siegfried pulled back and let me see what he saw through this peeping hole.
At first, it was pitch black before I noticed it was not from the absence of light but rather its heavy amount of soot. I can see an outline of furniture and the like though...
“Should we open it?”
Siegfried nods in agreement as he puts his hands and then with a grunt exerts some strength.
*CREEEEEEEAAAAAKKK* *WHOOSH*
Black dust billowed up like smoke as I held my breath while checking everything.
Swiping my finger to one of the pieces of furniture, it leaves a straight line revealing the scarlet red of the couch while the tip of my index finger is stained pitch black. By rubbing them together, it is quite smooth...
“Huh... This place has far... Far much soot than any other place.”
“Y-yeah...” -Siegfried-
His voice is in a higher tone than usual since he’s holding his breath...
Still, this is a strange sensation to get used to. Hold my breath and speak at the same time with a normal voice tone. My lungs don’t burn rather I think I can keep maintaining this condition indefinitely.
I shake my head, moving those thoughts away and focus on what’s at hand. This soot is becoming troublesome to Siegfried and I decided to do something about it.
“[Widen: Clean]”
With that, the soot in this room instantly vanished as if this place had been washed revealing other colours instead of black.
And indeed, in the centre of this bedroom is a hand-drawn upside-down pentagram with runes embedded at the edge painted in blood red colour.
Looking at it closely, a strange sensation washed over me as I felt like I knew these words and understood what they said.
(“Honour our pact! Ohh infernal fiend, I have given you sacrifice now give me power!!!”)
Moving closer I take several sniffs after realizing I haven’t even taken a whiff of air as if I’m unconsciously holding my breath. I need some time to get used to these effects of my {Trait}.
Nevertheless, I smelt the scent of metallic iron just like blood. I am familiar with this smell since I closely worked with bodily fluids so I’m sure this was blood.
Siegfried already rummages through shelves, getting notes and beginning to read through them.
“Ohh... It seems The Lord of this castle has been up to no good. Heh, I already got the gist of it but he gone so desperate leading him to sacrifice his servants after no more slaves or orphans can be acquired.” -Siegfried-
He had a disgusted look on his lips upon piecing together these notes. Understandable... Though I wonder... This magic circle still looks fairly new so I was wondering if I can summon the fiend and kill it.
“Sieg? I have an idea.”
He tilts his head before leaning his head in as I tell him about using the newly learnt {Spell} to see if I summon the exact fiend that The Lord encountered.
Extending my left hand towards the bloody magic circle, I steeled myself in preparation while simultaneously summoning 5-star fragments encircling me.
“[Summon Fiend]”
I uttered the keywords as the magic circle glowed in intense scarlet red and a panel appeared before me.
It’s listing some kind of requirement to summon. In this case, I need a drop of blood...
“What?” -Siegfried-
I relayed what info I got as he nodded nonchalantly then bone blades appeared and slashed his other palm dealing damage to himself.
With that, the panel vanish leaving behind a familiar ping noise and my {Spell} completes.
*CRACKLE* *CRACKLE* *FWOOOOOSHHH*
A pillar of deep dark red flame spouts from the circle making the whole room hotter than usual and in bright red before it disperses and then snuffed...
Revealing a humanoid figure with red skin and a beautifully shaped face with literal burning eyes. On the top of this figure’s head are horns turning and twisting ending in a sharp up point almost connected again above. Between those two horn tips lies a glowing red bead and around it air seems to be distorted as if it emits an intense heat.
*HSSSSSS*
“Tch, Ah!” -Siegfried-
The berserker twitched and stepped a few paces away some parts of his body have singed and scorched the ‘Hurting’ visual effect in the presence of this creature while I’m not affected by this being...
“Who called?” -Infernal Devil-