*Author’s Note*

So you might be wondering why I didn’t keep writing HCOP Book 2 or whatever. I mean, I’ve posted 102 chapters of this story now, I don’t need to write HCOP Book 2 at the beginning lmfao. It’s HCL, still a direct sequel to the epilogue of HCOP, but basically a different series in the sense that they aren’t even in Arcana anymore lol. Or at the very least, they aren’t ‘on’ the planet Arcana :P.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to write the ending of Hardcore Legacies lately. But you know how it is… Endings are hard lol. I’ve gotten a lot of experience since I last worked on Hardcore Legacies though. So I think I’ll be able to do it soon.

In the meantime, there’s still 5 more chapters left before I get caught up to where I basically stopped writing around this time last year… Sigh, doesn’t it feel like time goes by way too fast? I mean, I wrote 3 volumes of TDoE, TDoDK(Which was equivalent in length to the 3 volumes of TDoE), then started working on CC for a bit, but got sidetracked by TDD… I’m currently writing the end of volume 3 of TDD, while editing the first ‘official’ volume of HCOP in order to make it HCOP into actual books.

Okay, I’ll stop ranting now. Enjoy your chapter lol.

***

Surviving for two decades in a rapidly changing environment was nearly impossible. With all of the monsters, demons, undead and crazy people who were rampaging around, at least ninety-nine percent of all life on Earth was extinguished within the first few years. Not only that, but even the souls of those who died were being captured by Minari, so there was no chance of resurrection or reincarnation.

However, when one species goes extinct, a new one typically takes its place. In a reality without magic, everything degenerates and deteriorates until there is nothing but icy death throughout the universe. Yet, with a bit of mana added into the equation, the rules were forever altered.

Willpower was the most important aspect. Without the desire to not just survive, but also thrive, a person, animal or plant would never be able to overcome their physical limitations and evolve. It was also an extremely dangerous path to follow. The stronger something becomes, the more difficult it is to maintain that power.

Beings at the level of ‘Deities’ would have to consume excruciatingly large amounts of matter, energy or mana in order to keep their bodies from deteriorating. Sentient planets and stars would need to devour other solar systems and galaxies would try to destroy each other as well.

Some entities didn’t even have the capacity to reproduce, because all they wanted was food. To eat other beings, they had to get stronger. In that sense, humanoids were typically much more complex.

People desired love, violence, happiness, pleasure, pain, freedom and knowledge. They would often slaughter or torment each other over the smallest disagreements. Yet, once they faced a common enemy, they would often put aside their differences to deal with the greatest threat.

***

“No~, help~! Bunny~ save me~!” A gargantuan purple rat-dragon was casually ripping apart the giant transformed pirate ship.

“Ew, stop talking to me you gimper! Just die already!” Even though the half-naked Fairy wielding a massive-cutlass was fighting a fierce battle against Gabriel, she still found time to scream at her dying comrade.

Arcana’s ‘Seeds’ gave people an astounding amount of growth in the beginning, but they would eventually reach a barrier. The ‘peak’ of the Deity Realm was essentially the most power that a person could wield within that particular reality. Under normal circumstances, once someone surpassed that limit, they would be forced to ascend to another universe. However, a Soul-Cage prevents them from ever getting to that point. Of course, without the Seed holding a person back, it would still be incredibly difficult for anyone to surpass the limits of their reality.

Bunny was sending out hundreds of illusory flashes per minute, which were clashing against Gabriel’s seemingly endless supply of meteors, magma and miscellaneous pieces of metal from the battlefield below them. The two of them were already considered Deities compared to the ‘Immortals’ who were getting slaughtered on the ground.

Those Goblins couldn’t be considered anything more than ‘Mortals’ and were already exterminated a few moments after the conflict began. Some of those Orcs were actually powerful enough to fight against Odin and the others though.

Thousands of bullets, arrows and even cannonballs were flying around. It wasn’t just a one-sided massacre either, because nearly all of Forewarning was annihilated as well. Nobody ‘important’ had died, but corpses were everywhere.

No one had ‘ressurection’ spells, because the moment the souls left their bodies, they would be pulled away towards wherever Minari happened to be at the time. Thus, death was rather permanent in that sense.

However, between Butter the Necromantic Ninja and Cali the Death Knight, it wasn’t long before everyone who died was transformed into horrible undead monstrosities. The worst part was that they were too busy to tell them who to fight, so the lumbering skeletons and zombies were mostly just killing or eating each other.

“Oh hey, the Seeds are important and all… But I’d really like to have my sword back. So~, see that gigantic dragon-rat screaming obscenities and murdering Ceda? Yeah, can you like, go kill that for me? I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t wanna… I just figured that it would fit your fighting style more?” As Inari watched the comical war between the Anti-Bunny Alliance and Forewarning taking place, she heard Michael’s voice reverberating through her mind.

The brown-skinned girl barked a few times and then her body started transmogrifying. After she became a green anthropomorphic fox, she started growing at an absurdly rapid pace. Unfortunately, there was a limit to the size that her glaive and hooded robe could reach. Thus, her seven tails suddenly turned into jade serpents, with golden eyes and teeth, and her fur started to be dyed pure white. She got down on all fours as her shoulder height reached over a hundred meters. Her legs, chest and belly were entirely crimson, as if she had been trudging through a lake of human blood.

Inari reached her head up to the sky and released a horrifying, thunderous vixen’s cry, which seemed to distort the fabric of reality within a radius of several miles. The pulse of Nature aura was so overpowering, that those soulless undead collapsed onto the scarlet rocks and sand. Then all sorts of viridescent vines erupted from the corpses and tattered bones, followed by swarms of wasps, flocks of small birds, and even billions of dandelion-like seeds which spread up into the sky.

Those creatures totally ignored the battlefield and went off in every direction. With a single vocalization, she was able to create a catastrophic ecological disaster for Mars. The most disturbing part was that all of those animals and plants were still a part of her body and connected to her own soul. She didn’t bother controlling them too intricately, but a portion of any mana that they generated, would be directly transmitted into ‘Minari’.

Sarah immediately complained “Oi, you stole my fucking idea!” However, Inari just turned her head and stared up at the sky, pretending as if she had no idea what the voice in her head was talking about.

Obviously, with such an extravagant and obnoxious opening move, every single person who had been fighting to the death, immediately focused on the audacious newcomer. Bunny screamed “What the fucking fuck was that terribad fucking noise?! Did Ceda try to fuck his cat again?!”

However, from the wreckage of that giant pirate ship, there was just an endless crying and whining noise. As if, even if it wanted to die, the transformable galleon was cursed to eternal life.

Gabriel immediately ignored the angry fairy and turned to his left. As the gorilla-man started in shock at that gargantuan vixen, he attempted to contact Beatrix, Iris, Luke and several other allies, but none of them were responding. Across such a distance, it would typically be impossible for instant communication. He would have at least been able to get some semblance of a sensation that they were still out there somewhere though. However, that oppressive aura of Nature was preventing any sort of telepathy from going through.

He yelled “Shit! Is everyone dead?! No, I could feel most of them not that long ago… Goddamn it! Why couldn’t that bastard just sleep for another thousand years and give us some fucking time to prepare?!”

Cali and Chamuel separated from each other and were standing on opposite sides of a lava-river, as they both gazed up towards the distant mostly white fox. Those enormous blue eyes glared at the two for a moment, but swiftly lost interest. In fact, everyone who was still alive had ceased their previous bloody battle and shifted their attention to the much more dangerous enemy that had appeared.

Butter was casually standing over the necrotic, skeletal frame of that formerly overpowered unicorn and grumbled “Where the hell is Cain?! Hey Violet, let’s get outta here! Violet, why aren’t you listening to me?!” Although he wasn’t really her ‘boss’, the serpentine rat-dragon usually followed Cameron’s directions pretty obediently.

Inari and the equally titanic ‘Violet’ were engrossed in a strange staring competition. Even the seven pairs of golden eyes from those snake-like tails were all locked onto the blue irises of her enemy.

Eventually, the vixen growled angrily and pounced forward without any prior indication. Although her body was enormous, it was also practically weightless. It meant that she wasn’t able to build up much momentum, but gravity didn’t seem to influence her too much either. With her absurd strength and agility, if she had wanted to, she could directly exit Mars’ atmosphere with a single high-jump.

Violet on the other hand, could fly around because her colossal frame was constantly utilizing extraordinarily large amounts of mana and energy in order to move. When the tip of her massive tail whipped over, it flew at several times the speed of sound, yet Inari had a few new ‘tricks’ up her metaphorical sleeves.

When the gargantuan barbs on the end of that rat-like snake-tail pricked into her abdomen, there was almost no resistance. The fox popped like a balloon and at first, it seemed as if she had totally vanished into a huge cloud of green smoke.

“Fuck-shit-cunt-bitch-whore-suck my dick you piece of trash! Grah~!” The rat-dragon started screaming in agony as thousands of tiny critters started crawling around on her skin and tearing off small chunks of flesh or drinking her blood.

From a distance, it looked like there were gigantic fleas hopping around on Violet’s head, neck and body, but they were actually just a bunch of Inari’s puppy-sized clones. Each of them was relatively weak, yet they were still capable of dealing constant damage and causing the enemy to be distracted.

Meanwhile, the viridescent smog continued to fall down upon the battlefield and managed to infect every single unsuspecting person who had been watching from the sidelines. The most terrifying part about those fungal spores was that it took so long for them to even show any sort of effect.

Of course, Bunny, Gabriel, Butter, Cali, Chamuel, Dalthis, Cyber, Toxic, Decum and Aoi were all cautious enough to keep from inhaling the suspicious green gas. They also knew how to create a barrier to protect them from similar attacks, so only the surviving members of Forewarning, the Scarlet Knights and Crimson Raiders were coughing nonstop. Many of them had masks, helmets and even entire suits of armor to protect them from all sorts of pathogens, toxins or parasites; though it wouldn’t matter if the difference in power was too dramatic.

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