Author’s Note: These Parts are only 1k words on average, so I’ll probably post 2 at a time. Making it closer to a ‘normal’ chapter of most stories.

Part 2

*Michael’s Perspective*

“Hold the line!”

“Hold!”

“Agh~!”

It was something I’d seen so many times before. A thousand heavily armored warriors were trying to block the small passageway with their shields and spears. Their gear and discipline were pretty good. I was actually impressed. Their equipment was enchanted and made of decent materials, so even Amber was having trouble breaking into their formation.

Standing much further back, since the tunnel was a steep decline, I could see what was behind those heavy infantry. At least a couple dozen mages were gathered in circles, chanting and casting spells. Either to support their allies in the front, send messages for reinforcements or honestly, it looked a lot like a fucking summoning ritual. Behind them were some higher-ranked and more powerful warriors, similar to the woman who tried to block us from entering the gate, while there were also over a hundred lightly-armored archers.

Fireballs and flaming arrows were already flying towards me as I yawned, unhooking the black battlestaff from my back. I pointed the glowing white spearlike tip forward and a thin laser instantly pierced through the face of a half-naked female Fire Elf mage. As for the fireballs and arrows? They hit my armor and exploded, broke or just bounced off.

Before they had time to realize what was happening or come up with countermeasures, I quickly fired ten more concentrated lasers. I only targeted a single person out of each group of five, that way whatever ritual they wanted to perform, would become far more difficult. They were pretty good though. Within a few seconds, each of them was coated in a much denser aura, which was particularly strong around their heads, necks and hearts. Even if I could break through the barrier by using more mana, it really wouldn’t be worth the effort.

Instead, I hooked the staff back onto my back and then drew the revolver from my waist. Without even looking, I could ‘feel’ the six black-mithril rounds inside the cylinder. I chuckled as I saw the fiery tigress beating down the knights with her golden gauntlets. Each hit would either knock someone’s head clean off, or punch a molten hole through their chest. The more unfortunate ones who tried stabbing her in the back with swords or spears, were usually struck by a very angry arc of purple lightning.

Pulling back the hammer, I was hit by another volley of fairly accurate arrows and fireballs. However, before the flames even dispersed, I injected my mana into the handle and pulled the trigger. The black-mithril bullet was unaffected by the magical flames for obvious reasons, and easily cut its way through the chaos, striking the left eye-socket of a random shirtless male mage.

Of course, even if the bullet passed straight through his head and wiped out a good chunk of his brain in the process, he was still alive afterwards. The damage was severe enough to incapacitate the poor bastard, but being a Level-4… Well, it takes a lot of damage to actually ‘kill’ someone or something at that point.

I mean, remember back to when I was first trudging through the Forest of Corruption? Hell, even further back, when I was only at Level-2 or 3 at most, I got chopped in half and was still able to recover after a while. Not every species has such extreme tenacity, but at the very least, it’s a level of existence far beyond what ordinary humans or elves would consider ‘Mortal’.

The mages I shot with lasers were already struggling to get back up and continue chanting… However, if there’s nowhere to retreat, being incapacitated in battle is usually worse than death. At least if you get killed, you’ll be spared from the generic rape and torture that usually comes afterward. And if they survive past that phase, prisoners of war are generally either enslaved, executed or ransomed.

I prefer execution and then maybe eating them, depending on the situation. What? Now days everyone is so damn offended by everything. If a person’s already dead, and they’re edible, then why waste the food you’ve hunted. On the other hand, what’s the difference between raising livestock and slavery? Anyway, kids these days will never really understand what ‘we’ went through, and it’s better that they don’t. 

Moving on… I quickly fired the revolver five more times; each round striking an eye-socket or forehead of a mage. Most of the ones that got hit in the eye would be blinded and lose a decent portion of their brain matter, but could still get up eventually and keep casting spells. On the other hand, the black-mithril bullets that hit the thick skulls of those Fire Elves would usually get stopped ‘inside’… Which was far more debilitating, since it directly suppressed their ability to use magic, or even think properly.

The cylinder opened on its own via a simple rune I built into the gun, then the empty casings were launched out onto the ground. A small hole opened up on my right pauldron and six new rounds flew out, drawn straight into the empty cylinder. The pauldron-hole shut on its own, while the cylinder also locked back into place without me having to really ‘do’ much of anything. So little mana was required for the whole process that it didn’t need to be charged at all under normal circumstances.

It might seem a bit lazy, but you really don’t want to waste time focusing on reloading in a life or death battle. Plus, the purpose of both firearms and magic are ultimately ‘convenience’. I could charge over and just beat everyone to death like Amber… I just didn’t feel like it.

I was honestly still a little pissed off that all my guns were destroyed before I had the chance to test them out. Aside from that, as long as I kept distracting the mages and archers, Amber would have a much easier time dealing with the melee forces. And I could also keep an eye out in case there were any ‘unforeseen circumstances’.

Part 3

*Michael’s Perspective*

“Michael… Michael~… Michael~…”

Every few seconds I could hear a deep and gravelly voice whispering my name. It was underneath the white noise of the gunshots, explosions, screams and battlecries. Not quite telepathy, but more along the lines of a very low-pitched infrasound. Similar to the voice that originally brought me to the Northern Mountains in the first place.

“Come deeper, heh~, come deeper inside~…”

“Don’t… Don’t be… Tricked.”

“Ignore him~, come to me~…”

“Michael, you need to hurry.”

“Can’t hold on much longer…”

“Ah~ Michael~, can you feel it?”

My helmet covered my ears, but my horns were totally exposed to the outside. Considering how they practically act as telepathic antennas, it wasn’t surprising that I was picking up a lot of ‘noise’. Hell, that was only what I can vaguely remember. Think about all the desperate cries for help or salvation that would occur on a battlefield. The officers were sending out telepathic orders to their subordinates as well, which made them super annoying and noticeable.

From the very start, I’ve made it pretty clear… The most dangerous and cruel type of magic has always been the power of Illusion. It didn’t matter how physically powerful those warriors, mages and archers were, because so long as they opened their minds a tiny bit… I could easily worm my way inside. It didn’t take much effort or mana at all to be honest.

“What are you doing?!”

“Agh~!”

“Traitors!”

“Kill the traitors!”

“Fuck you!”

“Blasphemer!”

Chaos erupted within moments of my little tricks. Those officers who were commanding their troops through telepathy easily infected all their own soldiers with the madness that I spread. There wasn’t much trust or respect between any of them in the first place. They all had conflicts in the past. Some of them killed or raped each other’s family for fuck’s sake. Hell, some of them ‘were’ family members but still hated each other for various reasons.

The warriors were struck by a volley of arrows from behind, and their armor was nowhere near as durable as mine. Hundreds of them were wounded or killed within seconds. Then the warriors that survived actually turned around and charged towards the mages, stampeding over them. I couldn’t do much to psychically fuck with the mages, since their willpower was much higher and they probably had their own mental defenses in place already.

As for those few Level-5 elites in the middle of the carnage, they were the ones shouting about treason and blasphemy. Trying to give verbal commands, but ended up being drawn into a huge messy brawl between all their soldiers. And Amber was just laughing her ass off while having no clue what was going on.

She charged into the middle of the mess and pounced on one of the most powerful female elites, literally trying to bite the woman’s head off. Anyone who got close to the two of them were scorched by purple or crimson flames. As two fire-type brawlers with fancy enchanted gear, at least the Fire Elf could last for a minute or two.

“Ah~, are you happy now Violet? Hahah~, shit… This is going to be a long day.” I snickered before letting out a long sigh, staring up at the tens of thousands of glowing orbs that started raining from the ceiling. Some of them paused in mid-air and formed rainbow-colored irises for a second, staring straight at me.

For a moment, it felt like everything froze in place. I couldn’t move, but neither could anything else. Then I heard a thousand voices simultaneously whispering into my mind: “Entropy… Samsara… Asura… Dharma… Arcana… Sariel… Gaea… Seven again… Always seven… No Deity rules Eternal. You should know that better than anyone, Michael. When Karma is complete… When every world, every universe has been digested. When all Gods die… Hehehe~, nothing will be left but you and I~!”

A deep yet effeminate voice suddenly sang: “Who is like God? Aren’t you the best example? The man who neglected his own temple~! Michael! Haven’t we all been Gods? Titans even? And yet you’re still not satisfied? What do you want? What do you desire? You’re just a broken monster waiting to decide~!”

“Fuck my life.” I sighed as soon as I managed to break out of the illusion. Because the sky really was falling. Or more specifically, the ceiling full of slimes were pouring down like hail. A blue one landed on my helmet and exploded, freezing all the moisture in the air around me. And there were tens of thousands of those little bastards. The red ones turned into fireballs or gouts of lava, purple ones exploded into poison mist or bursts of lightning, yellow ones literally turned some people into golden statues or just covered them in sticky piss…

“Violet you fucking asshole!” I roared up at the sky as a wave of mana erupted from the white runes on my black armor. Even if I could withstand countless volleys of magically empowered fire-arrows, I didn’t want to be drenched in nasty slimy goop that may or may not be a certain dragon’s excretions.

My mana took the form of a thick whirlwind that simply blew everything around me away. On the other hand, Amber was still covered in purple flames and eating/beating the chaotic Fire Elf army a hundred or so meters away.

“Stop fucking around, we gotta go! Now!” I roared while holstering my revolver and telekinetically pulling out the daikatana from my back. The seven foot long sword was large, even for me, but I had grown to about eight feet by that point. It’s a good thing I designed the armor to be able to expand quite a bit. Amber stopped growing at around nine feet, so she was still quite a bit taller than me.

With a half-eaten crispy smoldering redish-black head in her mouth, she got up off the ground and seemed to finally notice that things were ‘wrong’. Aside from the chaotic slimy rain, the entrance we came through was just gone. Not destroyed or resealed, but it looked like it had never existed in the first place.

The ground quaked and trembled, yet wasn’t cracking or breaking. Even with all the explosions. As if it was an indestructible virtual mesh from a video game. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought it was actually another illusion.