Chapter 505: Notable Adversaries
A gold-rimmed portal materialized, from which surged a beam of prismatic flames that swept across the battlefield. The esoteric flames torched thousands of undead and Reborn Adversaries, consuming everything in their path and reducing the enemies to ash. The charred remnants of Idrilla’s Unholy Resurrection magic were all that remained.
After clearing the area around them, Arthur and Evan kicked off the ground and dashed toward the two girls. Their swords sliced through thousands of opponents as they moved, each swing a blur of deadly precision.
Leaping into the air, they unfurled their wings, beating them to boost past the speed of sound. They blitzed through the air as streaks of crimson gold and silver lights, crashing down amid the heaps of enemies surging at Artemisia and Beatrix.
Noticing this, Idrilla silently sliced the ground with her scythe, muttering an incantation in her mind.
’I bestow upon you the title of ’Notable Adversaries.’
Arise, fallen warriors, and seek your vengeance.
By the command of Death’s Saintess, reclaim your honour.’
A massive amount of magic power and death energy was pulled from her body and the inscriptions on her dress glowed, drawing divinity from an unknown source and using it to reinforce the power of the Reborn Adversaries.
Tombstones emerged from the ground around her, glowing with a dark divine light. The ground cracked open and dark shadows shot out at breakneck speed, swiftly weaving through the droves of undead and adversaries on the battlefield as they beelined straight for where Evan and Arthur were.
’I should cut off the energy flow for the girls... the sheer amount of adversaries Evan and Arthur have is astronomical.’
Amidst the tens of thousands of Reborn Adversaries charging toward the four teenagers, neither Evan nor Arthur noticed a few odd hundred suddenly vanishing.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, Arthur and Evan were cleaving through waves and waves of enemies, whilst formulating a plan of action to take.
They knew that even if they cut down these reborn adversaries, Idrilla could keep summoning them over and over.
What’s more, they were wary of the ’Notable Adversaries’ she had spoken about.
They knew the tough opponents they had in the past that could deserve that title, and as they hadn’t seen any of them, they knew Idrilla hadn’t yet revealed her all.
Just as Evan was about to suggest sneak attacking her with his ’Factor Mimic’ ability, the ground beneath their feet suddenly caved in and a massive building-sized shadow leopard jumped out.
"Huh? Isn’t that the monster I killed in Roselia’s dungeon?! It was just a mere Gold Level, why is this thing in front of me giving off Epic Level energy!?"
Evan exclaimed as the giant leopard’s red eyes turned towards him. It roared out with rage and raised a paw, unleashing a barrage of energy blasts at him.
He raised his shield to tank the attacks so Artemisia and Beatrix behind him didn’t get hit, but before the first one even reached him, a giant muscular Orc appeared at his side and slammed him with its blade.
Next, a Wraith Queen appeared and summoned hordes of ghosts, her mouth perpetually open as she released disorienting screams.
As if that wasn’t enough, the demon Xakon from before re-emerged, his body looking noticeably different from before, and like the other two, he emanated Epic Level power.
"True Form Release!?"
Evan exclaimed as he spun in the air and landed on his feet, before heaving a sigh of relief at the fact that the Beatrix teleported herself and Artemisia out of the way.
He then turned his gaze back to the Demon in his ’True Form’, filling his sword with energy in preparation to strike when he suddenly felt a sweet voice whisper his name from behind.
"Evan~~ I’ve missed you~."
Fair slender arms wrapped around him from behind and pulled him into a back hug, as the voice of his dearly beloved entered his ears.
However, rather than happiness, Evan’s body shivered uncomfortably as he activated his skill.
’Mesarthim; Orange: Self Immolation.’
"KIYAAAAAKKK!!!!!"
A piercing scream of pain rang out as Evan’s body erupted with orange flames, burning the arms and body of the person who had hugged him and tried to charm him.
Years ago, that same charm was something he could barely resist. Now, it wasn’t even worth mentioning.
Turning around, he faced the figure of a beautiful naked woman, his orange flames searing her arms and stomach.
With a thought, Evan commanded his flames to spread and the other colours of his esoteric flames manifested, spreading across the rest of her lower body—a grotesque, giant eight-legged spider.
Evan heard the sound of crackling lightning and something flashed in the corner of his vision. ON instinct, he bent his body backwards just in time to dodge the sword slash that came from the lightning-clad sword which tried to take his head.
He reached out and grabbed the blade, activating a skill to boost his strength and dragging the blade along with its wielder over his head.
Evan slammed the body on the ground, taking a moment to glance and see the appearance of his attacker.
It was a male humanoid dressed in full-body armour, wearing a hat-shaped helmet that covered their face. The only thing visible was the pair of glowing red eyes that locked onto Evan.
In their left hand, was a long black curved blade that seemed to be joined with its palm, and hanging from their waist was a familiar crossbow.
Faster than this humanoid—a Blade Wraith: Veradas monster—could react, Evan spun around and flung his body like a weapon, using it to block the claw swipe of the giant leopard, and then swinging it in the reverse direction to block Xakon’s ice magic.
Just then, a two-metre-tall boar with glowing red eyes angrily charged at him out of nowhere and he unfurled his wings, beating them and flying into the air to avoid the charge.
He then spun around to generate momentum, flinging the Blade Wraith’s body at Xakon who followed him into the skies.
Evan dropped down to avoid the Shadow Leopard’s energy blasts, landing on his two feet and releasing a shockwave that blew away everything within a hundred-metre radius.
Watching his past opponents quickly get back on their feet, Evan scanned them all and called out their respective names.
"The unnamed ’Shadow Leopard’ from the Graveyard of the Arrogant.
The unnamed Orc Lord from Luka Town’s Mountains where I met Eliza.
Yaqash, the Boss of the Spider’s Nest Dungeon.
Xakon Ilmoth from Geto City.
Elecrus from the Mansion of the Damned’s Monster Room.
Ocsuat the Frost Boar King boss of the Mansion of the Damned’s Floor 30."
Evan stabbed his sword into the ground and cracked his knuckles, activating his Blessing of Destruction skill which increased his Overall power by 300% as he spoke.
"Fine, let’s have our rematch."
With those words, he grabbed his blade and charged right at the reborn adversaries whose eyes glowed with killing intent.
◇ ◇ ◇
As Evan was facing his first set of ’Notable Adversaries’, Arthur was analysing the ones before him. One thing he noticed was that regardless of their original Strengths, these all had Legendary Realm power.
This power was leagues above what some of them had when they were alive.
’Like Zach and that Celestial I killed in Nemo.’
The Celestial was an Inferior Stage Epic, while Zach died as a Superior Grandmaster.
But after being conferred the status of ’Notable Adversaries’ by Idrilla, they now wielded the power of Legendries.
He glanced at Evan and noticed that the Demon Xakon who was a Master Realm when he first appeared was now an Epic—the same with Evan.
’So, this is what the Notable Adversary thing does, huh?’
While Arthur was analysing them, Idrilla was also making her own analysis to try and see what she could do to make things in her favour.
She had a thought.
Since Arthur had beaten these people in the past, then he probably knew their skills, abilities and how they fought. The same applied to Evan and his Reborn Adversaries.
So, she thought to send Evan’s ’Notable Adversaries’ against Arthur, and Arthur’s against Evan.
However, she quickly crushed that thought.
Notable Adversaries were granted power on the same ’Level’ as the one who had slain them. That was a ’rule’ she set to maintain equilibrium in return for the ability to summon Adversaries across space and time.
This meant that Evan’s Notable Adversaries were Level 653 and Arthur’s were Level 793.
Although Evan would probably die if he got besieged by Arthur’s Notables who were over 100 levels higher, the problem was that Arthur wouldn’t let that happen.
He was strong enough to one-shot Evan’s Notables and reach Evan’s side to aid him in a flash.
She tried it once and Evan simply abandoned his fight and ran over to where Arthur was, prompting Arthur to notice what she did.
On a side note, Arthur actually had zero idea about the skills and fighting styles of 90% of the Notables she summoned.
Idrilla believed they may have been tough opponents for Arthur because they were Legendries and Sovereigns, not knowing that these were people Arthur didn’t even know he had killed with his AOE attacks and bombing of Plomux-East’s Coastal Bases.
’There are only a few people here that I actually remember. And even less that I knew long enough to figure out their names.’
Arthur thought to himself as he glanced at the Legendries surrounding him.
Zach Pearce from the Academy Monsterization Incident.
Ursan, the Southern Emperor of Planet Phirex
The Unnamed Valkyrie demigod Daughter of the god Jarox of Phirex.
The Malevolent god of Darkness Kulir from Planet Gade.
Level 700 Divine Humans from Duskhand and the Triton’s Ark.
The Celestial from the Nemo Galaxy auction.
The demigods who attacked him outside Lucifer’s Domain in Varona.
Low Ranked gods from Duskhand and the Triton’s Ark
Divine Humans from Plomux-East’s coastal bases.
The number of opponents he was facing was far higher than Evan’s, evidence of how much of a threat Idrilla viewed him.
Fighting numerous opponents was never easy, after all.
|¬Authority of the Progenitor godslayer. ¬|
Arthur activated his Progenitor Authority and summoned Lostvayne, wielding the Soul Devouring Sword of Destruction in his left hand while Celestia occupied his right.
He did not see how rapidly Idrilla’s face paled when he summoned Lostvayne, and he didn’t need to as he knew just what kind of reaction she’d have to the sight of the sword.
His suspicion was confirmed in the next moment when the giant White Dragon originally headed towards Evan turned around midway and sprayed a breath at him.
