Chapter 666: Never Ending Swarm
Evan gritted his teeth, watching the endless flow of enemies. His face twisted in frustration as he sliced through rows of vanguards with prismatic flames that burned them down to ash.
But even as he destroyed individual units, the horde charged forward, uncaring and ceaseless.
"They’re so weak they’re not even giving me EXP!"
He shouted as he blasted another wave with a fiery burst that turned a hundred creatures to cinders.
Beatrix, dodging the lunges of several vanguards, shot him a look of disbelief.
"That’s what you’re worried about?"
"Of course!"
Evan shouted back, his flames spreading in a wave, incinerating a hundred more. He clenched his fist, laughing almost maniacally.
"Come on, you really think I’m in this war to help them?"
He gestured towards the distant spirit army, which was also locked in battle.
"I’m here for the EXP! Gotta level up!"
As he turned back, he noticed one particular swarm member behaving differently. Amid the mindless swarm lunging at him, this one creature had spotted him and avoided him, slipping into the chaos of the crowd.
Evan’s eyes narrowed as he locked onto it.
’Blink.’
Without hesitation, Evan teleported right behind it, seizing its head in his hand and slamming it onto the ground with bone-crushing force.
Pressing his palm to the creature’s head, he unleashed a point-blank energy blast that blew it apart, leaving nothing but fragments.
The moment it shattered, every swarm creature within 200 meters froze, their bodies stiffening before collapsing into dust.
The sudden silence around Evan was striking, the swarm momentarily halted.
Beatrix blinked, lowering her guard for a moment.
"Huh? Are they dead?"
Instantly, both Arthur and Evan whipped their heads toward her, eyes wide with panic.
"Beatrix, don’t say that revival spell!"
They yelled in unison, and as if on cue, the ground split open again, and another swarm of vanguards erupted from beneath, the forest itself groaning as hundreds of creatures were reborn from the earth, their flower-patterned bodies bright and freshly formed.
Evan cursed under his breath, watching the new wave close in.
"Alright, everyone, pay attention. Remember what Charisse said about the Swarm Mothers."
’Hidden within each swarm cluster is a Swarm Mother, a Vanguard with only subtle differences from the others. The Swarm Mother is the origin of the swarm within a certain range; killing it instantly deactivates all Vanguards born within its territory.
But finding it is a challenge—it looks almost identical to the others. And while there aren’t as many Swarm Mothers as there are regular Swarm Vanguards, they are still numerous enough to ensure the swarm’s unending assault.’
Evan’s eyes darted around, locking onto a few particular Vanguards that were not rushing to attack them.
"Some of these things are swarm mothers. Look for the ones with brighter flower patterns and no flesh patches—those are the mothers."
In that short moment, the boy had noticed the subtle differences between the normal Swarm and the Swarm mothers.
Receiving this new information, the eyes of the other five sharpened, looking for these subtle differences Evan mentioned.
Arthur took a deep breath and activated his Gravity Pseudo-Authority, lifting his hand and making the ground tremble as an immense gravitational force slammed down on the swarm before him.
Dozens of vanguards were crushed instantly, their bodies snapping under the weight as Arthur pushed the force outward, creating a widening radius of destruction.
’There’s got to at least be one Swarm Mother in here somewhere.’
Indeed, there was. His gravitational downforce crushed the three Swarm Mothers and in an instant, the space around them for over 500 metres was cleared.
But almost instantly, more filled that space, pouring in endlessly.
He swung Lostvayne and released an Extinction Slash, sending a wave of energy that horizontally bisected the creatures, carving a swath through the mass of bodies that charged around him to replace the crushed ones.
Beside him, Evan rained down frostfire spears, piercing Swarm Mothers with dozens in one go. Sometimes, he hit the real mothers, but sometimes he missed.
’I would love to have Laurene here now.’
Such a thought crossed his mind as he spiralled his flames in a torrent around his sword, bathing the swarm in multicoloured fire.
As his flames burned through them, the ashes settled, but the ground below writhed, and more vanguards clawed their way up from beneath.
"These weeds just keep growing back!"
Evan growled, frustration boiling as he released another wave of prismatic flames, searing hundreds of the creatures in front of him.
Artemisia summoned her Tempest Avatar and used it to sweep through hordes in one go, but barely a second later, they charged back, climbing up the lightning construct without fear of being torched.
Not far from her, Beatrix fought teleported between points in the swarm, each jump leaving bursts of destructive spatial energy that erased anything nearby.
She waved her hands, using her spatial deletion attacks to carve clean holes through the vanguards as she phased in and out of the fray.
"Is this seriously a joke? I’ve sliced through dozens of swarm mothers, and we’re not making a dent!"
Crim felt Beatrix’s irritation, her crimson eyes glowing as she manipulated the blood of nearby devils to create spikes and sharp tendrils infused with destruction energy. She hurled them into the swarm, each blood spike piercing multiple creatures, turning them to dust.
Raising her hands, Crim coalesced the blood around her like a crimson storm, striking down any vanguards that got close. But even her deadly control couldn’t keep up with the endless tide.
Hibiki used her illusions to mislead clusters of vanguard swarm, conjuring mirages of herself, leading packs of the creatures away and then vanishing, causing them to collide with each other in confusion.
The swarm tore at each other, her illusions scrambling their sense of direction, but the distraction was only temporary — the swarm reoriented and charged again, their single-minded focus unnerving in its intensity.
"Evan! Maelstrom!"
Arthur shouted and Evan quickly understood, activating the skill he’d taken from the Leviathan Crarox.
""Gravitational Maelstrom!""
Both boys called out in unison and a sphere of distorted space formed in the sky. Its gravitation pull sucked in everything around them, pulling all the swarm members in range inward.
Bodies were crushed as Arthur used his Pseudo-Authority to intensify the gravitational pull, spinning them around before opening his mouth and firing a beam of destruction energy, erasing everything in the sphere.
For a moment, the area in front of them was clear, but it was only a moment; the swarm flooded back in as quickly as it had been decimated.
"What the fuck!? I’ve been targeting the mothers specifically, but it’s like each one I take down is immediately replaced!"
Beatrix cursed out in irritation, waving her hand to delete another Swarm Mother from space itself. Right before her very eyes, two more Swarm Mothers spawned, immediately turning tail and running away from her to avoid being instantly erased.
They spawned more local swarms as they ran, so by the time Beatrix was done clearing the local swarm, the mothers had vanished.
Arthur noticed this little occurrence, and the boy’s patience finally snapped.
|¬Alright. ¬|
His Faux True Voice rumbled like thunder in their ears as he spoke with a deadpan expression.
|¬This is getting irritating. Everybody, get off the ground. Now.¬|
The command carried an edge that snapped everyone to attention.
Evan remembered the last time Arthur said that, and he instantly acted. He rocketed off the ground in an instant, grabbing Crim by the waist and hauling her upward as he ascended.
Crim looked at him, her eyes wide with confusion, but Evan’s tight grip silenced any question. When he turned and saw Hibiki still on the ground, he screamed out.
"Hibiki, get off the ground now!"
Hibiki saw Artemisia and Beatrix taking to the skies and unfurled her wings, joining them without hesitation.
Arthur alone remained on the ground.
Swarm Charged around him, each one intent on tearing him apart, but he ignored them.
The boy raised Lostvayne, pointed it at the ground and drove it into the earth.
Power radiated from the blade, an unstoppable surge of divinity and anti-divinity clashing and spiralling into a violent storm of purple energy. Time and destruction twisted together, a cocktail of forces that ignited in an omnidirectional wave.
|¬Extreme Nothingness: Seismic Surge¬|
The energy carved through everything in sight — vanguards, swarm members, devils, and any other creature unfortunate enough to stand in its path.
Waves of destruction raced across the land, sweeping away all life in a deadly radius that extended for kilometres. In a matter of seconds, the ground lay barren, the remnants of the swarm reduced to ash.
Arthur pulled his sword from the ground and his cosmic energy spiralled around him, preparing to teleport — but something strange caught his eye.
Far on the edge of his vision, where the bodies of fallen swarm members were beginning to reabsorb into the earth, a figure was revealed.
Its form was unfamiliar, almost insectoid, an arthropod-like creature that seemed to have the same earthy, plant-like structure as the rest of the swarm but was different — larger, filled with more creation law energy.
’That thing NEEDS to DIE.’
All of Arthur’s battle instincts warned him of this. Evan and the others also saw it as well. It had been hidden behind the overwhelming Swarm numbers, but Arthur’s attack had revealed its existence.
"Evan!"
Arthur called, his voice sharp and without waiting for a response, he charged toward the new enemy.
Understanding instantly, Evan tossed Crim into Hibiki’s arms mid-air and hurtled down to join Arthur, his sword already blazing with prismatic flames.
Together, the two launched forward, their powers surging as they closed the distance with the arthropod creature.
Destruction energy and prismatic flames flared to life around their swords, an unstoppable force as they raised their weapons in unison. Arthur was first, thrusting his blade forward, pouring his energy into a singular attack.
|¬Extreme Nothingness! ¬|
The blade released a beam of purple destruction that crackled through the air, faster than a heartbeat, aimed directly at the creature.
Right beside him, Evan thrust his sword forward.
"Prismatic Vortex!"
His attack spiralled forward, a blazing swirl of prismatic flames ripping through the air, trailing destruction in its wake as it honed in on the target.
But as their attacks neared, the ground exploded again and more swarm members charged forward, creating a solid wall of bodies between their attacks and the arthropod creature.
Vanguards and newly spawned swarm mothers hurled themselves into the attacks without hesitation, their bodies absorbing the force of the deadly beams.
The swarm dissolved into ash, body after body sacrificed in a desperate defence, but for each one destroyed, another took its place.
The swarm mothers multiplied, each one spawning hundreds of new swarm members in mere seconds, creating an endless torrent that threw itself at the boys’ attacks, draining the power from their beams bit by bit.
For every creature that fell, another took its place, forming an impenetrable barricade, and their attacks slowed as the sheer numbers sapped their energy.
Seeing their efforts stalled, Artemisia and Beatrix swooped in from the sides, their eyes fixed on the arthropod creature as well.
They charged their powers, Artemisia’s wind and lightning blazing around her twin blades, while Beatrix’s spatial energy radiated from her hands.
Infusing as much divinity as she could in an instant, Artemisia slashed her blades, sending a roaring cyclone of lightning crackling towards the arthropod creature. At the same time, Beatrix thrust her spear forward, unleashing a powerful bolt of spatial energy that cut through the air like a knife.
The attacks hit, but when the smoke cleared, the creature remained standing.
The powerful defences of the creature had barely been scratched; it shrugged off the blows as if they were nothing more than a breeze.
"Arthur!"
Evan called out to Arthur, grabbing his shoulder and showing him the results of his Appraisal of the creature.
