Seeing the incoming enemies, Vesuvius raised his neck, energy flickering in his throat and eyes, contrasting starkly with the light-devouring darkness emanating from his armor. He towered high above the destroyed marble landscape and his enemies.
'I can't use my divine energy, as without it, all the energy I absorb would go berserk.' Vesuvius glanced at the constant spam of notifications.
[ 4554235 XP]
[ 16471716 XP]
...
From the ranks of the enemies, a single streak of silver light broke out, faster than the others, rapidly approaching the dragon. The streak swiftly morphed into an angel, its spear coated in divine, silver energy aid directly at Vesuvius's neck.
The tiny angel appeared as just a brief streak of silver against the dragon's mountainous size.
Vesuvius already knew the angel's tactic, having encountered many in past battles. 'Trying to harass with a fast attack. This ti, that will not work.'
Vesuvius focused on his domain, and the space around him warped, engulfing the angel. The silver angel reappeared just before the dragon's claws. As the claws snapped shut with a crunch, the searing pain of the divine light spear tore through his armor and scales, stinging sharply.
[ 1500 XP]
Yet, to his massive body, it was like a tiny needle—an irritation but hardly a threat.
'Overconfident little fly.' The dragon felt like laughing, recalling tis when an angel like the one he just crushed would have been a formidable foe. But now, after his last evolution, it seed no more significant than a fly—provided he struck it down before it could fully deploy its divine energy.
It was almost as if, in answer to his dismissal of the angel, an enormous beam of pure fire erupted from the mouth of a giant fire-elental colossus on the other side of the portal that opened in the distance. It was not massive in scale, but its temperature was so extre that the air seed to warp and shimr, the intense heat causing the atmosphere to ignite.
Below the beam, the ground didn't just scorch; it lted, the solid marble transforming into a molten river before evaporating into thick black smoke.
Usually, that wouldn't have worried the dragon with his affinities, but he could sense divine energy within the flas.
The dragon warped the space, but the flas with divine energy seemingly burned straight through space and ti, ignoring the folds in dinsions, inevitably heading straight for him. The ti slowed down—he could divert his divine energy to counter it, but that would an risking losing control over the mass of energy pulsing within his chest.
'My scales, flesh, and armor should have so resistance and my danger sense isn't reacting.' He didn't believe he wouldn't survive it. He gathered his domain, the lordly crown of stars manifesting above his head as ti slowed down even further.
As the power over his domain intensified, Vesuvius sensed the buildup of more of the powerful energies within the portals around him. He could feel the prepared attacks, his danger threat warning him it would be bad. His eyes flashed—he found a solution.
His eyes, horns, and crown exploded with blinding light, and his domain and aura expanded like an ever-growing bubble.
The radiance of his horns and crows intensified as he directed powerful fire affinities, corroding, and wrestling against the quickly approaching beam of fire with his secondary magic brain, while his primary mind ground with focus as he directed his attention against the portals.
As his domain expanded, all portals within its reach collapsed inward, vanishing like flas extinguished by a river's flow, severing the enemy's reinforcents.
He had affinity and control over space within his domain, and closing so portals was a child's play for his new power.
anwhile, the burning beam reached him, and a torrent of divine flas struck him, pain erupting across his body as it penetrated his magic barriers, the burning ring, and armor, only slowing when it t his scales. The divine energy then began to wane. His muscles sizzled and his armor vaporized, yet the dragon stood resolute, disregarding the smoking hole rapidly healing in his chest.
Then, as he willed one of his new abilities to move, everything around him, including the floor and the incoming formations of lesser angels, spirits, and elentals within the reach of his domain, disintegrated into flas, annihilated by his burning laceration disk, which expanded, devouring everything in its path.
Using all the material and energy from the disk, the hole instantly regenerated, leaving the dragon standing like a mountain above the disintegrated battlefield without a single scratch.
'There is still more... and then even more of them.' With worry, he glanced at the portals in the distance, beyond the reach of his domain, which continued to expand.
They were too far for him to close.
He stopped the powerful enemies from crossing into the world for now, but he knew it was only temporary.
'This should still buy so ti, and ti is all I need.'
The space warped again, and the orb of rainbow energy reappeared in his grasp. He pressed it against the already blindingly lit sigil. Then the energy surged with a new intensity.
[ 2573735743737659898 XP]
POV A player:
A young, brown-haired man squeezed himself forward through the bustling lobby of the rcenary guild, heading straight toward the nearest counter. A smile played on his face as if it were a good day.
'With the money from the last job, I will...' As a thought resonated in his mind, he paused.
Ding!
//
Condition check: mbership in a faction hostile toward Hands of Genesis; No divine stat; No priest, or other holy job
Evaluating conditions...
//
The bustling noise of the lobby ca to an abrupt halt as everyone froze, their routines disrupted by a sudden alert. The air thickened with a tangible tension, palpable in the sudden quiet.
"Is this so event?" The words slipped from a player, her voice trembling with excitent.
"How long has it been since the last one?" another player stamred.
Then, a deep scarlet hue of text flashed directly into the young man's vision.
Ding!
//
Congratulations! You have made the wrong choice.
You were a fool who decided to play this ga given to you by the grace of the brilliant god of knowledge, a mber of the divine hands of Genesis, but decided to join the enemies of Genesis. Now you will reap what you have sown!
//
Ding!
//
You have triggered a special quest: The Stick
Objective: Use the teleportation crystal and sacrifice yourself as cannon fodder in the battle.
Reward: 1 X Rotten Apple
Mission items: 1 X Fixed-location Teleportation Crystal
Failure conditions: The dragon fails to ascend; You fail to join the battle in ti; You didn't contribute enough effort to the battle
Failure punishnts: Permanent diarrhea; eternal migraine; suffering; loss of ability to respawn;
//
As the ssage faded from his vision, tension washed over the room. Whispers erupted as every player started receiving their ssages, their faces a canvas of shock, fear, and confusion. So read their fate with a grimace, others with a gasp, reflecting the myriad of individual consequences and quests flashing before their eyes.
"Oh gods, this is slavery!" a woman exclaid, her voice laced with dread as she read her dire ssage.
"Fuck, the entire system is rigged," noted a seasoned player nearby, his brow furrowed as he stared lifelessly, like a corpse, into the empty space before him.
The young man trembled with instant regret. 'Fuck, I should have stayed at least neutral! What the fuck was I thinking, sticking my hands into a conflict between fucking gods!'
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