Chapter 23: Descent of Wrath
Luka’s aura warped into sothing bleak and suffocating.
A formless pressure that fractured the wooden planks beneath his feet. Oblivion shattered and liquefied into a black, writhing mass that slithered up and enveloped his right arm.
The mass grew larger, swallowing his entire upper body and face.
’What the hell!?"
He struggled to remove the sli, but it stretched and deford as he gasped for air. A crushing weight wrapped his throat like a pair of hands with each desperate breath, followed by an intense heat that flowed into his mouth.
Like a baptism of fire, it burned the inside of his mouth, his throat and then his insides.
"Argh.... It’s hot.... it burns.... my insides...."
It was a pain beyond anything Luka had ever endured.
Once the pain passed, mories and unfamiliar visions flashed before his eyes.
Inside them, he saw Galatea’s suffering, the fall of Babylon and everyone he’d t since coming to this place being tortured until enduring a grueso death.
Dense heat gathered in his chest, forming a ball of blazing pressure.
’Is this how it feels?’
A fierce desire to lash out and hit anything around him grew inside, despite the intense pain that assaulted him all over. His skin bulged with swollen veins writhing violently as his blood rushed through his system like a whirlpool.
When he faced these thoughts and emotions as an angel, it felt as if sothing stopped Luka from being overco by them. An intangible barrier inside his brain that cut off his anger, lust, affection, fear and hatred.
However, he was human now.
There was nothing to stop them from bursting free.
The blazing sphere buried inside his chest throbbed once, twice and then exploded.
Flas burst from Luka’s eyes, nose, ears and mouth as he scread into the skies, bathed in a pure black conflagration.
A black pillar of fire burst from his body.
The blaze climbed into the skies, almost reaching the stratosphere, and resembled the Tower of Babel itself.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"
The fla burned away his sins, his doubts, his worries and the impurities within his flesh.
It quenched his thirst.
anwhile, the pair locked in combat froze.
Their battle ca to a pause.
"What?! W-What... My Lord?" Gerard’s voice shook as he watched on.
Vagul’s eyes trembled as a pillar of fla swallowed Luka, who stood atop the battlents.
The old man rushed towards the stairs, only for them to burn up, instantly incinerated to ashes before he could touch them. "Luka!" He shouted, trying to understand and make so sense of the situation.
Alas, the answer he received was the pained screams of his Lord.
However, Vagul snapped out of his montary terror and began to shout while bouncing up and shaking his club around as if dancing.
"Gyhahahaha! He’s dead! The foolish mortal is dead!"
The strange mont he hesitated almost seed like a lie.
"You foul, tarnished creature!" Gerard snapped at the Hobgoblin, covered in wounds and tears in the corners of his eyes. Yet he refused to stand down, holding his damaged shield and shield up at the huge monster.
However, a magical transformation started inside the intense pillar of flas.
’What is this...’
Luka no longer felt pained by the ferocious fire that swallowed him. His skin, which had lted and peeled away, regenerated as he burned more.
It beca darker, no longer pale and milky white but tanned like a true warrior who fought under the sunlight.
His muscles no longer felt heavy and foreign, each breath no longer felt laboured as if sothing blocked the passage of his throat.
He glanced down to see his stomach, now tight with faint muscles and a perfect inverted triangle form taking shape as if Luka had spent the past ten years training his muscles. Whether it was cardio, muscle training or sculpting, it was perfect.
Compared to the previous figure, after spending a decade in bed.
"Haa..."
When he exhaled, smoke leaked from the corners of his mouth, and a comfortable, sweet warmth spread through his throat like a sweet lozenge lted with each breath.
"Where did Oblivion go?" He muttered in a much deeper and more charming tone than before, with a little presence and force behind it.
A wine-red system prompt appeared the mont he asked.
[Wrath Form Enabled - View Current Status?]
Luka nodded.
’Sure.’
The system spread across several panels: one showed his attributes, another showed a strange skill nad [Inferno], and others.
While the last panel told him what he needed.
[Sinful Record]
[Oblivion (Wrath-Form)]
Type: Inferno Gauntlets
Level: 3
Cost: All Sin Energy.
Duration: 13 Minutes. (10
1 Per Level)
?? All Attributes:
20%
?? Health Regeneration:
130%
?? Amplifies the host’s emotions related to wrath and regret.
?? Can unleash the Devastating attack [Inferno] once before the effect ends.
’This...’
He cocked his head to the side, watching the hobgoblin dance through the flas while mocking Gerard, who fought for Luka. He narrowed his eyes, rembering the scenes of what had happened in the previous world.
Luka didn’t care if nothing had happened yet.
Those who sinned against him would receive the sa punishnt, no matter how small their cris were in the suffering of his people.
’My thoughts feel so clear.’
He wondered if the clarity ca from his baptism of fire.
"Noisy."
Luka swiped the air with his right arm.
When the black blade liquefied and surged up his arm, it hardened into a massive gauntlet that swallowed his forearm whole. It didn’t stop at his wrist as jagged plates climbed past his elbow and flared over his shoulder, creating brutal, overgrown spikes.
Dark red veins spread beneath the black tal, like glowing cracks in cooling magma, as both arms swelled to twice their normal size and proportions, with imnse weight and destructive power.
The flas dispersed with that single movent.
A small exhaust hole above his shoulders sucked the air violently, devouring the dispersed black flas inside the tal gauntlets.
"A little heavy..."
Luka lifted both arms, punching the air on the spot.
Vwoom!
Both blows created a massive counterforce, as the air snapped.
"...No need to test anymore, the ti is limited."
He jumped off the charred battlent, which crumbled the mont he leapt and slamd into the ground between Gerard and the Hobgoblin, forming a slight crater.
Luka quickly rose to his feet.
"Hey, Goblin."
"W-Who are you?!" Vagul stepped back, holding his club high.
"Enough of that, isn’t fighting such an old man boring? Let’s have so fun." Luka strode towards the goblin, like a lion stalking its prey. "Isn’t that what you want?" He didn’t look at Gerard when he stepped past and quickly sent him flying with a swift kick.
Thud!
"Ugh... Young... Lord?!"
A tattered, black mantle fluttered in the wind, blocking sight of Luka.
The burned mantle was once white, with a clear emblem sewn on the back: the image of a brilliant golden sword and a pair of wings. At first, they might’ve been white, but the flas seed to have charred them black.
"Old man, go to the western gate with your knights. Help that foolish girl, Iris."
Despite being the sa person.
His new tone and atmosphere felt a world apart.
It carried a strange sense of weight.
Luka brushed back his hair and paused, "Hmm?" He couldn’t help but notice that his black hair was now bright red and floated in the air slightly. Although curious about the other changes in his body, Luka could only decide to wait for another ti.
He didn’t have enough ti to check right now.
’Six minutes...’
A convenient tir flashed in the corner of his vision.
It seed the first transformation used quite a lot of his sin energy and reduced the tir.
"Well then, Vagul. Shall we get down to it? Why did you attack Babylon?"
"Y-You... foolish human!" After sending Gerard away, the goblin beca more confident and stopped acting fearful of Luka.
He didn’t rush to attack the Hobgoblin but tried to gain more information about the attack that would occur in the coming weeks. Thanks to the cold, calculated rage brewing within him, Luka could avoid foolish mistakes.
"W-Why should a goblin king like
answer to a—ARGH!!!"
Luka swept his hand in a slow arc and bitch slapped Vagul with the back of his tal fist, smashing the goblin’s jaw.
Thud!
Vagul’s body staggered back and spat a bloody tooth to the ground, growling at Luka, who remained calm, and glanced at the back of his gauntlet, covered in blue blood.
"Tell ."
"W-Wait... Wait... Wait!!!"
Swoosh!
This ti, he threw a vicious left fist at the goblin’s crotch, aiming to shatter his balls.
Bang!
However, the goblin slamd his club into the ground and caught Oblivion mid-strike. The clash of both weapons sent Luka’s body floating back several tres, while the goblin only took a single step.
’After all, my strength is a touch lower...’
"...I suggest you start talking, or else I will get angry, and you won’t like
when I am angry."
Luka dragged his fist back with ease, then glanced up at the Hobgoblin’s ugly face. For the first ti, he tried to recognise a difference in the huge, hooked nose, the yellow rotting teeth and the disgusting yellow eyes.
"I truly cannot understand why Father created beings like you."
Vagul pulled away from Luka and dragged his club back with him; the initial fear had diminished into anger.
"Vagul will shatter your bones and crush you under the ruins of this place! Then... you can watch that pretty female knight—!?"
"Wrong answer."
Luka ignored the pain from clashing directly with the Hobgoblin.
A tier two monster still surpassed him despite his administrator rights, granting double the growth per level compared to others, and although Luka spoke with a calm, elegant tone.
The black tal gauntlets on his arms hissed with steam and writhed like a living being as the spikes grew longer and a black fla leaked from the shoulder exhausts.
’So my anger really does power this thing...’
For a mont, there was a tightness in his chest that made it difficult to breathe, but then it vanished without an explanation. He accepted those images and let Oblivion feed off his anger, no longer resistant to the sword’s whims.
"Vagul doesn’t fear you!"
Finally, the Hobgoblin stopped acting pathetic and raised his weapon with both hands, swinging at Luka.
"Ok."
Luka rushed the goblin using his speed advantage to slip past the wide swing, using his right arm to push the massive club aside, opening the goblin up. His left fist floated upward with a brutal uppercut.
"I knew you’d do that!" Vagul howled and used his monstrous muscles to adjust the swing of his club into a sweeping arc.
The air whistled from the sudden movent.
Unable to land the blow, Luka changed his target mid-swing. He threw his left fist at the club with all he had. A mont before the club crushed his head, Luka smashed the incoming club. He aid at the edge, knocking the swing off target.
Bang!
The club slamd into the ground, and Vagul lost balance.
Luka took advantage, leaping onto the club and kicking Vagul’s face. His head snapped back with a low grunt, releasing his weapon and staggering back several steps.
"Nothing but brute force, after all..."
’Two minutes remaining.’
Luka raised his arm.
He gathered these flas of wrath from the start of the fight to empower it. Thinking of everything that Galatea suffered and endured. Although he never asked, the sheer thoughts caused his rage to explode like a supernova.
A gathering of jet black trails of fire gathered around his body, swirling from the floor to his waist until an updraft shot them towards Oblivion’s exhaust holes. The flas orbited the gauntlets and wrapped his fists.
He stepped towards the goblin, asking one last ti.
"Why did you attack Babylon? Who sent you!"
Bang!
Luka struck the goblin’s face with a left hook, and flas exploded, burning Vagul’s face, causing him to cower.
This was the essence of goblins.
Despite having an overwhelming physical advantage, the Hobgoblin lost to his own mind and fear. If not for his transformation, maybe the battle would have been difficult. But now it was ti for the charade to end.
"Vagul... Vagul....cannot say..."
"Give
a na, and I will let you pass with ease."
The murky eyes glanced up at Luka, who stared down at him without a single emotion, no fear, no regret, or remorse.
The enemy must die.
"I.... I will tell... the person is my master... they gave
this power.... they are—Urgh?!"
Vagul suddenly held his throat, clawing at his flesh and holding it tightly, before a thin wound spread around, like a crack widening. The goblin heaved for air before dropping to its knees with a heavy thud.
His head rolled to the side, and a soft, delicate voice flowed along with the wind from behind Luka’s head.
"Huh?!"
"That won’t do, filthy rat."
A tall woman’s athletic figure stood in the fading night, holding a pair of curved daggers, her skin dark as chocolate, with golden eyes staring at Luka intently. Wrapped in a dark cloak, cloth armour and a face covering, he paused.
’This woman... is she a dark elf?’
Luka tried to use the Destiny System to see her information.
[Warning!]
[Target is protected by another system!]
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