noveldrama
Chapter 849
Chapter 849
Chapter 849
“That’s just... unbelievable...”
“Erased...?”
“All those monsters just disappeared like that?”
The party members were so stunned by the display of overwhelming power that none of them could believe what they had witnessed despite seeing it with their own eyes.
The sight of hundreds of Fallen Angels disintegrating into particles and vanishing was so surreal that they could not fully process it.
“Nice,” Siegfried said with a smirk, admiring his work.
"Clean and pristine." These were the words that best described his actions.
The only remnants of the Fallen Angels were their shimmering particles being scattered by the breeze.
[Wave of Annihilation]
[An upgraded version of Splitting Heaven and Earth]
[Unleash a powerful shockwave that damages all enemies caught in it.]
[Disintegrates the target if the shockwaves exceed a certain damage threshold.]
The skill truly lived up to its name, as it obliterated the enemy in one fell swoop. However, the biggest advantage of this skill was that it could be used in confined spaces such as caves.
The previous version of Splitting Heaven and Earth couldn't be used in confined spaces due to the risk of the whole place caving in. However, there were no such concerns with Wave of Annihilation.
In other words, Siegfried could now efficiently clear out large groups of enemies without being wary of his environment.
On top of that, the skill's damage was at least three times stronger than before, making this skill one of Siegfried’s most powerful weapons in his arsenal. However, Siegfried’s moment of satisfaction was cut short.
“How dare you!”
“You insignificant worm!”
The Fallen Angels were enraged beyond reason after witnessing their kin being slain by a mere human. They roared in anger and charged at Siegfried. There were mid-tier Fallen Angels among them, including a few named monsters.
“You shall be judged!” a mid-tier Fallen Angel screamed. Clad in shimmering Hyper Armor, they lunged at Siegfried and thrust their golden spear toward the latter.
Unfazed, Siegfried activated Embrace of Despair to shred the angel's Movement Speed.
The Hyper Armor rendered the angels immune to fear, but it didn't protect them from the Movement Speed shred nor from the hands reaching out toward them within the darkness.
‘Too slow,’ Siegfried thought.
The angel’s sluggish movements and futile struggle against the shadowy tendrils made the majestic creature look pitiful.
“Argh!”
While the mid-tier Fallen Angel was struggling with the slowing debuffs afflicted by Embrace of Despair, Siegfried seized the moment, swinging his +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp at the angel.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Three rapid hammer strikes collided with the angel’s head, causing a glowing skull symbol to pop up above the angel’s head.
Boom!
On the fourth strike, the skull symbol detonated, and the angel’s head exploded into thousands of fragments.
[Skull Breaker]
[An upgraded version of Machine Gun Smash.]
[Deliver consecutive blows to an enemy’s head.]
[The first three strikes shreds the enemy’s Defense by 10% each (30% total).]
[The fourth and final strike triggers the Mark of Death, dealing five times the base damage.]
“W-Whoa! Look at that damage!”
Even Siegfried was shocked by Skull Breaker's raw power. Skull Breaker allowed Siegfried to shred the enemy's Defense by a set percentage, and it was stackable up to three times. Then, on the fourth and final attack, the Mark of Death would detonate, dealing five times the base damage of the skill.
The skill's damage output rivaled even top-tier Legendary skills.
“So just one level actually makes this much of a difference?” Siegfried muttered.
He finally understood the vastness of the gap between Level 299 and Level 300. All the struggles he had faced against Masters finally made sense, as no matter how good his gear was, a Level 299 couldn't simply overcome the raw power of a Master.
Siegfried trembled with excitement. The sheer power coursing through him was intoxicating, to say the least.
The strength he wielded made his adrenaline pump wildly throughout, causing him to shiver on the euphoria.
“Excellent... L-Let’s keep going. Just a little bit more... Hehe...” Siegfried muttered with a wide grin on his face. Then, he charged into the midst of the Fallen Angels and unleashed a merciless slaughter upon the celestial creatures.
“That’s just... too much...”
“Hey, is he laughing right now...?”
“O-Oppa...?”
The party members were unnerved this time. This was no longer a battle, as it more resembled a slaughter.
Siegfried unleashed absolute carnage upon the Fallen Angels, which was not a problem in itself. However, the main problem was that he was laughing like a maniac while doing so. The scene unfolding before the party members’ eyes was nothing short of horrifying, as Siegfried cackled and grinned while slaughtering the angels.
Was he a human or a demon?
Even the celestial creatures, the angels, were shaken by the madness before them.
“W-What is this creature...?”
“H-He’s a demon! That’s a demon in human form!”
Angels were a proud race, but even they could not withstand the dread Siegfried was instilling in them. Seeing a human slaughtering their kin with such ease, all while laughing like a maniac while doing so, was nothing short of a nightmare for them.
But Siegfried couldn't care less...
“Bwahaha! Kehehehe!”
He was far too drunk on his newfound power to care, and he focused only on one thing—hunting down his prey.
***
The angels' attacks were relentless.
Siegfried single-handedly held off four waves of the Fallen Angels, which was an incredible feat. Unfortunately, he was only human, so fatigue began to set in despite his enormous stamina.
‘I’m running out of mana... and my Divine Power is almost depleted,’ Siegfried thought, assessing his condition after fending off the fourth wave.
The depletion of his mana and Divine Power was a big problem. However, there was an even bigger problem—the stamina of Han Tae-Sung, the gamer controlling Siegfried, was nearing its limits as well.
He had spent all his time gaming while juggling real-world activities, so his fatigue had reached critical levels.
‘I need to take a break,’ Siegfried thought.
He resolved to rest in the real world for a few days once this dungeon raid was over.
Most of his free time was used in the game, too, as he wanted to spend time with Brunhilde and Verdandi. Thus, he hadn't been able to spare any time to give his real body some proper rest.
‘I’ll need to manage myself better and take some time off. I have to take care of my health, too,’ Siegfried reasoned.
Just as he was lost in these thoughts...
Fwoosh!
The night sky suddenly lit up as a brilliant beam of light descended from the heavens.
‘What’s that?’ Siegfried wondered, looking up at the radiant sky.
Bzzzt!
He felt a prickling sensation as if he were being electrocuted.
Wooong!
At the same time, every bit of mana in his body began to surge uncontrollably.
‘Is it a boss monster?’ Siegfried instinctively recognized the presence of an extremely powerful entity.
After facing countless opponents more powerful than him, he became extremely familiar with this sensation. There had to be an extremely powerful entity nearby. Otherwise, he wouldn't react like this.
Swoosh!
An angel with twelve majestic wings like Mikhail’s descended toward him.
[Lucifer]
[King of the Celestial Realm.]
[The ruler of the celestial realm that now fell into corruption.]
[Race: Fallen Angel]
[Affiliation: Celestial Realm]
[Position: Chief Archangel]
[Class: Chaos Seraph]
[Level: 800]
[Titles: Archangel of Death, Tyrant of the Celestial Realm, The Fallen Angel of Betrayal]
‘Lucifer?! Level 800?!’ Siegfried was stunned.
He hadn't imagined, even in his wildest dreams, that he would face a Level 800 opponent. Level 800 was an absurdly high level, regardless of whether the entity was the King of the Celestial Realm or not.
However, Siegfried also knew that he was not facing the real Lucifer. He suspected that this dungeon, the Endless Descent, was merely a reenactment of Mikhail’s fall from the Celestial Realm to the Human Realm.
In other words, this was not real and was merely an illusion born from the fragments of past events absorbed by the Great Rift. In other words, the real Lucifer had to be even stronger.
'If I have to face the actual Lucifer...' A chill traveled down Siegfried's spine at the mere thought of it.
He was a Master, but how could he ever hope to face a Level 800 enemy when he was merely Level 300? He would need to become a Grandmaster, at the very least, to even stand a chance against Lucifer.
Facing Lucifer's true form now meant a hundred percent certain death—no, instant obliteration.
“Heed my words, insignificant creature. How dare you meddle in the affairs of the heavens?” Lucifer’s deep voice rumbled through the air like thunder.
Siegfried scratched the back of his head and replied, “I wasn’t exactly trying to meddle or anything—”
But before he could even finish his words, Lucifer cut him off and waved his hand, “Begone.”
Rumble!
A massive energy storm was unleashed.
Siegfried was unable to dodge in time and was struck by the energy storm.
“Argh!”
His health was reduced by more than thirty percent in the blink of an eye, but he was fortunate compared to his party members.
“Aaack!”
“Gwah!”
Ninety percent of their health was drained by a mere wave of Lucifer’s hand, and some of them even died on the spot.
‘W-What the hell was that?!’ Siegfried was speechless and utterly shaken by Lucifer’s power.
“Hmm... It seems you insignificant creatures are slightly better than insects,” Lucifer mused.
The faint amusement of the archangel lasted only for a short while as he waved his hand once again.
“Now begone.”
Wooong!
A swirling black hole appeared and sucked the party members in.
“Argh!” Siegfried gritted his teeth and infused his mana into his +10 Black Crow Wingsuit to resist the black hole’s pull.
Unfortunately, the party members incapable of flight stood no chance at all.
“Ahhh!”
“Noooo!”
They were sucked into the black hole in an instant.
Then...
Kaboom!
The black hole exploded, leaving no trace of the party members. They were dead.
In a single nonchalant wave of his hand, Lucifer had almost annihilated an entire party of Level 299 Adventurers. The only survivors were Siegfried and Gosran, who were fortunate enough to be capable of flight.
“O-Oppa!” Gosran called out, visibly shaken by the party’s annihilation.
“Cover me with suppressive fire!” Siegfried hurriedly instructed. Then, he tightly gripped his +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp. No matter how powerful his opponent was, he wasn't the type of individual to do nothing and simply wait for his demise.
There was a saying that even a cornered rat would bite a cat, and it didn't matter whether his opponent was an Archangel or even the Creator himself.
Han Tae-Sung was not the type of person to give up.
***
“Kyuuu! Hamchi will help you, owner punk!”
Hamchi hurriedly took out his magical wheel and ran on it to buff Siegfried.
Shwiiik! Shwiiik!
Meanwhile, Gosran unleashed a barrage of arrows at Lucifer in response to Siegfried's order.
Siegfried charged at the archangel at astonishing speeds and with renewed determination.
‘Let’s do this!’
“Why are you humans so foolish? Are you throwing away your lives so easily because you know your existence is just as insignificant as yourselves?” Lucifer asked with a smirk.
In his eyes, Siegfried was nothing more than a moth flying straight into a flame.
‘Now!’
As soon as Siegfried was close enough, he activated the upgraded version of Grand Duel.
Rumble!
A vortex appeared and engulfed both of them.
[World of Despair]
[An upgraded version of Grand Duel.]
[Pulls the enemy into the Lord of Despair’s domain, the World of Despair.]
[The Lord of Despair’s power and debuff skills are greatly amplified while inside his domain.]
[Upon defeating the enemy, World of Despair's cooldown will reset, and the Lord of Despair’s HP, Stamina, and Mana are fully restored.]
[The Lord of Despair will remain unharmed even if the enemy is not defeated within the duration of the skill.]
[Cooldown: 600 seconds]
[Duration: 60 seconds]
The original skill, Grand Duel, was already formidable, but World of Despair was on a whole new level.
This skill didn't just isolate the target by forming a barrier around them, but it also dragged the target into the Lord of Despair’s domain, where they could be debuffed and beaten down mercilessly.
Rumble!
The moment both Siegfried and Lucifer entered the World of Despair, Siegfried immediately cast Eternal Flame and Embrace of Despair. He even used Discharge to amplify their debuff effects.
Under these circumstances, he knew all too well that he had nothing else nor anyone to trust but his debuffs.