Cross’s shot pierced Oku’s back who was too focused dashing towards the castle where the werejackals were about to pounce onto Orc King Hamu. The Right Hand tried to ignore the pain from the shot but it cleared his head enough to realise that even if he tried his best to head towards the castle, the werejackals would have ample time to strike King Hamu regardless of his efforts.
Instead, what he should be doing was to get rid of this goblin who was in cahoots with that traitorous Yellow Ice and find a way to aid King Hamu without sacrificing himself. However, this realisation came a bit late. Cross crashed into him using his shoulder while holding his dagger sidewards, allowing him to impale Oku’s torso. Familiar with the weak spots of the Orcish armours, the goblin made use of the sides which were vulnerable to stabs.
Instead of screaming in pain, Oku redirected that anger he had by grabbing onto Cross’ head and smashing him to the ground while withdrawing his axe from his waist. Cross was ironically doing a similar thing before he momentarily lost consciousness from the blow that was bound to happen. Except he was holding on to a vial of an alchemical concoction instead which he threw at the Orc.
The vial broke into pieces injuring Oku’s face. Yet this was not the worst part. The alchemical concoction was a form of liquid ice, courtesy of the Avatar of Shiva. The liquid went into Oku’s eyes, nose and part of it entered into his mouth too. Within seconds after direct contact, the liquid froze and expanded rapidly. The drying of the ice caused extreme pain to his eyes, nose and mouth, which caused his breathing to become more and more of an issue. Though Cross was unable to follow up immediately, he earnt the time needed to regain consciousness when Oku was incapacitated from the liquid ice concoction.
Cross crawled towards Oku, grabbed the plunged dagger on Oku’s side and continuously tried to stab Oku with it despite the constant dizziness he was still experiencing. As his judgement was still impaired, his attempts focused on the vulnerable spot of the struggling Orc. Only until Cross felt he was stable enough that that he decided to change his dagger’s point to the neck region. But before Cross could follow through with his strike, Oku attempted to step backwards to distance himself from Cross. Yet, the goblin was nimble enough to hold onto him which caused Oku to change his approach and started punching the goblin until the goblin let go of it. (He tried to kick too but missed terribly because he was unable to see properly from the ice)
Using the time that Cross was hindered by his wounds, Oku tried to remove the ice by breaking it with his bare hands. Unable to progress much this way he decided to pull it off to the degree that he felt his skin was being torn away as well. As soon as Oku could somewhat see again, he tried to summon the very same black orb that he used to control the fire orcs, only for a crossbow bolt to pierce his hand. Cross was not willing to give Oku any breathing space. His challenging gaze made it clear that he would not allow Oku to do as he pleased, even while the goblin was panting on the ground, seemingly badly injured.
Oku raged at this nuisance of a goblin as he plucked the bolt out, walked towards the goblin and attempted to kick him into the moat. The goblin attempted to shoot one more time, but the bolt did not penetrate his front armour at all. Oku smirked and lift his leg up. Only to notice at that moment that his right leg had suddenly gone missing. Replaced by it was a robot crawler that was staring at him intently.
The crawler made no effort to jumped onto his face and plunged its bladed legs into the back of Oku’s head and neck area just as if it was trying to hug him. Blood gushed out of his neck and he could no longer feel the squeeze from the robot crawler since his head was going numb. He tried to pull it out with all his might but it seemed meaningless. Slowly, but surely he knew that this was the end of him. Meanwhile, Cross was being assisted by two robot crawlers which dragged him further towards the castle for some emergency treatment.
Simultaneously, the werejackals and werecats had already begun their assault at the imprisoned King Hamu who had a difficult time trying to break the magical barrier. How could he have known that it was tailored especially for him. Peppers had been working overtime behind the scenes to create such a spell. The spell was designed to work similar to a puzzle egg. This was why the magical barrier could be broken apart from the castle and refit back again, entrapping King Hamu in an enclosed space. In addition, the magic barrier became nearly impenetrable since the surface area it covered had lessened when it trapped King Hamu.
But, it was the intricacies of the magic spell that truly made it shine. For it to work, the barrier had to absorb all kinds of magic and even kinetic energy to power itself up else it ceased to exist after a set duration. (Therefore, Peppers who had unlimited mana was needed to constantly insert magic power at the barrier to ‘eat’ while waiting for the Orcs to appear.) So while it seemed that it had a high magical power consumption to maintain the barrier, Pepper’s calculation had paid off when the Orc Army had tried to overcome it with extensive use of fire spells and consistent siege attacks.
And currently Orc King Hamu was doing his best to break the barrier by dishing out high level spells or using extreme brute strength. But because of the nature of the barrier, as long as his attacks were constantly feeding it with energy, he should remain trapped. (Which Jin complimented Peppers for making sufficient preparation against the Orc King.)
Moreover, the barrier utilised a crystal which Peppers asked Goblin King Sol to insert his magic into. (So that the Goblin King did not have to be on the scene to power the magic barrier.) This light magic filled crystal was later used as a catalyst to cast this magic barrier. Usually, people would add a catalyst to increase the resistance of their magical barrier, but Peppers did it other way around.
Inserting a catalyst would in fact disable the ability of her magical barrier to absorb that particular element. In this case, any attack imbued with the light element would be able to pass through easily. Therefore, Peppers aptly named this particular barrier spell the ‘Reverse Aegis’. A nod of acknowledgement to the legendary shield which Zeus and Athena used which Peppers got her inspiration from for creating the barrier spell.
The werejackals proceeded to attack King Hamu and their magically infused blades crossed the Reverse Aegis with ease and injured the Orc King. One strike was nothing but as the group struck ceaselessly without any resistance to King Hamu, he was bound to incur some injury.
King Hamu did try to retaliate back but all of his black energy from Diabolos was absorbed so easily into the Reverse Aegis that it became a waste of time. Little did he know that all he’d have to do was endure for a time. Still after his multiple fruitless attempts, the barrier was still going strong and the werejackals and werecats made a lot of progress wearing him down without suffering a single injury in return. It felt as if it was a cheat although Peppers would argue against that.
“Heh! If not for Ayse’s sample of the dark energy and the winds of Garuda from the King’s medical examination, I would not have been able to create this in such a short term, making it so easy for you guys! I put in a loooot of effort!” Peppers complaint in the secured System Channel which made Jin laughed and he promised he would compensate her with her very own XXXL Panda Plushie or whatever else kind of custom Plushie she wished for.
“You are not making progress. At this rate, you will be useless to me!” Diabolos bellowed in a fit of anger.
“How about you give it a try?!” King Hamu slammed his fist on the barrier yet there was still no reaction. Everything he did was useless, and even his ability to protect himself with Diabolos Energy got absorbed.
“Pathetic.” Diabolos forcefully took a big part of King Hamu’s soul without permission and the dark energy that King Hamu became even darker than black. Even looking at the energy felt as if the void was staring at back at him and wanted him to accompany the darkness in the bottomless abyss. At that point, his whole body shivered for a moment and it released an extensive amount of energy that the barrier was unable to cope with it.
Diabolos had utilised the Red Moon powers King Hamu had absorbed for himself along with his own powers to break out of the barrier. Diabolos managed had overwhelmed the absorption of magical energy to a degree that it was unable to handle the load causing Reverse Aegis to shatter. Hamu did not like it a single bit, since he was planning to use the Red Moon powers as one of the plans to break out from Diabolo’s pact. But at that point of time, it was paramount that he survives.
Therefore with the barrier broken, that was when King Hamu began his revenge against the werehumans. Yellow was the first one he grabbed as the Werejackal Vice Leader pounced towards him despite knowing that the Reverse Aegis spell expired. All the Orc King had to do was to point his finger at Yellow and he immediately disappeared in a mist of darkness, dropping the sword of light to the ground. The other werejackals immediately became wary of him. However it was too late, with a quick snap of his fingers, small dark projectiles appeared above Hamu and went towards them.
“Just a bit more! Try to get his attention for just a while longer. All we need to do is to pin him down long enough to make sure the volcano hits him! Best case would be to push him into the volcano when it erupts!” Peppers was unable to help their companions as she had to remain in place in the ritual circle as her mana transfer was near completion to awaken the volcano.
“Easier said than done!” Grey retorted back as the werejackals started to pace around the King Hamu who was floating above them. The werecats took the initiative by unleashing their gun whips. Sadly, even more dark energy orbs emerged around him to strike the werejackals and werecats. Though they tried to evade, the projectiles seemed hellbent to take revenge for their master and the new ones followed through if the initial ones missed. Some managed to evade them completely, others were not that lucky but they covered the werecats to allow them to catch him momentarily.
That was when strings and chains started to pull him down. Zhi Nu, the Immortal weaver as well as the Ninja Penguins arrived on the scene in the nick of time to assist the surviving werecats. “You think these puny strings and chains will stop me?!!” King Hamu shouted as he curled up a little in order to let Diabolos wings forcibly emerge out of his back. The more King Hamu lost his soul to Diabolos, the more Diabolos took control of this physical body and changed him to his likening to play.
“Burn us now along with it! That’s your best bet!” Zhi Nu said in the System Channel which Peppers would not hesitate to do. While cruel, she knew every second they tried to pin him down counted and they would use anything, any factor that could produce the highest percentage of success probability for the operation to succeed. Self sacrifice for the greater good was not an issue to those monsters.
“You will be unable to stop him if he grows out all six wings.” An odd voice echoed at the crowd of monsters and penguins trying to pin him down. At that instant, a gigantic pillar of yellowish ice fell from the heavens and slammed onto King Hamu. Despite that, King Hamu summoned an energy force field in an attempt to push the pillar upwards and away from him.
“YELLOW ICE! HOW DARE YOU!” King Hamu shouted in agony as he felt the weight of the ice pillar on him. Zhi Nu did not hesitate to pull out even more strings from her sleeves and tightly secure the pillar to the ground. However, Yellow Ice was not done. With one hand busy controlling the pillar, he took a deep breath while using another hand to materialise shards of ice and use them to pierce King Hamu’s hands, wings, and legs.
“As the former spymaster of the Orcs, I hereby deem you unworthy to rule the country any further. Your reign has plunged us into an era of chaos and has cost us the lives of hundreds and thousands of orcs. Therefore you are not only exiled, but deserve the highest punishment. Enjoy your stay with Diabolos!” Yellow Ice yelled while putting a brave front. (However, he could feel that his legs were already shaking and hands quivering from the extensive use of his ice magic.)
“ALMOST READY!!!” Peppers shouted at the top of her voice and suddenly tens and dozens of portals appeared, allowing the rest of the monsters to escape. Yellow Ice did not know what was happening but he guessed it was to defeat the remaining Fire Orcs in the capital and most importantly, King Hamu.
“Heh, so I was right. Betrayers ultimately never have a good ending.” Yellow Ice regretted it a bit as his legs nearly gave out from the strenuous use of magic. However, Cross with bandages all around him appeared right beside him and supported his Lord.
“My King, we will see this through together.” Cross said solemnly and suddenly Yellow Ice’s heart was filled with a gradual warmth to see his first and final loyal subject.
“Do not worry. Every ending is simply a new beginning.” Zhi Nu smiled at both Yellow Ice and Cross as if there was a hidden meaning to her words. Despite her portal opening right beside her, Zhi Nu refused to enter it and decided to stay back to ensure the strings were held together.
“Go, my fair lady. I will make sure this King will receive his deserved fate.” Yellow Ice told her as he gritted his teeth to summon another two ice pillars diagonally and smashed it towards the force field that King Hamu was maintaining.
“I shall take on your offer. Just remember my words. We will definitely meet again.” Zhi Nu tied additional strings to the two pillar of ices and tightened them before she stepped into the portal. That was when Yellow Ice could feel that the temperature was getting hotter and the floor was rumbling.
What the orcs did not know was that the entire (fake) capital city was built on top of a large inactive volcano. Within moments, the ground underneath the orcs broke and lava began spewing out of it, starting from the crevices that the zombies made when they crawled out of the ground.
“You think this kind of pathetic magic will hold me down!!!!” King Hamu screamed but now his voice was mixed with another entity, Diabolos.
“If it does not, I will make sure it will!!” Jin shouted back from nowhere. The skies seemed to part as the infamous half body Titan knight emerged appear from a portal more colossal than any before it, scaring every single entity on top of the volcano city. The Titan pushed the ice ‘blocks’ down even more until it penetrated through the force field and froze the wings of Diabolos.
After which, the Titan Knight grabbed onto King Hamu and smashed him down even further, into the boiling magma to ensure that he was boiled to death. That was also the trigger for the volcano to explode but the Titan Knight made sure it shoved King Hamu as deep as possible before being teleported away by Jin. (He would have such a big headache if the Titan Knight died. The cost to replace him was truly astronomical.)
At the same time, Jin was watching via Tact Tweak from afar on a large fox provided by Kraft, as the volcano island met its demise. Unfortunately, Jin highly doubted this was it. After all, what kind of Big Boss did not have a second phase?
But for now, he laid back to witness an explosion that Peppers would probably rate a 10.5/10.
