The tremendous aftershock of the attack had knocked out most citizens. Even Sofia was shaken, it took her a good while to manage to stand up again amidst the debris and broken glass.
Whatever had just attacked the Phageid invader, it was in a realm of its own, far above even what a level 299 could do.
At least 500 I bet. Does it even go that high? How many towers is that…
The [Alphageid] was a similar anomaly, it had sustained serious damage, a charred gaping hole had been pierced right through it from side to side, but even from a distance, everyone could see it closing back up at an alarming speed.
The scene from before played again. There was no annunciating rumbling this time, a simple trail of blue light appeared from the horizon, and collided with the crack, turning the whole world white a second time.
If Sofia had ears, they would have been bleeding.
This happened again and again. The massive tree monster upped the speed. Its roots split and split again, harvesting the lives of the capital’s passed out citizens and destroying everything in their path at a deadly pace. Eventually the blue lightning attacks stopped, and the charred holes in the tree all disappeared, replaced by newly formed flawless ice blue crystal.
It gave up?
While this was worrisome, it was a welcome break. Under the shockwaves of the clash of titans, Sofia had been barely able to think. As she expected, soon enough, a golden figure appeared in the sky. It was so high, she could barely make out its shape. In cases like this, [Identify] never lied.
[Angel]Thievery, uh?
All of this setup?
This whole story.
For this?
Fine.
I think I get it by now.
Whatever it is you want me to do.
I’ll do it.
Electricity crackled at her fingertips.
The battle between the angel and the tree was starting again, with fewer explosions this time. Sofia wanted to watch but the root wall was approaching, it had started closing in, forcefully driving the few people still awake toward the tree.
Like a closing net, the root dome shrank, Sofia tried her best to avoid the places with the nimbler more active roots that had been killing everyone. The number of places in the city still free of the roots’ presence were already few.
Up above, the battle still raged, the Angel was throwing swarms of smaller thunderbolts, as well as cutting the growing swarm of roots attacking him. The roots that had previously only been coming out from the bottom now also sprouted from the trunk to repel the Angel.
He wielded what seemed to be the ultimate version of the thunder sword skill the Duke had used against the church’s stone mage. The ‘sword’ was no doubt several meters long, and it still looked like a puny luminescent toothpick next to the giant tree-looking monster’s trunk.
Sofia jumped up to see if the church was still standing but it had been in the center of the city, right under the monster. There was nothing left.
Jumping was a dumb move. She could have stayed safe for a bit longer if not for this.
She had spotted a root on a nearby roof, and it had seen her too. It was her first time seeing it, but the roots had eyes. While closed, they were almost completely unnoticeable. The root shot straight at her as she was still falling, it was headed straight for her head. She activated the mana circles in her right leg. [Misfortune]
Further down the length of the root, another one decided to cross over it. This resulted in the root getting blocked and aiming too low. It missed the head, striking the heart instead. But she didn't have one. The root harmlessly passed through the round hole in her torso, coming out the back. Sofia was skewered but completely unhurt.
She grabbed the root with both hands and ripped it apart. It felt like cold thick leather, and was tough like metal but malleable. It took all of her strength to sever it. She fell to the ground in a tumble, the root wasn’t chasing yet, it was recovering, growths of blue crystal forming a new serrated tip.
Behind her the root wall had caught up. I’ll just follow it. She ran along the length of the root that had stabbed her. For some reason, besides the angel she had never seen more than one root attacking someone, even those who fought back like the old mage. They could split for sure, but there would only be one main root. Perhaps it was a way to optimize killing efficiency. Whatever the case, with the root that she was following making a sharp turn and chasing her, the others didn’t attack her. This allowed her to progress deeper toward the city center.
This advantage did not last long, the deeper she got, the more roots would take notice. About half of the way to the tree, the other roots along her path started attacking too.
Dodging only the first one was no trouble when she wasn’t stuck midair. Avoiding multiple ones was a crazy endeavor. Still, with her enhanced vision, reflexes, and an extensive use of [Regret] to alter her trajectory, she managed. And rushed past the destroyed streets, weaving through the slithering webs of thorned crystal appendages.
This thing is crazy.
She had reached the foot of the giant [Alphageid], countless roots wriggling under it were busy feeding the dead bodies of the capital’s citizens to some sort of giant beak located on the underside of the trunk.
The beak was restlessly opening and closing, it was even eating the roots feeding it, chomping off its own limbs, Sofia thought. Her instincts told her something was wrong.
She used [Identify].
[Alphageid]
[Alphageid]
There’s two of them! It’s feeding a baby!
This new revelation did nothing to mitigate the horror of the massacre. Sofia couldn’t dwell on it, still being chased by many roots, now she could only run around the trunk, getting the attention of more and more roots. The ten seconds' cooldown between each [Regret] use felt like an eternity. She had been grazed numerous times chipping away at her health pool, she tried to buy herself as much time as possible.
Two roots approached at the same time, she could only dodge one, [Regret] was down for another 4 seconds. She had to make a choice, avoiding the one going for her torso and letting the other one hit her arm. It severed her left arm above the elbow in a single strike, sending it flying into the distance. Her maximum and current health dropped by over nine thousand.
The roots had no coordination, they would often collide and get in the way of each other. So in a way, despite more and more of them pursuing her, it stopped getting harder to evade them past a certain point. There were so many around that she couldn’t touch the ground anymore, jumping from the body of one root to the other, vaulting above and in between them. The body of the roots had some thorns too but they were insignificant compared to the damage the heads could inflict by stabbing.
In the black sky, the Angel backed out of the close quarters fight. He displaced himself to a point far enough that the roots couldn’t reach him anymore. He was hovering in place like a singular star in the black sky. His appearance was quite similar to the tower’s Archangel despite a different silhouette and much less flickering. He raised his right ‘hand’.
Sofia felt her mana fighting her from the inside, it wanted to escape. The very air she breathed that had been so full of mana until then turned dry and lifeless. The mana from all around was gathering, traveling to and tightly packing itself in the Angel’s hand. There were such quantities that it became visible to the naked eye, like wisps of white light getting sucked by the Angel’s skill.
The roots around Sofia turned sluggish, they almost stopped moving.
In the angel’s palm shone a spark, then many others, followed by a burst of wild electricity. It expanded and compressed, getting bigger and brighter each time. It took the shape of an intimidating blue lightning spear that wouldn’t stop growing.
Sofia smiled and jumped up, no longer dodging the roots, she would instead climb up the trunk, this was what she had been waiting for.
All this time, the trial had been leading up to this one single thing. ‘Thief’s Commitment’ was the trial she chose for herself. This had to be the angel from her skill’s description, Acromegon. She had stolen his signature attack from him once, used it many times, and she was tasked to double down on it. But this time, she would have to 'steal' the honest-to-god, unaltered, fully powered original.
The real thing.
The [Angel’s bolt].
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