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Chapter 396: Prince Antukin

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—eh?

—why does that name sound familiar?

There was a feeling that he had heard that name in some place before. Why does it sound familiar?

But since they’re at this junction, there is no more turning back so he still declared his name, “I am the Crown Prince of the Burning Apocalypse Dominion and fourth direct scion of the Great Emperor King, ‘Baal’, the Belphegor of the Sloth! I am Antukin. We will be together for a long time after this, Terran, as I will personally see to your eternal torture.”

Hearing his name actually made Siva laugh.

Antukin—

—a name befitting of a scion of The Belphegor of the Sloth because in the forgotten ancient Mitran Semantics, “Antukin” actually means being ‘sleepy’ or ‘lazy’ which is an attribute of The Sloth.

“Hehe… haha…… hahaha…”

Antukin felt really offended. Still, he only frowned and asked, “What is so funny.”

Antukin was almost finished charging for this great attack that contained 90% of his Mana.

With his heart and soul towards the art of the spear put in the weapon, a «Resonance» was made and a silhouette of a ‘General’ —his father, with his mighty pose— appeared behind him.

With both his anger and honor as a warrior put into the line, he will put Siva into a quick death and then torture his soul for eternity.

He was just on the verge of exploding when Siva chortled a bit loudly, “Let me tell you something, Antukin. In that battle… Baal was accompanied by three young centaurs that looked just like him. They were all full of bravado and their tongues all spat at Terra with all the profanities that existed in the world. But in the end, while all three of them fought valiantly in the frontlines, when the odds on the table turned against them, Baal was the first to turn his tail and flee. Hahaha! He was the first to die, stabbed in the back and beheaded. A coward’s death…!!”

Antukin’s eyes went wide!

“How did you…” it was a secret of their family, the disgrace of their Empire. Only a select few —all of them being loyal subjects— knew of that incident back then. How did this Terran know of it?

“Heh. As I remember it, those brothers of yours are all named ‘Tamad’ and ‘Tinatamad’… and with the last one sounding closer to ‘Tinamad’ or something… Ahahaha… I really wonder; just how is it that you are all supposed to be smart but actually are stupid at the same time?”

(AN: just a simple pun for “timidity”. Pls Google it.)

The frowning orcish face was ugly and yet it was even uglier now as his eyes became slits. Fire was spewing out of his nostrils, his upward tusks trembling as he gnashed his teeth in rage.

Antukin was really getting angry.

Siva raised his sword in a stabbing-charge posture.

Charging-Sword Style—

«Zeroshiki»

—a practical sword technique copied from the Net.

“Kamaitachi” is a sword posture that has a PASSIVE attribute despite being an offensive ability. There are actually four starting posture for this sword form of the early Hapon Imperial Era and all these four stances leads to one conclusion in the entirety of the [ability].

One sword form.

Four executions.

One result.

Kamaitachi uses the ‘essence of wind’ as its base and then delivers an attack that had the properties of the ‘wind’ in it.

(AN: for the full description of this Japanese word, just google it)

“How did I know about it?” Siva used the fact that Antukin had been shocked to ‘deploy’ a few of his insurances despite the fact that it was obvious to the stunned enemy. “Simple, didn’t I say who I was already?”

Siva… that familiar name…

Why indeed was this name familiar?

Confused, bewildered, shocked, and surprised, a look of anger flashed on his face and Antukin had dropped his Princely mask and roared in fury.

“Die. Die! DIE!!”

His fiery Mana erupted in attempt to trap Siva in his personal domain, charging through in a straight line towards Siva.

But at the same time…

[You are inside the Killing Zone]

[Your defenses are down by 70%]

“Hmp.” In addition to activating his Initial Ability, Siva then leaned his body in a forward posture as if to release the sword-arrow he had cocked with his body as the bow and vanished from his sight with a strand of whispering wind.

“WHAT?!! Where is—AAAGH!!”

Because he lost the target of his destructive attack, the entire posture and momentum of Antukin was disrupted from the base and a backlash occurred, sending his Mana in a grand turmoil that he felt his vision darken by the sheer pain of it.

In his mind, he replayed what had just happened.

Just at the moment he was going to release the ‘technique’ he built up for Siva —a miniscule and controlled version of his ultimate attack, he vanished right at his nose.

His muscles screamed at the sudden loss of the tension but because he could not withdraw the surge of Mana in time, his tendons even snapped with the overload from the stress.

His body cried in agony, he also hurled blood from his orcish mouth from an internal injury.

—but that’s not the only reason why he vomited a mouthful of his own blood.

Siva, his target who he lost sight of, was actually in front of him in a posture that indicated he had just finished hacking on his body at that.

—He… he injured me with that puny weapon?

Only an entire second passed!

“Tsk… only five…”

There was a tinge of regret to Siva’s tone but to the shocked and wounded Imperial Prince, it was a horrifying bid for his damnation.

—four slashes and one sword stab wound!

—he injured me five times?!!

“Gaaaaghh…”

From the moment he vanished until he appeared again, only a single second passed and he already dealt him five slashes?

—Since when...?

He had no time to be surprised because at the next moment, a series of muffled explosions inside and outside Antukin’s body gave him both the shock of his life and also despair.

Simultaneously, his supposedly ‘immortal body’ was damaged by the jet black sword in Siva’s hand and the blood gushed from the wounds with a high momentum, drenching Siva’s dark blue armor in his distinctive reddish black blood.

The Imperial Prince cries of pain finally completed.

“How did… just WHO ARE YOU?!!”

Antukin felt afraid that he will suffer the same kind of fate as El Bravo.

He can’t move and he had seen this same thing happen just a few minutes ago. As the fleeting few moments passed by his eyes, through the pain and the bright lights of the explosions, through the bits of explosions that numbed his reflexes, he Siva’s hand holding the sword stretch out towards him.

And consecutively, he also Siva opened his left palm towards his upper body—

—No!

“NOOOO!!!”

Just as he was about to fall on his knees, just as the jet black blade was about to slash his neck, just as the first ten PSS-Grenade was implanted inside his body thru Cortana’s lightning-fast processing ability… Antukin gave a mighty roar of defiance that pushed off Siva away from him, slamming him on the wall and leaving a dent before, bouncing off to the floor and then rolling for a good 15m.

Fiery black flames engulfed Siva and melted the surface of his Black Knight Set, the aftermath of which still burning even as he was blasted away.

Having forced the release of Mana despite the still chaotic state of his body injured his foundation. To heal from this would take a very, very long time.

But despite being bloodied and staggering at his four feet, Antukin remained standing, his gaze as furious as the blazing aura remaining on his body, his shoulders panting as he chased his breath.

“Uuuuurgh…” a long and seemingly lazy groan of pain was heard in the already-hot-and-now-seared corridor.

Siva wasn’t moving.

He didn’t get up immediately.

When he used Kamaitachi earlier, he also activated [Focus] and dealt sword slashing damages in accordance to the [Non-System Movement Techniques] uploaded to his brain and guided by Cortana through the BMA.

Right now, Siva was in a world of pain… both in his mind and in his body.

‘It’s the first time we did it but the expected harmful feedback of [Focus] while using [Kamaitachi] was a large margin off from our projections.’

[It’s higher by 17%, sir. Even if you achieve higher and longer synch with Focus, the limits of your body is only up to this degree. The current status index of your Terran Avatar has been updated and readjusted according to our predetermined catalog and Panel Templates.]

Siva was innately happy with this, despite all of the unforeseen setbacks.

To know exactly where one’s limits lay is akin to being blessed as he was with Cortana who can give him risk rates with simulated calculations.

‘Continue to monitor. And also try to calculate rate of sharing the pain straight to my physical body.’

[Yes sir.]

He dealt damage to the enemy but he didn’t expect that even after being hit by his insurances, the guy would still be alive and counter him with a surge of his dark fire Mana.

It may have been made in a desperate situation but it was effective because it was done in the right instant in that exact weak moment where Siva was vulnerable. Adding the fatigue of his earlier battle with El Bravo, the pain this time was only worse.

“Ahahaha… this is really…”

Siva chose to laughed it all off and didn’t dwell on the frustration. He rolled over and glanced at the staggering, panting orc-headed, four-legged fiery beast, and inwardly heaved a sigh of admiration.

—admiration to himself.

He had just made a feat and milestone!

Although Antukin reverted back to his Chaos God-state when he took off his limiter, Siva’s [Killing Zone] still made Antukin’s defenses fall greatly.

If 1,000 is the threshold to become Immortal, then a Chaos God should be at around 10,000.

Then minus 70% = 3000.

Siva had 600 flat stats, plus self-rendered damage, the surprise attack, and the addition of insurances, even if Antukin still has a God Body, the damage he received was still right but not enough to truly kill him. Thus he was still able to counter attack.

Still Antukin received a sizable amount of damage.

If Siva was a little bit weaker than he is now, even with the Black Dragon Blade, forget about bruising Antukin, he wouldn’t even be able to get as close as 100m to him because of the sheer pressure of his Mana emissions, much less actually hurting him.

In fact, 80% of Antukin’s injuries were self-created because of the backlash from forcefully stopping his full force attack with the lack of target.

Siva’s sword strikes were nothing more than just a few decorations that actually stings.

In the end, both of them were heavily injured from each other’s attacks.

And yet…

“Haaaah… Haaaaahh… you… I know who you are now… Siva… yes… that was the name of the God that caused Ragnarok!”

Siva’s laughter erupted again and this time, it also carried bitterness and self-mockery.

“Haha… I applaud your tenacity. For a Devil God, a guy like you aren’t half bad at all if I say so myself.”

Antukin struggled to raise his body to bear a pose with more dignity. “You… You’re supposed to be dead 56 years ago! Our intel can’t be wrong. Terra sealed you in that war, 56 years ago!”

Siva chuckled.

“It’s because you people are still alive that I came back to the world of the living.” Siva propped up and stumbled back, with only Cortana thru the BMA supporting his body, “This time, I will ultimately kill you all and finish the fight.…”

After a short pause, Siva’s eyes that blazed with a tinge of hate glared at the Prince.

“…I will destroy every single one of you!”

[Killing Zone] erupted once again and Siva sent a mental command. Space rippled and hundreds of blades flew towards the weakened Antukin.

What more, he also unleashed small-scaled forms of the Lightning Bomb to injure, not stun, Antukin.

“I won’t fall without a fight…”

“You already lost the fight.”

Cortana propped him up through the BMA and Siva extended a hand, summoning hundreds of Plasma Smoke Screen Grenade that bounced off around the now blade storm-pestered Antukin.

Both of them are injured, yes, but Siva has BMA.

“Hahahahahaha….. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…”

Siva’s laughter erupted along the silent corridor. It was hot but his laughter tinged of the bitterness of his regrets from the bygone years made it cooler.

“Resist! Fight! FIGHT!!! Hahaha…”

The blades dealt minimal damage but the sheer number of them hitting a single place at the same time piled up the damage they did.

What more, because of the [Lightning Bombs] Siva continuously unleashed upon him, his reaction time was also affected and thus he can’t even defend a single attack at the same time.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! Fight me fairly!”

“Imbecile! In war, fighting fair is a greatest sin! We are continuing the war from back then! Hahaha…”

Antukin felt helpless. The last burst of Mana earlier was his last fuel in the tank. His body was injured by his own doing, and adding the internal and also external injuries Siva made on his body, with these blades that —despite small carried weight and also sharpness within them— continued on attacking him, forget about escaping, he can’t even move away from his original position.

He struggled using his body’s durability and innate strength, and squeezed out as much of his Fire Aura to melt the blades… but the inevitable still happened: he can’t keep it up with the number of blades and Siva’s PSS-Grenade dispersion that canceled most of his Mana-generated fiery domain.

Only Siva was capable of dishing out millions of Zentra worth of items in a battle.

It was his advantage over the other players. He did not care about them since they were all gifts from the good hearted individuals who encountered him.

“SIVAAAAA!!!”

“I don’t need you alive. You can die.”

A blade successfully made its way to Antukin’s left eye and pierced it, going straight up the brain from that angle and momentum.

Antukin’s arms fell to the side and all life escaped his despairingly injured body.

[He’s a good resource.]

‘His body is a high grade furnace that despite already being a corpse still emits high levels of heat energy. We can use his body in the Asgard from the smithy I am planning to build there for the sake of The Company.’

[Boss, his Black Ball is somewhat different.]

Siva chuckled and spat a vial of Red Potion to the floor, “Supremes doesn’t have Black Balls. That thing you just harvested is called a Black Heart and it is used in a different manner.”

[Oh.]

Cortana obviously read Siva’s thoughts. The ‘talk’ and surprise was nothing more than acting to boost Siva’s morale and uplift his mental state. After all, outside of her ‘support capabilities’ Cortana is still Siva’s ‘mental nurse’ —as per her primary function.

His injuries healed but he was still in a great pain as he floated there in the scorching alien hallway.

[Ah, boss, the situation outside is changing.]

A panel video appeared and a video was shown. It was the sight of the battlefield outside.

The ‘package’ that Siva threw out has been seized by the Defenders but the reinforcements of the Aviators are now chasing after them crudely with suicidal attacks.

“Let them fight it out. Put the puppets on standby until the right moment to dive in and retrieve it.”

Siva sat down and leaned on the wall. He knew that the Control Room was still watching him but with him taking down two Supremes in succession, the only way for them to take him out is to send two or more Supremes against him at the same time.

[Are they going to do it?]

‘Well, ain’t the other guys still in the middle of their own “tests” with Supremes of their own? They have a Liberty Drone with them. They’ll be fine.’

[I will keep on monitoring their battles.]

Siva heaved a sigh, drinking another potion. He looked up and saw the resilient and camouflaged camera drones —Kathleen’s babies— and when he ‘felt’ that it was focused on him, he waved a hand.

[You took down two Supremes.]

It was a normal voice call through the connection Cortana had with the Liberty Drone and the [Auricle Device] Siva gave them earlier. Only Kathleen was the one seeing Siva.

[How strong are they?]

Siva breathed, removing his helm to massage his temples. As he was but an avatar, this should be a pointless act and is nothing more than habit.

He looked like a devil himself when he removed his helm aside from not having any horn or tusks, and still had the racial trait of ‘handsome’ long hair distinctive to the Apollo Race.

—no.

If a standard of a ‘Devil’ is actually considered, Siva is an ugly Devil because he lacked that reddish-ink hue distinctive to the “Generals” of the Devil Gods.

“Supposedly, Supremes are existences in Chaos God level —they have enough power to burn any planet in a week’s time. But because they’re inside their mothership, they can’t release too much power or they will destroy it further. And in a planet that has a natural suppression to all Devil Gods like Terroa, being left here with a broken ship means a death sentence. What if all Terrans group up and outnumber them in an instant? We can teleport in almost every city in Terroa so they can’t get away, especially now that we are in a heightened alert because of this invasion.”

[As if I know that tuff, duh.]

“That’s why I’m telling you now.” Siva continued, “I think you guys are already aware of the existence of the Inner Continents through Gaia and Eleanor, yes?”

[So?]

“It makes explaining easier.” Siva declared, “Why do you think Demons can’t attack the planet every day and only conduct ambushes every now and then?”

After speaking, he drank another Red Potion.

Kathleen didn’t reply. She don’t know the answer.

“It is because, just like I told you, this planet’s very atmosphere itself is poison to them. They can’t use 100% of their powers and overtime, they will all get weaker and weaker… that’s why whenever there are Demon Commanders spotted anywhere, there is always a Hunting Order given to exterminate the bunch of fuckers because those Commanders are all encharged of polluting the planet’s atmosphere with Plasma Particles to cater their own forces. And besides, didn’t you ever imagine why the Demon Armada is spreading Plasma Particles in the air of Terroa and slowly contaminating it?”

[They’re terraforming it!]

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His invasion continues…

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—Siva!!!