Chapter 46

~ The True Power of Song Magic ~

SW/SW/SW

Friday came quickly than everyone realized. Friday meant one thing: the long-awaited event of the Dark Lord’s Crimson Nocturne, a unique quest in which players must defeat two mid-bosses consecutively before they faced the final boss.

This event was seen as a mission to hone their skills. Some were aiming for the legendary weapon, Soul Slicer, while others were participating just to level up their characters.

This event, however, was different than before. Prior to (the jaw-dropping) Thursday update, the players were directly transported to the inner side of the floating castle. Now they had to fly there by themselves. The castle itself was limited to the listed players. Outsiders could not enter.

Also, there were guards in the last boss’ castle, where it was empty saved from the bosses. It translated as double the EXP, but triple the difficulty. Reaching Azariel seemed like a dream now.

Players, aside to the listed ones, were already inside a special viewing dome, which could be found in large cities throughout the continents. The dome was designed to view the intense battle. With its size and comfortable seating, the dome was enough to house approximately 50,000 players.

Travonka members were among those spectators, sitting calmly in a viewing dome in Dragonis.

The screen showed an exciting airborne battle between the players, riding their pets, with the enemies’ troops. Too bad two got killed, leaving 28 members left. After an intense battle at the front gate, the party split into two groups. First party, 20 members, stormed the front door, while team two, 8 members, were attacking from the sky.

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“Oh, they were quite good,” one player commented.

Team one was able to make it through multiple hordes of enemies inside the castle. Despite their small number, they were able to display a surprisingly good team work. The mages were adept in assisting the fighters and the healers knew what to do with their jobs.

Once the coast was clear, they immediately went to the first mid-boss was waiting. The place was on the second floor of the floating castle.

Maria crossed her arms over her chest. They were quite skilled, but the question was…

…were they good enough to face Etherios?

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The adventurers found the battle arena quite easily with the help of their maps. It was a huge pentagon-shaped room, with a circular-shaped arena between the doors. Past the boundary of the arena was a gaping hole with depth unknown. Players who accidentally being thrown out of the arena and fell into the abyss was instantly respawned and never to come back for several weeks.

There were heavy-armored knights blocking the way to the next level and behind them was a familiar mid-boss, Etherios.

Etherios was a human woman of pure white. Everything about her was white—from the color of her mane, her skin, the cloths that covered her left arm and lower body, and to the two pairs of wings stretched behind her. Most of her face was covered with a black cloth, leaving only her nose and mouth visible to all.

There were multiple runes encircling her body, rotating nonstop, illustrating dread and untold power within her lithe body should the runes were destroyed.

“Right, let’s do this!” one of the fighters screamed and dashed to the enemies, slamming the ground with his hammer. The impact sent several guards flying away.

Etherios regarded everything calmly and opened her pale mouth.

-- Vidinopel iusevii ovelia vali leshia –

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Maria grimaced at the familiar sentence. Off all many songs, Etherios started with that one. That special song was intended to destroy a large army with numerous status effects, such as confusion, poison, berserk, and many more, leading to infighting and total annihilation. The drawback was that it took quite a long time for the effects to finally kick in.

It would end up disastrous if no one managed to wound her enough to make her stop.

-- Ii tin oh sevrahavi, livorime estoog a see --

-- Ilveenah fiusevi elvrashta --

-- Fakrasii firomineskroo seeh --

The song started with her soloing. Her voice was too good that it was scary. It sounded ancient and sacred.

What baffled Maria the most was that no one hit the singer. No, more like… they ignored her, and were busy dealing with the guards who were protecting her. She had already repeated the first verse. If they did not aim at her right away…

-- Ivaa voelia fali, sekraiva javhy --

-- Seluna sakraa vistera --

-- Svraats iu seluno sala ouveh halanost --

-- Sefra havii sekraha lah --

Beside her, DPS grimaced. They ignored her still, even if she was in the middle of the second verse. He didn’t know whether they were foolish or confident.

Anymore than this, then…

-- Kravii, kravii isli sevaha, yarveulishea vumea --

-- Liiiv mushvalyn ii sa leoro me sefa li, iislia voshtuvi lee --

“What the fuck are they doing?!” one player shouted, standing up and lifting his fist in an angry manner. “Hit her, dammit!!! She’s finished her second verse!!! Do you all want to die?!”

Triggered by one player’s rage, several insulted them of being stupid and some urged them to harm Etherios so that she’d stop singing. Unfortunately, their efforts were in vain. The raid team could not even hear their voices.

Elvaria was intrigued, and honestly did not want her to stop. What would happen if the ritual had finished? What would happen to the players? Was Etherios summoning a demon?

Her heart was beating so fast!

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Etherios even extended her hands as she sang, because she put all her effor into it. She poured her energy, mind, and MP into her most treasured song, morphing it, which would've given hope and joy to people, into a tool of complete destruction. The witch of destruction--that was who she was after they had shunned and betrayed her. They called her names. After accusing her of following the mad fallen-archangel's footsteps, they then destroyed everything she held dear.

“...she is beautiful and has a great voice to match.”

“...it's too much of a coincidence, don't you think? She is just too perfect.”

“...indeed, she is. I suspect she's sold her soul to the demons to obtain perfection...”

“...she's fallen! Burn her to cinder! This place welcomes no demons!”

“...we curse you, demon slut, for deceiving us and entering this sacred land with your dirty, cursed feet!”

“Curse you, demon scum!”

...

The song was her sadness.

The song was her grievances.

The song was her vengeance.

-- Minva? Krendy? Seta? Verde? --

-- Visa nova? Delusefama li? --

-- Fibra? Usve? Krovaha luste? --

-- Fibra vstela vste sta --

The song stopped for a second, then resumed, accompanied by scary, yet beautiful orchestra. She finished the interlude and yet no one hit her.

-- Vidinopel iusevii ovelia vali leshia --

-- Ii tinn oh sevrahavi, livorime estoog a see –

Etherios repeated the first verse again, this time with a faster tempo, signaling that this was the most important part of the song.

-- Minva? Krendy? Seta? Verde? –

As soon as she sang the third verse, five players were paralyzed. They stood helplessly watching the guards clobbering them. They were still safe, however, because their key healers weren’t paralyzed.

-- Visa nova? Delusefama li? –

All of a sudden, the spellcasters were silenced, blinded, and badly poisoned.

-- Fibra? Vste? Krovaha luste? --

-- Fibra vstela vste ra --

As she hit a high note at the end of the verse, approximately thirteen of the players were confused.

-- Kravii, kravii isli sevaha, yarveulishea vumea --

-- Liiiv mushvalyn ii sa leoro me sefa li, iislia voshtuvi lee --

The players who were confused now were afflicted with berserk state, attacking their own teammates. Chaos ensued and the tide turned.

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“Oh, no…” someone beside Elvaria murmured. “They are dead. No one can stop Etherios now.”

It was quite a frightening scene to see team one beat each other to death. The longer Etherios sang, the more status effects assaulted them, from Cursed (decreased target’s DEF and Magic Resistance), Badly Poisoned (HP rapidly decreased overtime), Confusion (the target attacked their own friends), Berserk (the target’s ATK increased greatly at the cost of severed DEF), Thirst (movement speed deceased by 30%), and many more.

Several players stood and left the dome, predicting that defeat was inevitable. It wasn’t fun watching a team that could properly fight. Their ignorance invited total annihilation upon them.

-- Vidinopel iusevii ovelia vali leshia --

-- Ii tin oh sevrahavi, livorime estoog a see --

-- Minva? Krendy? Seta? Verde? --

-- Visa nova? Delusefama li? --

-- Fibra? Vste? Krovaha luste? --

-- Fibra vstela vste ra –

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Etherios stopped singing when the last of the team one had met their doom. She exhaled and floated to her starting position in the castle. Thanking the guard who brought her a glass of water, she sipped it slowly.

She had done her job. The rest of the adventurers were up to the monarchs.