Debuff Master - Chapter 1107
Chapter 1107
After getting sufficient rest, the Allied Forces immediately warped to the capital of the Holy Alliance using the massive warp magic circle.
The capital of the Holy Alliance, Felix, was also the capital of the Hadashite Kingdom.
However, a problem occurred once they arrived at the outskirts of Felix.
They couldn’t get close to the city at all.
The space surrounding Felix was completely warped, making it outright impossible to enter. Not only that, but even observing what was happening inside Felix from the outside was no longer possible.
“This is a barrier that not even Elder Daode Tianzun can dispel,” Duke Decimato said, giving up on attempting to break the barrier.
“Really? Then, should we ask the dragons for help?” Siegfried asked.
Although the dragons were currently engaged in a war against the Coral Race alongside the Marchioni Empire, he figured they might still be able to make a brief appearance if he requested.
“This is not some sort of magical barrier, Your Imperial Majesty.”
“Hm? Then what is it?”
“The flow of energy is completely different. This is a barrier made purely of divine energy, so even the dragons would not be able to dispel it.”
“Ah, I see…” Siegfried muttered with a sigh after hearing that the barrier couldn’t be dispelled.
The Holy Alliance was obviously performing some sort of horrific and insidious ritual in there, but the problem was that they had no way to stop it.
“Then what do we do?” Siegfried asked.
“We will likely have to wait until the barrier disappears on its own. Frankly speaking, it is impossible to break it using magic.”
“I understand.”
Siegfried activated Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance in an attempt to find a way in, but even that broken artifact couldn’t penetrate the barrier formed around Felix. In other words, the Allied Forces had absolutely no means of breaching the barrier or entering Felix.
‘Damn it… Are we seriously just going to have to sit here and let this happen?’
Siegfried clenched his jaw and glared in the direction of Felix, which still had the space around it completely warped.
He knew instinctively that the ritual to open the Celestial Gate was already underway inside.
And yet, they couldn’t do anything to stop it.
That meant they would eventually be forced into another brutal fight against the angels that poured out of the gate once it was fully opened.
‘I have to stop whatever they’re doing in there, no matter what,’ Siegfried thought.
He racked his brain trying to come up with a way to break into Felix and stop the ritual before the Celestial Gate was opened.
“Okay, let’s try to come up with something.”
“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.”
And so, Siegfried and the commanders began devising plans on how to destroy the barrier. He looked into every possible option, inquired with the magic tower, the alliance of mages, and even woke hibernating dragons to ask for their advice.
However, all of them gave the same answer—it was impossible.
‘Ah, this is driving me crazy…’
While Siegfried was wandering restlessly around the perimeter of the barrier, agonizing over the situation…
Ding!
A notification popped up before his eyes.
[Impending Apocalypse]
[The Celestial Gate will soon open, and the fallen angels shall reign over this world.]
[Prepare yourself! The Celestial Gate shall open soon!]
[Time Remaining: 71 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds]
[Warning: The world will be destroyed once the Celestial Gate has opened!]
“What in the fuck am I supposed to do?!” Siegfried shouted without even realizing it, his voice filled with sheer frustration.
This was not even a quest. It was just a one-sided notification by the system that the Celestial Gate would open in three days.
“For fuck’s sake! Then give me a way to stop it or at least a quest or something, you damn system!”
Siegfried raged and cursed at the utterly irresponsible system, as it felt like the system was just taunting and mocking him.
Just as Siegfried was fuming in frustration…
Shwoooom!
A blinding explosion of light erupted from the entire city of Felix, illuminating the barrier around it. Then, dark storm clouds gathered across the sky despite the weather having been clear just moments earlier.
Krwaaang!
Thunder roared as if the heavens were crumbling.
Whooooooosh!
Above Felix, storm clouds began to gather and form a massive black ring.
It was a warning, a terrifying omen.
The real Celestial Gate was about to open.
***
In three days, the Celestial Gate would open and unleash destruction upon the world.
However, the problem was that there was simply no way to get rid of the barrier enveloping Felix.
“Do we have to fight in the end?” Siegfried muttered, gritting his teeth.
That was the conclusion he reached.
If they couldn’t get rid of the barrier, then all they could do was wait until the Celestial Gate opened and the fallen angels poured out of it.
Once that happened, they would have to engage them in battle immediately and stop them from gaining any foothold in the Middle Realm.
Aside from that, there seemed to be no other viable option.
Kwachik…!
Siegfried gnashed his teeth and clenched his fists.
‘After everything I’ve been through…’
Just how much blood, sweat, and tears had he poured into trying to prevent the destruction of the world? And yet, he couldn’t stop the final desperate move of the Holy Alliance and the Illuminati.
“The fate of this world is already sealed. Even if you manage to stop us, the other Executors of Destiny will inevitably come to bring about this world’s ruin.”
“Even if you crush the Church of Osric, a second Church of Osric will emerge. If you destroy the second one, then a third will rise. You cannot prevent the Executors from coming. Your efforts are futile, and no matter how hard you struggle, your struggles will dissolve like mist in the wind.”
Just then, the words of Acheron, the Immortal Alchemist and leader of the Church of Ozric, echoed in Siegfried’s mind.
‘What a load of bullshit.’
Siegfried gnashed his teeth and frantically tried to think of a way to fix the situation.
“Hold on…”
An idea struck him like a lightning bolt.
“If magic can’t do it… what about alchemy?”
There was a slim chance it could work.
Why?
It was all because alchemy in BNW was not just about transmuting metals. Yes, the workshops crafting artifacts used alchemy, but the true potential of this elusive discipline was much more vast than that.
It was the art of changing the properties of all things, making it closer to the power of gods than magic could ever hope to reach.
Unfortunately, finding an alchemist with alchemical prowess that bordered on a miracle was extremely difficult.
Even if one were to search the entire continent, one would find fewer than a hundred capable alchemists. And even among them, those capable of displaying the pinnacle of alchemy were exceedingly rare.
In fact, some joked that finding a unicorn would be easier than finding an alchemist capable of utilizing the full potential of alchemy.
“Alchemy… that’s worth a shot. But where would I even find one skilled enough…?”
“Verdandi…?”
Now that he thought about it, an incredibly talented alchemist was much closer than he realized. His beloved daughter, Verdandi, was a prodigy of prodigies who was gifted in virtually every possible field.
Moreover, she had already shown exceptional talent in alchemy, but she had already far surpassed most, if not all alchemists on the continent.
How was this possible? She had been quietly studying the Emerald Tablet in her spare time.
The Emerald Tablet was the pinnacle of alchemy that no one else could decipher, but she had been able to read and study it all on her own.
‘That’s it! I’ll go ask Verdandi!’
Clutching at even the smallest sliver of hope, Siegfried decided to go ask his daughter, Verdandi, if there was any way to dispel the barrier.
***
A few hours later…
“Hmm…”
Verdandi gently brushed her right hand against the barrier surrounding Felix while holding the Emerald Tablet in her left hand.
“How does it look? Can you dispel the barrier?” Siegfried asked.
“Hmm…”
Verdandi didn’t answer right away.
Instead, she scanned through the Emerald Tablet, as if searching for a solution.
Siegfried didn’t rush her and simply waited quietly.
After a long while, Verdandi finally looked at Siegfried and broke the silence.
“Father.”
“Yes, my darling?”
“I think I can dispel the barrier!”
“Really?!”
“But it will take some time. And I will need a lot of energy.”
“How much time do you need?”
“Around two days. And as for the energy… we will need to surround the city with mana chargers.”
“Can you be more specific?”
“Certainly, Father,” Verdandi replied with a nod. Then, she began sketching something onto a parchment and handed it to him once she was done.
“What is this?”
“Once we install the mana chargers like this, I can attempt to dispel the barrier!”
“Are you sure you can do this?”
“Yes, Father! I will do my best to save the world!”
“I will be counting on you then.”
“Okay!”
Verdandi was delighted by the opportunity to save the world and help her father at the same time.
‘Ah, as expected of my beloved daughter. How can she be so pure and precious?’ Siegfried thought, gazing at her with a huge smile. As much as he tried to hide it, he simply couldn’t hide how delighted he was with her.
Hamchi saw that and shook his head, muttering, “Kyuuu… You’re the very definition of a doting dad, owner punk.”
With that, Siegfried immediately moved on to his next priority.
‘I’ll leave the barrier to Verdandi for now. Once she dispels the barrier, we will need troops. A lot more and stronger than the ones we currently have.’
Siegfried began mobilizing troops as a precaution, just in case the Celestial Gate somehow opened in advance.
‘Time to spread the word.’
With that thought, he logged out of the game. Then, he sat down in front of his computer, logged into his G-Tube account, and started a live stream.
He planned to inform all the gamers around the world and ask for help with the continent’s current predicament.
It hadn’t even been ten seconds since he started streaming, but…
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Viewers were already flooding the stream.
Tae-Sung’s channel had ninety million subscribers, so those with their notifications turned on were pouring in right now.
— DDJ: ?
— Lovebjk11: What’s this?
— cJunggod: Is this live?
— 312c4: WTF?!
— Hiki8809: ?????
— SSB: No way!
(omitted…)
— DD3120: Holy shit!
Tae-Sung’s viewers were shocked after seeing that he was live.
Their reaction was understandable, as Tae-Sung rarely uploaded anything online. He only posted short clips of his game highlights every now and then; he had never went live before.
It wasn’t that he did not want to do so. Instead, he never really had the time to do so.
“Hello, everyone. It is good to see you all,” Tae-Sung greeted the viewers with an awkward smile. Then, he proceeded to get to the main point, “I went live because—
[Alert: MintChocoChicken has donated ₩100,000!][Voice Message Attached]
“Ah, thank you, MintChocoChicken. I do like mint chocolate fried chicken, too. You have good taste,” Tae-Sung said with a polite nod, not wanting to ignore the viewer’s generosity. Then, he went back to the main point, saying, “Anyway, the reason I’m live streaming today is that—”
He still couldn’t finish his sentence.
[Alert: FailedLoveLostMoney has donated ₩500,000!][Voice Message Attached]
[Alert: 3peatBenchwarmer has donated ₩50,000!][Voice Message Attached]
[Alert: ^O^ has donated ₩10,000!][Voice Message Attached]
(omitted…)
[Alert: MePoor has donated ₩1,000][Voice Message Attached]
The viewers didn’t even give Tae-Sung the chance to talk, as donations poured in one after another.
Within just ten minutes, tens of millions of won had already been donated. Each donation came attached with voice messages, and between those and thanking them all, a whole hour passed before Tae-Sung even realized it.
He had yet to address the elephant in the room, but the live stream had already devolved into chaos.
Donations were flooding in while the chat box was going crazy.
“I think… I’m going to turn off donations for a while…”
In the end, Tae-Sung had no other choice but to disable the donation feature.
Who in their right mind would say no to free money? Tae-Sung was not someone who would shy away from free money, but things were starting to spiral out of control that he couldn’t even stream properly.
This was the privilege of a global celebrity. Just by going live and showing his face, he managed to rake in hundreds of millions of won.
