Debuff Master - Chapter 1144
Chapter 1144
Siegfried returned to the Coral Planet and immediately convened a meeting, summoning all of the officers.
He wanted to get a grasp of the current situation, as he needed to find out exactly what had happened and how things had gone so wrong in just a few days.
When the meeting was convened, what he heard was nothing short of shocking.
“What did you just say…? Cain… led the Adventurers and rebelled?” Siegfried asked, completely shocked by what he heard.
In the end, Cain had betrayed the Marchioni Empire and defected to the Coral Race.
“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty. Cain had not only destroyed key facilities but also stolen classified intel and handed it over to the Corals. Due to that, we have taken massive losses and are losing battle after battle,” Hansen reported.
“That insane bastard…” Siegfried growled at the report.
The fact that Cain had betrayed them and thrown everything into chaos drove Siegfried mad.
“So what’s the situation now like?”
“The entire front line has completely collapsed, so going on the offensive is out of the question. All we can do is build defensive lines and hold out, but we are steadily losing ground even in small skirmishes.”
“Unbelievable. This is just great,” Siegfried grumbled. Then, he asked, “Which front is struggling the most and the most important right now?”
“Here, sire,” Hansen replied, pointing at a specific location on the map. Then, he explained, “We are constantly engaging against the enemy over this ridge. It is a strategic stronghold, so we are trying to retake it, even at great cost.”
“I’ll go myself,” Siegfried said firmly.
‘Yeah, this will be a good chance to grind some levels and let loose. I need to reach Level 500 to advance to my third class anyway,’ he thought.
He had to hit Level 500 to advance beyond the Lord of Despair, and the higher his level, the better positioned he would be for the upcoming fight against Lee Geon.
Since he couldn’t wipe out Lee Geon and his fanatics just yet, growing stronger was his only option for now.
‘I’m going to destroy them all.’
With everything that had happened recently, Siegfried’s frustration had already long reached boiling point. He needed to vent all of it somewhere, so he chose to slaughter the Coral Warriors, level up, and blow off steam all at once.
He also had to hunt down the Coral Emperor to hold up his end of the bargain with Emperor Stuttgart, as that was the only way he could have the prisons for the Adventurers built.
“I’ll head there and stabilize things myself. Go over our strategies while I’m away.”
“As you command, sire.”
With that, Siegfried headed for the front lines, where the Marchioni Imperial Army and the Coral forces were locked in combat.
***
The battlefield was nothing short of a nightmare.
“A-Aaack! Aaack!”
“Ughh…”
“M-My leg! My leg!”
Siegfried looked around and saw wounded Marchioni Imperial soldiers groaning in agony.
The ground was so drenched in blood that it had taken on a crimson hue. With the unending conflict between the two sides, there was no time for the ground to dry up, causing it to turn crimson.
But that was not all…
The Marchioni Imperial Army had piled up the corpses of the Coral Warriors to build makeshift barricades. There were simply too many dead bodies to deal with, so they used the dead enemies as materials to build a wall to hold the line.
‘Damn… This really is hell…’ Siegfried thought.
He had seen countless battlefields in his life, but he had never seen anything this savage and brutal before.
However, this was to be expected, as the war between the Marchioni Empire and the Coral Race had already turned into a melee slugfest.
Both sides had lost most of their strategic weapons in earlier clashes, so they were forced to fight with boots on the ground instead.
In other words, this battlefield was the perfect stage for someone like Siegfried to shine.
“Oooh!”
“It’s His Imperial Majesty!”
“Emperor Siegfried von Proa is here!”
“Look! It’s Emperor Siegfried!”
The moment he appeared, every ally on the battlefield—both NPC and Adventurer—erupted in deafening cheers. Having a powerful warrior like him show up when things were so desperate was more than enough to lift the entire army’s morale.
“Kyuuu! You’re so popular, owner punk! Look! You used to be a pathetic piece of trash! But now, you’re a hero!”
“What the fuck did you say? Who are you calling a piece of trash? You little—”
“Kyuuu! Owner punk used to be a total nobody! Everyone used to avoid you because of your titles!”
“Well, that’s true, but still…”
“You really made it big, owner punk! Kyuuu!”
Hamchi was not wrong at all, as everyone used to avoid Siegfried.
Once upon a time, Siegfried was considered to be one of the worst trash on the continent. He was infamous for being a legendary womanizer, a con artist, the very icon of betrayal, a merciless backstabber, and so on.
Looking back, it was almost absurd how he managed to clean up his reputation and become who he was today.
“Hey, stop talking nonsense and get ready to fight.”
“Kyuuu! Roger that!”
Siegfried bantered back and forth with Hamchi as they waited for the battle to start.
The Corals would come charging in soon enough, so all he had to do was stand there and kill them for experience points.
“They’re coming!”
“Enemy incoming!”
“The enemies are here!”
“They’re charging in!”
Right on cue, the Coral Warriors began swarming toward their position.
‘Good,’ Siegfried thought with a smirk. Then, he narrowed his eyes at the dark swarm of enemies approaching. He checked their numbers before opening his inventory and pulling out an item.
The item he took out was none other than the Ultra High-Grade Growth Simulant that he had received from the emperor.
Siegfried chugged down the bottle in one go and—
[Alert: You have consumed Ultra High-Grade Growth Simulant!]
[Alert: Burning Time has started!]
[Alert: All experience points gained for the next 240 hours will be increased by 35%!]
Doping done!
‘It’s time to hunt.’
As soon as the growth stimulant’s buff hit him, Siegfried shot forward faster than anyone else.
“Oh no!”
“It’s too dangerous!”
The imperial soldiers gasped in shock upon seeing Siegfried charging past their defensive lines and running headfirst into the oncoming swarm of Coral Warriors.
What he was doing was no longer reckless. It was suicidal. However, Siegfried did not see it that way, and neither did his comrades.
“You must’ve been really stressed out, owner punk. Kyuuu…” Hamchi shook his head before summoning his magical hamster wheel to cast buffs on Siegfried.
This was nothing new for Hamchi, as Siegfried pulling reckless stunts like this was practically routine by now.
It was the same for Chae Hyung-Seok.
“Tsk… There he goes again. Showing off…” Chae Hyung-Seok clicked his tongue as he watched Siegfried charge into the swarm of enemies. Then, he raised his staff to the sky and channeled every buff in his arsenal, pouring them all into Siegfried.
This was the ultimate combo—the most powerful debuffer and the most powerful buffer.
Even just either of them was already absurdly powerful, but Siegfried and Chae Hyung-Seok were each unrivaled in their own fields.
Their synergy was nothing short of overwhelming.
‘Good. The buffs are in,’ Siegfried thought, feeling the surge of power as Hamchi and Chae Hyung-Seok’s buffs enveloped him.
He leapt high into the air and came crashing down like a meteor, smashing the ground around him.
Baaam!
Rumble!
He opened the battle with one of his previous favorite skills that he had not used for a long time—Splitting Heaven and Earth.
The skill fanned out in a massive arc, sweeping away the Coral Warriors.
Not even a single one of them was left standing, and they were all wiped out.
***
Splitting Heaven and Earth was the perfect opening move, as it instantly crushed the enemy’s momentum.
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
(omitted…)
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
The sheer amount of experience points he raked in showed just how much destruction he had unleashed on the battlefield with that single move.
None of the Coral Warriors caught by Splitting Heaven and Earth survived, and it made sense, as Splitting Heaven and Earth was akin to a nuclear bomb going off.
However, Siegfried did not stop there.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
He unleashed the evolved version of Splitting Heaven and Earth, Wave of Annihilation, at the next wave of incoming enemies.
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
(omitted…)
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
However, he was just getting warmed up.
C-Crack…! Krwaaang!
The ground around him split apart as magma burst forth from the ground, engulfing the next wave of Coral Warriors.
It was Infernal Hellscape, a massive area of effect skill of the Lord of Despair.
Of course, Siegfried wasn’t done yet.
‘Why? Is it hot? Let’s cool you off then!’ Siegfried immediately followed up with Frozen Hell, causing a brutal blizzard to rage across the battlefield.
Naturally, he still had more AoE skills in his arsenal.
Sseuuu…!
A thick green mist spread out from Siegfried, covering the entire battlefield.
“Gah!”
“Nnghh…!”
“Ughhh!”
“Ack!”
The weaker Coral Soldiers couldn’t withstand the radioactive energy radiating from Siegfried. Even the Coral Warriors, who were armed with better gear, couldn’t withstand it at all.
The battlefield became an actual hell, as blazing heat, unforgiving cold, and a cloud of poisonous gas filled the battlefield, making it impossible for any living creature to survive in it.
“All forces—” Standing in the middle of the hellscape he created with his own hands, Siegfried turned to his troops, who were watching him from a distance in awe with their mouths agape.
As the Supreme Commander of the Marchioni Imperial Expeditionary Forces, he had every right to command them.
“—Charge!”
At Siegfried’s command, the soldiers roared and charged straight at the Corals like madmen.
“Charge! Charge!”
“Chaaaarge!”
“Kill them all!”
Siegfried switched off Infernal Hellscape and Frozen Hell the moment his troops came charging. After all, the two skills couldn’t differentiate friend from foe, so his own men could end up roasted or frozen along with the enemy, unless he switched them off.
However, Green Hell Magno could stay active, as its radioactive microbes only targeted foes.
‘Time to debuff the enemies.’
Just as his troops were about to clash with the enemies, Siegfried activated Discharge and unleashed Karma Flare as well as Embrace of Despair, creating a massive debuff field across the battlefield.
“Knights! Kill him!”
Meanwhile, the Coral Commander deployed the Elite Coral Knights to take down Siegfried.
One man was wiping out tens of thousands of their soldiers, so they had no choice but to take drastic actions.
“Knights of Coral! Slay the vile invader!”
“Kill him!”
“Glory awaits, brave warriors! For glory!”
“For our glorious race! Kill the alien invader!”
About ten Elite Coral Knights, each wielding massive greatswords, charged at Siegfried all at once.
‘Good. Bring it on.’ Siegfried smiled as he saw the strongest enemies focusing solely on him.
It was a no-brainer that the more powerful enemies he dragged toward him, the fewer casualties his troops would suffer.
Thus, the Elite Coral Knights charging at him was exactly what he wanted to see.
On top of reducing his army’s casualties, he would also get to test just how strong the strongest knights of the Corals were.
Plus, he would rack up a ton of Experience Points and perhaps score some rare armor that provided massive level boosts to good skills. In other words, this was a fight he welcomed with open arms, and it was one he absolutely had no reason to refuse.
