Book 5: Chapter 48

Ghostly claws snapped out of him, passing straight through things. But when he trained his attention on the creature, it stood no chance of hitting him.

In truth, the spectre wasn’t close to being Aaron’s equal, but his thoughts were torn as he watched explosions rip through the settlement, distracting him from the fight.

Again it attacked, stopping him as he was about to fly away. Its ghostly hands reached out and tore through the aether and mana fueling his Skills, dispelling his wings as he tried to fly off again. But Aaron didn’t rely upon them, pulsing mana through his feet anchors. He made it into the air, but the screeching spectre bent its head back and literally sucked up the mana pouring out of his anchors, draining them and dropping him back down to the ground.

Aaron had been through this before, but he didn’t have time to deal with the problem as he had last time.

“You are a serious pain in the ass!” He roared as he sent a fist through the phasing undead’s face.

It didn’t want to stand and fight, but he wasn’t giving it a choice, following up with several more quick strikes as it tried to phase away, blasting through its incorporeal body.

Within seconds, the spectre realized the trouble it was in. It could keep phasing in a desperate attempt to retreat, but each time he swung for it, a little bit of damage made its way through, as his fists were coated in aether that transcended the planes between mortal and death.

Not only was it forced into defense, doing everything to survive, but as it phased repetitively, it wasn’t able to attack back. Without taking hits, Aaron’s anchors and wings were back in full effect, radiating energy.

But he didn’t fly back immediately. The undead didn’t fear death, and it would no doubt launch back onto the offensive if he gave it his back, regardless of how badly outmatched it was.

Instead, he had to fight. Throwing a deadly barrage of aether-coated fists, he chased down the spectre. Howling, it did its best to stay alive, but it was well and truly cornered, and within a second or two, the undead succumbed to the mounting damage and exploded into wisps of aether.

Now’s my chance!

Aaron leaped into the sky and took flight. But the moment he did, undead began to literally hurl themselves at him. Suicidal skeletons jumped into catapults while others pounced down from the construct. Some even threw each other at him, their bony mouths chattering as they dived toward him, and were shattered against his furious fists.

Spectral blue flames burst to life atop one of the constructs, and a line of undead began to run through it, setting themselves ablaze with the ghastly power, and then launching themselves at him.

The first of them met fist and foot as he batted them away, but when the blue flames struck him, Aaron felt their heat. It was a draining power, almost like an enhanced version of the corrupted aether, and he was forced to dodge the flaming undead as he swerved through the sky, racing back to the settlement.

But the sky was literally filled with the undead. Like a legion of flak cannons firing off into the sky, it had turned dark as they attempted to hit him.

“FUCK OFF!” Aaron roared as he pulsed an incredible burst of mana through his core, powering enhanced anchors, and channeling all of it into the most powerful dual [ Bombardier Fists ] he’d ever used, causing an explosion and a following shockwave that disintegrated all nearby undead and sent hundreds of others flying away like helpless debris.

But the undead flying through the air were only half of it, and he could see them like rivers flooding into the settlement, undead covering every bit of land as the defenders fired everything they had at the ocean of crypt-crawling monstrosities.

He slammed down as he flew, crashing through hordes of undead, and blasting them to pieces without pause. But he couldn't stop, even in the face of such ridiculous numbers, and flew over the broken walls, spotting trails of smoke in every direction.

There were dead everywhere, and he even spotted a few of the defenders climbing back to their feet with the lurching movements of the undead.

Troops were still rushing into position, filling the new gaps in the walls, and throwing them at the legion in hopes of patching them up and saving themselves.

The undead had charged out on cue, the moment he was out of the base. There could be no doubt of treachery.

“Lark you, bloody bastard!”

Another explosion ripped through the settlement ahead, forcing him to keep moving. The walls were important, but there was clearly still a battle going on deeper within that needed to be dealt with first.

Before he even reached the center of the settlement, he spotted Ernest. A moment later, he felt a rush of energy, and the cowboy’s hand cannon blasted off, turning one of the councillors into literal chunks of gore.

There were bodies everywhere, and a second later, Aaron was there, scanning for allies.

Bucky and Kirill were both badly wounded, and about a dozen or so troops lay dead, the command tent torn into pieces.

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“I never liked you motherfuckers, but I didn’t think you’d be dumb enough to betray us,” Ernest said, pressing the barrel of his gun to the head of the last councilor.

“Wait!”

Aaron was too late. Ernest pulled the trigger, and the councilor’s head exploded into ribbons of flesh.

Ernest looked over to him and pulled out a cigar and lit it. “You’re late.”

“Fuck,” Aaron said, shaking his head. It would have been nice to capture one of the traitors, but there was no point worrying about it now. “Where’s Lark?”

“The old man?”

Aaron nodded, and the fury in his eyes said a thousand words.

“He’s the one behind all this? Fuck. No idea. Haven’t seen him.”

Aaron was about to reply when their conversation was cut short by another explosion in the direction of the walls.

“Shit. They’re breaking through!”

“Get moving. I got your back,” Ernest said, leaping up into the tower above.

Aaron didn’t wait around either, and a sonic boom sounded as he returned to the wall.

He wanted Lark’s blood for this. But if the betrayers were dealt with, that would have to do for now. He couldn’t go chasing after him. The wall was in tatters, and the remnants of the defenders were barely hanging on.

Aaron crashed down and immediately went to work, turning into a blur as he rampaged through the undead legion, crushing anything that got close to him.

He was a wrecking ball let loose, and clouds of broken bone and flying undead could be seen as he trampled through the sea of moaning corpses.

But as he massacred his way through, more burning undead came, both flying down, shot at him from the constructs, and charging through their ranks, flailing around.

[ Bombardier Fists ] exploded outward, followed by an automatic rain of [ Spectral Bullet Punch ] that he fired off into them.

His core pulsed on overdrive, and cracks were soon wrapping around his core as he was forced to eat soul-mending food. But he was actually pushing the massive army back.

But in the corner of his eye, he spotted a couple of the flaming skeletons charge straight into some defenders and explode into blue flames.

They had survived, but they were so weak they fell to the ground, unable to stand.

He wanted to help, but in that moment, he sensed the powerful auras of multiple undead descending upon them. They weren’t anything he couldn’t handle, but they were strong enough to force his attention toward them.

Aaron gritted his teeth. He was going to need even more power. If they could distract him long enough, then there was a good chance the waves of undead would overwhelm the defenders. And he’d be damned if he was about to let that happen.

Like a gift from the heavens, pure stubbornness seemed to overwhelm him as his soul itself resisted his core, and energy flooded out more powerful than before, and thousands of the undead crashed upon.

He couldn’t falter here. Their forces were near to collapsing. Chaos reigned around; the defenders couldn’t stop to eat soul-mending food. Worst still, most of the barriers had collapsed, causing a flood of powerful aether to rush in, weakening the defenders greatly.

As his fists exploded into shockwaves, destroying hundreds of undead with each swing, some sort of disfigured winged ghoul descended upon him, slashing aether-infused clawed hands at him.

It was a powerful, high D-grade undead that was strong enough to give him pause, and Aaron was forced to counter. And as he returned fire, swarms of weaker undead quickly rushed past him. Every punch he threw at the stronger undead was an opening, and the undead took it immediately to rush past him and into the settlement.

Within seconds, he heard the screams of defenders at his back as they were overwhelmed by the endless legions pouring in from all around.

Mana pulsed within as his core shook violently, but Aaron just grunted down the pain. His body was screaming at him to slow down and take it easy, but instead he accelerated, throwing lightning-fast attacks at the ghoul and blasting it to pieces within only seconds of it attacking him.

The ghoul was dead, but before he could turn back and plug up the hole the undead were rushing through, two more high D-grades were upon him. One from the sky, shooting poisonous rays of aether down at him, while a skeletal knight that radiated a deadly aura charged him, swinging a black blade while holding up an impressive shield.

He slammed a haymaker into the skeletal knight’s shield, sending it reeling backward as he took to the sky to clip some ghoul wings.

Meanwhile, the echoes of powerful gun blasts could be heard throughout. Every time Ernest’s mana-infused bullets hit the undead lines, dozens were destroyed.

But that wasn’t all. Countless bubbles floated down, capturing undead in the hundreds, then floating away with the wind, those captured within entirely helpless.

As he destroyed the flying undead, he spotted Soohyun tearing through an enemy flank, her sword effortlessly taking out dozens with each swing.

But despite all that, he could see the countless dead pouring into the settlement from all around. If something didn’t change soon, the entire place would be overrun, and neither he nor the other elites had an answer.

For a moment, Aaron considered falling back to the World Core. Within the tunnels, they could funnel the undead in and deal with them… and if they didn’t do something soon, the undead would reach it anyway, and Talia would be forced to defend it alone.

“Think you can beat Terry, you skinny little freaks!” Terry shouted as he flashed across the far right flank of the settlement, his Desert Pythons assisting with covering fire.

It wasn’t enough, though. There were just too damn many of them, and another D-grade undead elite crashed into Aaron just as he tried to stem the flow again, forcing him to pull even more mana into his anchors to quickly destroy it.

However, if they were to fall back now, it would mean dooming the army of defenders still alive. After all, there was no way they would all be able to fall back.

The problem wasn’t just one of morality, either. He might have been the strongest person in the world by now, but he knew in the long term, he needed people. Allies. Those who possessed great Professions, and warriors to fill the gaps he and the other elites had.

To lose this many of their best would be a horrific blow to their world. He had to think into the future. Darius wasn’t even that powerful in the grand scheme of things. Could they really afford to lose so much talent?

Aaron roared, trying to draw on even more and more power as he wrestled the stream of undead back. And despite all the destruction he had caused, he felt so utterly helpless, torn between two terrible options.

There was simply no easy answer. But something deep, beyond simple stubbornness, told him he had to stand strong and win here.

To fail might just doom their world, even if they manage to beat Darius.

And just as things seemed to be as bad as they could get, arcing beams of concentrated aether flashed above as the obelisks controlled by Darius grew stronger.