484
Chapter 484: [Scripted Event] [Sunclaw Kingdom Conquest] 9/?: The Specter Prince Short Life
Epic of Caterpillar
-----
Noboru Sunclaw was the youngest child that the King and Queen of Sunclaw had. However, unlike the King of Moonfang, the King of Sunclaw did not have many concubines but remained with a single wife, so Noboru only had a big sister to take care of him, which loved him dearly.
Due to the lineage of his father and his mother, he was born as a half Gray Wolf and a half Phantasmal Werefox beastmen like his sister, Princess Miki Sunclaw.
His parents had great expectations of him, as his sister had developed unique abilities, skills, and magic after merging both of her parent's bloodlines into herself. However, Noboru was born as a sickly boy, and often spent several days in bed, most of the time with strange fevers that would last for whole weeks, nausea, and vomit.
Unlike most of the beastmen at his age, when he was twelve, he remained small and sickly, with pale white skin and almost dead eyes.
Shamans, doctors, and witches that had been brought to treat him were incapable of healing him and only came out with conjectures on what could Noboru had.
Noboru's soul was strange, different than others. Phantasmal Werefox was a subspecies of Canine Beastmen that could manipulate phantoms, specters, and ghosts, and some even had special qualities in their souls that could let them have some abilities that phantoms had.
However, Noboru's soul did not have a few smaller qualities, but his entire soul was strange and deformed, resembling a completely different being than himself, a specter, a furious and phantasmal creature contained inside his small and sickly body. Each time he fell sick or had a fever, it was his spectral soul that was trying to get outside of the delicate cage of Noboru's body.
If Noboru were to succumb to his spectral soul, his body would die and he would become a crazed monster, losing all memories and emotions. This was his greatest fear, after experience the love of his family, he would never forgive himself if he were to somehow damage them.
This is why he confined himself inside his room, never getting out, he rested on his bed and resisted his spectral soul rampage as much as he could, but his body grew weaker by the months, after living for twelve years, it seems that his body would not be able to resist such pressure any longer… soon enough he would die and his spectral soul would be freed from the cage of his body, free to rampage and fall to his primal instincts that seek destruction and slaughter.
His parents and sister would come to visit him daily, but he knew that soon enough he would perish… he at least wanted to escape the Kingdom and die in the wild, where no one that he cared for would be damaged after his spectral soul were to be freed…
However, one day, the Heroes of Sunclaw brought a gift to Noboru to celebrate his thirteen birthdays. A strange dark grimoire that was told by them to be capable of absorbing Mana and Soul Energy.
Although it might be dangerous for most people, Noboru's soul was highly abnormal, and it possessed an immense amount of Soul Energy to spare, which was also what gave it the strength to shake Noboru's physical body so much.
With hopes of recovering, he took upon the Grimoire that day… as a strange entity from within awakened.
The strange, chaotic, and eerily ominous entity inside the strange and dark grimoire was no other than Geggoron, the Demon Demigod of Hateful Distrust's Split Soul. Using its Divinity, it took over Noboru's body and suppressed his crazed soul, feeding upon his large amount of Soul Energy while shaping his memories and personality, slowly eroding his entire self…
As the young prince was being taken over by Geggoron's split soul inside the strange grimoire, his father and mother, alongside his sister, were also being taken over by the evil Demon Demigod simple schemes.
Geggoron was quite right in some things, such as that Sunclaw would have been easy to conquer… unlike in Moonfang where it took a sizable amount of time, in Sunclaw everything was done in a few months. The whole family was taken over, and Noboru, seemingly healed from his illness joined them.
The entire family was nothing else than Geggoron's alter egos by now, cooperating and working together to serve him as better as possible.
Noboru's spectral soul was merged with Geggoron's split soul, who found an amazing potential within, using his Divine Energy and powers, the Spectral soul evolved into a grotesque and powerful creature with the ability to divide itself into several specters while also being capable of absorbing souls and assimilate them into specters to make the army grow in size.
As time went on, the Sunclaw Royal Family, which had been completely encroached into his alter egos receives the notices of Moonfang being taken over, and celebrated… but things did not seem to last much longer, as Kireina appeared and massacred all the Split Souls in the Moonfang Kingdom, and without waiting a bit afterward, it flew towards Sunclaw, ruined Geggoron's hasty preparations and sent her army against them.
However, Noboru had grown into an over-confident alter ego of Geggoron, and thought that the trio of wolves that confronted him inside the enclosed domain created by Kireina was not as strong as the rest…
He sent his army of specters, which ended being destroyed without even a minute passing by.
"…Eh? That is impossible! My specters are ethereal, physically manifested magic should not be capable of damaging them, even less when they are infused with Geggoron-sama Divinity! …unless?"
Then Noboru came to the quick conclusion that this 'weak' trio of wolves might have been granted Kireina's 'Divinity Devouring' somehow…
"I really thought that the previous group she used to fight against us was the exception… but it seems that she even gave Divinity Devouring to this trio of stupid dogs?! How can she even do such a thing as sharing the effects of that powerful skill like nothing…? If the main body… if the main body were capable of knowing, we could steal whatever item or thing she is using and use it to our advantage…! B-But I can barely do anything in this situation, how frustrating!"
"Hey, brat, stop rambling around or you'll get killed!" roared Kurimu, as he flew like a blaze of scarlet red, his entire body was shrouded on his Crimson Aura as his body produced countless crimson horns, which he fired towards Noboru at great speed.
Flash! Flash! Flash!
"Agh!"
Noboru groaned as he used his specter soul to defend himself, however, the horns went right through it and fell upon his small body.
"T-This must be a joke…"
Clash! Clash! Clash!
The sharp crimson horns penetrated his flesh and quickly minced him entirely like a rain of acid. His muscles and bones broke into pieces and his head exploded like a watermelon.
A pile of flesh, blood, and bones was left, as the countless horns stopped falling over…
"…Ah. Did I finish things too fast?" asked Kurimu.
"No, look closer, Kurimu," said Tsuchimizu.
However, although the flesh was destroyed, the spectral soul remained there. The creature glanced at Kurimu, laughing.
"Gahahaha! Thanks to this child's special soul, even if his flesh body is destroyed, I can still use his very soul as my vessel, admire how much I have merged with it, and perish! Divine Beast Fragment!" roared the fiend, with the voice of Geggoron's split soul, the last remnants of Noboru were destroyed the moment his physical body was killed.
The spectral Geggoron moved its dark shadow-like body, shaping it at his will, suddenly, a strange and phantasmagorical lump of flesh appeared from within its spectral body.
The Divine Beast Flesh Fragment seemed to have no apparent effect, but it showed itself the moment the spectral Geggoron materialized part of its body, creating countless wolf-like claws and tentacles.
The gigantic specter who had already surpassed thirty meters began to rampage around while throwing pieces of its own body was projectiles, crimson eyes emerged from its body as well, firing crimson nightmare lasers.
The three wolves flew around while evading the grotesque specter attacks, Geggoron raged while trying to catch them, but they resembled vigorous flies at his side, being too fast for him to catch with his bare hands.
"Even as a specter, it seems that materializing itself makes its body rather heavy…" said Tsuchimizu.
"Good enough for me! Crimson Horn Fiery Shower!" roared Kurimu, unleashing a shower of hundreds of horns covered in blazes, falling over Geggoron's split soul and penetrating its spectral body, creating large cracks with each attack as if he were made out of glass.
Flash! Flash! Flash!
"Unngh…! You insect! Worm!" roared Geggoron's split soul specter, creating giant claws and materializing them, making them fall over Kurimu.
Flash!
"Gahaha! That is what I like! Time to use some other of my techniques, I guess! Blazing Horn Barrier!"
Kurimu's gigantic horn suddenly extended its shape across many meters, generating a spherical barrier seemingly made out of rubies surrounding and protecting him!
"W-What kind of-"
Clash!
Geggoron's split soul materialized claw fell over Kurimu as it sent him flying towards the ground.
Boom!
"Well, no matter how hard your barrier is, it is impossible to stop falling over the ground! …Eh?"
Geggoron's split soul glanced at his dozens of grotesque legs as it saw Kurimu's horn barrier completely intact, the crimson wolf was in perfect condition as well.
Kurimu smiled as Geggoron's split soul realized that at the last moment, the wolf covered his horn barrier with sharp spikes.
"Nngh…!"
Geggoron's split soul glanced at the giant claw he used to throw Kurimu as he realized that it was completely torn open, with pieces falling as if broken glass, the damage slowly extending across the rest of the spectral body like cracks.
"Did you like that?! Gahaha!" laughed Kurimu, as he moved his spherical horn barrier across the ground while clashing it against Geggoron's spectral body, the spikes penetrated his soul and dealt serious damage all across. Especially when the entire sphere was covered in the God Devour skill effect!
"You insolent dog, know your place!!!" roared Geggoron's split soul, opening its grotesque spectral jaws and showcasing many fangs and tongues, beginning to concentrate Divine Energy at that point to release a powerful beam towards Kurimu.
"I don't think letting you do that would be a good idea…" muttered Tsuchimizu.
"It won't, let's do it!" roared Yuki.
Tsuchimizu and Yuki flew together while converging their Auras into one, Water, Earth, and Ice merged as their converged Auras expanded more and more, showcasing endless seas of frozen water and soil, which shaped themselves as wolves, snakes, and birds.
The permafrost Wolves fell over Geggoron's split soul spectral body, tearing it apart with their sharp fangs, while the permafrost snakes began to entangle its several limbs, lastly, the permafrost birds used their sharp beaks to pierce its gigantic head.
"Uugaaah!"
Because of its size and the weight that it had due to materializing itself, Geggoron's split soul lost its balance and fell over the ground, the permafrost beasts torn apart his body indiscriminately, while he destroyed them with the limbs he had freed.
"Get out your fiends! Unnggaaah!"
All the attacks the permafrost beasts dealt penetrated his very soul, cracking it all across. Now that he had become a spectral monster using Noboru's soul, it had all of its soul exposed to the outside, becoming an even easier target than hiding themselves inside weak mortal vessels.
As he destroyed many beasts, more came one after another from within Tsuchimizu and Yuki's Aura, it seems that this special spell or art was capable of generating an army of such monsters.
"How can you wolves do such a thing…?! Y-You're mere monsters!" roared Geggoron's split soul.
"Well, if it wasn't for master's Slime Clones…" said Tsuchimizu.
"We wouldn't have enough Mana to keep conjuring this," added Yuki.
"Gahahaha! Let me finish this small fry!" laughed Kurimu.
Kurimu quickly joined in and jumped over Geggoron while unleashing hundreds of horn projectiles, which flew while shrouded in blazing scarlet energy.
Flash! Flash! Flash!
Like stakes covered in holy water falling over the heart of a vampire, the horn projectiles that Kurimu created destroyed the very self of Geggoron's split soul, his entire existence began to fall into pieces, incapable of even recovering back or using any trump card, he was completely overwhelmed from the start.
"Unngh…! Impossible…! Impossible!!! Gyaaaaaaaaa…!"
Clash! Clash! Clash!
Crack, crack!
Crash!
The entire dark specter suddenly became a statue of dark glass, falling into pieces almost instantly.
"Well, that was it!" said Kurimu, sighing in a bit of relief.
"It was indeed quite easy with the help of master's Slime Clones… But without her, we would have never been able to truly damage the split soul of a demigod, so it is fine, I suppose," said Yuki who still desired a challenge without having to receive Kireina's help.
"Don't sweat it, it was a good fight… and a lot of my skills suddenly leveled up… and what with this Experience Points… More than one billion?!" roared Tsuchimizu, breaking his calm demeanor.
"Gah…! T-That's true!" roared Kurimu.
"It is more Experience Points than defeating the Thunder Dragon Overlord…" added Yuki.
-----
Dark Specter Wolf Prince, Noboru Sunclaw and his medium-sized Geggoron's split soul: deceased.
Cause of death: defeated by the onslaught of the Permafrost Aura Beasts created by Tsuchimizu and Yuki and then impaled hundreds of times by Kurimu's blazing horns projectiles.
Epic of Caterpillar