Anticlimactic Ultimate Weakness

Due to the fact that we had no real information about what was going on inside besides the fact that there was nobody within the walls of the manor, we decided to just open up the area while making a high-ground encirclement.

We had not even gotten inside the walls yet before we were forced to call in the future city army as well as the outer alliance clans' demon stockpiles to completely encircle the manor with bodies. Then, everybody was given a single chaos lance. It was literally all the lances- just lances- that the other clans had managed to stockpile from Zekrom.

In such an incredibly short time, too. Thirteenth Incorporated and Duality Resistance had managed to sleaze aside enough lances to arm well over ten thousand people. The skeleton NPC, however, still had their own stocks of lances.

On top of these lances, each body capable of using a bow was given some form of alchemy or makeshift projectile weapon that could hold and fire the prefabricated arrows. As for those arrows, it was decided that only six of them would be needed per person.

Just to achieve those numbers, though, we were forced to distribute a couple thousand from the undead NPC who were carrying numerous canister clusters. By the time every demon with the ability to use our weapons was armed, there was a carefully dispersed call of 'ready' among the undead leaders and distributed clan leadership surrounding several hundred yards of round wall.

Once everybody was prepared to receive further orders, the order 'set' rang out all around the manor. At this word, everybody applied whatever skills and magic at their disposal to their archery weapons while those carrying only lances were forced to stay at the ready position. Shortly afterward, the call of 'fire' rang out from a single mind-numbing source.

Everybody had already been aiming up toward the middles of the walls and immediate loosed their arrows from less than a hundred yards away. Because this was the first wave, all the giant sized demons capable of using only the lances maintained their ready position while the moderately sized beasts with hands and players and undead NPC slowly went about readying, setting, and firing again.

Before the second volley was even prepared the first was detonating all around the high manor walls, searing and freezing or outright vaporizing the stretched mesh of organic growth covering the pale stone walls. The walls themselves were also left darkened all around from the initial explosions with scattered signs of mild cracks and faults forming in the solid rock.

The second volley that followed freely afterward was poorly timed in its striking, but it managed to do its job well enough by emphasizing the previous damage as well as setting the foundation for the third volley. Against my expectations, though, it would probably take more than three volleys before we achieved the effect that I wanted.

The third volley had better timing but still did not manage to spread the fault lines splitting the face of the manor walls in the patterns I prayed for. All thanks to using the head priest NPC's telepathy which uncontrollably damaged anyone who but the undead who received it at full power. Not even my Medium abilities offered any protection.

When the fourth volley was in the air, I went ahead and signaled the head priest to start the chain of command rather than his own overwhelming ability again. This time the, call was the word 'aim' which signaled for everybody to switch targets. Now, everybody had lowered their weapons and the lance wielders began to apply their own skills and powers.

The next time 'fire' rang out through the chain of command, it signaled a steady domino of arrows and lances they flew straight out at incredible strengths and speeds while lightly arcing down toward the base of the wall. The middle and upper areas of the manor wall were all fractured throughout from the previous volley but only a few lower areas had faults.

Now, not only did the top half of the manor wall shatter from the shock of continuous explosions and sheer force flowing up from around the base but the lower half broke down into massive chunks and sheets of solid rock that tumbled inward under the collapse of its upper portions.

Once the wall was down, the encirclement stopped firing even though a set volley of arrows was already en route on all sides. This volley mostly helped to level the area surrounding the wall, though, making it easier four our giant encirclement to start marching forward to climb up onto the broken wall level with the third floor of the manor.

After the dust settled and everybody took up a tighter formation atop the wall, there were several seconds of silence in which… nothing happened. There were no changes in the scenery besides a dusting of pale rock powder over the inner courtyards and the exposed lower floors of the building. Noises still existed but neither their make-up nor volume changed at all.

The seconds ticked by into moments of awkwardness as nothing continued to happen. After all that big to-do and fanfare of explosions and demolition, there was a whole bunch of anticlimactic NOTHING going on. The black vines of biomass within the manor yards and structure did not even have any reaction to the destruction of the walls and its outermost growth.

I could feel the eyes of everybody in the area all looking in the same direction. Toward the maestro of this failed orchestra. Me.

Clearing my throat awkwardly, I simply play it off as if this were within my expectations and make a show of jumping out and growing out my wings. With a single flap I was shooting forward at a swift glide toward the first floor of the manor where the foyer or anteroom at the front of the ruined stone building was completely exposed.

There was where most of the sounds made it out from deeper in the building. Here was also where the walls were covered in a thick layer of dense and slimy black biomass that clung to everything between the walls and ceiling. It even carpeted the ground with several inches of nastiness that noisily squelched underfoot when I landed.

I was immediately divided between the urges of emptying my stomach and turning into a Spore Shoal. Luckily, I just barely managed to resist both urges that caught me completely off guard. There were several reason why I had a confused and pained expression with drool running down the side of my chin out of sight.

Every step I took, though, made it easier to resist the urge to turn into a Spore Shoal and Assimilate my entire surroundings because it helped strengthen the urge to vomit. Finally, after noisily sloshing and squishing my way into the building I finally lost it and became violently ill. Even in my armor the only reason I could stay standing was because I did not want to put my hands in the nastiness as I churned out some frothy fluids from lack of food and hydration.

My body might not suffer because of its evolution, but times like now were woefully realistic. I had little choice but to make a clan announcement asking for people to post 'a jug or something' of water in the clan store. Moments later, I had a bucket of river or well water worth an absurd thousand contribution points in my hands.

Once the transaction was complete, I immediately dunked my face and head into the bucket and worked on rinsing my everything out for a full minute. Then I drank some and casually dumped out the rest before re-posting the bucket for ten thousand contribution. Ha.

While the water was splashing out over the biomass, though, there suddenly came the sounds of sickly squishing movement as the floor ahead of me surged outward. Then, the sound of cracking began sounding out as the thickly meshed biomass failed to get away and began drying up and hardening while breaking down.

Casually walk upon the ultimate weakness of my enemy? Am I in a video game or a poorly plotted anime? Regardless of the circumstances, I finally found a way to move about the building without the assistance of doctors and medications.

How many gallons of water can two thousand MP of Splash put out with the assistance of a five-hundred-MP Force Strike through and Open Handed palm thrust? A massive hydro pump of thousands of gallons which shot straight through into the darkness of the building while heavily misting everything in its surroundings.

Moments later, the surroundings started to pale gray as the biomass began drying out and breaking down chunks of flakes of layers. This was honestly about as disgusting as the original living biomass, but after having already thrown up I was much better suited for handling it.

[Do not]

"Whoa," I stop and say just as I was starting to reach down and pick up a piece of dried up mass at my feet. "Will I die?"

[Worse. You will update. Again. Only NPC can be affected by this material at this stage]

Only NPC? Like the demons? "I see… but can I… keep it?" I ask hesitantly, already assuming that I would not only be told no but also told off for even trying.

There were several seconds of silence in which the others out on the wall were attempting to fill with their curiosity and clambering down from the wall. However, as Melpomene's silence continued I quickly held up a hand facing the disorderly 'alliance' of bodies coming toward the manor. All sounds soon stopped with only a few warning voices sounding out.

[What do you intend to do with it? How much do you intend to acquire?]

"What CAN I do with it?" I ask rhetorically. To anybody besides me, this would probably have few beneficial properties besides augmenting 'dark' alchemical products or something. Maybe making good quality weapons as a carbon material? I just wanted to eat it now that it was not slimy!

[The living matter has no properties that can be used by anyone but the living organism, this dead matter is another race changing substance for future content. If you EAT it, we will have to make another compensating update for the change in your character in the near future]

While this was certainly something of a deterrence, there were still a large variety of uses that I had for this which were still relative to my cordycep abilities. "How much can I store? It's… for the farm. And publicity."

[how much of your flesh would you feed a goblin?]

"About a finger," I say honestly, knowing such farming events would be extremely costly on myself. However, with the evergreen golem I should have a way to roughly farm my cordyceps. This, though, gave me diversity. "So, maybe an ounce?"

[You may gather and use…]

What? She trailed off in the middle of it? Is she processing her own information or is there different outlets for permission involved?

[Shut up]

Moments of carefully empty mind later, I finally got an answer.

[There are a few people involved, yes. I already know your plans for these things and while it's in the process of being promoted there will need to be certain other parties involved. It will be a bridge you do not need to worry about until after all of this. Just gather ten thousand units in your clan store and we will wait to enact monitor its distribution and purposes until you return to Sierra]

Ten thousand units was not a few, especially when I was not able to use my player inventory. The clan store might measure the container for individual units and for its own automated distribution purposes, but these crumbly gravel was very light. Ten thousand units very well could have been everything I had sprayed just a minutes or two ago.

Now that my already distracted mind brought such an issue into focus, I abstractly wondered at the final results of my actions. With the new outward attention, I was finally aware of a number of new or louder sounds. The building itself was groaning and faintly shifting by entire inches after the sudden loss of structural integrity.

The previous combinations of activity and echo-muffled vocals were now slightly louder and more varied.

"You're right, we will cross that bridge when we get to it," I say as I flap my wings a single hard time to shoot straight forward for several hundred feet only at standing height above the ground. At the end of my flight I found that there were now open rooms or spaces among different parts of both the first and second floors.

In these places were the same candles and torches of ghostly Soulfire which illuminated the inside of the cathedral. Among their scattered lights were the movement of shadows and the sources of the now much louder voices. However, these shadows were cast from high up and at something of a distance on the first floor ceilings.

This suggested most of this was taking place on the third floor of the building. However, the areas around me were so dense with retracted biomass that the rooms were filled halfway to capacity. I had no choice but to start farming- working my way up through the building.

Since water was the apparent weakness of the biomass and Splash was my weakest base spell, I spent a few minutes and ten thousand MP not only hosing down the neighboring 'corridors' into the upper floors but expanding my awareness into the building. Five thousand more mana was spent transmuting the surrounding and supporting structure, temporarily feeding off of the stone foundations and underground for excess material.

Despite the fact that my skills could create a 'decent' bond between the raw granite underground and the refined marble making up most of the internal structure, the bond between these two materials was not strong.

Under normal circumstances, this would simply keep the front half of the manor standing for another couple of years. Under continued fa- effort of cleaning the manor out, the building would last a couple of hours if I did not completely remodel its foundations, walls, pillars, and arches with granite.

Right now, though, it was good enough to get my foot in the door of this rotting place and rest to recover my mana while enjoying the show. This time I got to watch as the biomass writhed and contracted while seeking escape from at least ten thousand gallons of water that had been Spirit Waved through the building itself.

No matter how dense the layers of disgusting were no bit of biomass or even rock itself could escape the reached of the water element imbued spiritual attack. The biomass room directly ahead of me was soon filled halfway to the ceiling with mounds of dried up and broken down material.

*