Chapter 28: The Raid’s Final Challenge & Burning Passion
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Teressa's eyes widened, and as they turned completely sapphire-colored, her entire body exuded an aura of frost, freezing her surroundings. The moment the blazing giant, yet another Raid Boss, manifested, she quickly and desperately unleashed her powers at once—everything she had, all of it!
Her Arcana and her Blood Power, and also her Frost Essence, the unique energy she could wield by transforming her heart and refining it into a Frost Queen Heart, the entire arm made of blazing flames, fused monsters, and red crystals suddenly stopped midway through, barely unable to crush them with its immense might.
FLUOSH!
A powerful storm of frozen winds exuded from Teressa as she started sweating rapidly, floating in midair, and pushing her hands toward the monster.
"My husband gave me this territory for a reason... He trusted in my strength; he knew that I wasn't weak enough to just let it all be destroyed!" she roared. "Don't think I'll let some monsters do as they please in MY land!"
RUMBLE!
The amorphous giant made of red crystals, flames, and countless monsters fused together aberrantly was being slightly pushed back, unable to completely come out of the combined portal!
"Hah… HAHAHAH! You are strong! Good! Show me how strong you are, little flame! Burn that flame of yours; show it to me! I need it! I need that!"
The Unending Crimson screamed like a madman; the entity seemed to feel joy in seeing a person's "inner flame" blaze through all kinds of strong emotions.
Bravery, fear, conviction, resolve—all of these things made this outer being shiver in excitement. It was a being of incomprehensible existence, and perhaps its own perspective of the world was much different than the rest.
Yet despite all of that, it found joy in the struggles of mortals—perhaps even a meaning to its own existence.
"Can you handle this too, my beautiful ember?"
Suddenly another blazing arm rushed down. Teressa gasped, unable to react in time. She conjured a barrier of ice, but it easily shattered into pieces. The blazing fist punched her down, slamming her into the ground below.
BAAAM!
"Mama!"
"No!"
Camilla and Vlad gasped in horror, rushing towards their mother, whose body had caught fire; several of her bones had broken, and she was screaming in agony.
"Uuaagh! Ugh! Aaahh!"
She was trying to turn off the flames, yet her ice could simply not do it! These flames were cursed, and her ice couldn't overwrite the curse. The agony only spread further through her body.
"I-I'm going to die... like this?!"
She tried to stand back up but kept falling to her knees, vomiting blood as she felt her insides all crushed. Her regeneration was trying its best to keep her alive, but the constant burning of her body weakened it and slowed down the internal healing.
"R-Run away, you two! W-What are you doing?! Uugh…! This city... it's doomed. Ugh…"
She started to cry as Camilla and Vlad watched Teressa try her best to stand up, even as she was burning.
And then, tears started falling from her eyes; her tears quickly evaporated from the flames.
"I'm sorry… for not being the mother you wanted me to be."
"No, mama!"
Camilla cried, running towards her mother despite the flames. Vlad quickly grabbed the girl, dragging her away.
"Brother! Stop!"
"Enough, Camilla!"
"Are you going to leave Mama to die?!"
"Of course not, but you can't... Just leave it to me!"
Vlad rushed towards his mother, channeling the last Arcana he had and quickly conjuring his powers.
His Aura of Arcana spread over a wide area of over fifty meters, and as he gritted his teeth, his eyes started bleeding as he forced himself once more.
His Soul surged, combining its Aether with his Blood Power.
"Uuuaaagh!"
As he screamed in pain, suddenly, everything came together.
"{Geomancy}: {Blazing Frost Rain}!"
The fire covering Teressa's body quickly flew away. At the same time, all the ice she spread around flew away as well, fusing with the flames and then combining themselves into a dozen giant spears made of ice and fire.
"Impressive! Even until the very last moment! Your flame—how brilliant it is! My dear ember!"
The Unending Crimson faced the rain of projectiles happily, countless crimson eyes opening across its gigantic vessel, admiring the beauty of a mortal's struggles till the very end.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Frost and fire bombarded its entire vessel body; several cracks spread through it, and a few pieces fell apart, but it wasn't enough; the massive thing kept coming from the portal, its wounds rapidly regenerating as more red crystal grew over its surface.
"The flames shall baptize you! Everything... must return to ashes!"
Without saying a word, the giant kept coming out of the gate; almost its entire body was out now, and the entire city was constantly trembling, flames spreading everywhere.
Everything was going to sh*t.
"Cough… Ugh!"
Although Teressa had freed herself from the flames, her burned body was regenerating too slowly. Vlad quickly grabbed her with his arms and decided to run away.
"Camilla, Chris, we're out of here!"
"B-But our house, brother, our house will burn!"
Camilla was panicking; she had never thought that today she would have to do so many crazy things, but above all, she didn't want to leave her house, the only comfort zone she had.
"We can't afford any more time, Camilla!"
"No! But the house!"
The girl kept pointing at her home. Vlad knew that she was different from other people; sometimes she became too fixated on a single thing, ignoring everything around her.
"Ugh… My son, we have to-Ack!!"
Teressa was trying to recover herself, but her delayed regeneration had ruined her plans to fight until the end, and she was now being carried by her crippled son.
"Please leave me behind. I cannot handle this shame! My husband, your father, gave me this city to protect it. If it is destroyed, I must... die with it!"
"Enough! You're not going to die today! Hey Chris, help me out a bit, Chris?"
Vlad suddenly noticed Chris remained in the skies as an Aura of Light surged from his body, so bright that it made him resemble a second sun.
FLASH!
"W-Wha…?!"
He closed his eyes due to the bright light and even felt his skin burn slightly. After all, vampires were weak against bright lights, and the light that Chris emanated was almost divine.
"I should have done this way earlier... I was honestly afraid I would become weird like you, Paul. But there's no time to doubt now, right?"
Chris' appearance slightly changed; his red hair became long, reaching his hips; his entire body became slightly taller and slenderer; his eyes shone with golden light; his wings, once demonic, became angelic, with white feathers, and enormous, spreading up to three meters long each.
His black clothes turned into white robes, beautifully covering his delicate, androgynous body. Vlad didn't know if he was seeing an Incubus anymore, or perhaps a god of light!
A halo of bright sunlight appeared above his head.
Without a doubt, Paul immediately realized what was happening.
"Is this his equivalent of my own buff? He has... a whole transformation?!"
Yes, this was the power of the Heavenly Demon's greatest rival, Murim.
Who Chris apparently ended up becoming his reincarnation.
["That damned aura! I recognize it! The Heavenly Emperor... Why is he here?! How is this possible?! Was that brat his reincarnation this entire time?"]
"I am not used to this power myself; it's weird and scary." Chris muttered. "And I got even less time than you on using it—five minutes... But I think I can handle this thing. Or at least, I want to try."
Chris smiled back at Paul.
"I want you to rely on me too."
Paul felt his heartbeat accelerate as he heard Chris' honest words.
"Chris…"
"GRUOOOHH!"
The furious roar of the titanic aberration reverberated through the entire city; the Unending Crimson no longer spoke, completely indulging itself in the suffering of countless others through its endless flames.
Four gigantic blazing fists reached Chris within seconds, yet the angelic incubus received them with a serious expression on his face. As his long, red hair waved by the wind, he pointed his arrow at the incoming hands.
"{Immemorial Heavenly Sun Arrow}"
A single arrow made of pure blinding light was fired, which quickly divided into four in an instant, reaching all four fists and piercing through them.
The arrows didn't explode automatically, constantly piercing through the gigantic limbs of the monstrosity until they reached its entire body. Blinding divine light ki surged from the cracks and wounds left behind as countless explosions engulfed the monster's arms and then its torso.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Vlad, Teressa, and Camilla watched in utter disbelief at the scene; it was as if a dweller of a completely different Realm had suddenly arrived in Obscuritas!
Why? Because nobody here wielded the element of light in such a way in this Realm of pure darkness.
"UUUAAGGH!"
The aberration screamed in agony, trying to rapidly regenerate, but Chris was merciless, pointing his bow at him again and firing not one but a dozen arrows consecutively, his powers allowing him to create endless divine light ki constructions, the specialty of the Heavenly Emperor.
Each arrow pierced the monster's body before it could properly retaliate, creating countless explosions across their bodies over and over and over and over and over again.
A never-ending rain of arrows made of light.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The titan continued struggling, forming more and more blazing crystals. It fired against Chris and called the rest of the monsters in the city, which started merging with its body.
Yet Chris remained unstoppable; not only did his bow change, but his trident absorbed his holy light powers, becoming a giant spear of pure light!
"Amazing…"
Paul could only watch in awe as if this were an epic cinematic of a video game, yet it was all happening in real-time; it was just actual gameplay, not a cinematic.
"It is time to finish you off for good," roared Chris, his personality changing and becoming slightly like that of the Heavenly Emperor. "Demons like you don't belong in my domain. BEGONE!"
"{Immemorial White Heaven's Spear}"
With a single command, the spear started spinning around and becoming even larger, rushing down towards the blazing titan and piercing its very essence—the connection it had with the Unending Crimson itself!
"T-This is…?!"
The Unending Crimson felt his authority over his vessel completely shatter into countless pieces as its force and powers were quickly dragged back forcefully where its true existence dwelled, in the Outer Void.
BOOOMMM!!!
The blazing titan, without a soul to command its gigantic form, quickly started shattering apart, but the blinding light was so powerful and all-consuming that most of its body was disintegrated and turned into nothing but ashes.
RUMBLE!
The two dungeon portals trembled, slowly separating into their former appearances, as the blazing aura that the Unending Crimson's Raid was constantly releasing quickly dissipated.
The remaining monsters died instantly, as they all tried to fuse with the titan to make its regeneration stronger, but it was all futile.
"Wow… I did that?"
Chris looked at the scene in utter disbelief, feeling rather proud of himself.
["You? We did that! My reincarnation, you should seriously work out your abilities; you could have drawn even more of my powers if you had continued training your Ki! Why haven't you trained it at all?!"]
"Look, I don't even know what that is!"
Chris quickly descended as he discussed with the Heavenly Emperor, but to others, it looked like he was talking to himself.
Teressa looked back at her son in shock.
"My son… You've truly gotten... an excellent servant," she smiled, before falling unconscious.
"Ahhh… I guess so..." Paul sighed. "Chris! That was amazing! I had no idea you could do the same as I could!"
"Yeah, yeah, no time to talk though; I need to use these powers as much as I can; I have like two minutes left!" Chris said, rushing into the skies. "I'll try to heal as many people as I can and also move the rubble if possible!"
"Wait, Chris!"
Vlad couldn't stop him, as the little angelic incubus went and healed thousands of people while lifting away rubble with giant hands made of light before his transformation turned off and he fell from the skies!
"Oh…"
And he couldn't even fly; his entire body was paralyzed after using that transformation, which had even more serious aftereffects than Vlad's buff.
"Ugh, I can't even move my wings?! My energies are all empty too! Agh! I'm going to die from this high! Shit, shit, shit! Paul? PAUL SAVE MEEEE!"
His high and mighty personality changed into a crybaby as Paul ran towards him and barely managed to catch him while flying into the skies using Float, using the last remaining Arcana within his rings.
"I told you to wait, and you went on your own!" Paul kept reprimanding him.
"Geez, I just wanted to help!" Chris cried.
"Well, thank you." Paul sighed. "You did… help a lot."
"Yeah? I sure did~" Chris smiled cutely.
Their eyes met as they slowly descended; Chris was being gently carried like a princess by Vlad, making the scene even more awkward, perhaps.
"That was pretty amazing; I have to recognize it."
"You finally recognize my strength? That's good~"
"Don't get so cheeky about it."
"Nah, I'll get super cocky about it, actually."
"You…"
"What~?"
Their faces were even closer than before, fiercely glaring at one another; their faces were blushing, yet they simply couldn't stop talking as their faces approached.
Something was pulling the two together; even as Chris had regained his body mobility, he just didn't want to let go of Paul yet.
"I should teach you a lesson... You need some correction, you bratty incubus."
"Oh? And how are you going to correct me, my crippled vampire prince~?"
Vlad bit his lips fiercely as his face became as close as it could to Chris, their noses poking each other, yet they didn't seem to mind at all right now.
Their heartbeat was racing faster and faster; both didn't know what was going to happen now, but there was a sense of anticipation about doing something almost forbidden.
"My son! Are you alright? Is your servant well?"
Teressa and her daughter ran to see Vlad and Alitheus, only to find a scene that both of them never truly expected to see.
Their lips met in a passionate, hot kiss. Alitheus' hands were wrapped around Vlad's shoulders, while his legs were tightly locked behind his back.
Meanwhile, Vlad's hands were tightly grasping his butt, constantly massaging it, and as their lips savored each other, even their tongues were meeting lasciviously.
"Hmm~ Ahh~"
Alitheus moaned as Vlad continued kissing his neck, only for his eyes to widen, finally realizing what the two of them were doing, almost lost in the passion of the moment.
Teressa and Camilla were watching, their jaws dropping to the floor.
"Mother?!"
Vlad was the one to panic right afterward.
"W-We can explain this!"
The two then looked at one another and how they were touching each other's bodies, quickly separating.
"Yeah… You better explain it! You have a lot of explaining to do!"
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Can't wait to see what's next? You can join my Patreon:
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and gain access to all these Advanced Chapters:
50 Advanced Chapters of
The Protagonist's Sister Is Actually The Strongest
30 Advanced Chapters of
The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns
17 Advanced Chapters of
Fantasy Story Online: The Crippled Vampire Prince Walks The Heavenly Demon Path