The Harvester

Chapter 437: North God

The massive domain of Soul Flames manifesting on the planet as a boundary between Worlds was felt across the planet. Bhumi momentarily stopped moving when Tarnished Death was taken away by Rakna's Soul Marble.

Zikserth didn't waste that opening and his crimson aura turned into crimson petals. Each of them detonated, engulfing the Fallen God and knocking down his stance. The demon king dashed into the mayhem and dragged the explosions with his fingers, sucking the energy into his fingertips.

"[Thorn Paroxysm,]" he coldly said as his body crackled with demonic power. He arrived in front of Bhumi and with a resolute motion, he curled his fingers inward like claws; his hands vertical to each other. Without hesitating, he pulled both of his arms in opposite directions.

Unable to guard, Bhumi felt the halves of his body being wrenched in those exact directions. And from the line that separated both pulling forces, dark flowers bloomed from which two streams of energy exploded.

Parallel to each other, their source shrouded Bhumi's entire body. They extended to the sides long enough to exit the planet's atmosphere. The farther they went, the more their shape turned into thorny branches bare of leaves.

But even this awe-striking spell merely lasted seconds before it was split with the sound of a blade. The 'branches' were sliced and Bhumi emerged with his body fuming and bloodied. He charged at Zikserth right away, a lifeless monotony to his actions.

"[Mondflackern.]" With a flicker of moonlight, Soma blinked into existence with an arrow pointed straight at Bhumi's head. "[Verfolge den Mond, Feind,]" he chanted and released the string at the flash of silver light.

The undead god's eyes quickly changed focus and with his other arm, he forced his sword to move toward the arrow rather than Zikserth. When he cut into the projectile, his Wind Intent manifested as a tornado around himself.

Yet, the arrow was not destroyed. Its split halves reformed into a pair of new arrows and stabbed into the swordsman's shoulders, carrying him over kilometers due to the power behind them.

Bhumi's jaw clicked open for the first time and he growled out one word with his worn-out vocal cords. "[South… God…]" He uttered and his weight increased, plummeting him back toward the ground where he buried his sword and landed on it with a handstand. 

His eyes flashed and a new form of Elemental Intent coated his entire being, expanding even more outside like an aura. "[Ensi… Kur… Aan,]" he intoned and with the weight of his physique, he fell forward and transmitted the momentum to his sword.

Then, his Sword Intent surged to equate the level of the Element. In the blink of an eye, the muscles in his arm bulged and swung, drawing an arc wider than 200 degrees. The ground was lifted into the sky to form a sword taller than mountains.

"Zikserth!" Soma shouted a split second before Bhumi attacked. The Demon King and the Moon God immediately deployed their defenses, shields of intertwined roses and a half-moon.

One would think that the giant sword would be slow enough to dismiss, but Soma did not make that kind of oversight. In fact, he knew straight away that dodging was not feasible. That construct was not the attack itself; it was merely part of it.

Faster than a lightning bolt, the giant blade descended even faster than Bhumi's arm. The entirety of the Intent was transferred to it right as it collided with the land. It shortly met resistance against the shields of Soma and Zikserth but cleaved right through regardless.

The duo retreated as far as they could afterward with blood threatening to spill from their mouths while the sword continued its path inside the Earth. The planet shook and became more and more deformed until it finally got stuck nearly four thousand kilometers down.

Bhumi blankly hauled his sword up as if the landscape before him had not just been devastated beyond recognition. Furthermore, the undead didn't seem to plan to stop as he attempted to adopt a new stance. But before he could, a stream of white fire with six wings landed behind him.

Ramsa's entire body illuminated the area as her hair and wings released all spectrums of light at their highest intensity. With a white star in her palm, she pressed it on Bhumi's back and launched him into the sky, a trail of light following.

"A tribute to my son…" The Sun Goddess smiled and whispered, "[White Nova.]"

On cue, the orb digging into Bhumi hissed and burst into a large dwarf star. It overtook the sky and blinded everyone still fighting near the city, even the Shades themselves were disoriented.

"Damn… they aren't pulling their punches," Norio muttered to himself as he tirelessly adjusted the barrier. "How the hell is this planet still holding…? With the Fiend destroying the core, the Shades building tunnels, Lord Bhumi slashing the crust over and over, and the Sentinel literally stretching it like rubber…" He frowned. "Did Tarnished Death do something to Earth itself?"

As he was thinking that, one of Ranka's runes in the magic formation shattered. "Shit, there's only two left," he clicked his tongue. He looked over his shoulder and peered at the city's edge with a scrying spell. There were several injured soldiers currently put to safety behind the barrier and if it went down while there were still Shades firing beams every second, they would surely die.

"They obviously knew the risks but…" He grumbled to himself.

Not to mention, several soldiers also had exhausted the Lunisolar Blaze they were granted by the Sentinel. Soon enough, the miasma of the Fiend will once again encroach on them.

Norio looked at the horizon where he could barely see the tip of Rakna's purple flames. "Still, now that the Sentinel has isolated Tarnished Death, if we cleanse the surface again, the miasma will not return as fast… but even if I redirect the reserves of this barrier, it'll be far from enough."

As he was digging his head for a solution, innocuously, a wolf with black fur and white-silver eyes climbed out of the underground with its paws. Norio didn't even notice until it started shaking its fur as if getting rid of something stuck to it.

"Eh?" The demon blinked in confusion. "Wait, right, the Sentinel summoned you guys…"

Quietly, the wolf approached the formation and opened its mouth, letting out an almost liquid-like stream of Lunisolar Flames into it.

"Haha, thanks but I don't think you'll… have… enough…" Norio's jaw dropped. The reserves were getting filled incredibly fast. It already had surpassed the quantity granted by Rakna's hearts.

At the same time, a dozen more wolves emerged and started doing the same thing. Within a minute or two, the original capacity had been recovered and exceeded by far.

"Holy…" Norio staggered back, the formation stabilizing without his help. "Didn't he say that there were more than ten thousand of these guys…? No way… how did he summon them so easily? No, did he even summon them with this much energy packed into them?" He muttered in shock.

"Are they, right now… independently building up energy? All of them?"

* * *

Soma and Zikserth eyed the aftermath of Ramsa's spell. Eventually, Bhumi's silhouette reentered their sight and they narrowed their eyes.

Damage had been inflicted; that was certain. The Fallen God's entire body was blistering, his upper body bare of clothes, one arm missing, and a deep concave on his back as if something had carved its way into his flesh and then cauterized it.

However, without delay, the aura of Tarnished Death left behind, which was still spewing out from within the core of the Earth, congregated and rebuilt the organic mass lost by the undead.

Ramsa huffed frustratingly. "Should I have used my reserves of Blaze in that attack?"

"…no, it most likely wouldn't have changed the end result," Soma shook his head. "At best, it would have slowed down the regeneration and pushed back the corruption in the surroundings for a few seconds. Inner Order flames can certainly repel the Fiend's power and purify weaker undead, but someone like Bhumi can easily resist it with his own strength."

"…" Zikserth was deathly silent as he gazed at his lifeless progenitor.

Soon enough, Bhumi made his move. Not bothering to change locations, he remained hovering at the height Ramsa had hurled him to. He lifted his sword and wind whistled through his mounting concentration of Intent.

"[North… God…]" The undead rasped out and his stance solidified. "[Ensi… Zuzi Aan,]" he intoned and the wind carried his voice, but he didn't move a single muscle despite that.

However, the reaction from the trio below was instantaneous. They retreated urgently. And, faster than even they could perceive, one single slash meant to hit all of them parted the land with a high-pitched cacophony.

Then, denying them the option of reprieve, several more came down from nowhere and mutilated the already devastated planet. Bhumi was immobile, his sword raised as if ready to swing, but his strikes were authentic.

He didn't need to move. The wind was carrying his blade for him.

With every second that passed, the number of simultaneous strikes kept increasing. At first, it was only one, but as Soma flew over a mountain range and was targeted, he counted exactly 81 slashes, chopping down the land to bits.

Swirling through the air, he pointed his bow at Bhumi and shot a salvo of arrows filled with lunar energy. Unfortunately, they couldn't even get within a hundred meters of their target before they were sliced into pieces.

"Figures," Some muttered and dodged another flurry of slashes with a dash of moonlight.

Below him, Zikserth landed and slammed both hands on the ground. His demonic energy flowed out from his palms like crimson blood and quickly blossomed into a field of giant roses with black thorns.

Bhumi's eyes flickered toward it and his next onslaught was launched. The unseen blades whistled, ready to clip the plants, but the roses didn't go down. Each of them shed enough petals to block all the attacks, a large explosion accompanying them.

The roses then combusted. They briefly pulsed with light before countless barbed branches tore their way out of the flowers like parasites, shooting toward Bhumi.

The undead didn't have the time to launch his next flurry before he had already been surrounded by blazing thorns. They closed in on him like ropes searching to bind him, and in response, Bhumi completed the motion, swinging his sword.

A stringent sound echoed across a significant chunk of the Earth's surface with the Fallen God as its source. Urgently, Soma wrapped an arm around Ramsa and grabbed onto thin air.

"[Schwarzer Mond!]" He pulled as if trying to cover himself with something and a curtain made of darkness came out to shelter them; the hidden side of the moon itself.

On the other hand, Zikserth plunged into the midst of his roses and had them erupt into a bouquet of crimson energy when Bhumi's attack struck.

It only lasted a second at best. The noise was nearly unbearable and back in the city, all the demons had to cover their ears. Thankfully, they were far enough, but also in a good place to witness it.

Masses of earth were lifted from the ground. Mountains were diced into cubes. Rivers parted and failed to flow water. Clouds were divided, and a few poor Shades caught by it were dismembered at the best. Everything was floating upward for a short moment. And it never fell. 

Before it ended, the mountain-sized boulders and the many plants practically disintegrated on the spot. Everybody knew what truly happened; they had been cut into such small bits that they could not be seen anymore.

Just like that, the very long second passed and concluded with an eerie silence. One more portion of the planet had been manhandled, its mass joining the atmosphere as particles.

Soma's Black Moon cracked and dissipated. He came out with gritted teeth, and the left side of his torso caked in his own blood. Ramsa supported him with a worried expression. Zikserth came out of a scorched crater with superfluous, but hundreds of cuts on his person, reducing his clothes to rags.

The three of them looked up and Bhumi's sword clicked with a metallic sound as he put both hands on the handle.

Soma's face sank. "Listen to me. We can't let him complete the West and East God techniques. This was something he already used a long time ago but I never saw it completed," he spoke to both his allies. "Those four stances are nothing more than a preparation for the last. If we don't finish this by the time he unleashes it… we lose."

Ramsa and Zikserth silently acknowledged his words and readied themselves.

* * *

"Interesting."

Tarnished Death callously admired the Soul Marble around him. Even as a storm of Lunar Energy was currently being siphoned by his opponent, he barely showed any concern.

He glanced at the purple flowers at his feet, the crystals glinting in the air, the floating library, the three stars in the sky, the beasts prowling in the distance, and the nine… no, the ten moons rising from the horizon.

He inspected all of it with detachedness but the moment his eyes landed on the crystal monument off into the Soul Sea, his attention lingered more than any other landmark combined.

"Enjoying the view?" Rakna asked as his body grew taller due to his attributes tripling. And while he was acting like it was nothing, his armor began to crack even more. His level truly was too low, he realized. At the moment, his attributes reached roughly 6000 without him modifying them.

That, in itself, was the problem. If he had to be honest, he had been aware of the limitations of his trait for a long time. A ten-thousand-attribute? Of course, he could not handle that. He had never even tried half of that while outside the Simulation before. The only reason he even dared to try was that his current body was artificially enhanced by the Scenario.

Now though, he had truly reached a limit. His armor spell was breaking faster than it could repair itself and his Tenth Tail was starting to put substantial strain on his soul for the first time.

The way Tarnished Death looked at him after brushing aside the Crystal Mountain showed that he also was aware of it. Only Lilith was oblivious as she openly gawked at the soul-scape.

"I will say one thing," the Fiend uttered, his aura already spreading and infecting the flowers of the Soul Marble. Strangely enough, none of the plants wilted, and instead became white and brittle as if bleached. "You are the most unique case of overarching potential I have ever met."

"…"

"You surpassed your vessel by a staggering degree. It makes me wonder how high you will climb once you get a body that can support your inane aptitude," he commented. "Even this Dream seems less able to welcome you than it does me."

Ignoring the Fiend's words, Rakna calmly addressed his ally. "Lilith, use the spell you learned with Ranka," he instructed and she nodded in understanding.

Her aura increased in size and spilled at her feet where it shaped a complex magic circle. One exact copy of it also appeared under Rakna and they both shone in tandem.

"[Aham Tvam,]" she chanted and the circles melded with their bodies. [Tvam Aham,]" she added and a metaphysical anchor was placed on both their souls. "[Karmasūtram.]"

Lilith's Rally Magic was invoked and she moaned in pain. She felt like molten iron was coursing through her veins, granting her incredible strength. At the same time, she looked at Rakna, whose aura decreased by the same amount she had gained.

"…a Karmic Bond," Tarnished Death appeared genuinely impressed this time. It was as if this was the actual highlight of this entire battle. "That is no meager feat."

The demoness smiled ruefully as the pain died down. "I have a good teacher," she replied as she relished in her newfound power. Three pairs of arms sprouted from her Agni Ring with barely any effort on her part.

Rakna smiled silently beside her and whirled Sonata. While it was spinning, the blade ignited with white-silver flames and the werewolf stared at the Fiend. "Now then, 'wretch', how about we start anew on my home turf this time?"

Surprisingly, Tarnished Death let out a small chuckle and he extended his staff forward. The magic instrument promptly glowed and the heart it contained moved to the center of the shaft. Then, at the tips, two curved blades grew in the blink of an eye, both of opposite curvatures. 

With a double-scythe in hand, the Fiend exuded the Intent of a warrior. The spiritual weight was so vast it felt like looking at an endless sky.

"As expected of a necromancer, should I say?" Rakna snickered.

"Laugh, wolfwalker. Laugh," Tarnished Death responded. "I have no intention to drag this on any longer. I shall teach you today…" His aura panned out and the white flowers crumbled like ashes. "The true meaning of Corruption."

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