All the men of Stronoff seemed ready to ride against their enemies... The truth is that no one expected that the terrifying girl in the black armor stained with blood would join them, and when the horses trembled at the thought of charging such a monster mass upon them, Maple suddenly summoned a tortoise that grew to the size of a horse and levitated slightly above the ground. That was Syroup, Maple's mount! Gazef suddenly wondered if he was in a dream, suddenly the fear seemed not to be that important, a light laugh escaped his lips.
Soon everyone was riding together with Maple and Gazef in the lead.
Maple looked at him with a bright smile, damn, why was she so cutely terrifying? Gazef cleared his throat.
|Maple-dono, before the match, I would like to know your capabilities, or at least a glimpse of them.|
Maple put a hand to her chin seriously thinking how to sum it all up.
|Well, I'm kind of like a tank… although I have many AoEs of poison and paralysis that I gain after eating a Hydra…|
"She ate a Hydra" resounded in Gazef's mind slightly reaffirming that this was a dream, sighing slightly he looked forward, the sense of danger for some reason vanished from his back, in the end he was charging towards the kigndom enemies with a man-eater mosnter by his side.
|Come to think of it, the last time I used an AoE skill it affected the villagers too| Maple looked at the soldiers about to use [Hydra ] to check if there was friendly fire, however something about the soldiers trembling with fear and sweating cold made Maple take pity on their souls, well, there's nothing she could do about it, she would have to use… wait, this was her chance, an evil smile appeared on Maple's face, this was her chance to show them that she wasn't a monster, smiling happily Maple tried to stand on top of Syroup almost falling out of his shell but succeeding in the end and screaming into the air :
|[Loving Sacrifice]| Gazef's mouth couldn't fall to the ground because it was already there, a pair of white wings opened from Maple's back, her hair turned blonde and a halo appeared above her head, this was amazing in so many ways that it was even absurd , Gazef was suffering from Maple syndrome of the first degree, the result of being slightly exposed to Maple's madness, among the symptoms is the thought that everything lived is a dream while common sense begins to be twisted.
For Maple it was a bit strange as she had to spend a specific time to designate each of the 50 knights of Stronoff when using her ability, Maple would write an email to the developers about how this detail was somewhat inconvenient but that the area of effect of [Loving Sacrifice] would have been increased as a result she thought it was great, too bad this would probably be nerfed soon. Smiling, Maple turned around and saw the confused soldiers. Laughing a proud 'Fu fu fu' Maple spread her hands out to the sides. |On this battlefield no one will die!|
His name was Ningun Grid Lewin, he was the captain of one of the 6 writings of the 6 great gods and he had a mission: to finish off the strongest Warrior of the Kingdom of Re-Estize, to do so a trap was set for him, they only need to massacre a few villages before he fell straight into his cage.
|Men, sharpen your wills because the heretic Gazef Stronoff fell into the cage!|
Ningun smiled as he watched as his sorcerers surrounded the village and summoned a first wave of angels, who knew it would be so easy to catch Gazef Stronoff?
Incredible, simply incredible, was it possible to be so stupid? The warrior capitan left the village together with his men ready to try to breake acros their lines and… Was that a giant tortoise? Ningun gave his subordinate an accusing look who only shrugged his shoulders, Ningun clicked his tongue.
But well, what would change a small anomaly in this course of battle? Then he noticed that there was someone riding on the turtle, she was a much smaller person and seemed to be wearing black armor. A girl? Did the warrior captain seriously dare to take a girl in a date to a batlefield? In addition to being a heretic, he was stupid, that was nonsense. Even so, the girl had some sort of giant tower shield with an appearance that seemed like an insult to all holy of how profane it was, if given the chance Ningun would wipe out all the heretics!
It was then, when they were a few meters from entering his attack range that the dark armored figure stood over the turtle, a great light dazzling all the soldiers. As soon as he turned his gaze to the girl with the unholy shield he was met by a true Angel with white feathered wings and a golden halo above her head.
Several of his sorcerers suddenly knelt on the ground and started praying, Ningun's knees trembled for a second threatening to betray him, his mind went blank for a few seconds before his face twisted in rage, biting his lips before he barked.
|Brothers! Stand up and don't be fooled by the false prophet! Look at her armor, see at her mount and feel her aura! That's not an Angel! That's a monster in the skin of one!
The writing of the sun was just recovering when Maple and Gazef entered their attack range, the fire archangels fell on them, but a scream seemed to silence the world itself [Spirit Cannon], Syroup vaporized the enemies in front of Maple, Ningun mouth was on the ground as he yelled:
|Heretic! You have no idea who you're messing with, surrender without a fight and perish!| More fire archangels were summoned to the battlefield and they rushed towards the battlefield focusing at least half of their forces on Maple.
The Kigndom soldiers fought against the archangels, even being outmatched by power and agility the soldiers fought ready to die on the spot, but, no matter how hard the archangels tried, no matter how much they stabbed them, it was impossible to cause a single wound to these berserkers following the real Angel Maple, not a single drop of blood fell on the ground.
The swords of the fire archangels of Yggdrasil looked like wooden sticks bumping uselessly against a wall of tungsten.
Maple for her part was completely in her element to be surrounded by those threatening beings doing their best to kill her, and although she was quite comfortable in this situation, it was time for the counterattack! With a smile on her face she unsheathed her short sword and took aim at the archangels screaming into the air. [Hydra] Three draconic heads erupted from her sword and rained poison on the archangels and sorcerers, those closest to Ningun used purification and healing spells, but the cascade of poison caught almost everyone off guard.
At that moment Syroup began to rise up into the sky without any help with Maple on his back, Maple stood up and spread her hands and wings at the same time while laughing happily observing the chaos she had caused, raising a hand to the sky, she yelled [Hydra] once more, this time spending nearly all of the accumulated mana gems raining down a ton of poison on her enemies.
The earth turned black, the plants rotted, the miasma spread like true evil in this world, the archangels melted under the poison, and the sorcerers of the theocracy dropped like flys, their purification and healing spells seemed useless.
Gazef felt the heat of the poison around him, he smelled the putrefaction and witnessed his enemies melting in front of him, this was not a battle, it was a dream, raising his hand and touching the purple liquid that rained down and dyed the reality of a insane tone. A dream, no matter what, the mere fact that the poison just felt warm and didn't melt him was unrealistic enough to tell him all of this wasn't real, couldn't be real, just couldn't.
Ningun coughed up blood, his trembling hands slowly reached for the sacred object left behind by his gods, but he hesitated for a second looking at it, then, his vision turned red as his eyes began to bleed. He had no time to hesitate or talk nonsense. He was dying, wouldn't it be better to say practically dead, this, this was his last hope, if not for him, then for his nation. It was his duty to finish off the God Heretics.
With a look of pure rage and madness, Ningun drank a recovery potion and an antidote as he stood up and summoned the power contained in the crystal by summoning the highest level Angel. Suddenly the heavens opened up and even the clouds of poison ceased to be displaced giving a respite to the few survivors of the theocracy. It was there that he appeared, majestic and imposing, something out of the heavens in the truest and most imposing of senses, a being capable of hurting even Momonga.
Ningun smiled wiping the blood from his mouth and clearing his throat before declaring his victory with absolute confidence.
| This is your end heretic!| Ningun ordered the angel to use the level 7 spell [Smite], Maple saw what was going to happen and undid Syroup's summon as a precaution, then a beam of light broke through the poison clouds hitting Maple squarely.
Maple stood in the beam of light with her arms outstretched and her eyes closed, welcoming him as if he were an old friend, seconds later Maple was unable to keep the act serious and the almost holy atmosphere around her was shattered in a moment as Maple flopped onto her butt as she laughed out of sheer happiness and excitement. When the attack was over, Maple was still laughing, the ground charred around her, but not a single wound on her.
Ningun and Gazef, they were both paralyzed and unable to process the situation. Their feelings synchronized. This must be a dream without a doubt.
Maple pulled herself together and with a mischievous smile, she posed in a cute but epic way along with her big angel wings and her big black shield.
| It seems clear who is the real angel here.| Maple wouldn't usually praise herself like this, but well, since she was playing against these NPCs, this time, just this time she allowed herself to be arrogant, vain… And most of all, proud.
Maple climbed onto Syroup again and they both rose to the angel's level.
| Do you say that I must give up without putting up any resistance?| Maple's smile grew. | Are you saying I have no idea who I'm messing with?| Maple started to chuckle. | You say that I am finished, that it is my end?| Maple's laugh evolves from a 'fu fu fu' to a 'Mua ha ha ha'.
The sunset light snuck through the apocalyptic chaos for a few moments hitting Maple, Maple's eyes glowing red for a moment.
|I am Maple, the knight of absolute destruction!| Maple took flight over Syroup and jumped off the edge of the shell, dropping into free fall. |Resist and scream for your life! Never mind my opponent! No matter the obstacle! Angels, demons!...| When Maple was about to hit the ground, a metal ball surrounded her body, hitting the ground and splashing a bit of poison to everyone present.
Gazef and several of his men flinched as they suddenly felt the liquid burning through their sking as the dream became nightmare, and the nightmare began to become dangerously real.
| I'll eat them all!| A tail suddenly hit Gazef by accident twisting his arm in an impossible direction, somehow his protection from hers had ended, that thing, that 6-armed monster that [Atrocity], that was Maple.
Faster than anyone would expect from a beast of such size, the Atrocity began to strike towards the angel with an agility usually impossible for Maple, the atrocity leaped into the sky and slammed into the angel, instantly the atrocity's limbs immobilized the angel against the ground, the mouth of the horrendous head without eyes opened revealing a nasty tongue which licked the angel's inhuman face with evil only for seconds later the feast began.
Ningun fell to the knees in disbelief, blood staining the sight of him as he felt the poison in the air begin to destroy his lungs, sheer terror framed his eyes.
The atrocity devoured the angel and it spat a blaze of fire into the sky as a cry of victory before focusing on the few survivors. An empty, monstrous hand grabbed Ningun who didn't even have the strength to try to stand up.
| Resist , scream , beg for your life!| The atrocity demanded.
Tears of blood and despair accompanied Ningun's last desperate cry, the last thing he saw was the jaws of the monster.
In short, I went a bit off the rails with this chapter and didn't post it earlier because I didn't want to cut it in half, plus I had a little doubt about whether [Loving Sacrifice] and [Atrocity] could overlap or not, in the end I decided that it was one or the other and luckily I did because the next chapter I'm writing became much more interesting because of this little detail.
To all this, small-unimportant-at-all question... Does Maple have the guts to cut her own throat? I have my own answer but what do you think?
Atte.
"I said short chapters damn it."
J More
