Reviews;

That was rather thought provoking alassandro, I will take it into account as I move forward. I also have my own theories about the presence of PDL and about the floating/flying (pick whichever since both mean the same in this case) castle/city (pick one since both makes sense from a cannon perspective.). Although I will be staying cannon when such information is provided, you might be surprised about what I will be bringing to the table :^)

Glad that you have enjoyed it Varcisis! I have fixed the mistake you have pointed out.

I think I should also apologize for the distasteful comment in my review section. That might have soured the mood of you readers so, sorry for the inconvenience. Internet is a wonderful thing, it connects people who like the same things and people who think alike, but it also connects you to morons that you would have been spared from in real life. In my eyes, it is a necessary sacrifice. Please don't take my response to him as my default to how I treat people that critique my writing. On the contrary, I hope to hear your thoughts in the comment section as always.

This will be a short chapter since I am busy nowadays.

Chapter 18

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[Granite Tomb], four triangular granite slabs tore themselves out of the ground. The massive chunks converged in the foci, creating a pyramid.

[Stone Manipulation], a hole in the massive construct appeared right before Edward and another appeared at the top.

[Tainting Flame], Edward blew blue scorching fire into the small opening while fresh air exited out from the top, leaving a blazing inferno inside the granite pyramid.

The makeshift oven glowed red as the heat inside sky rocketed. Sand turned into hardened black sludge and life within was extinguished. Blue Planet made a sour face as he glared at the tomb he created. 'Shame, these creatures are rare to come by.'

The derelict city had attracted beasts and wild life of the dunes that surrounded it. The desolate landscape had attracted sand slimes, giant scorpions and some anubii*. Their territorial nature however, became a serious health hazard before Blue Planet and Edward. Berethur was surprised how in sync the duo were when unfortunate beasts attacked their group. This was due to the pros of the Vanir's skill set.

While regular undead, demon and bestial summons usually acted according to orders given through the mental link; Blue Planet's conversion enabled the duo to sync their actions simultaneously. This gave rise to some nasty combos. The deadly wildlife that tried to struck down the trio quickly became dead wildlife.

Promptly dealing with any disturbances, the group moved onwards deeper into the city. As they got closer to Eyuentiu's heart, the buildings began to pile on top of each other. Progressively, they moved towards the floating castle. The air became thick and malicious as they rose higher. Echoes of a tragic past and whispers could not only be heard, but felt all around them in the lonely city. No wild life was present around these parts and it was understandable. Something that one may find difficult to name had made this place uninhabitable. Although it put all three of them on edge, Blue Planet still led the way up and forward. But suddenly, the climb stopped.

Both Blue Planet and Berethur held their breaths before the sight while Edward instinctively summoned his briefcase, ready for battle. Bitter feelings, hatred, resentment and sorrow hung over the pitch black mouth beneath the floating castle. Under the floating city stood a five-kilometer-wide darkness, like the planet was stabbed with a pike and the wound left a gaping hole. The horror in the air was so dense that Berethur was barely managing to hold down the bile in his throat.

As a Vanir, Blue Planet was not really fond of negative energies. This place however, seemed to be seething with it. He could feel it. People like him, players had been here. And more importantly, died here. 'A graveyard of players' It made him nauseous to think, but this was the final resting place for his fellow people from earth. Came to this world, and died full of regrets. Blue Planet looked at the floating chunk of earth with a scowl and pursed lips.

Under their feet, earth trembled and groaned. Berethur knew that undead spawned in areas dense with negative energy. Hence, he instinctively knew that whatever was rising from the darkness, was not something he wanted to be near, or even see.

"Berethur I want you to retreat back, me and Edward will handle this. Then we will get our answers. I promise." The Vanir gave Berethur a radiant smile that washed away his terror. The sorcerer gave Blue Planet a nod before vanishing back into the buildings.

Numerous golden magic circles with runes and incomprehensibly complicated shapes encircled the Vanir as he looked back towards the hole. Next to him, Edward was similarly encircled in blood red runes and shapes that restlessly revolved around his body. "Let's clear this area up shall we?"

Edward nodded a quick affirmative.

Berethur cautiously retreated back down the street they had come from. From where he stood, a large chunk of the city laid beyond his feet. Completely deserted. 'Maybe that barrier was there not to keep things from going in, but to keep things from going out…' After what he had seen. It made an awful lot of sense. Whatever undead remained or spawned from the remnants of the old civilization, Berethur trusted the strength of Blue Planet and Edward. Without a doubt, he would have stopped his journey then and there if only Joann, Gallahad and good old Grendell was accompanying him. But having the master of life and an overpowered demon on his side was rather encouraging. Berethur still could not believe how fate had put the three of them together.

As he walked further down and away from his party, huge tremors followed by a gargantuan explosion made him threw himself on the ground. A burning, gigantic femur bone lodged itself couple feet away from where he laid on the ground showering him with parts of the pavement. With the help of the immediate adrenalin rush, the young sorcerer bolted towards the nearest building on all fours.

Berethur busted open the unlocked door and took cover next to the wall. He waited, jaw clenched and eyes closed for another explosion but all there was were distant tremors and bone chilling roar coming from the distance. The sorcerer opened his eyes, slowly becoming aware of the room he was in. A spacious entrée with a moth eaten carpet and a tall closet with flaked red paint. The strange thing was the faint light hitting to one side of the walls.

'A fire? Here?' It was likely some burning debris had made its way through the other side of the building. Berethur moved in to the room with the source of light to confirm his suspicion. Instead, he found a man in battered plate armor sitting comfortably next to a camp fire. The armored figure inspected Berethur through the slits of his helmet.

"Was it your friends that tried to blew this forsaken city up?"

Bone giants and undead arachnids climbed from the sides while bone dragons, wraiths and bone vultures flew. Behind all the lesser and mid-level undead, a colossal figure approached. While many undead climbed and flew out of the darkness in order to reach Blue Planet and Edward, just standing upright sufficed for the monstrosity. Blue Planet could recognize the undead as a Titan, a racial trait that could be obtained after choosing a character of the giant race. To be honest, Blue Planet blamed himself for the predicament they were currently in. It wasn't a stretch of imagination that his immense life energy had agitated the undead. Now, it was on them to put them back to their slumber.

Over-tier abilities usually had long channeling times and much longer cool downs. Moreover, while such spells did not require mana, one could only cast a finite number of the same spell within one day. The undead they were facing were naturally spawned aside from the colossal undead. With his spells, Blue Planet could see the [Cursed] status on the titan. The Vanir vaguely recalled an infamous over-tier spell that made a character fight for the caster upon the character's death. This abomination remained in this world after death due to the real world complications of the over-tier spell, [Loyalty of the Dead]. By using the spell [Discern Enemy], Blue Planet noted that the titan used to be level one hundred.

'Kill' That was the sole command within the Titan's consciousness. A centuries-old command given by Shurshana, a curse stuck to it even after the defeat of the necromancer. So the Titan obeyed, moving steadily towards the two small figures on the edge of the gaping hole. The body of the colossus was shriveled, grey skin sagging down. From its shoulders hung a majestic dark-purple cape. Due to the size, the cape looked like a violet waterfall streaming down into the darkness that came around the waist of the Titan: [Greater Cape of Authority]. Golden [Bracelets of Might] adorned its wrists and the colossus dragged the divine item [Meteor Sword], a sword that looked more like a massive, triangular slab of stone. Like many magical items, none of the equipment showed signs of aging or wear.

Blue Planet's channel ended after a brief two minutes within which he had examined the enemy. Edward however was still channeling something massive. This was all due to the Vanir's battle plan. Although Blue Planet was level hundred and an extremely skilled player –like any other member of the infamous guild Ainz Ooal Gown-, he had specifically built his character as a tank and cc specialist.

Specialization was a must for the best of the best since one could not reach the true potency of a build without stunting certain aspects of the character. While this did not require you to be a filthy min-maxer like Ulbert, one had to determine his/her focus and surround him/her with players that make up for their weaknesses. In their current situation, although Edward was level eighty, his super tier abilities were more damage oriented than Blue Planet's. This is why the Vanir determined to deal with the small fry and keep the Titan busy until Edward can smack it with the big guns.

Currently wearing a dirty set of pajamas, Blue Planet was severely under-equipped compared to the undead colossus. That is why he chose an over-tier ability that put massive buffs to his base attributes. The Vanir smirked at the Titan and cracked his neck in anticipation.

[Santa Claus]!

The elegant body of the Vanir rapidly morphed, his belly grew to the size of a wine barrel while his arms and legs became thick and muscular. Blue Planet's green hair became white and a glorious beard-mustache mixture flew down his massive belly. The poor set of pajamas bursted as the cheap fabric gave away. Furry coat and trousers of vibrant red replaced the previous apparel, topped with a stocking cap of the same color.

Blue Planet looked at the approaching undead under his bushy eyebrows.

"Staying up past bed time, time makes you a bad boy."

Santa seemed to blink in and out of existence as he obliterated every undead that got remotely close to Edward. Blue Planet in his avatar form smashed through bone giants and bone dragons like they were made out of toothpicks.

"Ho ho hooooooo!" The jolly old man easily handled the waves of undead until the titan reached their position. The colossus swung the meteorite sword over its head, aiming and the stationary target which was Edward rather than choosing the bouncy Santa.

'Shit.' Santa flexed his leg muscles and bulleted toward the sword. While Blue Planet managed to change the trajectory of the swing, the sword still came down on the super-buffed Vanir with massive force, slicing through the side of the city like it is cutting through cake.

Having finished his spell, Edward set his cold gaze upon the undead titan. "If you can't go to hell, then hell comes for you."

[Et tu, Brute]

Thirty-two conjured daggers slammed themselves into the body of the titan. Daggers were avoidable projectiles. This was a spell that brought increasingly more destruction as the number of daggers landed increased. Because daggers were avoidable and could be blocked, it was not a spell as effective as over-tier spells such as [Fallen Down] which was very hard to dodge due to its massive area of effect. But because of the same reason if all thirty daggers hit, single target spell [Et tu, Brute] dealt nearly quadruple the damage of [Fallen Down].

With a snap from Edward's fingers, the daggers exploded creating an explosion equal to the force of a miniature nuclear blast. Edward took out his sunglasses from his briefcase and put them on in order to avoid the annoying brightness of the spectacle.

Blue Planet had also emerged under the meteor sword, a little bit roughed up, mumbling as he tried to put out the flames on his white beard.

'Next time use something less messy Edward.' He retorted through [Message].

'My apologies Blue Planet-sama.'

Chunks of dead flesh where daggers stuck were blown away but the titan still towered over the duo in between the flames and smoke. The burnt colossus roared and readied for another attack.

'Alright Edward let's take this big boy down. I really need some gear or I will be walking around naked when I transform back.'

'As you wish.'

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Reviews and critique are welcome!