There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 593 - 587. Divide and Conquer

Chapter 593: Chapter 587. Divide and Conquer

Carefully, stealthily, three groups took positions around the ruin of a Castle--or should they call it a Palace--while slowly rousing their mana. Steadily, so there would be no spike of energy detected in the environment.

On top of the palace, they could see three dark figures perched on the castle towers. Four more were hovering between the Castle and the dungeon gate, all turned toward the entrance. It seemed like the Fallen Star had no idea about the use of the star corridor, or perhaps, It just didn’t think the humans could use it.

Thanks to the aggressive firing of the energy attack, it was easy to figure out the Fallen Star’s location in the ruin. But well, it was never a difficult thing in the first place--of course, it would always be the throne room.

Ron could only see it from afar through a scope, but the Fallen Star was big enough to almost fill the Great Hall. Supported and suspended by twisting black vines, a mass of wriggling monstrosity was letting out undulating energy that was neither miasma nor mana. Limbs, mouths, and eyes were plastered together, as if someone had picked up damaged clay dolls and meshed them together. It was pulsing and screeching as the many eyes focused on the entrance of the dungeon.

"A chimera master alright," Zein muttered when he could finally see inside the Great Hall through the damaged roof. "It turned into a chimera Itself."

"Seems like the outside distraction worked," Han Shin whispered. "It must be scary sensing two energies similar to Bassena, huh?"

"Yeah; otherwise, It might sense us already."

Zein shifted his attention to the fragments, glancing at the hidden espers splitting up to either side of the Castle. On their far left, on the branch of the highest tree, a sniper lay in wait for Bassena’s signal. In her eyes, seven target points were blinking on different parts of the seven cloaked figures.

With a faint rustling sound, four espers took positions around the palace and near the path leading to the dungeon’s entrance, before informing quietly through the earpiece. [We’re ready]

[Wait until another attack] Bassena’s voice came through the earpiece, and just a few seconds later, a whistling sound and a searing energy heat crossed the path to the entrance. [Sierra]

The order came through her name while the field was still filled with the scattering leftover energy, and Sierra immediately pulled the trigger on her gun. A bullet shot out silently, shaded by the Fallen Star’s mana wavelength, and splitting into seven. They struck the seven fragments at the same time half a second later before those creatures could react to the sudden spike of mana.

At the same time as the bullets shot out, six espers made their move. Bassena and Agni ran toward the palace while gathering their mana and Zhan, who was already close to the building, jumped to the roof and swung his halberd, infused with the magic of the Spirit Queen, at the three staggering fragments.

Over at the path leading to the dungeon gate, Senan rushed toward the center and slammed his shield while letting out a roar that bound the fragments’ perception to see only him and nothing else. Four cloaked figures hissed and snarled while smoke rose from the part pierced by the bullets, instinctively turned toward the defender shining and blaring like a beacon in their senses. Before they could touch the defender, however, a shadow with twin daggers jutting out fleeted between the fragments and sliced their limbs, while hammers made of ice struck their cores.

Another symphony of shrieks came from the seven figures. Before the sound even finished echoing, another splitting mana bullet exploded out of Sierra’s gun and struck the fragments again, right on their core.

As the three espers started their attack again on the suffering fragments, Bassena called the gunner back while climbing one of the palace’s towers. [Sierra, get out of there]

Swiftly slinging her gun on her back, Sierra tore a teleportation scroll right before an energy attack blasted the tree where she used to be. She appeared right where the support group was huddling behind Cohen’s three layers of barrier.

"I’m arrive, Commander."

[Khan?]

[Ready in five seconds]

Sierra immediately raised her mana again while grabbing Hari and Carra, who were gripping their staves tightly.

"Good luck," Zein muttered quietly while using the five minutes to absorb some of Sierra’s corrosion.

[Now]

An explosion of mana came from the two towers flanking the palace, and the sky was momentarily filled with the darkest darkness and a blinding white flame. A glowing magic circle appeared beneath Sierra and the two support magicians, and they vanished in the next second.

While the fragments and the immovable chimera mass shrieked in alarm at the darkness and fire appearing above the Great Hall, Sierra dropped the support magicians on the second gallery of the palace, with a clear view of the Fallen Star.

Ugh--that’s not at all felt like a deity...Sierra swallowed her disgust at the countless bulging eyes and screaming mouths while activating a one-time barrier scroll.

"Gravity bind! Thorny chain! Absolute decay!" Hari spewed out a chain of hexes at the wriggling mass while Carra pointed her staff at the espers in the middle of the darkness and the white flame, buffing them.

Both the darkness and the fire blazed even stronger while the ground cracked and spiky chains sprouted out of the ground, crisscrossing around the wriggling mass like a net and keeping it in place as the blazing darkness turned into a giant stake and the white flame wrapped around a rushing claymore.

Both aimed at the huge, wriggling target beneath them.

The stake came first; drilling into the big eye in the middle just like the last time in the desert. More stakes from the scattering darkness stabbed into the other eyes, blinding the chimera and filling the dungeon with an agonizing scream. The voice was instantly cut off by a slicing claymore wrapped in a berserking white flame imbued with a Spirit Queen magic.

KHIEEEEK!

A shockwave blasted against the Great Hall, shaking the palace to the core. The fragments tried to rush to their creator, but a resilient elemental net caught the ones on the roof and threw them to the path of the entrance. Senan gritted his teeth and let out another roar as he jumped back, right before the bundle of fragments crashed against the four others.

High above, the light from the surrounding mana crystal shone brightly on a halberd. A dance of wind and lightning surrounded the blade before it swung straight into the pile of furious fragments.

"You can’t call it a gang-up if there are more of you, right?" the spearman grinned as phantom spears appeared above him, falling to their designated targets.

"I’ll return first," Ron informed Senan and Iore before disappearing into the shadows. He reappeared behind Cohen’s barrier, and two hands immediately grabbed his shoulders; one of them healing him, and one of them guiding.

"Cohen, swap with Senan and Iore."

"Yes, Patriarch."

Zein turned his gaze toward the palace, where the sounds of eerie screams, battering, and explosions could be heard. Flashes of black and white came out of the cracks in the walls from time to time, informing them of the fierce assaults happening inside. A storm of elemental power rushed down through the collapsed ceiling, zapping and burning the creature at the center of the Great Hall.

The intensity of the clash of mana and the corrupted cosmic energy vibrated all over the dungeons, masking even the battle between Zhan, Iore, and the seven fragments. It was too much for the supporting magicians, so Sierra immediately teleported them back to where Zein and Han Shin were.

"I got burned a little bit," Hari reported, showing his seared arms to Han Shin. The curse magician didn’t look a bit worried, however. "As expected, Commander and Captain Khan’s firepower is something else! Ah, I’m sorry for being too excited."

"Haa...damn--how can he have fun in this kind of situation?" Ron chuckled in annoyance. They had been together long enough for him to be able to pick up the berserker mood just from his flame alone. "But does that mean the attack works?"

"I saw them piercing and slashing that...blob, but it’s also regenerating quickly, or rather..." Sierra narrowed her eyes. "It felt like a new layer appeared the moment the surface got wounded--it was different each time, unlike regeneration."

They clicked their tongue, although they already knew it wouldn’t be so easy. "It probably summoned another creature to be transplanted quickly," Zein muttered.

"That’s alright, isn’t it? We’re only here to stall for a time anyway," Han Shin shrugged. "Battle of attrition is always good for that--ah, and the corrosion level wouldn’t spike too much inside a dungeon."

Ron patted Han Shin’s back, smirking. "Can always rely on you for a quick optimism," he chuckled. "Senan and Iore are coming, so I’ll go help Zhan again."

"I’ll come with you," Sierra grabbed her gun again, and Carra gave everyone a buff before they went back to the battlefield.

Senan and Iore arrived to be healed and guided next, before getting back to the fragments to relieve Zhan and get him healed and cleansed next. Just like that, they went back and forth to handle the seven fragments, preventing them from aiding the Fallen Star.

Until, at one point, the palace crumbled under the pressure of clashing energy. Agni, covered in Spirit Queen’s barrier, slid across the ground with the palace debris while the whole building collapsed. The wriggling mass of the Great Hall, which had been enduring the onslaught of three powerhouses, grew in size at a disgusting rate--and process.

Right away, a new order came out of their earpiece. [Starting phase two]

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