Chapter 374: Original Kritias: The Corrupted Heroes

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A young man glanced at a crystal ball, his slender and tall body released a strong aura of mana, and his aquamarine eyes and bright blonde hair made him resemble a handsome prince.

He was Gabriel, the Time God, one of the strongest Heroes sent by Hekaton to explore worlds, save them, and also beta tests his System.

However, as everything went wrong, he became corrupted by his own amazing power and the envy he felt over Eustace and his constant success on everything, becoming even a Guider and leading everyone except him.

Even with such amazing powers as his god-like Time Magic, he was still considered weaker than him, and his personality was deemed as not worthy to lead others…

Although all of that changed when they finally defeated Anastacia, the Demon Queen, and when Bestellen managed to defeat the Dark Gods and engulfed their Divinities.

Eustace's mind was broken, he felt defeated instead of victorious, as he realized that all of his life had been a lie, and Gabriel, who did not care at all about having killed Veronica who he didn't even remember from his previous life, found of Eustace as a pathetic wimp, deciding to take things by his own hands.

Not long after, he tried to kill Eustace, as many Heroes still followed him, but in his place, Daniel died.

After that, Eustace lost his mind and fought against Gabriel and the Demon Gods at his side, showcasing all of the power he had cultivated, and the cheat abilities he possessed, many Demon Gods were defeated, and Gabriel had to retreat with the Heroes that were allied with him.

However, after a month of planning and recovering, he had finally come with a good plan.

Alongside the Demon Gods who had joined him which he was suppressing with pure strength and the various fragments of the Demon God-King he possessed, and the Heroes that were working for him by his encroachment or merely because they despised Eustace and his friends, Gabriel had planned a 'last' battle.

In this one, he was going all out…

And what better place to do it in the city that Eustace and his group were protecting so much?

"No matter how much I keep using my Skills, it seems that I cannot max them anymore… And they are not awakening anymore… Have I hit a progression wall after having grown so strong in this short amount of time? If it was not because of that damn Eustace and his band of hypocrites…" he said, while glaring at the crystal ball, which seemed to show a large city, which was mostly made into ruins…

However, many camps with people trying to survive laid there, which were being protected by a large, dome-shaped magic barrier.

"This barrier…" muttered Gabriel.

"Oh, that's the barrier made by Catalina, right?" asked a woman at Gabriel's side, her eyes were bright purple and her hair long and blue, her skin was rosy and healthy, but she held a mischievous and sinister aura within her… She was Camila, known as the Dark Rose.

She had the Cheat Ability named [Devil's Garden], giving her the power to summon all types of dark, venomous, and evil plants, and even generate a small army of demonic plants, her power was rather low, however, when compared to other Heroes…

Due to a series of events, discrimination, and her grudges against various women within the Eustace group, she had joined Gabriel from a very early stage, and desired to bring peace to this world by her own hands, and dominate it at the side of Gabriel, the wicked man whose power and ruthlessness she admired.

Catalina in specific was one of those people Camilla remembered, someone with whom she didn't have the best relationships, especially because of her annoying attitude.

After all, Camilla was someone that originally did not want to be a Heroine, and wanted to live her life as she desired, enjoying such a second chance.

However, she was forced to fight and fight, to train intensively to level up, and she was separated from her parents very early on in her life, her grudge only grew bigger as she hated all those self-righteous assholes that always told her that her powers were a blessing she needed to use to fight against evil.

In simple words, Camilla never cared about any of this bullshit, and just wanted to live her life, but was forced to be a heroine, and when everything ended and she thought she could live by herself, everything was engulfed in chaos, and the world was about to end!

It was as if they had forced her to just completely ruin her second life!

Her parents had also died in the several accidents that happened as the world crumbled, filling her heart with sorrow and resentment against Bestellen, Eustace, and all of those that sucked up to the God so much…

She just wanted to crush them all, to show them hell!

"Indeed, Catalina wasn't present when I killed Daniel, but now that she is… she will be a pain to be dealt with… Her ability to generate Barriers through Aegis is impressive, but even her barriers cannot stop my God of Time… Nonetheless, even with God of Time, we need a bit more of a push to break such a big barrier…" said Gabriel.

"And there's where we enter?" asked Camilla.

"More like that is where I enter, Camilla! Do not forget about me! You know that only my [Ignore Defense] can bring all of you victory?" said a young and slender man with spiky black hair and glowing aquamarine eyes, wearing a simple set of clothes, he had a very ordinary face compared to every other Hero who was so handsome, he was Fernando, the Penetrator… yes, this was his title.

Fernando was a cheeky and immature man that liked to be praised for his amazing cheat ability, [Penetrate] which consisted of two Skills [Ignore Defense] and [Ignore Resistance].

Unlike Gabriel and Camila, Fernando never had the same thought process as them, and even believed that what he was doing was for the greater good…

And well, he was all about getting pretty women and riches with him, which the church and Bestellen gave him plenty of, so he followed their commands until shit hit the fam and the world began to fall apart…

He had already gotten rather angered at Eustace for being such a pussy, so he joined Gabriel's faction as he thought of them as the 'winners', and was willing to use his amazing power to penetrate Catalina's barrier and show everyone there that he was still as amazing as he had always been.

…Indeed, he was a very selfish and strange man.

But for Gabriel and Camila, he was what they just needed.

"Although it is not impossible to break Catalina's Aegis Barriers through other methods, yours will be the fastest one, and the method that will also bring us victory after all…" said Gabriel.

"Tch… I really don't like this idiot," said Camila.

"Oi! Who are you calling idiot?! Gabriel, tell her something!" said Fernando.

"Gabriel might be a bit selfish, or annoying, or even an idiot, but he would never be a fool," said Gabriel.

"Yeah! …Wait," muttered Fernando.

"Are you bunch having fun before such a big event? It seems that all of you are quite relaxed…" said the figure of a woman who walked into the hall where the group was, her appearance was that of a tall beauty with a slender figure and large breasts, she had long crimson hair and blazing orange eyes, she wore an armor made of gold with lion decorations, she was Leonia, the Blazing Lioness, another Hero who sided with Gabriel…

She was known as the Blazing Lioness due to her brave and prideful nature, and her cheat Ability named [Sun Flames] which gave her the power to control enormous quantities of flames at her liking, which intensified before the light of the sun, becoming almost unstoppable.

She was a former Heroine of Eustace side, who after the defeat of the Demon Queen, and the catastrophes that came afterward realized that Eustace was not fitting of being a Hero nor to lead this world to anywhere and that Gabriel's ideal to defeat Bestellen were more realistic and possible than to try to find a stupid middle point.

Due to these simple reasons, she joined Gabriel.

She held no particular grudges with anyone, and was a rather stoic and brave woman, she seemed dead set in saving this world and defeating Bestellen, and she kept most of her life personal, alongside hiding her feelings and emotions from others… Due to this, it was very hard for the others to get by with her.

"Leonia, you're here. Good." Said Gabriel with a smile.

"In resume you want us to go all out in the barrier and then enter the camp… what do you want to do afterward?" asked Leonia.

"We'll take some necessary sacrifices for the greater good… to make Eustace and everyone a bit angry, nothing much! Afterward, when we get them in front of us, we can slaughter them with everything we have packed," said Gabriel.

"Sounds like a terrible plan, but it is not like we had any time to plan anything, all of our powers are too ridiculous, special the enemy side, everything will be too unpredictable… However, the Demon Gods shall support us, right?" asked Leonia.

"Oh yes, they are getting ready. The desire of eating Bestellen is giving them a lot of energy…" laughed Gabriel.

"With Leonia… there are two more left that is still getting ready…" said Camila.

"Whenever everyone is ready, we shall depart…" said Leonia. 

"Oh, I can't wait to see the face of Eustace…" laughed Fernando.

"We'll end this once and for all… Eustace!" laughed Gabriel.

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