Chapter 140: Lordling – Part 3

Chapter 140: Lordling – Part 3

Man's first nightmare was War. Their lives were relatively peaceful, but they were also tribal and had a tendency to start wars for territory, so the fear of the Other was always in their minds, and the first monsters took that form.

Our Light reaches about one hundred meters away from the wall, but further than that, there's only the Darkness, a place that we really don't want to go. And it's precisely there that hulking, human-like shapes begin to rise, their outlines barely noticeable as some of our Light reflects off their shrouded forms. Then they walk forward until they're revealed, and an army of brutish and grim soldiers begins to surround the entire settlement.

These are monsters designed to induce fear in humanoids, the Symbols of War, but no two of these Symbols are alike. Steaming skin, sharp scales, skeletal skulls with glowing eyes, pointy horns, long spikes, drooling mouths full of fangs, bleeding claws, charred skin, flayed bodies, multiple eyes, twitching limbs, pulsating chests, jagged blades, glossy black armor, flaming weapons, growling voices, rumbling steps. There are even a few known monsters that aren't Symbols of War, like proto-orcs and the Nalusa, the blood-bender, one of my favorites to summon in mass combat.

This army would be right at home in a metal album cover, but seeing them first-hand, with their threatening postures and bulging muscles, dampens our excitement. Even experienced adventurers would be hesitant to fight one of them, not to mention a whole horde.

But now's our time to shine. As Lords, we're supposed to lead, and so we shall.

I once again let the dragon out of his cage, and the endless hunger for power and women floods my veins with energy. I just need to think about that werecat adventurer's face, and my cock gets hard in anticipation.

Everyone is watching us... watching me, waiting for me to show them what it means to be a weredragon, to display the power of a Royal Crown Lord, to establish my superiority over the average commoner. And that makes the proud lizard within me very excited.

The monster army starts to slam their feet against the ground in a rhythmic fashion, and then they growl in an attempt to intimidate us. If allowed to continue, they'd begin to perform the Rupegian equivalent to Haka, but for the sake of looking cool, I need to crash this party.

"I'LL TAKE THEM ALL ON, MYSELF!" I shout, then jump off the wall, starting the delivery of dramatic catchphrases in sequence as the others also jump off to cover their sectors.

"EXPERIENCE ON LEGS, BOYS!" Hana cheers.

"BLESSED BY THE LIGHT!" Yunia inspires the men, and they spiritedly repeat her words.

"NOW'S NOT THE TIME TO HESITATE!" Alissa encourages as she casts [Mana Arrow].

"GODDESS OF GROWTH, SHOW US THE WAY!" Ciel prays, and the pious follow.

"BEGIN THE CARNAGE!" Roxanne cries with a maniacal grin.

"ATTACK...!" Lina hesitantly orders.

Then Aoi roars, and her rumbling voice echoes throughout the entire settlement. She might've scared quite a number of people, but she doesn't even care and simply jumps out without looking back.

"ANOTHER HUNT FOR US!" Léonne sternly shouts, then she mounts her husband.

"THE SILVER STRIKES!" Silvano delivers his famous catchphrase.

Alissa and Roxanne stay on the walls along with everyone else for obvious reasons. Allura and Ofilia also remain behind, both using longbows, and the idea of a battle maid excites me so much that my boner gets even harder.

And then they all unleash their ranged attacks, which fall on the monsters just a moment before I crash into their line. The Symbols are too busy dancing to defend themselves, so the preemptive strike inflicts massive damage.

"WATCH FOR THE LORDS!" The knights and Sworn Hunters shout.

We'll have to be careful about "friendly" fire. I have fire elementals floating above the wall and a bunch of birds on overwatch while Gify plays Big Brother and watches through them. The problem is that it's hard to see where the arrows are going because of the darkness, though it's basically impossible for an adventurer or an Imperial soldier to make even a dent in our armor.

We all crash against the line of monsters in disarray, then we reap their lives like harvest day. Not that many of them actually have good or practical armor, so they aren't much harder to kill than the average orc.

A horn blares, and the monsters try to swarm us, but we can just [Fly] up, and Aoi and Jacques are both unstoppable, so we merely play with them while arrows and spells fall around us. Unfortunately, the monsters are smart enough to not get bogged down by us, and they start charging the walls.

My [Wind Armor] enchantment flares, and an arrow harmlessly plinks off of the back of my armor.

This actually angers me, so I turn around and shoot a [Fireball] towards the wall as I roar, "WATCH YOUR AIM, YOU FUCKS!"

"WATCH FOR THE LORDS!" The knights shout again, and the fire-Hana starts scanning the wall for the son of a bitch, but it's unlikely that she'll find them.

The monsters start climbing the walls with a variety of methods. You don't need ladders or siege towers when you can just shove your nails or daggers into fucking cement. But Aisco and the handful of high-level Fire mages unleash [Abyssal Fire] upon the fucking geckoes to slowly consume everything. The wall will also get damaged, but nowhere near as fast as monster flesh.

Meanwhile, the monsters desperately climb over the bodies of their fallen brethren in an attempt to reach me, but the tentacles keep them at bay and continue to make the pile higher, which forces me to slowly float up to stay out of their range.

Hana spins like a madwoman, dicing, kicking, bashing, and breathing fire on anything that comes near her. One manages to grab her wing, but she briefly unsummons it and switches to her armor's [Fly] to keep herself above them, all without even slowing down her storm of blood, steel, and fire.

Lina freely [Blink]s across the battlefield for safety while abusing the teleporting property of [Equip] by repeatedly [Throw]ing her javelin into the monsters, which nets her a kill about every two seconds. But her warhammer is also kept busy as it cracks skulls and helmets, aided by the momentum of her constant [Fly]ing.

Ciel casts [Wind Storm] on the biggest clumps of monsters, almost immediately drawing out a red mist as they're diced into pieces. Her glaive also has good reach, and with the [Tiretiera Maire Style], she safely splits heads with every swing.

Aoi uses her massive body to fly into the monsters and crush scores of them while breathing fire at anything nearby. Their weapons are too flimsy to pierce her armor, not to mention her scales and hide, and anyone who tries to get a ride is easily zapped away by her recently discovered prowess with lightning.

Yunia literally dances atop their heads like a heavily-armored Legolas. The way she moves is just so uncanny that the adventurers and Imperial soldiers become distracted by her, earning themselves angry reprimands from the officers and knights nearby.

Léonne and Jacques act similarly to Aoi, though his fox form's hide is definitely softer than a dragon's, so the spears start to get stuck in his underside, not that he seems to mind or even get slowed down at all.

Silvano is the one with the least raw power, but he's so fast that the monsters don't even register him as an enemy until one of his swords is already in their brains, so he's still quite lethal, though he won't stay on the battlefield for long because of his high mana consumption.

Due to having to watch out for betrayal, I'm keeping myself from going off the deep end with my berserking, though this also leaves me with the mental capacity to appreciate the girls as they fight. While doing so, I also notice that the people in Roxanne's sector are getting a bit disgusted with the constant brainsploding.

But the [Abyssal Fire] starts to get awfully close to Jacques, pushing them further and further away from the wall and towards the Darkness. We don't have [Bind] to recall Alissa's parents, and the idea of anyone deliberately putting them in danger makes us nervous. And it also really ticks Alissa and me off.

Gify pops into existence on top of the head of a fire-Hana, then chirps angrily at the Imperial soldier mage, "Gih! Geh gih guh gen gon goh!"

"What the fuck...?" He blurts out in confusion as he looks back.

The elemental-wife lowers towards him and raises the temperature to uncomfortable levels.

"Gih, gih!" Gify chastises him.

The mage's eyes fly between the elemental and the little spirit. Then he leans back as his skin starts to feel the pain from the heat. "A-alright, alright...! I'll try to control it!"

Then he casts [Fire Wall] in the [Abyssal Fire] to help wrestle control over it, but that only slows down the spread, so I summon two fire-Hanas to help him, and the all-consuming flames start to recede. My mana is at a premium here, so it's really vexing that I'm forced to do this.

The carnage continues for a good half hour, and then the flood of monsters coming from the Darkness starts to diminish until it's merely a trickle, and that's the sign of the second phase starting.

While Earth and Rupegia share their fear of War, the presence of magic in this world gave rise to an additional fear: Devastation, not to be confused with the God of Destruction. In some interpretations of Trox Mael, this phase is called Ruin, especially because of the monster that's coming next, but Devastation is more general while the latter has direct connotations with both Necromancy and the God of Order.

Devastation is merely the result of War escalating the use of more destructive magic to the point that it either affects the landscape or triggers a Mana Storm. But, in this event, it means that since the monsters have failed to breach our walls, they'll take more drastic measures.

A pillar of "liquid" Darkness quickly rises until it reaches about five meters tall. Then it solidifies into the shape of a robed person, and within its black hood and sleeves, we see a perfectly white skeletal skull with glowing purple eyes and long, skeletal fingers. Then it points its right index finger towards the wall.

The Greater Lich is in Ciel's sector, but it's better if we let it cast its spell, so she just [Fly]es back and ensures that the wall is evacuated. Meanwhile, Bell-end mobilizes the reserve, moving them towards her sector.

[Light Magic] is the power of the Gods, but it's only borrowed. Now this, this divinity that I now have within reach, is something else entirely... and I feel the dragon within me straining against its chains, trying to swallow it all. I'm a lover of women and a reckless researcher, but the hunger for power isn't really a big part of me, it's just that divinity is very enticing.

I also have the feeling that it'd be a bad idea to do that, so I put the stupid lizard back in its place. But I've stalled enough, and now that the balls of [Ruin] have ended each other, the Lich once again points its bony fingers at us.

I extend my hand towards the burning skeleton and make a wish with [Godly Language], "Disappear," just as I snap my fingers, and a flash of divine light blinds us all.

"You are now level sixty-two."

The battlefield grinds to a halt, falling eerily silent as even the Symbols stop and search for their Lich, but there's nothing there anymore. Nothing.

"Holy fuck..." Gandalf mumbles in disbelief, and even Fran and Bell-end look frightened.

The adventurers start to murmur, but then familiar voices start a cheer, and soon, everyone else joins in.

"LORDLING! LORDLING!" They shout fervently, and my ego grows three sizes this day, but then the Symbols all roar in rage and resume their attack on the breach, cutting the party short.

Ciel takes my hand off the Artifact and [Heal]s it as I'm far too light-headed to do anything right now. I feel absolute bliss, just like when I link our pleasures and make everyone orgasm at the same time.

Wait... I think I actually came in my pants...

But I'm not allowed to bask in the glory for long as two pillars grow from the Darkness in front of us, each one spawning a Greater Lich.

Well... we weren't supposed to win this phase, anyway...

Maybe someone more powerful could kill all of the Greater Liches, but that ain't us.

Announcement

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