Chapter 601 Only Hope

With a new impenetrable barrier surrounding it, the Doomsday Worm continued its path of destruction and began attacking in earnest.

Up until now it had been conserving its power as it drained the life from the land, and it was still quite slothful up to this point, since it had not gotten any sizeable meals due to Marcus and Gwyneria’s discovery and quick intervention.

However, with some many powerful people attacking it and especially after the magic cast by Jaela, it was finally pressured to use its full power and erect a barrier that none of them could break.

Unfortunately, that was not even the worst of what it was doing, as now its horrid eye had pooped out of its mouth and on top of its head and was emitting constant waves of madness.

And while for Marcus with his still mind unique skill, and many of the other with their high stats were able to resist the effect, three of Darius’ elite knights and two of Aria’s archmages fell victim.

Immediately they began attacking those around them in a mindless rampage as they tried to tear away at the flesh of those that were their allies.

At the very least the ones that had succumb had been the weakest of those that were the elite troops of Borrelia, all of them being in the mid-seventies level wise.

This allowed the other mages and knights to deal with them quickly and restrain them as they flailed around rapidly trying to sink their teeth into everyone around them.

But while they were being restrained the tendrils of the Dread Burrower shot out faster than they ever had before and grabbed ten of the knights and mages. Including the ones effected by its madness.

Then before anyone else was able to react they were dragged back through the barrier and inside the Doomsday Worm where they were eaten..

It was a terrifying sight to watch, as in just an instant, ten people all over level seventy had been killed without so much as being able to offer any resistance.

Watching this unable to do anything, Marcus now remembered why he had that sinking feeling earlier, like things had been too easy.

Ardea had told them that when the previous doomsday monster went on a rampage it was only stopped by the collective efforts of twenty-four high level heroes, four of which were grand witches.

Yet even after the battle was over seventeen of these heroes were dead, giving even greater weight to how dangerous a doomsday class monster was.

‘We were naïve. I cannot believe I did not account for something like this. We figured that it had been fighting us with its all from the start, but I had barely been paying us any mind. Even being sliced to ribbons by the Sword Savant had only been an annoyance to it. But now that we are an actual threat it is showing its true power.’

Realizing that they had been far to brazen and not cautious enough, Marcus started berating himself.

He had not been embroiled in the battle and had even thought something was wrong but did not linger on it because he had hoped for a seamless victory.

Now do to the fact he did not voice his concerns, ten people had just died, and they were being completely repulsed.

“Vorpal Fang.”

Falling down from the sky her scythe radiating an enormous amount of mana, Jaela used her strongest piercing attack skill that she hoped would be enough to at least damage the Dread Burrow’s barrier.

Alas, even as she crashed down with enough power to cut a city in half, she failed to put a scratch on the indestructible barrier.

Seeing this Marcus was a bit surprised, as he recognized this skill as it was his most recent acquisition from the special dungeon, and he knew how powerful it was.

It was the highest class of attack skill like his death dance, and in terms of power behind one attack it was exceptional.

‘Is there really nothing we can do to stop it.’ Marcus thought as he stared down from above.

None of their attacks had any effect, and to make matters worse the Doomsday Worm’s tendrils were moving faster now and their power and durability had increased.

Not to mention that it was constantly releasing a wave of madness around it that while not able to take any of the remaining people over, was still causing them headaches and slowing their movements.

Even with Marcus’ unique skill it felt like someone was constantly banging on the metaphorical door to his mind.

‘Our current efforts are not getting us anywhere. I recommend that we retreat and reassess our approach before anymore of us die.’ Gwyneira said over telepathy.

She had taken impromptu command over all of them when the new troops from Borealia arrived since they made up the bulk of their forces number wise, and it would easier for them to take commands from Gwyneira than anyone else.

However, as all the others were flying away Marcus had an idea.

‘Gwyneira there is something I want to try. I will catch up with all of you when I am done.’ He said over telepathy to her.

Of course, she started yelling at him not to do anything reckless, and even tried to go back to grab him, but was overwhelmed by a wide scale attack of tendrils that forced her to retreat.

Heading down towards the Dread Burrower, he moved right up to its barrier and braced himself.

Then with the push of his hand he tested if he could pass through the barrier.

‘As I thought, it does not have any way to deal with my ghostly nature.’

Floating through the barrier Marcus was able to get access to the monster’s body and looked towards the glowing eye that was resting on top of it.

Now that he was under the barrier her could see that it was originating from the eye.

‘If I can destroy it the barrier might drop. But before I try that, it would be best to regroup and tell the others about what I have found.’

Heading out from the barrier and the vicinity of the Doomsday Worm, Marcus shot off towards the horizon where he could just barely make out Jaela’s tree named Deku.

When he arrived, he was chastised for being reckless and stupid.

“I guarantee you that I was perfectly fine. It may be powerful, but it has no intelligence and no method to interact with me while I am ethereal.” Marcus said in his defense. “Also, it was best that I get this information before we talk strategy since it will change how we approach what to do next.”

He then told them that he could pass through the barrier as long as he was ethereal, and that he had found that the barrier was being created by its giant glowing red and orange eye.

“If I can destroy it the barrier should go down and we can attack it again.” Marcus said with confidence.

Unfortunately, not everyone had as much faith in him as others did since he was the weakest one here.

Still, he was the only one that could get through the barrier and thus the only one capable of destroying it.

“Very well, I will support Marcus’ decision to try and bring down the barrier. We have pretty much no other idea other than trying to slow it down or hit it harder, so I see no reason to not attempt our best shot.” Jaela said with a smile as she looked at Marcus.

She felt a certain kinship with him because they were both originally from Earth and that they used the same weapon.

“And to that end, I would be grateful if you would use this to help you.”

Holding out her scythe to Marcus, everyone was left aghast, since pretty much no one would ever hand over their main weapon to someone else, and certainly one not as valuable as the top tier amethros scythe she had.

Taking her weapon, Marcus flashed her a bright smile, and said, “Thank you for your support. I am sure that this will help me.”

After that they quickly made a couple plans depending on the results of Marcus’ attempt to break the barrier.

If it worked then they would try again what they already had, but if he failed, they would have to do what they could to stall it and then try and created an impossibly strong mana bomb for Marcus to take past the barrier.

Though their second plan was certainly unfavorable, as it was unclear how long it would take them to make a sufficiently powerful enough bomb, and by then Loursend and more were likely to have been destroyed.

“Okay we have already spent too long here. That thing is likely in range of Loursend already and we need to give it something else to think about.” Knight Commander Darius said to try and pump them all up.

The nineteen of them with their plans decided, set back off to face down the Doomsday Worm. Hopefully for the last time.