Chapter 185: The Last Few Points on the Checklist
The Demon Lord didn’t even have time to fully emerge before being yanked into Isaac’s subspace.
In an instant, he transformed into his latest [Form of Horror]. It was the combat form he’d created after Seoul, updated to incorporate all of his latest gains.
A four-meter tall humanoid figure with thin, oddly proportioned limbs, each nonetheless rippling with muscles. Snakes could be damn strong. Old Reliable had been incorporated in many different points, forming claws, teeth, spiked on knees and elbows, a crown of thorns on his head, and finally, two oversized swords that looked identical to Balmung in all respects save size floating around him.
Wreathing this deadly figure was a shimmering field that was owed to the various illusion-based monsters which would make accurately targeting him slightly more difficult.
To top it all off, he was now armored up with Lindwyrm scales.
However, all of that had just been his external powerups, completely ignoring the internal upgrades.
The venom-spitting glands of the Greater Hydra that he’d had in the previous version had been upgraded by those of the Lindwyrm, for a deadly corrosive venom that was vastly more dangerous than the previous reason.
Isaac had also copied the acid cloud deployment capability and integrated it into the [Form of Horror], though he could only use it once per transformation and to a far lesser degree than the original bearer of the power.
Lastly, his body was now threaded through with the metal wires of the Razor Apparition. They were mostly there to reinforce his internals, but there were also a few he could “deploy” as whips in case of an emergency. Without [Absolute Blade Mastery], those weapons would have been a recipe for accidentally smacking himself in the unmentionables with them, but the whips of barbed wire were still “blade-y” enough to be covered by the [Skill] and he could use it with all the finesse he had when wielding Balmung. Sadly, Isaac lacked knowledge of any whip-specific maneuvers, so he couldn’t get the most out of this weapon.
In the end, though, it wouldn’t matter. Not against this enemy.
Isaac leaped into the sky, a simple jump taking him above the monster’s head and then, the good ol’ combo of [Wave Charge] and [I Am The Sword] carved a channel clean through the Demon Lord, top to bottom. The goal wasn’t damage, it was easy access to the beast’s internals.
Once he hit the ground, he leaped straight back up, the flying swords rocketing through the air and supersonic speeds to pierce the monster’s eyes.
Meanwhile, his claws flashed, tearing tendons and the largest blood vessels he could reach, no empowering [Strikes] necessary.
Hellfire flew from the demon’s hand, flowing over Isaac like a warm shower. Sure, his clothing went the way of the dodo in less than a second, but he had spares.
The Demon Lord’s tree trunk arm flew through the air and slammed into Isaac to fling him backward... except Isaac had dug his claws in and responded by running up the arm and leaping into the hole at the shoulder.
Hellflame washed the inside of the monster, a tactic that would have worked against most foes, but Isaac was immune to the attack, which meant that unless it used its arms to get at him, it was dead.
Even if the Demon Lord had somehow been able to shove its arms into its own insides on a mental level, it simply couldn’t bend that way.
Another burst of hellfire washed over Isaac and stayed in place, leaving him feeling as if he were standing beneath a waterfall. A last-ditch attempt that might have worked in another situation, but not this one.
Least Demon Lord (Lv. 44 Raid Boss) has been slain. 50,000 XP gained
Somehow, that felt very anticlimactic. It was a [Raid Boss] that had died under his claws, and his claws alone. No “heroic deed has been noted”, no comment, just a solo kill of a [Raid Boss] and 50k XP.
The monster vanished around him as it was sucked into a new sword to add to his collection, which Isaac took as his cue to summon a new outfit from [Fully Geared]. Showing up in his birthday suit after this ... not a good look.
He emerged into the new world covered in soot and blood that had dripped onto his skin, then boiled away into nothingness to leave behind a tar-like substance that clung to him like, well, tar. In other words, it was abundantly clear that Isaac had put on new clothes after the fact.
“Wait, it’s over already?”
The question had been whispered, but in this new world, anyone who thought whispering let them fly under the radar was behind the times.
Isaac phased the dirt off himself and marched towards the command area, gave a short report, and proceeded to help with the overall cleanup. There wasn’t much for him to do, though. [Engineers] and [Geomancers] fixed the damage the island had sustained vastly more quickly than he ever could, [Logistics Officers] and various [Mages] with telekinetic [Skills] took care of the heavy lifting with lightning speeds and between portals and extradimensional storage spaces, there was very little for him to carry.
On one hand, no one liked feeling useless. On the other, it was heartening to see everything here work like a well-oiled machine. Isaac got himself a bottle of sparkling water and sat down where the feast had been held earlier while Patrick had a soda next to him with his phone.
Suddenly, his colleague did a picture-perfect spit take, which startled Isaac enough to choke on his own drink. Of course, he could breathe liquid and was fine. Patrick, on the other hand, needed a spell for that, which he promptly cast.
That just left one final Aspect.
Aspect of the Lindwyrm:
This is the distilled essence of what makes a Lindwyrm a Lindwyrm. Physical Power, deadly acid, one of the most insane personal defense Skills in the world and an overall increase in sheer draconic badassery are all things that can be gained by slotting this ability.
Requirements for Activation:
5,000 XP
Open Aspect Slot
Grants:
+10 Strength
+10 Agility
One of the following Skills:
Lindwyrm’s Heart
Lindwyrm’s Raiment
All-Dissolving Breath
Moment of Immortality
All the usual cool tricks that came with a [Raid Boss] Aspect, including the ever-ubiquitous [Moment of Immortality]. That [Skill] was a bit of a special snowflake, something that you could get from multiple sources, something you could decide not to upgrade and therefore keep when you slapped another Aspect on top of, and you could upgrade it by gaining it from multiple sources.
Moment of Immortality (legendary, 2x slotted)
What kind of monster can have its guts hanging out, be bleeding from countless arterial wounds, and still be fighting? One with this Skill, that’s what.
Moment of Immortality activates automatically when it is needed, granting the user the ability to survive with massive bloodloss and without a complete set of internal organs. In fact, few things short of being pulverized will be able to kill the Skill user while it is active, but it is by no means a perfect defense.
Moment of Immortality lasts for twenty seconds and can only be activated two times every 168 hours.
Multiple Aspects that grant Moment of Immortality can be slotted, with a maximum of three.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite as powerful as it looked at first glance. If you took damage that was bad enough to trigger the [Skill], the chances of you being able to get yourself out of it quickly enough to prevent the second charge from activating.
Then again, this was a lifesaving power he was whining about. It was fine as-is.
The other [Skill] he grabbed was “just” an upgrade of the base Aspect of the Acid Drake.
Lindwyrm’s Heart (legendary)
Your heart beats with the force of a thunderstorm, its every movement sending immense magic coursing through your body, enhancing all corrosion-based magic and Skills and dissolving foreign energies attempting to corrupt the bearer’s blood. In addition, foreign corrosive/venom/poison effects are vastly reduced in power.
Lastly, the heart of a draconic beast grants the bearer enhanced longevity and vitality.
Overall, it rendered him highly resistant to acid attacks, which were able to fuck with his regeneration. It also seriously helped against other health-sapping effects.
With all of that done, Isaac threw fifty-thousand XP into leveling up his [Class] and evolved.
