Mountain of the Immortals

Before I was able to trigger my ranged ability, he let out an otherworldly roar and the ground beneath our feet began to shake.

“Rise! Rise! Rise and kill!” he yelled.

I quickly realized that what I had thought was the ground shaking were actually two gigantic monsters awakening from the piles of bones around us. They looked like absolute perversion of life.

* * *

Name: Ghoulish Hive Flesh Amalgam

Type: Magic Creature - Undead (Raid Boss)

Level: 34

Disposition: Aggressive

HP: 87403/87403

Physical Attack: 347

Magic Attack: 53

Speed: 125

Attack Range: 40ft.

XP: 2316590

Description: The flesh of this undead abomination is comprised of the hundreds of bodies the ghoulish hive mind has collected over the years. Its collection of flayed walking carcasses serve as the ligaments and muscles of a horrifying body that would freeze opponents in fear.

* * *

The monsters resembled humanoid busts made of flesh and bones, only they dripped creatures with each movement.

“So much for being the bestower of life!” I shouted at him, cursing my luck for not having waited a while longer before casting my debuff. “You’re just another necromancer.”

Raid bosses were marked by the Dark Energy to indicate that these were not regular monsters but creatures that played by their own power rules and usually required a whole clan to bring them down—some of the biggest ones even required whole alliances. Although these abominations were only level thirty-four, their HP was much higher than normal monsters at even double their level.

I’d participated in plenty of guild raids with Cronus’s clan, sometimes even in cooperation with the clans of other titans, but I’d never taken on raid bosses with anything less than a full party of nine people. I’d heard of particularly powerful individuals hunting raid bosses that were of a level significantly lower than their own but I’d never considered trying it myself.

No time like the present, I guess.

“What sort of gods are you to think in such crude terms as necromancy and life magic?” Belial mused as he landed several feet away from us. “Life, death. It is all one.”

“If it’s all one,” Aphrodite shouted in return, her staff glowing and an intense pink light appearing on the ceiling, “then why does this hurt your minions so much?”

As if a dam had opened up above us, a pillar of light came rushing down on one of the raid bosses, pushing it down to the ground. The light resembled the illumination produced by her healing spells and looked like it was extremely damaging to the flesh amalgam, which screamed and shuddered under it.

“You guys got the raid bosses?” I asked in the guild chat.

“Looks like we do,” Artemis replied, as a volley of her arrows passed through Aphrodite’s holy light and struck the twenty-foot-high monster. “But can you handle the angel alone?”

“Probably not,” I said honestly, as I charged at Belial again. “So hurry up and finish them so you can help me.”

“You nameless bitch!” Belial cursed at Aphrodite.

But I didn’t let him cast an attack at her, as I launched myself at him with my spear poised to pierce his shoulder.

Yet again, he managed to jump out of the way by flapping his sickly, blackened wings. This time, though, I was expecting it. I turned around, pointing my weapon at him and triggered my Mana Stunning Pierce skill. The mana concentrated on the tip of my spear and shot forward, hitting the fallen angel directly in the chest.

By an amazing stroke of luck, not only did the attack land a critical hit but it also threw him backward, leaving him stunned. I used this to my advantage and jumped on top of him, triggering every offensive skill I had that could cause more damage than a regular attack. I even used the Spear of the Thunder God skill, hoping to renew his stunned counter, but annoyingly it had no effect.

The few attacks that I managed to land were mostly critical hits, but ultimately they weren’t enough to kill him. In fact, while he definitely looked like he was hurt, he didn’t seem to falter once the stunned debuff wore off. When he’d fought me off and managed to put a few feet of distance between us, he immediately started casting.

A cold gray light emanated from a staff of bones that suddenly materialized in his hands. Once it became bright enough to physically hurt my eyes, he sent it flying toward me. The moment the ray hit, I felt a great weight on my chest and shoulders. It was as if something was constricting my breathing, and I was suddenly carrying the weight of a mountain.

I glanced at the new icon that had appeared next to my buffs and saw the new debuff that had made its appearance.

* * *

Name: Weight of the World

Type: Debuff

Level: 6

Effect: Significantly reduces the target’s movement, casting, and attack speeds for 5 seconds. There is a possibility for this condition to worsen after its duration has elapsed.

Time Left: 4 seconds

* * *

Seeing the description was one thing, but the information shown by the Dark Energy could not even begin to describe the effect the spell had on me. It was not just a physical weight. Suddenly, I also felt crushed by the enormous responsibilities that had befallen me. What was I doing forming a guild and staging a coup against my father? The only thing I’d ever wanted was for my cup to never run out of wine and for new women to come in and out of my palace.

Yet here I was, fighting a fallen angel that was clearly much more powerful than I was. And I now had two women under my responsibility too. Two women who’d most likely die a horrible death because of the big plans I had for myself.

I forced myself to keep moving forward, even though I could feel my body not responding as quickly as it should despite Aphrodite’s buffs. I tried to bring my weapon forward to deflect any attack he might have in store for me but instead of fighting me, he moved further back.

He chanted a spell in a language I couldn’t understand and a rectangular piece of luminous material appeared above his staff. Once he finished his incantation, he pointed his weapon at Aphrodite, who was doing a terrific job avoiding the rather slow raid bosses and damaging them with her holy attacks.

The fabric stretched and elongated into what looked like a glowing scarf as it made its way through the disgusting pieces of flesh falling from the ghoulish hive amalgam and wrapped itself over Aphrodite’s mouth. Her eyes were full of surprise, but it didn’t look like she was in pain. The fabric must have affected her in some other way.

I checked our party screen and saw a completely different debuff icon next to her name.

* * *

Name: Silence of the Dead

Type: Debuff

Level: 7

Effect: Disables the target’s abilities to use their voice, and therefore the vocal components of spells, for 24 seconds.

Time Left: 23 seconds

* * *

The angel started casting another spell immediately, now looking at Artemis, who was running away from the two colossal monsters. I recognized the spell this time and hoped her Magic Defense would be enough to keep her from harm.

Artemis, who had probably already seen Belial targeting her, then turned to face him and fired a single glowing arrow from her enchanted bow. Her plan was likely to try to interrupt the spellcasting but Belial finished his spell just before the arrow struck his shoulder.

To my disappointment, I saw a new debuff appear next to Artemis’s name in the party view as well.

* * *

Name: Non-Eternal Sleep

Type: Debuff

Level: 28

Effect: Instantly puts the target to sleep for 15 seconds. A target under the effect of this spell can only be woken up if they sustain damage or the spell duration ends.

Time Left: 14 seconds

* * *

My debuff was about to end but Artemis and Aphrodite were out of action for at least ten seconds more. And ten seconds might as well be a lifetime in combat. The only positive thing about this whole ordeal was that Artemis’s arrow had managed to stun Belial for seven seconds after hitting his shoulder. It was only half of the duration for which Artemis would be asleep, but it was enough time for me to land a few more hits.

As soon as the Weight of the World debuff ended, I prepared myself for the resurgence of power and energy into my body. What I got instead was a crushing feeling of hopelessness and despair. If the previous debuff had burdened my mind and crippled my body, this one had disabled every possibility of happy thoughts and made me not even want to try to move my body at all.

* * *

Name: Weight of Depression

Type: Debuff

Level: 6

Effect: Reduces the target’s movement, casting, and attack speed to zero for 5 seconds. This is the evolved version of the Weight of the World debuff.

Time Left: 4 seconds

* * *

I tried to calm down by telling myself that five seconds wasn’t really that long.

“Five breaths,” I whispered to myself.

I inhaled deeply… but halfway through, my mind truly comprehended how awfully long it was taking. It felt like I was in trouble for something terrible and was just waiting for everyone to find out what I’d done. Nothing was happening but angst carved at my confidence like a sharpened blade. I realized that I had completely stopped breathing.

I glanced at the guild chat and saw that Aphrodite and had already prepared a plan of action but in that moment, I couldn’t have cared less. There was no way anything would work in this damned place. We were trapped here. Perhaps it would have been better if I had just stayed on Mount Orthys and accepted my fate in the hands of my father.

Reflexively, I focused my unblinking eyes on the undead abomination whose skin-stripped flesh was now moving toward me again. As it got closer, its speed both terrifying but also tortuously slow, I saw that each of its tendons was a mass of meat and mouths filled with sharp teeth. The mouths were all open, moaning in their eternal suffering and aching for sustenance.

The angel’s strike threw me forward several feet and while I heard the crunching of bones and the tearing and munching of flesh, I felt no pain. For no pain mattered now, only the inevitability of the end. The final destination of us all, and the ultimate equalizer of all living things.