novelraw Chapter 386-1: Lord Cain’s Aesthetic of Violence, Outside the Battlefield (1)
Chapter 386-1: Lord Cain’s Aesthetic of Violence, Outside the Battlefield (1)
Lin Xun narrowed his eyes, already having made up his mind.
It was rare to encounter such a good power-bank Shell. Letting it go so easily would be far too much of a waste.
If Amos had first joined up with him to deal with Agabus, then at the end, when the rules forced them to fight each other, Lin Xun would still have considered their old friendship and left him one winning slot.
But this guy’s first thought had been to screw over his teammate. No matter how magnanimous Lin Xun was, he could not tolerate something like that.
In the Disciple War, no, in all PvP-enabled chapters, once an Apostle died, their Shell would immediately vanish.
If Lin Xun wanted to obtain this necromancer power-bank Shell, he could not use normal in-game means.
However, what could not be done in the game did not mean it could not be done in the real world.
Ordinary Apostles did not have the unique Thousand Faces, Ten Thousand Forms possession ability. Even if they saw an enemy’s corpse in reality, they could not possess it.
Lin Xun was different. He had already taken a Shell once in the past, when he killed the Engineer.
In reality, after an Apostle died, the Shell would also gradually fade and disappear, but the speed was much slower than in the game. With the Thousand Faces, Ten Thousand Forms talent, he could still achieve possession.To pull off the Shell-seizing operation in reality, however, he at least had to wait until after the Disciple War ended.
—
The island where the Disciple War took place was fairly large, roughly about the size of a small city.
The Ninth Disciple Agabus, together with his lone retainer, was searching quickly through the jungle, trying to flush out the two remaining bottom ranked Disciples.
In the Soul Annihilation option, other than him and his own retainer, only the Eleventh Disciple Amos and the Twelfth Disciple Cain were left. Their retainers had already died in battle.
Analyzing the situation based on what the option showed, it was clear that Amos had run into the Tenth Disciple Jeremiah not long after the chapter began and fallen into a difficult fight.
Amos was weaker than Jeremiah and did not bring enough retainers, so he had been thoroughly suppressed and his two retainers had died in succession.
Just as Amos was about to be unable to hold on, Cain, who was on the same side as him, had arrived in time. The two of them had launched a lethal strike together and counter killed Jeremiah.
Once Jeremiah died, his three retainers also died at once because of the linked punishment of Soul Annihilation.
Agabus instantly worked out this most reasonable reconstruction of the battle.
“Hmph, you think combining the strength of two people is enough to stand against me?”
“Today I am going to teach you a lesson. A demigod is an existence that mortals can never defeat.”
Agabus did not care about two bottom ranked Disciples joining forces. As long as they had not stepped into the demigod realm, he was confident that even if five or ten Disciples teamed up, he could cut them all down.
The fact that he had entered this Disciple War with only one retainer was already proof of his immense confidence.
As long as he killed the last two, even if he did nothing afterward, he would become the Third Disciple.
Just as he was painstakingly searching for the two bottom ranked Disciples, the sounds of battle suddenly rang out in the distance.
One had to know that there were only four people left on the entire island right now.
He and his retainer were right here, so there was no need to ask who the two sides fighting out there were.
Agabus could not help but laugh aloud. “Those two really are sick of living. With a powerful enemy right in front of them, instead of joining forces against an outside foe, they start fighting each other.”
“Are all of this batch of newly promoted Disciples such foolish trash?”
“In that case, let me clean up these unqualified rejects for the Master. They are not worthy of entering the New World.”
As a demigod, Agabus had long since learned the nature and truth of the apocalypse from the Librarian.
Only then had he truly understood the Master’s painstaking intentions.
Yes, no matter how powerful Apostles became, they still could not stand against those terrifying, ultimate master deities who were strong beyond imagination.
The Apostles working for the official side had to be brain damaged to think of throwing themselves against a stone. It was truly the height of stupidity.
He was determined to grow stronger and stronger until he had the qualifications to follow the Master to the true New World.
Foolish bottom ranked Apostles like these two were absolutely not worthy of going to the New World.
Agabus did not rush to the battlefield at top speed. Instead, he drifted over slowly with his retainer.
When those two bottom ranked Disciples finished their infighting and finally decided a winner, the expression on that survivor’s face upon seeing him would definitely be marvelous.
With that in mind, Agabus strolled slowly toward the battlefield.
After waiting for quite some time, the sounds of battle in the distance finally died down.
However, Agabus did not see any notification of either of the two dying pop up in the Soul Annihilation option.
“Tsk tsk, those two weaklings really are just chickens pecking at each other. They fought for half the day and still didn’t decide a victor. How laughable.”
His patience was almost exhausted, and he could not be bothered to keep playing the fisherman who reaps the benefit of the snipe and the clam.
After breaking into a full sprint, he left his retainer behind and quickly reached the battlefield ahead of him.
[…]
[The distant battle has already ended. The surroundings of the battlefield are a complete mess, and most of the trees that stood tall before have withered and dried up.]
[Thick, clotted blood aura fills the air around the battlefield so densely that it will not disperse…]
[You look toward the center of the battlefield and see two figures flickering with red light standing atop a ground littered with bones.]
[One is wearing a black robe and holding a short staff, with faint wails of resentful spirits echoing around the staff…]
[You have discovered the Eleventh Disciple Amos.]
[The other figure has a wide blood colored greatsword resting on his shoulder. The endless blood aura that covers the battlefield comes from this greatsword.]
[In front of him, the Eleventh Disciple Amos looks like a child who has done something wrong. He can only obey his orders and does not dare to step out of line.]
[He merely stands there with the greatsword on his shoulder without moving, and this alone makes you feel an extremely heavy pressure.]
[You have discovered the Twelfth Disciple Cain.]
Agabus: ???
Agabus had replayed the possible battle several times in his mind and was sure that his predictions would not be too far from reality.
Yet when he saw the scene before him now, he could not help feeling that all his simulations had been completely pointless.
This was not even the most unexpected thing. Having his reconstruction of the battle be off was not a big deal. He intended to kill both of them anyway.
What really mattered was that facing the Twelfth Disciple Cain, the game actually displayed ‘You feel an extremely heavy pressure’.
Agabus only ever saw that text when facing mythic+ bosses.
In other words, the game was evaluating the Twelfth Disciple Cain, this most bottom ranked new Disciple, as having the power and qualifications to fight a mythic+ boss.
His first reaction was that the game had bugged, but his long experience told him that this game was real and that bugs did not exist.
When instinct and experience clashed, Agabus did not hesitate to activate a detection-type skill. Only information obtained through a skill was the most trustworthy.
[Shell Skill Heartsever Sword of Seeing Through Falsehoods activated.]
[You raise the sword in your hand and point its tip at the enemy. You use the sword as your eye and your heart as your sense to pierce through illusion and return to truth…]
[You have successfully obtained information about the enemy’s Shell.]
[Twelfth Disciple Cain]
[Shell: Giant of Righteous Light]
[Shell Quality: Legendary]
[Shell Level: 85]
[Shell Equipment: Spark Prism – Divine Light Rod (Legendary Weapon)…]
[Shell Skill: Dirassium Light Stream (Legendary Skill)…]
[Shell Skill: Ultimate Zeperio Ray (Legendary+ Skill)…]
[Shell Skill: Cellular Transformation Beam (Legendary+ Skill)…]
Agabus glanced over the information. He saw a row of Legendary grade entries, with only two Shell Skills at Legendary+ grade.
He froze. “That’s not right. With a panel this weak, why is the game evaluating Cain as this strong?”
It was only when his eyes landed on the last skill, Cellular Transformation Beam, that he suddenly understood.
From the name Cellular Transformation Beam, it was not hard to guess that this was a skill similar to a form changing or transformation ability.
“Hmph. So that is why Cain appears absurdly strong. It is because of a disguise type transformation skill.”
“If I did not have a detection skill, I really would have been fooled by you.”
Agabus had finally seen the truth, and only this explanation made sense of why Cain and Amos had fought for so long.
It was because Cain was far from as strong as he appeared.
He was just a pretty silver spearhead that was hollow inside. With a disguise skill, he made people think he was endlessly strong, but in reality he was just a bottom ranked Disciple at the very tail of the pack.
Agabus was a little angry. If not for his detection skill, his moment of hesitation earlier might really have led to him being scared off.