Day 108 - Takemikazuchi
“Myriad Overlord-sama, have you ever thought of eating me?” Takemikazuchi asked once he had successfully taught his third true inheritance to the Magus.
“Yes.” Crimspur’s heroic ant replied as he swung the sword in his hand rapidly, creating sword force with every slash. Although it was a very basic form of it, it was sword force nonetheless.
“Why didn’t you do it, then? I’m sure Grimsong Specter-sama recalled me with a deeper scheme in mind.”
“Hahah.” Crimspur chuckled. “Let’s say the one who killed you back then isn’t Mordred but me, and I’m the one who gets your corpse and soul. How long do you think It’ll take for my true body to digest you?”
“A decade?” Takemikazuchi guessed.
“If I wanted to lose 99% of your value, then that’ll be sufficient. The real span of time would be a thousand years, and that was on the condition that my food-path attainment was transcendent.” Crimspur explained. “That’s why he didn’t eat your corpse, which could be considered as a treasure in its own right… Well, Mordred wasn’t a hardcore cannibal in the first place, though he wouldn’t bat an eye at it in necessity. In any case, if I ate you, I’d have to sleep so that I could digest you better. It is naturally the same within this dream, and even if I could find some use from it, it would be counterproductive to what Mordred spent to summon you in the first place.”
Takemikazuchi heaved an exaggerated sigh of relief. “So I won’t be part of your diet, what a relief.”
“Alright, I’ve learnt the basics of Sword Genesis.” Crimspur extended his hand towards the Shogun. “Oi, give your sword to me.”
“B- but this is the gift that Grimsong Specter-sama bestowed upon me…”
“I won’t ask twice.” The heroic ant didn’t change his tone, he wasn't even pressuring Takemikazuchi, but the Shogun didn’t dare to act up. The big brother of the most murderous magus of all time was actually very pragmatistic and hardly aggressive. Compared to Mordred, he can even be considered a pacifist, but that’s because the comparison was, well, Mordred.
It’s like saying magma is cold in comparison to the deep eternal pits of hell.
With a deep sigh, he passed the rank 2 sword that Mordred refined for him towards Crimspur. The heroic any accepted it and instantly munched on the katana. His mandibles chewed through the blade as though it were made of cotton candy as Crimspur used a food-path killer move.
After the last piece of the katana was eaten, the ant’s compound eye seemed to glimmer with a sharp glint, and Takemikazuchi was shocked at the sight, realizing what Crimspur had done with his katana. “What the fuck, it’s barely been a month and your attainment in sword-path has reached master from zero… Your food-path methods are bullshit! It’s no wonder you have sole control over the Imperium’s military!”
“Attainment levels aren't everything, it just so happens that attainment levels are extremely useful in my hands.” Crimspur shook his head. “However, this has allowed me to accelerate the learning-phase. We can begin the next phase: Expansion. But first…”
Crimspur extended his hand, tracing the air with his finger. The airflow became sliced abruptly as if his lazy finger motions cut the air with each movement.
“Innate Sword Bones…” Takemikazuchi sighed, making a promise to himself not to be surprised by Crimspur’s abilities anymore.
“Wrong, it’s just a replication of a sword-path method. One of my sovereign paths is bi-” Crimspur suddenly stopped. “Hahah, rejoice, Sword Seigneur! I have successfully refined something good for you.”
Takemikazuchi frowned. “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?”
…
Day 109 - Crimspur
“What did you just say? Are you joking with me?” The shogun eyed Crimspur’s heroic unit in disbelief.
“Nope. Although my current bioforge isn’t as good as Intelligent Metal’s Nidaveliir Hyperforge, this shit is the real deal… I made a rank 3 katana specifically for you because I felt bad eating the precious katana Mordred made for you.”
Still in disbelief, Takemikazuchi’s hand hovered around the katana. “Why’d you eat it in the first place? If you can eat swords to increase your attainment-”
“You think that was a simple food-path method?” Crimspur scoffed. “It was a combination of wisdom-path, rule-path, time-path and even a few dream-path methods, it can only be used on specific objects.”
Takemikazuchi frowned, instantly realizing why it contained dream-path profundity.
“That’s right, the reason why Mordred didn’t even consider recalling Her Majesty the Sovereign Magus of Dreams and Nightmare was because she would be able to take control of Mordred's Country of Delusions. Unlike us who are basically a fragment of Mordred’s imagination, Her Majesty’s attainment would not only be capped at Mordred’s, but her will won’t be Mordred’s will. Still, it would be great if that stays in the dream world.” Crimspur added, “But who can say when Mordred wakes up, Her Majesty’s dream-path influence won’t plague his awoken self?”
“So that killer move of yours… was actually a contingency against Her Majesty…”
Crimspur smiled affirmatively, but no longer commented on that matter. “Test that weapon out, before we begin the expansion phase.” He nudged at the 2.4 meter long rank 3 katana that he made for the Sword Seigneur. “We’re going to reclaim Mordred’s country of delusions by breaking out of this bloody blockade.”
…
Day 150 - Lord Erebus
“This is truly a raid boss…” Erebus commented while he touched his chin in ponderation.
On the desk, there was a map that showcased the condition of a specific room. The room was big as it led deeper towards the next floor, but the entrance to the 21th floor is guarded by a large, strong creature the size of a bus. Some of the early vampire explorers thought it was a slow creature, considering the ant has an extremely large visage.
Unfortunately, they were wrong.
Despite being very large, it was extremely nimble.
What makes the ant extremely threatening is not only its speed and strength, but also the two mantis-blade-like appendages that it has. This ant is a giant ant warrior, with smaller elites protecting it from vampire-wave tactics. Furthermore, there’s actually three semi-self-aware plasma cannons on the ant’s back, covering the aspect of ranged attack. Those also indicate the existence of plasma shields, at rank 3 at least.
Therefore, Lord Erebus is being gate-kept on this floor.
“Is it time for me to mobilize my superelites?” Erebus pondered.
He had reservations using the biochemical suit-clad superelites because he doesn’t want to let them be eaten by the enemy. If they fall in battle, Erebus needs to ensure their corpse does not fall onto the enemy’s hand, otherwise, it’s no different than suicide by giving the enemy a butcher’s blade.
On the other hand, the enemy’s technology has reached a point where it threatens his vampires. Perhaps, the ant swarm’s technology has already reached the cap of this world, but then again, Erebus isn’t a techie, so he wouldn’t be able to gauge the level of Crimspur’s technology.
One thing for sure was, they are threatening enough that they’ll be able to kill his vampires if they didn’t put up any defenses.
At this point, a group of new vampires entered the war room. They were taller than Lord Erebus, reaching 2.5 meters from top to bottom.
“Master, we are ready for your command!” The new arrivals saluted at Lord Erebus. Their bodies are covered by a layer of flesh-suit. With the biochemical suit, these people could be considered as the most powerful lifeforms in the dream world, even more powerful than Lord Erebus himself!
‘If I die, I’ll make sure to equip one of those biochemical suits next time…’ Erebus thought as he scanned the biochemical suits that they wore. “The files I’ve sent you, have you all read them?”
The superelite vampires nodded. “We are up against a potential Magos.”
“That’s right.” Lord Erebus confirmed. “It seems like our enemy is a strange combination of Magos and Biologists… My experience in fighting them in the Land of Sand and Fire’s Kaiserreich might prove useful, but we can’t be too sure as their technology has become somewhat superior compared to the technology of Kaiserreich that I knew.”
There are all sorts of Magos in Kaiserreich. The most annoying ones, according to Erebus’ experience, are Mech-Accord Magos that use mechanical puppets for various purposes. There are also Magos Dominator which was an enslavement-path techie, Magos Destroyer which was a techie specialized for offense and Magos Defender which specialized in refining protective artifacts.
Naturally, the owner of the Ant Swarm is likely a Magos Dominator who was a Biologist at the same time, they use technological tool-assisted ant swarms to win battles instead of magic.
Now that Erebus knows what he’s fighting against, he can prepare better.
“Technological tools are more straightforward than magic. As long as the ant’s plasma shield reaches a certain level of saturation, they are no different to scrap metal. This is a thousand times better than facing a magical force field that requires us to attack at a specific frequency or using special methods before it can be broken.” Erebus explained the method to break the plasma shield.
…
Day 153 - Lord Erebus
“Let’s begin.” Lord Erebus gave the signal.
Today is the day Lord Erebus decided to push down deeper by eliminating the gatekeeper code-named Reaper Ant.
The vampire army led by Erebus swarmed at the Reaper Ant, which was using its triple plasma cannons in suppressing the advancing vampires. Pale blue molten plasma encased in magnetic containment fields are being spewed rapidly, each projectile exploded in a fiery conflagration of plasma fire. The vampires who got hit would definitely melt, not even the biochemical suit was able to save them from plasma fire, but the requisition is that they hit them.
The superelite vampires wearing biochemical suits are significantly faster than the plasma projectiles. Even if they can’t dodge, they can attack the plasma projectile, breaking the magnetic containment field so that the plasma would quickly burn in the air.
Nevertheless, the swarm’s number one quality isn’t strength or technological tools, but numbers. To guard against the superelite vampires, a group of lesser reaper ants popped up from the ground.
These smaller lesser reaper ants do not have their original’s plasma shield, but they still possessed scythe-like sword limbs. Each of them are capable of moving almost at the speed of sound. Although they are a tad slower than the superelite vampires who wore biochemical suits, their numbers and aggressive nature ensure the vampires wouldn’t be able to reign free in the battlefield.
The brutal exchange between ants and vampires occurred as limbs being separated from their bodies became natural exchange. The ants who had rapid adaptability from devouring wanted to eat these severed limbs, but Erebus and his vampires have developed a counter-strategy.
The vampires would prioritize any ant with something in their mouth. This was because when they eat, any ant would focus on devouring what’s being eaten, not being able to dodge or put up any defenses. Through this strategy, Erebus’s vampire kept the frontline from crumbling because no ants suddenly gained a burst of power.
Boom! As the battle progresses, the plasma shield of the reaper ant has reached saturation level. As Lord Erebus had expected, technological tools are extremely straightforward. With it no longer being able to defend against magic and other attacks, the shield has become no different than scrap metal. The vampire warriors have gained Lord Erebus’ experience in wearing down techies like the reaper ant, it’s just a matter of time.
Just as they have successfully cut one of the reaper ant’s scythe-like sword limb, suddenly, Lord Erebus heard a voice.
“Rank 3 sword-path killer move, [Instant Sword]!”
There was no flash of sword light or any indication of an attack was made because the sword art was released in a time-stopped environment. In the perspective of a three-dimensional lifeform who doesn’t have the necessary extradimensional perception of time such as Erebus, the ongoing Reaper Ant hunt suddenly turned into a slaughter as his vampires were instantly being mutilated by a higher dimensional lifeform.
“Wait until I build a time machine, and then I can show off like that.” Erebus heard a voice of a man from the depth of the 21st floor as his lifesigns began to fail. After all, his body too, has been dismembered into 40 pieces.
“Myriad Overlord-sama, a time machine is above the level of what Grimsong Specter-sama’s country of delusions can support.” Erebus heard the voice of a swordsman in his dismembered state. “You’ll have to ask Grimsong Specter-sama’s permission before making them.”
‘This language… is very similar to the language of the Hartina Kingdom, but different…’ Was Lord Erebus’ thoughts before his consciousness faded. No matter what his three hearts and two brains do, his body has been severed by the Sword Seigneur’s blade. Telepathic sword will laced the blade, anything that survived the cut will be severed further, be it material or conceptual.
“Will that be okay?” the Sword Seigneur inquired. “We might be able to reduce his influence for now, but we need to kill the vampire lord a couple million more times before his mind collapses. Weren’t you planning to blitzkrieg this? If the vampire lord saw us in the field, their resistance will be fiercer than before.”
Although he seemed okay, his complexion was paler than before. [Instant Sword] truly put a heavy burden on him. Perhaps, if he activated the killer move twice in succession, his arms would explode.
“It’s fine, we’re at the expansion-phase already.” Crimspur’s heroic ant waved his arms, feeling it’s not a big deal. “Also, I’m pretty sure he has resurrection methods in his Gorod Krovi. With it, our estimation might not be accurate, he might be able to maintain his ego after we kill him a hundred million times unless his base of operation where he kept his resurrection facilities is destroyed. That’s why, I’m going to escalate this war.”
“I see.” Takemikazuchi nodded in understanding.
“I’m more interested why his City of Blood is referred to in russian. Aren’t you a bit curious who taught them Russian… or why are they speaking Russian in the first place?” Crimspur’s heroic ant started to eat the reaper ant, complete with the plasma shield generators which had become scrap metal at this point. The poor ant screamed in agony while its body is being teared apart by Crimspur, it was literally being eaten alive.
“Can you… at least kill that thing first?” The Sword Seigneur pointed at the reaper ant.
“Pain is irrelevant.” Crimspur began eating the head part of the reaper ant. “I’m just recycling their biological matters.”
“You Germans are so ruthless.” Takemikazuchi complained under his breath.
“I’m fucking Swiss.” Crimspur said with exaggerated insult. “The only German among us1 is Intelligent Metal.”
…
Day 154 - Lord Erebus
The underground blood lake is bubbling as a figure slowly emerges from its depth.
“Master, you’ve returned…” A vampire bride bowed, showing respect and infatuation towards the man.
“Mobilize the army. Spare no quarters. Even if I have to drown the labyrinthian ant’s hive with the blood of my slave, so be it!” Erebus ordered with grim determination.
It’s not like he was wasting time. All this while, the raid upon the labyrinthian ant’s hive was progressing well. Each day, his army must’ve killed around a dozen thousands of ants, but the number of ants isn’t decreasing at all. Perhaps, the labyrinthian ant hive’s design were specifically made so that numerical advantage wouldn’t be too apparent. It was successful in defending against the vampire army. It’s not that he’s doing all this spiel just to have fun. He was truly set on murdering the opponent’s supreme commander, but the ants are simply endless.
“But things are different now. According to my calculation, the ant queen and the swordsman are made out of the undead machine’s spiritual force. Unlike myself, they do not have resurrection facilities set up in this dream world. As long as I can kill them once, they are dead for real.”
They might be strong, far stronger than what Erebus could offer, but their energy is limited. In the first place, enslavement-path battle tactics relies on attrition, a battle of numbers to whittle down the enemy’s resources. Even if the ant queen is also an enslavement-path master, in terms of resources, Erebus’ Gorod Krovi can supply vampiric beasts for multiple decades without end. This was the foundation that Erebus relies on!
…
Day 210 - Crimspur
“So we have claimed the first floor. Outside of this labyrinthian ant’s hive, the enemy can rely on vampire-wave tactics to overwhelm us. We simply can’t break through as even with my [Instant Sword], I’ll be exhausted before I can clear them up.” Takemikazuchi muttered, his long katana brandished to prepare for a sudden attack. As long as Crimspur made the decision, he wouldn’t hesitate to throw his life for Grimsong Specter’s cause- within reason of course. He wouldn’t run out there just because he told him it would be funny.
“No rush. Please, observe this…” Crimspur stopped the Sword Seigneur just before the entrance of the cave.
On Crimspur’s hand, there was a red powder that seemed to be alive, moving around between his hand and the sword that he’s holding. Non-magus wouldn’t be able to detect the profundity of the red powder, but Takemikazuchi is a powerful magus with extremely high learning rate and investigation methods, able to learn of its profundity after a few minutes of observing.
“What is the name of this method?” He asked.
Crimspur smiled. “If my brother is the scholar of death, then I should be the scholar of life. I’d want my True Inheritances to describe the profundity of life in this universe.” He didn’t answer directly, but made a roundabout claim about unrelated things. “I shall call this… Pandemic Blade True Inheritance...”
Crimspur inhaled deeply, the red powder being absorbed into his body. “Although it has the word blade, there’s actually little to no sword-path profundity in this. I’m just inspired by your sword arts.”
The heroic ant that Crimspur controlled exhaled slowly, the red powder having multiplied significantly that it created a cloud of dark red. “Compound killer move, [Pandemic Blade: Hematophagous Explosive Spores]!”
That’s right, the red powder are actually fungal spores. This killer move was the crystallization of Crimspur’s wood-path, blood-path, and food-path attainment.
“At first, I wanted to design a counter-plague for Erebus’ vampiric disease, but any virus and bacteria that I’d design wouldn’t be able to endure Erebus’ magic. Their bodies are too simple to react to Erebus magic. Thus, I move to another direction. Amongst my attainment, the highest is obviously food-path, followed by wood-path, and a few others. Unfortunately, our attainments are capped at Mordred’s attainment, so it took me a while to design a countermeasure.”
“And your solution is fungus?”
“That’s right. Although I am not in possession of my Plantae Overlord which was one of my top three Overlords, I am still a former transcendental wood-path Magus… which was capped at exemplary.” Crimspur shrugged. “I found an extremophile fungus that grows on sulfur down below. It took me a while to engineer their genes. It was only after I ate a sufficient number of vampires that I could develop a counter for Erebus’ vampiric disease. This is my butcher’s blade to kill Erebus. Please observe!”
A wave of red spores are being sprayed outside the cave. Explosions of blood energy littered the entrance as Lord Erebus’ vampires were being paranoid in whatever that came out of the entrance, and the sheer energy saturation is actually enough to kill the majority of the spores that Crimspur released.
Unfortunately, it was the majority, not every spore. Some of them are sprayed so thinly that the vampires who got infected weren't aware that they were infected in the first place.
“Infectivity is set to the highest point, whereas lethality and symptoms are at the lowest. I’ll need some time to muster my army and my spores to infect everyone.”
“Waiting game… understood.” Takemikazuchi nodded.
“I’ll send some spores a couple of times periodically to poke around. In the meantime, I’ll be preparing for the inevitable battle to break out of this encirclement.”
“You’re going to fight personally?” The Sword Seigneur was shocked. As far as he knows, this guy loved to eat the fruit of labor of someone else.
“They have biochemical suits! I am inspired to make my own!”
Those simple words made Takemikazuchi shudder as he recalled unpleasant memories. “You’re not going to refine… the [Eternal Arms Race], aren’t you?”
“Hahah. It was already done. An ant is transporting it to us right now.” Crimspur smiled. “Though, I have insufficient materials so I need to feed it a lot…”
It didn’t take long for an ant to come out from the depths of the hive, bringing a lump of red flesh-slime that looked like a garbage pile of biomatter. Shells of crustaceans, bones and teeth of unknown lifeforms are mixed within the pile of flesh. Crimspur’s heroic ant simply takes the flesh-slime and puts it onto his torso. The flesh slime quickly transformed into an armor similar to a crustacean’s shell, with a large, conspicuous mouth on the belly part of the armor.
“[Eternal Arms Race]... The ultimate Biochemical Suit ever designed by the Human Imperium… well, by you, of course. A living armor that when struck by an attack, allows the armor to learn and develop a resistance to it…” Takemikazuchi sighed. “It was this armor that greatly contributed to my downfall. Perhaps, it should be considered as one of your true bodies instead. This is perhaps even… the epitome of your sovereign paths.”
The Sword Seigneur saw Crimspur simply feed the ant that transported the living armor into the mouth-part of the armor. After completely eating it, there was a hint of blackness in the red shell of the armor, similar to the color of the ant it just consumed. “I just need to eat a sufficient amount of vampires...” Crimspur patted the mouth of the armor. He too, is starting to become hungry after all of this thinking.
…
Day 378 - Crimspur
The world in his perspective is ingredients. The soil, the trees, mineral veins… even the lifeforms living in this world, they are but mere ingredients for the best food.
This was the perspective of a food-path transcendent.
‘Perhaps, other transcendents would see things differently.
Crunch! The sound of munching resounded from both his mouth and the armor that he wore. As for what he's eating, it was actually metal ingots. “Alright, Eternal Arms Race contains sufficient metallic content for it to produce… this…”. With a thought, there was a thin layer of pale blue plasma shield that covered his body spherically.
“Chaos Nemesis-sama once said that everything would eventually converge into one path. It seems like he was right.” Takemikazuchi muttered.
“Wasn’t that his opinion on my tripartite-philosophy of [Purity], [Supreme] and [Harmony]? He does not agree with my theory.” Crimspur casually striked a conversation while the two watched the ant army trying to break through the blockade that was put up by Erebus.
It doesn’t work. They were stuck watching the same thing for over a few months.
It wasn’t a matter of strategy or killing power, the vampires outside the labyrinthian ant’s hive are simply too many. The mountain might be able to survive simply because it was a combination of various resource points that gave the mountain strange properties. Although not invulnerable from damage, at the very least, it would be decades before it could fall from external bombardment, especially since the cave network is reinforced by formic compounds.
“Did he?” Takemikazuchi replied. “I feel like all that research is making him muddleheaded.”
“Ich habe keinen Kommentar. Dieser Mann ist ein Rätsel.” Crimspur replied.
“Wait, was that german?” Takemikazuchi raised his eyebrows.
“Oops, sorry. I slipped.” Crimspur apologized back in Japanese. “The frontline is getting more intense, there is some hope to breakthrough if I activate the dormant Pandemic Blade. Can I ask you to ease the pressure in the frontline?”
“It’s about fucking time.” Takemikazuchi stood up from his seat, taking the 2.4 meter long katana with him.
The two walked towards the entrance, the hallways towards it were filled with ants of various shapes and sizes marching towards their demise. As they reached the entrance, they saw literal hills made out of ant corpses as they were being bombarded with magic spells. They didn’t even have the chance to engage in a battle with the vampires because they are using long-range magic, there are no ant corpses with complete body parts.
Naturally, there are some that use plasma shields to make a beeline towards the vampire army, but they are literally being shredded in mere seconds after making an appearance.
There are simply too many vampire mages.
“Unlike the battlefield within the labyrinthian ant’s hive, Erebus can use his numerical advantage to suppress us. Are you sure you don’t need a year or so to develop a MEKA?”
“There’s no need. The magma lake is finite, unlocking the tech trees also require variation of materials, not just a shitload of them. We’ll run out of resources sooner or later with this rate of death.”
“Understandable.” Takemikazuchi nodded in agreement. “Then, command me.”
“Perform [Sword Genesis] to kill the first thousand vampire mages. I’ll bait Erebus with my presence and kill him with my [Pandemic Blade].” Crimspur ordered, as he casually fetched an unlucky dog-sized ant and put it in Eternal Arms Race’s mouth.
“Roger that!”2
The Sword Seigneur turned into a flash of lightning, darting from one spot to another at breakneck speed. He suddenly appeared in the back of the vampire army, specifically, the mage squads.
“It’s too bad I am just a fragment of Grimsong Specter-sama’s imagination. Their blood magic looks interesting.” The Sword Seigneur stabbed his blade into the ground. “Rank 3 sword-path killer move, [Sword Genesis]!”
The vampire mage squads are focusing their telepathic thoughts on bombarding the entrance of the labyrinthian ant’s hive to kill anything that came out, they did not realize that Takemikazuchi had sneaked behind them. When the killer move [Sword Genesis] has been activated, the very soil that they stand upon turned into rock blades, each of the blade’s craftsmanship were as if they were made by an expert blacksmith using the most precious tamahagane steel.
In short, they were mutilated by blades that suddenly came out of the ground.
“My earth-path attainment isn’t high, but it seems like this place is also a sword-path resource point. No wonder it was so easy making rock blades.”
Takemikazuchi wanted to immediately leave as Crimspur only commanded him to kill the 1000-man mage squad, but he thought it would be a waste to leave the vampire corpses to Crimspur as he’ll waste no biomatter behind after he’s done.
“[Sword Genesis: Blood-Katana Refinement]!”
The blood puddles in the ground are being forcefully drawn and refined into blood katanas. They flew around Takemikazuchi, like celestial bodies orbiting the sun.
“24 blood katanas… Myriad Overlord-sama will be so mad at me for taking the fruit of my own labor, but these blades will be very useful in pushing back the vampires.” With a jolt of his mind, the blood katanas turned into a streak of blood-red lightning that combined itself with the blade that he’s holding. By refining blood katanas, there was no need for him to use rock blades the next time he uses [Sword Genesis].
Just as he expected, a telepathic command instantly reached Takemikazuchi after he refined the blood katana. “Clear three more groups and then you can retreat.”
The Sword Seigneur wordlessly accepted the order as he activated [Shukuchi], his movement-type killer move.
This time, he arrived soundlessly behind a group of mages, but the captain wore a biochemical suit. He was aware of Takemikazuchi’s infiltration. He instantly ordered the vampire mages to attack, but the Sword Seigneur is also a lightning cultivator who excels in burst. In that instant, he stabbed the large katana onto the ground and blood red katanas burst from the earth like shark fins parting the surface of bloody waters.
The blood katanas moved extremely quick, able to murder the slow-reacting vampire mages, who became dismembered like a blood-sucker fillet.. Naturally, those who survived are quickly dispatched by an invisible [Swordwave], enough to finish off the wounded remnants.
…
In another part of the battlefield.
Crush! The sound of bones being pulverized could be heard from his mouth. The red armor that he wore has also evolved into a streamlined form of high mobility and high defense; it was also currently munching on the skulls of vampires.
“Erebus, it’s been a while since we’ve met.” Crimspur said.
The vampire in front of him was also wearing a biochemical suit, one that looks intimidating and fierce. Its external appearance is comparable to an extremely powerful bodybuilder, with blood red muscle fibers that look as though it was sculpted by a master in the craft. The two pairs of leathery wings are like that of bat-dragon, there are sharp bone claws on the edge of the wings that not only intimidates, but is also a weapon in itself.
“You seemed to know about me. Who are you?”
“Was your Bloodline Inspection not telling you the masters of these ants?” Crimspur replied, using a know-it-all attitude.
“You are the Ant Swarm’s master?”
“Something like that.” Crimspur’s right arm is slowly being twisted into a blade made out of bones and flesh. “I just wanted to tell you that… You’ve lost your best chance of winning.”
“Fucking cannibals.” Erebus cursed when he saw that he ate vampire corpses and ants alike. He instantly activated his blood-path methods starting from [Murder in Cold Blood] to freeze the blood of Crimspur, [Blood Ignition] to empower himself, and other offensive, defensive, and supportive methods in preparation for the upcoming battle.
Unfortunately, they were all useless. The Eternal Arms Race devoured a sufficient number of vampires that it was able to defend against his blood-path method. At the very least, blood-path methods that had been used at least once are less effective towards him. It has to be new methods that he had never seen or experienced at all.
“Food-path killer move, [Insatiable Hunger]!” In retaliation, Crimspur merely activated a killer move while enduring the bombardment of killer moves from Erebus and his superelite guards. Of course, his methods are not magic nor martial arts. It was actually an attack in the form of pheromones. Invisible, tasteless, scentless pheromones that were hard to defend against.
The vampire lord suddenly felt his stomach empty as his metabolism spiked in response. He was… extremely hungry, but he knew he couldn't be distracted by mere hunger while he was facing the ant swarm’s master.
Unlike himself, once the ant swarm’s master is killed, he cannot resurrect. Thus, his fighting style was one who forgoes defense for absolute offense. In a sense, this was also the correct decision because Crimspur isn't like Takemikazuchi or Mordred whose offensive powers are off the charts. He has always been like a slow-acting poison that would slowly reduce the enemy’s combat strength as time progresses, either by increasing his resistance, or inflicting status effects.
Crunch! The sound of munching can be heard as one of Erebus super elite vampire guards tried to attack Crimspur’s shoulder, only for the armor’s shoulder to open up and reveal rows of fangs. The poor bastard’s hand is actually being devoured alive.
“Fucking glutton!” The vampire immediately severed his own hand to get free from Crimspur’s armor, but the man wouldn’t let the meat on his mouth fly away. With a burst of speed that broke the sound barrier, Crimspur suddenly moved to press down the vampire to the ground, allowing the main mouth on his abdomen to take a bite at the vampire’s head. With a single bite, the vampire’s head has been socially distanced from the rest of the body.
“What the fuck was that?” Erebus noticed that Crimspur must be using a movement-type killer move to quickly overtake the superelite vampire, but he didn’t even have the time to analyze it as it was too fast. He uses his dying subordinate’s body as a spell catalyst to bind Crimspur with blood chains.
Unfortunately, mouths suddenly appeared from Crimspur’s armor, they began munching on the blood chains that bind his whole body.
“What the fuck are you!” Erebus threw a blood javelin at Crimspur, only for the armor’s mouth to open and munch upon it. Erebus had expected this, so the javelin was actually explosive, designed to deal internal damage. Crimspur had experience consuming explosives unfortunately. The explosion was isolated by a plasma shield, whilst the rest of the blood spears were being eaten.
“So this is the taste of blood magic. It tastes a bit like rust…” Crimspur’s defensive power is truly top notch. He slowly exhausted Erebus’ superelite vampires by tanking everything while slowly trying to grab them. Naturally, because Erebus’s vampires aren’t idiots in any capacity whatsoever, they knew Crimspur’s lack of offensive methods mean he can’t offer them strong retaliation. He can only be a passive punching bag that can only endure hits.
As long as none of them are being captured by his hands and fed into the armor, it wouldn’t be a problem to slowly wear down Crimspur.
It’s just that, Crimspur is also not an idiot. “Aren’t you confused why I, an enslavement-path expert, is fighting you in the flesh?” He asked, as he took some corpses and fed them into the Eternal Arms Race.
“!!!” Erebus was also surprised he wasn’t thinking of this strategy. ‘What the fuck… has my thinking capability hindered by this fucking hunger?’
Erebus immediately decided to retreat, but it was too late. “You are not yourself when you’re hungry…” Crimspur smiled as the superelite vampires suddenly exploded in bloody red powders. Although the durability of their fleshy body allows them to mitigate instant death, the speed at which they could retaliate was heavily influenced.
Even if they are moving slower, however, Crimspur lacks over-the-top offensive killer moves that can clean them up with one attack. Rather, his method of attack is pretty simple and straightforward: produce more pandemic spores to eliminate their method of escape.
“What the fuck is this!” Erebus coughed blood as he suffered from extreme hunger, his body collapsing from the inside out. His voice grew hoarse with internal damage, his legs exploded, and his wings shriveled up by some method Erebus couldn’t even identify.
“When your body is in a state of extreme hunger, your body’s first defensive reaction is to autophagy.” Crimspur simply explained, not fearing his food-path method being deciphered. After all, food-path should be an unknown path that Morgen World had never seen before. As proof of that, they have no defenses against food-path whatsoever. “It’s unfortunate that your biochemical suit is, in the end, biological. I simply used your biochemical suit’s biological nature against yourself.”
As Lord Erebus’ superelite guards are being eaten alive- no, they’re eating themselves alive. Lord Erebus cursed as he gave a telepathic command to the Vampiric Blood Dragon that stayed behind in his Gorod Krovi as guard. This was his desperate move to stabilize the frontline.
Since Mordred’s country of delusions isn’t even that large compared to Erebus’ and the dragon is extremely fast, it reached the mountain in no time.
“Foolish.” Crimspur spoke simply, his tone thick with disdain. “Your only asset seemed to be that foundation that you’re so proud of. Without them, you’re just an idiot.”
When the dragon reached the proximity of the mountain, it was immediately dismembered into a few hundred pieces before the dragon breath was even discharged.
“I thank you for your offering. I’ve never directly tasted dragon meat… even if they are fake. Now, die.” Those words were the last that Lord Erebus heard, before his head was swallowed by the Eternal Arms Race.
With Lord Erebus’ death and the two Magi’s presence in the battlefield, the blockade is quickly broken.
….
Day 380 - Crimspur
“Is it worth it?” The Sword Seigneur asked.
“What is it?” Crimspur replied, his mouth never stopped eating.
“Breaking through the bloody blockade.” Takemikazuchi replied. “Although we have more territory, even I can see you’re straining yourself to fight against Erebus.”
“Oh, that. It was worth it.” Crimspur smiled. “Just the fact that we are able to see the skies and construct ant structures is worth it. I am now capable of photosynthesis too, a great plus!”
When Crimspur mentioned it, Takemikazuchi’s sight scanned the mountain. There were countless black buildings, its design philosophy is ant-like, but there were some sort of patterns in it. This fortress was built quickly by worker-caste ants while the war was ongoing. Plasma Cannons littered the perimeter, continuously spewing pale blue plasma fire at the sieging remnants of the vampire army as we speak.
Seeing that Crimspur was able to multitask tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of jobs at once, Takemikazuchi mentally praised Crimspur once more.
Though, because of his multitasking, it was common for Crimspur’s heroic unit to lose considerable intelligence sometimes because his computation power is being used elsewhere. One such example is right now. When Takemikazuchi isn’t striking up a conversation with Crimspur, the man would stand still, messily eating like an idiot.
“So you have no plans on refining MEKAs?” Takemikazuchi asked.
Breaking the blockade is merely the first step. The winning condition of this war is to destroy the Gorod Krovi and if possible, completely obliterate Erebus’ country of delusions. To do that, they’ll need a complex army and naturally, big guns as support.
“As I said earlier, unlocking tech trees in that direction requires a lot of materials. I’m not saying I don’t want to make MEKAs, but they are just too high-end. To do that, there are some cornerstone techs that I need, such as the Photon Colliders, Inertia Dampeners, Adamantium Alloy and many others but we need special resources that can’t be procured in this location.” Crimspur paused, “While we’re talking about it, I need you to fetch twelve metric tons of the light-path resource known as Crystalized Sun Topaz thirteen kilometers north. That thing is very dense, so it’ll probably have the size of a human despite the weight.”
“Heh… A great Sovereign such as myself has been reduced to mere couriers.” Takemikazuchi mocked himself. “Was the Crystalized Sun Topaz all you need?”
“I’m glad you asked.” Crimspur smiled as an ant brought an omni-gear and gave it to the Sword Seigneur. “There’s 1241 materials that I want, they are listed in this omni-gear, they are prioritized according to my need. If you can get all priority-0 and priority-1 materials, refining a Photon Collider on short notice wouldn’t be a problem.”
Takemikazuchi wore an expression as if he had chewed shit. He had shot himself in the foot by asking questions. But then again, he was sure Crimspur would ask him to fetch some more things even if he didn’t ask. “Fine, I’ll give you what you need.”
“Great! I was about to run out of things to play with.”
With a grumpy flash of lightning, Takemikazuchi has departed.
Day 108 - Takemikazuchi
“Myriad Overlord-sama, have you ever thought of eating me?” Takemikazuchi asked once he had successfully taught his third true inheritance to the Magus.
“Yes.” Crimspur’s heroic ant replied as he swung the sword in his hand rapidly, creating sword force with every slash. Although it was a very basic form of it, it was sword force nonetheless.
“Why didn’t you do it, then? I’m sure Grimsong Specter-sama recalled me with a deeper scheme in mind.”
“Hahah.” Crimspur chuckled. “Let’s say the one who killed you back then isn’t Mordred but me, and I’m the one who gets your corpse and soul. How long do you think It’ll take for my true body to digest you?”
“A decade?” Takemikazuchi guessed.
“If I wanted to lose 99% of your value, then that’ll be sufficient. The real span of time would be a thousand years, and that was on the condition that my food-path attainment was transcendent.” Crimspur explained. “That’s why he didn’t eat your corpse, which could be considered as a treasure in its own right… Well, Mordred wasn’t a hardcore cannibal in the first place, though he wouldn’t bat an eye at it in necessity. In any case, if I ate you, I’d have to sleep so that I could digest you better. It is naturally the same within this dream, and even if I could find some use from it, it would be counterproductive to what Mordred spent to summon you in the first place.”
Takemikazuchi heaved an exaggerated sigh of relief. “So I won’t be part of your diet, what a relief.”
“Alright, I’ve learnt the basics of Sword Genesis.” Crimspur extended his hand towards the Shogun. “Oi, give your sword to me.”
“B- but this is the gift that Grimsong Specter-sama bestowed upon me…”
“I won’t ask twice.” The heroic ant didn’t change his tone, he wasn't even pressuring Takemikazuchi, but the Shogun didn’t dare to act up. The big brother of the most murderous magus of all time was actually very pragmatistic and hardly aggressive. Compared to Mordred, he can even be considered a pacifist, but that’s because the comparison was, well, Mordred.
It’s like saying magma is cold in comparison to the deep eternal pits of hell.
With a deep sigh, he passed the rank 2 sword that Mordred refined for him towards Crimspur. The heroic any accepted it and instantly munched on the katana. His mandibles chewed through the blade as though it were made of cotton candy as Crimspur used a food-path killer move.
After the last piece of the katana was eaten, the ant’s compound eye seemed to glimmer with a sharp glint, and Takemikazuchi was shocked at the sight, realizing what Crimspur had done with his katana. “What the fuck, it’s barely been a month and your attainment in sword-path has reached master from zero… Your food-path methods are bullshit! It’s no wonder you have sole control over the Imperium’s military!”
“Attainment levels aren't everything, it just so happens that attainment levels are extremely useful in my hands.” Crimspur shook his head. “However, this has allowed me to accelerate the learning-phase. We can begin the next phase: Expansion. But first…”
Crimspur extended his hand, tracing the air with his finger. The airflow became sliced abruptly as if his lazy finger motions cut the air with each movement.
“Innate Sword Bones…” Takemikazuchi sighed, making a promise to himself not to be surprised by Crimspur’s abilities anymore.
“Wrong, it’s just a replication of a sword-path method. One of my sovereign paths is bi-” Crimspur suddenly stopped. “Hahah, rejoice, Sword Seigneur! I have successfully refined something good for you.”
Takemikazuchi frowned. “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?”
…
Day 109 - Crimspur
“What did you just say? Are you joking with me?” The shogun eyed Crimspur’s heroic unit in disbelief.
“Nope. Although my current bioforge isn’t as good as Intelligent Metal’s Nidaveliir Hyperforge, this shit is the real deal… I made a rank 3 katana specifically for you because I felt bad eating the precious katana Mordred made for you.”
Still in disbelief, Takemikazuchi’s hand hovered around the katana. “Why’d you eat it in the first place? If you can eat swords to increase your attainment-”
“You think that was a simple food-path method?” Crimspur scoffed. “It was a combination of wisdom-path, rule-path, time-path and even a few dream-path methods, it can only be used on specific objects.”
Takemikazuchi frowned, instantly realizing why it contained dream-path profundity.
“That’s right, the reason why Mordred didn’t even consider recalling Her Majesty the Sovereign Magus of Dreams and Nightmare was because she would be able to take control of Mordred's Country of Delusions. Unlike us who are basically a fragment of Mordred’s imagination, Her Majesty’s attainment would not only be capped at Mordred’s, but her will won’t be Mordred’s will. Still, it would be great if that stays in the dream world.” Crimspur added, “But who can say when Mordred wakes up, Her Majesty’s dream-path influence won’t plague his awoken self?”
“So that killer move of yours… was actually a contingency against Her Majesty…”
Crimspur smiled affirmatively, but no longer commented on that matter. “Test that weapon out, before we begin the expansion phase.” He nudged at the 2.4 meter long rank 3 katana that he made for the Sword Seigneur. “We’re going to reclaim Mordred’s country of delusions by breaking out of this bloody blockade.”
…
Day 150 - Lord Erebus
“This is truly a raid boss…” Erebus commented while he touched his chin in ponderation.
On the desk, there was a map that showcased the condition of a specific room. The room was big as it led deeper towards the next floor, but the entrance to the 21th floor is guarded by a large, strong creature the size of a bus. Some of the early vampire explorers thought it was a slow creature, considering the ant has an extremely large visage.
Unfortunately, they were wrong.
Despite being very large, it was extremely nimble.
What makes the ant extremely threatening is not only its speed and strength, but also the two mantis-blade-like appendages that it has. This ant is a giant ant warrior, with smaller elites protecting it from vampire-wave tactics. Furthermore, there’s actually three semi-self-aware plasma cannons on the ant’s back, covering the aspect of ranged attack. Those also indicate the existence of plasma shields, at rank 3 at least.
Therefore, Lord Erebus is being gate-kept on this floor.
“Is it time for me to mobilize my superelites?” Erebus pondered.
He had reservations using the biochemical suit-clad superelites because he doesn’t want to let them be eaten by the enemy. If they fall in battle, Erebus needs to ensure their corpse does not fall onto the enemy’s hand, otherwise, it’s no different than suicide by giving the enemy a butcher’s blade.
On the other hand, the enemy’s technology has reached a point where it threatens his vampires. Perhaps, the ant swarm’s technology has already reached the cap of this world, but then again, Erebus isn’t a techie, so he wouldn’t be able to gauge the level of Crimspur’s technology.
One thing for sure was, they are threatening enough that they’ll be able to kill his vampires if they didn’t put up any defenses.
At this point, a group of new vampires entered the war room. They were taller than Lord Erebus, reaching 2.5 meters from top to bottom.
“Master, we are ready for your command!” The new arrivals saluted at Lord Erebus. Their bodies are covered by a layer of flesh-suit. With the biochemical suit, these people could be considered as the most powerful lifeforms in the dream world, even more powerful than Lord Erebus himself!
‘If I die, I’ll make sure to equip one of those biochemical suits next time…’ Erebus thought as he scanned the biochemical suits that they wore. “The files I’ve sent you, have you all read them?”
The superelite vampires nodded. “We are up against a potential Magos.”
“That’s right.” Lord Erebus confirmed. “It seems like our enemy is a strange combination of Magos and Biologists… My experience in fighting them in the Land of Sand and Fire’s Kaiserreich might prove useful, but we can’t be too sure as their technology has become somewhat superior compared to the technology of Kaiserreich that I knew.”
There are all sorts of Magos in Kaiserreich. The most annoying ones, according to Erebus’ experience, are Mech-Accord Magos that use mechanical puppets for various purposes. There are also Magos Dominator which was an enslavement-path techie, Magos Destroyer which was a techie specialized for offense and Magos Defender which specialized in refining protective artifacts.
Naturally, the owner of the Ant Swarm is likely a Magos Dominator who was a Biologist at the same time, they use technological tool-assisted ant swarms to win battles instead of magic.
Now that Erebus knows what he’s fighting against, he can prepare better.
“Technological tools are more straightforward than magic. As long as the ant’s plasma shield reaches a certain level of saturation, they are no different to scrap metal. This is a thousand times better than facing a magical force field that requires us to attack at a specific frequency or using special methods before it can be broken.” Erebus explained the method to break the plasma shield.
…
Day 153 - Lord Erebus
“Let’s begin.” Lord Erebus gave the signal.
Today is the day Lord Erebus decided to push down deeper by eliminating the gatekeeper code-named Reaper Ant.
The vampire army led by Erebus swarmed at the Reaper Ant, which was using its triple plasma cannons in suppressing the advancing vampires. Pale blue molten plasma encased in magnetic containment fields are being spewed rapidly, each projectile exploded in a fiery conflagration of plasma fire. The vampires who got hit would definitely melt, not even the biochemical suit was able to save them from plasma fire, but the requisition is that they hit them.
The superelite vampires wearing biochemical suits are significantly faster than the plasma projectiles. Even if they can’t dodge, they can attack the plasma projectile, breaking the magnetic containment field so that the plasma would quickly burn in the air.
Nevertheless, the swarm’s number one quality isn’t strength or technological tools, but numbers. To guard against the superelite vampires, a group of lesser reaper ants popped up from the ground.
These smaller lesser reaper ants do not have their original’s plasma shield, but they still possessed scythe-like sword limbs. Each of them are capable of moving almost at the speed of sound. Although they are a tad slower than the superelite vampires who wore biochemical suits, their numbers and aggressive nature ensure the vampires wouldn’t be able to reign free in the battlefield.
The brutal exchange between ants and vampires occurred as limbs being separated from their bodies became natural exchange. The ants who had rapid adaptability from devouring wanted to eat these severed limbs, but Erebus and his vampires have developed a counter-strategy.
The vampires would prioritize any ant with something in their mouth. This was because when they eat, any ant would focus on devouring what’s being eaten, not being able to dodge or put up any defenses. Through this strategy, Erebus’s vampire kept the frontline from crumbling because no ants suddenly gained a burst of power.
Boom! As the battle progresses, the plasma shield of the reaper ant has reached saturation level. As Lord Erebus had expected, technological tools are extremely straightforward. With it no longer being able to defend against magic and other attacks, the shield has become no different than scrap metal. The vampire warriors have gained Lord Erebus’ experience in wearing down techies like the reaper ant, it’s just a matter of time.
Just as they have successfully cut one of the reaper ant’s scythe-like sword limb, suddenly, Lord Erebus heard a voice.
“Rank 3 sword-path killer move, [Instant Sword]!”
There was no flash of sword light or any indication of an attack was made because the sword art was released in a time-stopped environment. In the perspective of a three-dimensional lifeform who doesn’t have the necessary extradimensional perception of time such as Erebus, the ongoing Reaper Ant hunt suddenly turned into a slaughter as his vampires were instantly being mutilated by a higher dimensional lifeform.
“Wait until I build a time machine, and then I can show off like that.” Erebus heard a voice of a man from the depth of the 21st floor as his lifesigns began to fail. After all, his body too, has been dismembered into 40 pieces.
“Myriad Overlord-sama, a time machine is above the level of what Grimsong Specter-sama’s country of delusions can support.” Erebus heard the voice of a swordsman in his dismembered state. “You’ll have to ask Grimsong Specter-sama’s permission before making them.”
‘This language… is very similar to the language of the Hartina Kingdom, but different…’ Was Lord Erebus’ thoughts before his consciousness faded. No matter what his three hearts and two brains do, his body has been severed by the Sword Seigneur’s blade. Telepathic sword will laced the blade, anything that survived the cut will be severed further, be it material or conceptual.
“Will that be okay?” the Sword Seigneur inquired. “We might be able to reduce his influence for now, but we need to kill the vampire lord a couple million more times before his mind collapses. Weren’t you planning to blitzkrieg this? If the vampire lord saw us in the field, their resistance will be fiercer than before.”
Although he seemed okay, his complexion was paler than before. [Instant Sword] truly put a heavy burden on him. Perhaps, if he activated the killer move twice in succession, his arms would explode.
“It’s fine, we’re at the expansion-phase already.” Crimspur’s heroic ant waved his arms, feeling it’s not a big deal. “Also, I’m pretty sure he has resurrection methods in his Gorod Krovi. With it, our estimation might not be accurate, he might be able to maintain his ego after we kill him a hundred million times unless his base of operation where he kept his resurrection facilities is destroyed. That’s why, I’m going to escalate this war.”
“I see.” Takemikazuchi nodded in understanding.
“I’m more interested why his City of Blood is referred to in russian. Aren’t you a bit curious who taught them Russian… or why are they speaking Russian in the first place?” Crimspur’s heroic ant started to eat the reaper ant, complete with the plasma shield generators which had become scrap metal at this point. The poor ant screamed in agony while its body is being teared apart by Crimspur, it was literally being eaten alive.
“Can you… at least kill that thing first?” The Sword Seigneur pointed at the reaper ant.
“Pain is irrelevant.” Crimspur began eating the head part of the reaper ant. “I’m just recycling their biological matters.”
“You Germans are so ruthless.” Takemikazuchi complained under his breath.
“I’m fucking Swiss.” Crimspur said with exaggerated insult. “The only German among us1 is Intelligent Metal.”
…
Day 154 - Lord Erebus
The underground blood lake is bubbling as a figure slowly emerges from its depth.
“Master, you’ve returned…” A vampire bride bowed, showing respect and infatuation towards the man.
“Mobilize the army. Spare no quarters. Even if I have to drown the labyrinthian ant’s hive with the blood of my slave, so be it!” Erebus ordered with grim determination.
It’s not like he was wasting time. All this while, the raid upon the labyrinthian ant’s hive was progressing well. Each day, his army must’ve killed around a dozen thousands of ants, but the number of ants isn’t decreasing at all. Perhaps, the labyrinthian ant hive’s design were specifically made so that numerical advantage wouldn’t be too apparent. It was successful in defending against the vampire army. It’s not that he’s doing all this spiel just to have fun. He was truly set on murdering the opponent’s supreme commander, but the ants are simply endless.
“But things are different now. According to my calculation, the ant queen and the swordsman are made out of the undead machine’s spiritual force. Unlike myself, they do not have resurrection facilities set up in this dream world. As long as I can kill them once, they are dead for real.”
They might be strong, far stronger than what Erebus could offer, but their energy is limited. In the first place, enslavement-path battle tactics relies on attrition, a battle of numbers to whittle down the enemy’s resources. Even if the ant queen is also an enslavement-path master, in terms of resources, Erebus’ Gorod Krovi can supply vampiric beasts for multiple decades without end. This was the foundation that Erebus relies on!
…
Day 210 - Crimspur
“So we have claimed the first floor. Outside of this labyrinthian ant’s hive, the enemy can rely on vampire-wave tactics to overwhelm us. We simply can’t break through as even with my [Instant Sword], I’ll be exhausted before I can clear them up.” Takemikazuchi muttered, his long katana brandished to prepare for a sudden attack. As long as Crimspur made the decision, he wouldn’t hesitate to throw his life for Grimsong Specter’s cause- within reason of course. He wouldn’t run out there just because he told him it would be funny.
“No rush. Please, observe this…” Crimspur stopped the Sword Seigneur just before the entrance of the cave.
On Crimspur’s hand, there was a red powder that seemed to be alive, moving around between his hand and the sword that he’s holding. Non-magus wouldn’t be able to detect the profundity of the red powder, but Takemikazuchi is a powerful magus with extremely high learning rate and investigation methods, able to learn of its profundity after a few minutes of observing.
“What is the name of this method?” He asked.
Crimspur smiled. “If my brother is the scholar of death, then I should be the scholar of life. I’d want my True Inheritances to describe the profundity of life in this universe.” He didn’t answer directly, but made a roundabout claim about unrelated things. “I shall call this… Pandemic Blade True Inheritance...”
Crimspur inhaled deeply, the red powder being absorbed into his body. “Although it has the word blade, there’s actually little to no sword-path profundity in this. I’m just inspired by your sword arts.”
The heroic ant that Crimspur controlled exhaled slowly, the red powder having multiplied significantly that it created a cloud of dark red. “Compound killer move, [Pandemic Blade: Hematophagous Explosive Spores]!”
That’s right, the red powder are actually fungal spores. This killer move was the crystallization of Crimspur’s wood-path, blood-path, and food-path attainment.
“At first, I wanted to design a counter-plague for Erebus’ vampiric disease, but any virus and bacteria that I’d design wouldn’t be able to endure Erebus’ magic. Their bodies are too simple to react to Erebus magic. Thus, I move to another direction. Amongst my attainment, the highest is obviously food-path, followed by wood-path, and a few others. Unfortunately, our attainments are capped at Mordred’s attainment, so it took me a while to design a countermeasure.”
“And your solution is fungus?”
“That’s right. Although I am not in possession of my Plantae Overlord which was one of my top three Overlords, I am still a former transcendental wood-path Magus… which was capped at exemplary.” Crimspur shrugged. “I found an extremophile fungus that grows on sulfur down below. It took me a while to engineer their genes. It was only after I ate a sufficient number of vampires that I could develop a counter for Erebus’ vampiric disease. This is my butcher’s blade to kill Erebus. Please observe!”
A wave of red spores are being sprayed outside the cave. Explosions of blood energy littered the entrance as Lord Erebus’ vampires were being paranoid in whatever that came out of the entrance, and the sheer energy saturation is actually enough to kill the majority of the spores that Crimspur released.
Unfortunately, it was the majority, not every spore. Some of them are sprayed so thinly that the vampires who got infected weren't aware that they were infected in the first place.
“Infectivity is set to the highest point, whereas lethality and symptoms are at the lowest. I’ll need some time to muster my army and my spores to infect everyone.”
“Waiting game… understood.” Takemikazuchi nodded.
“I’ll send some spores a couple of times periodically to poke around. In the meantime, I’ll be preparing for the inevitable battle to break out of this encirclement.”
“You’re going to fight personally?” The Sword Seigneur was shocked. As far as he knows, this guy loved to eat the fruit of labor of someone else.
“They have biochemical suits! I am inspired to make my own!”
Those simple words made Takemikazuchi shudder as he recalled unpleasant memories. “You’re not going to refine… the [Eternal Arms Race], aren’t you?”
“Hahah. It was already done. An ant is transporting it to us right now.” Crimspur smiled. “Though, I have insufficient materials so I need to feed it a lot…”
It didn’t take long for an ant to come out from the depths of the hive, bringing a lump of red flesh-slime that looked like a garbage pile of biomatter. Shells of crustaceans, bones and teeth of unknown lifeforms are mixed within the pile of flesh. Crimspur’s heroic ant simply takes the flesh-slime and puts it onto his torso. The flesh slime quickly transformed into an armor similar to a crustacean’s shell, with a large, conspicuous mouth on the belly part of the armor.
“[Eternal Arms Race]... The ultimate Biochemical Suit ever designed by the Human Imperium… well, by you, of course. A living armor that when struck by an attack, allows the armor to learn and develop a resistance to it…” Takemikazuchi sighed. “It was this armor that greatly contributed to my downfall. Perhaps, it should be considered as one of your true bodies instead. This is perhaps even… the epitome of your sovereign paths.”
The Sword Seigneur saw Crimspur simply feed the ant that transported the living armor into the mouth-part of the armor. After completely eating it, there was a hint of blackness in the red shell of the armor, similar to the color of the ant it just consumed. “I just need to eat a sufficient amount of vampires...” Crimspur patted the mouth of the armor. He too, is starting to become hungry after all of this thinking.
…
Day 378 - Crimspur
The world in his perspective is ingredients. The soil, the trees, mineral veins… even the lifeforms living in this world, they are but mere ingredients for the best food.
This was the perspective of a food-path transcendent.
‘Perhaps, other transcendents would see things differently.
Crunch! The sound of munching resounded from both his mouth and the armor that he wore. As for what he's eating, it was actually metal ingots. “Alright, Eternal Arms Race contains sufficient metallic content for it to produce… this…”. With a thought, there was a thin layer of pale blue plasma shield that covered his body spherically.
“Chaos Nemesis-sama once said that everything would eventually converge into one path. It seems like he was right.” Takemikazuchi muttered.
“Wasn’t that his opinion on my tripartite-philosophy of [Purity], [Supreme] and [Harmony]? He does not agree with my theory.” Crimspur casually striked a conversation while the two watched the ant army trying to break through the blockade that was put up by Erebus.
It doesn’t work. They were stuck watching the same thing for over a few months.
It wasn’t a matter of strategy or killing power, the vampires outside the labyrinthian ant’s hive are simply too many. The mountain might be able to survive simply because it was a combination of various resource points that gave the mountain strange properties. Although not invulnerable from damage, at the very least, it would be decades before it could fall from external bombardment, especially since the cave network is reinforced by formic compounds.
“Did he?” Takemikazuchi replied. “I feel like all that research is making him muddleheaded.”
“Ich habe keinen Kommentar. Dieser Mann ist ein Rätsel.” Crimspur replied.
“Wait, was that german?” Takemikazuchi raised his eyebrows.
“Oops, sorry. I slipped.” Crimspur apologized back in Japanese. “The frontline is getting more intense, there is some hope to breakthrough if I activate the dormant Pandemic Blade. Can I ask you to ease the pressure in the frontline?”
“It’s about fucking time.” Takemikazuchi stood up from his seat, taking the 2.4 meter long katana with him.
The two walked towards the entrance, the hallways towards it were filled with ants of various shapes and sizes marching towards their demise. As they reached the entrance, they saw literal hills made out of ant corpses as they were being bombarded with magic spells. They didn’t even have the chance to engage in a battle with the vampires because they are using long-range magic, there are no ant corpses with complete body parts.
Naturally, there are some that use plasma shields to make a beeline towards the vampire army, but they are literally being shredded in mere seconds after making an appearance.
There are simply too many vampire mages.
“Unlike the battlefield within the labyrinthian ant’s hive, Erebus can use his numerical advantage to suppress us. Are you sure you don’t need a year or so to develop a MEKA?”
“There’s no need. The magma lake is finite, unlocking the tech trees also require variation of materials, not just a shitload of them. We’ll run out of resources sooner or later with this rate of death.”
“Understandable.” Takemikazuchi nodded in agreement. “Then, command me.”
“Perform [Sword Genesis] to kill the first thousand vampire mages. I’ll bait Erebus with my presence and kill him with my [Pandemic Blade].” Crimspur ordered, as he casually fetched an unlucky dog-sized ant and put it in Eternal Arms Race’s mouth.
“Roger that!”2
The Sword Seigneur turned into a flash of lightning, darting from one spot to another at breakneck speed. He suddenly appeared in the back of the vampire army, specifically, the mage squads.
“It’s too bad I am just a fragment of Grimsong Specter-sama’s imagination. Their blood magic looks interesting.” The Sword Seigneur stabbed his blade into the ground. “Rank 3 sword-path killer move, [Sword Genesis]!”
The vampire mage squads are focusing their telepathic thoughts on bombarding the entrance of the labyrinthian ant’s hive to kill anything that came out, they did not realize that Takemikazuchi had sneaked behind them. When the killer move [Sword Genesis] has been activated, the very soil that they stand upon turned into rock blades, each of the blade’s craftsmanship were as if they were made by an expert blacksmith using the most precious tamahagane steel.
In short, they were mutilated by blades that suddenly came out of the ground.
“My earth-path attainment isn’t high, but it seems like this place is also a sword-path resource point. No wonder it was so easy making rock blades.”
Takemikazuchi wanted to immediately leave as Crimspur only commanded him to kill the 1000-man mage squad, but he thought it would be a waste to leave the vampire corpses to Crimspur as he’ll waste no biomatter behind after he’s done.
“[Sword Genesis: Blood-Katana Refinement]!”
The blood puddles in the ground are being forcefully drawn and refined into blood katanas. They flew around Takemikazuchi, like celestial bodies orbiting the sun.
“24 blood katanas… Myriad Overlord-sama will be so mad at me for taking the fruit of my own labor, but these blades will be very useful in pushing back the vampires.” With a jolt of his mind, the blood katanas turned into a streak of blood-red lightning that combined itself with the blade that he’s holding. By refining blood katanas, there was no need for him to use rock blades the next time he uses [Sword Genesis].
Just as he expected, a telepathic command instantly reached Takemikazuchi after he refined the blood katana. “Clear three more groups and then you can retreat.”
The Sword Seigneur wordlessly accepted the order as he activated [Shukuchi], his movement-type killer move.
This time, he arrived soundlessly behind a group of mages, but the captain wore a biochemical suit. He was aware of Takemikazuchi’s infiltration. He instantly ordered the vampire mages to attack, but the Sword Seigneur is also a lightning cultivator who excels in burst. In that instant, he stabbed the large katana onto the ground and blood red katanas burst from the earth like shark fins parting the surface of bloody waters.
The blood katanas moved extremely quick, able to murder the slow-reacting vampire mages, who became dismembered like a blood-sucker fillet.. Naturally, those who survived are quickly dispatched by an invisible [Swordwave], enough to finish off the wounded remnants.
…
In another part of the battlefield.
Crush! The sound of bones being pulverized could be heard from his mouth. The red armor that he wore has also evolved into a streamlined form of high mobility and high defense; it was also currently munching on the skulls of vampires.
“Erebus, it’s been a while since we’ve met.” Crimspur said.
The vampire in front of him was also wearing a biochemical suit, one that looks intimidating and fierce. Its external appearance is comparable to an extremely powerful bodybuilder, with blood red muscle fibers that look as though it was sculpted by a master in the craft. The two pairs of leathery wings are like that of bat-dragon, there are sharp bone claws on the edge of the wings that not only intimidates, but is also a weapon in itself.
“You seemed to know about me. Who are you?”
“Was your Bloodline Inspection not telling you the masters of these ants?” Crimspur replied, using a know-it-all attitude.
“You are the Ant Swarm’s master?”
“Something like that.” Crimspur’s right arm is slowly being twisted into a blade made out of bones and flesh. “I just wanted to tell you that… You’ve lost your best chance of winning.”
“Fucking cannibals.” Erebus cursed when he saw that he ate vampire corpses and ants alike. He instantly activated his blood-path methods starting from [Murder in Cold Blood] to freeze the blood of Crimspur, [Blood Ignition] to empower himself, and other offensive, defensive, and supportive methods in preparation for the upcoming battle.
Unfortunately, they were all useless. The Eternal Arms Race devoured a sufficient number of vampires that it was able to defend against his blood-path method. At the very least, blood-path methods that had been used at least once are less effective towards him. It has to be new methods that he had never seen or experienced at all.
“Food-path killer move, [Insatiable Hunger]!” In retaliation, Crimspur merely activated a killer move while enduring the bombardment of killer moves from Erebus and his superelite guards. Of course, his methods are not magic nor martial arts. It was actually an attack in the form of pheromones. Invisible, tasteless, scentless pheromones that were hard to defend against.
The vampire lord suddenly felt his stomach empty as his metabolism spiked in response. He was… extremely hungry, but he knew he couldn't be distracted by mere hunger while he was facing the ant swarm’s master.
Unlike himself, once the ant swarm’s master is killed, he cannot resurrect. Thus, his fighting style was one who forgoes defense for absolute offense. In a sense, this was also the correct decision because Crimspur isn't like Takemikazuchi or Mordred whose offensive powers are off the charts. He has always been like a slow-acting poison that would slowly reduce the enemy’s combat strength as time progresses, either by increasing his resistance, or inflicting status effects.
Crunch! The sound of munching can be heard as one of Erebus super elite vampire guards tried to attack Crimspur’s shoulder, only for the armor’s shoulder to open up and reveal rows of fangs. The poor bastard’s hand is actually being devoured alive.
“Fucking glutton!” The vampire immediately severed his own hand to get free from Crimspur’s armor, but the man wouldn’t let the meat on his mouth fly away. With a burst of speed that broke the sound barrier, Crimspur suddenly moved to press down the vampire to the ground, allowing the main mouth on his abdomen to take a bite at the vampire’s head. With a single bite, the vampire’s head has been socially distanced from the rest of the body.
“What the fuck was that?” Erebus noticed that Crimspur must be using a movement-type killer move to quickly overtake the superelite vampire, but he didn’t even have the time to analyze it as it was too fast. He uses his dying subordinate’s body as a spell catalyst to bind Crimspur with blood chains.
Unfortunately, mouths suddenly appeared from Crimspur’s armor, they began munching on the blood chains that bind his whole body.
“What the fuck are you!” Erebus threw a blood javelin at Crimspur, only for the armor’s mouth to open and munch upon it. Erebus had expected this, so the javelin was actually explosive, designed to deal internal damage. Crimspur had experience consuming explosives unfortunately. The explosion was isolated by a plasma shield, whilst the rest of the blood spears were being eaten.
“So this is the taste of blood magic. It tastes a bit like rust…” Crimspur’s defensive power is truly top notch. He slowly exhausted Erebus’ superelite vampires by tanking everything while slowly trying to grab them. Naturally, because Erebus’s vampires aren’t idiots in any capacity whatsoever, they knew Crimspur’s lack of offensive methods mean he can’t offer them strong retaliation. He can only be a passive punching bag that can only endure hits.
As long as none of them are being captured by his hands and fed into the armor, it wouldn’t be a problem to slowly wear down Crimspur.
It’s just that, Crimspur is also not an idiot. “Aren’t you confused why I, an enslavement-path expert, is fighting you in the flesh?” He asked, as he took some corpses and fed them into the Eternal Arms Race.
“!!!” Erebus was also surprised he wasn’t thinking of this strategy. ‘What the fuck… has my thinking capability hindered by this fucking hunger?’
Erebus immediately decided to retreat, but it was too late. “You are not yourself when you’re hungry…” Crimspur smiled as the superelite vampires suddenly exploded in bloody red powders. Although the durability of their fleshy body allows them to mitigate instant death, the speed at which they could retaliate was heavily influenced.
Even if they are moving slower, however, Crimspur lacks over-the-top offensive killer moves that can clean them up with one attack. Rather, his method of attack is pretty simple and straightforward: produce more pandemic spores to eliminate their method of escape.
“What the fuck is this!” Erebus coughed blood as he suffered from extreme hunger, his body collapsing from the inside out. His voice grew hoarse with internal damage, his legs exploded, and his wings shriveled up by some method Erebus couldn’t even identify.
“When your body is in a state of extreme hunger, your body’s first defensive reaction is to autophagy.” Crimspur simply explained, not fearing his food-path method being deciphered. After all, food-path should be an unknown path that Morgen World had never seen before. As proof of that, they have no defenses against food-path whatsoever. “It’s unfortunate that your biochemical suit is, in the end, biological. I simply used your biochemical suit’s biological nature against yourself.”
As Lord Erebus’ superelite guards are being eaten alive- no, they’re eating themselves alive. Lord Erebus cursed as he gave a telepathic command to the Vampiric Blood Dragon that stayed behind in his Gorod Krovi as guard. This was his desperate move to stabilize the frontline.
Since Mordred’s country of delusions isn’t even that large compared to Erebus’ and the dragon is extremely fast, it reached the mountain in no time.
“Foolish.” Crimspur spoke simply, his tone thick with disdain. “Your only asset seemed to be that foundation that you’re so proud of. Without them, you’re just an idiot.”
When the dragon reached the proximity of the mountain, it was immediately dismembered into a few hundred pieces before the dragon breath was even discharged.
“I thank you for your offering. I’ve never directly tasted dragon meat… even if they are fake. Now, die.” Those words were the last that Lord Erebus heard, before his head was swallowed by the Eternal Arms Race.
With Lord Erebus’ death and the two Magi’s presence in the battlefield, the blockade is quickly broken.
….
Day 380 - Crimspur
“Is it worth it?” The Sword Seigneur asked.
“What is it?” Crimspur replied, his mouth never stopped eating.
“Breaking through the bloody blockade.” Takemikazuchi replied. “Although we have more territory, even I can see you’re straining yourself to fight against Erebus.”
“Oh, that. It was worth it.” Crimspur smiled. “Just the fact that we are able to see the skies and construct ant structures is worth it. I am now capable of photosynthesis too, a great plus!”
When Crimspur mentioned it, Takemikazuchi’s sight scanned the mountain. There were countless black buildings, its design philosophy is ant-like, but there were some sort of patterns in it. This fortress was built quickly by worker-caste ants while the war was ongoing. Plasma Cannons littered the perimeter, continuously spewing pale blue plasma fire at the sieging remnants of the vampire army as we speak.
Seeing that Crimspur was able to multitask tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of jobs at once, Takemikazuchi mentally praised Crimspur once more.
Though, because of his multitasking, it was common for Crimspur’s heroic unit to lose considerable intelligence sometimes because his computation power is being used elsewhere. One such example is right now. When Takemikazuchi isn’t striking up a conversation with Crimspur, the man would stand still, messily eating like an idiot.
“So you have no plans on refining MEKAs?” Takemikazuchi asked.
Breaking the blockade is merely the first step. The winning condition of this war is to destroy the Gorod Krovi and if possible, completely obliterate Erebus’ country of delusions. To do that, they’ll need a complex army and naturally, big guns as support.
“As I said earlier, unlocking tech trees in that direction requires a lot of materials. I’m not saying I don’t want to make MEKAs, but they are just too high-end. To do that, there are some cornerstone techs that I need, such as the Photon Colliders, Inertia Dampeners, Adamantium Alloy and many others but we need special resources that can’t be procured in this location.” Crimspur paused, “While we’re talking about it, I need you to fetch twelve metric tons of the light-path resource known as Crystalized Sun Topaz thirteen kilometers north. That thing is very dense, so it’ll probably have the size of a human despite the weight.”
“Heh… A great Sovereign such as myself has been reduced to mere couriers.” Takemikazuchi mocked himself. “Was the Crystalized Sun Topaz all you need?”
“I’m glad you asked.” Crimspur smiled as an ant brought an omni-gear and gave it to the Sword Seigneur. “There’s 1241 materials that I want, they are listed in this omni-gear, they are prioritized according to my need. If you can get all priority-0 and priority-1 materials, refining a Photon Collider on short notice wouldn’t be a problem.”
Takemikazuchi wore an expression as if he had chewed shit. He had shot himself in the foot by asking questions. But then again, he was sure Crimspur would ask him to fetch some more things even if he didn’t ask. “Fine, I’ll give you what you need.”
“Great! I was about to run out of things to play with.”
With a grumpy flash of lightning, Takemikazuchi has departed.
