Her vision went white, thousands of fragments flooding into her soul all at once. Her half torn soul was suddenly crushed and squeezed back together. This feeling told her one thing. Her Devil core was here.
Lua's eyes rolled back, forming a new core wasn't painful for her, but instead incredibly pleasurable, but the act she just performed was the worst pain she'd ever experienced. In combination with her new core, she could barely keep conscious. In the back of her mind she slightly sensed the change affecting the Blood Relic.
Effie turned away from gawking at Lua's move to run to her side as Lua dropped forward, Eventide slipping from her crip as she collapsed. Lua clutched her chest, desperately trying to get air into her lungs, her clawed gauntlets digging into the breast piece of the Blood Relic.
The remaining swarm of locusts and primates quickly recovered, resuming their attack. Sunny' stone saint moved over her, protecting her and allowing Effie to defend the platform. Lua rolled onto her side, her vision swam as she barely registered the battle going on.
The intense pleasure of a new core wrestling with the pain of almost permanently ruining her soul. She faintly felt the connection with Wolf as it helped Sunny as he was dealing with some kind of parasite. Wolf bit down on the group of pollen [Aetheric Maw] tearing through the very essence of it.
[You have slain an awakened monster, Blood Flower.]
[Your soul grows purer]
Her head swam as even more fragments shot into her soul. It only took a moment before Lua shakily rose. Resummoning Eventide into her hand she shot a few more times into the remaining swarm. 'Return.' Lua called wolf back up to the platform as the locusts began to fight the primates.
She and Kai continued to fire into the swarm, Kai and long switched to the Blood Arrow, his regular shots had long since run out. He was pale and shaking, his blood being drained with each shot. Lua fired more and more light arrows, desperate to break the siege.
[You have slain….]
A moment later, the locusts suddenly turned around and dashed away. In fact, the whole swarm was swiftly retreating, flying away from the stone colossus with as much speed as the gluttonous abominations could muster. It was as if they were fleeing from something.
Many of the locusts were carrying dead primates in their claws. It seemed as though the reavers were the ultimate victors in this terrible battle against the monstrous apes.
Lua slowly followed Nephis' and Sunny's gazes. Out there, directly in the path of the walking statue, an inconceivably vast wall of furious darkness had devoured the whole world. It was swiftly moving in their direction, bolts of lightning illuminating the raging depths of clouds almost every second. The storm was approaching.
"Shit!" Lua cursed as Kai landed on the stone platform, gently placing Cassie down. The blind girl was deathly pale and visibly hurt, but her life didn't seem to be in danger. The archer smiled reassuringly and gripped her shoulder. Then, just like the rest of them, he turned his head and silently looked south.
A wall of impenetrable, furious darkness was approaching from there, devouring vast spans of the Labyrinth with each second. The colossus was marching toward the darkness, completely indifferent to its menacing oppression.
In the stunned silence, Effie suddenly fell to her knees with a pained groan. Her hands were pressed against the breach in her archaic cuirass, bright blood streaming from beneath them.
Lua watched Nephis heal her, whilst throwing a questioning glance at her. Lua shook her head. The 'injury' she'd received wasn't physical, nor was it still plaguing her. Only the phantom pain remained now, aftershocks echoing out from the depths of her soul.
The wall of darkness was growing closer with every moment. The wind was picking up, whistling in the cracks of the ancient statue. It brought the smell of the sea with it.
Sunny spoke. "What are we going to do now?"
Kai shivered, glanced at the raging wall of clouds, and said. "Climb lower? The lightning is bound to be drawn to the neck of this giant."
Sunny shook his head. "We can't. The sea is going to rise, so most of the statue will be submerged underwater. We will be lucky if the waves aren't high enough to reach this platform."
The archer sighed and looked down. "So then… we're dead?"
Sunny smiled darkly. "Don't worry. Stone doesn't conduct electricity too well, so we will be safe from lightning. Most likely. What you should really be afraid of are the things that all that commotion might attract."
"He is right." Lua solemnly nodded.
Done checking up on Cassie, Nephis glanced forward and scowled. They were almost out of time. "Get ready! Hold!"
With that, she summoned her sword and held it with both hands. As the incandescent light ignited the silver blade, Nephis thrust the sword deep into the stone, melting it. Kneeling down, she gripped the sword and prepared for the onslaught of the storm.
Lua deactivated the [Assimilate] on Blood Relic to separate it from Scale Suit then activated it again with the Talon of Unrest. White bone-like material formed over the gold on her and onyx of her gauntlets, forming into sharper, deadlier claws. In addition, she pushed the remaining essence she had into essence claws.
She dug both hands into the stone, using the combination of her essence and the transcendent dagger to anchor herself. Her armour would lose part of its regeneration and ability to automatically react to damage, but that wasn't important.
Lua commanded Winter's Warmth to wrap tightly around her body. Having the cloak serve as a sail in this storm would probably get her killed. As the endless wall of darkness approached, the headless colossus steadily walked forward and then dove straight into the furious embrace of the harrowing storm.
Lua flexed as she felt a wall of unbreakable wind slam into her body, the flood came next, slamming into her body and blinding her. A blinding flash of lightning pierced the veil of clouds, followed by a deafening thunderclap.
The storm descended on them with terrifying violence. The corpses of repulsive locusts that were left on the platform suddenly moved. Then, picked up by the wind, they were thrown off the neck of the steadily walking colossus, disappearing into the darkness. Their black blood was washed away by the torrent of rain.
Lua held on desperately to the stone, her transcendent claws keeping in place. 'Feels like my arms will be torn off.' To her side, Nephis, Caster, and Effie were desperately holding on against the assault of the hurricane. With some effort, they were also able to resist it. Sunny and Kai were both holding onto Sunny's echo to say grounded.
Lua clutched onto the stone, trying to stay attached. The wind was absolutely unbearable. 'My arms!' Lua held back a groan, her arms felt as if they were being ripped off, the pressure of the winds fighting against her body. Her [Asura] attribute being the only thing holding her body together.
But the worst was still to come. Hidden from the sun, the dark sea was rising from the depths. Lua could hear the deep rumbling of the black water rushing through the twisting passages of the Labyrinth and washing over the mounds of crimson coral. Soon, the stone giant was walking through it, creating a furious whirlpool with each step of his gargantuan feet. 'Uh oh.'
Another lightning tore the skies apart, illuminating the world made of nothing but wind, water, and darkness. The stone giant walked forward. After a while, the black water covered his knees, then his abdomen, then his chest.
During the previous night, the dark sea had not risen high enough to reach the stone platform they were sheltering on. However, with how high the waves were, things were bound to change.
As though answering his thoughts, a massive wave crashed into the neck of the colossus, washing over the platform. The members of the cohort were hit by a wall of blackness and instantly drenched from head to toe in salty seawater. Lua spat the sea water from her mouth. Luckily, no one was washed away… for now.
The howling wind, the furious onslaught of rain, the constant flashes of lightning and the violent cacophony of thunderclaps were already enough to instill in them the feeling that the whole world was about to split apart and crumble. With the dark waves rising to strike at the stone platform over and over again, the situation became truly disastrous.
And yet, they held on. Minute after minute, against all odds, the seven humans clung to the ancient stone, refusing to be taken away by the raging tempest. As Lua was beginning to feel numb from the whole experience, she felt a wave of panic erupt from Sunny.
Lua instantly knew that something was coming from the sea. She'd seen earlier that this statue was actually a transcendent creation of some kind, a mimic of what an echo is. Of course it was far less advanced. So its presence was bound to attract something equally profane.
Sunny yelled. "Be! Ready! The dwe…"
Lua didn't hear the rest, looking up she saw a gargantuan tentacle slowly rising from the seething waves. Illuminated by a flash of lightning, it looked like a tall, grotesque black tower. It pierced the skies and froze for a moment, looming over the ancient colossus.
Lua felt her eyes almost bleed, the damn thing was a great nightmare creature. She winced as she felt instead of seeing the class. 'A Devil.' She couldn't move, afraid. Overwhelming fear coursing through her body.
The gigantic tentacle was already wrapped around the neck of the colossus. Its bulbous flesh suddenly contracted, as though trying to strangle the stone giant. And pull him beneath the waves.
Without ever slowing down, the ancient statue continued to walk forward. Then, in a roar of falling water, its colossal hand rose from the depths of the cursed sea and grabbed onto the tentacle. Grasping it in his stone fist, the colossus lingered for a moment… and easily tore the tentacle apart. 'What the HELL!'
One part of the gigantic black tentacle convulsed and slid off the neck of the ancient colossus, falling into the raging waves. The other part stubbornly tried to coil around his arm, but was pushed away by the stone palm and disappeared back into the depths of the cursed sea.
For a few moments, the black water was silent. …And then, the whole surface of it suddenly exploded into the skies.
The surface of the cursed sea seethed and boiled, then exploded into the skies. Following the disappearance of the gargantuan tentacle, six others appeared from beneath the black waves. They rose and loomed above the marching colossus like twisted mountains, blocking the clamor of the storm for a fleeting moment.
A second later, the tentacles collapsed from the skies to assail the stone giant. Because of their size, it seemed as if they were moving in slow motion. Four of the arms of the unseen leviathan submerged back under the water to coil around the legs and the torso of the colossus, while two remaining ones slithered toward his hand.
The ancient statue continued to walk south, seemingly unperturbed by the furious assault of the terrifying dweller of the depths. It batted one of the tentacles away, and allowed the other to wrap around its wrist.
"Hold fast!" Nephis yelled
In the furious roar of thunder and blinding lightning, the stone giant suddenly staggered and slightly careened to the side. The tentacle that was coiled around his wrist had tensed, trying to pull the hand down.
The power hiding in its black, oily, bulbous flesh was so harrowing that several cracks appeared on the surface of the ancient stone. It almost looked as though the wrist of the colossus was going to snap and explode into a torrent of shards.
Instead, the giant turned his palm and grasped the tentacle, then squeezed it in an obliterating grip then tore it in half. The storm grew even stronger, as though celebrating the battle between two enormous creatures. The hurricane wind crushed into the cohort, pelting them with rain and seawater.
Suddenly, the ancient statue shuddered and changed its angle. It was almost as if… as if the colossus was bending his waist and leaning forward. Lua dug her claws into the stone, trying to stay attached.
Nephis screamed. "We're going under! Hold your breaths!"