The Beginning Of A Five Year Agony-Chapter 48: Samuel shouted at the top of his lungs... "Activate ’ASH To All!’

"Now who wants a snack."

"Attack!"

As soon as Samuel activated "Hand of War," all the Crew members, now fully transformed, rushed towards him... Dark red energy pulsed from his hands, striking outwards. Each of their heads exploded on impact, blood and brain matter spraying into the atmosphere.... Some died instantly, their bodies collapsing mid-stride. Others, though headless, continued to stumble forward for a few steps before their momentum stopped, their monstrous forms toppling over each other...

Then, small white particles began to drift down from the sky, swirling in the disturbed atmosphere. Samuel instinctively touched his face. He looked at his fingers... they were dusted with it. It was snow. A harsh, biting cold began to settle around him, contrasting sharply with the residual heat from his attack...

From the deck of the ship, the captain, now a giant one-eyed creature, bellowed over the sounds of the dying monsters, "Leave him for now! We have reached The Mountain on a Fallen Lesser God’s Hand!"

Samuel turned, his eyes narrowing. Before him lay a vast, desolate landscape of ice and snow. At its center, rising dramatically from the frozen plains, was a massive mountain...

What was truly striking was that the mountain wasn’t simply on the ground... it rested directly on top of an enormous, petrified hand, impossibly large, stretching out from the icy terrain landscape...

The captain expertly stopped the ship at the precise border where the crimson-red desert met the bright white of the icy landscape. He then stepped forward from the deck...

Samuel turned back to face the captain and the remaining creatures on the ship, taking a defensive stance, his powers still humming beneath his hands...

"We have arrived at your location, so please spare our lives," the captain exclaimed, bowing low, his single eye fixed on Samuel with a newfound subservience. "And it seems my members were wrong about you being a mortal." His voice held a clear tone of awe and fear...

"Samuel... Something is coming..." Aegirion called out to him in his mind, the telepathic link clear...

"I know. I can feel it," Samuel responded to Aegirion, his thoughts quick and precise. "Bats?"

"Yes," Aegirion confirmed. "They are ice bats, also known as Suicide Bats... Be ready before they reach the ship, use your shield."

Samuel nodded, his expression grim. He remained silent for a few more moments, assessing the situation. Then, his eyes, as cold as the landscape before him, settled on the captain. "You all are going to die," Samuel stated, his voice flat, devoid of emotion. "But it won’t be by my hands." He smiled...

The captain slowly raised his head, following Samuel’s gaze upwards. A colossal group of ice bats filled the sky, a dark, rapidly approaching cloud against the grey, snow-filled sky. They were already close to the ship, their forms growing larger by the second. "Everyone, take cover!" the captain shouted, a desperate cry. But it was too late. Some of the ice bats had already reached the ship...

In an instant, the ice bats began to fall from the sky, plummeting with tremendous force. One struck the captain’s Crew head, splitting it in half. The impact was brutal, a sickening crack of bone, blood and ice... Samuel activated Faith-Keeper, his energy shield manifesting before him, a shimmering barrier. It blocked the torrent of ice bats as they rained down from the sky. Ice shrapnel flew everywhere, and blood splashed as the creatures impacted the ship’s deck and the shield. Some of the remaining monsters on the ship panicked, rushing down inside the vessel, seeking protection from the deadly ice bat assaults...

Samuel noticed their desperate escape. His eyes hardened. He then activated "Hand of War" again, directing its raw power at the ship itself. With an ear-splitting tear of metal, he ripped the top layer of the ship open, exposing the beings hiding within. The ice bats, sensing the newly exposed targets, immediately redirected their assault, swarming into the open sections of the ship and beginning to kill those hiding inside...

Samuel’s shield was now vibrating with the absorbed kinetic energy from the falling bats. He tilted it upwards, unleashing a powerful blast of stored energy. The concentrated beam shot into the sky, tearing through hundreds of ice bats, exploding them into icy fragments and blue blood... He then spun, redirecting the devastating beam of energy back towards the ship. The beam sliced through the vessel, cutting the captain’s massive body in half as it passed. The ship groaned, metal protesting, as the beam tore through its core, causing it to split open and collapse. Every remaining being on the ship was killed by the impact and the raging energy...

In the midst of the escalating chaos, Samuel walked calmly towards the captain’s dead body. He bent down and collected a realm map from the captain’s belongings. Samuel smiled grimly... it was exactly what he had been looking for. He knew such an item would be crucial in this unfamiliar realm...

Then, with the collapsing ship groaning behind him, Samuel jumped down onto the stark, iced landscape. The ship exploded violently in a burst of fire and debris, its purpose ended, leaving behind only wreckage and the lingering scent of burning bodies and metal...

Samuel immediately began running towards the towering mountain in front of him. He knew he did not have enough time. His goal was clear... he needed to become a god, and quickly...

As he ran, Samuel looked down at his feet. The ground beneath him began to glow faintly. Simultaneously, his heightened senses gave him an immediate, urgent alert. The ground directly beneath him blasted outwards. From the ruptured earth, a massive, hand erupted, extending upward. It was over thirteen feet tall with a single eye embedded in its palm, gazing at him. Samuel instantly called forth his shield, blocking the debris and ice fragments thrown up by the emerging hand...

Samuel summoned his blade, Aegirion, into his hand. He leaped into the air, moving with incredible speed. He struck at one of the hand’s fingers, which it seemed to use for balance, severing it cleanly. Before the hand could react, Samuel dove downwards, stabbing Aegirion directly into the eye in its palm. The blade sank deep, and the hand went still, killing it instantly...

He smiled, a brief, sharp expression of satisfaction.

Then, the entire landscape began to shake and crack violently. The ground fractured in a million places. Millions of these enormous hands began to emerge from the ground all around him, stretching as far as he could see. Some of them wore armor, crude plates of stone and ice covering their surfaces...

Samuel’s eyes widened. He swallowed hard. One of the newly emerged hands flicked a large stone towards him. He quickly used his shield to deflect it, the impact jarring his arm.

"Activate ’Art of War!’" Samuel shouted, his voice echoing across the expanding field of stone hands. His blade, Aegirion, transformed, shifting into its powerful knight form. Dark green energy exploded outwards from it, forming a protective aura around him...

"Aegirion, cover me!" Samuel commanded telepathically. He leaped, blasting a concentrated yellow energy beam from his shield, aiming directly at the eye of a massive, armored hand in front of him. The beam struck, blinding the eye. Samuel then dove straight into the damaged eye socket, burrowing into the creature. He burst out of the back of the hand, leaving it destroyed...

Another hand, immense and powerful, lifted up directly in front of him, then slammed down, intending to crush Samuel. It landed straight on him, pinning him. He felt an agonizing pressure. Before his neck could break completely, Samuel activated "Cry of a God." A wave of pure energy exploded outwards from his mouth, blasting the hand that was pinning him down, shattering it into countless pieces. fгeewёbnoѵel_cσm

Aegirion, still in its knight form, was already engaged. It moved like a whirlwind of dark green energy, fighting furiously against the multitude of hands, its blade was a blur as it tore through the stone and ice hand creatures...

Samuel activated "Periodic Poltergeist," turning invisible once more. He began to tear apart the hands, moving like a relentless, wild animal... He moved from one to another, striking at eyes, severing fingers, creating chaos amongst them. But there were simply too many of them. His attacks were effective, but their sheer numbers were overwhelming.

He deactivated all his active powers and called Aegirion back. The blade’s knight form changed back into its default sword shape as it returned to his grasp. He needed a different approach.

He came to one conclusion...he had to use "Ash To All" again...

So, he started running in wide circles, drawing the attention of the countless hands. Each of them turned their single eyes towards him as he ran, their movements slow but deliberate, tracking his every move. He ran until he had a vast number of them focused on him, their stony, meaty, and icy forms converging... Then, with a burst of speed, he jumped directly into the middle of them, landing amidst the sea of hands...

"Aegirion!" Samuel shouted at the top of his lungs. "Activate ’ASH To All!’" His blade, Aegirion, plunged into his chest, dissolving into his very body...

In seconds, a massive blast of dark green energy erupted outwards from Samuel. The colossal wave of power engulfed the entire landscape, melting away the solid ice and snow. The ground liquefied, vaporized, and turned to ash. Anything nearby, caught in the immense energy wave, was utterly destroyed...

Then, after a period of intense silence, Samuel’s eyes slowly opened. The entire landscape around him had been transformed. The ice had vanished, and melted away, leaving only scorched earth and a lingering heat. The dead bodies of the creatures he had fought lay scattered across the vast, empty expanse, reduced to charred husks and broken landscape...

Before him, still unmoving, was the massive hand, now exposed in its entirety, still holding the mountain in its massive and colossal palm...

Then, Samuel slowly began walking towards it. He felt the residual heat from his attack beneath his feet. After a while, he got close enough. With a running start, he jumped onto the top of the enormous hand. Immediately, a sharp, immense chest pain flared within him... The sheer, overwhelming energy of the dead lesser god’s hand was flooding into him, clashing with his own life force.

Aegirion’s voice resonated in his mind, explaining the agony. "The energy from the god’s hand is bursting your heart every second, but your regeneration is keeping you alive."

Samuel gritted his teeth, enduring the pain. He summoned his blade once more and began climbing onto the massive god’s hand, ascending towards the mountain resting upon it...

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