The Gamer's POV-Chapter 243: Heralds of Madness [3]

Cedric turned to his group, then raised six fingers, signaling that there were six creatures not too far away.

Both Aurora and Celeste, who had been looking at him tensely, nodded in unison. He then turned and resumed moving, and cautiously, the others continued onwards as well toward the Heralds. However, rather than walking closely together, they spaced themselves out to be able to use their skills without getting in each other’s way. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

When they were just a few spires away from the circle of monsters, a notification appeared in Cedric’s vision:

[The character Queen Celeste has activated her exclusive skill: Demon Queen’s Chains.]

Out of the corner of his eye, Cedric watched Celeste some meters away. It seemed that since they could not speak, Lilith had probably begun mentally chanting, seeing as the temperature around Celeste’s massive form began to spike, followed by ten whips of red flames that began to slowly flicker into existence around her.

At the same time, the Princess’s muted blue eyes brightened into a luminous blue, as ice flakes began to form on the skin around her eyes. In the next instant, the air around her crystallized, and ten blue swords made of ice materialized to hover a few meters in the air behind her. The swords, which were all of different lengths and designs, kept spinning in a slow, rhythmic rotation like a halo.

Then, another notification appeared:

[The character Aurora Beaufort has activated the exclusive skill: Pale Panoply.]

Not long after that, Cedric noticed that the Heralds all seemed to pause. Perhaps the monsters had heard a sound coming from their direction, or perhaps they could sense their aura; Cedric wasn’t entirely sure. However, all three faces on each creature turned toward the group in unison. A Herald spoke, and suddenly, all the Heralds erupted into a terrifying sprint. One leapt onto a spire and then another in a frenzied, spider-like manner.

If Cedric could have spoken, now would have been the time to say or yell that the monsters were coming! But since he could not, he took off into a sprint toward the approaching monsters, while gesturing wildly to signal to the group, who couldn’t hear a thing, that the threat was upon them.

He was still running when the Herald that kept jumping from spire to spire suddenly reached striking distance. Without slowing, the horrifying creature jumped, extending all its front arms out like a closing net.

Due to its immense speed, it had almost caught Cedric. However, in that fraction of a second, Cedric suddenly erupted into feathers, and the creature’s numerous hands grasped only empty air.

As it frantically looked around while tapping its hands against the drifting feathers, its back face caught sight of Cedric atop the spire above it. Cedric had his hand raised, and above him, his flames of decay had taken the shape of ten black moons hovering in the air. They emitted wisps of black smoke that looked like shadows and gave off a cold aura of dread.

Without wasting a second, Cedric brought his hand down, and the black moons descended one by one with incredible speed toward the creature below.

The creature, however, was nimble. It began dodging them one by one, weaving through the dark explosions of decay as the moons struck the stone. After avoiding the final blast, it leapt forward and grabbed the spire Cedric was on, beginning to scurry up the vertical surface in a blur of pale limbs.

’Crap, it’s fast!’

As if that wasn’t enough, on the spire directly behind him, another Herald had already scaled the heights. Just as the first monster was about to reach the top, the second one leapt from the neighboring peak. Both converged on him at once, with their dozens of pale, elongated hands outstretched to turn him mad.

Since the countdown to swap places with his ravens still had a full minute remaining, Aika acted instinctively. She activated the skill on his behalf a split second before both creatures could catch him, and Cedric vanished. The Herald that had leapt into the air suddenly grabbed at nothing and plummeted to the ground from the height, while the other atop the spire spun around. It looked back to see Cedric on another peak, surrounded by twenty magic circles that seemed to darken the space around him.

He was going all out because now was not the time to be frugal with his mana. If he held back now, he wouldn’t be able to catch these scuttlers. And so, without hesitation, he thrust both hands forward, and projectiles of black flames erupted from the circles like a flood of deadly black spears. The Herald on the spire leapt away, narrowly dodging a projectile that smashed into the stone peak behind it.

The creature landed on the floor of the wastes and began weaving through the relentless barrage, lunging back toward the spire where Cedric stood.

The other one, which had landed on the ground first, was already near the spire. However, unluckily for it, one of the projectiles struck true, catching a few of its arms. The unquenchable black flames immediately began to spread, clinging to the pale flesh with a cold, agonizing hunger.

But then, to Cedric’s surprise, the creature violently ripped out the arms that were on fire, discarding the burning limbs in the dirt as it continued its charge toward him with the remaining hands.

’What the...’

Cedric’s eyes widened in surprise, and he quickly expelled even more mana. The magic circles continued their relentless barrage of black flames, but Cedric suddenly shut his left eye, focusing entirely on the creature scurrying up the base of the spire with his right.

Then his blue eye shifted, the iris bleeding into a deep, abyssal black. A dark, swirling vortex began to form within his pupil, locking onto the Herald with terrifying precision.

In the next instant, from the center of the black vortex in his eye, a thin beam of concentrated void erupted, striking the Herald squarely in its center face.

The creature halted and staggered back, its many arms flailing as it reached for its face, only for the decay to slowly catch its fingers. The black rot spread instantly, burning off the pale flesh and revealing bone that began to slowly decay.

Cedric thought that he had finally ended the threat, and he even let out a small smile in relief. But then, to his even greater surprise, the creature shot him a look with its half-decayed head and suddenly lunged at him.

’Would you just fuckin’ die already!’ Cedric cursed inwardly in annoyance as the creature finally reached the top of the spire. But since his timer had finally run out, he vanished and the creature’s hands grabbed a bunched of black feathers in his place.