Chapter 107: The Beginning of the End
Chapter 107: The Beginning of the End
"Why aren't you dead yet?" Orcus said with frustration as all his magic spells didn't work on this so-called 'Living Saint'. When he saw the bright light that hinder his vision, Orcus didn't realize how much pain the human woman can be in as immediately, the Living Saint push his entire body all the way to the rear side of his army with unbelievable speed. The next thing he knew, Orcus and Living Saint were alone and with no one to interfere in the fight. Just like how Orcus wanted it.
"I'm the living embodiment of the God-Emperor. His will is my mission and you are nothing but a nuisance to his ultimate goal." Rana held a greatsword in one hand and a golden shield in the other while declaring the new religion Orcus has never heard of.
"Typical righteous speech from the avatar of a goody shoe god. Your soul will make a nice collection for my wand." Orcus wave his wand up high and gather dark clouds above him. Seeing the Lord and Prince of Undead casting a spell, the Living Saint dash forward and raise her shield to block the incoming spell.
"Behold! Hellfire Storm!" Orcus's wand glows red and blazing fire came from the dark clouds. The crimson hellfire erupted the moment it hit the wand, causing a 360-degree wave of hellfire where Orcus is standing.
Unknown to everyone besides Orcus, he requires material to cast a spell as devastating as Hellfire Storm. To bypass this, Orcus simply sacrifice a decent amount of souls within his wand to perform the spell. A small price for the demon lord to slay an opponent from the side of the light.
The diabolic wave of hellfire came upon Rana as if it was a tide of a tsunami. Seeing the spell and its devastation, Rana places her shield and activates her ray of holy light onto the shield itself. This caused the shield to absorb the holy light and generate a wall of light, as if it was a void shield, protecting the Living Saint and everything around her.
When the spell hit Rana, the fire consumed her, and everything. It took half a minute for the fire to die down and when the smoke and dust cleared, Rana appeared from the side of the Orcus's right with her greatsword ready to strike.
Clang!
The Living Saint's greatsword clashed with Orcus's skull wand as the demon lord parried the blade just in time. If he was second slow, he would have received a fatal blow to his limb or worse his life.
"Nice try little avatar but you are no match for me. When it comes to one vs one, I'm invincible. Now, if you had a full party of heroes, you might have a chance to beat me." Orcus mock the Living Saint with an evil smile. He knew the moment this little golden warrior pushed him beyond his army to fight him all by herself that he will win. This wasn't his first fight against heroes and foolish ones tend to die by his hand, especially a lone wolf such as her.
Crack… Boom!
Suddenly without warning, a thundering sound erupts above two warriors and a fully armored knight appeared out of nowhere. This new opponent wields a large hammer and possesses a ridiculous amount of weapons attached to his arms and body.
"That is where you are wrong!" Without announcing who he is, the Knight Lord of Metal made an entrance with the intention to bash the demon's head with his power hammer. This time, unknown to Orcus, William appeared with a fully charged power hammer infused with his blank ability. A hammer capable of destroying a modern-day tank with a single strike is about to give a massive concussion to the fantasy demon lord right between his horns.
"You fool! The non-magical weapon doesn't work against…" Believing William's weapon is just a massive war hammer, Orcus laughed and took the hit with confidence as he is only vulnerable to the magical weapons (According to his D&D stat).
Bong!
The moment William's power hammer met Orcus's forehead, the ground he was standing on cracked and sink two feet as the sound echoed for miles. The damage Orcus received was devastating to him overall as he lost half of his health and is now under negative conditions. From severe concussion to the smashed front skull, Orcus took a few steps backward to reorganize his thoughts and process what just happened.
'Who and what am I doing? Oh, wait, that's right." It only took four seconds for the Orcus to realize what just happened but it was enough for William and Rana to take advantage of the situation. This time, William went for the legs while Rana went for the front as both fighters rushed toward the dazed demon lord.
William is the first to attack as his power hammer swang from the side as the hammer strike right below the demon's knee. The hammer made its mark trip the demon's massive body into midair, completely catching the demon defenseless and vulnerable to the next incoming attack.
Seeing the opportunity, Rana ran and step over William's terminator in the back like stairs and jumped at the end. Extending her greatsword's hilt in mid-air, Rana pieced the Orcus's heart with her spear, leaving a full-size hole where his heart was. Orcus fell hard to the ground, leaving a pool of blood around him as his body remain still.
Seeing it is their victory, Rana recalls her spear and retracts it back to the greatsword. William, on the other hand, opens his helmet to show a tense face as he just realized that he and Rana just defeated Orcus, one of the masters of the undead and Abyss.
"How did you know I was in trouble? You knew exactly where to appear." Rana said to William after realizing that his timing was perfect. William simply smiled and turn his head towards Rana to answer her question.
"Your helmet. It may hold Emperor's light and faith but it is still armor from the Imperium and equipped with a vox communicator. I simply locked on your vox signal using Titan's receiver and teleport near your location. I just didn't know where I might end up but lucky me, right above the demon's head." William points at Rana's golden helmet and explained that Rana simply smiled and hopped to kiss William's cheek.
"Well, it is a good thing that Living Saint has her trusty knight to protect where she goes," Rana said to Wiliam and was about to turn around when the sky darken, and to their surprise, the Wand of Orcus glow red.
"What's going on? My blank ability should be nullifying any magic around me (Except for Rana as her ability is faith in the Emperor)."
Second William finishes talking to himself, and hundreds of souls burst out from the Wand of Orcus and circle around the demon lord's corpse. Sensing something is about to happen, William uses his armor to safeguard Rana. Second later, at once, all the souls that came out from the wand dive into Orcus's body, and the body began to regenerate itself.
'You got to be kidding me. The souls of his victims are bringing back Orcus's life? Why isn't my blank ability stopping this?' William was baffled by what was happening when the realization finally hit him. Orcus probably had a backup plan in case he was defeated by someone and that means exchanging numerous amount of souls for a second chance to kill the foe who previously slayed him.
'A preset soul ritual linked to his wand and his own. Smart bastard, this means my nulling effect won't do anything since it is an item effect, not magic cast from the user.' William doesn't know how this New World's rule works when it comes to magic and magical items. If this was a 40k universe it would null everything including the item but it seems this world has a rule of its own and he just needs to figure it out one at a time.
With souls consumed to bring back the Orcus, the dark sky fades away slowly, and once again the demon lord rises from the ground with his old wound healed, leaving a light scar on his chest. Meanwhile, William receives a vox message from his helmet and immediately away grabs Rana and starts to run the opposite way.
"It cost me 3,568 souls but I'm back! Now prepare for your damnation for eternity!" Orcus cheered as his plan actually worked. Normally, he would be sent to Abyss after his death in the mortal realm, but after learning from previous defeats from the heroes, Orcus made a contingency plan to kill the next hero's party in case he was ever defeated. As evil as Orcus was, he was also petty bring when it comes to being defeated.
"Now, where is that stupid golden avatar and metal scrap?" Orcus looked around and soon found a giant knight running away from him while holding the avatar like a sack of potatoes. This enlightens the demon lord as he believes that William and the Living Saint are running away like a dog tail between its legs.
"Foolish humans, you won't escape from my grips. Now face your death once and for…" Before Orcus can finish his sentence, he felt the ground shaking in a slow rhythm as something large and heavy is approaching him. Sensing something was off, Orcus look beyond the direction of William and saw what he was running towards.
A giant metal titan, carrying a citadel on its shoulder as if it was a hat walked towards where Orcus is and one of its hands is glowing blue as if it was ready to cast an offensive spell to destroy him.
'What in the all Abyss is that? Why is a Titan of unknown origin (Orcus believe that Imperator Class Titan is actual tian of a fantasy world) coming towards me? Did the gods send him to destroy me once again?' Orcus never got his chance to get his answer as Imperator Class Titan fired its massive Plasma Annihilator. Known as 'Titan-Killer', the massive plasma weapon blessed by the ten thousand tech-priests from the forge world hit a recently resurrected demon lord who couldn't dodge as a blue beam disintegrate most of Orcus him and his wand.
Imperator Class Titan wasn't done as it fire again and again. This time, titan unleashes everything including Hellstorm cannons, missiles, and melta cannons to completely wipe the demon once and for all. This was because a few minutes ago, William use his full authority as Chapter Master and Imperator Fratrum to fire everything the titan got before he bolted with Rana on his shoulder. It was a bit overkill as a result of the titan's second and third attacks melting the very ground into a lava pool and any trace of Orcus is completely gone from the mortal realm.
Blasting the war horns, Apostate's End declares its victory against the greater daemon and vox channel to William for any further instructions. William on the other hand finally reached the titan's left foot and stop to put Rana down. Just in case Orcus comes back for the third time, William wanted to make sure he has the walking church to protect him from the angry demon lord before banging his head again with his power hammer. Luckily for him, he didn't need to worry after all as Orcus didn't have a third ritual to bring himself back and dropped into Abyss once and for all.
"Can you put me down? This is kind of embarrassing," Rana quietly said to William as rest of the William's army began to report in as the army of undead and demons completely collapse or vanished due to its leader's defeat and exile to the Abyss.
"Sorry, I just reacted without thinking."
"No worries, at this point I know you well enough to predict what you will do next."
"Oh really? How about this? Since we are under the church will you marry me?"
"...?!" Rana's face turned red and radiate golden light due to the sudden proposal from William.
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For defeating Orcus, the Demon Lord of Undeath and Master of the 333rd Layer of the Abyss,
[Warlord Class Titan x2: One of the large types of battle titan and most commonly used by the Titan Legions as it commands battlefield with immense size as it stands nearly 33 meters tall. Not as fast as Reaver Class Titan but it makes up for the overwhelming firepower of weaponry and heavy armor. By the design, the Warlord Class Titan resembles a knight of the old times as it performs its knightly duty and protects citizens of the Imperium under Emperor's light. The Warlord Class Titan each comes with mounted turbo lasers, Gatling Blaster, and Mega Bolter.]
[Imperial Navy Retribution Class Battleship x1: Massive starship of the Imperium with numerous weapons systems and a defense capable of withstanding heavy barrages from the enemy ships at once. Imperial Battleship is massive, it is so big that it requires between 25,000 to 50,000 men and women to crew one ship and defend any borders in mid-battle. Among Battleships, Retribution Class is known for powerful broadsides weaponry and multiple torpedo launch tubes which could level half of the planet if given enough time. The ship comes with a full complement of ship officers and crews a total of 30,000. Note: The ship will be summoned in the planet's orbit as the rule requires it.]
[Adeptus Astartes Battle Barge x2: First appeared at the beginning of the Great Crusade, the Leginoes Astartes Battle Barge is the primary starship of the Space Marines. Equivalent to Imperial Navy's battle cruiser, the Battle Barge is armed with heavy armor hulls and enough firepower to go toe to toe against a formidable battleship. The primary mission of the Battle Barge is to support planetary invasion including planetary assaults, troop carriers, and bombardment of the planet's surface. To meet the demanding requirement for the Astartes, the Battle Barge comes with drop pods, a training facility, a medical facility/lab, a Thunderhawk deployment bay, and enough room to accommodate three companies of Space Marines.]