Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 996: Three Drops

The destructive bite was imbued with a truly frightening amount of force, the amount of festering death force used to empower it alone was so great that near proximity with serpent would cause most to die and decay away into dust, this effect was not completely nullified by Sonnenträger’s gold, the hero simply could not resist it so easily, on the surface, the attack performed by the pure undead might appear like a simple one.

It was but a mere bite, after all, but being caught within it, Sonnenträger would describe wit anything but the word ’simple’, that was an attempt at delivering a killing blow from Loimos, this attack was infused with just about everything possible, each of them empowered to far beyond their limits.

In the blink of an eye, in the main world, thousands upon thousands, of the rot constructs kept within facilities were reduced to nothingness, used as fuel, several of the smaller facilities were even rendered useless as even the masses of rot upon their ceilings, supposed to recreate and replace any constructs that was destroyed or stopped functioning for some reason, even they were consumed to empower that strike.

But even such a magnificently, tyrannically powerful blow, delivered using the serpent’s body, which had been crafted and was sustained through the sacrifice of many rot constructs, even this was not enough to snuff the golden radiance completely, somehow, despite being horrifically injured and suffering the loss of much of his remaining reserves of energy, Sonnenträger seemed to instead grow fiercer.

A hero- A true hero could not allow himself to be backed into a corner, it had already become clear before, but was painfully obvious now, but the more it seemed like he was a bad spot, the more powerful the gold seemed to grow, as though the world itself was refusing for the only hero worthy of the title to lose... As though the concept of loss was foreign to Sonnenträger.

And indeed, perhaps it was not wrong to mention concepts here, for even if he did not do it consciously, the golden one’s will was so powerful, and so mesmerising to the world itself, that everything seemed to bend around him, turning the odds in his favour.

Loimos was not helpless here however, even if the world was unwilling to listen to his commands, he could force it to do as he envisioned, in the struggle against will, everything was being put back on a fairground, the serpent’s maw continuing to crush the hero, countless teeth and fangs of all sizes piercing and tearing into his body, injecting the most potent toxin Loimos could manifest, affecting even the mind and soul as well as it did the body.

Simultaneously, spells were casted directly within his own maw, spells made from all of the inner energies the undead could wield, each empowered by the aspects of the apocalypse and by the aspects of Death, targeting everything that could be targeted at once.

Had Loimos caught the pure living in such an attack, this would have marked his victory right there and then- Sonnenträger was not going down however, the power of his will, his pure, unbridled might only kept on growing the closer he was being brought to death, the more gold he lost by healing or trying to break free, the stronger what remained became.

Never, ever before, had the golden hero even been so close to losing, in fact, it would not be inaccurate that this was the very first time that he had struggled so much since acquiring control over the gold within him... The only one who had given him trouble was the one he had first awakened the gold against.

The other apostle, The Defiler Of The Holy, but even then, it had not come anywhere close to such a bitter struggle.

Before, Sonnenträger had wondered if the heretic would have become as powerful as Loimos had he been allowed to grow and get used to his powers, and certainly, he would have become a threat to the world, but the hero felt convinced now, Loimos was a far more dreadful foe than the defiler.

Or at least, Loimos was the one with the greatest chances to kill the gold in the history of this world.

"I..." raising one arm, he pushed up against the jaw of the black serpent, countless, small teeth sinking through his palm and severing several fingers as he did so.

"...My..." gritting his teeth, he kept on pushing, golden energy was being consumed every second at a neck breaking pace, soon, only a few mere drops would be left.

"My name-" his own golden blood poured down in his face alongside toxins that melted away flesh and bones alike, the hero continued to push, crushing teeth in his palm as he sunk his fingers into foul gum that covered the roof of the snake’s maw.

"My name is-" he ignored the countless spells washing over him, burning, freezing, shocking... They did not matter right now.

"My name is Sonnenträger!" 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"The First And Only True Hero! I will not taint this title!" his voice was drowned by countless louder sounds, and his own vocal cords barely functioned currently, flooded with potent toxins that were melting through his throat.

The serpent’s maw was pushed open bit by bit, Loimos swung his head down upon the nearby continent of Dragonnerie, like an alligator spinning in the water to dismember its caught prey, shattering vast spans of land upon the floating continent in the process, going as far as pouring more of his finite constructs from the main world in an attempt to slay the golden hero.

But Sonnenträger only struggled more fiercely as a result, until a loud snapping sound rumbled through the seas, caused as the serpent’s upper jaw was flung back with such strength that it broke, allowing a sphere of gold to calmly rise up into the air.

After healing himself back up, Sonnenträger was left with only three drops of golden energy, each potent to impossible limits, each of those three drops represented one potential move that could be performed, and once one was consumed, the other two would more than double in power, and only one was left, it would allow for the greatest, most domineering manifestation of the golden force possible.

For a few moments, as the serpent’s jaw nearly instantly repaired itself, the two combatants stared one another down.

The world itself seemed to grow quiet, a subtle tension that could be felt by all causing hearts to start beating quicker, blood flowing faster, muscles growing stiff, as though all that was in existence were made into witnesses of what would come next.

The first of the three final drops was consumed.