<strong>Coalition Flagship</strong>
Lotus had just returned from Azerof's ship and had entered the command deck of the loaned cruiser which served as the mission's flagship.
Inside, the players who represented the Defense Council were waiting expectantly.
Lotus took a deep breath and addressed the delegation. "Our negotiations have fallen apart. The agreement is off."
Of course, everyone dissolved into grumbling and complaining. A few words could be heard around the room.
"Unacceptable!"
"Incompetent girl!"
Joker, who was both the representative of the BlackJack guild and the vice commander of the fleet, said, "If you please, ladies and gentlemen, this is obviously the enemy's fault! Azerof would only speak with Lotus. He obviously did so to offer completely absurd terms and to cast doubt on our leader to weaken our resolve.
"So long as we stay calm and united, and so long as we pragmatically deal with this new situation, we can take on anything."
Of course, Joker himself had doubts about Lotus's effectiveness and loyalty, but he also knew that unity was the most important factor for them at the moment.
His words had an immediate effect.
The room's atmosphere calmed down and several of the loudest complainers looked a little ashamed, thinking that Azerof had indeed planned for them to react in this way.
Then Lucifer, who represented Lord Of War, said, "Very nice discourse, Joker. But now that the negotiations have failed, what exactly will pragmatism do for us? We can't exactly face a fleet of over 100,000 warships and survive to take our men home."
Everyone looked at Lotus for an answer.
***
<strong>Temple of Valor</strong>
After drinking an HP potion he'd had in his inventory—he'd thankfully kept his inventory, including Regnier's sword, even though his equipped clothing and armor had disappeared—Apophis said to Hulk, "I guess we should loot this bitch's corpse."
Hulk coughed politely. "Um, Apophis?"
Apophis said, "What?"
Hulk said, "You're still naked."
Apophis looked down at himself. "I'm aware, Hulk. Most people are naked from time to time. I'm sorry if my mighty dragon intimidates you."
Hulk laughed. "Your little maggot, more like! Considering the number of people streaming this spectacle, I expect you'll be able to take your pick of comparisons soon enough."
Apophis looked through his inventory.
Though he still possessed most of his equipment, including his [God Tzeentch's Rings of Power (Legendary)] and his [Ring of the God-Emperor Apophis (Common)], his [Zetark Nobility Uniform (Epic)] and [Complete Zetark Battle Armor (Rare)] were simply gone, as though they'd never existed.
It was depressing, especially since the battle armor had provided him a large boost to his stats. Those two pieces must have been worth over 10,000,000 GC on the galactic market.
Well, he'd have to stay naked for the time being.
Thankfully, that wasn't much of a problem. Horus didn't punish players for nudity in any way. On the other hand, while Apophis wasn't ashamed of his body, he didn't exactly want to add "Exhibitionist" to the long list of roles on his CV.
Apophis ignored the stares of the thousands of watching players and simply went to loot Themis's body.
But as he tried to touch her body, a powerful field of light manifested like a force field around her.
It was as though his own dark energy was clashing with the light energy that still lay within the remnants of her body.
He strained with all of his strength, trying to push through the resistance. The closer he got, the more their respective energy fields glowed in the air.
Violent gusts of wind formed from the friction between these fields, and small stones began rising in the air around them as gravity began to warp.
Soon, even the powerful players present, like Hulk and Ceasar, began having trouble standing! The combination of strong winds and shifting gravity pushed them slowly backwards.
Then it was as though something tore, and Apophis's hand broke through.
There was one last shock wave of force, and then all the effects ceased at once.
A loot menu appeared over the body.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼<strong>ITEM </strong>
║ ╰╼[Name]: Key to Themis
║ ╰╼[Summary]: This key opens the gates to the Domain of God.
╚══════════════╛
A key to God's Domain?!
This was one of the elements required to pass the divine barrier to Rank S, a barrier which over 99.99% of players would never cross!
Then he saw the second item in the menu.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼<strong>EQUIPMENT</strong>
║ ╰╼[Name]: Pendant of Themis goddess
║ ╰╼[Quality]: Artifact
║ ╰╼[Passive Effect]: + 1,000 INT
║ ╰╼[Active Effect]: Allows you to subdue and control mortals who have been defeated and have a positive affinity (down to zero) and a lower energy than the user
║ ╰╼[Cooldown Active Effect]: 10 seconds
║ ╰╼[Owner]: Goddess Themis
║ ╰╼[Creator]: Matriarch Cortana
║ ╰╼[Summary] : Created in the year 6150 by the matriarch Cortana for the Goddess Themis, to reward her for her involvement in the Black War.
╚══════════════╛
But despite the huge Intelligence bonus, the item's activated ability effect was nearly useless to Apophis. Because he had a negative Alignment, it was unlikely that he'd ever find a mortal he could actually use it against.
However…
After giving it some careful thought, Apophis decided to perform a very risky form of enchanting that had been discovered in his first life, called "Energy Change."
This was a method of injecting Energy into an item in an attempt to modify its properties through force.
If it succeeded, the item usually gained a new effect which was well-suited to the person who had enchanted it, since it gained some of that person's essence.
The problem was the success rate.
The item had a 50% chance to break during an Energy Change. For an Artifact that might be worth over a billion GC on the galactic market, this was an enormous gamble.
But without this change, the item was of little value to Apophis. He wasn't exactly focused on earning Galactic Coins at the moment.
So Apophis looted the pendant and held it in his hand without equipping it.
The energy that this object gave off was incredible, making everyone squint against its blinding light.
Neither Ceasar nor Hulk understood what Apophis was doing. Energy Changing hadn't been discovered in this life yet. As far as they knew, Apophis was just holding the pendant to look at it, which was quite risky, since anyone could snatch it from his hand if it wasn't equipped.
Apophis began injecting his dark energy into the pendant—
A beam of pure energy shot out of the pendant and into the sky!
The blast was so brutal that it burned Apophis's fingers and made him lose 5% of the HP he'd just regained.
After a minute, the beam disappeared...
…And the necklace that was once as bright as the sun was now covered in swirling dark energy.
Apophis inspected it again.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼<strong>EQUIPMENT</strong>
║ ╰╼[Name]: Pendant of Themis goddess (Corrupted)
║ ╰╼[Quality]: Artifact
║ ╰╼[Passive Effect]: + 500 INT, + 10,000 Dark Energy
║ ╰╼[Active Effect]: Allows you to bribe any NPC at your will provided they are lower in energy than you
║ ╰╼[Cooldown Active Effect]: 1 month
║ ╰╼[Owner]: Goddess Themis
║ ╰╼ [Creator]: Matriarch Cortana
║ ╰╼[Summary] : Created in the year 6150 by the matriarch Cortana for the goddess Themis, in order to reward her for her involvement in the Black War, but in the year 7099 the eternal name "Apophis" corrupted her.
╚══════════════╛
Apophis could now make good use of it.
He also took the opportunity to update his character and to spend the 150 Skill Points that he'd obtained after killing the goddess.
Apophis updated his favorite skill, [~Zooanthropy (Epic)~], which cost him 100 Skill Points.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼ <strong>SKILL</strong>
╟─╼[Name] ~ Advanced Zooanthropy~
║ ╰╼[Esper]
║ ╰╼ [Epic]
║ ╰╼ [Skill Lvl] Tier-2
╟─╼[Summary] Invoke primal power to gain bestial power!
╟─╼[Effect ] You can now select a creature of type space animals, which you can embody permanently in exchange of energy.
╟─╼[Upgrade Cost] 100 Skill Points
╚═══════════════╛
A space animal? That was ultra cool! Now he could survive in the vacuum of space without a suit!
He checked his character menu one last time.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼ <strong>CHARACTER </strong>
║ ╰╼[Name]: Apophis
║ ╰╼[LvL ]: 37
║ ╰╼[Tier ]: B [Space Warrior]
║ ╰╼[Class ]: Esper
║ ╰╼[Biology] Male Fallen Zetark [Tier 3; Next Tier: lvl 50]
║ ╰╼ [Galactic Coins] 15,125,552 GC
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼ <strong>SOUL</strong>
║ ╰╼[Host Soul] Enclabossa
║╰╼[Dark Energy]: (10,000 x2) +10,000 = 30,000 DRK
║ ╰╼[Alignment] -3,500 [Darkness]
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼<strong>STATS</strong>
║ ╰╼[Strength] 600 x2 = 1,200 STR
║ ╰╼[Intelligence] (600 x2) +500 = 1,700 INT
║ ╰╼[Agility] 600 x2= 1,200 AGI
║ ╰╼[Dexterity] 600 x2 = 1,200 DEX
║ ╰╼[Luck] 1 LUK
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼<strong>BOOK SKILLS</strong>
║ ╰╼[~Berserk (lvl 2) (Epic)~]
║ ╰╼[~Cosmic Materialization (Legendary)~]
║ ╰╼[~Dark Cosmic Meditation (lvl 2) (Rare)~]
║ ╰╼[~Dark Lord of Flames (Rare)~]
║ ╰╼[~Demonic Wing (Legendary)~]
║ ╰╼[~Eternal Flame (lvl 3) (Rare)]
║ ╰╼[~Susanoo (lvl 2) (Legendary)~]
║ ╰╼[~Zooanthropy (Epic)~]
║ ╰╼[~Univer Editor (Runic)~]
╟─╼TALENT TREE SKILLS
║ ╰╼[~Energy Regeneration: 100 pts~]
║ ╰╼[~Firebending: 550 pts~]
║ ╰╼[~Telekinesis: 140 pts~]
║ ╰╼[~Waterbending: 115 pts~]
╟─╼PASSIVE SKILLS
║ ╰╼[ Archaeologist ]
║ ╰╼[ Ghost ]
║ ╰╼[ Rehabilitated ]
║ ╰╼[ Warrior-Esper ]
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼<strong>EQUIPMENT</strong>
║ ╰╼[God Tzeentch's Rings of Power (Legendary)]
║ ╰╼[Ring of the God-Emperor Apophis (Common)]
║ ╰╼[Pendant of Themis goddess (Artifact)]
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼<strong> Guild/Faction</strong>
╟─╼[Faction] Kingdom of Eclipse [King]
║ ╰╼ [Guild Funds]: 3,458,500
╟─╼ [Guild] Eclipse [Supreme Leader]
║ ╰╼ [Guild Funds] 89,786,000 Galactic Coins
╟─╼[Bounty] 1,000,000,000 GC
╠══════════════╡
╟─╼<strong>SUMMARY</strong>
Oy oy for the dark GodSlayer...
╚═══════════════╛
His heart sank as he remembered that, due to the loss of his armor, he no longer possessed a percentage bonus to his stats…
Though at least he'd gained a huge boost to Intelligence and Energy, which were his primary stats as an Esper.
Apophis nodded to Hulk. "Take me to Antanria."
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