Chapter 348 Brance’s First Turning Point Quest (1)
‘Come on, you chicken shit bastard, you always talk so fucking much; why are you being quiet now? Let’s get this over with so I can kick you twelve ways to Sunday and get on with my life.’ Pulling a play from Cynrik’s playbook, Brance taunted the Being who had lived in his head for years with a slew of vulgarities.
“Foolish boy, if you wish for death so badly, then I will repay your slanderous words tenfold.”
No sooner did the words enter Brance’s mind than did a powerful voice echo throughout the vast expanse of his SOC, the very same voice he had grown to hate over the years, followed by a string of notifications.
-A Third-party has been alerted to your presence and has broken into the Host’s SOC.-
-A third party is in control; any damage you take inside will affect your Soul Directly.-
-The Host is being forcefully dragged into a Turning Point Quest-
-Turning Point Quest: Challenge for Supremacy-
-Due to the influence of your Divine Blessings and your LightBringer Bloodline, you have lost control and are severely affected by it. A third party acting against you has stepped in during a point of weakness, and to leave, you must defeat this Being in combat. If you die in battle, your Soul will collapse and be destroyed, allowing this third Party complete control of your body and replace your existence.-
-Defeat the LightBringer Spirit ????-
-Reward:???
-Penalty for failure: Soul Destruction-
Outside the Tower, a bright white and gold light streaked through the sky like a meteor and crashed into the ground outside the construct, creating a massive impact crater and kicking up an equally large dust cloud.
Inside the [Radient Tower], Brance was forced to hold on tightly to the command column as the ground trembled as if his SOC was experiencing a powerful quake.
Steadying himself with the aid of the command column, Brance navigated through several screens until he found one that showed him the outside of the building.
Standing within the cloud of dust was a man’s shadow, and from what Brance could tell, he appeared to be well over 213 cm (7 Feet) tall and built like a greek statue.
Broad shoulders, perfectly sculpted muscles, but most importantly, six pairs of bulky wings glided up and down slowly as in half a breath, all of the dust was cleared, and the stunning golden image of a Seraphim graced Brance’s eyes.
‘Fuck,’ Brance thought as he felt his luck had hit rock bottom. From when he heard the voice in his head to when he read the memoir, Brance was under the impression that the first opponent he faced in a Turning Point battle would be an angel. Still, he and Cynrik had assumed it would be someone like Lucifer since the initials Ath had used were LM, otherwise known as Lucifer MorningStar.
However, as someone who knew quite a bit about the lore behind his bloodline from Earth, Brance knew that Lucifer was no Seraphim but a Cherub, with the main distinction being how many Wings grew from the Angel’s back.
A Seraphim had six wings, while a Cherub would have only four. Yet the Divinity Spirit outside his Tower had six golden feathered wings, making Brance immediately rule out his LM theory.
“Come out, son of light, and face me as you should, with dignity and honor.” The booming voice of the Seraphim rattled the ancient stone construct making a thin trickle of sweat drip down Brance’s back.
Narrowing his eyes and activating [Mana Sight], Brance looked through the walls of his construct and at the Being, and in doing so, he ended up meeting the golden iris of the Seraphim.
Fighting the urge to flinch at how the Being appeared to be looking straight through the Tower’s walls, Brance tried to grasp the Seraphim’s strength. To his surprise, the Angel’s Mana Signature was similar to the Headmaster’s, yet weaker at the same time, allowing him to determine that the Angel was Peak Tier-4 but dangerously close to Tier-5.
‘Technically, Cyn was right, two Tiers above me; although this guy is on the cusp of breaking through, I should be able to handle it…I think.’ No longer hesitating, Brance smacked down on the command column, spun the dial, and pushed it inward, triggering several mechanisms on the fourth floor and making the two cannons and ballista slide around the room before firing the instant they trained their barrels at the Angel.
BOOM BOOM FWoOSH FWOOSH
Four distinct shots fired off in a cadence before their projectiles connected with the Angel a fraction of a second later, catapulting him away from the Tower, ragdolling him through the air as his body made contact with the rocky terrain several times along the way.
-You have dealt 11,332 Points of Magic Damage to your Opponent with Tier-3.5 Mana Construct Cannon One.-
– Tier-3.5 Mana Construct Cannon One is recharging and reloading, time to completion, 4 minutes 45 seconds.-
-You have dealt 9,000 Points of Magic Damage to your Opponent with Tier-3.5 Mana Construct Cannon Two.-
– Tier-3.5 Mana Construct Cannon Two is recharging and reloading, time to completion, 4 minutes 45 seconds.-
-You have dealt 8850 Points of Damage to your Opponent with Tier-3.5 Mana Construct Ballista One.-
– Tier-3.5 Mana Construct Ballista One is recharging and reloading, time to completion, 2 minutes 55 seconds.-
-You have dealt 7293 Points of Damage to your Opponent with Tier-3.5 Mana Construct Ballista Two.-
– Tier-3.5 Mana Construct Ballista Two is recharging and reloading, time to completion, 2 minutes 55 seconds.-
‘36,475 Damage with the first volley,’ Brance thought as he watched the six wings of the Angel unfurl and stop his violent momentum. Catching the air, the Angel swooped upward, coming to a stop, and hovered twenty meters above the ground with a scowl plastered across his face.
Flicking his wrist, Brance positioned the Positron Cannon, aiming at the Floating Golden Winged Angel, and pushed the fifth button on the Command Column.
“Eat this bastard.” With focused eyes and [Mana Sight] still active, Brance witnessed the three-colored Mana Particle beam forming deep within the barrel of the 20-meter-long gun. The particles condensed into each other, merging into an erratic electric ball and then expanding and erupting forth from the barrel of the cannon with a thunderous roar.
ZZZZZZZOOOOOOOO BOOOOOMMM!!!!
The world seemed to drain of all color with the emergence of the powerful lazer beam, and Brance noticed as horror and realization set in on the Angel while a particle beam cleared the cannon’s barrel and shot out from the fourth floor.
It was either luck or experience that led the Angel to wrap his two wings on top of his spine and his two wings near his tail bone around his body like a shield while a bright golden light emitted from him just in time to receive the Positron Laser beam.
-You have dealt 25,334 Points of Damage to your Opponent with The Tier-4 Positron Cannon.-
– Tier-4 Positron Cannon is recharging and reloading, time to completion, 35 minutes.-
“FILTHY MORTAL! HOW DARE YOU HARM ME IN SUCH A COWARDLY MANNER!” Over the static-like sound of the Positron Cannon, Brance could hear the Angel’s angry howls as he redirected the beam toward the sky, mitigating the damage significantly at the cost of injuring four of his brilliant wings.
‘Damn, he actually stopped nearly all of the damage, the Positron Cannon has a static AOE of 125k, yet it only dealt a little over 25k; still, I’ve chipped off 61,809 HP, but it isn’t anywhere near what I expected.’ Frowning and calculating the total damage, Brance examined the HUD floating over the Angel’s head and noted that he still had over 75% of his HP remaining.
This figure startled him because it meant that the Angel had close to 250k HP, almost ten times Brance’s measly 26,600.
With his eyes flicking between the screens indicating how much time was left before all his weapons were back online and the swirling Mana consolidating around the Angel, Brance knew he only had two options.
Option one was to activate the defensive protocols and hope that the Divinity Spirit wouldn’t be able to dish out 500k damage to his Particle Barrier before the timers reached zero, effectively turtling and hiding in his Tower.
Or Option two, take the fight to the Angel. Although this plan had too many unknown variables, such as how strong the Angel was, Brance wasn’t privy to hiding behind his shields like a coward until his weapons were ready for the next volley.
‘No, stop. You can’t keep thinking like Cynrik right now; that idiot would definitely take option two; there has to be a third option. Think Brancie, what is the best course of action.’ He thought with his attention never leaving the flying Being over a hundred meters away from his Tower.
Off in the distance, the Angel snarled and slammed his right arm down, manifesting a fierce and sharp-looking golden sword and a matching set of plate armor, which hugged his body tightly yet didn’t appear to hinder his movement.
“What kind of blasted situation is this? I, AN ARCHANGEL, HAVE BEEN PUT ON THE BACK FOOT BY A MORTAL!” The Angel grunted as he checked his armor, readying himself for battle and glancing at the Majestic and ancient-looking Tower in the distance.
A clotted chunk of blood had pooled in the Archangel’s nostril after the concussive impact of the cannon, so he snorted it out before wiping any excess with the back of his right hand.
Meanwhile, Brance’s mind was firing on all cylinders as he formulated a plan of attack. Unlike Cynrik, Brance wasn’t necessarily the best with on-the-fly combat strategies and preferred to tackle everything head-on, so hiding in his Tower was never a considerable ploy.
If anything, he would only do it out of necessity, like in the event that he was heavily injured; however, after scrolling through multiple screens, a new path, Option three, made itself known to him, and this new strategy revolved around the second floor.
Making up his mind, Brance placed his hand on the Command Column and pumped half of his Mana into the Codex Core, then triggered a chain of commands and chugged down enough Stamina potions to recoup his losses.
The first step was to start prepping the Mana Collection and Compression Arena.
After increasing the [Radient Tower] to Tier-3, the floor’s buff/debuff rate jumped from 20 percent to 35.
-Second Floor: Mana Collection and Compression. This floor houses a sizeable arena-style platform, but that is because the Tower Creator has chosen this to be the main entrapment feature and battleground within the Tower. The second floor acts as a heart, constantly drawing in outside Ambient Mana particles during its creation and the Mana given by the Tower Creator. From the Command Column, the Tower Creator can adjust the floor’s Mana Density and use it to either Buff their Allies or Debuff their Enemies by a maximum of 35% to all the targeted beings’ stats.-
– The size of the room also relates directly to the amount of Mana stored within its confines, in addition to the buff/debuff effect.-
-As Such, although the Tower may be a specific size, the room housed on the Second Floor can potentially be several times larger due to its spatial properties thanks to the abundant Ambient Mana particles.-
Opening the intake valves all around the outside of the Second Floor, Brance began flooding the room with copious amounts of Mana and, in response, started growing the arena’s size.
Next, with the MCAC room (Mana Collection and Compression) charging up, Brance flicked screens over to the third floor’s command page and activated Protocol 1, the Particle barrier Generator, which in turn brought up a glimmering Tri-Colored bubble barrier that swiftly enclosed the Tower like a shell.
Brance’s last move was to press the intercom system; it was time to taunt the Angel, if this worked, everything would be set, and his opponent would rush right into the range of his teleportation so that he could draw him into the second floor, where the real battle would begin.