MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

tanghulu¹The wicked flames plaguing the Demon Bull were not that big of a threat. Although they shaved off a thousand HP every second, to the Demon Bull, who had 800 million HP, it was but a minor inconvenience.

Whether it was the Fire Dragon Sword, Caitley, or even Dolly, they had only served one purpose to Li Yi. Their only purpose was to restrain the Third Demon God.

As for the person responsible for dealing damage, that role had belonged to Li Yi.

“Shooting Star Arrow Hail!”

“Whoosh…whoosh…whoosh…”

After unleashing the flurry of arrows, the Demon Bull was left with 200 million less HP than before. Combining that figure with the damage that he had previously dealt, the Demon Bull had less than half of its original 800 million HP.

“Moo! Moo!”

The Demon Bull let loose a frenzied cry, and its speed suddenly increased. It had given up on extinguishing the wicked flames and rushed towards Caitley instead.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

After sending three headbutts into Caitley, she was left with 40 million HP less than before. It reared its head backward, bloated its body like a balloon, and used Demon Bull Rush to charge randomly throughout the battlefield.

Unlike the initial Demon Bull Rush, this time, it no longer ended once it was set in motion. One charge after another, from left to right, from top to bottom, the Demon Bull had covered the entire battlefield, causing several fissures on the ground.

Li Yi carefully evaded the Demon Bull, crouching down whenever it rushed towards him. By the time the Demon Bull had finally ended its relentless charges, Caitley had perished, and Lil Dolly had returned to being an egg. All that was left of Li Yi’s fighting force was Li Yi himself and the Fire Dragon Sword.

Another circle of stars appeared on top of the Demon Bull’s head, and the color of the stars was much deeper than when the demon god was in its first state.

“Stinger Arrow! Meteor Arrow!”

“Thud…thud…thud…thud…”

Li Yi grabbed the chance to attack, and the Fire Dragon Sword assisted Li Yi as well. Just before the Demon Bull had awoken, their hasty efforts had managed to take out 200 million of the Demon Bull’s HP.

“Extermination Arrow!”

“Tch—”

A blue arrow hurtled towards the Demon Bull, striking its chest. Like a deflated balloon, the Demon Bull’s remaining HP whittled away, emptying out in mere seconds.

[Extermination!]

Li Yi had defeated the Third Demon God’s second state.

“Moo! Moo!”

The Demon Bull raised its head and unleashed Demonic Deathrays towards its surroundings. While it did so, a black vapor enveloped its body, bringing the Third Demon God to its third phase.

“Territory—Stinger Arrow!”

The Chrono Territory vigorously compressed and firmly attached itself to Li Yi’s body. Then, as a blindingly brilliant arrowhead was unleashed, Li Yi’s Territory Power was instantly depleted.

It was Li Yi’s strongest skill, and its damage surpassed that of even the Shooting Star Arrow Hail. However, the skill came with an obvious drawback, as Li Yi’s Territory Power would be totally exhausted after using it. As such, unless the situation was absolutely critical, Li Yi would never use it.

The reason that the second state was so hard-fought was that Li Yi had saved his Chrono Arrow for the boss’ third state.

“Thud!”

Right after the Third Demon God’s half-humanoid-half-bull figure emerged from the black fog, Li Yi’s Stinger Arrow landed into its chest. Shortly after that, a flurry of terrifying damage counters popped out of its head. The demon god’s third state had been defeated before it had even used its skills.

A one-hit kill!

“Ping!”

Five arcs of light shot out from the demon god’s body and scattered around the battlefield.

[Congratulations! You have achieved the first kill of the Third Demon God. Do you wish to announce it?]

[Announce!]

Li Yi walked forward and picked up the five items that had dropped from the Third Demon God.

[Player Dark Wing has successfully killed the Third Demon God. He has obtained…]

…

[Feat recorded in the Pantheon Hall of Fame!]

[Congratulations! You have obtained the achievement, Slayed the Mad Demon God.]

[Congratulations! You have obtained 10 Skill Points as a reward!]

[Congratulations! You have obtained 100 Demon-vanquishing Points!]

…

The Shattered Bonewood.

Upon seeing the notice of the Third Demon God’s first kill in the World Channel, Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut froze.

The reason she had been leveling up in Shattered Bonewood was so that she could nab the Third Demon God’s first kill. For this goal alone, she had been through hardships that were beyond imagination.

“Level 200, Rank 9 Territory, and still, it’s not enough to defeat him?” Fluttering Snow Purple Chestnut heaved a silent sigh.

At that instant, a sense of defeat that she had never experienced before surged into her heart.

After farming in the Shattered Bonewood for several months, Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut’s had long reached Level 200. The only reason that she continued to remain there was to improve her Territory even further.

Her original plan was to raise her Territory to Rank 10 and then challenge the Third Demon God. However, she never expected for Li Yi to take it before her.

A never before experienced sense of defeat!

“Hsst-hsst-hsst—”

A dozen or so Void Eyes emerged and fired their weakening rays at Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut.

The nine Psychokinetic Orbs that surrounded her had long since disappeared, and Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut did not attempt to block the rays. She allowed all ten weakening rays to strike her.

[SPD reduced by 90%…]

[ATK reduced by 90%…]

[STR reduced by 30%…]

[INT reduced by 30%…]

…

All five items that the Third Demon God had dropped had belonged to the same type. They were all Demon God Equipment that could only be equipped by Wizards.

Li Yi did not know what to say of his luck anymore. After all, what were the odds of dropping five pieces of Wizard-class Demon God Equipment?

Clueless about the impact of his first kill on Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut, Li Yi entered the Demon God Castle. Along the way, he made sure to avoid any monsterlings, and he chose the shortest path towards the First Demon God.

Every single monsterling in the Demon God Castle was qualified to be called a boss. This was because they were all Level 200!

Li Yi was extremely familiar with the location.

The Demon God Castle was the most dangerous location in all of Foreignland. Were Li Yi not well-versed with the various ins and outs of the place, forget entering the Demon God Hall, it was likely that he would have been mauled to death at the front gates by the monsterlings.

While he continued to avoid the monsterlings, Li Yi entered a spiral corridor. There were no monsterlings there, and the only unique characteristic of the corridor were the various tiles of colors of the floor.

Red, yellow, green, purple, white, and black!

A multitude of colors decorated the ground, and it was filled with all sorts of designs.

No stairs could be seen in the spiral corridor. In order to reach the next floor, Li Yi would need to trigger to step on the correct trigger. However, if he were to step on the wrong one, the odds of him making it alive was abysmal.

“Start with a red, and then a green. Proceed onto a purple, and then a red and two yellows. The seventh should be a white, the eighth a black, and the ninth a red!”

After reciting the chant for the steps to take, Li Yi gently nodded his head and hopped onto the first trigger, the red switch.

“Bam!”

“Kacha-Kacha-Kacha…”

Aside from the red tile that Li Yi was stepping on, the surrounding tiles began to shift around. The speed of their movements was faster than a downhill rollercoaster.

“Then a green!”

Li Yi leaped upwards and gently landed on the second green tile.

“Boom bam! Crash! Kaboom! Ping! Pang!”

Outside the green tile, countless black thunderbolts came crashing down. The phenomenon persisted for over 30 seconds.

“Purple next!”

Li Yi hopped to yet another tile, and the moment he touched down, all the tiles in his surroundings flipped around, revealing an array of poison needles.

“Red! Yellow!”

Li Yi continued hopping. Once he stabilized himself, he counted to three and proceeded to his next target.

“Yellow! White! Black! Red!”

All four jumps were done in a single breath.

At that instant, the space before Li Yi distorted, and an announcement rang in his ears.

[You have entered Demon God Castle’s second floor!]

The second floor was unlike the first. The floor was composed of several small rooms, and within each room was a teleportation gate, and in front of these gates, stood an extremely powerful monsterling guard.

Li Yi rushed towards the third room and summoned Dolly along with Alleria. Then, together, the two pets and their owner easily dispatched the demonic monsterling guarding the gate.

Li Yi stood at the teleportation gate.

[Teleport!]

“Whoosh—”

A white flash filled Li Yi’s view, and he quickly appeared in another room. It was there that a sledgehammer-wielding Demon Barbarian came rushing towards him.

Li Yi did not immediately intercept the Demon Barbarian’s attack. Instead, he lured it into another room and killed both monsters together.

After defeating the monsterlings, Li Yi told Alleria to stand at the teleportation gate in the second room. Then, he returned to the first room and stood at the teleportation gate.

“Teleport!”

Two white flashes occurred simultaneously, and with that, Li Yi and Alleria vanished.

A second later, the pet and owner had appeared on the first floor of the Demon God Castle. They were standing on one of the hundreds of tiles.

“Take one step to the left onto the red tile,” ordered Li Yi. On the other hand, Li Yi took a step to the right and stepped on a green tile.

“Kacha-Kacha-Kacha—”

The tiles move around, bringing Li Yi and Alleria back together.

“Now, take a step forward, onto the black tile!”

“Take one step backward, onto the white tile!”

“Two steps to the left, onto the green and blue tiles!”

“Two steps to the right, onto the purple and white ones!”

Li Yi continued giving commands, and once again, Li Yi was wreathed in a white glow. This time, it sent him to the third floor.

Demon God Castle only had three floors, but due to its unique mechanics, players who wished to enter the Demon God Hall would need to go back and forth between the first, second, and third floors ten times. Any missteps along the way would require the players to start all over again.

Sometimes, the switches would require two players to cooperate. When this occurred, Li Yi would summon Alleria to aid him. As a mercenary that could only attack monsters, she was the best choice to step on the switches.

After going back and forth between the floors and the teleportation gates, Li Yi was finally transported into an ominous grand hall.

He had finally reached the Demon God Hall!

There were no monsterlings in the great hall, and within it, there was a bone-crafted basin that contained a beating black heart.

The beating heart had belonged to the First Demon God!

The Demon God Castle contained two demon gods, which were the Second Demon God and the First Demon God. By utilizing different paths, players could choose either to first defeat the Second Demon God or the First Demon God.

The Second Demon God was situated in the spiral corridor. When players crossed swords with it, they not only had to evade its insanely powerful attacks, but they had to constantly keep tabs on the tiles they were standing on as well. Should they make a minor misstep… only a tragic fate awaited them. Furthermore, it was easier to face it solo, as the presence of party members could easily mess up the whole team if they had misstepped.

The Second Demon God’s battle had zero room for error, and as such, it was extremely headache-inducing.

Back in Li Yi’s past life, the Second Demon God was ranked fourth place in the player voted poll of ‘Pantheon’s Top Ten Hardest Bosses”. From this ranking alone, it had shown how difficult the Second Demon God was.

Compared to the Second Demon God, however, the First Demon God who only existed as a heart was much easier to fight.

“Sprtt! Sprtt!”

“Sprtt! Sprtt!”

The very instant Li Yi entered the Demon God Hall, the First Demon God launched its attack on Li Yi.

Countless bone spurs protruded from the ground, and wherever Li Yi ran towards, bone spurs would appear.

The First Demon God’s bone spur attacks were extremely threatening. Although the first hit would only result in a reduction in HP, the next one would impale players like a tanghulu¹. Then, more and more bone spurs would continue to entangle the players, suffocating and stabbing them to death.

Naturally, this process of suffocation and impalement was something that occurred within a short span of 2 to 3 seconds.

As plain as the First Demon God’s attacks were, they were extremely effective!

Li Yi ran as he fired his bow. He did not pause for a single moment. In order to take down the First Demon God, Li Yi needed to constantly reposition himself!

…