Chapter 992 - Titanic chaos

Sofia flew back down to join Pareth, he was still drawing in her mana, having leeched more than a hundred million already.

“You’re almost done, right?”

She did not wait for an answer, jumping right back to the border of the wall-less floor, “because we are going to be in a bit of a situation really fast if not. Really really fast.”

The remaining giants were all watching from a distance, slowly closing in.

But the truth was that, if the one Sofia had just killed was any indication, they were not slow, just careful. Each giant parasite had its own distinctive shape, it was likely that they all had their own way of fighting, and the two furthest ones in the forest were actually flying, hovering in place, to be precise, watching from a distance while the sturdier giants carefully closed-in, stomping over the city’s buildings like weeds.

We are already completely surrounded…

But it was their mistake to let me get the first kill. This giant thrall will be key… If I can target the other physical fighters first and turn them…

While she evaluated the probable main attack means of each giant from their appearance, Sofia hissed when she saw one of them that looked like a huge bulb suddenly open up. Under its skin was a honeycomb structure.

Parasites, honeycombs, for Sofia who had risked her life on Sun’s space station, it was hard not to draw some conclusions.

Did they dig into my memory for inspiration?!

No, no, they wouldn’t even have to, no? Nex did go to the Deep by himself after all so…

Thousands of smaller flying parasites oozed out from the honeycomb-like holes in the bulbous giant’s skin. Considering the distance, they were each at least the size of a car.

Sofia cursed Nex under her breath, running back to Pareth.

“We’ll have to find you a channeling speed boost at some point. The others slowed after I killed the first one but I don’t think they’ll stay cautious like that for very long. They’re summoning and preparing ranged attacks. Hold for now. The summons are coming…”

The thousands of smaller flying parasites flew straight toward the building like angry wasps.

“Not yet. Three… Two…”

The flying parasites got closer and closer to the building.

“Now!”

Pareth finally unleashed his skill, powered up by Sofia’s huge mana reserves.

[Glacial burst]

A surge of brilliant mana rushed through Pareth’s sword, colliding with the floor before exploding outwards with a low bang.

It was like the shockwave washed all heat away. The ambient temperature dropped far below zero, and everything froze over, nothing spared, almost the entire city instantly encased in ice.

The flying parasites fell from the sky, huge ice chunks raining down destruction on the frozen city. Four of the giants were in the range. Two of them including the bulbous one were fully frozen over, but likely not dead, one more humanoid one with thick limbs was frozen up to its waist, and a thinner one was completely unaffected, protected by an invisible force.

Sofia’s giant thrall was also fully frozen over, but she was confident it was strong enough to break out of it.

Let’s start this.

Pareth and Sofia flew out together, first flying in the same direction then splitting up midway through, their targets were the two frozen giants.

The one Sofia advanced toward was more triangular-shaped, she had a hard time comparing its anatomy to anything, but considering it had relatively low mana compared to the other closest giants, it was probably a physical fighter of some kind. She had not yet reached it when the ice around it started to crack.

Sofia sped up, she had no fancy tactic for this one, just more of the same, before collision she disappeared into the spiritual plane, her sword cleaving a large hole in the screaming soul of the monster.

That single hit was all she had time for before the monster fully freed itself from the ice.

Sofia quickly turned around, facing the monster’s back. She had to kill it as fast as possible, the other giants were not going to obediently wait for her to kill another one.

Where could its core be…

A gigantic smiling mouth opened up at the center of the triangular colossus’ back. Almost managing to swallow Sofia in one bite. She just barely managed to [Regret] out of the way.

Before she could riposte, the giant disappeared.

What?!

Relying on her sight and mana senses, Sofia couldn’t find any trace of the giant that seemed to have just disappeared into thin air. At the same time, [Heat Death] suddenly reacted.

Another giant in the distance had several tentacles reaching up toward the sky, at the tip of each was a red glow. The red glows drew straight lines in the air converging into a massive glowing ball in front of that giant’s torso.

Judging from the strength of [Heat Death]’s reaction, she had enough mana to negate the attack, but barely.

I can’t waste more mana.

With an extended hand, using the painted halls, her eye and her storage ring all at the same time, she summoned her defenses, from the asterite chest to thick mithril plates to layers upon layers of bones.

The attack was upon her before gravity could make her makeshift defenses fall, a bright red light engulfed the surroundings, like a ray of pure energy corroding everything. Sofia’s defenses barely just created a tiny pocket of safety in the middle of the beam, her layers of protection disintegrating one by one.

The energy stream quickly died down, and all that was left in front of Sofia was her asterite chest, glowing-hot and half encased in a bubbling glob of semi-molten mithril.

Behind her, there was a long burning trail of magma cutting through the middle of the frozen city, her giant thrall had barely escaped the ice in time to move out of the strike zone, and was running full-sprint towards the lonely ice-immune giant.

Sofia stored her chest back, and her wings felt strange air movements from above.

She immediately had the nymphs pull her into the spiritual plane.

A screaming mass of souls fell upon her from above. Normally she needed momentum to strike but she could use her enemy’s. Thrusting her sword upwards through the mass of souls, she cut her way through, and resurfaced to the physical plane right after to see the triangular giant fall to the ground below her, a second black patch on its skin marking the scar left by its failed ambush.

Some distance away, Pareth was fighting against the honeycomb giant jumping from one flying parasite to another, slamming into them with his shield, his sword continuously sending waves or [Arclight] into the honeycomb structure.

Sofia flew down along the triangle giant, not wanting to let it get away again. She just managed to slam a skewering bolt into its back before it disappeared once more.

Shit.

In the distance, the tentacle giant was charging up another attack, but it was not ready yet, however, the previously half-frozen stubby giant had freed itself, and was running toward Pareth, the mouth on its torso curved up in a disturbing smile, each of its steps making the entire city tremble.

Morphing her scepter back into its original form, Sofia disappeared using [Regret], she reappeared between Pareth and the stocky giant running at him, staking all of her remaining mana and about ten millions from the parasite seed’s reserves for a surprise attack.

She appeared right outside of the giant’s mouth, getting instantly engulfed by it as the creature kept running. She immediately hit a wall of flesh that could be considered the back of its throat. It did not stay unaware for long, as clawed hands immediately sprouted from the flesh, digging long holes into her bone armor.

Keeping herself away from the wall by planting the tips of her wings into it, Sofia raised her staff.

“THE GODS CALL THEE, YOU DISGUSTING FREAK!!!”

The screaming souls in the monster’s body roared so loudly that they could be heard from the physical realm as they were torn apart from the flesh. Amplified by the already extreme momentum and weight of the giant, the effects of the spell were even faster and more brutal than usual. The giant exploded forward into a rain of gore that razed not only part of the city but a large swath of the fields and forests beyond.

“AHAHAHAH! WHAT A SPELL!” Sofia laughed like a lunatic as she reversed her body’s flow of mana. It was extremely easy to do now that she was pretty much completely out, she only hard to guide her regeneration into the opposite direction, completely bypassing the need to use the regular method to enter her Numb Sorrows form. Without any mana, there was no better time to use this demon form with no access to spells other than [Regret] but better physical stats.

Staying still even for a second was a mistake, a red light shone in the distance. Her form change still underway, she could not immediately move or [Regret] out. At the same time, The triangular giant appeared right above Pareth, mouth wide open.

Sofia considered transposing out. She did not, because Pareth came to her instead, narrowly avoiding one giant’s attack to defend her instead. His shield raised, he stood between Sofia and the red beam of destruction.