Wer'ti had wanted to help Ter'tu as everything spiraled out of control, but there was this crazy dude with a chainsaw running after him while constantly screaming. The man wore a suit of armor that boosted his speed far beyond the norm. Normally, Wer'ti was a stone-cold fighter who never lost his composure. Well, there was a first time for everything, and for Wer'ti it came when Lucan, after seeing the leader shout a command at him, chose Wer'ti as his very first target.
The Chainsaw 6000 was Lucan's completely new design. Three meters long and with a chain speed of over one hundred meters per second, the Chainsaw 6000 was an utter monster, surpassed only by its twin brother, the Chainsaw 6000 Fire Edition. It looked exactly the same and had identical stats, except that it was constantly engulfed in flames. Lucan wore something akin to an iron suit, and a crystal-powered jet engine propelled him after the now panic-stricken Wer'ti.
Thanks to the special mufflers he had built into each chainsaw, they were extra loud and sounded absolutely terrifying. The fact that Lucan was also screaming like a maniac while chasing Wer'ti was simply too much for the second-in-command. Wer'ti completely forgot to use any skills and just sprinted along the wall while Lucan eagerly chased after him. Chasing the alien was so much fun that Lucan also forgot to activate his booster and movement skills to catch up.
For Ter'tu's base, it wasn't exactly a good look that the co-leader was running around half the fortress screaming, crying, and with eyes as big as saucers. After circling the base once, Wer'ti finally managed to gather his thoughts and turned around. As he did, he first saw one of his favorite D-grade mages being swallowed by a Sky Turtle. He shook his head, and then he noticed that, in the middle of the base, Ter'tu was trapped inside a glowing blue sphere.
It was as if time itself had stopped as he watched his screaming leader—already covered in gruesome wounds and looking more like a mummy than a living being—being torn apart by countless razor-thin streams of water.
"Ter'tu, NOOOOO!" Wer'ti roared, only to be interrupted by a chainsaw slamming into the side of his shoulder. The Chainsaw 6000 also weighed several hundred kilograms, pinning Wer'ti against the stone wall while flesh exploded in every direction as the spinning chain carved its way downward.
"YEYEYEYE! OHHH! TAKAKAKAK!" Lucan screamed in a high-pitched voice over the deafening roar of the chainsaw and Wer'ti's agonized screams, which quickly came to an end.
<--
When it came to war, Thalion had never realized how great an impact good morale could have. Well, in this case, it was probably the effect of going full murderhobo on the enemy. Nearly everyone in his army, with the exception of the elves, was seeing red, and it showed. The enemy was being torn apart like paper, and while their D-grade mages tried to control the battlefield, Thalion's forces threw themselves straight into the middle of the fighting, blasting everything in sight.
Since the enemy mostly consisted of lightning mages or fighters using those weird crystal skills, they were at a severe disadvantage. Yes, they were D grade, but the Heavenrend Wyvern of the Rime Tempest wasn't affected by lightning at all, and thanks to its scales, it could simply fly through crystal attacks as long as they weren't too large.
Thalion had initially wanted to go after the enemy leader, but another mage crossed his path. By the time he had finished with that one, he saw that Annie and Thalassan had already engaged the leader. It didn't even look like they needed any help, and Thalion realized that he had underestimated Thalassan by quite a large margin. Whatever D-grade evolution she had undergone, it was utterly insane and allowed her to overpower the enemy leader with surprising ease.
From then on, Thalion remained in his wyvern form and focused on causing as much chaos throughout the base as possible. Every single one of his breath attacks tore buildings apart and killed as many E grades as possible. D grades were also on his list, but he never committed to prolonged fights. Simply flying around and blasting everyone who hadn't seen him coming caused far more damage.
He deliberately focused on the walls and towers because he didn't know where inside the base his buddies were being held. He felt a little sorry for what he had done to Kaldrek, but for the moment it looked like his gamble had worked perfectly. Transforming his guilt into pure rage worked remarkably well as he ripped apart everything in his path.
He really adored those favorable matchups where the opponent had almost no way of even hurting him. Thalion had expected this fight to be incredibly dangerous and had even thought he might lose a few buddies, but right now that seemed impossible. His heart also began to beat faster when Jack appeared beside him with a wide smile.
"We got all four of them out, and they've already been teleported back. I guess we don't stop killing."
Jack looked genuinely happy, and only a few seconds later Josh appeared beside him.
"Yes, we kill everyone. They should have some teleportation..."
"Already destroyed. They're all stuck here with us," Josh interrupted him with a wide grin.
"Look, they're trying to regroup for a counterattack," Jack commented. He switched into the massive squid, and the next moment he appeared directly above the enemy mages. An instant later they were blasted into the ground with such overwhelming force that not a single one seemed to survive. It had to be more than ten D grades who had just been one-shot by Jack without much effort. The training sessions with the gods had truly done wonders for them.
"Damn, now he's ahead again," Josh commented with a deadpan expression before switching into his insect form and dashing away, his aura violently exploding outward.
It took Thalion a moment to gather his thoughts again. They had won. Well, not completely yet, but especially Thalassan, Jack, and now Josh were killing D grades as though there wasn't even a competition. Still, they had to make sure they finished this battle without suffering any casualties of their own.
That wasn't an easy task, as there were still hundreds of E grades and a handful of D grades left. It took an entire day until every last defender had been slain, with many others escaping into the distance. It simply wasn't worth chasing after them while the battle was still raging, and those fleeing in blind panic were unlikely to relay much valuable information anyway.
When it was finally over, the streets were filled with corpses and the rubble of what had once been the North Tower's base. Then came the scavenging, because there was no reason to waste valuable materials. The only problem was that, even though this had been a D-grade sect, most of the truly valuable items had been destroyed during the fighting.
Still, there was plenty worth collecting. Especially weapons and armor had withstood the battle and could now be claimed. Most of it would be useless for those who had already reached D grade, but for the weaker members who would eventually evolve over the coming years, it could prove incredibly valuable. Normally they would have needed to work for years to contribute enough resources to obtain equipment of this quality, but now they could receive it for free.
At least, that was what Thalion had planned. They had no other real use for it anyway, and it would be a good incentive for everyone to level as quickly as possible. After the fight against the ants, Thalion had been confident that he could fight a Chosen, but now he was even more convinced that they could survive whatever the future threw at them.
Sure, a large number of D grades would eventually arrive in this universe, but this faction was far stronger than Thalion had ever dreamed possible. They had slaughtered thousands today and rescued their friends without losing anyone besides a few E-grade elves.
There were injuries, of course, but nothing truly serious, even though Lucan loudly complained that his armor had been damaged in multiple places and that it would take weeks to fully repair it. There were, however, a few people who would need much longer to recover mentally. Kargul, Kaldrek, Evelyn, and Jakob had been tortured for days.
Torture within the System was also far more destructive than anything back on Earth. Before the System, you had to be careful not to kill the subject by inflicting too much damage, even though there had always been countless methods to extract information. Yet even those heinous techniques were nothing compared to what existed within the System. Pumping acid into someone's body through the nose, burning them alive, drilling into teeth and bones—those were only a few of the many methods.
The worst part was that, with the help of healers, every one of those methods could be repeated multiple times a day. Evelyn and Kargul had suffered the least mental damage, and after only a few hours they were mostly back to their old selves. Kaldrek, and especially Jakob, were a different story.
Kaldrek had been brought onto the wall because he had been the most badly injured while still remaining conscious. Jakob, on the other hand, had looked more like a corpse than a living person. Every few minutes he muttered complete nonsense, making everyone regret not killing those bastards more slowly.
"Pigheads fly to Africa in winter," Jakob suddenly announced before digging a small hole into the ground like a mole. The fact that it was solid rock didn't seem to bother him in the slightest.
"Maybe I should give him a little love tap on the head?" Jack suggested.
They were all standing around Kaldrek and Jakob. Kaldrek merely looked confused and couldn't stand on his own legs, but Jakob... Jakob really wasn't looking good.
"Did the gods say anything about his condition?" Evelyn asked, which was, of course, a completely different matter. They had only returned half an hour ago, and even though a few elves had already told him that the gods wanted to speak with him, Thalion had ignored the request for the time being. He first wanted to make sure Kaldrek and Jakob were alright.
"I haven't talked to them yet. They must be very angry since I kind of ignored their orders," Thalion murmured, earning a few surprised looks.
"Whoa, wait a moment. They wanted you to let us die?" Kaldrek mumbled from where he sat on the ground.
"That's the essence of it. Now, what do we do about Jakob? I've never seen anything like this happen to anyone before." Thalion tried to steer the conversation back to the more important matter. There had to be a way to help Jakob. This couldn't possibly be the first time someone had been rescued after enduring torture.
"Hmm, and here I thought the gods were pretty cool after everything they taught us," Annie huffed.
After everything had gone so well, they had wanted to celebrate a little, but with Jakob in his current condition, they would have to postpone it.
"I'll go and check in with the gods. Could some of you take care of Jakob and Kaldrek?" Thalion concluded, and after a series of nods, he left for his home.
He was definitely going to receive a massive scolding from the gods after everything that had happened, especially since he had deliberately leaned into the role of the villain to save Kaldrek. Even though they had won with surprising ease, there was still the issue that their little conversation had most likely already been broadcast throughout the wider multiverse. Now the other factions might even band together to defeat the "evil" Thalion, and it could also influence the relationships between the various godly factions.
The moment Thalion stepped into the communication circle, the two gods appeared before him. Neither of them looked happy.
"Thalion! I thought we made it clear that the other gods were already planning to use this against us," Solan shouted. Beside him, a projection came to life, showing the arrival of Thalion and the others, their short conversation, and finally the moment Thalion attacked Kaldrek. After a few seconds of fighting, the recording ended. Seeing the effect of Lucan's special bomb from the enemy's perspective was actually quite terrifying, Thalion had to admit, as the entire screen turned red for a brief moment before the barrier shattered.
"The gods are already sending this recording everywhere. For us it doesn't have much of an impact yet, but for you it will make things very difficult. In just the last twenty minutes since it went live, the human faction has received massive support and assurances from multiple D-grade factions. They now look very good in the eyes of the multiverse since they had already called you out as evil during the last show, and now your actions proved them right."
Thalion had to admit that Solan had a point. He hadn't even considered what had happened during the show, nor that his actions had seemingly proven Ethan's, Ryan's, and Eric's arguments.
"There will be another show very soon. I'll try to get everything sorted out by then," Thalion said, already making plans for the future. As for the factions that had already allied themselves with another Chosen, there was likely no way to change their minds. So the impact of this one show would probably be moderate at best.
The next system event would be even more important. Thalion desperately needed a good placement there so he could put more pressure on the other Chosen and hopefully secure an alliance. Yet, as it turned out, this was only the beginning of his problems, because the gods had far more news waiting for him.