Altercation 18 Someone's about ready for war

Several weeks had passed since Karifel flew into the sky and searched for the human that managed to tickle Mephisto's fancy.

However, there was one thing that this stubborn fallen angel repeatedly ignored despite the number of warnings and advice Azazel had provided her.

This girl wasn't very good with directions and failed to realize that Mephisto actually played another trick on her.

Although the super devil had given Karifel some proper directions, she knew of how quickly the girl would forget, and not only that, there were a decent number of mountains in that one direction.

Mephisto knew precisely how the fallen angel would react once she reached the very first mountain that fits the 'description' that Karifel will vaguely remember...

She'd search through every nook and cranny of the mountain, then move on to the next, then repeat the process!

Karifel was a very straightforward and naive fallen angel.

Her reason for falling was the excessive wrath that could destroy her enemies, her allies, and herself, leaving only a few influential individuals keeping her in check.

Right now, Her wrath is sealed, for the most part, so Karifel's character is a complete 180 from how she usually was.

The girl had finished searching the 34th mountain and moved on to the next.

As for the man that she was looking for who happened to be in mountain number 77, he had changed completely, Joseph was mostly human, however, because of what he had grafted into his arms, his left arm, now, had a demonic 'touch' to it using the idea an old friend, who was an SSD fanatic, often talked about should it reach the IV level of dark. (reference Soul sacrifice delta)

The claw-like hand fiddled with the pendant that dangled from his neck looked like a green scythe, as it held effects much greater than what ML gamers knew of this particular item while there were a few others, those items were put away for the event in a few days.(reference Mobile legends)

While his right arm held a more divine look, with countless feathers growing out of it, gently caressed the head of the resting QFA, who he had named Tiffany, since she made his thigh as her pillow since she lost the battle once more~.

Thanks to how reluctant she was to lose, one of her hands was still grasping something 'vital' to the man.

The room, that they were in, had expanded in size GREATLY with the occupants reaching almost 10,000 due to how quickly Tiffany's race grew, over three thousand of them were practically younger copies of the queen.

Some of them even joined Tiffany's sessions in hopes of subduing the dragon but all of their attempts ended in failure, while there should've been so much more of them, a good number of the larvae and eggs were used to boost the queen as well as improve the powers of her children.

That also included their life expectancy, which was a brutal flaw for Tiffany's brood before the changes~.

Thanks to how fast he breathed from the constant fucking for the past few weeks certainly boosted his physical abilities, forcing the man to create a seal that weakens his total amount of strength when touching certain people without affecting the abnormal defenses that could make certain characters struggle to even tickle him~.

As for just how strong it was currently? Joseph didn't know but until he finishes the final item that was undergoing a powerful change the man was not going to find out.

Thankfully, Tiffany was more than happy to help him contact his two other monsters, as he had them work together for what's about to come within a few days, not only that he also removed some of Morgana's and Mary's (the spider gorgon's name) restrictions.

As for how did he find out, well a little bird- wait no, in this case, it was proper to call it a bat, since what remained of the squealer were batwings that the larvae were gnawing on.

Soon he'll be going out into the world as his new items not only extended his lifespan but made him incredibly hard to kill!

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Meanwhile, Deep within a familiar gloomy forest, two from the five 'major' factions were fighting for supremacy all because their target of interest was in the area.

The mages wanted the adaptive beast that Marian, the adoptive daughter of Perfidus, spoke of, while Hiptoglir and Kirovski were still searching for Joseph, not knowing that the man was no longer in the area.

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The scene in this once quiet forest was hellish!

Warcries intermixed with the bestial roars as casted spells collided with naturally made magic, and explosions reconstructed the area as trees fell with the victims.

Both sides were relentless, while the monsters outnumbered the mages.

Their advantage was the range and more substantial reinforcements making their way to this area.

Their target was a precious resource. Any undiscovered beast usually offered a good amount of merit points due to the chance of discovering new concoctions and weapons to empower their group as a whole.

When that happens, they'll receive some free stuff to increase their powers and standing within the organization.

Right now, it was only the fresh recruits and first years, a common tactic that the higher-ups used to test the waters and get rid of the weak and unlucky fools.

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Unlike what most would think a mage did to cast spells with chants or whatever, in this era, there was no time to show off, there was no way to openly cast your spells.

Mages had to be tricky, from using catalysts to boost their ways of gathering the elements to using the blood of the fallen, this was a time of strife, hesitation can lead to a more brutal ending as monsters also had their own unique way to steal souls to extract whatever information they wanted.

This also included becoming one of the monsters but the monster in control or the victim's luck when their capture didn't care would decide their transformation.

This was one of the reasons why those higher up took their time and allowed many of the weaker people of their faction to be sacrificed, not only to keep the monster population up but to have more monsters that can be harvested for future plans.

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A spark of lightning flew from a mage's hand, hitting one of the flying monsters in the chest.

"DIE ALREADY YOU-URK!"

While the mage was distracted, more of the other monsters jumped at him ferociously!

One of his friends attempted to help only to get hit from behind as a tail stabbed through his abdomen then pushed the said companion down!

None of the mages were having it easy nor were the monsters but the few lucky ones were trying to get what they can.

One of the monsters loomed over him before it attempted to drain his soul from out of his body as a gaseous material began to exit from the downed mage's seven orifices.

The young mage grit his teeth trying to resist the pain done to both his body and soul before saying this with a snarl!

"I'd rather die on my own terms than join your pathetic group!"

After taking lethal bites, the mage decided to just self detonate rather than let them eat him alive, then steal his soul!

One of the ways to do that was to overflow one's mana core, but that would take too long.

Thus, he used one of the faster available options to him.

One of the unstable concoctions, from the apothecary group, was a failed product that simulated a meditative state.

However, due to how fast it would pull mana into a person unless you are part of the fifth-year mages that understood the human body and ways to mix magic into it, the act of drinking it would be suicide and deadly for those within a ten-meter radius of the drinker!

Not even ten seconds later, after drinking the deadly potion, did the young mage's body begin to balloon up as if someone forced a large amount of liquid into his body.

Once he reached three times his original, that was when the mage exploded.

*BOOOMMMMM*

The victim's blood and gore scattered about, staining everything within the previously mentioned range.

The exploding body didn't do much of anything as the monsters that were holding him down also got stained in blood stood there in confusion.

But that was not why this potion was considered a lethal weapon on the battlefield, those who got covered in blood and gore regardless of friend or foe felt as If their bodies started to burn from the inside out.

Pained howls and groans were heard as the effects of the potion took hold and became more apparent on the monsters that fell victim to the bloody mess!

Pus and blisters formed on the affected areas, the potion acted like an incredibly infectious virus, as long as it touched something that could hold mana (which is pretty much anything within this world!) it was continuously causing the affected object or living being to abruptly explode for the next ten minutes!

But there are a few ways to stop it, a willing volunteer who can 'contain' the effects, powerful wind to move it to another location or simply drain the mana within the area, mana is the activator of the potion without mana, it was just a really smelly concoction~.

The potion certain cleared the field.

Both sides suffered quite a bit, with the monsters losing somewhat more than the mages, primarily due to the fact that many of the weaker monsters tend to blindly charge and attack without regard for anything else.

"Stay clear of the blood mist, we can't risk losing some of our best for what's about to come!"

A reptilian voice ushered the others to hold their ground for now.

The Stronger monsters, led by Hiptoglir, Kirovski, and other monster leaders who joined later after learning of the arrival of the mages, kept their distance all while preparing their own attacks as they could already sense that more mages were coming.

However, the even greater terror that lurked underground watched them kill each other with relish, a certain gorgon and a zerg had joined together.

Both worked to refine a perfect plan to eliminate anyone foolish enough to enter their territory!

Morgana still looked at Mary as her daughter.

The rest of the zerg also felt a connection with her.

Thus, they never harbored any thoughts of devouring her to collect her DNA strains.

They were several hundreds of meters underground.

The drones and zerglings worked tirelessly to gather the leftover corpses of the two fighting factions.

Throughout Morgana's time here, she had constructed a complete base full of the primary buildings, with the move advanced ones needing to wait due to scarce resources and the hatchery needing to 'upgrade!'

The overlords she had created fused with the ceiling and walls to reinforce their integrity, any starcraft fan who saw how Morgana was using these zerg would shake in their seats from fear and awe.

She made full use of their adaptive bodies as there were a bunch of zerglings who were turned in chimeras!

Morgana currently lacked proper ranged units, But Mary's plans helped remedy that problem.

Right now, they were just waiting for the stronger mages to arrive before Morgana's daughter activates her trap car- *ahem* I mean spider traps as the number of them that waited were in the few thousand now as all of them held a special concoction in their bellies that WILL be released.

The troops under Morgana as the distraction and the finish effects done by the gorgon soon will show everyone how horrifying it can be when a monster built for war and a monster built for hunting put their plans together!