Apocalypse Healer - Path of Death-Chapter 14B3 - Void Brawl

Since leaving the Nest intact wasn’t an option, David drained it entirely. It was a shame—given they could have transformed it into a relatively secure training ground—but the potential issues were too great.

Zachariah cut a good portion of the Nest Hearth out and removed the Void swirl before David devoured its lifeforce. He then stored it in a box embedded with various high-quality gemstones and unknown enchantments.

Once the Nest was dealt with, Maja reached them as well, a bead of sweat trickling from her temple.

“Are we done already?” she asked, her eyes burning with battle spirit.

“Not quite,” Zachariah responded, studying the Portaligist for a good moment before nudging toward David. “He has some cleaning to do.”

David nodded and moved to remove the last remnants of the Witherling Fiends that had survived, seeking protection underground. Getting to the Witherling Fiends that had been squashed by Maja—and clearing a path to the roots that held the remaining lifeforce and Essence—was a bit of a nuisance, but David made it work with [Blood Manipulation] and a decent bit of brute force. freёnovelkiss.com

This place looks bleak even without any traces of Void leeching the life and structure from… everything. He grimaced, shaking his head as he checked the surroundings for more Witherling Fiends, only to find death and destruction.

No matter how he looked at what must have once been a quaint but lively town, David couldn’t find any life. Not even the plant life that should have bloomed after the integration had grown. Nature’s vigor was no longer present in the town.

I know the Earthen Union will recover as long as the Void didn’t reach the Earthen Union’s Core, but nothing is moving. The surrounding life avoids the town and treats it like a sickness. How many months will it take before a small area like this recovers? David wondering, his mind drifting to entire regions drained and destroyed by the Void. Would a few years be enough to recover it all, or would it take decades?

He had no idea, but it was apparent that fixing the mess created by the Void wouldn’t be an easy ordeal. Maybe the Earthen Union would never recover—not fully—without help.

“That’s not important right now. If we can slow the destruction of the Earthen Union, we can stall enough time to grow strong enough to deal with them. We will be fine!” David declared, though the confidence in his voice faded.

They had to be fine.

Shaking his head, David discarded the doubts and returned to the others.

“That was number one. Do you have enough energy to move on, or do you need rest?” Zachariah inquired. “Maja should have enough Mana to move us to the next target. We already discussed the course of action and decided that Maja will search for more Nests in the region. She may not find smaller Nests easily, but my network will keep looking for them while we take care of the adult Nests in the region.”

Again, David had no idea what the Regressor’s network was, but he nodded. “Sounds like a good plan. I’ve already recovered a good bit of Blood and have enough to demolish one or two Nests until all energy storages are drained.”

Zachariah nodded at Maja, and a golden portal jumped to life beside him.

“Let’s go then,” the Regressor said, a flash of excitement in his eyes hiding how he truly felt.

Happy something is finally working, ain’t we? David snickered, following the others into the portal.

Not that I don’t get you. I’m just as thrilled—for a different reason, though.

As pleasant as it was to remove the Void’s influence on the Earthen Union, David’s heart leaped at the thought of fighting a full-fledged Void Fragment. His fingers were itching for revenge after his first encounter with one of the real powerhouses!

***

Their mission was fairly simple.

First, they focused on destroying the Nests in their immediate surroundings. Specifically, their focus was on the region around the Dwarven Sanctuary, as they used the settlement as their place of rest. Zachariah often disappeared into the Dwarven Sanctuary saying he would train and refine his Sparks, but David was certain he was busy communicating with his network.

Regardless, they spent the rest of the day and the following day destroying three Nests that had already been discovered. Squashing them hadn’t been particularly difficult with Maja and the Regressor by his side. However, as it turned out, David was the only one with the ability to remove every bit of the Void’s influence from the immediate surroundings.

It surprised David greatly to find out Zachariah could only sense more condensed traces of the Void. He once mentioned his sealed powers, which included certain Laws and Intents that should have helped him locate the Void’s influence more easily. But since Zachariah’s initial plan had been discarded a long time ago due to the significant differences in the events occurring during the final Cycle, he couldn’t unlock the Intent fast enough—leaving David to search for and destroy the Void traces that were smaller than the swirls they’d discovered in two Nests.

While not all Nests were Void-infected, Zachariah didn’t want to take any risks, so they destroyed them all, netting David a great deal of lifeforce and experience, pushing several Skills to the next rank.

Maja benefited greatly as well, and both her Primary and Secondary Class advanced one rank.

But as pleasant as their benefits were, their upcoming mission was just as dangerous. After all, growing stronger was only a subsequent benefit of their mission.

David was the first to emerge from the portal, his eyes rising slowly as he discovered the first Nest formed in the open plains. Zachariah and Maja stepped up beside him, and the portal behind them snapped shut.

“Where is the Nest? I can’t find it,” Maja muttered, glancing at David, whose features depicted utter confusion for a moment.

He took a step forward, Bloodthrone Dominion pinpointing a deflated mess of flesh that must have once been a Nest. It was damaged and would probably die in the next few minutes, even if they did nothing.

David flicked a finger ahead. “Up to the right.”

But while the Nest’s life signal was weak, the Void swirl was powerful—stronger than the two swirls they had extracted.

Was there lifeforce interwoven into the other Void swirls? I don’t think so. David infused Blood into his eyes and caught a glimpse of movement.

His hair stood on end, and an ominous feeling shrouded him as the Void swirl split into two and moved.

“Something is wrong he–...”

“Careful!” Zachariah shouted, but it was already too late.

A mass of impending death, emitting all-consuming darkness, emerged in front of David. It towered before him, its presence weighing heavily on his mind and soul. The sensation was familiar, but it did not leave him frozen and unable to move this time around. But being able to move wasn’t enough—he was still too slow as the towering creature’s claws scraped across his arm.

David barely recognized what was happening and twisted his body away, casting [Bloodbound Bastion]. However, it shattered into countless crimson shards before the overlapping barriers and shields could block the attack.

Sharp claws dug into his arm, barely missing his chest as he moved away. A moment later, something within him stirred. David didn’t resist, and the space around him twisted. He teleported several meters back, giving him a full view of the creature they were facing.

Dark-ruby glowing horns jutted from the creature’s elongated head, which depicted a long jaw, and vibrantly glowing crimson eyes pierced through the darkness shrouding the lanky creature.

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“Are you okay?” Maja shrieked, her quivering eyes lingering on his arm.

David wanted to answer, to say that everything was fine—but he knew it wasn’t. Something had entered his body, and it was destroying him from the inside out.

“Never turn away from the enemy!” he snarled instead, overclocking [Herald’s Blessing] on himself, Zachariah, and Maja.

The Regressor was already before the lanky enemy—clearly a Void Sapling, possibly even a Fragment, given its speed and the natural pressure it exerted on David’s soul. But while Zachariah was fast—his speed catching up to the Fragment once [Herald’s Blessing] jumped into effect—there was another problem.

“There are two of them!” David shouted, his eyes trained on the second Void swirl as it moved. It was hard to recognize at first, as he’d assumed it belonged to the Nest, but the Nest was no longer alive. Nor did it possess a Void swirl—not after giving birth to a Void Sapling, or so David presumed as he pushed past Maja, [Blood Armor] unleashed at full power.

He added [Bloodbound Bastion], shrouding his injured arm in several crimson barriers as a smaller creature brushed past the Void Fragment.

Zachariah left behind an afterimage, his moves deliberate as he slashed at the smaller Void creature, but the Fragment blocked the attack with its claws. It snarled—an ear-piercing shriek that rang in David’s ears—at Zachariah and redoubled its efforts to kill the Regressor.

The smaller creature, in the meantime, emerged before David and slashed. He blocked the attack—or tried to—as he realized that both armor and shields were weaker than they should have been.

David’s defense crumbled as claws shrouded in all-consuming darkness swiped across them. Worse still, the claws dug deeper, slicing into his arm.

The Void creature separated a portion of its power and infested David’s arm, draining the Void swirl ever so slightly to kill him.

David kicked the creature—no larger than Maja—and released a volley of [Blood Blast] before sending a wave of Rend at it, keeping it at bay for a moment. That moment was all he needed to figure out what had happened.

It infected me with a trace of the Void.

While that much was obvious, the true extent of the infection had always been unclear. David had helped Zachariah a few times before with a Void infection, but he never knew exactly what the infection did. Not anymore.

A moment was enough for him to analyze how the Void traces were altering his body. First, it destroyed and corrupted the energy nearby. While the Void’s range of effect did not appear large, it was enough to weaken the armor and barriers created by his Skills. Meanwhile, it destroyed [Greater Restoration]’s power as it surged into his arm, leaving him helpless.

I cannot protect my arm, and I cannot heal it. He concluded, all while sensing the traces of the Void spread through his body. They quickly surged toward his wrist and hand, and it would not be long until the traces consumed his entire arm. His shoulder, upper body, neck, and the rest of his body would follow thereafter.

“Fuck you,” David growled, coating his left arm in the Intent of Rend to sever it at the upper shoulder.

He did not hesitate as he severed his arm. There was no time for it. The Void creature—presumably a Sapling, as it appeared weaker than the Fragment Zachariah was fighting—bolted at him.

A spatial fluctuation encompassed David once more, and he accepted it, letting it teleport him behind the Sapling. He looked for Maja but didn’t find her. She was nowhere to be seen, which was a surprise—a welcome one. If she wasn’t present, then nobody should be able to attack, let alone kill, her.

David conjured the Obsidian Blade in his left hand and formed several blades from the blood spurting from his severed arm. At the same time, he cast and overclocked [Greater Restoration] on his arm once enough of his blood littered the ground. The bleeding slowed at once and stopped after a moment, and David welcomed the intense itching sensation that came with the restoration of his arm.

But restoring his arm wasn’t instantaneous, and it was highly unlikely the Void Sapling would be patient enough to wait.

It spun around and struck again, only to be hit and slowed by a reinforced blood blade.

Words of Power rolled from David’s lips, and the first blood blade whipped toward the Void Sapling’s face. The Sapling lifted its arm swiftly and shattered the blade into countless fragments. The fragments, instead of liquefying, transformed into needles and surged toward the Void Sapling, piercing into the all-consuming darkness.

David’s lips curled upward at that moment, only to sour when [Equivalent Exchange] didn’t trigger. He lost control of the blood needles the moment they touched the Void, catching him by surprise.

How am I supposed to injure them if they block Rend and the like so easily? Even without countless special abilities, this is…

His heart drummed fiercely against his chest, threatening to rip through his rib cage as the Void Sapling closed in once more.

David conjured Scalemore—though not entirely, since his right arm had just begun to regenerate. Regrowing it would take a little while.

He side-stepped, evading a claw strike, and cursed as the Sapling’s eyes glowed. The pressure on him increased drastically, but he continued to move, dodging two more attacks before it became clear that the Sapling was faster. Not only that—it was also more flexible and had two arms to swing at him.

He cast [Bloodbound Bastion], amplified by [Herald’s Blessing], and conjured [Blood Armor] atop Scalemore, even if it wasn’t strictly necessary. After the first few attacks, David caught a glimpse of the Void Sapling’s pattern and strengths. He had yet to discover a weakness, but knowing an enemy’s strongest abilities was just as good. He strengthened [Bloodbound Bastion] just enough to block one attack, then weakened the second with a bloody projectile. The projectile smashed into the Sapling’s claws, slowing its strike just enough to fail to penetrate the crimson barriers protecting David.

[Bloodbound Bastion] failed to block a third attack, but that was within David’s range of acceptance. He used [Phantom Rush], and his presence disappeared for a moment, pulling the Sapling’s attention to the crimson replica that appeared in his place.

The replica didn’t survive long—a stab to its chest scattered the crimson figure—but David used the momentary distraction to strike.

He slashed at the Void creature twice and stabbed it once in a series of quick movements, but his attack never connected. Applying [Herald’s Blessing] on the blade should have been enough to pierce the all-consuming darkness, yet it failed. Still unscathed, the Void Sapling accelerated once more. It was angry, and its follow-up attack pierced [Blood Armor] easily. However, it didn’t even touch Scalemore before he vanished from the spot.

The space around him twisted, and he reappeared beside the Void Sapling, plunging the Obsidian Blade into the side of its head—or it would have if the all-consuming darkness hadn’t blocked the attack.

Forced to end his strike preemptively, David had to shift back into defense. His defenses, as long as they weren’t weakened, were good enough to hold up against the Sapling. But even that was only feasible with Maja’s support. The Sapling was faster and more flexible than David; however, he had [Herald’s Blessing], several layers of defense, and Maja pulling him away from certain death when that wasn’t enough.

As the battle continued, David used a moment of silence to take a risk. He glanced at Zachariah, a wince escaping his lips at what he saw. Zachariah wasn’t faring much better than they were. Still, the Regressor had all his limbs and hadn’t been affected by the Void yet. He might have to survive a little longer, but if anyone could endure the Void’s threat, it was Zachariah.

There wasn’t much David could do to help the Regressor anyway. He and Maja were already busy dealing with the Sapling.

His arm’s recovery was fast, another burst of [Greater Restoration] accelerating the process. But as helpful as it would have been to have his arm back, David could not ignore how much Blood regrowing it cost while fighting the Void Sapling. He couldn’t afford to hold back on his expenses, resulting in one empty Blood Storage and a second Blood Storage with only five droplets left.

As for the last Blood Storage, it was filled with altered Blood, which had circulated through Deryadus’ Arm whenever David had spare time. He could have used the healing-enhanced Blood to restore his arm faster, but he had put it aside for emergencies. While unlucky, the loss of his arm was not yet an emergency. He still had one more to fight with, after all.

“Strike the chest!” Maja’s sudden shout resounded as the sparks of a rift materialized right before the Void Sapling. It came to a screeching halt, but not before the all-consuming darkness shrouding its chest disappeared into the golden twinkling sparks that vanished into thin air.

The shroud of darkness was no longer complete!

A high-pitched scream, pained and miserable, rang in his ears, but David steeled his heart and struck, spitting Words of Power from his lips as he accessed the Law of Blood. He applied and overclocked [Herald’s Blessing] and used [Phantom Rush] in an instant.

He closed the minute gap separating him from the Void Sapling just as the hole in its perfect shroud began to seal. He thrust the Obsidian Blade deep into the frail-looking, grayish skin beneath.

It was tougher than it appeared at first glance, yet it was not as impenetrable as the all-consuming darkness shroud. The blade impacted and dug through the skin, piercing into the Void Sapling’s flesh. [Equivalent] Exchange triggered at last, the corner of his lips curling upward even as his danger sense skyrocketed.

Claws came for him from the left and right, but David cast [Phantom Rush] again, emptying the second Blood Storage as he sent a final wave of Blood into the Obsidian Blade, accelerating its innate property.

The Sapling’s claws scraped across [Blood Armor] and pierced it, but they failed to penetrate Scalemore when they collided.

Suck him dry! David screamed in his mind, all while more Words of Power rolled from his lips, unleashing the Law of Blood onto the Obsidian Blade.

He left the soulbound weapon inside the target and watched in bliss as waves of lifeforce poured out of the creature.

However, as the Void swirl stirred once again, David moved instantly, retrieving the Obsidian Blade before the Void could damage it permanently. Inflicting more damage would have been perfect, but he could not afford to lose the blade.

This drained a lot more lifeforce than expected. He thought, pressing his lips together as he checked the Source’s condition. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to fight and kill a Void Sapling. That much was sure.

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