Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 214: Unstoppable

A mass of writhing tentacles, slobbering mouths, too many eyes that stared off in every direction, something that looked like it belonged on the cover of the complete works of HP Lovecraft or in the thumbnail of a “yo, the deep sea is really scary” youtube video.

Black and dark green sludge floated around the beast, rot-streaked energy flickering around it in a deathly-looking aura.

The damn thing also had multiple abilities that would make Isaac fighting it one on one tricky, but thankfully, he didn’t have to.

And to top it all off, the enforcement of the treaty of Seoul was going to seriously help.

Unfortunately, only a handful of treaties were that impactful. The treaty of Seoul had included countless different nations and all had had very important officials sign it. With that kind of power behind it, [System]-enforcement was possible. Getting that many different people to cooperate would be damn tricky under almost any other circumstances, sadly. It would be a long while until most treaties gained the same level of power.

But while Isaac worked on “scouting out” the monster, aka looking at it so he could pretend he’d gleaned the information he was sending up above via observation, the chain of command was being decided on.

Not by people, thankfully, that would have been chaotic as hell, but by the [System], as per the rules laid out by the treaty. Whoever ultimately ended up in charge was someone who was at least not actively hated by the vast majority of participants, was already in a position of command, and had enough knowledge and experience to not completely bungle everything.

However, it wouldn’t decide on who was in charge until it had gotten a good idea as to who would be participating.

Isaac Thoma, you have been designated as Incident Commander.

You now hold Unified Command of the battle against the [Heart of Madness].

Your responsibilities include ensuring that the monster is defeated with a minimum amount of casualties, or, should catastrophe ensue, ensure that the appropriate measures are taken.

You have been granted the following boons:

Access to the Skill “Unified Command Network”

Information on your temporary subordinates

(limited) ability to requisition support from foreign militaries

Ah, crap. That was probably going to result in some hard questions being asked sooner or later.

The [System] knew what he’d gone through in the other timeline after the 4th Evolution and now, it had decided that as the person with the greatest amount of knowledge, he was the perfect person to be in charge. He also had experience leading from [Hildebrand’s Heir], and apparently, he wasn’t disliked enough to be disqualified.

Sure, Isaac had all the necessary abilities to deal with the situation, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be in charge.

The [System] had spoken, though, which now left him in the situation of having to somehow walk the tightrope between using enough of his knowledge to ensure victory and making sure that no one grew suspicious.

Isaac threw Balmung at the monster, driving it through the water using his magic as hard as he could.

But he didn’t stick around long enough to get in a fight, instead shooting up through the water while laying the groundwork for the fight ahead.

[Unified Command Network] was the party-forming [Skill] granted by the treaty and it was built to properly interact with basically any other enhancing, communication, information-sharing or party-forming [Skill] in existence.

And as it turned out, that included Isaac’s teaching ability. Now, what crazy stunts could he pull with that?

When he taught [Expert’s Insight] to another person, it turned into [Veteran’s Knowledge], which, in turn, allowed people to pass knowledge and experience on to those less knowledgable, as long as both had one of the two above [Skills]. There was also a limit as to how much information could be granted at once, but Isaac wasn’t planning on sharing all his knowledge, just the few tidbits he could share without arousing suspicion.

Below him, the Heart of Madness roiled like the surface of the ocean in the middle of a storm. Apparently, Eldritch monstrosities didn’t like getting poked with magical swords, who’d have thunk?

Where before, the [Raid Boss] had been content to float upwards at a leisurely pace, now, it was chasing him at full speed … which wasn’t that great.

The Heart of Madness was at its most dangerous when it could sit in a single position while blasting anything and everything in sight with its magic while smacking away anyone who tried to attack in melee.

Sure, it could swim, but it wasn’t truly built for rapid aquatic movement and Isaac wasn’t within its range.

Well, its effective range, that was. Beams of putrid energy that stank of rot and decay to his senses flashed past, but they missed by a wide margin.

Unfortunately, his own counterattacks weren’t any stronger. Fighting that thing on his own to delay it was an option that had unfortunately been taken from him by the [System], the person in charge couldn’t afford to haring off on their own in the middle of an emergency. Continuing to throw down his sword would inflict the equivalent of paper cuts and be a complete and utter waste of time.

His primary ranged option was, of course, his fire, but there was one small problem with that. He was currently underwater. Sure, there were some flames that could handle that, but his current surroundings would still make using the fire difficult and vastly more expensive.

There was also a kind of fire that was completely immune to the interference of water, if the being controlling it wished, it wouldn’t even transfer a single joule of energy to the liquid even when completely submerged.

… but getting said flame would have required him to face a Tier 9 [Field Boss], and that was too reckless even for him.

So instead, he was just getting the beast to chase him so the people above could fry it.

The ships had already spread out around the area the city had once occupied, creating a huge open circle for him to lead the beast into.

Sure, it might also decide to go after a richer target, like one of the ships, if he’d been alone, but that was why the center wasn’t empty.

No, that was where the monster would find out just how dangerous a group of humans could be.

Depth charges had been raining past Isaac for most of his ascent, but now, they were close enough to do some serious damage.

The first magical attack flashed through the water when Isaac had come within half a kilometer of the surface, one of Patrick’s strongest spells.

It was officially classified as so dangerous that casting it without a damn good and, more importantly, verifiable reason would have landed him in seriously hot water.

If he’d cast it within the cramped confines of the city, no one would have walked out alive.

Out in the open, [Titan’s Demise, Aquatic Adaptation] looked like a car-sized spear of darkness, as if reality itself had been carved away in that location.

It ignored the water, but everything else it passed by disintegrated in brief flashes of light.

And then, it impacted the monster like the fist of an angry god, penetrating deep into its blubbery body.

If that had been all it did, it might have been impressive, but not when you considered it had been created by one of the best [Mages] on the planet, under the tutelage of the greatest monster hunter in the world.

The Heart of Madness shuddered as channels created by spatial and dimensional magic directed the plasma from the literal star at the core of the spell into every bit of its body that could be reached before its mana ran out.

There was a dull flash of light below Isaac and a truly awful mixture of fluids spread out from the site of the impact, but the monster was still there.

Leaking and torn to shreds, but still there. Even a Tier 9 monster and some Tier 10s would have died to that attack, but [Raid Boss] toughness was a pain in the ass to deal with, which was why the next attack was unleashed the instant the target became visible again.

[Marines] were infantry deployed on the navy’s ships and their initial [Skills] reflected that. The ability to cope with the swaying of the ships, unnaturally good swimming ability, and all the standard quality of life abilities that most soldiers got from their starter [Classes].

Then, the first Evolution turned them into the action heroes a lot of Marines already thought they were.

With the second came [Skills] that changed the very basis of how they fought, such as the ability to walk on water, or shoot through it without the bullets being impacted much, or at all, if your [Skill] Level was high enough.

But the third Evolution was where all [Classes] evolved from [Marine] got a stupidly powerful Central [Skill], [Esprit de Corps], the ultimate force multiplier. Shared pain allowing people to survive injuries that would otherwise kill them. Coordinated fire growing more powerful than the sum of its parts, and more.

And as for the fourth Evolution, well, Marines were deployed on ships and therefore, the sea was their battleground, wasn’t it? So why not give them the ability to directly fight against warships, to take them on as an individual?

So when an entire Expeditionary Force fired as one, several of its members having already obtained the stupidly powerful offensive [Skills] of the fourth Evolution, and [Esprit de Corps] acting to boost the attack’s power into the stratosphere?

The hail of bullets fell like a meteor shower, wreathed in giant phantasmal images of falling artillery and stars. When they finally impacted, the blackness of the sea shone with a light they’d likely never seen before or would again, every bit of the monster put into sharp relief as it was torn to pieces, three chunks the size of a destroyer floating in the ocean.

This was the dangerous part. A dangerous part, anyway. The Heart of Madness had been 200 meters below sea level when it had been hit by the Marines and it, well, looked dead. If someone relaxed with the very much still alive Heart that close, they could quite easily end up dead.

But these were professionals he was dealing with, as were the people playing bait. No kill notification meant they hadn’t won yet.

An officer’s repositioning [Skill] janked the people playing bait out of the way, safely depositing them on the deck of a nearby aircraft carrier and then, Isaac breached the surface.

The instant he hit the open air, flames burst into existence beneath him and a pillar of fire flung him skywards, well clear of the monster’s grasp.

Three massive chunks of putrid flesh reached the surface seconds later, each slowly shifting away their original look, and then, the whole place turned into a shooting gallery.

Isaac was well clear of the targeted area, the ocean wasn’t in the way, and the main guns of every warship here had a clear shot at the monster.

Bombs and missiles rained down as every armed aircraft they had available unleashed its load, the main guns on destroyers and frigates chattered to life, emptying every shell they had available at the highest possible rate.

But it wasn’t just the primary vessels that were in use, they hadn’t had enough warning to open up the distance, so when the Heart of Madness reached the surface, even the guns meant for point defense got in on the action. It wasn’t like they were good for anything else at the moment, they certainly couldn’t shoot down magical beams of energy.

The multiple parts of the monster writhed under the hail of fire, countless small bits being torn off on a constant basis.

That went well for about five seconds until the Heart of Madness unleashed its signature ability.

A wave of sickly energy erupted from the monster, swept out to cover most of the fleet and a tenth of the guns went silent as their operators suddenly lost their grip on reality.

The only reason that didn’t lead to an ungodly number of friendly fire incidents was that Isaac had “predicted” that the monster would have an ability to suit its name.

If it had induced actual madness, then the chaplains, psychiatrists, and the like would have caught that as they were constantly checking for that.

If it had just dealt “psychic damage”, as it were, then they’d have had to try and see if rotating the people exposed could mitigate the effects.

And if it started messing with how people saw the world, then the Party would help, by some people constantly reporting a few things about their surroundings and when someone realized those things stopped matching what they were seeing, they’d know that the Heart of Madness had done something. At that point, the affected were to stop attacking and do everything they could to retreat and get better.

Dark rays of energy burst from eyes and the tips of tentacles, rotting away bodies and corroding ships wherever they struck. The earliest victims were the ships that, by all rights, shouldn’t be out this far on the ocean, speedboats, tiny fishing ships, and even a single lonely jetski, each only having arrived here by the grace of the gods and the empowerment of about a million [Skills].

Eminently predictable, and therefore, counterable.

Creating basic magical constructs capable of both fooling the monster and controlling the boats hadn’t been easy, so they’d created as many as they could and manned the rest with people who’d likely be able to take the initial hits.

A re-armed air fleet came around for another attack run, but this one didn’t catch the monster with its pants down.

“Stop what you’re doing until the world starts making sense again” was a viable option for countering the Madness Wave while safely ensconced on a warship a fair distance away from the monster.

On a fighter jet hurtling towards a [Raid Boss] at supersonic speeds … not so much.

The Heart of Madness had also been ready with its magic this time around.

The only reason any plane managed to come away intact was that the Madness Wave only had a relatively small chance of succeeding, especially against people as focused as fighter pilots.

Still, they burned the last of their remote relocation [Skills] to save the pilots while their planes were taken over remotely and crashed into the writhing mass below.

The monster had already been torn into three separate pieces and then flayed alive by ship-based weaponry and large-scale spells. It was looking like it was on its last legs, and so far, they’d barely had any casualties.

But the monster wasn’t nearly as vulnerable as it looked and that had been the last of their tricks. From this point onwards, it was all down to their personal power and raw determination.

And potentially, Isaac being able to finally intervene. He couldn’t split his attention well enough to both safely fight a monster like that and coordinate the people he was temporarily in charge of. He’d need a good opening to go in.

The three parts of the monster were now joining back together, much to everyone’s horror.

The first chunk had gained a metallic sheen that was already deflecting some of the smaller caliber bullets.

The second had turned black as night, tendrils of energy leaking off into the nothingness.

And the third had gained an incandescent sheen that hurt to look at.

This power was the single most impactful ability the Heart of Madness had, even if it wasn’t its signature move.

Whenever something tore apart this monster, the torn-off chunk would adapt to whatever had removed it and rejoin the main body, superimposing its adaptations over it and all already present adaptations, even when they should have been incompatible.

Now, it couldn’t be immune to everything at once, once it was unable to be hurt by half the elements under the sun, new adaptations would come at the cost of the old ones, but its ability to nullify methods of attacks was nonetheless a titanic pain the ass.

That trick also fell short when the torn-off bits were tiny, and an already adapted piece on its way to join the rest of the monster couldn’t adapt further.

In other words, the fact that Isaac had already used up a lot of their trump cards meant that they’d gotten the most out of them, and he could later chalk that up to good luck.

The newly reformed monster charged at its, admittedly not particularly impressive, top speed, heavy projectiles only carving small trenches in its surface where before, they’d torn out huge chunks.

They’d removed a good third of its mass already, but now, the ships were in danger.

All mages who could use frost magic now switched to using that exclusively, targeting the water near the monster, creating small ice chunks that froze around tentacles or adhered to its skin until the beast was moving along its own personal iceberg.

Its every movement cracked the ice, but seawater immediately flooded the damaged areas and was frozen once more in a matter of seconds.

Large chunks of its mass had to be heaved on top of the chunk just so that it could keep targetting the ships.

This also gave most of the melee fighters a chance to get in on the action. Time to hack apart a monster and toss it in the air for the fleet to tear apart.