The world became black, a void that whispered to its muddled habitants of eternal silence. Muted colors of gray and black and white beamed like sunrays from every cardinal direction. A ragged humming grew louder and louder until it was the only sound possible to hear, even above the screams of the people. Some buildings imploded, cars flew, the road caved, and debris became missiles. A power line met Clyde's face.
All of it happened fast… The real blackness came…
Clyde awoke with a pain that made him wish for death. Then it got worse. Seeing the surrounding destruction, the fire and its thick smoke….Was he in Hell?
[HP: 0.5%]
[MP: 40%]
[Status alignments: Light bleeding, agony, suspicious shoulder pain, haze]
[Mystic Calm: 100% resistant to fear, despair, discomfort, and shock. [Mystic Passive.]
[Alignments prevented: despair, discomfort, shock, and fear.]
[Current Lot City stats. Crime rate: ??? Emergency: Catastrophic. Citizen happiness: unknown. Current concern: Inquisition of the Supreme Demon lord.]
[Destruction of Lot City: 57%. Lot City Lives Lost: 35% ]
Thirty-five percent of eight million… Clyde trembled. This had to be a nightmare. A vision. The Watchers surely wouldn't stand by and allow something like this to happen. His presence in the city, meant stone-viper games, right? Watcher eyes. Surely they would've stepped in to defend the rules. The punishment squad should respond, right? A loss of…over two million lives.
Something within Clyde cracked, but then he reeled it back.
"Kanako," he said weakly but when he looked in her direction, horror struck him. She…was a stone statue, lying on the ground, staring off into lifelessness. His only hope to undo this mess….gone. He forced the emotion of rage and sorrow into a cage and tossed it in the back of his mind.
Clyde checked the stats of his team. They had very low HP, but…petrification. Even Tear. Asu's HP was down by more than half and declining. Titania and Ashard were not in his party, but the young man instructed them to leave the city...
Clyde gravely miscalculated the moves of the inquisition. They never left, but simply gathered either above or nearby the city, then blew it up…
None of his plans would've mattered since the bastards planned to just kill everyone from the start.
He looked at Kanako…The visions of his friends frozen in their places composed of stone set him into motion. He struggled to stand. The inquisition made one mistake, which bought him time. What if…the commander lost his temper and hastily nuked the city. The brothers, knowing that they kidnapped a fake, were more than likely arguing. Harming their "Supreme" princess meant execution. And if she survived, they'd have to look through millions of statues.
Clyde's intuition was eerily spot on. As he limped to the corner of a street, he heard their voices.
"And now he has us searching! Fuck, Axel found nothing in that damn house, not even the statues of her friends."
"I agree that it is humiliating," another inquisitor said. "To be outsmarted by such a low power level. The only good thing that came out of this was the capture of the supposed prophet. At least it would've been good had I known she tried to warn us about Yahiko blowing his top."
Ming…
Clyde peeked around the corner to see two of them walking in his direction. He quickly turned around, limping toward an alleyway. Their voices grew louder. He desperately fought the pain of his leg limp.
[Clyde's HP has dropped to 0.3%]
And…he just barely made it into the alley as they turned the corner. He hid at the side of a dumpster as the inquisitors continued, without even considering the narrow way. They thankfully took no notice of Kanako's statue, presumably tired of seeing Yahiko's work.
The young man hated himself… How did he survive?
[You are unaffected by petrification.]
He would have rather died than be the sole survivor of this mess. Still, he needed to heal before doing anything else. His shoulder was killing him. Fracture, perhaps? He checked his inventory.
Inventory:
$ 571,445,400
-Map of Lot City, Satovia.
-Map of Libado Grasslands, Satovia.
-Map of Ashen City, Satovia.
-Map of Niyoto, Satovia.
-Smartphone.
-Key.
-Reminder for practice- note.
- Zelt's printer. Level 1/25.
- Deed to the Ashfall estates, treasures, etc.
- Honey Potion of Healing (item class: rare.)
-Wind blade. (very rare) +16 to attack. Wind element.
- Place of Power Core (item class: Relic) (item value: priceless)- establish a place of power.
- Max MP replenish potion (item class: epic)
-
- bundle of materials [2 uses left]. (Item class: rare.)
- Forger's hammer. Item class: very rare
- Exploding blowup doll. Item class: *One of a kind* Unsuspecting enemies will experience a nice surprise. Does dark deity damage.
- Sharpened Crystal Dagger. Item class: uncommon
-1 ruby, 1 diamond, 1 emerald, 1 casper-jewel.
- Root Tree seed. Item class: epic.
- Mysterious Harp. Item class: *One of a kind* this special harp is loved dearly by a special type of harpy called the Gandharva. Handing this to her will get you a *World Star Fragment* and another reward.
-Breast enhancement potion x 2. Item class: bizarre.
-World Map. item class: *legendary*
- Universal dungeon key. Item value: well-above standard
-Sex potion. Item class: unknown.
- Holstaur breast milk.
Just as he started to mentally kick himself for giving his last Super Health Potion to Titania, Clyde came across two items that made him let out a sigh of relief. The Max MP potion and honey potion of healing.
He drank the delicious potion first before downing the tangy MP potion.
[Your HP: 100% out of 510%.]
[Your MP: 480%]
Almost twenty-five percent of his health restored. He'd take what he could get. Beggars definitely could not be choosers, especially in this situation.
Some of the pain receded, including the agony. The shoulder pain still remained, requiring more than just mediocre healing.
[Status alignments: suspicious shoulder pain.]
He could risk going into Stone Mode for Life's breath, but nothing on the description of the skill indicated it working for him.
[Life's breath. While in Stone Mode, your presence will begin to heal those that need it in the area. [Passive.]
At least he no longer limped. One step at a time, Clyde thought as he quietly maneuvered. He…didn't know what to do, but anything beat sitting around.
The city was a wreck. While some buildings still stood, some looked as if a giant marched in and stomped on them. Shattered windows, smoke flowing from some, and fire on others. No police sirens. No people. No dogs barked, no birds, and no help. Was access to the city cut off to the world? Who did it: inquisition or Watchers.
Clyde pushed away the anger and Jumped. Or at least he tried to, but received a shitty prompt instead.
[The Inquisition has blocked all instant-transporting magic. You can only Jump while in Stone Mode.]
Yeah, he'd avoid that. Especially if it switched him to the war form. Clyde did not want that kind of cockiness altering his decisions during a time like this. He…had to do something.
"All of this just to defend a succubus…" a voice echoed in his head. It wasn't him, but it used his voice. "You really are a fool."
Clyde shook himself. Now wasn't the time to get delusional. Somewhere in his heart, deep down, he knew the voice was probably right.
The young man's routine fell to a pattern of maneuvering the city, and hiding from the inquisition, which mainly moved in pairs. This search felt off. What else could they be looking for?
Asu? They needed to take their frustration out on something that directly opposed them. A bigger motivation to not get caught.
Clyde only sensed wrongness for a second before he narrowly dodged a large chunk of crumbling building. Its impact with the sidewalk echoed louder than thunder. He had to get the fuck out of there.
He dashed from block to block, being careful as possible. The odor of smoke thickened as if he moved through a war zone. His city…a home he came to love, looked nothing like itself. Yuki had the ability to reverse the damage, but petrification was almost the same as being dead. Maybe worse. He did his best not to think of it that way. He struggled to hold back the potent super-rage boiling within his blood. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com <a href="https://www.webnovel.com">www.webnovel.com</a> for visiting.
Clear and rational thinking…He needed these two elements to figure out a solution to this problem. They captured Ming. Asu possibly escaped or sat with the prophet as a prisoner.
Even if Clyde encountered Yahiko, what could he do? Die?
Half an hour later, Clyde found an intact pharmacy. Inside, were the stone bodies of petrified customers and employees. Only two aisles stood. Goods were scattered, glass shattered, even some liquids oozed across the floor.
The young man recalled something Toru said way back during his first week in Satovia.
Certain things such as medicine, foods, and drinks could restore health on the spot.
He flipped an upturned table that looked as if it rocketed through the window and pulled up a half-burnt lawn chair. The lunch of cold bentos and sweet tea calmed the nerves, not that the internal super-anger vanished. He faced the reality that…they were all dead. Killed by someone's tantrum.
Maybe…he should've let them take his Tear. She didn't want so many losing their lives.
So…this was how the Supreme Demon lord did things. Not surprising for a demon…
Clyde found the strongest pain pills available and some bottled water. After taking the pills, he searched for a closet and laid down.
Sleep was nearly impossible…
The inquisition murdering the entire city…Screams of the people. Yells from his friends, asking why. Why did Clyde cause the tragedy? Fingers pointed at him. Ghosts laughing and snarling and crying. Petrified children called for their parents or guardians, stuck in their heads. Then he found himself in a field of petrified civilians and motionless bodies staring upward at something in the sky. Suddenly, they all pointed up.
He didn't want to look but his body turned. A duplicate of himself floated several meters into the air, cold eyes locked on him.
"What's this? Not charging headstrong?" the clone said, voice full of mirth. "You really are going to let them push you around. The man who defeated Hades, Nezerath, even the Abyss and Amaterasu, She Who Dawns Time." He chuckled. "You suffer one itty bitty loss and now you're cowering in a closet. Resting a fractured shoulder is just an excuse, but you have no idea what to do. Abandon the city? Or confront the inquisition. You are a pathetic man of indecision."
Clyde's green eyes which reflected back to him, glowed. "You're not even good at the self-pity thing. Poor Alice, dead. Tear, dead. Melody, dead. Natalia, Yuki, Ruri, Matsume, Kitome, Harumi, Chika, Kanako, Airi. Toru, Sazuki, Seth, and Kiko, and Maki and Sophia." The clone shook his head. "You should join them. Why did you survive? Become one of the dead."
Clyde watched the petrification of his body in horror, unable to move. Screams of agony echoed from the other bodies. Then demonic laughter.
Clyde snapped awake, covered in sweat. The pain in his shoulder was gone.
[HP: full at 510%]
[MP: full at 480%]
[Status alignments: Deeply bottled, dark fury.]
He needed to end this nightmare. Even if he rescued Ming right away, what good would that do? Clyde opened the closet to see nightfall. Some streetlights functioned, though barely. Most were flickering. Damn did the scene feel creepy. Considering that two million people…died, the young man wanted to get somewhere far away. Sure, he'd seen many demonic horrors, like the pumpko. But…
Something moved…He looked around. How did Kanako's statue get on the counter? It had its back turned. Whispers suddenly echoed from nowhere.
Clyde pinched himself, but this was no dream. He wouldn't get the luxury of waking up again. He also kept his eyes on the statue, not wanting the damn thing to disappear, then reappear in his face for the jump scare. He hated that shit.
Suddenly, it turned to the side. Then turned again, slowly but surely rotating. Clyde couldn't move.
The world became black, a void that whispered to its muddled habitants of eternal silence. Muted colors of gray and black and white beamed like sunrays from every cardinal direction. A ragged humming grew louder and louder until it was the only sound possible to hear, even above the screams of the people. Some buildings imploded, cars flew, the road caved, and debris became missiles. A power line met Clyde's face.
All of it happened fast… The real blackness came…
Clyde awoke with a pain that made him wish for death. Then it got worse. Seeing the surrounding destruction, the fire and its thick smoke….Was he in Hell?
[HP: 0.5%]
[MP: 40%]
[Status alignments: Light bleeding, agony, suspicious shoulder pain, haze]
[Mystic Calm: 100% resistant to fear, despair, discomfort, and shock. [Mystic Passive.]
[Alignments prevented: despair, discomfort, shock, and fear.]
[Current Lot City stats. Crime rate: ??? Emergency: Catastrophic. Citizen happiness: unknown. Current concern: Inquisition of the Supreme Demon lord.]
[Destruction of Lot City: 57%. Lot City Lives Lost: 35% ]
Thirty-five percent of eight million… Clyde trembled. This had to be a nightmare. A vision. The Watchers surely wouldn't stand by and allow something like this to happen. His presence in the city, meant stone-viper games, right? Watcher eyes. Surely they would've stepped in to defend the rules. The punishment squad should respond, right? A loss of…over two million lives.
Something within Clyde cracked, but then he reeled it back.
"Kanako," he said weakly but when he looked in her direction, horror struck him. She…was a stone statue, lying on the ground, staring off into lifelessness. His only hope to undo this mess….gone. He forced the emotion of rage and sorrow into a cage and tossed it in the back of his mind.
Clyde checked the stats of his team. They had very low HP, but…petrification. Even Tear. Asu's HP was down by more than half and declining. Titania and Ashard were not in his party, but the young man instructed them to leave the city...
Clyde gravely miscalculated the moves of the inquisition. They never left, but simply gathered either above or nearby the city, then blew it up…
None of his plans would've mattered since the bastards planned to just kill everyone from the start.
He looked at Kanako…The visions of his friends frozen in their places composed of stone set him into motion. He struggled to stand. The inquisition made one mistake, which bought him time. What if…the commander lost his temper and hastily nuked the city. The brothers, knowing that they kidnapped a fake, were more than likely arguing. Harming their "Supreme" princess meant execution. And if she survived, they'd have to look through millions of statues.
Clyde's intuition was eerily spot on. As he limped to the corner of a street, he heard their voices.
"And now he has us searching! Fuck, Axel found nothing in that damn house, not even the statues of her friends."
"I agree that it is humiliating," another inquisitor said. "To be outsmarted by such a low power level. The only good thing that came out of this was the capture of the supposed prophet. At least it would've been good had I known she tried to warn us about Yahiko blowing his top."
Ming…
Clyde peeked around the corner to see two of them walking in his direction. He quickly turned around, limping toward an alleyway. Their voices grew louder. He desperately fought the pain of his leg limp.
[Clyde's HP has dropped to 0.3%]
And…he just barely made it into the alley as they turned the corner. He hid at the side of a dumpster as the inquisitors continued, without even considering the narrow way. They thankfully took no notice of Kanako's statue, presumably tired of seeing Yahiko's work.
The young man hated himself… How did he survive?
[You are unaffected by petrification.]
He would have rather died than be the sole survivor of this mess. Still, he needed to heal before doing anything else. His shoulder was killing him. Fracture, perhaps? He checked his inventory.
Inventory:
$ 571,445,400
-Map of Lot City, Satovia.
-Map of Libado Grasslands, Satovia.
-Map of Ashen City, Satovia.
-Map of Niyoto, Satovia.
-Smartphone.
-Key.
-Reminder for practice- note.
- Zelt's printer. Level 1/25.
- Deed to the Ashfall estates, treasures, etc.
- Honey Potion of Healing (item class: rare.)
-Wind blade. (very rare) +16 to attack. Wind element.
- Place of Power Core (item class: Relic) (item value: priceless)- establish a place of power.
- Max MP replenish potion (item class: epic)
-
- bundle of materials [2 uses left]. (Item class: rare.)
- Forger's hammer. Item class: very rare
- Exploding blowup doll. Item class: *One of a kind* Unsuspecting enemies will experience a nice surprise. Does dark deity damage.
- Sharpened Crystal Dagger. Item class: uncommon
-1 ruby, 1 diamond, 1 emerald, 1 casper-jewel.
- Root Tree seed. Item class: epic.
- Mysterious Harp. Item class: *One of a kind* this special harp is loved dearly by a special type of harpy called the Gandharva. Handing this to her will get you a *World Star Fragment* and another reward.
-Breast enhancement potion x 2. Item class: bizarre.
-World Map. item class: *legendary*
- Universal dungeon key. Item value: well-above standard
-Sex potion. Item class: unknown.
- Holstaur breast milk.
Just as he started to mentally kick himself for giving his last Super Health Potion to Titania, Clyde came across two items that made him let out a sigh of relief. The Max MP potion and honey potion of healing.
He drank the delicious potion first before downing the tangy MP potion.
[Your HP: 100% out of 510%.]
[Your MP: 480%]
Almost twenty-five percent of his health restored. He'd take what he could get. Beggars definitely could not be choosers, especially in this situation.
Some of the pain receded, including the agony. The shoulder pain still remained, requiring more than just mediocre healing.
[Status alignments: suspicious shoulder pain.]
He could risk going into Stone Mode for Life's breath, but nothing on the description of the skill indicated it working for him.
[Life's breath. While in Stone Mode, your presence will begin to heal those that need it in the area. [Passive.]
At least he no longer limped. One step at a time, Clyde thought as he quietly maneuvered. He…didn't know what to do, but anything beat sitting around.
The city was a wreck. While some buildings still stood, some looked as if a giant marched in and stomped on them. Shattered windows, smoke flowing from some, and fire on others. No police sirens. No people. No dogs barked, no birds, and no help. Was access to the city cut off to the world? Who did it: inquisition or Watchers.
Clyde pushed away the anger and Jumped. Or at least he tried to, but received a shitty prompt instead.
[The Inquisition has blocked all instant-transporting magic. You can only Jump while in Stone Mode.]
Yeah, he'd avoid that. Especially if it switched him to the war form. Clyde did not want that kind of cockiness altering his decisions during a time like this. He…had to do something.
"All of this just to defend a succubus…" a voice echoed in his head. It wasn't him, but it used his voice. "You really are a fool."
Clyde shook himself. Now wasn't the time to get delusional. Somewhere in his heart, deep down, he knew the voice was probably right.
The young man's routine fell to a pattern of maneuvering the city, and hiding from the inquisition, which mainly moved in pairs. This search felt off. What else could they be looking for?
Asu? They needed to take their frustration out on something that directly opposed them. A bigger motivation to not get caught.
Clyde only sensed wrongness for a second before he narrowly dodged a large chunk of crumbling building. Its impact with the sidewalk echoed louder than thunder. He had to get the fuck out of there.
He dashed from block to block, being careful as possible. The odor of smoke thickened as if he moved through a war zone. His city…a home he came to love, looked nothing like itself. Yuki had the ability to reverse the damage, but petrification was almost the same as being dead. Maybe worse. He did his best not to think of it that way. He struggled to hold back the potent super-rage boiling within his blood. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com <a href="https://www.webnovel.com">www.webnovel.com</a> for visiting.
Clear and rational thinking…He needed these two elements to figure out a solution to this problem. They captured Ming. Asu possibly escaped or sat with the prophet as a prisoner.
Even if Clyde encountered Yahiko, what could he do? Die?
Half an hour later, Clyde found an intact pharmacy. Inside, were the stone bodies of petrified customers and employees. Only two aisles stood. Goods were scattered, glass shattered, even some liquids oozed across the floor.
The young man recalled something Toru said way back during his first week in Satovia.
Certain things such as medicine, foods, and drinks could restore health on the spot.
He flipped an upturned table that looked as if it rocketed through the window and pulled up a half-burnt lawn chair. The lunch of cold bentos and sweet tea calmed the nerves, not that the internal super-anger vanished. He faced the reality that…they were all dead. Killed by someone's tantrum.
Maybe…he should've let them take his Tear. She didn't want so many losing their lives.
So…this was how the Supreme Demon lord did things. Not surprising for a demon…
Clyde found the strongest pain pills available and some bottled water. After taking the pills, he searched for a closet and laid down.
Sleep was nearly impossible…
The inquisition murdering the entire city…Screams of the people. Yells from his friends, asking why. Why did Clyde cause the tragedy? Fingers pointed at him. Ghosts laughing and snarling and crying. Petrified children called for their parents or guardians, stuck in their heads. Then he found himself in a field of petrified civilians and motionless bodies staring upward at something in the sky. Suddenly, they all pointed up.
He didn't want to look but his body turned. A duplicate of himself floated several meters into the air, cold eyes locked on him.
"What's this? Not charging headstrong?" the clone said, voice full of mirth. "You really are going to let them push you around. The man who defeated Hades, Nezerath, even the Abyss and Amaterasu, She Who Dawns Time." He chuckled. "You suffer one itty bitty loss and now you're cowering in a closet. Resting a fractured shoulder is just an excuse, but you have no idea what to do. Abandon the city? Or confront the inquisition. You are a pathetic man of indecision."
Clyde's green eyes which reflected back to him, glowed. "You're not even good at the self-pity thing. Poor Alice, dead. Tear, dead. Melody, dead. Natalia, Yuki, Ruri, Matsume, Kitome, Harumi, Chika, Kanako, Airi. Toru, Sazuki, Seth, and Kiko, and Maki and Sophia." The clone shook his head. "You should join them. Why did you survive? Become one of the dead."
Clyde watched the petrification of his body in horror, unable to move. Screams of agony echoed from the other bodies. Then demonic laughter.
Clyde snapped awake, covered in sweat. The pain in his shoulder was gone.
[HP: full at 510%]
[MP: full at 480%]
[Status alignments: Deeply bottled, dark fury.]
He needed to end this nightmare. Even if he rescued Ming right away, what good would that do? Clyde opened the closet to see nightfall. Some streetlights functioned, though barely. Most were flickering. Damn did the scene feel creepy. Considering that two million people…died, the young man wanted to get somewhere far away. Sure, he'd seen many demonic horrors, like the pumpko. But…
Something moved…He looked around. How did Kanako's statue get on the counter? It had its back turned. Whispers suddenly echoed from nowhere.
Clyde pinched himself, but this was no dream. He wouldn't get the luxury of waking up again. He also kept his eyes on the statue, not wanting the damn thing to disappear, then reappear in his face for the jump scare. He hated that shit.
Suddenly, it turned to the side. Then turned again, slowly but surely rotating. Clyde couldn't move.
