Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest

They were shocked.

The massive thing looked back at them, its eyes glowing brightly with an unnatural light.

It was a gigantic being, over seventy meters in height.

The shape it had resembled something akin to a jellyfish.

It had an inflated black balloon made of black muscle, with a titanic red eye staring everywhere at once.

Long tentacles extended down, made of black tendrils and white bone.

Its head, which resembled a balloon full of air, began inflating even bigger once it detected them.

”What the fuck is that?”

”Run!”

They did not even bother fighting it. The gigantic thing screamed as it saw them running.

”GYAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Its scream came packed with the screams of tens of thousands of souls together, making them stop midway through and fall to the ground.

The agony they were put through, based on all these souls, made them scream in pain on the floor, squirming painfully as waves of pure suffering flooded their minds.

”Uuuggh! W-What the hell is this?!” Sailor cried, clutching his head as tears streamed down his face.

”It’s hurting our souls! It’s stunning them...!” Mark coughed soul essence, the ethereal substance spilling from his mouth as his body trembled. ”Aaack! W-We have to...! Run...? No, we can’t run...!”

To their disbelief, from the skies another monstrously gigantic creature emerged, the same type as the other, screaming at them from afar.

”Kuuaaaaaaaggghhhh!”

”Nnnnggghh!”

”Aaaaaggghh!”

They screamed so loudly their ears began to bleed. They grabbed their heads in pain, trying to resist the agonizing, soul-stunning shared agony of these screams from the monsters.

And their tentacles drew closer, the black tendrils coiling and reaching with hungry intent.

”G-Go... Go away!”

Mark roared, swinging his sword, Ignias, with full force as every muscle in his body strained against the overwhelming pressure.

”Mark, you have to hang in there!”

As she said that, Ignias’ skill activated. A Triple Slash cut through the hard tentacles three times over, slicing through its flesh and tearing the tentacle to pieces in a spray of dark fluid.

”It worked...!” Mark said, breathing hard. ”We can beat them if we... put up a fight... maybe?”

Or maybe not.

A third one had appeared above them, making it three in total. Its balloon-like head pulsed with the same terrifying red eye.

”It’s hopeless...” Sailor muttered, his voice cracking under the weight of despair. ”We’re fighting against someone who can make these things with ease! It’s hopeless, Mark!”

”Sailor...! Hang in there, we must find a way out!” Norman said, his tone urgent as he tried to keep the group focused.

”No, there’s no way out! It’s all hopeless! Hopeless as fuck! We’re done for! DONE FOR!” Sailor cried in horror, crying tears of blood that stained his cheeks.

”It seems the screams are affecting his mind!” said Mark, resisting the pain because he had already endured Soul Torture for years before. The experience steeled his will even as the agony clawed at him. ”Let me bring out totems...!”

Mark placed his hands onto the floor and conjured his Spirit Totem Magic, which he had been practicing and mastering ever since their journey began.

RUMBLE!

From his Soul, Soul Flames emerged alongside bones, which sprouted into long bone trees that rose like ancient guardians.

From these bone trees, Mark cut large pieces of bone wood, and using his magic, he shaped them like giant totem pillars that glowed with protective energy.

”Totem Spirit Magic – Protection Formation!”

The pillars took the shape of ancient spirit beasts, unifying their power together into a giant formation that protected them from the damage. A shimmering barrier of spiritual light and bone rose around the three of them, holding back the crushing force of the screams.

These creatures, obviously, did not like that.

The bizarre Hollows kept screaming even more loudly. A massive tentacle descended, striking the barrier constantly with heavy, bone-rattling blows.

At the same time, a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth appeared, their balloon heads inflating as they joined the assault.

”Where are they even coming from?!” Sailor cried, his voice filled with rising panic.

”From the sky...” Mark said, analyzing the clouds with narrowed eyes. ”Fuck...! The barrier! It cannot hold back too much. We have to escape, maybe by digging underground?!”

”Can do!” Norman turned his hands into sharp claws for Sailor to dig, and Mark nodded. Both started digging a hole as the barrier began to shatter under the relentless assault.

”Hurry! It’s about to break!”

”I am doing it as fast as I can!”

”It’s here...!”

However, they were too slow.

CRASH!

The barrier shattered in a burst of spiritual fragments.

Tentacles descended viciously, grabbing their bodies and lifting them up into the air with crushing force.

Dozens of tentacles wrapped around their bodies endlessly, incapacitating them and squeezing the air from their lungs.

And in that state, they faced the endless screams of all those these creatures had consumed. The combined agony of countless lost souls crashed into their minds like a tidal wave.

”Gaaaahhhhhh!”

As they all cried in horror, the world seemed to darken around them.

FLASH!

BOOOMMM!!!

A bright flash of golden light descended from the sky, striking one of these massive Hollows and making their giant balloon-like head explode in a shower of dark flesh and energy.

From the balloon-like head, thousands of souls emerged, crying in pain and escaping from it as fast as they could, their forms flickering like free spirits finally released.

Mark fell from the sky but was captured by a giant hand made of spiritual light and wood that cradled him gently.

”Mark!”

”E-Elayne?”

Mark’s spiritual eyes widened as he saw her descending and hugging him tightly, her presence a sudden warmth amid the chaos.

”I-I thought we were still far...”

”I came running! Everyone else is here, don’t worry!”

Sailor and Norman were caught the same way, lifted safely by similar constructs of light and wood.

”E-Everyone else?” Sailor wondered curiously, his voice still shaky. ”Hm? Oh.”

And then they saw it.

”ROOOAAARRRRR!”

Two powerful Sporeborns emerged. One with two heads, many arms, legs, and tails roared mightily and jumped from one prey to another, tearing their heads open with savage precision.

The other was a woman, a beautiful-looking, slender woman Sporeborn, moving at lightning speed and unleashing devastating strikes that released crimson thunder from her red bone armor. Each blow cracked the air and sent shockwaves through the battlefield.

They moved with power and might, easily overwhelming these jellyfish Hollows designed to seemingly overcome and destroy entire armies, likely built to invade other places.

And from below, all the other Hollows that had gathered for the feast were also being torn to shreds, as Blank advanced with great speed and might, thrusting his spear and destroying dozens at a time in precise, lethal motions.

Granny Yaga looked younger for some reason, and conjured magic they had never seen before. Giant phantasmal hands, spears made of bright golden light, and more all rained upon their foes in a relentless storm of power.

In mere seconds, all of their foes were rapidly slain, and an army of Sporeborns and Fungal Titans stepped forward, crushing their foes without mercy beneath massive forms and fungal growths.

”T-This is insane...!” Norman said, staring in awe. ”Elayne, you have such a massive army?!”

”Norman, is that you?” Elayne was surprised, her eyes widening as she recognized him. ”You turned into Sailor’s armor?!”

”I-I kind of had to, to survive,” Norman sighed, the weight of their recent ordeal clear in his voice. ”We faced a powerful evolved Hollow.”

”I see, you beat it?” she asked.

”It’s gone,” nodded Mark.

”Oh well, that’s fine,” said Elayne. ”I wish I could’ve encountered it myself, but it is what it is...”

Sailor, Norman, and Mark looked at one another, all thinking the same over her weird response.

”Isn’t she becoming a little too much like necromancers now, acting like it’s such a waste a strong monster left nothing to be turned into an undead?”

Although they all thought the same, they naturally did not voice that.

”Incredible...”

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