Immortal Paladin

The Black Forest groaned around us, its trees shuddering like creatures in agony. A chill ran down my spine as I gazed at the sky—or what should have been the sky. Instead, it was occupied by a grotesque visage, a twisted mockery of a face so vast that it seemed to stretch across the heavens. Its eyes, if they could be called that, were unfocused, unseeing, yet I felt its presence pressing down on us. From the storm-choked clouds above, writhing tentacles descended, their slick forms glistening in the unnatural light. And beneath that yawning maw—gods above—it was the stuff of nightmares.

“SUSTENANCE. FOOD. FOOD. FEED. SUSTENANCE.”

The thing above us had two eyes: two massive, staring orbs that dominated its grotesque face. And yet, they were more than just eyes. They were the moons themselves.

“FOOD. SUSTENANCE. FOOD.”

Each moon, once distant celestial bodies, now bore countless smaller eyes opening and closing across its surfaces like blooming flowers of pure horror. They pulsed with eerie light, gazing down at us with unfathomable intent. The sky itself seemed to breathe, shifting as if alive, as the tentacles slithered down from the storm-laden clouds.

I exhaled sharply. ”Anyone got a weapon to spare?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the horror above. ”Better yet, does anyone have a Featherhome?”

Joan scoffed, shaking her head. ”If only. I no longer have the blessing of the Lost Supreme and have lost access to my Item Box. So no, I don’t have a Featherhome.”

I grimaced. That was expected, but still frustrating. Back in LLO, NPCs always referred to the game mechanics as ‘Blessings’ from the Lost Supreme. Players loved abusing the ‘World Map,’ ‘Fast Travel,’ ‘Item Box,’ ‘Voice Chat,’ and such... It was a list of things that made life so much easier for the sake of gameplay.

Those were all gone. No easy escapes now. No teleportation.

They weren’t completely gone, since I could still use some of them. Voice Chat worked fine, but something like Item Box? That required my main body. And as for Fast Travel or World Map privileges… well, those were as good as useless now.

I let out a breath, trying to steady myself. ”I was hoping we’d have a bit more time to prepare for this fight.”

Alice stepped forward, her expression unreadable, and reached into her Shadow Space. A flicker of darkness coiled around her fingers as she pulled out a weapon: a single-edged katana, its ominous presence almost tangible. The blade shimmered with an eerie light, its surface like a deep, endless abyss.

I accepted it with a nod. ”Much appreciated.”

Joan adjusted her grip on her reins, her unicorn shifting nervously beneath her. ”You’re thinking about what’s the biggest thing we fought back home, aren’t you?”

”Yeah,” I admitted. “This guy’s definitely on my top ten.”

I stretched out my Divine Sense, trying to get a better feel for what we were up against. The sheer scope of it made my stomach turn. It wasn’t just large. It was as if we had been transported to an entirely separate celestial body. My senses struggled to grasp the enormity of it.

The ground trembled. Roots as thick as city streets burst forth, cracking the earth as they spread like the grasping fingers of a buried titan. And from above, the tentacles lashed downward, moving not with intelligence, but instinct.

It wasn’t attacking us because it recognized us as a threat. It was simply reacting, like a dead immortal’s body twitching long after their soul had faded.

”Move!” I barked, activating Zealot’s Stride. My body surged forward, mana thrumming through me as I dashed across the battlefield, leaping over the grasping roots.

Alice soared above me, her vampire wings unfurled, carrying her with effortless grace. Joan spurred her unicorn into motion, the beast galloping through the chaos, its hooves leaving faint ripples in the air.

We weren’t ready for this fight.

But ready or not, we had no choice but to fight.

I surged forward, Flash Step propelling me through the battlefield in rapid bursts. Twisted, malformed trees lunged at me with claw-like branches, their gnarled limbs reaching as if they hungered for flesh. I swung my katana in swift, precise arcs. The blade cut cleanly, cleaving through the unnatural wood with ease.

I had no idea what this weapon was called, but it was sharp, unnaturally so. A legendary weapon at the very least.

To my side, Alice reached into her Shadow Space and pulled out a pole weapon—long-handled, with a curved blade gleaming ominously under the flickering light of the corrupted moons. I recognized the shape.

”A naginata?” I muttered.

Alice smirked. ”Close enough.”

Further back, Joan kept her distance, her unicorn galloping effortlessly across the battlefield. She was multitasking, one hand gripping the reins, and the other casting Holy Smite and Holy Arrow with practiced ease. Every spell she flung burned with divine brilliance, searing through the twisted creatures around us. Multi-casting made it look effortless.

I exhaled and activated Holy Aura.

A golden radiance pulsed outward from my body, washing over the battlefield like a tide of faith. The effect was immediate. Alice’s strikes became sharper, Joan’s spells burned brighter, and even my own movements felt lighter. The malformed trees recoiled, their grotesque limbs blackening as if the very presence of my aura was an anathema to their existence.

”Never been this glad for type-advantages favoring me... Whatever this was, it hated the divine...”

The Holy Aura skill wasn’t cheap. Holy Aura strengthened allies while suppressing enemies, but it was eating into my already limited resources. Lu Gao’s body was severely lacking for this fight, but I had to carry through.

I had two Spell Slots left. One was already dedicated to Divine Possession, keeping my hold over Lu Gao intact. That left me with only two uses for Ultimate Skills.

And then... laughter.

It wasn’t coming from anything on the ground.

The sky itself was laughing.

A deep, resonating mirth rumbled through the air, shaking the earth beneath us. The grotesque face looming above split into something resembling a grin, its countless eyes crinkling at the edges. More of its writhing tentacles slithered downward, unfurling from the clouds like grotesque appendages.

And from their depths, humanoid figures descended.

Tall, emaciated beings with octopus-like heads, their slick skin glistening as they touched down with unnatural grace. Their limbs were long and thin, each hand ending in elongated, barbed fingers. Their mouths, if they had mouths, were hidden beneath masses of shifting tentacles.

They stood silently for a moment, their eyes were bulbous and unblinking as they locked onto us.

Then they moved.

I gritted my teeth and tightened my grip on the katana. ”Great. Just what we needed.”

Alice twirled her naginata, a dark grin spreading across her face. ”Looks like they want to play.”

Joan exhaled sharply, lifting her hand as divine light gathered in her palm. ”Then let’s not disappoint them.”

The sky laughed again.

”FOOD. SUSTENANCE. FLESH. DRINK. ALL. ALL. ALL.”

Its voice was not a sound but a force, an overwhelming pressure that crushed against my thoughts, trying to drown them in endless hunger.

”LIFE IS A CYCLE OF CONSUMPTION. ALL THAT LIVES EXISTS TO BE TAKEN. GIVE YOURSELVES TO ME. RETURN TO THE VOID. RETURN TO THE EVERLASTING FEAST.”

The laughter returned, echoing through the air like a thousand voices all speaking at once—some whispering, some shrieking, some merely exhaling in grotesque satisfaction. The moons grew more eyes, rolling in their sockets and shifting their gaze from us to the land around us as if sizing up a banquet.

”FEED. ENDURE. YOU WILL NOT DIE. YOU WILL BECOME. JOIN THE ETERNAL FLESH. LIVE FOREVER IN ME. RETURN TO THEE.”

I clenched my teeth, forcing my mind to push back against the waves of madness creeping into my thoughts.

The sky’s laughter grew louder.

The octopus-headed creatures moved like a tide, their elongated limbs flowing unnaturally as they charged. But not all of them attacked. Some reached out with their barbed fingers, grasping at the malformed trees around us.

The reaction was immediate. The trees trembled, writhing like living things before the grotesque creatures melted into them. Bark twisted, warped, and split apart like gaping wounds. The trunks bulged as flesh merged with wood, reshaping into something new... something worse.

What had once been vaguely humanoid trees were now hulking monstrosities. Their twisted limbs stretched longer, pulsing with veins of black ichor. Multiple heads sprouted from their bark, a disturbing fusion of wood, flesh, and tentacled horror. Some bore twisted human-like faces, half-formed and frozen in expressions of silent agony. Others had full octopi heads, their tendrils writhing as they snapped at the air. Their bodies groaned like bending timber, but their movements were disturbingly fluid, their forms shifting like they weren’t fully bound by solid matter.

Alice whistled as she twirled her naginata. “Well, that’s disgusting. I’ve seen necromancers do some patchwork abominations before, but this? This is a whole new level of ugly.”

“They’re adapting,” I muttered, tightening my grip on my sword.

Joan rode up beside us, her unicorn pawing at the ground nervously. “How many spell slots do you guys have left?”

I exhaled. “Still got two. I’ll use them if I have to, but I’d rather not—I’ve got another fight waiting for me after this.”

Alice smirked. “Oh, holding back for the grand finale?” She spun her naginata effortlessly, the blade catching the corrupted moonlight. “I’ve got five left. Though I burned one earlier for an Ultimate Summon.”

Joan nodded. “Same. I had six, but I used one already.”

“I remember,” I frowned. “Yeah… on me… You used it on me, I remember.”

Joan gave me an innocent look. “You survived.”

“Yeah, after you dropped divine wrath on me.”

“Details.”

They have a lot of spell slots because they were casters after all... and honestly, I was envious.

“So, got a plan?” asked Alice as she hurled a series of Pain Burst multiple times.

I adjusted my grip on my sword, my Holy Aura flickering around me. “I’m thinking.”

The monsters didn’t wait for me to finish.

One of the twisted tree-beasts lunged forward, its malformed arms stretching unnaturally. I Flash Stepped, disappearing from its path in a burst of speed. The next instant, I activated Zealot’s Stride, dashing into a flanking position before the creature could react. My blade ignited with golden light as I swung with Divine Smite. The katana carved through its bark-like flesh, searing it apart with divine energy.

Alice followed up, vaulting into the air with a powerful leap. Her naginata gleamed with dark energy as she slashed through another creature’s elongated neck, severing it in a single strike. But instead of collapsing, the thing’s wound morphed, sprouting fresh tendrils that whipped toward her. She spun midair, deflecting the incoming strikes with a precise parry before landing gracefully.

Joan stayed mobile, keeping her unicorn galloping as she multi-cast Holy Smite and Holy Arrow. Every spell she loosed burned into the monstrosities, charring their grotesque forms. Even with their regenerative properties, they shrieked in agony, writhing as divine energy ate away at them.

A massive tentacle crashed down from the sky, aiming to flatten us all.

I barely had time to react before I activated Flash Step again, darting away from the impact zone just as the ground shattered beneath the blow. Splinters and debris flew in all directions.

Alice dodged backward, using her unnatural agility, while Joan’s unicorn leapt clear, hooves barely touching the fragmented ground before stabilizing midair.

I reappeared beside another abomination and drove my sword straight through its pulsing core. Divine Smite surged through the blade, erupting in a burst of golden flames. The thing convulsed violently before disintegrating, its remnants dissolving into blackened ash.

Alice whirled her naginata, using its extended reach to cleave through multiple creatures at once, her strikes both precise and relentless. Joan unleashed a barrage of Holy Arrows, piercing through their heads and torsos.

But the sky was still laughing.

And more of them were coming.

This was becoming pointless.

I cut down another one of those twisted, tentacle-infested tree monsters, only for three more to take its place. Their numbers were relentless, and while their attacks weren’t particularly powerful, their sheer durability and disruptive nature made them a serious problem.

The worst part? Even a slight graze from them would dispel or disrupt any skill activation. I could feel it each time one of their attacks passed too close, like an oppressive force pressing against my mana flow, threatening to collapse any spell mid-cast.

At least they couldn’t cancel my Divine Possession outright. If they could, Lu Gao would be a sitting duck right now.

Still, their durability was absurd. I’d say each of these monsters had the defense of a Sixth Realm cultivator, and to make matters worse, they shifted randomly under parameters I still didn’t understand. One moment my attacks would carve through them like butter, the next they’d harden like stone, barely flinching under my Divine Smite.

I clicked my tongue and Flash Stepped back beside Alice and Joan. “This isn’t working. We need to find a weakness fast.”

Alice spun her naginata, flicking blackened ichor off the blade. “Go for the eyes?” she suggested, her tone almost playful. “Always a classic.”

I followed her gaze upward to the moons. Those massive, unblinking eyes staring down at us from the sky, shifting and pulsing like living things.

”...That’s quite something,” I muttered. “We’d need something big to even make a dent.”

“And a way to shorten the distance,” Joan added.

Silence fell between us as we processed the problem, while we fought the monsters.

Then Joan snapped her fingers. “How does a Mass Teleport sound?”

Alice shook her head immediately. “Not possible. Space is all messed up here, and you know it. I can’t even use simple spatial tricks, so no way you’re pulling off something that large-scale.”

Joan narrowed her eyes. “I should be able to do it… if I limit it to just this battlefield.”

I frowned, considering her words. “You sure?”

Joan shrugged. “Nope. But I can try.”

I sighed. That left me with one option.

“I’ve got something big,” I admitted. “But I need two minutes to channel it.”

Alice quirked an eyebrow. “That long? Sounds troublesome.”

“Yeah. You got anything better? I could channel it while fighting, but these monsters have ‘dispel’ in their touch, so yeah, no… Troublesome is an understatement.”

If these two were offensive casters, they would have spammed their ults from the get-go already, but clearly, they could.

”Let’s do this,” Alice smirked, then cursed herself.

And I don’t mean that figuratively. She literally cast Curse and Greater Curse on herself, stacking all sorts of debuffs onto her own body. Her aura grew darker, twisting unnaturally. The air around her distorted, as if it wasn’t sure what to make of her anymore.

“I also have something, but I would need time,” she said. ”I should be able to chain a few spells.”

Ah. That kind of setup.

Whatever she was planning, it involved some kind of combo, one that required her to be in an absolutely wretched state before activating it.

Joan watched her with a mixture of fascination and concern. “I don’t have the firepower you two do, but I can hold the line while you both get your stuff ready.”

I nodded. “Then let’s do this.”

Joan took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a brief moment. Then she muttered, “Divine Descent.” She began glowing in resplendent gold, red, and silver.

I frowned. Divine Descent? That was… unexpected. Her patron god was related to healing, not barriers, not shields. While it would definitely boost her support abilities, it shouldn’t be enough to hold against that thing in the sky.

But before I could question her, Joan raised her staff and invoked, “Shield of Faith.”

A golden barrier flared to life, surrounding both Alice and me in a protective dome. Holy symbols glowed faintly in the air, shifting and rotating like celestial engravings. It wasn’t just resilient—it felt absolute. A fortress of divinity.

Joan exhaled softly and whispered, “Invoke: Divine Right.”

My thoughts screeched to a halt.

Wait. What?

I remembered a certain cinematic promotion of LLO, when it first introduced the Lost Gods. A rush of power surged outward from Joan, rippling through the battlefield like a divine proclamation. The aura surrounding her shifted, deepened, changed. It wasn’t just a buff. It was something far greater.

She wasn’t just borrowing an aspect of her patron with Divine Descent.

She was staking a claim.

Joan’s voice rang out clear and unwavering: “I challenge the seat of Godhood and draw upon the Divine Authority of Ephryn, Goddess of Love, Healing, Fertility, and Loyalty.”

I was shell-shocked.

In LLO, using Divine Descent allowed a character to borrow an aspect of their patron, granting them powerful buffs based on the deity’s nature. But this wasn’t just borrowing.

Joan was claiming the goddess’s power for herself.

Alice whispered to me, her voice barely audible over the rising storm of energy. “Let her do her job.”

I glanced at her, seeing the seriousness in her gaze. She wasn’t surprised. She knew.

Alice continued, “A lot has changed in Losten. Dead gods. Ending worlds. The Great Enemy making their moves. Joan’s making hers. If she’d succeed, we don’t know.”

I swallowed my questions and focused on the battlefield.

Joan’s blonde hair shimmered, taking on a brighter, almost ethereal sheen. A halo flickered to life above her head, spinning slowly, radiating a gentle yet overwhelming presence. Her clothes shifted, transforming into something more… divine. Flowing, adorned with golden embroidery, yet shockingly revealing for someone once so modest. The classic look of a newly ascended goddess, albeit temporarily.

She thumped her staff against the ground, her voice steady as she commanded, “Empower: Shield of Faith.”

A second layer of holy protection shimmered into existence, reinforcing the first. Then Joan raised her staff again, invoking more barriers in rapid succession:

“Dome of Deniability.” A shimmering dome expanded outward, warping reality around us, hiding us from fate’s gaze.

“Protection.” A radiant veil settled over our bodies, resisting curses and corruption.

“Holy Barrier.” Layers upon layers of divine defenses stacked, turning the battlefield into a fortress of faith.

Then the sky screamed.

Not a rumble. Not an earthquake. A voice.

”YOU CHEAT. YOU CHEAT. YOU CHEAT. YOU CHEAT.”

My frown deepened. I hadn’t thought the thing was truly conscious, and assumed it was more like a corpse moving out of instinct. But this? This was rage.

The two moons in the night sky twisted and stretched, forming grinning mouths filled with massive, smiling teeth—the kind you’d see on a cow.

Then, with a grotesque rip, the mouths opened and from within came giant arms bursting forth.

The massive hands reached down, each larger than a fortress, and smashed against Joan’s defenses with terrifying force.

The ground shook. Reality shuddered. The air trembled under the sheer weight of their power.

Joan stood firm.

Her barriers held.

The earth cracked.

A terrible shudder rippled through the land, and the air itself seemed to fracture. The twisted trees, the writhing octopi, the monstrous amalgamations: all of them disintegrated into ash, their forms unable to withstand the sheer wrongness that was being revealed.

Above us, the twin moons contorted, revealing a pair of faces. One was sad and the other was happy. Too suddenly, their faces twisted into expressions of pure madness.

They stared at each other, eyes wide and unseeing, their grotesque mouths opening in unison to let out wailing sobs.

And then, they began to devour each other, arms flailing around.

Flesh folded into flesh. Teeth crunched against bone. The sky itself bled as the moons consumed themselves, screaming in anguish, in ecstasy, in something beyond mortal comprehension.  

And when the feeding was over, when the heavens had collapsed into themselves, there was nothing left but a writhing mass of flesh.

It quivered, a pulsing blob of shifting forms, as if the essence of the sky itself had been reduced to a single tumor.

Then, the filth began to rise.

From the remnants of the grotesque fusion, a figure emerged.

A naked giant, its sheer size dwarfing the landscape, standing tall as a skyscraper.

His skin was a deep, sickly purple, devoid of genitalia, of anatomy, of humanity. Instead, his entire body was covered in faces.

Hundreds. Thousands.

Each one squirmed and twisted, their mouths moving in silent screams, in whispered prayers, in pleas for the Everlasting Feast to never stop.

I felt my stomach churn.

The mad thing grinned, not with its mouth, but with its entire existence.

And then, without hesitation, it reached out, grabbing onto the outermost layer of Joan’s divine barrier.

And shattered it.

Joan screamed.

Blood poured from her lips as her body convulsed from the backlash.

I cursed. She stacked multiple barriers, but that thing—

Joan gritted her teeth through the pain, raising her trembling hands. And then, she spoke an Ultimate Skill.

“Divine Word: Rest!”

A pulse of absolute authority surged outward.

The mad thing staggered.

One of the faces on its body froze, its expression going slack and its eyes closing as it fell into an unnatural slumber.

But the rest of them…

“FOOD. FOOD. FEED. FEED.”

The monster laughed.

The faces on its writhing body still screamed, still cried for sustenance. But slowly, one by one, more and more began to fall asleep.

It jerked, its movements growing sluggish, its form trembling with something that almost resembled panic.

It knew.

It knew that if too many of its faces fell asleep…

It would be helpless.

The monster howled, clawing at the ground, slamming its hands against the barriers, desperate to shatter them.

Joan gritted her teeth and cast another.

And another.

Each time the monster broke a barrier, Joan coughed more blood.

Her divine radiance dimmed with each blow.

Her body shook as the strain of channeling Divine Descent and an Ultimate Skill at the same time was tearing her apart.

I frowned. This wasn’t just backlash, but something like True Damage.

If this continued, Joan was going to die.

The two minutes were up.

The last of the monster’s countless faces fell silent.

Its grotesque, skyscraper-tall body lurched—unsteady, its movements now sluggish. The nightmare of shifting flesh and screaming mouths staggered, its knees crashing into the ruined earth.

It slumbered.

I exhaled. Finally.

Alice let out a breath as well, her hands shaking as she bagged her naginata back into her Shadow Space.

Her hair had gone completely white.

Her once vibrant pink hair had turned ashen, her usually pale skin now hollow and sunken. She looked… ancient. A corpse at death’s door.

I frowned and reached for the sword she had loaned me. Without a word, I handed it back.

“I don’t need it anymore,” I told her.

Alice stared at it for a moment before silently taking the blade and storing it away.

Then, she muttered a quiet incantation, barely above a whisper.

“Curse Reversal!”

A tremor of power rippled outward as her Ultimate Skill came to life.

Alice’s body shook, her brittle frame suddenly surging with vitality.

The color of youth returned to her cheeks, her withered hair growing long and glossy again, flourishing into soft pink strands. The fatigue and decay that had drained her moments ago were erased in an instant.

Her aura blazed.

The air shuddered from the sheer force of her presence, the weight of overwhelming power pressing against reality.

Alice flexed her fingers, rolling her shoulders as her lips curled into a sharp smirk. “Much better,” she said.

Then, she lifted her palm.

A straw doll materialized within it: a grotesque mimicry of the slumbering giant.

She muttered, “Malevolent Grasp.”

A phantasmal hand—withered, skeletal, and rotting—manifested in the air and clamped around the doll, squeezing with vice-like force.

Alice’s eyes gleamed. With a slow, deliberate motion, she crushed the effigy between her fingers.

“Wretched Effigy.”

The effect was instantaneous.

The monster screamed.

Every single face on its twisted, fleshy body contorted in agony, their silent slumber shattered by overwhelming pain.

More than half of its body turned to ash.

The sheer damage was unreal, so much that the monster jerked upright, shrieking.

“FOOD… FOOD HURTS ME—!!”

The nightmare was awake again.

The ground trembled as fresh abominations sprouted from the blackened dirt with trees twisting into humanoid horrors, their faces eerily blank.

I narrowed my eyes. Enough.

I reached within, drawing upon the demonic taint buried in Lu Gao’s soul.

The dark essence coiled at my command, responding to my will as I fused my Ultimate Skill with the principle of his technique.

I raised my arm, gathering every ounce of faith within me.

And then, I closed my hand into a fist as I spoke.

”Final Adjudication.”

Power gathered.

The husk around us disintegrated.

The very dirt blackened, rotting from the inside out before crumbling into ash.

In an instant, the entire wretched forest collapsed—the monstrous trees, the faceless horrors, the land itself—all reduced to dust.

A lifeless, gray desert of ash remained.

The already night sky, further darkened as if it couldn’t get any darker.

Golden cracks split the air, fracturing reality itself.

From those fractures, radiant power bled through.

A colossal presence loomed over the battlefield—unseen, yet undeniable. The weight of divine authority pressed upon existence itself, making even the air strain and vibrate.

Hymns resounded.

Rings of celestial scripture spiraled around me, inscribed with ever-shifting verdicts, glowing with the absolute decree of law.

The very air trembled under the force of my judgment.

Then...

Golden chains of light lashed out.

They snapped forward, piercing through the void, twisting like serpents before they coiled around the monster’s form.

It screamed.

The space around it burned.

Above us, the heavens trembled, and a colossal Scales of Judgment materialized.

The weight of karmic balance pressed down upon the battlefield, an omnipresent force that no existence could escape.

The monster struggled.

It thrashed against its bindings, writhing like a dying insect trapped in a spider’s web.

But it was useless.

The golden chains darkened, the divine power reflecting the corruption of Lu Gao’s Incursion technique. The monster’s own internal energy—tainted, mad, and insatiable—began to rebel against itself.

It was being consumed from within.

The faces screamed.

The monster shrieked, its cry rising to the heavens, its final desperate plea echoing across the broken world.

”THIS IS UNFAIR—!!”

The chains tightened.

The Scales of Judgment tipped.

And the monster was erased.