Chapter 61: [61] : The Zealots Ambush, True Damage

Declan walked away from the massive lava lake. His digital inventory was currently holding about fifty pounds of raw Void Ore. He also had a brand new and completely broken healing mechanic sitting in his chest.

The Bone Ash Wastes were still insanely hot. The air warped and blurred around him. But inside the five meter radius of his Absolute Zero Aura, it was a literal winter wonderland. The ground froze solid wherever he stepped.

He was heading toward a narrow canyon pass that cut through the black volcanic mountains. According to the server map, this was the only viable path back toward Sector 4 that did not involve swimming through a lake of pure fire.

The canyon walls were high and jagged. The sky above was just a thin strip of burning orange clouds.

Declan liked narrow spaces. They made it very easy to funnel enemies into a single neat pile for his halberd.

"Stop right there, glitch."

The voice echoed off the high rock walls.

Declan stopped walking. He did not look surprised. He just looked annoyed.

He looked up at the rocky ledges about thirty feet above him. There were players standing up there. A lot of them.

He counted at least forty guys. They were not wearing standard iron armor or leather vests. They were wearing dirty, ragged robes made of what looked like torn server cables, twisted wires, and melted plastic.

"You guys really need a new tailor," Declan called out. "That look is incredibly ugly."

A player standing on the lowest ledge stepped forward. He held a staff made of jagged scrap metal. He pointed it directly at Declan.

"You are the anomaly," the cultist yelled. "You are the one who builds safe zones and defies the Great Convergence! You are a virus in the divine system!"

Declan sighed loudly. "Let me guess. You are the Zealots of the Wire. Ezekiel’s fan club."

"We are the chosen of the Machine God!" the cultist screamed, raising his arms. "The Grid is a holy entity! The monsters are angels sent to purge the weak! You dare to build a wall to keep the angels out? You dare to reject the holy code?"

"I dare to do a lot of things," Declan said casually. He slapped his chest with confidence and shoved his hands into the pockets of his pitch black Predator Coat. "Mostly because the people trying to stop me talk way too much."

"Kill the virus!" the leader shrieked. "Purge him for the Herald!"

The forty cultists did not pull out bows. They did not start chanting magic spells.

Instead, they all jumped off the cliffs at the exact same time.

Declan raised an eyebrow. They were literally just throwing themselves at him.

"Void Blink."

The world went pitch black. Declan teleported fifteen meters backward, instantly moving out of the drop zone.

The first wave of cultists hit the ground where he just stood. They did not take fall damage. They did not even try to land on their feet. They just smashed into the rocks like meat sacks.

Then, their chests started glowing with a blinding, unstable white light.

Declan narrowed his eyes. ’What the hell?’

[System Warning: High Yield Mana Core Detonation Detected!]

The first cultist exploded.

It was not a fire spell. It was raw, unrefined mana detonating like a block of C4.

BOOM!

The shockwave was massive. It ripped through the canyon, shattering the black rocks and sending a wave of sheer kinetic force straight at Declan.

He raised his left arm. He did not have time to summon his shield.

The blast hit him.

[True Damage Taken: 400 HP]

Declan gritted his teeth as the force pushed him backward. His face twitched. True damage! It completely bypassed the fifty points of flat defense on his mutated coat!

It ignored his physical density. True damage just looked at your health bar and deleted a chunk of it.

It was a calculated suicide bomb.

Before he could recover, three more cultists rushed him. Their chests were already glowing violently.

"For the Herald!" one of them screamed, diving right at Declan’s legs.

"Get off me," Declan grunted. He kicked the guy in the face with his heavy spiked boot. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The cultist’s jaw shattered, but the glowing light in his chest just pulsed faster.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Three massive explosions went off right in Declan’s face.

The sheer force of the chained detonations completely engulfed him. A cloud of thick gray smoke and flying rocks filled the canyon.

Up on the ledge, the cultist leader laughed. "The virus is deleted! The holy code is wiped clean!"

Down in the smoke, a red system warning flashed frantically.

[HP: 15 / 100]

Declan was on his knees. His pitch black coat was torn and smoking. The skin on his arms and face was badly burned. The suicide bombers had just dumped 1200 points of true damage onto him in three seconds!

A normal player would have been instantly vaporized.

But Declan was not normal. The massive health pool scaling from his Abyssal Sovereign class had barely kept him alive.

He coughed, spitting a glob of blood onto the dusty rocks. The pain was sharp and intense, but it was already starting to fade.

’Okay, that actually hurt.’ Declan smiled bitterly as his dark eyes glowed with a terrifying purple light through the smoke.

He did not pull out a health potion. He did not need one.

He opened his right hand. The air distorted violently. The massive, heavy, dark iron shaft of the +30 Warden Halberd materialized in his grip. The tiny black hole in the center of the axe head hummed with a hungry sound.

The smoke began to clear.

The remaining thirty six cultists were charging forward, ready to blow themselves up to finish the job.

Declan stood up. He looked like a demon crawling out of hell. His skin was charred, his coat was smoking, but his eyes were locked on them with pure predatory focus.

He gripped the halberd with both hands and swung it horizontally.

[Trait: Weight of the Warden Activated]

The mass of the weapon increased by five hundred percent instantly. The massive four hundred pound block of dark matter tore through the air. The speed of his 90 Agility stat combined with the absurd weight created a deafening sonic boom.

The blunt axe head smashed into the first three charging cultists.

CRUNCH!

It did not cut them. It turned them into a fine red mist. Their bodies literally popped like water balloons under the sheer kinetic force. Their digital blood sprayed everywhere, raining down on Declan’s face and chest.

[Critical Hit! 18500 Physical Damage Dealt!]

[Cultist Level 25 Killed!]

[Cultist Level 26 Killed!]

[Cultist Level 25 Killed!]

The system recognized the massive overkill damage.

And then, Declan’s new internal hardware went to work.

[Item Passive: Sanguine Engine Triggered]

↳ Converting 50% of damage dealt into True Healing.

Eighteen thousand damage. Half of that was nine thousand points of healing.

A bright, blinding crimson light erupted from Declan’s chest. His physical heart pounded like a massive war drum.

The charred skin on his arms and face instantly knit back together. The burns vanished. His health bar shot from 15 directly to 100 in a fraction of a millisecond!

But the healing did not stop there. He had thousands of points of excess healing pouring into his system.

[Overheal detected. Converting to Blood Shield.]

A thick, swirling barrier of dark red energy materialized around Declan’s body. It looked like a second layer of armor made entirely of floating blood.

[Blood Shield Capacity: 8900 points]

Declan stood in the middle of the canyon, completely fully healed, surrounded by an impenetrable shield of blood, holding a weapon that carried the weight of a truck.

He looked at the remaining cultists. He wiped a smear of their friends’ blood off his cheek and smiled.

"Who wants to blow up next?" Declan asked.

The jaws of every single cultist dropped as they stared at Declan as though he had run mad! The glowing lights in their chests dimmed. Their fanatical courage completely shattered.

They looked at the red barrier floating around him. They looked at the massive crater where three of their guys used to be.

"He actually healed!" one of the cultists shrieked in disbelief. "He took four detonations and he is at full health!"

"He is a raid boss!" another one yelled, dropping his metal staff.

"Run!"

The religious fanatics broke instantly. They turned around and started scrambling over the rocks, desperately trying to climb out of the canyon.

"No running," Declan said coldly.

"Void Blink."

The world went pitch black. Declan teleported fifteen meters forward, appearing right in the middle of the fleeing group.

He swung the massive halberd again.

CRACK!

Two more cultists were flattened against the canyon wall.

[Critical Hit! 17200 Physical Damage Dealt!]

[Sanguine Engine Triggered.]

↳ Blood Shield Capacity Increased: 17500 points

The red barrier around Declan grew thicker and brighter. He was literally farming them for health. Every time he swung, his shield doubled in size!

He was an unstoppable, blood soaked reaper.

He walked through the canyon, swinging the heavy dark iron weapon like a scythe. He did not even bother teleporting anymore. He just walked up to the terrified players and crushed them into the dirt.

Some of them panicked and triggered their suicide detonations point blank against him.

The explosions went off, kicking up massive clouds of dust and fire.

[True Damage Taken: 400]

[Blood Shield Capacity: 17100]

Declan just walked right out of the fire clouds without a single scratch on his coat. The true damage chipped away at his massive overheal barrier, but it did not even touch his actual health bar.

He swung again.

[Critical Hit!]

↳ Blood Shield Capacity: 25000

In less than two minutes, the canyon was completely silent. Thirty nine piles of blue digital pixels floated up into the hot orange sky.

Only one cultist was left.

It was the leader who had been giving the speech earlier. He was backed into a corner of the rock wall, his knees shaking so badly he could barely stand.

Declan walked up to him. The red blood shield swirled around him like a violent storm. The tiny black hole in his halberd hummed loudly.

"Please," the cultist whimpered, holding his hands up. "Please do not delete me."

"I told you," Declan said softly, leaning down to look the guy in the eyes. "I just wanted some rocks."

Declan raised his free hand and grabbed the cultist by the throat. He lifted the guy completely off the ground with one hand.

"Where is Ezekiel?" Declan demanded. "Where is your little clubhouse?"

"Sector 4 underground!" the cultist gasped, clawing at Declan’s iron grip. "The old transit tunnels! The Temple of Flesh!"

"Good," Declan said.

He dropped the guy to the dirt.

"Void Blink."

Declan vanished, leaving the terrified cultist sitting alone in the canyon. It was time to go pay this Ezekiel a visit.