POV Rio
After we had all the plans set, we started executing them. First, we opened with a sustained Artillery Barrage that lasted for around 10 minutes. By the time it had ended, we had reached the outer perimeter, and Pequod came in to start his attack run. There weren't many Raiders still alive, but after the barrage ended, several more Raiders came running outside to see what the commotion was.
They tried to shoot at Pequod, but they failed to understand something terrifying. We had the High Ground™. With the High Ground™, it was a bloody massacre. They tried desperately to stop us, but it was pointless. It took around 2 minutes for the screaming and gunfire to stop. When it did, I tried to get an estimate for how many we had killed, but it was hard to tell because of the blood and guts strewn all over the place. I gave up, and we made our way down into the quarry. I made sure to take all the corpses in case they turned while behind us.
When we got to the bottom, we approached the door and got ready to open it. With no Hosigan, it meant we had to do things the old-fashioned way. I strapped a door charge and backed up. I counted down from three with my hands, and the bomb went off. We pushed in and opened fire blindly. It seems it was a good idea, as 10 Raiders were waiting at the door. Once they were dead, we moved further inside. We came to a turn, and I disabled a tripwire trap. What I found odd was that there was supposed to be a back door near here, but I couldn't find any such thing.
'Strange, but oh well.'
We pressed deeper and came to the first station, which had around 3 dozen defenders. They didn't see us until we opened fire. Thanks to us firing first, we had a massive advantage that they couldn't overcome, and eventually, they were all killed. I took the corpses like I did prior, and we moved on. We still made a little time to loot, but there wasn't too much.
We arrived at the second station and we repeated what had happened last time. Station 3 was different. It was empty and right before a massive pit, and the bottom of the pit was filled with unnatural darkness. Rather than go down, we just started shooting blindly into the darkness. We had infinite ammo, and our weapons never needed maintenance, so we could just keep firing forever.
It seemed like our plan was a great idea as the longer we fired, the weaker the darkness became. Eventually, the unnatural darkness faded completely, and we started making our way down. The ancient and shoddy stairs creaked a lot when going down because of the weight from the Power Armor, but I wasn't going to take the chance of everyone leaving those suits. I was not wearing Power Armor as I needed the most mobility, and it worked best with my current build.
At the bottom of the pit, we found the ashes that once made up the Raiders. A terminal documented the descent into madness by the Raiders here and how the light used to keep them safe. I also found Astoundingly Awesome Tales Issue #8, Attack of the Metal Man, which reduced the damage taken from robots by 5%.
We kept going and opened a door that led deeper. I could feel the area ahead was dripping with the most vile of magic and feelings of corruption. I had added enchantments to everyone's armor to avoid the whispers this place is undoubtedly speaking. I cast a light spell and see a large group of twisted monsters. They looked like a strange humanoid with bones outside their bodies and long, spindly limbs.
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When the light shone on them, they became ferocious and turned into something more closely resembling a beast. They then came running at us. We didn't hesitate and opened fire. The guns did well enough, but there were so many that I had to create several barriers to prevent the creatures from getting too close.
CRACK
The barrier slowly cracks more and more, and I keep trying to repair every crack. Thankfully, their numbers start to decrease as the cleansing bullets prevent them from regrouping and seem to dissipate them into nothingness. Once the last of the creatures fall, we take a short break, mostly so I can regen mana and make sure we were still in good condition.
We continue through the quarry and face more and more of the creatures. As we continue, the enemy variety changes as new enemies appear. These new ones are much more difficult to kill. They were phantasms that were made of pure darkness and had piercing white eyes. The reason they were such a pain was that the normal cleansing bullet had no effect, and only the enchanted weapons did anything. Oh, and they screamed really, really, really loudly.
[Image Here]
But even with the massive numbers of monsters and creatures, we still made it to the proverbial boss arena. It was right next to Station 4 in a wide open area that I saw a veil of pure darkness at the back of the room.
"That's not ominous," Cait commented sarcastically.
"Just remember, when the boss attacks, just roll. 80% of the time it works 100% of the time," I say.
After clearing out the enemies, it was fairly quiet, so we took this chance to rest. Near the Station 4 terminal was the Sneak Bobblehad, so I grabbed it. It read: Oops! Sorry, didn't mean to startle you, guess my sneaking's working! It gave me 15 Skill Points and made me 10% harder to detect. It was a neat find. After resting, it was time to enter the strange veil.
When I touched the veil, it evaporated, and inside I could see a large cave with a pool of dark liquid in the center. At first, it seemed empty, but then in the center of the liquid appeared a very strange creature. It had a vaguely humanoid form. It looked like it had fur or hair covering parts of its body. It had a massive set of various horns atop its head with red orbs of light on some of the horns. One arm was holding a large club, while the other was a mass of writhing flesh.
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We didn't wait to see what it would do and started blasting. A health bar appeared above the creature, which is where I learned his name was Manus Bishop of the Abyss. I also started hearing boss music.
(AN: Play Manus, Father of the Abyss on YouTube; it should be on the channel Motoi Sakuraba - Topic. )
'Oh no.'
The bullet impacted Manus, and it barely moved his health bar. Then he responded by rushing at us. I rolled out of the way in time to avoid the attack, but the others weren't as lucky. Cait was near the edge and avoided the full force, but Deacon was sent flying and into the wall, where he was embedded. Hancock was thrown to the side, and Quiet also barely managed to avoid most of the attack, only causing her to be knocked down.
I grabbed Deacon's fallen weapon and kept it in my TK field so I could focus on getting the right timing. The weapon kept charging as I intended to use all its charge in one big blast. I also kept the grenades in my inventory so Manus could be caught off guard.
The other aren't waiting around, and we continue to attack Manus. The gunfire wasn't that effective, but it was annoying. The others used this to grab his attention away from me. The first to get attacked next was Cait. Manus used his club to smash down on Cait. That was perfect for us, as Cait was wearing the Aegis Armor. Meaning the damage did nothing to Cait and instead reflected completely back on Manus. The damage seemed to be fairly serious as it reduced his HP by 5%~. It also staggered Manus, which I used as my opening to activate the Grenades.
WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
The light was blinding, and as Indrid said, it caused my skin to itch a bit, but it was barely noticeable. My other companions were not that affected either. The same could not be said for Manus. His HP dropped from around 95-94% to 21%. I was honestly a bit shocked he survived. But at least the entire area was cleansed of darkness, meaning Manus couldn't draw on its power. It also meant the runes on the armor weren't working overtime and were able to relax a bit.
ROOOOOOOOAAAAARRRR
Manus was not looking his best and seemed to be enraged by all the damage, but while it was roaring, the Sparan Laser was fully charged, so I shot the beam into his mouth. The beam blasts a hole through his mouth and seems to cause a decent amount of damage. His HP dropped to 17%.
"Oh shut up!" I yell.
Manus was truly enraged at this point, and I could sense his mana surging. I knew I was his target, but he reached me before I could even react. Manus didn't use a physical attack and instead used a point-blank magic attack. A beam of shadowy darkness is shot from his club. The attack was extremely powerful, so much so that it instantly vaporized me. It also didn't stop there and priced the wall and kept going until we couldn't see where it ended.
I appear a small distance away from the ground. I don't make myself known right away and instead activate Tambelon's Return.
DINNNNG
The first bell chimes, and while it doesn't do much, it does cause Manus to look at me. My appearance didn't change much, but I could feel the difference. I cast several light and purifying spells at Manus. He dodged some and blocked others with his own magic. A beam of black energy came rushing at me, but I was in Wolf Mode, allowing me to perceive everything at incredibly slow speeds. I dodged several of the beams, but eventually one of them hit me. When it did, I didn't take any damage; instead, I felt myself healing and even gaining a little power.
DINNNNG
The second bell chime went off, and it still didn't do much. I got a wicked smile and stopped dodging. All the beams hit me, and I started getting a massive amount of temp mana, which I then channeled into my next spell. To be fair to Manus, he seemed to sense something was wrong and moved to attack me in melee range. But that was exactly what I wanted.
DINNNNG
The final bell rang, and Manus was nearly right next to me. But that was when I finished my next spell.
"LIGHT BURST!"
I exploded into light, creating a massive sphere of pure light. The spell was normally decent, but it had no upper limit as long as you kept putting in mana; it would continue increasing in power. The light hit Manus nearly point-blank, but he was quick to react and tried to raise a shield, only for that to get absorbed by the bell, just fueling the spell further.
"ROOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!!" Manus screams as he is vaporized, and I see for a split second a sword or blade within him before it too gets vaporized.
Once the light dies down, there is nothing left of Manus and the dark puddle has also evaporated. I look down and see a large shaft into the ground with a metal face far below that. The head had been fully excavated and was giving off very faint magic, of the evil variety. It was at this point that I used the coin to summon Indrid. He arrived soon after.
"Excellent work. I must admit, when I felt the massive or dark energy, I wasn't sure if you would make it," Indrid says.
"Yeah, the enemy was named Manus, and he was a lot stronger than only 10 times your power," I reply.
"Manus? Are you certain?" Indrid says with a slightly weaker smile.
"Yes, that was his name," I reply.
"Hmm, it seems I underestimated the Invaders. They seem to have sent the strongest of the remaining Bishops, and then they must have boosted him somehow. But that is irrelevant now. I need to cleanse this area," Indrid says.
We back off a bit and watch as Indrid starts the ritual. The ritual took 2 hours, and at the end, Indrid had become far weaker. His mortal form was aged by what seemed like centuries instantly. But even through it all, he kept smiling.
"It is done. The corruption has been pruged and the connection to Earth severed. With this, the Invaders have been cut off from Earth. It also means my work is done here. There is but one last thing I must do. You still need that artifact. I shall return to Hell. Summon me using the ritual and the orb will be yours," Indrid says.
"Will you be coming back to Earth?" I ask.
"No, it's unlikely. This body has lived out its lifespan. It has no power to maintain me on Earth. As such, when you do the ritual, all that will appear is the orb. Do with it what you must. This will likely be the last we speak," Indrid says with an exhausted tone.
"What will happen to Hell now?" I ask.
"Hmm, we should be able to win now. However, I don't believe many will survive. And with Lord Demiurge dying soon as well, Hell will have no lord. And with no Lord, Hell cannot exist. And it is unlikely the survivors will be strong enough to maintain Hell and become a new lord," Indrid says.
"I see, well, I will say that it has been surprisingly good to work with you. I can't say I wish to meet again, but if we do, I won't be upset," I reply.
We shake hands, and Indrid's body starts to age more until he turns to dust right in front of us. After he is gone, I look down the pit and see the metal face has disappeared. I opened my Hoshigan to look around and make sure nothing was amiss, and when I noticed it was safe, we started to leave.
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Author's Note:
So a lot happened. The idea to use Manus from Dark Souls just kind of happened. When I thought of a super dangerous, corrupted creature that looked the part, Manus and the Abyss just seemed to fit. Now, to explain why Manus was so powerful. Some of you might have caught on to the mention of a blade or weapon. Basically, Manus used Kremvh's Tooth to further his power. That and the Invaders poured more power into Manus to further protect Manus. If Rio hadn't used the Holy Frag Grenades, then the Invaders would have just given more and more power to Manus until Rio eventually died. The other enemies were from RWBY for the first and Dark Souls for the second picture.
I would like to note that, despite Indrid seeming to be trustworthy, you should never trust a devil. Even if they have massive honkers and say that they totally don't enslave their subjects. I'm looking at you, DxD. Until next time, Ciao.