Mothlina and Ladyba froze where they were, unable to comprehend how things had changed up so quickly. One minute, Queenie was with them, trying to fend off the onslaught of these assailants, and the next moment, they were able to detect that her soul was gone.
Naturally, the Queen Bee was dead.
There was no mistake about this.
Darius gazed at the corpse before he unceremoniously thrust his lance into it, its remains got defiled and absorbed. The lance glowed in a spectacular golden light as it leveled up once more.
The essence of a Grandmaster was far greater than those of Master Bugs, especially at these early stages.
[Dragon Ancestor's Lance of Destruction - Unique Weapon (Lv. 11)
Durability: 650,000/650,000
Quality: Perfect
Damage: 9,000-13,000
Description: A one of its kind spear that has never existed… etc.]
Its power increase was linearly exponential with each level, so it was a worthwhile endeavor to upgrade it. Darius should have collected the essences of the previous slain bugs, but it was due to his negligence that he did not take advantage.
He won't make any excuses for that. However, now that his memory had been jogged to this item, he would make sure to harvest the bugs fully for its growth.
His eyes focused on Mothlina, who was still in shock. He decided to cull the Support Bug before the Soul Bug, because he didn't know the extent of Mothlina's abilities.
There was a real possibility that she may be able to resurrect her fellow bugs using special means - or more likely, fortify them heavily - and Darius was not interested in a protracted fight.
As such, he directly used Time Skip, one of his most promising spells that would certainly be powered up later.
[Time Skip - Level 1 Spell
Cost: 1 MP
Description: Move through the river of time to cross within a local area to advance forward beyond the means of those who are time-locked. The maximum duration is 0.1 seconds.]
The basic spell of the Time Element, and it was quite exemplary. Its only weakness was that any person who used it often would lose time compared to those in the normal flow.
After all, Darius wasn't time traveling. He was just fast-forwarding his personal time by the spell's current amount, so whatever he was doing would be completed in that time.
0.1 seconds did not seem like a lot, but it was enough for Darius to appear before the Support Bug and thrust his lance into her thorax. Mothlina could only regret that her kind was not one blessed with high Endurance.
The lance easily penetrated her cute body and began its work, draining away the entirety of her essence for its own nourishment. Mothlina only had time to scream in utter agony and pain before she was turned into a flowing light of energy.
Another one of the Grandmaster bugs, dead!
Ladyba was left alone, and the Soul Bug was shivering in her carapace. She had directly experienced the pain of Queenie's death and Mothlina's absorption through their connection, so she was paralyzed with fear knowing that to be her fate next.
The poor creature couldn't even muster the words to beg. If Darius or Gunner had heard her pleasant voice, they might have actually felt a tinge of sympathy.
Not enough to prevent the inevitable, but it might have been a consolation for Ladyba before her death.
Darius casually walked over to the visibly shuddering bug that could only raise its head to gaze at him with those big, watery eyes. She looked like she was about to cry, yet at the same time too scared to make noise.
Xela was extremely moved by this and decisively closed her eyes and sealed her ears. The Elf Princess didn't doubt that she was going to be haunted by these scenes, so she'd rather not see it here and now.
No need to punish herself when she knew that there was nothing she could do here... worse she knew that even if she had the power to stop her companions, she wouldn't.
Darius casually stabbed the lance into the head of Ladyba, taking her life instantly so she didn't have to suffer the same pain as Mothlina. Her essence was greedily absorbed by the lance until she was turned into nothingness.
A golden light shone once more, as with Ladyba and Mothlina's essence, it had climbed two levels, one for each of them.
[Dragon Ancestor's Lance of Destruction - Unique Weapon (Lv. 13)
Durability: 880,000/880,000
Quality: Perfect
Damage: 11,300-15,300
Description: A one of its kind spear that has never… etc.]
Darius flourished the golden lance in his hand. He couldn't help but idly wonder if he could use this thing to kill Gods when it reached level 50. If so, might he even use it to slaughter True Lords at level 100?
He put it away as the group trekked deeper into the lair of the Insects. With the three lady bugs down, the only ones left were Anthony, Spidersin, and finally Beelzebub himself.
Feeling ever closer to becoming an Adept, Darius felt like there was an extra skip in his step. It couldn't be helped, the Adept stage was something he had been direly looking forward to for many reasons.
Now that it was around the corner, he felt like the advent of his major plans in Faust were coming to light. Especially regarding Deia, as he couldn't even begin to lay down a foundation to recover her without that much power.
The group finally entered the last cavern, where they saw the body of Beelzebub which was guarded on the left and right by the Worker Bug and Assassin Bug, respectively.
Seeing the state of Beelzebub, Darius's group couldn't help but suck in a deep breath.
Both of his compound eyes were blown open, blackish-green juice leaking from within. His proboscis had been snapped in half and the part that was left was bent at a weird angle. All his legs were gone and so too was most of his thorax.
[Name: Beelzebub
Race: Insect
Class: Lord of the Flies
Subclass: ???
HP: 3,454/300,000 (386,848/3,360,000)
MP: ???
STA: ???
Level: ???
Strength: 300 (2100)
Agility: 1 (900)
Endurance: 1000 (1600)
Intellect: 120 (445)
Charisma: ???
Luck: ???
Abilities: ???
Weapons: ???.]
He was like a strange legless body just lying on the ground, but his head moved when he sensed the presence of Darius.
He spoke in a bitter tone filled with hatred. "You killed most of my children. Good! I hope you are well acquainted with death and have had a good life, because after I recover, I will slaughter you!"
Darius cocked his head in surprise. "What makes you think I'll let you recover?"
Immediately, he raised a finger and cast his signature spell, Lightning Bolt! The spell blasted towards the True Lord, aiming to fry what was left of him, but was dispersed by a blueish-green barrier that was invisible, but showed itself to resist the attack.
Beelzebub screeched with mocking laughter. "Good luck trying to break this barrier! By the time you are able to, I will be far better than I am now! Even I could not break it before you harmed me!"
Darius frowned as he Analyzed the barrier which was not visible, but the Supreme System could certainly recognize it.
[All-Energy Resistant Barrier V.01 - Technological
Durability: 19,900,800/20,000,000
Quality: Good
Uses: Infinite, as long as there is remaining durability.
Description: This creation of advanced technology was produced by 'Blacklight Technology' under the hands of Ceo Chen. It has the ability to negate all types of attacks and forms known within Faust, but only as much as the barrier can withstand. Its perfectionist creator regarded this as a flawed product and scrapped it, leaving this prototype as the only testimony of his endeavors.]
Darius' eyes narrowed. This was a creation of Gravitas, so how did it end up here? Unless the bugs raided it all those years ago during their conquest, but that was unlikely.
Rather, they must have either discovered it underwater at some point or raided it from the mermaids, who were likely ignorant of its purpose. As someone who fought against Gravitas and their weird technology, Beelzebub would certainly know how to sue it.
It was just like how he had been the fastest to react to the Electromagnetic warheads. He had seen similar things dropped by the airships of Gravitas, allowing him to react fast enough to save all their lives.
Reasoning this, Darius frowned. Assuming that the barrier had been at full capacity when the Lightning Bolt hat hit, then it meant that the spell had shaved off 99,200 of its durability in one attack.
However, Darius doubted this as the barrier's response was mild, and most importantly, Beelzebub himself had stated that he had 'tested' the barrier.
The Itemancer estimated that the attack of the previously injured but still deadly Beelzebub might have been able to deal 90,000+ worth of damage to the barrier with ease.
This gave Darius a few ideas on how much damage he dealt, and he hoped that he was wrong, as that would be the worst-case scenario.
Naturally, the best way to verify was to blast it again, which Darius did the next second.
