When the golden knights charged toward the herald's security troops, Jack and the others slipped away to get scores from destroying the supply carts.
Jack had informed the others, but they were still surprised at how tough these supply carts were compared to the lower-difficulty dungeons. Jack summoned his spirit weapon and golden wolves. He let these summons and Therras help the others break the supply carts while he went and scored his own.
He didn't have many big skills left and he didn't want to use reset yet so he could only break twelve supply carts this time, two carts more than the last time. Not long after, the herald stood.
Jack used Reset then. He called the others to gather. They all charged together while staying close to Jack. When the Herald started casting Hell Inferno, Jack activated his cloak's ability, Elemental God Barrier.
He had set his cloak element to fire, so the barrier could absorb one million of fire damage.
The finishing mode of Jack's Lightning God Incarnation under the buff of Strength of Hope had caused one million damage, but that was a single target hit. The Hell Inferno was an AOE spell. It packed an awful lot of damage but an AOE spell normally dealt less damage than a single-target skill. The damage it dealt didn't reach one million so the Elemental God Barrier was still holding.
During the discussion before they entered this legacy dungeon, Jack told everyone about the experience when he fought this herald the last time. From his story, they all understood that the Herald underestimated his opponent at the beginning.
This meant that if they wanted to score big, their best chance was to do it at the start. Thus, they had to land their strongest attack right from the start.
Under the protection of Jack's Elemental God Barrier, the five with Hope's Sanctification gathered. Jack, Jeanny, Grace, and Paytowin activated their sanctification while holding John's back.
"Can you aim with all this fire?" Jack asked. Outside the barrier, everything was covered in flames.
"Do you underestimate my photographic memory? As long as the herald doesn't move, I won't miss," John answered.
Out of all the times Jack had fought the Herald, the Herald never moved from his spot after casting the Hell Inferno.
Their glows fused into John. The brilliance it produced outshined even the flames outside.
The Herald was leisurely waiting to see if the intruders survived his spell. He then noticed some sort of glow from within his flames. While he was fascinated by that distant glow, it vanished. He then sensed an abrupt increase in the intensity of mana right where he was standing.
There was no time to cast Teleportation. He immediately moved away, but he felt a great force pulling his body. A bright ball of light appeared right next to him where he stood a moment ago. This ball enlarged at an alarming rate. Without being able to move away, he cast a defensive spell just as he was engulfed by this ball of light.
When the Hell Inferno ended, Jack and the others saw a giant ball of light in front of them.
"Hurry! Spread out and prepare!" Jack exclaimed as he ran to the side while calling Therras, his spirit weapon, and the ten golden wolves out.
The others started moving, just as a fiery lance pierced out from the ball of light. This lance was too fast. It accurately hit Fierce Flame who was in the middle of a run. By the time she sensed the incoming attack, the lance was already piercing her body. She was dragged a distance away before exploding. Her name was greyed out from the party list.
Then Jet found himself unable to move. "I've been caught…!" He shouted.
"Shit!" Jack cursed. He had suspected Hope's Light wouldn't be able to hold an eternal-grade opponent for long, but he didn't expect the opponent could still attack when the light was still active.
The huge ball of light imploded. The herald was visible again then. He had one hand aiming at Jet while his other hand holding a magic staff was casting another spell. There was a layer of dark red flames coating his body.
"Chaos armor!" Peniel exclaimed.
The chaos armor was the one protecting the herald from being incapacitated. If not for it, the herald would be as helpless as the demon lord even after Hope's Light ended.
The last time, Hope's Light was able to eliminate the defensive spell from the demon lord. It seemed that if the target's power was strong enough, its defensive ability was still able to resist this divine power.
Although Hope's light failed to incapacitate the herald, its implosion still cost the herald a huge chunk of its HP. It lost almost 20% of its HP bar, which had an HP of 3,800,000. If not for the chaos armor, he would lose even more.
"Yes!" Jack exclaimed. The last time, he barely dealt 1% damage. He should already gain a higher score from this one hit.
But he wasn't going to quit now. He wanted to see how far he could go against this eternal opponent. He cast Double Clone.
The herald already finished his spell. A Chaos Black Hole appeared where Jet was still held by Telekinesis.
"Bloody hell…! Why me?! I haven't even landed a single…"
Jet didn't get to finish his words as the black hole shrunk to a dot, crushing him with it. The crimson-maned lion and the silver griffin he had summoned earlier vanished once he was gone.
The others had heard from Jack's tale that this eternal-grade herald was no joke. But only after witnessing it directly, they knew that this eternal-grade herald was truly no joke!
Everyone immediately used their best skills from the get-go.
Leavemealone transformed into a white tiger emperor coated with Fire God Suit and activated all his buff skills before using White Tiger Charge to get to the herald.
Jeanny used Heaven Spear and Heavenly Spear Drill back-to-back.
Paytowin wore his Brave Techno Suit and activated its Overdrive mode. He called his Mothership Bombardment. He then used Brave Rifle to shoot from afar while Brave King fired Projectile Punch at the herald.
Grace used Angelic Possession and Armor of Ego. She then fired Chain Lightning at the Herald.
Giant Steve activated Fortress and Field Bastion. He then used Shield Charge, a non-standard skill for the Knight class, and rushed toward the herald.
John was busy calling his summons while doing his best to stay out of sight.
Jack, who had become three people, cast Perpetual Lightning Judgement, mana beam, and Tracing Light Beams from three different directions. His spirit weapon was in ranged mode and Therras fired Oppressive Wave from a distance
Even Domon who normally only used game skills as complements to his martial arts now used his skills from the start. He used Tiger Arms Armament, Ki weapon, called his spirit weapon, and sent the Tiger Armament Storm at the herald.
Before all those attacks arrived, the herald disappeared using Teleportation and appeared right next to Grace.
