Debuff Master-Chapter 1084

Chapter 1084
On the scalp of the Protogenos...
“
Ugh!”
Siegfried barely managed to stop himself from vomiting at the overwhelming stench that struck him in the face.
The Protogenos’ scalp was a hellhole. Its scalp was greasy with a slick film of oil, flaky white dandruff clung to its hair, and the smell was so vile that it couldn’t be put into words.
The Protogenoi never bathed, so the stench that they emanated far surpassed even the worst stench that one could imagine.
“
Ughhh!”
Siegfried gritted his teeth and grabbed onto a single strand of hair, barely holding back the urge to puke. But that was only the beginning.
“Kieeek!”
“Kirit! Kirit!”
Lava Cavern Fire Fleas that had been inhabiting—if that was even the right word to describe it—the Protogenos’ hair emerged. They had been feasting on the blood of the Protogenos to survive, just like ordinary fleas would do.
“Get outta my way!” Siegfried exclaimed, swinging his +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp left and right.
Taking out the Lava Cavern Fire Fleas was not particularly difficult, but what came after that was the real problem.
“
Hm?
”
The Protogenos suddenly felt an itch on its scalp. Siegfried’s battle with the Fire Fleas seemed to have irritated its scalp, causing it to feel itchy.
“Damn fleas again.”
As always, the Protgenos reached up, ran its fingers through its hair, and tried to dig out the damn fleas that were causing the itch.
The enormous fingers suddenly digging through the hair forced Siegfried to leap out of the way for his life.
“
Aaack!”
Siegfried screamed while jumping.
From his perspective, the gigantic fingers were extremely dangerous.
Why?
It was all because his body would get crushed into a pulp if those monstrous fingers were to hit him. Even worse, he could get crushed between the fingers if the giant managed to grab him.
It did not matter how strong he was, as the sheer brute strength of the Protogenos could easily crush him.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Siegfried cried out. His eyes widened in horror after seeing the Lava Cavern Fire Fleas getting crushed to death by the gigantic fingers.
The more Siegfried moved, the worse the situation became for him. The fingers moved even more aggressively, trying to squash him. Siegfried’s movements stimulated the irritated scalp, causing the itch to worsen.
The Protogenos couldn’t help but keep scratching, trying to catch the cause of the itch.
Still, Siegfried was not about to give up on Michael’s wing.
‘
I’ll have to depend on you!’
He summoned the Three-Legged Crow.
“Caw! Caaaw!”
By now, the crow’s feathers had fully regrown to their original form.
“Hey, can you please grab that for me?” Siegfried asked, pointing at Michael’s wing.
“
Caw! Caw!”
The Three-Legged Crow immediately flapped its wings and headed straight for the wing just as Siegfried asked.
Sure enough...
Ding!
[Alert: You have obtained Michael’s Wing!]
The crow perfectly accomplished its mission by retrieving the wing and delivering it to him.
[Alert: You have leveled up!]
[Alert: You have reached Level 435!]
[Alert: You have reached Level 436!]
[Alert: You have reached Level 437!]
[Alert: You have reached Level 438!]
[Alert: You have reached Level 439!]
He gained five levels at once after gaining the wing and completing the quest.
‘
Time to bail!’
The moment he secured the wing, he wasted no time and hurriedly escaped from the Protogenos’ head.
“Was that... a bug?”
The Protogenos had no idea that Siegfried had just retrieved Michael’s wing from within its hair. In its eyes, all that happened was that some annoying little gnat had gotten lost in its hair for a moment and buzzed past its ears.
Due to its sheer size, it was nearly impossible for it to detect the tiny human scurrying away unnoticed.
***
“Here you go,” Siegfried said, handing over the wing.
“Thank you,” Michael bowed politely and accepted the wing.
Fshhh!
The wing melted seamlessly into Michael’s hand and sprouted out from his back moments later.
With that, Michael had now recovered nine of his twelve wings.
Although he had yet to gather all twelve wings and restore his powers as the Chief Archangel, he had regained enough strength rivaling that of an archangel, or perhaps he was stronger than an archangel at this point.
After all, Michael was the former Chief Archangel, so he was likely capable of exerting combat prowess exceeding that of an archangel, even with just nine wings. In fact, he had already overpowered the Archangel of Death, Zerachiel, in terms of combat skills alone with only eight wings.
‘
Good,’
Siegfried smiled as he looked at Michael.
It was obvious, but the stronger Michael became, the more advantage they would have in the war against the angels. If Michael managed to recover all twelve of his wings, then they would have another powerful trump card to go head-to-head against the current Chief Archangel, Lucifer.
However, time was not on their side. They were running out of time to find the remaining three wings, as the angels could descend upon the Middle Realm before that.
“Well, now that we have your wing back, let’s go crash the party,” Siegfried said with a grin.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Michael replied with a nod.
With that, Siegfried and his comrades began heading toward the entrance of the Lava Cavern: World of the Condemned.
They planned to lie in wait there and launch a surprise attack on the angels while they were carrying the Protogenoi.
***
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Protogenoi species followed their leaders Aither, Erebos, and Pontos as they marched toward the entrance of the Lava Cavern: World of the Condemned.
Soaring above the horde of giants were tens of thousands of fallen angels, all flying in coordinated groups.
As they reached the entrance of the Lava Cavern: World of the Condemned...
“Let us begin,” Garuel said.
“Hurry up and get on with it,” Aither responded impatiently. He was so elated at the thought of escaping this underground prison and returning to the Middle Realm that he was ready to charge headfirst into anything.
For the Protogenoi race, this escape was like a lifeline thrown at them in the bottomless pit of despair they were stuck in. It was their only hope.
“Brothers and sisters! Move out!” Garuel shouted the command.
At once, the fallen angels pulled out ropes and began binding Aither, Erebos, and Pontos. Exactly one hundred fifty fallen angels clung to each of them, securing them tightly with golden ropes.
As for the rest of the Protogenoi, their bodies were relatively smaller than their leaders’, so they were carried by one hundred fallen angels each.
After some time, Garuel finally said, “It is time to depart."
The fallen angels took flight, carrying Aither, Erebos, Pontos, and the rest of the Protogenoi toward the Middle Realm.
It took over a day to reach the bottom of the pit, so it would naturally take several days to reach the surface when flying upward. If taking into consideration their flight speed, it could very well take more than a week for them to reach the surface.
However, that was not a problem at all. The fallen angels possessed enough stamina to fly for a month straight without rest if needed, and they hardly felt bored even while repeating the same mundane task.
After all, both the fallen angels and the Protogenoi were beings who lived near-immortal lives, so a week or two was a short period of time for them.
‘
Filthy insects... Just wait. These savage beasts will crush all of you,’
Garuel clenched his teeth and growled inwardly with hatred while carrying the Protogenoi.
In Garuel’s eyes, the Protogenoi were nothing more than foolish beasts.
The angels did not recognize the Protogenoi, who were the first creations of the Creator, as worthy beings. For them, the Protogenoi were failures discarded by the Creator. They were pieces of trash that were rejected.
The angels also held a sense of superiority, convinced that they were the true and rightful children of the Creator. In other words, they only intended to use the Protogenoi in their invasion of the Middle Realm, and they didn't see them as equals at all.
“F-Finally...! We’re finally leaving this place...!” Aither gasped, trembling with joy at the thought of stepping foot on the Middle Realm again.
He couldn’t care less whether the fallen angels were plotting something against them or not. After spending countless eons trapped underground, being freed from the world where they were condemned to stay for eternity was all that mattered to them.
Besides, the Protogenoi were confident that they would recover some of their lost divine powers once they set foot in the Middle Realm, and with that power, they would be able to crush the angels like a bunch of flies.
‘Tsk... Look at this bunch of rejects smiling,’
Garuel clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘
Do you really think you can order us, the Protogenoi, around?’
Aither scoffed inwardly.
Both the fallen angels and the Protogenoi had completely different plans from the beginning. The two sides had no plans of honoring their promises, and they planned to betray each other from the very beginning.
It was then.
“...!”
Garuel sensed an incredibly powerful presence speeding toward them from afar. This overwhelming presence made the hair on his skin stand up.
‘
No way... Is it possible...?’
As soon as that thought flashed through Garuel’s mind...
Fwoosh!
Michael, shining gloriously with his nine wings, shouted, “Stop right there! Garuel!”
“C-Chief Archangel Michael?!” Garuel flinched in utter shock at Michael’s sudden appearance. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought that he would run into Michael here, of all places.
“Stop this madness, Garuel! What do you hope to accomplish by dragging the Protogenoi into the Middle Realm?! Since when did we, angels, become destroyers of other lifeforms?!”
“Silence, Michael! You’re nothing but a traitor to your own kin! What right do you have to preach to us?! You can’t even understand the will of your own brothers and sisters!” Garuel snapped back.
“Even so! Killing innocent creatures is not—”
“Attack! Kill the traitor! Kill him!” Garuel roared, cutting Michael off mid-sentence.
The fallen angels who were not carrying the Protogenoi rushed forward at the command.
“Die! Traitor!”
“You have no right to tell us what to do!”
“Begone! Coward!”
Thousands of fallen angels swarmed toward Michael all at once.
“...So there’s no avoiding this,” Michael muttered, trembling with sorrow.
He tried reasoning with them again and again, but all he received in response was the scorn and contempt of his own kind. The emotional toll of being shunned and called a traitor by his own kin weighed heavily on him.
This was the reason Michael struggled to raise his sword against his own kind, as whether he loved them or not, they were still his brothers and sisters.
However, that limitation did not apply to someone else.
Fwoooosh!
Suddenly, fire came crashing down from the skies and engulfed the fallen angels.
“
Aaaargh!”
“Aaaaack!”
One by one, those who rushed toward Michael screamed in agony as the flames engulfed them.
Even the angels couldn’t endure the torment of being burned alive by these flames.
“I’ll handle this,” Siegfried said, brushing past Michael.
He knew full well that Michael couldn’t cut down his fellow kin, so he decided to take that burden in his stead.
‘
Hmm... This is far more effective than I thought,’
Siegfried thought, smiling with satisfaction while watching Karma Flare not only shatter the defenses of the fallen angels but also deliver massive damage to them.
Siegfried’s greatest strength as the Lord of Despair was his ability to debuff the enemy, but this one proved to be far more than just debuffing them.
“You’re starting to annoy me. Get lost,” Siegfried growled.
He gathered the fire-attribute energy stored in his Inferno Blaze Orb and summoned numerous aura blades engulfed in flames.
Fwooooosh!
Tens of thousands of blazing swords appeared in the air.
‘
Time to test this out.’
Then, he used Transcendent Torrential Flower Rain.
Instead of using the usual ice attribute energy, he used fire this time.
Fwooooosh!
As a result, tens of thousands of fire swords rained down like a blazing storm of inferno.
It was a rain of fire.
The flower rain of death that was once made up of blades became a hellish rain of fire.
Needless to say, those unfortunate enough to get caught up in the rain of fire were burned alive in the sky.