Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest Chapter 1996: The Ruined Village

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At the heart of the ruined village, within the lord’s crumbling castle, a massive surge of red and black energy erupted. It twisted upward into a towering pillar of malicious power. A pair of enormous eyes suddenly opened within the vortex, blinking slowly before fixing their gaze directly on Elayne.

"Wait, who are you?!" Elayne demanded.

Before she could receive any answer, the eyes closed and the oppressive presence vanished completely. Elayne stood frozen for a moment, utterly speechless as questions swirled through her mind about what was truly happening here.

"Damn it!"

She clenched her teeth and clicked her tongue in frustration as the monstrous Aberrations drew closer. Their giant spears thrust forward with lightning speed, their nether auras flaring wildly like countless souls trapped in eternal agony.

"How disgusting. These things were grafted together using hundreds of souls each?" she realized with growing revulsion. "They are fueled by the negative energy produced from their suffering. No wonder they could create Hollows. They mutated these patchwork abominations into Hollows by channeling the constant outpouring of negative energy from those tormented souls."

A giant claw slashed toward her, missing her by a mere hair’s breadth. Elayne gripped her sword, Asteria, and moved with surprising speed and precision. She dodged each heavy strike, frustrating her enemies and forcing them to miss repeatedly.

"Fine. If you will not give me any answers, then I will make you talk."

She stepped forward and blurred across the battlefield. The Hollow Aberrations hissed furiously in response. The spear-wielding one saw through her speed and intercepted her mid-movement. Their weapons clashed violently. The blood of the corpses impaled on the spear splattered across Elayne’s face, filling her with even deeper disgust and burning fury.

"How dare you! How dare you toy with the lives of innocents?!" she roared, her voice shaking with righteous anger.

Elayne’s undead powers surged wildly, merging with her spiritual abilities. Her aura exploded with immense force as dozens of Sporeborns poured out from a portal and leaped onto her foes. They swarmed over the monsters, spreading debilitating spores that rapidly weakened them.

At the same time, she swung Asteria and activated her bugged sword skill. A black, glitching mass of energy burst forth from the blade. Sword Obsession activated and boosted her power dramatically.

[You have taken hold of a Sword. The Skill: Sword Obsession – Tier 2: Level 1/20 has activated.]

[While active, your Physical Strength, Swordsmanship Technique, Attack Power, Agility, and Movement Speed increase by 100%.]

[Additionally, your Senses increase sharply.]

A single downward slash cleaved one Aberration cleanly in two. Its body split apart and both halves crashed to the ground, creating chaos among the remaining monsters.

The other two roared and lunged at her, but Elayne was already one step ahead. She enhanced her senses and body with her aura and leaped away from their coordinated attack. As she escaped their grasp, however, she noticed the enemy she had just bisected beginning to regenerate. Black tendrils emerged from its open wounds and pulled the two halves back together into a single whole.

"I see. So that is how it works."

The Hollow laughed maniacally and leaped toward her. Its giant fist slammed down, smashing her toward the other two who waited with open claws. They caught her and opened their massive jaws, eager to bite down.

However...

They only sank their teeth into their own fingers. Elayne had vanished completely from their senses using Abyssal Shroud. She reappeared behind one of the monsters and swung her sword once more.

This time, she infused the strike with Sunlight, Holy Light, pure Mana, and Spiritual Energy. She channeled the techniques of the Hero Sword once again.

Her shining sword of light swept upward in a brilliant arc, cutting through the Hollow’s entire body from below. She followed with strike after strike, unleashing a devastating all-destructive sword technique. The attack turned nearby buildings into dust, shattered the ground, and carved out a massive crater.

Explosions of holy golden flames erupted across the monster’s form. The giant abomination screamed in utter agony, unable to regenerate fast enough. It exploded into pieces, yet spores continued to surge from its regenerating flesh. The moment it touched the ground, it burst into even more flames. The incredible power of Twilight Bloom constantly prevented it from recovering.

[Twilight Bloom – Tier 1]: [Summon spores that drain vitality and convert it into dream essence. Super effective against Undead-type foes, increasing damage dealt by up to 300%. Once the spores explode, they generate Twilight Flames, burning foes.]

Elayne skillfully combined the spores with her Dark Mycelial Domain, which expanded rapidly around her. Abyssal Fungi, Ghostly Mold, and White Bone Mushrooms began emerging across the battlefield. The evolved form of her Mycelial Dominion Skill enhanced the spores she could spread, granting her three new powerful variants capable of cursing enemies, weakening their stats, damaging and slowly draining souls, and deteriorating bones and hard surfaces.

And that was not all.

While the two remaining Hollows crushed her weaker Sporeborns, Elayne raised her sword high.

With a commanding roar, the giant burning pieces of the fallen Hollow stirred to life. Mycelial roots and tentacles surged forth, binding the remains together. Abyssal Fungi, Ghostly Mold, and White Bone Mushrooms fused the giant corpse into a towering Fungal Titan, a special evolution of the Sporeborn.

"Go! Show them no mercy!" she roared.

Elayne charged forward alongside her Fungal Titan. The colossal creation advanced with a thunderous roar, opening its massive maw filled with fungus and mold before spewing waves of twilight flames that engulfed the other two Hollows.

The two monsters roared in pain and retaliated fiercely. Their sharp claws dug deep into the Fungal Titan’s flesh and their jaws clamped down on its body. Yet the fungi they touched exploded into more twilight flames, spreading rapidly across their forms and steadily weakening them.

"Now that I have spread my spores, things are going to be different," Elayne declared. Using her taller and more slender body to full advantage, she maneuvered skillfully around the giant hands, fists, kicks, and bites. She reached the shoulder of one monster. The Hollow hissed furiously and tried to bite her, but she dodged narrowly and drove Asteria straight into its jaws, splitting them wide open. "If you want to eat so much, why don’t you eat this?!"

Driven by pure fury, she summoned her Divine Sunlight and cut her own hand while channeling the energy. The concentrated power poured into the monster’s throat and exploded violently from within.

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