Chương 356: Foreign Object

Whilst I waited for an opportunity to manifest, I played around with the innate abilities of 'Revenant Jack-Out-Of-The-Box'. It turns out that the powers granted to me in this form were quite flexible and versatile–And an advantage of me trying so many things out was that it made it almost seem like I was panicking and just trying everything possible in an attempt to kill the big guy. I made bone spikes rain down on the monster's back.

I manipulated the blood from the ocean to make it boil or freeze, or I gathered a lot of blood into a dense sphere and forced out a slight bit of it into a straight line, creating a piercing crimson ray. I knew those damned magical lessons would come in handy one day. Thank you, Mom and Dad. You were true visionaries. A heavy sigh suddenly rumbled out, making the entire cavern shake.

"Cease thy meaningless struggle. Within five minutes, all life not belonging to the blood ocean shall be erased from this underground" Oh, it can talk! Or I guess, he can talk? Mister is quite refined in the way he speaks… Seems like he is completely certain that I won't be able to do anything to him.

"I am out of the reach of lesser creatures like yourselves! I am the product of countless superior bloods melded into a singular being! I am a god and devil both! I am nearly all that has ever been combined into one!" Talk about having an ego… I thought he was pretty impressive until he opened his damned mouth. What a shame. I launched another bone spike at the back of its spongy neck. From what I gathered, this thing looks just like a Niseag, but with a whole bunch of tentacles as limbs.

Compared to some of the other things that popped their heads, or whatever else, out of the blood, he is actually far from a truly horrific creature. If anything, he is barely a monster and more like an ancient beast. The only abnormal and unusual thing about him is the texture of his flesh. Apart from this, he's a fairly standard entity that won't make anyone's head hurt just by looking at him.

"Thou not hear mine words? It is a useless use of your time. Fly, or perish!" The audience took the thing's overly loud words more seriously than I did, as they were quick to retreat, soon completely disappearing from view as they went back to their settlement, presumably to organise an escape, if escaping from this cave was even possible within less than five minutes. Splendid. Since no one is watching…

I manifest a tall pillar of flesh, using 'Surface Hovering' to quickly make my way to the top, right before manifesting blood and manipulating blood from the ocean simultaneously, if I wasn't a foul hybrid of unliving things, this process would have probably given me a serious headache, but I was me, so all was fine as I created what was essentially a tunnel of blood, the outer layers were frozen solid as I created more pillars of flesh to support the structure.

"Are thou putting on a show?" The inside of the tunnel was still liquid, however, and a large supply of blood made sure that it wouldn't run out once I opened up the exit. Ohoh, this is very exciting!

"What… What are you doing?" He sounded genuinely confused now, and even dropped the old-timey words altogether.

"I'm just… Hanging around. One of my little sisters once mentioned the concept of a 'waterslide' to me. That's what I am making. I assure you it is very fun""... What?" I dove headfirst into the blood, using both 'Crimson Empress' and 'Surface Hovering' at the same time to accelerate wildly throughout the bloody slide. The former ability provided the sheer acceleration, and the latter allowed me to spin like crazy.

Both together allowed me to maintain my insane momentum even as I was launched out of the slide, aiming directly at the top of the bastard's skull–Even as he realised this, he maintained his calm and even laughed at me.

"Ahahaha! Do you really think damaging my brain a little bit will be enough? You could destroy three-quarters of it without even affecting me for a single second! What part of me being both god and devil do you not understand? On this plane, I am the strongest of all!" Whoa, this ego actually dwarfs mine. I must admit, I can't fight this guy in this regard. He has me beaten completely–I mean, the strongest being? The average real ocean monstrosity is probably way worse than you'll ever be, buddy. Anyway…

He thinks I am just going to ram right through his skull with my momentum–And I will admit that it definitely looks like this is exactly what's going to happen, and I'll also admit that I don't have much options apart from this in this form–After all, while powerful, the manifestation of flesh, bone, or blood isn't exactly the swiftest of processes, and turning them into something capable of damage this guy will take even longer. I can manifest blood immediately if I put my mind to it, but it won't be an attack.

Those require more steps than just making a bone pop out of thin air, and that's it. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. As far as I can tell, 'Revenant Jack-Out-Of-The-Box' is built with the intent of me staying close to the target, giving me time to prepare dangerous fleshy or bloody concoctions as I keep them on their toes with near-mindless melee attacks.

Admittedly, I don't have much experience with it yet, but I feel confident that this is the scenario it would shine the best in… Regardless of my personal thoughts, what matters is that my adversary has an ego even larger than his body and is confident that he can take anything I can dish out whilst he focuses on casting his super-spell. I mean, the fucker even stopped casting regular spells altogether. I suppose he has good reasons to be confident.

As far as he can tell, I indeed can't do much to him, except that he clearly doesn't realise that this body of mine is put in one of many forms. My 'Base Form' is versatile, but definitely lacks the punch required to kill such a creature. My 'Molten Steel Form' would definitely have the weight class to wrestle this guy, but whether it would be capable of actually dealing a killing blow was dubious.

It is especially risky since if he were to dive back to the depths, there isn't much that I would be able to do in this form. My 'Gynoid Form' suffers the same issue as my 'Base Form', but with even less of a punch. My 'Wire Mess Form' is a powerful one, but the electrical shocks it can deliver are unlikely to be able to kill my opponent instantly or keep him incapacitated, especially since he seems to share a close connection with the blood ocean.

He might be able to disperse the lightning into the blood to avoid taking it in full. The 'Nightmare Form' simply wasn't meant for such a fight, which left only one option, which I somehow felt very confident about, but if I had explained it to Nara, my cute little sister definitely would have had objections–Rational ones, I am certain–But I believe it is perfectly logical for me to use this form over all the ones available.

While I was up on my fleshy tower, I took the occasion to make seemingly utterly useless motions to no one in particular, but of course, that was far from the case. My little sisters could see what was going on from the Mindscape, and if they wanted to, they could even leave it of their own free will. So the movements I made were meant to convey a message silently. Which resulted in two plushes seemingly popping out of thin air. Unremarkable objects that my adversary seemingly didn't even realise had appeared.

I left them upon the tower before diving into the slide. Everything was just smoke and mirrors. I crashed into the old beast's skull, successfully blasting through part of it, and then pretended to try and fill the inside of its skull with blood before allowing myself to warp over the plush on the tower, assuming my knightly form.

"What did I say? Useless. Utterly useless! This was nought but foolishne–" His sudden silence was accompanied by a hefty dose of confusion and wariness, but it was a bit too late for that. The other plush beside me surged up in size, revealing the hulking frame of Ophelie's most beloved plush, Gille.

The weredeer-looking creature grabbed and launched me like a cannonball toward the already regenerating head of the ruler of the blood ocean–Though the flesh covering the skull was struggling a bit due to the remnant presence of corrosive blood left by yours truly. My knightly form was as aerodynamic and heavy as I could possibly make it.

"This is useless, this…" In the end, the confusion was stronger than wariness in the mind of the arrogant creature. He simply couldn't understand how this was any different from what I had already done barely a few moments ago. I was still just using myself as a physical projectile in his eyes. Of course, he didn't know the similarities and differences between 'Steel Shaping' and 'Ruler Of The Devoured' or 'Crimson Empress'.

The innate abilities of 'Revenant Jack-Out-Of-The-Box' were definitely stronger in terms of sheer power. That was without a shadow of a doubt, but they required more time and attention to actually deliver their impressive might.

'Steel Shaping', though? It took no time at all. It was so easy to manifest steel out of thin air that I could do it while doing three other things at the same time. It might not grant me access to as much versatility or pure power, but those were two things that I could take care of myself. Moments before impact, I began to manifest a most simplistic, basic sword. It hadn't even finished manifesting in full that the tip was already stabbing through the skull.

Without the flesh in the way, the momentum, and the weight, the weapon managed to pierce right through. … The weapon was not done being created, though. I kept feeding steel into it. The 'sword' began growing many more blades rapidly. They took unnatural turns, swirled, and divided into even more branches. They travelled through the brain of my giant opponents like worms digging through dirt. I'll give it to him. He is tough.

He was quick to try and destroy the blades threatening him, but I just kept the steel going, and all damage he made was instantly repaired, and where steel existed, the brain couldn't regrow. They just couldn't occupy the same space. That's basic logic. The answer to this weakness would most often be that the regenerating bastard would just destroy what stood in the way, but against something that also regenerated, what could be done?

Mister Blood Lord or whatever started thrashing around frantically, casting spells and yelling without rhyme or reason. The spells were incomplete and aimed at completely random directions. Of course they were. I was stabbing his entire brain. How could he possibly do anything precise? The blades kept extending and splitting. Some were wide and thin. Some were narrow and thick. Some were more akin to needles…

The moment I saw an opening, I began to manifest additional masses of steel within, large spheres that occupied as much space as possible, forcing the enormous brain to start pressing against the skull containing it. A few stray spells nearly hit me–In fact, one blew off my head, but it was of no importance. I held firmly onto the hilt of the sword, not letting go even as he spun in the blood. I held on even as he grew still. I held on even as the negative emotions faded away. I only let go when his soul was mine…

And then I transformed back into 'Revenant Jack-Out-Of-The-Box'. Now it's time to finish my drink alongside a few snacks.