CHAPTER 209: TRUE BODY

"Y-You..t-th-they are dead.. YOU BASTARD."

Xeres shouted, his eyes glowing a menacing neon blue, his aura spiking the peak, it was like deep ocean spilling forward into the world.

"I WILL KILL YOUUUUUU!!!...

Xeres launched forward at the beast, his body cutting through the air like a missile. His fist slammed into a massive black tendril erupting from the ground, the impact unleashing a shockwave that rattled the earth below.

Rumble!

The ground shuddered, a deafening roar echoing as nearby buildings crumbled. Stone and steel broke apart, jagged chunks of debris plummeting toward the terrified citizens below. Yet, even consumed by rage, Xeres acted on instinct. His hand twitched, and the falling rocks froze mid-air, their motion erased by his Lore Ability. The debris hung suspended, saving the people cowering beneath.

But there was no reprieve for those still caught in the demons’ grasp. Xeres’s hands were full...literally. His punch had torn through the beast, ripping a gaping hole in its thick, oily frame. The demon’s black flesh quivered, but within seconds, the wound began to close, knitting itself back together with sickening speed.

"You think you can just heal and walk away after what you done."

Xeres snarled, his voice cutting through the screams of the beast in irritation. He launched forward again, his body a blur as he redirected the air’s vectors to propel himself like a comet.

His fist, wrapped in a shimmering field of potential and kinetic energy, approaching closer, it slammed into another tendril again.

The impact sent another shockwave rippling outward, cracking the cobblestones. The tendril shuddered, black goo spraying, but it held firm, its surface rippling.

But there was more than one, as the earth erupt from behind him, and attack from his blind spot.

This one was way faster than the one before, its tip splitting into a dozen smaller vines, each tipped with a barbed claw.

Xeres raised both hands, his Lore Ability surging to life with a pillar of supernatural energy that radiates off his body.

The very essence of the vines being was redirected as he seized control of their vectors, his mind twisting their trajectories with surgical precision.

The writhing tendrils, thick and pulsating with dark power veered sharply sideways, colliding into one another with a sickening crunch.

They tangled in a chaotic, writhing mass, their thorned surfaces grinding together in a mix of snapping fibers.

Xeres clenched his fist, his will commanding the air itself. The atmosphere around the vines then compressed violently, a near-invisible force tightening like a vice.

With a grotesque squelch, the vines burst under the pressure, their pulpy remains oozing black blood and viscous grey mucus. The acrid, putrid stench of decay flooded the air, stinging Xeres nostrils and making his eyes water.

"Ahhh fucking gross."

He said out aloud, more sick than stationed.

The ground then began to quaked again, a deep tremor reverberating through the cracked stone of the plaza. Beneath the surface, more tendrils roots...massive, gnarled anchors buried deep in the earth, shuddered but remained undeterred.

Eight new tendrils erupted from the ground in a sudden, explosive surge, their tips gleaming with malevolent intent as they rushed toward Xeres from below, faster than any human could hope to react.

One tendril, its tip swollen into a spiked, mace-like bulb, slammed into Xeres with bone-rattling force.

The impact sent him hurtling backward through the air, his body tumbling across the shattered plaza. Years of relentless training had forged his physique into something near-indestructible, and though the blow left a dull ache in his ribs, the damage was minimal...a fleeting inconvenience at best.

[Eight Points: Eight Fractures]

Xeres intoned, as he prepare to use one of his original techniques of this power.

The world itself seemed to obey. Eight distinct distortions rippled through the fabric of reality, each one locking onto a tendril with unerring precision.

Xeres manipulated the vectors of their movement, forcing their trajectories to converge at a single, catastrophic point. The air warped and cracked as space itself fractured around the converging distortions.

The demon’s tendrils, despite their unnatural durability, could not withstand the onslaught. With a deafening snap, the eight tendrils twisted and shattered simultaneously, their mangled remains collapsing into a heap of splintered flesh and blood as the fractured space consumed them.

However just as he thinks the battle was finally over. He is quickly reminded that it wasn’t over at all.

The earth shook once more, Xeres could sense alot of sudden movement happening underground.

Xeres had suspected it before, but now it was clear, the creature’s true body lurked somewhere deep underground.

His Lore Ability hadn’t detected it earlier, its immense presence evading his senses until it surged into his range. The ground trembled faintly, a sinister prelude to what was coming for him.

He didn’t hesitate.

Knowing the imminent danger, Xeres sprinted toward Tia, the woman, and her child. With a surge of his power, he scooped them up, his arms straining as he launched into the air, carrying all three with desperate speed.

BOOOOOM!

A cataclysmic explosion tore through the plaza below, the earth splitting apart as thousands of tentacles, each a grotesque pillar of writhing, sinewy flesh, burst from the ground.

They varied in size, some as thin as spears, others as thick as ancient oak trees, all flooded and coated with Demonic energy.

"What kind of demon is this?!"

Tia’s voice cracked, her face a mask of confusion and horror as she clung to Xeres. The pillars of flesh pursued them relentlessly, weaving through the air with unnatural precision, their tips glistening with barbed, venomous spikes.

Xeres wove through the chaos, his body twisting and diving to evade the erupting tendrils that hungered for his life.

"I have no idea."

He shouted back to Tia, his voice strained but steady.

"But I can’t beat this thing alone...not at my level. Its main body is somewhere underground, but it’s too massive for me to damage seriously, or kill. My Movement Operator only works within a finite range.

Tia’s eyes darted to the writhing mass below, her frustration boiling over.

"Where the hell are the Hunters? This chaos is too massive to be ignored!"

Xeres gritted his teeth, his gaze sweeping the shattered cityscape around them.

"Look around, Tia. This Flood of demons is bigger than the last one. The entire city might be under attack. The Hellsing Hunters are probably stretched thin, fighting to keep this nightmare from swallowing everything."

"Then what the hell are we going to do?"

Tia’s voice rose, panic seeping through her words.

"At this rate, this thing is going to catch us! It’s like it has no end, how many damn tentacles does one demon even need?"

Her fear was contagious, and Xeres felt a chill grip his heart. His face betrayed him as a flicker of horror overwhelmed him for the most part

But he forced himself to stay composed, his grip tightening on the woman and child.

"I don’t know, okay? Just calm down. I’ll get us out of he...

BOOOOOM!

A massive tendril erupted directly beneath them, its barbed tip gleaming like a guillotine. Xeres reacted instinctively, channeling the last reserves of his energy. A shimmering barrier materialized around them at the final moment, its translucent neon blue surface crackling under the strain of the impact.

The force of the blow sent them spiraling upward, the barrier flickering as Xeres strength waned.

They crashed into the ground with a bone-jarring thud, the impact scattering debris and knocking the air from their lungs.

The barrier shattered, and darkness crept into Xeres vision as he fought to stay conscious. Tia, the woman, and her child lay motionless nearby, alive but unconscious, their bodies bruised but spared by the barrier’s protection.

Xeres eyes fluttered open, his head pounding as he struggled to focus. The world swam in a haze of pain and dust. Then he saw it, a colossal tentacle, the size of a skyscraper, looming above them like a monolith of flesh. Its shadow blotted out the sky, and in the next instant, it plummeted toward them with unstoppable force, intent on crushing them into oblivion.

"Shiittttt!!"

Xeres scream out in horror, his voice a hoarse mess as the monstrous tendril descended.

Xeres squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the worst. The expected pain, the crushing sensation...but strangely none of it came. Instead, a vivid flash of green pierced through his closed lids.

"Ha?!"

He opened his eyes, heart pounding, only to find himself somewhere new. The others around him were no longer in the chaos of the place they had been moments before. Confusion rippled through the crowd, their murmurs rising in the vast, unfamiliar courtyard where they now stood.

"Mommy, where are we?"

A young girl asked, her voice trembling with uncertainty.

"Wait... I’m alive?"

A man touched his head in disbelief, as if expecting to find it missing. He had been certain a demon was about to tear him apart.

Xeres scanned the surroundings, his gaze settling on a sprawling estate that felt eerily familiar.

"Isn’t this the Hellsing Family courtyard?"

He muttered, his voice tinged with awe and confusion.

Meanwhile a group of maids approached, their steps measured and calm, accompanied by a figure who drew gasps from the crowd.

"Wait, isn’t that Nyx Van Hellsing?"

Someone whispered.

"Holy shit it’s the captain of Team Hera!"

Another voice exclaimed.

On the other hand Nyx strode forward, her presence overwhelming yet calm to these people. She stopped, her eyes sweeping over the thousands of bewildered citizens gathered in her courtyard. Placing a hand over her heart, she let out a soft sigh of relief.

"It seems darling kept his promise and saved the entire Downtown Plaza."

she said, her voice steady but laced with concern.

"Still, these Flood attacks are spiraling out of control. Ever since those cultist bastards announced their plan to seize the Sectors by force on national TV, things have only gotten worse in Celestine."