Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 1562 Death March

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Date- 13 April 2321

Time- 10:11

Location- Southern Region, Southern Capital

At Agony's command, the smoke began a mesmerizing yet horrifying transformation. It started to converge, swirling and coalescing into humanoid and monstrous skeletal frames of various shapes and sizes. The sight was both fascinating and macabre, as the smoke formed a spectral dance, giving birth to these skeletal constructs.

But the creation was not yet complete. The smoke continued to evolve, wrapping around the skeletal frames to form veins, muscles, and other tissues. It moved with a deliberate, sculpting touch, molding a durable and sturdy flesh that adhered to the bones. The detail was astonishing, retaining every minor feature of their original form.

Then, as if guided by an invisible hand, the smoke further solidified, covering the skeletal frames with skin so intricate that it replicated the texture, pores, scars, and wrinkles that might have adorned their living forms.

But the transformation didn't stop there. The smoke then morphed into various armors and weapons, equipping these newly-formed smoke beings from head to toe. Helmets, breastplates, swords, and shields all materialized, each uniquely crafted and fitting perfectly to the hideous beings they adorned.

The entire scene was a surreal spectacle, a blend of horror and artistry that left the onlookers caught between awe and revulsion. The smoke beings now stood ready, a grotesque army summoned from the very essence of torment and despair, awaiting their mistress's command.

While Agony's army took shape, a twisted masterpiece of dark creation, the demigods were far from passive spectators. They didn't merely wait patiently in their battle array formation, frozen by the unfolding nightmare before them. Instead, they acted with insight and resolve that spoke of their experience and determination.

They began to gather their soul energy and from their surroundings in preparation for another big bang blast. It was as if the very air around them became charged, vibrating with the intensity of their intent. From the surroundings, energy swirled and converged, drawn by the big bang battle formation array. The demigods' faces were etched with concentration, their eyes glowing, their bodies taut with the effort of summoning the maximum of their synchronized might.

Gathering all the collected soul energy at the very heart of where Agony's smoke army was forming, the demigods prepared their counterattack. It wasn't just an ordinary big bang blast they were planning but a colossal and cataclysmic big bang blast that would obliterate Agony's forces before they even had a chance to join the battle.

Agony's eyes, cold and unfeeling, fell upon the seventy-five-pointed star battle array formation, now pulsating with an abundant and violent surge of soul energy. It was a raging storm contained within geometric precision, a spectacle of raw power that could not go unnoticed. But Agony's face remained impassive, her expression betraying no concern or doubt. She knew that the demigods were up to something, plotting a counterattack to unravel her designs, yet she seemed to regard it with a chilling indifference.

With a voice that was both a whisper and a command, resonant with authority and menace, she spoke to her smoke army, "Damned commence Death March." The words were simple, yet they carried the weight of her will, an unbreakable order that set the wheels of destruction in motion. 

Her command, "Death March," was laden with dark and unsettling irony. The Damned, her nightmarish soldiers, were souls that had been denied the release of death, forever trapped in a cycle of agony. Yet now, they were to parade a 'Death March.'

At Agony's command, her newly minted nightmarish monstrosities stirred. They were not mere shapes of smoke but tangible horrors, each a testament to dark artistry and malice. They were not mere soldiers but instruments of massacre, driven by a single, unrelenting directive: to annihilate their liege's enemies.

Before any of the horrifying creatures born of Agony could even take a step, the demigods acted in an instant. With voices melding together, they roared the words, "Big Bang Blast." In the blink of an eye, the epicenter where Agony and the smoke monsters were situated was consumed by a cataclysmic and uncontrolled explosion. The force of the blast was so immense that it nearly tore a hole in the very fabric of space itself. 

Agony and the smoke monsters were instantly obliterated, reduced to nothing but mere ashes. The earth-shaking thunder of the explosion resonated far and wide, momentarily catching the attention of Belphegor and Wyatt. Their eyes flickered toward the source of the noise, but the intensity of their own heated exchange soon pulled them back, allowing only a fleeting acknowledgment of the devastation that had just occurred. Unlike the demigods who celebrated too quickly both of them knew that the battle was far from over. 

To the astonishment of the demigods, the aftermath of destruction did not go as anticipated. The ashes, instead of drifting away and blending with the wind, began to swirl in a mysterious and unnerving dance. Like a painter's brush guided by an unseen hand, the ashes and smoke from the sea of flames underneath slowly started reconstructing the bodies of the smoke monsters and Agony. Within mere seconds that seemed to stretch into an eternity, Agony and her army of the damned were assembled once again, resuming their relentless death march with an air of eerie invincibility.

Agony, a corpse devil created from a corpse puppet imbued with the formidable SSS-rank Corpse Preservation Curse, was undeterred by an explosion of such magnitude. Her existence had long overcome mortality, rendering her immune to what would be a lethal force for most beings. Her damned army, their souls trapped and tortured in the uncharted depths of her unranked hell undead Agony had no death. Denied the release of death, they were bound to an existence of torment and servitude, a dark testament to Agony's fearsome and sadistic power.

Confused, the demigods did not know what to do against the corpse devil and her seemingly immortal army that was marching toward them. Until the captain of team one received a text message from Wyatt. 

[Use divine energy to extinguish or light rule to purify the sea of flames that is generating loads of smoke.]