Hovering in the sky as a thundercloud was Geugeu, amassing strength all along. Due to the Death Hour, walls of turbulent mist wafted out of the Dralh Sea and reached the skies.
This formed a large enough foundation for Geugeu to draw in power, for lightning flashed and thunder roared through these walls due to a continued buildup of kinetic energy. "Faster! You old fuck! Faster!"
He roared with an admonishing tone every time he witnessed the death of his Deities. Unfortunately for him, his usual lightning strikes were no longer potent enough to wound the body of the Celestial Boar.
Even the Empyrean Snappers were only able to harm him by combining their strength. And despite that, all they managed to do was harm his body, which he could recover from when given a few minutes of respite.
But their side already faced ten deaths. From an original number of 52 Empyrean Snappers, they were already down to 42. And the longer this goes on, the worse their situation becomes as they'll have fewer Empyrean Snappers to join hands with.
Moreover, they were only able to gain a significant advantage thanks to the Death Hour. If they fail to capitalise on it and Brangara survives, they'll be doomed. The Cold Shower following the Death Hour wouldn't give them enough advantage as now.
And once it too passes, the Empyrean Snappers would have to resort to usual attacks, which didn't work well against him even before. Now that he was using two Natures of Subtle Terrain Domination, they would become useless.
Therefore, Geugeu had one shot, which he had to time perfectly and launch upon Brangara, 'Faster! Faster! Dammit! Faster!'
The lightning currents arching through his thundercloud increased in number as he drew in from his surroundings. Every single lightning bolt that flickered past his Spirit Weapon range was pulled into his thundercloud by the opposing charges, adding to his reserves.
His body—that was in its Spirit Weapon form—began to sustain damage as the amount of lightning surpassed his ability to handle it. Geugeu didn't mind it, only praying to live long enough until he could discharge everything, 'I was a failure as the Cooter Clan Chief!'
He glared at Brangara, 'I was unable to accustom the Cooter Clan to these changing times. While every force is rapidly building up strength, our progress has been at the same snail's pace as in the past.'
"At least, I'll do one good deed before my worthless death!" He roared as the thundercloud began to expand rapidly once he made Brangara the target. The Prana he had spread throughout it would ensure the unleashed lightning bolt would strike the target, even if he were to die before that.
'This guy…!' Brangara was prepared to die once when he noticed Geugeu's actions, 'He's building up an ultimate attack too. Dammit!'
"Let it all be damned then." He grunted upon seeing three plasma beams slam into him, rapidly melting through his body.
"Die!" Geugeu bellowed as he burned up all his ten bodies, churning his everything into Prana that transformed into lightning. The thundercloud burst and discharged everything it had stored into a thick, two-hundred-metre-thick bolt of lightning.
The lightning struck Brangara first, rapidly melting through his body while keeping him paralysed. And due to the sheer width of the attack, even if he were to split his bodies, he would still be within the confines of the bolt of lightning.
It was why Geugeu had been charging up for so long. It was to condense a bolt of lightning whose thickness exceeded 180 metres. By giving his life for the cause, he managed to unleash an attack strong enough to bring Brangara close to death.
The plasma beams of the Empyrean Snappers will take care of the rest by vaporising the paralysed bodies of Brangara. In theory, this was their strongest offensive against Brangara. On theory, that is.
After all, they hadn't read Sumatra Chronicles and hence weren't aware that when pushed to the brink of death, Brangara unleashed his true strength.
As Geugeu's lightning bolt struck Brangara, a beam of light pierced the skies and seemed to extend endlessly. There was a void surrounding Brangara, an absolute domain where his will was the law. The entirety of the thick bolt of lightning unleashed by Geugeu coiled into a tiny serpent and shrunk to land upon his outstretched palm.
In his Celestial Boar form, Brangara's expression was as if he had eaten shit, despite having unleashed absolute power that sent waves of despair in the hearts of the Empyrean Snappers.
Astral World—Subtle Terrain Domination X8!
Steam wafted out of his head due to the sheer rate at which his brain—stacked twice—was processing information, having erected such a powerful domain.
The three beams of plasma condensed into compressed spheres under the exertion of his will through the Nature of Subtle Terrain Domination stacked eight times. 'My logic in Sumatra Chronicles has been flawless. Irrespective of how strong my opponents are, or the schemes I face, I only need to activate enough Natures of Internal Inertial Gravity to destroy them mercilessly. As expected, it seems true for Subtle Terrain Domination too.'
Moreover, unlike his Empyrean Boar King self who used the Natures in their empirical state, Brangara was able to gather a lot of information through Astral World, allowing him to increase his capabilities of using his Natures better.
As Tangible Natures, they were all alive, possessing the same data as when they were alive. Just by relying on that blindly, Brangara was able to erect this absolute domain with only eight Natures of Subtle Terrain Domain.
Had he possessed the same capability during the Second Major Disaster, he could have destroyed the entirety of the Attributed Region, including everyone who stood in his way. 'So, this is what it means to wield absolute power.'
The current strength being unleashed by Brangara was inferior only to his Sumatra Chronicles endgame self. This was more than enough information for him. Because, if something could kill an Empyrean Tusk, it was also equally effective against an Empyrean Snapper.
"Pray that your Natures are enough." He glared at the terrified Empyrean Snappers and snapped his finger, causing the lightning serpent to branch out into 42 bolts and strike an Empyrean Snapper each, "Otherwise, I'll have to target your other branches."
The lightning paralysed them as Brangara clenched his hand into a fist, condensing the three plasma orbs to form a 360-
metre-long sword. With a nudge from his feet, his figure rapidly bolted through the water, propelled by Subtle Terrain Domination.
His figure flashed past an Empyrean Snapper and swung the plasma sword, making a clean beheading. From that point, the fight took a mere two minutes to conclude, "Yum!"
"This taste is worth dying for!" Brangara used Bloody Affection to pull—by tugging the blood in their bodies—the Empyrean Snapper corpses closer to him and used Subtle Terrain Domination to compress them as much as possible with his current prowess.
All the Tangible Natures of Razor Rats, Shifting Ants, and Bludders condensed next to his body. As they were tiny, they could easily climb over his body and take a seat on his shoulder.
Since they were within his Spirit Weapon range, he could continue supplying Prana to them, preventing them from dissipating. And when necessary, he could take them back into the Astral World—if a slot opened—and continue using their powers until he deactivates them.
One after another, he consumed Empyrean Snapper hearts, breaking into glee upon seeing the sheer number of Empyrean Snapper Tangible Natures that had appeared in his Astral World.
44 Empyrean Snapper Tangible Natures!
This was an unreal haul, an extent of power he never possessed until now. However, no matter how great his haul was, his heart ached tremendously, for he had activated eight Natures of Subtle Terrain Domination, "Dammit! I wanted to win without using them!"
"A loss of eight!" On one side, he relished the taste while consuming Empyrean Snapper hearts. But on the other side, he mourned wasting eight of these overpowered Natures.
"At least, I can make justice for them!" He sighed as he approached the sea bed and used the power of Subtle Terrain Domination to morph the bedrock to create a massive bowl, one that spanned a radius of twenty kilometres.
It took him less than two hours to finish this task, as the walls of the bowl were raised to a height of a hundred metres from the sea level. The water inside was red as Brangara had brought all the corpses of the Empyrean Snappers inside.
That wasn't all. To avoid any wastage, he used Bloody Affection to draw in every litre of Empyrean Snapper blood that had spilt in the region and poured them all inside the bowl. This way, he could take his time consuming them without worrying about wasting anything.
"Every bite is precious!" Brangara offered a short prayer before he began to gorge on the Empyrean Snapper flesh!