The Author Reincarnated As An Extra
Chapter 57: • Mammoth Death

Chapter 57: • Mammoth Death

After all that enthralling display, what remained was a suffocating silence hanging over the battlefield. It was thick with the disbelief of everyone who had just witnessed what had happened.

Water sloshed against the some rock formations and the boats, wind whispered and wailed softly, but both sounds were faint, overshadowed by Deremiah’s action.

He had taken control of a Stone Sentinel.

Elora’s eyes were locked onto Deremiah, narrowed with her eyes quivering. In this gaze, after seeing everything he had just done, she came to realize something.

Deremiah had corruptive abilities.

The evidence was undeniable. She had seen it with her own eyes: the way the monstrous stone warrior had been completely covered by that purple substance he controls, and it had bowed in respect to him.

It was like its once-mindless bloodlust had been completely tamed and repurposed under his command.

So it was true then. He really was aligned to a Void Path. ’He’s a Voidmancer.’

Varion, standing beside his sister, tightened his grip on her wrist. His breath was unsteady. "Who the hell is this guy?!"

Cestrel, who squatted with them in the both, sat up straight, gazing at Deremiah with wide, glistening eyes. Just like the rest of them, she was in awe, but she also recognized that Deremiah was a Voidmancer because he possessed the ability to corrupt.

Before the Stone Sentinel, Deremiah finally turned, his white hair slick with sweat, an urgent but calm expression on his face. His gaze found Elora, still perched atop the massive, trembling Goliath Mammoth.

"Elora," he called to her with an unwavering voice. "We have to take out the last Pillar. Under my control, the Sentinel won’t attack you anymore. I can order it to fight the Mammoth and target the Heart Pillar."

Elora inhaled deeply, still catching her breath. After running around and averting the deadly attacks of that statue, she still hadn’t fully recovered.

Finally, she exhaled. "Understood," she said. "So I don’t need to act as bait anymore."

Deremiah said no.

Then, ruining the silence was a deep, guttural moan that rumbled from beneath everyone’s feet. Elora looked down, realizing that the Mammoth was acting out again.

It was trembling. The massive, battle-worn form shifted slightly, stones shook, leaves on the trees fell. Deremiah’s eyes shifted toward the terrified participants still clinging to its back, their expressions frozen between fear and hope.

His jaw tightened. He looked back at Elora.

"There’s something else you have to do," he said.

Elora narrowed her eyes, not certain if she enjoyed this shift in their relationship.

"Your Aether refill should be enough to do it. You have to sprout multiple vines from the Mammoth’s back, use them to grab the participants and lower them carefully into the water."

He looked at the boats and then back at her. "You also have to leave too. That way, when the battle begins, you all be safe from the cataclysm and not fall into the chasm below."

Elora’s eyes stayed narrowed at him. They even darkened this time as she gazed at him with scrutiny.

’So he does care about other people...’

The Mammoth shifted again, groaning uncomfortably as its wounds spilled emerald water into the chasm below.

"Hurry, Elora!" Deremiah barked. "We don’t have much time!"

She did not say anything but her gaze moved to where her sword and crown lay.

Purposefully, she strode toward them, slipping the blade back into her swordhold behind her before lifting the crown onto her head.

Then, she pressed her hands together in a solemn prayer. Once again, it felt like the sun was bouncing its rays off her obsidian armor making her appear ethereal and at the same time, powerful.

Manifesting from her prayers were numerous vines, sprouting from the surface of the beast’s back.

First, they were thin, weaving their way through the uneven terrain of rocks and soil. Then, they thickened, branching out like veins, snaking toward the participants.

"Oh. Hey."

"What are these things?"

"Careful. It’s too tight. I can’t breathe!"

The participants gasped, flinching, unsure whether to fight or surrender to the creeping tendrils, as one by one, the vines wrapped around their waists, their legs, their arms.

They held them firmly but gentle enough not to harm them.

And then, the vines moved.

They lifted them effortlessly, carrying them over the yawning chasm, stretching towards the river where the boats were.

The participants’ screams echoed through the expanse, but as they were lowered carefully into the water, fear turned into stunned silence.

Their feet touched the surface of boats, others were placed on parts of the river that were more narrow.

Finally, a single vine curled around Elora herself, spiraling like a coiling serpent before she descended with graceful precision.

She landed lightly in a boat, mere meters from where Deremiah stood, beside the very Sentinel that had tried to kill her.

Both of them locked eyes before Deremiah looked away. His purple eyes gleamed with determination as he gazed up at the towering Mammoth.

The Corrupted Sentinel waited behind him, the now purple stone of its body, glistening with menace and Void energy.

"Aldus," Deremiah called.

The Sentinel’s head twitched slightly at the name, its great stone fingers clenching the hilt of its massive greatsword. It slowly stood up from the bowing position.

"Go," Deremiah commanded.

The corrupted titan obeyed without hesitation.

It lifted one enormous foot, water churning beneath its weight, and strode forward. Waves crashed against its legs as it trudged toward the wounded Mammoth, passing Deremiah without so much as a glance. His white hair whipped in the wind as he watched it go.

Then, Deremiah’s gaze shifted to the Status Cube and the projection it placed before him.

"With the power of corruption, the Void Energy embedded within you has given you certain abilities. Abilities I now control."

Deremiah’s fingers clenched into a fist.

"You are to use these abilities to dispatch the Paragon Beast before you with swift efficiency. Target the Heart Pillar situated on its chest. Failure is unacceptable, Aldus."

The Sentinel’s body gleamed as it headed forward, the purple greatsword in its hand, glistening with murderous intent.

Sensing this, the Mammoth lifted its trunk once more, ready to attempt to trumpet once more.

Deremiah’s eyes flashed at this and he instantly yelled out a command.

"Atomic Slash."

The Sentinel reacted instantly. In a single, fluid motion, it lifted its enormous blade, faster than any expected from such a hulking form.

Then, it struck.

A blinding arc of energy trailed the weapon’s edge as it carved cleanly through the Mammoth’s raised trunk.

A heartbeat later, the severed trunk plummeted.

It vanished into the chasm below.

Gasps filled the battlefield.

"What the...?"

"He really is controlling that thing!"

"It looks like the Sentinel is actually faster than it was before."

The Mammoth’s agonized bellow shook the very air. It yelled and yelled in pain, trying to move irregardless of the chains that held it below the rocks which kept causing the entire battlefield to quake.

Everywhere was affected by the man’s sheer weight, water rippling outward from its staggering form.

Deremiah remained unmoved. "Field of Aegis."

The Sentinel obeyed.

With stoicism and valiance, it spun its greatsword and slammed the tip into the ground.

A pulse of violet energy instantly erupted outward.

It was a shimmering, spherical barrier formed by the Void energy within the Sentinel. It encased the participants, Elora, and the others within its protective glow. Only the Sentinel and the Mammoth remained outside.

The Mammoth reared up in rage.

Deremiah’s gaze remained locked onto the battlefield, watching his MP carefully. He gave his next order.

What followed was nothing short of annihilation.

The Sentinel stretched one leg backward, then bent the forward knee. Following that, it instantly launched forward, relentless in its assault.

A curve, a hack and a stab. The Sentinel’s blade struck with brutality and efficiency. It struck the Paragon right through the strong thick back of rocks, soil, and bone.

It evaded the Mammoth’s desperate swipes of its tusk, uncanny with its grace, and countering with strikes precise enough to shatter entire boulders.

The blade clashed with the right tusk and shattered it entirely, slicing the right eye in the process.

Blood spilled.

The Mammoth, despite its gargantuan size, had faltered. It tried the World Shaker but the stone beast used a Void Shield to remain protected.

The Mammoth was greatly disadvantaged, because now, it was blind.

And this was the opening Deremiah needed.

"Aldus," he commanded. "Finish it."

The Sentinel looked at him and gave him a single nod, then attacked instantly with no hesitation.

It thrust its sword forward, driving it straight through the Mammoth’s face, creating an atomic slash that dissected it into two.

And then, it raised the same sword high in the air and drew it down, plunging deep through the rocks, soil and bone, through its body and right out of its chest below, where the glowing Heart Pillar pulsed.

A deafening crack split the air.

The Pillar shattered.

As green energy exploded into the air, the Mammoth let out one final, harrowing wail before its body convulsed, and then collapsed.

Silence.

No one spoke.

Then, the voice of the Inquisitor rang out.

[Congratulations, participants]

[The final Pillar has fallen]

[Your adversaries, the Goliath Mammoth has been killed and the Stone Sentinel has been defeated]

[You have received another 15% Energy refill]

[Fifth Trial has been completed]

The silence broke.

Cheers erupted.

"He did it!"

"Who the hell is that guy?!"

"What kind of power was that?!"

"Corruption... he’s a Voidmancer!"

"I don’t care! He just saved our lives!"

"He’s awesome!"

As the battlefield echoed with celebration, Deremiah remained still, the Corrupted Sentinel turned around, spun its sword and embedded it into the river before bowing once more before him, its task complete.

Deremiah looked at everyone, seeing their relief and celebration. But when his eyes found Elora, he saw that she wasn’t celebrating.

She was only quietly watching.

All he could see in her eyes was suspicion and curiosity.