Erosion of Annihilation

Xiao Yu chose to generate earth-based energy and then eagerly awaited the effect of the Seed of Elements.

The Seed of Elements within him vanished instantly, decomposing into the purest elemental power, which merged into his body. Then, he felt a strange energy being generated within him. This was a completely new type of element, entirely different from the violent fire element, and bearing no resemblance to the gentle water element, and even more so to the restless wind element.

This was a heavy and solid element. With the birth of this element, Xiao Yu felt his body becoming heavy and stiff. However, this elemental power did not merge with the other three elements as he had hoped. Instead, it made the already unbalanced state between the four elements even more chaotic.

The four elements clashed and repelled each other, and Azathoth's appearance constantly changed in that conflict, appearing one after another. Storms, fire, torrents, and earth appeared on his body at the same time, making him look like a monster.

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "Damn it, what's going on? Why is this happening! I can't control this power, damn it!" He roared loudly as the struggle of energy within his body intensified. The elements that had been barely held together began to separate and form their own independent forces.

Water formed his body, rocks became his armor and shell, flames filled his four branches, and gales and lightning surrounded him.

(No, this can't go on like this,) Xiao Yu thought. If things were left to their own devices, it would be obvious that his efforts would fail, and he would end up as a mixture of elements, which was not what he wanted.

While elemental hybrids are powerful, they pale in comparison to Chaos Elemental.

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "My fate is in my own hands, not in the heavens! Storms, fire, earth, obey my commands, submit to my will, and become one with me!"

He roared, and the elemental power within his body suddenly surged wildly, instantly tearing apart the nascent body and concentrating all the elemental power towards the core.

The four elemental forces began to rotate wildly around the elemental core, like a giant vortex, but the energy within was extremely mixed.

However, no matter how they rotated, those crude elemental energies repelled each other and could not be merged together, thus losing their fixed form.

System notification: Your monster type has changed from Unstable Water Elemental to [Annihilation Elemental Amalgamation].

Xiao Yu abruptly stopped circulating his elemental power, but his body did not stop; instead, it continued to rotate, maintaining a huge energy vortex.

(Damn, I actually failed. Am I really not destined to be a protagonist? And what does this "Annihilation" prefix mean?)

He hurriedly opened the attribute panel, which clearly displayed "[Annihilation Elemental Amalgamation]", and a special status "[Erosion of Annihilation]" was added to the status bar.

[Erosion of Annihilation: The elemental forces within you have completely lost their balance. The elemental forces are operating autonomously, and the Enrage power is tearing your body apart and disintegrating your will. Your body is gradually turning into pure elemental energy. You will become incredibly powerful as a result, but you will also be on the verge of death. You gain one stack of Annihilation effect every 24 hours.]

While in Annihilation state, you lose 1 health point per second, all your skills have 100% increased power, and skill costs are increased by 100%. Using skills no longer consumes elemental power but instead consumes health. This effect can stack up to seven times. After seven stacks of Annihilation, you will unleash a violent explosion, dealing elemental damage equal to your health to all targets within a 300-yard radius (50% Cryo damage, 35% Fire damage, 10% Lightning damage, 5% Strike damage).

"Holy crap, what the hell is this?" Xiao Yu was startled after reading the description. Did this mean he was going to self-destruct in seven days? Damn it, are you kidding me? Even if I'm not a Long Aotian protagonist, don't turn me into a giant self-propelled nuclear weapon! God, are you trying to kill me?

The elemental damage is equal to the user's health. The user has over six million health points; wouldn't this explosion be...?

For some reason, Xiao Yu vaguely sensed a malice coming from an unknown direction.

No, things can't end like this. He suddenly looked at Leah Bloodmoon.

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "Tell me, Blood Elf, what are your thoughts on the current situation?" Perhaps due to the change in monster type, his voice became distorted and bizarre, as if formed by a mixture of several different types of voices. That terrifying aura made Leah Bloodmoon, who was watching the spectacle from the sidelines, shudder.

"Um, what do you mean?"

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "Don't play dumb with me, Blood Elf. If I am destined for destruction, you will perish with me. So for your own survival, you'd better come up with a good plan. Is there any way to save me from my current situation and break my Annihilation state, such as performing a Chaos Elemental Transmutation ritual or something?"

Leah Bloodmoon (Great Elementalist): "Theoretically, it's possible, but the problem is that we don't have enough manpower. We need a large number of spellcasters. If we don't have enough manpower, we need at least four powerful spellcasters who are no weaker than me."

"The Second Amalarui did not impart all his knowledge to me; much remains hidden in his memory. Without Amalarui, my chances of successfully performing the transmutation of the Chaos Elemental alone would not exceed 10%."

"The third issue is the creation of the magic circle. Creating a magic circle requires a large amount of materials; it's not something you can just draw on the ground. So either we can get these materials in a short time, or we have to go back to the Tower of Amalarui."

Amalarui? It seems all the problems have fallen on him. It's unexpected that everything started with him and will also end with him. Xiao Yu was stunned when he thought of this.

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "Then let's go find Amalarui."

Leah Bloodmoon (High Elementalist): "But Amalarui is dead. You killed him, remember?"

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "That's right, but such a powerful mage's soul won't be destroyed so easily, so if we can resurrect him, things will be much easier."

Leah Bloodmoon (High Elementalist): "Resurrecting a mage as powerful as Amalarui is no easy feat; it would require at least a skeleton-level necromancer!"

Xiao Yu smiled slightly.

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "And I happen to know someone, even better than a necromancer, a Lich."

After saying that, Xiao Yu directly opened the Thousand-Mile Voice Transmission System. Unlike adventurers who could freely chat with each other, monster templates could not communicate directly with each other. They either had to switch out of the game and send messages through their address book, or they had to activate the voice transmission system. However, this system cost in-game currency, so he rarely used it before.

However, Xiao Yu couldn't care less about saving money now, and sent a message directly.

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "Old E, what are you doing? It's urgent, come back right away."

The Lich friend he was looking for was Old E, the one who had led them to the Tower of Amalarui. After killing Amalarui, Old E also took control of the tower.

Estero (Lich): "I'm currently running a dungeon. Adventurers these days are getting tougher and tougher. What's up?"

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "It's very important. Can you help me resurrect Amalarui?"

Estero (Lich): "Damn, you make it sound so easy. You think this is just resurrecting a skeleton soldier or a Ghoul? Amalarui is a skeleton-level boss. If I could just resurrect monsters of that level, I would have resurrected dozens of them to help me conquer the world by now. I'd probably be unifying the world by now. Why would I still be stuck in the Eastern Plaguelands?"

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "Wait a minute, didn't Arthas resurrect Kel'Thuzad back then?"

Estero (Lich): "Arthas resurrected Kel'Thuzad using the power of the Sunwell. Although the Amalarui are not as powerful as Kel'Thuzad, they are still skeleton-level bosses. So unless you have a bottle of Sunwell water or other similar powerful magical items, forget about it."

Xiao Yu thought to himself, "What a coincidence! I just acquired a bottle of water from the Sunwell. Is this fate? Have I wronged the heavens?" He murmured "Amitabha" to the sky.

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "I do actually have a bottle of Sunwell water on me."

Estero (Lich): "Damn, you managed to get your hands on this? Wait a minute, you didn't attack Silvermoon City just for the Sunwell's water, did you?"

Xiao Yu didn't explain, thinking it was better that he was misunderstood like this.

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "Almost there. Now you can help me resurrect Amalarui, right?"

Estero (Lich): "It's still no use. Tower of Amalarui has been taken over by a bunch of Scarlet Crusade. These guys are like madmen, all Paladin and Priest, they're killing Undead like crazy. I fought them three times and got completely crushed, they're too much of a counter. Now I've lost nearly half my forces, I don't dare to engage them anymore. I was just thinking that if things really get too bad, I'll run to the Western Plaguelands."

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "The Scarlet Crusade? Could they be the Scarlet Glory?" Xiao Yu asked, recalling the new monster faction ranking he had seen on the Demon King Hall forum. The Scarlet Glory was ranked seventh, making them a very powerful monster faction.

Estero (Lich): "That's right, it's them. These guys are tough, and they're a big studio. I can't beat them, so unless you can help me take back the Tower of Amalarui, there's nothing I can do."

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "No problem. It's just the Scarlet Crusade. Now, whoever gets in my way will be wiped out. Time is of the essence, so I'll set off now. Prepare your troops and wait for my message."

After finishing speaking, Xiao Yu turned off the communication and walked directly outside the Elemental Temple.

As soon as Azathoth emerged from the Elemental Temple, his subordinate bosses rushed forward. Upon seeing Azathoth's strange appearance, they were all shocked. Although they all knew that their lord often changed his appearance, this was the first time they had seen such a drastic transformation.

Wotkud (Elder of the Water Elemental): "Lord Azathoth, what—what's wrong with you?"

Big Water Cunt (the corrupted Water Elemental elder): "Holy crap, boss, you're amazing! How did you transform like that? Teach me!"

Sairen (High Priestess of the Sea): "Lord Azathoth, I sense that the elemental power within you is restless. Is there a problem?"

Agnes (Frost Lurker): "May I ask what your orders are, my lord?"

Xiao Yu glanced at his subordinates, the bosses. Fortunately, they didn't seem to have much of a reaction. He still had these reliable subordinates, so he still had a chance this time.

Azathoth (Water Elemental Lord): "Immediately assemble our forces, target the Eastern Plaguelands, follow me!"