Post-Apocalyptic Dispatch Society

"Yulna!" Rhizen shouted in alarm, hurriedly contacting the PADS headquarters, practically shouting into the mind of the overseer there, "Can I use my freaking Luck already?"

In the PADS headquarters, the lady wearing a crown on her head flinched in response upon hearing Rhizen's shout, hurriedly inquiring with the respective departments regarding the status of the Grade 2 Systems surrounding their planet.

She then informed Rhizen, "Saint, the most that are usable now is Luck below Level 50. We won't be able to handle concealing Luck beyond that."

"Dammit!" Rhizen grunted in annoyance before he recalled a certain Luck that he had, noticing the statue of the situation around him, 'Wait, that works well enough in this situation.'

Immediately after, a mystical power burst out of his body as his figure vanished, allowing Shika to reorient herself as he rapidly closed in on the Celas, fully exercising the power of Luck.

Level 41—Desperate Luck!

Boom!

The Celas opened its mouth and unleashed a breath attack, strong enough to destroy the city if Rhizen didn't endure the entire attack. If he failed to defend it, then all the strong Mystic Humans in the city would turn into terrifying Aberrants, with a good fraction of them becoming a Keras.

Their sheer strength would be enough to overwhelm Rhizen to the extent he might even be killed. But unfortunately, this action only caused the situation to turn more desperate for Rhizen, making it a perfect recipe for his luck activation.

Time seemed to slow down for a moment as the breath attack approached Rhizen, brimming with enough power to wound him severely. But, right as it approached him, about to slam into his face, his expression of desperation was highlighted as he summoned all his power to endure it.

Desperate Luck!

His power fused in an interesting combination, causing the All-Devouring Whale to be covered with spikes oozing out poison, covered by a transparent layer that absorbed all the kinetic energy of the entire region, for a moment making all living beings except the Horned and Mystic Humans immobile.

Following that, the transparent layer also absorbed the kinetic energy in the breath attack, turning it immobile. And using this chance, the spikes covering the Whale's body grew in length before shooting out in all directions.

And when they shot out, the transparent layer covering them sent part of the power in the breath attack flying, carrying the corruption with them as the spikes glided like his Homing Feathers before all of them exited Yonka City and slammed into the clouds beyond, targeting the Cloud Keras.

Right before the impact, the corruption they brought with them was destroyed by the transparent layer that vanished, converting it into Nacre that seeped into the poison; the spikes slammed into the thunder cloud, poking holes throughout it in large numbers, for a moment weakening it significantly.

With the breath attack disappearing, it placed the Celas at a momentary disadvantage as the Whale desperately slammed into it; another batch of spikes poked out of its body, piercing all over the Celas, injecting copious amounts of poison.

Raawrrr!

The Celas screamed in pain as a good fraction of its body began to melt. It opened its jaws wide and clamped upon the Whale, tearing out a large chunk of flesh, increasing Rhizen's risk of death.

But, this only fuelled his Desperate Luck further, causing the damage he inflicted to spike in response, injuring the Celas further as soon, both the parties became wounded critically.

Boom!

The spikes suddenly shone with a resplendent hue of Nacre as the surroundings turned still once again, and immediately after, the Static Force slammed into the insides of the Celas, rupturing it entirely.

The spikes too were destroyed in the process as the Whale too was moving, with it triggering a good fraction of the Static Force shields.

Boom!

Both the Whale and the Celas collapsed to the ground, critically injured. The Whale was still able to move while the Celas lay there limp, its body continuing to melt faster and faster as it glared at Rhizen with hatred.

But a moment, its eyes curled up in ridicule as its body melted into a puddle soon after, "We've succeeded, fucker."

"What?" Rhizen was alarmed as the Whale stared up in hurry, seeing Shika being sent flying by Yulna, or rather, the entity that Yulna had transformed into.

"Gah!" Shika coughed out blood, hurriedly seeping more Nacre into her Celestial Armour to be rid of the corruption affecting her, staring solemnly at the humanoid entity before her.

At a height of three metres, a greenish figure with a horn—ten centimetres long—jutting out of her forehead, with parts of what was once the Celestial Armour fused into her body itself, gently whirring from time to time.

The face still resembled that of Yulna but suddenly, she opened her mouth, causing it to expand in length to thrice the original as a vortex of corruption formed within.

Swoosh!

The Nacre in the air was rapidly sucked into her mouth and converted into corruption. This was exactly the reverse of the All-Devouring Whale's ability. The dense stream of corruption circulated in her as she condensed a crossbow in her hands, firing arrows nonstop at Shika, causing her to defend against the attacks passively.

Apocalyptic Arts—Burst Crossbow (V)!

This was Yulna's signature ability. But now, it had morphed. Shockingly, all her Mutated Beasts too were preserved, having been converted into the corruption itself.

And that wasn't all. Rhizen observed that Yulna's luck was growing steadily before taking on the shape of a large shield.

He recognised this shield, for it was present in the Luck of Dwun, Shika, and many others at one point in time…

When they were System Hosts!

"Immunity to instant death attacks…" He muttered, churning his Nacre as he took off to the skies once again, noticing that his Desperate Luck was still in effect. He hadn't expended it entirely yet.

System Hosts, or typically the protagonists seen in System Novels usually had one terrifying power, seen as an extension of plot armour. It was the fact that they were immune to attacks that were guaranteed to kill them.

Such attacks would definitely fail for a variety of reasons. And in some cases, they would only cripple the protagonist, allowing them to bounce back stronger at a later date.

Their loved ones might suddenly jump before them to endure the attack, resulting in their death, allowing the protagonist to survive. There were hundreds of variations to this, but in essence, attacks that should have definitely killed the protagonist would always fail.

Or if the attack kills them, it was just a crutch, for the protagonist might be in possession of the power to revive sooner or later, depending on the story.

Even though Apocalypse was a Grade 3 System, its effect on the Aberrant World hadn't been completed yet, so no System Hosts emerged. Only after the world was fully taken over would the Aberrants on it gradually evolve to become System Hosts.

But now, the corruption in this world decided to skip that process and focused fully on Yulna, someone with enough foundation to accept such a large level of corruption and didn't have enough resistance to offer against it.

And now, Yulna had become something similar, a System Host while being an Aberrant, something that would have only appeared after the Aberrant World was fully taken over by Apocalypse.

Moreover, the corruption had let go of most of its original abilities, instead focusing entirely on the power Yulna possessed, converting it into its own power.

"Hahaha! This power is terrifying!" Yulna chuckled, her original personality destroyed and replaced by the blob of corruption.

Boom!

Rhizen—the Whale—slammed into her, unleashing a stream of Dust Wave at her, rapidly beginning to damage her. Her strength was almost on the same level as the Celas but more versatile in nature, allowing her to fight against Rhizen better.

Moreover, unlike the Celas, she had the advantage in that Rhizen couldn't use any big moves against her, for that would naturally not work, thanks to her being immune to instant-death attacks.

This meant that prolonged fights were the only way for her to be defeated. But, that was easier said than done as Yulna taunted, "Go on, use Coincidental Luck. You won't be able to defeat me otherwise. You've been injured significantly by the Celas."

"Go on, what are you waiting for?" Yulna jumped around as her pair of wings darted about, at times turning into a blade that expanded in length to sever the bodies of Stage 7 Mystic Humans that she came across.

She constantly taunted Rhizen while being on the run, gradually becoming faster as her body acclimated to her changing powers better.

In the meantime, the Cloud Keras charged into Yonka City, targeting Shika with lightning bolts, also attacking Dwun from time to time, ensuring the two wouldn't be able to interfere with this fight.

The other cities too were being attacked as a result of the Heaven's Will Scheme, so there was no possibility of reinforcements coming to their aid. And, with the Grade 2 Systems surrounding the home planet of PADS, they couldn't bring in more Mystic Humans, for the risks of being discovered were too high.

'It seems the level of strength I have isn't enough to kill Rhizen yet.' Yulna thought, having attacked Rhizen many times by now, observing that even though he sustained plenty of injuries, there was no sign of him dying yet.

In contrast, his attacks were becoming more and more potent thanks to Desperate Luck.

After a moment of thought, Yulna sighed, 'It indeed seems like this is my current limit.'

Suddenly, Yulna's wings expanded in size, flapping with greater force as she pierced a hole through the barrier and left Yonka City, heading towards a farther city at terrifying speeds.

"You won't be escaping!" Rhizen bellowed in response, turning into a giant serpent to chase after her.