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*
For those who might have forgotten: the Second Reunion is fast approaching, and the threat of the Depths is real. Priam needs to reach Tier 1 to make the most of event, but before that, he intends to reinforce his foundations—ensuring his ascent toward the Zenith is free of any weakness.
This means pushing as far as possible into the Colosseum, farming Sun points and Tribulations, tempering his gates, and defeating Sumstreh to complete the quest shared with his rivals... among other things.
Several weeks have passed since Chapter 455, and Priam has made significant progress on his to-do list...
PS: Vertex is the strongest T1 in the Concept's universe and Dragonslayer's (a T10) daughter.
*
Valaryth 84 was only a world fragment. As such, its surface area shrank a little with every passing moment, and it possessed a clearly defined boundary beyond which reality gave way to interdimensional chaos. Not far from that frontier, lazily beating wings of shadow against a star-filled night sky, Jasmine followed Esmée. After extensive scrying, the princess had found something intriguing.
“That’s it,” she said, pointing at an islet several kilometers below them.
At first glance, the sandbank—roughly the size of three football fields—looked unremarkable. Focusing her formidable perception, Jasmine took a second look.
“No signs of life. Not a single fish near it… not even the faintest trace of a seagull’s footprint.” She smiled. “I think we’ve found our mouse.”
“I’m not sure that comparison fits,” Esmée murmured. “A mouse is small. That monster is so enormous I wouldn’t even know how to handle it.”
“That’s what she said.”
“Pardon?”
Ignoring the princess’s raised eyebrow, the assassin focused on her addon and touched the soul fragment Priam had inserted at her request. A communication channel would always exist between the Lord and his Shadow.
“We found it.”
“On my way,” came the mental reply. “Do not get spotted.”
“Don’t worry—”
The islet trembled before sinking beneath the waves.
“Fuck. If it escapes again…”
“No need to worry. Now that I’ve found it, it will never escape me again. Should I kill it?” Esmée asked, opening her grimoire.
“No. Priam wants it for himself.”
Jasmine looked at her weapons—two twenty-centimeter daggers—and compared them to the aircraft-carrier-sized monster she was supposed to threaten. I feel like a dwarf tasked with fertilizing a titan.
Sheathed her short blades, she gestured toward Esmée. “Alright. I’ll let you hook this one.”
Her rival raised an eyebrow. “Size issue?”
“Says the virgin. Hurry up and flip its brain with your grimoire.”
“No need.” The princess released a telepathic pulse. “The Juggernaut isn’t here.”
Jasmine disliked being underestimated, but she had to admit the taunt was clever. The one who had been so quick to flee surfaced in less than five seconds. A maw wide enough to swallow a cruise ship opened.
The nearby ocean twisted into a siphon. Air howled as it rushed between rows of serrated teeth. Jasmine felt like a spider facing a vacuum cleaner. A terrifying force dragged her toward a doomed fate inside the monster’s belly. Catapulted forward, she grunted as she felt the influence of a Concept. When the Devourer inhaled, the world could only bend.
As the gaping mouth filled more and more of her vision, Jasmine showed no sign of concern. Weeks earlier, she would have struggled. Not anymore. Umbra.
Her Tier 2 Concept linked her to the greatest shadow of all: the night sky. Clinging to the starry firmament like a spider to its web, Jasmine regarded the Terror lazily. The monster continued inhaling; to no avail. Only the sun could dislodge the Shadow now, and dawn was still hours away.
Hence the world’s shock when the southern sky started to paint itself in yellow and orange. An incongruity, since even on Valaryth, the sun rose in the east.
Esmée smiled. “I lied.”
A hundred kilometers away, an incandescent point swelled until it banished darkness. Jasmine felt Umbra weaken but did not worry. Nor did she react when the Terror dove again. Too late.
Two gigantic wings propelled a shooting star. His light heralding him, the Juggernaut was rushing. Where atmospheric resistance would have compressed and vaporized a meteoroid, he seized the plasma within his Domain and wore it as armor.
Driving a kinetic cone before him, he parted the air along his path, accelerating to a point directly above the Terrors. Then, like divine retribution, he fell upon his enemies. As fast as lightning. As coruscating as a nova. As violent as orbital bombardment.
Collision. Flash. With her eyes watering under the intense light, Jasmine watched the ocean cave in beneath the impact. The entire ocean.
If [Extinction Event] were a Title, her Lord was well on his way to earning it.
The rebound displaced a shockwave that climbed into the atmosphere. Jasmine briefly phased into the Umbra Domain to avoid being scattered. Returning to reality, her eyes widened at the devastation.
Within a kilometer of the epicenter, the sea was white instead of blue. Heat had vaporized it into clouds. Farther out, tsunamis rose in every direction, promising to drown nearby islands. Thousands of animals would die without ever knowing the quake had a human origin.
And he’s only Tier 0. Peak Tier 0, but still…
“Ninety-three?” Esmée asked. Protected by a fractured shield, she had conjured an aether-lens spyglass.
The Shadow narrowed her eyes to flex her crystalline lenses. Each build had its own method for long-distance vision. Indecent perception revealed that the exposed back of the fourth Terror now resembled a volcano more than an islet.
A crater of flesh rather than stone, blackened by cauterization. At its center, the boiling red liquid was blood, not magma. Several ivory shards embedded in the creature’s hide drew her gaze.
“I see at least three ribs and a femur. Ninety-three,” Jasmine confirmed.
Despite six weeks of intense training, Priam could not strike a Terror at ballistic-missile velocity without dying. No low Tier could.
A spasm shook the Terror. Relative to its size, it passed for an earthquake. Jasmine growled.
“Still not dead? That thing’s vitality is insane.”
Despite her words, she wasn’t worried. If the first strike had been critical rather than fatal, it would only prolong the beast’s suffering. The hunter had sunk his claws into his prey, and would not let go.
The crater was less a first blood than an entryway to the Terror’s entrails.
For five minutes, the colossus rolled upon itself, trying to dislodge an enemy it could not reach. Jasmine could easily imagine Priam rampaging inside. Soon, the spasms weakened, then ceased.
“Finally dead. Let’s get closer.”
Carried by an aether disc, Esmée descended gracefully. That was not Jasmine’s style. Transforming her shadow into a wingsuit, she controlled her fall, overtook her rival, and landed near the crater. Wiggling her toes, she sank her legs through ash until they met the monster’s skin.
“The ground’s hot.”
“I wouldn’t know. I don’t walk around barefoot like a savage,” the princess retorted as she arrived.
“Priam doesn’t wear shoes.”
“Priam isn’t perfect.”
Jasmine bared her teeth. Esmée ignored her. With a gesture, she summoned a gust that swept away the ash. A blackened, warped hide appeared beneath.
“We stand fifty meters from the epicenter, yet the leather seethes still. In terms of released energy, that orbital strike falls into the small-nuke category,” she analyzed.
“That’s a rod from God for you.” Jasmine frowned. “Or a rod from Priam?”
“More like a Priam from God. After all, he’s the projectile.”
“Let’s say a Priam from System,” a third voice said.
Emerging from the ocean, the Juggernaut ran a hand through his wet hair. Jasmine admired the water cascading over his muscular torso. The spectacle ended when he invoked a flame to dry himself. The Shadow’s instinct hissed, fearful of the fire she knew tyrannical enough to reduce her to ash on contact. Since Priam had purified his phoenix bloodline, his Pyro had become terrifying… enough to bully most of the Colosseum.
“Why are you coming from that direction? The head’s on the other side,” Esmée pointed out once the eye candy covered himself in a misty toga.
“… After the impact, I reformed my body and dove into the Terror to destroy it from the inside. I followed a vein to find the heart, bite it, then cut my way to the digestive tract to exit.” The young man shrugged. “I had a fifty chance of picking the wrong side.”
Jasmine’s eyes went wide. “You came out through the monster’s anus?!”
“I’d prefer we end this conversation here,” Priam grimaced. “And I’d appreciate it if you could forget this story…”
His friend snickered.
*
Number of deaths: 93
Lvl up: [Sun Steel Body] lvl 59CONST +6META (Endurance) +3
The Devourer’s heart was the size of a car—small in proportion to its colossal frame, yet gargantuan compared to Priam. Fortunately, the Law of Dragons did not torment the victor; a single breath had been enough to claim his due.
The dragon thrives on victory.
Bloodlines:
Phoenix: 19%
Dragon: 6% (+1% via Draconic Victory)
[Draconic Vivacity: You possess multiple (two) streams of thought, each powered by 98% of your vivacity. Base: 78% +20% from Chimera.]
Soon, each of my parallel thoughts will operate at 100% of my vivacity. And after that… what lies beyond 100%?
Only one way to find out: further purify his bloodline. For that, the most efficient method remained stealing another’s.
Of course, not every victory against a draconic opponent led to purification. The enemy needed a purer bloodline than Priam’s, and the confrontation had to be, for lack of a better word, meaningful. The difference in power mattered, especially when challenging someone stronger, but that was not all. Priam suspected the Law of Dragons also considered the history between antagonists.
He possesses such a history with the Fourth Terror.
First, the creature had attacked him during his second incursion into Valaryth, stolen his prey—an amphiptere—and nearly devoured him. At the time, Priam hadn’t taken it personally. Being chewed by a deep-sea monster was an excellent way to grind physical resistances. He would have left it at that if Vertex hadn’t tasked him with killing the Terrors from seventh to fourth before handing over Sumstreh.
From that moment onward, it became business.
Over the past two months, he systematically tracked his targets. The first three were eliminated with minimal difficulty. The Devourer, however, repeatedly evaded him by lurking in the abyssal depths. The beast surfaced only once: during Priam’s last triple Tribulation. Likely attracted by the energy surge, it attempted to exploit the chaos to consume the Juggernaut. From then on, it was personal.
Six weeks later, vengeance achieved, Priam smiled while observing the hated corpse drift away.
“So the dragon finally catches the phoenix?” Jasmine asked.
“Mmh. I still have two percent of margin.”
“You could farm undead a bit longer.”
“No thanks,” the Juggernaut grimaced. “I’ve had my fill of that filth.”
The past two months had seen his power skyrocket, yet in Priam’s view, he could have progressed even further if he hadn’t slowed his training to conduct necro massacres. Indeed, as optimally farming Sun points required remaining Tier 0, Champions used the time they had left to rack up as many kills as possible. Priam had reinvested his gains into his phoenix bloodline.
Sun Shop:Item
Phoenix’ blood essence III (5 000 000 points) - Improves the phoenix bloodline purity by +1%. Useless beyond 20%. Phoenix’ blood essence IV (25 000 000 points) - Improves the phoenix bloodline purity by +1%. Useless beyond 25%. 12 remaining.
At roughly one million Sun points per day, Priam had gathered enough to purify his fiery bird bloodline by nine percent before deciding to stop.
“What, just forty-four days of slaughtering stupid zombie hordes and you’re already tired?” Jasmine teased.
“Besides being mind-numbingly boring, I have to go looking for them now,” Priam grumbled. “These past few days, I’m lucky if I can farm half a million points.”
“Hardly surprising. Around Oasis, necros are practically endangered. One wonders who is responsible,” Jasmine said, shooting Esmée a dark look.
Finding the exercise valuable for training, the princess had slaughtered hundreds of millions of creatures. A horrific number, but the Author’s build was optimized for genociding the weak. For a duelist like Jasmine, it was mostly a chore. As for Priam, he had recently stopped for another reason.
Despite undead attributes rising rapidly due to the Necro Event, the gap between an undead and an Elysium Prince was so vast that the Juggernaut gained almost nothing from these hecatombs beyond meager Sun points. Occasionally, a minor level-up in a secondary skill. Spending two-thirds of his days hunting weaklings was no longer worth it.
Especially since the next percent in his phoenix bloodline would trigger a second atavism—an outcome Priam regarded with apprehension.
“An atavism alters both your genetic code and your aetheric code,” his mentor had revealed. “If you fail to control it, it will place you upon a trajectory that may not align with your desired Tier 4 race.”
“How do I control it?”
“Become an exceptional aetherist. Reach Micro IV. Master [Chimera]. Advance your race to Tier 4. All are viable solutions. You are near none.”
The Juggernaut clapped his hands. “Anyway. Let’s loot the Terror’s lair and get out of here. Sumstreh awaits.”
Vertex as well, and Priam had questions for them. Based on the answers, he might have had an idea to finally defeat his mentor’s phantom.
Esmée opened her grimoire to locate the lair. “Oh?” The princess raised an eyebrow. “It is inside the Terror. More precisely, within one of its stomachs.”
Priam lowered his gaze to the slain monster. Due to its own immense dimensions—comparable to the largest aircraft carrier ever constructed by humanity—maintaining a conventional lair was impractical. The volume of a draconic lair scaled with its creator’s power, and the Terror was more fat than muscle.
“Let’s go,” Priam said, turning.
Jasmine coughed behind him. “I’ll follow Esmée. No offense, but I’d rather go through the mouth. I’m not into butt stuff.”
Priam groaned. “This story’s going to follow me for a while, isn’t it?”
“For as long as the smell does.”
The Juggernaut stumbled. That last line wasn’t from Jasmine, but from Esmée.
*
[Quantum Teleportation]. [Virtual Creation].
Arnold’s avatar manifested within a world fragment adjacent to Elysium—analogous to a bubble upon the surface of an ocean. The System immediately issued a warning: his presence within Valaryth 84 must remain temporary. Additionally, the realm was already partially occupied by Priam Azura.
The Tyrant had no desire to provoke his rival, but wasn’t overly worried. Probability suggested Priam would never become aware of the intrusion. Arnold’s [Invader] Title would prevent the System from disclosing the information.
The homunculus surveyed his surroundings. He stood within an antechamber of alchemical quartz, warded to perfectly obstruct his perception—a feat the elven empire had failed to achieve. At his feet lay a mosaic depicting a fractal of runes, the smallest elements reaching subatomic scale. Was the Fallen such an accomplished aetherist?
“A visitor? I hope for the Demiurge’s sake he hasn’t sold my location…”
A door opened. A humanoid emerged. Androgynous features. No detectable presence. Arnold’s alert status increased. Even Priam had not conveyed such an impression of weakness at their first encounter.
“How did you arrive here… Ah. [Quantum Teleportation] to transmit information across space. [Virtual Creation] to temporarily generate matter from a blueprint and aether. The synergy permits projection of an avatar at will,” the newcomer analyzed in a monotone voice. “Fascinating.”
Multiple processes initiated within Arnold’s cognition matrix. The probability that the stranger was simulating weakness was very high. As the Juggernaut Protocol attempted to trigger nuclear self-implosion of the vessel, the Champion exercised administrative override to abort the sequence. His current mission was critical.
Protocol ‘Rival’ engaged. Phase 1: maximum politeness.
“My designation is Arnold NetSky. I seek the Fallen Sumstreh.”
The unknown being inclined their head. “Vertex A. You intend to complete a Quest?”
“Correct.”
Vertex turned toward the right wall, their gaze extending far beyond it.
“I’m afraid you’re too late. Sumstreh is already reserved for Priam Azura.”
“… As expected of the First.”
Arnold hesitated. Should he withdraw?
Re-reading the rewards promised by the System and knowing the designs of both the Necromancer and the Guardian, the Tyrant made his choice.
Protocol ‘Rival’ - Phase 4: total extermination.
A rift opened behind Arnold. Through it, an artificial satellite was visible, its surface occupied by an army of homunculi. Each was an empty vessel, awaiting occupation by the Champion’s soul to receive System augmentation. One billion empty bodies. One billion extra lives for the Tyrant.
Facing this terrifying display, Vertex yawned.
*