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Read the 472 before !
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Chapter 473: Tyrant vs. Juggernaut
The description was nightmare fuel. Priam could not even comprehend how someone could reach such heights at Tier 0. Clearly, Arnold possessed a mid-Tier race.
“[Hack].”
The mist trembled before violently ejecting Priam at the homunculus’s feet. His own Concept had just betrayed the Homo Elysian.
Eyes widening in shock, Priam tried to dodge the follow-up stomp kick. Futile endeavor. The strike might as well have been a homing one given how effortlessly the enemy read his movements. The metallic foot caved in the Juggernaut’s ribcage.
Pinned to the ground, Priam ignored his cracked ribs and failing breath as he invoked a forbidden power. A trickle of aether flowed into his left eye, awakening a Transcendent curse. Hecate’s New Moon roared in silence, releasing a colorless wave in every direction.
Silver silhouette against a black-and-white backdrop, the Var Elegis froze. Something broke, and at last, the homunculus appeared within the Juggernaut’s Domain. Got you!
Two Supremacies collided; two wills clashed.
Priam’s meta authority easily crushed the enemy’s resistance. Before the absolute tyranny of Domain II, the Var Elegis’s sphere of authority buckled within a second.
[Kinetic Sovereignty]!
Arnold’s head compressed like an empty soda can. Demanding one final effort from his wounded meridians, Priam twisted the neck three full turns counterclockwise until the construct was decapitated.
The metallic skull hit the ground with a heavy clang.
Breathing painfully through his blood-filled mouth—his nose still shattered—Priam raised an eyebrow.
“...Is that all?”
The homunculus vanished, replaced by a bead of light.
“Me and my big mouth…”
The name of a skill echoed through the arena.
“[Nova - Red Giant].”
Priam fled a bit too late. A star was born within the Colosseum. A tsunami of matter, light, and heat swept the young man away with such force that he slammed into the arena wall hard enough to leave his silhouette imprinted in stone.
Lvl up: [Nova Titanium Body] lvl 5CONST +24META(Endurance) +3
[Tribulation]: One attribute above 4 400 was detected in Tier 0.
A Tribulation is coming…Three Tribulations pending.
Time: 17 days 21 hours 58 minutes 50 seconds or before the High Tribulation.
Ignoring future problems, Priam focused on the immediate danger: the colossal energy surging toward him. Mobilizing his kinetic skill, he tried, if not to contain, at least to divert the stellar bloom.
“Red Giant, crimson flower.”
Despite closed eyelids, Priam saw a crimson world. Around him, incandescent light eclipsed everything. The primordial wrath of an immaculate eruption. The fury of a sun whose radiance vaporized stone, blood, and air alike in cosmic silence. Or perhaps the Juggernaut’s eardrums had simply burst.
“Petals of plasma; coruscating thorns.”
Despite his deafness, the verse crossed Priam’s mind as he fought for survival. His scales refracted part of the light like mirrors, yet most of it still penetrated his cells. Some perished as their water molecules evaporated beneath the intolerable heat. Others, however, succeeded in absorbing the luminous energy and multiplying. Life always found ways to survive in the harshest environments… and the Juggernaut was an especially stubborn cockroach.
Lvl up: [Optics Physique] lvl 11CONST +4VIT +5
Alive did not mean comfortable. Like a lifeboat trapped in a storm, Priam was battered by every new wave of the furnace. Drowning in an ocean of flames, he clenched his jaw hard enough to crack his teeth. Not that it mattered. With the inferno already digesting his lips, there was every chance his teeth would melt before they shattered.
“No morning star, but an ending star.”
The nova conjured by Arnold relied on nuclear fusion, devouring matter and vomiting astronomical quantities of thermal energy every second. Beneath the heat of a pseudo-star, the atmosphere itself burned. Blazing air invaded the Juggernaut’s lungs, cooking him from within. Normally, such a tactic would have been useless against Pyro’s jealousy. The Concept roared, shielding its Champion from ninety-nine percent of the flames. Even so, the remaining atomic fire was nothing to underestimate.
Faced with the attack’s overwhelming intensity, Priam watched in horror as his skin vanished alongside his nerves. His body was being incinerated without pain. But the absence of suffering did not mean the absence of resistance.
Lvl up: [Pyro Champion Physique] lvl 41CONST +9VIT +3META(Endurance) +6META(Authority) +9
The Tyrant’s ultimate had burned even Priam’s sense of time. He could not have said when the eruption finally began to fade. Having exhausted its fuel, Red Giant withdrew with the arrogance of stars looking down upon the creatures clinging to the worlds they warmed.
I swear that nova had to be visible from Earth. Arnold, you bastard...
The Juggernaut regenerated his pupils to contemplate a charred world. Behind him, the flash had seared his shadow into the wall like the poor victim of a nuclear blast. Even the Colosseum’s barriers were visible now, wavering after the strain of withstanding the Tyrant’s assault. Such power had no business belonging to a Tier 0.
“That aether, that output, and the poem woven through the Skill...” Priam paused to spit a wad of ash-thick phlegm. “That was a Mythic Skill. A real one. How?”
In answer, reality glitched at the center of the arena, revealing a headless Arnold. An oily, black cloud rose from the Var Elegis’ neck, reconstructing a face. Within seconds, the homunculus stood restored.
“Nanotechnology?” Priam asked, slightly disheartened. If even regeneration was no longer his sole privilege…
His rival tilted his head. “Is the First deceiving me again?”
“Mmh?”
“Is he intentionally losing this battle to provoke my original into attacking?”
A chill raced down Priam’s spine. His pride mattered less than the implication behind those words, and a terrible realization surfaced.
Despite the Colosseum’s protections, it was possible to scry fragments of information about combatants between waves. Priam himself exploited that loophole to level up [Ciphered Record].
And if that was possible, what stopped a victorious phantom from sending a message to his original before the Colosseum unsummoned it?
I’m so fucked.
Calling the situation terrible was an understatement. This was a catastrophe.
His eidetic memory dragged forth the erased timeline from Back in Time. Arnold discovering he had a chance to kill his rival, and taking it without hesitation. Deep down, Priam knew only his reputation restrained the original. If Arnold learned the First had lost to his phantom, he would attack Oasis, and people would die. People he loved.
Priam pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. There weren’t thirty-six solutions to this. He had to win. Part of him laughed bitterly. Hadn’t the beginning of the duel already demonstrated the gap between them?
Guess it’s time to perform a miracle. [Homo Elysian Inspiration], you’re up...
The racial Talent remained silent.
Having finished evaluating his opponent, Arnold lunged.
Priam cocked his fist and launched an uppercut that struck the enemy’s chin... then passed straight through it.
A hologram? No, a virtual image!
Hecate’s New Moon thrummed a second time before stalling outright. Arnold’s index finger was punching through Priam’s dark eye. Adrenaline crushing fear and pain, the Juggernaut slammed his forehead into the metallic face of the enemy, sending him flying backward.
Unfurling his wings, Priam opened the distance. He needed a few seconds to regenerate his eye. Without the curse, Domain II was blind, and that was his only realistic path to victory. Spending Heroic Merits this close to his High Tribulation was out of the question, and the Juggernaut trusted in his adaptation and regeneration. As long as he remained alive, he still had a chance to turn the tables.
Arnold landed lightly and, seeing the human take flight, manifested a glowing crimson disk behind his back. Hovering a few centimeters from his body, the device looked like the fusion of a fighter jet turbine and an alien electromagnetic thruster.
With a beat of his wings, Priam tore through the air. Zigzagging across the arena, propelled to nearly a kilometer per second by his phoenix wings and legendary kinetic mastery, he was certain he could outrun his pursuer—
A hand clamped down on his shoulder. Priam twisted around to see Arnold flying at his level. Annihilator of hope, he was the monster in nightmares that could never be escaped from. As relentless as death itself.
With a motion of his hand, the reaper incarnate threw Priam back to the center of the arena. A fraction of a second later, the homunculus’s knee pinned the Juggernaut to the ground as surely as crucifixion spikes.
[Mental Bridge]!
In less than an instant, the Juggernaut wove a strand of aether, linking his mind to that of his enemy. A skill tried to resist the invasion, but the Homo Elysian’s aether proficiency surpassed the homunculus’. Finally a victory.
Priam poured all his raw will into the clash. Without finesse, he unleashed a torrent of emotions and thoughts to overwhelm the enemy consciousness. The attack surged forward… only to crash into a wall. An inhuman will stood against his. A mind analyzed the situation, adapted instantly, and reversed the pressure with terrifying speed. Quickly overwhelmed, Priam called for his addon’s help.
[Priam’s System] sent massive data packets to the homunculus, a malicious attempt to disrupt his thinking. The computer science equivalent of a DDoS attack. Instead of shielding his cognitive matrix, the Var Elegis fully accepted the connection, establishing a data exchange. Hacking the leader of a mechanical empire was a mistake.
The addon received and read the memory of another.
*
A silver planet stretched beneath Arnold’s gaze. Metallic plates covered its surface, replacing tectonic continents. Thirty moons had been sacrificed to improve the cradle of the Var Elegis.
The representative of the latest generation was descending through the atmosphere when an unauthorized notification breached his log.
The Var Elegis have been chosen by the Seven Great Concepts. Congratulations!
The Tutorial is about to begin.
*
“Use my legacy with caution. Your AIs, no matter how evolved they become, will betray you in the end. Keep them at a distance from your ego, because in its current state, the Virtual Technology Path is gatekept.”
A Tier 9 shadow stood before Arnold. At once larger than a galaxy and smaller than an atom. Heavier than a black hole, and lighter than light. Regal, yet pleading. A being whose voice had shaken universes. Only ruins remained of that Myth, as shown by its primitive means of communication. That did not make its information any less critical.
“What is the identity of the one standing between me and the Zenith?”
“A Tier 10. The progenitor of one of the three supreme races. I can’t give you Their name for names hold power, and ideas are both the essence and nourishment of the Enemy.”
Seven ultimate consciousnesses descended. The System tightened its surveillance.
“I may have said too much. Forget my word. Banish my warning from your mind until you reach the Tier that was mine. To know Them is to give Them power over you, and the System will not permit that. After all, It is like nectar to Them.”
Arnold obeyed. Whether the adversary was an infohazard, a rogue AI, or an ideological organism, he was ill-equipped to confront it.
The Tier 9 shadow’s consciousness looked through Arnold.
“Priam Azura. These precautions concern you as well…”
*
The dark-skinned humanoid screamed as the laser tore off his arm. Falling to the ground, he rolled before his head slammed against a root. By the time he staggered upright, Arnold was already standing over him.
“... Fuck. Why me?”
“You are a rival. Given your potential, your continued existence may pose a danger in the future,” the homunculus replied.
The wounded Champion grimaced and looked up toward the skies of Elysium.
“Shit. Mom, Dad... I’m sorry. Your unfilial son has no choice but to use this taboo technique if he wants to survive. Honored ancestors, preserve my soul from becoming apocryphal. [Soul Syphon]!”
A dead leaf drifted down onto Arnold’s arm.
Within a five-kilometer radius, the forest died as its life force was stolen. From the tallest trees to the smallest microorganisms, nature withered while the being before him grew stronger.
In less than a second, the Duatien’s injuries vanished, and luminous green veins spread beneath his skin.
This battle was proving more troublesome than anticipated, and the homunculus still had other targets to eliminate. One of his behavioral decryption programs proposed a solution.
Arnold raised his cannon toward a distant direction.
“I detect a life signature within the dead zone. Its DNA displays numerous similarities to yours.”
“...” The humanoid deflated. “Do whatever you want to me, but don’t hurt my brother. He's no threat to you.”
The Var Elegis lowered his cannon and drew a blade, plunging it through the enemy’s heart.
Of ten Champions, only nine remained.
*
Priam opened his eyes just as the mental bridge disintegrated from lack of maintenance.
Before he could even unpack what he had just witnessed, he felt an immense weight crushing his solar plexus. The Var Elegis still held him pinned beneath one knee.
“[He Who Eludes Death]...”
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Last one coming in a few hours. I want to fine-tune the final twist to set up the Tier up