Chapter 123

Fighting Myself (2)

The Territory Quest had given me +24 Additional Stat Points. I invested every one of them in Agility.

BOOM!!

My body shot forward like an arrow.

"What the—!"

The Memorier flinched in alarm, unable to react to my suddenly accelerated movements.

"Metabolic Overdrive!" the Memorier shouted. "Have you forgotten that I have the same abilities as you?!"

The Memorier used Metabolic Overdrive[U] as well. It tried to match my movements and speed, but couldn't keep up.

"How...?!"

Because the difference wasn't merely twenty-four points of Agility. Promote Metabolism[C+]'s passive effect gave me an additional [+15%] of the Agility points I invested. Then Metabolic Overdrive[U] amplified that stat yet again.

That created a gap of no less than 41.4 stat points, equivalent to the stats of 41.4 adult men.

SLASH!

The Memorier's body was torn open in an instant. It was a fatal wound, yet not fatal at all, since it could use Regeneration[B+]. Sure enough, it recovered immediately.

"You think I'll lose?!"

The Memorier roared and raised both hands, swinging Dragon's Claw[A] wildly.

At first glance, it was crude. The movements were obvious and vulgar. But they carried equally destructive force, giving them exceptional striking power and practical effectiveness.

This was The Predator’s Way.

CRUNCH! CRACK! CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!

A barrage of attacks. Explosive strength. The shock of collision.

The entire landscape shook.

BOOOM!!

The Memorier was trying to overwhelm me with greater strength. But it didn't stand a chance.

A difference in Agility wasn't merely a difference in speed. Dynamic vision, reflexes, reaction speed, and more: it meant a difference in the ability to process stimuli transmitted through the nervous system.

"What...?"

The Memorier lost sight of me.

CRUNCH!

I exploited that opening perfectly, brutally tearing open its chest.

'I was aiming for the heart.'

In that split second, it had twisted aside. Beyond the gaping wound, I could see its beating heart.

I hadn't taken it down in one blow, but it would need to expend more calories on Regeneration[B+], and that difference would keep growing. More importantly, even Regeneration[B+] couldn't heal a wound that severe instantly.

I lowered my stance.

... But something was wrong.

'Its regeneration speed—'

It was abnormally fast.

The Memorier's gaping chest regenerated on the spot. Its tissue was even stronger than before. But Regeneration[B+] could only restore something to its original state.

That meant...

'Hyper Regeneration?'

It was Hyper Regeneration[A], transcended through Berserk[?]. But that made no sense. I didn't have the Sanity to use Berserk[?]. If it had copied my exact condition, the Memorier shouldn't have any Sanity either.

Yet an aura of dark crimson flames surged around it.

'That's...'

Berserk[?]. The Memorier was using Berserk[?] again.

'It's using super-combination skills simultaneously?'

Apparently, they could be used together. That taught me something else about how the ability worked, but that wasn't the problem right now.

The Memorier's presence had changed dramatically. This was Accelerated Heartbeat[E], which amplified the effects of Metabolic Overdrive[U] by [2x].

Our positions were reversed.

... But how?

Using Accelerated Heartbeat[E] required at least 100 Sanity. Hyper Regeneration[A] required a full 3,200.

I didn't have that much. If it had copied me, the Memorier didn't either.

... It shouldn't have.

* * *

Luseria had been screaming in agony as her entire body froze. Now her screams had fallen silent.

Leon slowly raised his eyes.

CRAAAACK!!

He saw Luseria frozen into cold death. The disparity was overwhelming.

"Th-this is..."

How could anyone call her a sixteen-year-old girl? What Leon felt was closer to awe than fear.

Just then—

CRASH!!

Suddenly, the sound of shattering ice rang out.

"Ahhh...!!!"

Luseria's cry followed, filled with joy and ecstasy.

She had broken free of the ice. Her frozen body had already turned blue, yet she was overjoyed. A crazed smile spread across her face.

Then, as though welcoming someone—

"The Great One...! The Great One!!"

Luseria spread her arms.

"Has chosen me—!"

With those final words, her waist bent at a ninety-degree angle.

CRACK, CRUNCH!

Flesh tore and bones ground together. Her abdomen split wide open to either side. Dark crimson blood and slime ran down, and eight long legs stabbed into the ground.

A colossal she-spider of the Abyss cast off Luseria's flesh and manifested in the world.

It slowly opened its dark eyes.

No... those weren't eyes. They were a compound field of vision containing countless dimensions. Within them, fifty thousand eggs writhed.

SCREEEEEECH!!!

An ear-rending cacophony.

The she-spider's eyes distorted and split open. Hundreds of thousands of thin legs burst out at once, and fifty thousand little spiders, not yet fully grown, squirmed to satisfy their hunger.

"Eek!!"

Seraphia trembled in fear.

"A-aaaaaah!!"

Leon screamed, on the verge of fainting.

This was... on another plane.

It was... too vast.

As though the sheer scale of perceptual information a human could absorb had reached its limit.

* * *

ROOOOAAAR!!

Dark crimson currents swirled around the Memorier. It was using Berserk[?] again and again. That meant its Sanity was increasing even now.

Apparently, just as Seraphia and I were connected, the Memorier and Luseria were connected too.

In other words, the Legion Commander of the Abyss whom Luseria served, the she-spider of the Abyss carrying fifty thousand young, had finally forced her way through a rift in the Negative Dimension and manifested in this world.

"Hahahahahahaha!!!"

The Memorier had even copied the Concept Skill Infinity[M]. Receiving an endless supply of Sanity from the she-spider of the Abyss, it was transcending all its skills.

Just as I had introduced a variable, so had it.

... I needed to introduce another variable. But there were no quests left that I could clear right now. Even if there were, they wouldn't let me overcome the disparity created by Berserk[?].

Still, I had to think. I had to find a variable that would turn this situation around.

And I had to believe.

No, I did believe in the power of my bonds and connections, something the Memorier did not possess.

* * *

Madness surged endlessly.

Adrian (Memorier) staggered for a moment under its mounting power. But this wasn't pain. It was closer to liberation.

"Hahahahaha!!"

This was no longer merely a war of caloric attrition. A clear gap had opened between them. No, more than that: they were now as far apart as heaven and earth.

Adrian, whose abilities were bound by the clear limitations of living organisms, could never overcome that disparity.

"I'll show you the difference between us!!"

CRRRUNCH!

Bones twisted, and a large bone protruded below its elbow, honed to a razor edge.

A Bone Blade.

It used Hyper Regeneration to create a protruding bone, honed it, then reinforced the cutting edge with Nutrient Creation.

In strength, hardness, and cutting power, it surpassed an aura sword. It was a biological aura blade.

And that wasn't all.

Wings formed on its back through Hyper Regeneration, granting mobility that defied terrain and gravity.

Its body, strengthened by Draconification, became the pinnacle of biological evolution.

Its physical stats, amplified by Accelerated Heartbeat, far exceeded biological limits.

As a result—

"I've surpassed you!!"

Murderous intent erupted. Its physical stats surged through Accelerated Heartbeat, and its wings spread wide to either side. Its body shot forward at tremendous speed, withstanding all resistance thanks to Draconification.

The Bone Blade swung.

CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!!

Everything in the surrounding landscape was sliced apart. Its entire body became a slashing strike bearing down on Adrian.

He couldn't dodge it. No one could evade an attack that cut through everything around it at this speed. Nor could he block it.

There was simply no way to respond.

"It's over!!"

BOOOOM!!

The impact shook the entire space.

But something was wrong.

... It was the one that had taken the impact.

Adrian (Memorier)'s eyes widened.

Impossible. The disparity between it and Adrian was overwhelming. A gap that absolutely, categorically could not be bridged.

"Your struggles are pointless!!"

It drove the power of Madness into an even greater frenzy. But... nothing came out.

'The power of Madness...?'

... It was disappearing.

* * *

SKREEEEEEEE!!

A scream like tens of thousands of evil spirits gathered together and scraped raw. The monstrous shriek echoed in every direction. A sound not of this world battered the eardrums.

The mind grew hazy.

The worlds of hell and the Abyss overlapped this place. The physical world changed. Everything in the world was overturned.

The boundary between existence and nonexistence blurred, and color vanished from the earth.

SKREEEECH!!

Nameless young half opened their eyes. Shadows took form and rose, until all around was a revel of beings.

Seraphia squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't bear... to look. No, she felt she must not look.

【Naga’ai ah’n’ghft syha’h...】

An alien whisper seeped into her ears. She didn't know whose voice it was. She didn't know what it meant.

Her eyes remained tightly closed. With her vision cut off, her terror could take no concrete form. That formless fear of the unknown swelled endlessly within her imagination, becoming something even more horrifying as it swallowed her mind.

She couldn't breathe. Her heart raced wildly. Just as cold sweat ran down her back...

Which repetition of the gathering had it been?

["As I told you before, fear disappears when you look its true form in the face."]

Adrian's words flashed through her mind.

She had to open her eyes. She had to face her fear.

Yet she couldn't... make herself open them. She knew it in her head. She knew it so well...

"Ah, ahhhh..."

Her body wouldn't obey.

In her heart, she desperately called for Adrian. Hadn't he always saved her at times like this? He would save her again.

If she just kept her eyes squeezed shut, he would appear from somewhere and protect her.

... But.

Without Brother... could she ultimately do nothing at all?

And yet she'd claimed she would help him? When she wasn't even confident she could survive without him?

She was scared. Terrified. She wanted so badly to run away and hide.

But what frightened her most now was the thought that she might truly, truly become someone incapable of doing anything. Someone who only held Adrian back instead of helping him. A little sister who was truly nothing to him.

She didn't want that. She truly didn't.

Then she... she had to...!

["Don't let fear hold you captive."]

She had to fight for herself.

["Resist the things that frighten you. Show them they can't control you anymore."]

She had to face the fear inside her.

["Nothing will change if you do nothing."]

Even if she was scared, even if she was terrified, she had to take a step forward.

["Endure the coming storm and press on."]

Just as birds flew even when storms raged!

KEEEEEEN!!

Her red eyes snapped open and turned pure white. Countless ink-like lines of cold blossomed around her.

It was at that very moment that Leon came to his senses. What he saw were fifty thousand young spiders, frozen still, and the motionless she-spider of the Abyss.

The entire space was silent.

The ear-splitting ringing. The howls that had torn through his mind. The hundreds of thousands of writhing legs.

Everything was frozen and motionless, as though time and space themselves had stopped.

And...

'They're disappearing...?'

They were freezing and vanishing.

... No. That wasn't it.

Leon's intuition, his ability, told him they weren't disappearing because of the cold.

It was the opposite.

Their existence was being annihilated, producing cold.

Annihilation cooling.

Heat Death, manifested through the annihilation of every form of energy within a being, including mana.

It was the power of the end, capable of extinguishing even the stars. No energy, no being, could hold any meaning before this absolute end.

Primordial Origin - Extinction.

Frigidus Maelstrom.

CRAAAAAAAAACK!!!

In an instant, sharp blades of frost cleaved the entire world. Fifty thousand spiders began to lose their forms.

The she-spider of the Abyss... froze still.

Her body did not lose its form. But it was merely a shell, its life energy utterly annihilated. Even an exalted being from another dimension had ultimately been unable to escape.

"My God..."

The wondrous sight made every hair on Leon's body stand on end. A shudder of awe.

He could scarcely believe this was human power...

Seraphia swayed, suddenly losing her balance. Leon hurriedly caught her as she fell. She was as light as a flower petal, her breathing ragged.

"Are you all right?!"

"Brother..."

Her voice was faint.

"I-I have to help him..."

Then she lost consciousness.

* * *

Adrian (Memorier) snapped to attention. The fading power of Madness had, at some point—

'... Been cut off?'

It had been severed completely. That limitless power was no longer surging into it.

'Why?'

No, how? Had the she-spider of the Abyss actually been annihilated?

Impossible. How could anyone destroy a ruler of the Negative Dimension...!

'This is absurd!!'

It couldn't believe it. Panic tangled its thoughts.

... It had to pull itself together. Even if it couldn't use Berserk again, its earlier activations were still in effect. The disparity was already as vast as heaven and earth.

"Aaaaaaah!!!"

Roaring, it swung the Bone Blade with all its might.

At that moment—

THOOM!!

An immense weight spread through it. Adrian (Memorier)'s mouth gaped open, spewing blood.

He'd blocked it? No, had he blocked it? Had he dodged? ... What was that?

It couldn't see. It couldn't see at all.

As though it had come face-to-face with a level of mastery impossibly far beyond its reach.

"With nothing, nothing but mere biological abilities?"

"That's not all."

Adrian's low murmur pierced its ears.