Chương 329: Chapter 323

Nimirea squares shoulder to shoulder with her avatar created by Avatar of Clouds. Avatar of Clouds allows her to create a double that obeys all her commands and thinks independently of her, with the same degree of precision she does. She looks at Jacob through Eye of the Prophet. He just destroyed an Apostle of Apocalypse and knocked out all the Dark Champions. The aura coming off him is the most powerful since she's met him.

"I hate how sanctimonious you are," Nimirea says, popping a sphere in her mouth and crushing it with her teeth.

"What, you just let me get to my full strength without trying anything?"

"Pick what you want to be angry about," Jacob says coldly, with licks of flame hugging his forearms as he clutches his sword.

"I've tried to save you from Asmodeus multiple times."

"Save me?" Nimirea feels rage at that.

"Who are you to save me?!" Jacob tilts his head.

"Why, what's your problem?"

"My problem is that you don't get to decide for me!" Nimirea shouts. Jacob puts a hand to his chin, trying to act bemused, but she can see through him. He's actually angry. He's trying really hard not to come off as overbearing, as the sanctimonious prick Nimirea just accused him of being. Then, he exhales and nods.

"Yeah. I can't choose for you. But none of you are getting out of here alive if you choose not to join us. I suppose I made this mistake over and over again. How silly of me, right? How silly to think that it would be obvious whether to choose between the slightly tyrannical Headmaster — going as far as to say that if he ever acted evil, I'd be the first in line to kill him—and a being that everybody calls Evil God of Monsters." Nimirea feels like she's just been slapped by this retort.

"How silly, right? Who would you want to choose, the slightly strict Headmaster of an Academy sworn to fucking fight monsters and rescue civilians or THE FUCKING EVIL GOD OF MONSTERS SWORN TO TEAR DOWN EVERY SINGLE SENTIENT BEING WITH A FUCKING SOUL!?" Flames roar around Jacob and he slowly becomes more and more engulfed in them.

"It is not that simple," Nimirea growls.

"You think you have all the answers?!"

"Not that simple?!" Jacob puts a hand in his hair, almost tearing it out.

"Are you stupid? Are you actually stupid?! It's a tantrum! You and this whole group are throwing a fucking tantrum!"

"You don't know what I went through and—""Oh my GOD," Jacob shouts.

"What did you go through to justify slaughtering people, you fucking self-absorbed idiot?! Your father is here to support you, wilfully entering a zone that might have killed him because he feels guilty about how he treated you while he was in goddamn exile! What else do you have to hold against this world that you have the guts to make an argument in favor of your past life?!" Nimirea's aura climbs as the poison sets inside of her, turned into sheer power by the Body of Myriad Poison.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Life is more complicated than good and evil, Jacob," Nimirea replies baring her sword at him.

"No, Nimirea. It's really not," Jacob says, narrowing his eyes. Nimirea is about to say something else when her eyes widen. Jacob is in front of her in an instant, headbutting her so forcefully she feels her skull crack.

She flies off the platform like an arrow leaving its bow, her consciousness blinking out for a few moments, her field of vision darkening almost reduced to a single pinpoint of light where the only thing she can see is Jacob following her off the platform with his two blazing red angelic wings of fire. Her aura has reached Early Imperium Rank with half a foot into Intermediate Rank, but it's not nearly enough.

Jacob moves so fast that he's behind her, kicking her between her shoulder blades, shooting her like a bullet back onto the platform of stone where the Dungeon Core used to be. Her impact with the ground forms a crater there. She wheezes, several of her ribs broken, one of her lungs pierced. She feels Jacob's feet lightly tap onto the ground, landing softly.

"Yield. I need you to yield first, before everybody else. Once they see you beaten down, they'll be way more inclined to accept. You're still their leader in spirit. It's as clear as day."

"Y-you," Nimirea slowly gets up and vomits a mouthful of blood on the ground in doing so. He's too strong. But there's one thing that she's kept hidden away from Jacob, one technique that her father taught her.

"Yield or die, Nimirea," Jacob says, dead serious.

"I will kill you today if you don't join me."

"You're no better than an Evil God, then," Nimirea spits more blood onto the ground and shows her bloody teeth to him like fangs.

"Who cares," Jacob says, looking at her with lineaments disfigured by pain.

"If I have to kill someone I love, I will. I have let this go too far. This is the only time I'm actually stronger than you. I won't risk any of you becoming stronger unless you come to our side."

"Stronger than me?" She cackles. Nimirea raises her arms and her avatar cuts off her sleeves. There, Jacob sees two large tattoos that he doesn't recognize. They're a sword in the middle of two triangular patterns on each arm.

"The Eye of the Prophet and Devouring Ocean Eating the Heavens were given to me by Asmodeus," Nimirea says.

"But Body of Myriad Poison was given to me by my father." Nimirea looks at Veyrissa, the Elven Dark Champion.

"Veyrissa has actual True Elf blood, but not enough to show. My father, instead, has the purest bloodline you can find among Elves. True Elves were as powerful as the Three Great Races, if not more. Since my mother is a human, my heritage has always been dormant. But the Skill you see," Nimirea exchanges a glance with her pink avatar with exaggerated body shapes, "is the gate to it." Jacob smiles.

"Go on," he says.

"Show me, then."

"Your arrogance will be your downfall," Nimirea clenches her teeth.

"I just don't want you to tell yourself the story that you could have won if you had done this or that. Do your Elf thing. I have sort of a thing going with beating up Elves since I got my Rainbow Skill, really."

"You'll regret it," Nimirea says and her tattoos start shimmering. The pink avatar suddenly becomes more gaseous and superimposes on Nimirea. She inhales the pink fumes and her irises go from silvery to a bright pink. Her whole body starts slowly changing, becoming more curvaceous and with her height increasing. Yet, it's all subtle. Her aura, too, starts climbing, but not as dramatically as one would have expected. Well, not until she stabs herself with the sword covered with Devouring Ocean Eating the Heavens.

That's when her aura suddenly explodes, matching Jacob's Intermediate Imperium Aura. She becomes taller than Jacob by a whole foot and her body enlarges with more muscle, with her hair turning pink, her ears becoming very pointy, and her whole previously wiry body filling up. When she speaks, her voice is less edgy, more relaxed.

"Body of Myriad Poison is technically a poison. Elves used to refine their bodies with poison. By ingesting it, I can assume this form for the whole ten minutes it takes for the Skill to consume all my Mana. And its effect is reversed by my Skill. For ten minutes, I have unlimited Mana, Jacob." Before letting Jacob reply, the ground beneath her explodes in a massive shockwave, leaving an even deeper crater, and she's in front of the flame-covered Leader of Champions.

Nimirea headbutts him, knowing that her power is now many times what Jacob's should be. So, she's ready to return the favor from before. But when she hits his forehead, she feels like she's just banged her skull against immovable metal. There's a small trickle of blood coming down from Jacob's forehead, but other than that, nothing. They're both pushing against each other, vibrating with power, equally matched.