“If I know all of this, why are you telling it to me?”
“Humorless one is aware, yet humorless one chases the impossible. Ah, humorless one. What a tragic life you live.” Giggles shook his head. “Your dream, humorless one, can only succeed if you first suppress the Kingdom of Men. Only if you do as nightmares must do – pillage, devour, conquer.”
“Are you done?”
Giggles acquiesced, tilting his head. “Indeed humorless one. This one has spoken too much.” The half-man, half-horse creature gestured his chest wide open. “Come, humorless one. Shall this battle between us be the crowning moment of this one’s life? Was this one made and has this one lived to face demise at your hands? Or shall this one stand over you, and live to hear the final laugh?”
An overwhelming burst of pressure emerged from Giggles, sending ripples traveling across the surface of the lake.
[Sixth Sense – DANGER DETECTED!]
[Skill {Sixth Sense} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sixth Sense} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sixth Sense} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sixth Sense} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sixth Sense} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sixth Sense} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sixth Sense} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sixth Sense} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sixth Sense} has evolved into {Greater Sixth Sense}]
[Skill {Greater Sixth Sense} has evolved into {Superior Sixth Sense}]
[Skill {Superior Sixth Sense} has evolved into {Seventh Sense}]
[Sense has risen by 50!]
Fuck.
[Seventh Sense] – WARNING.
You are about to engage in combat with a Nightmare of the Eighth Tier.
You are about to engage in combat with an Elder One.
You are about to engage in combat with an enemy who has [Sovereignty].
You are about to engage in combat with a [Boss] Category Enemy.
[Ill-Advised to Proceed]
Fuck.
The air was so thick I couldn’t breathe. The suffocating feeling of power crackled around me with the scent of ozone. There was, I realized, lightning crackling in the air as Giggles rose his hand skyward.
“[Sango’s Hand].”
Fuck.
From the sky, a giant palm of lightning dwarfed and obscured the sun. There was no evading it. There was no avoiding it. Larger than the Statue of Liberty and the Cristo Redentor put together, the hand descended like the strike of a vengeful god upon unsuspecting mortals.
“You extend god’s hand to me?!” I laughed at the absurdity. “I’ll take it! [Golem Creation]!”
Mana and magic bled from my form so quickly it formed a mist of energy that surrounded me. I forced the earth to rise. Mud, ground, sand, dust, complete with trees, rocks, and everything else within it. My body burned from the sheer amount of MP that I was bleeding off.
The lightning hand of god met with the hand of nature itself –
And the world was bathed in white.
/∞/
“What do you mean by, you’re fighting him?”
[You are now in the True Path]
[The title {Phoenix} has come into effect.]
[You have attained [Lightning Damage Immunity] from being killed by a powerful Lightning-attribute attack]
I rubbed my brows slowly. “I lost.”
‘That’s not on us. The dude was bullshit powerful. No one told us he was supposed to be that powerful.’
“Oh, no, no, no. Janus, what have you done?” Erzili was panicking. She turned to me, eyes alight with anger. “What have you done?”
“Calm down. I used my power, and fought Giggles in a different timeline –”
“Why?” Erzili screeched.
“To know his weaknesses.”
“No, no, Janus darling, you don’t understand! Giggles, his Epithet Skill, if you don’t counter it before fighting him –” She gritted her teeth. “You’ve been exposed to it. There is no time. There is no time at all. Listen, do as Erzili says immediately. Use the Antediluvian Hieroglyphs and write the command ‘Return’ on your body. Write it anywhere. Hurry.”
“I should what?”
“There is no time! NOW!”
I didn’t understand it, but I’d never seen Erzili panic before. Taking a piece of chalk, I wrote down on my right hand: RETURN.
“Now what’s the –”
Erzili vanished. Fort Zyvar as well vanished. The roof was gone. The sky was present. And there, thick in the air, was the smell of ozone.
[CRITICAL DAMAGE TAKEN]
Pain burned through my body so much that I opened my lips and let out a silent scream. I felt as if every bone in my body was breaking a thousand times over, and over, and over again.
“Humorless one.”
I didn’t understand how I was alive. How I was back here. Krvavi Lagoon was a crater. A destroyed, upturned crater, and the half-man, half-horse floated in the air staring down at me. The lake was vaporized. Onna’s body was vaporized. My armor had melted unto my flesh and molded itself unto my skin. The pain burned at me from every corner.
“You are gifted with a powerful Epithet, humorless one.”
“H-how?”
“You are a Demiurge, but do not think yourself invincible, humorless one. For I am capable of at least this.”
[Epithet Clash]
Your [Duality] clashed with Giggles’ [Comicality].
[Comicality] won.
[Comicality] overwrote your [Duality].
Epithet Clash Failed!
W…what?
Your Epithet Skill [Duality] was overwritten.
[Path A and Path B] merged into one.
You can no longer use your Epithet Skill [Duality] while within the Domain: Krvavi Lagoon.
My heart froze instantly.
“From the moment you arrived, this one sensed it, you were here, yet not. Present, yet absent. A powerful ability, truly, no doubt. To split time in two, to take actions yet not. Morpheus would have loved your ability.”
Giggles let out a large sigh.
“Unfortunately, humorless one, you still have much to learn. This one has been alive for over a thousand generations. Even if you are a Demiurge – it would be a shame for this one to be felled by a nightmare who has not lived up to one-tenth of my years.”
Nononononono –
My [Duality] was blocked. Blocked. There was no backup timeline left for me to retreat to. Both Path A and
