Chapter 185: Victory? (1)
—
She was being attacked by her precious.
She, of course, came prepared for this, expecting him to fight her and even possibly try to kill her.
However, what she wasn't expecting though, was this sudden burst of power Neji had.
He was supposed to be weaker than her, and he probably still was, she just never expected whatever this Cat-Dragon-Human hybrid form thing was, to be so strong.
He was catching up to her. Matching her lightning speed.
That was a first.
Nawab didn't know what to do.
Should she run? Or should she retaliate? If she really were to retaliate, this won't be a small fight, this would most certainly be a fight to the death.
Nawab wasn't planning to kill her precious, especially after patiently waiting for 2-centuries just to meet him.
That wouldn't make sense.
'But…'
As she barely dodged dozens of his [Bullet Laser] that followed her like a platoon of guided missiles, Nawab fell into contemplation.
He was very strong. If she didn't attack him, even escaping might be hard.
"What's wrong, why are you just dodging?"
In the end, as Neji, stoic as he was since this conflict began, stood opposite to her, opening his mouth and releasing a [Sonic Scream] at her, she couldn't help but sigh.
With a wave of her hand, a bolt of lightning crackled in front of her and created a loud rumble, clashing with the incoming sonic scream and slapping it away.
"It seems I must fight with you, hun." Nawab said, her voice cracking in pain as she remembered her 2nd life, the moment when she had to kill him with her own two hands. "Let's hope it doesn't end in the worst way."
Neji simply stared at her.
—★—
Kimi was running with Momo and Rumi in her arms.
Her speed was extraordinary, faster than anyone else she knew- not counting Neji and that Nawab woman.
She assumed it was because of the new overflowing energy within her that came to be when Neji said the words- "Choose Avatar".
They were his "Avatars" at this moment.
Kimi was familiar with that term. An "Avatar" was the executive of a God, the Champion of a Divine Being. It's quite similar to the 'Main Characters' Neji spoke of, but instead of becoming the Champion of the World's Will, they became the Champion of Neji.
Though this was most certainly a temporary effect.
Now, they could feel his presence in the air, his power surging out in the far sky as his mana shone like the torch of light to her senses, as Kimi ran quickly, quicker than the two other "Avatars".
Though she did control her speed to not utterly outrun the other two girls beside her, Nejire and Ryuko.
They actually weren't that slower than her, either. Which was surprising.
The reason, Kimi assumed, was that it just wasn't their power that got enhanced. By becoming an "Avatar", they were directly borrowing a portion of Neji's power too, thus they had some part of Neji's speed as well.
And Neji, right at this moment, was faster than lightning.
That was the power of a God.
Kimi was relieved about that. He will most certainly win. He was a God, it was a fact- not just baseless words spoken by "Neko" from a few days ago because Kimi could feel his presence as a God by becoming his Avatar.
That was true, this battle would most certainly end in a win for Neji.
However,
A larger part of her was… confused.
What did Nawab mean by "bee", by "clone"?
Kimi would blame the countless mangas she read, but Nawab's words seemed to imply that she–Kimi Sugihara–was a fake. A fabricated being. A person whose life was false, a woman whose existence was meaningless.
"..."
Kimi shook her head. This wasn't the time nor place for this. Her task was to simply take these girls far away, to a safer place, until Neji returned. That was her task and she needed to complete it.
All thoughts can be left for later-
"Errm, oi!"
Her thoughts were interrupted.
One of the two women, Rumi, yelled from her arms. Momo was still unconscious.
Kimi looked down to find Rumi staring at her face, and before Rumi could say anything, Kimi spoke.
"Sorry, we had to run. You can't feel the same thing I am feeling, so you must be confused, but in short… We would just be nuisances in that battle."
Nuisances.
Of course.
When have they ever been anything but a nuisance to him?
They were just holding him back, from the start of his life to its current state.
The same was happening now too.
Kimi swore at that moment to grow stronger, strong enough to be beside him, rather than behind his back, strong enough to save him from any danger he might come across, strong enough to not be the damsel in distress, waiting for her prince to save her.
Besides, Nawab was strong as well. Strong enough that Kimi only gave the winner's trophy to Neji after he became a God. Staying in there would only ascertain their death.
"Uh, no." Rumi said, shaking her head, as Kimi jumped off a rooftop. "I meant to say, I can run on my own. You seem dazed, and I don't blame you for that after what that woman said. But carrying two people isn't a good idea in this state. I am something of a sprinter myself, you see."
"..."
Kimi sighed, smiling slightly, and then stopped briefly to put Rumi down.
"You should give your best sprint, I am faster than you even without this extra support I have right now, so it might be hard for you to keep up. Just tell me if that's the case, and I will ask Ryuko to carry you."
As she said that, Nejire and Ryuko flew past them, Ryuko flying with wings (in her human form) while Nejire was blasting through the air. Ryukyu glanced back at them, but Nejire… she just kept moving forward in silence.
Kimi barely noticed the red tinge in Nejire's eyes, together with the dry marks of tears. This girl needed comfort. Looking at Momo in her hands, she could only sigh deeper.
"Anyway, let's move."
Kimi said before running, and immediately after, Rumi followed.
—★—
"I have a lot of quirks, my dear," Nawab said, her hair starting to glow as she started to rise in the air. "You might have noticed, a lot of them are lightning and electricity-related. Do you know why?" Nawab smiled watching Neji stop his attacks. "Those quirks' only job is to back my main Quirk up. The Quirk I was born with, the power of a Thunder God, is strengthened further by the existence of the other lighting and electricity type quirks that I hold."
"I fail to understand why you're telling me that." Neji asked her dryly, moving to attack again. "If you haven't realised, I simply don't care."
Nawab blitzed again, teleporting roughly a kilometre away from where she previously was.
"Oh yes, indeed. My bad. I was just explaining my next form." Nawab took in a deep breath, even as Neji closed the distance between them, as her form changed in the small shred of a second.
Purple lightning leapt out of her body as her clothes changed. Her hair was gleaming still, along with her eyes that were now bright purple. Her previous dress changed and a dress of white and black replaced it, and finally the biggest change, two huge red hands appeared around her, wielding a sword made of terrifying purple lightning.
[Image Here]
She looked gorgeous. Neji had to admit.
Nevertheless… she needed to die, no matter what.
Nawab moved, her speed somewhat greater than before as her huge hands swung at Neji, the glowing purple sword going in for a clash with him.
Neji's draconic tail slammed against the incoming sword, clashing against it, as sparks of fire ignited between them.
"You have gotten a lot stronger, my dear."
"That I have."
Neji's reply was short as he channelled Mana, Kinetic Energy, and Tremor through his tail.
A massive explosion of force occurred between the two objects, throwing Nawab back, while Neji somehow stayed in his spot.
He had activated Permeation, allowing the force to simply pass through him.
His girls, he sensed, had reached far enough to be considered safe.
Meaning,
He could end this now.
In his Permeated form, Neji moved like never before. Passing through Nawab's incoming lightning barrages, her atomic breaths, her waves of thunderbirds, as he went to slip his hand inside her heart.
He wanted to kill her the same way her subordinate, clone, killed his father.
But, his Permeated hand stopped just above her skin.
Gravity. Her skin was covered by a coat of Gravity.
A Gravity Quirk.
"Dear, why are you being so rash? You want to touch my chest already? Let's get a room-"
Her joking demeanour didn't last much longer as Neji used his own Gravity quirk to bypass her defensive gravity and went for her heart again.
Somehow, she managed to step back, invading his attack again.
But he did get in touch with her.
"Divine Divide."
Nawab's Tier dropped to High-10.
Other than the fact that he could only use "Divide" every 60-seconds, Neji also wanted to finish her as she was. Because although he was gaining her strength by Dividing, he wasn't sure if he would still have it after Fusion ended. So it's better to kill her while she was still high in Tier to get proper experience points.
Oh, he also received a quest named [Absolute Conquest]. Though he didn't bother checking on the details in this scenario.
Nawab looked slightly annoyed now.
"Can't we just talk this through?"
"After you killed my parents?"
"..."
Neji released a soft sigh before rushing at her again. She loved him. A lot. That much was clear. But he knew her love wasn't for "him". He wasn't the Neji she loved, and even if he was- her mistakes were absolutely unforgivable.
He blasted his legs off, rushing at her again, as the woman clenched her jaws, before swinging her huge sword at him.
Neji didn't rely on Permeation here. She could cover her sword in gravity, and that'd mean he would get hurt regardless.
Rather, he used One-for-All.
The 550-stats + the 300% boost.
Then, he used Fa Jin- feeding the quirk more and more Kinetic Energy using his new Surge. He also added Tremor on top of it.
Fusion Neji had 740 INT, which in turn- getting a 100x boost from both Kurai and Neji gave him… 7,400,000 MP.
A whopping 7 million Mana points.
Neji poured half of it into his fists, while boosting all the other powers used as well. His forearms were glowing with white, blue and translucent energies.
Then, moving swiftly, he dodged her blade and slammed it with his tail, Neji closed the distance between them once again, and slammed his knuckles on Nawab's chin.
-Crack!
-Vhoooooom~
This was a punch, faster than the speed of lightning.
The World shook as mana erupted from Neji's punch and rose to space, destroying a few satellites that were focusing on this battle.
Nawab was still in her spot because Neji's dragon tail was wrapped around her waist.
At that moment, her eyes were blank.
But they regained focus soon after, even as the mana kept spurting on her face, as Neji released her, watching as she stumbled on the air for a moment before looking at him.
"You are… very strong, my dear. It seems my death might actually be the result today."
Her eyes were sad.
"But, if I really were to die, I want to take you with me. Perhaps, maybe, my Quirk will affect you too if we die together? Perhaps, we will Regress back together?"
"Try it." Neji scoffed. "You fucking psychopath."
Nawab smiled at that, her body starting to glow purple as the sky darkened, purple clouds gathering and purple lightning dancing all over the sky.
It looked as if the Apocalypse had come.
Neji wasn't going to wait through this. His size suddenly grew, his body becoming larger, around 5-times his original size because of the Level-up Big-Show went through when One-for-All was levelled up.
Then, in the form of a 30-feet giant, he… hugged Nawab.
"..."
Nawab's lightning stopped dancing.
—
"..."
Nawab blushed.
What was this situation?
Was he apologising?
…That was sweet, she wouldn't mind forgiving him.
"B-baby? What are you doing-"
Suddenly,
Her questions stopped as her eyes bulged out, feeling his huge body pressing down on her smaller frame like a bulldozer.
"A- AAHHH!!"
She could only yell as the pressure increased, becoming painfully stronger, as she lost control of her lightning, watching as the weather changed, manipulated by Neji's quirk.
She yelled, her voice high pitched, as Neji's strength kept increasing.
Why was it increasing?
No…
"Divine Divide."
It wasn't just increasing, her body was growing weaker as well.
This was bad.
He was also searching for her Quirks with his All-for-One quirk. She would guess he was looking for her «Regression» quirk. But that was a no-no. She couldn't give him that, that won't work. So she hid it.
Hiding it under thousands of her quirks was an easy job, he couldn't find it ever.
He soon realised that as well, as he grunted in annoyance, increasing the pressure around her and making her scream even more.
Her screams, painful they might be, a part of her was enjoying it. Because this pain was being inflicted by none other than her precious.
Haaah…
She was going to die, it seems.
There was no way around it.
'Next time.'
Next time, she won't look for Neji.
'Next time…'
Next time, she will grow her powers.
'Next time…..'
Next time, she will figure out how and why she gained this Regression power.
'Next time…'
Next time… She will return to this Neji.
Somehow, in some way, in any way, she will reach out to him again.
Because he belonged to her.
-Plop!
Nawab's head had burst under the pressure, painting Neji's body red as he stopped exerting pressure, allowing Nawab's body to simply float using his Telekinesis.
Nawab was dead.
However, Neji's expression wasn't that of satisfaction. He also didn't look sad about his parents' death.
No.
Neji looked at the air with his face horrified.
—
[A huge change has been made in this timeline.]
[Something that shouldn't have happened has happened. A being has regressed back in time, leaving this timeline entirely. Which doesn't make sense to happen in this world's "Setting".]
[Higher Beings, aka Gods, have noticed this Deviation.]
[The chances of you being found out increases by a very large fold.]
After these messages, the system's voice rang in his mind.
[This means the previous gamer's promised Time Limit is meaningless now, Master. You might as well get found out the next day, to be completely frank.]
That did seem to be the case… this was beyond annoying.
[Lady Luck gives you a sad look.]
Neji's hands trembled for a moment… before he facepalmed.
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