Chapter 368: Bad Ending? (3)
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How long had it been since she last saw him?
It's not that she had lost count, no, she was counting each day, but she just felt a little hollow when she thought of the big number that the wait had become.
….The Nameless One, Nawab, has been running after power more than ever since that day when he killed her with his own two hands. All so that one day she could break the shackles of her reality and then find him again.
To be fair, she was in the search of any Neji Hado at the start. She just wanted a man with that name and looks. Because she thought all the Neji Hado across her first few regressions were the same. But then, she came across this particular one.
This guy, this man, this peculiar being that stole her heart like that. She was just supposed to spy on him via that clone, Kimi Sugihara, but he managed to claim her without ever meeting her.
After her death by his hands, after three more regressions, Nawab came to fully realize that this Neji was special. There was none like him in the countless other possible timelines.
Nawab, if she wanted to find her love, would somehow have to track him down in his timeline.
Over time, she kept trying. Her hardest task was to leave her homeworld for the first time. As the world's will kept her powers suppressed at a cap, she had a very hard time leaving. When she finally did, her powers began to skyrocket.
That was a thousand regression ago.
…That was two hundred thousand years ago.
In the last two regressions, Nawab finally met him again. Honestly, it was a weird coincidence, when she was in a battle against a White Dragon.
The enemy dragon was suddenly pulled into the 4th dimension, and Nawab could only follow it as she thought it was trying to flee.
That's where she met him.
Breaking the shakes of space, thousands of white dragons were summoned by his call. Amidst them all, she was someone who stood out with her purple hair and red skin.
Nawab was a dragon too by then. She was a Red Dragon, the color of her skin. So when the gathering of white dragons came to an end, she got worried that she won't be able to meet him again — as she didn't receive his call, being a red dragon.
So,
She spent the next two of her lifetimes trying to try finding a way around it.
Finally, she managed to succeed. When Neji called the dragons once again when he was against Rhongomyniad, Nawab was called as well.
She hadn't come out yet, unable to, and then spent another lifetime to find a way to enter the 3rd dimension while in this domain.
She spent a lifetime, but it had just been a few hours for Neji.
The next time, this time, when he called forth the Dragon Domain, she was there. And on top of that, she managed to slip into the third dimension too.
"Stay behind me, you're safe."
Nawab stood between her love and the one trying to kill him.
She wasn't expecting this. A woman of great power was before her. This could get seriously dangerous.
Over her countless lifetimes, she had grown a lot stronger; a lot of times she was stripped of her powers too. One of those situations happened in a relatively recent regression, and that was why she was not at her peak state.
However, she was still strong. Nawab could feel it, she was stronger than this woman.
"How troublesome, a regressor."
The woman, the Creator Goddess, said as she narrowed her eyes.
"An untraceable origin, too… For your sponsor to be untraceable even for me, I wonder which nosy person it's this time."
The area grew cold.
* * *
"Leave, and we won't need to fight."
A moment of silence later, Nawab said. Her tone was sharp and made Celestine laugh.
"Girl, are you threatening the mother of all creations?"
"I don't think you understand, I do not care who you are."
Neji stayed a bit far from the two arguing powerhouses, along with the remnants of his group. They could all team up and attack Celestine right now, but Neji decided to wait and see.
He was a little surprised that Nawab was taking a conversational route. When the last time he met her, she didn't seem like that type. Then again, after having regressed so many times, she ought to have changed.
Neji hesitated. He wanted to bring out her Status Screen and check her age. But he would inevitably see her Likings and Dislikings, and from before when he saw his name filing her Liking form, he knew he didn't want to see that again.
She was trying to save him. Now if it turned out that she still was obsessed with him as much as before, his emotions may get complicated. After all, she was still the killer of his parents.
So ultimately Neji didn't see her status page. He just took a guess that she was a few thousand, or maybe ten thousand years old at most.
Whatever the case, he cheered for her in his mind. Her Tier was more than the Goddess right now so perhaps she could win.
"Disrespectful little lizard."
Celestine smiled to reveal her teeth. Her tone and smile didn't match her words.
"You must feel so invincible, given you are a Regressor. Perhaps I should put an end to that tedious life of yours once and for all? A mere rat like you dare to talk like that to me?"
The woman clasped her hands and then released. A red energy of crackling thunder was between her palms, and she molded them to form an arrow.
The red crystallized arrow glimmered as she raised it above her head. Celestine was ready to fire the arrow.
In response, thick purple lightning jumped and flickered around Nawab's body. Her quirk, Thunder God, enhanced her physique as she sped up her existence.
"Go ahead."
Nawab taunted the Creator Goddess.
The Creator Goddess gave in.
With a wave of her hand that was so fast that Neji's eyes couldn't follow, she threw the red arrow at Nawab.
Neji already saw what that arrow was, when it was resting on her hand. It was something dangerous.
[Soul Killing Arrow: Kills the target in not just the body, but the soul too.]
Soul killer… If that hit Nawab, her quirk Regression wouldn't help. Since it was her soul that traveled into the past, she would really die if her soul was killed.
Soul Killing wasn't impossible. Kurai could soul-kill too. However, the level of would take for someone to kill the soul of a being like Nawab, Kurai wasn't anywhere near it. Only this Celestine could do it.
"Dodge it!"
Neji didn't have to yell, but he did. The purple-haired woman seemed to smile at that, as she moved out of the arrow's way.
Neji was relieved as the arrow moved past Nawab. He sighed first… and then panicked.
"Shit."
The arrow took a turn in the air. As it had passed through the spot where Nawab was a moment ago, it now moved impossibly, it moved out of its axis.
However, it wasn't targeting Nawab. She will keep dodging it if it was. So, it was targeting something that would force Nawab to step in.
It was coming towards Neji's head.
"Dirty bitch."
Nawab yelled as she blitzed, rushing between Neji and the arrow without a second thought.
The arrow was close, she could do it, and she could get hit in his stead. That would mean she would die, for real this time, but she could barely care about it.
Fortunately… or perhaps unfortunately, that didn't come true.
A steak of black-painted blonde hair moved past Neji and stood before him. Before Nawab could, the woman stood in the arrow's way, and it penetrated her without a second's notice.
"Ah…"
"...."
Neji stood frozen for a moment before he grabbed Quetzalcoatl by her arms and turned her around.
The Chief God was bleeding from her lips, even as her lips were forming a crescent.
"It hurts… a little…"
"...."
"You're not gonna say anything? No goodbye?"
Neji went on his knees to put her head on his lap. The arrow hit her on the chest, and from there, red energy was spreading throughout her body. It was erasing her existence as it moved.
"...This will most likely erase all the records of Quetzalcoatl from the Throne of Heroes," Neji muttered. "Your entire existence, all across this multiverse, will cease to exist. You stupid woman."
He could have thought of some sort of way even if she perished normally. She was supposed to die in a few hours. But he could have somehow, in any way, brought her back with these memories intact. He had Luck by his side, there must have been at least one way.
But… to be Soul Killed. Since her soul was coming from the Throne of Heroes, where it was connected, this meant all copies of her souls in this immediate multiverse would be killed.
"Ah… I was going to die anyway, so I jumped. I didn't think that much. That does sound lonely…"
Quetzalcoatl laughed.
Neji kept her in his arms, staring down with an expression unreadable. It had just been a few seconds, and the spreading of erasure was nearly finished.
"Hey… can I get a goodbye kiss?"
They hadn't missed yet, Neji recalled. So Quetzalcoatl had bright eyes as she asked, looking up at him.
That was quite selfish of her. To bind him to this painful memory with a kiss. However, her request was granted as he leaned over to gently place his lips down on her.
That kiss never ended.
Quetzalcoatl's body perished, as the kiss continued, even as the Dragon Goddess ceased to exist.
Neji's heart burned. He stood up slowly, and his expression was colder than ever before.
His Tenseigan looked around, as all of the fighters were looking at him.
Celestine was smiling as she stared. She hadn't interrupted his passage scene. She was enjoying it, seeing him in pain.
"...Kurai,"
Neji made a decision and called his familiar via telepathy.
"Send all the fighters around you in your Inventory. No buts. Then come to me, and I'll send you into my inventory."
"Oh my, you're planning a retreat."
Celestine grinned and clasped her hand around her Excalibur.
"Why do you think I'll allow that?"
Neji stared at the grinning woman. He reckoned he hadn't hated a person this much in the entirety of his reincarnation. Even Nawab. After all, Nawab wasn't the one to directly kill his parents, it was her foolish subordinate, and Nawab even apologized for it.
So, he asked her for help.
"...Nawab, please hold her off."
"As you wish."
The regressor didn't ask any questions and rushed at the Goddess intending to fight. Unlike earlier, when she was trying out a conversational route, she was going all out now.
Nawab was Tier 43, and Celestine was Tier 40. While the Creator Goddess' vast array of abilities made up for her lower Tier… Nawab also had a million quirks and all the other good stuff.
Celestine used her cloning ability again, as Nawab used her own. It was a higher evolutionary version of Queen's Bee, so it matched the Minor Omnipotence well.
The battle grew louder, and Neji had to expand the Dragon Domain to let them fight in the far. It was getting straining, his divinity was running out.
Nawab would probably vanish if the Dragon Domain broke since she was only accessing this place via the domain. So he had to finish this first.
"Neji! No! I will not leave-"
Rumi had already seen through his plan. She could tell it wasn't a plan at all.
Rumi yelled, but Neji didn't listen. He ordered all the dragons in the area to hold the girls down and opened a golden portal right behind them.
"Let me go, at least. I doubt you care about me as much as you do with the ladies."
It was the Old Man of the Mountain who spoke.
"I may be able to help, as the one who represents death."
Neji looked at him and then nodded. The girls were thrown into the portal, the land of inventory, by the tails of white dragons, and all they could do was yell as they vanished.
"Neji! Neji! You fucking bastard! You are doing it again! This is the second time!"
"I feel angry as well… but how great you are, my fellow king, to sacrifice yourself."
"...I feel annoyed."
Amidst the countless girls yelling, Rumi, Ozymandias, and Rhongomyniad were the ones Neji focused on. The three of them had quite a tone difference as they complained. Neji even noticed some strange twitches on the last girl's face. Perhaps she was remembering her old memories.
Fujimaru was angry too, wishing to take revenge on Celestine for killing Mash. Neji didn't feel bad that her wish wasn't going to come true, even as he could tell she would hate him if they ever survived this. This was for her own good.
Only Merlin had a small smile on her face as she mumbled a "Good Luck". Whatever the case, the portals closed, and now the girls were safe and sound in his inventory.
– Poof!
"Papa!"
Smoke exploded near his shoulder, and a Kurai appeared out of nowhere. Neji smiled at her and grabbed her tightly.
"Papa, have you thought of some way to re-do Fusion-"
"Sorry Kurai, not today."
Neji opened a portal and then threw her inside.
The cat blinked, her eyes widening, as she roared like an angry lion, but it was too late as the portal closed too.
The Old Man of the Mountain looked at him. His face wasn't human, but Neji could read a light of respect in his eyes.
"I don't think we will win, but I will give it my all anyway. However, I must address something. I sensed a deathly energy when you opened those portals. There is an artifact with death energy in there. Shouldn't you bring it out?"
Neji frowned. What was he talking about?
Then he remembered it was the card that the Agent of Death, whom he met in the Dimensional Elevator, had given him. He had used the card to intimidate Jashin in the Naruto World.
However, he doubted mere intimidation would work. The card's main job was to call forth that Agent of Death for a backup, but he doubted she would be of any help. Even then, the card would most likely not work since it called forth someone from another dimension, and since he couldn't even talk to Lady Luck in this area, there was no way this would work.
"It's not an artifact, unfortunately. Don't worry about it. Let's go."
Neji rushed towards the ongoing fight. Countless clones were fighting another barrage of uncountable clones.
This Domain was Neji's sanctuary. If it fell, the Goddess would regain her Tiers and reach 49. Since First Hassan alone wouldn't be able to keep the underworld debuff ongoing.
Neji had to finish her here. Somehow. In any way, he had to do it. Otherwise… if he died, so will everyone else who was in the inventory.
'No… perhaps…'
Neji called Sisty for help.
'Sisty. Do you remember how the First Gamer left me a letter in the inventory? Can you do something similar for the girls? So that even if… I was to die, if there is ever a third gamer, they would find the girls there and the girls would be freed?'
Rumi will probably get mad and kill the third gamer, but they might also find some way to revive him… it was wishful thinking, but he kept that part in his plan anyway.
[I… it's possible, yes. Dammit. I'll set it up, in case you die.]
With that, even as Neji had so many regrets, he rushed towards the bitch of a Goddess with the intention of taking her life, even if it killed him in the process.
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