Nick soared out of the sea as his system told him of Juliana's latest conquest.
[Valkyrie: Juliana defeated Mizukai Lurkers x6]
[Skill tome found: Shadow Step]
[B-Rank Active Skill: Shadow Step – by sacrificing 5 mana every second, every indicator of movement is hidden. Your steps leave no sound, your body leaves no smell, your aura leaves no presence. Not a single sense–physical, spiritual, or other–can perceive you. In essence, even reality itself is blind to you.]
'What? What kind of skill is this?!'
This sounded like some Dragonborn sneak. Like, he could just walk right up to a boss and hack him to pieces as it said, "Must have been the wind."
The Mizukai Lurkers must have used this, which explained how they evaded even him.
Checking his mana real quick, he saw that he had 50 mana. Like his health and stamina, it raised by 3 every time he leveled up. So, even if the sneak was really strong, he could only use the skill for 10 seconds. As usual, tactics decided the battle.
The sound of footsteps turned his attention away from the newfound skill. Yck had run to him and was now out of breath. Nick lowered his eyes at the coward before he even spoke.
Still, Yck was far too scared for that to affect him. Taking deep breaths between each word, he said, "T-the skeleton's a-are back! Y-you have to kill them!"
Nick summoned his [Fang of Finality] as he growled, "Where's Juliana?"
Yck looked around the battlefield, unable to meet Nick's gaze now. After a few false starts he eventually stammered, "T-that's not important! Y-you have to save me, ok!"
With a swift strike of his hand, Nick hit one of Yck's pressure points, instantly incapacitating the idiot. Then he walked towards the Nephilim Fallen as the aura of his will surrounded Nick.
It wasn't a dark aura nor a light one, as he was neither the Progenitor of Darkness nor the Progenitor of Light. Instead, he was the Progenitor of Destruction.
His aura followed that same principle. The ground he walked on turned to dust, the air he stepped through evaporated, even his armor cried against the strain of its master's power.
A smile formed on the Nephilim Fallen's face as he tossed Juliana to the side. The main course had finally arrived, and the young upstart looked delicious!
Suddenly Nick disappeared from his sight. Not a single speck of him remained–not a smell, an afterimage, a place in reality. It was almost as if he removed himself from reality itself as if he had used the ultimate illusion spell to hide himself.
An instant later some weapon had completely dismembered the Nephilim's entire right arm, slicing it into infinitesimal pieces. The monster knew then that it was no skill that Nick used right then and there. No, it was simply speed.
Unparalleled speed coupled with the evisceration of Annihilation.
"Still smiling?" A voice called from the side–one that couldn't be described as human in the slightest.
Then its source disappeared again, this time leaving behind only the glint of the Fang of Finality as the End itself prepared to bite.
Sweat poured down the skeleton's skull as it tried to find the Emperor. Every facet of its existence hinged on this moment, the small eternity between life and death, destruction and salvation.
Time and space itself slowed in the skeleton's perception. Light itself seemed to stand still. All the same, the most it could perceive was a blur and then the skeleton's head was sliced into 16 pieces.
Somehow, its vision didn't turn dark. The End had yet to embrace the Fallen. The Progenitor of Destruction forbade it as he struck with the grace of a surgeon and the force of a nuke.
Besides its now accursed eyes, the Fallen knew it had been bested, swiftly and absolutely. Maybe the Remembered would give him trouble, but it was clear the fodder races had already lost their briefly boosted role within the cosmos.
As the Fallen watched the Progenitor of Destruction, unable to do anything else, only one thought remained in its disembodied consciousness.
'Of course the gods wouldn't remain dead.'
Then the Fang of Finality ended its existence.
With the immediate threat over, Nick turned to Juliana. She had been tossed to the side, aggravating her already gruesome injuries.
Nick knelt beside her as she caressed her neck with her fingers. It was covered with bruises and burn marks. Her breathing was slow and heavy, gasping for air.
Small tears were even forming from the severe pain she was enduring.
Just a few feet from him he heard a horrid coughing. Turning, he saw Amelia almost choking on her own blood. She squeezed her throat in some feeble attempt to clear. Knowing that wouldn't work, he jumped to her side, pushing her off her back and forcing her to rest on her side so that the built-up blood could flow out.
After a few seconds, the coughing became much less violent. She was far from ok, but at least she wouldn't die just yet.
Looking back at Juliana, he rose to his feet as the pulverizing energy of destruction surrounded him again. This was his fault– by blitzing through the waves to level up faster, he let them get to the point where he couldn't defeat the enemy fast enough. And now Juliana and Amelia were going to die for his mistake.
'I don't know why you trusted me.' Nick thought as the aura grew confined but more deadly. His rage was peeling his own skin, destroying his armor as it strangled him.
Ahhh, yes. Destruction, that is your forte, is it not? Well then, Nick. Let's see how you fare against my first avatar.
A large blur threw itself at Nick, giving him almost no time to block it. He raised his arm just in time to take the brunt of the attack.
As he flew through the air, another blur was rushing at him. And another, and another. Only one being in this destruction was fast enough and big enough to deliver such attacks.
Nick swung at the blurs as hard as he could, knowing that it was time to fight the boss–Ethos, the Remembered.