บท 369: 369: Bad Ending? (4)
Chapter 369: Bad Ending? (4)
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Sisty just made a blunder. She just lied to him.
There was actually no way to keep the inventory preserved if the Gamer were to die and a new one is selected.
She had no idea how the 1st Gamer did it. How he left a letter for the next Gamer to see. Sisty didn't know how that was even possible, to her knowledge, so she had no idea how to replicate the effect.
Yet, Sisty lied so that he wouldn't be too worried. That he could fight with all his might, without anything weighing down on him. That… if he were to perish, he could go without any regrets.
Of course, she didn't want him to die. But what could she do? She was such a weakling… She couldn't even save her host.
Sisty could only patiently wait for that woman, Lady Luck to try to help him.
That woman had to be up to something. She sacrificed so much for him, she had to be planning something to help him out this time too.
…Unknown to Sisty, Lady Luck indeed planned to intervene. However, her older sister was trying her best not to get her into this mess — which meant Fate was stopping Luck.
* * *
"You are an amusing young man. How desperate to live you are. It pleases me so much seeing you in this state."
Celestine casually clashed against Neji, Old Man of the Mountain, and Nawab, and she didn't waste any opportunity to mock Neji.
Despite being the weakest amongst the three, where Nawab was Tier 43 and the First Hassan Tier 24, the Level 2800 sealed-Neji held off better than Hassan.
"Shut up."
Neji's arm raised over his head, and a weapon slipped out of the inventory into his grip.
He would be hesitant to use it at any other time, but this time it was different.
[Prime Thor's Hammer – Stormbreaker]
The crackling ham-axe appeared in his hand, and to his surprise, the lightning within it enhanced his Lightning Armour to give him further buff.
Neji never used this weapon before as using it might give his location away to the Prime Gods. However, since he was already found, there was no point in not using all his cards.
Neji swung the weapon down.
Celestine took a side step, trying to dodge, but she got hit by it in the end, the speed was too great to dodge.
Her body shimmered, decomposing into golden light, as she gave him a small grin. This clone of her died, but then a dozen more rushed at him from behind.
The one who was causing the most kills was Nawab. Since she was using clones too, with her higher Tier she was the one most dangerous against Celestine. Neji was right behind, as he was using all his cards, all his hax abilities, and fighting in a berserker mode, he dealt a lot of kills as well. The First Hassan was behind both of them by a large margin, but that was expected.
Still, throughout this all, Celestine was not furious at all. She looked as if she was enjoying this as if she was still playing a game.
"It's a pity."
Said one of Celestine's clones that were clashing with Neji. Her expression was a little sorrowful.
"I wanted to torture your emotions for a bit longer. However, it seems my current power level is not near enough to break into your Inventory. Haaah, I wanted to bring those girls out, I… I wanted to kill them one by one while all you could do was watch."
Her body was trembling. As an angry Neji's ham-axe came down on her neck, she kept giggling.
Her words were continued by the next copy of herself that engaged with Neji.
"It's not fun as it is. Normally I'd think the enemy will run out of stamina and mana over time, but you're a Gamer. Your energy regeneration capabilities are too much for this move to be pulled off. I guess it's time I end this. Mhm, hey, who should I start with?"
Neji's eyes widened, and he looked at Nawab, to see if that woman was in any danger. To his relief, she was fine, she was slaughtering the goddesses with no apparent ease.
"Akk-!"
A painful groan shook Neji out of his skin. All the omni-copies snapped their heads to look in a single direction… and paused.
There the Goddesses pushed their Excalibur into First Hassan's chest. The holy swords were shining, dealing extra damage to the representative of death, as the old man looked at Neji and sighed in sadness.
"My apologies."
The old man said as his body turned into golden particles. As a servant, he died right there, returning to his origin, the Throne of Heroes.
Neji and Nawab were the only ones in the domain, other than the dragons, left against Eurynome Celestine.
Neji gritted his teeth, but his eyes shook when something worse happened.
The invisible curtain of the underworld that Neji had allowed in this domain was being torn apart. The absence of any Death God in the area allowed the Creator Goddess to easily break the suppression field of the underworld.
Neji tried to fight her authority with his Dragon Domain, but that didn't… work, at all.
[Tiamat (???) – Goddess of Creation – Tier 49]
'Dammit, not good.'
She was back at Tier 49. How was he supposed to deal with her now?!
"Playtime's over. Sadly you don't care much about this woman, do you? She did kill your parents, indirectly or not. This was a desperate team-up. Still, I am going to kill her for all her worth. And you're going to watch."
"No, stop!"
Neji multiplied like a sea wave, rushing towards the goddesses. The woman was giggling, as she overpowered Nawab, using 'Hakai' on each of her copies.
Neji cursed in his head and went to attack her. However, now that she was 9 tiers higher than before, his antics didn't work on her. Tier 49 wasn't something he could deal with while sealed.
This time, the Goddesses attacked back with force. A lot of Nejis raised their hands, and the Goddesses' swords came to meet the hand watches on the back of their hands, the gift from the Director. The watches exploded and nearly all the clones died.
Nawab was dying faster than the Nejis, however. It hurt quite a bit every time an Omni-Copy died, but the Gamer's Mind helped him stay focused.
Now, with less than a dozen copies remaining, Neji paused when he saw the scene ahead of him.
Celestine grabbed the single remaining Nawab by the throat and was smiling down at her. As the red-skinned dragon was struggling, bleeding from her lips, the more powerful woman was grinning ear to ear.
"I am curious who your sponsor is. That Regression ability is quite powerful, it's not a mere Quirk. Unfortunately, I can't look into that person's identity in my current state. Too bad, you're going to die once and for all this time."
While Celestine's left half was clutching Nawab's throat, the other hand raised in the air. She raised one finger, and on its fingertips, the whirling energy of red was concentrated. It was the same thing that killed Quetzalcoatl but in the form of pure energy.
"Hey, boy."
Celestine turned to Neji, restrained by her copies. The dragons in the dimension were restraining her copies in response, but that did nothing on undoing his own restraint.
Celestine waved her finger down. The energy rushed at Nawab and touched her chest. All Neji could do was watch as the energy touched her skin, and destruction began.
"Ahk-"
"Here, say your goodbyes. Give me a good show."
Nawab moaned, and Celestine threw her body at Neji. Neji shuddered as the lady fell to his feet. He quickly cancelled all his Omni-Copies, and the copy of the Goddess set him free. Neji didn't attack her and instead crouched down, grabbing Nawab by her face and looking at her in panic.
"Ah…"
Nawab moaned. Neji opened his mouth to say something, but no voice came out. She smiled gently seeing that and sighed.
'Kill me.'
Nawab's voice rang in his head, it was telepathy.
'Huh?'
'You'll get 'it' if you do right? That exp thing. Kill me.'
Neji paused as he looked down at the woman. She was smiling.
'You can take my Regression, too. I am dying anyway… for real this time. You can use it in case of an emergency. Come on, take it, my lovely dear…'
Neji stared down at her. His expression which was a mixture of emotions earlier went placid.
Regression. That quirk could turn the entire game around. Even if he died here, he might be able to go back in time. He would have a second chance, where he could fix everything. However…
A second later, he decided.
He coated his palm in Chidori and then struck her in the heart.
"Oh."
The Goddess of Creation had cancelled all her copies by then. She blinked at the scene and frowned.
Before she realised what was going on, Neji watched Nawab's eyes slowly lose their light.
"Uh…"
"Thank you."
"You didn't take my quirk."
"Yes, because I wish that you'd use it again. Killing you before the red energy kills you may allow you to regress."
Nawab stared at him and then smiled.
"So you're sparing my life? I'm glad."
"Yes… I wish to see you again."
Neji was straightforward with his words this time. He stared at her eyes while noticing red scales forming on her skin, reacting to the pain of death.
'So she's a red dragon… not purple. I'll remember you.'
Neji watched her smile, her purple eyes forcing crescents, as she nodded.
"Me too."
With that, Nawab's body lost strength and notifications flared in Neji's eyes.
[You have killed a Tier 43 Enemy.]
[No, my apologies. You have killed a Tier 43 Friend.]
[You have attained enough experience to level up.]
[You have gained 950 Levels!]
[You have attained Level 3750!]
[The Holy Grail's debuff has lowered to 1.5%!]
It was a pity that he didn't gain enough to cancel all of his debuffs. That would have enabled his [Lumomancer] class.
Sadly, that didn't happen, but Neji didn't mind. He was stronger now, he had a chance against her now.
Neji watched until Nawab's entire body was erased due to the red energy. But he also watched with his Tenseigan how her soul had escaped before, killed by him, and freely rushed about to Regress.
When she perished, he stood up. Neji looked into Celestine's eyes. Then, he activated all his buffs.
Tenseigan Mana Mode, Hybrid Form, Eight Gates, and Lightning Armor. However, he also used a few new abilities.
Such as his old quirk, [Thunder God].
On top of that, he used Villain Twice's [Double] to double Stormbreaker and wield them in both hands.
Lastly, Neji used One-for-All, aka the evolved quirk, [Upgrade].
Although he hadn't stolen Regression, he did steal a few of her other Quirks. Knowing her, he knew she would be more happy than mad when she would find a few of her quirks missing in the next turn.
With the explosive boost from Upgrade, Neji moved at a speed that he had never achieved before. He was light, as he moved like a weightless feather.
"My my my."
The Goddess grinned, while he closed the distance. He wielded both of his axes as he raised them over his head, his muscles as he swung them down at her.
As the weapons came down near her neck, Celestine grinned.
"Hybrid Form."
Suddenly, copying Neji's hybrid form, she buffed herself. She vanished from the weapon's trajectory and appeared behind Neji with a swoosh.
Neji turned around immediately, ready to attack, but her hand shoved to his face and slammed him down on the ground.
A bunch of red energy-tentacle formed out of her back and grabbed Neji's weapons. They threw the weapons to the side, while her hand, which was pushing his face, lowered to choke his neck.
"Erasure Eye."
The eye of the Erasure Hero, who could turn Quirks down. However, this seemed to be on a whole other league, as Neji felt all his Genome Abilities failing to turn on.
Of course, she was a Creator Goddess. The Creator Goddess. She could casually create an ability like this.
Looking down at him with a smile, she giggled as she licked her lips.
"I'm not here to kill you, you know? I'm here to take you away. Then, I'll kill you in the Prime Omniverse. Before that, you and your existence will be used for this goal I possess."
Neji groaned under her for a moment, before giving up. He laid still, staring at her in all his buffs, while smirking.
"Who said I will cooperate? You told me something useful. So you need me alive, eh? What if I kill myself?"
"Oh, you're going to do that? Are you that courageous, hm?"
Celestine laughed at his face. To her surprise, he didn't look panicked at her taunt. He looked at her eyes with a tint of challenge.
"You stole my bloodline abilities. But I do have a great deal of magic."
Neji had one last card, actually.
That day when he first lost his Curse of the Primordial. There was one magic spell he learned from a spell book.
[Mana Supernova].
It wasn't exactly a suicide bombing, but he will be quite hurt still.
Looking into her eyes, as he grinned, he cancelled the Dragon Domain. Because his divinity was nearly over. The dark and damp underworld greeted the two, as the two of them were still in the same position as before.
"Goodbye."
In this situation, where the red sea was on the surface, the explosion will cause it to flood the underworld too. Celestine was bound to get hurt at least a little.
With a sharp breath in, Neji activated the spell.
"Oops."
However, the Goddess leaned down and touched her lips with his. It wasn't a kiss. She raised her head back up, and Neji saw all his mana between her lips.
"Suicide bombing? Wishful thinking. Let's see how you regenerate your mana before I'm done with you."
"Dammit!"
Neji was frustrated, as the Goddess was chuckling. This was unbearable. How could he ever match a being like this?! And she wasn't even at her full power. No, was this even 1% of her powers?!
"Now, now. While I make preparations, why don't you go visit somewhere? As it's your destination, anyway. Wake up, Neji. Wake up from this bad dream. This is a nightmare, everything is an illusion."
Neji blinked, frowning as he asked what she was doing, but the Goddess wasn't saying anything to explain.
Instead, he felt his head start to get cloudy.
[Alert! Alert!]
[Something weird is happening to the Gamer System. A being of extraordinary authority is trying to disconnect the host from the system.]
[Alert! Alert!]
[Something weird is happening to the Gamer System. A being of extraordinary authority is trying to disconnect the host from the system.]
[Alert! Alert!]
[Something weird is happening to the Gamer System. A being of extraordinary authority is trying to disconnect the host from the system.]
[Alert! Alert!]
[Something weird is…]
At the last moment, Neji tried to do something with his Mana. However, before he could be sure if it worked or not…
The world turned black.
* * *
The hospital cabin was luxurious. Glass windows showed the large skyscrapers in the far, which looked tiny due to just how high this cabin was.
In a hospital bed, a young man lay with all sorts of medical equipment sticking out of his body.
A nearby monitor showed his heart rate, which was slowly deteriorating. Until it spiked up, and with a sharp alarm, his white eyelashes moved and his eyelids unfolded to reveal his bright blue eyes.
"Ah."
As the smell of hospital invaded his nostrils, the sound of beeping filling his ears, Neji lay frozen in his spot.
The door suddenly opened with a thud:
"Huh? U-uh, Neji?!"
Neji's head shifted to the side and saw a blonde girl with blue eyes rush in. Even though she called him Neji, unlike what she used to call him before, he still recognized her.
It had been a long time since he saw her.
It was the same girl from the story he told Lady Luck when they first met.
The daughter of the mafia lord, the girl from whose yacht Neji fell and died in his first… life.
"Hey, you're awake!"
No, what the hell just happened?
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Author Note: Chapter 207, Neji talks about his past life to Luck. This is from there. We will know more about this in the next chapter.
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