NOVEL NEXT Chapter 124: Arrival
| FHP - The Wolf (Epic Version) | Lyric Video
An almost maniacal grin found its way on Navy’s face as Mother silently trembled, thick smog pouring out from her pores causing her to be completely hidden, until she finally did the unthinkable.
Within that thick smoke two glowing magenta eyes with jade slit-pupils pierced through the veil.
With them they brought such fierce power that even the wrath-infused Vivi found herself momentarily pressed down onto her knees. That dark fog swirling around as if dragged into a whirlpool generated due to the presence of those ocean-like eyes - so deep & unfathomable that one felt themselves getting dragged deeper by the pressure despite any attempts to look away. The rattling of chains echoed throughout the pocket-realm that soon became entrenched in a carpet of ash as that whirlwind expanded to cover everything within.
Despite this Navy just laughed like a mad man, opening his arms wide as if welcoming it, in a manner that obviously confused those around him. Mother wasn’t exactly in a state to consider the plans of a crazy human so paid it no mind. Her power being fully unleashed caused a constant sound of creaking as if the space would shatter at any moment; proving she had no time to consider such things.
This smoke also worked as a perfect way to hide as Elizabeth suddenly vanished with no one paying any attention to her. A fact that made Navy smile even more as he moved his arm up to check a comically cartoonish lion watch strapped to the underside of his wrist…. Along with far too many weapons.
“Hm~ seems I have enough time to make you realise the futility in trying to kill me~.” <Navy>
“Oh… I already know I can’t kill you ehehehe~.”
He didn’t even get the chance to let out another one-liner as he was forced to draw the broken titan-cum-executioner's blade from his back. Whipping it around by the blood-dyed bandages that were wrung around the handle - blowing the ash away from him to reveal a massive hand reaching out as if it were some kind of creature straight from the abyss. This was quickly followed up by jade like chains flying out to try to wrap around his limbs.
Forcing him to slam his blade into the ground, letting the power give the chains pause, while utilising that momentum to flip himself out of harm's way. Flicking his wrists midair caused six knives to fly out toward the magenta eyed figure. An attack that wasn’t even worthy of the goddess’ attention as those knives seemed to almost be swallowed whole by the black.
Suddenly Navy’s body appeared to… Glitch. It wasn’t his entire body, just his waist, yet it caused some crimson wisps to leave his mouth after he entered a short coughing fit. One that quickly got worse as he landed only to fall to his own knees. That child-like giggle ringing out once more.
“Ara~ that strange immortality of yours can’t do anything when your body is still so young; it doesn’t matter if you change your appearance when the inside is still that of a kid~!”
“The kettle sure is loud today~!” <Navy>
Even with him clearly being on the back foot in about every way… His smile couldn’t be brighter but it didn’t seem as if he was mocking Mother. At least that wasn’t the entire reason - it was still Navy. Rather he seemed to just be over the moon about this turn of events.
Once again charging forward, fittingly pulling two bastard swords from his back, as shards of diamond began to rain down all around him. The occasional jade chain even tried to sneak up on him by using the rain of wealth as a cover for their malicious intentions. However, he just skillfully used his two swords to brush every blow aside without needing to rely on that strange invulnerability again.
In a fair fight it would be hard to defeat the pillar of the rogue (ironically) yet the scholar had no interest in playing fair with her long-term rival. The earth under his feet began to shift about chaotically - as if he was riding on a wave - forcing him to take more effort in readjusting his body to the bends & bouncing. This didn’t do a lot to actually get him hit nevertheless it accomplished her real goal in all this.
To drain his stamina.
Vivi wanted to thrash the goddess yet the power of wrath didn’t seem to be enough as that strange suppression was sapping her of her strength. It didn’t matter how much she struggled as whatever demonic qi flowed from her heart was unable to do anything under the oppressive weight that the ultimate divine figure so easily produced. How was anyone meant to resist a monster who can kill you just from accidentally opening their eyes a little too wide?
This was the true power of the one called True God and why she was essentially undefeatable. First you need enough power to get through her scales, the ability to ignore her suppression, enough skill to avoid her seals, some way to avoid her illusions and then it was trying to find some way to kill her before her regeneration undoes all your work.
Wrath refused to accept this, putting her all into resisting, as the stone body cracked with crimson wisps licking the white fractures till they were black like the storm around. Sounds of their bones physically creaking echoed through their flesh but the demoness didn’t want to give in.
She knew that she could do better yet it always felt like the wall was just a little bit too high to reach with her abilities. Perhaps if that wall was a bit taller - maybe if she were more miniscule - she would have long stopped trying to reach out. Yet… She couldn’t. The being known as a head of Violet couldn’t stop reaching towards the wall that kept her away from what didn’t even belong to her.
Desperately she struggled, however, even a single step seemed like too much.
Once again she was left looking at the back of two other figures.
Forgotten.
It was driving her insane but all she could do was growl and shout what equated to random noises that didn’t even make sense to her for once. Usually she at least made sense to herself. Now there wasn’t even wrath clearing her mind but instead the fact of how weak she truly was despite all she did.
Despite who she used to be.
The only good thing about having Vivi there was that the unusual energy of her Wrathful form released its own energy that caused other things to become unstable. That essentially prevented the dragoness from relying on her usual method of backstabs. If she was stronger she may be able to do more… Yet all she could do was struggle to not kneel on the ground like some weakling.
A fact that made her angry at the thought that the real Violent would do better.
More and more attacks attempted to overcome the bastard’s defence but he still held strong with a smile upon his face. Geysers of magma, spears of diamond, torrents of ash, fields of quicksand, armies of chains, concentrated beams of death, random flying sword slashes and just about everything she could feasibly throw at him was thrown at him. Slowly but surely his clothing came more torn as he was forced to throw more weapons aside.
There were various reasons to throw his weapons aside (from them being destroyed, simply being more risky to keep holding or just due to his clothing being destroyed) yet the effect was noticeable. At first one may have assumed he was simply trying to keep up his stamina by using less energy… However it became obvious that wasn’t the case when his lack of power slowly caused more attacks to get through.
Sure enough; the less weapons he possessed the lower his attributes seemingly became. It sadly wasn’t as simple as just losing power since even his speed was steadily decreasing with every weapon lost. Made worse by the loss of stamina steadily leading to a film of sweat over his body.
As impressive as Navy was… It was still a man, no, child against the one True God.
Made even worse by Mother actually being a Titan on top of a Divine Ancient Dragon and Primordial God of the concept of Infinite; being a titan wasn’t as simple as being taller than average. Else Mother wouldn’t be one. It was a status that meant being one of the strongest entities alive due simply being born lucky enough to possess the pronoun.
As, at the end of the day, the being known as The Infinite Mother was vastly different from Cheshire who had to fight for every single ounce of power she possessed. Mother was born with strength as a birthright that she simply just had to grow to understand. Made even worse by her divinity literally possessing growth & evolution as an aspect.
In other words; this just wasn’t a fair fight from the start as Mother was always destined to win.
Something the middle child of Indigo found… Joy in?
“Y’know what’s funny… I’ve judged that you’ll never understand what is wrong with this until it’s far too late to react; like why the fuck would I take your ear for not reason jehehehe~?” <Navy>
“... What are you even going on about.”
“One day I’m sure you’ll begin to understand how hard I’ve worked, I mean, you don’t even know who I really am since I judged you wouldn’t be able to~♪” <Navy>
His body visibly decreased in age as whatever technique he was using to increase his physical age vanished along with any hope of him being able to resist. Navy was seen as a counter to Mother but that was when he had access to his ability. Without his skills and cultivation… He was just a human.
Judging that he was talking nonsense another fist of ash completely crushed the poor little lost sheep into the literal dirt. The goddess wasn’t even using any fancy abilities as she constantly pounded Navy into the ground with the literal wrath of a god. That entire realm shook and when Vivi attempted to retaliate she found herself swatted away by the ash that surrounded them.
Rather quickly the hand pummelling (the still laughing) Navy turned to jagged diamonds that only added to the pain he should have been going through.
Still the only sign of damage was the crimson smoke that left whenever he opened his mouth to let out a laugh that carried naught but pure joy. Kind of like he was celebrating his victory… While being ground into the ground with simplistic brutality that his talents apparently couldn’t counter this time around.
The wrathful Vivi already had cracks across her body's stone surface as she struggled to even resist the passive pressure that the True God naturally released upon opening her eyes - casting no doubts to her relation with the Primordial God Leviathan. Leaving her only able to charge up another lazer yet the weird magenta energy that poured out Mother’s eyes caused her flames to fizzle out.
There was no hope & the goddess took sadistic glee in that.
“I fell asleep for a few aeons and you all get either pathetic or uppity.” <Violent>