The Insurrection of the Inept Hero

Jeredal landed next to his comrade, Neia who was in tears.

"What took you so long?" Neia asked angrily. Jeredal brushed his shoulders and took in a deep breath before letting a long exhale.

"I was dealing with my brother's murderer."

"Oh? So what happened?" Neia began, curious.

"His healing rate is fast, but my poison got to him. The only thing is that he's stronger than I thought, but I still beat him nonetheless. I also had some other company that was on his side but I dealt with them easily."

A smile began forming on Jeredal's face.

"Turns out, one of them was a hero, the healer! And it turns out that he liked her! So I poisoned her in front of his eyes. The face of despair was so satisfying."

Neia nodded, a little frightened by Jeredal's sadistic tendencies. Neia had been working with Jeredal for years and has seen this side of his. She never got used to it but she had to for the sake of their friendship and partnership.

"Alright, I get the idea. Now let's report to his majesty as soon as possible. We've won here."

"Indeed we have. Let's go."

Neia held her wand up and waved it. Ice began to form before a rift opened.

The two began to approach it until the rift shattered. The two jumped back as several pieces of glass-like material dropped to the ground. There was a strange sensation in the air in front of them.

"What happened?" Jeredal asked and Neia shook her head.

"I… I don't know," Neia answered as she began to form another rift.

As Neia struggled to open another rift, Jeredal could not shrug the feeling that a gaze filled with bloodlust was looking directly at his soul.

Instinctively, he turned around and Nero appeared in front of his face, his hands glowing red and blue.

"You-!" Jeredal began, but he was interrupted as he was met with oppressive force. He was launched into the air by the impact.

"Jeredal!" Neia yelled before spinning around to look at Nero. However, he had disappeared.

"Huh?"

Neia looked around but Nero was nowhere to be seen. Nero then appeared in front of her, sending her flying with a dropkick.

Neia who had landed next to Jeredal slammed the ground and created an ice dome, shielding both her and Jeredal.

Nero stared at the ice dome and performed Abyssal Blue, absorbing the ice into the makeshift void. When the ice had been absorbed, Neia pointed her wand at Nero but she was stopped by Jeredal.

"Save your energy, Neia. I'll distract him while you make the portal."

Neia nodded and attempted to flee, but a red beam of energy struck the ground in front of her.

"You're not going anywhere," Nero said. Jeredal with his remaining dagger doused it in poison and threw it at Nero. Nero closed his eyes and dodged. That was the only time Jeredal needed and he quickly grabbed Neia and escaped. However, they weren't quick enough.

Nero didn't take his attention off the two and as he saw them flee, he shot another Piercing Red at them. The red beam managed to pierce Jeredal and Neia in the stomach. Luckily for them, the two both had Vozahlaas.

The two scattered across the floor. As they stood up, the hole in their stomachs closed up and they focused their attention back on Nero preparing their attacks, the latter floating towards them without a care and expressionless face.

Nero floated in the air aimlessly and slowly spun around before looking in their direction.

As he spotted Jeredal, a feeling boiled in his guts and he had the urge to rage. However, Risa's words echoed through his mind.

"I don't want you to get angry on my behalf. I just want you to live your life. Alright? Please, will you promise me that you will forget about me when I die?"

A tear trailed off his face before floating in the air. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

'I won't be able to keep our promise, Risa. As much as I have to, your name will always be carved into my memories. Though, for you, I won't get mad. I'll honor that at least. If only I had been more confident and not stay in the shadows for so long, we could've had a life together. I most likely could've saved you but… I was too weak. I was… lost... paralyzed... afraid... because of what came next.'

Another tear trailed off his face and this time he wiped it away.

'However… that doesn't mean that I can't get mad on my own accord. I'm not angry at anyone. The only person I am mad at is myself.'

Jeredal and Neia had charged up their attacks. Neia shot a flurry of ice spikes while Jeredal darted towards him with a venom-covered dagger.

"I've played around for long enough. I'll get serious this time," Nero muttered before Jeredal emerged behind him.

"Die!" Jeredal yelled, aiming for Nero's neck, to which Nero responded by vanishing, appearing behind Jeredal and using his body as a shield from Neia's flurry of ice blades.

Jeredal quickly reacted, dodging his ally's attack. Nero flew towards Jeredal, snatching him by his leg. Using Cursed White Arts, he accelerated himself with Jeredal, slamming him into the ground.

Neia appeared behind Nero, attracting Nero's attention. Distracted, Jeredal decided to strike and stabbed Nero with his dagger while Neia caused ice to emerge from Nero's innards.

Thinking they had done damage, they indeed did not. Instead, they struck each other. Nero had already disappeared. They gasped as they were hit by the other.

When the two got up and recovered, they spotted Nero in a strange posture. His hands were clenched, stood on one foot, and his head lowered to the ground.

The strange thing was, even though it was a weak stance, Jeredal was not able to perceive any openings. As a trained assassin, he was taught to identify weak points before he engaged with his enemies. Moments ago, Nero had many openings which Jeredal should have been able to take, but they were all closed now.

He knew from there that they were unable to win. Quickly, he turned to Neia and ordered her to open a rift, but once he turned around, Neia had been decapitated.

"What-?"

Stunned, he turned back to Nero who was now suddenly coated in blood, Neia's head in his hands.

Jeredal stared at the dreaded look on Neia's face, wondering what just happened.

"J-Jeredal... s-save me-!"

Neia began begging for help until the air around her twisted and seconds later, there was nothing left of her. There was now only blood that dyed the ground red. Nero's gaze slowly settled on him.

"You're next," He muttered, causing Jeredal to run for it.

He picked up Neia's headless body and darted away. Though she just had her head crushed, she could still regenerate her head and her consciousness. As long as her soul wasn't destroyed and some parts of her body still existed, she could come back to life.

'I just need to run. I can outrun him... right?'

Jeredal doubted that he could even flee. From Nero's display of power, he did not have faith in himself anymore to deal with Nero. His objective had just changed and that was to run away. He just needed Neia to come back alive and have her open the portal. As a matter of fact, her head was beginning to reform as he ran.

"Damn it. If only we had true immortality, we could get out of here."

Though he had Vozahlaas, it was not a completed form of immortality. The difference between it and true immortality was that Vozahlaas does not affect the soul. With true immortality, the soul will also be considered immortal and that person will forever exist, even till the end of time.

Jeredal and Neia did not have that, hence why Jeredal feared and needed to flee. He began heading towards what was formerly the fortress, where they had emerged from.

Eventually, he arrived at the spot. Jeredal felt a sense of relief, but that relief flew out the window once he saw Nero appear in his sight of vision with a distorted aura around him.

Jeredal stopped as Nero's hand flickered mysteriously which was then followed by the sound of glass shattering before all of his vital points were struck, causing him to drop to the ground.

Nero landed on the ground and started running towards Jeredal, drawing energy from his own body as he prepared his second attack. Eventually, Neia had been fully restored, woke up, and instantly performed a spell, forming a barrier composed of highly concentrated mana. She then started working on creating a portal right away.

This did not stop Nero however, the barrier was nothing but a mere obstacle. Taking another step forward, he launched himself into the air and directed both his fist at the barrier before making knife-hand gestures with both hands.

'I'd like to thank you, Jeredal. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to achieve this kind of feeling. Sorrow. Now, I'll show you true despair.'

Crossing his arms, he then unleashed a wave of heavily distorted energy from the tip of his fingers, muttering three words, following a devastating and instant attack.

"Infinite Slash Dimension."

...

...

...

With a sudden pressure in distorted energy, Nero's arms were left momentarily incapacitated. His veins had exploded and the nerves of his arms were disconnected. The end of his fingers had exploded and his fingernails were torn off. He was unable to conjure any attacks with his hands, leaving him wide open.

But he had already done what he had intended to do. Though it all happened in a flash, he had won. Because he had experienced a myriad of emotions: sorrow, despair, anger, satisfaction, etc., his mind had warped to the extent where he had awakened lost memories.

Principle of Distortion, the ability to distort. Not only does this apply to physical elements, but spiritual and mental factors as well.

With this, he understood the full capabilities of distortion. That made him the strongest. Though that title could only hold up for this instance, there was no doubt that he had temporarily become stronger than Joseph.

As Infinite Slash Dimension had ended, Nero looked down at Jeredal's head with all his memories flooding through his mind.

"No... no... I can't die like this...," Jeredal muttered as blood spewed from his mouth. "Not without bringing your head to my father!"

Neia was nowhere to be seen. That was because her body had been completely obliterated. Her soul was the only thing remaining. Though the soul was hovering in front of him, he decided to ignore it, as it was not the soul he was after.

Jeredal's body was starting to reform as Nero continued to stand idle. The memories still flooded his mind, distracting him from his goal. Jeredal's healing rate was much quicker than Neia's so in a few seconds, his body would be healed in mere seconds.

'This is my chance," Jeredal thought to himself, preparing to flee. 'I can flee no-!'

Jeredal's train of thoughts was interrupted when Nero's eye twitched, sending distorted energy at Jeredal, cutting him into pieces until his body ceased to exist. His eye would then blow up as a result. Jeredal was now a wandering soul, still possessing his consciousness.

"There's this... feeling... that I cannot shrug off."

Nero started to talk.

"I was once a weakling and fated to die. But I was reborn anew, at the price of obeying an entity that provides me power. An equal trade, right? I gain power in exchange for having my own fate twisted and governed by another being."

Nero took in a deep breath, causing Jeredal's soul to drift towards his mouth.

"Your soul is the only thing I need."

With that, Jeredal's soul was consumed. The effect of consuming his soul left an aftertaste. It was like eating flesh from a rotten corpse covered in feces.

"Now... what's next?"

The last requirement was then displayed to Nero's eyes. His eyes widened as he saw the words that were directed towards him.

"Is that... so?"

[The final requirement: Retrieve the souls of 7 heroes]

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