NOVEL NEXT Chapter 400: Coin Toss
<Spell cheese backwards,> Raguel said sternly. <Actually... no. Spell backwards backwards.>
"Shut up," Neraxis replied plainly. "I'm fine, it hasn't even been that long."
<Hmm... what's your last name?>
"Valen."
<Your other last name.>
"Destine."
After getting the confirmation he needed, Raguel let out a sigh and forcefully opened Neraxis's status screen.
Name: Neraxis Valen
Age: 15,992,004 → 2,425,001,885
Bloodline: The Progenitor Solarian Vampire {Mythic}
Affinity: Abyssal Solarity [Mythic]
Universe Cores: 153 → 1,999
—Perks:
[Primordial Presence] (Mastered)
[Unyielding Vitality] (Mastered)
—Stats:
Rank: Origin+ → Null-
Strength: Origin+ → Origin+
Agility: Origin+→ Origin+
Stamina: Origin+ → Null-
Intelligence: Null- → Null+
Mana Capacity: Origin+ → Null+
—Skills:
[Ancient Sun Vampirism (SSS+)]*
[Manifestation of the Sun (SSS)]*
[Vampiric Dominance (Mythic)]
[Universal Diffusion (Saint)]
[Stellar Dominion (A)]
[Minor Reflect (D)]
[Aegis of Eternity (C)]
—God Skill Tree:
Void Manipulation (Null)
God of Time (Null)
God of Space (Null)
God of Death (Null)
Lesser God of Fate (Origin)
—Fragment of Calamity Skill Tree (12/12)
Ancient Aura Circulation (Origin)
Reality Erasure Slash (Eternal)
Temporal Vertical Slash (Primordial)
Abyssal Calamity Stance (Primordial)
Abyssal Calamity Footwork + Swordsmanship (Primordial)
Echoing Slash (Celestial)
Void Step (Celestial)
World Severing Slash (Celestial)
Stupid Vertical Slash (Transcendent)
Mastered Horizontal Slash (Saint)
Mastered Stab (Saint)
Mastered Illusion Slash (Saint)
+-----+
Dang...
<You're pretty fucking old now, aren't you?> Raguel snickered. <But look on the bright side, you succeeded. Though I can't really display your success in the status screen since I'm not exactly sure about the grading of these weird realms. Just consider it the highest grade if you want.>
Neraxis blankly nodded and took a deep breath.
He remembered everything, and he didn't even need to evoke Raguel's help.
Evangeline, his family, the others—they were all there inside his mind, albeit their faces were a little blurry.
But it wasn't something a little visit couldn't fix.
Aside from that, it seemed like he had finally reached Null- rank, and if he was right, then he was slightly more powerful than Lagus himself.
But in the end, experience was something he couldn't quite beat.
Especially when he was cooped up inside a purple realm for two billion years.
By now, age was like a joke to him, since in the millions, it still somewhat mattered.
But billions? It was just a passing thought.
Nevertheless, Neraxis took one more deep breath and slashed the space in front of him.
The purple void reacted, parting the way for him as he once again saw the white realm.
And of course, Lagus stood by, watching him intensely.
"Hmm?" Lagus turned his head. "Did you really go through with it?"
Before Neraxis could answer, Lagus waved his hand, attempting to crush the white realm onto Neraxis.
But it merely felt like a mosquito bite, as there was neither pressure nor the feeling of despair he was expecting to encounter.
Instead, his emotions seemed dull as he stared at the grinning Lagus.
"Good... everything is moving along nicely," Lagus commented. "What else... oh, do you also want my time prowess? It'd be interesting to see you intoxicate yourself on infinite time... pfft... I remember the first time I had done it—truly an unforgettable experience."
Neraxis tilted his head slowly. "Just what are you plotting, exactly? You've banished me there and—"
"Think of it as your inheritance," Lagus cut him off as he magnanimously extended his hands outward. "The Destine family, destined for greatness. It sounds amazing when I look at it from an unbiased point of view. What do you think?"
Neraxis didn't reply, so Lagus continued.
"No fun as always. I should've drilled humor into your thick little noggin back then. Anyhow, this is where we will part ways. Ready your final attack, and I shall do the same."
"What...?"
Lagus chuckled. "What? Do you want to exchange moves until one of us perishes? What is the point in that? Do you think anything will change if you break my jaw or I break yours? We will regenerate instantly, so at most, we'd just be wasting our time."
He took a step forward, distorting the space around him. "But if we go at it now and try to kill each other with our strongest attacks, we might just be able to make it work."
With that, he summoned a giant arena beneath them and stood across from Neraxis.
"From your silence, I take it you're not against my idea. I'm sure you're dying to go back to your people."
He took a step back, then another, until eventually, he was ten meters away from Neraxis.
"Have you ever heard of the cowboy showdown? I'm sure you have. So that's what we're going to do," Lagus said, snapping his fingers.
A small coin manifested out of thin air, hovering in between them.
"Once the coin drops to the ground, we will both cast our most powerful abilities, and if one of us survives, then we do it again and again, until eventually, one of us dies. Does that work for you, Neraxis?"
As sadistic as it was, this might be the only chance at victory Neraxis would get.
After all, while he didn't have any skills he could use at the moment, there was the basic void manipulation he had learned—especially the collapsing of the void itself.
So as the two exchanged one last glance, Lagus tossed the coin into the air.
The moment he did, Neraxis didn't hesitate to collapse the void onto Lagus.
It was instant, and he didn't even wait for the coin to drop.
Thankfully, he didn't, because there was a black tendril creeping up his foot, ready to bite into him.
But bit by bit, it settled down, and the moment it did, Neraxis felt a tug in the area where he had collapsed the void.
And once he glanced toward it, he saw Lagus, who was slightly bleeding from the nose.
Yet the blood didn't vanish, and he appeared visibly staggered.
But when the coin finally dropped to the ground, he took a deep breath and leaned down, picking up the coin and shooting a look at Neraxis.
"Ready for round two?"