[Congratulations. You have defeated a unique creature named "Verdant Tyrant" (SR).]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[You have obtained a rare item: Verdant Core (SSR).]
[You have obtained an item: Nature's Wrath Essence (SR).]
[You have obtained…]
…
*Ding! Ding! Ding!*
More notifications kept flooding Nero's vision like bro hit the jackpot from a slot machine.
But honestly?
He couldn't give less of a shit about the rewards right now… Especially if you're about to die from the inside of a carnivorous plant with goop juice as your dying place.
"Aurelia... we need to get out of this fucking nightmare."
His voice was barely a croak, his throat was raw from breathing in whatever disgusting plant juice had been sloshing around inside that thing.
Both of them were covered head to toe in green goop that smelled like a combination of rotten vegetables and liquid death.
But hey, at least they weren't dead, right?
*Squelch! Squish!*
Crawling out of a dead SR-tier monster was exactly as disgusting as it sounded.
Every movement made wet, squishy noises that would probably make Nero hate vegetables for weeks.
"Lord Nero..."
Aurelia's voice was weak but determined as she helped pull him through what used to be the creature's mouth.
Her divine energy was completely shot bottom, the usual divine silver aura radiating from her was nowhere to be found, which made sense considering the shit the angel went through.
"... We did it."
"Hell yeah, we fucking did."
*THUD!*
The moment they cleared the creature's maw, both of them collapsed onto the ground like sacks of exhausted potatoes.
Green plant goop was still dripping off them, creating little puddles of victory-flavored disgust.
Nero's entire body felt like he'd been put through a high-speed washing machine for days.
Every muscle on his body ached.
His mana reserves were beyond empty at this point.
Even breathing felt like a milestone effort.
"Nero…! Aurelia…!"
The distant voices of their companions were getting closer, accompanied by the sounds of combat.
*Slash! Boom! Crash!*
The rest of the team was apparently still dealing with the leftover monsters, but from the sounds of it, the fight was almost over.
Without the Verdant Tyrant's controls, the weakened and injured creatures were confused and were sitting ducks ready to be easily slaughtered.
"Over here!"
Nero tried to shout, but what came out was more like a hoarse whisper.
Fortunately, Juno's enhanced analytical abilities included the major possibilities of them surviving and asking for help.
"Located! Lord Nero and Lady Aurelia are 47 meters northeast of the creature's position!"
*Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!*
Heavy footsteps were approaching fast, along with the sound of someone running at enhanced speed.
"Hey, there they are!"
Mina's voice carried relief mixed with concern as she spotted them through the trees.
"Are they alive?!"
Yuki's magical girl energy was back in full force, probably fueled by worry and adrenaline.
"They're moving! I can see them breathing!"
*Squelch!*
Genya was the first to reach them, his chains having made quick work of the remaining confused monsters.
One look at their green-goop-covered forms made his face scrunch up in disgust.
"Hahaha! You guys went through a damn ride, that was phenomenal! Glad to receive your help. Name's Genya Shizuure, by the way."
"A ride? More like a damn blender goop. I'm Nero… Nero Walker."
Nero's weak grin proved he was still functional enough for jokes.
"Ara ara~ What a troublesome mess you've made of yourselves."
Haori arrived next, her gentle voice carrying notes of concern beneath the usual calm demeanor.
"But you're both alive, which is more than we dared hope."
The rest of the group was converging on their position, with Gilbert and the other survivors bringing up the rear.
Everyone looked like they'd been through hell, but they were all breathing and… mostly intact.
"Status report."
Juno's analytical brain was already working, scanning both of them for injuries.
"Visible wounds appear minimal, but exhaustion levels are critical."
"We're fine…"
Aurelia's voice was stronger than Nero's, though she was still lying flat on her back.
"Just... thoroughly disgusting."
"Just… how the hell did you kill that thing?"
Ren was staring at the motionless Verdant Tyrant with amazement.
Remembering how he and Genya pretty much poured every single mana that they have to temporarily seal that thing made Ren realize how much of an anomaly the monster they're dealing with.
And yet…
"..."
The supposed to be massive monster looked like a deflated balloon made of plant matter.
"We went for the brain… or something vital of some sort."
Nero's explanation was matter-of-fact, like he hadn't just committed suicide by monster digestion.
"The point is… turns out even SR-tier anomalies have weak spots if you're willing to get intimate with their internal organs."
"... T-That's the most insane thing I've ever heard, no matter how many times I've experienced how much of an anomaly both of you are."
Jin was shaking her head in disbelief, though her voice carried admiration.
"And it actually worked."
"Sometimes insane is all you got."
*Cough! Cough!*
Nero's attempt at looking cool was ruined by a coughing fit that brought up more green plant juice.
Disgusting, but at least it was coming out instead of staying in.
"... Lord Nero, allow me to inspect if you sustained injuries."
Aurelia was trying to sit up, her concern overriding her own exhaustion.
"Any internal damage from the creature's digestive processes?"
"Nah, I'm good."
He did a quick mental check of his body, looking for anything that felt wrong beyond the general everything-hurts-like-hell situation.
Cuts and bruises, sure.
Mana exhaustion, definitely.
But nothing that wouldn't heal with rest especially with his great VIT stat and maybe a very long shower.
"Just need to... check something."
The notifications were still blinking in the corner of his vision, waiting for attention.
Rewards from defeating an SR-tier creature were probably going to be significant.
Maybe even game-changing.
"What about you, angel? Any serious damage?"
"Nothing beyond exhaustion and the need for extensive cleaning."
"That's good."
Aurelia's small nod was reassuring, even covered in plant goop.
"We survived something that should have killed us."
"Hell yeah, we did."
Nero's grin was getting stronger as the reality of their victory started sinking in.
They actually did it.
Defeated an SR-tier anomaly through strategy, teamwork, and sheer bloody-minded determination.
"Alright, let me just check what we got from that plant bastard and then we can… ugh."
*Thud!*
Just as Nero was about to rub his hand ready to get his hands on the goodie loots, the exhaustion hit him faster than what his brain could register.
One moment he was sitting up, ready to check his rewards.
The next moment the world was spinning, with the colors fading, and his consciousness doing an abandon ship.
"Lord Nero!"
"Nero…!"
"… Boy!"
Aurelia and the other's worried voice were muffled as the world spun around him.
'... Ah shit. Looks like… I pushed myself too far this time.'
Those were his last thoughts before everything around him turned black.
***
Silence filled the Seer's interdimensional abode as she watched the unconscious form of Nero Walker through her viewing screens.
Ever since that day when her Eyes of Truth failed to penetrate his identity, the Seer has been constantly observing him.
Analyzing every action, every decision, every seemingly mundane detail of his existence.
What she discovered was... amazing in its own way.
"This makes no sense."
For the past month, this supposedly unremarkable human than the other candidates had been progressing at a rate that even surprised her.
His growth curve was abnormal considering his abilities… to say the least.
His achievements were considered astounding considering his starting unremarkable status and almost non-existent self-defense knowledge.
"Nero Walker..."
His name felt heavier each time she spoke it, carrying implications that sent chills through her ethereal form.
When the dimensional merge first occurred, every possibility she saw suggested he should have died within days.
Weak physical capabilities, amateur combat skills, limited magical aptitude.
A summoning ability that seemed more like a novelty than actual power.
Yet somehow, this human was advancing faster than individuals with reality-breaking unique abilities.
Faster than people who could manipulate time itself.
Faster than those who could rewrite matter at the subatomic level.
"... How is this possible?"
The Seer's Eyes of Truth should have been able to see the cause behind this impossible progression.
It should've revealed the hidden factors, the secret advantages, the underlying mechanisms.
Instead, she encountered the same impenetrable void whenever she tried to analyze him directly.
But it wasn't just Nero's abnormal growth that had captured her attention.
There was also his companion.
"Aurelia..."
The name triggered something deep in her consciousness as she focused her enhanced perception on the divine being.
Something familiar about the way she moved in combat, like it was an art form the angel has perfected over millennia.
The uniqueness of specific patterns in her divine silver energy.
The Seer's Eyes of Truth possessed the ability to perceive across time, space and even logic itself.
Past, present, future, otherworlders, hidden systems…
All of creation's history laid bare before her enhanced vision.
At that time, the Seer looked through to confirm her suspicions about Aurelia's identity, and so she looked through the past.
Through the recent events, beyond the dimensional merge.
Further back, past the age of mortals.
Back to the time of creation itself.
Images began flowing through her consciousness like a movie playback.
It was at the time of the Heavenly Demon War in all its terrible glory.
Armies of celestial beings clashing with forces of pure darkness.
And there, leading the divine forces with deadly precision… is the person who's identical to the angel next to Nero Walker.
The First Star Valkyrie
The angel from the distant past has a face, older and much more worn and matured but unmistakably the same as the one in the present.
Her signature bluish-silver armor was gleaming with starlight… But the one in the present seems to be more evolved, to say the least.
Her combat techniques, identical to what the Seer had witnessed in the recent battle, albeit the present angel's swordsmanship seems more incomplete than the ones from the aged war.
But most importantly, her unique divine energy signature, this one matching more perfectly, with the same two angels from both the distant past and present.
".. It r-really is her."
The Seer's voice trembled as she witnessed the final moments of that legendary war.
She watched Aurelia's heroic last stand against impossible odds.
The Seer watched as the First Star Valkyrie was not just killed, but completely erased.
Her soul record was deleted.
Her existence itself was wiped clean.
True death, the kind that even the Heavenly Father or The First Evil who are the embodiment of creation couldn't reverse or re-create.
The vision overlapping with the past ended, leaving the Seer staring at the current viewing screens with growing uncomfort.
"She died… She was completely erased from existence."
Yet there she was, serving a human summoner with unwavering devotion.
Not just resurrected, but apparently bound to him through some form of summoning contract.
"... How did you bring back someone who was truly dead?"
Her focus shifted back to the unconscious Nero Walker, the human whose abnormal progression was starting to make terrifying sense.
If he possessed the power to resurrect beings from complete erasure...
If he could summon entities that shouldn't exist...
What other impossible feats was he capable of?
"The implications..."
For the first time in her existence as the all-seeing observer of reality, the Seer was faced with something that challenged everything she understood about the fundamental laws of creation.
A human whose very existence seemed to operate outside normal parameters.
An angel who had been deleted from reality but was now more real than the dimensions around her.
Should she tell others about this discovery?
But without being able to see the consequences of such revelation...
"I lack information."
The admission was bitter, like poison in her mouth.
For an entity whose entire existence was built around knowing everything, ignorance was the most terrifying experience imaginable.
How could she make decisions about the fate of two dimensions when she couldn't see the results of those decisions?
"I need to make direct contact."
The unconscious human's mental defenses would be significantly weakened in his current state.
It's a risky approach, but it's her only option for gaining the information she desperately needed.
The Seer closed her ethereal eyes and began the ancient chant that would project her consciousness directly into someone else's mind.
*Woooom….*
After chanting, her eyes opened, and her insignia pupils began glowing with beautiful greenish-blue energy as space itself started to stretch and bend around her.
Reality folded as her consciousness launched itself toward the sleeping human's mind.
This should have placed her directly into his subconscious, where he could talk to him through dreams.
And yet…
"... W-What?"
The Seer found herself surrounded by absolute nothingness.
Not the organized subconsciousness of a sleeping mind.
Not the chaotic dreamscape of an active imagination.
There was no Nero Walker or any scenery signifying the thoughts of a person.
Just… pure void, as if she'd somehow missed her target entirely and ended up in empty space.
"This… This isn't right."
Her voice echoed strangely in the nothingness, carrying notes of confusion and growing concern.
She should have been inside Nero Walker's mind by now, and he's supposed to appear before her.
And after that, she would introduce herself and ask him questions while also answering his curiosities in the middle of their conversation…
But there was nothing here.
Less than nothing, it's like a vacuum where EVERYTHING ends…
But just as the Seer pondered about this…
"!!!"
An existential fear crawled at the very core of her being.
A maliciousness like no others…
S-Someone… or something was watching her!
… Something that shouldn't exist in this empty space.
"–W-Who's there?"
Panic was evident in her voice. A rare tone for someone who remained composed, especially to those who knew her for a very long time.
And then… "they" appeared.
The eerie eyes in the void.
Dozens of them.
Hundreds.
Perhaps even thousands.
And all of them were staring directly at her with an intensity that made her whole being start to shake uncontrollably.
These weren't human eyes.
They weren't divine eyes.
They weren't the eyes of any being she'd ever encountered in either dimension.
They were something else entirely.
Something that radiated malevolence so pure it felt like concentrated hatred in a physical form.
"N-No… T-That's… impossible..."
Suddenly, a terrifying thought… or perhaps a realization came through her mind.
*STARE!*
The eyes focused on her with a mocking look, as if judging her existence.
And the Seer could feel her very being starting to unravel under that scrutiny.
At this point, the suffocating malevolence was so pure and concentrated that the Seer… a divine being close to the state of the ruling gods began to cough blood and vomit.
*COUGH! BLUEGGH!!*
Blood and stomach fluids erupted from the Seer's mouth.
And in an instant, a feeling of powerlessness and weakness ate her body as she collapsed on all fours.
The Seer trembled with fear as the eyes from the void watched her every movement with mocking light.
But the Seer didn't have any time to mind her image or the pain throbbing through her body.
A fear like no others came through her whole being, especially at the fact that she realized who she's dealing with.
And then as if confirming her foreboding instinct… "it" finally sounded,
"D̵i̷s̷g̸u̴s̵t̸i̴n̵g̴.̷"
***
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