Cthulhu began assaulting John and his clone with his tentacles. Both the clone and John dodged the strikes.Despite the countless tentacles and the speed of Cthulhu's attacks, John's agility exceeded 10,000 points under the effect of Lightning Speed. Dodging Cthulhu's blows was difficult, but not impossible thanks to John's incredible speed.
"Rodent — all you have is dodging!" Cthulhu shouted at John."The last one who said that is now my slave," John laughed as he replied.
"Achoo — it seems someone's talking about me," Silver said.
John and his clone managed to land a few strikes on Cthulhu, leaving many wounds."If my physical attacks aren't enough, let's see how you handle my mental assaults," Cthulhu said, and he attacked John's mind directly.
Cthulhu possessed mental skills like Mind Attack, Mind Control, and Nightmare. Mind Attack weakened the opponent's mental state. Mind Control, as its name implied, took over the target if their mental state became weaker than the user's. Nightmare forced the victim to relive their worst experiences while unconscious.
"Mind Attack!" Cthulhu combined his physical strikes with mental assaults. John couldn't retaliate while focusing on evading the tentacle hits — but the mental attacks made everything harder. John and his clone kept dodging until the clone's concentration broke from the mental pressure and it was struck by one of Cthulhu's tentacles. Immediately the clone began bleeding from its seven orifices, unable to move and on the verge of death.
"Cancel Ashura Fragmentation." John pointed at the clone and deactivated it.John's appearance changed — he regained two heads and four arms. His look altered because he had canceled the Ashura Fragmentation. When he reabsorbed a clone, some of the Ashura-form changes returned to his main body. This had downsides, though: when a clone merged back, John absorbed its injuries too, although each clone reduced the impact of a wound by one-third.
After merging the clone, John received a severe injury, but he healed quickly via his regeneration, healing magic, and Ashura's innate self-recovery. The clone had lacked strong mental resilience, so it fell victim to the mental attacks within seconds — hence John's decision to cancel that clone. Another reason John used Ashura Fragmentation was to fight multiple enemies at once; now he faced Cthulhu alone.
John's strength rose by 25% after reabsorbing the clone. Despite his injuries, the benefits outweighed the losses. His situation improved and he could dodge more effectively.
"Time to settle the score!" John shouted as he launched a barrage with the Sun Sword at Cthulhu. He fused the strikes with Hellfire, Wind Magic, and Lightning, amplified further by God of Lightning. The blows left many wounds on Cthulhu's body.
"I need to mentally exhaust him first before using mind control," Cthulhu thought. He couldn't use that ability while John's mental state remained intact. John kept attacking Cthulhu's body and dodging its physical strikes. He suffered multiple mental attacks, but they were not a major problem for someone who had lived nearly 200 years and died many times. If someone else had faced Cthulhu, they would have been controlled already.
"What is this? Why does this human have such sharp mental fortitude?" Cthulhu was surprised by John's mental strength."It seems my two centuries of suffering had an effect," John thought, a faint smile on his face.
"Are you mocking me, human?!" Cthulhu raged when he saw John smile. Cthulhu accelerated the ferocity of his attacks — several blows nearly hit John, but John evaded them just in time.
At the moment John had 75 points distributed to each stat because of Ashura Fragmentation, but he also had Maximum Physical Enhancement, which multiplied his physical stats by 100x. In other words, John effectively had 7,500 Strength and 7,500 Endurance. Compared to ordinary humans, that meant he was an S-rank awakener at level 700, putting all level-up points into Strength. It wasn't just strength — his Agility was similarly amplified by Lightning Speed by 100x. John was literally a human miracle; humanity couldn't handle these disasters without him.
"You've died once before at the hands of your minions, but today you'll die by my hand," John displayed a killing intent as he thought.
"If mental assaults no longer affect you, then let's see how you handle Nightmare." Cthulhu immediately shifted his combat style upon seeing John's mental resistance.
"What's happening?" John's surroundings warped as Nightmare hit him."This place... it's where I awakened!" John immediately remembered the place where he had spent so much of his life. The buildings and roads were shattered; amid the ruins stood a man around his fifties, brandishing his sword.
"I must grow stronger! I must grow stronger!" That man was John before his regression. The current John watched the scene in a three-dimensional perception.
"It seems I've fallen under the effect of Cthulhu's skill — I need to escape fast," John feared that Cthulhu might kill him or strike him while he searched for a gap in the Nightmare. He began probing the illusion, looking for any weakness, when he heard a voice.
"I'm tired... why must I keep doing this?" the past John said sorrowfully. John stopped immediately when he heard that.
"I remember this day specifically — one of the worst in my training," the present John thought. He moved toward his past self. Standing before his former self, he spoke.
"Who are you? Is there still a human alive?" the past John shouted."Who am I? I am you," John replied calmly."You said you're tired. You can stop — with your current strength you could live on a mountain alone for the rest of your days." The present John answered his past."Of course you're the cause of these disasters, yet you wish to stop. You don't care about the dead humans, the ruined nations, the broken planet, or the ordinary life you once wanted," John's words struck his past like sword blows."But there is a better way than stopping. Continue what you're doing. Keep increasing your power. When the time comes, we will kill those who destroyed the life we hoped for."
At those words, past John's eyes lit up. "You're right. I must keep growing stronger."
"Ding! Skill acquired: Combat Spirit!""Ding! There are three skills you can merge: 'Calm Skill', 'Berserk Skill', and 'Combat Spirit'. Do you want to merge them?"The system window appeared to past John; he hesitated briefly and then said, "Agree!""Ding! Skill acquired: Ashura Transformation!""Your body will be modified to better suit the skill."
John remembered that painful day — the day he obtained Ashura Transformation. He nearly lost his mind from exhaustion but rose again; he acquired Combat Spirit and merged it with Calm and Berserk, resulting in Ashura.
"I must continue! I must continue! Until I slay every disaster that destroyed the life I longed for!" the past John endured the pain as his body was altered.
At that moment, the Nightmare's world shifted and John returned to the battlefield where he had been fighting Cthulhu. Neither John nor Cthulhu had moved while Nightmare had been active.
"It seems Nightmare drags me into one of my worst memories — but it drags him into it with me," John thought. Cthulhu controlled the memory to make it the worst possible scenario; if John had abandoned his past-self to search for an escape, past John would have become trapped forever and John would be lost. At that moment Cthulhu would free himself and kill John easily.
"You?! Who are you? How can your memories be older than your current age?!" Cthulhu shouted."How rude. Didn't I introduce myself? I am John Smith, the one who will kill you," John declared, murderous intent aimed squarely at Cthulhu. This memory was not pleasant for John — seeing it again inflamed his anger far more than Cthulhu's.
John immediately attacked Cthulhu, leaving many wounds on his body, but then —
"Nightmare!"Cthulhu activated the skill again. John plunged into another memory. This time it was the day he first awakened. But at the moment of awakening, nothing happened — no disaster, no monster wave.
"It seems I understand what I must do," John's face hardened with fury. He flew high into the sky and cast his magic everywhere. He destroyed buildings, slaughtered people, even killed his past self. John returned to reality with a face angrier than before.
"Did you find the Nightmare's flaw so quickly?!" Cthulhu was astonished. To break Nightmare, the events in the memory had to be forced back onto their correct course — if those memories required killing everyone, then John had to kill everyone in the illusion, even if they became safe.
"Do you want to test your skill again before you die?" John unleashed an aura of death.