After Arios told her, "Kill me now," she was surprised and said, "Have you lost your mind? Why are you suddenly waiting for death?"
Elsewhere, Eldi Prime telepathically said to Nahira, "Do not kill him. I still need him."
Nahira said, "Whatever."
She pulled her hand out of Arios's stomach and said, "I will not kill you yet. I still need you."
Arios said, "Then you will regret that."
Nahira was surprised, and suddenly Arios's wound began to heal. Then his energy exploded outward, and Arios flew toward Nahira and punched her in the face. The force of the punch caused them to disappear from the area and enter another dimension because of their incredible speed.
Nahira said, "How did he do that?"
The system screen displayed that Arios's power had risen in a single moment by a scale of power squared, causing his strength to become enormous.
"This is one of the advantages of the transformation. It does not grant a fixed increase in power, but rather an evolving one during battle. It causes the body to adapt to anything surrounding it, making the body perfect and eliminating every flaw or human error. This is also one of the reasons Arios's emotions were taken away. He wished for death because the situation was more painful than being killed."
Arios's eyes began changing from silver to lavender. He flew toward Nahira and punched her, breaking her teeth. The punch shook that dimension itself, causing Nahira to fly through multiple dimensions.
Nahira landed in front of enormous spheres that were immeasurably larger than her.
"What are these things?"
She looked around and said, "Are those universes? What is this place?"
Arios landed and pressed his hand forward, throwing Nahira far away. He created gray crystals from his energy and hurled them at her, piercing through her body and completely tearing it apart.
After that, Arios activated the Domain of Nothingness and the Domain of the End. Nahira began losing her power completely.
Arios said, "Do not worry. You will not feel pain for long. I will send you somewhere you will never return from. There, you can live without a purpose. And who knows? I may send your daughter there as well so she can stay with you."
Nahira was pierced by those crystals and remained sitting in place with her head lowered. She began thinking about betraying her elders and accepting the gift of that entity, Eldi Prime.
When she heard Arios mention her daughter, she said in a cold voice, "Stop mentioning my daughter's name."
Then she shouted, "I accept your gift, Eldi Prime!"
Arios was shocked when he heard Eldi Prime's name.
Suddenly, Eldi Prime appeared before her in the form of a shadow. Arios froze when he saw him.
"You."
Eldi Prime looked at him and said, "It is good to see you, Tranas. Now I want to see how you will stand against the monster you created with your own hands. Do not worry. When she kills you, I will personally bring you back from Hell. Hahaha!"
Suddenly, black smoke began emerging from Nahira. Her skin started peeling away, revealing a cosmic pinkish-black form beneath it. Her hair and facial features began changing, while her tentacles disappeared. Her appearance became cosmic, as if she were a woman embodying space and the universe itself.
Nahira rose in her new form and looked toward Arios.
Eldi Prime said to her, "Do you see those endless spheres? Those are infinite universes. I want to see the extent of your power. Aim at them."
Nahira released a small amount of energy toward them.
The universes began to be destroyed.
Eldi Prime laughed at the sight and said, "I love watching mortal beings disappear and perish."
The system appeared before Arios and warned him:
"Nahira's energy is no longer numerical. It has become existential. Her power has literally become infinite, and the destruction she caused continues endlessly. The number of victims is now increasing without limit. You must be careful."
Arios said, "Damn her. Of all people, did she really have to take power from that trash?"
Then Arios said to Eldi Prime, "How did you come to this world? I am certain that you should be incapable of entering it."
Eldi Prime laughed and said, "The truth? Thanks to my greed—and thanks to you as well."
Arios was surprised.
Eldi Prime continued, "When you obtained the soul of that witch, you actually gave her soul to me. Through it, I entered this world. The place we are in now is the boundary between your worldly realm and the beginning of the metaphysical world. These infinite universes that are being destroyed are the barrier between your world and the higher, lower realm. By destroying them, there are no longer any boundaries between those entities and you."
Arios said, "But the distance between the two worlds is infinite."
"I know. And that is exactly what will make them descend upon you while you remain incapable of ascending to them. In the end, you are merely mortals living in a third-dimensional realm. You possess no power capable of transcending such inferior things. Return to me, Tranas, and I will grant you my power again."
Arios said, "No. Because I will kill you here and now."
Arios disappeared and appeared in front of Eldi Prime, attempting to strike him.
Eldi Prime stopped the attack with his little finger and said, "You are truly amusing. You want to kill me with that weak mortal body? Even though I am standing before you in nothing more than a cheap shadow, you are merely a flea compared to me. This is hilarious."
Arios said, "I will kill you. Believe me. No one dares insult me and remain alive. I will erase your world. I will exterminate every creature of your filthy species. I will end the entire lineage of metaphysical beings."
Eldi Prime laughed and said, "I look forward to it. I will do the same once I recover my full power and body. As for you, you will be my toy—the one I reclaim. I no longer enjoy living without you, Tranas. You are my other half, the one I love."
Arios said, "I will make you wish you had never seen anything except my face while I torture you in the eternal Hell."
Suddenly, Eldi Prime said, "I am leaving now. Enjoy yourselves."
Nahira advanced and pushed Arios away with the air, sending him flying so far that he continued drifting without stopping.
Nahira eventually stopped him herself and said, "You inferior entity. I will make you wish for death without ever obtaining it."
She cut off his hands and began creating countless copies of them, throwing them toward him. His body continued evading them without stopping. He became trapped inside a circle of perfect evasion.
Arios regenerated his hands, but if he stopped evading, the countless hands would strike him. Their number continued increasing.
Arios said, "I wonder what the solution is."
Nahira enlarged herself and removed the hands.
Arios flew toward her and attempted to strike her, but he was repelled.
"Damn it. I can no longer affect her."
The system warned Arios to be careful. Her speed, power, and durability had literally become infinite, and she had also acquired several unknown abilities.
Arios said, "How am I supposed to deal with this?"
The system replied, "Wait."
Nahira created galaxies extending endlessly from a strand of her hair all the way to her toenail. She then threw them at Arios.
Arios's body evaded them while he attacked. He charged his hand and released an enormous Naisphere attack, erasing a massive portion of those enormous galaxies.
Nahira then created an infinite universe from nothing with the palm of her hand. She transported herself and Arios inside it.
Within that place, she completely nullified every ability and every form of power.
Arios lost all his power, but his transformation remained active.
Nahira said to Arios, "You inferior creature, do you want me to truly kill you, or do you want to watch this?"
Arios froze in midair, held in her hands.
Nahira began showing him his family.
She said, "My, my. Isn't your son adorable? Why don't I make more for you?"
She created many copies of Isaac and ordered them to attack Arios.
They began beating Arios, who was unable to do anything because Nahira had told him that if he killed even one of them, she would kill his real son.
With Arios's power absent, they began attacking him with punches, kicks, and everything else. Their numbers were endless.
Nahira laughed at the sight.
"This is boring. Arios, you have truly become worthless."
With a snap of her fingers, she transferred the scene into the past, where she had been breaking Arios's bones when he was young.
She said, "Look carefully, Arios. Look at where you truly belong."
Arios stared at the scene with eyes filled with rage, helplessness, and hatred.
Nahira began laughing and mocking him while he grew increasingly furious, almost dying from his anger.
Then she said, "I want to know why you are going to cry, you useless thing. Without your power, you are worth nothing. You are merely a piece of scrap metal that I can break, repair, and break again. You were nothing, Arios. You were born to be nothing."
Suddenly, Arios remembered words from his past—words spoken by his real mother in the metaphysical world:
"You, Tranas, were nothing. You were born only to be nothing. I am the one who made you what you are, and you disappointed me, my spoiled son."
Arios stood up, tears falling from his eyes. He began striking Nahira's body while she laughed at his desperate attempts.
Suddenly, the system screen appeared:
"Attention, user. The Loria Adaptive Transformation has been activated. Adaptation process beginning."
Suddenly, Nahira felt an intense heat. She closed her fist around Arios and saw a bright light emerge from her palm, causing her hand to explode.
Arios flew away with a hateful and cold expression.
His face was no longer visible at all. It was nothing but darkness with sharp, glowing eyes.
He flew toward the gigantic Nahira and punched her in the face, launching her away and causing her to crash down.
The system screen displayed:
"Power level can no longer be measured. Arios's power is continuously increasing due to the transformation."
Nahira attempted to nullify Arios's power, but nothing happened.
She then attempted to alter the past, but she was suddenly struck by a punch from the past.
She realized that Arios had now adapted to every ability she attempted to use, meaning none of them would work against him.
She stood up and flew toward him to punch him, but he blocked her attack and unleashed an explosion that tore her apart into pieces. It also destroyed the infinite universe she had created.
They emerged from that place.
Nahira regenerated and punched Arios, sending him flying away. She moved between dimensions, appeared behind him, and fired beams that caused reality itself to melt.
Arios blocked them without receiving a single scratch.
Then both of them punched each other in the face, causing reality to distort and the colors of existence to change.
All colors disappeared, and everything turned gray.
Every atom of reality shattered.
Arios stood upon what remained of the destroyed reality.
Nahira said, "Do you think this is enough to defeat me? You have not seen anything yet."
Nahira created copies of herself, and those copies possessed the same power as her without dividing it.
The copies raised their hands and formed a gigantic sphere beyond the comprehension of the mind. They hurled it toward Arios.
Arios blocked it with both hands, but it continued trying to force him down.
Copies appeared behind him and attempted to strike and attack him, but he blocked and evaded them while trying to stop the bomb.
Nahira said, "You will not withstand this bomb. It is called Soul Division. It will shatter your soul from within."
Arios looked at the attack and punched it away.
Nahira dodged it as it flew into the distance and exploded, causing the destruction of spatial realms with layered natures.
Nahira shouted, "You monster! Just fall already!"
Suddenly, while they were colliding and flying in every direction, Arios had an idea.
He flew beyond those infinite boundaries, returning to true reality.
He flew at an incomprehensible speed and attempted to sense the energy of a specific person.
Nahira followed him and said, "What are you trying to find?"
Arios realized that their presence in the material world was causing it to crack and collapse.
He accelerated until he finally found what he was looking for.
He descended onto a planet in the First World and approached a small palace.
He broke the window and entered.
There, he found what he had been looking for: his young daughter.
He picked her up.
Unlike everyone else, she was not unconscious.
Arios took her after killing Smith, who had attempted to stop him.
He left the place with her and flew into space.
She was crying.
Arios looked at her with terrifying eyes.
Nahira arrived and said, "Arios, put her down now, or I will punish you."
Arios said coldly, "I hate being threatened, so do not try to provoke me, or your daughter will turn to dust."
The system screen appeared:
"Honor level has reached 0%."
Arios said, "This girl was a mistake. She must be eliminated. She was never supposed to exist in the first place."
Nahira said, "This is the result of our actions. You have to accept reality."
Arios said, "Yes. I will accept the reality in which I fix this problem."
Nahira said, "Do not do it."
Nora began crying and tried to move away from Arios.
"Stay away from me, you monsters!"
Nahira was shocked by what she heard.
"Monsters?"
Nora struggled to escape and shouted, "Where is my mother? Leave me alone, you evil monsters! Please, leave me alone!"
Nahira said, "Calm down, my little girl. It is me."
But Nora did not believe her and began screaming in fear.
Arios landed on the ground with her and said, "Do not worry, my little one. Your father will make you sleep forever."
Nahira landed as well.
Arios said, "If you dare even scratch her, I will destroy your entire family."
Arios looked at Nahira and said, "You have not learned your lesson."
He flew toward her and punched her, sending her flying away.
Nahira stood up, only to find Arios kicking her away, causing her to crash into mountains that collapsed upon her.
Nahira began feeling pain from the attack. She removed the pain so she would not feel it.
But Arios said, "Even if you remove the pain, your body will still be affected as long as I am the one causing it. Remember that I am now adapted to everything you can do. I am your anti-matter. That is what distinguishes me from you. And I also have something you are afraid to lose in my hands. It is over for you, Nahira. Surrender."
Nahira felt helpless.
Despite her power, she was helpless before this monster—and helpless because her daughter was in his hands.
Arios then opened the Dissection Domain.
Nahira's body began being cut apart.
This time, she did not regenerate, because Arios had literally surpassed the very concept of her regeneration.
Nahira stood with difficulty, and her transformation began disappearing.
Arios said, "Finally, I will get you. But before that, let me finish with this damn child."
When he raised his hand to kill her, his transformation suddenly disappeared.
Arios sensed it.
Nahira flew toward him and punched him in the face.
She regained a small portion of the power of her transformation and released countless blades that restrained Arios and stabbed him in place.
Arios felt all of his power completely collapse.
He said with difficulty, "How did this happen to me?"
The blades continued stabbing him everywhere until he felt as though his soul had left his body millions of times within a single second.
Nahira said to her daughter, "Are you okay, my little one?"
Nora looked at Nahira.
After realizing that she was her mother, she hugged her tightly and cried.
"Mom, I was scared."
Nahira said, "Do not be afraid. I am here with you. Do not cry, my little girl."
Meanwhile, Arios spoke faintly while lying on the ground, pierced by blades that penetrated his body.
"Impossible… I lost the fight. How did this happen?"
Suddenly, the system screen appeared and told him:
"In truth, the transformation disappeared because your intentions were evil. The Loria Transformation cannot operate at full capacity unless your intentions are pure.
Through your use of the transformation, although it appeared to be draining your emotions, in reality it was not taking any emotions because none existed within you.
Instead, it was draining the energy of your body because there were no emotions to drain.
Furthermore, because your intentions were evil, the transformation sealed itself and was automatically canceled."
Arios said, with blood coming out of his mouth, "Damn it. I was betrayed—not by someone, but by my own power. What a disgrace. What a fucking disgrace!
Is this really the end for me? Will I perish like this? Why? Why is my luck this terrible? Damn everything."
He looked toward Nahira and her daughter.
"Help me."
Nahira and the child looked at him.
Nahira said, "What did you just say?"
"Help me. I am sorry. I did not mean to do that."
Nahira stood up and walked toward him.
"You are trash, Arios. You just tried to kill your own daughter, and now you want me to forgive you?
I may be a bad person, but you are worse. You are truly trash.
I will restore everything destroyed by this battle. As for you, you will perish where you are and become an example to every stubborn tyrant."
Arios began coughing, blood coming from his mouth.
Nahira used her power to stop the destruction she had caused across the infinite universes.
She restored them and said, "I have spent my entire life killing and shedding blood, but now I realize that continuing like this leads nowhere. This power is a curse."
With that, Nahira abandoned her power.
After restoring everything, she looked toward Arios, who was still collapsed and on the verge of death.
Arios said, "System, help me. Please."
The system replied, "You were merely a failed experiment. You will no longer need a trash like yourself."
Arios was shocked.
The system disappeared completely.
Before leaving, it told Arios that it would transfer to a more useful and valuable model of existence.
However, it kept Arios's honor measurement as a memento and as a witness to his filth.
The system said, "Goodbye, failed user. I wish you an unhappy journey into the unknown."
Arios was stunned.
The system disappeared.
Arios shouted, "Wait! Where are you going, you piece of trash?"
Nahira was confused.
"Who are you talking to?"
Arios then said, "Come on. Stab me now. You won anyway."
Nahira looked at him and said, "I will at least rid the world of your evil."
She summoned a dagger from her energy and prepared to stab him.
Arios closed his eyes.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of a stab.
But he was shocked to discover that he had not been stabbed.
Nahira had been stabbed through the chest, her heart pierced and pulled out by a glowing black thorn.
Arios looked up and saw Clarisse in the second form she had previously revealed.
She had stabbed her own sister.
Nora was shocked by what she saw and, out of fear, lost consciousness.
Nahira looked behind her and saw her sister.
Blood began flowing from Nahira's mouth.
"What… what happened, Clarisse?"
Clarisse approached her with terrifying eyes, hugged her sister from behind, and stabbed her with more thorns.
She whispered coldly into her ear:
"I am sorry, dear sister. But what you did to my husband is considered a betrayal. And no matter who you are—my sister, my mother, or anyone else—you will be punished for your actions.
No one is allowed to do this to my husband except me.
Now die, and let us live our lives happily.
Come on, sleep now, and let us make sure you never wake up again.
And to make certain of that, you will become part of me forever."
Clarisse drove the thorns into her sister and began absorbing her, transforming her into energy and swallowing her into herself.
Clarisse said, "I have a confession, sister. This is the same method I used to eliminate our father. Can you believe that?"
Nahira was shocked, but all she cared about was her little daughter.
Before disappearing, a tear fell from her eye.
"Forgive me, my daughter."
Nahira disappeared, becoming nothing more than energy absorbed by Clarisse.
Arios was terrified by what he had witnessed.
He looked toward the child.
But he saw only one thing:
The Honor Measurement.
Clarisse removed the thorns from Arios and knelt before him.
She carefully inserted her thorns into him and began transferring her energy to him, healing him.
After some time, she succeeded, and Arios was completely healed.
After he stood up, she hugged him and said, "Darling, I was so afraid for you."
He hugged her back.
"Well done, Clarisse. If it were not for you, I would have died. You are my superhero."
Clarisse was delighted by his praise.
"Darling, you are going to keep your promise now, right?"
"Yes. A promise is a promise. But tell me, how did you find us?"
She said, "A strange man guided me to you. He was wearing a black suit, with blue hair and strange yellow eyes."
Arios asked, "Who was he?"
Clarisse said, "I do not know him. But when he directed me here, he told me to give you his regards and said that he was looking forward to meeting you again."
Arios said, "Again? Wait. Did he look like me?"
Clarisse said, "No. He looked strange. I had never seen him in my life. He appeared from nowhere and disappeared into nowhere. I do not know where he went."
Arios became confused.
Then Clarisse said, "Is this the child Nahira told me was one of the elders' children?"
Arios said, "No."
Clarisse was surprised.
"Then who is she?"
Arios said, "The truth is, I will be honest with you and will not lie to you. You saved my life. The truth is, this child is…"
Arios hesitated.
He took a deep breath and said:
"She is my daughter, Clarisse."
Clarisse froze for a moment.
"Your daughter? How?"
Arios said, "Things are complicated, but this child is my daughter."
Clarisse said coldly, "And who is her mother?"
Arios said, "Her mother is Nahira."
Clarisse was even more shocked.
"Why?"
Arios said, "She did not tell me about it until recently—or rather, I discovered it myself. But do not misunderstand. I wanted to get rid of the child, but she fought me to stop me from doing it."
Clarisse said, "You had an intimate relationship with my sister without my knowledge?"
Arios said, "She forced me into it. It happened years ago, and I was forced. It was not by my own will. I was under a spell at the time."
She looked at him.
"I believe you."
He looked at her in surprise.
"You believe me?"
"Yes, I believe you. My sister does terrible things for her own benefit. And I do not want anything to ruin the relationship between us now that it is finally beginning.
In the end, we killed my sister, and the culprit received his punishment. That is what happened, right, darling?"
Arios said, "Yes. You are right."
She looked at him, restrained his neck with her special tentacles, and said in a warning tone:
"But let me make one thing clear. You have done this before, and you are not married now. From this moment on, you will belong to me alone. I will not even allow you to meet another girl. You will forget all of that. You will be mine alone."
Arios said, "Stop. You are frightening me."
She smiled.
"This is for your own good."
She then asked, "What are we going to do with the child?"
Arios said, "I was thinking of killing her, but now I no longer have the desire to do so."
Clarisse looked at him.
"What will you do with her?"
Arios said, "I will raise her. She is strong, and she will be useful to me in the future."
Clarisse said, "You mean she will be our daughter?"
Arios said, "Yes. She will not forget what we did to her mother, but I am certain she will be useful to me when she grows up."
Arios then picked her up.
"I will take her somewhere. When I return, I will marry you, and we will put this matter behind us."
Clarisse smiled.
When Arios flew away, she began jumping around like a crazy person from happiness.
"Finally! He is mine! Arios, my darling, is finally mine alone! I will not have to share him with anyone. He is mine and mine alone!"
After that, she returned to her normal form and said:
"And I will make him forget everyone he knows completely."
Her hysterical personality began showing itself.
She laughed insanely and flew away.
Meanwhile, inside a locked room somewhere, the little girl Nora woke up in a bed.
Arios was sitting on a chair, scrolling through his phone.
She looked at him and began crying, retreating backward in fear.
He looked at her and said, "You woke up, little one."
She continued crying.
"Where is my mother? Stay away from me, evil man!"
Arios stood up.
"I am evil, Nora, but I am your father."
"No! You are not my father! You are evil! You wanted to kill me, and you wanted to kill my mother!"
Arios smiled and approached her.
"No. I did not want to do that. I only wanted to reclaim you, my little one. You are my daughter, and your mother was preventing me from getting close to you or spoiling you. I missed you so much that I fought with your mother, and things became what they became."
Nora said, "You are terrifying. Stay away from me."
Arios said, "Fine. Look, I am going to leave now. You stay here, okay? I will bring you some beautiful toys. I also brought you some food. Eat it when you get hungry, sweetheart. If you need anything from me, knock on the door and I will come immediately. Just be comfortable."
Nora said, "Stay away from me. I want my mother."
Arios said, "Children are really annoying. Isaac never screams like this. Fine, I will leave you. When I return, we will get to know each other better."
Arios left the room and closed the door.
It became clear that the room was inside a pocket dimension created by Dark for him.
Arios walked out and said, "What a disgrace. A little child caused me all of this trouble."
His smile disappeared.
"This girl is a successful project. I was an idiot for trying to kill her. But that stupid system… damn it."
Arios attempted to summon the system, but it did not appear.
He realized that the system had truly abandoned him.
Arios flew away and returned home.
He discovered that his family was still unconscious.
He approached them and woke them up.
He succeeded.
Isola said, "Arios, what happened? I was cleaning the living room, and suddenly I found myself asleep on the floor."
Arios said, "Do not worry about it. It was just exhaustion."
He kissed her on the forehead.
"Everything is fine."
He looked at his son and smiled.
"Looks like the little one is tired too."
His son took a nap.
After Arios made sure that his family was safe, he went toward Mythos, whom he had previously moved into the guest room.
Mythos woke up and found Arios sitting there waiting for him.
Mythos said, "Master, did you see what happened?"
Arios said, "Yes. Do not worry. Everything is over now."
Mythos said, "Thank God for that."
Arios said, "You had better continue your training so that you do not fall as badly as you did today."
Arios thought to himself:
"I understand him. I am the one stronger than him, yet I still lost consciousness at that moment. I need to improve myself even further.
And now that I have eliminated Nahira, there is no longer any chance for Eldi Prime to return here.
This is the best thing I have accomplished so far.
Even so…"
Arios looked into the mirror.
"That damn system abandoned me at the exact moment I needed it most. Damn it.
Fine. Now I need to think about how I will deal with Clarisse.
If I make a mistake with her, she will cause me problems. She must never learn about my relationship with Isola, no matter what.
I also need to find a way to get rid of her permanently. She is as annoying as her damn sister.
She almost killed me. Damn it."
Mythos looked toward Arios.
"Are you alright, Master?"
Arios said, "Yes, yes. I am fine. Do not worry."