Chapter 130: Proud, Greedy and Selfish

"...What happened to you two?" Typhon asks after returning from a successful "mission." She managed to find out what she needed with an almost frightening efficiency—what would take others years to uncover, she accomplished in mere hours with her power and intellect.

"..." Nio glances at Nioh in the corner.

"Nothing. Just this horned bitch over here being frustrated. Ignore her. You look satisfied—did you figure out how to get off this floor?" Nio asks, eager to climb to the next floor as soon as possible.

"Yes, I discovered where the entrance to the third floor is, but it’ll take some time since it’s outside the city. We can go now... or I can give you two some time," Typhon says, staring at Nioh and seeing the resentment in her eyes.

"..."

"I think we should go now. The sooner the better—after all, there’s no telling when conditions will change," Nio says confidently.

"..." Typhon locks eyes with Nioh for a beat too long, then approaches her, grabs her arms, and lifts her off the ground.

"W-What are you doing?!" Nioh says, startled.

"Just giving my first wife some attention. You seem hurt." Typhon’s sudden gentleness toward Nioh catches Nio off guard.

"Typhon?" Nio is confused by this, while Typhon looks at Nio and gives her a look of disapproval.

"You two should get along. You’re the same person," Typhon says as if all the blame falls on Nio.

"Hey!! Why are you looking at me like I’m the guilty one?! She started it!!" Typhon ignores Nio as she heads for the door.

"Let’s move forward. We have things to do." Typhon keeps carrying Nioh, who—out of a mix of fear and jealousy—stays quiet in Typhon’s arms. Nio follows the two, biting her lips in anger at being blamed, as they begin walking down a path.

The entire way, Typhon’s affectionate attitude toward Nioh truly leaves Nio—the ’favorite’—with a bitter feeling. But Typhon completely underestimated Nio. Underestimated Nio’s greed.

’This doesn’t seem right...’ Nio follows the two, but with every passing minute she tries to piece the moment together against the mold of her past. She spends hours analyzing memories from when she first started playing the game.

"..." And after seven hours of travel, Typhon arrives at the location with the entrance to the third floor—a giant black fissure like a crack.

"This is it. The entrance to the third floor. Seems like it’s the only one in an immense area. I have to say we were very lucky to appear close to it," Typhon says in a positive tone, setting Nioh down on the ground.

"...Nioh, I’m sorry. I want to apologize." Nio suddenly speaks, leaving Nioh genuinely surprised.

"What? After what you did? You—"

"Yes, I was wrong. I’m sorry... I-I messed up bad." Nio starts crying as she runs into Nioh’s arms.

"Heh? Huh? I-I—" Nio kisses Nioh suddenly. Nioh tries to react, but Nio squeezes her tight in the embrace.

"I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have fought with you." Nio slides her tongue into Nioh’s mouth in an intense kiss, which for a moment makes Nioh stop resisting. Nio glances sideways at Typhon’s eyes.

"N-Nio..." Nioh tries to speak, but Nio stops her by forcing the kiss to deepen.

"I love you, Nioh. I really shouldn’t have hurt you. I-I was being irrational. I love you more than anything. You’re my other half." The mix of their saliva drips from Nioh’s lips down to her chin.

"Okay, it’s good that you’re getting along, but we have to—" As Typhon speaks and reaches out to separate the two, Nio gets the confirmation she wanted, then simply delivers a violent kick to Nioh’s stomach, making her gasp in pain as she’s shoved against the fissure.

"???" Typhon is confused by the sudden shift from a deep kiss to violent aggression. That brief lapse in her response is all Nio needs.

"[Time God’s Rift]"

[Time God’s Rift] — High-level magic that completely breaks the order between time and space in a given area.

Nio casts high-level magic as she punches Typhon in the face, breaking one of her teeth and shoving her back. Nio beats her wings with maximum force, generating a violent gust of wind as she enters the fissure.

"!!!" Before Typhon can follow them, time and space shatter completely, destroying the fissure and leaving Typhon on the second floor while Nio and Nioh are carried to the third.

"...Nio..." Typhon’s gaze turns dangerous. Meanwhile, for Nio and Nioh, the journey is slightly longer. Both float in a black void while Nioh clutches her stomach in pain.

"W-What the hell do you think you’re doing?" Nioh says, her voice trembling from the pain.

"Helping us. My apologies were partially fake, but I admit I was wrong... I realized that when Typhon arrived and held you instead of favoring me." Nio speaks in a cold tone as she licks her lips.

’Her saliva is kind of sweet...’ Nio savors the taste while breathing calmly, knowing she completely destroyed Typhon’s chance to follow them to the third floor. Now Typhon will be forced to waste weeks or months finding another fissure.

"I-I don’t get it..." Nioh recovers as she also licks her lips, but mentally tries to ignore the taste.

"It happened when I was around seventeen years old in the game. I was trying to trick two girls to get an item. But neither of them wanted to give it up, and I was starting to look suspicious."

"So what I did was simple. I started giving all my attention to one of them to rebuild trust. But when the girl I was giving attention to hurt the other girl, what I did was give total attention, reason, and comfort to the hurt girl—not the one I had originally been focusing on."

"I read in a book in the past that this trick creates a certain desperation, because the person feels like they’re losing something of value. So they try to maintain that bond by changing their attitude. In the end, the girl I originally gave attention to gave me the item I wanted to regain my support."

"Of course, I PK’d them a day later to steal some of their items, but it worked. I realized Typhon did the same thing the moment she chose to carry you in her arms instead of inflating my ego."

"That was Typhon’s mistake... I hate to admit it, but... I’m greedy as hell and pretty damn proud. In my mind, I was right in our fight, and my ego should have been validated. Seeing my attention shift to you didn’t make me scared or desperate—it made me fucking furious. And that’s when I remembered I’d done this before. That’s the only reason I saw through the deception."

"I don’t know exactly what Typhon was trying to do, but I judged that... it was dangerous. I was falling for it like a little duckling, so I chose to distance myself from her. I know Typhon will find us."

"That’s obvious. I give it a few months at most. She already said I smell like her now—she’ll find us as soon as she can reach the third floor. But in that time, we can try to rebuild the bond between us that broke." Nio explains, trying to sound sincere.

"...Hahaha, so you finally noticed that snake is manipulative?"

"...Look, I don’t want to fight. Can we just forget this? I was being deceived, but I saw it before it got worse... If Typhon had stayed on my side during our fight, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the manipulation. But since I did, I did what was best for both of us." Nioh looks at Nio, seeing the sincerity in her words.

"...You’re right... a few weeks away from that lunatic will do us good. We can’t become enemies, Nio. We need to take down Typhon... I’m sorry for what I said before. I know I went too far... Don’t worry, I won’t try to steal anything that’s yours—the palace, the servants, or the treasure. I don’t care about any of that." Nioh tries to smooth everything over and soothe Nio’s greed and ego.

She even feels a little proud of how brilliant Nio was. She staged the whole kiss situation to finish testing Typhon. When Typhon saw that Nio wanted to make peace, she tried to separate the two. That reaction shows she didn’t want that—it’s the reaction of a manipulator who didn’t want the fight to end calmly with apologies and forgiveness. And that’s why Nio attacked Typhon and fled, preventing Typhon from following them.

"Nio, your mind is terrifying, but I’m glad... at least you’re using it against Typhon."

"...Yeah... I don’t think an apology will fix everything between us, Nioh. I still hate you. But I know part of that is artificially implanted by Typhon’s attitude. So... let’s see how we fare on the third floor." Nio says to Nioh, hoping she didn’t make the wrong choice in choosing Nioh.

"Great, Nio... but it’s really absurd that what made you notice the deception was the fact that you’re too proud to accept begging for affection or being contradicted, too selfish to accept something being taken from you, and too greedy to the point of considering even that snake’s affection as something that should be yours."

"..." Nio stays quiet, not knowing if she’s being praised or criticized—preferring not to know so they don’t fight again.