Chapter 131: Hidden Truths

"I’m so sorry, Nio. I truly regret it, and I’m ashamed..." Typhon says, looking at the completely destroyed "fissure."

"You noticed part of my manipulation. I doubt you noticed all of it... I chose to make you jealous, and I made the wrong call. I won’t underestimate you again when we meet..." Typhon isn’t angry with Nio.

No, she’s actually happy. Happy that Nio threw away a trump card. Typhon was taking Nio seriously, but she was also underestimating Nio’s emotions. And now that Nio has shown she can pick up on certain specific manipulations that touch what she desires, Typhon has gained a deeper insight into Nio.

And that’s exactly what Typhon wants. She doesn’t know "Nio" that well. She knows everything about Nioh, since Nioh is her first wife and they lived together for a long time — she understands how she thinks. But Typhon’s knowledge of Nio is shallow, at best. All she knows is what Nio did in the "game." In other words, she has a broken mold of who Nio is.

And she’s putting the pieces together. Nio just handed her another piece. So Typhon is genuinely happy that Nio showed this sharper side of herself.

"Your move was clever too. The fissure in Hell is a fissure in space, so if space itself is destroyed, the fissure goes with it by being deformed..." Typhon stares at the warped fissure.

If she tries to enter, two things could happen. Either she ends up in a completely random location on the second floor, or her body gets hideously deformed. The odds lean toward the second option.

"You really do deserve a reward... after all... you showed a delightfully strategic mindset..." Typhon gives a slightly dangerous smile, pleased at having been fooled by Nio. She loves these strategic games.

’I need to get to the third floor... I’ll have to find another door now... this will take a while... though I doubt Nio and Nioh will manage to fix the massive hole in their relationship in such a short time...’ Typhon knows her plans haven’t been destroyed.

Only delayed. Her goal and plans remain exactly the same, because the truth is, the two Nios still have the same problems with each other, and that won’t be fixed just because they ran off for a while.

"I wanted to avoid looking frightening to Nio. Since she’s not here... I suppose I can use this." Since arriving in Hell, Nio asked Typhon three times whether Typhon had gone easy on her during their fight.

And Typhon truly didn’t hold back — she fought seriously. But there’s a vast gap between fighting seriously and using everything she has. Typhon deliberately restrained herself multiple times during the fight so Nio wouldn’t see some of the disturbing magic Typhon possesses.

And Nioh herself has also never seen the real power Typhon has when she decides to cast appearances aside. But for a being like Typhon, seeming "frightening" in that sense is bad for a relationship.

Now, since neither of the Nios can see or know anything about what she does, Typhon decides not to hold back.

"[Sho-Gy***Yr---###Ra]" Typhon uses magic, but the pronunciation is only partially intelligible. Part of the sound of the words is distorted, deep static, because among conceptual entities, words aren’t what’s used in most abilities.

[Sho-Gy***Yr---###Ra] A magic that releases the spiritual manifestation of nature from the caster’s body.

Typhon’s body is torn in half vertically, starting from the top of her head down to her waist, as if "blooming." From the waist down, roots tear through her flesh, opening holes as they burrow into the ground.

Meanwhile, in the upper half, a pink sphere releases roots that grow upward. The roots are the color of blood, feeding on Typhon’s flesh and blood as the roots and vines merge into an immense structure resembling a seed in appearance, suspended by a thick stem.

The shape of the seed adjusts, becoming like a massive carnivorous plant that blooms into five points like a flower full of teeth. The inside is lined with triangular teeth, and at the center of the mouth sits a giant red eye with black veins.

"-----------------------" The plant lets out a thunderous roar, the sound mixed with static. It reverberates for miles — a sound that makes any listener within range start bleeding from the ears.

The roots in the ground spread at an alarming rate, feeding on the blood and flesh that the tentacles and the environment have stored. The speed at which the vines spread is absurd.

And when they reach the city area, the roots burst from the soil, capturing every living being. The roots grow inside their bodies, using them as fertilizer while all their blood is constantly drained, leaving them dried out.

Since they can’t die, they become an endless source of blood, unable to do anything while the immense plant grows. It continues spreading its roots, searching for a new portal to the third floor.

All this bizarre scene was done solely to find the door to the third floor. This grotesque display of what was supposedly a "plant" serves no purpose other than being an immense living radar.

And it’s no wonder Typhon hides this type of magic — more than half of her spells produce bizarre sights like this. And if a "simple" locating spell does this, Nio would undoubtedly be disgusted imagining what Typhon’s other spells look like visually.

’It should take a while until the vines spread far enough...’ Typhon is fully conscious and doesn’t even feel pain from what she did to her body. She knows it will return to normal soon.

Or rather, the plant will keep going even after she leaves. When she stops using magic, her body will regenerate and she’ll emerge from the plant — like being "born again," in a way.

’At this rate, I should cover the distance of thirty Earths stacked in two weeks... that’s roughly 382,260 kilometers... about the distance from Earth to the Moon in Nio’s world... I’m so weak... this magic was much faster before. I could cover galaxies in an hour with it...’ Typhon feels mild frustration at the reduced range, which will make finding the entrance to the next floor take longer.

’That’s fine. I’ll give Nio this time to have fun. Once I reach the third floor, I’ll be able to find her with one hundred percent certainty anyway, because of my scent on her body.’ The fact that Typhon deliberately limited which magic she used

was one of the reasons Nio won, even without much real combat experience. Even fighting seriously, Typhon had a restricted set of abilities she was willing to use throughout the battle.

That doesn’t take away from Nio’s merit, but it makes Typhon’s true power far more terrifying than Nioh and Nio imagined. And it shows that Nio urgently needs experience, because the next time they fight, Typhon won’t care anymore if she does disturbing things.

Because in the next fight, there will be something that wasn’t in the last one: permanent death. And even someone like Typhon won’t accept dying permanently.