Chapter 360

Apocalypse has no words for what has just happened.

She thought she was giving Jacob Cloud a death sentence in the form of Mana nodes. That’s why she made perfectly filled Adamantite Rank Mana nodes. Instead, she has just delivered to him four incredible Skills.

The most upsetting thing was that Apocalypse could read all of Jacob Cloud’s Skills before. And other than the stupid lullaby that he got — she didn’t know where — she knew that in order to gain Heartfire, a hated Skill that Rafnov himself had learned at some point, Jacob Cloud had sacrificed all his other Skills. And despite being a master of Primordial Magic, and thus able to somehow make up for them, he had become too one-dimensional to be a good fighter.

Despite having killed Lyra thanks to the Heartfire, having only one Skill would have penalized him in the long run. And he was only Diamond Rank, with his power, which was going to shrink more and more over the years because of this. In fact, he might not have even reached Imperium Rank in earnest with only a Heartfire Skill. And it would have been extremely hard, if not impossible, to find the right synergy that would have complemented Heartfire’s power.

But now, Apocalypse has just handed Jacob Cloud exactly that synergy. Instead of having him waste decades of his life trying to gather the kind of Skills that he would have needed to make it to Imperium Rank, she had just handed them over on a silver platter — thinking that it would have killed him instead.

And now, she could feel the door to this room opening, and Revenge, her child, turning to her with a quizzical expression.

“Your Majesty,” Revenge says with a hesitant tone, “did you allow him to become stronger because you wanted to test me?”

“Perhaps. Of course. That was actually my intent all this time,” Apocalypse conceded, seeing Jacob Cloud and the girl strolling calmly into the room. “This is all a trial for you, my dear child. Once you kill them, I will absorb their flesh and blood.”

- - -

Jacob and Taya are entering the boss’s room. And Jacob is quite perturbed by the sight of Apocalypse.

It’s not a graceful goddess, a woman of wonder, that he’s facing. Apocalypse is barely a mummy. She’s missing all vital organs from her body. She has rotting legs and an empty ribcage upon which brown muscle sits in clumps. Her face is only half decomposed, though. And Jacob can see part of her beautiful, stunning features around that rotten body of hers.

Beside her, there is a more powerful creature — at least in Rank. With a quick analysis from the Grimoire, Jacob sees that it’s a Dungeon Core, crystallized into a body — like Lyra, her Apostle, had been.

So Jacob says, “You’re not looking too good, are you?”

“How dare you?” Revenge shouts at him.

Jacob barely looks at the crystallized Dungeon Core, and waits for Apocalypse to speak.

“I am surprised you managed to overcome my trial, but it was all part of my plan. You will now face my new child, and she will avenge Lyra for me. She’s much stronger, since she has a larger piece of my power.”

Jacob looks at the silvery woman and then back at Apocalypse and thinks, How shameless can a Primordial Goddess be? That wasn’t part of her plan. I could only manage something like that because of Taya’s power. If she hadn’t directed me on what to do, I would have been dead ten times over. And this goddess here is claiming that it was all part of her plan? No, it wasn’t.

But Jacob couldn’t say that out loud. It’s clear that Apocalypse can’t fully feel Taya’s power — if at all. It’s probably something that Jacob’s grandfather, Gornyakov himself, had planned: for a Primordial God not to be able to feel the presence of the power of another Primordial God. Making Taya a Primordial God’s bane, in truth.

But Jacob scans Revenge and is thinking about what to do, because she’s a bit too strong for them. Well, she would be, if Jacob didn’t have the Grimoire back — and Taya’s powers.

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“I will now watch as my creation annihilates you two, and then I will feast on your flesh, and this body will finally be complete. You have gained powerful Skills, Jacob Cloud. But Skills at Adamantite Rank — your talent will not be able to fully exploit them, not even with the Grimoire. In fact…” Apocalypse just turns off the Grimoire again. “I think it’s better if you don’t cheat now. With my presence here, you won’t be able to use the Grimoire like you did with Lyra.”

The next moment, Jacob feels a stabbing pain in his guts and sees that Revenge has moved so fast he missed her. The distance between an Intermediate Imperium Rank power and a Peak Imperium Rank power is like the distance between heaven and earth.

“This is what happens when—” Revenge is about to say, but suddenly Taya, with a face contorted in rage, has grabbed her silvery face and said, “Earthquake Slam.”

The next second, a gigantic crater forms in the ground as the head of the silver Dungeon Core gets slammed right at the center of the boss’s room.

Jacob steps back and sees that Molten Body of the Blazing King has replaced his flesh with magma.

Holy—

He can feel the magma is slowly healing, but in the meanwhile, it is filling in for his body’s natural functions. Plus, he also hears another notification, because instinctively, after that attack, he feels that the Skill can slightly be improved.

[Molten Body of the Blazing King (Adamantite) reached Level 2]

Jacob looks at Taya, who kicks the body through against the wall, making it cave in and making the entire Dungeon shake. Rocks fall from the ceiling, and Apocalypse is wide-eyed.

What is such power? she thinks internally.

But it’s not just the power. Taya’s power is not as overwhelming as it feels. It’s just that she moved with incredible efficacy and managed to catch Revenge with her guard down twice in a row, exploiting specific moments in time where the crystallized Dungeon Core couldn’t have attacked back.

Taya takes a few steps back until she’s shoulder to shoulder with Jacob, and then she communicates with him mentally.

We’re going to kill that Primordial Goddess. But first, you should level up those Skills. This is not an opportunity that comes often.

Uh… she’s right. I can feel it.

You will have a hard time leveling these up. But because of your Karmic ties with her, it will be easier to level up against that thing.

Jacob doesn’t really understand what Karmic ties have anything to do with this, but at this point, he’s pretty much given up on understanding Karma at all.

And so he says to Taya, still mentally, All right, let’s do it.

Follow my directions, and circulate the Mana the way I tell you to.

All right, Jacob replies.

- - -

Apocalypse sees Revenge coming out of the wall, slashing with her glaive to make way through the rock, and sees the girl that just attacked her step behind Jacob for some reason.

“What a coward,” Apocalypse snarls. “You attack my child and then hide behind that bastard? Don’t worry. You will both get killed now.”

Apocalypse sees Revenge lunging again for Jacob, this time aiming at his head. Apocalypse had ordered her child to make Jacob suffer, to shred him to pieces slowly. But considering what a threat Jacob is, she’s not going to waste any more time. It might already have been a mistake not to take the first opportunity to kill him.

Now I’m just being paranoid, the Primordial Goddess thinks. I should stop giving him so much credit. It’s starting to impact my own thinking.

And yet, just as the Primordial Goddess thinks that, a shield of blazing red light, with molten lava at its edges, appears on Jacob’s left arm — angled perfectly, such that the stabbing glaive skids on top of it, shattering the Skill on impact because of its force, but also forcing Revenge to stumble forward with her momentum.

And then, upon Jacob Cloud’s silvery sword appears a blazing hot aura, and he stabs Revenge through the guts, just like she had done to him.

Apocalypse had seen in real time, because of her powers, Jacob Cloud’s Molten Body of the Blazing King reach level two. And now she sees that the Molten Shield of the Blazing King has just reached…

[Molten Shield of the Blazing King (Adamantite) reached Level 3]

[Molten Blade of the Blazing King (Adamantite) reached Level 2]

The blade shines slightly brighter and deals some damage to Revenge, but it’s nothing. And it’s trapped Jacob Cloud now, making Apocalypse cackle wildly.

But Revenge can’t use her glaive to attack Jacob, since they are in such close quarters now. So she clenches a fist and gets ready to make his head explode like a watermelon with a punch.

But suddenly, the girl has stepped in and hooked Revenge’s arm so that she cannot punch Jacob. And Jacob Cloud raises a foot, places it on Revenge’s midsection, and says, “Molten Step of the Blazing King.”

The Skill activates, and the movement Skill becomes effectively an offensive Skill, burning Revenge’s abdomen and making Jacob Cloud disentangle from the crystallized Dungeon Core. Taya removes her hook from the arm before she can be shot back like an arrow together with Revenge.

And once again, Revenge is repelled, skidding back for many feet until she lunges again.

But Jacob Cloud seems to have developed a perfect parrying instinct.

And more importantly, Apocalypse has seen another notification appear.

[Molten Step of the Blazing King (Adamantite) reached Level 2]