Chapter 22: | Golden Maiden
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Golden irises glowed in the dark.
It seems my dear descendant has truly reached his limit.
Tch.
Guess it's time I stepped in.
With a single breath, golden brilliance surged from my limbs.
My arms shimmered, shifting into clawed gauntlets of divine light, as I tore through Vinley's constricting vines as if they were nothing but ash.
In the next heartbeat, I vanished, only to reappear between Vinley and my collapsing descendant.
My leg surged with radiant energy, morphing into an ornate arc of divine armor that stopped the abomination's strike mid-air.
Yawning slightly, I tilted my head toward the battered creature I called descendant.
"You're really cornered this time, aren't you?"
Vinley shrieked, a sound warped by rage and disbelief.
"How?! How did you break my vines? This is impossible!"
His disbelief was almost charming.
I flexed my gilded fingers, veins glowing beneath the skin, and with a single step, appeared behind him.
My fist thundered through his tangled flesh.
He recoiled, but I was already there, devouring his vines mid-strike.
My mouth ripped through the vines, their nectar flooding my senses, honeyed, rich, and maddeningly addictive.
Vinley faltered.
His warped features trembled.
How?
How could this be happening?
A Lord-class entity… being humiliated like this?
By a mere Stage 0?
Impossible.
But I was no ordinary being.
"You're wondering why your poison doesn't work on me?"
I said, licking the golden ichor from my knuckles.
"Simple. I isolate it, trap it in a pocket of my body, and then... expel it. You're poison are nothing buf childplay."
Vinley convulsed.
"Liar! You're lying! This can't be real!"
I shrugged, lips curling.
"Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not."
His scream was cut short as my leg shot upward, cracking his chin with divine force.
His body shot into the ceiling crashing.
But he recovered quickly.
His vines pulsed and twisted with rage, soaking up mana before launching like lances.
I sidestepped.
Each one missed.
Not a single tendril touched me.
My form flowed like mercury, precise, poised, before I shattered the barrage with a single strike.
"Is that all?" I asked, tilting my head. "Is this truly your best?"
He hesitated.
I saw it.
Fear.
Vinley's vines trembled as they crawled across the chamber floor, scavenging the shattered remains of his avatar multiple cores.
I watched, amused, as he absorbed them, his own core humming greedily with stolen power.
But he missed one.
From the corner of my eye, I caught it.
A core.
Still pulsing with mana, roughly two hundred units.
I licked my lips.
Lifting it between two fingers, I slipped it into my mouth and swallowed whole.
Inside, my cells coiled, guiding the energy upward.
Flesh twisted.
Nerves latched.
The core embedded itself into my forehead.
Perfect.
I grinned.
My body contorted.
Muscles coiled like steel.
My frame compressed into a refined instrument, an apex of elegance and lethality.
I shed the unnecessary.
I became perfection itself.
Vinley's face split with horror.
"How can you use a core?!"
I brushed my golden hair from my cheek.
"Let me enlighten you, little vine. I could've ended this minutes ago. But I waited… because my descendant needs a lesson. And you? You're the perfect instrument"
In reponse vinley's form began warping again, mimicking mine, his vines compressing, trying to reflect my form.
I raised an eyebrow.
Interesting.
To think he could imitate the Golden Maiden, that I liora personally created to combat unbeatable warriors.
Impressive.
But laughable.
My form eclipsed its crude imitation, for I was not merely divine, I was the perfection that divinity strives to become.
And yet…
Vinley vanished, flickering like refracted light, and reappeared behind me, claw poised to strike.
Too slow.
My golden palm was already at his skull.
CRACK!
I sighed.
"was this truly your best? If so then its disappointing."
With a flex, I crushed his head like overripe fruit.
Then I appeared behind him again.
"Golden Maiden — First Form: Sacred Banishment."
A lattice of glowing lines spiraled across his body, divine glyphs blooming like radiant flowers.
He shrieked, but the light consumed him.
A heartbeat passed.
Then another.
BOOM.
His body ruptured and disintegrated, only his core remained, trembling in the silence.
I exhaled softly.
"Truly an intriguing existence."
Then, green lines.
They coiled up my limbs.
Agony flashed through me as golden blood splattered the stone.
I staggered, coughing.
My vision doubled.
My skin paled.
"What...?"
Vinley hadn't died.
He hadn't been erased.
He had evolved.
The vines were gone.
What remained was stone.
A towering form, mimicking mine, but forged from sediments and raw magic.
A golem.
"I tell you."
Vinley rumbled, voice like distant thunder.
"That it is impossible for me to die."
The sheer absurdity of his words struck me like comedy from the heavens.
I laughed.
"How can you laugh?!"
He roared.
I smiled, my golden irises gleaming.
"Oh, you poor, sweet fool… don't you realize? You're already dead."
He hesitated.
"Wha...?"
Golden glyphs flared across his stony flesh.
Too late.
His body crumbled.
His core drifted upward, its light flickering.
And then.
CHOMP.
A massive maw devoured it.
Vinley gasped.
"I see… such a shame… that my existence… ends here…"
And it did.
I stood tall as divine light faded.
My form returned to its natural state.
The core embedded in my brow dissolved into golden dust.
I smiled one last time.
"A pity."
I whispered.
"It could've been nice… if you hadn't underestimated us."
---
What… did I just witness?
Liora… she didn't just win.
She played with him.
Vinley, the so-called impossible-to-kill monster, was nothing more than a chew toy in her hands.
My jaw tightened as I crushed Vinley's crystalline core between my teeth, devouring the last trace of his avatar.
Liora didn't even bother delivering the finishing blow.
She could have.
The moment she invoked.
Golden Maiden – First Form: Sacred Banishment
Vinley's existence would've been erased without question.
But she didn't.
Why?
She knew.
She planned for him to reconstruct, to show me how tenacious vinley was.
And she left the final strike to me.
It was intentional, so I'd gain the experience points, the growth I needed.
She didn't say it outright… but I understood.
Liora stretched, her posture casual, and then whined.
"You're really a scumbag, making a woman of beauty like me step in and fight. Ugh, disgraceful."
I sighed.
Didn't you volunteer? You could've just left me to die.
Walked away and forgotten me.
So… why?
No one had ever helped me like that before.
Not without expecting something in return.
I was always alone.
Truly alone.
But Liora...
She felt like family.
A warmth spread through my chest as I looked at her, smiling without meaning to.
Then she looked back.
"What's with that look?" she sneered. "Ew, did you eat something bad?"
Heh.
Still the same Liora.
I chuckled, shaking my head as I devoured the last remnants of Vinley's avatar and the nearby vines, savoring the rush of mana and flavor.
Liora was already moving too, humming to herself as she picked up bits of vine, strapping them to her back and munching away.
"Don't look at me like that,"
She said between bites.
"And just so you know, I'm not sharing."
Greedy as always.
But I couldn't blame her.
Vinley's vines were absurdly delicious.
Dense with mana, rich with nutrients.
A delicacy.
Liora's strength was truly something else.
Even without a core, she was overwhelming.
With one, she was terrifying.
Her ability to transform her body at will, her efficiency… her technique…
It was all too absurd.
I wanted to study it.
To analyze every motion, every ripple of her power.
But she wouldn't fight again just for show.
Still, the spoils from this battle, incredible.
A holographic interface flickered before me.
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[You have slain.]
• Stage 1 Tier 8 Level 30 — [★★★★★ Blooming Abyssal Vine]
[You have gained 3,500,000 EXP.]
[You have gained a level.] x16
[You have successfully devoured.]
• Stage 1 Tier 8 Level 30 — [★★★★★ Blooming Abyssal Vine]
• Stage 1 Tier 6 Level 20 — [★★★★ Chimeric Titan Crab]
[You have gained new skills:]
• Avatar Synthesis
• Cradle of Blooming Flesh
• Tendril Assimilation
• Lashing Hive Tendrils
• Neurotoxic Bloom
• Multi-Core Convergence
• Regenerative Web
• Verdant Abyss Core
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Bountiful.
Absolutely bountiful.
Vinley truly lived up to his reputation, impossible to kill, relentless, terrifying.
I couldn't help but admire his will to survive.
But he made one mistake.
He underestimated us.
Especially Liora.
And now, I, Alister von Fai, will carry forward.
I will lead my race to prosperity.
Rise to emperorhood.
And protect Liora from anything that dares to harm her.
…But for now…
My vision began to blur.
Drowsiness clung to my limbs.
Sleep pulled at me like a tide.
Liora climbed onto my side and flopped over lazily, snoozing like a sloth without a care in the world.
Vinley was the strongest foe we'd faced.
Admirable, in a way.
If we'd met under different circumstances, perhaps…
Friendship wouldn't have been impossible.
The waters calmed.
The cavern lay in silence, its stillness a stark contrast to the battle that had just raged.
And far, far below…
Thousands of miles deeper.
A writhing mass shifted in the dark.
Watching. Waiting.
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