LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 122: Battle between Man and Sphinx
'How overpowered,' thought Cassius as he watched various emotions flash past Hellion's stunning irises. 'Although I know it's only thanks to her excellence that I can obtain so much Rebirth Essence from each death, it's still incredible to watch it happen in real time. Furthermore, with each Skill rank-up comes a complete daily status recovery, meaning that I still have 5 more daily death chances.'
Simply put, this meant he could now fully revive five more times while fighting the Hellish Sphinx—
SPLAT! Experience exclusive tales on empire
[Acquired 600 AP from trolling the Hellish Sphinx, Hellion.]
Even while in death, Cassius was obtaining AP because of the surging emotions of the normally unresponsive Hellion. This resulted in her exerting even more effort to utterly obliterate the human that somehow returned to life twice now. Just once could be considered a fluke, but two would be a miracle, and three would be…
"Impossible…"
Right before Hellion's widened eyes, she saw Cassius return to peak condition, with his erased blood particle state nowhere present in his current elegance. And somehow, his Newbie 5 Equipment Set died with him and returned to him, same with his Lilith tattoo and Shadow Evomon.
In every avenue, what he was doing was impossible.
Hellion, as perceptive as she was, also realized just how much of an enigma this man was. In quick, repeated succession, she witnessed several things that shouldn't have even been possibilities.
However, she immediately snapped out of her stupor after giving Cassius another 650 AP. And when she decisively struck forward, prepared to unleash multiple region-destroying level attacks, she saw his mischievous smirk blur to a level that was at least three times faster than before.
How!?
What was happening right now!?
[Acquired 700 AP from trolling the Hellish Sphinx, Hellion.]
Every time Cassius obtained AP from trolling Hellion, he dumped 80% of it into his Agility stat. Which, in addition to his 'I AM SPEED' effects, caused his speed to rapidly approach the S-Rank.
In other words, even without taking off his incredibly heavy Equipment Set, his speed neared the very beginning of the pinnacle stage of the world.
This level of speed—it was not something an average mortal would be able to comprehend, let alone visualize. It was absurd.
Yet, even with all of these Agility boosts coming in, Hellion, the Gate Guardian, was still faster.
"...You are an anomaly…" Hellion murmured in disbelief. "You also seem to be capable of becoming stronger through battle—this shouldn't be possible to this degree. But this ability of yours, along with that regeneration ability, should enable you to survive in HELL. At least until you encounter 'true' monsters… But…"
RUMBLE!!!
An immensely powerful aura erupted from Hellion, creating rolling waves of goldish-brown energy that blasted out in an astoundingly powerful fashion. Everything, from the Oracle Sphinx's Pyramid to the surrounding hundred miles, began to violently tremble. Even the stray Demons fled in fear of offending that extremely powerful presence.
"But if the more powerful Demon Hegemonies on the highest Floors catch wind of your existence and your abilities, your death will never arrive," continued Hellion, her tone void of emotion. "You will become a guinea pig. I cannot allow this."
"So I still have to die?" asked Cassius, rather laid-back by the entire ordeal.
"Yes."
"I understand."
Silence.
For a moment, time seemed to freeze.
Then, the two stubborn contenders tapped forward, causing the ground around them to crack outward for miles on end. By now, the Oracle Sphinx's Pyramid's 5th Floor had been completely demolished. They were now battling each other on the 4th Floor.
A few seconds later.
Cassius died four times more, yet managed to upgrade his Nirvana Rebirth Skill to the A+ Rank. Moreover, he got his Ordinary Phoenix Bloodline past the 10% mark, which made even more fiery red illusory feathers appear around his demonic figure.
His improvements were immense, and he could now revive 8 times a day. But the Pyramid, on the other hand, had been utterly demolished, with every single floor mixed into rubble that was constantly being pushed back due to the two struggling humanoids. As their battle escalated in intensity, with Hellion being forced to use more of her power because of his unexplainable increases in speed, even curious Lesser Abyssal Demons became collateral.
None in HELL's Trial Gate area were even capable of interfering with a battle at this level. And those foolish enough to attempt to intervene ended up dying without ever knowing which one of the sides had even killed them.
The battle between 'Man?' and Sphinx was one that shattered layer after layer of HELL's Trial Gate area. Moreover, that damage only became more extensive the longer that time passed, as Cassius officially reached a level that forced even the stupidly powerful Hellish Sphinx to withhold no hidden cards.
Five minutes later.
Cassius, now perched atop a massive circular ball of condensed scarlet energy, stared at the collapsed Egyptian beauty gasping for breath on the ball with him. At first, he appeared severely injured, but all those grievous injuries healed in the same period of time that Hellion took to exhale a single breath.
"My strongest attack… 'The Oracle of HELL,' an S+ Skill capable of eradicating a small country," Hellion mumbled as she haggardly watched the nonchalant human heal from the damage in little more than a second. "...Child, just what are you…?"
"What am I?" Cassius smirked. "I am an Acolyte of Character Development. Only because of my faith was I able to survive dying 17 times to you. Though, to be honest, even I was surprised by how many times I fell to your power. In particular, that last attack of yours—the one that made this… mess… killed me 3 or 4 times. I was really close to dying for real, ha…"
He briefly observed the hundreds of miles of desolation around the colossal energy ball, with Hellion also struggling to follow his gaze.
To put the destruction into perspective, the scarlet energy ball they were situated on was a variation of the Atomic Dragonfire Burst Skill—an attack that Cassius had summoned just in case things went wrong. Yet, even with it being thousands of meters wide, it looked like a mere speck if one zoomed out and saw the ridiculous crater formed from Hellion's ultimate trump card.