NOVEL FROG Chapter 94: Hive
Zyrus’s return was unnoticed by the players. They were too busy pummeling down the poor Nuckelavee.
‘Looks like a couple of days have passed,’
Zyrus frowned and called over Elsid. The time difference between the earth and sanctuary was difficult to determine. Be it the scientific explanations related to black holes or something like time dilation, nothing made sense. It wasn’t the first time when he was confused about his regression.
But as it was often the case, one needed to be strong enough to seek the truth. Zyrus gave Elsid more detailed orders about the next plans and heard his reports. There weren’t any scuffles in his absence, partially due to the work done by Kyle and Lauren.
“Good. Tell them to keep weeding out the players. It’s fine if they sacrifice some innocent players, but in no circumstances do I want an inside threat. Even if they don’t have any malicious intent towards our group, we still need to keep an eye on those with shady characters,”
“Yes, my liege,” Elsid nodded and vanished into the dragon of war’s shadows.
Zyrus didn’t dally any further and jumped down into the ocean as well. His crown’s authority would instantly kill anyone who was a threat to him, but would things be that simple? Killing the perpetrator wouldn’t necessarily resolve the effects of their scheme.
‘Oftentimes, even the traitors don’t realize what they’re doing- thereby becoming someone else’s dagger,’
It was one of the common methods used to deal with who had the crown's fealty. Authorities were strong without a doubt, but any competent ruler would never let down their guard.
Zyrus just needed a little exp to level up. Based on previous trips to earth, it wouldn’t matter if waited for a day or two to go back. However, he still decided to be as fast as possible. Every fraction of a second could determine the outcome.
The final piece of his plan was set into motion.
‘Xisheng arts…I look forward to how it’ll work with Avatar,’
Although he was lost in thoughts, his eyes were focused on a school of fish ahead.
“Form,”
A large underwater vortex formed beneath the fish. It was silent and deadly like a viper’s strike. Zyrus was unable to breathe underwater, but holding his breath for a few minutes was within his scope.
-12,-12,-6,-12,-3,-0,-12,-3,-0,-24
.
.
.
Exp +5
Exp +5
.
.
He repeated the same process for an hour before a new notification popped up.
Level up!
[+2 Strength]
[+1 Agility]
[+1 Mana]
It was time to finish the battle which started more than half a year ago.
…
The first thing Zyrus saw after returning was the glemorax king’s disdainful smile. Just this was enough of an indicator that barely any time had passed.
Void quandary was on the verge of piercing through the glemorax king’s defense. Zyrus’s absence was shorter than a blink of an eye, but in this short period, he had recovered his mana and stamina.
More importantly, he had recovered from his fatigue of using willpower. The power of his source of origin wasn’t unlimited. Every second he drew upon that power was fueled by his willpower. It was far more strenuous than using mana or stamina.
*ROOOOOAR*
Zyrus once again transformed into an abyssal dragon. He executed Xisheng arts Without giving the glemorax king a chance to act.
*Crrrack*
The gigantic tail of the abyssal dragon hummed with violent tremors. Every bone and tendon of his tail was breaking apart under the large amount of energy. The pain Zyrus felt right now was beyond excruciating.
[Xisheng Arts: Sacrifice]
The lower half of the abyssal dragon transformed into a pillar of black light, falling right behind the void quandary.
From the moment when the glemorax king was trapped to this attack, a mere few seconds had passed. Zyrus had used all of his trump cards such as the scroll, the cube’s travel function, Void quandary, and the Xisheng arts.
Unless he created new moves there was no way he could deal with the remaining two lords with the same means.
The glemorax king also realized this fact. It was set in stone that he would fail his mission, so all he wanted was to expose as many as Zyrus's hidden cards.
It was just that he failed to gauge the might of those cards.
‘Protect me after this’ Zyrus sent his thoughts to Franken who was still using the scroll. There was one last move in his arsenal.
[Xisheng Arts: The flesh is fleeting, but power is eternal]
[Sacrifice any part of your body to store mana and vitality. The designated part will be disabled until you release the seal]
Effects: Depends on the sacrificed part and duration.
CD: None
A dragon’s tail accounted for a considerable amount of its attack power, and it was even more so for the current Zyrus. His normal state as a sylvarix resembled a mix of a dragoman and a lizardman, both of which were notorious for their tail attacks.
He had stored an abundance of mana and vitality into his tail. His current attack was the result of his four months of accumulation.
‘But I can’t kill him with that,’
Zyrus channeled every bit of his strength into the beam of light. Mana, stamina, willpower, and even his abundant life force. Everything he had was used in this attack.
The disdainful grin had long since vanished from the glemorax king’s face. He felt something was amiss from the moment Zyrus transformed once again. He believed that this attack was Zyrus’s last-ditch effort.
It was a pity that he was wrong.
[Spatial Stab]
The black beam of light vanished, and so did the void quandary. What replaced them was a tiny dot on the glemorax king’s heart.
What Zyrus used wasn’t the curse of collapse which he used against the scorpion king. It was the original version of spatial stab which he had used against Nidraxis, an attack that carried all of his power.
The glemorax king had a tranquil expression on his face. Never did he expect to meet his end like this.
His fate was sealed since the moment he was targeted by the spatial stab. An unimaginable amount of energy was compressed into that tiny dot. The dense mass and gravity collapsed the space itself, and the space in which glemorax king stood was no exception.
It didn’t matter what his league of existence was or what dimension he came from. The laws of void ignored everything in the collapsed space.
Thanks to his title’s effects Zyrus was able to maintain his consciousness. He wasn’t the least bit proud as he saw the glemorax king’s demise.
“The day that black dot ceases to exist would be the day I slay the Eternals,”
That would be the true manifestation of the laws of void. An attack beyond the realms of cause and effect, that was the pinnacle of spatial stab.
Franken pulled Zyrus on his back and started running at a breakneck speed. The horrifying aftereffects of the spatial stab were just starting.
The tiny dot sucked in the giant glemorax king in but an instant. What followed next was the sky above and the land below. It was as if the entire earth was tuned into a painted canvas, and that canvas was being sucked into a tiny dot.
Trees and mountains were stretched like thin lines as they converged at one point. Even Zyrus didn’t expect such an outcome. If the spatial stab was this frightening on a land where two dimensions were merged, then what would happen when it encroached on the fragile earth?
“Damn it! I can’t outrun it,” Franken cursed as he felt like even his limbs were affected by the black dot.
“Looks like I underestimated my own attack,”
“No shit, don’t use a suicidal attack like this when I’m around,”
“Does that matter? If I die then you’ll also lose your existence,”
“At least that’s less frustrating than thhhhh-!” Franken screamed as his legs were stretched thin like noodles.
[<[ Thank you for your help ]>]
At that timely moment, a flying squirrel swooshed down on Franken’s head. Zyrus was taken aback as he saw this old acquaintance after god knows how long.
It was the same squirrel that followed Zyrus before the dungeons broke out!
“Are you the will of Earth?”
[<[Not quite, but we can talk about it later]>]
The squirrel spoke in a solemn tone as it stared at the black dot. Or rather, at the other side of it where lay a different dimension.
Zyrus followed its tiny beadlike eyes and saw something which he’d never forget. It was like he was looking at the other side of the mirror.
He didn’t know why humans decided to leave the earth, but if what they saw was similar to the scene in front of him, then he wouldn’t blame them.
He was currently looking at the outer space. A galactic beetle was hovering above a cluster of planets. Its skin was made up of honeycomb-like layers, and trillions of insects were squirming and flying off from its surface.
[<[This is what you’ll face later on]>]
There was no way Zyrus could see that far off, that too in a different dimension. What he saw was just an image captured by the squirrel.
“Is that the home planet of aliens?”
[<[It’s one of their hives. To be exact, the hive that is invading this part of our universe]>]
Zyrus felt like a bombshell had gone off in his head. Things were progressing too fast for him to keep up.
[<[No need to worry though. You have ample time to prepare. For now, let’s return to your base]>]
Zyrus had a ton of things to ask about, like where did the squirrel go to or what type of being it was, but in the end his exhaustion caught up with him.
Thus, the war concluded as a giant flying squirrel carried a fainted reindeer and a Sylvarix on its back.