Chapter 172

As Nimirea predicted it, Jacob is finally struggling.

He’s taking damage and risking his life.

Now, the Demonic Insectoid monsters have become Armored Demonic Insectoids and are much stronger and sturdier, roughly at Intermediate Diamond Rank, which is straining the limits of Jacob fighting abilities.

He might be fatally wounded in the next skirmish. I

could

let him die since he’s such a nuisance, but I would lose the Rainbow Skill. I need him living to extract the Skill. But I haven’t fulfilled the conditions for that to happen.

Half-consciously and half not, Nimirea doesn’t want to see Jacob die at the moment. The conversations that they shared in the last twenty-four hours have been… interesting.

Not nearly enough—not even close, really—to change her mind, but

interesting

nonetheless.

If anything, he’s an interesting fool.

But even now, with the monsters having become this strong and despite Jacob using Hell’s Broken Wings and burning Mana at an impressive rate, he’s still behind.

Nimirea slightly flinches as a monster puts an arrow through Jacob’s shoulder. He uses Embrace of Darkness in order to suck vitality and Mana away from them, but he keeps stumbling, keeps getting pierced by arrows and swords.

He’s striking monsters and he

did

make some progress on Hellraiser Sword, since the monsters, especially the archers, have been affected by a bleed effect, but he’s still not doing enough.

And why is he focusing so much on archers anyway?

Nimirea sees piles of bleeding debuffs accumulating on all the archers.

What is he doing?

Then, Jacob smiles in midair and his aura expands.

“Tribulation of the Damned!”

The Armored Demonic Insectoid Archers all

explode

in a shower of gore and Nimirea has to summon several barriers of water in order not to get drenched in innards.

It’s a decent strategy here, but it won’t work on the upper floors.

Then, however, instead of seeing Jacob pick the swordsmen apart one by one, she sees him suddenly channeling massive amounts of Mana into one Skill that jumps more than thirty levels in one go.

[Embrace of Darkness - Level 17]

[Embrace of Darkness - Level 23]

[Embrace of Darkness - Level 27]

[Embrace of Darkness - Level 31]

[Embrace of Darkness - Level 33]

[Embrace of Darkness - Level 34]

[Embrace of Darkness - Level 37]

[Embrace of Darkness - Level 40]

She sees Jacob entangle all the monsters on the floor in a massive display of Skill proficiency and then suddenly activate another Skill.

[Blood of the Ancients - Level 100]

Suddenly, all the Mana and Vitality is being funneled into…

“Is he stupid?”

Nimirea sees Jacob’s skin split, and he spits blood out of his mouth.

But then, as she sees Mana go wild in his own body, it feels like there’s a reason for it.

Through Eye of the Prophet she sees a Skill finally start moving.

[Hellraiser Sword - Level 11]

[Hellraiser Sword - Level 12]

[Hellraiser Sword - Level 13]

That’s very slow…

But Nimirea understands why. Hellraiser Sword requires massive flexibility in Mana looping and that means that one, over the years, would need to build the reflexive instincts to route Mana one way or another in order to activate different buffs like the bleeding one—which is probably the easiest to unlock. Yet, to unlock the rest, Jacob doesn’t just need the right Mana loop, but to be able to switch from one to the other seamlessly. Without that, he’d cripple himself since you can’t just switch from one Mana loop to the other without complete mastery over both. And to achieve that kind of mastery you need an insane amount of time.

Or…

Or you proceed to let Mana run wild until it hits all the right points while having your own regeneration being crazily inflated by an insane Skill that drains your enemies and…

[Hellraiser Sword - Level 14]

[Hellraiser Sword - Level 15]

“He can’t be this crazy,” Nimirea mutters. “The price he must be paying… he could cripple himself like this.”

She can’t understand how a man who just talked about not making senseless sacrifices is about to potentially cripple himself for a quicker gain.

Is it because he actually wants to save his master? But… why doesn’t he find a way for me to intervene? He knows I don’t want him dead. Why doesn’t he rely on that?

But clearly, that isn’t even remotely on Jacob’s mind, who’s just absorbing crazy amounts of Mana that a Gold Rank body should not be able to take in. And in fact, it breaks, it splits, it bleeds.

Though, it doesn’t stop him. It does so many terrible things to him other than the one Nimirea wishes to see: stopping him and forcing him to beg for help.

If begged in the right way, she might concede. She might recognize that she wants to bring him to the last floor of the Celestial Tower, with her attributing that desire to the wanting to see the despair of him facing Baalrek’s madness before shutting everything down and plunging him into the outside world again.

Yet, it seems she’ll have to wait longer for him to start begging.

He’s…

She watches stunned as the insane plan Jacob concocted to make Hellraiser Sword work…

Works.

[Hellraiser Sword - Level 14]

[Hellraiser Sword - Level 15]

…

[Hellraiser Sword - Level 26]

…

[Hellraiser Sword - Level 67]

She watches on as the monsters are snared in place, unable to move as they’re being sucked dry of their life force. Slowly, they become lifeless humanoid husks and Jacob is not directing that energy only to Hellraiser Sword.

No, there’s another Skill that levels up and…

Changes.

His bat-like wings become less monstrous, less similar to those of a Devil and more… Nimirea doesn’t have the exact words to describe them.

Good? Wholesome, perhaps?

They take on a deep red hue, not unlike the one that was triggered in the Celestial Tower with the stake of the Mad God, as feathers spring from them, replacing the monstrous, devilish form.

[Hell’s Blessed Wings]

Jacob descends very slowly onto the ground as he cuts off Blood of the Ancients and severs the connection from the monsters. He stumbles forward and, before she can think, Nimirea catches him.

He raises an eyebrow at her gesture and she, realizing what she’s just done, recoils as if burnt and lets him go.

“Thank you,” he simply says. “That took a lot out of me.”

“The wings,” Nimirea says. “I understand what you did with the sword. But the wings.

How

.”

“King Baalrek showed me the Primordial Spell that’s connected to this Skill. He taught me how to evolve Hell’s Broken Wings through Blood of the Ancients.”

Nimirea is impressed.

She knows that the Mad King was a legendary figure that even the Gods feared, but the feat that Jacob pulled off in front of her eyes has finally framed it in reality. Now, she

really

understands what kind of being Baalrek is—was.

The bond he has with such an ancient being… to receive such information in exchange for…

Jacob collapses to the ground, slowly inching toward the wall of the floor after the portal opens and resting his back against it.

“What did you give Baalrek in order to receive his guidance?”

“He was initially trying to kill me. He asked me to save his descendant and he accepted to not try to kill me anymore and instead train me—while

mostly

trying not to kill me, to be honest. He did specify his own teachings could lead me to my death many times.”

“That’s it?” Nimirea asks, brushing a lock of hair from her face. “That’s… you just helped the Infernal Princess?”

“I did save her life,” Jacob replies with a shrug. “I don’t know. King Baalrek probably likes me. He said a few times we have a similar character. But only a very few times. He mostly criticizes my character. Sometimes, though, he says we’re the same. I don’t know what to make of him. My best guess is that he wanted a pretext to help me out. He enjoys himself like that.”

What kind of relationship is that, even? What does he mean that his master, a creature of old,

enjoys himself like that

?

It’s not something Nimirea manages to make any sense of and it bothers her.

“Baalrek trains you for… nothing. You’re giving him nothing.”

“Saved his great-great… I don’t know how they’re related, actually. But again, I saved Iskara’s life. Her Skill would have killed her otherwise.”

“And

that’s it?!

” Nimirea trembles. “You—you would have done it nonetheless, wouldn’t you?!”

“Yeah?” Jacob replies, raising an eyebrow.

“Then why would he ever want to offer such information, such

training

?! Do you even understand how valuable that is?!” Nimirea fumes.

“If you want to switch sides, you’re still in time to do so,” Jacob says.

“I would

never

betray my cause,” Nimirea spits out the words with a large serving of venom. “You serve a tyrant who enforces a system that oppresses everyone. The Headmaster—“

“What if we replace the Headmaster once we become powerful enough?” Jacob says, completely stumping Nimirea.

“W—what?”

“If you join me, I’ll personally help you assess whether the Headmaster is indeed evil. All you have to do is stop killing innocents.”

“I don’t kill innocents!” Nimirea suddenly shouts. “You keep assuming—“

“You’re with the Cult of Asmodeus who killed all the weak Knights, Apprentice Knights, and civilians back in the Tomb of Fate. You

do

kill innocents.”

“They’re

not

innocent,” Nimirea says, furious. “Do you even know what you’re talking about?!”

“Clearly much better than you do,” Jacob says with a smile. “I told you. Why can’t you even agree to stop killing people who have nothing to do with this war that you guys are waging?”

“

Us?

The Headmaster is waging a war against the Cult!”

“Ok, this is becoming circular. How about this, you stop killing people who’re barely remotely affiliated with the Headmaster and I swear an oath to you that if I find the Headmaster to be guilty of tyranny, we kill him. Deal?”

“You—you would so easily give away the Headmaster’s life, the creature upon whom the entire balance of the world you live in hinges? Do you know what kind of chaos you’d plunge the world in, a chaos your entire Academy is trying to repel?”

“

If

the Headmaster is evil, then sure, why not? You have at least two—probably three—Rainbow Skills on your hands. I suspect you could convince these Dark Champions to switch sides too. And if you’re any indication, they’re probably strong, stronger than the Champions on my sides. We could have

two

Generations of Legends working together. Maybe we kill the Monster God, the Headmaster, and then I go kill the Mad God for what he did to King Baalrek.”

“You speak of slaying divine beings with such childishness, Jacob. They’re not easily killable.”

“Have I been taking the easy path so far?” Jacob asks Nimirea, staring so intensely in her eyes she can feel her heart starting to pick up. “Do I look like I’m trying to compromise on everything? I’m so weak compared to these beings, but… you are destined for greatness, either villainous…ly… Well, either from being evil or from being good. Maybe I’m weak—maybe I’m nothing without the other Champions and King Baalrek. Maybe I’m nothing without my Rainbow Skill—well, almost certainly. But at least I can choose. And I choose to fight this war on this side and kill those who hurt everybody. So, I’m asking you,

why wouldn’t you join me?

”

Why wouldn’t you join me?

The words, now spoken with far more gravitas and seriousness than before, take Nimirea so by surprise.

This is

far

from the script she had imagined for her conflict with Jacob and the Champions.

She had wanted to humiliate and replace the Champions, crowning her achievements with the killing of Jacob, the weakest and least deserving, but also the most troublesome of all the Champions.

“What if the only way to destroy evil is to become evil?” Nimirea rebukes in a low voice. Now, she’s becoming serious. “What if the only way to save everyone is to slaughter more people than you’re comfortable with?”

“What if you’re using that as a proxy for your thirst for blood?” Jacob replies. “And what if it doesn’t take killing nearly as many people as you think it does?”

“Does the world look just to you, does it look like things are—“

“Nimirea,” Jacob interrupts her. “The world is a justification for you. It’s not for me. I do what

I

believe is right. I am the one taking responsibility for things. You’re shifting it to everybody else.”

“You refuse to see the fact that there might be hard choices to make in order for the world to become a better place.”

“Killing you would be a hard choice for me,” Jacob says, leaving Nimirea momentarily speechless.

“Because you want someone as powerful as me as your henchman to help you fulfill the Headmaster’s vision for the world?”

“Because I like you,” Jacob says.