Some time had passed, but Nero was still slightly under the effect of the last injection which put him in a highly euphoric state. Despite the grave situation, when Nero laid eyes on his lost spear, all he felt was extreme, untainted elation.
"My spear," he had whispered in disbelief and excitement, completely ignoring the gruesome, deadly thing that was holding onto the spear.
But then that thing spoke, and the mood changed.
"My spear," it said in a voice fitting one's worst nightmare. It was an abomination come to life, an amalgamation of two equally monstrous beings - a berserker and the tentacles which had taken over Jack's body. It was death incarnate for the young Neophytes.
Yet Nero did not feel fear. Instead, he felt like his reunion with his long, lost spear had been ruined by this ugly thing. His pure, wholesome elation suddenly turned into a furious, raging anger.
"Your spear?" he said, unable to control his changing emotions. "Have you seen a mirror, you twisted freak? The only way you're worthy to touch my spear is with it sticking through your face!"
Nero was in a strange state where he had lost control of his emotions, an extreme rarity, yet maintained the same cold, calculating brain that allowed him to stay calm at all times.
The logical side of his brain said that he could not escape unless he killed this thing, and his emotional state said that thing needed to be fucked up, so forming a unique mix of emotion and logic, Nero focused his entire being into killing it.
His blue flame, which he had been unable to control just a short while ago, coated the blade of his dagger as his body darted forward without hesitation, using even his aether manipulation to move as fast as he could.
Nero heard the creature speak once more about the Vault, but couldn't care less. He threw flaming Snowflakes at the creature's tentacles while he appeared on its left - where it held the spear.
Instead of going for a direct lethal attack, Nero instead targeted its joints. Though the berserker's body healed ridiculously fast, Nero was in a hyper-focused state where he did not need to come up with a conscious plan - all the pieces were naturally falling into place.
The Snowflakes, which had been faster than Nero, cut through a few of the tentacles and the tentacle monster had initially been indifferent, but that quickly changed when a tiny, blue flame latched onto one of the cut ends of its tentacles.
The flame was tiny, and it did not grow larger either, but it began to turn into a deeper shade of blue as it began freezing the tentacles solid. The danger it felt from the tiny flame was enormous, so much so that it cut off the burning tentacle and flung it away.
Simultaneously, the monster displayed remarkable control over the spear as it used its body to block each of Nero's attacks from the flaming dagger.
"DIE!" the monster yelled out at Nero in anger as it attacked. It whirled the spear, remarkably similar to exactly how Nero used to, and turned its blade towards Nero before stabbing. At the same time, its right hand lost its shape and dissolved into a mass of tentacles that attacked Nero.
Yet a sturdy, red wall of sand appeared in its path, blocking the tentacles. As if the wall were made of concrete rather than sand, it remained completely unmoved against the onslaught. At most, mild cracks appeared within the sand wall each time a tentacle tried to pierce through it, which quickly began to heal as more sand poured in.
Wielding his shortsword, Gabriel appeared on the other side of the tentacle monster and attacked it from the opposite end. He was not nearly as fast as Nero, but he had augmentations from his weapon nonetheless, and Gabriel was no pushover. His shortsword cut through the berserker's legs, revealing not its usual mass of musculature, but rather more tentacles inside its body.
Yet even so, the cuts rapidly healed. The tentacle berserker, snarling and roaring in anger, still managed to show remarkable adaptability as it changed its position to distance itself from both of them and launched more tentacles their way.
This time the tentacles were launched too quickly. Gabriel, who was being targeted, had no way of summoning his sand wall in time and nearly froze.
Nero, without missing a beat, or slowing down his barrage of attacks in any way, used Ful Defend in front of Gabriel, summoning an impenetrable shield, blocking the attack.
Yet he himself was not too successful in attacking the berserker. It was moving too quickly, and was far too adept at using the spear, effectively reducing Nero's attacking range. Furthermore, when Nero used Snowflake, the tentacle berserker would, on purpose, take the attack with a few tentacles that it immediately cut off, so as to not let the flame touch it.
The ground became littered with countless, frozen solid tentacles. The deep blue flames would vanish after a while, as if the cut off tentacles could no longer provide it with enough fuel, and moments later the frozen tentacles would shatter.
The temperature of the room began to drop rapidly. But beyond that, there was no progress.
Nero and Gabriel had great teamwork, but they were unable to deliver significant attacks. For a brief moment they reached an impasse.
Then Nero's eyes flicked.
"He's using my own spearmanship," Nero said aloud, as if informing Gabriel. "I don't know how, but this thing must have been watching me."
The tentacle monster grinned suddenly, its ugly mug enough to traumatise children for life.
"Nero… Grant…" it said slowly as it looked at him, then looked towards Gabriel and said, "Gabriel… Anzem… I will… eat your memories…"
The creature began to laugh out loud cryptically, and its skin began to move and bulge, as if something was moving from underneath.
"Psychological tactics…" Nero muttered, and then resumed his attack.
The tentacle berserker blocked his dagger with the spear, but this time tentacles suddenly burst out of its arm and lashed out at Nero. They were too quick to dodge, and too close for him to plan anything, yet Ful Defend appeared just in time to block them nonetheless.
Nero had already assumed that something like this might happen when he saw the bulging and moving underneath its skin.
"Hold it in place," Nero said as he resumed his attack.
Red grains of sand rolled on the ground and began latching onto the thing's legs, climbing up while other grains began gathering around its feet, forming large, dense blocks of sand.
It was not enough to completely stop the thing, but as the sands gathered, its legs became heavier and heavier, slowing it down.
Nero, who had been forced to hold back, gave his spear one last, remorseful look, before he stopped holding back at all. Better to let the spear rest in peace than let it continue to be used by a monster.
To be specific, he had not been holding back against the monster, but whenever it was blocked with the spear, Nero had restrained himself so that he wouldn't end up damaging it. But no more.
Nero attacked once more, the flame in his dagger a slightly darker shade of blue from when it started, but was blocked by the cold, metallic spear. Yet in this clash of the two spears something different happened.
The flames latched onto the spear, rapidly reducing its temperature, and a small, almost invisible scratch marred its body. Yet it was not invisible to Nero.
Seeing the success of his attacks, Nero only became more angry since he himself was the one harming his spear.
He roared and attacked again, but the tentacle monster was not resigned to just continuously being attacked. Moreover, it was smart enough to understand Nero's intentions, so it changed things up.
It shot out more tentacles, this time aiming for both Nero and Gabriel, forcing them to hide behind Ful Defend once more. The creature didn't know it, but using Ful Defend was a great drain on their aether reserves, and they were already beginning to feel the effects of its repeated use.
Instead, it took this opportunity to leap away from them, leaving the range of Fair Weather and hiding within the fog.
Were this any other time, Nero would have calculated the drain on his aether, accounted for countless other variables and come up with a much more viable battle plan. But it wasn't.
Under the strange influence of the last injection, and the emotional turmoil of having to destroy his own spear, Nero absolutely didn't care about being efficient.
He opened his bag, took out the vial which contained liquid aether and took a big gulp. At the same time, he maxed out his use of Fair Weather, revealing the entirety of the corridor. He was ready to chase the tentacle berserker down.
Yet what was revealed once the fog dispersed caused even the rade induced Nero to pause.
Hundreds, no, thousands of tentacles lined an entire region of the corridor, and the berserker ran into them and somehow docked into them, suddenly bringing them to life.
Something in Nero's brain suddenly clicked. No wonder even Arter and Maximilian had been forced to retreat. This was no easy foe.
But the pause he felt was only monetary. As far as Nero was concerned, he only had a bigger target now. He rushed forward again.