Maximilian, who had been huddled in a corner in front of Arter's body, using Ful Defend to protect himself from the tentacle assault, thought that today was the day he would die. He did not know how he could continue to supply aether to the card, but he was managing somehow.
But even then, his body was too injured to fight, and he was being assaulted by too many tentacles to even consider fighting.
But then, suddenly, the assault stopped. All the tentacles stopped attacking. Maximilian was stunned, and thought it was some kind of elaborate trap. But he could still hear fighting outside, so after a moment's hesitation, he stepped forward.
Doing so meant leaving Arter vulnerable, but also presented him with a chance to help end the fight. Lumbering over the uneven terrain made mostly of tentacles, he came out to a chilling sight - literally.
His body trembled as it was hit with a wave of biting cold wind, which managed to seep through his armour and clothes. But what gave him pause was not the wind, but the sight.
In front of him was a world of crystal clear ice, blanketing an army of tentacles, encasing them forever under its enormous weight.
The sight was just as stunning as the realisation that there was no fog in sight. He looked over to Gabriel, who was surrounding weaving, flowing streams of red sand, looking towards something. His body was blocking the view, so Maximilian moved a bit more and finally saw Nero's broken, bloody visage, covered in flowing blue flames.
Nero grinned, as he felt the tentacle inside his stomach finally stop moving, and then disintegrate into dust under the influence of Radix Augmentation. At the same time, he felt a deep warmth spread within his body, massaging his aching, bleeding body.
He finally let go of Ful Hele, and watched in amazement as all his wounds began healing in mere moments. The hole in his abdomen closed, and the countless cuts from the explosion vanished. He was pretty sure he had a few hairline fractures as well that healed.
He let out a deep sigh of relief as he returned to his uninjured state. Ful Hele did not eliminate his physical exhaustion, just returned him to the level he was at before he began using the card.
It was truly remarkable.
He looked around, searching for any signs of Vanessa hiding, but couldn't find her, so he began reducing the coverage of Fair Weather. Even though he was continuously supplying aether, physically he felt like he was on the verge of depletion. He had been for a long time.
Finally, the tentacle monster was dead, and most of its body was trapped under a layer of ice.
Suddenly it occurred to Nero that besides heat inducing cards, he should also keep cards with him that can produce water - or at least increase the moisture content in the air. It would be useful in freezing things.
His eyes traced the ground, and found his spear. It had suffered more than just a few scratches. The entire length of its body was damaged, and at some point the tip of the blade had broken off as well.
Nero sighed, and covered the spear in flames. It's body was too tough, it would not shatter from being frozen. But it would be encased in an icy grave forever - or at least a long time.
Then he frowned, and looked up. He just realised that since his flames did not end up multiplying, the automatic flame dispersal did not activate. That, or there was something wrong with the facility.
Even more reason to depart as quickly as possible.
He turned, and paused, realising that walls of ice had formed around his and the tentacle monsters' final battlefield. Using his dagger he attacked the ice, and was surprised to find that it was actually not so easy to break.
He smashed the ice again and again, while Gabriel, who noticed his actions, did the same with his short sword from the other side. Eventually, they broke through, and cleared an opening large enough for Nero to crawl through.
Around the same time, Maximilian arrived close, carrying an unconscious Arter on his back.
"How… how the hell did you beat that thing?" Maximilian could not help but ask, fear still evident in his voice.
"Let's just say, you should be grateful you left us those two cases," Nero said as he adjusted his mood. His emotions were finally calming down. "Speaking of which, we found the fifth open case on the way. What happened to you guys?"
Maximilian shook his head.
"I have no idea. Once we were attacked by the tentacle monster, Arter had to drop the case. The fight was too bitter to focus on anything else. We ran out of aether too quickly to put up a fight. If it had occurred to us to drink the liquid aether like you, maybe things would have turned out differently. As it was, we barely managed to survive.
In fact, if Arter hadn't used his ability on his own body, he would have become another host for the tentacles by now."
Nero nodded. It made sense. It was not that Arter and Maximilian were weak, but that they ran out of aether too quickly. Such was the peril of the Neophyte realm.
"We should get out of here before something else pops up out of the fog. Do you know where we can find another staircase," Nero asked.
"Actually, I just might. As long as we don't run into any yellow barriers blocking our way, I think I can find another stairwell."
Nero and Gabriel did not question Maximilian. Maybe he had a copy of Shirly's innate card, or he had some other secrets. At this point, they just wanted to leave so they did not question him as he led the way.
Due to the fog, none of them noticed a dark berserker, hiding in a corner of the room, watching them, as if it could see them. Intelligence gleamed in its eyes as it watched them, its mind busy with plots of something insidious. A bulge moved underneath its skin, slowly and weakly, indicating something squirming within its body.
Dark berserkers had a stealth ability that no one had detected so far. They had been using it with the utmost care under the direction of the tentacle monster.
Yet while the dark berserker stalked its prey, it was like a mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it. Vanessa stood not in the shadows, but right in the open. Yet it was the shadows that wrapped themselves around her, hiding her from the dark berserker's view.
There was a mad grin on her face, a sign of the extreme euphoria she was still feeling. She drew a dagger from its sheath, completely identical to the one Nero used, and in one swift motion decapitated the dark berserker.
Immediately after, she used a card on the berserker's body, blasting it to bits and killing the tentacle hiding within.
"Let's see if you can find me now, Nero Grant," she said out loud and laughed like a giddy child. She still hadn't recovered from Nero discovering her so easily. Now that her innate ability had been upgraded, she wondered if he could still find her.
For some reason, she held a little bit of expectation in her heart. If Nero still managed to find her, then he really was something.
Still under the influence of the last injection, she frolicked through the fog as if she were in her own home. On her back, she wore a backpack filled with numerous vials of liquid aether - the price she would have to pay to her accomplice to take away something else of even greater value.
She left, her footsteps making no sound as she passed through the cold, sterile, muted hall. The thick fog shrouded the aftermath of the fight in an eerie silence.
The only sound was the faint, almost imperceptible crackle of ice settling over the mass of tentacles that had, just moments before, writhed with a terrifying life of their own, but the fog absorbed that too.
The floor and walls were now a landscape of frozen horror, the tentacles that had covered every surface encased in a thick layer of glistening ice. The once-slithering appendages were now solid, grotesque sculptures, their twisted forms captured in a moment of violent death.
Ice glimmered in the pale, artificial light, a cold, crystalline blue that seemed almost beautiful, if not for the monstrous shapes it preserved.
Far ahead, Nero paused and glanced back, his breath visible in the chilled air, and for a moment, he could see the creature as it had been—a nightmare of writhing limbs, each one pulsing with malevolent intent, ready to ensnare him, to tear him apart. But now, all was still. The ice had taken the fight out of the beast, locking it in place, forever trapped in a final, silent scream.
He felt the cold seeping into his bones, not just from the ice, but from the understanding that this was only a glimpse of the horrors that this world had to show him. Yet, almost immediately after, that cold was replaced with the heat of his resolve. In this cursed world, he was determined to become the greatest monster of them all.