279 Prolonged suffering
Nero simultaneously felt incredible, and exceptionally crappy. Much like how he had once undergone a metamorphosis from using Radix Augmentation on cursed beasts back in Lumina, he had gone through another one just now.
The change was sudden, immense and intense. Putrid black smoke had burst out of his mouth and nose, and not the harmless kind of black smoke that Virtuous Moonlight caused. No, this black smoke smelled like death itself, as if there was some kind of decayed meat hiding within Nero's body.
But that had only been a part of it. From his entire body he began sweating rapidly, each bead of sweat containing either black granules or puss. It was made even worse by the fact that he was wearing skintight gear that pressed everything back onto his skin.
His muscles writhed from within as atmospheric aether flowed into his body, as if reshaping his very being. Even the Recovery token was completely used up in an instant as every fibre of his being greedily absorbed aether. Oddly enough, none of that aether absorption seemed to do anything for his card absorption percentage.
For a few seconds, Nero had genuinely lost control of his body. Fortunately, even through that painful, disgusting process, Nero's mind had not been affected. He quickly switched from Cryoflame to Virtuous Moonlight so that he may coat himself in protective light so that he would not suffer attacks.
That's when Nero discovered another aspect of his second innate ability. When he covered his body in it, all the filth that coated his skin was immediately purified, turned into thick black smoke that seeped directly through his protective gear and escaped into the air, leaving him clean - or rather, purified.
This entire experience took only a few seconds, which was fortunate, because the discomfort was followed by an equally difficult trial: extreme euphoria! Nero was long used to ignoring and resisting pain, but when, without any warning, his body was filled with a wave of pure pleasure, Nero was stunned.
His body began growing and Nero felt like if his body wasn't being squeezed tight by his suit, he might have even grown slightly taller. His muscles, his bones, his tendons, and everything else underwent a rapid transformation growing much stronger.
Yet after a few seconds, that growth suddenly halted, as if it had hit a ceiling, and Nero instinctively knew what happened. His body's strength had reached the threshold of the Initiate level, but the rules of this dimension forced that growth to stop. He could not enter into the Initiate level of power, and so the remaining warmth in his body started to make his body tougher rather than stronger.
Yet by then, most of the energy was already spent, and Nero regained complete control over his body, the overwhelming pleasure finally waning. Nero began to pick himself up, for he could hear the arrival of his teammates from a distance.
His senses had sharpened, he realised, even without the use of Keen insight. Now, more than ever, he would be able to spot Vanessa's shadows much more easily. More importantly, Nero also understood that for the rest of his journey within Perilith, he could no longer use Radix Augmentation on cursed beasts. It was too dangerous. If, somehow, he broke the boundary between Neophyte and Initiate, even if only in terms of physical strength, then the boundary for the entire dimension would be raised!
But while strengthening his body was off limits, increasing his card absorption rate was not. After all, the difficulty to raise the absorption percentage was greater after every single minor threshold. Considering that 30 - 39% was the final threshold for the Neophyte level, it would be the most difficult part.
Nero fully regained control over his body, switched back to Cryoflame, and attacked once more just as the others came into view.
Now, with his stronger, and tougher body, Nero was more confident than ever that he could completely dominate this entire dimension. But it was best not to be too arrogant, and not to reveal his entire strength, so he held himself back. Unfortunately, even holding back, Nero was much stronger than any normal Neophyte!
"Are you alright?" Noman asked Nero from a distance. If he was injured they would have come closer, but seeing as he was completely unharmed, they did not want to venture too close to the hornets. Unlike Nero, the proverbial bulwark, they could not dodge or avoid being attacked once they were swarmed.
"Yes. Just faced an unexpected obstacle. I'm fine now. Focus on providing me with more flames, let's end this once and for all!" Nero said, gathering all his blue flames and concentrating them on the edge of his spear.
The others complied without delay, and with nine others sending ordinary flames his way, Nero quickly strengthened his blue flame more than he ever had. A consequence of such a deep blue flame, one that could freeze anything it touched, was a massive strain on Nero's aether.
Without the aid of a new Recovery token, Nero sped up this extermination. By now, even though the majority of hornets still stuck together forming a solid, flying mass, their numbers had greatly dwindled, decreasing the strength and impact of the mass they formed.
Nero's flaming spear cut through them easily, slicing a few, freezing some more and burning the cursed energy out of a lot of them. But Nero's objective hadn't been the hornet.
No, he just cut through them so he could finally attack the hiver personally.
A chunk of it had already been frozen by some of Nero's flames, draining a part of the cursed energy within it. Now, with his strengthened blue flames Nero attacked the hive with every intention of finishing the job.
The countless corpses that hung on the tree branch had already frozen whole, yet not even the branch itself began to freeze. His spear cut through the cursed hive, facing little resistance. Nero was wholly prepared to face even greater retaliation from the hornets, but something unexpected happened.
The remaining few hornets gathered together in the sky, and gazed down on Nero as he destroyed their hive, no longer buzzing in anger, and purely watching with a silent intensity. Nero and the others all realised that this was highly unusual, but as long as the hornets stayed far away, they were of no consequence.
Nero could throw a few snowflakes at them, but that would hardly do them much harm. So instead, he resigned himself to just keeping an eye on them.
Before long, the entire black hive was frozen solid, completely devoid of cursed energy, and a mere hollow imitation of what it was. Oddly enough, instead of shattering, the hive froze to become even more solid than metal, becoming completely resistant even to Nero's slashes, becoming a permanent feature of the region.
That did not mean that the hive wasn't destroyed. Even if one ignores the indestructible layer of ice that prevented hornets from returning inside of it, the complete lack of cursed energy meant that it was no longer a suitable habitat for the hornets.
They had completed their mission, yet the feeling of success and victory escaped them. Up above, the hornets continued to watch the scene unfold. The fact that they had stopped resisting was unusual enough, but seeing how they remained to watch was incredibly unnerving, not just for Nero. The whole group observed, but made no moves.
Nero tried to guess what the hornets' intentions were, but he was unfamiliar with such behaviour. Almost all classes he had taken to curses specially emphasised that no humans completely understood curses, for they were too unpredictable, and that in itself was one of the greatest sources of danger.
Without warning, Nero's body suddenly tensed up, as if it had sensed an immense, overwhelming danger targeting him, but he did not know what to do or how to react.
The hornets in the air all started turning into dust, mixing together in the air, forming a black cloud and then… the cloud just disappeared.
No one understood what happened, but Nero's body became even more tense as if it could sense the approach of certain death!
Nero had no idea what was happening, but he could take no risks. Without hesitation, even within view of everyone, he dismissed his Cryoflames, switched to Virtuous Moonlight, and covered himself in its silver light.
Thick black smoke started pouring out of his body and Nero nearly screamed from the pain. It was not even his flesh that was being burned by the light. Instead, it was as if his bones had been dipped in acid, eating them away.
Nero's remaining aether reserves dropped drastically, and he knew he would not have enough aether to sustain his own purification. He tried to move, but for once the pain was too great even for him, and all he could do was look towards Mel.
Yet that was enough. Each and every one of them was an elite, and they had no hesitation. Even running would not have been fast enough, so she threw one of her Recovery tokens towards Nero who barely managed to catch it, and shoved it down his throat.
Rapidly aether began flowing into his body, allowing him to continue using Virtuous Moonlight. But whether that achieved anything else, it definitely prolonged Nero's torture.
"That was a soul curse!" Vanessa whispered to herself when she finally realised what had happened. The only thing more shocking than that realisation… was the fact that Nero was somehow resisting it!
December release schedule