Ascension of the Nephilim

Chapter 147 - An Impossible Chess Game

The first thing Kyros did was slash out on the area around him. He used his force energy to attack the area around him.

"Oh? How can your energy dispel my charms? What a curious power you possess. I wonder which Code that is?"

"Is this a beguiling spell? Too bad it didn't work."

"Hmp. And here I thought you'd be so start struck with my beauty that I could kill you quickly." The Succubus laughed.

"Nah. Even in those few seconds that I was hypnotized, this Blood Tiger Golem would have either fought back or sacrificed himself for me. You were hoping to bring me under your total control since attacking me might break this hypnotic spell, correct? You think that if I initiated my approach out of lust, you could easily kill me without this tiger fighting or running away."

"It seems Beginning's champion is quite formidable. To be able to resist my charms..."

"You're Charms? Quit bluffing. You stopped using it, meaning that that was the best of your attacks. Your attacks are limited. These seals look familiar. It should be similar to the seals that I received. You act as if you're strong, but the truth is you're in a dangerous position, aren't you?" Kyros smirked.

"Oh? You think that just because you killed one of my orcs, that I am weak?" The Succubus laughed.

"I know you are. You act as if this was all an elaborate plot. You even instilled thoughts in my head. You indeed plotted to get me here, but you are not as strong as you present yourself to be. Why else do you need to seal me in this place and not go out to challenge me?"

"To tamper with Time and Space, of course. That nifty trick you have of having a dimensional storage space without an actual artifact proves that you should have an item or ability that allows you to access Time and Space magic. But this seal should stop you. You can also try escaping outside of this seal to use your Inventory magic. But I'm sure someone of your intelligence can tell that this seal is quite powerful."

"It's a good thing that I had these axes, and my sword equipped. Otherwise, I'd have fought you barehanded. But even then, I think I could win. With such elaborate preparations made with this seal, it seems you fear my Inventory skill. If you are scared of that, I wonder how much power you have left?"

The Succubus gave a dangerous smile.

"Oh, I didn't do that to tamper with your ability in that Inventory of yours. I did it in case you had a way of sending yourself back to whatever space that is. As for how strong I am, why don't you come here and find out?" The Succubus laughed as she touched the wounded tiger next to her and began to heal the wounds and even turn the tiger into a grotesque form.

The tiger grew wings and additional heads. One of its heads was that of a lizard, and the other was a serpent of some sort. Its tail became that of a rattlesnake's tail that kept rattling with a sting at the very end.

"Two divinities. The Fanged Fallen and the Charmed Fallen. You're a devil hybrid between two Fallens." Kyros observed.

"And Beginning's Champion has a God's Code and the Fanged Fallen, I see. And drinking my own blood offered some resistance to my charms. As expected of a freak like you." The Succubus stretched her arms and began to crack the bones in her body.

"I really hate to fight, you know? Someone as beautiful as me shouldn't. I should only point at something, and all my slaves and followers will act. But you really know how to hinder my plans." She raised her arms, and an ice-cold sword appeared on her hands.

"Since you seem to have great Dark resistance, I hope this cold will do its job." She smiled.

Kyros raised his ax weapons, and the Balefire appeared.

"Shall we start this dance?"

"Sure." Kyros answered as a glowing light appeared on his arms.

"[Double Speed]!" Kyros activated a weaker version of one of the spells he was famous for in his past life. But instead of pure Force Energy, Kyros used magic.

Kyros then moved with incredible speed that even surpassed the speed that his tiger had.

"Time Mage!" The Succubus was shocked as she raised her sword to attack, but Kyros's movements were faster.

The Ice Sword swung low, and Kyros evaded it as his chains had already clung to two pillars and gave Kyros the ability to change the direction and angle of his flight.

Kyros dove deep into the reach of the Succubus and slashed out the two axes right at the torso of the Succubus.

But as the twin axes reached, the body exploded, and a strange red mist appeared.

[Dream Parasite detected.] 

The warning appeared as Kyros could feel a strange power moving around his soul.

"It was a droplet of her blood!" Kyros realized and moved away. He was quick enough not to breathe in any mist, but his vision was already changing.

"Do you really think that by simply holding your breath, you can escape my attacks?" The laugh of the Succubus echoed out.

Kyros retreated and could see several figures of the Succubus rushing towards him with the same blue sword.

Kyros held his ground and did not panic but closed his eyes.

The moment he did, Kyros saw himself in the depths of a dark and gloomy region where dark waters and strange vegetation surrounded him.

"Can't open my eyes, and closing it makes it worse, eh?" Kyros concluded.

He did not move, and even when those moving Succubus should have attacked him by now, the attack never arrived.

It was then that Kyros heard some movement and retreated with his ax at the ready. A faint strange light was enveloping the ax.

The Chimera roared and charged at Kyros, and its tail lunged like a spear.

The rattling sound arrived, and Kyros smashed his ax towards the tail attack. 

"[De-Spacito]!" Kyros activated the spell that had long plagued him and struck the tail.

SMASH!

The moment the ax struck the tail, the movements of the Chimera turned weird. As the Balefire ax was a weapon that could channel magic, Kyros harnessed his Time Magic to cast De-Spacito whenever the Balefire ax would be in contact with an enemy.

Kyros was able to retreat as the Chimera swiped and bit on the empty spaces due to his perception of time delay. In fact, the Chimera's thinking was so slow that his attacks would be made half a second after its mind commanded it. 

Kyros ordered the Blood Tiger Golem to attack the Chimera. While the golem's power was weaker than the Chimera, the slow mental response would give the golem a few attacks.

The Blood Tiger Golem easily evaded the wide swings and pounced at the Chimera. The battle between the two large feral cats began, and the initial advantage of the golem was diminishing as the Chimera was regaining more and more of its perception.

Kyros was running out of time. He knew that facing the Chimera in his current state would be problematic. He had to look for the Succubus and land an attack. If Kyros could just acquire even a drop from the Blood Calamity, he was confident that the strange illusions would vanish.

But as Kyros was running with his eyes opened, Kyros could see a significant amount of enemy rushing at him.

In reality, Kyros could only sense one enemy, and that was the Chimera.

The vision he saw suddenly had sound, and the many enemies were slowly rushing in with realistic sounds, making it very tempting for Kyros to evade.

"Damn it! I revealed an ace and got no result!" Kyros cursed as he ignored the vision of enemies blocking his way. Instead, he kept pushing forward and would swipe his sword in the front in case he might run into a pillar.

Kyros was inflicted with the De-Spacito curse, and he has constantly been fighting it that he knew the concept of this curse. However, with his newly acquired power of Time Magic from Calaminus's awakened Divinity, Kyros was able to imitate the same effects that the curse brought him by casting a very selective slow magic aimed at the mind. It was much more efficient than the usual [Slow] spell that Calaminus talked about during their two-year lecture time. Kyros intended to use it as a swift way to attack and kill the Succubus, but he never expected that the Succubus would use some strange magic to lure him into a trap.

Kyros continued to run when he felt a scary sensation and tried to jump back and drew his sword to block something.

BOOM!

Something struck Kyros. Kyros was able to block it with his blade, but the eruption of energy threw him back.

Kyros cursed. He expected this. With the illusion he saw, cheap attacks such as these dark bolts would be very effective.

"What's the plan? How can I help? Should I go out and help you?" Calaminus asked.

"No! She will sense you if you go out! Stay in my soul!"

"Then how are we going to find the Succubus and fight back! Don't tell me you plan to use this time to train your Path of Combat?!"

"Of course not! But she's just like me! She has a whole bunch of traps and cards ready to be activated! That's why I need you to stay! I need to be sure that the moment I reveal my other aces, it will beat her hand!"

"How can you fight her and find her body like this? You'd be out of stamina by the time this battle is over. But, if I go out, I may find her body as long as we plan the time I leave your soul and search for the real body."

"Don't you get it? Her body may not even be here! I lied earlier when I asked her why she didn't attack my body when I was in a daze. If she had a physical body, she would have made an attack! But she gave away the chance to attack me when I was in a daze. This probably means that she's too weak to bring out her real body! So she set up a lot of traps so that her physical body wouldn't take action! That thing we saw was probably her blood taking up form!"

"So no matter what card you use, you may not have the ability to find her or even kill her?"

"Yes. That's why I'm reluctant to show more of my cards! I already revealed De-Spacito and got nothing for it! The way things are going, I might end up showing all my cards to this Succubus! It's like she's playing chess with me! She has all her pieces in this board, and here I am, just a small piece being prepared for her trap."

"Then how do you win this impossible board game?!"

"We don't try to win! We have to lose!" Kyros began to explain.