Chapter 270: Sphinx’s final Riddle

Chapter 270: Sphinx’s final Riddle

The Var Elegis attacked, thinking he had a chance to permanently eliminate his rival. Priam wasn't even surprised—more annoyed with himself. So focused on Sumstreh and the Tier 4s, he had overlooked a fundamental truth: Arnold was not his friend. The homunculus had executed him without hesitation during their first encounter, and little had changed since. An opportunity had presented itself, and his decisive rival seized it.

The only thing that surprised Priam was that the Terminator was willing to forgo a seraphic reward just for a chance to kill him. Was he really that important in Arnold’s mind?

“You're gonna pay for this,” Priam vowed.

Despite his bravado, he knew the odds were stacked against him. That didn't stop him from smiling as he activated [In the Zone]. When faced with adversity, there were two types of people: those who panicked and those who rose above.

Priam was the latter.

As Arnold raised his arm, revealing a glowing point at the center of his palm, Priam rode his mist, reappearing fifty meters away before Sumstreh. Stunned, he crossed his arms defensively, realizing too late that the enemy had likely used his Domain to change his point of arrival. Can they even do that?!

A swipe from Sumstreh’s claw sent him flying backward with the force of a freight train. After bouncing a few times on the vitrified ground, Priam finally skidded to a stop in a cloud of dust. Trading his lifespan for accelerated regeneration, he healed his fractured ribs and bruises, a grin spreading across his face.

“That’s all you’ve got? I thought a Tier 4 could do better.”

That kind of taunt only worked on children and the arrogant. Sumstreh was the latter, and the air trembled as they roared with rage. Their Domain swept over Priam's, pressing down on him like artificial gravity. The Champion hurled Sphinx out of the enemy’s sphere of influence, then shot a defiant glare at the Fallen. A tremendous will descended, and the ambient light vanished.

Priam closed his eyes. One of his opponent's Concepts manipulated light, making it an unreliable sense. His perception of aether was also muddled by the enemy's Domain, so he activated [Echolocation] to locate them... and was promptly caught off guard when a laser beam struck his chest.

Lvl Up: [Solar Resistance] lvl 11

CONST +2

VIT +1

Lvl Up: [Kevlar Tissue] lvl 11

CONST +3

Partially absorbed by his mist cloak, Arnold's attack burned through the enhanced [Light Resistance], searing his skin. Without the boost from [Life is Hard; I'm Harder], it would have punctured his right lung.

Grunting, Priam conjured dozens of Pyro-Mist hybrid spears to retaliate. Like a one-man artillery squad, he unleashed a storm of plasma and ice, deploying the four types of projectiles he had crafted for fighting necromantic hordes.

Teardrops for slow but numerous salvos, bullets for sniping, shells for devastating AOE attacks, and kinetic penetrators to catch his enemies off guard. Shaped like spears, each projectile benefited from Spear Mastery and [Spear Throw].

The ground trembled as the barrage raged on. Blasts of scorching wind and fragments of stone flew in all directions, sowing chaos without ever touching his enemies. Arnold had retreated to the edge of the valley, where he easily dodged the bombardment while analyzing Priam’s skillset.

Sumstreh remained within twenty meters of Priam—a ludicrously small distance at their level of power. Yet, the skeleton seemed untouchable. Their positioning was miraculously perfect, allowing them to effortlessly avoid hundreds of supersonic projectiles. In Priam's lightless world, the shape reported by [Echolocation] was seemingly gifted with foresight.

Priam fired a shell-spear, hoping to catch his foe with the AOE, but groaned as they vanished. Could this guy even be hit? Deciding to go all in, he launched two spears glued together. As the Fallen dodged, one of the spears exploded, altering the trajectory of the second... which disappeared into the background. Sumstreh hadn’t merely dodged; they had corrected their position before the explosion even happened.

Priam's eyes widened before he stopped the bombardment, deciding to conserve his energy. Neither his willpower nor his aether were infinite.

[Sumstreh’s Domain Analysis:

Capable of dispersing Domains and Concepts of lower Tiers. Capable of manipulating an enemy’s Concept. Capable of predicting the trajectory/intent behind an attack.]

At high levels, Supremacies were terrifying. For the first time, Priam grasped the vast difference between a low Tier and a mid Tier. All his power was useless if his opponent could turn it against him and read his every move. Could a Tier 0 defeat a Tier 4? Maybe. Did Priam stand a chance against the Fallen? Well, I refuse to run without trying!

“Finished yet?” Sumstreh growled as the dust settled.

“I'm just getting started.”

“Bravado.”

“Funny, that’s not what you said when I ripped a piece of your soul out,” Priam shot back.

An emotion rippled through the Domain pressing down on him. Sumstreh was pissed.

“You might have the tools to hurt me, but without a proxy, you'll never reach my soul space.”

Priam grimaced because the Fallen had a point. He had accessed Sumstreh’s soul through a path the Fallen had created from Mama Apo’s soul space. But with the tribes’ retreat, the shaman had vanished, taking the link to the Fallen's soul with her. Without a proxy, Priam had no path to attack; the enemy wouldn’t let him breach their mental defenses.

“Enough talk. Die.”

His instincts flared, and Priam dove to his right. A sharp pain exploded under his ribs. He was fast, but light was faster. The attack sent him sprawling backward, his feet gouging trenches in the ground.

Priam grimaced as he grasped the solid light spear embedded in his stomach. He yanked it out with a sharp tug, then used his kinetic mastery to staunch the bleeding. His high vitality soon closed the wound, and surprise gave way to amusement.

“I'm disappointed; I expected a Tier 4 strike to be... more brutal.”

The attack should have turned him into minced meat. Priam had seen the blows exchanged between Leo, Seth’s summon, and Sumstreh, each strike as powerful as one of his Breaths. Yet the light spear, a projectile born from Sumstreh’s Concept, had only lightly injured him.

“Impossible...” Sumstreh's voice was laced with shock. “You don’t just have a celestial soul; you’ve got a celestial body too?!”

Priam's eyes widened as he understood. One of the [Iconoclast] Merits had transformed his soul, branding it as celestial.

[Iconoclast - Legendary] - Tier 4: Your soul is celestial; it actively resists divine influence.

With [Homo Elysian Obsession] binding his body and soul, the racial Talent was upgrading his physique, granting him a celestial body. Though he wasn’t sure what “divine influence” meant, Priam was willing to bet that the combination of these two celestial abilities had allowed him to withstand the Tier 4’s attack. The divine affinity, the Fallen’s ace, was turning into a disadvantage.

Priam remembered something Sumstreh had once said.

“An [Iconoclast]... You've just signed your death warrant. They hunt every celestial soul.”

The implication was clear: some gods didn’t take kindly to a System user evolving to resist divine influence. Should Priam expect Tier 5s to hunt him if he kept this Merit?

A roar of fury shook the world, snapping Priam back to the present. Before he could worry about gods, he had to survive the next few hours!

The Fallen’s sphere of authority quaked under the weight of their violent anger, and the young Champion grimaced as the environment itself seemed to wish him dead. A second spear impaled him, followed by ten more. Priam used his mist cloak to shield himself, weathering the onslaught like an umbrella in a downpour; the first projectiles were easily absorbed, but the intensity of the assault soon put him in a perilous position. With no way to escape or dodge, Priam did what he did best.

He endured and adapted.

Lvl Up: [Solar Resistance] lvl 12

CONST +2

VIT +1

Priam's ghost watched his enemies, sighing with relief. The pain had finally vanished.

Trees of Merit

[Breathless - Silver] - Tier 1: Second Breath, Second Wind: restores your body to its most exceptional form possible. ACQUIRED

[Breathless - Silver] - Tier 2: Third Breath, life is but a breath; your body harmonizes with your environment. NEW

0 Unused Merit Points.

The greedy dragon within Priam had resisted spending his Merit Points for weeks, but in the end, he had used them all. Worse, there was a good chance he would keep most of them after the rewind.

Priam banished these useless thoughts as his [Tenacious Spirit] activated Second Wind to restore his body. In a blink, he appeared before Arnold and Sumstreh, healed and naked.

Promesse materialized in his hand, but he ignored his enemies, casting a sorrowful glance at Sphinx. [He Who Eludes Death] was still primed, but both of them knew he needed it for his Tribulations. Triggering it against the Fallen and his rival would be foolish—they had to get rid of them first.

Only Sphinx, and the ritual she’d been crafting since her abduction, made that possible. It tore at his heart, but it was her decision to help, and he respected it.

“Sumstreh, a riddle for you,” the child called out to his captor. “What begins but has no end, and ends all that begins? You have thirty seconds.”

Even a Tier 4 knew better than to ignore a sphinx’s riddle.

“... A dragon’s wrath?”

“Wrong. It’s Death.”

With that, Sphinx triggered a sevenfold Tribulation.

Then she slit her own throat and activated her karmic trap.



[2 hours 22 minutes before optimal activation of Back in Time.]



Status:

PHYSICAL:

Strength 782

Constitution 1 435 (+46)

Agility 927 (+3)

Vitality 1 370 (+30)

Perception 817

MENTAL:

Vivacity (D) 599

Dexterity 681 (+1)

Memory 896

Willpower 1 193

Charisma 754

META:

Meta-affinity 923

Meta-focus 444

Meta-endurance 798

Meta-perception (A) 443

Meta-chance 332

Meta-authority 258 (+6)

Potential: 12 472 (+32)

Tier 0

Sun point: 0

[He Who Eludes Death] charge: PRIMED

[Tribulation]: Six Tribulations pending.

Future Tribulations delayed until:

Time: 152 days 7 hours 54 minutes 8 seconds.

Next thresholds: 12 attributes > 600 / 6 attribute > 900 / 3 attributes > 1 200 / 1 attribute > 1 500

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