Chapter 126: 2nd Attempt XXV

The moment after the desperate invocation, Beaumont stepped out from the rumbles and into the open hallway, leaving Agatha and Seth staring at him in sheer disbelief. The prayer had completed its miraculous work. Beaumont stood fully healthy, his ruined clothes completely restored back to their original state, and his eyes and frame gleamed with an ethereal, transparent light. He was overflowing with greatness, standing tall atop the massive fallen ceiling slabs as he looked down at both the impaled Agatha and Seth. 

Beside him, Agatha was still struggling to pull the diamond javelin out of her right arm where it was stabbed deep into her shoulder. Blood poured heavily from the wound. "Seth, come help me pull these things out!" she wheezed.

"Can you feel that?" Seth said, his voice entirely calm. Every trained physical sense he possessed was detecting the overwhelming, unnatural force radiating from the adventurer.

"Yes, I can see that," Agatha shot back, her regal composure entirely gone. "And at a time like this, now is not the time to be stubborn!"

"What are you talking about?" Seth replied, keeping his head fixed forward. "That Beaumont guy has his eyes locked right on us. You're just going to continue to bleed if you keep trying to pull those javelins out. Just relax and calm down, or you'll die at this rate."

"I don't think you understand the situation despite how smart you are," Agatha hissed through the pain. "That is no longer a mage standing there. He is an incarnate of Ploy."

"I know, right," Seth murmured, shifting his blindfolded head slightly toward Beaumont's direction. "It's my first time feeling this sensation. It doesn't feel overwhelming... it just feels different."

"The god Ploy is controlling that vessel now, not the human," Agatha warned, her breathing growing more ragged. "It has unimaginable abilities which I know nothing about. But one thing is for certain, we cannot win this."

Seth remained completely silent.

"Our only option is to leave here right now," she urged, struggling against the agony in her shoulder. "You too should know when to back away from a fight you are fated to lose."

Seth slowly rubbed the smooth surface of the Relic against his right palm, lifting the faceted relic up to his face level. "And what if we use this?"

"Don't even think about using that! It's suicidal!" Agatha said. "People die before they can even tap into its power!"

"But he used it earlier and didn't die," Seth noted logically. "How do you explain that?"

"It could be the blessing of the gods, or perhaps his specific lineage of Earth-borns," Agatha theorized rapidly. "Because of that, they survive what other ordinary mortals can't. The only reason he might still be alive is because he was very cautious and didn't use the Relic to its full capability. That thing can kill a god, Seth. He could have died if he used even nearly ten percent of it."

"Wow," Seth muttered in genuine awe, turning the item over. "How very complicated." Yet, the item itself feels completely empty and null. Beaumont cut into their conversation, taking several measured steps forward across the ceiling slabs. "Let's put an end to this, shall we?" His voice echoed with a terrifying dual tone, neither fully masculine nor feminine.

"Sure! Why not," Seth replied casually, straightening his right arm and thrusting the Relic forward."Seth!!" Agatha called out in pure panic.

"Surrendering now will be completely useless," Beaumont stated, the transparent light around him flaring.

"How about you stop yapping and just come at me, incarnate!" Seth taunted. Instantly, Beaumont leaped forward at an incredible, gravity-defying pace. Seth accurately detected his incoming trajectory angle and adjusted the Relic of Nullification directly toward him. It can kill even a god, but it all depends on the wielder, Seth mused silently, a cold smirk spreading across his lips. Normally I would have run, but my curiosity always gets the best of me...It's my first time holding a Relic from the myths. Hundreds and thousands of generations live and die without ever seeing one, yet here I am wielding an absolute power. If I die, it'll be a selfish death of pure self-accomplishment.

Seth tried to tap into the Relic using his body's internal physical systems, but nothing happened. He shifted his focus, attempting to trigger it directly with his brain....and the two systems instantly synced. With a sudden flip of connection, Seth initiated a command according to the laws of Nullification. Instantly, the Relic began violently sucking his life force toward the abyss of death. For a single, terrifying fraction of a second, Seth’s consciousness slipped, and he saw the dark hem of Death’s robe then his Pushed further into the void as his very existence prepared to fade into nothingness.

Then, suddenly, he snapped back to reality. Seth collapsed heavily to the ground on all fours, sweating furiously. His muscular frame looked noticeably thinner, and he gasped heavily for air, his lungs burning. But across the room, the effect was instantaneous. Beaumont fell completely uncontrollably out of the sky, slamming hard onto his back upon impact with the stone floor. The blinding, transparent gleam of the deity had completely vanished from his frame. Beaumont scrambled back onto his feet, shaking his head like he had just woken up from a deep sleep. He appraised his hands and his chest in utter confusion. What happened? Where did the power go?

Agatha stared at Seth’s weakened state, her chest heaving as she suffocated from the stress. "Seth!" she glared at him angrily. "You foolish brat! I thought I warned you! Why don't you ever listen to me?!"

"I'm... I'm oka..." Seth cut himself off, coughing violently as a spray of blood hit the floor. "I'm okay. I'm okay." He felt completely empty inside. When he shifted his blindfolded gaze back toward Beaumont’s direction, all of his enhanced senses remained dull and unresponsive.

"What did you do?!" Beaumont called out, panic finally creeping into his voice.

"Who? Are you referring to me?" Seth said reluctantly, slowly dragging his weakened frame upward.

"Who else, you bastard?!" Beaumont roared. Seth staggered slightly, but his voice hardened into a serious, threatening tone. "All I did was completely destroy your connection with Ploy. Now you can't call for help anymore. This is my ground now." Beaumont froze, his mind racing in sheer shock. Wait a minute... he actually used it? He used the Relic and he's still alive?! How is that even possible? Does he have a hidden blessing too? Is he a follower of another deity? An immortal? An apostle? This is bad... I have way too many questions that need answering.

He glared across the ruins at Seth and noticed the man was barely balanced on his feet. A dark smirk returned to Beaumont’s face. It seems Ploy’s favor is still on my side. Unlike last time when you got the better of me, I am currently one hundred percent restored. Everything is clear now. You are entirely wrong, Dungeon Lord. This is MY ground now.

Instantly, warm amber sigil circles formed brilliantly around Beaumont’s palms. Without a moment of hesitation, he manifested a reinforced diamond javelin and fired it with explosive, supersonic speed directly at Seth. The javelin closed the distance in a flash. When it was just about twenty inches from his chest, Seth's sharp ears picked up the exact trajectory from the whistling sound of the air. He wove his torso violently to the left, dodging the lethal projectile in the absolute nick of time.

Beaumont’s jaw dropped. What?! He managed to dodge it from that close? No... it had to be pure luck. Taking a wider combat stance, Beaumont channeled his overflowing mana, materializing seven more reinforced diamond javelins in a floating semi-circle around him. Let's see you dodge all of this! he thought savagely, firing them forward at maximum velocity. Seth's physical senses were finally beginning to wake up, picking up the deadly range of the incoming projectiles. He flipped high into the air, gesturing his limbs gracefully like an veteran athlete to avoid a direct hit. The diamond javelins whistled past him one by one, though the final spike managed to brutally scrape his left leg as it passed. He dropped heavily back onto his feet, hopping slightly on the ground to stabilize his balance.

Beaumont watched his mid-air athletic maneuvers from across the room, a sudden, terrifying realization striking his brain. The way he just moved... where have I seen that exact rhythm before? His mind rapidly raced back to his previous battle. The metal golem from the fourth floor! The Ironclad moved exactly like him! So earlier, when Agatha said she built that golem after finding someone interesting...she was talking about him. He is the real deal, the blueprint. A deep, dark shadow crossed Beaumont's expression. I need to keep my distance. I have to cast my ultimate defenses and end this fight as fast as humanly possible. He immediately dropped into a low, heavy chanting stance.

Seth stamped his left toes against the ground, testing his scraped leg. On the floor, Agatha kept her glare locked firmly onto the preparing adventurer. "Seth."

"Yeah," he responded, his frame tensing."He's planning to go all out and cast his ultimate defense spells," she warned him, her voice urgent. "Don't you dare hold back on this one."

"Of course. I wasn't planning to," Seth replied, his tone dropping into a freezing, remorseless register as he directed his entire body toward the mage. "He ripped up my place. I'm going to rip him apart." Planning a fake-out attack just to buy time to cast a spell... this is going to be fun.

The tense standout instantly broke. Beaumont violently fired dozens of huge, reinforced diamond javelins in a chaotic spread at Seth, hoping to completely stall his approach. Simultaneously, Beaumont slammed his palms together, his warm amber sigils blooming with brilliant, blinding light as he began to chant his core defensive spell: "Tectonic Arm...." Seth cut into his line of sight with absolute, blur-like speed. Before Beaumont could even finish the final word of the spell, the momentum of a heavy physical leg kick slammed directly into his face. The colossal force blasted Beaumont violently backward. He went crashing completely through a gauntlet pile of fallen ceiling slabs, rocketing through the debris. He desperately controlled his fall, dragging his boots hard against the stone floor to stop the kinetic force. Bleeding profusely from his nose, his earth senses flared in pure panic as he looked up, Seth was already dashing straight toward him through the dust cloud.

With no time left to breathe, Beaumont’s warm amber sigil circles bloomed to their absolute limit. From the vicinity all around the rushing brawler, the ground erupted, launching hundreds of colossal, elongated, reinforced diamond roots whipping upward into the air, all aiming to brutally impale and crush Seth where he ran.