Gigolo Diaries-Chapter 20: Dual Chaos

Another roar caused Eros’ head to flicker to the beast about to make its last stand. The force of the roar forced the already trembling trees into a violent sway and Eros, who was far away, couldn’t help but frown when he felt the pressure from the beast.

But the pressure wasn’t what made him frown. It was the nexus aura the beast exuded that left a bad taste in his mouth.

Although a person could hide their nexus aura, it was incredibly difficult to do so while fighting. So it wasn’t possible that the tiger was faking it, but the aura that Eros felt was that of a beast.

It didn’t make sense for a beast to be able to even stand the unhinged aura of an evolver, let alone fighting back. Not even a corrupted beast that had three nexus cores could do that. This perplexed Eros, but no matter how he pondered he came to no conclusion.

He decided to put that at the back of his mind for now and create some distance from the battlefield as the shockwaves were getting stronger by the second.

But it was already too late.

In the midst of the scorched battlefield, the trees had been reduced to ash, and the ground was burned into glass, with multiple craters dotting the burning sand.

Lain gasped slightly. She too had noticed that this was a mere beast. And even though that surprised her to the core, it wasn’t impossible. After all, unlike the common populace that were only privy to three ranks of monsters—Common, true, and corrupted—she knew that monsters stretched far beyond that scale.

Even then, whatever this beast was, it had to be at the epitome of that scale.

It was a pity that it was a mere beast. If it had grown to a demon, devil, or even a curse then it would be much more useful to her. After all, only then would its body be treated like a national treasure.

Still, it wasn’t as though she was actually struggling. She had just been curious about the technique employed by this creature, but it soon became clear that it wasn’t compatible with her.

Seeing that, it was time to end this battle.

Thankfully the beast also had the same thought as an orb of darkness appeared above the creature’s head. The orb was the size of an egg at first, but it absorbed the shadows around and for a moment the darkness seemed to glow, creating the illusion that the sun was gone.

Elaine wasn’t just standing around and waiting for the attack. Perhaps out of spite, she had decided to use an attack that was eerily similar to the creature’s attack.

She stretched out her open palm and an orb of red flame appeared in her palm.

She smirked as the orb began to spin while absorbing the surrounding heat. This was a technique that she had created on her own; unlike regular fire users who turned their nexus into flames, she did no such thing. Instead, she absorbed the surrounding heat into her flame.

So, essentially, apart from the negligible nexus that was required to direct the heat of the atmosphere to a point in space, Elaine spent absolutely no energy to create this attack. She could effectively use this attack a million times without rest, although this was only in theory.

The main drawback of this attack was the time needed to create the attack. If there wasn’t enough heat in her proximity then it would take longer for the attack to come into being. So, by the tenth use, this attack would take hours to even manifest.

The world around her was already growing cold, with the small patches of melted glass on the floor slowly freezing. The stone gained a blue hue, as small frozen petals of ice dropped to the floor.

On one hand was a world that was entering the ice age, while on the other hand was a world being submerged into darkness. They didn’t fuse, but seemed to form a strange almost tangible barrier. The two stared at each other, one with eyes of hatred and the other with eyes filled with a maniacal battle frenzy.

The people around the battlefield weren’t having it easy.

The pressure from the two attacks alone would make it so that anyone who wasn’t an adept would have a hard time getting close to the proximity of the fight.

The others had long since created a large space between themselves and the center of carnage.

Eros didn’t. His legs buckled, but he didn’t move from his spot as beads of sweat ran across his cheek before freezing at the edge of his jaw.

The reason for his stubbornness to retreat wasn’t anything heroic. He had felt something crack in him the instant the two attacks had come into being; the moment that pressure fell on him he had felt something shift in his soul.

And it didn’t take a genie to tell him that that was the barrier standing between him and the tenth cleansing.

All he needed to do now was use this pressure to break that last wall and that was exactly the plan; all he had to do now was hope his legs would hold before his time was up.

The area around Lain was now a frozen world with her being the core.

The blue ball of flames in her hands wasn’t large but it shone bright and its blue seemed to complement the frozen world, like a soft lie surrounded by towers of truth. Then she shifted her hand, and the flame followed like it was a living liquid.

It shifted and moulded into the shape she desired—an arrow. She made the same gesture as one who had a bow in hand, ready to fire with the blue flame as the arrow.

The creature had also stopped absorbing as the thick darkness that swallowed even light shifted and formed a spear above its head.

The tiger’s black fur stood on end as it growled.

The world stood on its toes. And Eros’ mouth stood agape as he stared at the marvellous sight in front of him. He could already feel it; he could feel the perfection he was about to reach.

Then in an instant that came all too fast. The two attacks, one blue and the other as black as the abyss, cut through the air, flying to each other with terrifying speeds that defied regular physics.

There was no loud boom, no explosions, no commotion, just the silent whizzing of an arrow as the attacks met.

To say it was an unsuspenseful outcome would be true, but to say it was unexpected would be a lie. The arrow cut straight through the darkness, not losing its moment a single bit as it continued heading to the tiger.

Perhaps if Eros were fast enough he would have noticed the horror that appeared in the tiger’s eyes. But the arrow was already upon it in a mere instant.

This time, there was indeed an explosion, a mighty explosion focused on a single point. One that dispersed the darkness gathered in the area. Out of instinct Eros covered his eyes as the wave of darkness and shadow scattered, going back into hiding from the terrible gaze of light.

When he looked back at the battlefield, it was all gone. Both the frozen world and the darkness. All that was left was the sound of cackling as flames clung to the corpse of the dead tiger now burnt to a lump of charred meat.

Lain stretched her limbs as a gleeful smile emerged on her lips. It had been a minute since she fought and although she didn’t go all out this was good enough for her.

Just as she was reeling in the moment a cat-like creature manifested from the darkness and grabbed hold of the corpse. Immediately she noticed the cat, another patch of darkness appeared beneath its feet, and both the cat and the corpse were swallowed by this darkness, completely disappearing from the area.

Laine was dumbfounded for a moment, but there was no way she was letting the only proof of her battle vanish just like that.

The ground beneath her feet cracked as she ran forward in chase of that patch of darkness.

Eros too was surprised by the turn of events. But there was something else he needed to attend to.