Chapter 211: Paimon's First Frustration
Gnaeus's vision blurred into a chaotic smear. The world around him twisted and warped, the scenery flashing by as if on fast-forward. The ancient, solemn walls and arcane equipment of the Soulforging Zone dissolved like smoke, replaced in a dizzying instant by the familiar circular ruins of the Suspended Edge Colosseum. The air, thick with the acrid scent of clashing energies, bit at his senses.
With the aid of Olonios's divine power, Mimi had teleported them directly from the past, depositing them squarely back into the present.
Almost simultaneously, a dazzling silver light ignited at the colosseum's center.
Paimon hovered high in the air, her hands clasped before her in a gesture of immense concentration. A colossal silver wrench, several times larger than her entire body, was rapidly taking shape. Light flowed across its surface, pulsing with the unique, reality-bending power of Optimization.
"Hee-ya! Super-sized... Optimization Wrench!" Paimon had clearly taken Stelle's advice to heart. A small wrench simply wouldn't have the right flair for an occasion this grand. She'd gone for the biggest model she could imagine, hoping to avoid the slightly comical display from when she'd first tried to help Azhdaha.
Just as they materialized, the divine body of Nikador, locked in a ferocious struggle with Phainon, Mydei, Ling, and March 7th, seemed to sense their arrival. Its head snapped around, its crimson gaze locking onto the newly appeared Gnaeus with an unnerving intensity.
"ROOOOAR—!!!"
A roar unlike any before tore from Nikador's throat—a sound saturated with an agonizing cocktail of longing, pain, and raw ferocity.
He completely ignored Phainon's blood-crystal haymaker aimed at his flank. He weathered the blast of Mydei's Imaginary energy against his back armor without flinching. He even disregarded Ling's wheel of ice and the glacial sword waves from March's Sode no Shirayuki.
Like a beast driven completely mad, he charged, his entire being focused on reaching Gnaeus.
His massive frame erupted with astonishing speed, bowling over Phainon and Mydei who stood in his path. Their stone steles flickered violently under the impact as they stumbled back. The freezing effects from Ling and March were instantly shattered by a new, more powerful surge of energy that burst from within Nikador's body.
"Stop him!" Dan Heng's sharp command cut through the chaos. He and Lumine had been holding the perimeter, and seeing the situation devolve, they acted at once.
"Azure Dragon Cleansing the World!"
"Starfell Sword!"
A serpentine dragon shadow of pure cyan and a massive Geo construct descended from the sky in perfect unison, slamming down directly in Nikador's path and erupting with immense obstructive force.
Stelle didn't hesitate for a second. Her lance ignited with raging flames. "Fire Lance, charge!" she yelled, ramming the weapon's burning tip squarely into Nikador's chest plate, digging in and slowing his rampage.
Amidst a thunderous cacophony of impacts, Nikador's forward momentum was forcibly arrested by their combined assault. He was shoved back, forced to return to the center of the battlefield.
"March! Ling! Fall back for now!" Dan Heng commanded, his voice a pillar of calm in the storm. "We need suppression and control to create an opening for Paimon. Your Zanpakutō aren't suited for this!"
Though both March 7th and Ling were still itching for a fight, they understood the gravity of the situation. They immediately retreated to a safe distance, their eyes fixed nervously on the battle.
The heart of the colosseum now belonged to the combined might of Dan Heng, Lumine, Stelle, Phainon, and Mydei, who formed a tight cordon to besiege and suppress the berserk Nikador. The array of Stone Steles that Zhongli had erected glowed steadily, providing a stable field of suppression, while his Jade Shield flickered constantly around the group, deflecting the inevitable torrent of stray energy.
"Paimon! Now!" Stelle shouted.
Paimon glanced down at the gigantic Titan thrashing below, its body radiating terrifying waves of power. She swallowed hard, but steeled her resolve and pointed a tiny hand forward. "Paimon's Star! Go! Super-sized Optimization!"
The muscular, astral doppelgänger hovering behind her sprang into action. With impossible grace, it snatched the giant silver wrench from the air.
Displaying an agility that completely defied its bulk, it swooped down, bypassed the raging frontline, and brought the wrench down with a resounding CLANG right on Nikador's forehead.
A peculiar, massive sound—part metallic impact, part purifying chime—echoed throughout the entire colosseum.
At the point of impact, a familiar golden magic circle instantly unfurled beneath Nikador's feet, while a phantom of a rotating wrench appeared above his head.
This time, however, something unexpected happened.
Just as the Optimization Power began to seep into Nikador's body, attempting to dispel the Black Tide's corruption, countless red and black energy cubes surged into existence around him without warning.
The cubes writhed and multiplied frantically as if they were alive, a tide of darkness made solid. They swarmed over Nikador's massive body, enveloping him layer by layer. They not only resisted the purifying power of the silver wrench but also began to frantically draw energy from the surrounding environment, strengthening themselves with every passing moment.
"That's... the Black Tide! It's materialized!" Gnaeus cried out, his voice laced with a horror he had never shown before. "Be careful! Don't let those things touch you! You'll be corrupted!"
The expressions of the five warriors besieging Nikador shifted at the warning. Without a shred of hesitation, they unleashed a final, coordinated push to repel him, using the momentum to simultaneously leap back and put distance between themselves and the ever-expanding mass of dark cubes.
Everyone watched the bizarre scene unfold with a growing sense of dread.
Beneath Nikador's feet, the golden magic circle generated by Paimon's Optimization Power was still stubbornly spinning, fighting to purify him. On his body, streams of Black Tide energy were constantly being forced out—proof that the power was, in fact, working.
But the problem was that the expelled energy wasn't dissipating. Instead, it was being instantly absorbed and assimilated by the newly formed, even denser and more violent cubes of materialized Black Tide. This absorbed corruption was then transformed into an even stronger, more defiled energy that, like maggots clinging to bone, frantically drilled its way back into Nikador's body.
Purification and pollution had become locked in a bizarre, pain-fueled death loop.
Paimon's usually invincible Optimization Power had, for the first time, met a truly formidable opponent. Worse, it seemed to have provoked an even more ferocious counterattack from the Black Tide.
Her sure-fire strike had triggered this terrifying backlash, and the sight made Paimon's little face fall. But in the next instant, a powerful surge of defiance flared within her.
"H-How can this be!" Paimon stared at Nikador below, now wrapped in layers of writhing black cubes and roaring ceaselessly, trapped in that agonizing cycle. She stomped her feet in the air in sheer frustration. "Paimon doesn't believe it!"
Her competitive spirit was now fully ignited. She focused her mind once more, waving her small hands in a rapid sequence.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Three more giant silver Optimization Wrenches rapidly materialized. Under her command, they were snatched up by her astral stand, which then descended with astonishing speed, striking Nikador's head from three tricky, unpredictable angles.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The crisp sounds rang out one after another. The golden magic circle beneath Nikador's feet flickered wildly, desperately trying to expel the defiled energy. Each strike did indeed force out a massive amount of Black Tide corruption.
But the core problem remained. The ambient Black Tide energy permeating the colosseum was simply too dense.
The purged corruption was instantly devoured by the swarming black cubes, re-infused into Nikador's body with renewed intensity, and even began to actively attack and erode the golden Optimization circle, causing its light to dim at an alarming rate.
The speed of purification was falling far, far behind the speed of pollution.
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