A Novel Concept - A death a day, MC will live anyway!-Chapter 269: When Rivals’ Masks Fall - Part II

Priam gently laid the princess's lifeless body on the ground. Her death, sudden and brutal, stirred a storm of emotions he could hardly digest all at once.

One feeling surged above the rest: rage. A deep, burning fury, monstrous and all-consuming. Priam hadn't known Esmée well; their paths had only crossed recently. Yet, he felt an overwhelming urge to inflict pain on whoever had condemned her to this fate.

With the Empyrean Emperor absent, Priam redirected his wrath towards a closer enemy: Sumstreh.

High in the sky, the Fallen effortlessly battled Arnold, Seth, and Léo. Priam's anger hadn’t blinded him to the point of ignoring the fact that his presence wouldn’t change anything in a direct fight. He could take on some Tier 3s and tank a lot of damage, but a Tier 4 would squash him like a bug. Still, even a bug can be dangerous.

His gaze shifted to the tribal shamans, who were trembling, unconscious as the enemy invaded their souls. If nothing was done, three puppets would soon rise.

With a single step, Priam rode the mist hanging over the battlefield. Placing a hand on Mama Apo's forehead, he established a mental bridge. With no defenses to repel him, he accessed her soul space directly. Inside, a massive, brilliant soul was under siege by a grotesque spiritual tentacle. Out of her six soul layers—two more than Priam's—four had already been breached.

[There is no Heaven].

The System had granted him this skill when he earned [Iconoclast] after urinating on a statue of Viracocha. Its ability was straightforward: create an energy capable of damaging a soul.

When [There is no Heaven] struck the tentacle, severing it like a hot knife through butter, Sumstreh screamed. The battlefield froze for an instant as the Fallen turned their gaze towards Priam.

"You dare?!”

The volume alone would’ve killed a pre-System human, and the echo triggered landslides.

“I dare,” Priam grinned cruelly before shouting to his rivals, “Hold them off while I shatter their soul completely!”

Maybe because they were a Fallen, a fragment of a former Tier 5, Sumstreh possessed a massive but flawed soul. They could tank a nuke head-on but were vulnerable to spiritual attacks.

The Fallen dove toward him, but was intercepted in the next instant by the Tier 4 necro. Roaring in rage, Sumstreh unleashed a laser beam that pierced through the corrupted titan, only to be stopped by Léo.

As the aerial battle raged on, Priam continued to corrode the Fallen's spiritual tentacle. It only took a few moments before it was cut in two. The part inside Mama Apo's soul dissipated, while the rest withdrew from the soul space. Sumstreh was retreating.

Priam followed. His Soul Tier was too weak to wield his soul with finesse, but he could latch onto the tentacle, which he did.

Lvl Up: [Mind Bridge] lvl 11

META (Affinity) +2

META (Perception) +1

At the end of a spiritual tunnel, Priam entered a new soul space—Sumstreh’s. A vast but fractured soul loomed before him. Instead of a sphere, it resembled an unnatural patchwork sewn together by a child; massive, but grotesque.

Nevertheless, the quality of the aether and the spiritual pressure in the Fallen's soul space was extreme. At the source of it all, an unfathomable ego reigned. The gaze of an ancient god fell upon Priam, making him tremble.

A mortal could not withstand the gaze of the divine without consequence.

A force as vast as the sky descended upon his soul, and the Champion felt his strength slipping away. Due to their difference in Soul Tier, the mere spiritual gravity of the Fallen’s soul was enough to annihilate his own. Soon, it would dissipate, and he would die—perhaps for good this time.

Neither his willpower nor his attributes could change anything, and Priam let out a whimper before recalling his Phoenix mentor’s advice. There was a forbidden way to resist a god’s will.

Trees of Merit

[Iconoclast - Legendary] - Tier 0: You're beginning to feel your soul. ACQUIRED

[Iconoclast - Legendary] - Tier 1: Your soul is proud; it resists external modifications. ACQUIRED

[Iconoclast - Legendary] - Tier 2: Your soul is pure; its flaws erased, its sins forgiven, it resists the apocryphal. ACQUIRED

[Iconoclast - Legendary] - Tier 3: Your soul is sacred; it learns to ignore the authority of other souls. ACQUIRED

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

[Iconoclast - Legendary] - Tier 5: Your soul is sovereign; it influences other souls. NEW

1 Unused Merit Point.

More than body and mind, the soul was the core, the foundation of one’s being. Frustration filled Priam as the System granted new qualities to his soul. He was forced to alter the very essence of his being to survive. His soul became clearer to his senses and solidified further. Its shape turned perfectly spherical, and the last traces of Sumstreh’s divine mark vanished.

Priam's soul was being reborn, pristine and sublime.

As the pain gave way once more to fury, Priam assessed his situation and pressed his lips together. The last few weeks had been so lenient that he had forgotten one of the Tutorial’s lessons:

Adapt or perish. And I'm damn good at adapting.

To survive, Priam was willing to kill and suffer, to run and play, to resist and change. As long as he was alive, there was hope.

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

When his eyes opened again, Priam flashed a mocking smile at Sumstreh. The hairs on his arms had stood on end the moment the System modified his soul. The Merits of Iconoclast were designed to resist the gods, and he had triggered an alarm. Soon, someone would come to punish him. No matter, Back in Time will cover me.

Sumstreh’s spiritual influence over his soul was no longer a violent deluge but a mere summer drizzle. To kill him now, the Fallen would have to descend from his throne and get up close and personal. Léo and his rivals would make sure that didn’t happen.

“You should be worried about yourself.”

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[There is no Heaven] transformed his aether into spiritual poison, and Priam went on the offensive again. This time, he targeted not a tentacle, but the Fallen’s soul itself—specifically, one of the cracks covering its first layer, the one governing common skills. Sumstreh had likely patched together different soul fragments to recreate his own, and Priam aimed for the seams.

Sharpened by [There is no Heaven], his will struck at the Fallen’s weakness like a blade seeking a chink in armor. The enemy’s soul trembled, and the monster howled. If he destabilized it further, the damage would become crippling, and victory would be his.

Out of the corner of his eye, Priam saw Ophis rushing toward him, Dishnu and Braato on his heels. The intruder’s Domain crushed his own and began to bear down on him. Priam grunted, feeling something infiltrate his body, but he managed to stay on his feet.

Lvl Up: [Poison Body] lvl 28

CONST +1

VIT +1

META (Endurance) +1

The poison distilled by the Tier 4 was terrifying, but Priam’s resistances and physical attributes guaranteed him at least a minute of survival. From the sound of the Fallen’s screams, that was more than enough. The skulc extended a putrid hand toward him, determined to stop him physically. His shadow quivered, but Priam soothed Jasmine. I got it.

Dedicating a parallel thought to handle the intruder, Priam blocked with his arm. His left hand gripped the opponent’s wrist, and his right palm landed on Ophis’s fresh scar. Channeling his kinetic reserves accumulated before the battle, the Champion let them explode through his meridians.

Lvl Up: [Adaptive Golden Meridians] lvl 13, 14

META (Focus) +6

META (Endurance) +12

For an instant, the skulc’s right shoulder held, but then the immense force triumphed. The Tier 4’s pupils quivered as his arm gave way in a spray of blood.

Still holding the severed member, Priam watched Ophis’s body get catapulted backward at over a kilometer per second, colliding with Braato’s bent knee with a terrible crack. In his colossal form, Dishnu took over, smashing his fists into the enemy. The Tier 4’s silhouette was swallowed by the earth, and Priam tossed the useless arm into the Tribulation Chamber of Concepts Archipelago. The Snaherts leader’s genome might be useful.

A fit of coughing made him spit black blood on the ground. Tired, Priam diagnosed his body. His pathways had burst, but his arteries had taken over thanks to [Bloodless]’s Merit. He ordered Promesse to amputate his poisoned arm and refocused all his attention on his spiritual attack. Under his assault, Sumstreh's soul was reaching a critical point.

His will wielded [There is no Heaven] to deliver the final blow to his adversary. Finally, the spiritual fissure widened, destabilizing the first layer of his soul. With a tremendous mental crash, it exploded, sending spiritual fragments in all directions.

Sumstreh's scream shook the world. Arnold, Seth, and Léo backed away as the enemy began convulsing. Watching the fallen's Domain violently fluctuate, one could tell how deep the spiritual wound was.

“If I have to die, I won’t go alone!” they swore.

The valley trembled as a titanic amount of energy rose toward the sky to create a basic ritual.

Four overlapping runes materialized, so bright and massive that they eclipsed the glow of the Necromoon. Priam’s magical senses told him each contained enough aether to destroy not just the valley, but the entire floating island. Sumstreh’s preparations were profound.

“If you don’t let me go, we’ll die together,” threatened the Fallen. The specter struggled to maintain their form, a sign that they were seriously injured.

“We just need to destabilize one of these runes to cancel the ritual!” Priam shouted, seeing his allies hesitate.

“He says that because he can resurrect!” roared the former god. “He wants us all dead so he can claim the rewards for himself.”

Priam cursed, remembering that Sumstreh had partial access to his modified status.

“You can resurrect?” growled Seth, suspicious.

“Only once,” Priam admitted. Without knowing his rivals' skills, lying would be foolish, and his secret would be safe once he went back in time. “But I’m about to trigger a sextuple Tribulation in less than an hour, so I don’t plan on dying now.” Priam hoped the truth would sway his rivals; they were so close to victory. “Trust me, together, we can easily destroy one of these runes before the ritual activates. Then, we’ll claim the rewards!”

He could feel Seth hesitating. If Léo or Arnold agreed to the plan, Priam was sure they could kill Sumstreh.

His gaze met Arnold's, and the homunculus opened his mouth.

“A massive corrupted army is attacking your tribes right now,” he said, firing a plasma cannon that engulfed Dishnu's poisoned form.

Priam's eyes widened, as did Léo's and Braato's. The chiefs grabbed a cord at their belts and tore it. In the next instant, all the Tier 4s from the tribes had vanished. Seth shot a dark look at the homunculus before ordering his necro-titan to charge after them.

Silence stretched for a few moments before Priam sighed. He was more tired than angry.

“Why? Victory was within reach.”

Arnold levitated down to the ground, landing with the grace of an angel. Behind him, Sumstreh descended as well.

“Because the First is the number one priority. The only thing more important than being his ally is seeing him dead.”

Priam loomed so large in Arnold’s mind that the Var Elegis had decided to gamble on Sumstreh’s help and the possibility of a septuple Tribulation to eliminate his greatest rival.

The situation was so dire that Priam burst into laughter.

“You're going to pay for this.”

His shadow quivered as Sphinx settled on his shoulder. It was time to draw the curtain on this timeline.

[2 hours 30 minutes before optimal activation of Back in Time.]

Status:

PHYSICAL:

Strength 782 freēwēbηovel.c૦m

Constitution 1 389 (+2)

Agility 924

Vitality 1 340 (+2)

Perception 817

MENTAL:

Vivacity (D) 599

Dexterity 680

Memory 896

Willpower 1 193

Charisma 754

META:

Meta-affinity 923 (+3)

Meta-focus 444 (+6)

Meta-endurance 798 (+19)

Meta-perception (A) 443 (+2)

Meta-chance 332

Meta-authority 252

Potential: 12 440 (+7)

Tier 0

Sun point: 0

[He Who Eludes Death] charge: PRIMED

[Tribulation]: Six Tribulations pending.

Future Tribulations delayed until:

Time: 152 days 8 hours 2 minutes 16 seconds.

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

This arc is already complete on Patreon if you want to find out what happens next!

/ANovelConcept