Leveling Up by Seducing Milfs-Chapter 206. The Archon’s Gambit

The seven heads of the New Leviathan all attacked the corrupted Guardian at the same time, and golden light burst from their mouths. The purification got rid of all the signs of corruption, letting the Archon let go of the original Leviathan’s mind.

For a brief moment, the Guardian’s eyes cleared, showing gratitude and relief before its body broke up into tiny pieces of light that floated away into the ocean.

The once-bustling plaza now lay in silence. Typhon was dead. Seris was gone. The corrupted Leviathan had been purified and set free.

The battle had come to an end.

Rick and Nerissa floated together, and he found her hand and held it tightly. His partners gathered around him.

They were all worn out but alive and recovered from any injuries.

"We did it," Carmilla said, her voice full of relief and disbelief. "We actually... won!"

Natasha said, "The chances of success were very low," and she wiped her eyes. "But we won anyway... that’s all that matters."

Liora’s divine energy was full of joy. "The gods were looking out for us today."

Zara smiled, and her demon form finally relaxed. "Of course we fucking won!"

"HAH! Take that, you dirty bastards!!!"

Myrissa swam to her mother and hugged Nerissa’s huge body. "Mother...!!! Oh, I’m so proud of you."

"You came back, right...!? You really did come back to someone who really is my mother!"

Nerissa hugged back, and her voice was full of feeling. "I’m sorry it took so long, my daughter..."

"I have six hundred years of being a good mother to make up for..."

Sebastian appeared next to Rick, and the chibi butler’s monocle sparkled with pleasure. "Good job, you beautiful mess of a gooner."

"You made the sixth Spirit Bond, beat two corrupted enemies, created a new Guardian, and saved the Ocean Empire and its entire ocean...! I think that’s enough progress for this zero-to-hero main character."

Rick laughed at the backhanded compliment, and he was about to say something sarcastic when he felt it.

And then...

A change in the water is currently happening.

Something was wrong that made every instinct scream danger.

"Do you all feel that...!?" Rick made the first alert.

"Aw, come on now! Don’t tell me it’s not over yet." Zara felt frustrated by the changes happening around her.

The ocean started to swirl with corrupted energy behind where Typhon and Seris had died. Not the purple corruption they had been fighting, but it was something darker that felt ancient, evil, and completely unavoidable.

A huge tornado of pure corruption appeared, spinning so fast that it could rip through reality itself. The water turned black like ink, and something came out of the middle of the tornado.

A shape made up of nothing but darkness. There were no clear features, no body shape, just a shadow that seemed to suck in all light and hope.

It made the corrupted Leviathan look like a harmless pet next to it.

"No fucking way... It’s the Archon," Sebastian whispered, and for the first time in sixty-seven thousand years, the system administrator sounded really scared. "He’s showing the avatar of himself to us all!"

The Archon’s avatar spoke, and its voice could be heard from all directions at once. It wasn’t loud, but it shook their bones, their souls, and the very fabric of reality around them.

"Well, well, look at how far you’ve come, Rick Rolland."

"Oh my fucking god... why you of all the ocean creatures?!" Rick clenched both his fists.

"I just want to congratulate all of you for beating my pawns, and also you made my Guardian get purified."

"You even made the sixth Spirit Bond, which was very hard to do, judging by her history of pure stupidity."

"Good job, Rick Rolland. And I also need to say good job to you too, Nerissa Abyssryn."

Rick felt like something that was beyond his understanding was looking at him as the darkness changed.

"But... you’re already too late! As always, everything that happened here, every choice you made, and every win you got were all part of the plan!

The Archon pointed to the place where Typhon and Seris had died, and their bodies started to come back together. Not as living things, but as something else.

They were being twisted, compressed, and shaped into keys made of broken souls and corrupted matter.

"Two betrayers... Two souls filled with regret and love and hatred, all mixed together..."

"Two people who destroyed the greatest partnership in oceanic history..."

"It’s the perfect component for what comes next."

The keys floated toward the Archon, and Sebastian suddenly knew what was going to happen. "No! Stop him!"

"Don’t let him finish the ritual!"

When Rick was about to move, it was already too late. The Archon took the keys made from Typhon and Seris’s souls and reached out with dark tendrils to wrap around Nerissa.

Not her body, but her spirit.

In particular, the part of her soul that was still connected to Typhon even after he died. The bond they had made 800 years ago, the magical signature they had put in the Guardians together, and the love that had been there before the betrayal.

As the Archon ripped that piece free, Nerissa screamed. "AGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!"

It was the last link she had to her dead husband. It hurt so much that it was like having part of her essence cut off.

"Nerissa...!!!" Rick gritted his teeth and then launched himself towards the Archon, who snapped his fingers, causing another tendril to bind him and everyone else who was trying to stop his plan.

"Now, now, enjoy the show with the last part," the Archon said, and the piece of Nerissa’s bond joined with the keys made from Typhon and Seris’s souls. "A partnership ruined by betrayal."

"A love that turned into hate and a bond that made Guardians and then turned them into weapons."

"Fucking... perfect."

The three parts came together to form one key that pulsed with power so dark that it made reality weep.

"Rick Rolland... your Spirit Bonds are very strong indeed."

"Six women who really love you and would die for you. Their souls are now one with yours."

"That’s actually lovely and also damn smooth. That’s exactly what I needed to see the other side of."

The Archon’s avatar turned toward the ocean’s deepest part, where something ancient and terrible slept under a lot of pressure. "Because corruption alone doesn’t wake Cthulhu..."

"It wakes up when purity is destroyed, through the proof that even the strongest bonds can be broken, twisted, and used as weapons against those who made them."

"N-No," Nerissa said in a whisper, her face showing both horror and understanding. "You are using what Typhon and I had, what we broke, to break the seal we made together...!"

"Exactly," the Archon said. "The seal needed perfect love and partnership to be made."

"So it needs broken love and a broken partnership to break. And you gave me just that."

The key that came from Typhon, Seris, and Nerissa’s stolen bond fragment floated toward the abyss, going down through the water to depths where no living thing should go.

Rick took Nerissa’s hand and could feel her shaking through their spirit bond. He could feel her pain, guilt, and complete conviction that this was her fault through the connection.

Rick quickly reassured her, "Please know that it’s not your fault

"I really can’t change at all..." Nerissa starts to feel the burden again. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Nerissa, pay attention to me!"

"You didn’t know this was going to happen! The Archon controlled everything and used everyone’s pain to do so."

"It’s not your fault."

But Nerissa didn’t hear. She was watching the key fall, seeing the last piece of her love for Typhon being used to wake up the Forbidden Guardian, and seeing centuries of pain come to an end in a world-ending disaster.

The sea began to shake violently. It was not a small tremor, but it felt as if the entire Astral Deep was convulsing.

Something moved in the deepest part of the abyss.

Something that should never have been made.

Something that had been locked away for six hundred years, waiting for the day when love would break and set it free.

Cthulhu was waking up.

And none of them could stop it.