Theodore jolted upwards as his blurry vision began to focus. He panted heavily before looking around to find himself in his human form sitting on his bed with a blanket over his legs. "...What?"
[The duration of the Skill 'First Deceptor' had been temporarily removed during your unconscious state.]
[Because of the skill's level up, 'First Deceptor' can now last up to 18 Hours.]
[The timer for the Skill 'First Deceptor' starts now.]
"Theo!" Merlin's voice came from his side and he turned to see his best friend by his bedside holding a half-read book in his hands. The ginger's expression was filled with worry as he spoke in a frantic voice. "Are you okay? You're out for five days, I thought something might have happened!"
"Ah, no..." Theodore shook his head as he dismissed the notification panels, he looked down at himself to see that someone had changed him into light blue pajamas. He brought one hand to his forehead and opened his attribute window, confirming that what had happened was real. "I...I'm fine, I was taken to a...dreamscape of sorts."
"What?"
Theodore began to explain what had happened during his sleep, he talked about his father and his supposed mother, Apophis. He had to pause a bunch of times before finally deciding to tell Merlin about Ra's plans.
"...What?"
"I know it sounds unbelievable," Theodore sighed. "But then again, I did come back from the dead, so just trust me on this one, okay?"
"Yeah." Merlin nodded, though despite agreeing to believe him, his voice still sounded skeptical. "And what do you plan to do about these...gods?"
"I'll first target Jörmungandr, out of all three he's probably the weakest..."
"Weakest? I thought it's the snake that can cause the end of the world." Merlin frowned.
"Well...Jörmungandr probably isn't even here yet, if he is then the world would've gone to sh*t by now."
Merlin tilted his head, eyes widened slightly as he thought about it for a moment. "You're right...There's the whole...Ragnarok thing going on around that snake. Still, where are you going to find Jörmungandr?"
Theodore went silent for a moment, though it wasn't because he didn't know what to say, he'd just realized that there was some information inside his head that certainly wasn't there before when he was in Apophis' domain. "...This is going to be confusing, but basically, I just know."
"You just know?" Merlin blinked a couple of times in pure disbelief.
"You can call it a sort of sense...I can feel where certain gods are...or 'were', they would leave a trace behind that could linger for a very long time if they used a lot of divine power."
"...How?"
"I'm not sure," Theodore shrugged. "I inherited basically everything from Apophis, including knowledge, so that's most likely how I know."
Merlin leaned back against his chair as he lightly threw the book in his hand onto a nightstand beside him. "This is getting crazy...I thought it's just going to end the moment those guys pay for what they did."
Theodore's gaze went down to his hands resting on top of the blanket. "You could say that I was being used this entire time...Gaining power that in the end would be used to fight a war between gods."
Merlin scoffed. "That sounds ridiculous."
"It does." Theodore nodded in agreement as he felt the corner of his lips slightly tugged upwards. "Still, if we just let the gods do as they wish...The human world will be swept up in a big mess. We need to do everything we can to prevent that."
It was as if the world had been listening in on their conversation, since as soon as Theodore had finished speaking, everything around them began to violently shake.
Merlin clumsily stood up while Theodore climbed off of the bed. "Oh bloody hell...What's happening now?"
Suddenly, a notification popped up next to Theo's vision, it wasn't in its usual blue color either, this time, it gleamed an ominous red while the black bold letters were written in all capital.
[WARNING! THE SCALE OF BALANCE IS TILTED TOWARDS 'ORDER'.]
"Sh*t, it's happening." Theodore gritted his teeth and abruptly his attire began to change, a green light swept across his figure like the pieces of clothing were being printed onto him. In almost an instant, he'd changed from comfortable pajamas to a full, pure black royal outfit covered by a dark green mantle.
[The Skills 'First Deceptor' and 'Pro Alchemist' have created the 'Pride's Royal Gown' equipment set.]
[When 'Pride's Royal Gown' is equipped, the effects of the title 'Demon King of Pride' will increase.]
Merlin didn't get the chance to ask how he'd gotten those clothes since Theodore immediately stormed out of the room and into the hallways where panicking servants were kneeling down on the ground covered by debris and broken shards of ceramic and glass.
Merlin sprinted next to him. "Do you know what's happening?"
"How would I know?"
"I thought you said you're a god now?"
Theodore wouldn't get the chance to reply since the shaking suddenly got more violent, it almost knocked Merlin off of his feet though he'd managed to lean against a nearby wall and steadied himself.
"Theo!" Asmodeus rounded a corner and came to a stop right in front of Theodore, she took a second to inspect his clothing but chose to speak of a more important matter first. "We can talk later but right now—"
[Serpent God!] A thunderous roar came from somewhere towards Merlin's side and something came bursting through the wall, luckily, Theodore and Asmodeus managed to pull him out of the way and put up a magic barrier before anyone could get hurt.
Right by the large hole was an equally enormous serpent, it had dark blue scales and terrifying red eyes, its body had stretched out far beyond what the normal human eye could see though the demon kings could barely notice the destruction of large and small towns that the snake had left in its path.
"What the f*ck?" Merlin's eyes widened with fear as he took many steps back, his entire body shaking underneath the snake's eyes.
['Merlin Everhart' has been affected by Jörmungandr's divine presence.]
[The Status Condition 'Fear' has been inflicted.]
"Asmodeus, take Merlin and go help the others evacuate." Theodore's now golden eyes locked with Jörmungandr's sanguine, never blinking ones.
"What about—"
"I'll take care of him, go." Theodore cut Asmodeus off and she didn't have much choice but to do as she was told. She grabbed Merlin by the arm and both of them began to run as fast as they could.
"Don't die!" Merlin turned back around one last time before he disappeared after making a turn.
Theodore didn't answer back and instead spoke to Jörmungandr. [What do you want?]
[An honorable battle.] The serpent replied, slightly retreating as if trying to urge him to get out of the broken palace. [The others believed that I am far too weak to be of use...I might be bound to the Chains of Destiny, but that does not mean I am useless!]
[You want to prove yourself?] Theodore frowned, after hearing 'Chains of Destiny', information about it began to pop up inside his head. He guessed that Jörmungandr could only cause Ragnarok when it's time for it to begin, which was why the serpent was able to come here without issues.
[If I can kill you...I will be a step closer to breaking free of these Chains...However, I believe in the ways of a warrior, I request a fair duel to the death.]
[You killed my citizens on your way here.] Theodore frowned, he brought up the Temple Status and saw that around a hundred Ragerians were killed by Jörmungandr.
[That is but a minor sacrifice.]
[Minor?] At first, Theodore's plans were to stall for time until he could finish going through his list of powerful spells, but right now hearing that Jörmungandr killed innocent people on purpose, he couldn't contain his anger. [You could've come peacefully and I would accept your duel nonetheless, but you chose to slaughter my people...You've made a mistake, Jörmungandr.]
[The Bloodline Skill 'Embodiment of Chaos' has responded to your rage!]
['Embodiment of Chaos' will be consumed to fuel the awakening of a new skill.]
[The Unique Magic 'Apophis' Wrath' (Lvl.MAX) has been added!]
The magic circle was dark red like the color of blood. It gave off an eerie feeling when it manifested in front of Theodore, as if he was using Embodiment of Chaos, all of his skills relating to it was reacting like crazy and it showed in the form of dark mist rising up from underneath his feet.
[The Bloodline Skill 'Corrupting Touch' is enhancing 'Apophis' Wrath'.]
Everything had happened in the span of a second, notification bars popped up right next to him though Theodore barely paid any attention to them and only listened to the voice, The System's voice, as soon as he'd gained the new Unique Magic, information began flooding into his mind; how to use it, what he can do with it, and what sort of power he now has in the palm of his hands.
[Apophis' Wrath: Equality.]
Jörmungandr tilted his head, clearly confused as to what the spell was supposed to do. [My magic defenses are high enough that even the mighty Thor had a hard time against me, what makes you—]
The World Serpent wouldn't get to say another word as suddenly something came flying straight towards his face, the force behind it was powerful enough to knock him to the ground. Jörmungandr glared at Theodore with a hint of surprise in his angry gaze.
'He shouldn't even be able to make me stagger...!'
[What did you do?]
[You said you wanted a fair fight.] Theodore replied as more magic circles appeared in his palms, one was red while the other was green, showing that he'd used Dragon Claw and smacked the World Serpent in the snout. [So I made it fair.]
Equality, a spell that can either lower or increase the target's strength to match one another.
[I am still stronger than you!] Jörmungandr roared, causing the ground to shake violently once again, this time he began to move his entire body until a large tail came flying straight towards Theodore.
But because it was so slow, he didn't have a problem dodging it in the slightest. With a simple jump, he was now standing on top of Jörmungandr's tail. [You're too big for your own good, how are you going to defeat me now?]
Without leaving any room for the serpent to answer, Theodore extended his hands forward and the two magic circles intersected each other.
[Apophis' Wrath: Chaos Reigns.]
[Serpent's Arcane: Dragon Claws.]
A large claw appeared from the circles and moved straight towards Jörmungandr at a much greater speed than the snake's last attack, as soon as it was within range, the talons drew back and slashed vertically towards the eyes.
However instead of hitting, the claws phased right through Jörmungandr's face.
[...What did you do?] The World Serpent looked confused as it stared at the claw still inside of him, it'd moved downwards towards his body though it didn't seem to be doing any harm.
Theodore smiled at Jörmungandr's cluelessness as his gaze followed the claws. [Well, why don't I tell you about it?]
Suddenly, Jörmungandr froze in place with his eyes widened, then after a second, he began to thrash around violently which forced Theodore to jump down from his body, landing on the ground before putting up a magic barrier using Demon Arts and activating Scales of the Serpent.
The dragon claw now seemed to be clutching at something while still embedded inside of Jörmungandr's body. [What did you do!? Stop it this instant!]
The World Serpent swung its tail once again, although this time Theodore decided to test out his new strength and simply extended one palm out to stop the attack as soon as it was about to hit, surprising the snake even more.
[It's a spell, it enhanced my dragon claw with 'that'.]
Chaos Reigns scales off of the intelligence stat, he can buff his attacks so that they can defy the laws of reality, hence the dragon claw had managed to phased through Jörmungandr's body before eventually it found itself clutching tightly at his heart.
At this point, it was as if Theodore was toying with the World Serpent.
[You...! Coward!] Jörmungandr roared both in anger and pain before it turned its head towards Theodore, opening its mouth and letting green flames shoot towards him.
He let the attack hit him, although when the fire dispersed, he was still standing there in the same spot with a smug look in his face.
[You have high resistance to 'Poison' and 'Fire' based attacks.]
[Jörmungandr's Skill 'Venom Flames' is ineffective.]
Theodore didn't know what it was, but he couldn't help himself but feel prideful about the current situation. Perhaps it was because he'd been affected by his role as the Demon King of Pride. [So this is the infamous World Serpent? Is this all you can do?]
Jörmungandr was cursing in an ancient language that Theodore didn't bother to translate. He instead was focusing on a particular notification that'd popped up in front of him.
[The effect of 'Equality' is about to end. Time Remaining: 1:34.]
Equality can only take effect for around five minutes, so Theodore would need to come up with another plan to get rid of Jörmungandr once and for all. By now the dragon claws combined with the other buffs had already cursed the heart, but the serpent is still alive and very active.
'...Even if I destroy the brain too, I doubt that he would die. A god is still a god nonetheless.' Theodore immediately began looking through his list of skills and spells while occasionally avoiding Jörmungandr's attacks and debris that came with the snake's tantrums.
'Would Odds Conqueror even give me a skill? I'm not even in a disadvantageous situation...'
'Oh?'
Theodore didn't waste anymore time and drew a magic circle in each of his hands, they both gleamed a dangerous crimson just as another notification rang inside his head.
[The effect of 'Equality' has ended.]
Instantly, Jörmungandr's thrashings visibly became more powerful. An earthquake began to split the area apart and the rippling water began to turn into a whirlpool. Theodore needed to quickly finish this.
[Apophis' Wrath: Law Breaker.]
[The Bloodline Skill 'Corrupting Touch' greatly enhances the spell!]
[The 'Breaking' Status Condition will be applied faster.]
Dark red mist began to swirl upwards and towards Jörmungandr, they grew and grew until they were large enough to cover the serpent entirely from its head to the tip of the tail. The World Serpent let out a roar and the dragon claw shattered into light shards, it turned its head towards Theodore and glared at him before lunging forward.
Though he wouldn't be able to reach him, Jörmungandr suddenly fell to the ground as the red mist began to chip away at his scales and flesh.
[What is this...?]
Theodore tilted his head. [I'm the God of Chaos, what do you think is happening to you right now?]
[No...No way.] Jörmungandr looked at Theodore with widened eyes just as the mist began to tear right into his bones. [You can't do this, Apophis! You...You are upsetting the Scale!]
[I'm upsetting the Scale?] Theodore scoffed. [You guys were the ones that tilted it to one side, it just gives me the opportunity to take you out without worrying about the consequences.]
Just as he said that, a blue window appeared in front of him.
[The Scales of Balance is tilting towards 'Chaos'. Balance has been restored.]
Jörmungandr let out a low growl, it reminded Theodore of the sounds of a chainsaw. [I will be back, Apophis. A god never truly dies, when I reform I will bring about the End of the World and lay waste to all that you care about. The Devildom will fall along with Midgard.]
Theodore only scoffed and smirked at the threat just as Law Breaker was about to finish the last few bits of what was left of Jörmungandr.
[I'll be waiting then.]