Amelia the Level Zero Hero

Chapter 113

Ar’elith stared at the familiar brown-haired woman. She stood at the bottom of the wrecked mountain— her torn cape billowing in the wind, and her rusted sword held out to the side. She wore a bored look on her face. An aggravating look that stirred his anger.

He recognized her. Of course he remembered her. That monotonous voice. That apathetic gaze. How could he forget it? She was the one responsible for killing him. She was the one responsible for crushing his dreams! She was… she was…

“Amelia.”

He whispered softly as he slowly descended from the sky. The transformed Lich King didn’t know how he knew her name— he didn’t recall Amelia ever introducing herself to him. But, somehow, her name appeared in the fore of his mind.

It was strange. It was like his mind was… clear now. It was as if his thoughts were always shrouded with strange, unnecessary thoughts beforehand. But now, the voice in the back of his head had been silenced. He fully understood himself— he truly knew what it was he desired above all.

He could think with clarity. There was no interference of other unnecessary thoughts. He was no longer weighed down by such frivolous things like logical thought, moral principles, or ambitions. He succumbed to his own instincts. He was driven by the only thing that mattered.

His desires.

And now, more than anything, he wished to destroy the impudent pest standing beneath him. So he ignored the broken angel lying at the center of the massive crater atop the mountain. He had already decisively won that battle— it was of no concern to him, even if he turned his back to face Amelia.

He spread his arms wide as the dark clouds gathered above crackled with electricity. Thunder boomed in the distance— a cacophony of explosions that would be the symphony of his vengeance. He sneered as he spoke, his voice echoing with a susurration of whispers.

“Ah, so you have finally decided to join the fray,”the transformed Lich King said as he felt the power of the Void coursing through his body. “But you are already too late— as you can see, I have become a being that has surpassed the limits of the World System! I have ascended into something more.”

Amelia just raised a brow as he took a step forward. The ground shivered, and his footfall boomed. An earthquake shook the nearby mountain range as a landslide collapsed in the middle of Arelioth’s Pass.

“Are you afraid? Are you scared? Come on— say something.” He drew closer as a lightning bolt crashed behind him, and the world flashed with a dark light. The hole in his chest widened as he felt a sudden surge of strength empowering him even more. “I can sense your fear. I see your terror. You could have stopped me before my revival, but now you can only quiver where you stand as I bring about your demise!”

Ar’elith waited for her words, but he knew they would never come. After all, she was too stricken with fear by what he had become. Even the angels of the World System weren’t enough to stop him now. He had transcended all of Vacuos with this transformation. He would never be—

“...man, you were really done dirty by the Voidgod, huh?” Amelia finally said.

And he paused. His blazing eyes flickered for a brief moment as she shook her head. She dismissively gestured at him as he could only stare back at her.

“I mean, sure, you were a generic-looking skeleton before. But now, you look like an ugly B-grade horror movie monster. Seriously— talk about a glowdown.”

The transformed Lich King stared. He took a moment to process her words. The world grew silent— the raging thunderstorm overhead came to a halt. His mind whirled. The outpouring of Void essence stopped. He unclenched his jaw, about to fly into a rage.

And he steeled himself.

He chuckled as he raised his staff.

“Even now, you still put up a front. But that is no matter. When faced with my power, you shall be forced to surrender. I shall bring you to your knees and make you beg for mercy.”

The deluge of the Void’s power continued to fill him as the gathering of clouds overhead began to descend from the heavens above, eddying down directly onto his staff. His wings spread wide before beating down and carrying him to the sky.

“I cannot wait to hear you scream,” Ar’elith said as he stared down at her.

She simply returned his gaze, not moving from where she stood. A storm of lightning bolts crashed down into the earth below. But none of them struck her. The blasts rained over her surroundings, devastating the landscape.

The entire world shook. It wasn’t just a tremor that washed over the ground. The air itself trembled from the intensity of the building pressure. The sky itself seemed to collapse as the rift in the transformed Lich King’s chest distorted and twisted space itself.

Amelia swept her gaze over the landscape as entire mountains crumbled to dust, and giant crevices tore their way through the earth. But she didn’t move. Her legs had frozen. She was too scared to even run away.

Not that there was anywhere she could escape to.

Ar’elith cackled wildly as he raised his staff, and the sky shone with the power of the Void..

“Now behold— the power of a god! The power of a being who has ascended beyond that of this world!”

His eyes blazed as the hole in his chest began to bleed with a twisted liquid.

“The power of my wrath!”

And all across the planet, heads turned to face the source of this immense power.

—--

Noele’s eyes widened when she saw the bright light shining over the horizon. She dropped to her knees, staring at the mountain range in the far distance. Even from where she knelt, she could feel the ground trembling beneath her. The surrounding trees shook as their branches swayed with the wind.

Garron and Saros stumbled back, but they didn’t react as she did. They only saw the visible effects of whatever was happening in the distance.

“What the fuck is she doing—” the gnome cursed.

“How…?” the burly man asked as he steadied himself against a tree. “Even from this distance…”

But Noele saw something they didn’t. Perhaps it was because of what she learned under Amelia’s tutelage, or maybe it was due to her exposure to the Void. However, she saw the ripples of power emanating from the center of the mountain range.

And she knew that she wasn’t safe. No one in Laxo was safe.

Not from the Lich King’s wrath.

—--

“That’s…” a voice whispered.

An elf stood at the mouth of a cavern. He stared at the flashing purple light in the far distance. It had to have been a thousand miles away— maybe even further off. And yet, it shone as bright as the sun. Even from afar, he recognized the vile power. He had only seen it once before, but he could recognize it anywhere.

“The power of the Void,” a second said.

Jax the Forsaken Archer glanced back into the cavern. He watched as a hulking crimson figure emerged, panting with labored breath. Bloodied and injured, his companion wheezed before collapsing back onto the ground.

“I have never seen such an abundance of the Void’s essence in my life,” Grat-ra’zun mustered out, barely keeping his eyes open. “It reeks even worse than ten thousand years ago…”

The elf shook his head and looked back towards the horizon.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Jax said with a shrug. “Although—-if she’s there… maybe…”

All he knew was that he just had to wait and see.

—--

Kallistus Kal sat quietly on his throne, having finally emerged from his hiding. His subjects clamored over his return. They didn’t question him— they didn’t even ask where he had been. They simply praised him for his victories in the war with the Astrad Kingdom, and they gravely informed him of his defeats.

But as they stood around him none-the-wiser, he focused on the destruction that was being wrecked at the center of the continent. In the very heart of Laxo, the Void itself was manifesting its true power.

And he studied its composition from where he sat.

—--

But it wasn’t just the continent of Laxo that felt the ripple effects of the Fledgling God Vessel’s power.

In the island of Scholus, lying in between Laxo and Alius, an archmage and a king rose to his feet with wide eyes. He heard the call of the Void.

And he could only drop to his knees, prostrating in the direction of this power.

“Praise the Void,” Leonhard the Archmage King of Scholus said.

—--

In Alius, a slumbering figure was jolted awake deep underground. It took a moment to regain its bearings, roaring in anger and shaking the country that lay above it. But when it sensed the overwhelming power of the Void…

The Ruler of the Earth grew pale and trembled in fear.

—--

In Drazyl, a young elven girl cowered underneath her bed. Her caretakers called for her— they tried to usher her out. But she refused to move.

She was supposed to be the successor to the Grand Sage of Imbel Forest. Her people needed her. They were losing their war with Mare. And yet, here she was, hiding in fear.

Her caretakers thought it was because she was afraid of her duties. They believed that the status as the leader of the elves was far too overwhelming for her. But in reality, it was because she could sense the Void.

Every instance of the Void’s power being called, all across the four continents, she sensed it all. It terrified her. Whenever she felt a flare from a rift in space, she would go running back to her room.

And today, she fled the Festival of the Leaves when she sensed the destruction that was being wrought in Laxo. It was so overwhelming. It was more terrifying than anything she had ever sensed before.

That was why she refused to move. That was why she prayed for the Thrones to save them all.

—--

And in Mare, the Merfolk Empress blinked. She raised her to face the ocean surface— she could see the glistening rays of the sun piercing to her depth. But more than that, she sensed the power of the Void permeating through the world. For a moment, she stared reverently in the direction it came from.

But then she shook her head. She returned her focus to the task at hand as she swam deeper down into the deepest depths of the ocean, hunting for a kraken.

—--

In Laxo, it was still night. And Guardian Angel Z357 watched from atop the destroyed mountain as the Fledgling God Vessel stared down at Amelia. A thousand lightning bolts rained from the sky by the minute, and the landscape had been transformed to a valley of craters and rubble.

But even as the World System pressed him to intervene, the angel couldn’t do anything but look on. Because the power being displayed before him was far beyond his capabilities to tackle. He lowered his gaze as he stared at his left hand.

A spell circle began to form at his fingertips. The Seal of the System. It was the only Technique Guardian Angel Z357 knew of that was capable of stopping the transformed Lich King, and that was because it drew power from the World System.

But it would take time to cast. And he knew—

He looked up as a brilliant purple light shone in the sky, and a rift tore open overhead. The crackling lightning bolts stopped as the Fledgling God Vessel raised his staff.

Guardian Angel Z357 knew that in mere moments, all of Planet 16B would be destroyed.

—--

Ar’elith laughed as he swept his gaze over the collapsing landscape. It was all going to be destroyed. Everyone— from Alius to Mare— they were all going to perish in a single decisive blow, and he was finally going to have his revenge!

His eyes flickered. For a moment, he wondered why he even wished to destroy the world. He had sought vengeance against those who had wronged him, but his ultimate goal was to save the world from death itself. So why was he doing this…?

The transformed Lich King shook his head, quickly dismissing those unnecessary thoughts away as he indulged in the destruction. Instead, he focused his gaze on the brown-haired woman cowering before him. She hadn’t even moved from where she stood— gripped by terror as she could only stare back up at him

“My return was inevitable,” Ar’elith said as he hovered in the air, the rift in his chest tearing across his ribs. The hole in the sky widened as ripples of electricity ran across the clouds overhead. “Did you really think death would stop me? Did you think that you could ever find peace after defying me?”

His words left his mouth without even a thought. It was as though he had been possessed, but he knew it was his fury that was speaking— it was his rage that drove his actions. And he unleashed his wrath on the source of all his hatred.

“Do you not understand? There is no killing God! I will return to reclaim what is mine, and when I do, I shall bring forth—”

Amelia narrowed her eyes. And Ar’elith swung his staff down at her as he bellowed.

“Armageddon!”

All at once, a pillar of purple light crashed down from the sky. Like a giant lightning bolt. A blast that dwarfed the nearby mountains. It fell from the sky, heralding with it the destruction of the planet.

Ar’elith cackled as the angel flinched. The attack fell straight towards Amelia. But she didn’t budge. Not even in the face of this overwhelming power. The blast struck her, and there was a flash of light.

A bright light. A blinding light. It overwhelmed the transformed Lich King’s senses. He let out a soft sigh as he whispered.

“It is over…”

And as the light faded away, he basked in the vastness of space. He stared at the starry dome overhead. He felt at ease. Like his flaring emotions had been tamed. Just for a moment.

Then he saw the dissipating clouds. His flaming eyes dimmed as he caught a glimpse of the distant mountaintops in his peripheral vision. Ar’elith swept his gaze over his surroundings in confusion.

“What is—”

And he caught himself. His gaze landed back down at the brown-haired woman standing below. She was staring back up at him with one hand raised— holding up her sword aimed towards the sky. There was a brief glimmer of a white aura over her blade, but it faded away.

He descended to the ground as he stared at her in confusion. He thought he was imagining things— that his anger was making him hallucinate his enemy. He opened his mouth as he was about to repudiate her existence.

Then the realization sunk in.

Amelia had sliced his attack in half.

“No…” he whispered as he took a step back. “That’s—”

“Was that it?” Amelia asked as she lowered her blade. A white aura wisped off her body, and she tilted her head. “Was that really your full power? Because if so… I can’t say I’m impressed, let alone scared of it.”

Ar’elith gritted his teeth. “This is not possible— how…?”

She shook her head as she casually strode towards him. He backed away, trembling in fear and anger as she drew closer.

“I have transcended even the angels of the World System! I have become far more powerful than I could have ever imagined. So how are you still stronger than me?” he demanded.

“You seem to have made a mistake, Ar’elith,” Amelia said as she held his gaze. “I didn’t arrive here too late to stop you from transforming into this.”

“What…?” Ar’elith stared at her, uncomprehending. “What do you mean by that?”

Amelia sighed as she came to a halt just before him. And a smirk spread across her lips as the flame in his eyes flickered in shock.

“I mean that I let you transform into this—” She gestured at his twisted and deformed body. “Because I was here the entire time.”