“Ooooh, Master is giving his silly billy servy-lotl a sparkly thing?” Nahoa took the World Disease Shard with all of the enthusiasm of a bimbo getting handed a diamond. “Ooooh, this is so nasty… seriously, it is nasty,” her voice collapsed into a downright malicious tone alongside her attitude. “You want me to try and absorb this?”

John confirmed with a nod. “If possible.”

The Aztec demigoddess gave the crystal shard a sniff. “Smells like nothing.” She gave it a lick. Her eyes widened. She stuffed the shard into her mouth immediately. The sharp crystal, as long as John’s hand, disappeared down her throat. He could only assume it melted in the process. Whatever she gulped down certainly was no longer solid. “Oh… heavens,” she moaned, shuddering. The Plague Glutton blushed intensely, as if she had just injected herself with an overdose of the world’s fastest acting aphrodisiac.

“No pop-up,” John said with more than mild disappointment. The whole ‘reality bending’ part of the disease would have been cool to have, but he honestly had been mostly after giving Nahua access to the first stage of the disease. Making people see things would pair very nicely with the fog constantly around her.

It was worth the try, at least.

‘And now I have this to deal with,’ he thought, looking at a very aroused maidolotl. ‘The horror.’

_________________________________________________________________

“Had fun with it?” John asked cheekily.

Romulus nodded, then let out the kind of long breath that accompanied a suppressed yawn. They had ended yesterday’s Raid session after the boss fight. The Apex had been too excited about working with the Celexium to prioritize another couple of hours carving their way to the next boss room.

Between then and now, besides the unsuccessful attempt to get Nahua a new disease, nothing of note had happened. Just the usual activities, leading up to all of them now continuing on the Raid.

The castle loomed large above them. Towers of stone, marked by fire and marred by age, reached up into the sky from behind sturdy walls. All of it was intact and derelict simultaneously, a living corpse of a structure.

Its impressiveness was diminished by what John had seen before and by his current company. Romulus’ presence was more expansive even than the keep before them. Without a second thought, the Apex began his march into the structure.

They were swiftly met with a new enemy type. It was a hulk of conjoined bones. Three skeletons, judging by the number of skulls, had been used in the process of creating it. There were only two arms and legs around a barrel of a ribcage. Like other entities before, these Cursefire Goliaths had been melted by the flame that granted them abominable animation.

Romulus advanced slowly towards the new enemy type. The Sea Sword had been replaced with a new weapon. John considered it to be a whip at first. The first time Romulus swung it revealed that it was more than that.

The length of the weapon diminished, creating a pocket at the end of it in which a crystal formed. In a streak of blue, the crystal was launched from the sling. Slings were incredibly underestimated weapons. Utilized by Romulus, with the backing of magic, the crystal pebble might as well have been a tungsten tank shell.

The goliath was thrown back. An ice flower a metre across bloomed from its sternum. Despite the impact, the creature remained upright and immediately charged again. Romulus launched two more crystals at it. Both broke on the creature’s body. Likely, there was a recharge mechanic involved.

The sling shortened further. What had seemed to be dark leather turned into black metal. A uni-colour morning star now laid in Romulus’ hand. A swing met the thrown fist of the goliath. In height and, it appeared, in power the two enemies were equally matched. Soot on the ground was blown back by the clash of forces.

Romulus had many avenues besides raw power to choose from, yet decided to meet the enemy on favourable terms. A rapid clash of attacks followed, undead fists meeting morning star over and over again. A sideways swipe by the undead broke Romulus’ guard.

A feint. The moment the goliath advanced, it became apparent that the Apex’s balance was completely intact. He grabbed one of the collarbones of the assailing monster and then used its force for an overhead throw. An undead had no air to get knocked out of its lungs nor a brain to get rattled, but lying on its back was still disadvantageous.

Romulus raised his mace and struck. The attack was blocked by crossed arms. A second strike made the bones creak. A third shattered them, breaking through to the ribcage beneath. The fourth broke the skull as well.

When the Apex straightened up, his breathing was visibly quickened. It was as if he had just ran a light jog for a short distance. A sign of being taxed that no regular enemy had drawn from him so far. “I will move fast now!” he announced and ran ahead. John imagined he could feel the earth tremble from his heavy footfalls.

Luna put a hand on her cheek and sighed. “Haaaaah… he is so dreamy,” she swooned.

All attention shifted to her.

She realized that eyes laid on her, blushed, then cleared her throat. “It appears that Rom has chosen to challenge himself to a gauntlet,” she spoke in an effort to reclaim her cool beauty.

‘What did Gaia call her again? A kuudere?’ John thought. Luna usually managed to look so graceful next to Sol. It was easy to forget that they were equally head over heels for their man. Individual differences sure were something.

Had they been closer, John would have teased her for it. As amicable acquaintances, he felt it out of place to do so. The one person around who had that right, Sol, decided she would rather chase after Romulus.

An understandable priority. The castle was an open section with many paths spreading out from the entrance point. If they did not remain close, they could miss something, and the celestial goddesses did not want to miss anything.

The Apex charged into the next encounter at breakneck speed. It was like opening a marathon with a sprint. Three enemies were ahead of him: another goliath accompanied by two skeletons with bows. Romulus leapt and spun mid-air, sailing over the first arrow and launching a crystal that shattered the second before sending the responsible archer flying. The sling changed into a mace again, just as the goliath charged in to meet the Apex.

John had to contend with a different issue. The arrow had been aimed expertly to come for him even when it missed Romulus. Aclysia took care of that with a quick usage of Aid. Still, it was a reminder that they were always in the line of fire.

Romulus was now on the ground again. A second, weaker sling attack killed the already damaged archer for good. The other held his arrow, taking aim while the Apex was entangled in a renewed melee with the goliath. When the arrow got loosened, it passed through the gap between ribcage and hip bones of the goliath and struck Romulus in the stomach.

The Apex acknowledged that he had been struck with a mild grunt, before dispatching the goliath in a series of strikes. Three consecutively launched crystals then froze the entire body of the archer, leaving it to Romulus’ hurled fist to break the ice and the body within.

A casual gesture ripped the arrow out of his flesh. A hole and a red spot in his toga was all the sign that the Apex ever had been injured. Projectile discarded, he charged ahead to find the next collection of foes.

That strike was one of four that Romulus was hit by over the coming clearing of the castle. All four of them occurred within the first ten clashes they were involved in. Like any athlete returning to form, Romulus’ combat skills only grew sharper as he continued to push himself. His breathing became deep and controlled, his body had a light sheen to it from sweat, but he was not ever exhausted. After the first couple of engagements, Romulus the person appeared to have left and in his place was the Apex, a force of nature in human form.

It was the second time this Raid that John got to see this. The first time had been against the Chamber, the second boss of the second Segment. That had been as a distant observant, a kilometre wide battlefield between them. This time, John saw up close just how Romulus fought when he was actually getting challenged.

It was raw instinct, honed by a million mistakes over ten millennia. It was the embodiment of the indomitable human spirit cutting a path where one was desired. It was a flurry of motions that was as unpredictable as the nature that had given rise to evolution. It was raw, refined, beautiful, crude – an ever changing rhythm of blows, predating and integrating all martial arts that had surfaced in the long history that the Godslayer had witnessed.

It was, above all, terrifying.

‘How would I fight that?’ The question surfaced repeatedly as he watched Romulus singlehandedly carve through swathes of enemies within half the time it would have taken John and a full party of his haremettes.

Alone? Impossible.

Artificial Spirits? Outmanoeuvred

All familiars? Picked off one by one

Full harem?

Maybe.

John had run this through the mathematical lens before. The combined power of his full harem, taking out the two goddesses that should not participate lest they became fuel, should be enough to take on Romulus. With losses, that had always been the assumption, yet it should have been clear cut.

Now, John realized that had been his pride speaking.

‘It was always that I am catching up to him. Why did I think that I could crush him with pure numbers?’ he chastised himself. Yes, the Lover’s Will mark would elevate his other women. Yes, that would give them raw power to compare to the Apex. Yet, John had overlooked a detail that should have been incredibly obvious, one that he had been blind to either out of denial or arrogance. ‘I am supposed to become his equal and I have Lover’s Will – then what does he have?’

Romulus was over ten millennia old.

‘It really is preposterous to think I could overtake him in just a few years… Even if I match him on pure bullshit, the experience gap is incredible.’

‘What are you feeling right now?’ Metra chimed into his thoughts.

‘You’re not about to give up, are you?’ Ehtra joined.

John laughed, out loud and mentally. Sol and Luna were too stricken with watching their Rom fight to notice. Aclysia and Nia pressed against him. The latter wasn’t in his thoughts, but he believed they were written on his face anyway.

Of course, Romulus was terrifying.

That was how it should be.

‘We WILL inherit the world,’ he answered. ‘Not because we have simple numbers, but because we are going to keep competing until we overcome even him. Even if it takes us ten millennia, I will be the Apex.’

The reaction that flowed into his mind was more than arousal. Arousal was just a tiny part of it, a natural feedback to watching their man reach for an ambition that was equal parts incredible and achievable. Prominent emotions were approval, pride, love and, above all, the deep and complete desire to keep pace with him as he climbed to the summit.

They were his women, his partners, and they would not be left in his shadow when they should share the light.

“Did you have an epiphany?”

John had been so lost in thought, he hadn’t even noticed that Romulus was before him again. The shoulders of the giant man still rose and fell with each deep breath. A towel in his hand dried the sweat on his forehead. All the while, he beheld John.

“I realized that the gap between us is even larger than I thought.” A wide smile remained on the Gamer’s face even when he said that. He added nothing, because there was nothing he could think of that would add to that thought.

Romulus just stared for a few moments, then smiled back. “That is a good expression on your face, young one,” he stated, only to turn away. Casually, as if the whole exchange had never happened, the Apex spoke, “I have located the next boss. Follow me.”

The broad back of the man shouldered his life without bending. In another life, John was certain he could have been a subordinate of Romulus. That would be a good life. A knight to a just king, a fantasy that was more common than being king oneself, John reckoned. In this life, he could reach for the throne.

Following the Apex was a purely physical affair.