Niki walked behind the kid who led him to the Temple, who seemed to have changed after Niki decided to find out what happened to Shon.


    ''However, Shon should be dead. I saw it with my own eyes, and it''s almost impossible that he is still alive. Why does this child... No, why do I want to look for him?''


    Shon didn''t appear in his past life, and Niki never met him. Even if he met him, Niki didn''t know if he would recognize someone he knew so long ago.


    ''But it''s hard not to notice someone as eye-catching as he is,'' Niki sighed. He had no choice but to agree to find out the truth in return for the skill. ''Maybe I can just forget about it after I get the skill.''


    "If you go back on your word, the skill will disappear," Niko reminded him that his thoughts can be read. "Don''t expect that you can lie to yourself."


    "You are a skill, not me."


    "I''m a skill with your memories."


    "Then why do you care about Shon?"


    "The heavenly strings..."


    "Fuck the heavenly strings. Tell me what you know."


    "All I can say is that you won''t regret looking for him," Niko grinned as he skipped forward. "He is your friend, not mine! You should be the one to care about him."


    "It has been so long. Why would I still care about his fate."


    "You''ve spent seven years together. This makes Shon like a family to you and the only person who stayed for that long without hurting you. I know that you think of him as your brother."


    Niki was silent at those words. Before he got epted into the academy, his life wasn''t easy, and it wasn''t easy after he enrolled. However, the only thing he always felt fortunate about was his mute friend.


    ''But did I think of him as a family?''


    Niki never cared about the thing called family, nor did he crave it. He knew nothing of his origins, nor did he feel like he needed to know anything. However, his seven years with Shon might have felt that way because he never knew how to always be with someone.


    ''Until they are gone,'' Niki reminded himself. ''And everyone leaves in the end. There''s no other way for things to end.''


    Perhaps it was the crueler fate to stay as the people you know disappear from your life. Niki epted that fact, and he never tried to seek out people he lost, not to mention dead ones.


    "We are here," Niko knew what he was thinking but simply chose to ignore it. Instead, he pointed at the distance where a giant white building looked like a domed hall with no walls. "The Temple of The End."


    "Why is it called that?"


    "Because regardless of whether you survive or not, it will be the end of this journey."


    "That''s not very reassuring," Niki took out his weapons.


    "Yet you seem confident just the same," Niko nced at him. "I''ll be apanying you into the temple."


    "To make things difficult for me?"


    "No, it seems you forgot the rules." Niko smiled. "You need to protect your younger self to obtain the skill."


    "This skill is an annoying one."


    "Then I guess it suits you well," Niko fired back. "Let''s go in unless you want to write a will for your kids."


    "Seeing how annoying you are, my belief that my genes shouldn''t be passed down got stronger."


    "That''s a cruel thing to say about yourself, but I guess you are always cruel to those you hate."


    "Just shut up already," Arthur walked toward the Temple with his weapons in hand. He''d rather be dead than listen to this kid talking for one more second. "Let''s go!"


    Niko followed after him after a shrug, and Niki stepped into the ashen tform of the temple. However, it was empty. As he was about to ask the kid about it, monsters began to emerge from the white marble.


    "Stone statues?" Niki looked at the marble forming into statues. Just from a nce, there was a dozen of them.


    "A shame to be destroyed," Niko sighed. "I''ve spent quite the time building this ce, so be grateful."


    ''This dogshit of a skill is getting on my nerves,'' Niki never thought that a legendary skill would have this amount of awareness. He knew that average skills were like pets that wanted to be fed, but this annoying skill was on another level.


    The stone statues looked like naked humans chiseled with thousands of hours of work. Each of them carried a long spear of white marble that seemed quite threatening. Furthermore, they were walking toward him in unison.


    "If you want the power to stand against an army, then you need to defend against one. This time, you''ll be my shield against enemies. If you seed, then I''ll be yours."


    "I hope you won''t talk as much when I get the skill," Niki grabbed both of his scimitars with a grin. The darkness gathered around his horns, and Niki realized that having them out seemed to enhance his ability to control darkness.


    They glimmer in the lighting from the ceiling as they summoned darkness for Niki to use. A ck petal appeared on his hand as his Abyssal Art sought out the abyssal strings.


    "A power that can destroy heavenly strings," Niko muttered with interest. "You are indeed one of a kind, Niki Yaran."


    Before Niki could reply, the first statue rushed forward to attack him. Niki side-stepped as he used both of his des to strike its head and abdomen, destroying it.


    In that split moment, Niki pulled his head back for a spear to graze his ck horn. There was a nking voice, and Niki saw the tip of the de crumble down while he barely felt a thing.


    Niki struck the statue before going into stealth and dodging from the two who appeared behind him. However, he couldn''t run away from his spot because right behind him was Niko, who was looking at the statues attacking him with a smirk.


    ''Crazy bastard,'' Niki rushed forward, and his des danced in the air to deflect the iing attacks. Then, the handles slipped from his hands for thetter to grab the chains.


    Niki whipped the chains, and the weapons disappeared. The petals followed after, and they brought destruction to whatever they touched.


    Ten statues fell in an instant to his des, but twenty more appeared. Thus, as he scanned the temple, he could see more than a hundred statues.


    "Protect me well, Niki~" the manifestation sang, and Niki had the urge to kick the kid toward the iing spears. However, his countless years in the army allowed him to tolerate insults and annoyance.


    He directed the infinite rage he felt within toward the statues. The rage toward his enemies, toward his life, and the world all gathered in his de, which deflected spears before destroying their wielder.


    Defiers tried to seek strength that defied the world. Celestial Arts allowed them to use the heavenly strings that joined the world together to manipte it. But Niki had to defy Celestia itself with his existence because he was never allowed to be a Defier.


    Niki roared as his darkness exploded from within him to repel the iing attacks before he rushed forward to strike the statues down. Dozens of lights appeared from the fallen statues, but the battle seemed endless.


    A spear struck his shoulder, and another grazed his cheek. His blood covered his body, but Niki didn''t stop attacking. The show of madness would strike fear into whoever saw it, and it drew an image that would make warriors'' blood boil.


    It drew the image of a single man against an army. The odds were against him, but he didn''t back down. The des danced in a blood bath of chaos as the statues rushed forward, dozens appearing every second.


    Niki struck down ten as another ten attacked him. His arms ached, and his breathing grew heavier. Flesh tore apart, blood spilled, and bones broke.


    There was nothing but the next monster to strike and the subsequent attack to evade in his eyes. Sometimes, he had to give up flesh for bones. Others, he had to ept a minor defeat to survive.


    "As heartless as you are," the manifestation muttered, but Niki didn''t listen. "And as destructive as you are, you can also protect."


    Countless talismans flew from the battlefield to gather on the child''s hand. They merged, growingrger every second. Every time Niki struck down an enemy, its talisman flew out tobine with the others.


    Niki lost count of how many he killed or how much time had passed. There was a singr focus in his mind: to destroy everything in his path. As a hundred spears came his way, Niki roared as the ck lotus appeared above him.


    He threw his weapons in the air before pulling the chains down. His hands struck the ground, and a shockwave destroyed everything in its path.