[System alert: Player Seth Pike is undergoing a transformation.]

Alright, I'll admit it. I wasn't expecting someone else to have suicidal tendencies like me. Maybe it wasn't supposed to be as dramatic, but Seth definitely gave off that type of vibe.

As I stared in shock, Seth's body glowed with an emerald light, bulking his already muscular body. His white tracksuit stretched against his added mass, and his hair seemed to darken as it grew longer, flowing freely behind him. Black wings extended from his back, and sharp fangs sprouted from his mouth. His pupils had become an inverted coloring of neon green and black. The transformation was quick, but somehow graceful, as if he was born to be this new, terrifying form.

"Phew," Seth breathed out, giving me a fanged grin. "Sorry to pop this on you so suddenly. I'll give you time to draw out your full strength, too. We can start the five minutes when you’re ready."

[Name: Seth Pike (Behemoth) | Level: 5789]

[Health: 1.1+ | Strength: 1.06+]

[Speed: 1.02+ | Magic: 1.003+]

[??? What the fuck?!] My mouth hung ajar as my eyes were glued to his stats.

"Er... what do those plus symbols mean?" I asked, nervously.

"Oh, at some point, the system shortens the numbers when it gets too large. The plus sign means it's surpassed a billion," Seth casually replied, waving his clawed hand. "Don't let it worry you."

What the fuck did he mean, 'don't let it worry you'? Of course it worried me. Here I was thinking that I was on the road to becoming the strongest Player and Seth immediately shattered all preconceived notions I had about myself.

"Well... judging by the expression on your face, I hope you didn't lose the will to fight," Seth continued worriedly, eyeing me up and down. "I just wanted to make sure that we both had an equal chance, you know?"

I swallowed hard, flashing a weak grin. "Don't worry, I'll give it my all."

This was just a duel, after all. Even if we were to go all out, none of the damage would remain, and our resources would replenish. Yeah, this was the perfect time to push my limits yet again. Besides, when was the last time I was ever pushed so far?

Taking a deep breath, I added some points into Risk, rounding it out to 1.3 million. Then, checking that my Speed had been boosted through my achievement, I Duplicated myself. Sure, an added 4279 to my Speed barely made a difference, but I was willing to take anything I could get in this fight.

Seth watched me with an amused expression, as if eager to see what I had in store for him. Nodding to my clone, I drew back as he casted a combination of Flooded Kingdom and Rainfall, boosted by Holy Element. Even though the Rainfall more than doubled our Speed, it wasn't faster than Seth, but thankfully the Flooded Kingdom took care of that.

"Oh?" Seth didn't look concerned as the flood rose up to his ankles, permanently rooting him into place. "You have some nice control Skills."

He flapped his wings once, and both my clone and I reflexively shifted our forms without a second thought. I didn't even have time to blink as Seth appeared right in front of me, his hand already thrust through my watery form.

[Holy...]

"...shit," I breathed out before merging with the flood. Seth tilted his head at the spot I was just standing mere seconds ago, as if curious about what happened. Before he could process it, my clone reformed, casting an alternating storm of several Lightning Bolts and Reaps at him.

No way. There was no way I could ever hope to beat this guy. It seemed like Flooded Kingdom had no effect on Seth. Well, if that was the case...

I popped up from the waters, using my new ring's abilities for the first time. I breathed a sigh of relief seeing the system message pop up, stating that my Risk points used were simulated. Still, a whopping 100000 just to conjure Levius? That was harsh.

"Ah, Immortal. What seems to be the issue plaguing you now?" Levius greeted me with a wicked smile as he finished forming in the simulated room. "This environment is quite unfamiliar to me-"

"Him," I pointed at Seth. "Throw everything you can at him."

Levius frowned, clearly offended by my constant interruptions of his candid greetings, but nevertheless turned towards Seth. And then immediately flinched with fear.

"Ah... I'll get right on it!" he called out to me as he backed away slowly, still facing Seth.

"What are you... are you backing away?!" I cried out incredulously.

"Well, if you insist, dear Immortal," Levius sighed, before cautiously edging closer to Seth, who was busy amusing himself chasing after my clone. "I could give it a go, but I must say, I find the idea of fighting THE Behemoth... rather terrifying."

Before I could ask him what he meant by that, Levius snapped his fingers, catching Seth off-guard. I stole a glance and breathed a sigh of relief as I saw that his stats had been halved. So he wasn't completely immune to status effects. Unfortunately, his numbers still far surpassed my own.

Levius promptly conjured three other clones, the four of them joining my own doppelganger. It seemed as though Seth had switched goals, expertly dodging attacks while looking entertained. The Soultaker trembled in my hands.

"Hey... that guy... he reminds me of a being that my master had encountered before..."

"What?" I glanced down at the sword, using my ring again. "You mean to tell me his Title was an actual being that your master interacted with?"

The Soultaker trembled in my hands. "Yes... I remember the creature was regarded as one of the first beasts to walk the earth. I'm fairly certain you Players have legends or myths surrounding them."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"From... religion?" I asked, my voice a little hushed. I wasn't religious by any means, but I had heard of some beasts in those respective pantheons, which were always described as massive and powerful. The thought that I was facing something that could be classified as such... it was both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

"For someone to be able to harness such power... what happened along the Matches for it to get to this point?" The Soultaker murmured. I decided to ask Seth about it after the match, casting my second ever summon.

To be honest, the other entity I was thinking of was the Grudge, but after seeing it react so viscerally to me in the dungeon made me hesitant to summon it to my aid. Instead, I chose Skalyt. This time, it took 150000 points.

A blue mist drafted out from my ring, coalescing into a familiar figure. The Demon Lord specter gazed around her new environment in confusion until her eyes settled on me.

"You... summoned me?" she croaked, her voice dripping with disbelief and anger. I nodded, a bit nervous about her reaction. "You dare... summon me?" she spat, her red eyes blazing with fury. "I... I shall devour your soul!" she screamed, raising her claws to strike.

Suddenly, her body grew rigid, as if an invisible force had gripped her. Oh, that was good. At least I knew that any summon wouldn't be able to harm me, even if they were hostile towards me.

"That guy," I pointed at Seth, who was having just a grand time dodging the four Levius clones and mine. "Do everything you can to beat him."

Skalyt narrowed her eyes, her anger clearly directed at me now. "The Behemoth? I wasn't sure who you were, but to be facing the actual Behemoth in a duel..." She growled, her voice full of disbelief and fury. "Very well, I shall oblige you. But know this, human," she hissed, "if you ever summon me again for such a petty purpose, I will make sure you regret it for the rest of your pathetic existence!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I waved a hand at her. "I'll be clearing your dungeon again soon enough, and we'll see if that's true."

Apparently, my statement confused her, but the Demon Lord only sighed and nodded. She gave me one last look of contempt before reaching for her scythe and zipping towards the battle against Seth.

With Skalyt's arrival, things seemed to heat up even more. The battlefield was filled with the sounds of clashing weapons and magic as the four Levius clones and my own fought against Seth. The Behemoth himself seemed unphased by the onslaught, dodging and weaving through their attacks with ease. But then, Skalyt, who had been floating around the battlefield, suddenly launched herself at Seth, her scythe swinging through the air with deadly intent.

Keeping his calm composure, Seth merely smiled as he used a single clawed finger to parry her scythe, sending the demon lord spinning away. The others fighting against him seemed to grow even more furious as they attacked with renewed vigor. Seth, however, didn't appear to be fazed. His movements were fluid and graceful, almost dancelike, as he dodged and weaved through the onslaught of attacks.

[Now what?] Sephera seemed interested in what my next move was. To be quite honest, seeing Seth treat the summons and my clone as literal playthings pretty much dashed any ideas I had come up with. I had to think of something else, something...unconventional.

"Well, if nothing else, this would be a good time to see if it works," I muttered under my breath, joining the battle. It seemed Seth was only focused on dodging, almost taunting me to try and get a good hit on him. A plan began to form in my mind, and I glanced over at my clone.

"Hey, let's see if the pendant works with you!" I called out to my clone. He nodded, immediately understanding what it was I was thinking. Seth took notice of our changed behaviors and observed us curiously, nonchalantly parrying or dodging Levius and Skalyt.

As my clone flew over towards me, I anxiously hoped it worked. Not that I was in any danger, but if Seth had really been trying to beat me from the beginning, then he probably wouldn't have allowed me to do this.

Stashing his own Soultaker away, I went to work beating him up, dropping his Health low enough to trigger the achievement boost. I caught the surprise on Seth's face, but kept my focus on my clone as his stats were amplified by 13000%.

"Fingers crossed," my doppelganger grinned as he attempted to share nearly all of his stats with me.

Sensing the immense spike in power, Seth grew serious, making a beeline straight towards me. Despite Levius and his clones jumping into his path, Seth effortlessly crushed them all in one swipe of his hand. Damn, he easily wiped out a boss that had given me so much trauma before.

Skalyt came next, shrieking as she tried to cast Neutralize on him. I understood that his transformation was probably a Skill, but it didn't seem to break as Seth cleaved her in half as well.

Although they didn't distract him at all, it was more than enough time for me to receive the empowered stats from my clone, boosting my numbers far beyond Seth's original stats. In fact, I was averaging around three billion in all areas, making it more than sufficient to end this duel.

I faced Seth and gripped both my swords, tensing my body. Before I even had a chance to move and end the match, a buzzer sounded.

"Damn!" I hissed under my breath as Seth dispelled his Behemoth form, returning to normal and stopping right in front of me. My clone gave me a salute before he disappeared along with the rain and flood. With my stats quickly returning to normal, the world around us faded away. Soon, we found ourselves back in the simulation room, with Celine, Aurora, Gigi, and Ophelia gazing at us with varying levels of shock.

"That was...something else," Seth said, wiping the sweat from his brow. Was that from nervousness? He didn’t seem to be having much trouble facing so many opponents at once. "I didn't expect you to power up so much."

"You held back," I replied, giving Seth an accusing glance, though I couldn't help but respect him. While he did claim to not hold back, there was a nagging feeling that told me he wanted to see me let loose.

"You caught me," Seth grinned, seeming to accept the accusation with good humor. "I did want to see what you were really made of. And it seems I've underestimated you." He chuckled, shaking his head. "I thought you were going to forfeit as soon as I transformed, but the way you kept pulling stuff out of nowhere was intriguing to me. I didn't want to end the match so soon."

I wasn't that all into PvP, but after facing Seth, I somehow shared his feelings. I wanted to see if he had something to counter my ridiculous boost in power.

"Moving on-" Ophelia seemed to recover the quickest, but was interrupted when my sister butted in.

"Holy shit, Lu. I mean... I knew you had gone and done some leveling, but to actually match up against Seth in his Behemoth form?" Aurora's voice held a mixture of awe and disbelief. "That was insane."

"Er, to be fair, I didn't actually try to fight him seriously," Seth protested weakly, glancing over at me. "I was just curious to see what would happen if I went all out. I didn't want to actually hurt him, you know?"

He walked up to me, offering his hand. "At any rate, you're one of the few people who didn't back away even after seeing my transformation. That makes you a really good fit for Inanis, so congratulations on joining-"

"Hold on, I'd also like to extend an offer to Luquier on joining Helianthus," Ophelia interjected, giving Seth a pointed look. "We're always looking for strong allies, and I think he'd be a great addition to the team."

"Hey, didn't you guys already nab Nephilim's friend? Helianthus now has two of his party members, don't you think we deserve to get Luquier?" Seth frowned at Ophelia, not looking too happy about the situation.

"And what of it? Luquier isn't a part of Nephilim's party, so that argument is irrelevant. Besides, with you and Avarice, Inanis is more than capable of standing against anything that comes its way."

I shrank back, falling in line with Celine and Gigi. Aurora tried to separate Ophelia and Seth to no avail.

"Must be nice to have people fawn over you," Celine murmured, slightly dejected. I glanced over at her and nudged her gently with my elbow. She gave me a small smile in return.

"Hey, no matter what, I won't forget that we came into Enigma as equals, all right?"

"Thank you, Immortal."

Gigi tilted her head at us, gazing at me curiously. "I know you were set on joining Helianthus, but with Inanis pining for you, I'd imagine how hard of a choice that'd be. If only you were interested in joining my guild too..."

Sephera began to spam my vision with messages to prevent me from immediately accepting Gigi's offer.