Chapter 21

Kaede stood on the side of the mountain, staring at the distant Kaede-shaped hole carved through the rock.

Becquerel stepped through the opening slowly, his laughter echoing around the cliffs. “I must thank you, human. With this shard, I now possess power rivaling that of a Monarch.”

Kaede scowled. “What the hell is a Monarch, anyway? You keep rambling about them!”

Becquerel frowned. “With the Monarchs either dead or in hiding, the denizens of the Chaos World will rally under me, the Monarch of Lightning!”

“…He ignored me,” Kaede muttered. “Why do people keep doing that? And why do I let them? No one ever ignored Maple. So what makes me different?”

“Are you ignoring me?!” Becquerel roared. A bolt of green lightning crashed into the mountain, splitting the stone and leaving glowing emerald fractures that spread steadily downward.

Kaede clenched her fists. “Me?! You! What?! You're the one ignoring me!!” Red lightning burst from the ground in response, streaks of crimson energy splitting the rock as glowing red fissures climbed up the mountain.

Green overtook the upper half of the mountain, while red bled across the lower half.

Their eyes locked. Becquerel narrowed his gaze. Kaede mirrored him.

They both lunged….!

Kaede vanished in a flash of crimson.

A red streak rocketed down the mountain, darted past peaks and canyons, oceans and forests, tundras and wilderness, and streaked into the desert beyond.

She tumbled across the sand before finally coming to a halt, blinking up at the tall figure that had dragged her there.

“Oh. Hi,” Kaede said, brushing sand off her armor. “Not sure what you're trying to do, but I really need to get back. I don’t want to lose any of those lightning predators before I can add them to my clan.”

The figure, towering at nine feet tall with a lean, agile build, crackled with red lightning. The lightning faded, revealing a voltoid, Nila.

“No need to worry about your predators,” Nila said calmly. “He’ll come to us. I needed to move your battle away from the mountain.”

Kaede tilted her head. “Okay?”

Nila sighed. “His new power… it was killing everything around him. If you'd kept fighting there, the voltoids would’ve all died. We’ve already lost too much in our battle against you. We… we never should’ve fought you.”

Kaede blinked. “Oh. Uh, yeah. That’s what I was saying. But your boss refused to hand over the shard, then he used it, and now I have cancer, I think.”

Nila hesitated, clearly not following that last part. “Two of our generals are dead. Our chief has gone mad with power. I’m the last authority among the voltoids… and I want to offer our surrender.”

Kaede stared at her, stunned. “What? That’s… not how this is supposed to go.”

“Becquerel can’t beat you, can he?” Nila asked quietly.

Kaede paused, then nodded. “I mean, yeah. If I wanted to kill him, I could’ve done it already. I was trying to avoid destroying the shard, but then he shattered it, and now I have to develop radiation resistance before I kill him.”

Nila gave a tired, defeated smile. “Figures. I knew it, ever since he attacked you the first time. You’ve been holding back this entire time.”

Kaede scratched her cheek. “So… how are you going to surrender? Becquerel doesn’t seem like he’s going to take that very well.”

Nila sighed. “No… not unless you kill him.”

Kaede tilted her head. “That makes sense.”

An awkward silence settled over the desert.

“I thought you said he’d follow us,” Kaede asked, glancing around. “When’s he getting here?”

Nila smiled faintly. “Oh, he was definitely following us. But of all the voltoids, I’m the fastest. I left him in the dust with a few minutes to spare.”

Kaede blinked. “Where is here, exactly? I can still sense my portals… and Cinnamon, but they’re, like, really far away.” She pressed a hand to the side of her head, focusing.

“We’re on the other side of Chaos World,” Nila replied, scanning the barren expanse of sand and rock. “I think this used to be the domain of the Monarch of Plagues.”

Kaede wasn’t paying attention anymore. “Hold up, you ran halfway across the planet? Please join my clan!”

Nila blinked in surprise. “I’m flattered by the offer to join someone as strong as you, but the voltoids will need a leader once this is over.”

Kaede pouted. “Aww.” She kicked at the sand. ‘Should I just kill her and add her anyway? …No, that’s just mean.’

“Here he comes!” Nila warned, eyes narrowing as a green storm surged toward them with terrifying speed. “Just what kind of power has he gained?”

Kaede shook her head. “Trust me, you don’t want to know. You might wanna step a few miles back. I’m speedrunning this whole thing.”

Nila nodded and vanished in a burst of red lightning.

The approaching storm churned with thick, writhing ropes of green lightning that scorched the desert floor, leaving behind trails of glowing green lava. At its heart floated a figure, glowing with an eerie green light, his white hair whipping wildly in the wind.

Kaede grinned up at him, letting the toxic green rain wash over her armor and hair. “You know, you actually look like a proper boss now!”

Becquerel bared his teeth, fury contorting his features. “What are you up to? Whatever it is, I won’t let it stand. Relinquish the shard in your possession!”

“Where did you get that idea?” Kaede asked, standing completely still beneath him. Unseen, she had activated [Meditation] the moment he appeared, slowly healing the damage from the radiation storm.

“How else could you control monsters from the Lower Maws of the Demon Realm? How else could you open portals to their home dimension?!” he shouted, voice rising into desperation.

“Don’t ask me how Maple works!” Kaede yelled back. “That’s a slippery slope straight to madness!”

“I know you have it! Give it to me! I need more power!” Becquerel screamed.

His body began to mutate, one arm growing grotesquely larger than the other, a single wing tearing from his back. “I… I! Need! It!”

The ground beneath Kaede cracked and exploded, forming a massive crater a mile wide from the shockwaves of his voice. Green thunder poured down from the sky in such rapid succession that it became a solid wall of sound and light.

“He’s starting to lose it,” Kaede muttered, wincing as pain surged through her body. “Not sure if it’s the shard or the radiation…”

She downed another potion. “Meditation isn’t cutting it. Where the hell is that resistance?”

As if on cue, a system alert flashed across her vision.

---

Skill: Radiation Resist (S) Acquired.

---

“Oh,” Kaede blinked.

“Don’t ignore me!” Becquerel roared, diving toward her in a blur of green energy.

But he froze mid-air, suspended by an unseen force.

Kaede raised her hand, fingers clenched as she held him aloft with [Psychokinesis].

“Okay, just stay there. Don’t come any closer,” she said, expression deadpan. “You’re seriously starting to creep me out.”

A blinding golden light erupted from the ground beneath Kaede, and a radiant structure surged upward, piercing the earth like a divine monument.

She let herself fall into its center, settling onto a pristine white throne adorned with two pairs of angelic wings spreading behind it.

The moment she sat down, a wave of relief washed over her. All the pain ravaging her body dulled, melting into a pleasant warmth.

“Oh yes,” she moaned softly. “So relaxing.”

---

Skill: Heaven’s Throne

While seated on the throne, reduce incoming damage by 20% and regenerate 2% HP per second. Effect lasts until the skill is deactivated or the user is incapacitated. While active, any skill with the Attribute: Evil cannot be used within a 30-yard radius, including by the user.

---

Becquerel’s eye twitched at the sight before him. His opponent, this persistent, maddening enemy, had just sat down on a throne in front of him, like she was royalty.

“Earth’s Cradle,” Kaede said casually, placing a hand on the throne’s armrest. The ground began to tremble. “I don’t want you getting any ideas about escaping.”

Massive ridges of earth burst upward, growing taller with every passing second. They encircled the area, cutting off the horizon and enclosing them in a ring of rising stone.

Even the swirling storm above was slowly swallowed by the expanding walls.

Within moments, the ridges met high above and fused together, forming an enormous hollow mountain. They were sealed inside.

Becquerel glanced around, unamused. “And what is this supposed to accomplish?”

Kaede leaned into her fist, legs crossed. “It was the fastest way.”

“I’ll shatter this paltry creation!” Becquerel roared, his storm unleashing volley after volley of lightning at the mountain walls.

But as the light faded, not a single mark remained.

Kaede smirked. “Earth’s Cradle generates a barrier with its own HP pool. That means Martyr’s Devotion can apply to it. You won’t even scratch the outer crust.”

Becquerel’s grin returned. “Then allow me to return the favor.”

He raised his arms, and green lightning cascaded down toward Kaede like divine punishment.

“You misunderstand something,” he growled. “I’m not trapped in here with you. You’re trapped in here with me.”

Kaede arched an eyebrow. “Huh. No one’s ever said that to me before.”

She stared at the swirling storm. “Maple was able to block lasers with [Poltergeist]... A storm isn’t too different, right?”

She paused, then extended a hand. “Psychokinesis should work.”

Lightning crackled in the air as Becquerel continued his assault, oblivious to what Kaede was attempting.

Her brow furrowed. “This is… harder than I thought. Syrup never gave me this much trouble. I can grab him just fine, but this storm…”

[Psychokinesis], after all, was never meant for manipulating weather. It was designed to restrain living creatures, to grab monsters and stop them in their tracks. And a storm wasn’t alive.

It couldn’t be grasped.

It shouldn't be grasped.

CRACK!

Everything stopped.

The lightning froze mid-air. The air itself stilled. Each particle of energy hung motionless, held in place by an invisible force.

Becquerel’s eyes widened. “What…?”

Kaede exhaled in relief. “Finally. I thought I’d have to spend as long as Maple did figuring this out. I mean, I could sit here for hours... but I’ve got somewhere to be.”

---

Skill Acquired: Telekinesis

---

The storm began to shrink, folding in on itself over and over again, collapsing inward like a dying star.

The lightning compressed, contorted, warped, until the raging storm was reduced to a single orb of concentrated energy.

---

Skill Fusion Complete:

[Psychokinesis (Max)] + [Telekinesis] -> Commander’s Authority (Unique Skill)

---

The sphere pulsed with contained power, no larger than a clenched fist.

Kaede raised her hand, and the condensed mass of storm and fury flew directly into her waiting palm.

She looked at the flickering orb of violet and blue streaking around a toxic neon green.

It looked unnatural, something that should not exist in a stable state.

Kaede had no idea what she held in her hand.

The orb Kaede was holding was now a super-condensed mass of high-energy gamma radiation and storm-force electromagnetic energy. The physical manifestation of an entire gamma-charged lightning storm, compacted by sheer force of will and skill into a stabilized core.

Simply standing within two hundred metres of this fist sized orb would kill a B Ranked Hunter in under five seconds. An A Rank Hunter in under five minutes.

Kaede shrunk it some more and threw it into her mouth.

—

…

—

Kaede closed her eyes. “Hmmmm, I'm not feeling anything yet.”

Slowly, her body began to heat up, and cool off at the same time, and then…

Burp!

Kaede burped in relief as the pain vanished.

—

… You have consumed an immense amount of radiation… Why?

Skill, Gamma Eater, Acquired.

AGILITY +200

STRENGTH +250

VITALITY +20000

PERCEPTION +100

—

Skill Fusion Complete: [Gamma Eater] + [Hydra Eater]

New Skill Acquired: [Event Horizon Hydra] (Mythic Skill)

Type: Active / Summon / Passive Enhancement

Description: Upon activation, summons a spectral hydra composed of both nuclear energy and toxic corruption. Each of the hydra’s seven heads radiates a different form of destructive emission:

Passive Effects:

Chaos Immunity (True): Nullifies all forms of poison and radiation, sickness, and negative status effects.

Venom Singularity: Generate and control any type of poison or toxin. Each “head” of the hydra can bloom a different variant, viral, mutagenic, radiological, spiritual, or necrotic.

Active Effects:

Cataclysm Wyrmstorm:

Unleashes a living Seven headed Dragon in a coordinated strike. The hydra becomes a persistent battlefield hazard. All terrain in range becomes irradiated and corrosive.

—

Becquerel was still in shock to see that his storm had simply shrunk and turned into a ball that was now in Kaede's hand. “Just what are you? How are you so much stronger?” A second wing burst out of his back and his right leg started growing spikes.

Then she ate the orb, however Becquerel didn't care at this point, whining like a little baby throwing a tantrum as he threw a devastating punch at the sitting Kaede.

Kaede opened her eyes, a sudden flash of green within them that disappeared almost instantly.

Becquerel crashed into the ground, unmoving. Dead.

Kaede looked at the voltoid laying on the floor at the edge of her throne and she crossed her fingers, before resting her jaw on them. “What the hell? Just who is Maple because, this is completely ridiculous.”