Chapter 10
"You don't deserve mercy. Your soul will have a special place in my army. You will satisfy my monsters' every single wish."
Ark smiles with an evil grin, and Niobe has a very bad feeling.
'How can I still feel something is wrong when I am at full power? What is he?'
Ark says just a word:
"Kneel."
Then Niobe comes plunging down from above, and her knees make spiderweb cracks when she lands. She is again on her knees in front of Ark.
The people from the sidelines didn't even have time to recover from the shock from before because another shock hits, even harder.
Niobe Megara, on her knees with just a word from her opponent. 'Just what is happening right now? Are we in some kind of hallucination? Is everything we see really reality?'
"I said, this is the right level for our eyes. You need to look up when you look at me. And don't worry, I will show you something unbelievable. I will show you that even your 'nightmares' have a nightmare. I will show your nightmares how to feel fear again."
Niobe looks at Ark, and for the first time in a very long time, she feels... fear—real fear—when she looks into those half-black, half-red eyes.
She doesn't have much time to think because she sees Ark lifting his right foot, and in the next second, she feels the hit on her head. Then, she enters a kind of semi-unconscious state.
Ark continues to hit her with his fists, faster and faster, making her head look like a broken watermelon. Blood keeps pouring from her head, nose, and eyes, but the hitting only gets faster and harder. After a while, the people wake up to reality and start shouting for the match to be stopped, for Niobe to give up.
But Niobe doesn't hear anyone, doesn't see anyone. She feels only extreme pain and fear toward the frail-looking young guy.
Only an angry look, with a little bit of killing intent from Ark, was all it took, and the monsters inside the black water are nowhere to be seen anymore. It's like they were never there.
Melody wakes up from her shock, and she feels pity for Niobe.
"Ark, please, it's enough. She knows her place now."
Ark stops and looks at Melody. He sees her sad face. Then, he looks back at Niobe.
"You should thank her. Because of her good heart, you still have your head connected to your shoulders."
Niobe, in pain and in a weak state like never before, doesn't even think and says:
"Thank you, Miss Ember, for your pity on me."
Melody just looks at her and knows she is broken. Ark hit her not only with punches and kicks but with his soul and will as well. Her soul power and will can't hold a candle against Ark's. She is afraid of him, and she will do anything he says. Her immediate apology to me is proof of that.
"Ark, I will heal her."
"Wait, I will do that."
"Why?"
While Melody and Ark are speaking to each other, Niobe doesn't even dare to breathe too loudly, even though she's feeling pain like never before in her life. Her only thought is to leave, she just wants to be alone, but she doesn't dare to before Ark says so.
The people are also in disbelief about everything they've watched. Their principle—the strongest soul fighter in the entire city—just lost. And she lost hard.
'She looks like she's afraid to even look at him. She's afraid to even lift her head to look him in the eyes.'
Good thing we recorded this fight, or no one would have believed us.
They see Melody starting to make her way to the arena, and they watch her approach the scary student on the stage.
"I will heal her, watch and learn."
Niobe, still kneeling, raises her head a little, but when she realizes that she'll see those half-black, half-red eyes, she loses her courage and puts her head back down. She just waits for whatever they want to do.
Melody watches Ark as he gathers some milky-white aura and puts his hand over Niobe's head. Then, the gathered aura enters her head, and they see her head recovering.
And Niobe starts shaking. Then, after a moment, everything is back to normal. She is completely healed, but when she looks up, a big surprise.
Even Melody wasn't sure what Ark did, but she knew that now everything would be okay. They would have a really nice time at the university after he helped her like this.
Niobe gets up and looks at Ark, no fear on her face, only respect in her eyes.
"Thank you, I tried for the last 50,000 years to solve my problem, but you did it in just a second. Now I can try again to level up, to 'Universal level.' If you need anything, just say the word."
"Can you tell me how you were injured?"
"Of course. When I was fighting on the front lines in the 'Space Conquering Era,' I fought a really strong mind demon. I was alone on a deserted planet, no help, no way to contact anyone. I had to fight this demon completely alone. I fought for 3 days and 3 nights with him. In the end, I managed to defeat him. But not completely. I only destroyed his body and soul, but his mind managed to leech somehow onto my mind, and that's why my eyes were completely black — because of that mind demon. I had to always be on my guard against him, feeling like I was going crazy. I tried many different things to get him out of my head, but nothing worked.
That's why I didn't try to level up anymore, because I knew that I would die if I gave the demon even a small chance. Even a moment of weakness would be fatal for me. But now, in just a second, you destroyed him. Now I am finally free. I can be me again with no fear of going crazy."
Melody sees her smiling face and thinks, So she had it really hard until now, and her eyes are blue like the sky. She looks so much better now than with those scary black eyes.
And if she managed to destroy the demon's body and soul, how did his mind survive? I'll ask her later how that works.
Ark just looks into her blue eyes and says:
"Now this is the right way to look at someone. And yeah, I had to draw him out by making him think that you would die."
Niobe looks at the young man, and now she really understands the saying, Don't judge a book by its cover.
"We can go back to my office now; you both passed your test."
Then they fly into the sky, disappearing in a few seconds.
The people watch them disappear, and then all hell breaks loose. Some are watching the videos they took, some are calling their friends, some are talking about the unbelievable match that took place.
The trio reaches the gate at the pyramid, and when they go out, Niobe looks at Ark and asks him:
"You are more powerful than me; do you even need to attend this school? Because if you wanted, you could go directly to the 'Royalty Planet' where the most powerful reside."
Ark looks at her and answers:
"I'm not in a hurry; I want to take my time and enjoy everything. And besides, what I need could be closer than I thought."
Melody looks immediately at him with a look that says, 'What?'
Ark just smiles and keeps on walking.
Niobe doesn't understand, but she now knows what he wants, and she will do everything in her power to make everything how he wants it to be.
When they are inside the university, it's like some kind of celebrity has walked in. All students that see them look at Ark and Melody like they are some kind of circus attraction.
All look like they have questions for them, but they don't dare to, because the principal is still the principal, so they can only look, but not touch.
Ark and Melody just walk calmly behind the principal.
When they reach the office, Niobe goes behind her mahogany desk and takes out a container holding a bottle of something black. She calls for someone to bring three glasses, then she sits opposite them and tells them:
"Wait a moment, I have something very special for you to try. I've kept this bottle for more than 10,000 years for a special occasion. And today I can finally open it."
Ark and Melody just look at each other, and they see that they both think the same: they don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Then a woman comes inside the office with three glasses. She puts them on the table, and when she sees what is on the table, she can't believe it. She looks with a yearning look at the drink. But she turns around and leaves.