Chapter 26
Zmaug looks at the two of them, and even if Ariach is still there, he doesn't feel any fear anymore or worry. Ark, just by being present there, is like all the worries and all the bad things; he can shoulder them all by himself. He offers an unbelievable feeling of reliability.
So he looks towards the She-Devil and smiles with an evil face:
"Now let's see how long YOU can survive, Ariach Roo'van the Poison Ruler."
When Ariach hears Zmaug's sharp words, she feels angry and thinks, 'How strong could Ark be? I think the High One exaggerated when he said that if we see Ark, we need to run. I think I can even kill him with my poison.'
So she straightens her back once again, her aura rising, and readies her sword for the fight that is about to take place.
But her instincts are saying something else. 'Run.'
But them being Royalty, they didn't know what retreat or 'running for your life' meant. So she ignores her instincts and stays.
After Ark is reassuring Melody that everything will be okay, he looks towards Ariach and says,
"How long did it take you to reach your power level?"
Ariach looks at him with a questioning look, 'Why is he asking me that?'
"I think about 10,000 years. Why?"
Zmaug looks at her like at a 'Monster', he thinks, 'Universe level 7 fighter', in 10,000 years? That is unbelievable fast.'
Ark answers with a smiling face:
"I also tried to play with poison for a while when I was young and reckless. Now, with a master in front of me, I would like to put my poison knowledge to the test. For me, it took about 1 year of experimenting."
Then all around Ark, a black cloud starts to form, and he starts to walk towards her. When Ariach sees that cloud, she also starts to flare her aura, and a colorless cloud starts to form around her.
Then she also starts to walk towards him, and when they are about 50 meters apart, they send their poison towards each other.
The clouds meet in the middle, and when they collide, it is like a glass is in front of them, and the cloud hits that glass and is now on one side perfectly straight, going up and to the sides for a few hundred meters, and it keeps spreading and spreading.
Ariach smiles, not worrying, even making plans for when she returns with Ark's body to the 'High One.'
The poisons are for a moment on even ground, and Ark just watches with a calm look on his face, but after a second, something changes, and the black poison cloud starts to gain more and more ground.
A panicked look appears on Ariach's face, she looks at Ark's poison and sees how it's 'eating' her poison and evolving with each passing second. The more the black cloud eats, the stronger and faster at eating it becomes. So in a moment, the black cloud is the only one remaining on the battlefield, then it goes back into Ark's body. Ariach's poison lost.
Then Ariach says:
"How is that possible? How could a poison be alive? What are you? What did you create? It just ate my poison and evolved in a matter of seconds, and now you've become immune to my poison."
"How does that work? How could you create something so terrifying in just a year?"
Ariach is starting to feel something that she didn't feel in a very, very long time, 'Fear.' When she looks into those half-red, half-black eyes, a primal fear starts to rise from the deepest part of her being.
'What is this feeling? What is happening to me? We didn't even fight for more than a few seconds, and I am already feeling 'fear'? Me, a 'Royalty' feeling fear? That is not possible. I will kill him.'
Then she runs towards Ark; she runs like she is saying, 'I will win over this fear and over you, Ark.'
She readies her sword and her nails like knives; she thinks, 'If poison doesn't work, then I will kill you the old way, by cutting your body into a thousand pieces.'
She reaches Ark in a second and slashes towards his neck, planning to send his head flying, but Ark only raises one finger and puts it in front of the sword. Then the sword that could destroy a world is stopped by that frail finger.
Ariach is shocked. 'How is that possible? Who is he? How is he so strong?' Now she is starting to regret her earlier thoughts and not running at the first occasion that she had.
She tries to retreat and run, but Ark sees through her thoughts.
"What is this? Do you want to leave so soon? Where is the courage from earlier?"
"Do you think you can come and go whenever you want?"
"Now, if you are here and made such a mess of the city, you will stay."
Then Ark attacks. He flies up and punches Ariach, making her lose a few teeth and sending her flying back, but before she even has time to register what happened, Ark appears in her path and waits for her at the other end.
Then when she reaches him, he hits her with a kick and sends her flying up, her body curling from the pain, and again before she even manages to connect even one coherent thought in her head, Ark again waits for her above in the sky, and now he kicks her again with even more power, sending her towards the earth like a rocket. When she hits the earth, an explosion like a meteor strike appears, and the earth is sent flying in all directions.
Ariach is now lying in a pit, a crater about 50 meters down is made. She is moaning from the pain; she didn't feel so much pain in her entire life, but Ark lands next to her and says:
"It's not over yet."
Then he grabs her by the leg and starts to swing her from right to left, her body hitting the ground with so much force that spider webs appear even a few hundred meters away, the pit getting even bigger and deeper. Ariach's body, a broken mess, bones breaking can be heard even a few hundred meters away, her hands flailing around like a kite in the wind.
Her five-meter-tall body is bleeding and almost some pieces are detaching away. Then Ark stops after a few more hits and says:
"If you don't want to keep on receiving so much 'Love' from me, then you must go to the city and undo all that you have done with your poison."
Ariach hears Ark, but she can't even speak a word because her tongue went flying, and her teeth are now half missing.
So she can only nod, not wanting to upset Ark and receive his 'Love' again.
Ark sees that she can't even get up to walk, so he heals her enough to be able to walk and talk.
Then he flies up, getting out of the pit, and goes to Zmaug and Melody. Ariach follows him like a puppy, not making even a sound, not wanting to upset her master.
Zmaug and Melody look at the She-Devil Royalty as she follows behind Ark, like a scared puppy, and don't believe that this is the same Devil that they fought with their lives on the line.
Then after Ark reaches them, he says:
"I have someone to introduce to you. 'Terra,' you can come out now."
Then a little girl no older than five or six years old appears next to Ark, and she takes his hand in hers, looking with her big eyes at them and all around her, like a little kitten exploring her surroundings.
When Melody sees the little 'marshmallow,' she makes big eyes like apples, wanting to eat her whole, because of how cute she is. She has green hair and eyes, a small little nose, with red lips beneath it, and her eyebrows are also green with a sharp edge to them, and she is wearing a blue dress on her body, with milky white skin that almost reflects light.
Zmaug looks with an intrigued face at the little girl but then smiles when he sees her big eyes looking at him.
Ark says to them:
"This is the body of 'Earth.' Normally, if she had merged with the dimension core as she should have over 100 years' time, then she would have had a normal adult body."
"But because the cores had to merge forcefully, this is the result—a body and a mind of a six-year-old. Of course, she can learn much faster and easier than a normal child. But until she grows up a little bit, you all have to treat her like a normal child, as though she doesn't know anything. And she needs protection also because she doesn't know how to use her powers."
"So all in all, this is the planet Earth, in her own body with her own mind. I will tell you later what happened when we are all together. Now we need to go and save the city."