Shout-out to Starlight24 for supporting me on patron.

***

"That was so satisfying!" Nik felt refreshed after a single day of teaching. Stretching his arms, while he walked, Nik finally met up with the four teachers— Asami, Xiaji, Jiu, and Hua, in the teacher's cafeteria. Well, this place wasn't termed cafeteria per se but with the functions of an institutional canteen, Nik decided to term it such. Usually, they all would slip out of the Holy Orchid Institute and find a nice place to eat, but just for the sake of novelty, Nik decided to eat in the cafeteria for the first time. Needless to say, the dish remained dull to his taste, but it is the company and the surroundings that mattered to him greatly. 

Finishing the meal and then taking on the remaining classes, Nik finally became free from his newly gained routine. Instead of hurrying home, he bade farewell to his sweetest girls and even asked Ryu'er to send a message to Ning'er and Ziyun to get ready for the morning routine once again. Instead of hurriedly confronting the illicit duo who leered on his butt, Nik, alongside the two goddesses, and Ray, walked out of Glory City. With Yu Yan alongside him, he felt confident enough to go on a hunt that would make use of his remaining, unlocked potential in spiritual energy that provided him cultivation of peak rank 1 spiritual master. 

Since he had the aptitude to absorb at least a single spirit ring for each of his spirits, there remained not a single reason as to why he shouldn't make use of this untapped source of possible destructiveness. Gojira's location was already known to Nik and it would be the first site to begin the hunt.

---

The sound of light steps phasing through the dense, chittering forest echoed. Next to Nik, Yu Yan matched his pace. Instead of traditional adventure outfit constituting of a healthy weight, the white-haired goddess wore a form-fitting top with grey leggings, her privates meanwhile found the comfort of modern undergarments, testifying to the Fire Goddess' love for the modern outfits. Behind them followed the skirt-wearing Ray and a Samya who wore a white mantle over her head and instead of running, floated peacefully.

"Damn... I would love to fly like that again..." Yu Yan didn't need to look back to find out Samya's mode of transportation. The fact that Samya had completely healed, thanks to her intensive efforts and a little bit of Nik's and Asmodeus' support in making tweaks to the arrays and the formations. Able to restore her godly powers to some extent, Samya did turn out to be the most powerful, and non-violent partner in Nik's fold. 

"Is that envy?" Samya chuckled while Yu Yan scowled. "Ray," Nik pulled another conversation, "We have an understanding, right?" Fresh-faced Ray nodded, "One session of fusion equals one big favor... although, if you need anything despite any favors, all you need to do is ask." Shrugging at Ray's response, Nik smiled while lowering his head and evading a rather low branch, even while talking and his senses stretched as far as possible, Nik kept his eyes to the road, "Think of it as a currency. Of course, we can convert a 'big favor' into 50000 SO."

"A favor it is," Ray cackled, his hair also slightly longer than usual, giving him quite an enticing visual that made sure to make a few heads turn not for the curvaceous goddesses beside Nik but the beautiful ass plunger himself. Finalizing the deal, the group grew silent. Yu Yan felt her expectations rising since this will be her first million-year-old beast battle after such a long time. On the other hand, Ray and Samya tagged along for their benefits. Ray had his own list of small-time beasts to hunt and Samya wanted the whiskers of the demon beast who they had decided to go against.

A few minutes at their relatively high speed is all it took for the group to reach a massive clearing. Stopping close to the crouching Gojira, Yu Yan finally looked at the behemoth that could be classified as Gojira's distant cousin in terms of origin. Laying belly-first, allowing its glimmering silver scales to reflect the sunlight and create a prismatic hue around it, the million-year-old Silver Sword Scale Dragon continued its century-long sleep, its strength high enough to sleep without any care as the partially absorbed sunlight would become the source of the nutrition for the beast.

"There it is! There it is!" Akin schoolgirl with a popsicle dangled in front of her while lured into a dark alleyway, Lilith continuously chimed in excitement as if unaware of the risks in the current endeavor. If it wasn't for the added protection of Yu Yan, Nik might not have even tried to hunt the beast down only with Gojira and Samya.

"Can we get started," Gojira growled, frustrated at the sight of the beast sleeping peacefully at her presence. Though she might have recently reached the level of rank 6 spirit master, a single rank away from Ryu'er, she had never felt lost or envious. 'My daughter is stronger, more prideful, and more savage than I could ever be,' with Gojira's blue-crimson eyes slowly turning vertical, her presence grew dominant. Feral. As she felt the gazes of the surrounding people over her, a thick tail tore from her back while shimmering black scales emerged from her dark skin. 

"Grrr!"

With the growl came a physique enlarging into that of a behemoth of its own right. A beast, six-meter tall and wide enough for the gazers to take a few steps back, large and wild enough for the sleeping monster to finally twitch. Its senses tingling while Yu Yan shouted loudly, "Too much time! Meteorrrrrr!"

"Grah?" Turned into an actual Godzilla, Gojira raised her head, her tail swishing and bringing a tearing gust behind her as three massive meteors conjured above the slowly awakening monster— the Silver Dragon. "Holy..." as the part of cheering squad, Nik couldn't help but mutter while looking at the two mind-boggling monsters, "I am tapping both of them..." 

"Come on!" Clutching his sleeves, Ray pulled Nik back further as Nik broke away from the stupor and smiled widely, "Samya, get ready!"

He shouted loudly, his voice instantly making Samya tense, a little in excitement, and the other half due to pure tension if they would be compatible. With the plan already in motion, the only way the group could retreat would be after getting severe injuries, and that is if they are extremely lucky. "You too, Yu Yan!" As he looked towards Yu Yan, Nik's body gave a faint resonance, his left palm set ablaze in golden flames and his right palm forming a brilliant ball of white energy.

---

"The plan is simple, quite really," Nik stated. He had seen the beast and the first to strike in their battle would have a greater chance of victory. And no matter how strong the beast really is, the physical numbness after sleeping for years and the time taken by the mind to slowly adapt to the surroundings and circumstances would become the beast's greatest obstacle.

"Then, we'll just have to make sure to strike it to death in that period of—" Before Yu Yan could complete, Gojira smiled, "It's impossible. I know silver.... he's one tough bar."

"Hah?" Yu Yan looked at Gojira, sneering, "Already afraid?"

"Afraid?" Gojira looked up, her gaze sending a minor shock to Yu Yan, "Presumptuous, are we?" her voice chilling the room, "All I said is... until you find a way to augment your energy, there's no way we can take down silver with mere spiritual energy even comparable to a being slightly above Titled Douluos."

"I might have a way," Nik interrupted, attracting the attention of the three conspirators, "See this..."

His gaze narrowed down while presenting certain skills in his set.

---

'Ordinary fire—'

'Ordinary light—'

'Won't cut it!' Samya and Yu Yan waited in anticipation, as they could sense a 'delicious' form of energy wrapping Nik in his entirety. 'But if it is that... it might just work!' As they felt their own body naturally resonating with Nik.

'Resonance complete... amazing...' Nik himself wondered. Of course, holding a high expectation of success and even after practicing it once last night made him feel amazed once again, "Get your upgrades! Girls!" 

"What the hell?"

Ray yelped, letting go of Nik as two bright arrows, one formed from golden flames and other made of white light shot towards Yu Yan and Samya, instantly piercing their chests and disappearing, "Super Light and Super Fire!" Nik cheered out a name as the three meteors above Yu Yan and the iron sword forming above Samya coated themselves in golden flames and white light almost instantly.

"Didn't we tell you..." Samya muttered with a sigh, her gaze condensing on the beast who finally realized his position ever so slightly, trying to stand up hurriedly, "It's eternal light! Cleave!"

With the three-meter long judgment sword falling on the scaly back of the beast, Yu Yan grinned, "And its called God Blaze! Fucking put three more holes!" Instantly, the meteors aimed towards the head, the lower back, and the connected legs of the silver dragon. Meanwhile, Gojira stood patiently, low growls leaking through her maws as she felt annoyed by the two taking action before her. 

'Alright... super fire and super light sounded super lame... but what is that? Since when did Nik start to upgrade others?' Ray looked at the horrific destruction caused by the two's attack, affirming his decision of finding a God for himself. With its back almost divided in two, his internal organs exposed to the world, three massive holes in his head, back and thighs, the beast lost his ability to howl even before the pain could fully settle, but his movements didn't stop, much to Yu Yan's and Samya's surprise.

"That attack was the full power of a newly ascended god..." Samya muttered, "I gained eternal light back then... and yet..."

The same was the case with the God Blaze wielding Yu Yan.

"See?" Gojira growled, her heavy steps leading her massive frame towards the silver dragon.

"Don't feel bad, Silver," she muttered, her maws opening wide as a blue beam of energy condensed in between the space of her jaws while the scaly ejection on her back glowed in blue light, "This is for picking on me back then..."

Phssssshhhhh!

---

Unable to hold his curiosity as the silver dragon's meat turned out to be inedible due to the sheer durability of the flesh, Ray finally inquired Nik's action as Gojira continued to meal at the distant cousin who had the audacity to pick on her when she had been a mere youngling. Around the crackling fire, as Samya and Yu Yan also showed the same set of monstrous jaws that quite elegantly tore away on the silver dragon's meat, Ray leaned towards Nik and whispered, "Hey, what was those arrows?"

"Hmm?" Mealing on the blue-crowned crocodile's meat instead, since he had already saved quite a hefty amount of silver dragon's meat for the time later, Nik looked at Ray with his cheeks inflated while the apostle continued to chew away and fill his empty stomach. The sun had already been setting, giving Nik's violet eyes a golden hue that seemed to entrance Ray for a moment, just like the way the succubus enticed the apostle on many occasions.

"I don't have the *munch* *munch* samwe powah *munch* *munch* ash—"

"Gulp it down..." Ray muttered with twitching eyelids. Sometimes, Nik really didn't present himself as a charming hunk capable of stealing women right under their partner's noses. Well, Ray knew that it is wrong for him to expect others to remain extremely pretentious and elegant just for the sake of presence and keeping up their reputation. Didn't Ray himself wore comfy pajamas instead of thongs and erotic clothing while sleeping? Similar to that, Ray could feel Nik's urge to let go of many pretenses he kept around his students and the world. His eating habits being one of them.

As a load of chunky meat passed down Nik's throat with an audible gulp, he licked his lips in delight, again, pulling Ray into another trance before the Apostle spoke up, "Well, I already understand that this world is a place where I cannot stand at the top... yet. My desire, however, is never to become the strongest, you know. I couldn't care less about strength if it wasn't for my... our situation. So, I started finding out how I can maximize the total strength of my group... Due to Nie Li, we both have master-tier insight in many aspects of combat like— power, strike, jump, evade, force, cross...— but I have two more concepts— Fire and Light— which works well with Samya and Yu Yan... I can't create Super Light and Super Fire—"

"Eternal Light," Samya coughed softly, making Gojira snicker while Yu Yan furrowed her brows and let out an annoyed groan, "It's God Blaze!"

"Alright... I never thought Super Light and Super Fire could remain forever..." Nik muttered with a sad sigh, "Anyway, instead of focusing on myself, I held a thought... what would happen if I use my essence to bring out the maximum power that their bodies can hold—" pointing at Samya and Yu Yan, Nik shrugged, "The results, of course, surpassed my expectations. And that plasma cannon... was awesome!"

Nik gave Gojira a thumbs-up for the umpteenth time, making yer look away for a moment, hiding the soft crimson hue that would form over the lazy Empress' cheeks every time she got praised for her skills.

"Oh, what should we do about the spirit bone?" Ray inquired as Nik gave him a flat stare, "Oi, missy, don't get ideas about that... I'll just store it and maybe use it for the auction later on, the one with Infallible and Absolute."

Smacking his lips before giggling, Ray didn't bring up the topic once again. Right now, Nik had a total of three spirit bones— a hundred-thousand-year Eight-Armed Devil Spirit Bone, a million-year-old Skydream Crown Spirit Bone, and finally, a million-year-old Silver Scaled Sword Spirit Bone. Of course, absorbing anyone of them would probably cause his body to explode, hence his need of patiently waiting for an opportunity to absorb his spirit bones. 

"Now then, should we begin with the fusion of spirit rings for Hissy?" Nik's inquiry made the bubbly succubus nod with excitement, "I have collected four spirit rings from the various serpent spirit beasts," Ray actually took out four spirit rings from his inventory, two yellow, one white, and one purple. Of course, Nie Li had a mystic art that allowed a spirit master to make the spirit rings mobile, defying the common knowledge of spirit rings being static. Such is the skill used by Nik, too, allowing him to store the silver-gold spirit ring and wait until later to absorb the ring.

In front of everyone, Nik took out his Nightmare Demon Pot, the major source of income for the Glory Center as it would continue to provide with streams of fused spirit weapons and accessories that would create waves in the economy, and even suppress the Blacksmith Association. Seeing the nightmare pot, Ray couldn't help but let out an envious sigh as he stated, "Its good that... I know when to be greedy. Or, we might have already fought too many times..."

"Aw, don't be like that," Nik shrugged, "It's not like I don't share good things... if, I am in a good mood, I might share the best thing I have with you, too... you know, Yar shouldn't be the only one to hog everything," his snicker made Ray look towards the apostle with a slightly focused gaze before stopping from saying anything stupid. Nik has proved to be the kind to openly flirt without holding any commitment, finally giving him the image of frivolity and generosity. Alas, Ray couldn't create such a reputation for himself, too, and if he said anything weird at the moment... despite knowing that Nik might mean every word, the awkwardness would be hard to bear. 'Damn you Yar... you should have never told me that conversation...' Ray cursed internally, making Yar burst into a peal of chuckles as she enjoyed Ray's internal conflict simply too much.

"Alright, the fusion pot is good to go." Shuffling the lid to the side, Nik gestured, "Push the rings in... let's hope that you get the combination correct this time."

That remained the main problem. While the nightmare demon pot could fuse any number of spirit rings, the new spirit ring may not have the most appropriate skill and became the sole reason why Nik didn't even want to try and fuse a million old spirit ring with other spirit rings despite his insane luck and stupid attribute of his soul. Ray's continuous downfalls had long eased Nik's impatience regarding the matter.

"Yeah..." Ray muttered and manipulated the spirit rings to enter the pot before they disappeared into the small opening while Nik closed the lid and activated the artifact, making the pot let out a strange hum as all of the surrounding people waited silently. Ray bore the greatest pressure since it was his fourth time hunting for all the spirit beasts with rings and skills beneficial to Hissy. With Hissy gaining his own form, even though Ray hadn't passed its test, he could still absorb a spirit ring for the adorable hissing serpent.

As the single Purple Spirit Ring emerged, Ray and Nik instantly stimulated the spirit and found the ability it would provide— Biting Tail: Compels the spirit to harm itself permanently to gain greater power.

"Damn it... I'll just stick for a singe spirit ring, then..." Ray muttered with a defeated sigh, making Nik nod, "It's up to you. If you ever need to fuse anything... you know where to find me."