Although the situation was extremely gloomy the Parasite was very far from giving up. It was made to be superior in the soul realm, it didn’t care that it was facing a mad man. If it couldn’t win the fight then what was the point of its existence? Why did the creators make it if it would just lose to a mad man and beg for sweet release from the pain?

‘No! I will continued forever if I must’ the Soul Parasite thought but it realized that it had spoken out loud. It was already going insane from the constant assault, before it could assess the situation Jade teleported away from it even though he still had quite an amount of grey rocks.

The Parasite didn’t bother dodging as Jade riddled it with many pins causing it to lose its sanity to the pain. Jade didn’t stop shooting it until it was smaller than him, until it was small enough to endure the pain from the small amount of loss.

The Parasite saw its chance; it could do a better job blocking the pins since it was now smaller than a lot of the weapons on the ground. It hid behind one of them and approached Jade while pulling some along. The weapons could not break themselves so they served as their own foil.

The Parasite approached Jade with joy beaming from its smile, Jade was stepping back and trying to hit it through the defense but he was failing. Madness and malice mixed in the eyes of the Parasite as it anticipated tormenting Jade now that he was so large.

Jade smiled and shot another pin at the axe the Parasite was hiding behind. The pin moved way faster than the allowed speed, double the allowed speed, for some reason and shattered the axe when it hit it. The pin also shattered after the impact and dissipated into nothingness with the axe shards.

Fear and confusion filled the Parasite as it realized it was still in the mad man’s grasp. It used the other large weapons that it brought with it to block the next abnormal pins as it tried to get closer to Jade.

But it couldn’t. Jade and the Parasite were moving at the same speed so as long as he kept backing away the distance wouldn’t reduce. The Parasite suddenly backed away because it had only two weapons left. Jade laughed and started chasing while he said “This is where you die rat. Your entire existence, everything you’ve gone through to become what you are will belong to me! Don’t run, it is your life’s purpose!”

The Parasite thought in worry ‘Is this really were I die? Is this where the almighty creators deemed my end? To die at the hand of this mad man? After all I’ve been through? After all the torture and madness? What madness! What insanity is this! Creators, is this my life’s purpose? I reject you! I reject your destiny! I am not food for this madman!!!!!!’

Its insanity had run so deep now that it didn’t even notice that it was saying its thoughts out loud. But the creators heard its voice, the soul body of the Parasite changed as thick dark grey lines almost black, like the ones that made up Jade’s Soul Glyphs, spread on the center of the back of the Parasite. The dark grey lines bent and formed intricate designs, similar to a flower in a flower in a flower in a flower and so on, on the back of the Parasite.

The Parasite felt the pain of loss as it activated its new ability and its speed doubled that of the only allowed speed in the soul realm and the distance between it and its chaser, Jade, increased.

Both of them involuntarily froze as a text made of grey sand formed in the empty space of the realm. It read:

[Hidden Sudden Quest: Soul Nemesis Duel]

[The Rank 27 Soul Parasite has been given a Soul Mandala to Counter the Soul Glyphs of the Rank 20 (Superior) Primordial Human due to its show of grit and defiance against its creators

Both contenders are now on the same playing field and are capable of killing each other making them their own Nemesis.

The winner of this battle gets the [Victor] title. If the Human gets the title he will get the Soul Mandala of the Parasite. If the Parasite wins the battle it will get the Soul Glyphs of the Human.

Glory to the Victor]

Both of them got control of their body back and they knew that now was the time for the final stage of the battle. The Parasite focused on Jade with renewed sharpness while Jade smiled and said “Finally, took you long enough” Jade pointed his finger at the Parasite that was 15 times smaller than him and said “The nemesis hidden mission is the only reason why you have survived till this moment! It’s going to hurt but you’ll be dying now”

Jade’s Dread-Smith Soul Glyph didn’t just give him the ability to create relatively simple weapons, like cold weapons and gunpowder weapons in the empty soul realm, it also allowed him to control them remotely but he had to exchange a part of himself to do that. He had tested this theory by blowing up some pins in the Parasite's body when he was shooting it and it was writhing in pain.

The Mandala that the Parasite had could allow it to do more than just accelerate. It allowed it to also precisely control its body so it could eject the pins in its body instantly if it wanted. But it had no idea about Jade’s full capabilities and didn’t want to show its own so it kept them there so it could surprise Jade.

The pins in the body of the Parasite weren’t Jade’s only trump cards. The new pins he shot were the first in the series of new weapons Jade had made during the repetitive cycles. The pins with double speed that he used now required only a bit of ingenuity to make.

He had made the pin shaft with one use of his Dread-Smith Glyph and made the gunpowder that propelled it with another use of the glyph. Before the reveal he had only been using pins that were made with one use of the Dread-Smith Glyph, pin shaft and all. But the pin he was using now was considered as him using two instances of the Dread-Smith Glyph when fired so it had double speed and attack power, hence it could break another weapon that amounted to just one use of his glyph. He had tested this when the Parasite was mad with pain from his shots.

The Dread-Smith Soul Glyph also allowed Jade to turn parts of his body into weapons that he could control without losing anything. He had already become a living fortress filled with traps and hidden weapons without the Parasite knowing.

The crystalline weapons he showed now were just the old and outdated ones he had made a while ago. The weapons his Dread-Smith Glyph was capable of making now were much harder than the crystalline weapons after millions and billions of uses. They resembled solid grey light and could easily break a crystalline weapon if they clashed.

Jade had also not ignored training his Space Glyph as he used it on the empty space, losing more and more of himself to the glyph. The things he could do now were more varied compared to simple teleportation. He could phase, use spatial telekinesis, selectively teleport parts of a solid body away and perform spatial slashes.

The notification said that Jade and the Parasite were on equal footing but that was far from the truth when compared to the proficiency difference between the both of them.

Jade started the first part of his gambit by losing part of himself to the Dread-Smith Glyph to active the explosion of the gun powder in the pins that were in the body of the Parasite.

Jade was expecting a resistance, some sort of unexpected situation, but to his dread the pain took hold of him, robbing him of his thoughts and in exchange the Soul Parasite exploded into nothingness as the equivalent of trillions of attacks from the Dread-Smith blew it up. It had no chance; it didn’t even see it coming.

Jade regained his sanity some moments later and noticed that there was no opponent waiting for him and his size had reduced back to what he started as and his figure seemed to be made of solid light like his latest weapons. He had absorbed the remaining grey sand that made up what was left of the Soul Parasite and this was the result.

A line of text made of grey sand appeared. It read:

[You have completed the Hidden Sudden Quest: Soul Nemesis Duel]

[You have acquired the Victor title]

[Title:

Victor: One who has defeated his Nemesis while being also the Nemesis of his Nemesis. You have proven that you are not to be challenged hence you will never have a Nemesis again.

You have acquired the Soul Mandala: Control, from your Nemesis]

Jade’s mind entered a meditative state as he understood how the Mandala worked and got an idea of how it could be acquired.

When he returned back to normal he saw a notification that read:

[You will now acquire the Soul Glyphs of the New World Titan (Baldr)]

…