Chapter 53: S-Class Disaster
Lydia glanced at Niel briefly before her smile spread. "I’m in on it."
Something in the way she said it — pure, unguarded excitement — made both Niel and Draken stop and stare, certain she had reasons of her own tucked away.
"Have you been there before?" Niel asked.
She waved the question off, already walking away. "Not your concern."
Niel looked to Draken, who gave him an equally puzzled shrug before wandering off himself.
Niel sighed, dropped back into the throne, and Claire’s voice cut in.
Claire: What exactly is the plan for the reveal? How do you intend to make an entrance — walk through the front door?
Of course not. We go in as guests, and once the party reaches its peak, that’s when we cause the disaster.
Claire: What kind of disaster?
Why the sudden interrogation, Claire?
Claire: We’re partners. I need to know the plan, and as far as I can tell, you don’t actually have one.
Claire!
Claire: I’m literally in your head. I know you have nothing.
Niel sighed, sinking deeper into the throne. "Fine. Do you have any ideas, then?"
Claire: Glad you finally admitted it. Honestly, I don’t know how you survived this long without me.
Niel’s brow furrowed, mildly offended. "I survived plenty long as a hero, thank you."
Claire: Did you, though?
Niel shifted, sitting up straighter, clearly uncomfortable. "Enough teasing. Do you have a plan or not?"
Claire went quiet for a moment before finally answering.
Claire: What if we merged abilities to trigger something catastrophic enough to throw the whole kingdom into chaos? You deliver the speech, the disaster follows right after, and you slip out in the confusion.
Niel’s expression fell. "That’s the same vague idea I already had. Obviously there’s a speech and a catastrophe — the real question is sequencing, and which catastrophe actually works. Sounds like you don’t have a plan either."
Claire: Don’t worry, partner. I’m still the smart one here.
Excuse me, what did you—
Before he could finish, Claire cut back in with her actual pitch.
Claire: I’d suggest combining abilities — the same way we did back in Velroth.
Hm. Not a bad idea. Let me pull up my stats.
Claire: On it.
A translucent screen unfolded in front of him, laying out his full stat sheet.
BASE ABILITIES
Theft — Copy (Base Authority)
Poison
Teleportation: 1/1 daily use remaining
Calamity Evolution
Shapeshifting
Heightened Senses & Enhanced Physiology
AUTHORITIES COPIED
Space-Time — Spatial Compaction: 2/3
Deception — Lie Discernment: 3/3
UNIQUE SKILLS COPIED
Divine Healing: 3/3
Solar Flare: 1/3
Split: 1/3
Attraction & Repulsion: 3/3
SKILLS COPIED
Earth Manipulation: 2/3
Fire Manipulation: 3/3
Niel studied it, hand drifting to his chin, when a thought surfaced.
Claire, is it possible to combine a base skill with a copied one?
Claire: Base and copied skills can’t be merged.
"Oh." Niel let out a disappointed breath, still scanning the screen. Then another idea struck.
If we combined Earth Manipulation with Solar Flare, could we turn a single meteor into a scattered volley of smaller ones instead?
Claire: That’s possible. Should I run it? Fair warning — each meteor would carry more heat than the ones used at Velroth, given Solar Flare’s higher potency.
Niel weighed it a while. Solar Flare, being a unique skill, only had a single use left. Fire Manipulation still had three. He could sacrifice the rare one for potency, or preserve the reusable one. After turning it over, he decided quantity of uses mattered more right now than raw power.
"Proceed with the combination."
Claire: Affirmative.
[Combining: Solar Flare and Earth Manipulation...]
[Processing...]
[Combination complete.]
[New skill developed: Heaven’s Spear (1)]
Niel sank fully into the throne, relaxed, eyes still fixed on the display, a spark of excitement crossing his face. "Heaven’s Spear, huh. Let’s see how this plays out."
---
Elsewhere in the kingdom, Ursula tore through the sky and into a cave mouth that yawned open into an endless underground labyrinth. She flew deeper still, her wings burning, until at last she touched down in a passage that curved like a serpent coiled in on itself. She collapsed onto the cold stone, gasping for breath.
"Who the hell is she?!" Ursula spat, still struggling to steady her breathing. She’d burned through so much mana that healing her legs was no longer within reach — everything left had gone into simply not bleeding out.
"Hollow Black," she muttered, the words bitter on her tongue, and drove her fist into the cave wall hard enough to crack the stone.
"Careful, dear. You seem rather... upset," a voice said, emerging calmly from the shadows into the flickering light near her.
A man stepped forward, long white hair, brownish-yellow eyes, his pristine white robe lending him a subtle but unmistakable air of authority. The Supreme Saint. For someone who’d lived over a century, he looked barely twenty, his smile warm and easy.
"What happened to you?" His gaze settled briefly on her severed legs. "Did the mission fail?"
"Obviously it did," she muttered, anger already rekindling. He studied her a moment. "Given that expression, I’d guess a third party got involved. I refuse to believe you’d lose to a mere dragon."
"Clearly the dragon had a protector," she spat.
"Someone’s still defending it?" the Supreme Saint asked, stepping closer, and with a single wave of his hand her legs regrew instantly.
He crouched in front of her, voice gentling. "Tell me — how strong was this protector, and what would your odds look like against them at full strength?"
She paused, running back through every attack, every skill she’d witnessed, her hands clenching until the knuckles paled. After a moment, the tension eased from her shoulders as she exhaled. "If I’d known about her beforehand, I could’ve planned properly. Even so — full power against full power, she’d still give me trouble."
"But would you lose?" he asked, meeting her eyes directly.
She held his gaze and smiled. "I’d win."
A smile touched his own lips as he rose, crossing to sit at the edge of the wall, his long white hair spilling around him.
"So tell me, Ursula — does she carry an authority?"
Ursula sat with the question a moment, running back through everything she’d seen. "No. Only unique skills."
"Unique skills, and you still lost? How?" His voice sharpened with genuine concern. All four of Ursula’s unique skills ranked among the most refined ever recorded, her Supernova alone considered a kingdom-level threat at full output. Losing to another unique-skill user shouldn’t have been possible.
He turned to her. "Was it the two of them against just you? Is that what tipped it?"
She understood immediately why he was struggling to accept the defeat — she was meant to be the pinnacle of human creation, one of the only beings ever recorded with four unique skills. As far as the White Order knew, the only one, for years now.
She looked back at him, disappointment written across her face — not at his reaction, but at herself, for underestimating an opponent so badly. It was a lesson she wasn’t eager to admit she’d needed.
She hadn’t faced a genuine opponent since her creation less than a decade ago. This had been her first real fight against something that wasn’t simply a test subject.
She met his eyes. "It was just her. And she won."
The word ’her’ settled with more weight than he’d expected. He studied her. "Can you recall anything about her — a name, a description, any of her abilities?"
"Why does it matter?" Ursula asked, confusion crossing her face.
"I want to know if it’s who I suspect it is," he said.
She thought it over, reaching for a name and coming up empty, so she described her instead. "Black hair. Black outfit — cropped shirt, short skirt, some kind of belt setup. Her ability was something like..." She trailed off, struggling to put it into words. "She pulled me toward her, then pushed me away, somehow."
Then something else surfaced. "...Oh. She said the words ’Hollow Black,’ and my Supernova just — disappeared into a large void."
The Supreme Saint went pale for a moment, then broke into laughter, as though the whole situation had struck him as genuinely funny.
"No wonder you lost," he finally said. "Don’t be too hard on yourself — that’s a fight you were always going to lose more often than not." He met her eyes, still smiling. "If anything, I should be commending you for surviving it at all. That alone is the harder feat."
Ursula’s face darkened with anger. "Are you calling me weak?"
"No, no, not at all. I’m saying she’s strong. Genuinely — she might rank among the ten strongest beings I know of." His voice dropped, cooling. "Lydia Grey."
The name hung in the air a moment before Ursula spoke. "Who is she?"
"She goes by several names. The Strongest. The Black Assassin. Lady Death. And in Dulthmune, where her own people know her best..."
He let the pause stretch, building it deliberately, before finishing.
"The S-Class Disaster."