Nidhogg gazed silently at Sol, she wasn't clad in her usual gloomy clothes since she had no reason to hide her poison currently and in fact was actively trying to use it.
"You know, I realized once again that I truly dislike you."
"Hum?"
Sol, who was ready to begin the fight, stopped and looked at her curiously.
He had noticed that Nidhogg disliked quite a bit the last time but thought that it was simply because of the competition.
After all, he had never met her prior to this.
As if uncaring of his confusion, she continued, "Do you know why my Hydra became a specialist in poison?"
Sol didn't even try to guess the answer for he knew that he would receive one pretty sure and indeed,
"Because of your mother."
'And here we go again.'
Sol had to fight the urge to roll his eyes. Pinching his brow he continued,
"Let me guess, Hydra was pissed or jealous or whatever because Tiamat favored my mom and begin creating poison to show that his poison could break through the Chaos body Tiamat is so proud of. Am I right?"
Nidhogg fell silent but from the way her eyes widened, it was clear that Sol had hit the bullseye.
Sol groaned inwardly, the moment Nidhogg said it was about his Mom it wasn't hard to guess.
Nent had already told him that Fafnir created his Ten fortresses to obtain a body invulnerable to all physical attacks. In the same way the Chaos body was invulnerable to all Magical attacks.
Clearly, Hydra also wished to show off to Tiamat. It was hard to say where poison stood since even though it was created by her mana, it wasn't exactly a magical attack either.
So Hydra was successful in a way.
'Mars left a bunch of traumatized women in the mortal realm and Blaze left a bunch of traumatized siblings in the Astral realm.'
Either way, those two had left chaos in their trails and now that they were dead, the responsibility fell to him.
If he had to be honest…It was truly becoming a pain.
"So what now? Beating me will prove the power of poison?"
"Indeed. I…"
"Am I supposed to give a single fuck about your reason for fighting me!?"
Sol shouted while rushing at her with a flying kick that was easily evaded by a startled Nidhogg. Mainly because Sol hadn't tried that hard to get her.
"How rude…"
"Look. I couldn't care less about your reason to dislike me. Jealousy, duty or whatever, it's your call."
Sol spoke in a dirtier way than usual. His polite and regal bearing was nowhere to be seen as he currently looked more like a wannabe thug spewing curses left and right.
Clenching his fists and readying himself he continued,
"I neither dislike nor like you, Nidhogg. But unlike you, I don't need to spew some convoluted reason to explain why. I just do and as such, I will simply beat you and get to more important things."
He said so with a calm voice and a beautiful smile.
Everyone has his or her backstory but Sol was in no way obligated to listen nor care about them. Just because Nidhogg was a beautiful woman didn't make her entitled to a different treatment.
He already had enough trouble juggling with his own problem and that of his Lovers. Why would he care for someone he didn't even really know?
Moving once again to attack her he stopped when he realized that Nidhogg was showing a rather apathetic expression as she took out a notebook before scribbling something.
"You still show no symptoms despite all this time. I see. From the faint feeling of existence I got from you, I guess you phased out or are somehow immune to poison? How intriguing."
"You…"
She raised her head and snapped shut her notebook. Before turning around while mumbling, "Perhaps I should create a poison that can affect space? Corrode it? Or directly affect the mana particle in the air? Hum…So much to think about."
Sol for the first time in a while was incredibly bewildered.
"Oh, I nearly forgot."
She suddenly turned around and nodded to Sol. "I give up."
She shrugged at the astonished look he threw, "In the first place, I have never been a Frontline fighter. The whole thing with poison is coming at people from the dark. Had it been a fight to the death, I would have killed you while you were facing Kaiser. Sadly, it wasn't like that."
Nidhogg had absolutely no doubt about her ability to kill Sol if she caught him off guard.
But in the same way, she recognized that she had absolutely no way to harm him if he was acting carefully.
Sol was finally able to calm down as his brain caught up to the situation and the sudden change in personality Nidhogg was showing, "So you decided to give up."
"Of course. I hate wasting my time after all. Why fight when I already know the outcome? Struggling pointlessly for this contest would be unsightly."
"What about the title of Princess?"
This time Nidhogg smiled sardonically, "The only reason I am helpless about you is your dimension and Chaos Body. But…Do you think the other four Princes are like you?"
Waving her hand she turned around once again,
"Remember this Sol. At the Duke level, there's no one I cannot Kill one way or another, and sooner or later…It will be the same for the King level."
Leaving this bold declaration as she vanished from the island.
Even a few moments later as Sol was transported from the island and appeared on a large podium above everyone else, Sol felt like he was dreaming.
But not in a good way, he felt strangely cheated. As if he somehow had lost, and it was deeply frustrating.
‘Well…I guess I shouldn’t complain?’
Even though the end was pretty anti-climatic, it didn’t change the fact that he won and was now officially the new fifth prince.
As such, it was finally time for him to form his contract with Isis.
—-
When Nidhogg opened her eyes, she found that she was in the room she occupied a few minutes before the competition began.
“I am sorry, even though I said I wouldn’t lose, it seems like I had underestimated Sol too much.”
Hydra simply looked at his granddaughter before asking, “Did I burden you with my expectations too much?”
While short, the discussion Nidhogg had with Sol couldn’t help but make him question himself and from the silence of Nidhogg, he realized that this was indeed the case.
“Sigh…I…” He opened his mouth and hesitated before covering his face with his hand, “I am sorry. I guess I was too bitter.”
Hydra was the youngest of the four kings but also the weakest. He didn’t have the overwhelming power of Kiyohime, nor did he have the supreme defense of Fafnir or the all-consuming fire of Welsh.
All he had was poison. Something that was practically useless against most divine beasts and was even more useless against Titans and Giants since their physiology was completely different from Divine beasts.
Because of this, even after he managed to stand up for himself and became famous all over the universe, deep down, he had always felt an inferiority complex.
This became even worse after Blaze was created.
She was simply the epitome of talent and power. There was even talks of her replacing Kiyohime as the Dragon Queen in the territory when she was alive.
He didn’t know how his other siblings saw her, but for him, Blaze was the supreme expression of his envy, jealousy, and inferiority. Whenever he looked at how tall and bright she was, he was reminded of how small and obscure he was.
That’s why he put even more effort in his poison to an almost crazy degree. To show the world that Blaze and by a certain extent, Tiamat, weren’t all that impressive.
But, as petty and ridiculous as it was…It was HIS own aspiration. Not that of Nidhogg. Him burdening her all those years with his ugly dream was an unforgivable sin and all he could do was apologize and promise to change.
“Do not worry.”
Nidhogg smiled, she had never hated her grandfather, she knew how much he loved her and this was also why she disliked Tiamat and Sol to a certain extent. But it didn’t matter. Not now.
“I managed to accomplish my main goal. Now that I have samples of so many powerful dragon Dukes and the sample I collected from Tartarus…I think I may be able to create a true king ranked poison soon, very soon even.”
“You mean…?”
“Indeed. I have finally realized one. A true name that is… and that name is Ophiuchus[1].”
[1]: Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer is kinda the 13th zodiacal constellation or the forgotten constellation. As for the myth behind it, Ophiuchus is Asclepius, the physician who concocted a healing potion from the Serpent’s venom, mixing it with the Gorgon’s blood and an unknown herb. This potion gave humans access to immortality until Hades appealed to Zeus to reconsider the ramifications of the death of death. Did I say the dude was also very dangerous with poison?
(AN: I won't lie. I struggled to write this chapter and I am not really satisfied with the final result either. I am sure I could do better but yeah was drawing a blank. I had many ideas about Nidhogg and I finally made my choice. Though honestly, I think she will play a lesser role than the one I originally planned for her. Or perhaps a greater role? I change my mind too easily depending on the situation. )
