Overpowered Wizard-Chapter Ch64: Facing the Biggest

It was later that Zarian and Naomi found some alone time in a safe area on the vessel. They’d already discussed plenty about how to regress him permanently and get him a restart with advantages. It wasn’t unprecedented, just rare.

Other than that, Lucy and Reiki were charged with repairing the System and the many damages left in the wake of Ariana’s rampage. Hannah and Bianca were going to help with that as they naturally grew into being God Rankers. Chances were, Lucy was going to vacate the throne, and the next Adventurer Queen would come down to Bianca.

“Why Bianca?” Naomi asked, as the two reclined in bed together. She took to guarding him fiercely and sensually. “Hannah’s got the smarts for the System.”

“Hannah’s going to want to create her own system. Maybe she’ll take over a spare universe. Or she’ll do it the hard way. Create a universe with intelligent life and test her own system on them.”

Naomi shifted about and pinned him between the wall and her body. She propped her head up with her hand and looked at him like he was steak. He grinned up at her.

“I think I get the appeal of soft and delicate boyfriends.”

“Hey now, you better watch it. I’m not Wallen.” Zarian held up the Darkrun Prison and saw a ghostly print of his sister frowning down at him. “Speaking of bugs, I need to store her away.”

Naomi opened her mouth.

He flicked her on the nose and shook his head.

Looking back at Ariana’s annoyed appearance, Zarian realized he’d given as much as he could as Darkrun. He had a new name now. A new destiny. Hell, Ariana would have all of his darkness to feast on once it was her time to leave the prison.

She wasn’t his big, overwhelming burden anymore.

Naomi sighed. “Leave her with Foodie and Para.”

Zarian winced. They … weren’t happy about the symbolic loss of their father.

The Darkrun name meant something. Zarian giving it up meant he wasn’t a true father to them. Ignoring Ariana, the multi-part martyrdom struck Foodie and Para the most.

But that also meant he could think more rationally about what was proper.

Being the one and only Saintrun came with its own benefits. He was more certain of himself than before.

“No. I won’t give Ariana’s prison to them. There’s a real danger that they’ll consume the prison and break Ariana free too early, or they’ll consume all of it along with Ariana.”

Zarian shook his head.

“It’s not enough to just end her. Prison time is one thing. Rehabilitation is needed. Getting her to become a positive force that could save many lives would do way more good than her death. That and all the suffering and the losses wouldn’t just disappear and be forgotten.”

“You’re really focused on doing the right thing, aren’t you?” Naomi blinked down at him with growing awe. “Holy shit. You’re not kidding. You’re a fucking saint!”

Zarian shrugged. “That doesn’t mean I won’t hold people accountable. Sometimes that’s more important than being nice or doing what’s considered morally good. That and I’ve been a Darkrun for too long to think I can keep my hands clean. However, I’m going to do what I believe is…”

Zarian trailed off as he emitted a powerful golden glow that shook the bed. The glow shook up Naomi and made the room shake. Something about the shaking and the glow and the magnitude brought him back to a memory. The Biggest…

“Naomi, come with me into my dreams,” he said.

“Aye, aye, my Ultra God. Let’s go.” She bumped her forehead against his.

Zarian landed somewhere with warm sand under his feet. The soft surf slapped gently at the beach, and a pleasant wind blew over him. He was in swim trunks, ready for a dip, and in his hand was Ariana’s little prison.

When he turned around, he found Naomi standing close, the physical phenom clad in nothing but a skimpy two piece. She looked around at the beach in front of them and the island jungle behind them. Her eyes met Zarian’s, an electric thrill passing through them, until Zarian shook his head and focused on business. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

He looked to his right and saw the one they were here to see.

She was far smaller than she should have been. It was as if they were looking at her from a distance. Far, far, far in the distance. And by holding up two fingers and pinching at her image, adjusting their field of view, they could bring her over in front of them. The strange shift in perspective was constant even though she seemed to stand right there. She didn’t seem tall, only a few inches taller than Zarian and Naomi. But that wasn’t all there was to her.

Her hair was golden and long, except for one thick strand that was black. She had a black scar over one eye, and her golden eyes seemed to pierce through them. Her skin tone was a dark golden color, and her features were hard to place, but all exotic and attractive. She seemed both wild and refined, both impossible to depict in a painting and as picturesque as the most vivid of art. She made little sense, and she couldn’t possibly be human. If she tried to be, reality would reassure everyone that this woman was far from such, as if she could never be capable of being mortal or pretending to be mortal.

This was his grandmother, and he knew her name because of the return of his memories. “YoAnna Sainte-Luckrun, former Matriarch of the Lucky Eclipse Dynasty, the Biggest Granmama, the Sleeping One.”

“Zarian Saintrun,” she said, her voice having an impact that took his breath away.

Naomi fell on her hands and knees. She was a proud woman, but she couldn’t get back up. YoAnna looked down at the mortal before flicking up a finger and helping Naomi shoot up to her feet upon her whim.

After he caught his breath and ensured Naomi was okay, Zarian held up Ariana’s prison. “Look what I have.”

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“You’ve put her in a jar.”

“It’s ball-shaped. And there’s no cap.”

“It is temporary. A jar is temporary. She’ll come out eventually. And you gave her your darkness. She’ll become far stronger when she’s free and fed.” YoAnna tilted her head slightly. “What are you planning, child? You know this entire conversation must be erased so I won’t remember. You know I can’t ever remember, or I might destroy you by a mere errant thought.”

“Yeah, about that, I don’t want this wiped.”

“It must be. If I–”

“You can control it. Stop being difficult, old lady. I don’t care how many times you’ve screwed up. We need you to get your head back in the game. Grandpa’s running around like a headless chicken without you. And if he’s running around like a headless chicken, I bet the Eclipses are still dealing with their origins being caught in a temporal cage.”

He didn’t just have memories of the loops. He remembered his time up at the Dynasty. He could remember his parents.

It was he and Ariana who had volunteered to go through this test. It had been their decision to be stripped of their usual power and dropped into the lesser verses to test themselves. If they’d done well enough, they’d come back as promising Elites who would bring further honor to their dynasty.

Their ambition and pride had been unshakeable back then. Then they’d run into problems and everything fell apart.

Looking back, Zarian could see that the Dynasty was riddled with issues.

“We’re our worst enemies,” he muttered. “We are capable of so much. All of us. But we impede each other and ourselves. We cause our own pains. And the way forward requires us to overcome our personal challenges and change for a better tomorrow.”

Zarian stood straight and looked his ancient and horrifically monstrous grandmother in the eye. “YoAnna. Get your shit together.” He held out Ariana’s prison. “There’s nobody better than you who can help Ariana beyond myself. Please. She needs you. Jay needs you. We all do.”

The one who could end their universe and many more with a mere thought looked at Zarian for a long time. Naomi made a sound he’d never expected from her. She whimpered in fear.

YoAnna was truly that monstrous. But to Zarian, she seemed hesitant and sad, really. Then, a spark of determination entered her eyes and reminded him of where part of his existence had come from.

With a shaky hand, she gingerly reached forward and took Ariana’s prison. From between her fingers, Ariana’s ghostly appearance flashed on the surface, eyes trembling, mouth down-turned with worry. She silently cried for Zarian.

“It’s going to be okay, Ariana. Punishing you isn’t enough. You need to be rehabilitated. So, when you return to us, you won’t just be stronger. You’ll be better.”

In another flash, Ariana’s face became tearful before she was gone onto the matriarch’s person. Zarian felt the urge to rush forward and find his little sister and take her back. But he wasn’t a silly, wishy-washy boy. He firmed up and stood by his decision.

YoAnna studied him for quite some time. “Saintrun. You do know we don’t cultivate saints very well.”

“There’s you.”

“I am … a failed saint. A dark saint, really.” She smiled at him. “You’ll be the first if you can pull it off, Zarian Saintrun. I’ll be watching … from afar.”

While the dream world faded, it didn’t get wiped. The unfathomably large and powerful woman would remember this. At any moment, she could turn her gaze toward them and destroy their universe in a blink. By making her awake again, the source of all that destruction and mayhem in Zarian’s veins could cause even greater ruin that he couldn’t even imagine.

Or she could hold up the Dynasty while it was weak. The individuals in the Dynasty weren’t weak themselves. They were the scariest of monsters. But they could be their own worst enemies, too. Zarian wanted to imagine YoAnna’s return would help push them to overcome themselves. And it would make Jay Luckrun less of a nuisance.

Once they weren’t dreaming of a distant meeting with the Biggest, Naomi rolled out of bed and thumped onto the floor. Zarian stayed back, shaking his head. He checked his hands. They were empty. He checked all over his body and around the bed for her – she wasn’t there.

Ariana was finally someone else’s problem. He wished the best for her, and that was that.

Meanwhile, Naomi convulsed on the floor and went through a mini panic attack. Because of his weakness, he couldn’t help her, or she would splatter his body by accident.

I can’t wait to regain my power, Zarian thought. It wasn’t right that one of his partners needed comfort and he couldn’t help her. That was unjust and unbecoming of him. I will get strong. So strong, she’ll chase after me like always.

For now, he patiently sat up and let her ride out the panic.

“You’re a badass,” she groaned from the floor.

Zarian blinked in surprise. “Pardon me?”

Naomi propped herself on hands and knees and crawled to him with a smile. “That thing was your freaking great, great, great monster of a grandmammy, and you tore into her ass like a BOSS! I thought putting Ariana into a gag-testing ball was a flex. But you giving that … thing … a verbal kick to her big keister was the biggest flex. I think this new version of you is gonna be so fucking lit, I have half a mind to sacrifice my profile and restart with you.”

Zarian shook his head vehemently. “No, Naomi, don’t. You’ve worked too hard for your power! You’ve reached Fifth Ignition and punched the Dragoness when nobody else could!”

“And I’ll just come back stronger.” Naomi shrugged. “Besides. I want to see Paladin Zarian up close. Hey! Maybe I’ll restart as a sexy rogue and we get Ruvaria to reprise her role as our mage.”

Unbelievable. Zarian detested that his own weakness was dragging his partners down with him. But if they were insistent on joining him in the great restart, who was he to deny them?

In fact, it could be a chance for all three of them to bond further. They could go on natural adventures together and see Infinita from a more casual viewpoint where the universe wasn’t under dire threat.

“Me? A paladin?” Zarian mused, lightening up.

Naomi smiled broadly and rushed into bed. Before he knew it, he was held down with her mounted on him.

She purred. “Yeah, Paladin Zarian. You’ll run up on baddies and evildoers, make them submit to your might, or smite them with a swing of your big sword. Or would you be a big hammer guy? Nah, big sword. Then there’s me, who’ll get in trouble messing with people, always sneaking around, but little do our enemies know, I’m packing some strong punches and kicks in the middle of the stabby stabs. And Ruvaria will make it rain lightning and fireballs and blow up the whole bandit base while we run out with the riches and the hostages. And after a long adventure, we’ll go to a nice inn, wash up, and settle in for a good night with just the three of us.”

“Okay, I’m sold.”

She boomed with laughter that shook Zarian up. Then she was all over him, her affection overflowing, but not unwelcomed. Apparently, telling off his existential threat of a many great grandmother had really impressed Naomi. Though, Zarian wasn’t sure if that should be praised as his most impressive feat today.

“Wait,” he said, stopping Naomi from working him over fully.

“What?” she purred.

“Do you want to see them?”

“See what?”

“Check my head.”

He opened up his new bloodline skills as Naomi entered his mind to see. She finished reading faster than Zarian and went back to being all over him, keeping him pinned under her.

While it was annoying that he lost a lot of his power, Naomi’s rising excitement made him happy. She threw all of her affection onto him and made him feel like the hero he was.

To be fair, his restart was looking far more promising than any of the restarts and loops before, so that could be part of the reason Naomi was looking forward to a new adventure. His newest bloodline skills were that good.

<Devastating Sainthood (Level 1): Conjure and shape your stalwart beliefs into devastating armaments and projectiles. The greater your mission, the brighter and more powerful this skill. You need not worship any other god because you are an Ultra God. And what you believe in can go quite far. Scales with Willpower, Strength, and Wonder plus more.>

<Lion King (Level 1): With your kingly bearing, assert your reign over reality. Causality will kneel in favor of you unless something else can challenge your assertion. There’s always a chance that reality doesn’t always go in your favor, but the odds are favorable unless a change outweighs you. This part of the skill scales with Willpower and Wonder. The tail can be summoned or unsummoned, scaling with all of your stats plus more.>