Julius's POV
Something shifted deep inside me as I stared at my missing hand. Everything below my elbow was gone, and blood spritzed into the cracked earth beneath me, but I felt… excited.
Up was down, and my inhibition, fear, and rational mind took a back seat to pure, unbridled battle lust. I was in the fucking zone, and I could feel the Black Flash was coming. All I needed to do was go out and get it.
Ade watched me with something like curiosity.
"Has the pain finally driven you mad?"
I paid him no attention.
As high as I was right now, I still had no guarantees of winning. Ade was faster than me, and that meant I needed to stack the deck in my favor somehow.
Binding Vow.
Lose Blood Manipulation, Ratio, and Earth Manipulation for the rest of the month in exchange for boosting my Cursed Energy Output on cursed techniques for the next 48 hours.
Copy felt different—colder, hollow, but stronger. More Cursed Energy coursed through me, pushing me closer and closer to another threshold of power.
I clenched my remaining fist and grew the other one, forcing it into existence with equal parts Reverse Cursed Energy and my body-control adaptation.
Bone shot out, slightly thicker than usual, followed by ligament, tendons, muscle, veins, and then blood, animating the appendage. Cursed Energy flooded the limb, fortifying it hard enough to crush concrete and then some.
My new CE Output had me tittering.
Muscle Control has reached Level 3
+3 STR +7 AGI +5 VIT +8 END +12 CE
"I've had enough of this foolishness," Ade snarled—and blurred forward, his massive body vanishing in a heartbeat.
My pupils contracted. I shoved Cursed Energy into my perception, flooding it with Overdrive, boosting my senses by over seven hundred percent.
Seventh Sense Lv 5
The world slowed. Reality pulsed like an exposed nerve cluster. Every sound, every vibration, every flicker of shadow poured into my mind.
Double fist from above.
The directions came like whispers. I moved, dropping and swaying as I pressed against his advancing knee, blowing it out with a Shrine. He stumbled, clawing at me—and I was just too slow to avoid it. His strike tore through my shoulder guard and most of my chestpiece, but it left him open to an Expanse-powered uppercut to the gut.
He folded in half. The air snapped like a twig. The sound came after he was airborne, limbs flailing, the ground beneath us exploding outward.
I tracked him and formed another Binding Vow.
Every Dismantle activated with an overt physical gesture—like a finger swipe—will be enhanced.
Copy shifted again, sharpening into something razor-fine.
My right hand swept out.
A Dismantle rippled through the air. I'd aimed for his midsection, but he twisted at the last instant—losing everything below the knees instead.
He started regenerating immediately, muscle tissue and bone peeking out of the open wounds.
Ade's jaw snapped open as his lungs swelled. He was preparing a sonic attack.
I wasn't having it.
My left hand moved, delivering an almost lazy swipe, but this one was different.
The air ignited with cursed energy. Black-red lightning forked outward as Ade's falling body was cleaved diagonally in half. Something popped behind my eyes, and understanding rushed in with a cascade of level-ups.
Cursed Energy Reinforcement has reached Level 8
– Current Boost: 800%
– Passive Boost: 350%
– Drain: Variable
Overcharge
Temporarily increase reinforcement to specific body parts by drawing cursed energy from others, leaving them vulnerable.
– Current Boost: +400%
– Effect: –70% global reinforcement
– Cost: Variable
Muscle Control has reached Level 4
Seventh Sense has reached Level 6
Shrine has reached Level 5
Copy has reached Level 6
Ade's sonic attack never came, seeing as one of his lungs was gone. Another swipe took his remaining hand and everything below the elbow with it. He dropped from the air, screaming.
I cracked him in the jaw before he landed, hurling his shattered body through several trees. I was on him in an instant.
Blood bubbled out of his wounds, along with muscle, bone, and viscera. Ade's mutations were working overtime to put him together, but I wasn't in the mood for another drag-out fight.
I cut again and again and again, shredding every ounce of regenerated tissue he grew back, savoring in his terror, his despair.
Months of humiliation. Shit talk. Torture. Experiments.
No—I would have stopped myself if it were anyone else. But Ade had it coming; he and the leadership of that suicide cult they call an organization.
They'd shown me no mercy. I was only returning the favor.
So neither did I.
My slashes grew finer, more deliberate. I modulated the power, stopped even using gestures, shaving centimeters of flesh instead of chunks.
It was intoxicating. Righteous. Even.
Shrine has reached Level 6
Torture has reached Level 8
My system disagreed.
Right. There was a point to this.
"You were right about the air-thing," I breathed, surveying the obliterated landscape. "Keep the high ground. I'll remember that next time."
Ade spat blood, gasping. He was barely a man now. I kept his lung deflated, never let a limb grow past the joint. I kept hoping he had some kind of ace up his sleeve. Bone-armor, Acid, something...
Apparently, a spiked tail, ridiculous regeneration, and kryptonian-like strength were more than enough.
"I was going to lean on Alex for information," I said softly, "but since I have you… Maybe I'll get more out of you."
He glared up at me with what little fury he had left.
"You'll never break me," he hissed.
I crushed one of his regenerating stumps.
"Wanna bet?"
I triggered my Pain Tolerance Subskill, tripling his perception of pain. His screams tore through the night as I raised a barrier around us.
Now I can work properly.
The League wouldn't interrupt me. The Vow bought me 24-hours of immunity, so long as I didn't touch him, in exchange for information recovered during their investigation.
The holes in our vow were so obvious, it'd be immoral not to exploit them, not that the league didn't plan on doing the same.
No, I would get what I needed from Ade—actionable information about Artisan's actual plans, and then I'll use his life to secure my safe exit.
The information they extract from Alex—that they're obligated to tell me—will be the cherry on top.
As for Artisan, the League would drive her back if she were summoned. As terrifying as she was, she wasn't built for a straight fight against them.
And even if they failed…
I liked my odds of escaping.
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