CHAPTER 160: OATH

AN: This chapter is two in one, to make up for the slow update this week. Thanks for reading.

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Kael didn't know how to describe what he felt when he suddenly saw the ball of pulsing flesh appear before him.

Fear.

Anger.

Guilt.

But most of all, helplessness.

For a moment there, even his mythical skill did nothing to dampen his emotions this time.

They were just that overwhelming.

It was almost as if the world had come to a standstill, as countless thoughts passed through his mind.

Why was this apocalypse so unforgiving?

If even they, as talented as they were and as powerful as they had become in this short month, were in this condition, could any ordinary human not safe within the Citadels still be alive?

His thoughts soon shifted.

Surprisingly, at the point of his death, he didn't see his loved ones, neither did the images of his friends,flash before his eyes.

Instead, three words kept reverberating within his mind, like a war drum.

Forge your strength!

Since when had these words become the driving force behind his struggle to grow stronger in this wretched apocalypse?

'Ah, that is right. It was since the first time he came face to face with the undead anomaly.'

He had been placed in some macabre illusion he could not fight against, and had soon fallen unconscious.

When he had woken up, it was almost as if those three words had been seared into his mind, and their impact on him was so great that he had even awakened a second Will.

A forging Will, as the System had called it.

'Now that I think of it, I had lost my left arm too, but when I woke up, it was back intact.'

'Not to mention, ever since then, not breaking into the first order before breaking free of my current path has felt like an absolute rule.'

He wondered why he would ignore such a baffling incident for so long, and was even more shocked about why he would think of it now, at this moment.

Blood poured continuously out of Kael's ears, eyes, and mouth, yet the person in question didn't seem to realize it.

He didn't even realize that his overwhelming emotions had long been stripped away, his thought process becoming so clear that even things that had been forcefully buried in the deepest recesses of his mind had been easily dredged up.

But when he sensed movement from the sides and shifted his eyes, he was shocked to see a strange phantom form around his sister, ignoring the slowed state of the world around him.

The phantom had a slender frame, and soon after, a veiled face formed above the neck.

Despite not being able to make out the eyes of the veiled figure, Kael could instinctively feel that the phantom was looking at him.

Most importantly, for some strange reason, those three words sounded in his mind once again, this time clearer than ever before.

Forge your strength!

Ba dum.

Kael could finally hear his heartbeat.

'I am dying?'

There was no fear in him, only a settling realization that his body was breaking down.

'But why...ah.'

He understood then.

The still world.

His now calm state of mind.

He had subconsciously activated the second activation of Godly Focus, boosting his mind by an unprecedented 300%.

His focus at this moment was such that his perception of the world had slowed everything around him to a standstill, and his mind was running so unreasonably fast that he could process the overwhelming amount of information flooding into it. Yet, his body still didn't seem to be able to cope with this state as it felt like his brain was turning into mush.

Forge your strength!

Those three words drew his attention once more, and Kael turned back to that veiled figure, who nodded at him before morphing into a spherical shield around Rose, covered in some form of scales

It was almost as if he was looking at a dragon egg.

Ba dum.

His heartbeat was gradually slowing down, and Kael knew he couldn't linger any longer. He could not die, at least not like this.

The Primordial instinct was still around, after all.

Yet, with a calm that belied the situation he was in, he shifted his perception to himself, specifically to his heart.

Even with how powerful his perception was, he still could not sense his heart clearly.

He knew it was there, but it remained frustratingly indistinct, as though his perception could reach everything except the very thing keeping him alive.

But that didn't matter.

If this apocalypse was so hell-bent on breaking him down, then he wouldn't give it the satisfaction.

He might as well do the job himself.

But his reserve was too low at this moment, and despite the second activation increasing his Energi regeneration by 200%, it was all but useless at this moment.

It must be remembered that his powerful mind was currently stretching a second far out, turning his brain into mush.

Yet, it was almost as if he couldn't feel it, his eyes glowing with a cool blue light. Unlike the beaming radiance of the first activation, the second activation only made his eyes glow with a placid blue light, like the surface of an ocean reflecting an undisturbed sky.

'I know you can hear me...' he started as he focused on his heart.

'I won't speak much. Help me!'

Rather than begging or asking for help, his words sounded more like a command.

One that demanded absolute obedience and left no room for refusal.

A colorless flame suddenly lit up from the center of his heart.

Despite not seeing his heart clearly, Kael could still sense that strange fire. He nodded his head mentally and sent his perception back to the outside world.

Time was running out, and he was almost at his limit.

No.

It could be said he had already reached his limit, yet he refused to be satisfied, forcing himself beyond it once more.

Forge your strength!

The words thundered through his mind once more, like the pounding of a war drum.

And Kael responded calmly.

'I know.'

As if not affected by his powerful perception that had all but stopped time, mana suddenly enveloped him before pouring into his body like a bottomless pool.

As the process continued, Kael felt his Energi rapidly regenerating, and without hesitation, he erupted into action.

He pulled on the other minds he had felt access to ever since he realized he was under the effect of the second activation, and his one consciousness became four.

His two eyes suddenly popped open with a sickening sound, yet Kael didn't seem to have noticed it, as two gentle blue glows continued to shine in the darkness nestled in his eye sockets.

Two of his consciousnesses acted, one unleashing his Weaver limbs, the other using his Energi to summon four more.

Another consciousness used a greater portion of his regenerating Essence to boost his Agility and Vitality, the former increasing his control of his Weaver limbs, as they were as much a part of his body as his actual limbs were. And the latter gave him just that little more time that he needed before he broke down.

With the second activation of Godly Focus increasing his Energi boost by a full 100%, this meant that one unit of his unique resource, converted into any stat gave him four stat points, and Kael's Agility reached an unprecedented high.

But only his Weaver limbs danced behind him like a conductor leading an orchestra. He had already learned from his mistake the first time he had used the second activation.

If he dared to move, with all the burden already placed on his body, he might quite literally explode on the spot.

Silks erupted from behind him in such an amount that it looked like an endless torrent of webs, as they rushed forward and enveloped the squirming ball of flesh before him.

The last part of his consciousness supervised all this, guiding the other three when needed while at the same time keeping watch over his body.

Webs continued to spin around the ball of flesh, and soon after, a cocoon glowing with a dirty yellow light had formed around it.

Just when Kael felt like he had reached his limit, his free consciousness turned his head, that small action sending blood erupting around his neck.

But he didn't seem to care, as his empty sockets glowing with blue light fixed on the undead anomaly standing in the far distance, who, surprisingly, was gazing at him with widened eyes.

Kael wasn't surprised by this sight. If his Mythical skill, raising his mind to a level two grades above his own, made his perception of the world so powerful, it only made sense that other beings at that grade could also do so.

Yet he didn't care.

Even as a red streak of lightning that made his soul almost cry in horror began to plummet from the skies above the undead...

Even as his Weaver limbs, controlled by two of his consciousnesses, continued to weave more silks around the cocoon before him, Kael directed his third consciousness, now free after having done its job of boosting his Agility and Vitality stats, to send a command to Py, who was hovering above him, her body also frozen in this slowed world.

While his last consciousness focused on the undead as he spoke:

"I swear by my name, Kael Draven, that if I survive this night, whether it takes a day, a month, a year, or a lifetime, you will die in a way more gruesome than you can imagine. I will claw my way through hell itself, tear my own body apart, and do whatever it takes to make it happen."

His words had barely finished when Kael found himself surrounded by darkness.

Already expecting something like this, he simply drew his legs to his torso, wrapped his arms around them, and buried his head in his knees in silence.

He hoped his sister would live with that strange barrier surrounding her, and believed Alice should be okay with the command he had left Py.

As for the others...

Kael's thoughts stopped there.

He had done his best. Even though he knew it wasn't enough.

He could only hope...

...that they would survive.

_______

Back in the outside world, time continued to move, none the wiser to the series of actions that had just taken place.

The churning ball of flesh expanded instantly, eating away at the silks as they disintegrated like cobwebs caught in a storm.

By then, Kael's body was already a mess, but like a robot that could not feel pain, his body moved without any change in expression.

A single unit of Energi was broken into small units before further boosting his Vitality and Agility, which were already greatly strengthened.

Then Ember Regeneration activated almost instantly, golden particles suddenly appearing around him before funneling into the golden flames surrounding his body, rapidly turning them into a beautiful, resplendent blue.

Even as this was happening, two jets of blue flames simultaneously erupted out of his feet, launching Kael into the air faster than any rocket.

It was then that the final layer of the cocoon burst apart, the ball of flesh exploding into a shocking blast of air that crushed everything in its path, with waves of corruption carried along in its wake.

Thankfully, the cocoon had absorbed most of the corruption, leaving barely a fifth of its original mass.

- BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

- RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

The blast spread across several kilometers, its shockwave racing after Kael as he shot into the sky.

The earth buckled and rolled outward from the epicenter, sending waves of shattered ground racing across the area.

And then silence returned to the world before another roar of pain shook the area.

- GRAAAAAAAAAA!

The undead anomaly collapsed to the ground, red electricity sparking around its figure, yet its immediate surroundings remained undamaged by the lightning that had struck down like a bolt from the heavens.

The Primordial instinct gazed at the undead anomaly from high in the skies, and without any hesitation, it ripped apart the webs holding Alice against its body, dropped her without hesitation, and fled in the opposite direction, blue flames bursting from its feet as it vanished into the distance like a streak of light.

At the last moment before it disappeared, Py, who had quickly taken Alice in her talons as she rushed down to drop her, gave an unwilling cry as she was summoned back to Kael's body as a streak of light, the distance limit between them having been crossed.

Alice's unconscious body dropped from the remaining fifty meters' height before hitting the ground, sending plumes of dust into the air.

As for the undead anomaly, even as it writhed on the ground and its roar of anguish continued to resound, its eerily glowing blue eyes, now flashing with visible anger, remained fixed in the direction Kael had disappeared in.