Chapter 84: Erasing the Alchemist

Chapter 84: Chapter 84: Erasing the Alchemist

"What does not kill me makes me stronger." — Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

•••

The Blood-Fiend Behemoth had been winning the battle from the beginning.

Inside the central temple of the Tenth Stratum, near the dark chamber holding the Apex Tear, Joel knelt in a shallow pool of Gideon Vane’s burning blood.

His integrity had fallen to single digits.

Most of his skin had been burned away.

An hour earlier, Valerius, the expedition’s traitorous escort, had been killed.

The Eclipse Syndicate’s ambush had failed on the floating island. Its second wave had been destroyed, leaving nothing but blood and scattered remains.

But Gideon Vane had escaped into the temple.

There, the Blood-Alchemist had gambled everything on his final experiment.

Forty liters of unstable, cosmic-grade serum had transformed him into a fifteen-meter Blood-Fiend Behemoth.

A monster that Vulcan’s artillery couldn’t damage and Thalassa’s water couldn’t stop.

Vulcan’s furnace armor was still burning where the corrosive blood had struck him.

Thalassa’s three walls of water had been dissolved, one after another.

Nyx remained trapped within Joel’s shadow, the only darkness left in a temple illuminated by the Blood-Fiend’s burning body.

And now, above Joel, the sixty-ton monster raised its enormous limbs, preparing to deliver the final blow.

But just as death approached, something appeared.

Pale-gold segments unfolded from nothing, forming a familiar wheel above the boiling floor.

The Wheel of Fate had appeared in the middle of the battle.

[Ding!]

[The Wheel of Fate accepts the stake: 3 Fate Points. Balance: 16.]

[The Wheel notes the venue. Most clients spin from chairs.]

Tk-tk-tk-tk-tk.

The Wheel of Fate spun above the temple.

It felt as though the entire Tenth Stratum was watching.

Even the sixty-ton Blood-Fiend paused, its attention drawn to the spinning wheel.

The pointer moved past x3,000.

Then x11,000.

Then x25,000, the multiplier that had once granted Joel his mysterious, sealed mind.

The wheel gradually slowed.

TCK!

The pointer stopped.

[Ding!]

[The Wheel of Fate stops. Multiplier: x18,000.]

[Application routes available:]

[A) Skill Proficiency.]

[B) Cellular Regeneration.]

[C) Body Evolution.]

"B," Joel said, from the melt. "Cellular Regeneration."

[Ding!]

[Application B selected: Cellular Regeneration.]

[Routing 18,000 regeneration units to the operator.]

[Advisory: the burn is ongoing. The healing will have to be, too.]

VMM!

Golden light descended from the Wheel of Fate.

It didn’t strike Joel like lightning.

Instead, a wave of pale-gold energy poured over his body, covering him from head to toe.

The reddish light filling the temple seemed to fade beneath its glow.

Then something incredible happened.

The burning blood on Joel’s shoulders began losing its effect.

His damaged flesh started regenerating.

TSSSS!

The corrosive blood continued burning.

FSHHHH!

But new flesh grew back almost immediately.

And this time, the healing was much faster.

Joel’s integrity began rising.

Integrity: 19%.

Integrity: 38%.

The exposed bones in his forearms disappeared beneath newly formed muscles.

Fresh skin spread over them.

His ruined knuckles repaired themselves, and his fingers slowly regained their shape.

Integrity: 71%.

Integrity: 96%.

The Blood-Fiend’s corrosive blood was still burning him.

But the pale-gold energy restored every damaged part before the destruction could spread.

For every layer of flesh the blood dissolved, another grew back.

Joel was being destroyed and healed at the same time.

And his regeneration was finally winning.

The Blood-Fiend watched in disbelief.

Then it brought its enormous limbs crashing down.

Joel stood up to meet the attack.

KRRK!

Sixty tons of force struck him.

But instead of being crushed, Joel caught the descending limb with both hands.

His Aegis Juggernaut absorbed the impact.

His boots remained firmly planted on the temple floor.

Within his Domain, the ground beneath him refused to give way.

Joel didn’t dodge.

He didn’t try to redirect the attack.

He simply held the enormous limb in place.

Every bit of force the Blood-Fiend applied became more kinetic energy for him to store.

And the more the creature struggled, the stronger his position became.

For the first time, the battle had completely changed.

The Blood-Fiend tried attacking with its blood.

Crimson liquid poured from the cracks in its enormous body, flowing over Joel’s hands, arms, and shoulders.

TSSSS!

His flesh began dissolving again.

But the damage disappeared almost as quickly as it formed.

The creature increased the pressure.

Joel absorbed it.

It tried twisting its limb to break his grip.

Joel’s Domain stopped the movement.

Then the Blood-Fiend screamed.

"No!"

All its throats shouted together.

But Joel didn’t respond.

He continued holding it.

The monster threw its entire weight forward, trying to crush him through sheer force.

But that only gave Joel more kinetic energy.

When it tried pulling away, its enormous limb froze.

The fifteen-meter creature couldn’t move.

Even its sixty-ton body was trapped within Joel’s control.

Desperate, the Blood-Fiend released another massive wave of burning blood.

The crimson liquid poured over Joel.

TSSSS!

Golden light flashed beneath the blood. The damaged flesh immediately regenerated.

For the first time since Gideon Vane’s transformation, his blood was causing less damage than his opponent could recover from.

The creature’s many eyes widened.

It finally understood what was happening.

Its strongest weapon was no longer enough.

"New terms!" the Blood-Fiend shouted through all its throats.

For the first time in thirty years, fear could be heard in Gideon Vane’s voice.

Joel looked up at him.

"Declined."

He tightened his grip.

"The house is buying."

Then he pulled. The Blood-Fiend’s enormous feet left the floor.

Its fifteen-meter body, weighing sixty tons, was dragged forward by Joel’s strength and control.

And then he slammed it down.

KRUNCH!

The monster crashed onto its back.

The temple floor shattered beneath its weight.

Joel kept one arm locked around the creature’s main limb and drove his knee into its elbow joint, pinning it in place.

Then he reached toward its chest with his free hand.

The burning blood immediately covered his fingers.

TSSSS!

But the golden light continued healing him.

Joel pushed deeper.

His hand passed through the creature’s burning outer flesh, tearing past its altered muscles and beneath its twisted ribs.

He reached the area where Gideon Vane had once stored his experimental vials.

And there, he found something.

A heart.

It sat deep inside the Blood-Fiend’s chest, glowing like a dark rose.

The organ contained the results of more than two hundred different blood experiments.

Every formula and sample Gideon had collected over the years seemed to have been combined into this single heart.

It continued beating.

THUMP.

Each beat carried the power of those countless experiments. Joel stared at it.

"The cellar," he said calmly, "is closed." Then he called out.

"Nyx."

She had been waiting inside his shadow throughout the battle.

The moment Joel called her, darkness rose from beneath his feet.

SHHSH!

Nyx flowed up the pinned limb and entered through the opening Joel had torn into the Blood-Fiend’s chest.

Inside, the creature’s heart glowed with reddish-gold light.

The surrounding blood immediately tried to consume her. But Nyx was made of shadow.

And Gideon’s blood couldn’t affect her the same way it affected flesh and metal.

She moved straight toward the beating heart.

Six dark blades appeared around her.

Then she attacked.

SHNK!

All six blades pierced the heart in the space between two beats.

The Blood-Fiend suddenly froze.

Its enormous body trembled.

The heart that had carried more than two hundred blood experiments stopped beating.

Cracks spread across its surface.

Then the glowing organ broke apart.

Gideon Vane felt the destruction from within.

His many throats opened.

But only one managed to speak.

"Vintage..."

The word carried the same strange regret he had always shown when discussing valuable blood.

Then the light disappeared from his body.

All at once.

[Ding!]

[Boss eliminated: Gideon Vane, the Blood-Fiend. Kill registered.]

[Assists logged: one Sovereign (restraint), one Shadow-Blade General (delivery).]

[The cellar is closed. All labels settled in full.]

•••

The Behemoth did not simply collapse. Its body began breaking down.

The unstable serum destroyed what remained of it. Over the next minute, its sixty-ton body slowly disintegrated. Its enormous limbs shrank, its altered flesh dissolved, and its massive form burned away in fading light until only a charred outline remained on the temple floor. Inside it lay a spoonful of red-black glass.

Nothing else remained. No mutated flesh worth studying, no organs worth collecting, no blood worth preserving. The Blood-Alchemist’s final transformation had completely erased him.

[Ding!]

[Remains logged: one spoonful of unremarkable glass. Resale value: none. Research value: none.]

[The unstable serum has closed its own account. Erasure: complete.]

The golden light surrounding Joel slowly faded until only a faint glow remained.

He stood in the quiet temple, completely healed, without a single scar.

Then he released his control over the floor.

His legion began recovering from the battle.

Vulcan’s enormous body cooled gradually, the glowing cracks along his armor growing dim. His feet remained anchored deep within the floating island.

"The premises," he rumbled, "will require renovation."

Thalassa summoned her water across the temple floor.

FSHHHH!

The tide swept through the chamber, washing away every remaining trace of the burning blood.

Wherever the water passed, the corrosive substance disappeared.

Nyx emerged from Joel’s sleeve, looking delighted.

"I still have pieces of his heart beneath my nails," she reported. "Six blades would have been enough. I even brought manners."

Forty meters away, at the entrance to the bridge, thirty-seven students and Proctor Harrison had watched the temple fill with golden light before falling dark again.

Nobody dared ask what had happened.

But everyone remembered what they had witnessed.

Harrison remained at the bridge, fully aware of who now controlled the situation.

Beyond the cleaned floor and the charred outline containing a spoonful of red-black glass, the vault stood wide open.

Inside it floated the Apex Tear.

It was only the size of a fist, yet its strange light filled the chamber.

The ancient object had remained there since the Fall, waiting to be claimed.

Its glow stretched across the temple floor until it reached Joel’s boots.

The Apex Tear was the last thing he had come to collect.

[Ding!]

[The Apex Tear stands unguarded. Verification: standing by.]

Joel had defeated the Eclipse Syndicate, killed the traitor, eliminated Gideon Vane, and kept a record of everything.

Now, only one thing remained.

The vault was open, and Joel had come to claim what was inside.