Chapter 32: | Separation.
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The cavern had gone still.
The chaos we had unleashed moments ago still echoed through its cracked bones.
The very currents churned in disarray, distorted by the aftermath of our clash.
Great waves of pressure surged through the water like unseen tempests, stirring the shattered corals and scattering debris into the gloom.
I stared down the octopus before me, that monstrous woman draped in impossible might, and she merely laughed.
Mocking me.
As if none of this meant anything.
We stood in eerie silence, the space between us thick with raw killing intent.
She didn't move, but I could see it in her eyes, she felt it.
That creeping dread, the rising pressure, the anomaly I had become.
Something inside her stirred, cautious, curious.
She was right to fear.
In the blink of an eye, I vanished.
My body blurred, dissipated into the currents like a mirage.
Her eyes darted around, scanning the broken cavern in alarm.
But it was already too late.
Delicate pink lines spiderwebbed across her body, barely visible, glowing faintly like cracks in a glass.
Then.
They ruptured.
Flesh tore, the currents screamed, blood misted the water.
But I wasn't finished.
I surged forward again, refusing to relent.
Every skill at my disposal activated in sequence, pushing past their safe limits.
Thundercoil Descent.
Blurstep Surge.
Blooming Wrath.
My speed escalated, surpassing sound, thought, reality itself.
I could feel my body unraveling with each movement.
Muscles tore.
Tendons snapped.
Bones cracked.
My regeneration screamed in protest, trying to piece me back together as fast as I broke myself.
But I was moving too quickly.
Even my monstrous healing couldn't keep up.
Time crawled from my perspective.
I existed in a realm of hyper-awareness, where every motion stretched into eternity.
The pink lines multiplied.
More cracks.
More ruptures.
And then.
Time returned.
I dropped from the blur, coughing violently.
Blood spilled from my mouth in thick ropes, my chest heaving like a beast on its last legs.
My vision spun.
Breathing felt like inhaling fire.
But surely, surely she was dead.
I looked to the air around us, waiting for the holographic display to mark her death.
One second passed.
Then another.
Then a full minute.
Nothing.
And then, her voice.
The same sultry, detached tone.
A voice I didn't want to hear again.
"That technique… and those skills... quite intriguing. You nearly ended me."
Her smile widened.
"Impressive. For that effort… I'll take this fight seriously."
My pupils dilated.
My heart dropped into my gut.
Seriously?
She wasn't even serious before?
Before I could react, pain exploded through my body like detonated bombs.
Her tentacles surged forward, a whipstorm of bladed limbs, tearing through the water with speeds I couldn't track.
My arms folded inward instinctively, but it didn't matter.
Flesh split.
Bone shattered.
My ribcage cracked open like a shell.
I was tossed like a ragdoll, my tentacles torn from my body and flung across the chamber.
I tried to retaliate, tried to move, but her onslaught was unrelenting.
My stomach was ripped open.
Intestines spilled out into the black water like a nest of serpents.
My eyes widened as I felt her mana shift again.
Behind her, a weapon began to form, a sword, but not of metal.
No.
This one was made of darkness itself, writhing, pulsing, jagged, living hate.
I stared at it, coughing blood.
And then, I laughed.
A low, choked, almost manic sound.
Broken teeth.
Bitter disbelief.
So this is it… huh.
The end.
After everything I'd fought for, after everything I'd survived, this was how I died.
My body was unrecognizable.
My flesh was half gone.
My regeneration had halted, drained of all energy.
Even my eyes had exploded under the sheer pressure.
I was blind.
Half-dead.
Utterly useless.
And yet, she seemed annoyed.
"Hey… don't die yet."
"Stay awake. You haven't even taken my Ascension IV skill."
I gurgled out a bloody snarl.
You want me alive… just so you can hit me harder?
You bitch.
But I couldn't fight.
I couldn't even twitch.
My body was now just a husk, a shattered relic, drifting in the dark.
She hovered closer, frustrated that her toy was breaking too fast.
Mana poured into my body, attempting to restore what had already been lost.
I could feel it, she was trying to patch me up.
Trying to restart the match.
But then.
The healing stopped.
And I felt it.
A cold spike of agony drove through my back, a massive sword of corrupted darkness.
It pierced through my spine, bursting out through my chest.
I howled.
A scream of such intensity that it rippled the cavern walls.
The rot began immediately.
My back blackened and crumbled.
My nerves screamed.
My blood thickened.
My flesh peeled away like ash.
No… no no no… this isn't the end I wanted!
But there was no time to scream.
Her tentacles lashed out one last time.
They struck like meteors.
I was flung through the currents, my body a broken missile, until.
CRASH.
I slammed into the far wall of the cavern, the impact caving it in.
Everything went quiet.
Everything… faded.
---
Liora stirred.
The darkness faded into the distant background as consciousness returned to her, crashing in like a tidal wave of agony.
She hissed through her teeth, the sound low and venomous.
Pain engulfed her.
Her spine had been shattered, her bones reduced to fragments.
Her breathing came in short, rasping gasps.
Every twitch, every breath, was torment.
And yet, she moved.
Bit by bit, she manipulated the atoms within her mangled body.
She reached deep into herself, using precision control over her own biology to force her shattered bones and snapped spine into temporary cohesion.
It was crude.
It was dangerous.
But it allowed her to stand.
Barely.
Each step forward felt like walking through fire.
Her legs buckled beneath her, but she pressed on, leaning against the jagged wall of the ravaged cavern.
"Damn you... bastard..."
She spat, her voice dry and broken.
Her eyes found me, my ruined form, crumpled and motionless near the far end of the chamber.
"Why didn't you listen to me...?"
Her voice cracked as her legs finally gave out, and she dropped to her knees.
Blood seeped from her lips as she forced herself to crawl closer, every motion a jagged scream of nerve and muscle.
"That woman... she was utterly impossible for us to fight... so why?"
"Why did you still fight...?"
Liora's eyes fell upon my core, faintly glowing even amidst the ruin of my body.
Her hand trembled as she reached out.
"Perhaps... if I can draw on your mana..."
She whispered, a flicker of hope bleeding into her voice.
She placed her palm against my core.
My essence responded, and she pulled the mana inward, gathering it, molding it.
Magic circles bloomed in the surrounding currents, radiant and ancient.
Mana spiraled into alignment as she began the chant.
"Greater Healing Magic…"
Her body shook violently.
Blood burst from her mouth again, staining the water crimson.
But she endured.
She had to.
If this descendant of hers died now, everything she had built would collapse.
Her plans would be for nothing.
Her sacrifices, meaningless.
She chanted on.
The healing spell activated… but it failed.
It was not strong enough.
The damage I had taken was too severe.
My soul was teetering on the edge of unraveling.
Her mana flickered and dissipated, unable to reach me.
Her hands fell limp for a moment.
Then, her face steeled.
"Perhaps… this method will work."
With her remaining strength, she gathered blood from her own wounds.
It swirled in her palm, refining, condensing, solidifying, until it formed a single droplet of gold.
It was not simple blood.
It was her essence.
Her very origin, condensed into a radiant bead of pure life.
She smiled, despite the pain.
"Drink this."
I stirred faintly as her fingers parted my jaws.
I drank.
And then, I remembered.
My eyes widened in horror.
No, dammit!
Spit it out!
I tried.
But it was too late.
The golden essence merged with my body, and a flood of vitality surged through me.
My body began to repair itself at a speed that surpassed any healing I'd known.
My vone reformed.
My flesh recovered.
My vision flickered back into existence.
And she…
She simply smiled.
Then she turned, her movements sluggish and broken.
With her origin damaged, her body now failing, Liora limped away into the shadows of the cave, heading to some distant place only she knew.
I was left alone there, rebuilt but drenched in guilt.
My jaw clenched.
"Why..."
I whispered.
"Why did I take it?"
Even if she was willing, I had no right to drink it.
That essence… was her life.
Her very being.
The Dimensional Record had warned me, to consume someone's origin, even willingly given, would cause irreversible damage to the donor's existence.
And yet…
I drank.
Why… why the fuck did I drink it!?
The weight of my failure crashed down on me, heavier than any blow I'd taken.
Weak.
I was still weak.
I cursed.
Over and over.
My screams echoed into the void as darkness slowly pulled me under again.
---
Far in the distance, Liora stumbled, half-blind, as her gaze caught a faint shimmer embedded in the broken cavern wall.
Her eyes widened.
"Impossible…"
She limped forward, her battered body trembling as she reached out.
Before her was a vein of crystallized gold, pure and glowing.
But not just gold.
It shimmered with a faint affinity, a resonance not of this world.
She touched it, and her smile returned.
"With this… with this amount, my recovery… it should be possible."
Her palm brushed across the golden surface with reverence.
"So nothing has truly changed. My plans… will still continue."
Her gaze dimmed, thoughtful.
"But maybe…"
She whispered.
"maybe it really is time."
Time to step away.
To leave him.
To let him grow, fall, and rise, without her shadow at his back.
She hesitated.
Her hand moved to store the golden vein in her inventory.
Then her vision blurred.
She collapsed.
Unconscious.
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