Chapter 71: Dreastare Ability
Silas was confused and lost, feeling like he missed the entire point. And yet he continued anyway. He didn’t try it thirty times; he did it more than fifty.
Patiently, he waited for the same reaction to appear again. But nothing happened.
Eventually, Silas stopped and carefully reviewed everything that had occurred.
’Perhaps it wasn’t the conflict between the Shadowheart and the shadows.’
’Perhaps it was my rage.’
Back then, besides the repeated interruptions and clashes between the Shadowheart and different shadows, he had felt anger unlike anything he had experienced before. For a brief moment, he had even been consumed by the desire to kill the Shadowheart.
’Is rage the key?’
Silas attempted to recreate that state. With what the Shadowheart kept doing, it wasn’t that hard to do it.
Before long, frustration and anger began to build once more. He lifted his head and glared at the Shadowheart. This time, like before, the creature did not retreat.
Instead, it stared back at him before slowly raising a hand and wagging a finger.
Silas was stunned.
The Shadowheart had never spoken to him, but this was still the most direct interaction they had ever shared. Recovering from his surprise, he began reviewing the situation again. Only one possibility remained.
’Bloodlust.’
’But I’ve never been the type to wish death upon others...’
It was not in his nature. Still, he had run out of alternatives.
More importantly, when the Shadowheart had taken control of his body for the first time, he had felt an endless tide of bloodlust coursing through him.
Silas closed his eyes. He carefully recalled that sensation, searching through his memories until he found it.
Then he slowly opened his eyes.
A cold killing intent flickered within them as he stared at the Shadowheart as though it were his sworn enemy. He wanted its blood. He wanted it dead.
This time, the feeling was far weaker than he had experienced earlier. Regardless, it invoked something.
The moment their gazes met, its body visibly flinched. A faint tremor ran through its form, as though its instinct was warning it of danger.
Silas narrowed his eyes. It might be a faint tremble, but he couldn’t mistake it.
’There we go.;
Silas cracked a smile, and the bloodlust faded the next instant. As it did, the Shadowheart stopped trembling. The sight only strengthened his suspicion.
Now that he had uncovered the method, he began to experiment in earnest. Summoning the feeling itself was no longer the difficult part; maintaining it for an extended period was the true challenge.
Silas could not see himself, but whenever he fixed the Shadowheart with a bloodthirsty stare, his eyes gradually changed colour, turning crimson and becoming strangely similar to those of the Shadowheart.
Yet it felt incomplete. It was like a crude imitation.
With repeated attempts, he learned to summon the sensation far more easily than before, and could maintain it for several minutes at a time. Even so, the best result he managed was making the Shadowheart tremble. It never truly retreated.
’I need more bloodlust... More rage... More killing intent...’
The problem was no longer understanding the process, but mastering it.
So Silas forced himself to relive every moment of the first takeover. He even summoned additional shadows and watched the Shadowheart destroy them, using the sight to fuel his anger and sharpen his murderous intent.
Gradually, his desire to kill intensified, his eyes grew redder, and his stare became colder. He slowly became more terrifying.
The bloodlust boiling inside him continued to rise until even the Shadowheart began taking hesitant steps backwards. Yet as the feeling deepened, another impulse surfaced within him.
It started as a strange, irresistible urge towards his daggers. The moment the thought appeared, it seized his mind completely.
Almost instantly, a dagger manifested before him, forming from shadows. Then another appeared, and another. Soon, torrents of phantom daggers filled his vision.
They shot forward like a storm and descended upon the Shadowheart. The creature immediately retreated, struggling to resist as countless blades slashed, pierced, and tore through its body.
It felt like when he used his Raven ability, yet with phantom daggers and inflicting fear on top of that.
Yet despite the ferocity of the assault, no visible wounds appeared. Silas saw no cuts; his daggers left no holes. Overall, the Shadowheart didn’t suffer from any visible damage whatsoever.
Yet the shaky and hastily retreating silhouette of the Shadowheart told a different story.
Silas realised that the daggers were not attacking the Shadowheart physically. Whatever they struck existed on an entirely different level, a psychological one.
Completely immersed in unleashing his bloodlust through the spectral blades, Silas failed to notice that the Shadowheart had begun fleeing as far away from him as possible. Nor did he realise that he was calmly pursuing it, moving with the patience of an experienced hunter chasing exhausted prey.
Then a familiar voice echoed through his mind.
[You experienced Enlightenment!]
[You added your Fear Effect to Time Attribute and Wind Element, gaining Dreastare Ability!]
Silas abruptly returned to his senses as a satisfied smile spread across his face.
’I did it.’
At last, he had unlocked the missing piece of his power.
When he looked at the Shadowheart again, the creature appeared physically unharmed, though visibly shaken by the experience. After a brief pause, it raised a thumb toward him, silently expressing its approval.
’I’m exhausted.’
The realisation struck him almost immediately as a wave of fatigue washed through his body.
’It seems testing and coming up with this ability consumed a tremendous amount of Mana. I need to rest.’
Without hesitation, Silas climbed out of the bathtub. The moment he raised his head, however, he found numerous eyes staring directly at him.
"Hey, hey. A little privacy, please. Someone is trying to take a shower here."
Silas immediately returned to the bubble veil and called out to his friends. Their response was a mixture of laughter and amused chuckles before they tactfully left the room to give him time to get dressed.
A few minutes later, he pushed his way outside with heavy steps. A throbbing headache pounded behind his eyes, and he constantly fought the urge to yawn. His Mana was completely depleted, and he knew that if he did not get some sleep soon, his recovery would take much longer.
However, the moment he stepped outside, he noticed the strange expressions on his friends’ faces. Before he could ask, Cher let out a sigh.
"The dragon is moving closer to us."
The words were enough to jolt him awake despite his exhaustion.
"As we were heading back, we saw it moving in this direction," Darius explained before glancing at the others.
"I saw a huge winged lizard baby chasing a bunch of Enhancers this way." Lara’s eyes sparkled with inappropriate excitement. "Do you think I can make it my baby?"
"Shut up."
Cher rolled her eyes before continuing.
"The situation is serious."
"When we spotted it, the dragon was less than two hours away," Alfred said grimly. "And you’ve been unconscious for nearly two hours. By now, it should be very close."
RUMBLE!
As if to confirm his words, a distant tremor rolled through the ground, shaking the entire area beneath their feet. The expressions around him immediately changed.
"We need to leave," Silas said.
His body felt unbearably heavy, but he quickly forced himself to think.
"Bring the bathtub... The oven too. We’ll head to the shuttle and get away from here."
Everyone stared at him in disbelief.
Even after witnessing the strange effects the bathtub seemed to have on him, carrying it onto the shuttle when they were trying to escape a dragon still sounded absurd.
"And the oven?" Cher asked, narrowing her eyes. Silas simply nodded before finally giving in to a long yawn.
"You heard him," Cher powerlessly shrugged.
She could tell he was suffering from severe Mana exhaustion. In that state, if he insisted on something, then it had to be important.
She remembered how he had asked for a bathtub almost immediately after receiving his Calling. She remembered how he always submerged himself beneath the water and bubbles. Although she still could not understand its true purpose beyond helping him clear his thoughts and better analyse Gaia’s words, she chose to trust him.
The next few minutes descended into chaos.
Everyone moved at once. Lara helped Alfred haul the oven toward the shuttle. Darius rushed to a large water tank and dragged it across the ground until the others joined him.
As for Cher, she simply stored the bathtub inside her portable device.
Silas could do little to help. Even if he wanted to, his body was on the verge of shutting down. He slowly dragged himself up to the surface, where the shuttle awaited.
Throughout the process, the tremors only grew more frequent and intense, making it painfully clear that the dragon was drawing closer.
Twenty minutes later, everyone was finally aboard. And the shuttle lifted off without delay.
Silas left the discussion of their next destination to Cher and the others. After stressing on Cher to explain everything that happened to the rest, he excused himself and retreated to a narrow room with a bed. He then surrendered to the exhaustion that had been weighing him down from the start and entered a deep sleep.
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