Chapter 66: Glad you’re okay
The smoking, jagged crater hissed as the northern wind swept through the foothills, carrying the bitter stench of sulfur and burnt ozone.
The white-hot, bubbling slurry of stone left behind by Infernal Overdrive was already dying down, rapidly cooling into a jagged, glossy floor of black obsidian.
Wisps of dark vapor rose from the cracked earth, curling around Vince’s mud-stained boots.
He stood dead-center in the destruction, his chest rising and falling in heavy, even breaths.
The terrifying, decaying black veins of the Calamity Plague had vanished entirely the moment Rin’s head rolled across the stone.
His flesh was whole, his pristine skin unmarked by the biological rot that had threatened to turn his organs to ash just seconds prior.
He was entirely unbothered, looking down at the lifeless body of the Second Dread Commander with a cold, predatory calm.
A light, hurried scuffle of boots against loose gravel broke the quiet.
Vince didn’t turn his head. He already knew the precise rhythm of her stride.
Lyrielle stumbled into the perimeter of the smoking crater. Her light dress and boots was dusted with ash, her yellowish hair windswept and wild. From her distant vantage point, she had watched the entire claustrophobic symphony of violence unfold.
She had seen the terrifying, unhinged speed of the Dread Commander; she had seen the crimson warning signs flashing in the air; she had felt the suffocating wave of necrotic fog that should have decayed Vince from the inside out. During those close calls, her heart had hammered violently against her ribs. She had been genuinely terrified that he wouldn’t make it out.
Yet, what truly paralyzed her was the absolute, casual brutality with which Vince had ended it.
He hadn’t flinched. He hadn’t given Rin the satisfaction of finishing his final, manic monologue.
He had simply snuffed out a legendary figure of the Empire like a bothersome candle.
As she walked closer, looking at the headless corpse and then back up to Vince, a profound realization settled deep into her chest.
Vince was terrifying. He was a monster to his enemies. But seeing how relentlessly he fought, how he had commanded her to flee to safety before letting the toxic mist wash over him—it proved something else.
She wasn’t disposable to him, Vince was a fortress.
Dropping all of her conditioned composure, her bow clattering against her leather guard, Lyrielle ran the final few steps into the crater.
Before Vince could even shift his weight, she threw her arms tightly around his neck, burying her face into his shoulder.
Her body trembled slightly, a ragged, breathless whisper escaping her lips.
"Thank God... thank God you’re okay. I thought... when that plague hit you..."
Vince stalled for a fraction of a second.
His arms hung momentarily at his sides, unaccustomed to the sudden warmth of a genuine embrace amidst the ash and blood of a battlefield.
But as he felt the slight tremor in her shoulders, the rigid, calculating posture he maintained softened just a fraction.
He leaned into the embrace, his large hands coming up to firmly wrap around her back, pulling her close.
He looked down, his gaze locking with her wide, emerald eyes as she pulled back just enough to look at him.
"Know this, Lyrielle,"
Vince murmured, his voice low, steady, and anchoring.
"I’ll always be fine. I trust Trust the system, and you have to trust me."
A small, relieved breath escaped her, her hands lingering on his shoulders for a lingering moment before she finally stepped back, clearing her throat and trying to regain her tactical bearing.
Vince turned his attention back to the space just above Rin’s dissolving remains, where a massive, glowing purple interface was pulsating, awaiting his command.
```
[ALERT: TARGET ’RIN’ ELIGIBLE FOR SUBJUGATION]
> Select Option:
1. Undead Thrall (Low cognitive function, high vocal volatility)
2. Core Extraction Essence (Permanent attribute & skill harvest)
```
Vince didn’t hesitate.
Rin was a manic, unpredictable psychopath in life; keeping him around as a loud, unhinged undead puppet would be a massive liability during stealth operations.
System, select Core Extraction Essence,
Vince commanded mentally.
The purple screen flashed violently, and a strange, localized vortex of green energy erupted from Rin’s corpse. The armor, the clothes, and the physical flesh began to rapidly dissolve, breaking down into millions of glittering, dark green particles. The energy swirled upward, compacting tightly until it solidified into a jagged, fist-sized crystallized core that hovered in the air before dropping directly into Vince’s open palm.
Without a second thought, Vince squeezed his hand closed, crushing the core.
A wave of dense, icy energy surged up his arm, violently snapping his eyes open as the system notifications began to cascade across his vision in a relentless waterfall of text.
```
[CORE EXTRACTION ESSENCE SUCCESSFUL]
> Base Strength increased by +45
> Base Agility increased by +35
> Base Endurance increased by +50
[NEW PASSIVE SKILL AWAKENED: SPELL-VEIN DRAIN]
> Description: Upon direct physical contact with an enemy entity, the Host can forcefully siphon and drain raw mana directly from their active mana paths or mana core. Siphoned energy can be used to instantly replenish the Host’s reserves or forcibly induce ’Mana Choke’ in the target, interrupting active incantations.
[NEW SENSORY SKILL AWAKENED: SPECTRAL OCULUS]
> Description: Inherited from the Dread Commander’s ocular mutation. The Host’s vision can now perceive the baseline flow, density, and elemental attributes of mana signatures within a 500-yard radius. Allows tracking through solid matter, cloaking spells, and illusion veils.
[LEGENDARY ARTIFACT ACQUIRED: FRAGMENT OF THE NECRO-CORE]
> Item Description: A highly polished, abyssal crystal shard recovered from the heart of Rin’s shattered staff.
> Passive Effect: Acts as a high-tier magical sponge. Can automatically absorb and neutralize a single lethal, single-target spell directed at the Host, fracturing upon use. (Current Status: Charging - 0/1 Lives).
```
Vince exhaled a cloud of frosty vapor as the sheer physical influx settled into his muscles. His base conditioning felt sharper, heavier, his senses tuning to a frequency he hadn’t experienced before. His pupils contracted, a faint, eerie green ring manifesting around the edge of his deep hue—the visual awakening of the Spectral Oculus.
Suddenly, before he could even test his new sight, the entire purple interface shattered, replaced by a massive, blood-red banner that flashed with an aggressive, rhythmic warning chime.
```
[CRITICAL SYSTEM ALERT: REGIONAL STATUS CHANGE]
> Objective ’Eliminate Rin’ complete.
> Warning: Target’s ’Soul-Linked Beacon’ has fractured upon death.
[EMPIRE THREAT ASSESSMENT UPDATED]
> Target Name: Vince
> Previous Status: S-Rank Criminal Rogue
> Current Status: CALAMITY-CLASS THREAT
> System Note: The Empire now recognizes the Host as a geopolitical danger equivalent to an untamed ancient dragon. Absolute military authorization has been granted for your termination.
```
Miles away to the north, inside the towering, black-iron walls of Duke Owen’s forward operating fortress, a massive, floating crystal orb suddenly fractured down the center with a deafening
CRACK.
The green flame burning within it died instantly, plunging the war room into a tense, suffocating silence.
Duke Owen, a towering man clad in ornate, gold-trimmed plate armor, slowly rose from his obsidian throne, his eyes narrowing into slits. Beside him, General Garreth’s hand flew to the hilt of his broadsword, his face turning entirely pale.
"Rin... is dead?"
Garreth whispered, his voice trembling with a mixture of disbelief and fury.
"To a magicless rat? Impossible."
"Where’s Vesper,"
Duke Owen commanded, his voice a low, terrifying rumble that shook the dust from the rafters.
"I want that magicless brat flayed alive. How can he fell my dread commanders like they’re nothing. This is an insult".
Back in the smoking valley, Vince didn’t need a system notification to tell him the hornet’s nest had been stirred.
He closed his eyes, actively expanding his perception range to its absolute limits, combining his base sensory map with the newly acquired Spectral Oculus.
The world turned into a tapestry of glowing energy pathways. He scanned the ridges, pushing past the foothills, looking further north toward the jagged, volcanic peaks that lined the horizon.
His eyes snapped open, the green rings within his pupils flaring brightly.
"Vince?"
Lyrielle asked, stepping closer, her hand instinctively checking the quiver at her hip.
"What do you see?"
"Intense heat signatures,"
Vince said, his voice dropping into a deadly, focused register.
" Quite a number of them. Moving, right through the volcanic pass."
He looked out toward the distant mountains. The air above the peaks was shimmering, heavy with distorted heat waves that weren’t there minutes ago.
But as he analyzed the magical signatures through his Spectral Oculus, he realized something crucial.
The energy wasn’t structured or disciplined like the Elves. It was chaotic, burning, and wildly territorial.
The system’s previous warnings about the native Dragonkin inhabiting the volcanic waste flashed in his mind. The massive magic spike from his Infernal Overdrive and Rin’s death hadn’t just alerted the Duke—it had hinted the apex predators of the northern peaks.
Instead of turning back, instead of fleeing like a cornered animal, Vince let out a low, dangerous chuckle.
He stretched his right hand out to his side, his palm opening. In a brilliant flash of light, his heavy, double-edged steel sword materialized back into his grip from his inventory.
He gripped the hilt with both hands, the steel humming a lethal tune as he coated the blade in a subtle, hyper-frequency vibration using Micro-Kinetic Harmony.
He turned his head slightly to look at Lyrielle, a confident, predatory grin spreading across his face.
"Hope you’ve ready, Lyrielle. We’ve got company, and they don’t look so friendly."
He faced the northern horizon, his boots planted firmly on the hardened black glass, completely on guard as the distant roaring of the Dragonkin began to echo through the desolate northern wind.
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