Chapter 184: Fifty
The catastrophic power of the Abyssal HellFlame began to slowly recede, retreating obediently into the palm of Hide’s dark-scaled gauntlet. The blazing, pitch-black void edged in violent crimson left absolutely nothing in its wake.
The absolute-zero temperature that had just dominated the Ufrifan desert was completely eradicated, instantly replaced by the natural, sweltering heat of the bleeding evening sky. The massive basin, previously scarred by the crater, had been fundamentally altered. The scorching desert sand directly beneath them had been superheated and vitrified, turned into a sprawling, smooth sheet of scorched black glass.
Julian stepped back, his heavy, ice-clawed boots slipping awkwardly against the smooth, glassy surface of the earth. His blinding white eyes, which just moments ago had burned with the absolute, arrogant certainty of an apex predator, were now blown wide open in pure, unadulterated fear.
The colossal ice dome—the absolute pinnacle of his B-Rank domain, an architectural marvel of defensive technique was simply gone. It hadn’t melted. There were no puddles of boiling water pooling in the crater. There was no thick, suffocating cloud of steam rising into the atmosphere to obscure the bleeding twilight sky. The ice had been entirely obliterated from existence, ripped completely from the physical plane.
His thoughts turned violently chaotic. How? The question hammered relentlessly against his fracturing sanity. How could this even be possible? How could someone eat Mana?
Julian was an S-Rank Commander. He had spent decades studying the intricate, mathematical flow of magical energy. At the end of the day, no matter how powerful an Awakened or a Calamity Lord was, mana was still fundamentally an energy. And the most absolute, unbreakable law of the universe dictated that energy could not be created or destroyed, only transformed or transferred. Even if an incredibly powerful fire talent were to successfully melt his absolute-zero ice, the structural mana holding it together would simply disperse into the ambient environment, allowing Julian to effortlessly absorb it back into his core to fight again.
But that was not the case of what had just happened. The mana was entirely obliterated from reality. It was as if those dark, crimson-edged flames were acting like a literal black hole, indiscriminately turning everything they touched into an inescapable void of darkness!
He stumbled back again, his breath catching in his throat. The soul of the B-Rank Calamity Lord residing inside him was screaming in terror. The beast’s primal instincts demanded that it run away immediately.
At this exact moment, having expended a catastrophic amount of energy to build the dome only to have it erased, his core only held half of its maximum mana capacity. It would take a considerable amount of time to fill it back up, and the beast knew that staying here in front of this black-flamed monster meant death. The Calamity Lord’s soul would have clearly run away, fully intending to burrow into the desert to recuperate.
But... for some weird, inexplicable reason, Julian’s body seemed to be acting in a rather weird way. It wasn’t obeying the survival instincts of the Calamity Lord. Even Hide, standing a few yards away with his dark armor smoking in the hot desert wind, noticed the bizarre anomaly.
Instead of turning to flee or launching a desperate, final counterattack, Julian suddenly collapsed. He fell heavily to his knees, his hands flying up to clutch his temples as he began bellowing loudly, fighting a terrifying, violent internal war to take the control of his body!
The jagged, parasitic frost crawling across his cheeks cracked and splintered as his facial muscles contorted in agony. The overlapping, dual-layered voice that had made him sound like an ancient demon fractured entirely, leaving only the desperate, broken pitch of a human man.
He was muttering something, his voice trembling with a pathetic, child-like desperation. "Please... Please Mother, Please I beg you give me another chance! I will not fail."
Hide narrowed his glowing blue eyes beneath his dark-steel helm. The elegant S-Rank commander, the man who manipulated global tournaments and viewed human lives as expendable chess pieces, was currently breaking down and weeping into the dirt.
Then, suddenly, the fragile human facade shattered. Julian snapped like a wild, cornered animal. His head whipped up, fixing Hide with a very disgusted, deranged look on his face, as if he were looking at the most repulsive creature on earth. Driven by pure, unhinged madness, he launched himself forward.
He crossed the distance in a blur of physical speed, completely bypassing Hide’s guard. He grabbed Hide by the armored shoulders and violently threw him onto the ground. Hide’s back slammed against the scorched glass of the desert floor, cracking it instantly. Julian didn’t stop. He mounted Hide, his frozen hands clamping down and straining Hide’s throat with the deranged, frantic strength of a madman. He was crying and shouting at him, entirely disconnected from the reality of the battlefield.
"You can’t, you can’t do that me. I am your son!" Julian bellowed, hot tears streaming from his blinding white eyes and freezing into ice crystals before they even hit the dark metal of Hide’s Carapace.
Hide’s expression hardened into stone. Without a single microsecond of hesitation, Hide raised his right arm, channeling his enhanced physical strength, and punched Julian directly in the chest.
The impact sounded like a sledgehammer hitting a frozen carcass. Hide’s dark-scaled fist went right through Julian’s chest, tearing through the pristine white fabric of his ruined suit and the dense flesh beneath. His arm sank all the way to the elbow, creating a massive, gaping hole right through the commander’s torso. But strangely, the horrific wound did not bleed. The flesh, veins, and muscle tissues were completely frozen, corrupted entirely by the internal ice of the beast.
Julian didn’t even seem to register the fatal physical trauma that had just caved his chest in. His face twisted into a mask of pure, vile hatred. He snapped back, leaning his face closer to Hide’s, his voice a horrifying, stomach-churning mixture of a sobbing child and a sadistic monster.
"you Bitch..." Julian snapped back, his grip tightening uselessly against the S-Rank metal protecting Hide’s windpipe. "I.. I will fuck you! Then I will kill you and fuck you again! and rip your body to shreds."
Hide winced inside his helm, his glowing blue eyes twitching in sheer revulsion as the vile, horrific threats spilled from the madman’s mouth. "What the fuck... that’s creepy. Has he lost his mind?" Hide grunted, physically shoving Julian’s frozen arms away.
The deep, ancient, telepathic voice of the Doom Overseer immediately vibrated within Hide’s mind, its tone analytical and completely devoid of empathy, cutting through the grotesque scene.
"My Liege, it seems his soul is being killed by the soul of the Calamity Beast. They are in an active battle for the succession of this body."
Hide’s eyes narrowed as the pieces fell into place. The B-Rank beast, desperate, cornered, and starved for mana, was forcefully devouring Julian’s weakened human soul in a bid to take absolute control of the vessel. Julian wasn’t seeing Hide right now; his fracturing mind was trapped in a horrific hallucination.
The psychic trauma of his soul being eaten alive was forcing him to relive his deepest, darkest psychological scars—projecting his twisted relationship with his mother directly onto the boy currently killing him.
Hearing that made Hide’s hair stand on end beneath his thick armor. The psychological terror of the process sounded agonizing and so incredibly pathetic. To be eaten alive from the inside out, trapped in a waking nightmare of your own making, completely losing your identity, your memories, and your sanity to a feral monster—it was the ultimate, tragic end for a man who arrogantly thought he could subjugate a Calamity Lord through a contract.
Hide violently kicked Julian off his body. The broken commander tumbled backward, his frozen chest cavity emitting a hollow crunch as he landed hard on his hands and knees on the vitrified glass. He didn’t try to get back up. He didn’t try to summon his ice. He just stayed on his knees, crying profusely and mumbling deranged, vile curses to himself like an absolute madman.
Hide slowly stood up, brushing the glass shards from his armored shoulders. He walked up to Julian, his towering, scaled form casting a long, dark silhouette over the weeping S-Rank Commander. Hide felt absolutely zero pity for the man.
He simply raised his dark-scaled hand, stepping directly in front of the broken man. He reached out and grabbed Julian firmly by the top of his head. The icy frost tried to bite at his fingers, but the S-Rank Carapace easily neutralized it.
With a cold, merciless flex of his superhuman strength, Hide squashed his head like a potato.
The skull shattered with a sickening, wet crunch, the frozen brains and bone fragments bursting outward. Julian’s body instantly went limp, collapsing face-first onto the scorched desert glass in a heap of shredded clothes and melting ice. The frantic, pathetic mumbling finally ceased, leaving the Ufrifan basin in unbroken silence.
A golden, translucent system window instantly flared brilliantly in Hide’s vision.
[You have Slain an S-Rank Human]
Exp gained - 150,000
The massive influx of experience points hit his system like a tidal wave of pure energy. His Universal Adaptation System went into overdrive, the notifications stacking rapidly as the immense bounty from killing a contracted S-Rank powerhouse pushed his evolution far beyond its previous limits.
[Level Up]
Level: 48 → 49
Exp: 143980 / 10200
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 49 → 50
Exp: 133780 / 10400
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 50 → 51
Exp: 123380 / 10600
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 51 → 52
Exp: 112780 / 10800
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 52 → 53
Exp: 101980 / 11000
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 53 → 54
Exp: 90980 / 11200
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 54 → 55
Exp: 79780 / 11400
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 55 → 56
Exp: 68380 / 11600
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 56 → 57
Exp: 56780 / 11800
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 57 → 58
Exp: 44980 / 12000
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 58 → 59
Exp: 32980 / 12200
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 59 → 60
Exp: 20780 / 12400
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 60 → 61
Exp: 8380 / 12600
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
The golden notifications finally ceased their rapid cascading, leaving the final numbers burning brightly in his vision.
He had just jumped thirteen levels in a single breath, shattering the Level 50 threshold.
The cure for Risa was finally within his grasp.
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