Chapter 275: Revenge
The world froze in a flash of blinding azure light.
Walter Bigiva’s outstretched index finger was far closer to Hide’s face then ever before, the air around his nail shimmering with that fatal, glassy distortion.
But in front of Hide’s eyes, the long-lost translucent blue interface flared with incandescent brilliance.
He did not read it and instead used hi skill mana press, the mana around them suddenly became heavy causing Walter’s finger to tremble slightly and miss its intended spot.
Hide pushed his body away and read the screen now.
[Adaptive Override — Analysis Active]
Location: Right Shoulder & Entire Cellular Structure
Source: S-Rank Human
Severity: FATAL
[System Query: Initiate emergency adaptation sequence to counter Target Talent?]
‘EVOLVE!’ Hide screamed within the deepest, darkest chambers of his soul. He was happy, he was angry and he was hopeful. The system that had left him was once again here, with him.
[Adapting — 15%]
[Adapting — 60%]
[Adapting — 100%]
[Adaptive Override — Adaptation Complete]
[Counter-Skill Generated]
[New Skill Acquired: Reflective Severance — Rank S (Active)]
Authority of the Dark Liege over False Images. Inverts reflective planes and severs the sympathetic tether between the physical vessel and all mirror reflections.
Renders the user entirely immune to reflection-based attacks.
Forcefully expels hidden entities from the mirror dimension into physical space while corrupting all reflective mediums with dark mana.
With the new skill, Hide’s mind was also flooded with the information on how Walter’s skill worked.
Walter was a sovereign of mirror dimension, providing him the ability of physical phase-shifting into the reflective plane and creation of mirror duplicates and mirages.
Including the complete conceptual link between physical vessels and their mirror reflections. Any damage that he would inflict upon a target’s reflection inside the mirror dimension would effect the physical target in reality.
That made it clear how Walter killed Risa and Fikel without any visible damage. The bastard killed their reflections in the Mirror dimension and then transferred the damage to the real bodies.
It was sick, it was beyond sick. The talent, perhaps it was even stronger than that of Hide, and that explained how Walter had managed to come so far. But it ended now.
Walter appeared from a nearby mirror and once again lined his finger straight at Hide.
SNAP.
Walter’s finger flicked forward.
The air cracked like a sheet of ice. A shockwave blasted from Walter’s reflection straight toward Hide’s reflection, both cast in the shattered glass behind him.
Nothing happened.
The force dissolved the microsecond it brushed against Hide’s reflection.
Walter’s smug face froze. The 1st Commander’s eyes widened in staggering shock.
“What…?” Walter muttered, his voice faltering.
Suddenly, a wave of dark mana, edged in iridescent silver sheen, erupted from Hide’s chest. Following that a green low bathed his body.
Hide activated Abyssal Healing and the bone fragments clicked into alignment, the muscle fibers weaving back together in a split second.
Hide jumped away from Walter who was shocked, his left hand shot out, snatching the katana from the floor.
“That was how you killed Risa…” Hide whispered as black scales grew from around his head to form the crown. He rose slowly to his feet, the silver strands of his hair whipping wildly in the swirling gale of dark mana. “You cowardly, miserable dog.”
Walter’s instincts screamed at him. Realizing his sure-kill strike had been neutralized, the commander took a panicked step backward, his body blurring as he tried to melt into the massive three-meter mirror mounted on the adjacent marble column.
“You little bastard—!” Walter snarled, reaching for the glass.
But before he could, a pulse of distorted ripples shot across the dark mana that had covered the whole room now.
Every single mirror remaining in the circular hall—the floor-to-ceiling glass, the polished marble reflections, turned a bruised black. The reflective planes rejected him.
Walter was ejected from the column, thrown five yards across the floor like a ragdoll. He crashed hard against the edge of the fractured desk, coughing a mouthful of bright crimson blood across his coat.
“My… my dimension…!” He gasped, his face draining of all color as he scrambled backward on his hands and knees. His eyes darted frantically around the room, finding zero reflections to slip into. “What did you do?!”
Hide didn’t answer.
SONIC FLIGHT.
BOOM!
Hide moved too fast and materialized directly over Walter’s shivering frame.
The katana descended in a clean vertical arc.
SHIK!
“GAAAAAAH!”
Walter shrieked as the blade sliced his right arm cleanly off at the shoulder, pinning the severed limb to the stone in a fountain of hot blood.
“That was for Fikel,” Hide said, his tone chillingly flat.
Before Walter could scream a second time, Hide drove his boot into his left knee joint.
CRUNCH!
The bone pulverized under the force. Walter collapsed onto his back, sobbing, clutching his bleeding stump as he looked up into the face of death.
“Wait… Hide… wait!” He wept, the arrogant supreme commander reduced to a sniveling coward in the dirt. “You don’t understand! The higher lords… they are coming! I did what I had to do to survive! If you kill me, the Central Continent falls—”
“This is for Risa and Aegis,” Hide interrupted softly.
SWOOSH.
The katana reversed in Hide’s grip as he drove the blade down with both hands, plunging the steel straight through Walter Bigiva’s chest, pinning the 1st Commander’s heart to the floor.
SPLAT.
Walter’s eyes bulged, his body arching off the ground in a final spasm. Blood bubbled past his lips, his fingers clawing weakly at Hide’s jacket before going limp. The light in his eyes flickered, died, and faded into dull glass.
Hide stood above the corpse, breathing steadily, letting the dark mana coat his fingers as he withdrew the blade.
He reached down to Walter’s collar.
Tucked inside the inner breast pocket of the commander’s blood-soaked uniform were two items:
A simple, ancient ring and a folded letter sealed with dried crimson wax, the seal was broken showing that Walter had already read this.
Hide unfolded the paper. The ink was old, written in the elegant, precise handwriting of Ren Sihue:
“To whoever is reading this, please find Hide Volter and pass it on to him.
This ring does not belong to the Sihue clan. It was entrusted to me by Erin Volter. She told me it is the master key to something in a place called Hubin, located in Rilth. I do not know what these places are or what this thing she talked about is.
I promised her to keep this secret, but I no longer can. I do not know If i will be back from the mission I am taking right now. So, as my responsibility, I will pass on this letter along with the Ring to my son and hope it reaches you, Hide.
Hide stared at the letter, then burned it and slipped the ring onto his finger. It adjusted smoothly to his bone, cold and comforting.
Then he looked at the several messages that had popped up in front of him after so much time.
[You have Slain an S-Rank Human]
Exp gained – 150,000
This message was followed by 5 another notifications that ended with a final level up message to Level 100.
[Level Up]
Level: 99 → 100
Exp: Max reached.
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Congratulations, You have reached the threshold for Class Evolution]
[Class Rank S Evolution requirements met. Initiating…]
A massive, golden shockwave rippled through Hide’s core. His mana channels widened until they felt like rushing rivers of lightning, his senses expanding until he could feel every vibration of the city below.
Unlike his last evolutions, this one happened rapidly andwithout the pain involved for some reason.
[Evolution Complete]
[Class Rank Increased: (A-Rank → S-Rank)]
[50 Unallocated Stat Points awarded.
He was at Level 100 and S-Rank The peak of humanity.
Yet, before Hide could even exhale, the world gave way.
KREEEEEEEE-BOOOOOOM!
A horrific, cataclysmic tremor ripped through the foundation of the tower.
The ground buckled. Miles beneath the bedrock—from the forgotten hell beneath the surface where the ancient temple rested—an apocalyptic explosion tore upward.
The concrete sheared. The massive panoramic windows of the wholeplace shattered outward into the sky, raining millions of glass shards over the city.
From the elevator shafts and the collapsed floor, an ocean of writhing serpents erupted, hissing with malice. The rancid stench of ancient dark mana and decaying divinity choked the air.
Rising through the center of the demolished skyscraper, hovering effortlessly amidst a whirlwind of serpentine shadows, was a figure that froze Hide’s blood.
It possessed the pale, hairless torso of a man draped in twilight mantles, but where a face should have been, there was only smooth, featureless alabaster flesh.
Sitting upon a floating throne of calcified serpent skeletons, the entity looked down upon Hide.
The Lord of House Odo.
“Walter was a clumsy hound, but you have exceeded your allotted role on the board. You must Perish.”
The faceless god raised a pale hand.
A wave of crimson-and-black divine destruction cascaded toward Hide, warping the laws of physics, dissolving the steel pillars into dust before the attack even landed.
Hide gritted his teeth, raising his katana.
The blue screen flared violently in front of Hide, trembling with blinding crimson distortion:
[Adaptive Override — Analysis Active]
Source: Unknown
Severity: —
[CRITICAL SYSTEM FAULT!]
[ERROR]
—
Hi guys! Author here.
Sorry for the delays lately, but I have been struggling with college and Exams. And also the chapters were bit harsh to finish because… these are the final chapters.
Yes, the book is ending soon. Thanks a lot of reading till now, hope you enjoyed it.