Chapter 202: Mother Tree Growing
Adyr finally accepted the absurd truth. He could now instill fear—even in lifeless matter. And with that, a thought crept into his mind. If an emotionless rock could tremble under Malice, what would it do to something that could feel?
Of course, he had no way to test that right now. He shelved the experimentation for later and moved on.
He drove the black sword into the ground and left it there. Then he raised his hand, pointing his thumb toward the small pond nestled near the corner of the garden. With a simple mental trigger, he spent 0.1 Energy and activated Echo Screamer’s Sonic Burst skill.
As the soundwave began forming at his fingertip in a subtle vibration, he simultaneously unleashed Malice, fusing its essence into the skill. The wave solidified, taking on a shadowy form as it pulsed with violent potential.
He charged it further with 0.3 Energy, then released it.
A concentrated orb of sonic force shot forward like a bullet, slamming into the pond with a sharp, resonant impact.
Boom.
Water—and even the soil beneath it—erupted violently, spraying out in all directions. The once-calm pond now looked like the aftermath of an explosion.
"Wow," he clearly impressed by the result.
Buffed by 50 [Physique] stat points as an Astra path Spark skill, it already carried significant force, but infused with Malice, its destructive power had nearly doubled.
And it didn’t end there.
What remained of the scattered pond water had pooled into a misshapen crater, and within it, faint tendrils of black energy still drifted—Malice lingering like a curse. Even more unsettling, the water itself was trembling.