CHAPTER 42: | ENDING OF HIS STORY
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Vinley gazed at the existence before him with a hunger born of his lust for completion, for true freedom.
"You... become... one... with... me..."
His voice, distorted as his vocal cords rotted and fell apart, grated.
Vinley's eyes, was filled with contempt, fixed on the draconian before him.
He knew he would win...
Splurtch!
A sickening crunch tore through his ribs.
Vinley glanced down, shards of bone pierced outward from a gaping wound in his ribcage.
The draconian's hand, now shining with a crystalline sheen, had pierced him.
A wave of repulsion, bitter and acrid, washed over him at this being's cowardly act.
Before he could even move to escape, an orange light pulsed intensely from his ribcage, a searing heat building rapidly inside his body.
KRAK-BOOM! Splortch!
Flesh, bone fragments, and his rotting internal organs, mashed together to form this mockery of a body, exploded outward, dissipating into the swirling currents.
Before Vinley could even conjure his next move, the draconian tapped a casual fist against his stomach.
Rumble! Splat! Crash!
Vinley's stomach ruptured and exploded.
He was sent flying from that mere, effortless tap.
For the first time in his life, Vinley felt the sting of defeat.
It was an alien, sickening sensation.
"Youuu.... what... power... is that?"
His voice, strained and weak, barely escaped his ruined throat.
I smiled at his question, stretching idly.
"You're asking of this power, right?"
Vinley's remaining form, a grotesque parody, nodded.
Skreeek! Blughsh!
Vinley's crab-like head exploded, from a cowardly assault from the draconian.
Anger, a boiling, acidic fury, welled up in his being.
For the first time, Vinley was thoroughly humiliated, not just defeated, but broken in spirit.
The raw indignity of it made his nonexistent blood boil.
The vines all around us trembled violently, coiling tighter as they enveloped the crab-like abomination before me.
I waited for his transformation, curious to see if this being, Vinley, truly was more interesting than he seemed.
SKRRRAK! Crunch! Splortch!
His exoskeleton cracked like dry shell under the crushing vines, bones splintered, and rotten flesh exploded in wet, gurgling bursts beneath the pressure.
Vinley's form twisted and reshaped, becoming more and more humanoid, a grotesque mimicry of a human, as he finally managed to point an index finger at me.
Shook!
His intent, a solidified line of destructive will, coagulated and shot towards me.
But I was already immersed in 'Mantis State'.
My hands took on a more crystalline sheen as 'Crystalline Impactor' activated, moving with blinding precision.
I blocked his desperate attempts to decapitate me.
Shriek! Clang! Skitter!
Vinley's vines shimmered, taking on a metallic sheen.
They lashed out, a chaotic storm attacking me from all directions.
I closed my eyes, beginning to imagine and move my fists with the calculated fury of the mad demon's storm.
Mana surged into my hands, intercepting all of Vinley's attacks in a blur of motion, a relentless storm of barrages as 'Tripod Barrage,' the fourth movement of 'Claw of the Mad Demon,' executed flawlessly.
Resounding Clang! Shrill Scrape! Deep
Thud!
Crystals met metal, clashing in a furious flurry.
Vinley was superior to me in raw strength alone.
Crack!
My fist cracked, the crystalline exoskeleton covering my hands beginning to chip away with every resounding clash.
The room trembled violently, the nonexistent wind under the water lashing everywhere, scarring the very ground beneath us.
Vinley pressed harder with his attacks, his ruined mouth gaping open.
A mass of pulsating vines and raw mana began to gather within.
"Preparing for a large-scale attack, huh?"
I murmured, a faint smirk touching my lips.
Crunnnch! Scrrkkk! THOOM!
While deflecting his relentless attacks, mana gathered, thick and hot, at my throat.
'Cataclysmic Inferno Breath' was rapidly charging.
Simultaneously, my fist switched into a fluid palm strike.
'Mad Gate' was gathering the necessary energy from every one of Vinley's impacts, fueling the activation of 'Demonic Dragon Claw'.
Gong!
The first stage of 'Demonic Dragon Claw' was ready to be unleashed, but I continued to gather more impact energy.
A sphere of raw energy, shimmering with collected power, now floated prominently at my back like a nascent constellation.
A genuine smile curved onto my lips as Vinley, noticing my preparations, unleashed his attack.
A flash of blinding, colorful light erupted from his mouth.
FWWWOOOOOOOSSSHHH!
Heat bubbled from my mouth, a molten tide, as I unleashed my own.
"Cataclysmic Inferno Breath!"
HOWWWLLL!
The very cavern seemed to bend under the immense pressure as two titanic energies met.
A sphere of multi-hued energies collided with a superheated molten magma, compressed into a small, volatile sphere.
A world-rending scream tore through the space as the two powers intertwined.
FWWWWRRRROOOOM!
The two titans of energy wrestled, each vying for supremacy, which was stronger, more compressed, more utterly powerful.
The ground beneath them groaned and began to cave in.
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
Light flashed uncontrollably, an epileptic strobe, as Vinley's tendrils pressed on me with desperate force.
Gong!
Another sphere of energy flared to life, hovering behind my back.
It floated prominently, then connected with the first, completing a powerful, glowing constellation.
But Vinley's attack became even more relentless, he knew he couldn't win a battle of spells.
So he tried to overpower me using sheer brute strength.
But it was futile.
The superheated sphere of molten magma devoured his projectiles, enlarging uncontrollably with each absorbed blast.
An orange light pulsed violently around him as he desperately retracted all of his remaining vines, weaving them into a desperate, makeshift shield.
BOOM! Hissss! Blortch!
The magma consumed his vines, dissolving them into nothingness.
I allowed myself a triumphant smirk.
Shimmer! Tear!
A brilliant white light fazed through his body.
Claws, massive as a gargantuan dragon's, materialized and slashed through his form with effortless grace.
A flicker of a smile played across my face.
'Claw of the Mad Demon,' a heaven-tier martial art, was truly beyond my conscious control.
The sphere of impact energy I had meticulously gathered from his attacks was imbued into the tip of my index finger, ready to unleash an attack far more destructive than it was ever designed to be.
This was unconventional, perhaps even dangerously reckless, the blood vessels on my finger visibly exploded from the sheer force of the infusion.
But...
Looking at the raw firepower I'd just unleashed...
It was absolutely worth it.
SKRRRRACK! Wuuummmm…
White lines spiderwebbed across Vinley's ruined body, an intricate, devastating pattern, as a massive claw impression, deep and profound, carved the very ground before him.
He gazed at me, his remaining eye wide with profound confusion, as he opened his mouth to speak.
"So... this... is... how.... my..... existence... will... end....."
His voice was a mere rasp.
Splash!
Vinley's body tilted, then exploded in a final, grisly spray of gore.
All of the cores embedded in his form were utterly annihilated, reduced to worthless fragments.
His form was no more than a remnant, a mere whisper of what it was, as he died without ever comprehending what had truly happened.
A hologram shimmered before me.
I grinned.
"Truly, what a pitiful whelp... trying to challenge someone who had delved into the world of intent was nothing more than a delusion."
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[You have slain.]
• S: 1 | T: 10 | Level 36| Vinley, The Abominable Homunculus [6★]
[You have gained.]
[27,000,000 - EXP.]
[You have gained a level.] x13
[You have ascended to the next tier.]
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[You have devoured.]
• S: 1 | T: 10 | Level 36| Vinley, The Abominable Homunculus [6★]
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[Skills Devoured.]
• Amalgamate Physiology [Tier 7]
• Metallic Flesh Augmentation [Tier 8]
• Multi-Core Redundancy [Tier 9]
• Multifaceted Perception [Tier 9]
• The Confluent Abomination Network [Tier 8]
• Sentient Armor [Tier 10]
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[Grotesque Physique would like to devour these skills.]
• Amalgamate Physiology [Tier 7]
• Metallic Flesh Augmentation [Tier 8]
• Multi-Core Redundancy [Tier 9]
• Multifaceted Perception [Tier 9]
• The Confluent Abomination Network [Tier 8]
• Sentient Armor [Tier 10]
[Yes] / [No]
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Amalgamate Physiology [Passive | ▪︎]
Vinley's body is a horrifying fusion of countless absorbed biologies, granting him unparalleled, adaptive resilience to all damage types. His form instinctively shifts to mitigate specific attacks.
Metallic Flesh Augmentation [Active | 80 - Mana | ▪︎]
Vinley channels energy into his vines and musculature, causing them to temporarily harden and shimmer with a metallic sheen, significantly increasing the piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning power of his physical attacks and enhancing his defenses.
Multi-Core Redundancy [Passive | ▪︎]
His decentralized core network makes him exceptionally hard to defeat; even if multiple cores are destroyed, the remaining ones seamlessly redistribute energy, allowing him to continue fighting.
Multifaceted Perception [Passive | ▪︎]
Countless eyeballs across Vinley's body provide 360-degree, multi-spectral vision, allowing him to see through illusions and perceive subtle changes in energy, making him impossible to surprise.
The Confluent Abomination Network [Passive | ▪︎]
Vinley's power comes from a decentralized network of tens of highly potent, parasitic cores embedded throughout his body. Each core represents an absorbed entity, granting immense redundancy and making him exceptionally difficult to defeat, as others reroute energy if one is destroyed. This network fuels his regeneration, transformations, and control over corrupted life and intent.
Sentient Armor [Passive | ▪︎]
Vinley's body is covered in a dense, ever-shifting layer of sentient vines and tendrils that act as a living armor, deflecting lesser blows and subtly interfering with enemy movements, occasionally lashing out.
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