The man's aura grew stronger, and his tone of voice became increasingly frantic and disordered, as bright purple lines snaked across his skin, growing like living things.
The chaotic power fluctuations swept through everything, turning nearby trees into dust and creating a dead zone with a radius of several meters.
"This... this is like gods fighting, isn't it?"
"Am I dreaming?" Jian Ling was completely stunned. If he hadn't moved, he would have been affected by now.
"Using the power of the mark to forcibly unleash a man-made Rupture and elevate to Great Priest level..."
"But even so, you won't last more than five minutes, will you?" Bronya showed no fear, her rippling eyes tracking the enemy's movements.
"To kill you... it's enough!"
The man roared like a beast, immense power enveloping his palm, then he smashed a heavy punch towards Bronya.
Boom!
The deafening sonic boom ripped through the air. Bronya didn't underestimate him, she flashed and leaped, as if possessing a pair of nimble Silver Wings, easily dodging the powerful blow.
Bang!
The dust settled, leaving only a large crater with a radius of over five meters.
"Go!"
Bronya held her hand like a sword, using her falling momentum to strike down at the man's head. The light sword extended again, reaching ten meters, tearing through space as it came down.
"This is the power of a god! How dare a mere worm like you try to contend with it!" Whether it was confidence in his own power or a loss of sanity after the Rupture, he neither dodged nor evaded, raising both fists to meet the sword.
Pfft!
The sword body pierced through the energy barrier, leaving a deep, bone-visible wound on his fist, but the light sword's energy was also exhausted at this moment, unable to maintain its form, and slowly dissipated.
"Hahaha! Silver Wing is nothing more than this! Come again..."
Pfft!
Just as he was shouting, a light dagger, like lightning, plunged into his body.
"Puwah!" The man spat out a mouthful of blood.
Then came the second, the third...
Before long, the man was impaled by over a dozen daggers, collapsing weakly to the ground.
He was shocked to find that he could no longer mobilize the power of a god, like a water tank with all its outlets pinched shut, full of power but unable to use it.
"You... bitch! What did you do to me!?" The man was both shocked and enraged, cursing loudly.
"Your mouth is really foul." Bronya walked closer and squatted down beside him.
"Don't waste your energy. After forcibly initiating a man-made Rupture, your Rupture Energy flow is already chaotic. Plus, I used daggers to seal several main circulation nodes. Even if you had immense power, you're just a piece of rotten meat waiting to be slaughtered now."
The Rupture process was interrupted, and the man slumped to the ground like a deflated ball.
"Answer my questions obediently, and I can make your death a little more comfortable." Bronya held the light dagger to his neck, speaking casually.
"Where is your Great Priest hiding now? How many accomplices do you have in this city? And what is your objective?" She questioned him consecutively.
...
"Puhahaha..."
"Silver Wing, Silver Wing, I never thought that someone as intelligent as you would one day die at the hands of a mere Apostle of God like me!" The man suddenly coughed up blood wildly and burst into laughter.
"What..." Bronya instantly felt that something was seriously wrong, but before she could react, a sudden change occurred!
The black box that had merged with the man burst out of his body at an extremely fast speed, floating in mid-air, emitting strange purple light.
Bronya, enveloped in the light, was shocked to find that the connection between her consciousness and her physical body seemed to have been severed. Her consciousness remained clear, but her body couldn't move at all.
"Let's die together!" After saying that, the man's aura rapidly weakened, and within a few seconds, he lost all signs of life.
At the same time, the energy fluctuations within the black box became even more violent, and their intensity abruptly increased, as if they would erupt at any moment!
"Beep! Leave immediately, or choose to save the person and then leave in the direction of 32 degrees south-east." His precognitive ability activated again, and Jian Ling received two options.
He hesitated for a moment.
Undoubtedly, leaving directly was the safest option, but...
After much thought, he still chose the option to save the person.
Although he wasn't some compassionate Bodhisattva who saved all living beings, he also couldn't just watch a classmate die tragically in front of him.
As for why there was an option to save someone, he was a bit puzzled, but his precognitive ability shouldn't harm him. Saving her should help him avoid some potential threat.
The moment his consciousness made a choice, his body was suddenly controlled by an unknown force. He leaped directly from a tree canopy several meters high, landing lightly and unharmed. Then, he lunged forward like a leopard, springing out.
When he entered the range of the purple light, he could clearly feel that he also entered that state of separation between consciousness and body, but the one controlling his body was not his consciousness at all, so he was not affected in the slightest.
He rushed to Bronya's side in a few steps, scooping up her long legs and slender waist. He didn't even care about the soft, fragrant sensation of her body in his arms, turning around and charging fiercely in the designated direction.
"!"
Bronya was trying to break free from that state when she suddenly felt her body lighten, and the influence gradually weakened.
She focused her consciousness in confusion. When she saw the condition of her body, her consciousness instantly froze.
"сволочь (bastard)! Let go of me!" Bronya even blurted out Russian in her shock.
What did she see? Her twenty years of pure, untainted body was actually being held in a man's arms?!
From childhood, not to mention men, even few women had touched her body, and most of those were minor touches like a handshake or brushing shoulders.
Yet now, she found her body tightly pressed against a man, even with a tendency to nestle into his embrace. It would be strange if she wasn't furious!
She would rather be blown to smithereens by that thing than be carried away by a man!
Boom!
But with an earth-shattering roar, a huge purple light mass instantly enveloped the ground, and the immense energy annihilated the entire forest in an instant.
Because they escaped in time, the two had fled beyond the direct impact range of the light mass, but Jian Ling still felt a huge force impact his back, like a car crashing directly into him.
"Wah!" A mouthful of fresh blood sprayed out, staining Bronya's forehead.
Finally, his gaze lingered on Bronya's surprised and complex expression for a second before he fainted to the ground, losing consciousness.
...
In a state of chaos, he seemed to be floating in a space outside the world. Jian Ling's consciousness awakened here before his body.
In front of him, two strange energy masses floated. One felt very familiar to him; it was the mysterious power that controlled his body. The other was extremely violent.
This was... energy overflowing from that black box?
Jian Ling stared at the dark purple energy in a daze. Although this energy was far less powerful than what was in the black box, it should only be a tiny fraction that impacted him and was absorbed. But that wild and fierce aura still made him tremble.
"Right, Bronya seemed to call this energy 'Rupture Energy'." Jian Ling suddenly remembered what Bronya had said earlier.
"So... is this my inner world?!"
Whoosh!
As he was thinking, the Rupture Energy suddenly surged, spreading in all directions, trying to completely infect him.
"Oh no! Will I also turn into a madman like that man?" Jian Ling was filled with terror.
Suddenly, the mysterious power, as if startled by this anomaly, abruptly increased several times, tightly enveloping the Rupture Energy, like white blood cells devouring defenseless bacteria.
And the Rupture Energy, which had been rampaging like a rogue bully, began to tremble the moment it was enveloped, as if a vicious dog had seen its master, obediently submitting.
Just like that, this mass of Rupture Energy was gradually transformed by the mysterious power, slowly becoming gentle, until the mysterious power receded. The light mass symbolizing the Rupture Energy had transformed from purple to a dull gray, docilely at his disposal.
Jian Ling no longer knew what words to use to describe his feelings. The powerful and violent Rupture Energy actually had no choice but to bow down before the mysterious power that granted him precognition?!
He could feel that this mass of Rupture Energy, after being purified and transformed by the mysterious power, was still Rupture Energy, but it was incredibly compatible with him, and he could easily absorb it without any side effects.
But at this moment, he hesitated.
Did absorbing this power mean that he also stepped into Bronya and their domain? Would he also encounter those terrifying madmen?
But...
After this night, he already understood that this world was far from as simple as it seemed, and the powerful forces hidden in the shadows could easily tear apart everything he had.
What if tonight's events happened to Bai Wen, or his other relatives and friends...
"No! Absolutely not!" He made up his mind and finally began to absorb those powers little by little.
Ten chapters advanced on my patreon.