Akins gripped the stone tightly in her hand.
Victor saw the object clearly for the first time. The dull yellow-gray surface, the strange texture, and the faint supernatural aura around it instantly triggered a memory in his mind.
His expression changed.
"The Wish Stone?"
As Akins shouted her wish, a violent surge of energy erupted through her body.
Her skin flushed red as heat radiated outward like a living furnace. It felt as though a supervolcano had awakened inside her chest, endless power flooding through every vein and muscle.
Pink light flashed in her eyes.
Her entire body glowed like a miniature sun.
Excitement spread across her face.
"My strength is ten times greater now!" she shouted triumphantly. "You will all kneel before me!"
The sky above seemed to darken as a suffocating pressure descended across the surrounding fields.
Akins moved.
The ground shattered beneath her feet as she launched forward. Her fist tore through the air like a missile and struck Clark in the chest.
Crack.
Clark felt a horrifying impact explode through his ribs.
The force blasted him backward hundreds of meters. He smashed into the forest behind them, trees snapping like dry grass as his body tore a long trench through the earth.
From above it looked like a blazing chariot had carved a path through the woods.
Clark disappeared into the distance.
Victor's heart skipped for a moment.
"Now it's your turn."
Akins turned toward him with terrifying authority, her expression like a war goddess descending to execute judgment.
Her fist shot forward again.
"You have no idea what you're playing with!" Victor shouted.
He punched forward.
Cosmic energy exploded from his body as their fists collided.
The shockwave flattened the surrounding ground instantly. Massive cracks spread across the earth like spiderwebs, and dirt erupted into the air as if thousands of tons of explosives had detonated beneath their feet.
The soil beneath Victor's feet compressed until it felt harder than steel.
He didn't move.
Standing there like an immovable mountain, his eyes cold as blades, Victor absorbed the impact without a single step backward.
Akins staggered.
Pain burned through her arm.
Her skin turned red as if scorched by molten lava, curling and peeling where their fists had collided.
"How is that possible?" she gasped.
She attacked again immediately.
"Why can you still resist my power?!"
Inside Victor's mind, the System notification appeared silently.
[Template Integration: 54%]
With his control over cosmic energy growing stronger, he caught her next strike effortlessly.
Victor counterattacked.
His punch carried even more power than before, strong enough to shake the earth itself.
Boom.
A massive white shockwave exploded outward.
Akins flew backward.
Before she could recover, Victor's body flashed forward like lightning. Killing intent radiated from him as he raised his fist and smashed downward.
Akins raised both arms to block.
The blow felt like a mountain crashing onto her head.
Her legs buckled.
She collapsed to one knee as the ground beneath her shattered, cracks spreading dozens of meters in every direction.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
"No… this can't be right."
Her eyes filled with disbelief.
"My strength didn't increase ten times at all."
The sudden rush of power had fooled her into believing she had become unstoppable.
But the increase was far smaller than she imagined.
Victor lifted his fist again.
"You're overestimating the person who created that stone," he said coldly.
Another strike fell.
The kinetic energy he had absorbed moments earlier exploded outward like a missile detonation.
Akins' body slammed deep into the ground.
"And your strength is already fading."
The battlefield now resembled a crater more than ten meters wide.
Victor dropped into the pit and calmly picked up the stone lying beside Akins.
Her bones were shattered.
Akins lay on the ground gasping weakly.
Her hair had turned gray. Her face was wrinkled and sunken like that of a dying old woman.
Life drained rapidly from her body.
She reached toward the stone with trembling skeletal fingers.
"Please… give it back…"
Her voice was barely audible.
Victor turned the stone in his hand thoughtfully.
"Even though your wish only increased your strength a few times instead of ten," he said slowly, "the price still cost you your life."
He shook his head.
"This stone isn't a blessing."
"Making a wish to it is like making a deal with the devil."
Now he finally understood where Akins' sudden power had come from.
"Please… help me…"
Akins struggled to breathe.
Even in her dying state, she tried to activate her charm ability. Sweet fragrance escaped from her lips as she attempted one last desperate seduction.
Victor waved his hand in front of his nose.
The smell reminded him of cheap perfume.
"You're dying," he said flatly. "Stop embarrassing yourself."
Akins' eyes lost their focus.
The light inside them faded completely.
Her body went still.
Clark landed beside the crater moments later, clutching his chest.
"She's… dead?"
Victor glanced at him.
"I didn't kill her this time."
"She wished herself to death."
Clark looked down at Akins' shriveled corpse with a stunned expression.
"Greed is one of humanity's original sins," Victor said quietly.
Clark jumped down into the crater and stared at the stone in Victor's hand.
"A wishing stone?" he asked. "This thing really grants wishes?"
He remembered how Akins' strength had increased dramatically after making her wish.
"Don't stare at it," Victor said as he slipped the stone into his coat pocket.
"It's not something good."
The stone strongly resembled the artifact from an old story he remembered—one connected to a powerful warrior woman and a tragic transformation that created a monstrous enemy.
But clearly that storyline hadn't unfolded here.
"If the entire world had fallen into chaos because of it," Victor thought, "my parents would definitely have noticed long ago."
A flicker of doubt crossed his mind.
Perhaps time itself worked differently.
If someone threw a stone into a river, the ripples didn't only move downstream.
Sometimes they spread backward as well.
Clark interrupted his thoughts.
"So Akins became like that because of the price?"
Victor nodded slightly.
"Anyone who makes a wish to this stone eventually regrets it."
Clark looked at Akins' corpse again and shivered.
"It feels evil," he muttered. "Maybe we should just bury it."
Victor considered that for a moment.
Then he shook his head.
"That won't be necessary."
"If things ever reach a desperate point, this stone could still be useful."
Even someone as powerful as he was couldn't do everything.
"There are people who can destroy mountains with a punch," Victor said thoughtfully, "but they can't bring a single dead bean back to life."
Every power had limits.
Clark didn't like the idea.
He instinctively hated unpredictable and dangerous things like the stone.
But before he could argue further, his face suddenly changed.
"Oh no."
"What?" Victor asked.
Clark looked horrified.
"We used our abilities in front of the entire class," he said anxiously. "Once they woke up, what do you think they'll say? What if someone already called the police?"
He imagined their peaceful family life collapsing overnight.
Victor's expression shifted slightly.
Although he personally didn't care much about people discovering his abilities, their parents certainly valued the quiet life on the farm.
"Let's go back to school and see what happened," Victor said.
As he spoke, another thought quietly crossed his mind.
"If necessary… maybe a death row inmate could make a wish and pay the price."
It was worth considering.
If the stone truly worked that way, it might become a useful loophole.
....
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