Chapter 938 - The Wraith

POV Nathaniel

The coating around the pill dissolves, and whatever Doc cooked up floods my body. It reaches my mana and my blood, which holds hypercondensed mana, and begins to thicken both of them. It is almost to the brink of crystallizing, and the pressure inside my body increases, forcing both to move much, much faster to the point where it generates heat, even if it never did before.

The Wraith phases through the air again, passing through the distance separating us. His wound keeps dripping blood, continuing to create pine trees all over the surroundings.

Calvorn slams against the sword I made of tricolored mana and breaks through, stabbing into the ground as I dodge and carving a deep trench that cracks across the street.

He matches me despite my thought acceleration and use of kinetic energy and mana for reinforcement. We move across the street, avoiding each other's attacks, destroying buildings while gradually ramping up the damage.

Due to the pressure it is under, my mana seeps from my body at an incredible speed, moving even before I finish my thoughts as I release attacks of raw mana blasts.

My opponent either avoids them or absorbs them with Calvorn, always just barely due to the sheer speed and built-up pressure. That pressure and speed continue to ramp up as I calibrate my methods to adapt to the pill.

There might have been a day when I would have enjoyed this fight, but Genevieve's sad smile still stays in the back of my mind, as well as her hidden excitement from when we sat around the table and spoke about the upcoming event. She just seemed to be happy to be a part of all this.

So, this time, I do not hold myself back to prolong this fight, and my sister seems to get my intent, not approaching the fight.

With the ridiculousness that is my Synergy Feed, my low pristine passives are brought to the brink of mid pristine, and I rely on them just that little bit more than usual.

The Wraith's attacks hit against my defensive layer, sometimes cracking it a little, but most of the time continuing to temper it as it becomes stronger and stronger during the fight.

He begins to phase through some of my attacks, trying to get closer in order to surprise me with his speed. Every time he does so, I release an omnidirectional blast that forces him to back off or phase, followed by tempered mana projectiles that push him back even when deflected by his sword.

His trees begin to shake, the field they create reaching through my barrier and to my blood, burning it.

But even here, the mere 36 percent purity of my ichor doesn't allow that effect to rampage, and the pressure my blood is under erases the rest.

The halo made of empyrean mana is gone. It wasn't over my head even as the fight started, and now spikes made of that mana begin to pierce from the ground from the places where I hid them. Blue with gold and white, they pierce from various angles, stabbing at the vampire who phases and dances between them, sometimes cutting them down with his sword.

His own blood flows through his body, filling him with incredible vitality, and I suspect that if Calvorn stabs me, nothing good will happen. The way it reacts with the world reminds me of Veto, although it is on a much higher level. But he will have to stab me first to accomplish what he is really trying to do, as well as the attempts at a simple touch with who knows what intent.

Like flashes of light, we clash, each impact destroying more of the city and the mountain situated in the middle of it. The exchange is so fast that it is nearly constant, without any pauses between the booms of my releases of raw mana and his own attacks.

A dozen more empyrean projectiles pierce the ground, forcing him to phase. I push onto him, and finally, one of them pierces through his arm, slowing him down for a brief moment.

I rush in with the intent to take advantage of that opening, but the spike piercing him crumbles and breaks upon touching his blood, and the raw vitality of his nature heals the wound instantly.

It seems that he has only been pretending to be careful about avoiding the attacks to lure me in, as Calvorn's blade mouth splits open. It creates something akin to a two-bladed sword, and between the blades, a red light the exact same color as his pupils glows brightly.

The red light spills out onto the area, painting it in striking contrast, and the blood pine trees all burst at once, releasing a massive rain of blood.

I watch it all unfold in slowed motion and slide deeper into [Focus].

A surge of raw mana is pushed from my body, but this time I force it into a shape, molding it into a wide-bladed sword that turns black and crashes heavily against Calvorn. Instead of slowing down, I push forward, further reinforcing my body.

As I take a step, I release a blast of kinetic energy that pushes away the buildings around us and encompasses the entirety of the city, blasting the bloody rain much higher up into the air.

The empyrean projectiles already piercing from the ground dislodge themselves and shoot towards us as I place a mark directly on the Wraith.

Calvorn closes shut around that red light, and its glow intensifies even further, releasing a thick red steam. Its radiation becomes much more intense, now burning the blood inside of my body just as the vampire ducks under the first projectile, and then another one. He weaves in between them as they trail him, spinning, turning, and following him just the same as I do.

At a certain point, he erases the mark placed on him, and the projectiles lose that self-navigation. I instead choose to let them explode the moment they get close enough.

I pass through the explosions with my defensive layers, continuing to push even as the burning of my blood becomes worse. I use the built-up pressure caused by the pill to calibrate my body for even faster movement.

When I launch forward, a sonic boom follows, and I slam the black sword against Calvorn, which gets pushed back despite showing no visible damage. My raw mana blasts completely erase the area, and my submind launches more Empyrean projectiles that violently explode right there. Lastly, in my mind, two papers slide against each other. They are big, slowly flailing sheets of paper.

The screeching is overwhelming, akin to the high-pitched groaning of metal tearing apart, and my mana cleaves ahead horizontally, cutting through the entirety of the mountain in the middle and all of the city.

Even deflecting it, the Wraith is pushed back, slamming hard into the ground. With a boost, I follow him. My vessel manifests and turns black to jump in front of me, blocking multiple attacks and slamming at the place where the progenitor phases and gets out.

I slow into a walk, and each of my steps echoes through the area as I use black mana to power my disruptive efforts. Each echo is different, sounds mixing with each other as I modify them on the spot after observing the effects through my eyes and my senses.

[Calibration - lvl 20 > Calibration - lvl 21]

[Calibration - lvl 21 > Calibration - lvl 22]

[Calibration - lvl 22 > Calibration - lvl 23]

[Calibration - lvl 23 > Calibration - lvl 24]

[Calibration - lvl 24 > Calibration - lvl 25]

And just through the feel, led by my instincts.

I stab the black sword into the ground, and around it an array spreads, covering the city while letting out a loud, clear tone.

[Manifestation - lvl 73 > Manifestation - lvl 74]

[Weave - lvl 59 > Weave - lvl 60]

[Weave - lvl 60 > Weave - lvl 61]

The defensive layers on my skin temper further as I break into a run. I leave the sword behind and, in a few boosts that almost seem like teleports, I reach the Wraith.

He throws Calvorn to the side. The red glowing sword stabs into the black mana vessel, pinning it to the ground as it tries to grab him from behind, and he turns to face me with his fists only. He uses the skills of the host he is possessing as if he has gotten much more used to them, and his own true nature shows.

His attempt to phase fails for the first time, and my fist breaks through his defense, cracking against the side of his face. I dodge his counterattack, and my knee hits his belly, sending him back, but before he is flung away, I grab his arm and pull him right back to slam my head against his.

Even then, he does not lose his composure and moves as nonchalantly as ever. Blood spilled from him begins to coat his body, creating a beautiful red armor instead of the metallic one, and with a swing of his arm, Calvorn flies straight back to his grasp.

My vessel grabs the sword and gets pulled along with it, despite its massive size. It uses both of its arms to hold the sword and creates two new ones. The Wraith erases one of them with an attack, but the second one grabs a firm hold of his leg.

Mana oscillates on my feet as I kick out, cutting off that leg of his and sending him stumbling back. Stepping ahead, my punch completely explodes his head, flinging the body backward.

He almost falls down but stops in the middle of that movement, and his headless body swings back while a ball of blood floats right where his head should be. It barely gains a human shape, and two fangs show in the crescent shape of a mouth.

Calvorn opens up again, releasing that red light that is now much harsher. It burns the black vessel, erasing parts of it, and the sword moves to continue flying to its owner.

Then, from high in the air, the empyrean lance, as thick as a telephone pole, stabs downwards through the length of the Wraith, destroying nearly the entirety of his physical body. His control slips for just a moment, and my vessel reconstitutes itself, grabbing hold of Calvorn.

I begin releasing massive blasts of mana at the remains of the body, even detonating the empyrean projectile. I stand in the middle of all these explosions, not getting distracted for a single moment.

I stop only once my mana begins to almost reach its bottom limit, when the system notification finally dings.

[You have defeated The Wraith - lvl 450]

[Lvl 489 > Lvl 490]

Congratulations, you have significantly contributed to the elimination of two out of the three event entities.

You have received two rewards!

Tattoo of the Fractured Mirror - A tattoo that can be activated up to three times. Upon physical contact, it allows you to select and mirror one of a target's stats for one minute. Following each use, depending on how the mirrored stat was handled, your body may permanently retain between 0.1% and 5% of that stat.

Heretic's Needle - A needle that-

The status screen in front of me flickers and resets, this time showing slightly different text.

Heretic's Needle - ???

You will be moved back to the second floor in five minutes!

Well done!

I look around, and there isn't much to be found of the body the Wraith possessed, but there is still some blood pooling where the pine trees used to be, so I gather some more of it. I notice a powerful radiation it is giving off even now, and the living things around it begin to twist and change. There is a patch of grass and a small flower that begin to turn red, growing visibly taller. So I grab them as well and watch as the residual radiation seeps into the ground.

After picking Calvorn from the ground, and not being in the mood to listen to him, I coat the sword entirely in my mana before placing him onto my back. I then reach Victoria, who is standing over the dead body of the heir.

It is she who says exactly what I am thinking. "The others deserve pieces of it as well. I will give out a warning, but if they are foolish enough to not be aware of the dangers of this body, it is completely up to them."

I nod, and she adds, "But as the one with the reward and the one who did the killing, I deserve the first pick. So Natty, would you like the heart and some pieces of her head that are in a reasonable state?"

"You always give me the best gifts, Vic. You won't need anything?"

She shakes her head, burying her hand in the chest of the body and pulling out a heart that seems fairly normal, other than its incredibly powerful signature.

Once again I make a container out of mana, temper it, and shield it. Vic drops the heart into it, along with a nice amount of the blood. Into a smaller container, I scrape a few bits of the brain and the eye that is somehow not all that damaged.

In the middle of that, I pause momentarily, thinking about how casually we are doing this and how many times I have done this previously. We are like a swarm of humanoid locusts, finding more powerful beings and killing them or using their dead bodies for our own improvements. In a way, it is pretty twisted.

I wonder if I would be doing something similar had I not met Lily, the Doc, Savi, and a few others who enable this kind of behavior. When I really think about it, it is mostly their fault.

"Vic," I call out to her before she leaves, and with the body slung over her shoulder, she turns to face me.

"What do you actually want?" I ask her. "I mean, is there something you wish for, any specific goal, the reason you do all of this?"

Victoria tilts her head in a similar gesture I noticed I sometimes do, making me wonder if I picked it up from her.

She then gives a slight shake. "Don't search for more in it, Natty, and do not waste time pitying me again. I am well content with how I am. You know my nature, as well as why I do the things I do. It is not that complicated. I will see you later."

Pushing off her legs, she launches through the air, heading toward where I sense the other signatures approaching the destroyed city, and I head over to where Brich's body is.