Chapter 74: Dreams of a “Self”

It, now a towering, muscular man, was driven into a corner of the inn. Noa stood before Vionette, leveling Acheron toward the entity. Around them, while most patrons cowered in hiding, a few drew their weapons on instinct, though none dared to draw closer.

Vionette peered over Noa’s shoulder at the greatsword It held, a sly smile playing on her lips as she rested a hand beneath her chin.

“Looks like you can acquire their primary weapon, physical attributes, and even a few of their skills,” she remarked, causing It to grit its teeth.

As It glared at her in rage, Vionette turned casually and glided out of the building. Rose scooped up a chair while Kaelen trailed behind. Setting the chair down just outside the inn's doorway, Vionette seated herself to spectate the carnage.

Then came the clash. The massive greatsword slammed against the toothy edge of Acheron, which mirrored its master's sinister grin. Noa and the entity locked eyes as steel met steel, the thunderous impacts echoing through the inn and shattering the surrounding walls.

“You can copy skills and stats?” Noa’s gaze burned with violent delight as he pivoted, driving a roundkick into Its face. “Now that makes things way less boring!”

The blow hurled It across the room and into the wall. Just after crashing against the wood and spitting blood, the muscular man dissolved into a patch of dark liquid on the surface before instantly reassembling into a slender elf woman holding a bow.

Blessed with superior agility, It scaled the vertical walls of the inn, momentum pinning it to the wood as it loosed a rain of arrows at Noa from every angle. Noa cleaved a few shafts in two with Acheron while effortlessly weaving past the rest.

As he moved, he condensed orbs of purple energy from [Echo Reclamation] and fired them toward the entity, who evaded them using her swiftness. The volatile purple spheres hissed through the air, blasting holes through the walls and whistling past the terrified crowd, indifferent to the lives they grazed.

“Damn… that’s fast. But,” Noa muttered, channeling the dark violet energy down into his legs while tracking Its trajectory, “I’ve never settled for second place in speed either.”

He lunged forward instantly toward the spot It materialized. His boot slammed into the bow first, shattering it as the momentum drove his heel into the elven face. The wall gave way, and the elf's skull fractured as It was hurled straight out of the inn and across the street where fleeing civilians scattered in panic.

But what was the death of a single self? It instantly shifted into another shape—a robed mage gripping a long wooden staff. Aether surged wildly around the spellcaster as it began an incantation against the closing Noa.

— Tier 2 Magic: Withering Flames —

Twin magic circles flared to life at the caught-off-guard Noa’s flanks. They burned brilliant red before erupting into torrents of crimson flames that rushed straight toward his face.

[Phantom Phrase]

Noa’s physical form blurred into an spectral image for a fleeting second—just enough for the flames to pass through his body with minimal damage. Still feeling the stinging heat radiating against his skin, Noa gritted his teeth and surged forward.

“I had enough of these motherfucking flames the last time!” he barked, glaring into the mage’s eyes with sheer irritation.

Just as he swept Acheron in a diagonal arc, It shifted once more. Assuming the form of a demon knight, It intercepted the strike with a longsword in a deafening clash of metal. A spray of blood escaped the knight’s lips onto the cobbles as the kinetic force dragged It backward through the dirt.

Without granting it a moment's respite, Noa closed the distance, pressing his relentless assault. Though It managed to parry the onslaught, it could not escape the agonizing weight behind each blow.

Every blocked strike drove It backward or forced a desperate dodge, leaving its guard open to a shallow slash elsewhere.

How are they so powerful? And this fighting style… it’s completely unreadable! the entity thought in panic.

Noa spun to deliver the next blow, but just as the knight dissolved into a figure clad in dark robes, It vanished.

From Noa’s shadow, the black-robed man materialized. Twin hands reached around Noa from behind—one binding his arms against his torso, while the other pressed the cold steel of a dagger inches from his throat.

“Human, tell me, what is that power?” It pressed the blade closer, the tip pricking Noa’s skin and drawing a thin trail of blood down his neck. Yet Noa’s grin only widened. “Why does that power feel strangely familiar?”

[Blink]

Its eyes widened in shock. It caught a glimpse of Noa reappearing directly in front of it before vanishing once more into thin air.

From behind came the whistle of a sword strike. Instantly shifting back into the demon knight, It whirled around, but it was too late—the edge cleaved through the pristine armor, rending the knight's torso wide open.

“You also get the emotions of everyone you consume, right?” Noa carved into the injured body over and over, a wicked grin painted on his face as blood splattered across his skin. “I guess it’s cuz we have such similar taste.”

Its agonizing scream blended into the terrorized shrieks of the fleeing crowd before the knight finally succumbed. A heartbeat later, It morphed into a beast-woman—a tiger-kin with razor claws and elongated fangs.

“Damn… you really are a whole toolbox,” Noa muttered, weaving side to side to slip past the vicious swipe of her claws.

As the beast-woman lashed out once more, Noa opened his jaws wide. The entity gasped in sudden agony as Noa’s teeth clamped down into the her attacking hand. Planting the tip of Acheron into the cobblestones, he used the sword as a pivot to swing his legs around, driving a powerful kick into the creature's ribs.

“Let go!” It shrieked, staring in horror at its hand.

Blood flooded Noa's mouth as he sank his teeth deeper into the flesh. The full kinetic weight of the kick tore the arm completely from its socket, sending the beast-woman hurtling through the air to crash through the walls of several surrounding structures.

Noa spat the severed arm onto the ground, wiping his bloody chin. “Fuck. Wish that had been Vionette’s instead.”

Deep within the upper floor of a distant building, It lay amid the rubble. Painfully, it pushed itself up, drenched in blood and sweat. Heaving for air, it glared at Noa through the jagged crater carved by its impact.

It then transformed into a high demon whose Aether amount was far superior to any of its previous forms.

“Spirit of fire, spirit of wind, spirit of earth...” Elemental spirits coalesced around the demon as it began its incantation. “Suw wepos zumo—”

[Blink]

“Fucking idiot. You think I’ll wait around while you chant a spell?” Noa materialized right in front of the demon, driving his right fist straight into its face. “Did you miss the part where I can teleport?!”

Agony shattered the demon's focus, sending loose teeth flying as the force blew It through the rear wall and into the structure beyond. Noa warped ahead once more, intercepting its flying body to deliver a vicious uppercut.

It tore through the stone ceiling before tumbling down into the street below. For several seconds, it lay motionless on the shattered pavement, staring blankly up at the sky, which somehow felt more beautiful than ever.

All around it, civilians scrambled in pure panic; every time they fled in one direction, the sudden devastation instantly shifted to another corner of the city-state.

It struggled to rise from the cracked earth, but a dark silhouette eclipsed the light above. Looking up, it saw Noa plunging downward from the high rooftop, angling the tip of Acheron straight toward its chest.

“Let’s see you survive this, motherfucker!”

The impact shattered the cobblestones into a spiderweb of craters, detonating a massive shockwave across the square that obliterated surrounding market stalls and sent the crowd into bloodcurdling screams.

Noa crouched atop the entity, one knee pressed into the dirt, both hands driving Acheron deep into Its chest. He stood up and looked down at his ruined foe, but instead of a corpse, he met a glitching nightmare—a visage strobe-flickering wildly through a dozen different stolen identities in agonized chaos.

I can’t find my ‘self’ if I die here… I have to sacrifice every self I have!

Yanking Acheron free, Noa leapt back to create distance. The entity’s physical vessel dissolved into a mound of viscous, pitch-black fluid. Swirling faces—men, women, children—floated within the tar-like sludge, their eyes wide in eternal, silent anguish.

The unstable mass drew together, coalescing into a featureless humanoid silhouette. Void of face or detail, its form was pure darkness, like a tear plucked from the abyss. Rising to its feet, the shadow released a hollow roar of concentrated malice that reverberated through the city-state like a death knell.

Merging every identity it had consumed, It entered a state of mindless berserk—a creature without a ‘self.’

“I guess it’s time to end this drama,” Noa murmured, his tone flattening into dead seriousness.

He raised Acheron, leveling its point directly at the entity. [Echo Reclamation] flared back to life, coalescing into a single, dense point of purple energy at the tip of the dark blade.

Just as the energy reached its peak, the shadow surged forward, ready to take him down with all the sacrifices done.

— Formless Sword: Trace (Lingering Afterimage) —

The blade sliced through the atmosphere like a divine sentence. Violet energy smeared across the sunlight, hanging suspended in the air long after the steel had swept past.

Mid-lunge, the shadow felt its momentum die. Time seemed to stretch as it watched the dark sword pass straight through its torso.

What… is that?

Acheron pierced through the center of the black figure and flew forward, the physical blade continuing its path to demolish the buildings behind the entity and killing the fleeing civilians.

Seconds later, the cobblestones along the blade's path exploded skyward before the lingering impact caught up to the entity, detonating in a gaping hole through its chest.

The black figure collapsed to its knees, staring down at its unraveling form. It was not a physical entity that could be slain by ordinary strikes, but the stolen selves had been completely eradicated.

Every defensive barrier, every shell of armor, and every swift body it commanded had been disintegrated by that single, lingering strike.

With no self to transform into, the egos that had made its ‘will’ began to dissolve, fading into the Void as it was always supposed to be.

Noa closed the distance with casual steps. Reaching out a hand, Acheron flew back into his grip, its sentient will humming in satisfaction at its master’s touch.

“At least once… I wanted to be ‘myself’,” the entity rasped, its voice a thousand overlapping whispers.

Noa leveled Acheron toward the creature's fading body, the purple energy swirling anew, eager to execute the final blow.

He smirked with careless disdain. “I don’t really give a shit. So let’s just end this here—”

Suddenly, the energy surrounding Acheron flickered and snuffed out like a candle flame. Noa looked up, his brow furrowing as a massive, shimmering barrier of radiant golden light expanded across the entire city-state.

This was the Aureate Silence—a barrier requiring a coordinated team of casters to sustain. Its function was simple, though immensely inconvenient for Noa: it suppressed all negative emotions and imposed calmness upon every mind within its boundary.

Noa turned his head over his shoulder, his shock curdling into a dark grin. His eyes narrowed in amused anticipation as he welcomed the entrance of the new players.

“Saint Jain,” he began, turning to face her with arms spread wide in a mocking bow. “How was the old man? Did he have a lot to say?”

Standing before him was Jain, her visage shadowed by raw fury. Her knuckles turned bone-white as she gripped her spear, her golden eyes burning with disgust. Behind her stood Nill, hand resting on his sword hilt, while her knights anchored the golden barrier blanketing the city.

“You… you evil thing,” Jain whispered, her voice trembling with rage. “Why? Why would you do that to such an innocent man?”

“What are you talking about, Jain?” a smooth, melodic voice interrupted.

Vionette glided forward, her crimson eyes dancing with dark amusement. She tilted her head, observing the Saint with a quiet, mocking curiosity.

“If that monster simply killed that man and framed us, would you just turn against us so easily? Do you not trust your ‘dear friends’ at all?”

Jain’s expression faltered for a fleeting second, her eyes widening. For a single heartbeat, she wished to believe Vionette—that this entire tragedy was merely a cruel illusion made by the shapeshifter.

But she had missed the most important word in the sentence.

Vionette stepped closer to Noa, her delicate fingers brushing against her lips as her smile widened. Her eyes remained half-lidded, brimming with cruel delight, as though struggling to stifle a laugh at a joke only she understood.

“Well, that is if that had happened,” Vionette purred. “But this time… the monsters really were us.”