Chapter 428: _They Fear What You’ll Become

Unknown Hellish World

BOOMMM!

Blood shot out of Ambrose’s mouth, every bone in his body screaming after he was smashed through a literal mountain. Grave Keeper slipped from his grip, his fingers barely able to even twitch.

He tumbled through the rocky ground, the screeches around him growing louder.

[WARNING: Host’s state critical.]

[6,600 HP lost from last attack.]

A bloody smile curled Ambrose’s lips.

It’s been about one Earth week.

According to the system’s calculations, this particular world followed the same laws of time as Earth, which would be a first.

But it also meant he’d had to suffer for much longer.

Titans dominated this world—from the skies, to the ground and even below ground.

The smallest beasts were easily the size of buildings.

His strategy has involved retreating when a threat becomes too much for him, planning and then coming back to take it down.

So far... It worked.

Until now.

Multiple footsteps rushed to him as he groggily got on his feet, spitting out the rest of the blood filling his mouth. A flick of his wrist summoned Grave Keeper back to his hand.

’Gosh, this thing needs an upgrade.’ His heart skipped a beat when he flipped the scythe around and noticed the cracks spiderwebbing its blade. ’Beherath. Rise.’

Bolts of golden lightning lit up the heavens and earth. Out of his shadow, a hulking monstrosity emerged, every muscle in his body pulsing with necrotic energy and bloodlust.

Beherath pulled out his halberd, standing beside his master as they faced the approaching storm.

Giant spiders the size of armoured tanks rushed at them, each of them an S-Rank existence. They numbered in the hundreds, covering the land as far as Ambrose could see in black.

Far behind them was an even bigger spider... the Queen. She stood like a living hill, hundreds of meters high with legs that tapped the ground hard enough to send tremors felt miles away.

Ambrose’s eyes lit up with blue fire.

The Orc king pounded his chest with a fist twice, black smoke rolling out of his mouth. He roared, summoning the energies of his orc army to himself without taking from his master’s aether.

Then they both moved.

One sweep of his halberd cut through dozens of spiders, either killing or maiming them.

[8 intact aether cores acquired.]

Ambrose rocketed into the air with his flames, pure white wings unfurling from his back. A single flap sent discs of burning ice at the spiders, freezing and burning them until they shattered like glass.

"AHHHH!" He swiped down with Grave Keeper.

A vertical crescent wave of death energy swept through the battlefield, turning even more of the spiders to ash.

[SYSTEMTITLEACTIVATED: Cataclysm Breaker.]

[SYSTEMTITLEACTIVATED: Death Racer.]

He went all out, summoning his undead fox next. Together, the trio razed through the army of spiders—spells, ice beams, flames and spatial attacks sending distorted ripples through the land for hundreds of kilometres.

Death Racer tripled his speed and reflexes, turning him into a living, breathing missile.

Time lost all meaning.

Ambrose stopped counting how many times Grave Keeper cut through flesh. Spiders died by the dozens, then the hundreds, until the black tide that had once swallowed the horizon had become nothing more than smoking corpses littering the rocky plains.

[CONGRATULATIONS: Host has slain 435 S-Rank spiders from this altercation.]

[253 intact aether cores acquired in total.]

Ambrose held Grave Keeper with both hands.

He should be stoked at managing to obtain so many aether cores.

Yet he couldn’t be.

Not with every bone and muscle in his body straining until his knees and arms wobbled. Not with his HP reaching levels he hasn’t seen in a long time.

[HP: 12,200/100,000.]

He swallowed.

Far ahead, the queen spider still stood, untouched by their onslaught. On the contrary she stared down at the insects who’d dared slaughter her offspring.

Her precious army.

’I can’t face that thing with such a low HP count.’ He pondered. ’Should I just... retreat? Or maybe reanimate them and add them to my undead?’

He took a hesitant step back. ’Aura, how many coins can I get if I sell all the aether cores?’

The system flashed a few screens.

[7,620,000.]

[This plus your previous numbers would leave you at a total of 13,090,000.]

[Would you like to proceed with selling them?]

Lightning cracked louder and more erratically through the clouds. The Queen spider stayed perfectly still for a fucking giant.

That did nothing to calm his nerves.

It was a lower SSS-Rank beast. So powerful that its aether reserves would easily dwarf the Xaloran Entity and make even the Pantheon struggle hard.

Regarding it now, Ambrose had the same feeling as when he was faced with the Void Entity and Devourer.

A living Extinction event.

’Is it too late to quit?’

★★★★★

Unknown Location, Outside Reality

Orion frowned at the pebble resting in his tiny palm.

"So... what do I do?"

Older Orion stood several metres away with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Nothing."

The little boy blinked. "Nothing?"

"Exactly."

Confusion spread across his face. "But you said you were going to teach me."

"I am." The older version smiled faintly. "The first lesson is understanding that your powers don’t answer to effort. They answer to thought."

Orion looked back down at the pebble.

"I still don’t get it."

"You don’t need to." Older Orion nodded toward it. "Simply imagine it somewhere else."

The child scrunched his nose.

He stared at the stone until his cheeks puffed from concentration.

Nothing happened.

"See?" He huffed. "I just can’t."

"You tried to move the rock."

"...Wasn’t I supposed to?"

"No." Older Orion walked closer before crouching to his eye level. "You still think like a child living inside reality." He gently tapped Orion’s forehead. "But your powers don’t. Always remember that."

Orion tilted his head. "They think... differently?"

"They don’t think at all." A quiet pause followed. "They decide."

Before Orion could ask what that meant, the pebble suddenly disappeared from his palm.

His eyes widened.

A second later...

PLOP.

Something landed on his head.

He yelped, grabbing the pebble as it rolled into his hands again.

"I didn’t do that!"

"You did."

"I swear I didn’t!"

"You wanted proof that I was telling the truth." Older Orion folded his arms. "Your powers answered that desire before your mind even understood it."

The little boy stared silently at the pebble.

"That’s cheating."

"It is." A reluctant chuckle escaped Older Orion. "And that’s exactly why the Archons fear and want you."

Orion looked up. "They... Fear me?"

"They don’t fear the child standing before me." His gaze softened. "They fear what you’ll become once your mind finally catches up with your existence."

Silence settled between them.

The pebble slowly floated from Orion’s fingers without him noticing.

Then another.

Soon dozens of stones circled the little boy like tiny moons orbiting a planet.

Older Orion watched without interrupting.

For several long moments, he simply observed.

Then a smile, tinged with both pride and concern, crossed his face.

"You’ve grown faster than I calculated."