Chapter 548: Wrath (1/2)

A wave of pain spread across Zac's body, shocking him awake from his trance-like state. He still felt under the influence of his skill though as the world was drowned in a metallic luster. He took a steadying breath as he looked around, and he finally spotted the remains of Harbinger.

However, Zac's brows rose when he realized that he actually hadn't gained any Cosmic Energy so far, and he pushed his exhausted body to walk over to the Zhix assassin. He was full of vigilance that it might release a final desperate attack, but he quickly realized that Harbinger was in no position to do so.

Cracks spread across the insectoid's remaining body parts before they crumbled to dust like his body was made from burnt-out wood rather than flesh and blood. There was also no energy remaining in its body according to [Cosmic Gaze]. The fact that the Zhix was still living was a miracle. There was no way that it would have the power to attack in this state.

“You sacrificed most of your life-force to keep me trapped so long. Even if you succeeded you wouldn’t live much longer,” Zac said with a hoarse voice. “All this for some insane cultivator that happened to visit your world thousands of years ago?”

“I… don’t care… about him,” the crumbling head actually managed to say with a whisper. “All… for… father.”

Harbinger died the next moment, and Zac felt a tremendous surge of Cosmic Energy entering his body. This was by far the greatest amount of energy he had ever gained from a single kill, with the possible exception of the Dragon. However, he was both level capped and unconscious that time around, so it didn't really count.

Cracking open the next node shouldn't be an issue with this much energy, even if he barely had worked on it so far. However, Zac wasn’t as interested in a single node compared to the other things that were going on in his body, so he just trapped the energy before moving on.

This was the first time he had activated his [Cyclic Strike] to summon a bronze flash since his battle with the dragon, and he was a bit shocked how well things went, all things considered. There was no need to maim himself and almost no difficulty at all to summon the bronze flash, and he somehow even managed to shoot it out of his hands.

It really seemed that the forcibly redrawn pathways on his shoulders did exactly what he had hoped.

However, even if the result was good there were undeniably some problems with how things went. First of all, he quickly lost control over the remnants' energies and he ended up using everything instead of just a portion. His soul was completely drained of the energy that had been slowly siphoned off the Splinter and it would probably take weeks before he could even launch a weaker bronze flash.

He had also completely blacked out there for a second when the infused energies passed a certain threshold. He had felt a sharp stab in his soul and only woke up after he had finished the attack. However, he had not only launched the strike but even healed himself with help of the Shard of Creation while unconscious, and there were fragmented memories of his actions.

Perhaps it would be more apt to say that he had entered some sort of auto-pilot or trance-like state, but it made him wonder if it was actually himself or the Remnants that was behind the wheel. In any case, it proved that he needed to keep grinding at the Soul Strengthening Array. He had been able to use his mind to slow down the flow of energy a little bit when activating [Cyclic Strike], proving he might be able to freely control it in the future.

“Are… you okay?” a hesitant voice asked from the side, dragging Zac out of his thoughts.

Zac looked over, only to feel a searing pain on his shoulder. A couple of hairline cracks had appeared out of nowhere just as some sort of fractal pathway disappeared, looking just like the ones that consumed the remains of Harbinger. Fear surged in Zac's chest, but he slowly calmed down when he realized that it didn't seem as though the cracks would spread any further.

Was this a side-effect from unleashing a bronze flash of this magnitude? Was his body perhaps unable to bear the Dao of Oblivion, even if it was just a shadow of a corner of that high-tiered Dao?

In fact, his attack couldn’t really be called a flash any longer. It was a proper sphere of unadulterated destruction. It had disintegrated everything within a one-meter diameter. That was enough to pretty much kill any humanoid of normal size. Better yet, Zac doubted that there were too many things on Earth that could block those kinds of scary energies.

Space itself broke apart and was destroyed, how was some defensive talisman going to protect against that?

“I’m fine,” Zac eventually answered, though that wasn’t entirely true.

The cracks on his shoulders wasn't the only thing ailing him. Zac felt weak all over, like he hadn't only overtaxed his mind but also his body. He still had an ample amount of Cosmic Energy remaining, but his mental energy was almost drained clean.

“What… Was that?” Thea eventually asked as she kept her distance from Zac. “My mind has never screamed of danger like that before, not even when I was on the brink of dying. And I wasn't even the target.”

“I guess you could say it was pure annihilation,” Zac sighed. “Don’t think about it too much. It involves some things that I can't talk about. Just considerer it one of my hidden cards.”

“Some card,” Thea muttered as she looked down at the tragic remains of Harbinger.

Harbinger's face had cracked in two and collapsed into its skull, making it seem as though the head was just a broken sculpture. Zac sighed as he looked at the odd scene. Some card indeed. Only he knew there were still too many issues to resolve before it could really be called a hidden card though.

Apart from his lacking control, there was one more fundamental weakness to his Annihilation Sphere; it took too long to charge up. Who would let Zac stand still for a few seconds while he radiated that terrifying aura? He got lucky with Harbinger since he was willing to die to complete his strike, but most people didn’t have that conviction.

They would either strike him from a distance or run for their lives if they encountered an attack imbued with oblivion. They wouldn't be trapped in a spatial lock like Thea or Harbinger. That meant he needed to learn how to create an opening so that he could get a chance to shoot out the blast without obstruction or interruption.

“Annihilation… Even its Cosmos Sack is gone,” Thea muttered from the side.

Zac swore in surprise and hurried over to the corpse, no longer caring about the long-term implications of his situation.

It was true. There was simply nothing left between the insectoid's lower thighs and shoulders. Not even a scrap remained, meaning anything Harbinger carried on its belt or back was gone.

”Well, shit.”

“OPEN IT!” Inevitability screamed as the air around her wailed from her unbridled bloodlust.

“We can’t, Lady Inevitability! There’s a-“ an elder cried, but it didn’t get any further before it was turned to meat paste from a lashing.

Over one hundred corpses were already strewn around her, but it did nothing to stymie the fury that was building in her chest. She had hoped to unleash it on her brother's killer, but these people were useless. She couldn’t hold it in any longer, and she released a roar filled with her fury and madness.