To his horror, Nox remembered that when using the Royal Relic, only one direct combat tool could be used by him. Thus, all the life-saving emergency rune tools on him were useless in this situation.

There was no time to dodge; he was in his warrior branch aspect. If he had been in his mage aspect, he could have performed some instantaneous magic.

With no other choice left, there was only one foolish action that he could do. He jumped higher with all of his might.

CHINKHHH!!!!

Squelch!!

But alas!! He was too late. An invisible disk of energy that could not be sensed in the slightest cut through his legs, right on his knees, and his figure fell to the ground in a resounding thud. The pain hit him like a storm.

"Arghhhhh, ahhhh, nooooo, NOOOOOOO," screamed Nox.

Blood flowed out of the cut-off legs unceasingly; the sudden shock of it was enough to destabilize the already imbalanced state of his soul due to his one aspect being forcefully boosted by the royal Relic.

Suddenly, a furious growl of his brother came from ahead, a voice filled with ruthless determination. Nox’s gaze unknowingly went in that direction.

Thorian, when impaled by the spear, through the stomach, was hovering three feet above the ground. There was only one way to get himself out of that situation: holding the red-hot spear tightly with both hands, he pulled himself upward, ignoring the boundless pain coursing through his mind.

Slowly, but surely, his body was reaching the top of the spear, and blood flowed out unceasingly, covering the bottom section of the spear in red. His adaptation was working at overdrive. Faced with this near-death situation, he held on through sheer ruthless determination.

For that, an imperceptible qualitative change occurred in his very attribute of Adaptation.

On the other hand, Nox, despite having his two legs cut off and the imbalance of his soul, both of which caused him immeasurable pain, was still crawling towards Thorian with his hands.

His hatred overflowing with every ounce of his being, before Thorian got himself out of that impalement, he had to kill his brother. Otherwise, he would definitely die right then and there.

But alas!! Fate was not on his side. Thorian, with his ruthless determination and strengthened attribute of adaptation, managed to pull himself out of the impaling spear. Still, with the gaping hole in his stomach, his bleeding only became worse.

But Thorian seemed unable to feel pain at the moment. He pulled the bloody spear from the ground and walked towards the crawling Nox, who did not even realize that his enemy was already out of the bag.

Squelch....

Thorian stabbed the spear through Nox’s back.

Nox howled in even more agony, but more than that, there was immense fear and shock in his eyes, as he was stabbed through the back, pinned to the ground, while crawling on all fours. Now, he could not even lift his head to see Thorian properly.

At this moment, Thorian received two sudden notifications.

[You are now qualified to advance to the third phase]

[Initiating advancement...]

Thorian was taken aback.

But he could not control it once the process of breakthrough started; he hurriedly put some distance between himself and his impaled brother, who was writhing on the ground, trying to break free.

Though Nox was bleeding nonstop, a seeker as powerful as his brother had an extremely tenacious life force; he would not simply die because of that, but would continue to weaken.

Checking his surroundings one last time, Thorian hurriedly sat down, calming his mind and stopping his adaptation. He put forth a defensive rune artifact just to be careful and focused solely on the process of breakthrough. He let Prime Nexus take control of his entire existence.

A mighty power spread out of him like a tide; he felt his entire existence being elevated. The feeling was beyond surreal. His injuries and all the negative effects imposed upon him started to heal.

Meanwhile, Nox could only watch in agony as the boundless power of ascension spread out of his hateful brother right in front of him.

He gritted his teeth and, regardless of the pain and how serious his injuries would become, a force of will pushed his body up from the ground. In the process, the spear also came out of the ground.

Eventually, he also managed to pull the spear out of his back.

The sheer agony and weakness from the loss of blood were forcing him to black out, but Nox did not relent. With that same spear, he crawled closer and stabbed the rune shield. Like a vicious monster willing to kill his prey no matter what.

BANG!!!

BANG!!!

BANG!!!

Thorian was able to stand against Nox even as a peak 2nd phase seeker. Nox could only shudder at the thought of how strong Thorian would become once he reached the third phase.

Because from that phase onwards, the true prowess of the adaptation attribute would start to become apparent.

Unable to break the rune shield, with his lacking strength, Nox’s fury and fear both increased.

Thorian remained unperturbed. Because of the Energy Adaptation attribute, he took only two minutes to advance successfully, whereas a normal seeker would have needed at least half an hour.

Even his newly advanced power stabilized with ease, like a calm lake with no ripples. The moment he opened his eyes...

[Congratulations, Thorian Blackvale, you have received an Aspectual Title Arcane Adapter.]

[The potency of your attribute of ’Adaptation’ has increased permanently]

[You have received an attribute buff skill ’Adaptive Overhaul’]

[You have successfully become an Initial-3rd-Phase Seeker.]

He dismissed the flashing black glyphs displayed by Prime Nexus as his cold gaze landed on the crouching Nox, who was constantly attacking the rune shield. Thorian stood up, retracting the rune artifact. He grabbed the spear, and he kicked Nox in the stomach where the wound was.

BANG!!!

Cough!!

Grahh!!

Nox growled, but his eyes were filled with fear and desperation, "NO, no, no, Agh, stop, NOOOO...." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"You can’t do this.....Father is watching everyone is watching....what you’re doing is treason." his voice trembled with each word he uttered.

But Thorian did not respond; his face only became colder and colder until it became chilling. His bloodlust pressed on Nox, making him crawl back and stagger.

Thorian grabbed his elder brother’s throat and said, his face twisted with hatred, "I knew of your plans long before; I knew that you had already killed my mother with your henchmen."

"I only acted surprised by that revelation on purpose." Thorian snickered darkly, "If not for that, you would not have let your guard down completely, and would not have fallen to my long hidden attack."

Blood flowed out from Nox’s mouth, disbelief appeared on his face, "Ahh, ghrhh. No, it doesn’t make sense, if.... You knew you would not have let your mother die willingly?"

Tears gathered in Thorian’s eyes, and he stated in a lost voice, "It was necessary to fool you completely. If I had intervened and saved Mother, you would have realized that I was planning something here, or figured out that I was planning to ambush you."

He further added, his voice broken, tears sliding down his cheeks, "But more than that, the path of true adaptation requires sacrifice, a proof that I am willing to go to any length necessary to achieve my goals."

"So, for that reason, I let it happen. I let my mother die in agony," revealed Thorian with a ruthless look. "She did not die because of your schemes, brother, but by my own choice."

Nox looked at his brother in terror. It was only then that he realized how severely he had underestimated Thorian. He knew very well how much his younger brother cared for his mother; it would not be wrong to say that his mother meant everything to him.

So, if Thorian was willing to go so far and sacrifice so much, how could Nox ever hope to stand against someone as ruthless as him?

A man who would sacrifice his own mother willingly.

All hope, pride, and disdain Nox held in his heart against Thorian vanished, replaced by despair and dread. His eyes became dull and lifeless, like those of a dead person, for he had lost all hope.

"You....you’re a monsterr....." Nox staggered.

Thorian’s gaze was also broken, holding nothing but the deepest of pain. Then, he wiped out the tears and got up, dragging Nox by the hair, and said the words that would hurt Nox the most, enough to jolt his nearly dead brother awake.

"Don’t worry, dear brother, I won’t let you die so easily. After all, that would just be too easy. You will watch Princess Yasmin die in agony with your own eyes first, and...." proclaimed Thorian with a wretched smile, "Only then, you will have my permission to die...."

Then the Arcane Adapter looked afar... in the direction of Enrick, seeing that his battle was also over, and Princess Yasmin had been defeated, Thorian smiled coldly.

Prince Nox, who had almost lost all color in his eyes, when he heard of Thorian’s words, he began to struggle once more like a madman, with even greater fury than when his own life was at the end of the rope.

But that only made a vindictive dark joy bloom in Thorian’s heart. Seeing him struggle so badly for the woman he fell in love with, he chuckled, "Yes, it’s only right that you know my pain, my brother."

When Nox eventually noticed the brutal, near-death state of Princess Yasmin not too far away, this time, he screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice filled with boundless bloodlust, not towards Thorian but the one who was about to kill her, directed towards Enrick Samartan.

"NOOOOOOOOO......"

"DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE TOUCH HER. I WILL KILL YOU...."

"I’LL KILL YOU...."

"I’LL KILL YOU...."

"I’LL KILL YOU...."