Ethan grabbed Rina by her hair, dragging her away from the gate and lifting her face to his own. His piercing blue eyes were cold as they locked with her own in a tense silence.

Then he finally spoke.

"I’ll probably see you in hell once I die."

There was no anger behind his words; it was just a statement, but it sealed her fate.

Rina’s composure shattered.

"P-Please, wait, listen, I didn’t mean to-" she began, her voice breaking as she struggled against his grip.

It didn’t matter in the slightest.

"Have you ever been eaten alive?" Ethan asked suddenly.

She froze.

The question was so random and abrupt that it didn’t even register at first.

"What...?" she whispered.

"It’s painful," he continued calmly. "Really fucking painful."

Rina looked at him like he was completely insane, though it didn’t bother Ethan, who continued casually.

"But first..."

His gaze darkened slightly.

"I should cook you for my beasts."

With a flick of his hand, Spark appeared.

The small Cinder Wisp hovered in the air, its tiny body flickering like a living flame.

"Burn her."

The command was simple, and the flaming beast acted immediately.

Ember Pulse.

Sparks burst outward, scattering across her body before igniting all at once, engulfing her in a vibrant blaze.

"AAAAAAHHHH-!!"

Her screams tore through the cavern as fire consumed her, burning through flesh, charring skin, the smell thick and suffocating. The smell was sickening and the sight disturbing, but Ethan didn’t look away.

He didn’t react at all.

The reflection of the flames danced in his eyes as he watched her writhe in pain while being literally burnt alive. Then, to add to her torment, he called upon his other two beasts.

"Wolfy. Talon."

They came instantly, his tattoos flaring to life.

As the flames died down to embers, the beasts descended and began to feed without hesitation.

Ethan watched silently.

Rina screamed at the top of her lungs, squirmed desperately, but it was pointless; she was scorched and then picked apart by his beasts. It wasn’t long before her body couldn’t take it anymore, and her soul passed on.

Though for her, it must have felt like an eternity of agony.

And yet, Ethan felt nothing: no guilt, no remorse, no shame.

’Why do I feel... weird?’

He frowned slightly.

But he quickly understood that his feeling of discomfort ironically came from the fact that he didn’t feel anything.

He sighed.

’Well, I guess this is my second kill now.’

His first was on that fateful night and had shaped his future and the man he was now, but this kill felt insignificant in comparison.

Not that it even felt like a kill.

He hadn’t done any of the actual killing himself, but more than that, she didn’t even feel like a human in his eyes anymore. Anyone who tried to kill him was prey, and prey didn’t deserve guilt; they were hunted.

And so that no one would ever know she was even here, he let his beasts finish the rest.

Wolfy and Talon didn’t hesitate.

If anything, they seemed to enjoy it, which surprised him. Even more surprising was the subtle increase in their strength after consuming Rina, Wolfy even growing slightly.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed.

’Interesting...’

A thought crept in, one that was dark and unsettling.

’If they can grow stronger from this... it should be the same for other Titled.’

His gaze flicked briefly toward the unconscious forms of Darius and the A Rank.

’Maybe even-’

He stopped, shaking his head.

’No, that’s too far.’

Ethan wasn’t a hero, but he wasn’t an evil fuckwit who would feed two people who had just fought for his survival to his beasts. Even if it was only indirectly, they were the reason he was still alive.

There was a line he didn’t want to cross.

He could feel his morality and especially his humanity fading by the day, the more beasts he killed and the more he experienced. The Tower Of Beasts was a place that moulded him into the Lord Of Beasts, and that was the ultimate predator.

To become that, many parts of himself were being stripped away.

So Ethan was going to hold on to whatever parts of himself that he could in the pursuit of power. But on that note, the system flickered in front of him once more, reminding him that killing Rina wasn’t just for his own survival.

{Congratulations on completing the Objective: Kill the hostile Titled}

{Reward: Partial Assimilation (B)}

For a moment, he just stared at it. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

It felt sick to be rewarded for killing another person, but he wouldn’t turn it down even if he could. Instead, his lips slowly curled into a grin, one that didn’t quite match the battered, bloodied state of his body.

’Fuck yeah.’

That was exactly what he needed.

Out of everything he could have received, this was the best possible reward he could have asked for. Because until now, his entire individual fighting style had revolved around one core idea: all or nothing.

Driven by his only active skill, Beast Impact.

It was powerful, overwhelming even, but it came at a cost. It required him to stack the power of his beasts onto himself and release it in a single, decisive blow. That caused massive strain on his body, and if it didn’t crush his opponent...

Well, he was fucked.

That was why he had created Variable Impact, adapting the skill into something more flexible, more usable in different situations. But even then, the attack was still hard to control and still caused him backlash.

It was essentially a gamble, something to use when forced into a corner.

"Not anymore."

Ethan exhaled slowly, his eyes flickering with a new kind of clarity as the information flooded into his mind.

This changed everything.

Beast Assimilation had always been useful, allowing him to synchronise with his beasts to a limited extent. But what he had been using until now was only the beginning.

{Stage 1 - Minor Assimilation (D): Minor physical traits and 25% stat inheritance. Cost: 1MP + 1MP/min. Can cause minor physical and mental pain after prolonged use.}

That was what he had been relying on.

It was a shallow fusion between himself and one of his beasts that provided him a minor boost, which was useful, but limited.

Now, he had unlocked the next stage.

{Stage 2 - Partial Assimilation (B): Partial transformation and 50% stat inheritance. Cost: 2MP + 2MP/min. Can cause severe physical and mental pain after prolonged use.}

Ethan’s grin widened.

"Fifty percent..."

That wasn’t just an increase; it was a massive leap, especially after he read the next part.

{While using Partial Assimilation, the host will now be able to use the skills of the beast synced with at 50% efficiency.}

Seeing that, his heart skipped a beat.

Ever since he evolved one of his beasts to D Rank and they unlocked a skill, he had been waiting for this moment. Now, not only was he borrowing more of their stats and would experience more of a transformation, but he could also use what made them most dangerous...

Their skills!

Of course, it was still only at half efficiency, which essentially meant that to unleash the full ability of the skill, it would cost him double. Meaning he still heavily relied on and was restricted by his MP.

But even then, it was a broken skill.

"This is insane."

With his current mana reserves, he could maintain Partial Assimilation for over twenty minutes under normal circumstances. Though that was without factoring in skill usage, summoning, or other variables.

’Of course I’m still struggling to last long, but I guess that’s normal for me,’ he joked internally.

Ethan, even with most of his stat weighting being in MP, still needed much more to use all his skills effectively for prolonged periods. Despite that, he was on a completely different level than before.

By unlocking Partial Assimilation, he gained more than one skill...

He gained three!

Ethan’s gaze sharpened as he mentally listed them.

From Spark, there was:

{Ember Pulse (D): Ignites volatile sparks that latch onto targets and burn continuously, scaling with MP output.}

From Talon, there was:

{Gale Rend (D): Converts speed into cutting force, allowing high-speed passes to slice targets with wind-augmented strikes at the cost of physical strain and 2 MP.}

And from Wolfy, there was:

{Predator’s Frenzy (D): Temporarily amplifies strength and speed, increasing damage with each consecutive hit at the cost of stamina and 3 MP per minute.}

Ethan let out a low breath.

"I basically just unlocked a full skill set."

He now had two active skills: one that burned and one that cut, and then he had one that allowed him to surpass his physical limits. That was while factoring in that he had to switch between the beasts he was assimilated to.

But there was still one more thing he had to check.

Without hesitation, he pulled up Wolfy’s status, curiosity burning in his chest. And what he saw left him wishing that the system took over every gate he stepped into, if these were the kinds of results he could expect...