BUILDING MY OWN EMPIRE - My Journey from Nothing to Overwhelming Power-Chapter 46 – Scion of Darkness
When I stood in the shadow of the limb embedded in the ground...
The other two limbs had no choice.
To reach me,
They had to force their way through,
To shatter everything that stood in their path,
To break the limb embedded in the ground...
That limb which had suddenly become an unintended shield.
The monster’s body convulsed violently.
It wasn’t just a shiver of rage,
But a shudder of genuine pain.
Then its scream rose, distorted, fractured,
As if the throat itself were tearing apart as it shrieked.
A massive sonic wave exploded from its body,
And swept across the arena,
It passed by me like an invisible wall,
Pushing the air so harshly that my chest felt compressed.
My feet wavered.
I felt the ground being pulled from beneath me for a moment,
And I felt weakness...
A void.
But I...
Did not fall.
I stood.
Not because my body was capable,
But because I refused to fall.
With all that remained of my eroding strength,
And with a determination that pain no longer held any authority over.
The broken rib screamed with every breath,
Blood was warm against my lips,
But my mind...
Was terrifyingly clear.
Suddenly..
The limbs lunged toward me, one after another.
It wasn’t a coordinated attack,
But a furious torrent,
As if the monster had completely lost its patience.
A heavy step backward...
Then another.
My feet sank into the mangled soil,
The uprooted grass no longer provided any balance.
My speed began to rise despite everything,
Despite every movement being like a stab in my chest.
The fear of death...
Was my only fuel.
Not the fear that paralyzes,
But the kind that drives you to survive at any cost.
I evaded.
I retreated.
I waited.
Watching the rhythm.
Calculating the time between strikes.
Counting in my head without numbers.
Then.
All the limbs lunged once again.
From seven directions.
Seven possibilities of death.
I transcended the pain once more,
As if my body were no longer mine.
I evaded the first...
A narrow shift.
Then the second...
A short jump that barely lifted me.
Then the third...
A slide on the knee, skin burning from the friction. I did not cry out..
Then.
The onslaught stopped suddenly.
Not because the monster was tired,
But because this was its pattern.
Two seconds only.
Two seconds that felt like eternity. They passed when
Two more limbs thrust toward me.
"Not now..."
I whispered, exiting the strike’s path by the skin of my teeth.
I felt it in that moment.
Something inside me was eroding.
My combat accumulation...
Was dropping.
Then.
Three limbs from different directions.
There was no room for thought.
DOOM.
The ground split.
DOOM.
The air was torn.
DOOM.
The shadow nearly swallowed me.
I barely survived.
And in the next moment...
A single, solitary limb lunged from a distance.
It was different.
Slower.
Heavier.
And more reckless.
"There it is..."
I smiled unconsciously.
Then. A half-turn.
A calculated evasion.
The limb embedded in the ground with immense depth,
Until the soil shook around it.
I didn’t flee.
I immediately shifted my body,
And hid in its shadow.
I raised my hand.
Wind blades emerged from my palm quickly,
Thin, sharp, unstable.
I intensified them.
I compressed them.
Until they became a rotating mass,
Roaring with a low sound.
The next attack came from the front.
BOOM!
The collision was brutal.
The pressure crushed the air,
My body was hurled back dozens of meters.
I saw the sky,
Then the ground,
Then nothing.
But I did not fall.
My feet dug into the earth,
My body swayed,
Then it straightened.
The monster screamed.
A mangled scream this time,
Not a threat... but pain.
Twenty meters away...
I stood, gasping.
"A single limb... cannot harm me."
I whispered.
"Especially after it loses its momentum smashing into another limb."
This wasn’t boasting.
It was a conclusion.
I charged again.
The monster ignored its pain...
And attacked.
After a while..
The sun rose higher in the sky,
And the light became harsh on my eyes.
{ 10% Power Accumulation }
I collapsed onto my feet,
My breath coming in gasps.
Ahead of me...
At a distance of thirty meters...
The limbs were devastated.
Broken.
Lying in disarray.
The monster barely stood,
Clinging to its rear tentacles,
Its massive body swaying.
I nearly caught my breath.
But it moved.
Immediately.
"The bastard... won’t let me rest."
I whispered with a faint anger.
Suddenly...
Something else began.
Millions of tiny tentacles began to appear,
Emerging from its body,
Accumulating,
Intertwining.
It wasn’t an attack yet...
But the sense of danger was present.
Then..
Five new limbs formed,
Closer to massive black pillars,
Hard, inflexible,
Unlike the previous limbs.
Then
They contracted.
And the monster...
Prepared to jump.
The five new limbs tensed.
I saw the movement before it was complete.
I felt the pressure in the air.
I read the situation instantly.
I braced my body.
I prepared.
"It’s going to jump at me."
I whispered.
The ground shook beneath the monster,
And the limbs dug deep.
Then.
It jumped.
I moved at the same moment,
Ready to evade,
To block,
To face whatever was coming.
But...
The air did not collapse over my head.
I raised my eyes.
And froze.
Something I didn’t expect happened..
The monster wasn’t heading toward me.
Its massive body was soaring over me...
Passing me by,
As if I didn’t exist.
It jumped toward the fourth wall.
Where the others stood.
In that moment, I understood.
That I had made a mistake.
Not in the movement...
But in the analysis.
The monster.. which is a natural enemy of the Forgotten Moon kin..
"What a fool I am!" I shouted in rage.. I should have analyzed the matter better..
When the monster loses its source of energy and regeneration represented by the Deer Monster.. it will search for a substitute..
"The lives of others!" I screamed.
And my blood...
Ran cold.
I closed my eyes involuntarily as the sun flared.
My body stiffened in fear..
My gaze fixed on the monster...
Far away...
Farther than I could reach.
Then.
{ DING... DING... DING }
{ Conditions Met }
{ Full Moon + Full Night + Sunny Morning }
{ Title: Master of Shadows }
{ Activated }
{ For 10 hours... You have become a Scion of the Forgotten Moon }
The voice rang inside my head,
Rapid-fire,
Cutting through everything.
{ Unlocked: Weapon Attributes }
Scion of Darkness
My feet moved unconsciously.
Chasing Radian.
When I first obtained my ancient weapon...
The compatibility between us was perfect.
Yet... its attributes remained locked.
On that day...
The condition to unlock the attributes was clear... and strange.
That I must be of the Forgotten Moon kin.
A step...
Then another.
I summoned the Scion of Darkness.
"Luck... once again."
I whispered.
Then my mind plunged into the three attributes.
The First Attribute. Borrowing.
Suddenly...
The world vanished.
Everything turned into a thick mist.
Dozens of auras appeared before me all at once.
Weapons... and their owners.
Monali and her bow.
Jo and his axe.
Lois and her gloves.
Suman and his spear.
Every warrior of the Forgotten Moon...
Their weapon attributes were open before me.
Then.
The mist faded.
The world returned.
Radian was less than a hundred meters from the others.
I stepped into the center of the arena.
I raised my hand.
In the sky...
At a massive height..
Pulses of yellow light began to appear, one after another.
They gathered.
They intertwined.
The monster raised its head.
Its eyes widened.
Its scream erupted.
"This is...?"
Monali whispered, a sharp concern narrowing everyone’s eyes.
In an instant...
A massive magic circle formed.
Complete.
Absolute.
Then.
It descended like thunder.
A single strike.
It crushed the earth,
And uprooted Radian with it.
{ 5% Power Accumulation }
I felt blood fill my mouth. I leaned toward falling. The price for that magic circle.. was immense, greater than any strike I had received from the monster until this moment..
Falling?
I don’t have the luxury for that.
I gritted my teeth, and roared.
Five pillars rose around the monster.
The binding chains locked onto it once again.
I lunged.
The monster thrashed in vain.
From afar, some warriors tried to attack.
Led by Logan.. seeking to hunt the monster.
"Stay back!"
I shouted, my gaze burning with rage.
I arrived.
"It is..."
I said, standing before it.
"My prey."
They retreated immediately.
Fear etched on their faces.
I moved around Radian.
My steps were steady. Then ..
My right hand was flooded with yellow energy.
The Scion of Darkness turned black... until it was like charcoal.
In that moment.. I drew upon the power of Lois’s weapon.
The Scion of Darkness tore into the monster’s body.
A strike. And another.
Then another.
Then.
I was no longer counting.
I stopped.
I jumped in front of its face.
For the first time...
We were close.
I looked into its eyes and whispered:
"Die... you bastard."
I jumped high.
I pulled my left hand back.
I descended. At a distance of 20 meters.
A single rotation. Like a flashy and fast spin..
Then.
I released a blade from the core of the Scion of Darkness.
It was the size of a sword.
It grew.
It grew larger.
The air collapsed around it violently,
As if a meteor were plunging mercilessly.
It reached him.. and it was larger in size than he was.
The immense noise of the compressed air around it was fierce..
Then.
SWOOOOOSH!
A deafening sound stunned everyone.
A sweeping wave swallowed the place.
And in a single moment...
Radian was split into two.
The winds of death passed.
And finally...
Its eyes went dark.
