Eternal Master: Path to Godlike Status-Chapter 12: Unknown

Elisa’s throat was shredded, each scream tearing through vocal cords already burning from too much agitation.

"STOP IT!"

"PLEASE!" Her voice cracked, like she swallowed broken glass. "LEAVE HER ALONE!"

The men near Eira only laughed.

One of them looked over his shoulder and grinned, his eyes mocking, while his dagger worked.

Lace by lace, he cut away what remained of her clothing.

"NO!" Elisa clawed at the dirt anyway, nails breaking, knuckles bleeding.

"Please." Her voice cracked down the middle. "Please, she didn’t do anything to you. None of us—"

"Save it." The first mage spat. He forced her to look at Eira, at the men surrounding and taking advantage of her.

"Watch. Maybe you can learn from her."

Elisa squeezed her eyes shut.

The grief was enormous. It pressed down on her ribs like a stone slab and kept pressing.

She had no fight left. No mana. No strength. The staff lay in the dirt three feet away, its crystal dark and cold.

"I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough."

She stared at the ground instead.

At a small beetle making its patient way across a root. At the way the dying afternoon light caught the grain of the soil.

Small, stupid details. The kind her mind reached for when the reality were too brutal to look at.

"Save me!" Eira screamed as the men began to toy with her.

Elisa pressed her forehead harder against the dirt as if she could push herself through it entirely, down into some deep dark quiet place where none of this was happening.

Then she heard a crack.

Dry and sharp, like a branch snapping, except there was no wind.

She lifted her head.

Another crack. Then another, faster, building into a rapid series of pops and fractures, like ice splitting across a frozen lake.

The sound came from the pile of beast organs.

Everyone paused.

The skeleton in the corner was moving—bones rattling, jaw clicking open and shut. Its skull twisted toward them, empty sockets finding each face in turn.

"What—" one of the fighters stepped back.

The first mage raised a hand. "Don’t tell me that skeleton is from an undead lich!"

The second mage swallowed hard and prepared to cast a spell as well.

Next, the fighters drifted closer, their perverted entertainment momentarily forgotten.

crack!

crack!

The skeleton shot upright as flesh burst from its bones like boiling water. Marrow, blood vessels, muscles, and organs formed in a blink, rebuilding the body in seconds.

"Kill it," the first mage commanded.

They cast simultaneously. Shredding the newly formed muscle clean off the ribs.

A second spell followed — wind magic, destroying the exposed bone, cracking two of the vertebrae.

But the regeneration did not pause.

New fibers crept back from the edges of the bones, faster than the first time.

"Again!" the mage barked. "Destroy it!"

Multiple spells slammed into it.

Fire scorched muscle from bone. Wind carved away chunks before flesh could settle.

Yet it kept rebuilding—and the new tissue didn’t tear as easily. Fibers thickened and darkened, hardening with each strike. The next volley barely left marks.

"Change spells!" the mage snapped.

Compressed air detonated against the creature’s chest, hurling it across the clearing. Bones and half-formed organs scattered through brush and dirt.

"Don’t stop attacking!"

When the wind roared in again, the skeleton drove its feet deep into the soil. The gale hit, but the body held firm. Only dust exploded outward.

It was learning and adapting.

Muscle surged back, denser now. Tendons pulled taut. An eyeball pushed from the empty socket with a wet pop. Skin crawled over exposed tissue, sealing the face piece by piece.

Finally, the regeneration was completed.

Whole. Human. Naked flesh without a single scar, proportions flawless like something sculpted by a god’s hand.

Black hair erupted from his scalp, spilling down to his shoulders.

He blinked once. Twice.

"Where am I?" His gaze fixed on Elisa, who looked ready to collapse, then on Eira—half-naked, arms wrapped around her private parts.

Then his eyes turned to the men holding her shredded clothing. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Never mind. I’ll ask questions later."

The ground beneath him exploded. Dirt and stone erupted as his body rocketed toward the nearest target.

First mage cursed, hands flashing through a defensive ward—

BOOM!

The barrier held. One second. Two.

Then it shattered.

The impact sent both mages hurtling backward, their bodies smashing through trees like kindling, wood splintering and cracking until they disappeared into the forest.

Frowning, the man turned his fist over, studying it.

"My bad," he muttered, flexing his fingers. "Forgot to control my strength."

One of the fighters made a choked sound. Another took a stumbling step backward.

"I’m a reasonable person—run or die."

His words fell like a verdict.

One fighter ran. Then another. Within seconds, the whole group scattered like startled birds—armor clanging, boots pounding the ground, weapons left behind in their desperate flight.

He decided to let them go, but Elisa’s exhausted voice echoed.

"Please don’t let them escape. Those men will victimize others."

"I’m not the type to worry about other’s future. Everyone has their own fate. That’s just life."

She opened her mouth to argue—to tell him about how dangerous those men were. To make him understand that letting them go meant condemning others to what they nearly suffered.

But she couldn’t summon the courage.

His charcoal-colored eyes met hers, and something in that gaze made her uneasy.

Not cruelty. Indifference.

"I... understand," She looked away first.