Rogue Villain-Chapter 382: Control

The Hero ignored Eris and the others and looked at Ackster.

"Forget about me. I’m more interested in you. You seem familiar."

The Hero approached Ackster with a sly and sneaky smile that didn’t suit The Hero’s stoic features or usual demeanor. Ackster furrowed his brow. He couldn’t tell if The Hero found him familiar because he had met The Hero or because he had absorbed part of the world’s Core.

"It’s only natural that I’m familiar. I’m your father, after all."

"’...’"

Ackster pointed at The Hero with his sword.

"I think that’s about enough."

The world power that The Hero had gathered in one place should be enough. Now, it was only a matter of killing The Hero again and making him relinquish control of that world power. It was something that was easier said than done.

But Ackster hadn’t spent the last two years in an almost vegetative state for nothing.

Ackster took the opportunity when The Hero was confused about what he meant to undo his Covenants. He regained his skills and strength, and on top of that, he also received a boost to his thanks. It was the accumulation of the sealed strength he had stored in the Covenants.

It was like what Trana had done. But he hadn’t put any restrictions on his strength, nor had he spent as many years amassing that strength.

However, Trana had only sealed a fraction of her strength to feed her Covenant over the years. Ackster had left less than a fraction of his strength untouched.

Ackster once again used his strength and talent to bridge the gap between years, and he gained a strength that made the air tremble just by his breathing. However, after two breaths, the air stopped shaking like a frozen rabbit. The cracks in the ground beneath his feet stopped spreading.

Two breaths were all it took for Ackster to regain control of his strength. It was, in no small part, thanks to his senses.

Not only had Ackster honed each and every one of his senses by sealing them one at a time and focusing on one sense until he could hear colors and see sounds. But when he regained all of his senses, the training he had done lay the foundation for an explosive increase in the raw power of his senses.

Ackster felt the difference in air pressure from the waves lapping at the island’s shore. He smelled what his bird had eaten for breakfast. He saw the world power.

He didn’t just feel it with his own connection to the world like he had done before. He saw the swirling mass of world power creep around The Hero like a storm of white light.

His senses firing on all cylinders burned Ackster’s mind with all the impressions and information they provided. It was like someone had set off fireworks inside his head.

However, that too quickly went under Ackster’s control as he focused all his senses on The Hero. He could see it.

The soul inhabiting The Hero’s body wasn’t The Hero’s soul.

It was the first time he saw or felt a soul, not his own. But Ackster could tell at a glance that it was the wrong soul. As if that wasn’t enough, it wasn’t even the soul of a human or anything else Ackster had interacted with.

In the first place, he didn’t think it was right to call it a soul. It had a presence similar to a soul, but it was more like a translucent silhouette of pure Will.

’Checks out.’

After all, the thing controlling The Hero wasn’t a living being or a person.

But that only made it that much harder to kill.

Ackster wasn’t even sure if it could be killed. But he had to try.

Ackster used his unnatural senses to control the strength he had unsealed. He pointed his sword at The Hero.

Ichor, Anima, Will, mana, vitality, soul power, and miasma surged through his body in a torrential tsunami of sources and energy.

Limit Breaker opened up and destroyed the chains of limitation clinging to Ackster’s body, skills, senses, and sources. The pressure he released exploded outward like fire and gasoline before disappearing back inside his body.

Even without reaching the limits of his newfound strength, Ackster blasted through them and soared toward heights of power that made him feel like a god.

But he wasn’t done. The Hero, when boosted by world power, was dangerous enough to make Ackster’s spine crawl like a worm.

Ackster pulled out another trump card he couldn’t afford to save.

He ignited his Ichor with Smelting Furnace.

Ackster’s blue hair, eyes, and body caught fire one by one. His entire body, inside and out, burned with the power of a god set ablaze. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Ackster laced his sword, which creaked under the pressure, and stepped forward. The air shook.

That one step alone caused a tsunami to grow in all directions of the island. Controlling his strength so he didn’t make shockwaves was the least of Ackster’s concerns as he lashed out with his sword.

Upon noticing how disgustingly easy it was to swing his sword, Ackster stopped thinking about anything but cutting The Hero into molecules. With a flick, Ackster cut The Hero and the air enough times to set it on fire.

White sparks rained as a web of black streaks ran through The Hero’s body. A moment later, a dense black web formed on The Hero’s surface, reducing him to bite-sized pieces. After a second, the island behind The Hero was blown away by Ackster’s attacks, reducing everything to dust that drifted away in the wind before being devoured by the water that rushed back to fill the void Ackster’s attack had created.

The Hero fell to the ground in pieces like a statue.

He didn’t bleed.

The edges—the insides—of the puzzle pieces Ackster had made from The Hero’s body glowed with a white light.

After lying in a pile for a moment and a half, the white light enveloped all of the pieces. They melted and slowly transformed into a humanoid being of white light that soon gained The Hero’s appearance.

"Oh, wow. Where has a powerhouse like you been hiding? I had no idea you even existed."

The Hero dusted himself off before looking at Ackster in genuine wonder. It was like he couldn’t understand where Ackster had come from. It was like he was supposed to know about all the powerhouses but didn’t. And it upset The Hero.