"Let’s do this..."
Zen’s emotionless voice radiated throughout the paradise.
With his eyes still closed, he began... to strip.
Facing him, Arthur’s expression could not help but turn weird, "You... Are you out of your mind?"
"No," Zen replied with his emotionless voice.
Nevertheless, Arthur could not help but be weirded out by what His one and only apprentice was currently doing.
"Then why the hell are you stripping!?"
"I don’t want to damage the clothes you gave ."
As Zen replied, he had already successfully removed the priest’s robe of the Temple of Fire that Arthur had given him.
Now he was standing in black training pants beneath the robe, his bare upper body.
"Thank you."
Even though He still wanted to make a few sarcastic remarks, His apprentice’s reply made it impossible for Arthur to do so.
Therefore, He only muttered a word as He waited for his next move.
A pair of ruby-red eyes gradually opened as multiple chants rang out from Zen consecutively.
The first was a subskill from his Heart of Evil.
[Evilize]
—!
The heart of the Lord of Evil, in his right chest, suddenly erupted with trendous power as purplish-black energy burst from his body.
Due to the Heart of Stone’s Absolute Apathy, Zen’s face showed not an ounce of change in his expression.
’What the hell!? I really can’t get used to this!!!’
But deep inside his mind, it seed as if he was able to blurt out every single curse word in existence.
One must rember that Absolute Apathy suppresses one’s emotions in exchange for a drastic increase in brain activity.
They key word was "suppression".
It suppresses an individual’s ability to express their emotions.
This only ant that even though Zen seed to be calm and emotionless on the outside, he could still feel everything.
The skill Absolute Apathy was sowhat paradoxical in this regard.
Others might ask: How could such a thing work?
How exactly was it possible to accomplish these?
No one knew.
Or perhaps, only the System would know.
’FY@!%$*#&&@!!!’
Despite Zen inwardly suffering as if he were personally in hell, his transformation was still in process.
This took around half a minute before the purplish black energy that covered his body from head to toe finally subsided.
At this mont, a pair of L-shaped black horns grew out from both his temples as the whites of his eyes turned black.
A black tail also extended from behind him, its end point looking like the head of a trident.
His arms grew a sleek pitch-black skin with purple runic patterns, while the nails on his hands elongated into black sharp claws.
The pitch-black skin on his arms only reached a little past his elbow and not his shoulders, which made it look more like a black sleeve with strange purple patterns.
The sa pitch-black skin also reached his neck, only stopping at his chin.
Even his feet turned black as his toes also grew claws that seed to be able to help him walk on walls due to how sharp they looked.
Without even an ounce of delay, another chant escaped Zen’s lips.
It was the only thing in the Divinity section of his status panel.
[Blaze Attribute]
WOOV—!
Zen’s body suddenly burned from inside and out.
’WHAT THE FUUUUU—’
The pain of being burned by a divine fla made Zen’s mind tremble as he could feel the searing fire scorching his soul itself.
It felt as if every fiber of his being was being ticulously scorched by the sun itself.
Even though the now Evilized Zen remained emotionless, a tear almost ran down his face due to the sheer pain he was currently experiencing.
The divine burning of the Blaze Attribute covered his Evilized form as the pitch-black skin with purplish runic patterns was scorched away.
Like in the past, with his Sonic Speed Regeneration fighting the backlash of the Blaze Attribute, it took Zen nnearlya minute before the two skills reached an impasse.
At this mont, the previously demon-like figure of Zen had drastically changed.
He currently looked like a burning skeleton— with the only difference from normal skeletons being his two horns, his claws, and the tail on his back.
After all, his Evilize changed the very essence of his existence itself.
Whenever he was in that form, Zen could not be considered human.
His eye sockets radiated light orange flas, as, instead of being unable to see due to his burned eyeballs, he felt the opposite.
Zen, with his Absolute Apathy, had his senses heightened to the extre, even with the disappearance of the necessary organs related to said senses.
With his vocal cords burned earlier, his ability to speak was not compromised in any way.
In the next second, another chant ca from his lips.
This ti, Zen’s voice felt as if he was using his soul itself to speak.
It was the skill from a certain title he had received in the past when he once broke through the stat limit of humans.
[Limit Break]
[Ding!]
[Detected that the player has evoked the skill Limit Break]
[The player will now continue to ascend levels until they reach their limit!]
[Level 1]
[Level 2]
[Level 3]
...
[Level 10]
[Level 20]
[Level 30]
...
[Level 97]
[Level 98]
[Level 99]
...
[Level 100]
BOOM—!
Sothing seed to have exploded in Zen’s mind as endless power surged within his body.
Coupled with the earlier Evilize and Blaze Attribute, the enhancents on his body were so overwhelming to the point that even with his Sonic Speed Regeneration, s parts of his blazy skeleton could be seen turning to ashes little by little.
’Level 100 seems to be my limit for now...’
Zen’s mind continuously trembled due to the sheer power he was containing right now.
’Without Evilize and the Blaze Attribute, I think I can even continue climbing up levels with Limit Break...’
Nevertheless, he took his mind off of it in the next second and focused.
[Fire Weapon Art, Fourth Style: Heat Glaze]
Zen’s bone claws heated up until they looked like they had just co out of a furnace.
He then assud a stance, putting his right foot backwards with his left leg slightly bent.
His glowing claws were tensed in parallel to his face, pointing towards Arthur.
Seeing this, a smile appeared on his teacher’s face, "You’re finally ready to attack, huh? Took you long enough."
"..."
Faced with the blazing evil skeleton’s unresponsive space, Arthur sighed, "You’re really no fun whenever you use that stony lung or whatever."
Slowly raising His hand, He smiled confidently, "Co."
’That pretentious...!’
Zen cursed his teacher in his mind as he used every little ntal power he had to cast another skill amidst the suffering his soul was currently going through.
[Fire Weapon Art, Third Style: Flash Fire]
Woov—
Zen’s figure disappeared in a burst of flas, instantly appearing in front of Arthur with his hand shooting towards his teacher’s heart.
His Flash Fire, unlike his teacher’s, could not stack due to his insufficient proficiency.
However, the current Zen was enhanced by both Evilize and Blaze Attribute.
Two opposing higher energies fueled this skill, alongside the Blaze Attribute’s innate effect of enhancing fire-related skills to a level close to divine.
As such, even Arthur widened His eyes in surprise as He had perceived His apprentice only after the blazing bone claws were inches away from his heart.
’This brat... Is he really trying to kill !?’
Arthur could not help but smirk as He helplessly used His right forearm to shield His heart from the attack.
However, a sense of dread engulfed His soul as He seed to have vaguely seen a faint smile on the corner of the blazing skeleton’s lips— or more like its bony teeth.
’He fell for it.’
Exactly.
That was exactly what Zen had planned.
To catch his teacher off guard and make use of this opportunity to try out his talent.
Due to the various enhancents on his body, Zen’s claws were able to penetrate Arthur’s forearm, albeit not completely.
’Unbelievable! To think that, even in my current state, I can’t even penetrate his flesh!?’\
Zen was inwardly surprised, yet his face— skull did not even have a change in "expression".
The reason for this was the sudden sensation that suddenly perated throughout his very soul the mont his claws made contact with his teacher’s forearm.
’It was the sa yesterday...’
When he first awakened his talent, and Adara held his hand, Zen felt sothing extrely strange that made him pull his hand back.
He felt like he could sense every single cell in her body— and alongside this ’sense’, was the instinct that seed to tell him that he could control them.
That was right.
Zen seed to already have an inkling of his talent’s effect.
And thus, as the sensation of Arthur’s very ’being’ entered his mind, he imdiately willed his talent.
Even though, unlike normal skills, talents did not need verbal chants, Zen still scread inside his mind.
[Profane Transfiguration]
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