Chapter 157: Limit
Chapter 155
Click—!
The door clicked shut behind Ray, leaving the remaining occupants of the room staring at the wooden surface for much longer than they probably should have.
The silence that followed was heavy, pregnant with the echoes of Ray’s furious, heartbroken departure.
Van remained standing in the exact sa position he had occupied while Ray was still in the room.
His mind was a chaotic storm, replaying one specific sentence over and over like a broken record.
"You’re my last anchor in this otherwise gloomy world."
Van had always known how much Ray cared for him.
That devotion had been demonstrated countless tis, stretching back through the long years of their shared childhood to the present mont.
Even now, the tech genius couldn’t quite fathom why Ray had beco so fiercely possessive over his safety.
While Ray had certainly been protective when they were younger, that instinct had intensified into sothing far more desperate after he lost his entire family to the horrific Aberrant attack.
Perhaps because Van was the final living person Ray had known for years, he had anchored his entire sanity to him.
That realization struck Van with the force of a physical blow.
He didn’t even notice it when the first hot tears began streaming down his face, tracing paths over his cheeks and dripping onto the floor.
Crashing back onto his mattress, he buried his face in his trembling hands.
His shoulders rose and fell in jagged, uneven heaves as the muffled sound of sobbing began to fill the small space.
He was crying.
It wasn’t rely the lingering sting of the argunt or the physical pain in his side, but a sudden, overwhelming wave of guilt.
... A crushing sense of remorse at the fact that he hadn’t considered his best friend even once before delving into the suicidal mission he had undertaken today.
How incredibly foolish had he been to ignore the impact his death would have on Ray?
The terrifying thought of what would have happened to his friend after his passing simply hadn’t registered in his mind.
He had been blinded by a sense of duty, forgetting that his life wasn’t just his own to throw away.
What a pathetic fool he had been. Weak, weak, weak.
He was such a fragile person, yet he had dared to leap into a situation that almost claid his life.
Had he simply expected Ray to manifest out of thin air to save him every single ti he stumbled into danger?
’Yeah. That’s right. Ray wasn’t always this powerful,’ Van asked himself, pulling his hands away from his tear-streaked face to stare intently at his palms.
’He took what little he had and maximized it to beco this formidable in re months. What exactly is stopping
from doing the sa?’
He gripped his bedsheets as the internal monologue grew louder.
’... What is preventing
from using my own gifts to beco a powerful figure? What is stopping
from being as capable as Ray instead of remaining a weak, clumsy crybaby? I-I got a small taste of what I could truly be with my ability today. I-I could do sothing more. I-I could be sothing more.’
A new, burning determination welled up in his chest.
Van sniffled loudly, wiping the salt from his face with the back of his tattered, blood-stained sleeves.
The sorrow was being rapidly replaced by a cold, hard resolve.
’Enough of the cowering. Enough of being the perpetual damsel in distress, waiting to be rescued ti and ti again. I will beco strong.... Strong enough that I don’t constantly pull Ray into the middle of my sses. Yes, I will do exactly that.’
Squeezing his hands into tight fists, Van gnashed his teeth together.
For a fleeting microsecond, his eyes twinkled with a faint, crystalline blue light.
’I promise you, Ray. I will make sure to be a strong, unbreakable anchor in your world. I won’t let you drift away into sothing unrecognizable ever! That is my solemn swear to you!’
***
anwhile, Ray had already made his way to the Corps’ roof and was currently perched upon the edge, overlooking the sprawling facility.
It was already 6:30 PM.
The sun had finally dipped past the horizon, painting the world in a bruised, bleeding shade of orange.
The view from this height was naturally soothing, matched only by the cool, evening weather that nipped at his skin.
His silver hair danced erratically in the wind as his grey, frigid eyes pierced into the distance.
He looked... strangely calm.
Yet, beneath that placid surface, a furious storm was brewing in his chest.
The more he flashed back to the sight of Van—the jagged injuries, the terrifyingly close shave with death, the sheer amount of blood—the more the rage boiled through him, threatening to explode.
Then, a calm, angelic voice resonated within his mind.
??Calm. Calm. Keep your composure and stop acting like Bruce over here,?? Elyon uttered with a soothing serenity.
For so reason, the mont Ray heard that voice, a sudden wave of tranquility washed over the raging tempest bubbling within his soul.
He was, quite strangely, at peace.
??Hey! What the hell do you an he should stop acting like ?!?? Bruce howled loudly.
Ray closed his eyes, entering his inner mind space to find the two entities bickering as usual.
Turning toward Ray as he took his seat on the central chair, a smirk curved the werewolf’s face.
"... You did well, boy. The way you smashed that guard’s skull and dismantled the rest—I loved it. That is precisely what I would have done, so don’t you dare feel remorseful."
The werewolf paused for a mont, appearing lost in thought, before adding,
"You know what? For that aweso display of brutality, I’ll grant you one chance to call upon
when you truly need . I know I promised not to manifest until you grew stronger, but I feel like rewarding that performance."
Ray simply ignored the werewolf’s rambling.
His reason for entering the mind space was actually to test a specific theory.
"System!" he called out.
It responded imdiately.
Turning to face Elyon, he uttered,
"Kindly co take over the body for a second. I want to test sothing."
Elyon shrugged and sauntered over while Ray vacated the chair.
The celestial sat down, instantly taking control of Ray’s physical form.
Taking a deep breath, Ray exhaled through his nose and stared into the empty ntal expanse.
"System."
He waited for a few seconds until the interface responded a mont later with a low, resonant chi.
’Good. It seems my system functions just fine even when I’m not in direct control of my physical shell. That is good to know.’
Seeing as Ray was finished with his experint, Elyon respectfully left the chair, allowing the boy to resu control.
Turning away from the others, Ray pulled down his system nu once more.
"Show
my rewards for defeating those n."
[Rewards:
200 EXP,
5 free stat points.]
[EXP: 210 >>> 410/900]
"Allocate two stat points to my strength attribute, while the remaining three points should go to my agility."
Tring!
[ERROR! Stat points unable to be allocated...]
Ray’s brows furrowed in genuine confusion at the sudden, unexpected error ssage.
"Why can’t I allocate them?"
[Host has reached the cap limit on current stats. Complete your next evolution to uncap.]
’Wha—?’
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