[Warning: Extrely Hostile Entity Detected]
[Type: Incarnation]
[Threat Level: C]
These kinds of warning panels only appeared before Icard when the hostile was far stronger than him.
"That brat. I told him not to resort to this!" Seban muttered from a distance, his jaw clenched in visible frustration.
"Using mana essence taken from a fellow species carries its own risks. And yet you choose to use it this way. Even the current level of your ability has its limits."
He had warned Wester before, but Wester had shrugged it off, saying that even if it ca to that, he would simply heal himself.
But it was never that simple.
Icard and Eric forced themselves to stand their ground against the crushing pressure radiating from Wester. Their eyes were fixed on him.
Then, in the next mont, Wester had already closed the distance.
The movent felt slow in their eyes, almost sluggish, yet it was far too fast for their bodies to react properly.
Both of them leaped away instinctively as Wester pulverized the spot where they had just stood, the ground collapsing inward with a deafening impact.
Icard skidded back across the ground.
[Third Floor Access Confird]
[Skill Activation: Ice Hamr]
A massive hoarfrost hamr materialized in Icard’s left hand, its surface steaming with cold mist.
Wester lifted his head toward Icard, his body grotesquely enlarged, muscles swollen and uneven beneath darkened skin as unstable purplish energy leaked from him in thick waves.
Icard steadied himself.
Wester dashed toward him.
Icard planted his footing and swung the hamr with all his might at Wester’s distorted form.
Wester t it with the back of his fist.
The hamr shattered instantly, bursting apart into shards of ice as if it had struck solid steel.
Icard clenched his jaws.
’He’s too strong!’
He reacted as fast as he could, activating Hoarfrost Trap in a desperate attempt to slow him down, even if only for a mont.
But it did nothing. Deep within him, he knew he was definitely powerless against this.
Wester tore through the frost as if it were thin mist and grabbed Icard by the neck before he could create distance.
"Ghh."
Icard struggled imdiately as the grip tightened, his feet barely touching the ground.
"You fool. Do you even know who my Keeper is?" Wester snarled, his voice no longer human, layered, distorted and vibrating with manic arrogance.
"I have the potential to rise to the heights of the Heralds under my master’s space. You have no idea who you are tampering with, you brat!"
Icard ford an ice shard and slamd it into Wester’s temple.
It shattered on impact, as if it had struck unyielding rock.
His other hoarfrost colored hand clamped onto Wester’s wrist as he struggled. Frost spread across Wester’s hand, but it evaporated violently under the surge of his energy.
None of it worked.
Not even Eric’s fireballs as he sprinted toward them, shouting Icard’s na.
Eric could feel it.
Sothing was terribly wrong.
Icard had just used up all his remaining mana. Right now, he was entirely helpless.
Before his eyes, Wester drew back his free hand. Energy surged violently around it.
"I’ll rip you apart in front of your friend, Icard" Wester said. "Then I’ll do the sa for him, in front of others!"
Eric’s eyes widened.
And there, Wester thrust it forward. Straight through Icard’s chest.
Eric’s breath caught as blood burst outward, splattering across the ground as Icard’s body went slack in an instant, his strength leaving him completely.
Wester withdrew his hand from the gaping hole he had made, released Icard then, and stepped away.
Icard remained standing for a brief second. Then his knees buckled.
He collapsed forward, dropping to his knees, with head slumping as blood spilled from his mouth and chest.
Eric stopped abruptly only a short distance away.
He stood there, frozen, staring blankly at Icard.
Icard knelt motionless, shoulders sagging, breath shallow and uneven as blood soaked through his clothes and pooled beneath him.
"Icard," Eric whispered.
Icard only coughed weakly, blood spilling from his lips.
Eric fell to his knees as well.
Shock, horror, rage, and helplessness collided violently in his mind, tearing through his thoughts until nothing remained but a suffocating pressure in his chest.
Wester turned to face him.
His massive fra radiated unstable power, dark purplish energy crawling across cracked skin as his eyes burned with cold intent.
"And now, you," Wester said, glaring at Eric. "I’ll tear you and everyone else apart."
He walked toward him then.
At that mont, Eric felt it clearly. A sensation he could not properly na. Whether it was fear or rage, he could not tell.
It pressed down on his chest, heavy and suffocating.
Wester advanced with asured steps, his movents steady yet visibly unstable, as though his body was barely holding the power it contained together.
He reached out.
"You should have never stood in my way. I am destined to tower above humanity," he said, grabbing Eric by the hair and yanking his head up.
"When I gain my celestial essence, I will rise beyond your imaginations. I will be like the heralds. A god to your kind," Wester continued, a smug tugging his lips.
Inside Eric, sothing kept boiling.
The rage.
The fear.
They did not vanish. They fused, sinking deep into his core, settling for a heartbeat before erupting all at once, like flas igniting from within.
"You should all disappear today. After this, I will take that vicinity and use it to gain even more power. I will slay the Maire in ti and rise. You have no idea who you have tampered with. My path is..."
Before he could finish, Eric grabbed the hand gripping his hair.
His arms were already engulfed in fire, the flas licking up past his elbows.
The mont his fingers closed around Wester’s wrist, a sharp sizzling sound rang out.
"Huh?" Wester muttered.
His energy surged instinctively, trying to repel the flas, but it failed. The fire clung to his skin, burning deeper, forcing him to wrench his hand away with a sharp hiss of pain.
It was then that he noticed it.
The flas were different. They were not orange. Instead, they were a deep, violent crimson.
Eric burned brighter.
Wester stumbled back several steps, eyes narrowing.
Eric staggered to his feet, arms hanging loosely from his shoulders. He lifted his head slowly and glared at Wester, his eyes glowing with sothing unreadable, sothing primal.
Danger.
Wester felt it instantly.
And so did Seban.
"That is not just an outburst," Seban murmured sharply, his eyes widening as he leaned forward. "Don’t tell ...that is a state."
Eric’s form had changed.
Crimson flas wrapped around his arms, steady and intense.
A glowing circular line burned across his chest, wide and complete, spanning his upper torso.
The heat burned straight through his clothes, leaving the mark fully exposed.
"I have heard of spaces where the peaks of their progressive levels are states," Seban muttered, disbelief creeping into his voice. "That space...that kid..."
Despite the dense layer of protective energy reinforcing his skin, Wester could feel the heat seeping through. That was why he stepped back.
’What the hell is this?’ he thought, trying to grasp Eric, but then Eric was gone.
And in the next mont, he was in front of Wester.
Eric’s fist slamd into his torso.
The impact exploded outward, the force driving the air from Wester’s lungs as blood burst from his mouth. His skin burned where the blow landed.
Wester clenched his jaws and tried to retaliate, but Eric struck again before he could gather himself.
Again, and again.
Each blow detonated with heat and force, driving Wester back relentlessly.
Eric moved in a near frenzied rhythm, his attacks flowing without pause, giving Wester no room to breathe and no opening to counter.
Far away, a thunderous explosion echoed across the ruins.
Minutes later, Reya and the others arrived from their own battle, Alia among them, bruised and exhausted.
Albert’s group followed not long after. Even the blue haired punk stood among them, staring in disbelief.
They stopped at a distance.
Before them, a blazing crimson figure clashed violently with a towering mass of dark purplish energy.
"Eric?" Alia whispered, her voice barely audible as she stared at the scene unfolding before her.
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