Revenge is such a beautiful emotion.

I always found it more honest than forgiveness.

There's something almost holy about tormenting someone who thought they could get away with hurting you.

I haven't had many chances to take real revenge in my life. I mean, I made sure nobody would be able to hurt me in the first place…

But when I did take revenge, I made sure to make it spectacular.

I still remember my first taste of revenge.

It was a man who beat me half to death, all because I stepped on some painting he had bought at the market.

He didn't care that my eyes were swollen because I had just come from my father's funeral.

I was alone then.

Just another orphaned street rat.

He hit me until I stopped moving.

Nobody helped me.

If it wasn't for Noah… I would have died before my story even began.

I was just a kid but I never forgot that beating.

Years later, when I finally had money, power and a name that meant something, I went looking for him.

It wasn't that difficult to find him.

Once I did, I destroyed everything he was proud of.

His wealth.

His job.

His reputation.

In the end, even his own family abandoned him.

He was on the streets.

I know what I did wasn't saintly.

I ruined a family.

But I was never a saint.

And he was never someone who deserved mercy.

What kind of lunatic beats a kid just for stepping on some cheap knockoff painting?

Still, I wasn't a nutcase like that bastard.

I sponsored his kid's education.

I didn't want the child to pay for what his father did.

Of course, I had another, smaller motive besides my benevolence.

I wanted him to know, every day, that I was the reason his child had a future.

That I was the role model his own kid would look up to.

The satisfaction was… exquisite.

I still remember the day he came to me with his eyes swollen as he begged me not to stop the sponsorship.

He cried and even called me sir.

And more importantly, he finally recognised me.

The satisfaction was definitely something.

So, all in all, I was a benevolent and humble guy but pettiness was never lost to me.

Especially when it comes to someone who hurt me.

And right now, as power surged through me and I caught the trace of fear across that scaly red bastard's face…

I felt that same euphoria.

The sweet, holy satisfaction of payback, served just the way I like it.

"I told you, didn't I?"

A smile curled up on my lips.

"I will make sure you beg for mercy even after death."

"I am back to keep my promise."

With those words… I vanished.

My body was overflowing with death mana.

So, naturally, I did what any perfectly sane, recently and resurrected person would do…

… I decided to beat the ever-loving shit out of him.

Five minutes of authority over death was pleasing of time to break a few bones before I got creative with the torture.

My fists covered in black mana, shot straight for his smug humanoid face.

[VoidPulse Fist]

But the bastard was quick.

Or maybe I was just too sloppy, too new to wielding this much power.

My punch missed by a mile.

The forest behind that draconic bastard wasn't just destroyed, it was erased.

A wave of death mana spread out from my fist and everything it touched just… died.

Trees withered in an instant.

Grass crumbled to ash.

Even a few unlucky monsters were reduced to bare bones in the blink of an eye.

Oops.

Maybe I shouldn't swing so hard next time. Can't let this bastard die too easily.

Before I could think of anything else, a massive shadow appeared around me.

That scaly bastard shifted into full dragon form with fire bubbling at the back of his throat.

His chest swelled, fire leaking from his jaws.

And then, with a roar, he unleashed it.

Ah, the infamous dragon breath.

The fire rushed toward me, bright enough to blind.

But I didn't even flinch.

I just watched it come.

And then I spoke a single word.

"Die."

The flames vanished.

Not dispersed or redirected but gone.

Snuffed out of existence before they could even come close to me.

The more I wielded this death mana, the more I understood it like the knowledge was just downloading itself into my brain slowly.

Apparently, if something was weak enough… by enough I meant overwhelmingly so.

I could just end it with a word.

So I killed the fire.

Or more precisely I killed the fire elemental mana that kept the fire alive.

The great and arrogant Red Dragon stared at me with wide eyes.

Then his face twisted into something closer to horror.

He knew, right then, that he didn't stand a chance.

But still, that bastard didn't run.

Got to give credit to that guy.

He shifted back into his humanoid form, his eyes burning with fury as he lunged at me with claws flashing in a desperate frontal slash.

But I just watched him come.

And, once again, I spoke that simple word.

"Die."

I felt the death mana surge through me, channeled by my voice, before interacting with the world itself.

It touched the ambient mana and twisted it.

And that bastard collapsed, hitting the ground with a thud nowhere near reaching me.

I didn't kill him.

Not yet.

Instead, I killed his legs.

Precision like that shouldn't have been possible to pull off a few moments ago.

But my vision had changed.

Everything looked… different.

I could see currents of ghastly energy through the body of that bastard.

Is that… his soul?

… or is that something else?

I hadn't noticed it when I first woke up. But as I wielded more death mana, my senses kept shifting.

It was probably attuning and adapting my body.

A dangerous idea started to form.

The [Card of Arcana] was still there, floating above the Pond of Life, calling to me.

It was the key to my Nexus Evolution.

What would happen if I touched it while holding the authority of death?

The thought sent a thrill through me.

But first, I needed to neutralize this scaly bastard for good.

I had, what, four minutes left?

So, that bastard was lucky, I didn't have time to savor his suffering.

But I had already made arrangements for him in hell.

I glanced down, watching the soul inside him flicker violently. Probably because I had sliced through the part that controlled his legs previously, when he attacked me.

His gaze raised up to meet mine.

His claws scraped furiously at the ground, still reaching for me, refusing to surrender.

I just lifted my hand.

This time, I didn't even bother with a word.

The death mana responded anyway, rippling outward from my fingertips.

I watched as the blackness creeped onto the ghostly outline of his soul, pooling around his arm.

A moment later, his arms fell limp to the earth, dead before it even hit the ground.

I killed just the part of soul in his arms, enough so… he wouldn't move.

Honestly, if I wasn't pressed for time, I would've made a proper art project out of him.

There was so much more I wanted to try.

But priorities.

Right?

Now, some people might wonder, why not keep this bastard alive until after the Nexus Evolution? His limbs were dead for good. He wasn't going anywhere.

So what was stopping me?

Except the fact that, this bastard could obliterate me with a breath once my authority is gone.

And more importantly, Helheim had a lot more to offer in the "creative torment" department than I ever could.

So, I decided to trust Hel with this one.

Let her channel all that divine rage somewhere productive.

After all, she needed a new chew toy after my little betrayal.

I crouched beside the red dragon.

That bastard still ever so prideful didn't utter a single word.

He didn't beg for forgiveness.

He didn't even scream in anger.

And just kept glaring.

Kind of anti-climatic for revenge… I must say.

I almost felt cheated.

"Do you think… you will be free in death?"

I muttered slowly.

"If so… I've prepared a nice little surprise for you."

"I don't know what beef you had with the Trickster, or why you wanted that card so badly… but you picked the wrong target, dragon."

"And don't worry about your descendants in this world… I'll make sure every last one of them joins you. And unlike you, I'll see to it they suffer."

It was a total bluff, of course.

I wasn't about to waste my time tracking down some scaly bastard's bloodline just for closure.

But hey, when you're staging a show, you might as well go big.

The bastard's eyes widened.

"Don't you dar—"

Before he could finish, I shot my hand forward, crackling with death mana.

After all, I owed him a poetic death.

The same way he killed me.

And, well, I always wanted to see what a Dragon Heart felt like.

Supposedly, it was a legendary catalyst for elixirs, one-of-a-kind, if you could get it fresh.

And who knows?

Maybe it'll even give my Nexus Evolution a little extra kick.

No harm in trying, right?

My hand punched through his scaled body like it was paper as I felt warm blood ooze out with steam.

I let the death mana disperse as my fingers closed around something solid and pulsing.

The Dragon Heart.

I ripped it free in one clean motion.

His body convulsed.

He met my eyes one last time with terror and hatred.

And then, as the heart in my hand throbbed its final beat, the light faded from his eyes.

The dragon's body went limp.

All that power and pride, reduced to nothing.

I didn't even look at his dead body and got up.

Because I didn't have the damn time to celebrate the completion of my revenge.

The heart in my hand still pulsed, golden blood spilling constantly out of it.

Time to finish what I started.

Time to finally complete my Nexus Evolution.

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