"Who are you? We're not supposed to be relieved for another eighteen days," a masculine voice rumbled. "When were you brought into the circle of knowledge?"

Eik was well aware of that already. He knew that the Stirring Cradle was watched over and protected by a pair of A-rank cultists on a rotating schedule consisting of shifts of varying lengths from two weeks to two months straight. Only a small number of A-rankers within the cult were even aware of the existence of the Stirring Cradle, not to mention the fact that it was located right beneath their feet.

Gih the Madman, for example, was considered far too unstable mentally to ever qualify for such knowledge. Even if he one day hit S-rank, it would be unlikely that he would ever be told something so crucial, according to the oracle.

"Just recently," Eik answered, keeping his head down as he spoke. "I've come to deliver a message on behalf of the oracle herself."

This seemed to get the man's attention. "A message from the oracle? Messages are supposed to be relayed after our shift has come to an end. When did you say you were initiated again?" he asked, his fingers resting on the pommel of a wicked longsword strapped to his back, the handle peeking over his shoulder. "And what is the message?"

"I was brought into the circle of knowledge about a week and a half ago," Eik stated truthfully as streaks of bright blue raced across his skin, splitting the tissue as it peeked out. At the same time, the glowing blue crown of Monarch's Will ejected itself from his scalp and settled above his head, held magically in place in defiance of gravity. "And the message goes as follows: Keeping you alive might be a little… diffi-cult," he said, cringing inwardly and the shitty pun as he turned his palm up and launched a high-pressure spout of Profound Toxin directly into the face of the A-ranker.

The blue substance immediately flooded into the man's mouth but only for a moment before he snapped his jaw shut tightly. Instead it assaulted everything else it could get into—eyes, ears, nostrils, and such.

With the compounded effects of Potion of Mighty Strength, Backflow, and Monarch's Will boosted to new heights through Perfect Consumption, Eik dashed forward past the now occupied A-ranker, only to caught in the side by a wave of white light and sent reeling across a massive platform that took up most of the space in the chamber.

He tumbled across stone tiles, spinning again and again the momentum of it seemingly never allowing him to stop. Finally, he came to a sliding stop at the end of the platform, groaning with pain, a big chunk of his cultist robes burned away completely and leaving his skin seared like a medium rare steak. It hurt like hell.

Just as he looked up again, cultist came in for a follow up, moving at unbelievable speed as white flames danced about her fists.

His own body barely able to keep up with her as she went on the offensive, Eik leapt backward awkwardly, the white flames scorching the air tens of meters in the direction she punched. A glancing blow left minor burns along his cheek.

The cultist dodged out of the way of three toxic blades but didn't manage to avoid the stream of poison that Eik weaved into her path like the satin of a ribbon dancer. She immediately deployed a powerful burst of her aura in an attempt to disperse the clingy, blue substance that was slithering across her body, much like Eik himself had done against the water manipulator upstairs.

Unfortunately for her, while it did send ripples throughout the toxin, it was far from enough to dissuade the Worldbreaker's hunger for death and corruption, and the super enhanced Profound Toxin rapidly began to eat away at her body.

"Die, treacherous scum!" she screamed, tears running from reddening eyes. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a remotely detonated explosion of white flame struck him in the back like a truck, the close range impact hurling him across the chamber.

Only Eik face's meeting with the cold, hard floor tiles brought him back from a brief state of unconsciousness. He coughed up and rolled over just as the male cultist brought his sword down to cut him in two. By the skin of his teeth, Eik rolled out of the way to avoid being killed but a searing agony flashed through his bicep in the same moment.

He screamed as his arm from below the shoulder rolled away, severed cleanly by the lightning quick attack. The cultist was already coming back for the death stroke.

Desperately, Eik called for Accelerant, the trait reacting at the speed of thought and ripping the swordsman off his feet with an earsplitting sonic boom as the violent, luminescent pulse wave tore out of him.

Clutching the bloody stump of his arm, Eik screamed. His arm was gone! Fucking hell, his arm was gone! What the fuck was he going to do? Despair and fear mixed thickly with a massive dose of unbridled rage. Profound Toxin was demanding that he repaid this.

No, he wanted to. This was his own rage. His own resentment.

Acting purely according to Eik's subconscious will, a wave of roiling toxin sat him up and lifted him into the air like a king resting on his throne. The manipulator of the white fire was coming at him, her body clearly addled by the Profound Toxin flowing through her system.

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A beam of fire shot straight for him but he was ready to meet it with eight layers of solid toxin, blocking the attack as more of the blue substance crystallized around the stump of his arm to block the flow of blood.

With a thought, he Accelerated the toxin that flowed through her body as well and while it wasn't quite as much as the swordsman, she was sent to the floor, writhing as the effects of his ability wrought havoc on her.

With little regard for his body at this point, Eik amplified Backflow to the absolute limit and felt energy course through him like fireworks through a garden hose. In less than a second, he was on the shoulders of the swordsman who was just getting back on his feet, plunging a razor-sharp barb of solid toxin deep into his neck.

Hollowing it out in an instant, he injected Profound Toxin into the neck wound under immense pressure, sending it around his circulatory system at high speeds. The man screamed as he convulsed. The longsword swung up to strike, but the A-ranker was clearly having trouble controlling his own body properly.

Boosted to the clouds by Backflow and Potion of Mighty Strength, he slipped under the blow and shoved a second barb into the other side of the cultist's neck. A hydro pump of toxin absolutely drenched the man and quickly solidified all around him like a suit of ice. The pressure of it launched him backward as he Accelerated everything.

Landing in a kneeling position, Eik didn't look back as the man was vaporized by the massive amounts of poison detonating on his insides, the explosion contained by the thick layer of crystalline toxin surrounding him like armor. Immediately after, that crystalline toxin also detonated, destroying any trace of him like a steak in a blender.

Eik's arm immediately began to burn as letters appeared along his skin.

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 51]

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 52]

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 53]

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 54]

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 55]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 101]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 102]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 1…]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 112]

[Acquired Profound Toxin — Lv. 113]

As expected from the death of an A-ranked Awakened at his hand, the levels were going completely crazy. It was still a ridiculous notion to him that he was actually capable of killing an A-ranker while he was still only a C-rank equivalent Awakened himself. How the hell did that make any sense in the first place?

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 43]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 44]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 4…]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 61]

[Acquired Monarch's Will — Lv. 62]

It was commonly understood that one's power rank was a more or less accurate estimate of what level of foe one could go toe to toe with. Eik's stats were just totally out of whack for some reason. Profound Toxin and its auxiliary skills and traits definitely deserved to be under the moniker of Worldbreaker.

One last message wrote itself out on his arm.

[Reached threshold: Evolution to ??? possible]

[Evolve?]

Holy shit! Here was yet another insane bump in his power. Was it ever going to stop? Not that he was complaining.

The urge to hop straight into the evolution was strong but the second and last A-ranker was already coming for him. And he was tired. He's lost a lot of blood when his arm got cut off and the numerous deep and severe burns drained him quickly. Even if especially his offensive capabilities were somehow a match against the A-rankers' defenses, his body was still fundamentally that of a C-ranker. He wasn't meant to take on two A-rankers.

In a desperate attempt to avoid a gout of white flame, Eik dove to the side but still got hit, his right leg catching painful burns from hip to ankle.

More than anything, he wanted to activate Panacean Quintessence and heal up all of the damage he had been dealt but if he switched over and lost the major effect of standard blue Backflow, there was no way he could keep up with the A-ranker. He'd be killed in an instant. Only all of the compounded boosts currently affecting him collectively allowed him to keep his life in this struggle.

But he was just so tired. He took a couple of healing potions but they simply couldn't keep up with his constantly increasing damage.

Pulling even more on the reserves of Monarch's Will, he shot spout after spout at the flame user, but the injuries he had suffered from her earlier explosive attack must have taken a greater toll on his brain than he thought—and it seemed to only be growing worse as he continued to move around.

Was he suffering from a C-ranked concussion or something? An urge to vomit was also making itself known.

He tried to get in close, but even with her injuries, she danced away and kept getting him with flame after agonizing flame. He could smell his own fried flesh.

Another of her ranged explosion detonated right in his back with no way to avoid it and sent him flying across the cold floor. He rolled to a stop and tried to get back up, but when he got to his elbows, whatever they had brought him for lunch that day came up onto the tiles as his head spun and his eyes swam.

The cultist touched down next to him and stomped on the back of his head, blackness instantly stealing his consciousness.

She knelt down and lifted his head by the hair and checked his face. She had never seen him before.

"Just how did you know of this place?" she mumbled to herself. "And how to come here…" That should have been a closely guarded secret. And there weren't supposed to be anyone below her power level in the circle of knowledge whom she didn't know.

Who the hell was this man?

She was torn. She'd prefer to kill him here and now, but if that murder forever locked away the secret of how he had made it this far, she would be putting their great mission in jeopardy. But she couldn't leave for another eighteen days. Not even to report. This was her divine station. It could open the passage to even more intruders.

She went to get her deceased comrade to lay him to rest properly, but there wasn't enough left to do that. It was nothing but a chunky mass of blood and guts. She started back, fury blazing inside her. This fucking heretic would pay dearly.

She stopped dead in her tracks, her pulse suddenly quickening.

He was gone.

Frantically, she looked behind her but found nothing.

A rustle of clothes from above drew her gaze just in time to see the sharp point of a blue blade right in front of her eye. Blue mist billowed out of the man's body like vibrant flames, his eyes glowing brilliantly like two stars as he descended.

His voice was cold.

"I'm back. And I'm afraid I'll have to kill you now."

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