ENERGI: THE PRIMORDIAL CONDUIT[OP MC, APOCALYPSE, SURVIVAL, AND LITRPG]

Kael's expression couldn't help but harden. He was already struggling with only two of these crawlers. Any more and he might truly be in danger.

Still...

'Forge your strength!'

Those three words anchored his will. He wouldn't complain.

This world offered no space to those who couldn't adapt. To those who couldn't change. To those who weren't strong enough.

'Forge your strength!'

Kael's mind stilled, an almost icy breath leaving his mouth. At the same time, an explosion on the main battlefield lit up the night sky, revealing the three crawlers who had blinked to his sides, covering every direction of escape, their towering shadows swallowing his figure whole, and their grotesque mouths stretched open to engulf him once and for all.

Even if one of them failed, they didn't believe all three would.

They had him cornered.

However, Kael didn't despair, his glowing blue eyes shining intensely.

Ever since he had hit the first crawler with his Ignition Fist, he hadn't been able to connect another such attack well enough. In fact, the creatures were especially cautious of any hand attack, which gave him no opportunity to even use his gauntlet skill that could now also be spammed almost carelessly under the effect of Godly Focus. It was why the battle had gone on for so long.

Most of his attacks were ones he had been able to land from other body parts, like his legs and the headbutt he had delivered before.

Yet, the crawlers showed shocking vitality, as none of the blows seemed to impact them in any meaningful way, and remarkable intellect, as they adapted quickly to his attacks.

Which was why Kael had been looking for the perfect opportunity to use his Ignition Mantle to end this battle once and for all.

And he finally got that chance now.

"Explode."

There was silence, as Kael's regal coat, which had been whipping violently against his skin with his every movement, abruptly came to a still.

Then...

- BOOOOOM!

- RUMBLE!

A massive explosion shook the earth, golden flames erupting outward like a miniature sun, while a violent shockwave tore through the battlefield and blasted apart the surrounding ground.

After a while, the plumes of dust and debris rocketing upward slowly settled.

Kael coughed slightly, his face a bit pale. A short distance from him, three massive bodies twitched on the ground.

He was just about to move, to end them once and for all, only for his hearing to barely catch the sound of familiar screams.

He turned, and his breath almost hitched, a flicker of emotion almost surfacing despite the effect of Godly Focus.

Through the razed remains of the girls' dormitory, his enhanced perception caught sight of his team's situation.

He had been so focused on his battle that he forgot there weren't only three crawlers present. To be fair though, he had had no choice but to give the fight his all.

But that didn't stop his group from being attacked by another level 24 crawler.

He caught sight of a Ruinsteed defending Natalie behind it, and he didn't even spare the contradictory sight a thought.

He could almost sense what was coming.

His skin crawled, and goosebumps spread across his body.

'No.'

He saw the Ruinsteed smash its hooves down only for the crawler to vanish from below it.

Then it appeared in the midst of his group.

"No!" The scream tore out of his lungs this time. His group was powerful. They had grown stronger since the day before. But they still weren't strong enough to face such a monster.

It would only spell a massacre.

But he was too far.

He couldn't reach their side.

And that was when Kael made a decision, a decision that would have been the greatest mistake of his life, one that could have spelled his death and that of his loved ones.

Godly Focus should have kept his emotions in check, but seeing his team and sister about to die seemed to break through the limits of the skill, or at least its first activation.

So...

Kael activated the second activation.

There was a violent explosion within his mind, as light bloomed across his synapses. The Energi within him pooled outward, but Kael felt his control over it greater than ever before.

Without hesitation, he sent it all into his agility stat, boosting his speed by more than five hundred points.

Time seemed to freeze as he raised his leg and brought it down, his body seeming to break through space itself, as he appeared over a hundred meters away, leaving behind a distorted blur in the air.

He raised his leg once more but...

No, it was more apt to say he tried to raise his leg once more, but the limb wouldn't budge.

Yet Kael didn't even spare his body a thought as his eyes remained trained on the now materializing crawler in his group's midst.

'No! Move!'

His skin burst into bloody mist as his body seemed to break at the seams. Blood pooled down his eyes, ears, and nose, yet Kael couldn't feel the pain he should have felt.

'After everything I have done, after how strong I have become, is it just going to end like this?'

Forge your strength!

The words resounded in his mind once more, but what could he even do when his body refused to move?

He was unwilling...

So unwilling.

He gathered all the strength he could under his unbreaking will, but they amounted to nothing. He tried to roar, but even his throat failed him.

But that was okay.

He screamed in his mind instead.

'MOVE!'

And indeed he moved.

He fell uselessly forward, his vision now getting clouded by the blood pooling in his eyes.

It was then he realized.

'I shouldn't have used the second activation.'

He could feel it.

He was dying.

Maybe if he had also boosted his vitality greatly, the situation might have been different.

'Dumbass...'

His eyes slowly dimmed as he barely saw the claws of the crawler streak toward Claire, Rose, and Sophia.

'I am sorry.'

It was then, just when his eyes were about to close shut, that Kael saw it.

His eyes locked with two ruby ones.

From the beginning, since when the crawler appeared...no, even when the Ruinsteed appeared..the chick in Sophia's hands only had its eyes fixed on Kael. Almost as if it couldn't be bothered to spare those monsters a glance. The look of yearning in its eyes couldn't be described.

Even now, those crimson pools remained trained on him.

Looking into those fathomless depths, Kael didn't know why he had the thought, but before his eyes fully closed, the word barely, if at all, escaped his lips in a choked whisper.

"Please..."

Then his eyes sealed shut, and darkness engulfed him.

And yet, he could still barely make out the piercing and majestic cry that shook the world a split second later.

*****

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