Zarek raised his head and roared, as though the fire in his heart was billowing out of his throat.
He loved this feeling. He loved it with every ounce of his being. Never once would he ever say that he had had enough of it. He never would.
It was intoxicating—the feeling of facing death and then overcoming it, of stepping over the corpses of your enemies and feeling their blood running between your fingers.
Sometimes he even felt that his eagerness to see his own blood was even more enticing. There was a part of him that wanted to dance on that edge of life and death, to face off against a challenge that was continuous, one even more savage than himself.
He wanted to see more of what the world had to offer.
He pulled the jagged piece of crossbow-shield from the final Gladius' throat, standing to his feet with a sway that almost toppled him over.
His body threatened to collapse, but he stood up straight, taking deep breaths as the heat within him billowed. Even several minutes later, his eyes still burned with that same amber passion.
Slowly but surely, that feeling finally began to fade.
'So such a thing is possible too… if only I had as much Talent in Intelligence as Pri does…'
Zarek took a final breath, and the pain finally caught up to him in waves.
The arm that had been pinned beneath the final Gladius during their last slide across the ground had lost layers of skin not just on the back of his hand, but along his forearm as well.
Unfortunately, in order to make sure that Gladius didn't shift and the back of his head took on the full blow, he had to keep that arm there. It was especially important since Harmonic Recall only worked through Zarek's palms—he still couldn't emit Godsfall outwardly.
Zarek's other arm, though his elbow had been snapped back into place, was practically four sizes too big now. It looked like some madman had sewn a leg into where his arm should have been. It definitely didn't help that his shoulders were misaligned now, as that tackle had hit so hard it broke his collarbone and dislocated his shoulder.
And that wasn't even mentioning the bite that had been taken out of his hip.
He was a complete and utter mess.
'I'm so weak,' Zarek thought, looking up and shaking his head.
This was the state a D-Class Godsfall Tear left him in. Would breaking into D-Class even give him much of a chance against a C-Class Tear?
Zarek exhaled another breath, and the pain was suppressed again.
What was more depressing than this, though, was what he had realized during the final stage of the battle.
In those final moments, Zarek discovered that if he used Harmonic Recall and then triggered Temp Duplicate, he could use the latter to disrupt the connection between the final Gladius' treasures—making it difficult for the enemy to respond.
In fact, Zarek was pretty sure that if he used Temp Duplicate with enough finesse, he could actually trigger it in reverse, using it to deconstruct treasures rather than build them.
It had to be remembered that Temp Duplicate was a Talent designed to be used all on its own. It didn't need Harmonic Recall to function.
What did that mean? It meant that Temp Duplicate had an analyzing and copying function built into it.
Usually, one would have to hold both items—analyzing one while building a copy of it.
With Harmonic Recall, Zarek was mostly able to skip that first process, but that made him realize just how flexible Temp Duplicate could be.
What if, instead of ignoring the first step, he fused the duplication and analysis process into one? In that case, Temp Duplicate would be trying to analyze and construct something new at the same time.
This would cause the Talent to oscillate back and forth—trying to reconstruct the full picture of something while analyzing it in small pieces.
That creation energy could then be misdirected into those small pieces… disrupting them.
If Zarek purposely messed things up during that stage, on the lower end he could disrupt how a treasure worked—and on the higher end, he could destroy it entirely.
This would essentially change a Talent meant for creation… into one meant for destruction.
The trouble was… Temp Duplicate was too delicate. It couldn't take precedence over a treasure. This was why Zarek had to use up all of his remaining Godsfall just for a small disruption.
Ultimately, if he wanted to destroy something, he would have to aim for a treasure far beneath his Temp Duplicate level—something he could easily duplicate perfectly.
And even then, it would chew up a ridiculous amount of Godsfall.
But… if he had Priya's Talent in Intelligence, it just might be a viable path. Being able to destroy things with a tap of the finger did sound enticing.
'Unfortunate.'
Zarek shook his head.
Some of these paths were things he had thought of before, but the reason he chose this one wasn't for the methods of Godsfall usage. He knew Intelligence wasn't his strong suit.
Instead, he had chosen this path because he knew it would confuse his enemies—and give him a chance to convert it into something more useful for his physical attributes in the future.
Unfortunately, that path had been cut off.
At the very least, though… it had saved his life this time.
"Now… what did I do all of this bullshit for?" Zarek muttered, taking deep breaths. The good thing about Tears like this one was that the rewards tended to be good. He felt that it was likely this one had an Intelligence type reward at the end. Maybe it might be better than the one he was aiming for next, or maybe it might bolster the use of it in the future.
Either one what would be fine.
What Zarek saw in front of him, though, left him well and truly speechless. He would have rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but clearly… he was seeing right.
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