Zarek took a step forward, his eyes lighting with a vicious momentum.
In this last month, Priya had improved by leaps and bounds, but nothing was more satisfying to watch than her grow into the decisive, sharp woman he knew that she was.
As the fear and uncertainty of the apocalypse faded away, and she accepted that this was her new life, the focused Priya—the one who was so self-assured and confident in herself—had finally begun to bloom again.
She didn't hesitate to blow off her own hand, knowing well what would happen, for the sake of dealing that blow. And that was precisely the sort of cutting off the nose to spite the face of an enemy one needed in this world.
Cut off a finger if it meant your enemy lost an arm.
Cut out your tongue if it meant your enemy would never see another day in their life.
Stab your own heart through if it meant your enemy's head was severed from their shoulders.
That Turned that appeared on Priya's battlefield was quite a difficult one to deal with. Some knew it as a Charisma Type, but it was far rarer than that. In a lot of ways, it was almost more dangerous than the Control Types were.
It couldn't control Turned, but it could buff them. In return for kills that the Turned succeeded in claiming as a result of the buffs, this Turned would gain a small bit of reward in exchange.
The more Turned this shadowy monster buffed, the more energy it would be able to accumulate. At first, it would just be a sliver or two, but for obvious reasons, it would increase its improvement exponentially.
The only weakness of this Turned, other than its physical limitations, was that it had to be close to buffed targets; otherwise, it wouldn't be able to benefit. But the stronger it was, the larger this range—until it could benefit from its minions from even hundreds of kilometers away.
In the future… this Turned would be known as a Karmic Type.
It gave out its abilities, and in return it gained from it. It was truly a fitting name, but the irony of it all was that it hardly had any power of its own.
Because it couldn't control Turned, but only buff them, it had no ability to force Turned to protect it. As such, a Karmic Type being in a region literally just meant having a hidden shit-disturber somewhere. If its range had grown far enough, finding it would be near impossible, and yet all the Turned in the region would be far stronger than they should be, for reasons you couldn't explain.
Yet, Priya had found it through the small strand of connection the Dexterity Type had with it and blasted it to pieces in an instant. Zarek had never been so proud in his life.
Suddenly, he couldn't wait to push her down tonight.
But first, he would need to clear this region.
In the back of his mind, though, he added yet another thing to the list.
A Challenge Hub… Fallen Steel… A Cursed Talent… A Karmic Turned…
Curse… Curse… Curse…
The word flashed in Zarek's mind again and again.
He had felt that someone was messing with his Luck many weeks ago, but what he didn't know was the exact mechanism they were using.
A Cursed's existence represented a point in time that couldn't be changed even by a Rebirther. There was something that would happen in Gabe's life that Zarek would never be able to manipulate, even if he knew it was coming.
This matter would often end in tragedy for the Cursed, but it wouldn't necessarily be one. That said, a Cursed's life in general tended to be filled with misfortune. It was just up to chance whether this anchor-point would turn their luck for the good, or end everything.
Now… Zarek was starting to wonder if the manipulations happening here were more sophisticated than he thought.
Were all of these oddities just the ingredients for the eventual recipe that would become Gabe's anchor-point in time?
But if that anchor-point happened in this city, how was it that Zarek didn't know about it? This city was far too large for it to have a big event happen that didn't spread far and wide eventually.
Interesting… I wonder if that's why the wool has been pulled over my eyes so many times in this city…
As Zarek thought, the fluid movement of his katana hadn't stopped. He put away his machetes, swinging out the blade in continuous sweeps that reaped the lives of at least three Turned at a time, his movements only becoming faster and sharper as he grew more used to the constant fluctuations in his strength, speed, and power.
If this city was truly building momentum toward an anchor-point, it was no wonder Zarek couldn't sense the shifts to the timeline so clearly. It was the one thing his time affinity was useless against.
In that case… Zarek grinned. … This is quite the opportunity, now isn't it?
Zarek's mind shifted to another item he had Atom Linked, this one attached to none other than Gabe's body.
The man was locked in battle along with Marx's group. With their overwhelming numbers, they were having the easiest time, and Gabe, though about middle of the pack in terms of strength, wasn't doing too bad himself. However, he didn't seem special in the slightest.
So when is the other foot going to drop?
The day came to a swift end, and the next began. It was a continuous cycle, but it was clear by the third day that this method wouldn't work out for their enemies, especially when Zarek successfully progressed to D with his Intelligence, inching toward D+.
Zarek kept his eyes peeled for other oddities in the city, but everything seemed to have fallen into an eerie silence before the day came where a huge rush of Godsfall formed near the center of the city.
The Godsfall Tear they had all been waiting for had finally appeared.