Zarek was sent flying once again, his body sprawling along the ground. He didn't roll to his feet again as easily this time, and even if he was coughing up blood at this point, it was coming out as rusted speckles of ash.
His evolution wasn't nearly far along enough for his body to endure such damage.
—
[Endurance has shown great progress]
—
>[Endurance: D-]
-
>[Endurance: D]
—
'How convenient of you to finally budge.' Zarek thought to himself, his mind defaulting to banter.
He had been in quite a few fucked up situations in his life, but he had to admit that this one was definitely a doozy.
Honestly, Crux was right. He was mostly talking out of his ass. There were a lot of so-called "deductions" that he had made recently that he only had 40 to 50% assurance in. They weren't the sort of deductions that he would ever take chances on normally.
He had these sorts of thoughts all the time, and he mostly took gambles on things he already had 80% assurance would work out properly. But this time, he was well and truly painted into quite the corner.
The problem was that there was something at play here that he didn't quite understand. He already knew that he would be at a disadvantage after choosing to enter three days later than the others. But that was a worthy sacrifice because he now knew more about all of their abilities.
But the fact he ended up in a prison and on a one-way pipeline to this place without even the chance to reverse things was out of his hands. Then there was the fact Crux had ended up with such an enormous boon.
Right now, at least in this place, he was probably the strongest threat in the entire Godsfall Tear by a substantial margin. Even if Belladoll came here with her Armament, she would be hard-pressed to win, especially since Crux wouldn't be nearly so careful or cautious.
Crux was more than willing to whittle him down for hours if need be—days, even. He had that sort of resolve in him.
But against Belladoll, someone he took far less seriously, and who had far less of a shadow over his heart, he would probably not hesitate to run her into the ground.
Even so, that was also smart. The less Crux was pulling from the surroundings, the more he protected his mind from fatigue, and the harder it was to exploit the Matrices in the surroundings.
If Crux was taking a large amount of Godsfall from them, there would be gaps—lapses in their output that might allow Zarek a chance to destroy them.
If he destroyed enough of the Matrices, then Crux would be whittled down to his usual power output, and genius or not, Zarek felt that he could kill anyone in such a situation one-on-one.
So long as Crux was still D Class—and he certainly was—Zarek didn't fear him.
But Crux hadn't been swayed by Zarek's words. He was calm in his thoughts, slow in his actions, and measured in his reactions. As Zarek's state became sorrier, rather than becoming over-eager, he actually relaxed further, taking things even slower, as though meticulously dismantling Zarek's legendary status in his mind piece by piece.
As he grew more confident, his control became sharper.
His fireballs became tighter, flying through the air faster. The walls of heat he formed slapped against Zarek with greater heft and thickness, forming faster and with more leisure.
As though using Zarek for target practice, Crux soon became capable of forming more than just a single wall of heat as well, suddenly casting them into being when Zarek least expected it and sending him flying again.
It was like Zarek was a ragdoll trapped in a cage, his puppet master constantly trying to pull on his strings to find him a path out, only for the bars to slap him down.
Zarek fell to his knees, the sword barely holding him up.
—
[Endurance has shown great progress]
—
>[Endurance: D]
-
>[Endurance: D+]
—
The notification fell on deaf ears. It had already been over two hours. He truly had nothing left.
His Endurance ticking up at this time after all the damage he had taken felt more like nonsense given the pain he was enduring.
"Is that all?" Crux asked. "I honestly expected far more from you."
Despite saying this, Crux was already sending another round of volleys. He had no intention of allowing Zarek to rest at all.
BANG! BANG!
Cracks appeared in Zarek's Lurker's Godsfall skin. It was such an elastic energy, and yet right now it seemed so feeble and weak.
Zarek coughed out what he was sure was supposed to be blood of some sort, but instead it came out as nothing once again. He really hoped that was because the heat burned it away the moment it appeared, and not because that was the actual state of his body.
If it was the latter case, then that would mean Godsfall was the only thing keeping him running right now. Which meant that if he truly ran out, death would be around the door.
'Death, huh?' Zarek thought, looking toward the ground reddened beneath the fiery heat. 'Well that's unacceptable.'
Zarek tried to stand again.
BANG!
Another fireball slammed into him, but he managed to keep his footing barely after stumbling forward. If not for the great sword pierced into the ground, he would have flown far further.
'How are we going to get out of this one, huh? Mighty Ashborn Demon?'
So long as Zarek was thinking like this, he hadn't given up. But then again… he didn't think he was capable of giving up so long as Priya was still living.
And even then, the only reason he had given up in those lives without burning everything to the ground was because dying meant he'd see her again sooner.
But this time, on his last life… he really couldn't see himself falling until he razed that damn system and whoever triggered this Godsfall to the ground.
Unfortunately, thoughts and conviction were one thing.
Actually executing was another matter entirely.
'It's going to be a hell of a story to add to my repertoire.'
Zarek slowly raised his great sword one more time. He hadn't even managed to get close to Crux a single time, but he finally managed to get the notification he wanted to see.
—
[Charisma has shown great progress]
—
>[Charisma: D+]
-
>[Charisma: DD]
—