Zarek's vision warped around him. He looked to find the world around him quite dark. He had been on alert, expecting to be attacked immediately, but there was nothing of the sort. Instead, he stood in a world with rolling black clouds shifting around his ankles and a sky that seemed to be crimson in the middle of a perpetual sunset—almost as though it would usually be a bright red during midday but wasn't currently.
He took a tentative step, wondering if something would hop out of this black fog any moment now to pounce at him, but he only landed on solid ground once again.
'Odd.'
Rather than stupidly walking around aimlessly, Zarek looked toward his map again. This was the only thing that would tell him whether he had made the right decision or not. But his lip twitched when he saw what was happening with it.
The compass was spinning around in wild loops, aimless. It didn't look like it knew how to direct him at all.
'Shit.'
Zarek was wondering if he had made the wrong gamble now. Maybe he should have tried taking one of the items first to see how it went.
But the problem with that plan was that it would expose how vulnerable he was. He wasn't nearly as confident in dealing with whatever killing machine came out of the Hub in comparison to those wet-behind-the-ears brats.
Though, in hindsight, jumping into the world those killing machines came from wasn't exactly the smartest idea, then. But he was nothing if not reckless.
Zarek took another tentative step rather than panicking, and his foot hit something.
'Hm?'
He bent down, still cautious. But he decided to wade into the darkness nonetheless, piling his newly accumulated treasures under his arm and picking up this new… thing.
'Ah…'
When Zarek stood back to his full height, staring at the new item in his hands, his eyes flashed. He wasn't wrong, after all. At least not completely.
This item was the one that had been in the Hub. Somehow, it appeared here.
Zarek's best guess was that the connection between it and the Hub had been destabilized somehow. Maybe there was a trigger that was meant to happen once the Lurker was officially killed, but that transfer wasn't able to occur because Zarek bypassed things.
And now the treasure that was meant to manifest on the other side was here instead.
But what was more interesting was what this treasure was.
'Wait, would the other one be here too?'
Zarek walked around for a moment, keeping his feet low to the ground. He couldn't see through this fog at all, and in the back of his mind he had a feeling that it would inevitably cause a problem, but he would just have to hope for the best for now.
If he was correct, then…
Zarek's foot hit something.
Indeed, what Zarek wasn't aware of was that back in the "real" world, the Hub and the Lurker alike had been destroyed by a bolt of red lightning. The end result was the already forged treasures ending up in this limbo-like world.
Now, he had conveniently ended up with both of them.
The second one he picked up was yet another Elixir, something he seemed to be getting a lot of from the Hubs. Unfortunately, there was no convenient system prompt this time, but that was already an obvious given.
Fortunately, he had more than enough experience to know what he was looking at.
It was another Godsfall Intent vial, this time for B Class Lurker's Godsfall Intent.
Zarek was about to down it, but then he hesitated for a moment, his eyes narrowing as thoughts whirled around in his mind. This wasn't because he already had B Class Lurker's Godsfall, but for another reason.
The base of Zarek's Godsfall Intent was actually D Class. He only managed to get it to C Class thanks to someone else's Intelligence Growth Potential, and he only got it to B Class because of a general-purpose Godsfall Intent-boosting Elixir.
That was to say if Zarek downed this vial, not only would it not be useless, but instead it would raise his foundation to a true B Class Lurker's Godsfall, which would in turn allow the other Elixirs he had benefited from to skyrocket in effectiveness, bringing his new Lurker's Godsfall infinitesimally close to A Class.
The gap between A Class and B Class was an enormous chasm that couldn't be crossed. And even if Zarek's idea worked, it still wouldn't be crossed.
However… it would give him more flexibility than usual.
What was interesting about Lurker's Godsfall was that its properties were naturally elastic. That meant its limits weren't immediately obvious on the surface, and even this weak version of its B Class abilities had been able to hold the likes of Eliz in place for a short while.
By comparison, if Zarek downed this Elixir, Eliz would have to put in a substantial amount of effort to get out if she fell into the same trap. It wouldn't be nearly as easy. And by then, Zarek could kill her a thousand different ways.
But if Zarek's plan worked… Eliz, at least at her current strength when last Zarek saw, wouldn't be able to get out at all.
With a thought, Zarek pulled out the A Class Godsfall concentrated Elixir and poured his own Godsfall into it. He continued to pour in Godsfall until he barely had 20%.
If he wasn't in this godforsaken world, he would have gone down to maybe even 0%, weathering the backlash. But he didn't. Instead, he focused intently on recovering, downing what replenishment droplets he had left before doing it again, and then again.
He must have repeated the process over two dozen times before the treasure finally began to show itself to have hit its limits.
And then Zarek poured the B Class Godsfall Intent Elixir into it.
The two were already a blob of black, and when they came together, they became an even denser black. But this was no longer just a normal darkness. Instead, it seemed to swallow up everything as though it was also beginning to form its own gravitational pull.
Zarek's eyes sparkled. It was beginning.
This was the gap between B Class and A Class. This was the true essence of an Intent.
An Intent wasn't just a physical form—it was a will to oppress. It imposed something onto the world. It rewrote the laws, broke physics, twisted things into its own version of matters until others had no choice but to obey.
That was a true Godsfall Intent.
This was something that Zarek had learned over many lifetimes. It was far more complex than just this, but the understanding was so innate to him now that it was practically second nature to think of it so simply.
It was the essence of understanding. He didn't need to overcomplicate it because he had grasped it so many ways in so many different timelines.
And now, he could feel that Intent coming out from those black strands.
It still wasn't A Class, not quite. But it was so close that by concentrating it like this, it couldn't help but begin to exhibit the signs of A Class—that Godsfall Intent that wanted to impose itself onto the world.
Without hesitation, Zarek swallowed it.Th.i!s$ c^hapter was ori$g&i+na&ll#y* post+ed. on M%^VLEMP%YR$.&
He turned his senses to the inside of his body, focusing everything on those tiny tendrils—that Intent. He wanted to embolden Axiograft, to make it feel every one of those fibers.
If he just swallowed it like that, while this path might improve his Intelligence, the Intent would vanish. Without a true A Class Godsfall Intent, keeping that essence would be impossible.
But Zarek felt that just maybe… this new broken Talent of his might be able to do it.
However, Zarek wasn't just focusing on Lurker's Godsfall. He had always felt that there was something deeper to Godsfall Intent, something that came with an underlying arrogance—a self-belief of sorts.
For some reason, Zarek had always found that every lifetime he went through, it became harder and harder to grasp true Godsfall Intent.
He had always thought that this was because his Intelligence Growth Potential took a hit every time, and that much was fine as an explanation. But his intuition told him that there was something more—something deeper, something he was missing.
After all, it wasn't as though he chased after a new Godsfall Intent in every lifetime. He always chased after the same Ash Reborn Intent, and it grew more powerful every time.
And then there was Core Harmony, the real smoking gun. It relied on all his stats, not just one. And he had to synergize them all. So why did he not struggle with it the same in every lifetime too? In fact, it grew easier every time… except for this one, but there was a reason for that.
Standing in this world, though… Zarek for some reason felt closer to it than ever before.
It was like every time he grasped Godsfall Intent, he was pissing something off—like he was snubbing his middle finger at it every time, peeling at its layers of superiority, taking from it what wasn't his own.
And now, he would do it again.
BOOM!
Zarek's eyes flashed open, tendrils of black mass radiating out from him in waves as a wide grin spread along his face.
"I quite like this Godsfall Intent. I think… I'll keep it to the very end."
Pa. Pa. Pa.
Black lines slapped against the ground, sucking up large amounts of the black fog and dissipating it.