Chapter 173 - Heritage

"Aah!" Faunaris tightened its hold over Tom's spear before pulling it out in a single jerk of its hand. It then looked at Tom's face with a weird look. 

"You want your spear back?" it asked, dumbfounded by Tom's straightforward request. 

"Yeah," Tom nodded his head, tears starting to come out of his eyes. He reached his hand out, hanging it out just a few inches away from the handle of the spear. 

For a moment, nothing happened. 

Faunaris was too puzzled by Tom's change in attitude to react. Tom didn't dare to make any hasty moves, in fear of his plan, his only way out of the situation to break apart. 

"You managed to land a hit on me," Faunaris said, turning its lips into a thin line. It then closed its eyes as a whole plethora of different emotions raced on his face. "It appears I lost the bet..." it said, keeping its eyes closed as it clearly fought back with its emotions. 

"You did," Tom said in a calm voice as soon as he finally touched the handle of his spear. "And I'm sorry," he added.

'Bloody spear,' Tom thought, using the connection between his spear, Faunaris blood, and Faunaris flesh to suck at its energy as if his life depended on it!

Tom wasn't injured at all. That would be the result of examination that any random doctor would bring forth if he were to test him right now. 

But while that was truly the case for his outsides, the same couldn't be said about his insides. 

Ignoring all the injuries he sustained while he forcefully absorbed a massive amount of unrefined mana from the slime, he just pushed himself to the limit. In order to control so many spears with his domain, add and remove attributes to them at will, Tom's energy was already almost depleted. 

And how could that be anything else if not a set of internal injuries? If his state was not the best it could be, then Tom was injured!

At least, that's how he thought about it internally. But now, he could only pray that this internal belief of his would be enough. 

"Quite clever," Faunaris muttered, not a reaction to Tom's desperate sucking of its mana at all. Or rather, its lips quivered only to form a small, uneasy smile. 

"I guess I'm dead," Tom sighed. 

'I tried, I lost, now I die,' he thought, fully ascertained on this fact.

Since he failed to overwhelm the faun by stealing massive, in Tom's opinion, amounts of mana from its body, then there was nothing else he could do. Even if he were to restore himself to its absolute best capability, Tom couldn't even dream about defeating that monster. 

The gap of their levels was simply too great. 

"Didn't I say that if you manage to land a hit on me, I would answer your questions?" Faunaris asked, opening its eyes and looking at Tom with curiosity. 

The monster still held Tom's spear, either to show its defiant approach to Tom's desperate attempts, because it forgot that it was holding it, or simply because it made no difference whatsoever whether Tom continued to suck on the monster's energy or not. 

On his own, Tom couldn't tell. 

"What's the use of knowing answers if I'm too dead to remember them?" Tom asked, no longer pressured by the situation. 

In a sense, when standing in the face of the overwhelming power, a power that could crush him like an ant, his mind finally cleared out. 

There were no more matters that he needed to be bothered with. Nothing else mattered. 

'Is this the state of mind one achieves when they accept death?' Tom thought, quite curious about the phenomena.

"That's a valid point," the monster said, finally relaxing the hold over Tom's spear and allowing the young man to retract his weapon. 

"Can you make it quick?" Tom requested, lowering his spear and dropping its blade to the ground only to use this powerful stick as what it was - nothing more but a walking stick for a dying man. 

"Don't you want some answers first?" Faunaris asked, surprised by Tom's attitude. "Even if it's just for the vain sake of satisfying your curiosity?" it asked, surprisingly not showing even a hint of hostility towards Tom. 

What was even stranger was that Faunaris' aura was no longer as overwhelming as it was before, as if there was some reason why this monster would hold its output out. 

"Do I really need to repeat myself?" Tom twisted his lips in an unsightly grimace. "If you start answering my questions now, I will only start to cling to life once again," he said, shaking his head. "What's the use of it now? I'm as dead as a living being can be," Tom shook his shoulders, resting his weight over at his fancy walking stick. 

'I hope he won't try to make the passage hard for me. There should be no reason for something like him to take the struggles of an ant as an insult,' Tom wished. 

"Your father is not dead," Faunaris said with a peculiar smile, ignoring Tom's wishes altogether. 

"Is this what it is?" Tom's muttered, his expression darkening. "Is this your way of retaliation against my sneak attack?" he asked, the look in his eyes darkening. 

"Huh?" Faunaris eyes twitched. "What do you mean?" 

"You want me to cling back to life so that you will be satisfied seeing me desperate not to die as you kill me?" Tom muttered, something strange welling up in his soul. 

It wasn't that his desire to live returned. He never lost it in the first place. He just grew used to the idea that if he were to fail to defeat this monster, his life would simply conclude. 

But now, this strange feeling in his soul...

Just what exactly it was? 

A desire to kill? A desire to take revenge? Or maybe just a desire for this monster to shut its crap?

"You really are his son," Faunaris smiled, acting as if there was something wrong with its head. 

"Father this, son that, are you done yet?" Tom released a guttural noise from his throat. "Is that what you want? For me to kill myself as to stop hearing your bullshit?!" Tom shouted, the emotion in his soul firing up. 

Faunaris eyes twitched again, its face relaxed, only to turn serious the moment later. 

"That's right," it suddenly changed its agenda, staring down at Tom as if he was the ugliest worm in existence. "But I don't want you to kill yourself," it shook its head only to drop its weapons and allow them to disperse back into a mist of concentrated magic. "Let me bring out a weapon suitable to deal with trashes like you!" it shouted, raising its hand. 

Tom twitched. 

This didn't make any sense. 

This feeling in his soul, the strange changes to the unusually calm Faunaris... 

'How could just a few words of mine flare him up so much if he kept his calm even when I tried to seriously kill it?' Tom asked himself, directing his eyes towards the faun's extended hand. 

Around it, the mana started to gather. 

It wasn't Faunaris own mana; it didn't ooze out of his body. Rather than that, it was as if the world itself was pushing the mana to this area, making it look like some kind of a natural phenomenon. 

Tom didn't think at all. He allowed his instinct to take over. 

The emotion welling up in his soul exploded, setting his entire mind ablaze. 

Tom reached out with his hand. 

'Origin mage, he thought. 

Since Faunaris was trying to manifest a weapon from the very basic mana...

Then wasn't the origin mage the best skill to deal with it?

'Break,' Tom thought, allowing his emotion to guide his thoughts and movements alike. 

And just like that, the process of mana gathering suddenly stopped.

The reality itself cracked as if the world instantly retaliated about something daring to interfere with its inner workings. 

The cracks spread out rapidly as if reaching for Tom. 

It wasn't the air, walls, or floor cracking. It was the reality itself retaliating.

"UGH!!!" Faunaris spewed out a mouthful of blood, suddenly appearing right in front of Tom. Its expression was that of an immense pain mixed with... pride? Satisfaction? Amusement?

"You really are your father's son," it muttered, falling down to its knees and retching out a constant stream of blood. 

'What?' Tom shook his head. 'What just happened?!' he stood in place, shocked by both the situation and its development. 

The cracks, after striking down a living being, stopped. After dealing a fatal hit against a living being, they fulfilled their purpose. 

"Listen up, boy," Faunaris uttered, forcing back the blood down its throat. With just a single look, Tom could tell that it was quickly reaching the limits of its powerful body. 

It was as if... Those crack didn't care about the level of whatever they were dealing with. It was as if...

'As if they were a force on a completely different plane than all the mana and levels in the world,' Tom thought, stunned by the realization. 

"Boy!" Faunaris shouted, clearly unwilling to waste the few moments of time it had left. "Your father already killed me, so I bear no grudge to die to the Celestial Order," it uttered, its arms wobbling as if no longer able to support the faun's weight. "I won't be able to answer your question, so just listen to this and remember it well," it said, turning its whitened face towards Tom. 

"Master this ability," Faunaris said, massive rifts started to appear all over its flesh.. "Only with this heritage, you will be able to save your father."