'What is this feeling...?'
Adam muttered to himself, looking at the gray sky covered in thunderclouds. The lightning continued to strike the ground as the main anomalies didn't disappear, on the contrary, they only increased in power.
This place would be covered with molten layers of salts and black spots for a long time, and the Phantoms would remember the deafening rumble of particularly strong lightning, but...
At that moment, Adam heard nothing. He saw the lightning bolts, saw them crash into the ground, raising waves of salt as if from a massive explosion, but nothing could shatter the void in his mind.
Electric shocks ran through his entire body while he soared above the ground, clearly relaxed as if ready to ascend to the heavens.
Electric shocks ran through his fingertips and hair, as well as his feet, which were almost touching the ground, but the lightning seemed to hold him upright.
Adam looked up, his arm was relaxed, heading towards the ground, and his body was slightly arched.
Crackle. Crackle. Crack.
After a few seconds, his black hair, filled with lightning energy, turned bright blue and lifted up slightly, just a few tips.
Then, on the left side of his head, it was on the side Adam had ripped off Thunder Demon's horn, the electricity formed a long, straight horn with a square curve and a sharp tip, constantly shaking due to the array of energy.
Fred was the only one of Adam's squad who was still conscious and could watch what was happening, though he was severely exhausted and couldn't even get to his feet.
He was mesmerized by Adam's appearance, his calmness and serenity, especially considering that Tirana was approaching him, burning everything in its path.
'Fuck... Even if Adam has developed his artifact and used the new ability, he's exhausted probably even more than I am!' Fred internally growled, clutching his legs tightly and trying to get up, leaning against the wall. Well, to some extent he succeeded, only on one knee.
Step. Step. Step.
Tirana raced forward, outwardly feeling confident, but something was bothering her. Her hands gripped the hilt of her sword tightly, but her eyes trembled, filled with mysterious fear.
'Why...? It has no arm, its entire body is covered in wounds, and no energy at all... Even if it's an Artifact Trait, it should be nothing compared to my Nexus and Orders! I'm using half of my arsenal, and he's using one ability!'
Whoooooooooosh.
Excited, Tirana dashed forward, raising her sword high above her head and about to cut Adam in two.
"Oh... I see..." Adam muttered, sorting out his feelings, "This is power..."
Then, the sounds filled his mind again, and he turned to Tirana, meeting her gaze. Adam lowered to the ground, glanced down at his only left hand, and smiled bitterly.
The next thing Adam did was to lean his body forward and take a step further.
Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.
Adam's body shuddered before turning into a blur, disappearing from Tirana's field of vision.
The next thing Tirana saw was a blue flash that traveled to her right, then for some reason, his gaze lifted, heading for the sky.
Crackle.
Adam's fingers plunged into Tirana's neck, tearing her skin and traveling into the flesh, straight to her spine.
With a sharp motion of his hand, Adam broke the solid bone that is the foundation of any human skeleton, tearing Tirana's head away from her shoulders and causing it to fly high up, spinning.
Neither fire armor, scarlet wings, nor a flaming sword, could protect Tirana from that single attack.
Whoooooooosh.
The simple throw caused powerful wind currents, raising black dust from the ground and allowing the horn to reach the monster at a dangerous speed.
At the same moment, the horn swept through the monster's head, smashing into the rock with a loud crack.
The monster's head exploded, scattering bloody chunks all around. The farthest of them reached Erden, aiming to crash into him.
Erden narrowed his eyes slightly as he took a few steps back so the pieces of flesh wouldn't hit him as well as the drops of blood.
"Good, it seems watching Adam's fight was the right decision. Otherwise, we would have spent even more time searching for the last of this wave." Erden muttered, looking up as if that was where the exit was.
Damien chuckled.
"I'm never wrong."
Erden nodded as his eyes grew colder.
"Yeah... But, only those who have the power to fix a mistake say that. If you can undo a failure, then it didn't happen, that's your secret."
Damien smirked but didn't say anything.
Then, he touched his earbud and said, "Beth, we're leaving."
'Good, get me something tasty from Bastion.'
"Tsk."
...
Adam opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was green bubbles floating in front of him, as well as a lot of people in white and blue coats doing something in a hurry. Obviously, their tasks were important and required an immediate response.
'No... It's not enough... I want more... Sleep feels too good...' Adam inwardly muttered before closing his eyes.
...
Step. Step. Step.
After an unknown period, a middle-aged woman with long blonde hair headed down the hallway. She was followed by a girl with purple hair that used to be long and tied up in a ponytail, but now it was short, down to her chin.
"Are you sure he'll be okay?" Jena asked with obvious concern.
"Sure, by the way, where is his Operator?" The woman asked sternly.
Jena looked away to the side.
"I don't know... I haven't been able to contact her..."
"Tsk, youths. Things are always complicated with you."
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Hi, this is the author. I will try my best to post another chapter a little later. Also, a few past chapters were poorly edited, I'll try to fix that too. Just sick, so hopefully I'll be back to a normal pace soon.
I hope you enjoyed the Essence Monster chapters!