Chapter 108: The Calm Before The Storm

Kuzunoha's eyes lit up with a dangerous glimmer at my words, a spark of delight dancing behind her crimson gaze. Her lips parted into a slow, wicked smile, the kind that sent a shiver through even the most hardened of souls. She straightened herself as she clasped her hands behind her back.

"Ah, finally… you ask the right questions," she purred, her voice laced with dark amusement. "You know, I was beginning to wonder if you'd forgotten just how many times I mentioned how potentially useful these abominations can be~"

She took a small step forward, her eyes narrowing as they fixed on the faraway distant, lumbering form of the Drowned Revenant. "The Revenant is bound to its curse—endurance and inevitability are its only laws. But laws, even the ones tied to a Qliphoth Object, can be twisted, bent to suit a more… creative mind."

Kuzunoha flicked a gloved hand in the air, and arcane fog briefly shimmered around her fingers before fading. "If we're to subdue it, you need to distract it for a very long time. This means that you will become its undying victim, dancing alongside death until the end of the Ordeal."

Just as the arcane dust settled, I felt an itchy throbbing sensation from every inch of veins. "This is??"

"I accelerated the culturalization process of your Valtherion's Blood. It will be very painful and discomforting, but it is a necessary step in order to withstand the endless onslaught from the Revenant. Approximately, you can be regarded as a Valtherion in around an hour~"

"Heh… I see what's going on…" I stroked the hair on my forehead back, embracing the necessary yet painful change that was suggested by my reliable secretary. "By being the target of the Revenant, I will only be immortal, but not a single part of my wounds will heal as part of the immortality…

"I'll assume that you're planning to make my own blood become foreign to my body, allowing it to heal its own host."

"Oh my~ I guess I'm starting to have a kink for smart partner~"

Turning my own blood to become foreign to its own body will lead to a lot of complications. From the drastic immune response to how my nerves and brain react to the changes—I guess that Kuzunoha had her own arcane way to bullshit the system and make it work sometimes.

Yeah, so far, the arcane magic could be explained as 'absurd stuff that works'.

The Drowned Revenant started to become visible, slowly approaching our bastion as her presence called upon the tide of the unnatural sea. Sёarᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

It hadn't been aggroed. And again, it was really taking its sweet time.

My eyes were on Kuzunoha once again. "So, what is your method to capture a Qliphoth Object? Seeing that you don't have one for a pet, I can safely assume that you haven't been very successful in the past."

"That's because I was pretty much alone back then," she nonchalantly grinned. "Now, I have someone who will take the role of the meat shield while I masterfully concoct a tether to bind the Qliphoth Object to our will."

"Still, why is your interest only placed on the Qliphoth Object? I never saw you do the same thing with Calamity Object," I curiously asked.

"Calamity Objects… Those are far too unpredictable for my taste," she began, her voice dripping with disdain, as though the very thought of them bored her. "They're blunt instruments—forces of inconvenience, chaos incarnate, yes—but ultimately basic.

"There's no groundbreaking story behind them. They have no artistry~ No nuance, no opportunity for control or manipulation. They're like swinging a wrecking ball at a glass house—randomly, and utterly lacking in finesse."

She waved her hand dismissively, her crimson gaze shifting back to the Drowned Revenant in the distance. "A Calamity Object is a force you survive, not something you utilize. It's too much raw, uncontrollable power, and frankly, I find that kind of chaos to be unrefined?"

Her voice lowered, the sinister edge returning as she spoke with a renewed fervor. "But a Qliphoth Object? Ah, now that is something far more interesting. They are inconsolable, but they possess a unique existence of intelligence, a twisted design behind them.

"They want something to become nothing. They're bound by their curses, their desires to see this world become nothingness! And if you understand those desires, you can bend them, exploit them~

"The Revenant, for example—it's cursed to drown its victim in despair, but that curse can be repurposed. Harnessed. With the right manipulation, I can theoretically turn its need to do something far more controllable and beneficial~!"

"Right," I said as I started to get tired of Kuzunoha's nerdy talk. "Can I also assume that it has something to do with arcane magic?"

Kuzunoha gasped. "How do you know that!?"

"Just a hunch."

Sometimes, Kuzunoha was more talkative than a chatterbox.

Not that I dislike it, but I hope that she would only rallied on the necessary information in such a crisis like this.

Then again, with her background, I doubted that she saw this encounter as nothing but a mundane occurrence.

With the Drowned Revenant starting to get close, I began preparing myself. For one, I handed over my Fortcracker to Kuzunoha to be stored, since I will be fighting a close-range combat with the Qliphoth Object.

"How long is the subduing process?" I asked, my eyes already met the unruly gaze of the incoming revenant.

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"Depends on how fast I can crack the existence of the Drowned Revenant," Kuzunoha said as she cheekily smiled. "The moment you become the sole opponent of the Revenant, I will start the deconstruction process of its soul-map.

"Because there will be a lot of different variables coming into play, the amount of time that I need to fully bring it down will greatly depend on luck~!"

"So we just need to be lucky, huh. What's the estimation?"

"Five hours."

"Alright." A playful sneer appeared on my face. "Will you be doing any kind of support while I'm going to be tormented to hell and back?"

"Obviously~" She said a wide smug. "I will be giving my utmost best to support my loveable darling~!"