Chapter 179: Overload: Loneliness 3/3 + mini announcement

Chapter 179: Overload: Loneliness 3/3 + mini announcement

Umair gazed at the young woman, and although she was destined to die, his respect for her was growing by the second.

Her rate of levelling was something that was rarely seen before. Maybe only the eldest daughter of the Forscythe family was capable of matching it, but Umar shot down that thought a moment later. No, with how strong Astrid was right now, she was dwarfing even the top genius of the Forscythe family. Probably even besting Christian Sinwem.

It was truly a spectacle to behold. To think that all his years of painstaking fighting, killing, and surviving, was being matched by a girl in her first year of awakening. It was laughable.

Just as his troops were about to finalise their assault on their little ship, a sudden storm of mana burst out from Astrid.

He gazed in shock as the air around the girl was practically vaporised. Any debris, or water that was surrounding her was erased into nothing but sparkling particles. Then, his vision met her eyes. One was sparkling like the endless void, the other held a deep X scored within.

Two eyeballs floated behind her shoulder, eerily peering at him as if they had minds of their own. Her aura swept outward, and it even forced him to retreat. The trail of it caught his leg, and the intense weight shot him down into the water. Only after submerging into the ocean, did the might of its pull stop. Quickly recovering himself, he looked at her once more.

The strange eyes had reverted to normal, but an endless expanse of loneliness spread within them like a deep plague. He was forced to strip his vision from them, as he could feel his own heart tighten at the gaze.

Where was his son, his wife? Was all of this worth it in the end?

Umair shook his head, snapping his thoughts out of the impending crisis he felt. How was this possible? Was she using a forbidden Skill? It was the only thing that he could think of. Or was she the SInwen daughter not showing her true strength?

Whatever it was, she needed to die. He was about to make a move when the mana within her body reached an apex the likes he had never witnessed before. It was suffocating, all consuming.

His heart trembled as the air around her was torn. Like ripping a piece of paper, the blue sky turned into a purple tear. It looked like the void was spilling out, and he could feel the strange energy seeping out from within the air.

From the tears in space, hundreds of kobolds appeared. As if they had teleported. In the lead was a strange kobold he had never seen before. It was pure white like an albino, but instead of red eyes, a piercing blue took their place.

The beast stood at a staggering nine foot tall, and the blue from its eyes also appeared around its forearms like a magical sigil. It radiated power just from a glance.

In the air twenty metres to the side, another large pocket of space tore open. Emerging through the void were hundreds of topless men wearing strange masks. Some of them were even riding quadrapedic scaled monsters that emitted a primal roar. More than that however, was that a lot of them didn’t even have eyes. Like a skeleton–only darkness remained behind the sockets.

A tall, slender man filled with wiry muscles took the forefront of the army. Just from the mana radiating from him, Umair could tell he was their leader.

A sinking feeling tugged at Umair’s heart.

“See, I am not alone,” Astrid said with a slight smirk on her lips. She glanced at the kobolds, then around to the other army on the other side. She looked–happy.

***

Overload: Loneliness.

Increasing intelligence by 400.

Increasing wisdom by 500.

Increasing Psychokinesis control by 300%

Mana capacity exceeded by 500%

The energy swirling around her, although it wasn’t weaker than the other times when she entered Overload the last time. She felt a connection to other people's minds, but they were so far away. However despite the distance, she reached out to the vivid strings within her thoughts. As if there was a rope around their waists, and she was pulling them to her.

She glanced through the mind, and realised that it was a familiar face. Christian Sinwen. He was in a strange location, but Astrid could tell it was a dungeon of some kind. However, the connection was cut off. As if someone, or something had sliced it with a powerful knife.

Astrid sighed. At least he was okay.

She pulled herself from her thoughts, then pulled them with a mighty tug. Tears in space were created, and out came some familiar faces, while others were unusual.

The white kobold looked familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. That was until it spoke in human tongue.

“My queen, you have summoned us to the surface at long last!” The kobold knelt down, as did all the other kobolds.

“Yes?” Astrid tilted her head, confused at the baffling situation. But then her thoughts travelled back to before she entered the Voidmare dungeon. The kobolds. Her eyes widened at the remembrance. “Your name?”

“Kreka, the evolved!” The white kobold shouted. A wide smile displayed his sharpened glossy teeth.

Astrid, in a split second, raised her defences by channelling her mana into them, but it was too late.

Umair reappeared. He had transformed. His appearance was ghastly, but she didn’t have time to see him before his hand clutched around her throat.

His purple-black eyes gazed at her. A formless blade of water emerged from his arm, then he snapped it forward without a word.

Astrid’s mind buzzed as she controlled the Voidbent metal within her. Seeping from her bones, it appeared all over her skin in an instant. Water met metal in a clash of dark sparks, but the blade was too strong. It slowly pierced through her second skin as the cool blade of water entered her body.

Spitting out blood, Astrid’s weakened hand gripped around his own. She tried using Mind Domain, but his high intelligence thwarted it. It was like firing an arrow against a solid metal wall. His mind was impenetrable. She didn’t know if it was thanks to his transformation, but she didn’t have time to care. Astrid had to do something.

Red seeped down from her body, and dripped into the blue water below. She coughed and spluttered.

He’s corrupted. The thought pervaded her mind, as she sunk her vision below his skin. What met her eyes was a familiar sight. During those days curing the corruption, each cluster of the disease was branded into her mind like a display that refused to turn off.

She chuckled as blood seeped through her teeth. It splashed onto his blade, causing the red to sizzle into hot air.

“Screw–you–” She forced out her choked words, then connected to the corruption spots within his body.

There was no intention of curing them, only mindless destruction. Two, eight, sixteen–she connected to them in an instant, then [Crashed] them all at once.

Blood shot out from all the holes in his face like a geyser that had been charging for years. His eyes turned into a blank haze, before she pulled them out, and stored them with one swift motion.

You defeated - Umair Byrd, the fourth pirate king - Level 268!

| Extra experience is granted for defeating an enemy many levels above!

You have Levelled up!

| Oculus Witch Level 146 -> Oculus Witch Level 155

| Voidmare Level 146 -> Voidmare Level 155

You have gained 90 stat points.

You now have 1316 Intelligence.

She immediately placed all the points into intelligence, then used Omni-Kinesis to transfer her Intelligence into Constitution. Instantly, her savage wound was turned into nothing more than a joke.

Taking a relieved breath, she turned to her army. It seemed they took her words as the gospel as they were well and truly annihilating the enemy forces. The kobolds, much like the psychos, relied on pure force as they ripped apart their enemies.

However, she took note of the white kobold Kreka. He seemed to charge up his attack with the surging blue light on his forearms, only to release it in a devastating punch. Oddly enough, he was using the Sinwen footwork, and boxing just like any prodigious son or daughter would display

With a quick check on Daniel, Leena and the others, they were okay. Tired, but none of them had severe injuries as her army had stopped the pirates in time.

Knowing they were safe, her attention landed on the disorderly Seafarers. They landed their boats on the ocean, but instead of moving towards her–they travelled the opposite way. They were escaping.

Astrid spat, then injected one of the psycho’s mana stimulants into her veins, then flew up toward Rebirth. As her head peered over the edge of its high walls, she was met with a scene of chaos.

Corrupted in the hundreds sprinted around, ripping anything they could find into shreds. Whether it was buildings, wheat fields–or people. It didn’t seem to be the denizens of Rebirth, but rather adventurers, and the military corp. Or at least what was left of it.

Buildings were on fire, and the screams of death screeched across the arc as if it were the end times.

Astrid rushed forward and blasted the nearby corrupted men and women until nothing of their existence remained. She managed to catch one, and attempted to cure them, but the corruption was far too deep for her to do anything about it. It seemed she would have to catch the spreading virus early in order to deal with it.

Since she was a lot stronger than they were, she focused on her thoughts as she cleared them out one-by-one.

It was clear her father was in a dungeon, but what of the others? Where were the nobles that had long defended Rebirth, and what were they doing?

Her gaze landed on the Sinwen manor, her questions would need to wait until she was certain her family was safe.

End of Book 2.