A huge spherical mass consisting of rock and debris formed in the sky and cast a black shadow over the area where Adam's worn-out figure could be seen, struggling to stand up on his feet.
His clothes were torn apart, revealing his body which was covered by thick red blood, and the smile on his face disappeared.
However, the monsters around him didn't wait for him to recover and continue to rush like the mad beasts they were.
Thus, he didn't have the choice but to activate his power again even though he was clearly on the verge of passing out.
"Damn it!" Adam spat out.
Why the hell did he have to go through all of this pain? What if he died there? Would he have accomplished anything at all? These thoughts crossed Adam's mind as he assessed the situation that he was in.
Until this point, he somehow managed to overcome the problems that appeared in front of him. After all, he was lucky to have his power.
However, this time the circumstances were different because he decided to rush into the danger of his own volition.
Maybe Adam was too confident in his ability, or maybe he cared for Liu, no one could guess his true motivations.
But there was no denying the fact that a normal person would never go their way to another universe to save someone if this someone was just a mere acquaintance.
And If they did, it must be because they were extremely kindhearted and heroic or they just wanted to satisfy their ego.
"May the earth be appeasing for your soul!" The commander pointed towards Adam, and the huge mass rushed down.
Understanding the situation in front of him, Adam began to think, gathering all of his brain cells and thinking about what he should do next like he never did before.
*****
:::[Adam's POV]:::
'This is bad!'
The black-armored dude was more powerful than anyone I had met. His ability to control gravity was something that I never expected to see this soon.
My power couldn't reach him, and I wasn't able to nullify his attacks.
Honestly, I was scared.
My body hurt like hell, and I had a hard time breathing.
This situation reminded me of the time when I was poisoned.
But this time, I didn't have time to get scared.
'I am a hypocrite, ain't I?'
Even the reason why I was in this situation was because of my hypocrisy, I knew that, but I would never say it out loud.
I liked living in luxury and having a lot of money and doing nothing. I cared about my current face more than people thought, as much as I disliked pain. I liked to feel superior to the others, and I was attracted to Liu and wanted her to be mine.
In the end, I was never satisfied with anything and I would always complain. This was my nature, and I wasn't sure how to deal with my feelings, so I couldn't even imagine Liu liking me back. In summary, I wasn't sure of anything.
'ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ N ovelBi(n)',
Maybe I was wrong to desire such a thing. 'But that's fine. I will face it all without averting my eyes. My wicked desires, my weaknesses, everything… I won't be swallowed by them, but I won't deny them too.'
These last few months taught me something that I couldn't understand during my whole life. 'If I want something, I shouldn't spare any effort no matter what kind of result I get. Otherwise, it's no use to complain about the things I can do or I can't do, because this world isn't so kind to let such a person live."
It was not the time for regret. I needed to save Liu and tell her what I think of her.
'I can't die here! That's the only thing that I wouldn't accept! No matter how stupid my reasons are, I won't die!'
I didn't know if I was inspired by the shadow of death, but my thoughts were faster than usual and a smile appeared on my face again.
What I was thinking about at that moment might have been nonsense, but it also meant that I didn't want to get crushed by an artificial meteorite without doing anything.
*****
:::[Third person POV]:::
Various thoughts crossed Adam's mind, realizing that he was about to go through a very painful experience, but that didn't improve the situation at all.
The monsters still tried to push through the field created by his power, and the huge mass was huge enough to crush Adam with these monsters.
He didn't know if the commander thought about this or if it was just a coincidence, but Adam couldn't move out of the way.
He needed more than just accepting his wicked desires and casting away all regrets if he wanted to live.
Adam's power was derivated from the original primordial authority called Destruction.
However, he couldn't manifest its true form and couldn't use its full potential, in other words, create the Antimatter.
Until now, he absorbed the energy of primordial particles to strengthen his body and increased his strength, but he didn't try to push the limits of his body to the point that he could manifest the true form of his power.
After all, such an action could cause his instant death.
But the situation didn't give him the choice, and so he cast away his doubts and solely focused on how to deal with the object that was falling towards him.
'I can't absorb enough neutral particles, and my body won't be able to withstand the fallout,' Adam thought, 'But if I have to do it…'
Adam was stupid if all of his actions were to be examined, but he had the feeling that he could achieve something in this life, so he didn't want to die.
"Damn it, I will take the risk!" He shouted.
Apart from the neutral particles, Adam could feel thicker energy in the surrounding, and he could also feel this energy emanating from the monsters and swallowing the neutral particles.
What if he absorbed this energy too? Would his power nullify its effect or would he turn into something grotesque?
There was no telling what would happen to him, but Adam did it anyway.
"Aaaa! Kuh!"
He could feel something entering his body, and as if it was the exact opposite of the neutral particles within him, the process was followed by intense pain.
However, Adam couldn't lose his focus even for a second.
All of that happened in a short amount of time, but the pain persisted, and he could feel an outburst of energy surging throughout his body.
'ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NovelB(i)n. ᴄᴏᴍ',
His goal was to push the use of his power to the extreme and expand it until it reached the commander and the black orb at the center of the huge mass.
After that, he would use the monster's body to protect himself against the impact while strengthening his body to the limit so that he would not die. He theorized that the mass would fall apart if he could neutralize the black orb, so he had a higher chance of survival.
He concentrated all of his strength, everything he had on expanding the range of his power, ignoring the pain, ignoring the monsters, ignoring the falling mass. "Aaaaaaaaaaa!"
His action seemed illogical, stupid, and extremely desperate, but he pushed himself to the limit while absorbing the unknown energy.
Even though Adam didn't know, what he trying to do expanding his domain and manifest the true form of his power.
And that was when it happened, a phenomenon that defied reality.
In the very beginning, before colors were created there was nothing, so how would such scenery appear to humans' eyes? No black, no white just nothing.
The human brain couldn't process such information, and that was why the flame that surrounded Adam's body was colorless but appeared to look like platinum when seen by human eyes.
Boom!
The enormous mass finally impacted the ground, but it looked like Adam's power didn't reach the commander.
*****
"Adam!" Zax shouted.
She couldn't understand why Cristal appeared to be unconcerned about Adam even though he was crushed by a huge mass.
"What's wrong with you? Let me go save him if you don't want to!" She added.
She even forgot that she also had to fight with a dragon, so it was Cristal who controlled the armor while she was focused on Adam's situation.
Rooarrr!
Cristal said that even if they go there, they would bring more problems to Adam than solutions. She also explained that even if Adam died he wouldn't wish for Zax to die with him, and so she left Cristal with her so that she could run away if things took a bad turn.
However, Zax couldn't accept such reasoning.
She only met Adam and interacted with him for a short amount of time, but she already considered him as a friend.
This was because she lived in a world where she couldn't trust anyone, and where people treated each other like enemies and rivals that could potentially steal from them.
It was a world where the strong made the law, and the smart get to live for another day.
That was why, when she met Liu and the others she could finally use her talents for the benefit of the others and she began to invent many things that weren't used for stealing or killing.
She could finally be proud of her work.
And when she met Adam, she could talk about her inventions all day without feeling awkward about it. After all, even though Liu and the others liked Zax, they had other interests.
It was a small detail and was not even worth mentioning, but it was these small details that served as the foundation of a long-lasting friendship.
But now, Liu was kidnapped and Adam was also crushed by a huge mass.
Zax begged Cristal in tears to save Adam because she knew that she couldn't save Liu alone. "This can't be…. Nooo!"