Thirty seconds. That was all it took for the tides to shift.
Kallen’s hand shot forward with precise, surgical accuracy, and the kunai sank into flesh. The blade tore through muscle, nerve, and bone, severing the assassin’s right shoulder blade in one clean stroke.
A hot spray of blood followed, thick and relentless, drenching them both in its sticky viscosity.
Kallen did not flinch.
He had been watching and observing the assassin’s movements. They were erratic, deranged, and unpredictable. Yet beneath that madness, there remained a faint shadow of his original combat style.
And as a master of battle, Kallen did what he did best.
He dissected the rhythm, peeled apart the essence of his opponent’s technique, and read through it. Even with his own badly sprained ankle worsening by the second, he maneuvered around the assassin’s wild lunges with effortless precision.
The assassin staggered, off-balance.
Yet Kallen did nothing. He simply dodged out of his way, and waited.
Soon, the bleeding stopped and the wound began to heal.
Kallen remained impassive. He had expected this, and frankly, that was what he had wanted from the beginning.
He needed to see the limits of this regenerative ability. To push it to its breaking point. Torturing the assassin was the least of his intentions, it was simply meaningless and a waste of time. If not for the experiment he was about to run now, he would have simply finished him off and left this place. He needed to get to safety in this chaos, and his room... hell the whole Crimson’s castle was not an option.
That’s how long it took for the wound to heal, and the arm was restored.
Then his hand moved again.
This time, the left shoulder blade was severed.
Another shower of blood, followed by another round of silent observation.
When the assassin began healing once more, Kallen dislodged the entire shoulder from it’s joint, watching keenly as only flesh and a few muscles held up the dislocated arm. Not the slightest change to his expression.
And when that too regenerated, he took it a step further by severing the entire arm.
This time, the wound erupted with blood. It poured like a ruptured artery, a gory fountain of crimson.
This time, it took several minutes to close. Partially from the fact that the assassin was already weakened at this point, partially from the fact that he had lost a lot of blood, but mostly because he was almost completely drained of dynamis.
’Not perfect, but manageable. Definitely worth it.’
By now, the assassin’s shattered mind had begun clawing back to awareness. His body, once numbed by madness, was now alive with pain. Each time Kallen struck, the assassin sucked in sharp, ragged breaths.
Kallen welcomed the change.
That eerie unresponsiveness before had been quite unsettling and unsatisfying. This was much better.
The assassin’s figure flickered—employing his illusion technique once again.
It was as good as useless.
The evolution of his Will had come with a certain absolute authority. And unless one possessed an authority of similar quality and caliber, no illusion, no mirage, no warp of perception, could work on him.
His hand flashed again, and he took out the assassin’s fingers.
A burst of green light erupted from the assassin’s body, flaring out like a roaring, ethereal flame. The sudden radiance bathed the room in an eerie glow, casting shifting shadows across the bloodstained walls.
Kallen’s lips curled imperceptibility.
He had been pushing the assassin’s regeneration to its limit, testing its breaking point, expecting it to eventually fail. Instead, it actually evolved.
The severed fingers regrew in an instant, but the stump on his shoulder remained.
’Hmmm.... Although it still cannot regrow full limbs, it’s enough. Or should I continue pushing it? Maybe it’ll undergo another evolution. Sadly I don’t have much time. But let’s see the limit of this one’.
This time when his hand surged again, the assassin was disemboweled. Blood pumped out like a fountain, but magically his innards remained in place. And in a few seconds, he was as good as new.... Asides his broken mind that is.
He disemboweled him again, but this time, he shoved his hand into the assassin’s exposed gut and pulled out his innards. The assassin howled in pain and madness, his mind that was already gaining a semblance of clarity, collapsing again.
His spilled innards magically began retracting.
Kallen pulled back the retracting innards, and sliced his intestines in two, watching it mend themselves back in place. The growth of tissues and sinews could be tracked with the naked eye.
"Excellent" Kallen proclaimed. And seemingly satisfied, he decided to end his suffering.
A blade found the assassin’s temple, and the other plunged into his heart. His eyes flew open, a flicker of clarity piercing through the madness.
With a twisted sneer, he spat on Kallen’s face, his voice hoarse yet venomous and he growled.
"You will die a dog’s death." Then he closed in eyes letting death wash away this suffering. Slowly his body became limp and slumped forward.
Kallen remained silent for a moment, his expression unreadable. Then, in a voice as calm as still water, he finally spoke.
"Maybe. However, you must know this... my life is mine to decide. No one else."
[You have slain 1st Ascension Dark elf—Revitalizing illusionist.]
[Do you wish to digest its Essence?]
Kallen took this notifications in, but he knew it wasn’t over. Just then—
[DESTINY SNATCHER: Do you wish to steal the Destiny of Revitalizing illusionist? You inherit all their karma, and aspect]
With a deep breath...
At that moment, Kallen felt a suffocating gaze pressing down on him from nowhere. It wasn’t malicious, but it was heavy, and frankly... a little terrifying.
[You are treading upon TABOO. Do You Wish To Continue?]
And without hesitation...
Kallen wasn’t going to pass up on this for anything in the world. His decision was made, and his heart and Will were firm.
As a gamer; after escaping from his life as a real-world assassin and mercenary, he understood the weight of what he was about to do.
In Divine Odyssey, assassins were known for dealing the highest physical damage, just as mages dealt the highest magical damage. They also had the fastest attack speed, but were glass cannons; insane burst damage, squishy defense, and average HP.
But if an assassin appeared with this kind of build; one that could regenerate and recover HP from almost all kinds of damage, it would cause an uproar.
It was worth going TABOO for.
Not that he actually knew what the consequences of incurring a TABOO were. He didn’t even know what a TABOO was. He knew what was a taboo, but a TABOO? This was another thing he was seeing for the first time. Again he was leaving chances to fate.
[Your Foundations is being restructured]
[You are being reformed]
Kallen’s body became immobile.
Not the kind of pain he had experienced before. This was something else, something fundamental. It wasn’t the sting of a blade or the crushing force of a blow. It was a raw, primal agony that came from within, from something being touched and twisted at the core of his body.
He couldn’t scream. He couldn’t even move.
It felt as if something unseen was toying with his very being, as if the foundations of his flesh and soul were being rewritten, forcibly rearranged by an unknown force. But he remained standing, unmoving, like a statue caught between life and death.
On the outside, nothing changed. His expression still carried that serene indifference. But it was the calm of helplessness. A stillness forced upon him by being paralyzed and powerless. He couldn’t even howl in pain if he wanted to.
The process lasted for what felt like an eternity, until it was done.
The moment his body was free, he collapsed onto his knees, his chest rising and falling with deep, ragged breaths. His body felt foreign—like something had shifted on a level beyond the physical, beyond what his senses could fully capture.
But instead of dwelling on it, he slowly pulled out the twin kunai blades still deep in the corpse of the assassin, his fingers wrapping around their familiar hilts. A hint of dark fascination flickered in his gaze as he studied them, the lingering pain in his body drowned out by a newfound curiosity.
He exhaled sharply, then willed the Records of the blades to appear once more.