He made her a fucking Shinigami. And not just any old kind of Shinigami. A fucking Visored. They are hybrids made from two of the most powerful soul races in their universe of origin—Bleach.
And so long as their masks were on, they could box with the best of them and use Hollow and Shinigami powers.
Why was I staring down the Soul Society Ascendant?
Because Shin was a bastard who wanted to teach me a lesson, even at death's door.
Well, fuck that and fuck him!
I unleashed my everything, tapping into all of my Amp and blade runes and flooding the weapons with so much energy they cracked.
With a throat-shredding roar, I called on my affinities, spiking the weight and density of the blade. It pulled reality around itself as it traveled through space. The blade was infused with Anathema Fire, dimensional energy, and every drop of my telekinesis.
Something deep within me shattered, and I felt my muscles and skin bubbling and flaking, but I still carried on.
A small ball of blackish, purplish soul energy gathered between Lauren's horns. Hundreds of thousands of soul fragments were pulled from the small sea that was forming around me and fed to the blast, along with an ocean of her own energy. It shone with a brightness and intensity comparable to my attack. It was a Hollow technique called Cero.
Lauren's twisted laugh slipped through our telepathic channel, and I grimaced.
Cero's presence, combined with my building technique, disintegrated the asteroid field around us and gave me an idea that might just change everything.
Blood leaked off my armor, drifting into space, and my blade hummed dangerously. This was going to be my end. I knew it. So why not try one last dangerous, stupid thing before I go?
I swung and then triggered Time Stop.
Reality stuttered and unraveled, stretching and twisting into a jagged shape as my attack sped forward. Lauren's Cero met it halfway, and the blowback from the explosion was immediate. It disintegrated my armor, blade, all of my lower body, and most of my upper body, including my heart.
I was seconds from dying when Time Stop finally worked.
Soul Collapse at 92% → Soul Collapse at 99%
Warning! Warning! Soul death is imminent.
Nearly all of my collected souls had fled me, and my current soul appeared to be only a tenth of the size of what it used to be, but it was enough to try what I was about to attempt.
Fire poured out of the nubs that were formerly my hands and washed over the souls. At first, it passed through them without so much as leaving a mark, but then I pushed the flame harder.
It was supposed to be a concept-destroying flame—able to consume any and all things to fuel its heat. As far as energy sources went, soul was the purest.
There was a flash of light and a sudden notification. I didn't look. I couldn't spare the mental energy. I was far from done. I pulled the half-melted souls in, spreading them over the massive scars covering my wounded soul, and called on my Shapeshifting affinity and Promethean Body to do the rest.
I'd healed from damage that should've killed me before with the Promethean Body, and my Shapeshifting affinity extended beyond the body, just like all of my affinities did.
Things got significantly worse before they got better.
My physical body popped from the influx of energy. One soul had enough power to refill half of my energy bar. Now imagine trying to stuff millions of them into your collapsing body.
Promethean Body resurrected me immediately and kick-started the function that Shin stole from me when he gifted me the system. A scream ripped from my new throat as my soul changed in front of my eyes.
Cardinal Affinity: Anathema Flame has reached High
Your power reaches into the metaphysical. Your flames can immolate souls.
Anathema Flame has reached Grandmaster.
Demonic Energy Manipulation has reached Grandmaster.
Angelic Energy Manipulation has reached Grandmaster.
You've woken a Foundational Demonic Ability—Soul Absorption and Metabolism.
You've averted Catastrophic Soul Damage.
Soul Cohesion at 72%
Each notification brought fresh pain and relief, but also surprise.
Preliminary Absorption completed.
You've gained 300 STR, 200 DEX, 300 END, 200 VIT, 1000 DE, and 1000 AE.
I blinked at the rapid stat climb. My body vibrated like a tuning fork. It was like all of the development that'd been cheated out of me was happening all at once in the span of a few seconds.
Out of my True Form, my hold over Time Stop slipped, and the chaos and destruction came screaming back in, including her.
I teleported out of her strike with barely a thought, and a gasp escaped me, the results of the skill boost immediately apparent.
A hastily raised telekinetic, rune-powered shield parried the strike from Lauren that followed, easily turning it aside. I returned fire with a burst of Anathema fire that was met by a quick Cero from her horn. The two canceled each other out, and the blowback flung us further apart, deeper into space.
I picked up on Lauren's thoughts before she even appeared.
A quick teleport saved me from a full-powered Cero screaming into the void. I wasn't quite quick enough to dodge the diagonal slash that followed. It split my spine and carved up my back and ribs, but it didn't deter me.
I parried the full-powered stab that followed with a rune-enhanced telekinetic shield, reversing the impact and tossing her back. I peppered her with hundreds of telekinetic spikes containing Anathema Flame and accelerated by time and telekinetic runes.
Several layers of prismatic shields appeared, each barely holding back the devastation before she moved again—but this time it wasn't just a plain old teleport. She spent soul energy to reposition herself behind me.
And I anticipated it well beforehand, even though I was slower, and split her stomach open with another one of my dimensional slashes.
The energy flowed like water, and the blow nearly bisected her. It certainly stopped her in her tracks and forced her to draw the All-Black. Thousands of creatures flooded out of the black blade, swamping me.
A generous spray of Anathema fire put an end to all of them and bought Lauren room to clutch her stomach, surprised, blood running down her lips.
+600,000 Red Orbs
Soul Absorption has begun.
I didn't need to read her mind to know she was petrified.
"How!" she demanded, her voice echoing through a telepathic channel. "How are you doing this?"
I gave her no response. I had high expectations for Grandmaster tier, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect it would make this much of a difference.
"It doesn't matter!" she roared, holding her blade out to the side. "I will bury you in darkness. Shikai! Undending Dark."
Her Shinigami blade took the color of the All-Black and expanded like depressurized gas. I tried teleporting—and rapidly aborted it, averting a potentially catastrophic mistake.
My sixth sense of space and dimensions was muffled, as was my telepathy, my sight, and my smell. Everything.
I was completely in the dark and completely at Lauren's mercy.
Or so she'd like me to believe.
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