I walked toward her. Moving through the thickened air took deliberate effort, my Tier 1 Strength pushing against the atmospheric drag.
I stopped right in front of her. She was staring straight ahead, looking right through the space where I now stood. Her chest was paused mid inhalation.
I extended my index and middle fingers. I placed them gently against the side of her neck, pressing directly over her carotid artery.
Cryokinesis (Tier 1).
I poured absolute zero energy directly into her circulatory system. I bypassed the skin and the muscle, focusing the thermal deletion entirely on the liquid flowing through her veins.
The effect, even at Mach 30 perception, was instantaneous.
Her blood, the very source of her godhood, crystallized. The water molecules locked into jagged structures. The ice expanded violently within her veins, arteries and capillaries.
The sheer speed of the freeze shattered her internal biology. Her veins ruptured under the expanding ice.
Her heart froze mid beat, cracking into sharp red shards within her chest cavity. The moisture in her brain crystallized, turning the soft tissue into a block of frozen matter.
Her skin immediately lost all color, turning a translucent white, laced with a spiderweb network of dark blue where her veins had burst.
The frost bloomed across her skin, creeping over her clothes, frosting the crimson t-shirt she held in her hands.
Her consciousness was eradicated before her brain could even register the temperature drop. The emotional trigger required to unlock her power was bypassed entirely.
But I could not leave it at that.
The System profile had specifically listed Resurrection (Tier 1). The ability to return from the dead within an hour. I did not know the specific biological parameters required for that power to initiate. Did it require an intact brain? A beating heart?
I could not take the chance. To prevent a resurrection, there must be nothing left to resurrect.
I withdrew my hand from her frozen neck.
I took a half step back, shifting my stance. I brought my right arm back, pulling potential energy into the dense musculature of my shoulder and back.
Super Strength (Tier 1).
I executed a precise punch, driving my knuckles directly into the center of her frozen sternum.
The kinetic force of the blow was cataclysmic.
Because her body was frozen at absolute zero, it possessed no elasticity. It was infinitely brittle.
The impact of my fist sent a localized kinetic shockwave rippling through every crystallized cell in her body.
CRACK.
She shattered.
It was a silent explosion of anatomical glass. Her torso, her head, her arms, her legs… the entire statue of frozen flesh and crystallized blood instantly disintegrated into millions of glittering shards.
She became a cloud of crimson and white dust, suspended perfectly in the frozen air of the bedroom.
The crimson t-shirt she had been holding simply dropped, falling at a fraction of a millimeter per second as gravity tried to pull it down through the molasses thick air.
I lowered my fist.
I released my hold on the Super Speed.
Time crashed back into the room.
The sound of the air conditioning returned. The low hum of the suburban night resumed.
And the cloud of shattered ice clattered to the carpeted floor.
It sounded like someone had dropped a massive chandelier. The glittering shards of frozen blood and tissue bounced and rolled across the beige fibers, a sparkling pile of debris that was already beginning to melt in the room's ambient heat.
The crimson shirt landed softly on top of the pile.
Silence descended on the room once more.
I stood over the remains, my breathing even.
The holographic interface materialized in the air before me, casting a cool glow over the macabre scene.
[Supe Neutralized: Marie Moreau. Power: Biokinesis (Tier 1), Hemokinesis (Tier 2), Super Defence (Tier 1), Super Strength (Tier 2), Super Regeneration (Tier 2), Enhanced Senses (Tier 3), Resurrection (Tier 1). Choose Option: Retain or Convert?]
The sheer volume of power displayed on the screen was intoxicating. I possessed the ultimate defensive and offensive capabilities already.
I focused on the two true prizes. The abilities that transcended mere physical violence and touched the realm of the divine.
'Retain: Biokinesis (Tier 1) and Resurrection (Tier 1).'
[Powers 'Biokinesis (Tier 1)' and 'Resurrection (Tier 1)' successfully integrated.]
The Biokinesis felt like a sudden awareness of every cell in my body and the potential to command the cells of others. It was the power to knit flesh, to jump start dead hearts, to strip the debilitating side effects from Compound V mutations and to supercharge the abilities of my allies.
The Resurrection was a different sensation entirely. It felt like a safety net snapping into place deep within my soul.
A metaphysical tether that assured me that even if the impossible happened, even if I was somehow struck down, death was no longer a permanent condition. I had a one hour window to defy the reaper.
I turned my attention to the remaining list.
'Convert the rest.'
The System processed the command with rapid efficiency.
[Converting 'Hemokinesis (Tier 2)'... +3,000 XP]
[Converting 'Super Defence (Tier 1)' (Redundant)... +5,000 XP]
[Converting 'Enhanced Senses (Tier 3)'... +1,500 XP]
[Converting 'Super Strength (Tier 2)' (Redundant)... +3,000 XP]
[Converting 'Regeneration (Tier 2)' (Redundant)... +3,000 XP]
[Conversion Complete.]
[Total XP Gained: 15,500 XP]
My mind did the quick arithmetic. The 15,500 XP from Marie, combined with the 3,000 XP from Annabeth, brought the night's haul to an astonishing 18,500 XP. Added to my existing balance of 600 XP, I now possessed 19,100 XP.
I looked down at the melting pile of bloody ice on the floor. It was a gruesome sight, but to the authorities, it would be an unsolvable mystery. A girl vanishes from a locked room, leaving behind nothing but a puddle of heavily diluted blood and a dropped t-shirt.
I didn't linger to admire my work.
I locked onto the spatial coordinates of my penthouse office.
Teleportation (Tier 2).
Snap.
Snap.
Snap.
The bedroom vanished.
I materialized in the center of my office. I exhaled slowly, rolling my shoulders to release the lingering tension of the Mach 30 compression.
I walked over to the obsidian desk and sank into the leather chair.
[You okay, Boss?] the System asked quietly. [That was... intense. Efficient, but intense.]
"I'm fine," I said, my voice steady.
I looked at my hands. They looked the same, but they held the power to rewrite life and reverse death.
PS: Come on guys, we just need 20 more Power Stones for a bonus chapter. Let's push it, haha.
PS: The novel is already completed on Patreon. If you want to read the whole story at once, there are 50+ advance chapters available. www.patreon. com/Drrajnovel