Chapter 25
Elijah hit the ground hard, his back slamming against the grass, the air driven from his lungs. The big man was already moving, climbing out of the van, his bulk filling the space between Elijah and the open door where Mai lay bound.
Elijah's hand went to his waistband. The gun. He still had it. His fingers closed around the grip and he raised it, firing before he had fully risen.
The big man moved.
For someone his size, he was fast. His body twisted, the bullet passing through the space where his chest had been a heartbeat before. He didn't stop moving. He closed the distance in three strides, his foot coming up, and Elijah fired again. The man ducked, the shot going wide, and his fist connected with Elijah's arm.
The gun went flying. Elijah's arm went numb.
He scrambled backward, his feet finding the grass, his mind racing. The big man was on him again before he could get his balance, his hand closing around Elijah's throat, lifting him off the ground.
Elijah's hands clawed at the man's wrist. His feet kicked at the man's chest. Nothing. The grip was iron. His vision was already darkening at the edges.
[Quest: You have met an enemy who will kill you, one far stronger than you. But you can still win. Show him the might of the King.]
[Reward: 500 System Points | 500 EXP]
[Punishment: None. This man will kill you.]
The screen flashed in front of Elijah's eyes, and he used the distraction to drive his knee into the man's ribs. The grip loosened. Just enough. Elijah dropped, gasping, and rolled away.
He pushed himself up, his chest heaving, his throat raw. The big man was watching him now, his head tilted, something like amusement in his eyes.
"You're fast," the man said. His voice was low, rough. "For someone who can't fight."
Elijah didn't answer. He couldn't. His lungs were burning, his body screaming. His Ki circulation was still active, the warmth flickering in his chest, but it wasn't enough. The man was stronger. Faster. More experienced.
Elijah breathed. In, Hold.
He pushed the technique harder. The warmth surged, flooding his limbs, his back, his head. His muscles tightened. His vision sharpened. For a moment, he felt like he could match the man, could stand against him.
Then his body betrayed him.
A cough ripped through his chest. Blood sprayed from his mouth, dark against the grass. He had pushed too far. His lungs were tearing, his throat filling with copper. The warmth in his chest flickered, threatened to die, and he held it. He held it with everything he had.
The big man moved.
His fist came at Elijah's face. Elijah dodged, barely, the wind of the punch brushing his cheek. He threw a punch of his own, his fist connecting with the man's ribs, and it was like hitting stone. The man didn't flinch. His hand came up, caught Elijah's arm, and twisted.
Elijah felt something pop in his shoulder. Pain shot through him, white and blinding, and he bit down on the inside of his cheek to keep from screaming. He swung with his other hand, caught the man across the jaw, and the man's head turned, just a fraction, and then he smiled.
"That all you got?"
His fist drove into Elijah's stomach. Elijah folded, his legs giving out, his face hitting the grass. He tasted dirt and blood. His body was done. His arms wouldn't move. His legs wouldn't respond. The warmth in his chest was a dying ember.
The big man's shadow fell over him. "You should have stayed out of it."
Elijah closed his eyes.
He was in the dark space again. The place where Alter Elijah waited. The walls were formless, the ground solid beneath his feet, and in front of him stood the other version of himself—same face, same skin, same hair. But his eyes were silver, and they burned.
"You can't die," Alter Elijah said.
Elijah laughed, and it came out broken. "I'm about to die."
"Stand up."
"I can't."
"Find whatever strength you have left. Find it and fight." Alter Elijah stepped closer, his voice rising. "Fight to live. Fight to grow stronger. Fight to become better. Fight because you chose to be someone worth being."
Elijah shook his head. "I'm not strong enough."
"No. You're not. But you will be." Alter Elijah's hand closed around Elijah's wrist, and something passed between them—heat, light, something ancient and patient. "The Eternal Ground Tree adapts. As long as its roots are in the earth, it lives. The same goes for you. As long as you are alive, as long as you desire to live, you will stand. You will stand tall. You will stand like a tree that has weathered a thousand storms."
The dark space blazed with light. The warmth in Elijah's chest, the warmth that had been dying, exploded. It grew beyond anything he had felt before, beyond the fifty percent of Ki Circulation, beyond the limits his body had tried to impose. It was a fire, and it was a root, and it was the thing that had been growing inside him since the book had merged with his soul.
[Skill Evolution Detected]
[Ki Circulation (Level 1) → Zenith (Level 1)]
[Zenith: Increases all physical stats by up to 300%. Because you haven't created your Ki seed, you would be decreasing your life span if you cross 50% and You would die if you crossed 100%. Current safe threshold: 100%.]
[Zenith - Active: 100%]
[Strength: 15 → 30]
[Endurance: 14 → 28]
[Defense: 13 → 26]
Elijah opened his eyes.
The grass was beneath him. The sky was above him. The big man was standing over him, already reaching down to finish what he had started.
A red aura surrounded Elijah's body. It wasn't the soft warmth of Ki Circulation. It was something else—something sharper, something that burned. His muscles didn't just strengthen. They transformed. His bones didn't just harden. They became iron.
He caught the man's wrist before it could close around his throat.
The man's eyes widened. "What—"
Elijah stood.
He didn't push himself up. He didn't struggle. He rose like something rising from the earth, slow and inevitable, and the big man stepped back. For the first time, there was something in his eyes that wasn't amusement.
Elijah let go of his wrist.
The big man lunged.
Elijah moved. His body was faster now, stronger, lighter. He ducked under the man's fist, drove his elbow into the man's ribs, and this time the man felt it. His breath left him in a grunt, and he stumbled.
Elijah didn't let him recover. He threw a punch, felt it connect with the man's jaw, and the man's head snapped back. Another punch to the stomach. A knee to the thigh. He was faster now, and every hit carried the weight of a man who had been beaten and had refused to stay down.
The big man swung wildly. Elijah stepped inside the punch, caught the man's arm, and twisted. Something cracked. The man roared, his Ki flaring, and he shoved Elijah back with a surge of power that sent him skidding across the grass.
The man was bleeding now, his arm hanging at an odd angle, his face twisted with pain and rage. "You're dead," he snarled. "You're dead, you hear me? I'm going to—"
Elijah reached into the space where the system waited. His hand closed around something familiar. The katana. The one his grandfather had sent him, the one that had been waiting in his inventory since the day the book had merged with his soul.
He drew it.
The blade caught the light of the streetlamps, silver and cold, and the big man's eyes went wide. He took a step back, then another, his good hand coming up like it could stop what was coming.
"Wait," he said. "Wait, we can—"
Elijah moved.
The blade cut through the air, silent and clean, and the big man's head separated from his shoulders before he could finish the word. His body stood for a moment, swaying, and then it fell. The head hit the grass and rolled, coming to rest against the wheel of the van.
Elijah stood over the body, the katana in his hand, the red aura fading from his skin. The warmth in his chest flickered once, twice, and then it was gone.
[Quest Complete: 500 System Points | 500 EXP]
[Total System Points: 670]
[Zenith deactivated.]
The exhaustion hit him like a collapsing building. His legs gave out. He dropped to his knees, the katana falling from his grip, and a mouthful of blood spilled from his lips onto the grass. His vision blurred. His ears rang. The world tilted sideways, and he felt himself falling, his face turning toward the sky, the stars spinning above him.
He heard Mai's voice, somewhere far away, calling his name after removing what was closing her mouth.
The stars went dark.