NOVEL NEXT Chapter 61: Godmode
Aron's heart was thundering fast, but not from fear or despair as many in his shoes might feel.
It was excitement, pure, unfiltered thrill and adrenaline rushing through his veins.
This was what he had been searching for all along: a battle worth fighting.
An opponent at his level… or maybe even above his rank. But to him, what did it matter?
He couldn't use his dome ability again to wait it out, the thought only made him more excited.
Knowing he had no safe haven to hide behind thrilled him even more.
Aron slowly raised his eyes toward D-One, who stood on top of a building, staring down at him with cold, unfeeling eyes.
Aron stared back as if looking at some priceless treasure, a smile unconsciously spreading across his face.
His teeth and mouth, smeared red with blood, made him look like a delighted psychopath admiring a priceless piece of art.
That eerie grin sent an unexplainable chill down the spines of the spectators, and even D-One and Ana felt the growing sense of unease.
D-One couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
The sky began to darken, thunder crackling above.
Aron's strength started to rise uncontrollably.
( "Hurry and kill him! There's something wrong with him!")
The voice in D-One's head shouted in alarm.
D-One suddenly attacked, but unlike before, when his movements had looked like teleportation due to his speed, Aron could now see him clearly.
It was as if D-One had slowed down to a snail's pace.
"Heal," Aron said, his smile growing wider.
The broken bones in his body, the torn flesh, and the gaping wounds exposing his bones, all began closing up, vanishing as if they had never existed.
Only the bloodstains remained.
D-One, who was charging toward him, froze in shock.
("Impossible!!! How!!!")
Both the voice in D-One's head and D-One himself screamed in disbelief.
Aron glanced at his system panel, his eerie smile stretching even wider.
[Talent Inspection:
Check talent ability within 2 meters.
Special Mode: Talent Ghost
Temporarily replicate inspected talent for 10 seconds.
Temporal Replicate:
Rebate: Available
Healer: 9 seconds
Transhost: Available
Godmode: 8 seconds
Lifespan: [1,178 years]
Then came the activation of Deathspeed.
Aron saw his lifespan dropping rapidly, chunk after chunk disappearing every second as Deathspeed consumed it.
But he wasn't concerned.
His overall strength had been enhanced a hundredfold.
And with Deathspeed doubling his already multiplied speed, Aron moved far beyond human perception.
D-One, still in shock, suddenly realized Aron had disappeared.
Panic struck him as he frantically searched the battlefield.
"Now," a voice whispered behind him, sending a chill down his spine, ""it's my turn to show you what it means true power is."
D-One turned instantly and saw Aron's creepy smile just inches away.
He tried to throw a punch, but darkness swallowed him before he could even move his hand.
The spectators, who had already concluded the fight in their minds and declared D-One the winner, could only gape.
Aron, who had been on the verge of collapse moments ago, now stood tall with that deranged grin.
Everyone had thought it was a bluff, a desperate act of despair before defeat.
But everything changed in an instant.
A monstrous aura erupted from Aron, his power rising like a storm, his body healing in seconds.
The sudden burst of energy sent chills through everyone's spine.
"Isn't it said that someone can only possess one ability?"?"
"That was just a theory, man! Now we know there are people with more!"
"I don't know about you guys, but I kinda feel unsafe. I feel like an ant compared to them…"
The most shocked, however, were Ana and Levi.
They recognized the abilities Aron was using, because they were their abilities, exactly the same, no less..
They saw him vanish, D-One searching wildly, and then, Aron reappeared with that eerie smile, lips moving silently.
Then it began.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!
It was like a chain of nuclear explosions fired in rapid succession, shaking the earth and tearing the air apart.
The entire battlefield was engulfed in dust and shockwaves.
The crowd could see nothing but dust and debris rising.
Aron's fists blurred into streaks of motion.
Each strike landed before the last impact finished.
His hands and body moved like a machine, relentless, unstoppable, as he pummeled D-One from every direction.
When the dust finally cleared, the spectators stared in disbelief.
D-One was kneeling on the ground, face mangled, body drenched in blood.
Somehow, he was still alive.
He lifted his head and saw Aron standing before him, holding something in his hand.
D-One tried to speak, but pain shot through his mouth.
That was when he realized what Aron was holding, his tongue.
D-One glared at Aron with pure hatred, defiance burning in his eyes.
Aron tried everything he could to finish him off, but despite his overwhelming speed, D-One's strength and durability made killing him difficult.
Even with his advantage, Aron could only injure him by relentlessly focusing on a single area, wearing him down bit by bit.
If he continued like this, it would take too long to kill D-One, and Aron didn't have that kind of time with his dwindling lifespan.
But it was a good thing he had planned ahead.
When the temporal replicate timed out and his strength returned to normal, Aron immediately inspected D-One again and reactivated Godmode.
His lifespan was now down to 665 years, yet Aron wasn't the least bit worried.
He glanced up at the thunder-filled sky, his smile widening even more.
The spectators, Ana and Levi among them, stared in stunned silence.
The entire place, once buzzing with noise, now felt like a graveyard.
Not even the zombies dared to move close to the battle zone.
"Levi, let's help him," Ana said, her power surging as she activated Godmode.
Levi followed suit, his aura flaring.
Together, they charged forward.
Aron, his face tilted toward the sky, didn't even glance at them.
He wasn't the least bit worried about a sneak attack.
With his heightened senses, he could see their every move, down to each twitch of their muscles.
As soon as they entered his range, his cold eyes turned toward them, two figures racing at the speed of sound.
The moment they got close, Aron used Inspection on them.
What he saw made him freeze.
(Wait… does that mean I could've had a better version of this the whole time?)
His smile faded instantly as realization struck him.
"…All that wasted life span," he muttered, lips twitching in irritation.