NOVEL NEXT Chapter 52: New Title: Sailor Of Ruins
[Alert!] You have slain Demon Of Virtue
[Reward] +150 Spiritual Energy
Spiritual Energy: 375/1000
[Reward] New Skill: Black Thread (Primary Element: Adaptive Void)
(Information: This ability manifests as hair-thin strands of void energy, near invisible save for the faint shimmer they cast when touched by light. Each strand is unnaturally strong and lethally sharp, able to coil around a target with crushing force or slice cleanly through flesh, bone, and even tempered metal. They extend and retract at your will, moving with fluid precision. Though deceptively delicate in appearance, the strands are resilient, difficult to sever by ordinary means, and versatile enough to bind, slice, or manipulate the battlefield with disquieting efficiency)
[Reward] New Title: Sailor of Ruins
(Information: You have sailed through wrecks and drowned worlds that should have ended you, yet you emerged alive each time. Every ruin hardens your will, like a sailor tempered by a thousand seas. This Title brands you as an omen, for calamity follows wherever you go. You cannot escape ruin)
Congratulations on your remarkable achievement, [Clueless]
[Your needs have been fulfilled]
***
Kyle dropped to the ground, exasperated, as the Demon's corpse collapsed beside him. Its eyes dulled, then vanished into black.
"Fucking hell… I killed a Demon? Wow. Three rewards, and one of them curses me with bad fate. The title came with a disadvantage, huh?" he muttered bitterly, glancing up just in time to see Orion staggering closer while Na-Ri remained frozen in place, drained from pouring out most of her spiritual energy.
"Kyle, you're actually alive…? But how? Your head got popped off like a champagne cork."
'Well, that's definitely funny…' Kyle sighed and looked back at the Demon's body.
After a stretch of silence, he gave the only answer that wouldn't tear things open:
"I don't know. It's a mystery to me. One moment there was darkness, and the next… my head was back, like I'd been healed."
Orion scoffed, refusing to meet his eyes. Without pressing further, he dropped to the ground beside him and, shockingly, drifted into sleep almost at once.
Na-Ri collapsed to the ground without giving him a glance. All three of them had been pushed beyond their limits, and with no strength left to argue or even question what had happened, rest was the only thing that mattered.
Kyle crouched beside her and placed a hand against her forehead, noting the chill in her skin. He pulled back without dwelling on it and crossed over to Adela, who had remained unresponsive throughout the aftermath.
He had expected it; she drained her stamina far quicker than the others, and without a skill to support her she was fortunate to have escaped without injury. Her sword had slipped from her grasp and rested by her side.
"I suppose you'll be the one to take the Vigour Pill, Adela," he muttered.
It was clear she would not recover her strength on her own, and if left as she was she would drag the others down again.
With a scowl, he drew out the yellow capsule, studied it briefly, and then opened her mouth to force it down.
He coaxed her to swallow, and at once a glow of yellow energy spread across her body before dimming back into silence. She remained unconscious.
Kyle rubbed at his head, confusion and irritation mixing in his expression.
"I don't know if it worked or not. Probably best to assume it did. Fuck it."
With her sword in hand, he approached the Demon's corpse and let his gaze travel over the twisted remains from head to toe before curling his lip in scorn.
"Now that I've had a proper look at you, mate, you're one ugly bastard."
He lifted the blade high above his head, then swung it down in a clean arc towards the creature's skull, his expression set with grim resolve.
***
Some time later, Kyle sat on a stone with the Demon's severed head at his side and Adela's blade returned to her. He pushed his hair back with a tired roll of his eyes and glanced up at the sky, already darkening, and for a brief moment he allowed himself the relief of knowing he was truly alive again.
The return itself had been a thrill. Power surged through him the instant he came back, a force that broke past his own limits and gave him the edge to kill a Demon far above his level. That alone was enough to mark it as a remarkable feat, and for the first time the system had rewarded him not with trinkets, but with things that carried weight.
He might have valued the manual, though even that felt questionable. The Title, however, soured everything. It came shackled with a curse: ruin would follow him wherever he went. If his reading of it was right, then anyone close enough to stand by him would share the same fate... suffering, or worse, death.
His gaze drifted to the three still lying in slumber while he kept watch like a guard set to protect their bodies. Strangely enough, he was beginning to feel closer to them. They were not like the others of his kind he had met before, not like the ones who had buried him in suffering. Here, it felt different.
They had raged instead of fleeing. Faced with the same entity that had killed him in a single strike, they still chose to blind themselves to reason and attack.
Was it only desperation for their own survival, or had they, even for a moment, thought of avenging him?
Whatever it was, Kyle found himself unsettled. With these three, he felt something he had never felt before... and a part of him wanted to stay, if only to see where that led. But the Title had shattered the thought as soon as it formed.
He felt miserable at the weight of it, though it did not mean he would walk away. Not yet.
At least for now, he wanted to taste the idea of people, of bonds, to see what it was without the filter of hate.
Well, for all he knew... the chains from when he was five still left their mark on his ankles. That was where his hatred for humanity had truly begun...
Kyle cast a glance at the Demon's severed head, a crooked grin forming as he muttered:
"I might as well test this new skill on you..."