Void spread rapidly as the infection took root within his arm and abdomen. Abilities became ineffective when David tried to restrain the spread at the infected spots. The infection didn’t spare the Energy Pathways either, devouring the remaining natural Aether stored within them at once. David grimaced and used [Blood Manipulation] on his own blood to stop the flow into his arm and to prevent the infected blood from circulating through the rest of his body. That was only the first step, as David used his own blood to create blades inside his body.

It was not a simple feat to inflict self-harm through his blood, but David forcefully removed the restraints and used his Class Skill to sever his arm precisely above the infected area. Serpent Fang clattered uselessly to the ground beside his arm, and a groan escaped his lips as he moved. The Fragment didn’t bother wasting its energy to move much. On the other hand, David did the opposite.

He pushed forward while the Fragment’s arm and claws were still in his abdomen. His left hand shot forward as the Maelstrom reappeared in it once again. The Ancient Relic rippled and shifted, using multiple traits it had attained over the course of the last few months. It elongated and, using half of the pure Blood left inside the merged Beast Core, cast [Phantom Rush], focused solely on his arm. He overclocked [Origin Lightning] with the remaining energy he could spare, applying it onto the transforming Ancient Relic, and integrated its power seamlessly into Deryadus’ Arm.

The mark of [Healing Link] appeared on his chest, showing him everything he needed to know about his body’s condition—especially the spread of the Void. Then, his eyes landed back on the Voidling. He stared straight ahead, Deryadus’ Arm coated in thick, pristine-white currents piercing through the unstable Void Barrier. Once he was past the unstable darkness, the Maelstrom disappeared once more, taking the voices and otherworldly pressure with it.

Regaining full control of his being was all David needed to shift Deryadus’ Arm once more until its palm pointed upward. His eyes lingered on the creature as its claws dug even deeper into him, and neither excitement nor fear reached him as he released [Primeval Pulse] a second time.

The Fragment stirred as pristine-white lightning currents and [Primeval Pulse] surged through its insides, and its claws twisted in his abdomen. The pain was hard to endure, but it showed him that he was still alive. And that was all he needed to know—and to see that [Primeval Pulse] had struck the targeted area—almost. Even though it had barely moved, the Fragment had responded to the incoming attack just enough to alter [Primeval Pulse]’s trajectory slightly.

The altered trajectory was enough to miss the center of the Voidling’s Maelstrom, yet the beam still scratched it. And that was enough. Scratching the Maelstrom when a massive amount of Void had already been used and almost no lifeforce shrouded it to protect it from external harm, was enough. A crack appeared. It was frail and barely noticeable, but it existed—and that was all it took to turn the tide of battle once again.

The power of the Void faltered. It was only a moment, a quarter of a second at best, but it allowed all the destructive powers to wreak havoc unhindered. David unleashed the energies coating Deryadus’ Arm and those stored within the Obsidian Blade at once.

Thunderous noises resounded and blinding light flooded the surroundings. Then… there was nothing.

David couldn’t tell what happened for a moment. He stood there, unable to see anything other than the blinding light. His abdomen still hurt, his eyes stung, and he felt fatigue consuming the remains of his energy. However, it felt like an eternity passed before legs buckled. David couldn’t tell if it was his legs or the Voidling’s, but they collapsed to the ground.

The Fragment’s claws withdrew from his abdomen, blood pooling beneath them, dark and crimson mixing seamlessly.

And, at last, a notification popped up.

[You have defeated a Void Fragment.]

More System messages popped up, but David was too weak to check them out. The kill notification was all he needed.

The accumulated tension made way for the bombardment of exhaustion within seconds, draining his will to move. To do anything. However, pain and a thorough understanding of his body’s anatomy made it nearly impossible to ignore impending death. The Voidling might be dead, but the Void was still spreading through him.

Fuck that shit, he cursed, willing [Blood Manipulation] to control the blood within him once again.

Prepared for the pain that awaited him, David surrounded the infected area in his abdomen with enough blood to proceed with the feast of blood. He willed his blood to transform into blades once more. Resisting his body’s instinct to reject such grotesque self-harm, David removed Scalemore as the ends of the blood blades came out of him. At last, gnashing his teeth, he willed them to move.

The blades moved slower than he had hoped for, slowly carving a path through his abdomen, severing everything obstructing their progress to gouge out a chunk of his flesh. [Healing Link] helped ensure he did not miss the slightest trace of the Void, though that hardly helped ease the pain.

Only [Greater Restoration], [Weave of Life], and a barrage of [Healing Sphere] aided the process, draining the remaining pure Blood stored within the Sacred Beast Core.

David was eternally grateful for binding the Beast Core to Deryadus’ Arm. Without the Core, Serpent Fang, and Scalemore, he would have died over and over again. If not against the Saplings, the Fragment would have most certainly killed him. Even with the bound armaments, David was barely left with traces of pure Blood and a considerable amount of Aether, thanks to Zachariah’s wondrous potions. Even his lifeforce was at a dangerously low threshold.

But he needed more lifeforce to jumpstart the creation of pure Blood—to fix his body and to help the Regressor. Zachariah was waiting for him.

David could only faintly feel the links to the others. Being pushed to the verge of death made it difficult to focus on them, yet he couldn’t tell what he was supposed to do to help Zachariah. Weakness threatened to overwhelm him.

If nothing else, [Herald’s Blessing] would surely be of help. It could be a deciding factor between life and death…

he thought, cursing himself as he forced his body to sit upright.

His eyes drifted to the Voidling for a moment, and he tapped into the reserves of lifeforce within it. He drained just enough to cast [Greater Restoration] a few more times on his abdomen to stop the bleeding and initiate its restoration, and stored the remaining energy as he got to his feet—after storing the corpse of the monster the Voidling had carried with it as well.

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He looked around, searching for the life signals of allies and enemies alike, and dragged his body through the city once he knew where to go. Though only a few blocks away from his destination, David felt like it took an eternity to reach the battlefield.

He was still wounded, a portion of his abdomen still missing—forget about his right arm. But he fared well enough. At least, he was still alive. And so was Maja. He checked on her through the link, which showed that she was unconscious. Although hard to perceive even through [Healing Link]’s firm connection, knowing that she was alive was all that mattered.

Not having to think about Maja’s well-being helped him focus on the situation ahead. The ruins around him looked worse than before. Rubble and debris were everywhere, surrounding the violent flashes clashing further ahead. Zachariah was still alive, but so was the Voidre. However, David couldn’t pay too much attention to the combatants, as his attention drifted to the Void spreading through the surroundings.

Void filled the emptiness on the battlefield, transforming the following steps into a troublesome ordeal.

It should still work, though.

He suppressed a curse and looked at the monster corpses. The Voidlings had dropped the carcasses that emitted something akin to Zachariah’s aura. But that wasn’t all. The stronger bipedal Fragment was dead as well. David couldn’t perceive its Maelstrom at first, and it took him a while to locate it. Yet, as his eyes landed on the mass that had once been the bipedal Fragment, he couldn’t help but frown.

The Void Fragment looked like it had been cleaved through by something massive, which had cut out a chunk of its upper body as it split in half. Then again, it was hard to tell what happened first. Was it split in half first, or did Zachariah cut it into fist-sized chunks of flesh and darkness before that?

Remnants of the Sword Law—or whatever Zachariah had used to sever the Void Barrier—still latched onto the Void Fragment’s diced body, presumably ensuring the Void Barrier wouldn’t recover. Not that David thought it could recover. The Fragment was clearly dead, though the Maelstrom and diced parts were still overflowing with the Void and lifeforce.

I can study that later,

he thought, releasing the Voidling’s corpse from his spatial storage to drain the remainder of its lifeforce.

While less than one-third of its lifeforce remained, David couldn’t even absorb ten percent before his body was overflowing. The production of pure Blood skyrocketed, and it did not take long before his body replenished more natural Aether either—possible only thanks to Zachariah’s potions.

Once the first droplets of pure Blood formed, David cast [Greater Restoration] on himself, slowly restoring his body and giving it the energy he needed to stay fully focused, whereas the remaining Blood was put aside to help Zachariah. Though he would much rather sleep and stay in sleep’s embrace for the weeks to come, David knew what might happen if he stopped now. Sleeping was not an acceptable option. Not if they wanted to survive.

David’s eyes flicked toward the flashes, a headache settling in his mind as he struggled to follow the combatants. Even with an Apex Body, Bloodthrone Dominion, [Healing Link], and [Heightened Vision]—which leveled up as he followed the fight ahead—it was impossible to follow their movements precisely.

But he could see them and, most importantly, feel Zachariah’s condition with shocking clarity. For one, the Regressor was on the brink of death—closer to death than David had been just moments before. Zachariah wasn’t fighting the Void directly, as nothing that came close to him survived long enough to reach him, let alone infect him. Instead, his life seeped out of him in waves; every slash, cut, or thrust drained his remaining lifeforce considerably.

David didn’t hesitate to cast [Greater Restoration] on Zachariah through [Healing Link]. He drained more lifeforce from the Void Fragment’s corpse and, suffering from an insufficient supply of natural Aether, used raw lifeforce to create pure Blood. He called upon the Law of Blood to jump to his aid, altering the lifeforce entering his body and bloodstream. It circulated through Deryadus’ Arm rapidly, further modifying the lifeforce that was used to replace a portion of natural Aether.

Though useless for most abilities, the modified Blood—created with three times the normal amount—served as an excellent energy source to cast and overclock his healing-related abilities.

[Greater Restoration] and [Vital Weaving] flared to life, cast at full power and overclocked to their limits.

Yet despite the surge of energy and lifeforce sweeping through David’s body, he couldn’t help but frown when the healing currents reached the Regressor. Zachariah’s power skyrocketed once more as [Greater Restoration] and [Vital Weaving] attempted to heal his internal wounds.

But “attempt” was all they did. No matter how much lifeforce David sent toward the Regressor, it did nothing to pull him back from the brink of death. He continued and pushed further until he reached his limit, but nothing changed. The more David healed Zachariah, the more lifeforce seeped out of the Regressor. His strength seemed to rise in direct proportion to the lifeforce leaking from his body—something that became even more apparent once the Mythical Electra joined in.

It used a portion of the pure Blood forming its body to tend to Zachariah from a distance. [Healing Link] allowed that much. But not even the combined efforts of David and the Sacred Beast helped the Regressor recover. If anything, they worsened his situation.

Zachariah’s body was falling apart. Wielding more power was great, as it allowed him to injure the Voidre. It was wounded, a deep gash cut along its side. Even more impressive, the Void Barrier refused to heal, no matter how much of the Void’s power surged toward the wound. Dark blood oozed out, urging David to cast [Healing Link] on the Voidre for future tests. But he barely had time to send the ability flying when the Regressor’s body began facing the consequences of his actions.

The potions he’d consumed were already too much for his body to bear. David had no idea what potions Zachariah had taken, but if even a Transcendent Body couldn’t handle them… it had to be something tremendous. But that wasn’t all. Zachariah had done something else. He had unleashed powers that drained his lifeforce, pushing him closer to death than anyone should ever be. A flick to his forehead was all it would take to take him out—or so David thought, as the link to Zachariah forwarded more medical information.

Is he using the power of a god? Accessing the power he wielded in the past even though he hasn’t yet met the requirements to become one? David wondered, as Zachariah’s body continued to fall apart despite the overclocked applications of [Greater Restoration] and [Vital Weaving]—a dozen times in the last minute alone.

[Greater Restoration] had already leveled up once since David started healing Zachariah, and he wasn’t far from receiving his first enlightenment pulse for [Vital Weaving] either.

David couldn’t tell what else he was supposed to do to help Zachariah. Casting [Herald’s Blessing] on him, further augmenting his strength and speed, might be detrimental—destroying the Regressor’s body once and for all. David couldn’t afford that to happen, forcing him to keep casting [Greater Restoration].

Simultaneously, he watched the battle with increasing difficulty as both Zachariah and the Voidre accelerated once more. A headache crept up the back of his mind, but David continued watching as best he could while draining the last remnants of lifeforce from the Void Fragment’s corpse. He stored the corpse in a moment and pushed on to the stronger, bipedal Voidling. Even though it was diced, it retained most of its lifeforce for David to access.

Unsure what was happening as the Voidre and Zachariah accelerated a second time, David focused on [Healing Link] and the spots of dark blood left behind by the powerhouses to tell that the Voidre was clearly at a disadvantage.

The Void hanging in the air was retrieved, yet the Barrier protecting the Voidre’s body crumbled. And as the Void Barrier collapsed, the Voidre did something David hadn’t expected—it fled.