CHAPTER 202: ZAREK VS MUTANT TELEKINETIC GRANDMASTER!

"You?"

Melissa groggily opened her eyes, still blurry with fatigue, and saw Zarek standing before her.

Her mind swirled with confusion as she stared at him, uncertainty clouding her thoughts.

"Are you surprised?" Zarek asked with a soft chuckle, amusement dancing in his eyes as he looked at her.

Melissa remained silent for a moment, simply watching him, before finally speaking.

"Why are you helping me?"

"Because you helped me and stood up for me, didn’t you?" Zarek replied, his tone light, almost innocent, his head tilting slightly as if what he said was the most natural thing in the world.

"Y... yeah," she stammered, struggling to maintain her composure as a flicker of uncertainty stirred within her heart.

For a moment, her cheeks flushed—but it was quickly hidden beneath a cold, stern expression.

Zarek’s gaze shifted once more toward the Telekinetic Grandmaster.

The frail figure had clearly lost his mind, roaring in madness as his shadow twisted and writhed, shaped like a demon. It didn’t just look like one—it acted like one too, shrieking with rage and radiating an aura of pure terror.

With every breath, the Grandmaster’s presence grew more oppressive, more suffocating.

Zarek watched in silence, his frown deepening.

"A little troublesome," he muttered, "but I think I can handle it."

He gently set Melissa down and turned to face the Grandmaster fully, a dangerous glint flashing in his eyes.

’Time Save.’

Zarek saved his entire being, his entire state of body, in "Time."

Then, without a moment’s hesitation, Zarek charged at the maddened Grandmaster.

"Wait—Zarek, don’t..." Melissa reached out to grab his hand, but he moved too fast, too powerfully, for her to even react in time. By the time she blinked, he was already gone. "...Fighting a crazed Telekinetic Grandmaster is a fool’s dream."

Zarek closed the distance in an instant and brought his hammer down with brutal force.

The very air compressed around the blow. A deafening sonic boom erupted, shaking the entire battlefield with its terrifying force.

But the frail Grandmaster didn’t budge.

His demon-shaped shadow moved in sync, raising a massive, clawed paw that slammed down to meet Zarek’s descending hammer.

Bang!

A deafening crash echoed across the battlefield, and in the next moment, it felt as though the entire world had collapsed around them.

Zarek gave it everything he had, channeling all his strength into the strike, but it still wasn’t enough. The sheer might of the massive shadow demon overwhelmed him.

His hammer was slowly forced back, inch by inch, until the pressure became too much. With a brutal force, Zarek was launched through the air, sent hurtling several meters backward.

He crashed into the ground, a cloud of dust billowing around him. Coughing as he emerged from the smoke, he wiped the grit from his face and stood tall, cracking his neck with a sharp twist.

A wide grin spread across his face.

Slowly, he began walking back, step by step, unshaken, undeterred.

And when he finally reached the shadow demon once more, he raised his hammer high and brought it crashing down again in a second, thunderous blow.

Another deafening boom tore through the air as Zarek’s hammer crashed down but once again, the shadow demon’s overwhelming strength prevailed.

Zarek was sent flying, hurled through the air like a ragdoll.

"Cough... cough..." He exhaled a cloud of dust, staggered to his feet, and steadied his breath.

The maddened, frail Telekinetic Grandmaster, his eyes burning with hatred, slowly advanced toward Melissa, step by step. As if there was a grudge in his gaze, deep and consuming towards her.

And yet, once more, Zarek stood in his way.

Only to be launched again.

He rose, again.

And stood between them.

Each time he was thrown back, each time the Grandmaster closed in, Zarek returned, bloodied, bruised.

Until finally, the Grandmaster stood directly before Melissa, attacking her swiftly.

But before he could strike—

Zarek appeared once more, intercepting the blow. His hammer clashed with the demon’s shadowy claw in a violent, explosive impact.

Then, before Melissa’s stunned eyes, Zarek’s hammer shattered the shadow demon.

The impact was devastating.

The shadow was knocked back violently, its form distorting midair, and the frail Grandmaster, encased within it, was hurled alongside, sent crashing several meters away.

For the first time, the frail Grandmaster was repelled.

"Weak," Zarek muttered coldly, his voice devoid of emotion. He slammed his hammer against the ground several times with resounding thuds, like war drums echoing in challenge.

The frail Grandmaster slowly rose, his maddened eyes narrowing on Zarek.

A low, primal growl escaped his throat, feral, animalistic.

Without a word, he lunged.

Zarek didn’t flinch. He stepped forward, swinging his hammer with full force.

Bang!

Their clash sent out a shockwave, the violent sound tearing through the air and shaking the ground beneath them.

"Hmm?"

Zarek’s eyes narrowed.

This time, the force behind the blow was far greater than before, unreasonably so. It felt as if he were holding back the weight of an entire mountain... no, Mt. Everest itself.

The pressure surged through his arms, and one by one, his tendons began to snap under the strain, the force rebounding violently through his hammer.

"Ahhh!" He let out a raw scream, agony and pain tearing through every fiber of his being.

Immediately, Zarek activated his Telekinesis, amplifying the strength of his hammer. At the same time, he used his mutant ability of his own: Gravity, drastically increasing the hammer’s mass.

For a brief moment, just a moment, his efforts bore fruit. The frail Telekinetic Grandmaster’s momentum faltered, his advance halted in place.

But then, Zarek’s pupils widened.

The force pressing against him surged, multiplied, without warning.

The hammer in his grasp began to crack, hairline fractures spreading like spider webs across its surface.

His bloodshot eyes stared helplessly as, piece by piece, the weapon shattered, splintering apart like fragile glass.

A weapon forged from one of the strongest known metals in the world, a Telekinesis conductor, had broken. Just like that.

For a moment, Zarek couldn’t believe his eyes.

No, he refused to. It felt unreal, like a dream teetering on the edge of a nightmare.

But reality gave him no time to process.

The instant his hammer shattered, the shadow demon surged forward and Zarek was buried beneath its overwhelming might.

BOOM!

Another earth-shaking impact tore through the battlefield.

Every bone, every muscle, every nerve in his body screamed, no, it begged, for relief.

But Zarek never got the chance to cry out.

In a flash, he was crushed, his body mangled into a near-unrecognizable mess of flesh and blood. Silenced before even a whisper of pain could escape his lips.

This... was the power of a Telekinetic Grandmaster...

A Mutant Telekinetic Grandmaster.

"Zarek, you bastard..." Melissa collapsed to her knees, her voice trembling as the words left her lips.

For a moment, her mind went blank.

The clash of battle, the screams of the wounded, the roar of power, everything faded into a hollow silence.

The world around her dimmed, as if time itself had frozen.

All she could feel was the emptiness and the sharp, aching pain blooming in her chest.

Then confusion rose in her mind:

Why was she feeling sad for him? He was supposed to be nothing more than an test subject, a lab rat, to dig his secret and help the empire.