CHAPTER 34: CHAPTER 31: THE BLESSING DEVOURER

The black poison seared through Lurzak’s hand, thin wisps of smoke curling from the scorched flesh.

With a slow, deliberate motion, he swept his hair back, revealing crimson eyes that blazed with pure, murderous intent.

A faint grey flame flickered to life at his fingertips, and his severed fingers began to knit themselves back together, one by one. His gaze locked onto his opponent as he spoke in a low, venom-laced voice:

"Do you know... you’re the first one to make me want to take a fight seriously."

A faint, mocking smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"I was trying to have fun. Don’t regret this, Lin."

Then his crimson eyes flared brighter, like embers igniting in the dark. He stepped forward, each stride heavy with malice.

"I will make you witness the blessing of the Prince of the White Ghoul Clan."

He raised his hands, chanting in the ancient tongue.

A blinding, sickly white light erupted from his body, twisted, corrupted, as if even holiness had rotted.

"This is the power of my blessing, The Corruption of the First White Ghoul.

O corrupted light that failed to ascend, grant me your cursed radiance

And shatter the soul of the unworthy!"

The arena shuddered as the corrupted light surged forth, tainting the mana in the air.

Spells withered away, and the ground quaked with pulses of decay.

With the echo of the words, a blinding, tainted white light erupted from Lurzak’s body,

as though holiness itself had rotted.

The corrupted light flooded the arena, staining the mana throughout,

until even the ice itself froze over with creeping rot.

Lin’s eyes flinched shut. His vision was engulfed in static white, and a pain he could not endure tore through his brain.

He slammed his head against the ground, desperate to escape it.

When he tried to open his eyes again, the light pierced his retinas like burning needles.

He could no longer see.

Lurzak didn’t give him a chance.

In a blink, he was beside Lin.

His grey-glowing fist slammed into Lin’s stomach, sending him skidding across the ground like a broken doll.

But Lurzak wasn’t done.

Before Lin could breathe, a knee crushed into his ribs.

Something cracked, then came the pain.

“Too slow,” Lurzak hissed, grabbing Lin’s face and slamming it into the ground.

Once.

Twice.

A third time,

Until blood mixed with snow, and Lin’s vision became nothing but blur and noise.

He tried to crawl away, fingers trembling, but Lurzak stepped on his hand, grinding it into the stone with a smirk.

“You thought this was a duel?” he sneered. “No, little slave, this is an execution.”

Then came a kick to the spine.

And another to the face.

Then he lifted Lin like a ragdoll by the neck, letting his legs dangle.

“I’m going to peel you apart.”

Lurzak’s grip on Lin’s throat tightened. The boy’s legs twitched in the air, helpless, searching for ground that wasn’t there.

“I thought you were special,” Lurzak whispered, his voice brushing Lin’s ear. “But look at you now, twitching like a dying rat.”

A pulse of grey energy surged from Lurzak’s palm. It slithered into Lin’s neck like cold fire, freezing his mana channels, locking them.

Lin gasped.

He couldn’t feel his core.

He couldn’t summon anything. Not mana. Not strength. Not even rage.

Then,

Lurzak let go.

Lin collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, coughing, retching, face stained with dirt and blood.

But Lurzak wasn’t finished.

He raised his foot and brought it down,

once on Lin’s spine,

again on his shoulder,

and a third time, directly on his right knee.

A disgusting crack.

Lin screamed.

“Music,” Lurzak said coldly. “Do it again.”

He dragged Lin by the ankle in front of everyone, his broken leg trailing behind like useless meat. He lifted Lin’s arm high, then twisted it in the opposite direction until the bones tore through the skin.

“Ever felt your nerves rip one by one?” he asked, tilting his head. “Let me educate you.”

With a flick of his finger, a grey dagger made of cursed light formed. He slid it under Lin’s fingernail, slowly lifting it off, savoring the scream.

Lin trembled, tears mixing with blood.

His vision was gone. His mana was sealed.

His limbs were shattered.

And worst of all, no one was stopping it.

Lin collapsed on the ground, coughing up blood, his body twitching in pain.

Why me? Does it feel fun messing with me, is everyone enjoying it, from that filthy woman with golden hair to the frost family to that filthy snake that tortured me to all of you, I have had enough.

His cracked hands slammed into the ground, the sound echoing like a breaking soul.

“Damn you... damn all of you—damn!”

Black tears streaked his face, each drop a wound carved from grief and rage.

His heart was hollow, his spirit splintered.

“I will kill you.

Every last one of you.”

That was the final straw for an awakening madness that would be driven in that place.

Lurzak stood over him, disappointed.

“Boring,” he muttered with a sigh.

“I thought you were something.”

Suddenly, a scream tore from Lin’s throat.

"GRAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

It broke the ice.

It echoed across the arena, guttural and distorted, as if a thousand tormented voices cried out at once.

Lurzak froze.

Everyone did.

A crushing darkness began to seep into the air.

Elinius gasped, his face going pale.

“No, not this monster again.”

With a flick of his neck and a sickening crack,

two Spinal Pulses erupted from Lurzak’s back,

twisted, bony tendrils lined with jagged, tooth-like ridges,

dripping with pulsing, corrupted energy.

They shot toward Lin, fast and merciless,

ready to pierce him and suck out whatever life remained.

But just before they struck,

Lin moved.

His hand rose.

Dark mana ignited from his palm,

It touched the Spinal Pulses,

and in an instant, they disintegrated.

Gone.

Obliterated.

A silence heavier than death settled.

Lin stood,

his eyes black as the abyss.

And then came the sound.

Low. Distorted. Inhuman.

"Kill, kill, kill."

It echoed in every mind, clawing at the sanity of all who heard it.

Even Isphyriela, the dragon in human form, felt a shiver crawl down her spine. It warned her she shouldn’t let this continue, but her pride as a dragon made her dismiss it, for they saw themselves as creatures above all else.

In the blink of an eye,

Lin was there.

No flash. No wind.

Just a sudden, suffocating presence.

Lurzak’s instincts screamed, too late.

A short left hook crashed into his ribs, making him fold,

then an upward elbow ripped under his chin, snapping his head back.

Before gravity could claim him, Lin’s knee drove into his gut,

the impact lifting him off the ground before slamming him back down.

No pause.

No breath.

Lin stepped in, heel pivoting,

a low roundhouse shattered Lurzak’s thigh,

followed by a brutal side kick to the knee,

and a downward stomp on his ankle, the crunch audible even over the crowd’s gasp.

Lin’s hand locked around Lurzak’s throat.

Dark mana flooded through, not just mana but a blessing, twisted and corrupted.

Flesh unraveled into smoke, sucked into Lin’s palm like dying ash.

Even the blessing was devoured.

Lurzak’s body crumbled to nothing.

As he disintegrated, strands of Lin’s black hair turned white—

a clear mark that Lurzak had lost his blessing and that Lin had claimed it.