Second Genesis

Grey could not believe his luck. With his stamina, he should have been able to battle all out like that for at least a quarter day. Between how much he had, and the speed it replenished, he shouldn’t have had any issues in an intense battle.

The battle had only been going on for a few minutes, when the fuck had he hit just one stamina?

The Syrn stitched itself together, the flesh at its wound bubbling almost like a bad welding job. A grotesque black, violet, and undertones of a glowing red pooled out from it, the alien’s body growing larger and larger until it was almost two heads taller than Grey.

The silk that formed the two large strands of its hair flared out like a moth’s wings, its slit eyes crackling with lightning and vicious black light.

Grey tried to stand to his feet, but he stumbled again.

He tried to use the Helm of Grace, but his lip immediately twitched.

He had just gone backward and forward. If he went forward in time now, he would only gain one stamina point at most if he was lucky. But if he went backward, then he would end up split in two again.

If he waited long enough that he wouldn’t be split in two, then he would still be at a great stamina drain nonetheless.

The problem of stamina was definitely coming from his Dark Solveign Frame. Even if he went 10 seconds back, he would probably be only a handful of stamina points away from being on his knees again.

"FUCK!" Grey cursed. He thought he had finally carved a way out of this.

This was already the fifth loop, he only had five more left if he died here. There was just no way to increase his stamina so much again unless he took down a far more powerful member of the Imperial Family.

But not to mention the fact there was no guarantee that he would gain another large leap from doing it again, there was no telling if he could even get close enough to start killing again.

The Relentless Guardian was definitely not the only one that powerful, and he didn’t know why the Goddess didn’t attack herself last time, but he had a feeling that if he really did approach the palace with that intent in mind, he’d be burned in a fiery inferno.

Grey clenched his jaw. Or, rather, he tried. He didn’t even have the energy to properly grind his teeth. His attempts to force his mouth closed just ended up in his lungs screaming for more air.

’Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!’

At that moment, Grey’s eyes were scanning for something, anything that could give him a chance to end this battle.

The Syrn was right in front of him. It still wasn’t finished needling itself back together, but he could hardly move, let alone launch an attack that could end it.

But that was when Grey saw it.

Blood. So much blood everywhere.

He had split it in two.

Grey pushed himself forward, flailing as he slid into the trench his attack had dug out, his body skidding into the foul stench.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Arms of grey erupted out of the ground. Grey’s vision was blurry, and raising his head too difficult right now, but he could recognize the fluctuations. That was Amunet’s attack, he had seen it before. It could only be that one thing.

’Focus!’ he roared at himself.

He hadn’t realized before just how difficult it was to focus his mind when his stamina was low. Maybe he had been too infuriated and pumped up by adrenaline the last time it happened.

But Grey just barely managed to communicate with his heart and pull out the fang daggers.

He stabbed them into the pool of blood that had poured from the Syrn.

He had taken a drop before and felt a blast of energy. But Grey had been sharp and alert enough back then to realize that the feeling was very different from taking the blood of the Imperial Princess.

Zara’s blood had been automatic, natural, it poured into him as though it was always meant to be there. His Last Paladin Frame had been greedy for it and even went as far as to influence his Vampire Lord Frame to force its triggering.

However, there was a strong resistance within him to the Syrn’s blood. There was no compatibility at all. So, instead, it was directly turned to energy and used as fuel to tweak Void Gaze and Crimson Cognition such that they were more effective against it.

That was what Grey needed right now.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

A cry that mixed the howls of a banshee and the echoing clicks of a whale filled the air.

Grey remembered reading somewhere that the click of a sperm whale could kill a human in close enough proximity. He hadn’t known if he really believed that...

Until now.

Without any defense from his energy, it felt like every one of his inner organs were shredded apart in that instant.

The falling palms were torn down to the bone and scraps of flesh.

Grey’s eyes exploded under the pressure, the liquids within him boiling. It was the sort of pain that should have rendered a man dead. However, Grey’s thought was singular.

’I’ve been through worse.’

Hemorrhagic Regeneration.

A roaring strength pooled into Grey’s body. He didn’t know what the stats of the alien were, but they must have been off the charts. The moment he started catalyzing its body to heal himself and replenish his stamina, it was like he had poured lighter fluid on a flame.

Every cell in his body pulsed with an undying momentum.

Grey slowly pushed himself up, his blood blades lengthening so that they could continue to drink up every ounce of blood there was... and as they did so, his comprehension of the Syrn was only improving.

His Helm Frame began to burn with red-gold flames as his Dark Solveign Frame flourished.

Grey stood to his full height. He looked to the side and spotted a scythe.

"I’ll be taking that, then."

He reached out a hand and it surged over, slapping into his palm.

He caught sight of a broken Amunet being flung through the air. There wasn’t a single bone in her body that didn’t seem to be tearing a path out of her skin in some way.

Inwardly, Grey was thankful she had stalled for him. But she wouldn’t be hearing that from him any time soon.

He was ending this bullshit on this loop.

BANG.

Grey vanished.