Chapter 126 - Lizardman Village Pt.IV

‘Ulva? I thought you went to ease yourself?’

I grabbed her before she could fly off into some hut and hurt herself.

“I-I… ugh… big sister… I…”

‘This guy… he hurt you.’

I focused my attention on the bastard who hit Ulva. He was lucky enough to avoid my slash. However, it would seem the speed at which he escaped was a little bit too much for him to even control when he stopped.

I originally flew in with the sigma armor since I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but now that I was here, I wish I hadn’t. That way I wouldn’t have been slowed down.

Next to me, one of Shiroi’s mist wolves materialized itself.

‘You. Take Ulva to Shiroi and tell her that she shouldn’t let Ulva out of her sight.’

I dropped Ulva on the wolf and marched towards the undead.

“W-Wait…”

‘Not now, Ulva. I am really not in the mood.’

I just really, really didn’t like anything of mine being treated badly. Not my stuff, not my pets, not my friends and definitely not my cute little sister.

‘Scorching Winter… you up for this?’

The sword vibrated in my hand.

[Scorching Winter shakes with excitement]

[Scorching Winter wants to break the [Soul Weapon], [Bone Rattler]]

‘Bone Rattler? Was that the spear that flew out?’

[Effect #1 of Scorching Winter has been activated]

Molten magma begun to drip from the sword tip, evaporating the water beneath me.

“Oi! Come at me!”

“Scorching… Winter? It has been a while.”

A raspy voice came from where I was headed to.

[Scorching Winter seethes with rage]

The sword was giving off a weird ominous vibe.

‘You don’t like him too? Then let’s beat him.’

[Scorching Winter agrees with you]

I charged at the lizardman with my sword raised. My opponent came at me with the spear from before, also raised. This time it was covered in some sort of black liquid.

KINK!

The two weapons met and the clash was so powerful I could feel my hands numbing. That was so shocking I almost dropped the sword.

“Haa~ It seems your new master is not as good as the previous one. Breaking you will be much easier than it was the first time.”

[Scorching Winter wants to explode with rage]

The sword started to erupt in molten magma. The chief hissed and jumped away. That was a very odd statement he made.

[[Crushing Void] mocks [Scorching Winter]]

Suddenly, the naginata that had always been silent in my item box made a sound. I quickly moved to the side to avoid a stop attempt at beheading me and shot off a rock canon at its eye. Followed by a fire spear at its other eye. The creature stumbled back, letting me on to the fact that it was weak to fire.

Happily, I took raised [Scorching Winter] and swiped at the chief. He proceeded to dodge the attack, all the more confirming my suspicions.

‘Ha! Fire’s your weakness, isn’t it? Let’s get cooking then!’

I activated [Fire Force], which resonated with the sigma armor in a very weird way. The jewels in the armor glowed brighter and the armor seemed to melt right onto my body. It felt weird, yet right. The armor became lean and tight fitting, yet so free I could barely realize that I was wearing it.

[You have received 20% boost in all stats]

“You think so?”

As if it heard my thoughts, the chief asked me mockingly. The very water beneath my first swirled all around and sharp powerful icicles came for my head.

‘Useless.’

My flame barrier was set up so I would be ok. At least, that was what I thought till the icicles easily penetrated the barrier and went straight for my head. Instinctively I tilted to right, barely dodging the attack.

Another came from behind, forcing me to somersault out of its way. I parried another way and one simply hit my back and fell down harmlessly.

‘What the heck? If I didn’t have the armor on, I would have died for sure.’

Having had enough of the infernal torrent, I cast my own tiny whirlwind to disperse the water and once I settled down, I was met with the visage of a giant lizardman cloaked from neck to tail in dark lightning armor.

‘F*cking Lightning Armor?! Really? You gotta be kidding me! That shit is so cool!’

I blinked, only to find a massive shadow looming over me.

“And deadly.”

He said with a wicked grin, before swinging his weapon at me. I barely blocked the attack with my sword and even with that the impact threw me off balance. I lost my footing and fell into the water. It may have been shallow, but it was still enough to completely throw me off my game.

POW!

[You have lost 300 health points]

He wacked me with his thick tail, but didn’t even allow me to fly off. The spear was right there to block my path and drop me right back into the water.

[You have lost 50 health points]

“Hehehe! What is happening Scorching Winter? Wish for me to break you faster than before? You may not care since you’ll eventually heal up, but what about your new master?”

[Scorching Winter rejects you as its master]

[Scorching Winter is infuriated]

[Scorching Winter wants revenge]

[Scorching Winter locks all effects]

My head was starting to spin from all the alerts and the stupid vibration that was happening to my body.

[You have been inflicted with the status [Severe Stress]]

[All your stats have been dropped by 50%]

‘W-What the heck? Why?’

“Huh? This one is not your master? You still haven’t found a worthy successor? HA! I told you to simply take the corpse of your former wielder. Life would be much easier for you!”

I didn’t know what this guy was talking about, but this was starting to get extremely painful.

[You have been inflicted with the status [Internal Bleeding]]

[You will lose 20 health points every second]

‘W-Wait! When did this happen?’

“Sorry, sorry, that was my fault. I sent a bit of mana into you that’s eating you out from the inside. You will be dead eventually.”

He said emotionlessly.

“I will take [Scorching Winter] then. I’ll find him and better master, then break him once again.”

I could feel a vein snaking in my head. Drops of blood came like flood through my nose and the pain was worse than I’d imagined it to be.

‘W-What is this?’

“Oh? That’s the stress that comes from using a [Soul Weapon] that hasn’t accepted you as its master for far too long.”

‘What? But… I didn’t feel this earlier when I killed the ice litch.’

“Then [Scorching Winter] was still deciding if you were worthy. Once he realised you weren't, he dropped off the load on you. From the looks of things, he’ll never accept you because of how weak you are. He was probably using you as a vessel till he found a worthy enough carrier.”

‘What? Is this true?’

“Quite-“

‘I wasn’t talking to you. Answer me [Scorching Winter]. Were you only using me?’

…

‘So, it’s true?’

I could feel something inside of me snap at the silence. Like the part of me that had kept me a bit sane in terms of wrath. [Evolver] had intentionally switched off that one aspect of itself for some weird reason.

‘Hey, you, Bone crusher or whatever.’

“Hmm?”

‘I’ll help you break Scorching Winter…’

“Oho? Betrayal due to being betrayed. I hate living things, but to see Scorching Winter break, I’d accept your help.”

‘Good, good, good.’

I stood up dizzily. I was now in my normal form. The human form, though it wasn’t really tasking, was kind of annoying now. In the bird form, my thoughts were a bit purer. Less clouded for some unknown reason. I shook my head and could feel a click in my head when I activated the skill [Devil Form].

Extra horns grew on my head as my body enlarged. My body grew darker, so dark it was almost indistinguishable from a shadow. Extra features be damned it would seem for I was now just a big black bird with red eyes and horns. Reminded me of a certain demon from a webtoon I used to read.

[You have activated your Devil Form]

[You will receive a 5x boost in all stats]

[You have not consumed enough souls to fuel this form]

[In exchange you will lose 100 health points per second in this form]

[Those with [Holy Affinity] will be alerted to your existence if near]

[Those with [Dark Affinity] will be alerted to your existence if near]

I flew above the lizardman chief.

“W-What are you doing?”

He screamed at me from beneath.

‘You. Pay. For. Hurting. Ulva. First.’

Since everything of mine was boosted by 5x except for my health, I was literally strong enough to face beat any king that came my way, except for Hefla and Alice. Those two were abnormal, even for kings.

A simple blast of fire would suffice. I wondered why I hadn’t done this in the first place instead of tediously defending against pointless attacks. I shot a massive breath of fire that encased him whole When he tried to escape, I summoned two shadow soldiers to stake him down for me to roast him whole.

When I was done, I turned off the transformation and landed on the ground.

‘T-That was exhilarating. And look at that, all my status bar is just [Hungry] now. Noice.’

I walked towards the smoking chief.

‘Hehe, not so tough being burnt now, are you?’

I spat on his body.

‘Keh… that wasn’t so tough.’

I breathlessly said over the lizardman’s body. I wiped the blood from my face and fell on my arse.

‘Oi, fake Akira. We’ve got a problem.’

My second mind said to me after being quiet for so long.

‘Problem? What kind of problem?’

‘You… we… might be dying soon.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean… [Evolver]… it’s destroying you from the inside out and there’s no way to stop it.’

‘Master! Master! Look at me as I kill this wicked bastard.’

Amethyst screamed to me over the Lizardman Chief’s head.

‘Sure, sure. Keep playing like that and you might one day ki-’

While I mocked her, she breathed a wisp of purple flames into the chief. His body lit up as the flames spread like water and engulfed him whole.

[Your familiar Amethyst has killed the Lizardman King]

[Your familiar Amethyst has received 300,000 experience points]

[You familiar Amethyst has gone up several levels]

[Your familiar Amethyst will soon undergo evolution]

[You have received 6,000 experience points]

<A/N: Join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord to receive the invite link :Rados47#5271