Chapter 129: The Truth behind the Myth

Chapter 129: The Truth behind the Myth

Isaac was sorely tempted to shatter the core outright, but maybe, maybe there was a reason not to? The desperation in the voice had certainly not seemed fake.

He glared down the corridor, sending his [Aura] billowing outwards and towards the man, pouring an incredible amount of mana into the [Death’s Embrace] that enhanced it.

At the same time, his sword went flying towards the core, now glowing green as he switched the applied [Skill] over to [Sundering Strike]. As it impacted, he hammered a spike of [Aura] into the point of impact, the combination of deathly and corrosive energies badly damaging it in a way that would destroy it in time. That way, he could defer the choice of whether or not to truly destroy the Core until later without leaving it in any shape to get up to shenanigans in the meantime.

The first thing he could tell about him was that he was at most Level twenty. Strong compared to the vast majority of humans, but pathetically weak compared to Isaac. Yet despite that, he was breathing incredibly heavily, something that no person at that Level should be doing without extreme exertion. If nothing else, this mean that the man had been in a serious hurry to get here and pushed himself to his utter limit.

As for his [Class], it felt like a classic [Mage], but with a feeling of ... disgusting wrongness plastered over the top. Not a part of the [Class], but still deeply entangled with it. Whoever this guy was, something odd was going on here. Also, there wasn’t a single Aspect that Isaac could detect.

... actually, as the interloper got closer, Isaac was forced to seriously revise his estimation of his age. Downwards.

The teen still had that awkward gangly look of someone who’d just gone through a massive growth spurt and could not be older than seventeen. At least that was how he looked.

Of course, Isaac knew that it was entirely possible that the interloper had simply shapeshifted into a form that he was less likely to obliterate on sight and didn’t lower his guard.

“You have five seconds to explain why I shouldn’t.” Isaac stated icily as his blade slapped back into his hand.

“I ...” the teen bent over, hands on his knees, wheezing for breath.

Isaac shot him a truly withering look and poked him with his [Aura], causing the teen to jolt in fright, but he was still too busy wheezing to properly respond.

“That thing had the potential to destroy the country.” Isaac snapped “If you’re trying to save the core, could that actually be your goal?”

“I ... no, I ... wheeze ...”

“My name is Mr. Lenue. I fix issues like this before they actually become issues. The core is an issue and I will remove it and anything else even remotely linked to it unless you manage to come up with some veryconvincing arguments in the next thirty seconds. I don’t care how tired you are, I don’t care how important that core is to you, I care about fixing issues.” He said sternly, once again smashing his [Aura] into the kid and holding it there.

“Yes, I ...”

“Gods- ... fuck.” Isaac muttered. It was pretty clear what had happened here. Dark god offered power, dark god unlocked extra sections in the manual to make power seem more enticing, idiot teen did idiot teen crap.

“So you’re telling me that some strange, dare I say, eldritch, being contacted you, and because it looked like it was saying the truth, you did exactly what the creepy, maybe even tentacle-faced, fuck said and now here we are.”

Isaac slammed his [Aura] forward at full power while reducing [Death’s Embrace] to the absolute minimum, the amount needed to ensure his [Aura’s] specific signature was still hidden. To the teen at the receiving end, it had to feel like he was an ant being examined by a giant with a magnifying glass, examining every bit of him, laying all bare, all the while a single twitch away from moving the glass so it acted as a burning lens rather than a magnifying glass and setting him on fire.

“That is my [Aura], slightly enhanced with a basic [Skill] gained from the most recent Event. It’s not even designated as a mental attack, I’m just focusing it on you a little more than I normally would. It is also a mere fraction of the impact your little creepy crawlies have onto anyone who sees them, a mere fraction of the anguish they’ve inflicted, that you’ve inflicted.” Isaac took another step forwards, prompting Wright to stumble backwards, hitting the wall in his attempt to get away from the terrifying presence in front of him.

“I’ll be destroying that core now, and the backlash will absolutely suck for you. While you’re recovering, I’ll be contacting the local cops, and then you’ll tell them about everything you’ve done here when they show up, and then you’ll never pull something like this again, you understand that young man?”

The only response Wright could manage at that point was a terrified nod, but Isaac wasn’t done yet. He leaned forwards until he mouth was right next to Wright’s ear and whispered his final statement.

“I’m not above killing people who insist on doing things that threaten to kill others. I don’t care who they are, what their age is, all I care about is that they’re too sane for me to have them tossed in the insane asylum until they die from old age and that they’re going to hurt people if I don’t stop them. Permanently.”

Isaac then drew his head back and locked eyes with Wright, he threw his hand out, flinging the sword towards the core, then using [Blade Control] to curve it around the corner that was in the way. In the moment the rock shattered, Isaac’s face was still right in front of Wright’s, and [Hundred Faces] was in the process of turning his sclera red.

The moment the core shattered, Wright’s eyes flashed open in shock and horror, then he fainted.

Isaac left the cave, still fuming at the entire situation. That little turd had summoned the Dungeon, and likely eventually gotten himself killed at some point, freeing the Dungeon, or maybe he’d just snapped and unleashed his pet horrors onto his countrymen.

Either way, hopefully, Wright had been scared straight. And even if he hadn’t been, the Core was broken. Recreating the original circumstances would require the summoning and binding of another core, followed by an Evolution. Hitting the second Evolution was perfectly doable. Hitting the third ... far harder. Given that binding a Dungeon was the very embodiment of taking the easy route, Isaac sincerely doubted Wright would be trying that again. And if he did, well, Isaac had meant what he’d told Wright. If a person insisted on making themselves a threat to innocents and couldn’t be removed safely, he’d end them.

Still, as it turned out, there wasn’t much trouble. He called the cops, pretending to be a terrified little old lady, then stayed nearby under [Stealth] while observing the whole interaction. Yeah, Wright was not going to be doing much of anything in the near future as he’d just gotten arrested and it didn’t seem like he’d be getting out anytime soon.

But now that that was done, Isaac had other places to be.