Apocalypse Healer - Path of Death-Chapter 15B3 a - Shard

Now that they had found a way to injure the Void Sapling, they were finally at an advantage—if they could repeat the same stunt and remove the all-devouring darkness’s protection, that is.

David narrowly dodged a deadly claw swipe, briefly turning his head toward the source of the scream. He had to take the risk to check on Maja, a dark shadow masking his face as he found her on the ground, bleeding from all orifices. While her life signal was erratic and hard to read, she was alive and not infected by the Void. That had to be enough.

The momentary distraction gave the Sapling enough time to close in and attack again. It accelerated suddenly, piercing through [Bloodbound Bastion]’s barrier with a fierce thrust while its other arm lunged forward. David flooded [Blood Armor] with a trace of Origin Essence, but the enhancement wasn’t enough.

Claws slashed through the Skill and scraped across Scalemore, leaving deep marks on the soulbound armor.

David’s heart skipped a beat as he focused his attention on Scalemore. Even though the armor could repair itself, courtesy of being soulbound, it was hard to tell how much damage it could take before its connection would be severed. Could it be mended even if it became infected in the first place? David didn’t know—but it looked like he didn’t need to. Scalemore hadn’t been infected by the Void!

As surprising as it was, the soulbound armor hadn’t been touched by the Void.

Is the armor immune? David thought, a glimmer of hope flickering in his heart.

No, that doesn’t make any sense. The Void swirl didn’t move.

It had only stirred once before—when the Sapling’s claws had already dug deep into his flesh, draining a portion of its power to infect him.

David backtracked, his eyes narrowing to tiny slits. If the Sapling was unwilling to infect his armor, destroying it in the long run, that would mean it couldn’t afford to be generous when parting with Void traces. That was the only logical explanation that came to mind. After all, sending a Void trace into his armor would most likely render it useless and shatter his greatest defense.

He recast [Herald’s Blessing] and kicked the ground to propel forward as the Void Sapling did the same, wondering if he should drain its Void and how to do so without having to sever a few more limbs. He twisted his wrist and stabbed the Sapling, but the Obsidian Blade’s tip failed to pierce the all-consuming darkness. Several crimson shields blocked the Void creature’s counterattack, more doubts plaguing his mind.

I don’t have an infinite amount of Blood and Origin Essence to waste, whereas the Sapling has yet to use more of the Void’s power after it infected me once. Maybe sacrificing parts of my body to drain it is the best option I have.

He couldn’t hide the grimace as he reconsidered his options.

Could Deryadus’ Arm devour the Void?

As absurd as the thought sounded, David couldn’t help but think about it more in depth. He blocked several incoming attacks, but more claw marks etched into Scalemore as their battle continued.

Maybe it was possible for the Ancient Relic of a Fallen to devour the Void. Maybe not. It was probably worth a try—but not now. Not when he couldn’t afford to make a mistake. David considered giving it a try later, with no more than a trace of the Void—once he’d researched it to the fullest. However, as interesting as it was, David did not have the time or energy to experiment wildly.

He overclocked [Origin Lightning] for the first time and whipped out a pristine lightning bolt from the stump of his half-regrown right arm after blocking a quick series of lethal strikes. Exhaustion was catching up to him, but [Greater Restoration] worked phenomenally to replenish his fatigued state.

The pristine lightning bolt didn’t have much distance to cover, leaving the Void Sapling no time to escape. It twisted its upper body until a sickening crunch resounded, yet it was too late. The lightning bolt struck the Void Sapling in the shoulder and exploded in a firework of white sparks and electric currents.

The all-consuming darkness didn’t vanish, but Bloodthrone Dominion caught a glimmer of something. The shroud flickered for a moment, appearing less stable than before.

“Firepower it is then,” David grunted, sending a wave of healing-enhanced Blood into [Greater Restoration] to overclock it.

The rest of his arm recovered much faster and surged with life as he added a portion of Origin Essence to the fray. However, his arm had not yet fully recovered when grayish sparks gathered into a sphere atop his regrowing arm.

Words of Power rolled from his lips, straining his Source several times more than the earlier uses had, but that was within acceptable limits.

[Primeval Pulse] formed in his arm, its pressure enough to force the restoration to a screeching halt. It had yet to shatter his arm—not that it mattered much since that would happen one way or another. Nonetheless, David gathered more power in his right arm while blocking the increasingly desperate attacks of the Void Sapling.

It tore a portion of Scalemore’s pauldron off and would have ripped through his chest if he hadn’t been teleported away. But he’d caught a glimpse of Maja getting back to her feet earlier and trusted she would come to his aid.

He didn’t appear far from the Sapling, but the teleport had granted him another second—enough to infuse more of Rend’s Intent into [Primeval Pulse]. The Intent shaped the Advanced Skill and transformed it into something else. The power resting within the modified sphere was tremendous. But David wasn’t done yet.

He overclocked [Herald’s Blessing], applying it to the sphere forming in his hands, then layered [Purify] on top, hoping it could cleanse and weaken the all-consuming darkness somehow.

A bad headache crept up the back of his mind with every additional power he applied to the sphere. Beads of cold sweat poured down his temples, and it felt like his head was about to split apart—but that was all within his expectations. If anything, David was surprised his Source had yet to scream at him. Pushing Soul to the Apex grade had clearly been worth it.

Regardless, the pressure weighing on his regrowing arm was too much to bear. Most of the flesh and bones that had just regrown were torn apart, splattering blood everywhere. But rather than mending the wound and stopping the bleeding, David cast [Blood Manipulation], ignoring the ever-increasing pain assaulting his mind. He formed dozens of blood blades and willed them to levitate around him.

The Void Sapling hadn’t been idle in the meantime. Though it must have noticed him, it had shifted its target to Maja and attacked her several times. However, she teleported instantaneously, stalling for David until no more Words of Power resounded.

She emerged behind him, her voice ragged as she asked, “Backside?”

David barely finished a nod before the familiar pulling force erupted around him.

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Maja teleported him behind the Void Sapling. It must have sensed him, yet the creature turned to Maja, ready to charge.

David cursed inwardly and overclocked [Chain of Will] as he cast it on the Void Sapling. It hesitated for a quarter of a second, which was enough to enact his plan.

Since that worked on the Fetus, this had better kill you too! He growled, releasing the sphere of [Primeval Pulse]—infused with the Intent of Rend, empowered by the Words of Power, overclocked [Herald’s Blessing], and [Purify].

It erupted—the release tearing through his arm, shoulder, and chest—creating a cacophony of crunches in his body as half a dozen bones and ribs broke. The Void Sapling flinched, the all-consuming darkness fluttering, as the pain of breaking his bones reached the mark of [Equivalent Exchange]. However, David was far from done. He caught the Void Sapling’s claws twitch, hinting at more follow-up movements, and willed the blood blades to stab... himself.

Since he couldn’t bypass the all-consuming darkness easily, David stabbed himself. The blood blades whipped toward him—Scalemore vanishing into thin air right before the razor-sharp blades carved through his skin. They dug deep into his flesh—feet, calves, and thighs.

Searing pain passed through his entire body, but David didn’t groan. The corner of his lips curled upward instead as his eyes landed on the Void Sapling and the unstable flicker of its all-consuming darkness.

In the next instant, [Primeval Pulse] impacted.

David wanted to know what happened, but he could neither see nor sense the details of what unraveled before him, as the all-consuming darkness exploded outward the instant his attack struck the target. However, while his vision was clouded, he could still hear the blissful screech filled with pain. It resounded in his ears, telling him all he needed to know: the attack had worked.

He had almost no Blood left in his Source, which was also strained and out of Origin Essence, and fatigue slowly caught up to him. Despite that, David continued to move. He willed the blood blades to disperse and become liquid once more before pulling it back into his body, using his remaining Blood to cast [Greater Restoration], focusing the Skill on his legs and the severely bleeding arm—or what was left of it.

His right arm was no more, and the rest of his body didn’t appear to fare well either. But his broken shoulder and rib cage took only a moment to recover as he added droplets of healing-augmented Blood from the storage in his left shoulder.

Only Scalemore, Serpent Fang, and the Sacred Beast Core held enough Blood to continue fighting. However, he split only a portion of Blood from the Beast Core to stimulate his Source and augment his body temporarily.

That had to be enough.

You’re still not dead? David grimaced as a croaked squeal reached him. He could sense the power of Rend etched deep inside the Void Sapling, tearing it apart from the inside out. However, even after everything David did to kill the Sapling, it had survived.

David conjured Scalemore again and cast [Phantom Rush] to reach the Void creature in an instant. While the Void creature appeared severely wounded and incapable of evading his attacks—let alone blocking them—he was unwilling to risk anything. [Phantom Rush] consumed most of the Blood he’d siphoned from the Sacred Beast Core, which mattered little as he plunged the Obsidian Blade downward, stabbing the exposed flesh within the gaping hole in the Void Sapling’s chest.

Grayish-black blood pooled around the Void Sapling as David continued stabbing it, flooding him with streams of immense lifeforce as he attached strands of Blood to the Obsidian Blade, siphoning as much as possible to replenish his spent energy.

However, he never lowered his guard. The Void Sapling was clearly on the verge of death, but the darkness still clung to the dying creature. It was weak and clearly growing weaker by the second, yet David didn’t dare to risk anything.

The Void was not something he was willing to underestimate.

Thus, once his body was flooded with lifeforce, David retracted the Obsidian Blade, eyes focused on the Void swirl and all-consuming darkness, and summoned Serpent Fang.

The humongous sword rested in his left hand, black lightning currents crackling along its surface. Brilliant white lightning currents joined them as he raised Serpent Fang, manifested with the Blood infused into the blade. The Void Sapling twitched, looking like it was about to move, but David was faster and cleaved down, the wide blade smoothly carving through the weakened darkness with little resistance.

A frail squeal rang out as the Sapling writhed once more before its movements ceased.

[Void Sapling has been defeated.]

The first notification was something David had expected. He dismissed it without a second thought, only to be flooded by a series of messages.

[You sacrificed body and mind to remove a creature plaguing the Earthen Union.

Doing so attracted the gaze from the Heart and foreign forces.]

The Heart? Was that another organization? He tilted his head, sorting the new information into his mind as he studied the remaining interfaces.

[Your Primary Class’ Rank increased.]

Silver VIII → Silver IX

[Three Attribute Points have been added.]

[Your Secondary Class’ Rank increased.]

Silver II → Silver VIII

[+Two Attribute Points, +1 Body]

[Your Source has grown. +3 Blood]

Following his rank-ups, David received a series of messages informing him of multiple Skills leveling up. However, he dismissed the messages after a moment, his eyes trailing to the Void Sapling as it dispersed in the wind. Not even a corpse to research remained.

However, as it turned out, the Void Sapling didn’t leave him empty-handed. The corpse and all-consuming darkness may be no more, but his attention flicked to a minuscule shard containing a maelstrom that hoarded no more than a trace of the Void within.

Didn’t Zachariah mention that only Void Fragments would drop these? he wondered, activating [Aether Breath] to pull all ambient Aether toward him. Words of Power rolled from his lips, stimulating the Source’s production of Blood as ambient Aether and the Void Sapling’s immense lifeforce clashed inside him.

Once fully ignited, the Source worked fast, allowing David to focus more on the shard before him. He bent down, Bloodthrone Dominion trying to unravel its secrets.

Did it form a Fragment when the Nest gave birth to it? Or was the shard produced by the Nest to give birth to the Sapling in the first place?

David glanced past the chaotic battlefield, ignoring the fierce battle between Zachariah and the Fragment, and locked onto the fleshy, deflated mass that had once been the Nest. It appeared similar to the other Nests that had been altered by the Void, yet the swirl was no more.

“Is that how the Void creates more of their kin?” David tilted his head, his attention flicking from the Nest to the shard before finally landing on the Void Fragment fighting Zachariah.

The shard in his hands and the Void Fragment felt similar. While their appearances hadn’t been exactly the same, David began to wonder.

It split off a portion of its Fragment and implanted that into the Nest, forcing it to grow and give birth to a creature of the Void. But the shard is weak, allowing only the creation of Void Saplings, which require far more power to grow into Fragments.

He mused, his expression darkening.

Even though the Sapling had been weaker than the Fragment, the all-consuming darkness was clearly stronger than it should have been. David couldn’t quite believe the average Void Sapling would be able to block his attacks—he was not that weak. Not when wielding the Obsidian Blade, augmented by Words of Power and [Herald’s Blessing].

“Whatever. [Origin Lightning] and [Primeval Pulse] worked.” He gnashed his teeth, bending down to touch the shard with his left hand.

He gave it a cautious poke at first, but when nothing happened, David picked it up. No power leaked from the shard, turning it into the best material to study.

Once the Void Fragment was dead, of course.

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