Chương 108: The Broken Spirit

The gate broke with a deafening crash that shook the entire courtyard pale with shock. The massive, reinforced wood-and-iron structure splintered inward like paper under a hammer. Two huge pieces of the gate flew across the air like deadly projectiles. Everyone luckily dodged the fallen debris, but the foundation of the agency shook violently as dust and stone rained down in thick clouds. Shouts of alarm filled the air. Hearts rushed, and weapons were drawn on the ready.

My own heart hammered in my chest as a warning of incoming dread. The white clothes the agents wore for honoring the lost ones now felt like a cruel joke being played by the Reaper himself. Death had come again to hold us by our necks, ready to squeeze the light from our eyes dark. Uninvited. Unprepared. The rain from earlier had left the ground slick, making every step treacherous as people scrambled for safety. A man with a trident stepped through the smoke and wreckage.

His dark-blue warrior-like robes were torn and stained with ash and old blood, with a grey sash hanging loosely around his waist. His messy, long dark hair was tied in a loose ponytail, strands falling wildly across his face. A disheveled, full, grey-streaked beard framed his haunted eyes. Those eyes burned with a desperate rage; he looked like a man who had lost everything all over again, and would burn the world to get even a tiny piece of it back. He stood at 1. 75 meters tall.

His voice tore through the chaos, loud enough to ring across the courtyard.

"Where is that Suren?!" He screamed from the top of his lungs, his face twisting in pain and fury. He scanned the crowd desperately, searching for me while his trident gleamed with lethal intent. Water was already beginning to drip from his legs as his Vestuto stirred to an active state. The five elders, four males and one female, all well above fifty years of age, rushed forward with Zhuofing at their side, determined to hold this poisonous root at bay. Their faces were pale with shock.

Before we could even ask what was happening, the official soldiers of Zhenhai arrived with a chorus of loud, piercing whistles. There is the Virtue Bandit leader, Jiong Sang, a General shouted from the entrance. His bounty price is thirty thousand osmium alive, or one hundred thousand dead. Catch this darn bastard and chop that head off. The General led twenty thousand men from the Capital of Zhenhai.

They had mobilized because this man had run wild yesterday in this very territory, slicing and dicing through people like a complete lunatic. Jiong Sang had extracted information about a Suren from his latest bloody attack, hoping to find what he was so eagerly looking for, as our kind was incredibly rare in this place. His lead had pointed directly to the Golden Tooth Agency, and now he was here to check the validity of that information by running completely wild.

With Jiong Sang trapping the agency from the inside and twenty thousand capital soldiers flooding the gates behind him, the courtyard is completely locked down. The soldiers were experts of their craft. Swords were drawn as their Animo ranged anywhere from 10, 000 to 36, 000. The General himself was already in his Vestuto, utilizing a powerful Earth Attribute. His armor featured two additional hands on his back to help him fight, with his 120, 000 Animo present and running at full capacity.

His elite one hundred helpers sat around 80, 000 to 90, 000 Animo each, and together, they charged forward with disciplined fury. Jiong Sang was already fully transformed from the moment he destroyed the gate. His Water Vestuto, known as Mare Yongshi Vestuto, was completely active. Torrential water rose from his legs, enveloping his body to form a liquid knight. The armor became a super-dense osmium-water composite that was extremely hard and nearly unbreakable.

His trident gleamed with lethal reach, and he could use massive water waves for rapid traversal instead of standard air-walking. He dropped water constantly onto the ground. The longer the battle continued, the more the water filled the area, until you felt like you were fighting underwater ten thousand kilometers deep in the darkest abyss. Once you were trapped inside it, the crushing pressure would slow your movements to a sluggish crawl.

Even opponents with greater Animo than his own 149, 000 would be in great danger and forced to give their absolute all to survive. Once his enemies were submerged, Jiong Sang could instantly absorb some of that water to heal his wounds, though doing so shrank the overall water amount on the field, forcing him to keep fighting to accumulate new water. This healing process took longer to build back up, requiring twenty-nine percent more time to replenish his reserves. The soldiers clashed with him head-on.

Swords met trident, and heavy water waves crashed violently against military shields. Jiong Sang fought like a man completely possessed.

"Where is the Suren?!" he roared again. His trident swept in wide, devastating arcs, the water following his movements like a sudden tidal wave. Soldiers flew backward into the air, and some were already drowning in the rising flood as it started to form deep, crushing waves across the courtyard. The white-clothed mourners ceased their ceremony at the ongoing clash that was happening before them. They grabbed their sheathed weapons to help the soldiers of Zhenhai, and the elders jumped into the fray.

Zhuofing was at the front.

"Protect the agency at all costs! This man is trouble like no other!" he shouted in anger, his accumulative gauntlets already glowing with power. The battle turned completely chaotic. Water rose to ankle level in an instant, and then reached knee level right after. All movement slowed down to a crawl. Soldiers struggled to engage normally as the heavy abyss pressure began to take hold.

Jiong Sang healed from his wounds instantly whenever he was submerged in the rising flood, but the overall water shrank each time he mended. He fought even harder to rebuild his liquid reserves, his haunted eyes never once stopping their desperate search for me.

"You ruined everything I live for! I will kill you once I have you under my thumbs!" he bellowed during one violent clash with Zhuofing.

"I lost so many markers because of you! I might never see my dead daughter again!" I did not jump in at first. For the very first time, my body shivered with a deep, instinctive terror. It felt like this man was going to kill me no matter what cost he had to run across. A cold dread traveled straight down my spine, but my heart quickly fought back. It started to pump with a heavy, pulsating tone, forcing the heat back into my veins to bring vigor back to my eyes. The battle raged on for several more minutes.

More soldiers arrived as reinforcements from the nearby villages after hearing that the bloodthirsty lunatic was cornered here, adding six thousand more angry pairs of eyes to the fray. However, two thousand soldiers already lay dead by the time the newcomers arrived. The rising water was stained evenly with running blood. Numbers meant nothing; the sheer strategy of an army failed against this pressure.

The water levels sat at roughly twenty centimeters, constantly and very slowly rising and falling in rhythm with his breath. As he shifted his focus and started to massacre the screaming agents of the Golden Tooth, I punched my own heart with great intensity.

"Yes, my heart, I can feel the beat." I told myself to keep the vigor in mind.

"I cannot stay here and hide like a coward. I might die, but I will die fighting just like my father before me fought against Siegfried". I unsheathed my sword-axe and activated my Vestuto. Cor Flamma ignited across my body as I ran straight into the flood, screaming across the courtyard, "I am here! I am the Suren you are looking for! Come and fight!" When he saw me standing in the light of my Vestuto, his madness reached an absolute breaking point.

It was no longer just vengeance driving him; the burning hope of getting his daughter back in a living form had just gone up in smoke, and he could no longer contain the absolute despair inside his chest. He wanted to unleash everything he had in a single, devastating instant. He screamed at the top of his lungs as we stood clashing inside the rising water.

"You ruined everything! I lost so many markers for him! It will cost me precious time, and I might never see my dead daughter again! All for your stupid training?! You did all of this just for that?!" Seeing the raw grief twisted across his features, I tried to apologize through the rushing wind.

"I never meant for any of this! I was brought here completely unwillingly by my Master! I only wanted to train! I did not know about your circumstances, and I do not know anything about the markers you speak of!" But he wanted absolutely none of my words. In a blind frenzy, he threw his trident straight into the dark sky. The weapon turned mid-air and rocketed right back down into the deep water, piercing the ground with such a terrifying force that it began to drill and create a mega whirlpool.

His power surged completely beyond his normal Animo limit, spiking all the way to 152, 000. The earth itself screamed in pain under the weight of the incoming cataclysm. The courtyard floor exploded downward into a deep crater, and the surrounding buildings collapsed in a deafening roar of splintering wood and falling stone. Soldiers drowned instantly in the sudden flood as the water surged violently around us in a massive, crushing circle.

Pristine white mourning clothes turned dark and stained as people were swept away like debris into the vortex. Horrific screams filled the air. The elders were thrown backward, crushed to their deaths in an instant. Zhuofing roared in defiance, using everything he had, but he was hurled aside like a leaf in a storm. The entire agency plummeted below 219 meters in a single heartbeat.

The foundation of the Golden Tooth Agency cracked in half and sank into the abyss, while thick dust and stone fragments filled the sky as the whirlpool went completely beyond reason. The sound was deafening, sounding as if the world itself was splitting apart at the seams. Then, right as he released his final, glass-shattering scream, the concussive force exploded outward, sending everything flying like helpless flies straight into the sky.

A shockwave of pure Animo and water pressure erupted outward, tossing torn bodies through the air like leaves in a hurricane. I was incredibly lucky; the flying debris that struck me only sliced into my face and ripped open a portion of my shoulder. Even as blood flowed, I was still alive, my burning will keeping me conscious through the blinding devastation around me. The last thing I saw through the chaos was Jiong Sang standing at the epicenter of the destruction, his eyes highlighted with a brilliant blue glow.

The force hit me with the exact same intensity as the day my Master threw me into this region all over again. It felt nearly identical to that crushing spirit level I had been forced to endure back then. I was launched high into the air, tumbling completely uncontrollably. The world spun around me in a chaotic blur of grey sky, rushing ground, churning water, and absolute destruction. I cursed myself the entire way up as I rolled helplessly in the open sky.

"Damn it! Damn it all!" I punched the empty air, consumed by my own anger at being so powerless yet again. Grief, rage, and a profound sense of helplessness burned fiercely in my chest. First the Proving Grounds, then the graveyard road, and now this. Another complete disaster because of me and my stupid, reckless actions. I had absolutely no control over where I would land. The wind howled deafeningly in my ears, and the distant ground began to rush back up to meet me.

Everything went completely hazy as the concussive force blew me entirely out of the area. The base of the Golden Tooth Agency completely disappeared behind me, swallowed up by a massive cloud of dust, churning water, and dying screams. It was all gone, thanks once again to my complete powerlessness against the truly powerful figures of this world. And in the corners of my fading mind, I could already feel Siegfried's shadow taunting me, laughing at my newest, greatest failure.

I flew through the air like a discarded rag. The force of Jiong Sang's final scream hurled me far beyond the collapsing base and completely changed the biome around me. The world spun in a chaotic blur of grey sky, green mountains, and the distant roar of destruction. I tumbled uncontrollably, arms flailing and legs kicking at nothing. The wind howled in my ears like mocking laughter while my heart pounded with a mix of terror and burning anger.

"Not again!" I screamed into the void.

"I won't let it end like this!" But the words were instantly ripped away. Powerlessness clawed at my chest, the exact same feeling that haunted my nightmares with Siegfried, the same helplessness I felt when the Rift took so many of us. I punched the air again and again, my fists cutting uselessly through the wind. Tears stung my eyes, not just from the speed of the fall, but from the crushing weight of everything. The faces of the potential lost friends I had just made flashed into my mind.

The terrible problem I had brought to the agency just when I was about to receive a reward, giving them a destructive end in return. The broken agency. The daughter Jiong Sang might never see again because of the chaos my presence had brought.

"I never wanted this!" I roared, the words completely lost in the rush of the air. The ground rushed up to meet me. I crashed heavily through tree branches, leaves and twigs whipping across my face as the canopy shattered my descent. I rolled violently down a steep, muddy slope, my body slamming hard into jagged rocks and thick roots. Pain exploded in my ribs, my shoulder, and my legs. I finally skidded to a stop in a shallow riverbed. Water soaked me instantly, and the cold current tugged at my clothes.

I lay there for a long moment, my chest heaving as I coughed up mud and river water. The rain had started again, light at first, then heavier. Thunder rumbled in the distance. It was fitting, as the world itself seemed to mourn or mock what had just happened. I pushed myself up, my legs shaking violently under my weight. Every single muscle screamed in protest. My dark red, spiked hair was plastered flat against my forehead, and fresh blood mixed with the falling rain on my pale skin.

Ahead, through the curtain of the storm, stood a destroyed ancient building. It looked completely rotten. Water was getting inside through heavy cracks in the faded walls, a color that was once vibrant but now entirely dulled by time and neglect. The structure was twelve meters high with four distinct floors. Thick vines crawled up the ancient stone, and slick moss covered the broken entrance steps.

The air around it smelled of damp earth and heavy decay, a once-sacred place now completely forgotten, just like so many things in my life. But first, I had to find a way to reach it. I stumbled through the rain as the river rose dramatically, swollen twenty-two meters higher than usual by the raging monsoon weather. The current roared like a furious beast. I forced myself to follow the bank, searching for any possible crossing that connected with a road leading to a higher altitude.

Upon reaching the end of the cliffs, a wooden bridge appeared ahead. It was old with time and weathered by centuries of bad weather, but it still looked sturdy enough to hold someone. I stepped onto it, my only goal being to rest my mind, think quickly about what to do, and get inside that building to rest. But there stood a man in complete steel and osmium armor, his helmet and ironcoal gear gleaming with a metallic sheen. The man stood a towering two meters tall.

His sheer presence was so immense that the falling rain seemed to actively part around his body.

"Only the worthy ones can continue on my bridge," he said, his voice cutting through the thunderous rain clearly enough for me to hear.

"If you are not worthy, you have to take a different path. I will have to force my will upon you." I was completely pissed off and just wanted the man to leave me alone. I yelled back with a pleading desperation that echoed through the crazy weather, "Please… I just lost so much. Let me get to that building for a short while to rest, and I will be out of your hair and out of trouble. I promise." The man remained completely calm, uttering no words at all as he kept his weapon ready to attack.

"Move!" I snarled, getting agitated and pissed beyond measure. Tears and rain mixed together on my face, running down my cheeks in warm streams.

"I've had enough bullshit to deal with today!" He responded by putting his weapon, the Hex-Block Carnage Spear, right against my face. The massive, rectangular block head, with its oversized central spike and erupting sharp steel spikes, pressed coldly against my cheek. Driven by raw fury and survival instinct, I went into my Soul Attribute instantly. My grey, shadowy armor formed across my body, and the exhaust pipes on my back began fuming madly with blistering heat.

The man made short work of me within twelve brief exchanges. His spear moved with a crushing weight and absolute precision, each heavy block shattering my counterattacks and each lightning thrust piercing right through my guard. The deafening rain and thunder completely masked the brutal sounds of the impact. I was thrown backward, rolled across the wet wood, and forced down to my knees.

My grey Soul Armor cracked under the strain; it might have been weaker than usual since my actual Animo reserves were dangerously low, but getting crushed so easily yet again was the ultimate breaking point for my mind. The dark, whispering instinct inside my head screamed for me to draw more power, but I was simply too exhausted for anything. I was too broken physically and mentally to fight back.

On the thirteenth exchange, he swept his spear low, looking as if he were merely cleaning dirt off the road to the sides. The massive block head caught me squarely in the torso. I flew completely off the bridge, falling helplessly into the heightened river below. As I plummeted into the strong, roaring current, I did not even utter a scream. I was already far beyond the breaking point at that point. The current, swollen twenty-four meters higher than usual from the monsoon, slammed into me like a solid wall.

It dragged me under instantly, leaving me tumbling and spinning in the pitch-black water. Water filled my lungs as I fought desperately against the torrent, surfacing just once to cough before being pulled under again into the abyss. The river carried me somewhere far downstream. Darkness finally took me completely. When I woke up, the river was still heightened far more than usual, but my surroundings had changed entirely. Somehow, I was now close to inside a destroyed ancient temple. It looked completely rotten.

Rainwater was getting inside through massive cracks in the faded purple walls, their color, once vibrant, now dulled by time and neglect. The structure stood fifteen meters high with five distinct floors. Heavy old vines crawled up the damp stone, and thick moss covered the broken steps leading further inside. The air smelled strongly of damp earth and decay, a once-sacred place now forgotten by the world. I took the steps up, my boots splashing heavily in the deep puddles.

I opened the rotten, stinky door of the temple with one shaky push, the ancient wood groaning before it finally gave way. I stepped inside, but the floor creaked dangerously under my weight. One step was all it took for the wood to crack completely. I fell right through the floor, plummeting into the dark cellar below. Thick dust and rotting debris rained down with me as I landed hard on my back.

A sharp, blinding pain shot straight through my spine, and I lay there for a long second, staring up at the shattered ceiling above. The intense anger at my own weakness finally boiled over.

"I wish I had enough strength to face the man on the bridge who just put me down here and make him experience the deep fall!" I screamed into the empty cellar. I punched the ground more and more, hitting the cold stone four times to be exact. Each strike was harder than the last until my knuckles split open, smearing dark blood across the ancient floor.

"Why am I always the one who survives while others pay the price?!" I roared, my tears mixing with the rainwater dripping from the ceiling above. As I threw those desperate punches, a strange vase sitting in the dark corner cracked. The vessel was pitch-black, covered in bizarre scribbles with a heavy cork on top holding something ancient imprisoned inside. In my current state, I did not care to check it.

The seal broke with a soft, ominous hiss, and a faint, otherworldly glow began to emanate from within the cracks. But I was far too lost in my own rage to notice it. I just kept punching the ground.

"Give me strength! Just once, let me defeat the ones I can't! Let me defeat them, instead of watching them die or being useless!" The entire temple seemed to hold its breath at my cry. Water continued to seep in through the masonry, making the faded purple walls glisten in the gloom, while ancient carvings of warriors and flowing water were barely visible under the thick moss. I just sat there in the dirt, breathing hard as the raw anger slowly gave way to sheer exhaustion and heavy grief.

But something long forgotten and sealed away had just awakened inside that broken vase.