The Transcendent Godslayer-Chapter 44: Essence orb

Kallen sat up slowly, his head pounding, vision blurred as if the world had been smeared in haze. His ears rang with a sharp, high-pitched whine, the aftermath of the explosion still echoing through his bones.

For a moment, his body rebelled, nausea clawing at his throat, lungs tight with dust and shock. He felt the instinctive urge to retch, but he suppressed it mercilessly, forcing his breathing into a steady, measured rhythm.

With a slight shake of the head, he bit his tongue mercilessly, snapping his senses back to focus.

The room was a complete waste.

Jagged slabs of broken stone and shattered wood lay strewn across the floor... cracked pillars and debris still tumbling in the wake of the explosion.

The entire structure trembled; each impact from outside, sending violent tremors through the walls... gusts of compressed air surging into the wreckage like the breath of a rampaging beast.

The battle outside raged on. Their clashes resounded, shockwaves blasting through the night, with the scent of burning wood and iron thick in the air.

Kallen had survived. If barely.

His gaze flicked downward.... his left leg was trapped.

A massive slab of stone pinned it in place, with its weight pressing uncomfortably against his calf. Though it was not enough to crush it, it was enough to hinder movement, and it hurt, of course.

Without hesitation, Kallen gripped the rock, muscles coiling like steel cables as he heaved.

The heavy stone shifted, and he shoved it aside with calm, mechanical efficiency.

The instant he pulled his leg free, a sharp, searing lance of agony tore through his ankle, hot and merciless, like molten steel branding his nerves. But he did not as much as flinch. His hands remained steady. With unbroken movements... not even as little as the briefest pause. His breath, unchanged.

However, there was a storm was brewing in his gaze... And someone was about to drown.

Standing up proved to be difficult. The moment Kallen shifted his weight, a hot jolt of pain shot up his leg, vicious and unforgiving. His ankle was sprained badly.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.

A grade 2 sprain, at the very least. And for someone with his level of physical attributes, this was a nightmare.

As one's stats increased, so did the body's fundamental structure. Muscles became denser, more elastic, bones tougher, tendons reinforced to handle inhuman power. But that made injuries a different beast.

A normal sprain might sting, or it might throb. But for someone like him whose body operated on an entirely different level, it was searing and crippling.

Paradoxically, this also improved healing factor, meaning the injury would mend faster. But before that?

He would have to endure every single second of the pain at a magnitude no normal human could comprehend.

A low, ragged moan cut through the chaos, just an arm's length away.

Kallen's gaze snapped toward the source. There the stealthy assassin that had locked him in a sure-kill attack, laid helpless, trapped beneath a slab of rubble three times the size of his own. For the first time since the battle began, one of them made a sound.

A human sound.

Twirling the kunai in his grip, Kallen plunged it into their throat with a swift, fluid strike. The blade sank deep, and the body jerked once, gurgling sound leaving their mouth... then stilled forever.

At that instant, his body froze.

"Shit"

A sudden, icy pulse surged through his core, and his heartbeat slowed, a cold unwillingness gripping him.

He wasn't supposed to awaken yet.... he didn't want to. He still needed to complete the quest of the {Pathfinder} Active Effect, and killing a being of this level... any level at all... As long as he took a life, It would force the Existential Compendium to awaken his core, so as to allow his Essence digest theirs. That was the path of evolution.

The moment the thought crossed his mind, a notification screen materialized within his consciousness.

—

[You have slain 1st Ascendent Dragonborn—Ghostly Assassin]

[Do you wish to digest her Essence?]

[YES] [REJECT]

Kallen read the prompt with a stilled breath

'Huh? So this was possible? I wonder why we were never taught about it... Then again who in their right minds would have said no?'

His chest relaxed in relief, and with an unshaken will...

[REJECT]

'Hmmm... Dragonborn? That's a race I've not heard of before. Are they a race alien to Ares? Or some Beastmen clan?'

[Do you wish to harvest her Essence orb?]

[YES] [REJECT]

Kallen stared at this new notification, would a bewildered look.

'Essence Orbs come from the system? Another thing I never knew about...' he creased his forehead.

'But then... why is there a moral implication to it?... Fools! I'll never understand self-righteous individuals. Even worse in a world like this? That's hypocrisy of the highest order.'

Essence Orbs were a form of currency in every awakened world.

Taboo currency on Ares... at least by moral standards.

Essence wasn't just any form of energy... it was the raw individuality of a being, the whole singularity of their existence plucked from the vast, interconnected weave of Existence.

It was the accumulation of one's Records and Annals, simplified and displayed by the Existential Compendium in the system. Using Earth's knowledge, one could even say that the Existential Compendium was the Book Of Life.

Records were what one could see, measured, and displayed in the Existential Compendium. Annals, however...

Were the totality of a person's life history. Their past, present, and... future perhaps?

At least, this was what people understood and what Azarel taught him.

Essence orbs then, were all that in a small orb. So it was understandable that trading a person's existence, was immoral.

[ YES ]

For a fleeting moment, her corpse shimmered. Then, from within, an incorporeal bead, no larger than a finger-sized pebble, shot out, solidifying midair before falling into his palm.

Kallen studied it, feeling its weightless yet tangible presence, but as expected, it began to dissipate. 10 seconds. That was all it took before it was gone entirely, dissolving into nothingness.

He remained unfazed.

It was inevitable. Essence Orbs had to be stored in special containers that he didn't have on hand.

The wind blew against his body and he found it oddly chilly and bitingly cold. It pressed against his skin with an insistence that demanded he acknowledged its presence.

It had already been a chilly night, but now, with the stark contrast of the warm, viscous blood pooling beneath his legs, the cold became almost unbearable.

And, well.... he was still unclothed. He had just taken a bath when this whole mess started after all.

While he was still mulling over the fact that he was still naked, a faint shimmering radiance caught his attention.

It flickered just at the edge of his vision, like a ripple. At first, it was subtle and barely noticeable, but as he turned his head, the glow intensified, pulsing with an otherworldly rhythm. It was a kind of light that felt... alive.

He pried the second kunai from the Dragonborn.

Calmly standing up, even with the pain from his ankle intensifying, he felt... good. It was hard for him to suppress the demonic grin that threatened to form on his lips. With the blades' Records, flashing blindingly in his consciousness.

He had really hit it big this time.