Chapter 709: Thats A Nasty Suprise

"My stepmother...?"

Lian Vorhelm looked at Noah’s face for several seconds.

The two daggers were still buried in his body. Blood flowed down from the gaps between the armor plates and dripped onto the cracked stone ground, but at that moment, his attention was focused more on the name he had heard.

Victoria.

So he’s been working for her all this time.

He had known for a long time that his stepmothers wanted to kill him, and he had even expected that sooner or later, one of them would take action to carry out her plans.

But Noah?

The young Frenchman who had fought beside them all this time, joked with them, and even stayed with them in the most dangerous situations?

’I should have paid more attention to him.’

His gaze moved toward the two daggers for a moment.

’You certainly chose a good time.’

Right in the middle of a battle against two Unholy creatures and one of the Five Calamities.

Lian slowly breathed out.

He wanted to ask something, but before he could open his mouth, a sharp pain spread through the left side of his body.

His eyebrows tightened slightly.

Hmm?

The pain was not limited to where the daggers had struck.

He felt something spreading from inside the wounds, at first, it was a short burning sensation, but a moment later, it felt as if hundreds of very small blades were moving through the damaged tissue.

He immediately realized that something was wrong.

He had suffered deeper injuries many times in previous battles.

But this one was different.

Instead of closing, the wounds were spreading.

Before Noah had a chance to react, Lian placed his hand on his chest and pushed him several meters backward with force.

The young Frenchman fell onto the stone ground.

But young Vorhelm did not even look at him, instead, he moved his right hand behind his body, grabbed the handle of the first dagger, and pulled the blade out with a short movement.

Blood flowed from the gap in his armor, and then he pulled out the second dagger as well.

He looked at the weapons for a moment.

The blades were thin; much thinner than what would seem suitable for cutting through ancient armor.

He looked at the places where they had struck.

The World-Devourer Bastion armor had managed to withstand the attacks of the Forsaken Apostate.

But these two daggers had cut through the defensive plates almost like paper where they had entered.

And worse than that, even after pulling out the blades, the damage continued.

[ True Sequence ]

The mana flows became visible to Lian.

Around the wounds, there was a very thin trace of unknown energy, this energy had attached itself to the damaged tissue, and every time his body tried to repair itself, it moved through the tissue again.

So the problem isn’t the daggers themselves, they left something inside the wounds.

He did not know the complete structure of that energy, but he did not need more information to understand its purpose.

These weapons were not meant to simply pierce his body, they were meant to make sure the wounds would never close.

He looked at the two blood-covered blades for a moment.

’They clearly prepared these to kill me.’

Then he let out a short sigh.

’This really wasn’t something I expected.’

Not the betrayal itself, but the way it was carried out and the time that had been chosen, and at that moment, another wave of pain passed through his side.

He placed his left hand on the damaged area.

Now isn’t the time to think about Victoria, and his gaze moved toward the Forsaken Apostate and Vesperis.

Both Unholy were still on the battlefield, and the Colony members were fighting to prevent them from approaching.

He immediately gave an order through Hive Dominion.

’Three, keep an eye on Noah, don’t kill him for now.’

The Dreadmaw Sovereign’s voice echoed in his mind.

’That traitor attacked you, my lord. Why should—’

’I said don’t kill him for now.’

There was silence for a moment.

’As you command.’

Lian turned his attention to Four.

’Keep those two Unholy from getting closer. I need a few minutes.’

’As you command, my lord.’

He did not wait for another answer and placed his right hand on the wound.

"Well."

His gaze fell on the blood on his fingers for a moment.

"Let’s solve this problem first."

Unfortunately, no matter how much his stepmother had planned for this, she had still underestimated the range of his skills.

[ Living Cocoon ]

An old skill that he had obtained in the fallen border city, during his first meeting with the mad scientist, Ezrak.

At that time, this ability had not seemed very impressive.

Living Cocoon allowed its owner to place his body inside a protective shell during deadly situations.

The shell’s defensive power was equal to his own defensive power, and the skill repaired injuries at high speed while consuming thirty mana per minute.

In most situations, such an ability was extremely valuable, and Lian expected it to solve his current problem as well.

Mana began gathering around his body, dense threads connected to one another, and a huge cocoon formed around his armored body.

A few moments later, the sounds of the battlefield became quieter.

He was inside the shell, and he felt the skill’s energy moving toward his wounds.

But after several seconds, he frowned.

The healing process had begun, the damaged tissue was slowly being rebuilt, and the bleeding was decreasing.

However, just as the first layer of repaired tissue formed, the unknown energy left behind by the daggers activated again.

The wound split open from the inside, and a sharp pain spread through Lian’s side.

He immediately focused on the mana flow, the skill was still working, the problem was not the healing, but the fact that the destruction was happening faster than the healing.

Even so, he was not worried, to disable the unknown energy, he sent Eclipse Energy from inside his body toward it.

The two energies came into conflict with each other, however, whatever that unknown energy was, it was not something that could compare to the power of a Demon.

And it was immediately broken down and destroyed from within.

However, some of it had already spread to other parts of his body, and Lian did not use Eclipse Energy again.

He had a plan for both of his cores and did not want to reduce any of their energy reserves right now.

Besides, the remaining part could only cause ordinary damage and could no longer spread.

He took one of his healing elixirs out of his storage space, opened the bottle inside the cocoon, and drank its contents.

The medicine’s warm energy flowed through his body, and for a moment, his healing speed increased.

Then he took out another healing herb and consumed it, followed by a second elixir.

He had suffered a lot of damage during his battle with the Apostate and wanted to return completely to his peak condition before leaving this cocoon.

He opened the skill window and fixed his gaze on its rank.

[ Common (+) ]

He had intended to upgrade some of his old skills a long time ago, but there had always been more important priorities.

Now, one of those forgotten skills stood between life and death for him.

He checked the number of Fragments he had remaining.

[ Fragments: 117 ]

All the Fragments he had collected from killing thousands of Withered over the past few days, along with whatever remained from before, added up to this amount.

He looked at the number for several seconds and then raised the corner of his mouth slightly.

He assigned all his Fragments to upgrading the skill, the window in front of him changed, and new energy began flowing inside the cocoon.

The protective shell, which had a relatively simple structure until a moment ago, began to become denser.

New layers formed around it.

The mana threads moved closer together and created a more complicated structure; a structure that no longer looked much like the ordinary cocoon from before.

The upgrades happened one after another within a few moments.

And finally

[ Skill Upgraded! ]

[ Living Cocoon → Primordial Rebirth Cocoon ]

[ Rank: Divine ]

[ Fragments Consumed: 115 ]

[ Remaining Fragments: 2 ]

Mana flows moved toward the wounds from several directions, this time, the healing energy was not simply reconnecting the torn tissue.

First, it targeted the same unknown force that had remained from the daggers, dense mana threads formed around the destructive energy and began separating it from the living tissue.

For a few moments, the pain increased greatly.

Lian clenched his teeth.

The Divine version of the skill was now capable of repairing extremely deep physical and internal injuries at an incredible speed.

It could also deal with foreign destructive effects that prevented the body from healing and gradually separate them from the damaged tissue.

Besides that, it could also heal non-physical damage, meaning damage to his cores and soul.

The recovery speed of the energy in his cores, which he had used during the battle, increased by 30 percent.

The effect on non-physical damage also extended to his armor, and the regeneration speed of his armor increased by up to 30 percent as well.

Inside the cocoon, it was practically like an all-purpose hospital.

The cocoon’s shell had also become much stronger, and as long as Lian was alive and had enough mana, it could continue the healing process even in deadly situations.

Now, even those Unholy could not break through the cocoon.

In return, mana consumption increased greatly when healing severe injuries.

Lian immediately felt this, his mana reserves were decreasing more quickly, but this time, the result was different.

The remaining destructive energy from the daggers was separated, the energy in his cores was being restored, and all the physical injuries he had suffered, both minor and severe, were healing.

Even his damaged armor, whether from the daggers or the Unholy, was being repaired quickly.

Lian slowly breathed out.