73~ Lightning vs Decay |

After the battle against Aetherion, Mark, Dill, and Raouf continued their journey in search of Bahaa. As for Elyes, after Wail and Amin disappeared, he decided to distance himself from the others and train alone, while the rest continued training together.

A full year passed.

During that time, the phenomenon of the mindless ones began to spread, bringing destruction and devastation to numerous regions. Noah, Adam, and the other fighters confronted them, trying to protect the people from their threat.

They began evacuating civilians to a city surrounded by walls built to keep the unaware out. The fighters continued resisting them for three months, until Heda and Evelyn appeared and managed to defeat Noah and Adam.

Wail appeared that day as well, but he couldn't change the outcome. He was defeated by the two women and witnessed his mother's death with his own eyes. Afterward, he disappeared once again, and Noah and Adam vanished along with him.

The unaware were enormous in number, making them extremely difficult to deal with. Although they posed little threat individually to powerful fighters, their ever-growing numbers made them a genuine danger to ordinary people. As their spread continued, protecting the population became increasingly difficult, and the destruction expanded year after year, until the present day...

---

In the present...

"Won't you use your eye ability?"

Wail asked coldly as he watched Kyle.

The latter answered with a calm smile.

"Honestly, there's no point."

Wail's eyes widened slightly, but he quickly regained his composure.

"I see the same pattern in your eyes everywhere... You're the one controlling them, aren't you?"

Kyle smiled, prompting Wail to continue.

"The unaware."

"Ah, exactly. My ability allows me to control others and take over their minds. It might seem like an incredible power at first, but the condition that limits it makes it less useful than you might think."

"And what is that condition?"

"My opponent must possess at least a small amount of energy for my ability to affect them. The more energy they have, the better they can resist my control and retain their freedom to make decisions. Once their energy reaches a certain level, my ability becomes completely ineffective against them."

He pointed at Wail.

"That's why you don't need to worry about my eyes. They're useless against you."

Wail folded his arms, beginning to understand the whole picture.

"So the less energy someone has, the greater your control over them. That's why ordinary people seem to have lost their minds completely, while the fighters you control retain some will of their own and act independently... But they still can't free themselves from your control, can they?"

"Exactly... Unless..."

Wail interrupted him without hesitation.

"Unless I kill you. And that's exactly what I'll do."

Kyle's smile widened.

In the next instant, an electrical blade passed close to his neck, but he leaned aside and dodged it at the last moment.

"You're incredibly fast, Wail."

Kyle moved toward his opponent and reached out to touch him. But Wail immediately retreated, as though his body had reacted to the danger before his mind could process it.

This copy lacks author permission. Their official page carries the chapter and supports the author's ongoing work.

Wait... Why did I retreat?

Kyle was still smiling.

"Good decision. Or did you not even realize you'd moved away from me?"

Wail lowered his eyes toward his arms. They were cracked, and his skin had taken on a strange gray color.

There's something about his hands... I can sense his elemental energy, but I can't determine its nature.

Kyle didn't give him any more time to think.

Wail charged toward him again, unleashing a series of lightning bolts that tore through the air toward his opponent. Kyle dodged them with minimal movements, then vanished and reappeared beside Wail, reaching out toward him.

At the last moment, Wail struck his elbow and knocked his hand aside before delivering a direct punch to his face.

Kyle retreated as successive flashes filled the sky above him. Lightning bolts shot down toward him. He evaded most of them, but one struck his arm, and a dense surge of electricity erupted around it.

He seemed completely unconcerned.

He charged toward Wail again, attempting to grab him, but Wail brought his hands together. Energy surged from them, forming the shape of an enormous electrical jaw that closed around Kyle's body.

"Thunder Jaw!"

The jaws snapped shut, trapping Kyle within an intense current of electricity.

Kyle tried to bring his palms together, but Wail gave him no opportunity. He rushed forward and delivered a devastating kick that shattered Kyle's leg, sending him flying a great distance until he crashed into the ground.

Kyle struggled to his feet.

Tch... Getting close to him is harder than I expected.

Despite that, he continued smiling.

He placed his palm on the ground.

In the next instant, cracks spread across its surface, racing toward Wail. The ground shattered beneath his feet, and the fissure that opened swallowed him.

Wail managed to escape with difficulty, but as soon as he regained his balance, he sensed Kyle behind him.

"It's over."

Kyle placed his hand on Wail's back.

The area touched by his fingers turned gray before beginning to crack and crumble. The disintegration spread rapidly across Wail's body until his entire form collapsed and turned to dust.

Kyle watched the remains in silence.

But sparks of electricity began appearing among the particles of dust.

His expression shifted slightly, and his gaze dropped toward the ground, where Wail stood unharmed.

Kyle spoke.

"So that's how you defeated that bitch, isn't it?" he was talking about heda.

Wail answered calmly.

"Yes. And that's how I figured out what your hands do. Touching them is more dangerous than I expected."

Kyle smiled and slowly descended until he stood in front of him, but he noticed no fear or hesitation on Wail's face.

He studied him for a few moments before speaking.

"I'm starting to like you."

A brief silence followed before he added,

"You could call it decay. Strange element, isn't it?"

"Yes. I've never seen anything like it before."

"Then shall we begin round two?"

Wail didn't answer. He simply kept his eyes fixed on his opponent.

In the next instant, the area around them exploded, and rocks flew in every direction from the impact.

Both fighters shot into the sky, beginning another round of combat.

Wail attacked first, surrounded by dense electrical energy. He unleashed a series of lightning blades that rushed toward Kyle from multiple angles. Kyle moved between them, but he didn't try to block them or dodge every single one. Each blade that approached him simply vanished before striking him, as though it had never existed.

Wail took advantage of the moment Kyle spent dealing with one of the attacks and rushed toward him at tremendous speed, delivering an electricity-charged punch to his side.

The blow sent Kyle flying backward.

But Wail didn't stop. Dozens of electrical arrows appeared around him and shot toward his opponent all at once, while an enormous lightning bolt descended from the sky to cut off Kyle's escape.

The arrows vanished one after another before reaching him. The lightning surrounding the sky disappeared as soon as it approached Kyle.

Nevertheless, Wail had already reached him.

He appeared beside Kyle and struck him quickly in the stomach, then turned and unleashed an electrical blade from his arm that extended toward Kyle's chest. The blade vanished, but Wail seized the moment to kick him with tremendous force, driving him downward.

Kyle tried to regain his balance, but a barrage of lightning bolts rained down on him before he could. The bolts vanished upon touching him, one after another, but Wail kept changing positions, attacking from a different direction each time.

Kyle couldn't match Wail's speed, so he relied on Disintegration to nullify his attacks, waiting for the moment when Wail came close enough to touch him.

Wail, meanwhile, knew that a single mistake could end the battle.

He charged forward again and formed a series of intersecting blades from his energy, launching them toward Kyle simultaneously. They all vanished, but one forced Kyle to move his arm aside. Wail exploited the opening in his defense and punched him in the face.

Kyle staggered backward, new injuries appearing across his body.

Even so, his smile remained.

Wail held a slight advantage thanks to his speed, but decay rendered almost every direct attack ineffective. Wail had no choice but to keep up the pressure while making sure his opponent never touched him.

Wail finally pulled away, maintaining a safe distance.

Kyle descended to the ground, which was covered in electrical sparks left behind by the earlier attacks. As soon as his feet touched the surface, the sparks began exploding one after another, triggering a chain of blasts that consumed the surrounding area.

Wail watched the scene, realizing something important.

His ability affects energy too, not just physical objects...

The final explosion subsided, and the dust rose to obscure the area.

But Kyle emerged from the cloud, still smiling despite the injuries covering his body.

At that moment, Wail's eyes widened.

Someone appeared behind him and seized him, immobilizing him, while another person appeared in front of him and extended an arm, firing a red electrical beam toward him.

Kyle watched the two from a distance, irritated by their interference.

Damn it! Who asked you two to interfere?

Adam was the one who fired the beam, while Noah restrained Wail and protected himself with a sound barrier.

The beam rushed toward Wail, but at the last moment, his body transformed into electricity. He then vanished from Noah's grasp, allowing the attack to pass through the space where he had been standing.

Wail reappeared in the sky some distance away.

He had sensed two other people moments before the attack and used that brief window to evade it.

He looked into their eyes and noticed that they bore the same bloody pattern he had seen in Kyle's eyes.

So he's controlling them too.

He then turned toward Kyle, who was watching him from a distance.

"Is this really how you intend to defeat me?"

Kyle answered with clear irritation.

"I didn't want that! They're acting of their own accord. I never asked them to come here."

Wail furrowed his brows.

"So, three against one..."

Before he could say anything more, another voice came from behind him.

"Make that three against three!"

The ground beneath Noah and Adam froze, and both turned toward the source of the voice.

Mark appeared and charged straight at Adam, delivering a tremendous punch to his chest that shattered his ribs and sent him flying backward.

Mark didn't stop. He leaped toward Noah and kicked him hard in the stomach, sending him flying backward as well.

But Raouf was waiting for him there.

He grabbed Noah from behind and froze his entire body inside a block of ice.

Wail watched as the two arrived, then said,

"You came at the right time."

Mark answered without turning toward him.

"Keep fighting. We'll handle things here."

Raouf nodded as cracks began appearing in the ice surrounding Noah's body.

Wail said nothing more. His body flashed with electricity, and he moved to the ground near Kyle.

He raised his eyes toward him, and electrical energy began gathering around his body once more.

"Let's continue..."