CHAPTER 41: CHAPTER 38: LIN VS NULLEN

Damn you!

Lin spun again, trying to unbalance Nullen, but Nullen jumped back as if he had been waiting for that exact motion. Lin ended up stranded on his two legs, breath sharp, muscles burning from exhaustion.

You should give up; you don’t stand a chance. You will need a miracle and luck to be able to face me.

“A miracle? Seriously, is this a joke? Do you think I’ve survived until now because of miracles? Do you think I’m holding my mind together by luck? I didn’t survive by luck. I survived on my pain. Do you know what I’ve seen, what I feel? No, because you are not me. You know nothing. Every single person who made me suffer, I will bury every last one of them. That talk about living in peace is what losers tell themselves to pretend everything’s fine. At first I tried to give up vengeance. I told myself I wasn’t strong enough, that I could ignore it, let myself be free, lose control, and try to live instead of living in hate. But do you think everything’s fine? You don’t know my pain—they pushed me past my limit.

Do you think everything that happened to me was a joke? I was ripped from my world into this stupid novel. A golden-haired woman tried to force me into a woman’s body, and that damned system chained me to those missions. I couldn’t always hold myself together. Then the worst came: that cursed eye, that unbearable pain, shadows that gnawed at what was left. You didn’t see what I saw. I fought; it was cursed. I even accepted what that serpent woman did, just to avoid seeing that eye again, only for some fucking kid to call it a miracle?

You don’t know how much my dignity matters to me.

Lin spat blood between his teeth and forced his legs to stay.

“If I failed, that would mean I wasn’t good enough. Then I could accept death in peace; it would mean I did my best and had no regrets. But I won’t accept what others do to me. I will burn everything down before I bow. I’m neither saint nor demon. I don’t wait for miracles, because I am the miracle itself.”

He drew a breath, calm as a grave. “You, on the other hand, will be begging for one. Because I don’t think you’ll live to see the end of the day.”

Cut the crap. You can’t even use magic properly, and you’re already exhausted. Don’t make this pathetic; you’re wasting my time.

Those words landed in Lin like an oath. They dug into him and turned the tremor in his hands into living heat. “Huh. I’m going to make you see hell itself.”

Lin steadied his exhausted, damaged body.

He began to jump on the spot, a fast, furious rhythm that pushed him forward and back with smooth speed. He lifted both hands into a boxing stance while his pace grew sharper.

Suddenly, both of his eyes began to glow, a thin blue line pulsing with each breath. Blue energy seeped from his eyes and hands, faint at first, then swelling thicker with every heartbeat. His gaze deepened into a dark blue as the black serpent tattoo lit up. Its head rested against his neck, its body coiling tightly around his arm, and within the glowing markings, the serpent’s own eye ignited with a piercing blue, radiating a flashing electric light.

The energy surged higher, spilling into his hair until every strand shimmered with a ghostly blue glow, waving as though stirred by an unseen wind.

“What is this shit you are doing?”

Boom! Boom!

Before he could finish, Lin was already there. Using his boxing stance and the speed from his jump, he appeared in front of Nullen in a blur. A rain of punches landed—right, left, front, back, endless, crushing blows.

“Let me tell you something, starting with the first hit.”

CRACK!

Lin’s fist crashed into Nullen’s jaw. “Screw your miracle bullshit!”

THUD!

A hook to the ribs made Nullen stagger back. “Second hit, screw your lucky bullshit!”

SMASH!

Lin drove his knuckles into Nullen’s temple. “Third hit, screw your perfection bullshit too!”

WHAM!

An uppercut nearly lifted Nullen off his feet. “Fourth hit, screw your magic bullshit!”

SPLAT!

Blood sprayed with the last punch. “Fifth hit, screw all of it! Perfection, talent, magic—everything you stand for is shit!”

Lin roared, a primal scream tearing from his throat, echoing through the battlefield.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”

Nullen staggered, dazed, eyes wide.

“...What... is that power?”

His breath hitched, vision blurred beneath the storm of fists. For an instant he looked shaken, almost cornered—

but then the haze cleared.

Nullen had no space to breathe. Fists were all he could see. And still, a cold smile spread across his face as the punches kept coming. It was as if he enjoyed it.

A carved smile started to appear on Nullen’s face that made Lin snap.

Pressure pooled in Lin like a storm. Bones cracked; teeth loosened and fell. Blood foamed at his lips and slid down his chin. The faster tempo of his breathing carved through Nullen’s defenses.

“I AM GOING TO KILL YOU,” Lin roared.

He bounced on his feet, forward and back, eyes flaring brighter until they glowed. In a heartbeat a blue energy began to leak from his eyes and hands. He dropped into a hard boxing stance.

Then, a blur, a barrage of fists: right, left, left, right, behind, again and again, a wavering, relentless onslaught.

Nullen barely had time to breathe. It felt like a thousand punches at once.

Nullen smiled as the blows struck him. Still, Lin kept pushing; blood bubbled from Nullen’s mouth.

“I AM GOING TO KILL YOU.”

“Hahaha. You couldn’t beat that snake woman or that dragon. One lizard fucked you up, and the other destroyed you. You couldn’t even get revenge on any of your enemies. A pathetic loser,” Nullen sneered, twisting the knife. “All you’re doing now is dumping your anger on me.”

Anger exploded inside Lin. In Nullen he saw every person who had ever hurt him. He kept punching, faster and harder.

Rage ignited, and Lin shifted styles mid-fight, mixing techniques until they fused into a single, violent rhythm. His knee stabbed into Nullen’s stomach, then his elbow hammered into his face like a fang. A sudden push with his foot sent Nullen flying.

As Nullen tumbled through the air, Lin seized the moment: an elbow to the face slammed him into the ground.

Then it appeared.

From the torrent of his fury, a colossal serpent of blue energy erupted, coiling around him like living armor. Its scales shimmered with ghostly light, its eyes glowing with the same dark blue as Lin’s. The serpent’s body wrapped him in a fortress of energy, its fangs stretching wide like arrows, its hiss echoing like thunder.

With each of Lin’s movements, the serpent surged in perfect accord. His lifted arm drove its head forward; his stride sent its coils crashing against the earth, splintering stone. It was wrath incarnate, a weapon and a monster moving to his will.

Lin grabbed a handful of Nullen’s hair, the serpent towering behind him like judgment itself. He spat a mouthful of gathered black poison into Nullen’s eyes—the corrosive burn searing flesh.

He stood, breath heavy, the serpent’s vast coils still circling him, when a mad laugh stopped him in his tracks.

“That’s what a perfect talent is,” Nullen said, grinning. “No magic, and yet you’re capable of all that. I want to see it all.”

Nullen rose. A massive swirl of white energy erupted around him, and Lin felt it like a chill carving down his spine; something was wrong. Then, without warning, Nullen’s body was consumed by a colossal blaze of grey fire, the flames towering outward as if forging a new being.

Lin tried to run, but Nullen slammed his fist into Lin’s stomach. Lin skidded back, rolling across the dirt before he stopped.

He stared at the figure before him: a figure wrapped in searing grey fire, its silhouette both diminished and yet far more dreadful, as if condensed into pure malice. Slowly, the flames peeled away, unveiling a form both terrifying and regal: long white hair flowing like ashes, eyes burning with piercing crimson, and a body radiating the aura of a new being, handsome, with a beauty as chilling as it was enthralling.

“Thanks for your help, my little pawn. The blessing that pitiful white ghoul child once held now belongs to me. Not only did I absorb it, but I also forced it to evolve. He was unworthy, but in my hands it has become something greater. From “The Corruption of the First White Ghoul” to The Fallen Ghoul of Aybass.”

“Then I will let you witness my new self. Thank you for pushing me to the edge.”

Instead of fading, his aura erupted, swelling until it threatened to split the very air. Power that should have broken him apart only wrapped around him tighter, like chains of divine fire.

“Now, I’ll drag out your true power, whether you want it or not.”

With a single sweep of his hand, grey fire tore open the space around him, the flames wild and possessed by something unknown. With the other hand, he drew them inward, condensing the inferno, bending it to his will, until at last it sharpened into a single weapon: a blazing arrow wrought from ashen flame.

My blessing, lend me your power.

“Kuroshi! Aybass! Soryu! — Ashen Tongue, rend the seam!

Kareha — rise!

Nara — devour!

Abyss — swallow all!

Ignis... BURN THE WORLD!”

“Take this, the Ashen Arrow of Death.”

In that moment, Nullen failed to realize he was playing with fire.

With a single motion, he released it.

The blazing arrow of ash tore through the air, piercing Lin’s body with unstoppable force. A great gray flame erupted, devouring him whole.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

A scream ripped across the battlefield, full of despair and pain. The flames were devouring him alive.

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Reader’s Archive

OST: COMBAT EVENT – LIN VS NULLEN

I can smell the fear that clings to your skin.

I can hear the words, "You’re too scared to begin."

I can feel the panic clawing through the air.

I can see your courage splinter, stripped bare.

I can taste the treachery, bitter yet sweet.

I can sense your resolve falling at my feet.

I can tell the ending is closing in fast.

I can watch your pride shatter, unable to last.

I can smell the dread dripping cold from your frame.

I can taste the guilt—you can’t hide from the shame.

I can stay, and I’ll never feel sympathy.

Because in the end it is your tragedy.