Chapter 177 Chapter 177- Operation: Behemoth (Part 18)
The whole world around Grey slowed down to a halt as he gazed at Kai, not saying or doing anything. A feeling of coldness seeped into his body, paralyzing his senses.
"You… bas-" Before he could even finish his sentence, Kai had already aimed his gun at Grey"s forehead before he shot one bullet.
The bullet pierced his brain and left from the opposite side, splattering the insides of his head everywhere.
"Rot in h.e.l.l… f.u.c.ker." He said as he kicked Grey"s body away and then turned around and rushed toward Eva.
However, as Kai was about to touch her, a huge explosion of energy seeped out of Eva"s body. The explosion was so strong that it sent Kai flying back, smashing against the wall. Rocks and debris started falling down from the sky as Eva"s body thumped with energy, each pulse sent a huge shockwave that destroyed everything in its way.
The walls of the lab crashed down followed by a chain of explosions that pulverized a huge section of the castle. Amidst this destruction, Eva"s body started floating in the air. Her usually lively eyes were now colorless, with an orange hue around her irises.
The sheer amount of Origin that her body was exuding couldn"t be measured. This was the result of a forceful evolution of her main talent to not only reach Origin Realm but to break through to the last level, Origin Reality.
The pommel of the sword that appeared on her forehead slowly left her body before the sword finally appeared in full view. At first look, the sword was like nothing else. If one had to describe it, they would say only one word "Chaotic".
With a huge, wide blade that was shining with an Orange hue, the sword didn"t give the vibes of a normal Origin Artifact. In fact, it exuded nothing but pure, unstoppable Origin that spread across the whole castle and beyond.
Kai kicked away the rubble that acc.u.mulated on him as he stood up. His mask cracked because of the impact, showing only a part of his face.
"What is that?" His face was riddled with confusion. The Eva in front of him was now completely different. Everything about her went through a terrifying metamorphosis.
The floating Eva then lifted her hand up and grabbed the handle of the sword before she pulled it completely out. The moment she did that, the whole place pulsated with energy.
"Is that…" Kai"s eyes squinted slightly before he quickly dashed forward. He didn"t have time to idle around or a.n.a.lyze the situation. Without even trying to sense Eva"s condition, Kai was sure that this state she entered was destroying her body from the inside.
Not only was she not ready to handle this level of her talent, but she had also consumed an imaginable amount of Origin that could rupture her Origin veins any second. On top of that, unlocking Origin Reality at her level also came with another side effect that was as disastrous if not even more disastrous than anything else.
Origin being a very raw and natural energy was also chaotic in nature. That"s why Origin exists in the most dangerous places in the world because the more chaotic the environment is, the better it is for Origin to thrive.
Now, if raw Origin was forcefully injected into one"s body, either of two things could happen. The first one is simply instant death. The body wouldn"t be able to handle that much Origin and implode. The second one which was rarer but still possible was for the user to lose their mind entirely and turn into a chaotic force of nature that would attack anything in its way, or in other words, become the humanoid form of Origin. This happens in people with extremely tough bodies and Eva -after undergoing that brutal training and evolving her body- was in that category.
What was happening to Eva was the second option.
Closing the distance between them, Kai tried to grab Eva. However, the latter suddenly vanished from where she was before appearing behind Kai.
"Fast…"
The latter felt his senses going off as his hands moved and unsheathed his sword right before the impact.
Eva"s sword hit Kai"s Wretched Heart, sending a huge shockwave that pushed all the rubble in the area away.
The hit pushed Kai a few dozen meters before he landed on his feet. A split second later, Eva appeared in front of him again with her sword already slashing down.
Gritting his teeth, Kai skillfully moved his blade, as he diverged the attack. His instinct told him that he had found an opening in his opponent and that he should strike now. But, he instantly realized that… He wasn"t fighting an enemy. This was Eva.
That mere fact alone erased any thought of attacking her from Kai"s head.
*BANG*
However, that came with a price. Eva"s sword suddenly shifted at inhuman speed before it struck again. This time, however, the attack came followed by a huge amount of Origin.
"Ugh…" Grunting lowly, Kai was sent flying back as he rolled on the ground before landing on his feet. Looking down, a huge injury had appeared on his chest that was seeping with blood. He wasn"t shocked to see that as the sword Eva was using was not normal by any means.
In fact, this was by far the strongest sword Kai had ever seen. Coupled with the state Eva was in and the raw Origin that was eating her body away, that strike would"ve turned any target into a b.l.o.o.d.y mist, not even leaving any flesh behind.
In an instant, his injury closed as he stood up. An idea had popped into his head. Although stopping Eva was indeed going to be rather troublesome, saving her life was even more of a priority for Kai now. Even if he defeated her, she was going to most likely die because of the repercussions.
What he needed to do was to extract all of that Origin from her body before it was too late. However, to do that, he only had two ways. Either to personally guide it out of her body which required Eva to be stationary and not on rampage.
"She"s using all the Origin her body acc.u.mulated to attack me… This might work."
Taking a deep breath, Kai"s eyes turned sharper as he held his sword up. Eva stared at him with her empty, hollow eyes before she dashed forward at a speed that almost rivaled his.
Kai did the same and the two met halfway, clashing with their sword. A huge amount of Origin rippled through the air upon contact.
Then, the two vanished and appeared somewhere else, clashing violently. Each time they crossed swords, Eva would use a huge amount of Origin, forcefully pushing Kai back.
The latter wasn"t completely at a disadvantage but because he had to make sure he didn"t harm Eva and also make sure she used Origin as much as possible, he had to change his fighting style completely.
"Her techniques didn"t change… Her body is fighting the same as she does… Just faster and stronger." Kai a.n.a.lyzed her movements as he tried to somehow create a completely opposite style of fighting to that of Eva on the spot.
The reason for that was simple logic. If he were to be able to be the complete opposite of Eva, the fight would last a longer time. But, that was way easier said than done.
*BANG*
As Kai was about to shift his sword, Eva suddenly ducked down and surprised him with a piercing attack. Kai quickly tried to jump back but… He was a split second late. Eva"s sword pierced his stomach.
"This… won"t be easy…" Kai thought as he landed on his feet. Blood has stopped gushing out of his stomach and the injury quickly healed. But, that didn"t make Kai feel any better about the situation. Fighting someone he can"t kill and can"t harm either wasn"t tricky. But, with Eva being tens of times stronger than before, it was certainly trickier.
He had to outsmart Eva.