He was incapable of taking any action.This was what Kieran hated the most. Collateral beings that were incapable of action were always a.s.sociated with despair and helplessness.
Despair and helplessness were like conjoined twins.
They crushed any seemingly hard mental defense and destroyed anything fragile. It was a way of life. Ambition and life itself would be non-existent if one had such cruel thoughts.
Kieran had experienced such despair and helplessness and tasted such destruction before.
While from someone else’s eyes, Kieran might have been holding on with laughable strength, like an ant trying to topple a giant tree, he succeeded in the end. He held on to that tree like vermin.
He had never given up before, so why would he now?
Kieran clenched his teeth, held his breath and screamed his lungs out.
"MOVE! F*CKING MOVE!"
His crystallized body started to shake a little. The fiery flames were burning even hotter.
Both the Creature of Desire and the devil that had come out of the heart noticed Kieran’s sudden change, but neither cared about his puny, ant-like struggle.
At that very moment, their only enemy was each other.
Whoever managed to win would be the master of Kieran’s body. As for the original master, either one could crush it once they took over his body.
Their eyes were s.h.i.+ning with a rainbow-like glow. Suddenly, all the eyeb.a.l.l.s were fired out like an array of stars towards the fiery devil.
A sulphuric stench and volcanic flames were blasted out of the devil’s wings.
Light and fire intertwined in an instant, their clash overwhelmed Kieran’s weak struggle, at least from the monster’s point of view. Kieran still insisted though.
The crystal started to splinter following his struggle, and the fiery flames scorched his flesh, burning not just his body, but his soul as well.
"Arrghh!"
His soul was twitching, causing excruciating pain to his body as he screamed in pain.
The green light was getting denser. It carried on its healing process, based on the system’s procedures.
It felt like an oasis in the middle of the desert, delivering water to Kieran, a traveller lost in the desert, and granting him strength little by little.
Kieran tried his best to turn around by crawling on the floor, but he hit his head on the ground hard. He knocked himself out, but kept urging himself to climb back up.
The [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] was still operating in his body without a pause.
The puny strength Kieran had mustered up was getting stronger.
Kieran pushed his forehead against the ground, shrinking his body back bit by bit. His arched back was like a cooked shrimp, his movements forcing the crystals all over his body to crack again. The fiery flames took advantage of this to seep into Kieran’s lungs, burning the very last bit of oxygen inside them.
Suffocating pain rushed to Kieran’s brain. Blood was gus.h.i.+ng out of his nostrils and the edges of his mouth, but before it could drip on the floor, it was turned into steam by the burning flames.
Kieran straightened his body and raised his head. Although his vigorous movements made him gush out a couple of mouthfuls of blood, the crystals around his neck were broken into pieces.
Still, this was not enough to stop him. Kieran raised his head, looking at the green light. He did not know where the light was coming from, but it was s.h.i.+ning life energy on him.
When he raised his head, he saw thousands of evil eyes come from the Creature of Desire and the fiery devil figure.
Kieran lifted the edge of his mouth that hadn’t been crystallized into a small smirk. Then he tried to move harder, slowly raising his left hand up.
The instinctive raise of his hand was normally an easy feat, but under the circ.u.mstances, it took him a whole minute to achieve.
The black wristband on Kieran’s left wrist called [Primus Arm] became gloomy under the crystal’s light and the fiery flames. However, the faintly visible, scale-layered texture became extremely clear under the flames and crystal.
Kieran felt like he was watching a Colossal Crocodile struggle out of unwillingness.
Not only did [Primus Arm] make him feel like that, but even [Wild Soul], the huge rhino spirit that was getting scorched by the fiery flames, was struggling on its last breath.
Meanwhile, [Lionheart], the golden lion with the aura of a king, was staring at Kieran calmly. Its lips were moving a little, as if it was telling Kieran something.
The golden mane of the lion was fluttering as the animal tried to talk, but Kieran could not hear a word it said.
His vision was already blurred by the scorching heat. He was unsure whether he had just seen an illusion or not, but he still persisted in his actions.
[Primus Crunch]!
Instantly, a struggling Colossal Crocodile mirage formed around Kieran’s left hand. The crystals around his hand were splintered in a second, revealing his b.l.o.o.d.y, burned hand underneath. Even the burning flames were repelled away.
Kieran regained control of his left hand. While [Primus Crunch] was activated, he pressed his hand hard into his chest.
"STAY THE F*CK DOWN WHILE YOU’RE MESSING WITH MY BODY!" Kieran shouted out loud.
He reached with his hand inside his chest, grabbed both hearts and squeezed them hard together. A powerful, invisible energy wave was blasted away when the hearts were mashed.
Instantly, the two different hearts were fused together bit by bit.
The Colossal Crocodile mirage produced from Kieran’s left hand crunched and suppressed the energy around Kieran’s heart, which had once caused the crocodile to struggle in fear.
The ruthless crunch activated [Primus Greed].
A steady flow of life energy kept diffusing into Kieran’s body.
The room started trembling lightly as the huge rhino mirage jumped around in delight.
The golden lion was staring upwards with its glorious, fluttering mane.
The Creature of Desire, which was right in the middle of the fight, froze hard in mid-air. Suddenly, thousands of evil eyes started to wither away.
The devil figure started to turn into stone, the flames around it getting quickly reduced to small lines of fire.
The withering Creature of Desire and petrified devil figure tilted their eyes down to Kieran, as if they were looking at an ant.
Kieran was not going to hide away from their astonished gazes. He returned their stare with a determined look of his own.
After a few seconds, he fell back to the ground and tried to maintain his posture.
He was exhausted. One could even say that he had landed one of his feet across the gate of death.
How could a human survive without a heart?
Kieran had no intention of dying, but he still chose the path that could potentially lead to his death. He believed that that green color with its rich life energy would save him.
If it wasn’t enough, he wouldn’t regret it though. It was still better than waiting for the winner of the fight between the two monsters to take over his body.
Kieran wasn’t hoping that the winner of the battle would spare his life once it occupied his body. He was not that naive.
"The abandoned child of time? How desperate is that? You were abandoned by the whole world. Even death would not do you any good… What will your choice be? Die a glorious death, or live a pitiful life?"
"I choose…"
Mere seconds before his death, Kieran’s mind, which was supposed to have pa.s.sed out, heard a sonorous voice lingering inside, asking him the question that had once troubled him the most.
Kieran mustered up all his strength and moved his lips.
"I… I choose… death!"
No one was able to hear clearly what he had said, but it was still enough for Kieran to know his own choice.
It was enough.
The green light suddenly started s.h.i.+ning even more brightly. It gathered above Kieran’s body and sucked Kieran up into mid-air, shrouding him completely.
The hearts that had been mashed to bits by Kieran’s own hand were recovering at exponential speed, but they were no longer two separate hearts.
The two hearts had been fused together into one!
The Creature of Desire and the devil figure were growling fiercely, taking their last breaths.
Amidst their growls, a dark red heart emitting a rainbow-like s.h.i.+ne formed inside Kieran.
The heart beat once, and then a series of drum-like beats followed before it started beating rapidly.
The thunderous sound and the unpredictable corrupted aura were mixed together.
The aura of the seven sins- l.u.s.t, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Rage, Envy and Pride- was radiated from Kieran’s body.
A scorching heat with a sulphuric smell and a chaotic, reckless aura was tangling with the seven sins, unwilling to fall behind.
The origin of the mixed aura was a warm, tenacious energy that was flowing slowly.
As the Creature of Desire and the devil figure turned into particles and disappeared into thin air, the flames and the crystals were gone as well.
Kieran was unconscious as he slowly floated down from mid-air with his new, intact body.
[Healing Completed!]
The mechanical voice signified the end of the process.