Warlord – Chapter 79
A golden pupil appeared in the darkness. Countless silver stripes came to cover the golden pupil. These silver stripes were as thin as a hair. They rapidly distorted and converged back in the middle. In a moment, all the silver stripes circled the golden pupil and expanded. They formed a vertical pupil which was similar to a dragon"s eyes.
Zero raised his head and opened his mouth to spit out white smoke. The tactical armor that he was wearing was torn open by an invisible force. The white skin of his body was revealed. The pores on his body expanded as heat began to exude from them. His figure was distorted because of the high temperature in the air. He roared up.
He squatted down and forced his body to sprint like a rock to the sky. He jumped for 100 meters.
He was scared at the same time as it was his first try. The air around him reverberated at the same time. The thick radiation clouds over his head felt like they would burst into ripples any moment.
He was in air when he made a "step". The air under his foot became muddy as if Zero"s feet was twisting the s.p.a.ce. The kinetic energy created from the move surged up his speed and he changed his direction towards a 12 story building.
Zero"s speed was so fast that he left faint and blur afterimages in the air. The afterimages faded away one by one as in the blink of an eye he reached the building.
He raised his fist as raging flames burst out. The fist wrapped in flames. .h.i.t the external wall of the building. A hole as big as three meters in diameter appeared as the walls turned into ash. At the same time fires began to emerge from the center of the hole where his fist was and spread through the surface of the building.
At the same time, the flames covered the entire building. Fire waves constantly rolled one after another as they destructed and burned everything within the building at the molecular level. In a second all the building had become scorched ash as the gray residue scattered around with the air.
Zero"s body fell to the ground. The moment his feet touched the ground a cracked texture appeared and widened for five meters. He was standing in the middle of a two meter deep pit which was created because of the fall. Zero exhaled once more as white smoke puffed out from his mouth. He looked like a dragon.
He didn"t stop but rushed at another building. There was a 10 meter wide wall in front of him.
His figure disappeared and reappeared in front of the wall. Large number of walls were behind each other. He didn"t back up but instead bowed his body into a shape of shrimp to make a defensive posture.
Zero went through one wall after another. The muscles on his body stretched out to diffuse the impact. Gravel splashed around as his body went through the wall. However he was unharmed.
A smile appeared on his face after he came from the other side. However at the same time blood sprayed out as if he had lost control over his body. Zero"s body fell to the ground but he adjusted his position in the air as he went down.
Zero laid on ground as he panted.
The silver stripes on his golden right eye dispersed and the usual look appeared once again.
The state which Zero displayed was called "berserker". It was a new ability which had formed and could instantaneously increase the level of Zero"s abilities at least by double. The increase was relative. For example the magnitude of increase would get smaller as his original abilities order was higher.
In the last two months Zero had stayed in the City of Wrath under Dr Victor"s observation. The genes in his body were relatively safe after the genetic shock and there was no sign of collapse.
The original abilities Zero had upgraded a level after the genetic shock. Now, he had first-order fire element ability, second-order strength enhancement, second-order bullet-time and third order agility enhancement. As for the newly formed ability called "berserker", it wasn"t connected to any five known domains of abilities.
Zero only knew that "berserker" mode could increase his original abilities in a relative manner. For example, if he tried to put all 8 evolutionary points by using berserker mode into the agility enhancement then he was able to reach fifth-order. However all of it were relative. At best he could enhance the ability to seventh-order or so. He would be never able to reach tenth-order with berserker mode.
Zero had come to conclusion that the ability to maximize the degree of increase would greatly reduce when he reached higher level. For example, if he had fifth-order strength enhancement it would be very difficult to increase it to seventh-order because of the limitation of the berserker mode.
Moreover, despite being a very powerful ability, Zero wouldn"t use "berserker" for more than 10 seconds. At 12 seconds his body would go through a genetic shock while at 15 seconds of usage his genes would collapse. An unnatural genetic shock was the same as the direct genetic collapse. At that case, n.o.body could save Zero.
Therefore, Zero had decided that "berserker" mode was a double-edged sword. It would kill Zero if he misused it.
However, it was indisputable that the berserker mode was very good for Zero. Especially, when he reached fifth-order agility enhancement the moment he used berserker mode.
In addition, at fifth-order agility enhancement Zero reached a speed where the afterimages were created. The afterimages had surreal effect and could disrupt the line of sight. Zero could produce about two afterimages when he used the berserker mode.
Zero wanted to practice and get familiar with his new ability. As a result he had chosen to come to ruins in the wilderness for practice.
In the last two months he was able to master first-order fire element. Zero didn"t know how his body was able to produce element domain ability. But he faintly guessed that it had to do something with battle with Aaron.
In fact, Zero understood that his body produced new abilities as he faced variety of powerful enemies. He got strength and defense enhancement after he fought with butcher. He had accelerated healing after the battle with Hans. Now he was proficient at fire after the battle with Aaron.
The problem was that Zero couldn"t find a feasible way to use the first-order fire element ability. At best he was able to light cigarette. He had to use berserker mode to increase the fire element to second-order to be able to use flame boxing or burn a whole building.
In the last two months of attempts Zero had come with a method to use first-order fire element. He was able to infuse the fire into the bullets and make the explode the moment bullet hit the target. It could be considered as disguised form of using an elemental ability. However, he was able to make up to 5 bullets a day as the task was very heavy on him.
Zero laid on ground as he looked at the clouds in sky. After two years from waking up from the hibernation he was finally able to experience the terror of ability users. Ability users with first or second order enhancements were stronger than ordinary people. But when an ability reached fifth order or more then the limits of human body were diminished and the clear distinction between an ordinary human and ability user was shown.
But fifth-order ability users were far from strong in the vast wilderness. Zero desired to get stronger and reach the apex. He would have the strength to change something when he reached the peak. For example, he could make Leah be reborn or let children like Monica to live a normal life.
Strength was everything in this turbulent age!
Zero knew that he needed to go very far to reach the end of the road. The first stop in this long journey seemed to be the Parker conglomerate. Zero was fully familiar with his abilities so it was time to departure.
He stood up and turned towards north. North! That"s where the headquarters of the Parker conglomerate is!