UNLOCK: I CAN SEE MY STATS

chapter 20 : The End Is ...

“I am General Rames. I give you my word on this! So… what do you say, are you in?” he asked with narrowed eyes, genuinely hoping for a positive answer.

He didn’t want to fight such an unknown and powerful opponent.

More than that, if he could truly recruit Marcus, they’d gain a formidable ally. Marcus was only a teenager and already possessed this strength, he couldn’t begin to imagine how terrifying he’d be at his peak.

“That’s a very tempting offer…” Marcus said coolly, then added with an icy smirk, “but here’s my counter-offer, why don’t you just go to hell?”

Before Rames could react, Marcus vanished in a flash of violet lightning.

BOOM!!

He reappeared directly behind Rames, his fist crackling with sparks. But Rames spun halfway around just in time, his stone-clad fist collided with Marcus’s charged punch.

CRAAACK!!

The ground beneath their feet shuddered. Shards of Eternal Energy blasted out in circular waves, scattering leaves and loose earth.

“Very well! Then don’t blame me for your death…”

Marcus stepped back, but Rames pressed forward, delivering another punch that fell like a stone hammer. Marcus raised his arm just in time to block.

BOOM!!

Marcus staggered back several meters. Gray lines spiderwebbed across his right forearm.

In the background, Tina was locked in her own struggle, fending off two Ironland soldiers. She swung her dagger, glowing green, to parry a heavy blow and forced them back with a short burst of wind. Nearby, another Loranan soldier burned after iron spears pierced his chest.

The sounds of death were almost normal here.

She couldn’t help but silently thank Marcus again. Without that strange purple orb he’d given her earlier, she’d never have had the energy reserve to keep fighting.

But what no one noticed… was the shadow moving among the corpses with a sinister calm.

“Hmm… such perfect timing…” Luiz muttered with a twisted grin, his body slithering across the ground like a stone serpent, heading straight for Marcus, who was still fiercely trading blows with Rames.

“Haah!!”

Rames shouted and slammed his palm into the ground. The earth split, and stone pillars burst upward toward Marcus.

Marcus leaped back to dodge, but the moment his feet touched down, a giant rocky hand erupted from below and gripped his waist.

“Tch…!” Marcus growled, trying to surge lightning through his body, but the hand suddenly squeezed tight.

CRAAACK!!

A second hand shot out, this one not made of stone, but a real, flesh-and-blood hand. It grabbed his other side and claws dug cruelly into his body.

“Finally caught you, Lightning…” Luiz’s voice hissed in his ear.

Before Marcus could even fully register it, Luiz’s stone-tipped fingers pierced his skin, driving into his ribs.

BOOM!!

Black-violet blood splashed out. Tina gasped in horror as Marcus staggered, while a look of triumph spread across Rames’s face.

But a second later, something happened that made Luiz freeze.

The green veins around Marcus’s wound suddenly lit up. Then, violet lightning surged through his flesh, and the wound sealed instantly.

“W…what…?!” Luiz gasped.

Marcus slowly turned his head. His violet eyes were now sharp as blades.

“I’ve had my turn as prey… now it’s my turn to hunt.”

---

He raised his right hand, thick violet sparks gathering into a lethal cluster.

∆ Violet Lightning Style: Destruction Fist ∆

BOOOOM!!!

His punch smashed into Luiz’s chest, tearing through flesh and bone and blasting out his back. A deafening electric crack drowned out Luiz’s scream.

Luiz’s eyes flew wide in sheer horror. Black blood erupted from his mouth. Marcus’s hand ignited inside him, burning everything in its path.

“T-this is… imposs…ible…” Luiz tried to say, but his tongue froze.

Marcus suddenly ripped his hand free. Luiz’s body tumbled backward and crashed to the ground, dead, his glassy eyes staring into nothing.

---

Marcus turned toward Rames again, dark red-black blood trailing from his side despite partial regeneration. His breathing was ragged, but his eyes still blazed.

“One down…” Marcus exhaled deeply, vision starting to blur.

Rames gave a grim smile, his body armoring up again with even thicker stone layers.

“That was his mistake… underestimating you. But violet lightning? That’s something new… Who are you, boy? I don’t recall any clan wielding violet lightning, not even the Black Lightning Clan!”

Marcus didn’t answer. Instead, he finished a rapid sequence of hand seals and slammed the ground.

∆ Earth Style: Sacred Colossus ∆

CRAAACK!!

A colossal stone golem erupted from the ground in its terrifying entirety , massive as a mountain, head featureless except for glowing red lines running through its chest like fiery veins.

“Damn it…” Marcus muttered with a deep scowl as he saw the golem. But that wasn’t his real concern, he felt like his body couldn’t take much more.

And there was no way to flee now. After all, he was facing a Scorch Warden-level opponent.

The golem let out a hollow roar, like a swirling storm of dust, then raised its massive arm and slammed it into the earth.

BOOM!!

The shockwave blasted Loranan and Ironland soldiers alike. Some flew like ragdolls; others screamed in agony as they rolled across the blood-soaked dirt.

“This… this isn’t a monster, it’s a catastrophe!” one Loranan soldier yelled, just before the golem stomped over him, crushing his chest with a sickening crunch.

Marcus staggered back a step, sweat pouring from his brow, his vision growing hazier.

He could feel his cells breaking down from the inside.

All for One had reached its cruelest phase: the single supercharged cell that powered everything was now greedily consuming the rest of his body’s cells to survive, causing his organs to disintegrate on a microscopic level.

“Haah… haah…” he panted, knees trembling. But before he could process more, he sensed a massive shadow falling over him.

He lifted his head slowly… to see the golem’s giant fist coming down.

“shit !! , I can’t dodge this …!”

BOOM!!

It slammed into him with full force. His ribs shattered, and his body was driven deep into the earth, tearing a wide crater around him.

In the next instant, Rames appeared from the side, seizing the chance of Marcus’s sudden weakness. He rammed his stone shoulder straight into Marcus’s chest.

CRAAACK!!

Blinding pain exploded through Marcus. He felt like his lungs collapsed for a heartbeat.

He fell to his knees, black-violet blood spilling from his mouth. His half-lidded eyes could barely see, his vision melting into oppressive darkness.

But despite everything… he slowly lifted his head.

His trembling right hand reached upward. He gathered what remained of his Eternal Energy, formed a simple seal, and with blood filling his mouth, said,

“S…so that’s it… then burn… all of you… with me…”

∆ Lightning Style: Lightning Hell ∆

Rumble ~

FWOOOOM!!

Savage violet sparks erupted from his body like writhing electric flames, twisting upward into the sky.

Then, in a blinding instant, they struck everything around him.

CRAAAAAAACK!!!

The violet lightning blazed across half the forest, swallowing the golem, Rames, and random soldiers from both sides. Even the ground split open with glowing cracks of energy.

Then the light faded… and everything collapsed into a dreadful silence.

“It seems… I wasn’t meant to live longer in this timeline anyway… not like I ever expected to,” Marcus thought, as the world dimmed.

“who knows ! , Maybe… I’ll open my eyes again…”

Marcus was still on his knees, head tilted to one side, eyes half-open and vacant… then at last, his body pitched forward and fell lifeless to the ground.