The Foul Hound moved first.
It lunged forward and the ground exploded.
Bone spears erupted from the floor in a violent wave, stabbing upward toward Adam.
Adam moved instantly.
Every spear missed him by inches as he closed the distance between them.
Then their eyes t.
Adam’s sharp gaze.
The empty sockets of the hound’s skull.
And the next mont...
They clashed.
Adam swung the lion fang.
The Foul Hound answered with a clawed strike.
CLANG.
Bone and fang collided.
The impact echoed through the endless void of Adam’s soul.
They moved again.
Faster.
Adam ducked beneath a sweeping claw.
The hound’s bones twisted, launching sharp fragnts like arrows.
Adam’s fang flashed.
Wind and Death affinity coated the blade as he struck.
The hound countered with bone projectiles, deflecting the attack.
Their battle turned into a storm of motion.
Every collision shook the space around them.
But as the fight continued...
Adam began to notice sothing.
The force behind every blow.
The pressure in each collision.
The way power gathered right before impact.
...Force.
Understanding flickered in Adam’s mind.
This was the nature of the Force affinity.
Because of Chaos, Adam had once been able to adapt Felicia’s primary affinity.
Force.
But unlike Death, he had never learned a proper martial technique for it.
And technically...
He could have.
Force wasn’t as rare as death.
Felicia herself possessed a Force-based martial technique.
But Adam had deliberately chosen not to learn it.
Because mastering an ordinary technique wouldn’t actually make him stronger.
Unless it was a higher-grade technique, the gain in power would be nothing.
And with how precious Existence was, spending it on diocre techniques would be a waste.
So Adam had ignored it.
There was nothing a technique could give him.
However that didn’t make the affinity useless because there was sothing only a primary affinity could provide.
Adam’s eyes sharpened.
Aura.
****
Aura could only be awakened when a martial artist truly understood their primary affinity.
So achieved it through years of ditation.
Others through relentless training.
And so, through battle.
Right now, Adam was beginning to understand Force.
Every clash with the Foul Hound revealed sothing new.
His strikes were getting heavier.
Because Force itself was simple.
Acceleration and Mass.
Those were the elents behind it.
Normally, increasing force ant increasing one of those components.
But Adam didn’t do that.
He didn’t move faster.
He didn’t grow heavier.
Instead—
He increased the Force itself.
Why strengthen the pieces...
When he could strengthen the whole?
The logic broke every rule of physics.
But Adam didn’t care.
Because it was working.
Their weapons clashed again.
CRACK.
A fracture spread across the Foul Hound’s bone claw.
Adam’s eyes sharpened.
He struck again.
CRACK.
More fractures.
Then...
BREAK.
The bone shattered.
At that mont, sothing changed.
The lion fang in Adam’s hand was already coated in the dark aura of Death.
But now another aura began to erge.
A deep reddish glow spread across the blade.
The unmistakable Aura of Force.
Adam moved.
The fang blurred through the air.
Bone spears shattered before they even reached him.
Bone projectiles exploded the mont they touched his blade.
The Foul Hound began retreating.
Step by step.
Clash after clash.
Adam pushed forward relentlessly.
Then he closed the distance.
The empty sockets of the hound’s skull stared at him.
For a brief mont...
Sothing flickered inside them.
Emotion.
But Adam didn’t notice.
His mind had already narrowed to a single point.
Force.
Understand it.
Control it.
Execute it.
His blade moved.
Once.
Twice.
Ten tis.
A storm of slashes tore through the Foul Hound.
Then the phantom collapsed and silence returned to the void.
But this wasn’t over yet.
One phantom still remained.
The one that hadn’t moved since the beginning.
The Mind Geist.
Adam turned toward it.
The creature stood motionless.
Completely still.
Watching nothing.
As Adam approached, he quickly understood why.
The Mind Geist had been an experintal monster.
Its soul had never been stable.
Even when alive.
After its death - after Adam equipped its talent - the phantom it left behind simply wasn’t strong enough to mimic life.
So it stood there.
Empty.
Adam didn’t mind.
In fact...
He preferred it that way.
He stopped a few steps away from the unmoving phantom before ending it as well.
Then two lights suddenly appeared in front of him.
Adam frowned at the two floating lights.
"What’s this?"
Before he could investigate further, the entity appeared beside him.
Adam glanced sideways at it.
"You’re really good at hiding."
The entity shrugged lazily.
"It’s not that wants to leave."
Adam didn’t respond.
The entity tilted its head slightly.
"You can feel your talents again, right?"
Adam blinked.
He hadn’t actually checked.
Without hesitation, he activated one.
"Rapid Charge."
Lightning exploded across his body.
But sothing strange happened.
Two phantoms appeared.
The Rapid Hare.
And the River Lion.
They ford silently behind him as the lightning crackled around his body.
But unlike before, they didn’t attack.
They simply stood there.
Watching.
Adam frowned and deactivated the talent.
The lightning vanished.
And the two phantoms faded away with it.
Adam looked back at the entity.
"That’s new."
The entity waved a hand dismissively.
"That’s what normally happens when you activate your talents. Nothing major."
Adam narrowed his eyes slightly.
"...Is that so."
He didn’t fully believe it.
But for now, he pushed the thought aside.
Instead, he turned his attention back to the two lights floating in front of him.
"So what about these?"
The entity answered imdiately.
"The one on the right is the exit."
Adam nodded.
Then he looked at the other light.
"What about this one?"
The entity smiled faintly.
"That one is for the regressor girl’s Soul."
Adam’s eyes narrowed.
"...What do you an?"
*****
Inside Redy’s house.
Henry and the three suited n had finished reviewing the docunts.
One by one, they signed.
The deal was done.
Henry had secured the partnership.
After escorting the n out of the house,
Henry returned inside with a huge grin on his face.
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