?To Michael’s great misfortune, using his Soultraits didn’t help him much. He was still unable to cut Selena.
In the first place, it was much harder to maintain the Curse Fusion and actively utilize his curse power, coursing it through his body while using the power of the Cursed Seals, the Serpent Seals, and the Major Seals while also properly utilizing the batch of his Soultraits.
Michael spent much more time than intended in learning to combine all his powers and abilities to increase his combat prowess. Unfortunately, Selena wasn’t nice enough to spare him. If anything, the Nest Leader intensified her training, just as promised. That was both a great misfortune for his body since Selene didn’t hold back, breaking his bones and tearing parts of his body part, and a great fortune because he was forced to give his utmost at all times.
Michael learned that River of Vigor could regenerate missing body parts. The process was a little slower than Archangel’s Grace, but that was mainly because Michael hadn’t created a Soul Technique for River of Vigor yet. Once he created a customized Soul Technique for River of Vigor, it would regenerate lost limbs and other missing body parts as fast as ordinary wounds. After all, River of Vigor was stronger than Archangel’s Grace.
Forced to give his utmost at all times, Michael improved rapidly. It was the last day of the sixth week since they entered the rift when Selena stopped the battle mid-way. Her head flicked to the left into the emptiness, and a deep scowl spread all over her face.
“It’s good that your brother will be done soon. We will have to leave soon,” She declared, her voice far more serious than usual.
Michael had many questions, but her expression told him the Nest Leader wouldn’t give him any.
Thus, Michael was drawn to the disgusting black pond instead of asking questions. Even though he didn’t like to think about it that way, the Spring of Abundant Life looked even more disgusting than now.
After absorbing a tremendous amount of lifeforce, nutrients, energy, and other things Michael had yet to identify, the Living Soul started forming its vessel.
It was logical, but the vessel had to be constructed from scratch.
That meant the Living Soul created its own energy paths, which wiggled around aimlessly in the black viscous pond, veins that acted similarly, muscles, and threads of flesh.
The network of those wiggling ‘threads’ was far from appetizing. It looked disgusting, to be precise. However, the sound the Living Soul made while growing bones was even more trauma-inducing.
Michael loved his brother more than anything, and he had to acknowledge that it was fairly impressive seeing how easily the Living Soul created a body from scratch, but it was also incredibly disgusting.
The network of energy paths intertwined with the wildly wiggling veins, all while the flesh clung and twisted around the slowly forming bones. Despite being disgusted, the sight unfolding in the Spring of Abundant Life was too impressive to ignore. Michael watched as his brother’s frame built, how the network of energy paths, veins, and muscles connected to the flesh formed around the bones, and how his organs started to form.
“I’m not sure if I should call you a creep for observing your brother’s vessel with such intensity or if you’re just a weirdo,” Selena said all of a sudden, “But then again, being a creep is just a few leagues above being a weirdo. Let’s just hope that you don’t get any worse.”
She shuddered, which earned a deep frown from Michael. At last, Selena winked at him and burst into a bright laughter.
“You’re just too cute~” The Nest Leader exclaimed, “Sweetheart, you should learn to relax a little. Watching you grow stronger this fast is nice, but you are no fun. Like, at all. How about you learn to have some fun instead of worrying about everything and everyone? I can already tell that you are worried about your brother’s vessel and that you are thinking about the Tritan Alliance again.”
She shook her head.
“But you tend to forget that your brother and the Tritan Alliance are responsible for their future. You cannot play nanny for everyone all their lives,” Selena explained, a touch of seriousness in her voice, “Your brother will be fine. He will have to learn how to depend on himself. If he continues relying on you, he will die again. And that is certainly not something you want, right?”
Michae didn’t quite agree with everything Selena said but knew better to remain silent.
“Don’t focus on your brother too much. He requires some more time to finish his vessel. I want to see a little bit more of your power before your brother comes back to life,” Selena said, cracking her knuckles as she charged Michael.
Michael’s eyes turned crimson. He used Swallow Domain to devour a portion of the curse power permeating the air. Instead of transforming the curse power into anything else, Michael absorbed everything to manifest the serpent tail, create a thick, seamlessly connecting scale armor, and transform his eyes and hands.
He unleashed Foundation Break and Heavenly Beast Physique and added several Soul Tears to all of his Soultraits. Michael then unleashed Enhancement on Sacred Constitution, the scale armor, and Spirit Eyes.
Qi shrouded his claws and the serpent tail, which received a large spiked cube at its tip to elevate the damage it could cause to another level.
Michael charged ahead but used Cosmic Stride dozens of times in quick succession to change his position rapidly. He moved left and right and appeared behind the Nest Leader, only to vanish and reappear above her.
His combat prowess skyrocketed as he let his instincts take over. A thick hue of Extraction shrouded Michael, and it expanded further as Michael infused curse power into True Extraction. He devoured more and more curse power from the surroundings using Swallow Domain and the Extraction Aura and infused the curse power right back into Extraction, which dazzled brighter than ever as Michael executed his attack.
He slashed Selena, who raised her arm to block the attack. Selena’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits when the attack reached her. Michael’s razor-sharp claws were about to reach her arm when a wave of curse might burst forth from her.
Michael was flung through the air the instance the wave of curse power reached him. He reacted instinctively and used Cosmic Stride to change his positioning, but he was too late. Selena’s curse power struck him hard, nearly knocking him out instantly. He appeared before her, evading the worst damage from the Nest Leader’s curse power, but it stung nonetheless.
“Your curse power is a nuisance. That poison is really strong,” Michael groaned in pain, his legs giving in as Selena’s curse power spread through his body.
He had to use the Wolf Curse’s Essence alongside Extraction and the World Serpent’s Swallow Domain to extract and devour the Nest Leader’s curse power. Simultaneously, he used Permute to transform the devoured curse might into healing serum, which was something Michael learned to do after he’d used the healing serum so often that he understood its components better than anyone else – obviously.
His healing serum was drained swiftly to stop the poisonous jinx might from spreading, but it wasn’t strong enough. Michael had to use ten layers of Enhancement on River of Vigor actively while continuously replenishing his rapidly-
drained healing serum utilizing Permute.
“Fuck,” Michael heard Selena curse, but he couldn’t focus on the Nest Leader. He was too busy spending the next half an hour trying to expel and devour the Nest Leader’s poisonous jinx power.
At last, Michael slumped to the ground, his chest heaving up and down heavily.
“I hate you,” He grumbled as Selena leaned over to check on him.
She stuck her tongue out and smiled at him.
“Oopsie~”