For a Champion, Silvana was quite fast. Her blood-condensed blade swept through the air and scraped against Scalemore.

  She frowned, her eyes trained on the scratch, and screamed aloud. Her second attack struck, and the blade pierced through Scalemore. As surprising as it was, David expected something to happen. However, he hadn’t expected Silvana to convert lifeforce into power. Her strength, speed, and the sharpness of her blood blade skyrocketed in exchange for a sacrifice of lifeforce.

  Yet, as she sacrificed a trace of the ocean of lifeforce she had accumulated, David caught her recovering the lifeforce she’d given up a moment earlier. The thousands of threads connected to her rippled and infused Silvana with more lifeforce than before. David cast [Healing Sphere] on himself to heal the scratch her second attack inflicted and triggered Cycle’s Embrace. The Arcana activated and drained a fraction of her lifeforce, which recovered almost instantaneously.

  Silvana accelerated once again and executed a rapid series of thrusts and slashes. David blocked some with a crimson barrier he conjured at will, and evaded others, but he granted her a few hits. They healed rapidly, with [Mender’s Lattice], [Healing Sphere], and his natural regeneration working together to ensure his well-being. As he healed, Silvana’s lifeforce was drained, consumed by Cycle’s Embrace, which resulted in more frantic actions.

  Silvana coated her body in blood, treating it like a second layer of protection, but it wasn’t even like David was trying to attack her. Instead of protecting Silvana, the armor of blood enhanced her physical prowess. She was faster than before, her sword glowing vibrantly, as she struck him. David sensed something was wrong with her attack; he caught a faintly familiar property within the blood blade and stepped aside. However, he was too late and failed to use Passage to escape safely. The blade nicked the back of his hand, which started to bleed. Slowly at first, but faster than should have been possible after a few seconds.

  “Have fun dying,” she roared, her lips parted to utter Words of Power. Some Words of Power sounded familiar, but he could not recall what they meant. However, he noticed how they affected him. The wound on the back of his hand expanded and bled more severely when the healing power of [Healing Sphere] and [Mender’s Lattice] reached it.

  “That is new.” David tilted his head, using Passage to evade Silvana’s follow-up attack. She was fast, almost as fast as William had been, but she burned through her lifeforce as if she had an infinite reservoir, then turned to charge at him.

  David didn’t mind her antics much and cast [Transcendent Restoration] to heal the wound, which had been torn apart. It spread from his thumb to his pinky and tore through skin, flesh, veins, and bone. The latter was more than a little surprising. Even William struggled more when his claws cut through David’s bones, yet Silvana’s insignificant nick was enough to demolish him like that?

  David sighed, conjured a blade of condensed blood and Rend, and severed his hand completely before casting [Transcendent Restoration]. His hand was regrowing at a visible pace starting from his bones, and it looked like Silvana hadn’t expected that much.

  “Are you done?” he asked, teleporting behind her. “Because I think I am.”

  Deryadus’ Arm rippled and shot forward, with [Origin Lightning] and [Herald’s Blessing] activating at full power. His palm smashed into the back of Silvana’s head, and his fingers latched onto the thin blood membrane covering her head. The fingers of his Ancient Relic arm expanded and carved through the protective blood membrane, ripping through it with brute force as well as the support of pristine-white lightning currents.

  An arc of blinding electricity surged through Deryadus’ Arm and toward Silvana, whose scream resounded through the Fallen Sanctuary. She tried to turn around in a desperate ordeal, but Deryadus’ Arm’s grip was iron-tight. The protective layer of blood covering her shifted and transformed into an armor covered in spikes. The spikes sprang free and burst toward David, who cast [Bloodbound Bastion] as well as [Crimson Bulwark], both empowered with [Herald’s Blessing] and overclocked when [Blood Manipulation] didn’t work.

  The spikes tore through the crimson shields, shattering them, but they cracked and crumbled to bloody droplets when they struck the blood armor.

  David uttered Words of Power, eyes narrowed to tiny slits as he willed upon the Law of Blood. [Blood Manipulation] was reactivated in the spur of the moment, and he unleashed a wave of daggers, forged from her own blood, upon Silvana.

  Her blood membrane dispersed, revealing a deathly pale woman, who looked anything but afraid. Words of Power rolled from her lips, but they were nothing like David’s. Silvana’s Words of Power manifested in crimson letters. They glowed vibrantly and stopped the wave of blood daggers in their way.

  David snarled and used a trace of Might to disperse the daggers as Silvana regained control of them. He didn’t want to stoop this low and use Might against someone who wasn’t even an Ascendant, but it looked like Silvana gained access to her very own source of Might. She was not an Ascendant and couldn’t hoard it, yet she somehow used Might through the lifeforce she had accumulated.

  Her reservoir of raw lifeforce was infused with Might. It augmented not only her attacks, but also the Words of Power that further enhanced her Intents as well as the Law of Blood.

  “I know your Master,” David shouted, unleashing a pristine lightning bolt at Silvana.

  She produced an aegis shield of crimson energy, fueled by her abundant lifeforce, and snarled back. “We have the same Master, don’t we?!”

  “Master? You really think I’m obeying someone like him? That is… funny. Well, no, actually it isn’t that funny.” David shook his head, using Passage to appear in the air above Silvana when she released a shockwave of blood and raw life force.

  He was not quite sure what Silvana did to the life force, but it was incredibly destructive. Rather than invigorating the life it touched, Silvana’s life force destroyed everything once infused with energy—with Blood. It was hard to sense her energy reservoir beneath the abundance of life force, but David was fairly certain he sensed a Source.

  She had the same energy reservoir as he did. She wielded the same energy, to a certain extent at least.

  David teleported beside her, cast [Archaic Shackles] to restrain her momentarily, then added [Phantom Rush] and [Herald’s Blessing] as he unsheathed Serpent Fang. His movements were fast and deliberate. Serpent Fang hummed in his grasp, and he applied [Lacerate], [Bleeding], [Origin Lightning], and Rend.

  Silvana must have sensed the danger ahead and burned through more life force than a hundred Silver Classers combined, but she was still unable to catch up with David. Serpent Fang flashed through the air. First, it tore through her abdomen, splitting her in two, but he wasn’t done yet. He twisted the blade and spun around his axis, drawing the massive claymore through her chest as well.

  Silvana’s body collapsed to the ground with three loud thuds, blood littering the Fallen Sanctuary’s center, yet David was far from declaring the battle over. But he did not attack. Instead, he waited and watched—both to see if Silvana could recover from such wounds with raw life force, and if someone else was as interested in her as he predicted.

  David waited impatiently, his eyes trained on Silvana’s body parts, the movements of her life force, and the Weave. The blood pooling beneath her stirred and coagulated, surging toward the severed parts of her body and connecting them with loose threading. The Weave moved, and more than ten thousand life threads rippled, providing Silvana with even more life force. She squirmed as the blood threading connected all body parts and pulled them together.

  Wet snaps of bones and the squish of flesh rubbing across flesh resounded, but David turned away from the regenerating body to focus on the threads of life connected to her.

  Maja is slower than expected. If she keeps going like that, I won’t be able to hurt Silvana again.

  Since Silvana used the life force of others, on top of the ocean of life she’d accumulated, those bound to her could only end up on the losing side. Whether David attacked and wounded Silvana, or Silvana used a mountain of life force to reach David’s prowess, didn’t particularly matter. In either case, the life force of those connected to her would be drained.

  The good news? A few thousand threads had already been severed. The bad news? Maja hadn’t even finished twenty percent.

  An audible gasp pulled David’s attention back to Silvana, who stared at him in a frenzy. He uttered a few Words of Power, amplifying Bloodlust, and intertwined the Intent with [Fearwrought].

  Silvana leaped to her feet once the last droplets of blood seeped back into her body, sealing the wounds. If not for the massive tears in her clothes, one wouldn’t even suspect she had been injured less than a minute prior. There was no blood, no wound, nothing. The most interesting, however, was her life force reservoir; it was still overflowing with more life force than most 1-Star Ascendants had. At least, the Goblin Ascendants he’d encountered didn’t have as much life force.

  “You started siphoning the life force of humans—or any kind of creature—since the start of the integration, didn’t you?” David asked lightly, while considering changing his strategy. The Law of Unbinding would definitely help here. However, it was still unclear if his buddy would like that. Then again, even if that crazy moron of a god disliked David’s actions… would it really affect him?

  Yes, it would. He reminded himself with a deep sigh. Dealing with a Minor God would probably be fine—at some point. However, making enemies with an Old One was probably not something he wanted to risk. Not if he could avoid it. Or, at the very least, he didn’t have to sever their connection and consume the Old One’s Might. Probably.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “What does it concern you, you crazy bastard!?” Silvana screamed at the top of her lungs. “If you want to kill me, do it! TRY ME!”

  Words of Power escaped her lips once more, but David silenced her with [Blood Burst], overclocked and amplified with Might, alongside an overclocked [Herald’s Blessing]. The projectile conjured instantaneously and hurtled through the air at a blinding speed. Even David was surprised by [Blood Burst]’s velocity. Then again, the projectile had cost him an entire droplet of pure Blood, as well as a trace of Might. It would have been more disappointing if it hadn’t been blindingly fast.

  The projectile whipped through the air and pierced her throat, leaving a beautiful gaping hole in her windpipe. Her vocal cords were crushed in the same instant, while [Blood Burst] erupted a moment later, silencing her completely. The Words of Power ceased, while her life force reservoir responded at once, pushing tidal waves of life force toward her throat, healing her.

  Silvana gasped for air the moment she’d recuperated enough to do so. She glared at David and conjured a blade in her hands, but he used the combination of Bloodlust and [Fearwrought] once again, instilling fear. Silvana shuddered, her concentration faltered, and the blood blade dispersed once again.

  “What do you want, you rotten, useless piece of a human being?!?” she hollered, despair creeping into her voice.

  David cocked an eyebrow at her. “I think I was fairly clear earlier. First, I told you to sever the threads connected to your prisoners in the settlements outside the Fallen Sanctuary. Then I told you to stop doing such nonsense. Third, I asked you if you’ve been doing this since the start of the integration, and you have yet to answer.”

  He wanted to know a lot more, but that was a good way to start.

  “I will not sever—wait, a moment! You… The Blood Sentinels in Anist and Chaesterbon were not killed by a monster stampede. You killed them… and my livestock!” Her eyes widened slightly. “You hypocrite! After killing thousands yourself, you want me to free the rest? You’re not better than I am, yet here you are, you fucking hypocritical asshole!”

  “I am a hypocrite,” David nodded, ignoring her jabs. “But I did not kill the prisoners. Calling them livestock is tacky and rude, not that I expected you to be upright or anything, but still.” He shrugged lightly. “I severed their connection with you. They’re still alive and well—just like the prisoners in two more settlements. Or did they reach the third settlement already?”

  He didn’t know, but it was not like it mattered. “Back to the topic. Answer my questions.”

  Silvana’s lips parted for a rebuttal, but David was tired of her nonsense. So was Electra, who was finally about to finish digesting William’s Divinity Fragment. The serpentine head of the Sacred Beast emerged from David’s chest, her massive eyes shimmering in a faint golden light as they locked onto the target.

  David felt a sudden shift in the Beast Core as well as the emergence of an Arcana… or was that an Intent? Regardless, Electra’s power surged out of the Sacred Beast, targeting Silvana, who froze in her tracks. Her clothes looked heavier than before, and their color was drained, replaced by dozens of grey tones; they turned to stone.

  “I still need her to answer some questions, Electra,” David said calmly, patting the Mythical Electra’s head. The Sacred Beast hissed in disapproval, but she returned to the Beast Core to finish digesting the Divinity Fragment.

  “I… I acquired [Siphon] when I advanced to the Bronze Rank.” Silvana shuddered, her eyes darting to her right hand. She focused on the pinky finger, which had turned to stone and wouldn’t heal no matter how much lifeforce sloshed through it.

  Tears welled in her eyes when she ripped the finger off, only for her natural regeneration to do nothing. It didn’t work, forcing Silvana to cut off the rest of her pinky until not even the slightest trace of Electra’s power remained. She heaved in relief when she recovered, yet that did little to change her apprehension of David and his powers.

  “M-Master fo-found and trained me. H-He nurtured me and helped me acquire [Blood Link]. T-Then he was angry. Not at me… at someone else. Someone betrayed him… or behaved differently than he wanted… and he focused more on me. I grew more powerful, and I became Master’s Prime Champion.”

  I didn’t ask for your background story, you braindead moron. David shook his head, but the things she said explained a lot.

  His gut twisted, and he felt like punching a few people—one god in particular.

  “Asmodeus is your Master?”

  That would make sense. First of all, Berghold mentioned earlier that the Fallen Sanctuary had been constructed with the help of a few gods as well as an Old One. That might very well be Asmodeus, the Ruler of Blood. Being the Champion of the Ruler of Blood would also explain how she acquired abilities like [Blood Manipulation], the Law of Blood—which David was certain she was using against him—and so forth.

  Her master sounded like a piece of work, which would also fit the Ruler of Blood.

  David remembered the Ruler of Blood as a slightly crazy god, but to think that Asmodeus was playing him was shocking. But was he, really? It was not like Asmodeus owed him anything. If anything, David owed him for traces of the Ruler’s Might, which—along with Bereth’s influence—modified the System. If not for their help, David wouldn’t have acquired Lifeweaver. Maybe he would have been given an even better Bronze Class by the System, but it was highly unlikely.

  “You do not have permission to call out his name!” Silvana shouted, releasing whips of condensed blood at David.

  He escaped some of them but failed to anticipate how much faster Silvana would get after sacrificing a chunk of her lifeforce reservoir. She sacrificed enough lifeforce to catch up with David and surpass him.

  Silvana was faster than David, and she used two abilities that further enhanced her physical strength. Her body—unable to keep up with the strain—burst apart. Her skin tore into shreds, and blood poured out of her. [Lifeweaver’s Bond] informed David all about the changes in her well-being, although it was relatively hard to tell what was going on. Her body was breaking down and healing nearly simultaneously. The changes were so rapid, not even [Lifeweaver’s Bond] updated quickly enough.

  All he could tell for sure was that Silvana used too much lifeforce. Her whips tore through David’s defenses. They shattered [Bloodbound Bastion] and penetrated [Crimson Bulwark] and Scalemore with some effort. Her wild and seemingly random whip lashes struck David’s arms, legs, and chest.

  Beads of sweat poured down Silvana’s temples, mixing with the blood drenching her. Yet, while her body was forced to keep up with constant strain no mortal body was supposed to endure, she smiled. Her smile was brilliant, filled to the brim with excitement, as she inflicted more and more wounds. Her whips transformed ever so slightly. The blood condensing the whips shifted at her will and formed blades that tore deeper into David’s flesh, cutting into him and slicing through Energy Pathways — but that was far from enough.

  A dozen [Healing Spheres] emerged all around David. They lodged onto him with brightly glowing tendrils of healing energy and provided him with the energy he needed to recover quickly. [Healing Spheres] and the passive effect of [Mender’s Lattice], as well as his natural regeneration, were enough to fix most issues — until Silvana went one step ahead and used abilities that resembled [Bleeding] and [Lacerate]. She tried to utter a few Words of Power again, but David interrupted her. Serpent Fang transformed into a flash and cleaved through her maw and the back of her skull, beheading her.

  Blood tendrils burst out of her maw and skull, keeping her body intact when she should have been beheaded, but the Words of Power fizzled out, leaving her no choice but to use her Intents and Laws without their help — if she was capable of that in the first place.

  David topped up his life with [Transcendent Restoration], and he pushed further when that wasn’t enough to prevent Silvana from stopping his wounds from regenerating. Instead of regenerating them, David used Vitae Nihilum to consume the wounds. He allowed Vitae to rip chunks of flesh out of his body, and he overclocked [Transcendent Restoration] as well as [Vital Weaving].

  Silvana must have noticed something — unless she didn’t. Looking at her, it was clear that she had lost most of her reasoning at some point. Was it because he called out Asmodeus? That was unlikely, but if Silvana was half as crazy and annoying as Asmodeus had been… it was a possibility.

  “This is really annoying. I really don’t want to do this, but you’re about to suck your prisoners dry,” David growled, using Passage to appear behind Silvana. Serpent Fang disappeared into the Beast Core for a moment — just long enough to snap Silvana’s neck. A moment later, the massive claymore manifested in his right hand. His eyes darted to the life threads connected to Silvana, and he sighed inwardly. Maja and Berghold were too slow.

  More than half of the threads had been removed, but that resulted in more extensive use of the remaining threads. They were abused and drained. David was fairly sure most prisoners with an intact life thread were on the verge of death. And that was exactly what he’d wanted to prevent.

  “You’re not listening, are you?” he asked as Silvana’s head snapped back in place. She growled like a mindless beast and attacked him with her lashes once again, but David was tired of it. He used Passage once more, easily escaping the bombardment of bladed whips, and conjured a dozen [Blood Burst], modified with Vitae. He coated the projectiles in Vitae Nihilum and released them at blinding speed. They struck the target neatly and exploded.

  The bladed whips were instantly destroyed, and David cast Passage again. He closed the distance to Silvana in an instant, words of power escaping his lips as he slashed the Champion, applying the Law of Unbinding to Rend.

  The claymore tore through Silvana’s chest, whereas the crescent-shaped blade of Rend ripped through her soul. It was cumbersome to avoid injuring her soul severely, but he did not pay too much attention to that either way. It was a favor for Asmodeus and not exactly of high importance. Severing the life threads, on the other hand, had been pushed to his highest priority now that it was impossible to talk to Silvana.

  The life threads faded from existence within seconds, and a deafening scream resounded. David stepped back and cast Passage when he noticed hundreds of eyes lingering on him, but nobody dared to attack. Many people, some fairly powerful for mortals, watched the fight, yet they all understood the difference in power. They were scared, which could not have been more apparent with bonds of Conflict shimmering and manifesting from all over the Fallen Sanctuary.

  Silvana healed rapidly, but her power was quickly waning. Clearly, she was used to wasting life force to overpower her enemies since she always had enough life force to use. That was still the case given her massive reservoir, but she no longer had the means to recover the life force she spent. She would have to rebuild everything from scratch to regain her full power, but that was going to be difficult.

  David appeared before Silvana — her body was still being fixed — his hand firmly pressed against her abdomen as he pushed a tidal wave of Vitae Nihilum into her. Silvana’s scream was muffled; her eyes widened in terror. She regained clarity before her legs caved in, and her muffled scream transformed into a desperate cry. Bloodlust and [Fearwrought] worked their way through her mental defenses, even if there was little to work through, while Vitae Nihilum tore through her body, consuming the abundance of life she had to share.

  “Do you want me to kill her, or is she important to you?” David asked, his attention flicking to the sky.

  He didn’t care about Silvana in the slightest, but he was certain her master didn’t think like that. It had been a little difficult to detect at first, but it was plainly obvious now that he was fighting against her.

  Silvana was Asmodeus’ Prime Champion, and she had the means to fight Ascendants. Asmodeus had trained her extensively, and he had been willing to invest heavily in her.

  “Answer me, or I will kill her!” he roared.

  And answer, he did.

  Read the rest of Apocalypse Healer on!

  Or check out the first volume published onOr if you're more of a listener, check out the (It's amazing!)

  If you've already read the first volume, check out the second volume on or(if you like audiobooks)