Within moments, the ground was blanketed with the bodies of the assassins, unable to withstand the new power Lloyd had awakened.
Swoosh—! Bang—!
With every movement, every strike, Lloyd felt something different flowing within him. His mind was working with unholy speed. Every decision he made was calculated with chilling precision. Even in the heat of battle, his thoughts were orderly and methodical, as if he had entered a state of perfect mental clarity.
[Innate Trait Activated: The Rational Savage!]
That voice he had heard moments ago was now a part of his consciousness. The innate trait awakened upon his sixteenth birthday was not just a physical transformation, but a mental one as well. It was a fusion of monstrous power and cold, logical reason. This wasn't mindless rage or undisciplined strength. It was a trait that granted him the ability to be a calculated killer, capable of thinking and analyzing in the crucible of combat.
"We were deceived…" the leader said, his voice trembling as he stumbled backward. "He didn't just trick us into thinking he was level zero… he's already in the middle of his second awakening!"
Lloyd advanced with steady steps toward the leader, his crimson eyes gleaming with a coldness devoid of any emotion, as if he had completely detached from his humanity.
The leader trembled before him, unable to speak or move. The aura surrounding Lloyd was nightmarish, clinging to him like a weapon in itself. In that moment, the leader no longer saw a boy, but a monster made flesh.
A cold smile touched Lloyd's lips. "I've grown tired of this damned game," he said quietly. "This time, I'll destroy this world of yours as it deserves."
Swoosh—!
In an instant, Lloyd shot forward like a bolt of lightning, his hand gripping the sword as if it were an extension of his arm, aimed for the killing blow.
Shing—! Clink—!
The sword split the leader's chest in a single, fluid motion, so fast that he didn't even have time to register the pain. He collapsed to the ground, his eyes frozen in absolute terror as blood poured from his body.
[You have killed a Second Transcendence—Level 79!]
[Absorbing the essence of the deceased creature…]
[You have gained 179 Red Blood Points!]
And just like the others, the leader's corpse withered into a hollowed-out husk from the inside out.
After finishing him, Lloyd stood in the center of the battlefield, surrounded by bodies and blood. His mind was working with unprecedented focus, assessing everything around him with meticulous accuracy.
The "Rational Savage" trait had granted him superior mental clarity, but at the same time, he began to feel something strange creeping into his body.
His heart was pounding at an unnatural rate, and his blood felt like it was boiling in his veins.
[System Alert: Forced Synchronization in progress!]
Before he could process what was happening, a sharp pain erupted from the depths of his mind. It echoed in his skull as if a thousand voices were screaming at once. A feeling of being torn apart from the inside washed over him, as if he were locked in a violent struggle with an invisible force trying to take control.
His crimson eyes began to lose their luster, and the mental clarity he had enjoyed moments ago vanished, leaving behind a chaotic mess of overlapping sounds and images.
[Synchronization Complete!]
With those words, Lloyd felt a tremendous power surge through him, but at the same time, he felt as if he were losing control of everything. His body was on fire, a horrifying pain coursing through every cell. His muscles spasmed, and his body coiled in on itself as if struck by lightning.
"Agh… what is this…?" Lloyd cried out in agony, feeling as if he were about to explode from within. It felt like something was trying to break away from his very being, as if his power had surpassed its physical and mental limits.
An invisible energy blasted out from his body, a massive wave of power rippling through the air and sending violent shockwaves in every direction. The ground beneath his feet shook, and rocks shattered around him from the force of this uncontrolled power.
The aura that had enveloped him since the beginning of his transformation became unbearable. The very air seemed to crack under the pressure of the chaotic energy.
The few remaining assassins, who had been frozen in terror by his transformation, were violently thrown through the air by the blast, instantly reduced to a bloody paste. Their bodies slammed against the ground and rocks, becoming lifeless heaps in an instant.
Despite his growing strength, Lloyd felt his body could no longer handle the energy.
"I… can't… damn it…" he muttered with difficulty, his hand trying to grip his sword to steady himself, but his body no longer responded. His legs began to give way, and his knees slowly buckled. The pain escalating inside him became unbearable, and he could feel his consciousness fading away.
His breathing grew shallow, his muscles twitching involuntarily. All he could hear was the System's voice, echoing intermittently in his mind, issuing warnings he could no longer comprehend.
[Warning: Energy has exceeded permissible limits!]
[Initiating Emergency Body Shutdown!]
As the torrent of energy still swirled around him, Lloyd felt his spirit sinking into a dark maelstrom, as if a part of him were being pulled away to some distant place beyond his awareness. He tried to cling to anything, any fragment of his old self, but he couldn't. Everything was fading fast, leaving a vast emptiness behind.
Inside his head, the jumbled voices grew louder, like angry spirits or screams from another world. Sometimes he would hear a faint call of his name, but he was unable to react.
'Is this… death?' Lloyd thought. He wanted to scream, to escape this horrific pain, but he didn't even have the strength for that.
Meanwhile, his body was undergoing unnatural changes. His convulsing muscles were twisting and re-forming, as if adapting to the energy that had flooded them. His old wounds began to heal at an astonishing rate; even the deep gash the leader had left was unnaturally knitting itself shut. New skin grew over it, covered in a pale white aura, like the shadow of the nightmare that had awakened within him.
With every beat of his heart, new energy leaked out, filling the air with a kind of chaos, as if the earth and sky were responding to his internal transformation. Yet, he felt that all this immense power was consuming him from the inside, like a ravenous beast that could never be satiated.
[Warning: Body state has become unstable!]
Despite the emergency shutdown, the dark energy continued to seep out, fighting to find a way loose. Lloyd felt like a volcano on the verge of erupting.
A faint groan escaped his lips before he collapsed, crashing to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut. His sword slipped from his fingers, stabbing into the earth beside him.
His consciousness could no longer follow what was happening.
All that remained was darkness.