"Closing my eyes won't make any difference."
Aeris's voice trembled as the truth sank in. Slowly, he opened his glowing purple eyes. The first thing he saw was Yuki's bare body lying helplessly before him. His chest tightened, but before hesitation could claim him, he tore a strip of cloth from Yuki's clothes and bound it swiftly across her chest, covering her breasts. He used her cloth to complete cover her b**bs.
Her waist and stomach were still exposed, vulnerable beneath the cold air, but at least she was no longer completely naked. Aeris worked with such speed and desperation that Yuki's unconscious body shifted slightly upward, almost as though she had bounced in the air.
"I have to get her out of here. I don't even know if there's a hospital nearby. If only I could fly…"
Clutching her tightly against his chest, Aeris vanished from the spot.
The world blurred into nothing but streaks of shadow and color. The earth beneath his feet did not resist, did not even make a sound. No dust rose, no echoes followed. His movements no longer belonged to a human being.
"Whosever power this is… it's unbelievable."
He surged forward, faster than the eye could follow, yet his breathing remained calm and steady. His senses guided him through the storm of speed. His feet barely touched the ground, and yet not a speck of dirt stirred. Not even a whisper of sound marked his passage.
"It feels like I'm flying. My speed… I must be as fast as a bullet train or maybe more."
As he focused, an eerie awareness spread through him. A three-hundred-sixty-degree vision bloomed inside his mind, as though the world itself had been redrawn in his thoughts. Within a hundred meters, everything appeared crisp and exact. Beyond that, his vision stretched into hundreds more, a hazy image like an infrared sketch, blurred but still detailed enough to guide him. It was also like infrared vision.
"I can sense forests… rivers… even villages far away. My range might extend even further if I push it."
Within a blink, Aeris crossed into another village. He skidded to a halt at its edge, holding Yuki firmly in his arms.
But something was wrong.
Panic filled the air. People screamed and scattered in all directions, faces twisted with raw terror. The sound of countless footsteps pounded against the ground as villagers ran wildly, crashing into each other, falling, crying.
"What's happening here?" Aeris muttered, his brows furrowed.
His gaze fixed on a small girl trembling near a crumbling wall. Her tiny body shook violently, tears streaming down her cheeks as she wailed uncontrollably.
And it wasn't just her. Every villager's face carried the same dreadful fear. Some collapsed mid-run, tripping over their own feet. The girl stumbled too, crashing onto the dirt, her sobs breaking into shallow gasps.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Aeris blurred forward, appearing at her side. He gently placed Yuki down on the ground before kneeling beside the girl. He brought his hand close to her nose, searching for the faint touch of breath.
At first, he felt it—weak, fragile. But within seconds, her chest stilled. The rhythm ended.
Aeris's hand jerked back, his eyes widening in horror.
"Why… why does it feel like her breath stopped because of me when I put my hand over her face?"
Before he could think, more villagers collapsed. One by one, bodies fell to the ground. Screams died. Cries faded. Life was being extinguished all around him in terrifying silence.
A strange dread gripped Aeris's chest.
Then it began.
From his own body, wisps of purple aura erupted like steam, curling violently into the air. It spread outward in suffocating waves, unnatural and overwhelming.
Aeris clutched his head, falling to his knees as agony tore through his skull.
"My mind… it's splitting apart! The pain—it's unbearable!"
His scream echoed through the dying village.
"Aaaaaaaahhh!"
Darkness consumed his vision. His consciousness drowned in black.
And then—memories.
Not his own.
Thousands of lives, thousands of faces. Joy, sorrow, betrayal, kindness, love, fear—every fragment crashed into him at once, like a storm flooding through a shattered gate.
His body convulsed, writhing on the ground as though every nerve had caught fire. Purple aura poured endlessly from his skin, drowning the entire environment in its purple presence.
It was madness.
It was as though thousands of terabytes of memories were being forced into a fragile machine far beyond its limit.
But Aeris was not ordinary.
When he had accidentally slain the curseuman, the hidden ability within him had awakened: Eternal Absorb.
A gift born of neutrality, its purpose was absolute devouring. It consumed everything—not just flesh, but strength, abilities, memories, and even the very core of existence.
From that dying curseuman, Orcid, Aeris had taken everything.
Though Orcid had not matched Yuki's A-rank physical skills, his raw power had been monstrous. His speed, his hardened body, his terrifying senses—all had now become Aeris's.
At first, the absorption had only transformed his body. But now, with his cursed presence spilling unchecked, the villagers around him could not endure. Their fear destroyed them from within, their life force drained in an instant.
And Eternal Absorb acted again.
Their souls, their memories, their every breath were pulled into Aeris.
Bodies withered into dust within moments, crumbling into the soil.
Aeris howled as thousands of lives forced themselves into his mind. He felt everything—their joys, their betrayals, their despair. He knew what it meant to be rich, poor, young, old, man, woman. He had lived decades of existence in mere moments.
It was too much. Too many voices. Too many souls. His thoughts blurred into chaos.
Yet through the storm, one consciousness remained steady—his own.
The purple aura began to fade. His body stilled, no longer convulsing.
Gasping for breath, Aeris lowered his trembling hands from his head. His eyes snapped open, still glowing purple, yet sharper, deeper, as though holding galaxies of experience.
His body was different again. Taller, broader. Perhaps a few more centimeters added—standing nearly one hundred ninety-five now. His physique refined, sleek yet muscular, handsome yet intimidating. His youthful face still glowed with vitality, but beneath it lay an impossible weight—the maturity of countless lives.
He sat up slowly, staring at his hands.
"Why… why do I know everything? About these villagers… about that curseuman?"
Within him, thousands of personalities screamed, whispered, cried—but his core self ruled them all. Every memory was his. He had lived through countless perspectives.
In a single moment, he had become the one with the most knowledge on this planet as an individual. He only had raw memories, not something pretty important. So it's hard st say that he is all-knowing.
"It's like I've lived thousands of years in a single breath," he whispered.
His aura, once wild, now coiled silently under his command. But the cost was clear. The cursed presence remained—and he could feel it pressing on Yuki as well.
"My cursed presence… it's hurting her too. I can't leave her here. I have to take her beyond this place. To the city behind of Baston city where the battle is ongoing."
His voice was calm and cold.
"There's no use crying for them."
He turned to Yuki's unconscious form. Without hesitation, he lifted her into his arms again. His steps carried no doubt, no fear.
Wind howled as he vanished, leaving behind only silence… and the ashes of thousands of lives.
He was no longer a human, not even a soul in knowledge. He knew that crying doesn't do anything, birth and death is same.
But even I can't say that if he is still stupid or not!