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***
"Now let's see what I got from this mummy bastard," Daniel muttered, rubbing his hands together, excitement flickering in his eyes. The sword of death was really great, he wondered what he would get for this recovery.
The system's interface shimmered faintly in his vision as the orb—Imhotep's soul—rose slowly from the corpse below, wrapped in thin threads of pale-gold energy. It drifted toward him like a divine offering.
[Recovering the fragment…]
Daniel grinned.
But then—
The orb shuddered.
A harsh static crackle tore through the air. The golden threads jerked violently, distorting like a corrupted image on a broken screen. The fragment glitched, stuttered, then halted midair as if caught in an invisible snare.
"What now…?" Daniel whispered.
The space around the orb twisted—warped, folding in on itself as though reality were being bent by something it did NOT want to obey.
Then a sound like tearing silk—
CRRRAAACK.
A fissure split the air, thin at first… then widening, peeling open like the world's fabric was being clawed apart from the other side.
Out of that impossible crack emerged a hand.
Black. Skeletal. Wrong in every imaginable way. The fingers moved with stiff, deliberate precision as it reached out and clamped around the golden orb.
Daniel froze.
'What the fuck?!'
He whipped his head around, expecting O'Connell or Evelyn—or hell, even Jonathan—to scream, run, react, anything.
Nothing.
Not a single one of them flinched.
They didn't see the crack.
They didn't see the hand.
It was like the scene existed in a layer of reality only he could access.
Daniel's heartbeat hammered in his throat.
'What the hell is that thing… and why am I the only one seeing it?'
The hand tightened its grip around the soul fragment, and the once-brilliant orb dimmed sharply, flickering like a dying star. Daniel felt it—an instinctive, primal certainty slamming into his chest.
Whatever had crawled out of that rift wasn't just stronger than him.
It was stronger than everything in this entire chamber.
And it wanted Imhotep's soul with a hunger that felt… ancient.
For the briefest sliver of a moment, something in the void shifted—turning toward him.
It wasn't a gaze.
It wasn't even eyes.
It was attention.
Cold. Vast. Predatory.
The kind of thing an abyss might grant to a fly foolish enough to land near its mouth.
Daniel's breath hitched.
Then—
BOOOOM.
Blue lightning erupted from the soul fragment in a violent burst, raw and divine, like a celestial storm detonating at arm's length.
The crackling energy tore through the chamber, illuminating every corner in blinding sapphire light.
The black skeletal hand convulsed.
It screamed without sound—its outline fracturing, breaking apart into ribbons of smoke and ash as the lightning shredded it into nonexistence.
In an instant, the thing was yanked backward, dragged into its collapsing rift like a beast being ripped off its prey.
The tear snapped shut with a wet, bone-deep CRACK.
The orb—now free—shot forward like a meteor and slammed into Daniel's chest, sinking beneath his skin in a burst of heat.
[Recovery Complete]
Daniel staggered back, clutching his chest as adrenaline surged through him in a painful wave.
'Forget the recovery—what the hell was that thing?! Why did it fight you, System?!'
Silence.
A hollow, suffocating silence.
'System?! Hey—hello?!'
Nothing answered. No text. No chime. No reassuring tone.
Just the echo of his own heartbeat and the faint static of fading power.
He swallowed hard.
Whatever that thing was… it had desperately wanted Imhotep's soul.
But it didn't stand a chance—not against his system.
He was still turning over the image of that black hand in his mind when the system notification flashed into view, shoving the unsettling question to the back of his thoughts.
[You have gained Unique Energy: Blood Energy (Intermediate)]
[Description: A rare, volatile energy that can manifest in numerous forms—highly destructive, terrifyingly lethal. The greater the user's vitality, the more catastrophic its potential.]
[Note: With your current Vitality, you possess enough destructive force to annihilate a town.]
Daniel blinked.
Then blinked again.
"…Wow."
A slow, disbelieving grin spread across his face as the information settled in. He could feel the new power—pulsing beneath his skin, running through his veins like liquid fire, coiling with the promise of violence and overwhelming strength.
'This… this is insane. A major power-up doesn't even begin to cover it.'
Moments ago, he'd been "just" a very strong human with a system cheat. Dangerous, sure, but still grounded in the physical. Still mortal.
Now?
Now he was standing on the threshold of something entirely different.
A walking natural disaster—an entity capable of leveling a town if he simply pushed hard enough.
He exhaled slowly, heart pounding with a cocktail of excitement and disbelief.
His power had jumped from impressive to monstrous…
And this was only Intermediate?
Daniel couldn't help it—he laughed under his breath, energized and a little exhilarated.
'Yeah… this is the kind of upgrade I've been waiting for.'