Chapter 220: Self Preservation…?

I twisted midair the instant the air itself shuddered around me.

My eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. Not now. Not while I was free-falling—there was no way that was just a hallucination.

FWOOSH!

I jerked my body aside—and a split second later, something slammed through the space I’d just been in, the shockwave blasting me farther off-course.

But—!

[Endless Fang]

I drove my sword down, steel biting into it, using the lodged blade as leverage. I kept falling, gravity dragging me, but now the sword scraped along its body, bleeding off speed and giving me something solid to balance on.

“Come on!”

[Capturing Spirit… 14%]

I had no idea what the capture range was—and this was not the time to find out. Being this close was suicide, but if it made the percentage climb, then I’d get as close as it wanted me to.

“Watch out!”

Julius blinked into existence in front of me, greatsword of light flashing as he cleaved through another invisible mass lunging for my throat.

“Just focus on defending me!”

I forced my thoughts to sharpen, commanding the serpent to stop pulling and finally strike. Its long, shadowy body whipped around in a tight U-turn, fangs bared as it lunged and sank its teeth into the air where a head-shaped distortion writhed.

“Good!”

[Spirit Weakened]

[Speed Increased]

[Capturing Spirit… 46%]

“Julius! Hit it with everything you’ve got!”

I shouted, driving the serpent on. This time, I ordered it not to let go—its jaws stayed clamped down as its body coiled and wrapped tighter and tighter around the hydra.

If weakening it meant speeding this up—

Then we’d tear it down as much as it took!

[Black Sun]

[Umbral Cataclysm]

[Requiem]

[Shadow Parade]

[Endless Fang]

My eyes rolled back as I hurled spell after spell, fingers aching, mana burning. Formulas flashed through my head faster than I could count, my thoughts fraying at the edges.

Some casts landed clean, most went wild—but I didn’t care. Precision was a luxury. All I needed now was raw, overwhelming destruction, and Julius clearly had the same idea, just with a bit more restraint.

Dozens of [Light Judgement] speared down from above, ripping the clouds apart and turning the sky white-hot as he held the line in front of me, guarding me like his life depended on it—because right now, it did.

But it looked like we’d barely even scratched it—the [Capture] meter wasn’t speeding up at all.

Only the serpent’s attacks were doing real damage, and even that wasn’t enough.

Waiting it out sounded nice in theory.

In reality, the two of us didn’t have the strength left to drag this out.

And the hydra clearly knew it.

BOOM!

A section of my serpent’s body burst apart, shadow and scales exploding into the air.

The coils that had been holding the hydra down started to loosen, the serpent straining just to keep it restrained.

Oh, fuck it.

“Julius! Back away!” I yelled.

“What? Why—?”

“Just get away!”

[Light Transfer]

Self-preservation is outdated anyway.

[Thousandfold Dark Ascent]

[Black Threnody]

[Echo]

My vision went dark the moment the first spell took hold. The shadows across the entire street twisted, then surged outward in all directions—like millions of needle-thin blades carving everything they touched.

The second spell wasn’t any kinder. The darkness folded into a star, then a hexagram, then a jagged dodecagram, each shape collapsing into the next as the magic howled.

If anything had been alive here before, it wasn’t anymore.

For the next minute, this place wasn’t going to be livable.

It was going to be a death zone.

The world broke.

Not cracked. Not shattered.

Broke.

The street vanished under a storm of black.

Buildings didn’t just collapse; they were peeled apart, layers of stone and steel shaved into ribbons as the wave of shadows rolled through them. Windows burst outward in glittering sprays, only to be swallowed and ground to nothing before the shards could fall.

The asphalt beneath me split like brittle glass, jagged trenches tearing open as darkness speared down into the earth.

And at the center of it all—

The False Hydra finally showed itself.

Its body flickered hard, like the world was trying to spit it out. Huge, pale distortions snapped in and out of existence, too long, bent at angles that shouldn’t exist. Every time one of my shadow constructs hit it, something gave.

Chunks of nothing tore loose.

And where those pieces vanished—

The air screamed.

A wet, ripping noise followed, like something essential was being torn out of the world.

“SCREEEEEE—!”

The sound didn’t come from a mouth.

It came from everywhere at once.

The serpent didn’t escape the blast.

It couldn’t.

Half its coiled body disintegrated under my own spell, shadow scales shredding into loose fragments before dragging themselves back together, only to be ripped apart again a heartbeat later.

Its jaws, still locked down, cracked.

I felt it through the link—felt the strain as something in its construct gave way. The bite held, but the pressure slipped for just a second.

A second the Hydra stole.

BOOOOM!

One of its unseen limbs smashed sideways through the serpent’s midsection, and this time it didn’t just rupture—

It erased it.

The whole segment blew apart, the serpent’s form coming undone as the coils unraveled, its massive body flickering like a guttering flame.

Still—

It refused to let go.

Even as half its body ceased to exist, the remaining coils cinched down, digging in, pinning the Hydra like a dying beast that refused to release its prey.

And me?

I paid for every second.

My spells didn’t just burn my mental state—they chewed through me.

Blood poured from my nose, then my ears, hot against the cold rain that still hadn’t finished evaporating from the earlier blast. My vision fractured, double, triple, the world stuttering like broken film.

My arms felt… wrong.

Too light.

Too far away.

When I tried to tighten my grip on [Endless Fang], my fingers lagged. Just a fraction of a second—but it was there.

Bad.

Really bad.

“Agh—!”

My body spasmed midair as backlash ripped through my nerves. It felt like something was gnawing on my spine from the inside, each pulse of magic grinding deeper.

Still—

I didn’t stop.

I couldn’t.

[Capturing Spirit… 78%]

I was almost… there!

My fingers tightened—

Wait…

Huh?

No.

They didn’t.

I looked above me, and to my surprise…

My hand was gone—severed clean from my arm—as I tumbled through the air, plummeting toward my death.

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