Eik had less than a moment to make up his mind and act. Oru was going for his friends, and while he had only just been able to keep himself alive throughout the battle thus far, he knew the three of them wouldn't fare so well.

He only spent long enough on the skill evolution message for Profound Toxin to comprehend what the text was saying.

[Skill evolution available. Skill available for evolution: (Unique) Profound Toxin]

[Choose one]

[Profound Toxin — Infected Trail]

[Profound Toxin — Profound Unity]

Well, Infected Trail he had considered before and dismissed in favor of every other choice thus far. It seemed likely that it would give him some kind of tracking ability that would allow him to know where victims infected with Profound Toxin were at all times within a certain distance.

That would be very valuable in certain situations. Having had a small, inert dose inside the oracle would have been a boon for the mission they had just carried out, to name one example.

But it wasn't what he needed to save them from an S-ranker.

Profound Unity didn't really reveal that much about its effects. 'Profound' referred to Profound Toxin. Duh. He wasn't an idiot all the time. But 'Unity' could mean to a host of effects.

But there was no time to ponder that right now. Unless he totally missed the mark, it would be better than Infected Trail regardless of what it turned out to be. And now was the time to take a chance. Because the alternative was failure and death.

He selected Profound Unity as quickly as he could and instantly felt something happen deep within his soul. In the far distance of his being.

It felt as if a metaphorical dam had been broken and cleared, suddenly allowing a raging river to flow and blasting its way through any obstacle to pave a new waterway.

Eik's spirit itself appeared to function as another dam, the crash of otherworldly power seemingly waiting impatiently just out of reach for the moment he called on it. And call he did.

It responded with crushing might, coming down upon him like the unstoppable deluge of a waterfall. He could barely breathe as it spread throughout his body, from his scalp to his fingers to his toes. It was all-embracing.

Where Backflow caused streaks of toxic veins to pop out all over his body, the skin flaking off like that dry fish food, Profound Unity expanded on that, his entire body feeling like it was transforming. He was becoming Profound Toxin. Not like the Toxic Liquefaction evolutionary trait of Movement Boost, where he turned into a glob of actual poison.

This was more like one of his Profound Toxic beasts. Clear defined features with solid bodies.

And with the change came something else as well. It was another presence. Well, no, actually, presence might not be such an appropriate way to describe the sensation. More like soul, perhaps?

It was… something. Not quite organic. Living, in some way.

And it was a life Eik was incredibly familiar with. It was Profound Toxin.

He thought they had been close before. He thought they had already been about as unified as they possibly could have been. Oh, how wrong he had been.

What he felt now was not merely two souls in one body. It was Profound Toxin, not the blue, poisonous substance that Eik could conjure up from his ability, but the being—the Primal Entity—flowing into his spirit.

It was no longer Eik and Profound Toxin occupying the same body. It was simply… him.

Blue mist flared off his body continuously like dancing flames, his body like a bright torch in the night, the pulsating glow of the Apocalypse Canvas above no match for him.

Another thing he had been mistaken about was the limits of his control of Profound Toxin. He had thought himself at the peak of control, controlling it like a swordsman controlling his blade. An extension of his arm.

Now it just felt like it was his arm.

This entire transformation occurred in a split second, Eik eyes flickering to Oru's swift form. With lightning-quick mental command, a hundred needles of Profound Toxin sunk into the beastman's furry back, rapidly melting into the puncture wounds and infecting him further. More needles followed as Eik quickly got a feel for the new level of control.

Not only had his range and dexterity increased significantly, but on top of the boost granted by Monarch's Will, Profound Unity seemed to also provide a crucial spike in toxic potency.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

With his heightened S-rank senses, Oru seemed to immediately realize that something about the toxin had changed. He whirled about and regarded Eik, seeing for the first time the transformation. Something in his demeanor changed then.

Andihar's gigantic form was still clearly visible in the distance, his wrathful blade batting away hostile projectiles and crushing unseen enemies. A golden aura of light beamed outward from his entire body, streaks of brilliant gold apparently attached to each of his allies.

Clan Leader Gul's beasts of jet black now soared through the night sky, nearly invisible as they terrorized the cultists on the ground. Each time one of them were shot down or otherwise incapacitated and grounded, a new one took to the skies and replaced its sibling.

Hundreds of other abilities flew back and forth between the cultists and Alliance forces.

Eik felt the infection take hold in the Devourer, spreading rapidly and without mercy. Even after the collapse of the spire, Oru had not really released any severely destructive powers, likely for fear of further ruining the city of Luna.

Now he was caught having to decide whether to fight a version of Eik who was stronger than ever before in a head on fight while strength was already draining from his body from the potent toxin, or go after the oracle being carried away by Eik's allies, opening up his back to the frightening attack power of Profound Toxin.

Without giving the S-ranker even a moment to think, Eik directed the Apocalypse Canvas to spit out three three-meter long blades of crystal to send hurtling down on a collision course with the beastly man. At the same time, more needles homed in from all directions.

"No!" he howled, frantically dodging and parrying the many toxic projectiles. The precision and velocity granted by Profound Unity allowed Eik to get in several attacks, the three large blades from the Apocalypse Canvas causing enough chaos to allow even more needles to get into the S-ranker's system. "The oracle!"

Streaks of blue zipped into the wounds, Oru's time to decide was running out. In the end, purple energy rushed around the high-rank cultist's body as his features grew more grotesque, bony spikes pushing through his skin. Two additional sets of eyes suddenly opened above and below the original pair.

When he charged at Eik, his movement speed was markedly heightened and the way he interacted with the environment made it seem like he weighed at least twenty times what a living being at his size should have weighed.

And his strength reflected that as his claws struck the shells Eik had prepared, cruel, sharp miasma emanating from his hands crushing the shells with abandon. Vague mirror images appeared around Oru each time he struck, the images performing their own series of frenzied assaults from a different angle.

Even with Profound Unity, Eik couldn't keep stand against such powerful attacks. If he focused on defense, he would lose in seconds. A gooey layer on the front of each shell functioned like a shock absorbing cushion, containing at least some of each of the massive impacts that struck them.

The ones that missed drew deep craters into the streets and pulverized the buildings as if they were made of playing cards. If this was the kind of destruction he wrought, it made total sense that he had held back so much when they had been inside the precious Arch Temple.

At the site of the distraction, where the Alliance forces were now beginning to pull back toward safety, the entire battlefield was one big crater, especially Andihar's indiscriminate brutality appeared to have destroyed everything within a few hundred meters.

Since they had come back out before the distraction team pulled back completely, the escape tactic for Hannan, Sinki, and Wapan'aksh was simply to join up with them and escape under cover of the crowd. Eik couldn't let Oru give chase. He had to hold the man back until they had gotten away.

Fuck. Just a few years ago he had been as far from the self sacrificial type as one could be. At least he had thought so. If the cult knew the details of the ritual had been exposed would they not take steps to muddle it up again? Who knew if the oracle could even help them in the end. Yet here he was, preparing for his own death to help his allies get away.

How god damned heroic of him.

Oru's bestial face was a mask of fury as he raged. A powerful kick cracked into Eik's ribs, slowed by five shells before impact, and sent him hurtling through five buildings. Despite blacking out for a second, his counter attack was instinctual at this point.

Utilizing the connecting kick as the tiny opening in Oru's defense that it was, Eik struck him with another dose, and the S-ranker finally began to show signs of actually slowing down. His movements were growing just a bit more sluggish and just a little less sharp. Eik just had to hold out.

It was crazy how much he had changed since Awakening. When he had been F-rank, a fight against a C-ranker would have been the same as fighting a bolt of living lightning. Now a C-ranker would be like fighting a slug pumped full of anesthetic.

Realistically, it was the toxin he had already gotten into Oru that made it kind of possible to keep up, but just the fact that he hadn't died against a genuine, actual S-ranker was completely and utterly bonkers. Just the thought of an S-ranker had sent shivers down his spine two and a half years ago.

Before Eik could climb out of the rubble, Oru appeared and stomped him into the ground. Only barely managing to shift into Toxic Liquefaction, Eik slipped into one of Oru's many wounds. His natural regeneration had been significantly impeded by the Profound Toxin and the man didn't seem to have any healing abilities of his own.

Even as he coursed through the S-ranker's system, Eik guided thousands of crystalline shards to attack, simply pulling them toward his own liquid body inside the target. Senses connected to one of the several Living Manifestations scattered around allowed him to see that Oru's mirror images were hitting the shards out of the air before they could hit, missing only a few which buried themselves in his skin and melted into the wounds.

Eik located the pinch of hyper concentrated Profound Toxin inside Oru which he had injected earlier, the substance burning steadily away at the S-ranker's vitality like a dancing flame on a wick melting a wax candle.

In an attempt to end it, he took direct control of the minuscule amount of special toxin and brought it with him toward Oru's brain. If he could replicate the way he had killed the dragon in the A-rank Crucible damage output test, surely Oru would finally croak, right? Surely!

The internal pressure of aura in the S-ranker's body was crippling, and Eik felt like he was crawling through the system on all fours with fifty sandbags tied to his ankles as he moved to the neck.

But just as he thought he had made it, a strange, unnatural wall of some kind appeared before him, seemingly completely cutting off any access to the brain and neck. Was that one of Oru's abilities? Shapeshifting, the arm that had extended like rubber when they fought inside the temple, the grotesque spikes and warping of his body as he demonstrated power. Could he even change the inside of his body?

The internal pressure was beginning to force his Toxic Liquefaction transformation to come apart.

Eyes of the Beast on the Living Manifestations outside showed him that the distraction team had retreated and disappeared, following the plan of operation perfectly.

Fuck it, then.

As the Accelerant hurled him into one of the little blue guys, the next thing he saw was Andihar slash a discombobulated Oru's arm clean off at the shoulder.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.