Chapter 209: New Skill
Dark. Endless. Weightless.
Lucen opened his eyes into a void of nothing but gnashing mouths. Hundreds, thousands, all opening and closing in silence, their teeth scraping against each other like grinding stone. The Tyrant was no longer a creature, it was everywhere. A chorus of hunger, a universe of fire shaped into hunger’s face.
[Hijack Contest: Final Phase.]
[Opposition: Tyrant Core.]
[Method: Overwhelm Will.]
[Warning: Success = Assimilation. Failure = Consumption.]
Lucen snorted, spitting blood that glowed faint blue as it evaporated. "You bastards really love your warnings."
The mouths opened wider, stretching into eternity. Voices layered over each other, breaking in tone, some deep as oceans, others shrill enough to peel skin.
You are not anchor. You are morsel.
Lucen flexed his hands. Sparks licked off his fingertips, both white lightning and black abyss flame curling together, snarling as if even his mana wanted to argue with itself.
’No anchor? Fine.’ He grinned. ’Guess I’ll just steal the chair.’
[Soundlash.]
The crack split the void, a whip of compressed sound cutting through three rows of mouths. They shattered, bleeding fire and shadow that poured down into the dark.
The Tyrant’s voice rose like thunder. Pain is nothing here. We are endless. We will drown you until you are bone.
Lucen’s grin widened. "Endless, huh? Lucky me. I’ve got time."
He flicked his hand again. [Abyssflare Lance.]
The void shook. A spear of annihilation tore upward, splitting the false sky, cleaving through a chain of gaping maws until the horizon burned white. For a second, the mouths faltered, retracting like worms under salt.
The system blinked in bright text.
[Hijack Progress: 91%]
[Corruption Load: 46%]
[Stability: Failing.]
His ribs felt like cracked glass. Every breath seared. But the smirk didn’t leave.
"Almost there."
—
Outside, the Tyrant convulsed.
The skyscrapers that still stood cracked down their middles as its wings smashed outward, ripping concrete and glass into the storm. Abyssal fire spilled from rents in its chest, painting the streets red-black.
And Lucen’s body clung to it still, hand buried in its core. His back arched, teeth bared in laughter even as smoke poured off his skin. His veins glowed black and blue, pulsing too bright to be human.
Hunters had stopped running. Some screamed at the sight. Others prayed.
Selindra shouted orders through grit teeth, her barriers sparking under the weight of falling debris. "Keep the civilians moving! North sectors only!"
One of the A-ranks broke rank, panicked. "He’s, he’s going to become it! We need to kill him now before—"
Varik’s blade intercepted the hunter’s chest before the man could finish the sentence. The flat, not the edge, but it hit hard enough to drop him choking for air.
Varik’s voice was steady iron. "No one touches him."
The others froze.
Above, the Tyrant shrieked again. This time it wasn’t a monster’s roar. It was a man’s laugh, tangled with it.
—
Inside, the void twisted.
The Tyrant surged. Its mouths merged into one vast chasm, filling the horizon. From its depth came a hand, five-fingered, humanoid, but scaled in abyssal glass, reaching for him.
You are mine. Flesh. Thought. Soul.
Lucen tilted his head, grin sharp enough to cut. "Flesh? Sure. Thought? Maybe. Soul?"
He raised both hands.
[Cataclysm Vector — Abyssborne Variant.]
Crimson lines tore through the void, jagging into spirals, collapsing into a single axis. The Tyrant’s reaching hand was caught mid-gesture, the lines binding it, warping it, until it collapsed in on itself.
The void detonated in silence.
[Hijack Progress: 96%]
[Corruption Load: 58%]
[System Note: Entity Resistance Spiking.]
Lucen staggered, clutching his temple. His vision flickered. He could feel it now, not just pressure, but memory. Snippets of voices not his own. Screams of civilians devoured. Growls of hunters torn apart. The Tyrant had kept them, swallowed their echoes, and now it was pushing them into his skull.
For a moment, the laughter faltered.
A whisper slid down his ear. Join. No more fighting. No more pain. Only hunger. Forever hunger.
Lucen’s smirk vanished. His teeth clenched. His veins lit brighter, cracks of black fire crawling across his arms. His knees buckled.
[System Warning.]
[Hijack Progress Halted.]
[Entity Reversal Imminent.]
The void closed in, jaws stretching wide, a thousand teeth waiting to finish him.
And Lucen whispered hoarse, through blood and fire: "No."
He raised his hand. One last card.
[Time Shear.]
The jaws froze mid-bite. The void stopped mid-collapse. Every whisper stilled.
Lucen exhaled, smoke trailing from his lips. His grin returned, sharp, manic, hungry.
"You forgot one thing, buddy."
His palm pressed against the frozen void.
"I’m hungrier."
He poured everything in, mana, abyss, life, soul. Every drop. The tendrils binding the Tyrant’s core ripped tighter, reversed, pulled inward. The void cracked like glass, shards flying outward.
The system howled.
[Hijack Progress: 100%]
[Anchor Override Successful.]
[New Skill Obtained: Tyrant’s Mantle.]
[EXP +50,000]
[Level: 47]
[Progress: 62%]
The void collapsed.
—
Outside, the Tyrant convulsed one last time, then stilled.
The wings folded inward. The abyssal fire guttered out. Its body began to shrink, condensing, folding, until the thirty-foot monster was gone.
And Lucen dropped from the air, boots cracking pavement as he landed hard on one knee. Smoke curled off his body, his veins still glowing faintly abyssal-black.
He exhaled once.
[Skill Active: Tyrant’s Mantle.]
A shimmer flared across his shoulders, not visible cloth, but an aura like fire in the shape of torn wings.
Lucen stood, grinning up at the silent rift. "Round one finished. Who’s next?"
The hunters stared.
Selindra’s knuckles whitened on her staff. "You..."
Her voice caught. She tried again. "What are you?"
Lucen looked over his shoulder, smirk curling wider.
"Upgraded."
[Level: 47]
[EXP Progress: 62%]
[New Skill: Tyrant’s Mantle] — Abyssal aura inherited from the Gigantic-class Tyrant. Temporarily amplifies physical presence, suppresses low-tier monsters, and bolsters spell resonance. Stability uncertain.
—
The air reeked of burned mana and blood.
Lucen straightened slowly, flexing his shoulders as the new mantle burned faintly behind him. It wasn’t a cloak, not really, it was presence. Fire-shaped wings of black and red, faint at the edges like smoke, but dense enough that even the hunters closest to him stumbled back. Their knees buckled as if they were prey caught under a predator’s stare.
[Skill Active: Tyrant’s Mantle.]
[Effect: Suppressing Tier-C and below entities.]
A strangled scream cut through the din. A half-formed crawler that had been skittering down an alley froze mid-motion. Its claws scraped against the asphalt uselessly, legs twitching as it collapsed to its side. Another, leaping from a rooftop, faltered mid-air, spine snapping before it hit the ground.
Hunters stared. The weaker ones actually dropped their weapons, wide-eyed.
Selindra’s voice was a hiss, taut as wire. "That’s... suppression. At scale."
Lucen grinned, lifting a hand lazily. "Yeah, neat trick, isn’t it?"
Inside, his veins burned. The mantle wasn’t stable, it scraped against him, like wearing someone else’s skin. But the weight of it pressed outward, drowning the street in dominance. He could feel their fear rolling back into him, feeding the fire.
’Feels... good,’ he admitted, smirk curling wider. ’Like I’ve been playing mage on easy mode, and this is nightmare difficulty with cheat codes.’
The rift pulsed. Hard.
The skyline bent further as the wound in the air shrieked. Black fire streamed downward in rivers, the light tearing glass from towers. A dozen new shapes tumbled out, larger, heavier than the fodder before. Quadrupeds plated in abyss crystal, jaws splitting open like blooming flowers.
[Entities Detected: Tier-Abyssal Ravagers.]
[Recommended Response: Evacuation.]
Lucen cracked his knuckles. "Evacuate? Nah. Let’s try the new toy."
He raised his palm. The mantle flared, wings of black fire curling tighter around him before snapping outward.
[Skill Use: Tyrant’s Mantle.]
[Mode: Resonance Overdrive.]
The air crashed. A wave of pressure rolled down the street, thick enough to ripple broken glass along the ground. The charging Ravagers buckled instantly, their claws digging trenches in asphalt as their bodies strained under invisible weight. Their shrieks turned to strangled gurgles.
Selindra staggered, bracing herself on her staff. Even she gritted her teeth as sweat beaded her forehead. "Damn it—Lucen—dial it back!"
Lucen’s grin sharpened. "Dial it back? But I just found the volume knob."
One of the Ravagers forced its way forward despite the pressure, head thrashing. Lucen tilted his hand toward it.
[Nullbind Grasp.]
Abyssal tendrils surged out of nowhere, black chains snapping around its crystal throat. Its roar choked off instantly as the tendrils tightened, dragging it down. The mantle flared in sync, crushing harder.
The beast’s body cracked like porcelain before it burst in a spray of shards.
[Entity Defeated.]
[EXP +3,200]
Lucen exhaled, rolling his neck. The mantle burned hotter with each kill, feeding itself. His grin faded slightly, brow furrowing.
’It’s eating their death. Feeding off it. Feeding me off it.’
Hunters nearby could barely stand under the weight of his aura. One A-rank actually collapsed to his knees, trembling, weapon clattering against stone. His eyes were wide, unblinking, fixed on Lucen like he wasn’t human.
Varik stepped forward, aura bracing like iron walls. His voice was calm, steady, but his gaze fixed on Lucen sharp. "Control it. Or you’ll crush them too."
Lucen glanced back, smirk tugging faint. "Relax. I’m house-trained."
But his hands didn’t stop glowing.
More Ravagers lunged from the collapsing towers, claws raking concrete as they charged through fire and smoke. The mantle flared again, heavier this time, wings splitting wider. The air felt like stone grinding against bone, heavy enough to buckle streetlamps and warp loose steel.
Hunters panicked. One shouted hoarse: "That’s not suppression, that’s tyranny!"
Lucen tilted his head at that, grin breaking wider. "Tyranny, huh? Guess the name fits."
He spread his arms. The mantle blazed outward, a storm of black fire crashing into the incoming pack.
Screams shredded the air as half the Ravagers crumpled mid-charge, crushed flat against pavement by weight alone. The others writhed, slowed, until Lucen’s follow-up spells cut them down, [Shockweave Bolt], [Frost Spire], and a clean [Piercing Flare] that left holes burning through abyssal crystal.
Each kill bled more EXP into him.
[EXP +2,900]
[EXP +3,100]
[EXP +3,300]
Blood ran from his nose now, down to his lips, but his grin only sharpened. His veins glowed brighter, mantle flaring higher with every pulse. The power felt endless.
Selindra’s voice snapped sharp, desperate. "Stop! You’re not containing it, you’re feeding it!"
Lucen didn’t look at her. He lifted one hand, palm glowing abyss-black, watching the Ravagers squirm like insects pinned in place.
’She’s not wrong,’ he thought, laughter low in his chest. ’But damn if it doesn’t feel good.’
The mantle roared.
And the rift roared back.
Above, the wound widened. The air tore open like stretched flesh. A deeper shape moved behind it, too large to step through yet, but watching. Waiting.
The mantle flared around him, screaming for more.
Lucen wiped the blood off his lips with the back of his hand, eyes locked on the thing behind the rift.
"Alright," he muttered, voice low, hungry.
"Round two, then."