Ashley

Following my activation of the two skills, a deep crimson and black orb of flames appears in front of my mouth, along with thick bolts of black and crimson lightning that begin to move along my arms. With both attacks growing larger and larger by the second, at the same time as the breath attack from the King of Destruction grows.

I make sure to put in half of my remaining mana into both attacks. Half of it into the Dragon’s Destructive Breath and half of it into the Destructive Charge.

And it shows. Because the breath attack continues to grow larger and larger until the orb in front of me is nearly a meter in diameter, and the bolts of lightning jumping back and forth across my arms grow so numerous that I can’t even see my arms anymore beneath them.

Then, as if timed specifically to happen, all of the attacks launch at the same time.

My breath attack shoots out in one powerful blast straight at the King of Destruction’s own breath attack, and the bolts of lightning on my arms fire off on either side of the breath attack. With the bolts revolving around the breath attack in two different spirals on opposite sides of the attack.

And all of the attacks collide halfway between the King of Destruction and me, sending a powerful shockwave through the area. One that completely wipes out all of the lava around us while sending me flying up into the air after I activate the skill Ashen Scales of Destruction for more defensive power with the last shred of mana I saved and regenerated as the King of Destruction is sent into the ground.

But after the initial shockwave, the visibility in the area instantly plummets as black and crimson lightning sweeps through the air mixed with flames of the same color. Meanwhile, amidst the chaos, I hear the king roaring out in pain.

Before I can feel any happiness about that though, I feel my own pain flash through me as a couple smaller jets of the king’s breath reach me and burn straight through both of my arms and some of my wings. Leaving me armless with large holes in my wings as I begin to plummet down towards the ground with the scales having been completely shattered almost immediately. Deactivating the skill in the process.

I try to fly anyways, but I can’t feel my wings anymore. So I eventually crash into the ground as my vision begins to go dark.

The sounds of the king’s continuous roaring repeatedly echoes in my ear through the pain. The pain of my now-missing arms and what I’m pretty sure are completely broken legs and some incredibly large holes in my wings. All while the aftermath of our attacks’ colliding still plays out through the area.

But even that slowly begins to die down, eventually leaving the area barren of anything except for me. With the King of Destruction being too far away to see through the ash and debris scattered throughout the air.

Time passes, and the king’s roaring grows quieter and quieter.

I look at my status when I glance at my wounds to find them pausing in the middle of their healing to find my health completely depleted, the same as my mana. Leaving me with my wounds largely patched up but still without any arms. Although the king’s breath attack seems to have cauterized the wounds, so I’m not bleeding. And I should still have more than half of my body left, so my life isn’t currently in danger.

Currently being the key word.

Especially when I begin to feel the ground tremble once in a while with what feels like footsteps.

I push with my wings against the ground to climb up to a sitting position as the last of the ash and debris clear up in the air. Revealing the King of Destruction as he slowly marches over towards me. At which point I see the crimson light in his eye glowing brighter as the System Messages about the True Damage being reflected begin arriving again.

The king himself isn’t in very good shape either, but he is clearly still in better shape than I am in.

He is missing both of his arms, the same as me, with large holes running through his body, and chunks ripped out here and there. And what was previously nothing more than half a tail is now just a stump, with all of the king’s fangs in his mouth completely gone.

But most importantly, the king is now missing an eye.

I use my wings in the place of my completely missing arms to push myself up to my feet, only to lose my balance and fall to the ground again. Then I try it once more, pushing myself to my feet before falling again.

And one last time. With me finally making it to my feet and using my wings to keep my balance.

Everything around us is just a completely barren wasteland, and the king is repeatedly blinking his remaining eye closed at this point. Until it eventually just leaves it closed permanently. As if the Unique Monster is trying to make sure its own attack isn’t just reflected back at it.

Which leaves my remaining Chaos Energy free for use in combat.

I grit my teeth before summoning a healing potion right in front of my mouth, finally letting my fangs out for the very first time, and chomping straight down on it to make half of the healing potion break inside of my mouth. Making stumps grow in the place of my missing arms.

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Then I repeat that process three more times until I completely run out of potions, healing myself up just enough to fully grow back my arms. Even if there are still holes throughout my wings and the rest of me.

So I down my remaining Chaos Energy potions to bring my Chaos Energy back to nearly full capacity, after which I reach for and draw both of my swords, which are still completely unharmed despite all of the damage I’ve taken. Probably because they were made by Chaos himself.

I grit my teeth before charging my blades with all of the Chaos Energy in my arsenal. Every last unit of it. All the way until massive blades of energy form around my swords that shoot straight up into the sky far past the end of the swords themselves.

The king pauses for a second, only to continue stumbling towards me in uneven steps. Most likely sensing where I am through my scent or something since his eyes are either closed or destroyed.

I grit my teeth again before beginning to run at the King of Destruction one last time with both of my blades crossed as I jump straight up towards the largest wound on its body.

The wounds on its neck.

And when I reach it, I swing both of my blades straight at the wound, only for a powerful barrier to appear in front of its neck while it tilts its head down and begins charging another breath attack at me.

“Another?!” I grunt out through gritted teeth, but I don’t stop my attack. Even as my blades clash against its barrier.

It’s so close!

The breath attack charging above my head continues growing larger with what is most likely the King of Destruction’s last bits of mana. Meanwhile cracks slowly begin to appear on the barrier. But I’m not even sure if my blow has enough strength to finish it off after breaking the barrier.

Then a skill that I have never used flashes in my mind for the first time since I got it.

Not that it’ll be much use to me with the-

A loud ripping sound echoes out through the area before I see Blake appearing near us and clapping his hands together. Making an orb appear around the breath attack, after which it, too, vanishes. Only for an explosion to echo out from somewhere else.

Then Blake collapses to the ground, albeit not without giving me a nod and a look of confidence and determination.

Like he’s absolutely certain that I will win this.

I find myself genuinely smiling at him and even letting out a light giggle before shaking my head at the small sliver of doubt I had. And without hesitation, I activate Torrents of Chaos.

The Successor Skill that instantly refills my entire pool of Chaos Energy.

Then I activate Assimilate one last time, having been activating it over and over again throughout the battle, and push all of the remaining energy straight into my blades, over doubling the amount of Chaos Energy that’s inside of them. Instantly making them push against the barrier with an enormous amount of power, making one crack after another appear on the barrier.

And finally, it all happens at once.

The barrier shatters. My blades and I push forwards to meet with the king’s neck.

And when they meet the king’s flesh, they cleave straight through the many wounds. Through the very small amount of flesh remaining around the king’s windpipe.

And finally sever the king’s head.

Leaving me falling down to the ground.

But after landing, I quickly begin to turn around towards the King of Destruction, only to pause when a large Primordial System Notification is displayed in front of my vision. One that leaves a smile on my face as I just flop down to sit with my right leg on the ground in a half circle in front of me and my left leg held up to my shoulder with my foot on the ground.

Then I place my left hand on the volcanic ground around me and the other on my right knee as I read the notification.

Primordial System Notification

Attention all users of the universe.

The Successors of Chaos and Magic, Ashley Sinclair and Blake Sinclair, have slain the Unique Monster known as the King of Destruction.

Therefore they have both earned the Titles of Unique Slayers.

Nice.

Immediately after seeing that notification – one which was sent throughout the entire universe according to what’s said on it – I feel a burning and stabbing pain in my eyes as System Messages force their way into my vision. A pain so bad that I can’t help but scream out in pain and only barely even register what the System is saying as it reads the messages, much less read them myself.

{You have been granted 10000 Skill Points for killing the Unique Boss Monster of a Unique Domain.}

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: King of Destruction} – ERROR – As the user is not the original holder of the Unique Skill Tree, the Skill Tree’s skills shall now change their names to accommodate the new user.

{Processing…}

{You have now unlocked the Unique Skill Tree: Queen of Destruction}

{You have unlocked a new Unique Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Unique Skill Tree, Gaze of Destruction, is now unlocked for your usage.}

Numerous other messages appear as well, but the pain grows so severe that my mind simply doesn’t register them.

Then, all at once, the pain vanishes, leaving me gasping as I suddenly find myself still sitting in the same position as I was before. With one more universal Primordial System Notification on top of the first one that pushes its way over the messages.

Primordial System Notification

Attention all users of the universe.

The Successor of Chaos has officially assimilated the skills of the former King of Destruction. Therefore the System is now declaring the user, Ashley Sinclair, as a new Unique Being.

As the new Queen of Destruction.

But I don’t pay it any mind.

Instead I just quietly mutter, “That… hurt…” as I stare at the fallen king’s corpse.