Chapter 40: Reunited.
Adam’s POV
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"WHAT THE HELL—"
I stepped forward, my fury crackling in the air like a storm ready to break. The nobleman flinched.
"ARE YOU DOING TO MY SISTER?!"
My voice thundered through the chamber, the words laced with unfiltered rage.
I knew Lora was in trouble. I knew if I wasn’t fast enough, something horrible would happen to her. But speed meant nothing if I couldn’t save her. That’s why I waited, biding my time, ensuring my rescue wouldn't be in vain. Every second that passed gnawed at me, the only thing keeping me awake was the dread—the "training" the fake goddess had ordered.
I turned to Lora again, my blood turning ice-cold. Her hands and legs—bleeding, torn apart. The skin ripped open, her limbs dangling unnaturally, as if they’d been dislocated over and over again.
And yet, the thing that shocked me the most wasn’t her injuries.
It was her age.
She wasn’t 25 anymore.
When I last saw her in the footage, she was a woman—a battle-hardened killer with long, silky black hair, piercing red eyes, and a fit, elegant frame. Like a shinobi straight out of an anime—deadly, precise, unwavering.
But now… she looked 15.
Her hair was shorter, neater, her body smaller, her presence lighter. She still had the same razor-sharp eyes, the same face—but younger, almost… delicate.
It was like a katana had been reforged into a dagger. Sleek, refined…cuter.
… But still staying away from the sharp end.
She looked at me, eyes wide, her lips trembling as she whispered:
"A…dam?"
Hearing my name from her lips, in that fragile, broken voice—it snapped something inside me.
I turned to the noble, my rage surging like a tidal wave.
"Who the hell are you?!" he stammered, scrambling toward the table, reaching for a scepter.
I was done talking.
I equipped my katana and activated both of my new abilities. In an instant, I appeared in front of the nobleman, slicing through his wrist with a clean, precise swipe before he could even grasp the scepter.
-44
Blood splattered as numbers flashed above his severed hand. He didn’t even realize what had happened until it hit the ground with a dull thud.
This was the result of my recent upgrades. Since Nove’s evolution, I could equip two additional core nodes. I had created two new ones using the materials I from my night hunting monsters, I used the massive number of Nexus crystals I had gotton to create new core nodes and upgrade several others.
The two new abilities I got were:
Mystical Sword Mastery (Lvl: 3) (Passive): Grants intermediate sword mastery, increasing attack speed, accuracy, and damage by 15% while wielding a sword.
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Mystical Dash (Lvl: 3) (Active): Instantly dash up to three meters in any direction. While dashing, physical damage received is reduced by 50%.
* NEP Cost: 40
* Duration: Instant
* Cooldown: 5 seconds
The nobleman’s screams filled the room, but something else caught my eye—an assortment of bizarre artifacts scattered across the table. I didn’t know what they were, but they looked valuable. Without hesitation, I willed them into my inventory.
"I have placed those items in our inventory," Nove informed me.
I paused. Our inventory? That phrasing concerned me, but this wasn’t the time for questions.
"Noted," she added, reading my thoughts before I could even voice them.
I shook my head, pushing the distraction aside as I turned back to the nobleman. A strange glow pulsed from his severed arm, and his eyes burned with hatred.
“You foo—”
He never got to finish. Reflexively, I swung my blade again, severing his head in one swift motion.
“Woah!” Dix yelped in surprise.
The nobleman’s health bar dropped to zero, and before his corpse could even hit the ground, it vanished into my inventory—leaving only a pool of blood and his severed hand behind.
“Damn it,” I muttered. “I really wanted to interrogate him.”
“Nya, couldn’t be helped,” Dix said, shrugging. “Pretty sure he was about to try and kill us anyway.”
“I thought the same.”
At the end of the day, if you’re pointing a gun on someone and the other guy slowly starts drawing his own, you don’t wait for him to finish. You shoot first.
I didn’t know what kind of hillybilly magic shit he was going to perform, maybe he was going to explode. Truth of the matter is, if I hadn’t killed him, he definitely would’ve killed me.
Regardless, With the man gone, my main priority Lora.
I turned to look at her, but something about the way she was staring at me sent a shiver down my spine. She looked completely mesmerized, as if she wasn’t even aware of her own broken limbs.
Just as I was about to speak, Nove’s voice echoed in my mind.
“Adam, your NEP is down to 25%. I suggest deactivating your armor.”
Oh, right.
I deactivated the armor, letting it fade away as I stepped closer to Lora, a health potion in hand.
“Hey, Lora. It’s been a while,” I said, flashing a smile.
But instead of the relief I expected, her expression darkened.
“No… you’re not Adam.”
She recoiled from me, weakly shoving the potion away. With her injuries, the sudden movement sent her stumbling. Instinctively, I lunged forward and caught her before she could hit the ground.
Lowering my voice so Dix wouldn’t hear, I whispered in her ear, “Lil Mimi.”
Her eyes widened in shock.
“Come on,” I continued, giving her a teasing smile. “You’re not telling me you don’t recognize your big brother just because I’m wearing a disguise, are you?”
She stared at me, searching my face, her breath hitching.
“I’m back.”
Tears welled in her eyes. In the next second, she threw her arms around me, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Adam!” she cried, clutching onto me like I would disappear if she let go.
“Nya, you two catch up. I’m gonna go rescue the other kids, nya.”
Surprisingly, Dix was perceptive enough to leave us alone while I tried to calm Lora down.
She kept sobbing, her body trembling against mine, but no matter how much I tried, she refused to let go. Even when I held out the health potion, she didn’t take it.
“I’m so sorry I was late,” I whispered, guilt gnawing at my chest.
But she just clung to me tighter, her cries growing louder.
“I don’t know what they did to you, but you need to drink this, Lora. Your hands and feet—”
“Adam! Adam!” She sobbed my name over and over, as if saying it enough times would make up for all the time we lost.
I felt my own throat tighten, but I forced myself to focus.
“Lora, listen,” I said, my tone firm. “We need to escape right now, or they’re going to catch us.”
She didn’t move. If anything, her grip on me tightened.
“Lora,” I tried again, lowering my voice. “If the house Luminari find us here, they’ll separate us.”
Her sobbing instantly went silent.
Huh-?
I didn’t even get time to think when she, without warning, pulled away, snatched the potion from my hand, and downed it in one go.
I blinked in shock, looking between my now-empty hand and her as she threw the glass vial aside.
She flexed her fingers, clenched her fists. Her feet, once limp and broken, pressed firmly against the cold stone floor.
Then, slowly, she turned her head toward the gate—the very same gate I had come through.
A chill ran down my spine.
The look in her eyes…
It was the eyes of a demon.
It wasn’t that I was unfamiliar with those eyes of her. It’s just that she starts looking like that when she’s at her wits end.
“I will kill them,” she whispered.
“Huh?”
“I will kill anyone who tries to separate us,” she said, her voice dripping with a terrifying conviction.
I swallowed hard.
What the hell did they do to her while she was locked up in here?