“Attack!” Joasai yelled suddenly before charging up a fireball attack and spitting it towards the Owl, breaking Imoka out of his shock.

He looked into the deathly unwavering eyes of the Owl whose chest was still expanding, and then looked at the dark red fireball that was sailing through the air with murderous intent, and knew that they had reached a point of no return. He could only fight together with Joasai, complete their mission, and live to see another day… or suffer possibly disastrous consequences along with him.

Because he could never abandon him.

Unlike most other races, the Purgatory Vermillion Bird race only had one progenitor. This undeniably meant that they were all blood related, and it gave them a greater kinship than most species. But his relationship with Joasai was more than just shared blood. They had been born in the same generation, only a few years apart, and had been friends with each other from the very beginning.

Joasai may be overly serious, overly ambitious, and get on his nerves a lot… but they had been through so much together. Just look at what they had accomplished! They were Purgatory birds of the 3rd generation, young compared to their betters, but had spectacularly reached the 4th Realm! They had even surpassed some from the 2nd generation!

His instincts were hammering his skull and ballooning his heart, begging him to run from this Owl that had become a menace in the blink of an eye. But even if his skull cracked apart and his heart exploded into fragments, he would never abandon his partner. He couldn’t.

‘What rotten luck…’ He thought as he charged up his own attack.

He could only blame himself for becoming friends with an egomaniac that would look at such a calamitous change of events, and still want to fight; actually look at those terrifying eyes, and still want to fight.

Madness.

Even if he would admit that it was because of that ‘madness’ that the 2 of them had even reached this far so quickly, he… haah~

He didn’t even want to think anymore.

Relinquishing himself to his fate, he blew out the ball of fire that he had been charging, causing it to tear through the air towards its target with destructive vigour. He didn’t wait to see the results and charged up another attack along with Joasai. Against an opponent like this, he didn’t dare to hold back. Attacking an unknown aberration like this Owl may be provoking death, but he wasn’t going to shove his head into the other side like a fool. He’d go kicking and screaming, leaving lasting damage and obtaining small revenge, if this was really his end.

Alas…

Mortals can aspire but not all dreams become reality. All he saw was the sudden contraction of the Owl’s chest and then everything was gone. Everything… was gone. Death had claimed him quicker than he could react, not even giving him the chance to see the attack that had ended him. And there was nothing he was able to do about it.

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A pitiful end.

…

[Zero the Grey One POV]

‘So this is the power of the Lunar Wind Fusion…’ Zero thought to himself.

‘A joke of the highest grade. I didn’t even use a technique, I merely released the combined Wind and Ice into Lunar Wind and released the built up energy through my mouth. A simple breath attack using raw Mana, and this is the result. Simply unreal’

Zero looked at the forest below him that had been encased in ice, but more specifically the ripped apart pieces of flesh that belonged to many of the Purgatory Vermillion Bird race, which of course, were all frozen.

He had released the breath attack solely in their direction, something that was made easier when the ignorant fools abandoned the Owls they were fighting to try an assist their 2 leaders, but still, the might of the attack was much greater than he thought it would be, causing some of his own people to be caught in the attack.

Without a doubt, they were dead. But he refused to shy away from the sight of their torn bodies. He would burn the image into his brain and let it torment him for eternity. That was what he deserved.

The thought greatly dampened his excitement and bewilderment, making him look at his newfound power with a feeling that was parts disbelief, parts joy, parts indifference and parts self-mocking.

He had gained unparalleled and unprecedented power, something that all lifeforms dreamed about but something less than 1% could obtain. But it had been handed to him with such ease that he dared to call it the easiest feat he had EVER performed. All he had to do was say ‘I accept’, and that too in his own mind, lacking even the pittance of effort that would be needed to say the words aloud.

And just like that, his desperate situation that would have become death only a few seconds later, had switched around in an instant. He, the once oppressed, had become the oppressor. No, ‘oppressor’ was too light a word for what he had done.

Oppressor to destroyer. That was him.

All because the words ‘I accept’, that weren’t even spoken aloud…

How could he not look at this whole situation as a joke?

“““My Lord!””” Multiple voices that he recognised called out to him. He turned his head towards it and saw his remaining brethren flying towards him with various facial expressions. Of course, nothing as expressive as anything an Enlightened being could show, but expressive enough to display either fear or excitement.

Zero finally began to feel like giving a smile as the fact that not only he, but many others of his race had survived, but he suppressed it. His job was not done.

There were still a few Purgatory birds left and they were trying to flee. Naturally, that was not something he could let happen. It was because of these heinous creatures that many of his people had died, and he wouldn’t rest until they were all dead.

Perhaps it was too much to target the entire Purgatory Vermillion Bird race, even with the power he had gained, and he knew that they weren’t all rotten worms, so he wouldn’t be like them, letting one abnormal individual set the precedent of an entire race, even if he hated them.

But the ones here?

They must all perish.