HP: The Arcane Thief

Axel was currently in an unprecedented amount of pain.

100 times… no…. 1000 times worse than what he had ever experienced. Perhaps more, perhaps less, he had no idea. He just knew, this was out of the limit. Even for him.

Had he not been strengthening it [Zen Focus], or had he not used limit break to increase the soul defense, he would have been dead right now.

But even now, his situation was not much better.

His body functions had all shut down, trying to make him die as quickly as possible. This pain did not come from the body. It came from the soul itself, which had been attacked by this unknown magic.

Right now, the only thing still functioning was his mind, which was trying to think of ways to survive despite the unbearable pain.

'Here we are, again…'

'It has been a while.'

He had grown stronger, but still here he is again, almost on the verge of dying.

With the stoppage of blood and magic to his brain, even his mind was now shutting down. He had survived a lot, but Axel really felt that this time was going to be the last.

He had given it his all. He really had. But this attack was just too damn strong.

'Axel… you better return to me safely.'

As his consciousness was on the verge of fading, a blurry face suddenly came into his mind.

!

Axel's eyes shot open, his mind clearing up through the pain. He can't die here. He REFUSED to die here!

An indescribable surge of determination flooded Axel.

[Pain Tolerance has been converted into Freakish Tenacity]

New Knowledge entered his mind, but Axel didn't really have the leisure to go through it right now. All could do was to cling to life like a leech, not letting go.

[Royal Water Arts]

Water entered his body, and his blood, which had almost stopped flowing, suddenly started to move again, even though his heart had long stopped beating.

[Zen Focus]

Recalling that face, his soul, which had been under tribulation due to the attack slowly started to calm down. But the level wasn't enough. He needed more. In order to survive.

An amber glow started to emanate from his body.

[You have awaken the Arhunt Bloodline]

…

On the other hand, Aslot was on the ground, his water body having transformed back to its former state.

Aslot, who had lost consciousness due to soul shock, finally opened his eyes after the pain subsided. Soul shock is a state when damage is inflicted to your soul. The pain is so severe that it is impossible to maintain consciousness. Thankfully, the damage was minor and through the Entity's power, he had not died even when unconscious.

'Finally… it's over…' thought Aslot through gritted teeth.

He had won, even though the price he had paid for it was rather steep.

By sacrificing a small portion of his soul, and by using an extremely large amount of magic, he had managed to cast a spell to destroy Axel's soul.

He was currently in a huge amount of pain. 'This… darned… spell…'

Soul Extinguisher

The spell he had used belonged to the forbidden Septis, the Soul Septis. Though now extinct, at one time, it used to be the most feared and revered Septis among all.

But after they lost the ability to awaken their bloodline, their members started succumbing to the Entity's power in order to awaken it.

A war ensued, which resulted in the destruction of the Soul Septis, though it was only at the expense of many Atlantian lives.

The Soul Septis had the ability to directly attack a person's soul. It was an advanced version of the Killing curse. After strengthening their soul defense, most Atlantians can survive the Killing curse. But not the spell he had just used, which can only be performed by extremely powerful individuals of the Soul Septis.

Being a Royal, and having the Entity's influence, Aslot could awaken all bloodlines to a certain extent. That included the bloodline soul septis.

That's how he defeated the previous king. Even though the Royal Relic managed to save his soul, the damage he had managed to inflict was enough to make the king permanently bedridden under the influence of various spells and artifacts to keep him from the pain.

And Aslot, who had to go through unimaginable pain, having had to sacrifice a small portion of his soul. He hadn't thought he would ever use it again. But today, he met a monster who he had to kill at all costs. After all…

'The members of the Soul Septis are just better off dead.'

Even though the boy hadn't awakened his bloodline, he just couldn't let the fight continue any longer. He had to destroy his soul.

After taking a long time to recover, Aslot finally turned to look at Axel's dead body.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

H…..O….W?????????????????????????????????/

Aslot Regius Vanox, the King Slayer, the Betray, the Royal Relic wielder… screamed like a little girl when he saw what he saw.

Axel's body was lying on the ground with its back turned toward him. His hands and feet had been broken, laid out at odd angles. Only his head had been turned 180 degrees, facing towards Aslot.

But that wasn't the reason for his shock.

Calm eyes, very much alive, were looking back at him. They were burning with a bright amber glow.

'How.... How how how howhowhowhowhow???!!!!'

The certainty of death was 100%. It was simply not possible to survive that attack.

First of all, the probability of being able to defend his soul from that spell was 0. Like how the people in the outer world can't survive the Killing curse, you can't survive the soul extinguisher, granted that someone does have the ability to cast it successfully.

There has only been one survivor until now, the previous king. But that lucky bastard only survived because the Royal Relic blocked most of the damage. Axel obviously does not have the Royal Relic, then how the hell did he manage to block it?

But, that is only the first hurdle. The pain is not survivable. The spell is designed to completely disintegrate the soul. Just voluntarily extracting a little bit of his soul magic through a structured procedure had him unconscious for almost a long time. That is not even comparable to what the spell does to the target's soul.

So, even if you block most of the spell, you can't escape the pain.

The Royal Relic protected the king from most of the damage, but the rest was enough to cause him pain that has left him bedridden, only surviving by minimizing the pain through various artifacts.

The damage to Axel's soul was much, much severe. Before Aslot lost consciousness, he had noticed that the spell had already permeated Axel's soul completely, meaning…. Simply, Death.

The pain experienced in the very 0.1st second should have been enough to send him into unconsciousness, unable to defend his soul. If he's still alive, that means… that means…

'The bastard… stayed conscious throughout the process!'

Not only that, but he actively tried to protect his soul from disintegrating, holding it together.

'Mother Ocean… w-what kind of creature is this?' Aslot could see that even though Axel had suffered a lot of damage, but due to the awakening of his Bloodline, his soul was already starting to recover.

Aslot attacked instantly, trying to kill the boy, but the water attack was incomparably weak. He still hadn't recovered from the last attack. The pain was so much that he couldn't really muster enough focus. It was the same reason why Axel was also lying dead, unable to move.

'''''Hahhh… didn't expect me to survive… did you?'''' An eerie voice sounded in his head.

'Of course I didn't!' Aslot screamed in his head. The spell was supposed to end Axel, leaving Aslot with plenty of time to recover. But somehow, the bastard survived, and now they're both in a situation where they can't muster enough strength to attack each other.

Axel blocked Aslot's clumsy attack with a clumsy defense of his own.

''''You really succeeded, oldy. Almost.''''

'How are you still alive?!'

The voice began chuckling despite sounded extremely pained

''''Didn't I tell you? I will survive… no matter what.''''

This time, Aslot lost it. " Then hear this: I… will… Kill You… NO MATTER WHAT!"

The Royal Trident exuded power and a ball of water rose up in the air. It became smaller and smaller, and smaller.

A powerful energy began emerging from the ball, but Aslot still didn't stop. He compressed it further and further.

"Hey… Stop!" Having gain a huge amount of knowledge on water arts, Axel realized what Aslot was trying to do.

If you keep compressing the water, make some changes into its composition, mobilize all of the magic in it, you could theoretically create an Armageddon level of energy.

Axel quickly mobilized his water to stop Aslot, but even though Aslot had gotten weak, Axel had gotten even weaker.

"Are you seriously trying to do this? You think you can do it with how weak you are?" Asked Axel as he attacked Aslot instead. The amount of energy required would be too much, certainly not enough for the current Aslot.

But Aslot didn't seem to care about the damage at all, only focusing on compressing the water ball, which was beginning to have a really ominous energy by now.

Aslot chuckled. "Who said I was going to use my own power?"

A storage space manifested in the air, from which Aslot brought out a circular object. "Do you recognize what this is?"

Axel, of course, had no fucking clue, but… the key in his storage space was reacting strangely to it.

"We call it the dimensional bomb. It blew up in the middle of the kingdom, ignoring the protective wards."

'Fuck#$#$#$' A string of curses left Axel's mouth. The bombs that blew up on his first day of arrival at Atlantis... Aslot had been hiding one of them all this time.

He had some idea of the bomb's power. It can blow up with that much power despite the restricting wards. Then, with that much…

'It is actually possible!'

Aslot might just succeed in creating the biggest, most powerful explosion Axel had ever witnessed. With an explosion that bad, even Theron's relic wouldn't be able to protect Axel.

Aslot began chuckling as he saw fear in Axel's eyes for the first time. "You know what the funny thing is? These bombs were made through particles of the key that your parents destroyed."

'Okay, now I know.' Axel now at least knew the reason he was going to die. Apparently, the particles of the key make for very good explosion materials. Thanks, mother and father.

"Don't do it, old man. We'll both die!" Said Axel, his previous bravado gone.

"The Royal Relic will protect me!" Aslot laughed. "It might take a few months for me to recover my body, but it would be worth it if I can get rid of you!"

'Crazy geezer!' Axel never met a more lunatic opponent. The old man had gone senile, going to such extreme measures just to kill. 'I'm really not worth it!' He wanted to scream.

All the strategies to kill this guy had gone down the drain these two back to back suicidal attacks. According to his calculations, he should have had more time preparing before going on the offensive.

"This is the final farewell, Axel Regius Arhunt. You, really have been, the greatest one."

"Stop!" Yelled Axel. The first thing he did was to take out Theron's armor and squeeze in. He then tried stopping the bomb, but it went off instead.

*Click*

'I'm dead.' The unactivated Relic wasn't enough to protect him this time.

At this moment of death, Axel's mind went into overdrive, as everything seemed to happen in slow motion. A huge amount of energy was released at once, enough to trigger the chain reaction Aslot had been intending to create.

'Wait, the energy!'

Aslot had used to energy of the bomb to trigger the explosion. But, that energy could also be put to another purpose!

[Limit Break]

Axel used limit break for the second time in a row for the first time. It was painful, and could only squeeze very little energy. But, it was enough.

[Water Monarch]

Water gripped the Royal and Trident and threw it in the middle of the explosion. And just before the explosion reached him, Axel put everything into a single skill.

[UNSHACKLE]

...

A.N.: So? Worth the wait?

Powerstones! For today and tomorrow.

Next: That brat... Is the Crown Prince?

Next next: Princess arriving on the Scene

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