Chapter 2 Restoration.
"Vos des!"
"I know… this must be why the cult sent us," Mike gasped, breath ragged. "We have to kill him before he grows any stronger."
"Vos," Kakarai replied, pointing toward Mike's leg.
Mike followed the gesture—and froze.
"My leg… it's gone?"
Terror twisted his expression, then crumbled into manic laughter.
"Ahahahaha—Kakarai! Please… give me your blood! Heal me!"
But Kakarai didn't move.
"Why are you hesitating?" Mike rasped.
"Hi," Kakarai smiled—like a demon birthed from the pits.
He stripped off his robe, revealing a body carved with muscle and a rotted, festering inscription across his chest. The wound pulsed as if alive, consuming him.
"Haha… so that's how it is," Mike whispered, staring up at the bleak sky. "The way of the cult. Let the world drown in blood. Vos… do it. Consume me."
Step.
Step.
Stab.
Kakarai plunged his arm through Mike's heart without a flicker of emotion. Lifting the corpse with one hand, he let it fall over his shoulders like a butcher carrying meat.
Blood flowed down his arm.
It crawled.
It slithered.
It clung to the rotting inscription on his chest as though pulled by an unseen force.
"Vos!" Kakarai shrieked in delight as Mike's body began to sink into his arm, devoured inch by inch. Flesh twisted, bone cracked, and in moments his arm transformed into a monstrous limb—grotesque and demonic. Mike's head protruded from the shoulder, its eyes burning with a sickly green flame.
Kakarai retrieved a massive tome from his storage.
**Worship the Blood River**.
Opening it with reverence, he read in a scholar's tone:
"Vos! Vos vos vo… Vos des."
He nodded as if in agreement. "Vos ehh."
Meanwhile, Dax was not idle.
"You almost had me," he said, rising from the crater. Shattered rock around him crumbled into dust.
Boom.
He floated above the cultists with telekinetic grace.
"Oh? They're preparing something." His eyes narrowed as Kakarai completed the horrific ritual.
Interesting.
He picked up Mike's missing leg and took a slow bite, as casually as eating dried meat.
"Father!"
A scream tore down from the heavens.
The ground trembled.
The world shivered.
Rain began to fall.
Pat.
Pat.
Pat.
"It's raining…" Dax lifted his palm. Crimson droplets splattered against his skin. "Blood?"
Ding.
Ding.
Ding.
**Congratulations, Master. You have broken 105 chains.**
**Restoring physical body to the Trait Master realm.**
"Ahhhhh," Dax hummed, vibrating with satisfaction.
He looked at Kakarai, delighting in the cultist's horrified expression.
"Fucking bug."
Dax crossed his legs in midair, settling into a serene lotus posture. A black hole materialized behind him, two radiant halos stacked above his head. It was gentle at first… then ravenous—devouring every drop of blood falling from the sky.
Vo!
Vosss!
Kakarai trembled under the crushing pressure pouring out of Dax's body. His knees buckled despite himself.
"What are you doing?"
Vabon's voice emerged from the earth as he surfaced. "We need to report back. We've failed. Kakarai—move!"
Without hesitation, Vabon fled, diving through the ground like lightning.
"Damn… that boy is a monster. Why did he let his companions die if he had this kind of strength?"
His body shook.
"The cult miscalculated. I will _not_ die here."
"Halt."
Dax's eyes remained closed, yet his voice carried like the whisper of a god.