I watched as countless asuras made their way toward me…
A hopeless fight from the very beginning.
Will I make it out alive?
Even if I die… at least I'll go down fighting.
…No.
None of that mattered.
There were enemies.
And there was me.
That's it.
The past, the future—meaningless. Just empty thoughts drifting somewhere far away.
Only the hunt mattered.
Even cornered like this…
The hunt was mine.
I was going to kill each and every one of them.
"Come…"
My voice cracked.
"Comeeee—!"
An unearthly scream tore out of my throat as I charged headfirst into the horde.
Madness followed.
No—it embraced me.
The hunt took over.
The first to reach me was a wolf.
As tall as me. Faster than the rest.
The moment it entered my vajra's range—
I felt it.
Not just its presence.
What it really was.
A vessel.
A cage.
Something built to hold asura energy in this world… feeding on everything around it just to exist… just to grow stronger.
Something inside me snapped.
Anger.
Sharp. Sudden.
Maybe it was because I was connected to this world now…
Or maybe I just hated what they were.
I didn't think.
I moved.
My atma surged—forced into my right arm.
The distortion around it intensified, reality bending under the pressure.
I ran straight at it—
And struck.
Right after the hit landed—
For a single heartbeat—
The world forgot how to respond.
Sound vanished.
Dust hung in place.
Fragments of stone stayed suspended, like the ground itself had lost meaning.
My arm remained outstretched.
Locked.
The vajra mantle had already begun to fracture—thin glowing lines spreading across it.
And in that moment…
Everything felt… wrong.
Too still.
Too quiet.
Like reality itself was holding its breath—
Trying to understand what I had just done.
Then—
It snapped back.
Sound crashed in all at once—violent, overwhelming—like thunder arriving too late.
The air convulsed.
Pressure tore outward in a broken ring as the ground split, sank, and lifted in jagged slabs.
The wolf—
Didn't die.
Didn't disintegrate.
It simply… disappeared.
No remains.
Not even dust.
And then—
The cost came.
The power I forced into that moment turned on me.
The vajra backlash tore through my arm, flooding into my body.
Muscles seized—then tore.
A burning pressure ripped through bone and nerve alike.
I felt it—
Something breaking.
My arm—
Gone.
Hanging uselessly.
The vajra armor cracked further, failing under the strain, my flesh beneath slowly being exposed.
That's when it hit me.
Clear.
Cold.
"This wasn't a technique…"
The thought came out in pieces.
"…this was a mistake."
I didn't fight it.
When the pressure surged outward, I let it take me.
My body was thrown back—sent flying across the shattered ground.
I crashed once—
Rolled—
Then over the edge.
My left hand shot out on instinct—
Caught.
Barely.
Fingers dug into sharp rock, my body hanging over the drop.
And then—
The final shockwave hit.
Reality catching up.
The mountain trembled beneath it.
Pain.
Everywhere.
My right arm hung dead from my shoulder.
No feeling.
No control.
Blood filled my mouth.
I choked on it, coughing as it spilled out.
Warm trails ran from my nose… my ears.
My vision split.
Blurred.
Unsteady.
My thoughts lagged behind everything.
Concussed.
Burning.
My atma—
Barely holding together.
The vajra mantle—
Gone.
And worse—
It wasn't listening to me anymore.
"…Move…"
I forced it.
Using only my left arm, I dragged myself back up.
Every motion felt wrong.
Like my body was breaking again with each movement.
But I stood.
Barely.
My legs shook, struggling to keep me upright.
I forced my eyes open.
The world…
Didn't look the same.
Trees—gone.
Snapped at the trunk.
Scattered.
The ground—split apart, cracks running through the mountain, reaching all the way to where I stood. Water seeped through them, reshaping everything.
The battlefield—
Erased.
The vanguard—
Gone.
Like they never existed.
But not all of them.
The spider still stood.
Barely.
Its energy weak—flickering, almost dead.
Others further back—
Untouched.
Hesitating.
Watching.
And then—
The snake.
It had taken some of the impact.
But it endured.
Its massive body still moved, coiling through the broken terrain—
Still coming.
Still locked onto me.
I forced control back.
My atma responded—unstable, but still there.
Still mine.
I formed a barrier again.
Weaker.
Thinner.
I stopped myself from pushing further.
I couldn't risk another collapse.
And then I felt it.
The world.
The space around the impact—
Unstable.
Like something had been torn open.
Nature itself was trying to fix it… energy pressing inward, trying to close the gap I created.
And me?
I was done.
At my limit.
All I wanted was to lie down.
Close my eyes.
Disappear.
But—
I wasn't safe.
Not yet.
A few strong ones still remained.
And I—
Was in no condition to fight.