Chapter 186
Chapter 186
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 186
Chapter Title: Ep. 186
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The activation conditions for the Revenant Organ are as follows.
You must suffer a fatal attack that brings you right to the brink of death.
This fatal attack does not include self-harm. It only triggers when struck by an enemy or another creature besides myself.
That's not all. Once the wound heals, the Revenant Organ automatically enters a dormant state.
As its name suggests, it can only be used in a state tantamount to death.
If you successfully activate the Revenant Organ by meeting these stringent conditions, you can reap truly groundbreaking effects.
Upon activation, the cooldowns for all possessed traits reset. Moreover, during its duration, all traits can be used without restrictions.
Among the traits an Aimorph can acquire, those with limitations or cooldowns are mostly Unique-grade or fused traits.
In my case, Unique-grade traits like 'Embodiment of the Hunt,' 'Nightmare Horizon,' and 'Organic Evolution' all have cooldowns.
The reason such powerful traits are considered off-meta boils down to two factors.
First, to make proper use of the Revenant Organ, you need to possess multiple Unique-grade traits for it to be worthwhile.
However, Unique-grade traits are lost upon the character's death. If you push too hard to exploit it and slip up, you lose those traits for good.
The second reason is that enemies know about the Revenant Organ's existence.
If they adjust their attacks to prevent you from using it, it becomes dead weight.
With its finicky conditions, the risks of failure, and the emphasis on passive play...
No matter how overpowered it seems, the trait has serious flaws, so most players don't use it as their main one. They keep it as insurance or bluff possession to fake out enemies.
Of course, with all kinds of people in the world, there are those who actively try to leverage the Revenant Organ.
If you can perfectly control your health and read the enemy's strategies and attacks flawlessly...
Those who meet these criteria can become the true 'Returned One,' the master of the Revenant Organ.
And I was one of those who satisfied the conditions.
Blood flowed from my throat. It was the wound from Jason, who had enveloped his body in a golden form, piercing me.
If this were a game, my HP bar would be down to a sliver right now.
This wasn't a game, but I could feel it. The blood flowing through my body was cooling rapidly.
My heart rate was plummeting, and my brain was losing it from the endorphins secreted amid the extreme pain.
Since coming to this world, I'd never been this close to death.
'Everything is going according to plan.'
The moment Jason drew his Thunder God blade, I'd anticipated a pincer attack. Pretending to go berserk and charge me aside, it was the rational move.
Of course, I hadn't expected him to use a light-beam technique offensively. I'd figured on a different psychic power ability.
Still, I could guess where he'd aim.
'This is reality, so he'll go for the safest option.'
An Aimorph can't use general traits—passive ones aside—if its brain is destroyed. From his perspective, even if he didn't kill me in one hit, creating a situation where he could safely finish me off was the smart play.
'Or consider escaping.'
The blood that had been ice-cold began to warm bit by bit.
A small spark ignited in my dying heart.
The pain from the hole in my throat persisted, but my body was already changing dramatically from just seconds ago.
Each time my Aimorph heart pulsed, the adjacent organ spewed a special fluid. Like fire racing along oil, the liquid seeped through my veins to every corner of my body.
While these changes overtook me, the situation outside shifted rapidly.
Jason realized I wasn't dead yet, and my allies moved to block him. The fight was on.
-
'Crazy! He hasn't died yet?'
Seeing the Morph bastard collapsed on the ground, Jason trembled with rage. With gigantification released, its thick carapace had crumbled entirely, making it look stone-dead at a glance.
But if it were truly dead, Jason should've claimed its perks. Since he hadn't, there was only one answer.
It wasn't dead.
'...Should I run?'
The Morph bastard always ambushed at unexpected moments. It had likely pulled some trick right now, too.
'But what if not?'
In a game, maybe—but in reality, could the Morph bastard really have baited a life-threatening situation?
Fleeing for no reason when it might actually be in peril would be idiotic.
Jason hesitated. The urge to sever the thing's neck with 'Purification' and 'Judgment' warred with the instinct to flee.
'No. No need for needless risks.'
He'd gathered plenty of intel fighting it. Bring the other allies next time, and he could capture it for sure.
With that resolve, he tried activating his 'Third Perk.'
'Huh?'
His body, eroding under blue particles, froze for a moment. Some unknown force blocked him.
｢You! Where do you think you're going after hurting the big guy?!｣
A wave laden with intense emotion stabbed into his mind. Turning, he saw a Sea Demon under the Aimorph's control.
Its body, nearly blackish-purple like the Aimorph's, was covered in grotesque eyes.
Hundreds of eyes fixed on him, and an immense darkness engulfed him.
'Deep Sea Terror!'
Jason hurriedly deployed a psychic power technique to defend against mental attacks. The world plunged into darkness for a brief instant but cleared quickly.
A normal Sea Demon wouldn't have been dispelled so easily, but this one seemed weak.
'It's defective...Gah?!'
As light returned, green light hurtled toward him. Caught off-guard by the Deep Sea Terror, he took the green creature's charge full-on.
｢Big｣｢Adult｣｢Hurt｣｢Forgive｣｢Impossible!｣
"Son of a bitch!"
Seeing the Green Galleron soar after striking him, Jason spat curses.
'Birds of a feather flock together, huh.'
Half-baked Sea Demon, defective Green Galleron. Fitting company for that shitty-personality Morph bastard—full of retards.
'Those wings... I'll rip them off.'
Jason extended his hand, the golden form morphing his arm into a whip and lashing at the airborne Green Galleron.
Just as it was about to connect, a navy energy blob struck the whip from nowhere. The hit section vanished as if it had never existed.
"What the—?"
"Enemy. Eliminating."
Atop the shattered Aimorph carapace loomed a hideous monster, tail raised skyward.
'Why is that here... No, why is it obeying the Morph bastard?'
The appearance differed greatly, but the mechanical-biological fusion screamed Mutant Screamer in development by Chloe.
'Did its memories recover? No, she said that's absolutely impossible.'
Jason knew the Mutant Screamer's ingredients. The original of that genetic mishmash was tied to him, too.
But no time for rumination—a golden-furred beast charged him.
A Griffin with white head and golden fur slashed across his abdomen.
"Fuck?!"
Jason freaked at the sudden gut pain. That was Black Galleron-scale armor, yet it'd been sliced.
The culprit left a stab wound on his belly and clutched a golden spear in its beak.
'Priestess's Golden Spear!'
He knew Muriel had gone to rescue the Wolf slave and snag that weapon en route. Seeing the Griffin with it made the owner's identity obvious.
｢Remember me? You had Muriel slaughter my family.｣
"Fucking Wolf runt..."
The Black Galleron armor rapidly healed the wound, but the shock of the surprise attack lingered.
Irritated, he spread his left hand toward the Griffin. Gravity Control unfurled, unleashing massive gravity over a wide area.
｢Guh!｣
Cracks spiderwebbed the icy floor, and the Griffin's movements slowed drastically. Layering 'Binding' on top immobilized it completely. As the golden form shaped into a blade to dice it, interference struck again.
｢Bad guy! Don't bully middle bro!｣
"Tch."
Transparent threads ensnared him. Jason used 'Morta' to nullify the enemy's psychic tech and broke the Sea Demon's bind.
"Don't be a nuisance, you retard!"
Shaking his hand irritably, the golden form slashed the Sea Demon. Several tentacles severed in one blow, blanching its body.
｢Lil' bro!｣
"Get lost."
The Green Galleron dove in at the sight, but Jason repelled its body outright with Reflection. Smashing into an invisible wall, its wings crumpled messily.
As it crashed and groaned, the Mutant Screamer sneaked up and chomped his arm with its gaping maw.
"Useless...Urk?!"
He'd assumed the armor protected him, but wrong. Strength drained in an instant, nearly buckling his knees pathetically.
'That fucking Reaver!'
Realizing it had absorbed his Blood Leech, Jason swung Purification in his right hand. The black-flamed blade severed the Mutant Screamer's leg.
"Kyrk, mobility impaired."
"Fuck off with your impairments—I'll kill you!"
Truly enraged, Jason swung wildly. Each black blade flash mangled the Mutant Screamer's legs horrifically.
It lost most limbs in seconds and collapsed. Jason hacked at its body in a frenzy of irritation.
"Ptoo. Worthless trash."
He spat on the fallen Screamer and sheathed Purification.
Having dispatched the Morph bastard's minions in short order, he approached the immobilized Griffin. It glared, spear clenched in beak.
"That spear's too good for vermin like you."
Spreading his hand to activate psychic power, the spear trembled. The Griffin clamped down desperately, to no avail.
｢Gah!｣
Its sleek golden beak twisted and shattered. He scooped up the broken beak shards and the fallen spear.
'Got this. Oh right, it's a player—must have perks.'
Debating capturing the Griffin too, laughter rang out. The beakless Griffin mocked him.
"Are you insane?"
｢Heh, heh-heh, kekekeke, you dumb fuck.｣
"Going mad already is a problem. I've got a ton I want to do."
｢Kekeke, wonder if you will?｣
"That's my line. Tortured and still so cocky...Guhk!"
Before finishing, Jason vomited blood. Agony unlike any before wracked him via the blood.
Looking down, a massive bone protruded from his chest.
"What the...?"
His head turned slowly. There stood the bone blade's owner.
"You...you bastard...!"
The figure that had impaled him with an arm sprouting bone blades from its back.
It was the Aimorph, transformed into a new form.