E-Rank or SSS-Rank: I Awakened a Skill That Shouldn't Exist-Chapter 294: Destroy The Cursed (109)

Chapter 294 — Judgment

Han’s head dropped. When he spoke again, the calm was gone.... replaced by a blade of something cold and hungry.

"Why would he be treated differently?" His voice was low, each word a cut. "He caused this. He founded the Cursed. He made them...." He pointed at the fallen Dark Emissary, hate burning in his eyes. "He did that to her and countless others. He deserves nothing but death."

LightRunner’s smile vanished. He met Han’s glare without flinching.

"I know," he said quietly. "And trust me...he’ll get what he deserves."

Han laughed once, bitter. "What does he get? This world you helped build favors the strong. Status buys immunity. He won’t get justice....only protection. What he deserves isn’t a prison sentence or a trial. He deserves death." The cold in his face radiated malice. "If you stand behind him, you’ll face my wrath too."

A hot red glow flared beneath the blue of his irises.

LightRunner’s expression shifted. He’d seen Han’s power.... felt the armor, the way the air bent around him. With that suit, Han could be far more dangerous than anyone expected. For a long beat, the older hero studied him, then stepped aside.

"Suit yourself," he said, voice clipped. "Fighting you would be an asshole’s job anyway."

Han moved like a storm....slow, inexorable, suffocating. Each step forward pressed with an unseen weight. Drake, still on his crimson throne, watched Han approach; the blood in his veins felt as if it froze. He’d relied on calculations, contingency plans, other people’s cruelty.... but he wasn’t a combat monster. Even if he had once been clever enough to hide behind systems and status, this, this was raw. Han was monstrous in a different way.

Han stopped before him, close enough that Drake could smell the ozone on him. Drake met his gaze and instantly regretted it.

Something like darkness... no, not darkness, a law... activated inside Drake. The world around him fragmented; the room vanished into nothingness. For a stretch of time that may have been seconds or hours, Drake couldn’t tell, he felt only a bottomless void. The fear of the unknown clawed his heart raw.

And then it got worse.

Space shifted to burning. Searing heat hammered into him until his body shuddered uncontrollably. He tried to scream... tried to move... but pain tore through mind and flesh like a thousand knives. He burned and did not die; the agony was exquisite and endless.

When the burning stopped, Drake found himself chained to massive boulders, his voice gone, his body a ruined thing. He blinked through the haze, disoriented, and then saw the sky split, thunderclouds roaring, lightning gathering like swift judgment. He heard a sound that made his heart trip: the thunderous, inevitable pull of something about to fall.

"Let me go, let me go, Han," he rasped, useless words in a world that had already decided.

The first bolt struck him like a god’s hammer. Darkness swallowed his senses. He did not pass out.... this place gave him no mercy. Lightning after lightning hammered down, each blow a verdict. Time folded. Minutes stretched into years. He felt himself being reduced to a memory.

When at last the deluge ended, Drake was on his knees, mind raw and bleeding. He forced his body upright and saw—boots. A face. Han’s blue eyes, unblinking and cold as winter.

Drake’s breath came in shallow, ragged gasps. He tried to muster mockery—anything.... but his mind was a broken thing. Han’s voice finally reached him, slow and even, the calm of someone who’d already executed judgment a thousand times in his head.

"So you can stay conscious," Han said. "You must have a very strong mind."

Drake let out a hollow, sarcastic chuckle. "Is that it? Is that all you have? Is this what your vengeance looks like?"

Han didn’t answer. Instead the memories came..... all the faces lost, Serenya’s dead, the lab rats, the experiments. Drake’s taunts echoed into a past that smelled of smoke and wasted chance. Han’s jaw tightened. He lifted Drake with one hand, the weaker man dangling like a puppet.

"Any last words?" Han asked quietly, blue eyes meeting Drake’s red ones.

Drake smiled through the stutter of pain, defiance curling like a dying thing. "I will be the one to kill you one day," he said, voice thin but stubborn.

Han’s face didn’t change. "Is that your last word?" he asked. Then he raised his other hand and formed a spiraling drill of condensed lightning.... the blade of finality.

"Wait!" LightRunner’s voice cut through, calm but urgent. From the sidelines he spoke: "I won’t stop you..... but think of the consequences. Killing him now will be marked as a crime. Consider that before you act."

Han’s eyes didn’t flicker. "I know." He didn’t hesitate. The lightning drill descended.

A thunderous explosion followed.... lighter than expected. Drake’s eyes opened. He was alive, bewildered. He was hurt, but alive; the drill had failed to obliterate him outright.

LightRunner caught the fallen man and held him steady. "Killing him would be letting him off," Han said, voice flat. "This won’t be your last time."

He turned away. The battle had cost them—they’d lost many allies; the base was wrecked.... but some were still standing. Even Clara and Mia were alive, and Han let himself exhale. For a second, gratitude and relief grazed him like warmth.

"Thanks," he said to LightRunner, bowing once. "If not for you... we’d have paid for this."

Lightrunner waved him off, "Ah, nah. Your Tryst Guild has done something truly commendable. The Cursed were an organization the Hero Association had been hunting for months, and you just wiped them out completely. Good job... all of you," he said with a grin. "I’ll report this to the others. You’ll get the reward you deserve."

Han just nodded. He didn’t really know what kind of reward he even wanted. He’d think about that later.

The group started packing up, ready to leave....when something shifted. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

The air twisted. The very space around them began to warp, vibrating like the world itself was screaming. Then came the sound—a deep, violent tremor that rolled through the ground, shaking every bone in their bodies.

Han froze. That feeling.... that suffocating pressure. A bad omen crawled down his spine.

"What the hell is that?" Lightrunner muttered, his golden eyes narrowing as he stared at the sky.

And then, he saw it.

Right above the room where Han and the Dark Emissary had fought, the air started to ripple. Reality itself tore open. A portal was forming.... but not like any normal one.

It wasn’t red.

It wasn’t green.

It wasn’t blue.

At first, it was a dark crimson hue. But as it grew, it deepened, darkened, until it was pure black. Not normal black. Obsidian.

Its mere presence oozed dread, spreading through the entire area like a living shadow.

Han’s body tensed. Everyone felt it

... the weight, the unnatural pulse. Their hearts pounded, breaths shaky.

"What... the hell is that?" Little One whispered, his voice trembling as his eyes locked on the swirling void.

Lightrunner’s face drained of all color. For a long second, he couldn’t even speak. When he finally did, his voice was hollow.... cracked.

"That..." he paused, swallowing hard, "...that’s a Black Portal."

He looked up again, fear burning in his golden eyes.

"The worst kind of portal there is."

TO BE CONTINUED...

AUTHOR’S NOTE

That’s the Chapter, everyone!

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– Ultra