I Refused To Be Reincarnated-Chapter 908: Zero Point Three Seconds

Zero point three seconds. Lulu's words echoed across Adam's buzzing mind. His fingers twitched on Grum'Thal's chest. His mana and qi flowed there in sky-blue and gray.

The core stood opposite, impious green flames flaring across its dented surface. It was an organ... no, a twisted bastion defending a corrupted heart. Its walls were cracked, and its dark surface dull, in a state of suspended transition before the demonisation engulfed it.

It was frail. Wrestling the invisible wall of demonic energy that it raised would shatter it and take Grum'Thal's life with its fragments. But did he have to?

The mental strain until blood trickled from his nose, the protruding veins in his eyes that turned them bloodshot, and his legs barely keeping him standing—they were all for this moment.

Lightning erupted upward from the six cores fueling the array. They cracked in their sockets, exploding into clouds of dust. The energy produced rumbled across the transmutation symbols. The symbols themselves turned into bars of smoke on scorched ground. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Grum'Thal's wails instantly stopped, and his grimace of agony eased. It was warm, full of life force that cradled his cells after their torturous purification. With Bao beside him, he felt... great, better than he had for millennia.

His relief crashed the very next second.

Adam's bones rumbled. The air around him twisted from the aura they radiated. Mana and elemental particles withered instantly.

So did the great shaman's body.

Freshly treated copper skin wrinkled. Purified organs would have already failed if not for the transmutation array that barely kept them operational.

Adam focused on the cracking core. It had to be weakening. To what extent, he wasn't sure. But as long as it worked...

No time to waste.

His lips parted to let a single word out from his bruised throat. "PART!"

It was a command spoken as if the demonic energy had sentience, as if it would obey. Yet, he hurled his energy toward the core with everything he had left in him. He couldn't doubt now, couldn't waste a crumb of a second.

Zero point three seconds. They started now.

Qi and mana wove into a bicolored drill toward the invisible wall of demonic energy. The impact never happened. Instead, the drill passed through the confused lines of defenders.

Zero point two seconds left.

He slammed the drill against the core, shattering it into particles. The drill exploded simultaneously, turning into bubbles of life force to lure the contaminated components.

Zero point one seconds left.

Tidal waves of demonic energy rose around the particles, ready to engulf what was theirs. The confusion dissipated too fast.

It fell into Adam's plans.

Without even feeling the counterattack, he blasted half the energy he controlled in concentric waves. Driven by its hunger, the demonic energy latched onto it, devouring mana and life force in a heartbeat.

Zero seconds left.

And as they did, he rebuilt Grum'Thal's core. Not a dented dark sphere, but an asymmetric lump of muscles that seemed petrified mid-flex. It shone a beautiful dark iron-red with crimson veins running through its surface.

Adam's legs caved in relief the moment he encased the new core with his remaining energy. He dropped to his knees, letting out the turbid air he had been holding in. His bones grew silent, shifting from suppressing to increasing Grum'Thal's vitality. Now, all that remained was to purge the demonic energy inside the great shaman before it could contaminate him again, then purify his heart and head.

He gazed at Lulu, who instantly flew toward Grum'Thal and Bao. "Use your shamanic arts at full force!"

The influx of vitality made Grum'Thal roar. His skin smoothed, and his muscles filled with power. He looked for his staff, but it was on the other side of the table. Before he could crawl to it, Bao's paws stomped on the leather covering the table. She caught the staff's shaft in her small mouth before bringing it to Grum'Thal's hand.

"Thank you, little one." Grum'Thal gripped the demonic skull between its horns and raised it high. His red eyes burn with demonic flames.

"YOUR CURSE ENDS TODAY!"

His voice thundered like rending meat and breaking stone across the entire city as he slammed the staff down. The butt of the shaft splintered on the ground, crushed ornaments flew across the room, and then the skull itself shattered. Blood erupted from its remains, coiling around its conjurer in a raging vortex before shooting through the ceiling.

Adam dragged himself to the window, one hand pinching his nose from the stench, the other drawing the curtains open. Outside, orcs littered the streets, drums and skewers beside them, beer spilt from carved horns, and faces pale. What had happened to them? No, the sky! His pupils constrict.

A colossal, jagged maw of stone, teeth-like spires, and pulsating veins of infernal energy tore the sky open. It looked like a gigantic, hungry mouth forced into reality, dripping molten rock and shadows from a bleeding sky.

If those things hit the ground, the city—no, the entire gorge and its surroundings—would turn into a volcanic region!

As his heart drummed in his ears, the maw swelled.

BOOM

It exploded. Concentric waves blasted molten rock against the gorge walls. Cliffs collapsed while angry gales crashed against the invisible defense of Thaur'Gorath. The bastions, the ground, everything shook. Adam gripped the windowsill to keep himself standing. Even if he managed to, icy sweat stuck his shredded shirt to his back.

So that was how powerful Grum'Thal was... Terrifying.

He turned from the field of utter destruction surrounding the city to gaze at the great shaman. Grum'Thal returned his gaze, clutching his chest. The leathery wing that had sprouted on his back withered and fell off, while his red eyes turned a dazzling emerald. "The demonic energy... I... I can't feel it in me anymore."

Adam wanted to congratulate him, but settled on a raised thumb.

Lulu flew in front of Grum'Thal, her brows knitted. "You've expended the remains produced by your tainted core. You can't produce demonic energy anymore. But don't celebrate just yet. Your head's still contaminated." Her lips curved. "How about we get rid of these ugly, ugly scars, horns, and green skin? Can you manage, Adam?"

With a nod, Adam pushed himself off the windowsill and placed his hands on the grinning orc's cheeks. Without demonic energy to hinder him, the purification didn't tax him much. Soon, green sparks suppressed in deep scars vanished, and horns fell off when the last stretch of his skin turned coppery brown. He checked for signs of corruption three times before smiling.

He had kept his promise.

A cocoon of light wrapped around him. The floral scent eased the splitting headache bombarding his mind, and his bruised throat began to recover faster.

What stood before him was the real Grum'Thal. Less bulky, shorter, but healthy. Delighted, too.

"The elements! And mana! I can hear them. I can use them again!" The great shaman raised his fists, and Bao mimicked him on his head with a cute growl.

He froze in his victorious pose, his eyes locked on the ethereal parchment that tore out of his body. "Grash'Thul's contract!"

It spun around him twice, as if assessing that the deal couldn't continue, then disintegrated into icy soul flames.

This was the final proof, one that made Adam's lips curl into a smirk. "You're officially cured, and the orcs are free from serving the Netherworld Overseer in the afterlife. Congratulations."

****

The moment Grum'Thal was free from demonic corruption, something hummed in the basement of the disciplinary committee building back in the college. Amidst the statues depicting past champions and heroes, one trembled. Its feminine eyes flashed a golden light for a heartbeat, its arms moving to its chest in what looked like relief. Its lips parted to let a word that produced no sound out.

"Worthy."

Then, it settled back as if it had never moved, silent, waiting.