(Black Lotus Sect Capital)
BOOM!
Joon crashed into a wall, his mouth and nose leaking blood constantly. He slowly sat up, his legs shaking, saying, "You're not making any sense…"
Venrix floated towards him, "You have the essence of Xiahou Anara inside of you, I can feel it. With her it was the dark trio; Blood, Darkness, and Light, the three affinities that made up of one entity which ruled over the Rune Conclave and the wife of Kyung-Hu, the deity of qi and harmony. But once the demons arrived in this world and the demonic qi grasped hold over half the world, the entity was split into the Blood, Darkness, and Light affinities, making them entities and sentient, children of Kyung-Hu and the one entity."
"Why…are you telling me this…?"
"I'm letting you know how important you are to me, I'm letting you know you won't be able to survive this journey you seek after, but under my care, you'll be unstoppable. I've never seen anyone able to become a true avatar of a deity from the Rune Conclave. The scale of enemies from here on out will be too much for your frail body to handle. You can't win this fight either, and I don't want to kill you, but it won't succumb to me, I would have to."
[Survivability rate: 6%]
'It dropped to 6%. Can you tell me how to win..?'
[As you have noticed before, I cannot aid in informing you how to defeat your opponents, otherwise you will not grow]
'But what about those times you gave me quests..?'
[This time, there will be none. No matter what you do, Venrix will follow, his affinity-lust, is so strong he will not give up until he gets what he wants]
"Bullshit….bullshit!" Joon yelled in anger.
Venrix swooped at light speed, reaching his hand towards Joon's face, locking onto it.
"So what do you say?"
Joon coughed, "Let me go…let me go!"
SNAP!
Joon snapped Venrix's arm, twisted upwards, spun to the side, and kicked Venrix in the neck, breaking his neck with another loud snap.
"Oh?" Venrix smiled.
Joon cocked his fist back and punched towards Venrix's face, but at the last second, he made a sharp bone come from his fist,
Venrix gasped slightly, jumping back to avoid it.
"Hohohoho! You're good. Making that little bone come out of your hand at the last second to catch me off guard, to make it seem like you were going in for a regular punch at first."
Joon stood there, heaving as he was slouched over while standing, "I'm not joining you."
Venrix stopped smiling.
THWIIIEENG!
Venrix grabbed Joon's face, and smeared it through the sect's capital houses, leaving a trail of blood, and snarled, "Don't you see the situation you're in?! To have one of the dark trio avatars within my grasp…the Rune conclave could bow to me, and all be under my control. Only then will the demons of hell and the entity of hell be under my control as well! All of them!"
Venrix finished with spring high into the air, a pink and white aura flaming off of him, and spiraled towards the ground at high speeds, ready to finish Joon off.
Joon thought, 'No wonder….Venrix made a contract with Yu Baozhai. He wants to control them all…to be in control, and Yu Baozhai is the exact same way. He must've thought things would go perfectly if he made a contract with someone who shared the same ideals as him..but since we started fighting, he hasn't even mentioned him once. What even is the Rune Conclave? Should I just give up here? The system won't tell me how to win. Damn it all. I bet no one was expecting me to survive anyway…'
They kept falling and falling, the wind smacking them on the way down; he had gone pretty high up.
'Man…I almost had him. If only I had all of her power…Xiahou Anara. I can summon the Centaur..but can I summon her? They never said I couldn't…I've killed people before, but I've never summoned them because the Centaur was stronger than them all. And that's maybe the reason why the system only told me I could summon the Centaur. But what if I try to summon Xiahou Anara…? I have the ability to summon dead things or people I've killed…it wouldn't hurt to try.'
In this dire moment, Joon's resolve hardened, and he turned to a perilous but potent option—the summoning of Xiahou Anara, the Blood Deity, known for her formidable and often uncontrollable powers. As he prepared for the invocation, a warning flashed across his vision, the system registering his intent:
[Warning: Summoning Xiahou Anara involves significant risk. Outcome is unpredictable and potentially hazardous to the user's life force. You are trying to exceed your own limits, as you have done before by absorbing Xiahou Anara's essence. You have the ability to surpass your own limits by doing what seems to be the impossible, but this is fatal. Proceed? Y/N]
'I don't care!'
Ignoring the warning, his mind fraught with images of his fallen comrades, Elara screaming for him, and the look he and Caelan gave each other, Joon clenched his fists and selected [Y]. The world around him seemed to shift, blurring at the edges as he was mentally transported to a vast field, drenched in an endless sea of blood under a crimson sky. There, the silhouette of Xiahou Anara appeared in the distance, her presence as majestic as it was terrifying.
Joon reached out towards her, his hand trembling. At first, the more he reached, the further she seemed to drift away, like a mirage fuelled by desperation.
'Don't leave….don't leave…'
Ignoring the growing ache in his limbs and the pulse of blood in his ears, Joon pushed his willpower to its limit, his hand finally clasping hers.
Xiahou Anara said nothing.
Suddenly, the system chimed with the outcome of his reckless gambit:
[Xiahou Anara, the Blood Deity, has been summoned. She will not be able to be summoned again, if you survive]
Joon cried, "I did it..I did it…" His tears ran down his cheeks and flicked off of his chin, and he wiped them, the back of his hand mixed with dirt, blood, and tears.
'I've done the impossible many times before…like back then, I agreed to fight Xiahou Anara when I felt I had no choice, but the system didn't want me to. I would feel there were no other options besides taking the risk. Is that what life's about? What about revenge? Doing things no matter what? When I'm out of options, I try and do the impossible, to at least win? Instead of doubting myself and giving up easily, does this show there's always another way If I just surpass my own limits…and the systems limits… matter the cost?'
KATHOOM! Back in the physical world, Joon kicked off of Venrix, and slid across the ground, the blood from Joon's own body began to stir, writhing and coalescing into a towering figure above him. Xiahou Anara materialized, her form massive and awe-inspiring, composed entirely of the blood drawn from the chaos around them. In her hands, she wielded a colossal sword, the blade etched with glowing blood qi-runes, her eyes blazing with a fierce, ominous light.
[Only those who can surpass the limits of the system itself. This is why I have chosen you to be the system's host. One who is able to break it with just willpower and raw talent..]
Venrix laughed, "YES! YES!" His hand formed a white and pink scepter, which he raised high in the air, and pink and white jagged crystalline structures surrounded the entire capital, to lock them both in for a good fight.
[You were able to figure out the true nature of your summoning ability. In which I hid from you on purpose to see if you would do the impossible. But for this, summing a deity as powerful as Xiahou, it will kill you 100%. This is the choice you have made. But this all just goes to show, Joon..]
Joon smiled, "Yes?"
[You are truly not human]
[Quest update: Kill Venrix, the Deity of Lust]
[But in order for you to increase your chances of not dying to Venrix with a 60% rate, you must attach yourself to Xiahou Anara, combining your might will keep you alive long enough, but that's if Venrix doesn't kill you]
As her form stabilized, Joon, worn and bloodied, flashed a malicious smile. He leaped on top of Xiahou Anara, and molded into her back, only half of his body was out, and a glowing red and black halo formed over his head. Despite the immense power looming overhead, his voice rang clear with defiant triumph, pointing at Venrix, "I'll summon you next..."
Venrix, still high above, regarded the new development with a mixture of curiosity and disdain. "What's that mean?" he asked, his voice echoing strangely in the blood-charged air. "Ohh! I get it! That means you'll beat me! Hahaha! And you actually summoned her! You actually summoned her! The Blood Deity, Xiahou Anara! One of the deities of the dark trio! Once apart of the entire essence of Kyung-Hu's bitch of a wife."
Joon's smile didn't waver as he met the gaze of the Lust Deity. "Let's go all out!" He declared, his tone laced with the promise of vengeance and retribution. In his eyes burned the fires of forthcoming battle—a clash between deities, catalyzed by the will of a desperate mortal.