Chapter 152 - 152: Sense Stealer
Vega looked at Caen and said softly, "Caen, hold my books for me."
Caen was stunned to hear Vega's voice behind him, but he responded and took the book off of his hand.
Vega was finally free to interfere.
...
The kids were just killed by Xander, and he still didn't stop as he again used his abilities to create a firestorm that came out of the ground and spread in all the directions, making it impossible for Lucifer to dodge.
Lucifer finally decided against dodging and chose to trust his healing as he flew towards Xander while firing a few Dark Lightning Bolts towards him.
The Lightning Bolts moved faster than the firestorm and reached Xander.
Xander didn't fluster at the incoming attack; instead, he also flew in the sky, stunning everyone.
"What the heck? He can also use his powers to fly? I never knew about this?" Henrik said, surprised.
Caen also seemed a bit stunned but replied to Henrik as he said, "It's surprising but not impossible. He is using his flames to help him fly. Pretty clever, actually, but I must also praise his control and efficiency. This wouldn't be easy."
Xander dodged the thunderbolts, but it was different for Lucifer. The firestorm wasn't dodged, which swallowed Lucifer whole.
Despite being swallowed by the blazing firestorm, Lucifer didn't stop flying even though his skin was burning.
His healing had also started coming into effect, fiercely working to keep up with the burning. Unfortunately, iit seemed like it was having a hard time keeping up as the destruction of Lucifer's skin kept increasing with time.
The fireproof vest of Lucifer also couldn't keep up against the flame as it burned down. His pants, on the other hand, were still intact, but not because they were resisting the fire.
The flames were too strong for even the Cardigan Particles, which was why all the flames were passing through to Lucifer with a little bit of decreased intensity.
Since Lucifer's pants were decreasing the damage of the flames constantly, the damage to his legs was less than the top half of his body which was why his lower half was having an easier time as his healing was keeping up.
Lucifer's skin looked entirely burned, and at some spots, his bones could also be seen.
Ignoring all the damage to him, Lucifer had a plan. He wanted to get close to Xander because he had an advantage in speed. As long as he caught up, he was going to make sure this guy suffered. In any case, he had removed his gloves which were safe in his pockets now.
Lucifer soon came out of the firestorm with his speed, but another firestorm appeared between him and Xander, which he also entered without a second thought.
He wanted to take the shortest route possible to get to Xander because it didn't allow Xander to keep up the distance between the two.
Lucifer also passed through the second firestorm, at which point he seemed nothing more than a skeleton with an extremely little amount of mass on his body.
Tissues of his body could be seen twisting and turning as his muscles healed. The speed of his healing had increased a bit more after he entered the flame storm, which further proved his theory.
The more damage he took, the harder his healing had to work, which increased the strength of his healing.
It was the same as Caen had said. Variants needed to increase the efficiency of using their powers. That didn't mean their abilities became strong at their core, but this meant they were able to draw more fraction of its total potential.
That's why it was said that the more a Variant used their powers, the more their efficiency and strength increased according to their potential and grade.
Unlike the offensive or defensive powers, healing was a passive skill that couldn't be used.
It worked on its own whenever he was hurt, so the best way to increase the efficiency and make himself stronger was to go through heavy damage. That was the only way he believed he could have strong healing.
And that scheme was working as his healing had improved even more. Now it was healing him faster.
But he didn't care about it as he was busy trying to kill the man who wanted to kill him.
Seeing Lucifer not stop even after all this, Xander kept moving back as he brought more firestorms, but he already knew that he had used his strongest flames.
If Lucifer hadn't died even after all that, then something was really wrong. His healing was the obstruction here.
Xander already knew that Lucifer's healing was going to create a problem, but his flames were too strong. He didn't believe that any healing was able to keep up and stop his flames from making Lucifer into cinders.
His flame was obviously destroying Lucifer and at a faster pace than his healing could match, but still, it was taking much longer than it should.
If it kept going like that, Lucifer was soon going to be turned to ash, but that soon was still a few minutes away. He knew he needed to stay away and continue those attacks for the next few minutes.
Unfortunately, Lucifer's attack was making it hard for him to move. He was barely dodging the thunderbolts that were fired one after another.
The distance between Lucifer and Xander kept decreasing until Lucifer was finally within two meters of Xander.
Unfortunately, at this time, something happened. Xander had just dodged to move away while bringing another firestorm when he realized that everything turned black.
He couldn't see anything! It was as if he had suddenly gone blind as his eyes went pitch black.
"Why did his eyes go black? He looks like a confused lost sheep," Henrik asked Caen, who now had two books and a diary in his hand.
"It's the work of Vega," Caen replied. "His A-Rank [Sense Stealer] can steal any one sense of the person he chooses. Even though the effects are temporary, that should be enough for now."