Soul of Negary

As Agustin’s lifeless body fell on the pile of bones below, the body of Negary who was standing behind him had already been burnt to a crisp, almost like charcoal.

“Is he dead?” Jason kept his bow raised at the charred body.

“Unlikely” Chris suppressed his feelings of grief and answered with a solemn tone. From seeing Bukittel’s final words, he knew that Negary’s body was formed from many layers, and despite how powerful Augustin’s Right of Sacrifice was, the most it could do was probably kill Negary just once.

Cracks slowly formed around the charred body and broke apart, a piece of writhing black flesh fell out and landed on the bone-filled ground. It then immediately leapt towards Augustin’s corpse and jumped into his body from the hole on his chest, essentially replacing the heart that had been ripped out.

Black tentacles began to stretch from the black pieces of flesh and quickly filled Augustin’s body to form a complicated black pattern right underneath his skin. As Augustin’s body staggered and stood up, his originally pristine white skin was now filled with shiny, black tattoo-like patterns.

〖 I really can’t underestimate any of you 〗 Augustin, or perhaps Negary, once again opened his mouth to speak. He didn’t seem too angry about his body being destroyed, on the contrary, he was actually feeling quite glad instead.

“Negary, without your body, you’re no longer impossibly powerful! Your defeat is imminent!” Chris took a deep breath with a solemn look in his eyes: “You were too arrogant!”

As Chris made his solemn declaration, he was already charging straight at Negary and swung his Silent Punch towards Negary’s chest.

〖 Chris, you can’t defeat me. Do you really think I’ve been doing nothing but wasting time fighting all of you for so long? 〗Negary grinned: 〖 Whether it was against Smick or against you, I had been doing my best to hold myself back while fighting 〗

〖 Even Augustin’s Right of Sacrifice was something I half-purposefully received 〗Negary’s breathing began to change, his existence itself began to harmonize with his surroundings, a large number of germs within the air began to gather towards Negary and fully covered Augustin’s body.

〖 All of that was for your [Respiratory Art]! 〗Negary joyfully laughed: 〖 My control over germs had already reached its limit a long time ago, and your [Respiratory Art] that works by harmonizing with the natural rhythm was exactly the key I needed to break through this limit 〗

〖 After learning it through your battles, I found that my viral body couldn’t perform this technique no matter how much I tried. Apparently, the [Respiratory Art] had a secret limitation that made it so only humans could perform it 〗as more germs gathered around Negary’s body, his physique slowly grew larger: 〖 But that is no longer relevant. When the environment surrounding me is nothing but my germs, my breathing can harmonize with their rhythm over a 100 times more than you humans ever possibly could! I am the perfect lifeform! 〗

“This rhythm!” Chris was shocked. Just as Negary had said, there was a limit to how much a human could use [Respiratory Art] to harmonize with their environment. Even a genius could only harmonize their rhythm to a certain degree, as this was the limit of being human.

For this reason, most [Respiratory Art] practitioners placed emphasis on how to utilize their rhythm, but Negary was different. Negary replaced ‘breathing’ with his ability to control germs, and the ‘environment’ with the germs he controlled, allowing him to harmonize with his surrounding rhythm over 100 times more than a human could ever achieve.

He could easily sense more of the rhythm around himself, and by utilizing this rhythm that exceeded a human by 100 times, he could perform any tricks or techniques that other practitioners could over 100 times better.

When Negary’s body had grown to become over 3 meters tall from the germs that gathered around his body, several tentacles sprouted behind his body, thoroughly solidifying his image as a giant naked monster. He raised his hand towards Chris: 〖 I believe you call this trick Absorption Rhythm, correct? 〗

An immense suction power suddenly manifested and acted on Chris’ body, he staggered, unable to resist being pulled towards Negary’s hand.

Normally, Absorption Rhythm could only be used to make objects within a certain distance stick close to the practitioner’s body without falling off, but as Negary’s current body was harmonized with his environment by over 100 times, the suction power had also been increased to be over 100 times stronger. Chris couldn’t resist it at all.

“Negary, the practitioners of [Respiratory Art] all follow a certain ancient covenant, a rhythm cannot extinguish another rhythm! Now that you’re also a [Respiratory Art] practitioner, you also mustn’t go against this covenant” Chris declared this as he was caught in Negary’s hand.

〖 Do you honestly believe that I would follow such a laughable restriction? 〗Negary mocked.

“Then I have no other choice!” Chris muttered in a low voice: “Although I already knew that this day would come sooner or later, I still can’t help but feel emotional doing this”

〖 Now, become a part of me, Chris, or should I say, Sakri! 〗Negary pointed out Chris’ secret.

During the snow mountain escort all those years ago, the real Chris did not actually survive. Even though he had [Respiratory Art], he was still only human. On that snow mountain, the two of them faced the pursuing troops and defeated them, but Chris was also heavily wounded. Being stranded on the snow mountain without proper medical aid, he could only succumb to his death.

Sakri could still remember clearly the last words that Chris left him as he clutched his hands.

…

“This world needs hope, Sakri, I have something to ask of you” Chris was already incredibly weak, but he spoke with resolve in his eyes: “This continent will soon be plunged into darkness, and everyone needs the fire called ‘hope’ within that darkness”

“Sakri, replace me and become a legend, you will become the fire of hope for both yourself and others”

…

Afterwards, Sakri brought Chris’ memento tokens with him out of the snow mountain, he compiled the old stories Chris told him in the snow mountain into the now-famous novel, then ruined his own face to replace and become Chris.

Year after year, especially during the last few years, Sakri had fully embraced and became Chris the undefeated legend, encouraging countless people to choose the path of an adventurer. Like how he originally inspired the Crowmen Nozades, he had indeed become a symbol of hope for many.

“The name of Chris will become an eternal faith, and I have no regrets!” recalling the last card he had up his sleeves, Chris’ scar-filled face displayed a terrible, yet also beautiful grin: “[School of Firewood], Ultimate Secret Art: Firewood Links The Fire!”

Chris’ rhythm surged forward and forcefully invaded Negary’s body, attempting to change his rhythm. The wills and thoughts of all [School of Firewood] practitioners in history were also infused into Negary. Besides the [Respiratory Art] skills and techniques, there were also their beliefs of justice, hope and glory that tried to alter Negary’s personality.

The [School of Firewood] only had this single Secret Art, the main use of which was to allow an inheritor to quickly learn all the skills and techniques of [Respiratory Art] and increase their rhythm to its limit in an instant. Back on the snow mountain, it was because he had accepted this Secret Art that the bard Sakri could become and replace Chris so quickly.

〖 You think these boring notions and thoughts can change my thoughts, human! 〗Negary endured the mental interference of these thoughts and angrily declared.

“Light Secret Art: Streaming Blade of Light!” a cutlass pierced into Negary’s body and accurately hit the black blob of flesh within his chest, then unleashed intense light and heat.