Overpowered Awakening: I Became Invincible With A Broken Talent-Chapter 199: Two cores...

[ Your Death Clone Army has increased the attack power of "Giant Octopus" by 25% ]

The notification came after all his clones had sacrificed themselves to use [Death Bomb].

Yet, instead of reducing the attack power of their enemy, it increased it instead.

The increase could even be felt as a powerful, ominous energy crept across the entire city, such that Marlon shivered.

He slowly understood why the giant octopus had not even bothered to attack since its arrival, or why even when they were above it, it seemed very unfazed.

Apparently, it had the ability to not only negate damage dealt to it but even turn the negative effects into positive ones for itself.

Such a power was mind-blowing.

"Could it negate the power of death?"

The thought arose.

If that is the case, then it is much more interesting than he thought.

As he was thinking, he felt a slight ache in his head, and before he could even understand it—

"Are you confused so easily, Originless one?"

He heard a voice, or rather a combination of different voices.

And those voices—

One belonged to Ashton; he could feel the usual playfulness in that voice. Another belonged to Logan, speaking in his usual familiar tone. Another decipherable one was Lyra; the voice held both her arrogant tone before they became friends and her somewhat shy tone after they became closer.

Marlon's eyes widened. His heart skipped a beat as he quickly grasped who had sent it and what they were planning to do.

Levitating, his eyes scanned over to the giant octopus, whose eyes were now weirdly fixated on him. Although there was no way to tell its emotions from its bestial face, somehow, Marlon could feel a little smugness coming from it, like it was purposely gloating.

"How do you like my modification? I was able to copy this ability from your black friend up there..." it said, finally revealing why Orion's powers hadn't worked earlier. This time even, it spoke with the cold voice of the black ice queen, the guardian who had given her life in the beginning for Marlon, resulting in another wave of self-blame that he shook away quickly.

"Those tinglings from your little clone army earlier, they were really interesting. Can you send them again?" it spoke again telepathically, this time with the voice of Crimson Sterling.

'She is dead?'

But it resulted in confusion in Marlon's mind. The last he saw her, she was alive, rescuing hunters alongside Douglas Payne.

"You don't know?" 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The giant octopus spoke again in her voice, a hint of teasing in it.

"She pleaded for her life before it was taken... She couldn't really put up a fight. All she wanted was her brother and you, the Originless one. What a show she put on. If only I could replay it again."

Marlon's face twisted.

Was it true that she was dead? he wondered, or was this being simply trying to toy with him so he could lose his cool and attack senselessly?

A large part of him believed it was the former. But another part wanted to believe it was the latter. He really could not bear to lose another person he was close to in this world.

The giant octopus seemed to be able to read his thoughts as it suddenly started laughing in a voice he recognized after a few seconds.

Axel Storm.

'It is toying with me.'

Marlon concluded.

He fell for the Crimson part, but he could never fall for this one.

Somehow, he discovered he could access the telepathic link with the giant octopus, just like with Orion's.

"You're smarter than your colleagues I've killed so far," he responded. "I think, except for the second-ever weak aurax I killed, you're the first to actually try some sort of psychological warfare before the main battle even begins."

"But what makes you think being all big can actually rescue you from the same power that killed the others?" Marlon did not hold back.

There was silence in the telepathic link between the two. From the other link, he could still hear the faint voice of Nox pleading with him. Fortunately, they were still alive, and for some other good reason, the giant octopus did not seem aware of the telepathic link. It would've made things a lot worse.

And to his surprise, Orion had been able to hack into the telepathic link, with the beast being unaware.

He was smart enough not to interrupt the flow.

He spoke to Marlon through his own telepathic link. He even advised Marlon on a specific direction to ask his questions, to find out something that would determine how difficult it would be to defeat it.

Marlon easily grasped what he had to do. Without pondering too much about it—obviously because it might be able to catch on—he proceeded.

He asked questions in disguise.

Beginning with casual ones, like making it prove and describe the scene of his friends dying and also the one with Axel Storm.

Its response proved a lot of things — it didn't really have the power to see the past. It could only read one's memory to a certain level and learn about the people they cherished, and then imitate their voices.

For example, it described the death of Ashton, Lyra, and Logan much differently than it had actually happened.

And Marlon discovered its description was just like he had dreamt of it. In the dream, Marlon appeared to be present at the venue and time of their death.

It couldn't even tell it was the feral aurax who had killed them and brought their corpses to him.

After learning about this aspect of its powers, Marlon twisted his own thoughts and memories through a trick that Orion taught him on the spot.

He imagined a fabricated story of how he had actually killed the aurax, depicting his killing move as his body glowing in a divine white glow, and then him killing them with a single punch.

He made this imagination obvious, and then when he asked, the giant octopus described it just as he imagined, and this finally solidified Marlon's expectation.

He sneakily checked how much time was left for Prince of Death, and at the moment there were only ten seconds.

Marlon heaved a sigh of relief, then he wrapped his fist with divine energy as he blasted toward the octopus.

Even before he arrived, the massive creature began gloating, using the different voices.

"Look... He is coming... I am scared..." it said in Ashton's voice.

"Please don't hurt me," it used Lyra's sweet, feminine voice.

Marlon closed the distance with it, still pretending as though his attack was the divine punch.

And then, just as he was close enough, he activated Prince of Death.

[Aura of Death] fluctuated across the entire river.

The massive eyes of the octopus fluttered open in confusion and terror.

For the first time, it revealed and moved its gigantic tentacles out of the river. Its tentacles were up to three dozen, each one so massive that they could wrap around a ship.

All the tentacles serpented toward Marlon's position in a flash, tearing through the air with terrifying speed.

The river beneath them split violently as the colossal limbs surged upward, displacing thousands of tons of water. The night sky was swallowed by the shadow of its rising body.

For the first time since its appearance, the giant octopus truly moved.

And for the first time, it reacted with fear as [Aura of Death] spread even further in a suffocating wave.

The water began to darken unnaturally. The surface of the Shadowfen River trembled as though existence itself rejected the presence of the skill.

Marlon ignored the approaching attacks.

He easily maneuvered through the limbs and reached the head of the massive creature.

He could see the fear in its eyes. It could not speak unless telepathically through borrowed skills; as a result, it could not reveal its fears.

Marlon did not even seem to hold any sort of grudge against it, unlike with the feral aurax.

With a casual activation of [Absolute Death Strike],

The instant death began.

The massive body began to age rapidly, corroding as swiftly as one would blink an eye.

In an instant, the titanic water creature turned to dust and vanished.

And unlike its other colleagues Marlon had slain, two true cores fell.

Both index-3 ones.