The Villain's Apocalypse-Chapter 51: Fusion
Chapter 51: Fusion
He lifted his hand and gently plucked the Orb of Elementus from the staff, letting it hover freely above his hand. The orb was breathtakingly beautiful up close, filled with countless colorful lights swirling inside its glassy body.
Each light represented a certain element, for example, red represented fire, crimson red represented blood, blue represented water, bluish-white represented ice, and so on. The weird thing about it was that, the lights were revolving continuously, fusing along the way, creating all sorts of new elements.
’It’s a good thing I obtained its ownership beforehand.’ He muttered, holding the orb firmly between his hands. The orb was deeply connected with the staff, and if he was not the owner of it, then it would have been almost impossible to retrieve the orb, without damaging the artifact itself.
’Now, the final piece.’
He bit down the tip of his finger and wounded himself enough for a few droplets of his blood to pour out through it. The crimson blood trickled down his hand and landed on the rune-inscribed parchment, spreading outward instantly upon contact. Wherever the blood passed by, the runes beneath it were activated, shimmering faintly under the night light.
He then ran his bloodied finger through the orb, creating a weird star-shaped rune on it, using his own blood as a medium.
’It fucking stings, no one told about this–!’ A soft groan escaped his lips, filled with irritation and an intense urge to cut his finger off. He bit his lips and continued forward, resolving to complete the rune at any cost.
’Just a little more.’
The irritation grew stronger with each passing second, being almost unbearable by the end. His lips were bleeding heavily and his knuckles had turned white from clenching them too hard.
fuu
’Finally–!’ He sighed in relief, feeling the faint light erupting from the orb. Unlike before, the orb was reflecting a heavy concentration of crimson light outside, turning the entire room into a shade of dark red.
Unbothered by the blinding light, he held the orb high in the sky and stared at it for a few seconds. ’Please work.’
With those final thoughts, he clenched the orb tightly and slammed it on the parchment.
woo–!
The entire paper vibrated heavily under the orb’s influence and slowly, ever so slowly, the runes began detaching themselves from the parchment, floating upward in glowing fragments like fireflies.
They spiraled around the orb, embedding themselves one by one along its glassy body.
Click... Click... Click...
Each time a rune settled, it let out a soft clicking sound, like a lock being turned. The orb trembled in his hands, accepting the foreign runes and undergoing a merging ceremony.
Then, the room shook.
A pulse of energy erupted outward, throwing back loose papers and flickering the candlelight.
Cassian held his ground, gritting his teeth as he clutched the orb tightly.
Thump—thump—thump–!
The orb’s pulsing grew louder, like a second heartbeat echoing through the room. It felt alive—no, it was alive now, resonating with his blood, his will, and the unknown commandments embedded into the runes.
Cassian could barely breathe.
The runes were no longer just scripts or symbols—they were laws. The very laws that reshaped the entire world, etched into existence itself, now fusing with a cosmic relic.
[Warning: User’s mana is being drained at an accelerated rate.]
"Tch... knew it," Cassian muttered through clenched teeth, dropping to one knee. His Starseed was crying again, pleading with him to stop abusing it every time.
’I’m sorry.’
Even he hadn’t anticipated this level of drain but still, compared to what Genesis had drained from his body, this was nothing.
He sat down in a lotus position and held the orb between his palms, letting it absorb the runes without any interruptions.
’It’s like it’s sucking the essence out of me.’
His mana circuits burned—veins lighting up faintly beneath his skin, glowing like channels of molten gold. The room was bathed in red and gold now, casting twisted shadows along the walls.
’What’s up with these weird artifacts and their fetish to drain the life out of me?’
Chuckling to himself, he started preparing for the next step.
The orb let out a low, harmonic chime, and Cassian’s eyes widened as patterns began to emerge on its surface—spiraling glyphs, and lines of incomprehensible carvings stretching all around its body.
A sudden jolt passed through his body as the orb shook uncontrollably, attempting to escape from his tight grasp. ’It’s time.’
He loosened his grip and observed closely as the orb hovered silently before his eyes, intensifying the absorption of the runes. The parchment struggled under the immense absorption force and started tearing up, countless patches forming around its paper body.
He could only helplessly watch it with a bitter smile across his face.
’Now I understand why the papers were made using animal hides.’ He had to say, the mage, who discovered this method was truly a genius and far-sighted person. He researched and created this entire theory, through pure speculations and the myths surrounding those ancient runes.
’I would have loved to snatch him away, if it weren’t for his lunatic nature.’ He was a completely obsessed, eccentric bastard who wouldn’t even bat his eyes under the presence of the Emperor himself.
’Hmm...maybe I could save him from his future enemies and earn myself a life-saving debt from him...uhh...It sounds feasible but, it requires a lot of in-depth planning and execution. I hate these hard-to-get bastards.’ His thought was instantly cut off as the absorption force cooled down significantly.
After absorbing the last bit of rune texts from the parchment, the orb shot forward and penetrated Cassian’s body, merging itself firmly within his heart.
Thump–!
Cassian’s body jerked violently.
His eyes widened as he felt the Orb bury itself deep into his chest—not shattering, not dissipating, but embedding, like a seed taking root. A blinding light exploded from the point of impact, forcing his body backward, yet strangely, he felt no pain.
Just power.
Unfiltered. Raw. Limitless.
A torrent of elemental mana burst out from his pores—water gushed around him, flames coiled into spirals, gusts of wind howled, and cracks of ice raced along the ground. The elements weren’t clashing. They were harmonizing, reacting to his heartbeat, pulsing with every breath.
Cassian gasped, struggling to contain it all.
[Orb of Elementus: Integration Complete]
[Exclusive Ability Gained: Elemental Fusion]
"Shit... this is..." His voice came out hoarse, dry, and stunned. "This is insane."
His robes were tattered, the room was scorched, the parchment had turned to ash—and yet, in the center of the wreckage, he stood tall. No artifact. No orb in hand. Only the rhythm of his transformed heartbeat... and the swirling aura of shifting elements surrounding him like a divine veil.
