Chapter 245: I REFUSE!
He had suffered enough, had he not? Was dying tens of thousands of times not enough to grant him some respite?
He could give up, couldn't he…?
'If I just close my eyes and let nature take its course, then I'll die,' Cassius thought, his bloodied, mangled body slingshotting through the Gorge.
The [Dark Kraken Dragons] took turns sticking him with their spiky tentacles and ramming him through both other Nightmares and walls. Over and over again—thousands of times per second—they violently thrashed him about, creating a rapidly flashing arc of light that knew no tranquility.
'Yes…' Cassius muttered to himself, his consciousness fading. 'I'm allowed to give up… I'm allowed to die… What do I even require so much power for? I decided that I was obtaining power for just myself, did I not? If that's the case, then I, myself, decide that I've had enough. More than enough… I can't take it anymore.'
'I'm done.'
CRACKA—BOOOOOOM!!!
With one final booming explosion, Cassius's mangled figure planted itself deep into the Gorge's walls. He was shot thousands of meters into the wall, losing more than a dozen lives in the process.
[7,496/7,500 Daily Rebirths]
[Warning!] [Warning!] [Warning!]
[If you don't stop fooling around now, then you'll die for real! There won't be any coming back!]
With a lifeless gaze, Cassius turned his head toward the bright blue screen flashing beside him. "You wanted me to build character, did you not…? I have built the character… Can't I stop now? I want to stop… I don't want to continue building character… I don't…"
WHABOOOOM!
A massive spiked tentacle broke through thousands of meters of obsidian-like stone in an instant. Cassius's whole left side was impacted by the tentacle, sending him barreling through countless tons of stone and out into the wide Gorge pathway. Meeting the eyes of his still-flying figure were the eight extraordinarily powerful [Dark Kraken Dragons].
The hundreds of eyes embedded in their sinuous heads stared down at the bloodied Cassius, seemingly laughing at the pathetic state he was in.
Then, with the closing of the curtains, he lost another life.
Only three remained.
'To die…' Cassius's vision grew hazy and unfocused as he completely zoned out the tentacle coming back for round two. 'Is permanent death really so different from temporary death…? Why should I fear it? I want to die, do I not…?'
BOOOOM!!!
Cassius was once again launched into the air, all the bones in his body broken. Your next journey awaits at My Virtual Library Empire
He blitzed through the Gorge's walls but was almost instantaneously punted back out by the tentacle of a different [Dark Kraken Dragon].
[7,500/7,500 Daily Rebirths] - [No More Chances!]
Then, as if Cassius's whole reality suddenly shattered—when he saw that pop-up—realization hit him like the front end of a freight train.
"I…" he muttered through his own gurgling blood.
With one of the giant tentacles pressing him against a wall, draining away the last of his lifeforce, a fire unlike any other ignited within his eyes. A sudden surge of strength came to him as he unequipped his Newbie 10 Equipment Set. His once limp and numb arms bulged, and with inextinguishable resolve, he grabbed onto both sides of the tentacle.
"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!"
With a banshee-like howl, Cassius activated all his Bloodline Transformations, unequipped the rest of his Newbie Equipment, and fiercely dug his fingers into the tentacle. The tentacle started to bleed from all over, immense pressure causing it to distort weirdly. But before the [Dark Kraken Dragon] got the chance to retract its tentacle, Cassius firmly planted his feet into the wall and gritted his teeth as he lifted up with everything he had.
"!!!!!"
The [Dark Kraken Dragon] let out a soul-shaking roar of resistance as it worked against the puny human's unnaturally high might.
Yet, the human wouldn't budge! It was being lifted upwards against its will!
"I REFUSE TO DIE!!! NOT HERE!! NOT EVER!!!!!"
OOOM!!!
A massive, stifling aura erupted from Cassius's badly wounded figure as all the veins in his body bulged. And as if by some divine miracle of strength, he took the [Dark Kraken Dragon] up off the ground. Its first instinct was to shoot its dozens of tentacles into the ground before it could be raised any higher. But in the same moment that thought formed, Cassius cast the [(SS-Rank) Stasis Movement] skill to freeze the Kraken's grabbed tentacle in place. This made the tentacle stiff, and with its length factored into the equation, Cassius managed to lift it to a height nearly four times that of its main body size, which was also the rough length of one of its tentacles fully stretched out.
The [Dark Kraken Dragon]—not knowing what to do and unable to deeply stick its other tentacles into the ground as tethers—did the next best thing. It called out for help from its fellow Krakens. They left their stupors almost immediately and came to its aid, but by then, Cassius's fury had already reached its limits.
He bellowed out and worked his body in hyperdrive. With one good swing, the [Dark Kraken Dragon] in his hands began to spin, and by carrying forward the initial momentum, the behemoth became nothing more than an extremely large blur. It was swung in circles at utterly ridiculous speeds.
As soon as the other [Dark Kraken Dragons] got close, they were cut up and injured by the sharp tornado-like creature above the insignificantly tiny human's hands.
"DID YOU NOT HEAR ME THE FIRST TIME!??" Cassius deliriously shouted, blood gushing from all his orifices. "I SAID I'M NOT DYING!! I REFUSE!!!!"
KA—BOOOOOM!!!
The original [Dark Kraken Dragon] was launched toward the other seven of its kind at thousands of times the speed of sound. It was thrown at such a ludicrously fast speed that the first four [Dark Kraken Dragons] weren't even able to properly react in time before being shredded to bits. Blackish-red blood and guts sprayed the Gorge pathway, dousing the weaker and smaller Nightmares in a shower of gore.