Thorian, with one swift swing of his blade, cut off the Masked Woman’s hand holding the rune spear with which she was fighting, and unlike his foolish enemy, he was not arrogant enough to let her have a chance to recover.

He had no such intention and wanted to finish her off as soon as possible. So, he immediately grabbed her face while she was in shock at losing her dominant arm suddenly. He slammed her onto the ground just like she did to him at the beginning of their clash.

BANG!!!!

The might of it instantly shattered the mask on the Woman’s face, and underneath there was a bloodied face, but a vicious face of a ruthless warrior who was not willing to relent even in the most desperate of moments.

There was a small scar on her forehead; apart from that, she was quite beautiful and had a gallant face. But the scar did not diminish her beauty; in fact, it enhanced her uniqueness, making her a wild, strong female powerhouse who could not be tamed.

But of course, that was only a secondary thought; the grip with which he held her face did not loosen, nor did the rage in his heart quell, not even a fraction.

BANG!!!!

BANG!!!!

BANG!!!!

Seeing her defiant gaze, Thorian smashed her head onto the ground again and again and again.... 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Until her face became a mangled mess, horrifying to look at, at this moment, he spoke in a thunderous tone, "Damn wench, you should have killed me when you had the chance. But it seems the world is not on your side....is it?"

But that only made the woman laugh in disdain, and that laughter, despite sounding pleasant to the ears, felt ominous in the heart of Thorian, as she stated, "The world had been against me from the day I was born. And yet, it didn’t stop me. Not a single day went by that I did not brush shoulders against death."

"But you wouldn’t know such a life, would you? Your royal highness?" she spoke, overflowing with hatred.

Then she abruptly grabbed the neck of Thorian with a monstrous grip with her left hand.

She whispered, in a voice that belonged to no human, but a monster, and in a language that was incomprehensible to the prince, "Demonic Ability, Sin Amplification, Seven Fragments of Despair."

"First Fragment, Thought of Indecision."

The moment she said that, a ripple of demonic energy from inside of her spread like a wave through her left hand, which was holding the throat of Thorian. The ripple spread to the body of the prince. But the Arcane Adapter did not even realize its existence.

The woman spat the blood in her mouth right at the eyes of the prince; the latter was forced to close his eyes, and using that chance, she kicked him right in the crotch. With her left hand, she flung Thorian away.

She did not waste a second and brought out an alchemical vial from her storage space, a clear glass vial that contained a single drop of dark red blood. If one looked closely, one would see that the blood was moving, almost as if it were alive, or that it was made up of countless smaller microorganisms.

But the woman did not care and directly poured that one drop into her mouth, devouring it. The instant she did so, it felt like hot lava was gushing down her throat; the might contained in that single drop of her Lord’s true demon blood was so overwhelming.

That it overstimulated her demon bloodline to the extreme, and in a single second, her entire torn-off hand regenerated, all the injuries as well as her mana reserves also regenerated completely. Her face and body regained the visage of the wild beauty she was; only the small scar on her forehead remained.

She found that the demonic energy at her beck and call was twice the amount she could usually wield, or maybe even more than that.

Thorian also recovered and glared at her in hatred. In fact, he was so enraged by the actions of this hateful woman that he could not help but think, ’Maybe it would be better to cut off all of her limbs and capture her. Someone as strong as her definitely has an important set of information that would be very helpful.’

He mulled over the matter with indecision.

But the clock of his endless adaptation still ticked loudly in his ears; Yet only if he had listened to the sound of it with more focus, he would have realized that the sharp sound of a mechanical clock’s gears shifting had become dull as if the clock was facing immense difficulty in turning.

Thorian didn’t pay much attention to her arm completely healing, though such medicine was extremely rare; powerhouses of their caliber would naturally have one or two of such healing items upon them in case of emergency.

The woman picked up her spear once more. They clashed once more, sword and spear, the runes on both weapons shining brightly as if fighting against one another. In the midst of fighting with one another using the weapons, she delivered a sudden punch to the prince’s chest.

She whispered again, "Second Fragment, Thought of Reverie."

Thorian also counterattacked, but with even greater force and precise form of technique than her own, while rage fueled him with adrenaline, ’Damn it, just you wait, once you’re captured. I will so fucking enjoy torturing you.’

Thorian grinned with a thought of Reverie.

"Third Fragment, Thought of Negligence," she chanted upon the third physical contact amid their resumed brutal battle.

Thorian was injured badly on his left hand by her attacks, but chose not to heal it using his energy adaptation, as it was not his dominant hand.

He decided with a thought of Negligence.

Upon the fourth contact, "Fourth Fragment, Thought of Pessimism."

Thorian could not help but think that, with his Energy adaptation, as long as the fight went on, he would only grow stronger until he completely countered whatever ability the mysterious woman had in her arsenal. In fact, it was already a forgone conclusion.

He sighed with a thought of Pessimism.

Just like that, one after another, with each physical blow delivered to the Blackvale Prince by her, she chanted the words of all seven fragments of despair.

When the final nail hit the coffin.

Overwhelming negative thoughts had already occupied a part of Thorian’s unbreakable psyche. His adaptation came down to the snail’s crawling pace.

His body was littered with injuries that were not healing, while the woman was brimming with power as a Berserker, and that one drop of her Lord’s demon blood was still fueling her with power.

Eventually, a hint of defeat flashed in his eyes, and he was unable to continue.

The grip on his sword slightly loosened with a thought of Resignation.

But of course, he still did not give up, a ghost of a determination still hanging onto his soul like the last thread of a spider’s web.

But the woman only sneered, her entire countenance shifted, her gaze turned cold and extremely dangerous, for she had already won. And declared with a monstrous grin, "Seven Fragments Unification, Complete Sin Amplification, Thoughts of Despair."

The moment she said those words, all seven trails of thoughts that bloomed in Thorian’s mind, through each contact of hers, all that caused him to lose eventually, when he should have won.

All seven dark thoughts turned into one. As each of the seven was a unique interpretation of the sin of Despair. With the unification of seven, and then further amplified.

Thorian Blackvale was drowning in despair because the truth of what had just happened was revealed to him: how the demonic ability of his adversary had manipulated his very own thoughts.

That was all it took to take him down, the negative emotions already contained in his heart to bloom like a demonic flower. But the most horrifying part was that even when he knew of it, he could not do anything.

Without an indomitable willpower, he could not truly use the conceptual clock of energy adaptation. Without it, his body could not continue, and even if he could somehow continue to use it, he remembered the first foreign thought planted within him: Indecision.

And his adaptation did not work against it.

As his adaptation halted completely, all the special skills that had kept him going also stopped. Multiple powerful backlashes crashed down on his soul sanctum in the form of a mind-boggling, towering tsunami of blackwater.

Countless veins on his skin exploded, his energy pathways became gruesomely damaged, and the prince vomited an unhealthy amount of blood. Redness also oozed out from all of his orifices.

His handsome visage turned completely ugly like a shriveled corpse, his mighty presence deflated like a punctured balloon.

His bright eyes turned dull and almost lifeless. He was drowning in complete and utter despair.

Thorian’s back hit the bloody ground. Darkness took hold of him completely. The woman came closer and grabbed the prince’s dirty hair, dragging him away, just as Thorian had dragged Nox away after thoroughly defeating him, heading towards the barrier of gray mist that was almost at the point of dissipation.

There was a cold smile on her lips which soon turned hateful, filled with endless scorn, "You come face to face with death once, and you just gave up. But I had to face this for every single day I lived, you pathetic Royal bastard."