Luka's aura warped into something bleak and suffocating.
A formless pressure that fractured the wooden planks beneath his feet. Oblivion shattered and liquefied into a black, writhing mass that slithered up and enveloped his right arm.
The mass grew larger, swallowing his entire upper body and face.
'What the hell!?"
He struggled, trying to remove the slime, but it stretched and deformed as he gaped for air. A crushing weight wrapped his throat like a pair of hands with each desperate breath, followed by an intense heat that flowed into his mouth.
Like a baptism of fire, it burned the inside of his mouth, his throat and then his insides.
"Argh.... It's hot.... it burns.... my insides...."
It was a pain beyond anything Luka had endured in the past.
Once the pain passed, memories and unfamiliar visions flashed before his eyes.
Inside them, he saw Galatea's suffering, the fall of Babylon and everyone he'd met since coming to this place being tortured until enduring a gruesome death.
Dense heat gathered in his chest and formed a ball of blazing pressure.
'Is this how it feels?'
A fierce desire to lash out and hit anything around him grew inside him, despite the intense pain that assaulted him all over. His skin bulged with swollen veins writhing violently as his blood rushed through his system like a whirlpool.
When he faced these thoughts and emotions as an angel, it was like something stopped Luka from being overcome by them. An intangible barrier inside his brain that cut off his anger, lust, affection, fear and hatred.
However, he was human now.
There was nothing to stop them from bursting free.
The blazing sphere buried inside his chest throbbed once, twice and then exploded.
Flames burst from Luka's eyes, nose, ears and mouth as he screamed into the skies, bathed in a pure black conflagration.
A black pillar of fire burst from his body.
The blaze climbed up to the skies, almost reaching the stratosphere, and resembled the tower of Babel itself.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"
The flame burned away his sins, his doubts, his worries and the impurities within his flesh.
It quenched his thirst.
Meanwhile, the pair locked in combat froze.
Their battle came to a pause.
"What?! W-What... My Lord?" Gerard's voice shook as he watched on.
Vagul's eyes trembled as a pillar of flame swallowed Luka, who stood atop the battlements.
The old man rushed towards the stairs, only for them to burn up, instantly incinerated to ashes before he could touch them. "Luka!" He shouited, trying to understand and make some sense of the situation.
Alas, the answer he received was the pained screams of his Lord.
However, Vagul snapped out of his momentary terror and began to shout while bouncing up and shaking his club around as if dancing.
"Gyhahahaha! He's dead! The foolish mortal is dead!"
The strange moment he hesitated almost seemed like a lie.
"You foul, tarnished creature!" Gerard snapped at the Hobgoblin, covered in wounds and tears in the corners of his eyes. Yet he refused to stand down, holding his damaged shield and shield up at the huge monster.
However, a magical transformation started inside the intense pillar of flames.
'What is this...'
Luka no longer felt pained by the ferocious fire that swallowed him. His skin, which had melted and peeled away, regenerated the more he burned.
It became darker, no longer pale and milky white but tanned like a true warrior who fought under the sunlight.
His muscles no longer felt heavy and foreign, each breath no longer felt laboured as if something blocked the passage of his throat.
He glanced down to see his stomach, now tight with faint muscles and a perfect inverted triangle form taking shape. As if Luka spent the past ten years training his muscles. Whether it was cardio, muscle training or sculpting, it was perfect.
Compared to the previous figure, after spending a decade in bed.
"Haa..."
When he exhaled, smoke leaked from the corners of his mouth, and a comfortable, sweet warmth spread through his throat like a sweet lozenge melted with each breath.
"Where did Oblivion go?" He muttered in a much deeper and more charming tone than before, with a little presence and force behind it.
A wine-red system prompt appeared the moment he asked.
[Wrath Form Enabled - View Current Status?]
Luka nodded.
'Sure.'
The system spread into several panels, one showed his attributes, another showed a strange skill named [Inferno] and others.
While the last panel told him what he needed.
[Sinful Record]
[Oblivion (Wrath-Form)]
Type: Inferno Gauntlets
Level: 3
Cost: All Sin Energy.
Duration: 13 Minutes. (10 + 1 Per Level)
• All Attributes: +20%
• Health Regeneration: +130%
• Amplifies the host's emotions related to wrath and regret.
• Can unleash the Devastating attack [Inferno] once before the effect ends.
'This...'
He cocked his head to the side, watching the hobgoblin dance through the flames while mocking Gerard, who fought for Luka. He narrowed his eyes, remembering the scenes of what had happened in the previous world.
Luka didn't care if nothing had happened yet.
Those who sinned against him would receive the same punishment, no matter how small their crimes were in the suffering of his people.
'My thoughts feel so clear.'
He wondered if the clarity came from his baptism of fire.
"Noisy."
Luka swiped the air with his right arm.
When the black blade liquefied and surged up his arm, it hardened into a massive gauntlet that swallowed his forearm whole. It didn't stop at his wrist as jagged plates climbed past his elbow and flared over his shoulder, creating brutal, overgrown spikes.
Dark red veins spread beneath the black metal like glowing cracks in cooling magma as both arms swelled to double their normal size and proportions, with immense weight and destructive power.
The flames dispersed with that single movement.
A small exhaust hole above his shoulders sucked the air violently, devouring the dispersed black flames inside the metal gauntlets.
"A little heavy..."
Luka lifted both arms, punching the air on the spot.
Vwoom!
Both blows created a massive counterforce, as the air snapped.
"...No need to test anymore, the time is limited."
He jumped off the charred battlement, which crumbled the moment he leapt and slammed into the ground between Gerard and the Hobgoblin, forming a slight crater.
Luka quickly rose to his feet.
"Hey, Goblin."
"W-Who are you?!" Vagul stepped back, holding his club high.
"Enough of that, isn't fighting such an old man boring? Let's have some fun." Luka strode towards the goblin, like a lion stalking its prey. "Isn't that what you want?" He didn't look at Gerard when he stepped past and quickly sent him flying with a swift kick.
Thud!
"Ugh... Young... Lord?!"
A tattered, black mantle fluttered in the wind, blocking sight of Luka.
The burned mantle was clearly once white with a clear emblem sewn into the back, the image of a brilliant golden sword and a pair of wings. At first, they might've been white, but the flames seemed to have charred them black.
"Old man, go to the western gate with your knights. Help that foolish girl, Iris."
Despite being the same person.
His new tone and atmosphere felt a world apart.
It carried a strange sense of weight.
Luka brushed back his hair and paused, "Hmm?" He couldn't help but notice that his black hair was now bright red and floated in the air slightly. Although curious about the other changes in his body, Luka could only decide to wait for another time.
He didn't have enough time to check right now.
'Six minutes...'
A convenient timer flashed in the corner of his vision.
It seemed the first transformation used quite a lot of his sin energy and reduced the timer.
"Well then, Vagul. Shall we get down to it? Why did you attach Babylon?"
"Y-You... foolish human!" After sending Gerard away, the goblin became more confident and stopped acting fearful of Luka.
He didn't rush to attack the hobgoblin but tried to gain more information about the attack that would occur in the coming weeks. Thanks to the cold, calculated rage brewing within him, Luka could avoid foolish mistakes.
"W-Why should a goblin king like me answer to a—ARGH!!!"
Luka swept his hand in a slow arc and bitch slapped Vagul with the back of his metal fist, smashing the goblin's jaw.
Thud!
Vagul's body staggered back and spat a bloody tooth to the ground, growling at Luka, who remained calm, and glanced at the back of his gauntlet, covered in blue blood.
"Tell me."
"W-Wait... Wait... Wait!!!"
Swoosh!
This time, he threw a vicious left fist at the goblin's crotch, aiming to shatter his balls.
Bang!
However, the goblin slammed his club into the ground and caught Oblivion mid-strike. The clash of both weapons sent Luka's body floating back several metres, while the goblin only took a single step.
'After all, my strength is a touch lower...'
"...I suggest you start talking, or else I will get angry, and you won't like me when I am angry."
Luka dragged his fist back with ease, then glanced up at the hobgoblin's ugly face. For the first time, he tried to recognise a difference in the huge, hooked nose, the yellow rotting teeth and the disgusting yellow eyes.
"I truly cannot understand why Father created beings like you."
Vagul pulled away from Luka and dragged his club back with him; the initial fear towards him appeared to diminish to anger. "Vagul will shatter your bones and crush you under the ruins of this place! Then... you can watch that pretty female knight—!?"
"Wrong answer."
Luka ignored the pain from clashing directly with the hobgoblin.
A tier two monster still surpassed him despite his administrator rights, granting double the growth per level compared to others, and although Luka spoke with a calm, elegant tone.
The black metal gauntlets on his arms hissed with steam and writhed like a living being as the spikes grew longer and a black flame leaked from the shoulder exhausts.
'So my anger really does power this thing...'
For a moment, there was a tightness in his chest that made it difficult to breathe, but then it vanished without an explanation. He accepted those images and let Oblivion feed off his anger, no longer resistant to the sword's whims.
"Vagul doesn't fear you!"
Finally, the hobgoblin stopped acting pathetic and raised his weapon with both hands, swinging at Luka.
"Ok."
Luka rushed the goblin using his speed advantage to slip past the wide swing, using his right arm to push the massive club aside, opening the goblin up. His left fist floated upward with a brutal uppercut.
"I knew you'd do that!" Vagul howled and used his monstrous muscles to adjust the swing of his club into a sweeping arc.
The air whistled from the sudden movement.
Unable to land the blow, Luka changed his target mid-swing. He threw his left fist at the club with all he had. A moment before the club crushed his head, Luka smashed the incoming club. He aimed at the edge, knocking the swing off target.
Bang!
The club slammed into the ground, and Vagul lost balance.
Luka took advantage, leaping onto the club and kicking Vagul's face. His head snapped back with a low grunt, releasing his weapon and staggering back several steps.
"Nothing but brute force, after all..."
'Two minutes remaining.'
Luka raised his arm.
He gathered these flames of wrath from the start of the fight to empower it. Thinking of everything that Galatea suffered and endured. Although he never asked, the sheer thoughts caused his rage to explode like a supernova.
A gathering of jet black trails of fire gathered around his body, swirling from the floor to his waist until an updraft shot them towards Oblivion's exhaust holes. The flames orbited the gauntlets and wrapped his fists.
He stepped towards the goblin, asking one last time.
"Why did you attack Babylon? Who sent you!"
Bang!
Luka struck the goblin's face with a left hook, and flames exploded, burning Vagul's face, causing him to cower.
This was the essence of goblins.
Despite having an overwhelming physical advantage, the Hobgoblin lost to his own mind and fear. If not for his transformation, maybe the battle would have been difficult. But now it was time for the charade to end.
"Vagul... Vagul....cannot say..."
"Give me a name, and I will let you pass with ease."
The murky eyes glanced up at Luka, who stared down at him without a single emotion, no fear, no regret, or remorse.
The enemy must die.
"I.... I will tell... the person is my master... they gave me this power.... they are—Urgh?!"
Vagul suddenly held his throat, clawing at his flesh and holding it tightly, before a thin wound spread around, like a crack widening. The goblin heaved for air before dropping to its knees with a heavy thud.
His head rolled to the side, and a soft, delicate voice flowed along with the wind from behind Luka's head.
"Huh?!"
"That won't do, filthy rat."
A tall woman's athletic figure stood under the fading night, holding a pair of curved daggers, her skin dark like chocolate, with a pair of golden eyes staring at Luka intently. Wrapped in a dark cloak, cloth armour and a face covering, he paused.
'This woman... is she a dark elf?'
Luka tried to use the Destiny System to see her information.
[Warning!]
[Target is protected by another system!]