Defiance of the Fall

of the construct as it once again picked itself up from the ground.

He had a feeling that no matter how many attacks he launched at the thing it would keep regenerating, as long as he didn’t use a proper element for an attack.
He needed to use death to vanquish life.

The construct was quickly returning to its original form as Zac’s mind moved a mile a minute trying to figure out a way to destroy that thing.
Finally, he took out an E-Grade Miasma Crystal and launched it straight at the construct like he had done so many times with rocks to kill beasts.

The crystal ripped through the air like a bullet and slammed straight into the golden arm with enough power to push it back a few meters.
The crystal itself exploded into thousands of splinters, but unfortunately, it didn’t result in an explosion of death-attuned energy.
Instead, the miasma stored in the crystal simply spread out like a cloud which didn’t seem to particularly affect the construct.

Zac sighed in disappointment, but seeing the cloud of miasma actually gave him an idea.
He barely had time to formulate it as another ball of light started to shine inside the golden circle on his enemy’s eye.
This was no time to second-guess himself since if that ball hit him like the last one he would likely die.
He desperately moved his arm to his pouch, and the next moment an enormous monolith appeared in front of him.

It reached around ten meters into the air and was wrought from some cursed black stone.
Zac had never been so close to an Unholy Beacon before, and he started to feel nauseated by the aura it emitted almost immediately.
At the top of the monolith a turquoise light radiated outward, and it had immediately started to convert the Cosmic Energy in the atmosphere.

’

Without waiting Zac grabbed the base of the monolith.
But to his dismay he realized that he barely managed to lift the thing, and worse yet he noticed that the attack by the construct was almost fully formed.
Out of better options he activated [Hatchetman’s Rage], and with a roar properly lifted the Unholy Beacon as he started running with heavy steps toward the construct.

He didn ’t want to use this skill at first, afraid that there would other trials would await after this one.
Undergoing another battle while weakened by the side-effects of [Hatchetman ’s Rage] might prove lethal, so he wanted to avoid using it against the construct.
But it was Hail Mary-time.

Zac ’s muscles burned with strain, but the unnatural power and rage brought by the skill pushed him forward.
An all-consuming desire for wanton destruction filled Zac’s mind, and this time he didn’t try to curtail it.
With a bestial roar he finally jumped up in the air, causing huge cracks to spread from where he stood.

The construct lifted its arm toward Zac, but he didn’t care as he heedlessly swung the enormous monolith as though it was a club.
A golden ball of life flew straight at him, but it was swallowed into the turquoise haze at the top of the pillar.
Putting a ball of pure life into the conversion chamber of an Unholy Beacon was clearly a pretty bad idea since extremely erratic energies immediately started to radiate from the monolith.

Zac sensed that the Unholy Beacon was highly unstable even in his muddled state, but he didn’t care as he slammed the tip straight into the head of the Life-Death construct in a thwonk that would make Billy proud.
Life and death clashed in a blinding explosion, and Zac was thrown away like a ragdoll from the shockwave.
Luckily he activated [Nature’s Barrier] at the last second, protecting him from some of the damage at least.

As he was falling he at felt a huge surge of Cosmic Energy entering his body, pushing him to level 74.
He breathed in relief since that meant the construct was truly destroyed and the gambit had worked out.

He remembered that both Ogras and Karunthel had told him that it was possible to turn the Unholy Beacons into weapons, which made him try to use it against the large life-attuned golem.
They might not have meant such a direct method of utilization, but at least it worked out in the end.

Zac knew that there must be some strong death-attuned item inside the monoliths to be able to continuously turn Cosmic Energy into miasma, and his gambit was that it would cause proper damage in contrast to the Miasma Crystal.

’

A groan escaped his mouth as Zac slammed into the ground, every part of his body aching.
But without giving himself a breather he got back on his feet and quickly ate a top tier healing pill as he scanned the surroundings for any change.

He wasn ’t necessarily safe just because he had destroyed the construct.

He quickly spotted that one thing had changed after he had destroyed the construct.
The field the battle had taken place in was surrounded by a gray haze since he arrived, but in one direction the shroud had given way to a path that led away from this place.
However, Zac ignored the path for now as he walked over to the crater with the broken monolith.

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The clash between life and death had quickly snuffed out each other, but not before it had utterly destroyed the area.
Zac looked into the pit and sighed in disappointment when he looked at the mangled remains of the Life-Death construct.
The pattern on its chest had been a great clue to the path he wanted to walk, but it was demolished from his attacks.

In the end he put both the broken Beacon and the crumpled remains of the construct into his Cosmos Sack, but instead of heading over to the exit he instead sat down and started to absorb energy from an E-Grade Nexus Crystal.
A few seconds later a huge wave of weakness hit him as the effect from [Hatchetman’s Rage] ran out.

He realized that one more positive effect of either his improved Vitality or Endurance was that the side-effect of the berserker skill had become far more manageable compared to before, though he still wouldn’t want to start another fight in his current condition.

But he wasn’t completely out of it like before, so instead of heading to the next stage he instead took out one of his Dao Treasures as soon as he felt his state was somewhat stable.
Time was of the essence while the pattern and the Construct’s attacks were fresh in his mind, and without hesitation swallowed it and closed his eyes.

He knew the next step he needed to take on his Dao Path.