Level-Up Apocalypse: Surviving With The Assimilation System

There was an excited smirk from Corvus as he stepped ahead, "When you're fighting a god, even a bottomfeeder like this one, just one death won't do it–you need to kill them twice."

An intense tremor took hold of the cavern, bringing Finn's focus towards the pool of liquid that the leech dove itself into. Like a drum being beat, the ground roared as the pit of blood rippled—

'Something's rising from below..?' Finn recognized the sensation at his boots.

The tremors increased as he witnessed a massive form emerge from the pool of blood. It rose with such grand scale, spurring the pools of crimson to ripple.

Finn looked on, witnessing what now occupied the cavern; a colossal blob of blackened muscle, presenting a maw filled with dozens of razor-sharp teeth.

"There he is," Corvus remarked with a carefree smile as his hair and cape fluttered, unflinching at the risen entity.

["Sleuth Status"]

[...Assessing information about [???]...]

[BOSS Identified: "God of Leeches"]

[Level: 50]

A vibration emitted from the maw of the godly monster, screeching against the cavern walls. The sound invaded his skull like a parasite, feeling as though it bounced off the inside of his brain.

"Aegh…!" Finn winced, clutching his head. "What the hell…is that noise?!"

Looking over while he himself was brought down his knees, exuding sweat and leaking blood from his nose and ears, the peculiar man looked unfazed by the sound.

"Just hang tight for a few seconds," Corvus said, approaching the leech god. "I've got this one handled."

It was hard to even see as the blood vessels in his eyes were compromised, as if being squeezed by tiny hands.

[//Relinquish your blood. Join the boundless flesh on a voyage of consumption. Relinquish your blood.//]

The harrowing voice penetrated his head with a fluctuation of high and low tones, keeping him to his knees. It was hard for him to even see just what it was that Corvus was up to, only seeing a flash of magenta energy in front of his bloodshot eyes.

'He's completely unaffected by that damn voice…Just who is this guy?' Finn questioned, clutching his ears as he sat on his knees, hoping for the leech god's call to end.

Amidst his painstaking experience, drooling as the godly persuasion pierced his mind, coaxing the blood from his orifices, a gentle voice spoke through it.

"Just listen to my voice, Finn. I've got you. I'm here right now, so don't worry about a thing."

It was like that of an angel, gifted down by a golden light upon his ears like a bed of feathers. Just like that, the grating voice of the leech god left him as his eyes cleared up, finding himself looking at the back of Corvus.

There was something different about the youthful man in front of him; the voice he heard was unlike anything he would've expected from the eccentric, if not immature person.

Around the arms of Corvus, sparks of a bright shade that crossed between pink-and-purple coiled as he faced down the awakened monstrosity. Against the monumental creature, such meager sparks seemed like they'd be nothing more than a light irritant, though something about it felt different. Thank you for reading on m v le_mpyr

'Lightning…? That shade,' Finn watched, wiping the blood from his face as he sat on his knees, still recovering from the ringing voice.

As the cavern rumbled and quaked at the presence of the God of Leeches, Corvus raised his hand, extending a blade forged of magenta lightning from his fingertips to the roof of the deity's abode. It matched the heights reached by the monstrosity before the man wielding the blade of the fulminating element pulled it down.

Like a sword forged from an unruly storm, the extended stretch of lightning was slashed downward, cleaving straight through the blood-manipulating deity. Down the middle, the electric blade bisected the blob of a deity, bringing a downpour of blood into the chamber.

"--That's how you put down a god," Corvus remarked, dismissing the sparks from his hand as he turned back with a triumphant, yet calm smile.

["God of Leeches."] ["Anarch Coin x10000 obtained."]

[Experience Points: +125000]

[Level thirty-seven reached!] [16100/80000]

[Assimilated ability from ["God of Leeches"]: "Transfusion"]

Seeing the colossal creature effortlessly split down the middle, leaving two hanging masses of flesh, left Finn at a loss for words. He carefully picked himself up, looking at the skills he unlocked with the abundance of experience obtained from that which he did not kill.

More than the slain monster, he was focused on the man who had brought it down, watching as Corvus casually brushed the sparks off his gloves before slipping his hands into his pockets.

He tried it again, squinting his eyes to obtain the information he sought–

["Sleuth Status"]

[...Assessing information about [???]...]

[LORD Identified: "The Storm King, Sirius"]

[Level: 100]

What the system displayed to him brought him to blink a few times, having trouble matching what was being shown to him and who the information belonged to.

It took a moment as he watched the kind-mannered man brush himself off, though Finn accepted it, carefully raising his daggers as he readied himself to fight again. The difference in designated levels was astronomical, to say the least, a mere flea staring down a natural disaster.

He could feel that difference now; a suffocating gap in power that materialized itself through a tangible thinness in the air he breathed.

"Lower your weapons, please," Sirius requested without yet turning around.

"You're the one we have to kill—that's right, isn't it?" Finn asked, not complying in setting his blades down.

"You won't get it done right here, I'll tell you that right now," Sirius warned him calmly.

Blood continued to rain down from the split corpse of the gluttonous god in the chamber's center, like a grotesque fountain.

Finn kept his daggers raised, not moving his gaze from the man he now found to be his enemy above all others. He set his gaze on the neck of the once unassuming man. Even if such a degree of power and status was wielded by Sirius, a well-timed strike at his throat would be lethal—that's what Finn felt.

["Blink Slash"] [2:59]

In that instant, between moments far too small to perceive, he found himself not reaching the destination he set for his dagger.

Before he could even get within striking range with the warp, he found himself pushed back by a faster force.

The air was knocked out of his lungs as he found himself traveling backwards instead of forward, barely catching himself on his feet.

As he landed, he looked down for a moment, questioning what exactly had just happened.

'I intended to warp right by him to slash his neck. Did he react to it? No—he countered even faster,' he realized.

It took him a moment to guide his lungs back into functioning properly, resorting to hitting his own chest. He looked ahead, seeing that Sirius remained in the same spot with a calm demeanor without pursuing him.

"Calm down, Finn. You're not going to get the result you want here," Sirius requested once more.

Even though his system designated the man before him as his enemy, he felt no animosity coming from him. In fact, all he could gather from those magenta eyes was a distinct kindness. It didn't change what he knew–that the one in front of him was the obstacle that needed to be overcome.

"I have to try, don't I? This world is messed up—every day we stay here, there's a chance another person I care about will die," Finn contested.

"You're free to keep trying. All I'll say is that if you keep coming at me, I'll have to respond with equal force," Sirius warned.

There was immense pressure felt from those words, as if spoken with raw strength, enough to make his own body question if confronting the man was the proper course of action.

"I–" Finn hesitated.

Before his eyes, the figure vanished before he felt a hand against his shoulder. It took a moment for him to react, finding the trace sparks of magenta electricity in the air as the man casually moved right past him.

"Why'd you come here? Why're you even here?" Finn asked, turning around to face the perplexing figure.

"That's a good question," Sirius responded, slipping his hands into his pockets in thought. "I guess I wanted to see what kind of people were coming into my world. If they were vile enough to send to the storm with a wave of my hand."

"And?" Finn asked further, not yet unlacing even a single finger around the handle of his daggers.

"You're no different than the people of this world. At least, the people who once occupied it," Sirius admitted with a small smile laced with a regretful outlook. "It's a terrible predicament, isn't it? If you want to return to your world, mine has to perish."

"That's just the way things are. There's no changing it," Finn said, keeping himself ready at any moment, even if it felt futile if the man of divine strength considered him a threat.

"You might be right. The choice must be easy for you, right?" Sirius asked.