Endless Evolution: Last Star

Thread was a tool not only for tailors or weavers but also for musicians. Sure, they weren't the kind of threads a tailor used, but actual strong strings, but it was just a matter of durability, tension, and material, the essence as well as the appearance was similar - to bind, to connect things to create something new.

And... Adam knew this well. His threads could accomplish any task for him, be his whip, his sharp blade, sew pieces of cloth together, or make melodies.

"When you think of it that way, it's been quite a while since I've used that ability. For Plague Reaper, that sound would be like a pleasant noise. But... It's not the same ability it used to be." Adam muttered with a slight smile on his face.

Damien and the others watched Adam's actions with curiosity. They all knew what his Nexus's past ability was.

He had to strike the threads apart on his gloves to cause an eerie sound capable of immobilizing opponents or even killing them if they were much weaker.

But... What was Adam going to do now?

His hands moved towards each other in a slightly curved path, so that the first point where the threads would touch was at the very edge of his gauntlets, not far from his elbows.

"Like this, right...?" Adam mumbled uncertainly, beginning to move his arms slowly.

Adam's movements were most like when a warrior sharpened his sword with a special stone.

His left hand was at the top and moved vertically from top to bottom like a sharpening stone, while his right hand was at the bottom, staying in one place like a fixed sword whose blade was being sharpened, making it thinner and deadlier.

But, Adam's Nexus wasn't a sword, so there was a uniqueness to his movements customized to his ability.

His hands slowly rotated since unlike a sword and a sharpening stone, his gauntlets were sharp on all sides, the threads tightly covering the Nexus like guards sworn allegiance to Adam.

Thus, like two spinning gears, the gauntlets came in contact with each other slowly turning and touching every thread.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

A sound wave emanated from Adam, almost visible as the air shook as it moved.

Damien swung his rods, preparing to attack, but... when the sound reached him he felt no pain or anything like that.

"Agh...? What's going on?" Silvana muttered, puzzled.

In a second, the sound wave should have reached the spectator room.

Until the last moment, Dahla hadn't seen a threat in Adam's ability, she thought this sound wave was harmless, but something made her drastically change her mind.

Step.

Quickly, Dahla stepped forward, creating a protective barrier in front of herself to shield Douglas and Silvana.

Crackle.

A sound wave crashed into the amber barrier, shattering into purple-gray ripples.

Silvana stared wide-eyed at this unusual color that reminded her of something. It wasn't gravity or anything like that, but Silvana felt that the sound had some effect, she saw something enchanting in it.

"Hmm? Nothing happened?" Damien muttered in confusion, glancing down at his hands.

Then, Damien shrugged and stepped forward. He didn't know exactly what Adam had done, whether this attack was a success or a failure, but he felt okay. Then he should keep fighting and see if Adam had something else.

'Agh... What does that mean...?'

Damien's eyes went wide when he realized he hadn't made his step yet.

Moreover, the world in front of his eyes tilted, sinking more and more to the right side, as well as his whole body...

The next thing Damien saw was the ground approaching, everything in front of his eyes blurred, about to darken and send him into a deep sleep.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

'Oh... I see...' Damien said to himself in a weak voice.

Then, a slight smile appeared on his face and his right hand came into motion.

In a heartbeat, the sharp end of the rod stabbed into his leg, blood rushed out along with a wave of pain that traveled through his entire body.

People were afraid of pain and there was a reason for that, but... the pain itself was not scary, people tried to avoid what was behind the pain and its source.

The pain itself was only useful, it showed that something was wrong, or it could help a person regain consciousness by bringing instant clarity to a clouded mind.

Whoooooooooooooosh.

Droplets of blood reflected in Damien's green eyes as he forced his energy to actively flow through his body, quickly getting rid of the negative effects of Adam's sound wave. A flash of pain allowed him to take control of his body, then it was a matter of technique.

"Damn, I didn't expect that from you at all..." Damien said genuinely surprised.

Sure, he had seen quite a few abilities with similar effects, but he didn't think Adam would have something like this.

"It's hypnosis or something, right? If it were me, someone else would probably fall asleep and that would be your victory." Damien assumed, intently looking at Adam.

Adam nodded with a serene smile on his face.

"Yeah... you could say that. Thanks to you lowering your power now we were on the same tier, so it had a serious effect on you." Adam said before guiding his hands to his chest.

Damien's eyes went wide, he realized that this wasn't the end.

"By the way..." Adam stopped narrowing his eyes, he glanced at Damien's leg, "I take it that doesn't count?"

Damien smirked lowering his gaze. There was a wound on his leg, trickles of blood flowing down, but... it wasn't Adam that did it, it was Damien.

"Hah, unfortunately, I can't count that as fulfilling my condition. If you want me to start using abilities, you have to wound me." Damien shrugged with an ironic smile.

"I see... Well, I didn't expect any other answer, since you won't be able to dodge this one." Adam said calmly as if he had a way of making Damien bleed from his attack.

Then, without delay, Adam put the gauntlets against each other, but... this time something was different. He acted much harder and the threads literally pressed into each other instead of lightly touching as they had last time.

Clenching his teeth and fists tightly, Adam's hands went into motion, making an eerie, creaking sound like a ghost screaming for mercy.

Sparks flew off his strands, only increasing the effect.

Whoooooooooooooosh.

This sound wave was much faster and more aggressive than the previous one. For a moment the sound wave revealed its color, it was red as bloodlust, but soon the color disappeared, the wave continued to move towards Damien.

'It doesn't matter that you're Damien, without abilities, you can't defend against this attack.' Adam pondered, casting a glance at his gauntlets.

The threads no longer looked straight and perfect. However, a normal person would never notice that the threads on Adam's Nexus had somehow changed. He could see it with his gaze, there were micro-damages on his threads, they needed some time to recover.

That meant only one thing to Adam - for now, two sound waves were his maximum, after that, he needed to wait for quite some time.

Then, Adam glanced at Dahla who continued to hold the barrier, wanting to protect Douglas and Silvana.

'Yeah... Unlike most attacks, sound has no limits. It's possible to defend yourself with abilities, but...' Adam looked at Damien, 'Right now you only have energy and physical strength. It's not enough to stop the sound wave.'

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

An aggressive sound wave crashed into Dahla's barrier, spreading around like the scream of a raging beast.

Silvana gulped, she was scared to imagine what damage she would suffer if Dahla didn't protect her.

'Unbelievable... I'm sure the weak Light Yellow monsters' heads will explode from that attack, that sound will tear them apart.' Silvana pondered as a shiver ran through her body.

Damien grinned widely exposing black rods forward.

'Agh....? What's he going to do? Adam was confused, 'Without abilities, he won't be able to dodge the sound wave.'

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Damien's hands trembled as energy flowed through them, a lot of energy, and by Damien's will, all that energy accumulated at the tips of the rods, glowing slightly like tiny snow-white stars.

Crackling.

The two tips collided with each other at an angle, merging into one bright star.

Then, when the sound wave reached Damien and was about to do him serious damage, his hands went into motion, causing the rods to separate in different directions, one up and one down.

Thus, for a moment, using energy Damien ripped the sound wave exactly in an area so he wouldn't get hit.

Crackle.

The next moment, the sound wave crashed into the wall behind Damien, leaving considerable damage and many cracks on it.

"Well, well, it seems it's time for us to call it a day. By the looks of it, that was your last resort wasn't it?" Damien smirked before stepping forward.

Adam gulped since Damien was right. He already used First, Second, and Initial Orders, Nexus, Elemental Root, and the artifact.

Power Gene... Well, he didn't know how to activate it, he still didn't even have a clue.

'Whatever, I just have to keep fighting.' Adam shook his head going to use his First Order once more, since earlier Damien had broken his needle, its parts still lay on the ground.

But... disappointment awaited Adam.

'What? Why won't it work?'

For some reason, he couldn't use his First Order again.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Almost unnoticeably, parts of his needle trembled.

At the same time, the same tremor traveled through the recesses in his gauntlets that were still not engaged in any way.