Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power Chapter 430: Unease

Kaden pondered deeply on ways to overcome the Alchemist, but every trail his mind followed slammed into a barrier of doubt.

This changed when a certain skill came to his recollection—one he despised even though its power was immense.

Death of Sacrifice.

The ability allowed him to slay whatever target he chose, provided he offered the appropriate cost. That cost would vanish permanently, regardless of any time reversal he attempted.

Kaden found no joy in such a technique, having sworn an oath to avoid it under any circumstances. Yet, he now understood that fate rarely passed up a chance to compel his choice.

And so, he found himself cornered, with no alternative but to invoke the skill.

’But that doesn’t mean it has to unfold exactly like that.’ Kaden rolled his shoulders as awareness returned to him, positioned right before the Alchemist, with Rea at his side, her face streaked with tear-darkened cheeks.

A smile crept across the Alchemist’s features, sending a chill of rage twisting through Kaden’s gut like frozen steel. He fought the impulse to lash out, realizing the moment wasn’t ripe.

Killing the Alchemist was essential, yet Kaden required one thing from him beforehand.

"Why, I wonder, do you linger there, little puppet?" the Alchemist remarked, his gaze fixed on him. "I figured you’d charge in like a rabid hound by now. I’ve analyzed you thoroughly, Kaden—or Prometheus, if that suits you better. Your kind is familiar to me."

His grin shifted into one of ridicule.

"The heroic sort, right? But the fighter variety." He shook his head with concealed disdain, pacing casually. "The type who’ll protect those dear to him, heedless of his own safety. That’s how you handled the Lady of Stars, as I recall..."

Kaden’s gaze snapped wide at the mention, caught off guard by the abrupt reference to Aurora.

Gradually, he started piecing together the implications tied to his identity.

"...and that’s precisely what you’re attempting once more, with Rudolph. You’re toying too recklessly, little puppet. Or perhaps it’s not you at all—maybe it’s them toying with you."

He cocked his head in a suggestive manner. "Ah, that rings truer, doesn’t it?"

His glance slid toward Rea, and his smirk broadened noticeably. "And here you stand with the Woeful One’s prize of Greed. Now, I truly ponder if this is Providence at work? She’s been stirring quite a bit recently. But oh... you two side by side..."

A subtle undercurrent in his speech suggested layers of deeper significance, though Kaden and Rea remained utterly clueless about it.

In truth, neither cared to uncover the mystery.

Clarity sharpened Kaden’s thoughts now, his objective crystal clear, guiding his resolve firmly.

To Rea, the Alchemist’s utterances merely stoked the burning drive within her to locate that dungeon.

She sensed something awaiting her there, an intuition pulling her forward, and she burned with the need to plunge into it—no matter the cost.

Thus, it came as no shock when the pair of fiancés locked eyes, a spark of mutual insight igniting between them in an instant.

An unforeseen comprehension dawned, and in that fleeting moment, a profound connection wove tighter between their souls.

The Alchemist’s words had somehow ignited their tie, lubricating and refining it into seamless harmony. Like an invisible thread, it enabled flawless synchronization for their impending move.

Kaden readied himself to deploy Death of Sacrifice, precisely as Rea advanced and laid her hand upon him. A silent exchange passed between them, and for a split second, anguish and concern warped Rea’s expression.

The atmosphere plunged into icy wrath. Kaden mirrored her, a sour bitterness churning in his chest.

Nevertheless, he triggered the skill.

He refrained from directing it to end the Alchemist’s life. Far from it.

Instead, he merely deactivated the runes composing the Alchemist’s form for a full three minutes. And to achieve that,

"I sacrifice the Avatar of Einar," Kaden murmured.

In a flash, the atmosphere roiled violently, and a dense aura of mortality permeated the dwelling without mercy.

For an instant, the whisper of rustling branches from a colossal Tree echoed, sending shivers of terror through all within.

Rea clamped her lip as Einar’s agonized voice thundered in her thoughts, perishing wretchedly to Kaden’s ability.

Yet the most harrowing aspect was that, even in his final throes, even after his sacrifice for their triumph, Einar’s parting words centered solely on fretting over Rea—on how he could no longer shield her.

Rea’s grief and anguish erupted like a surging flood, submerging her in an unanticipated wave of despair that pried loose a buried fragment within her.

Meanwhile, Kaden had closed the distance to the stunned Alchemist, who reeled from the abrupt frailty engulfing him.

The man had no chance to cry out before Kaden’s fist shattered his cranium—the gruesome crack alone enough to evoke chills of horror—in a single ruthless blow.

The Alchemist tumbled to the floor like a massive stone, his left ear mashed against the surface that shrieked and shattered into a burst of debris.

Crimson fluid sprayed from his fractured skull like a geyser, his eyes frozen in lingering bewilderment.

Without pause, Kaden dropped to a kneel before the prone, hemorrhaging Alchemist.

Steam rose from his right fist, a trickle of blood oozing from the force of the impact.

The Alchemist’s frame jerked spasmodically, as though struggling to stir. However, the shock of his runes vanishing so abruptly, combined with the devastating hit, kept him from rousing.

Rea materialized at Kaden’s side, her stare upon the Alchemist laced with ebony tears streaming down.

This time, she yielded to the goddess’s corruption without restraint. She craved it not. In a blaze of fury and loathing toward the fallen foe, she welcomed it fully.

"Not yet," Kaden cautioned her.

Rea offered no reply, her focus locked on the Alchemist.

Kaden exhaled heavily, seething inwardly at the necessity of forfeiting a life for victory.

It was merely the Avatar of Einar, admittedly, but that offered no solace—only deepened his guilt, as he recoiled from the thought of yielding Blanche or any part of himself.

He muttered a curse beneath his breath, tempted to shrink away in quiet disgrace, and placed his palm upon the Alchemist’s brow.

Drawing on his Will, he subdued the man’s mental defenses and awareness, then invoked his Memories Alteration trait to seize every scrap of the Alchemist’s rune expertise.

Within Kaden, Blanche diligently recorded all the visions flooding his mind onto a fiery sheet, while Reditha supplied starlit blood for the etchings.

Before long, as the Alchemist observed helplessly, Kaden extracted the modest rune lore held by this clone.

Yet it proved ample to launch from.

Afterward, he pivoted to speak to Rea, only to find her already in motion, pressing both hands against the Alchemist.

Her grip tightened fiercely, as if intent on exploding his skull into a bloody mist. Rather, Rea unleashed an ability she hadn’t realized she possessed.

It dawned on her then that being God-Touched transcended mere status—it bestowed divine essence upon the soul it marred.

And in her case,

"Curse of Unending Sorrow," Rea snarled with the ferocity of one possessed, zeroing in on the core of the Alchemist’s mind and inflicting the curse with her entire essence of fury and grief.

The Alchemist’s form convulsed wildly, and Kaden tore open his torso, yanking free the pulsing heart.

In the wake of his pull, blood, sinews, and fragments of bone trailed, splattering the air in a spectacle that might have delighted the fallen deity of death.

The convulsions halted sharply, and the Alchemist gaped at the fiancés with bulging eyes.

But as oblivion claimed him, his mouth twisted into a smug, derisive grin.

Then, death took him.

A profound, oppressive quiet draped the area like a shroud woven for the departed.

For what seemed an eternity, Kaden and Rea fixated on the deceased Alchemist’s smirk.

Robotically, they faced one another, detecting the veiled terror gnawing in each other’s gazes.

Their mouths formed grim lines, and Rea slumped her head onto Kaden’s shoulder in weary torment.

The fiancés shut their eyes; still, the Alchemist’s grin lingered in their thoughts.

A secret lurked behind that expression, and it unsettled both Kaden and Rea deeply.

They swore under their breaths.

They had slain the Alchemist, yet the disquiet within them lingered unabated.

—End of Chapter 430—