Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power Chapter 443: Utter despair

’I was wrong!’ Rea cried, ’And I am going to die!’

Thoughts swirling in fear and turmoil raced through her mind as she collapsed forward onto her chest, her forehead colliding with a solid, fractured object, while blood spurted forth beneath the heavy burden of Kaden pressing down on her back.

She let out a groan and a cry, but clamped down on her parched, cracked lips before forcing herself upright. She pressed on with her unyielding flight, too terrified to glance back or even sideways.

Her gaze remained locked solely on the Bridge rising in the distance—a structure that stayed frustratingly out of reach no matter how much endless time she poured into sprinting toward it.

Initially, Rea detected her progress toward the bridge, a blaze of hope igniting within her that fueled the drive to shatter her mental and physical limits even further.

However, that hope was gradually fading away, reduced now to a faint, wavering flame on the verge of total extinction.

The Bridge appeared as a cruel mirage designed to torment her gradually—eroding her spirit before claiming her flesh.

And terror gripped Rea. Her form started to give out, overwhelmed by the nonstop drain of her power to bolster it. She had surpassed her thresholds long ago.

Still, the God-Touched cared little for her physical collapse. She recognized with icy certainty that her psyche would shatter ahead of her body.

If not from overexerting her power, then from the horrors surrounding her.

Rea glanced down and about as she fled. The earlier domain of smoke, ashes, and dust had vanished.

In its place lay a domain drenched in blood, conflict, agony, and dread.

The heavens glowed a crimson red, the earth a foul blend of blood, bile, urine, and excrement. With every stride, Rea pulverized bones, entrails, or stray eyeballs beneath her feet.

Terror consumed her.

The transformation of the domain had started sometime after the bridge and the humanoid figures materialized.

A stench of mortality now permeated the air, and Rea began observing two factions clashing in a nightmarish conflict.

The fight raged on behind her, steadily widening its scope, poised to swallow her into a hellscape of pure devastation where demise was utterly defied.

She bolted ceaselessly, striving to buy precious moments, but Rea could no longer shoulder the weight.

Her feet had swollen grotesquely, pale as bone and fractured, with blood oozing steadily. Her complexion turned ghostly pale, drained by terror and blood loss, resembling a specter awaiting banishment.

Her abdomen remained ripped open, her guts plainly exposed to view.

It was a miracle how Rea endured with such grievous wounds. Even so, her throbbing arms refused to release Kaden, holding him as fiercely as a mother cradling her infant.

But she couldn’t persist any longer.

Thus, it came as no shock when Rea plummeted face-down into the filth, inadvertently gulping down the revolting mixture of blood and myriad foul substances coating the ground.

She jerked her head up, retching forth everything from her mouth—including chunks of meat, urine, and gut fragments.

Her eyes bulged as she felt a bone lodged in her gullet. She lifted her bloated, gore-streaked hand, jammed it into her mouth, and yanked free the dark shard.

Her throat tore open. Rea hacked violently as if death loomed imminent, her eyelids drooping under waves of fatigue and torment.

She scooped up Kaden, seeing only a fragile remnant of cocoon material remained, and positioned him at her rear. Then the God-Touched turned to confront the advancing, swelling tide of warfare and drew in a profound breath.

The conflict split into two opposing forces.

One faction consisted of humans, though bulkier and taller, wielding battle-axes edged in gold. Their skins bore intricate tattoos, their facial hair lengthy and often bound with bones from fingers or fangs from wild creatures.

Joined by these intimidating warriors were crimson-hued males and females with eyes like fresh blood, their strikes unleashing sprays of gore. Accompanying them were a few cloaked figures in robes evoking mortality.

They struck fear into the heart, yet Rea sensed these allies were on the losing end.

She turned her gaze to the rival side, fighting to keep her heart from bursting free.

The adversaries formed a chaotic assembly of beings: dragons, skeletal dragons, wolves, dwarves, creatures with sword-like limbs, and hybrids fusing multiple animals.

That alone didn’t horrify Rea. What chilled her was how, upon falling, they each reformed into a new shape—a gray-skinned humanoid with hair resembling strands of wire.

But how did they manifest such nightmarish forms amid combat?

Rea had no chance to ponder as the war crashed upon her.

She bellowed at full volume and lifted her hand to fend off a slashing war-axe descending upon her.

A silvery shield materialized before her, but it fractured and burst apart the instant the blow struck.

Rea just managed to ride the impact’s blast to propel herself and Kaden clear of the strike.

Yet in that maneuver, the God-Touched forfeited her left arm. She wailed louder, howling and weeping and shuddering, scarcely restraining herself from thrashing as a colossal wolf gaped its maw, set to devour them entirely.

Rea’s vision went dark, her eyes blinded by splattered blood.

Nevertheless, through fortune and instinct, she wielded another beast’s corpse as cover.

The wolf chomped down on the skull of the scarlet-gold avian, igniting a furious screech.

The field of battle descended into pandemonium, and Rea beheld forces of unimaginable magnitude tearing across the firmament without cease.

She felt akin to an ordinary soul beholding a clash of deities. For daring such irreverence, naught but oblivion beckoned.

The God-Touched yearned to surrender it all. Her left limb had vanished, with gore and tissue flowing unendingly.

She hemorrhaged more rapidly than ever, fully aware that her end was near.

That notion pierced her thoughts like a dagger, drawing forth deeper sobs.

They say true priorities surface only when death knocks.

Rea grasped that truth right then.

Her father... when last had she laid eyes on him?

Would she perish so pointlessly? Failing the vow she swore to him?

’I need you!’ Rea sobbed, the anguish so intense it felt like living death.

She longed for her father, or at least anyone. Anyone to aid her, and should death claim her after all...

"Don’t let me die unseen!" Rea shrieked at the top of her voice, then all strength ebbed from her as she crumpled next to Kaden.

From left and right, like closing fangs, a bearded fighter and a massive pale bear charged toward them, primed to dispatch them to the beyond.

Rea perceived this and strained to draw nearer to Kaden, yearning for a final spark of comfort before the end.

She extended her remaining right hand and at last clasped Kaden’s. The cocoon shell fully dissolved at that moment.

And through Rea’s bloodied, doom-laden grasp, Kaden’s eyes—crimson and speckled with stars—snapped open in an instant.

Yet the initial sight that met him was a towering figure with a gore-matted beard swinging his blade toward Rea, her tear-streaked features beaming with abrupt solace at him.

"Ka—!"

She couldn’t complete the word as her head severed clean, blood erupting and soaking Kaden’s face.

Kaden remained sprawled in total disbelief, rigid and dazed, his eyes stretched so hugely they seemed ready to burst free.

Instinctively, he dropped his gaze to the decapitated form of Rea, and his sanity shattered.

—End of Chapter 443—