My Talent's Name Is Generator

Chapter 581: A Way To Fight Back

I wanted to fight back, to do something, anything, to resist the crushing pressure, but even lifting my arm felt impossible. The chain linking me to North pulsed with pain, her suffering bleeding into mine until it was hard to tell where hers ended and mine began. Primus was still groaning beside me, barely holding on under the weight.

Fine. I grit my teeth and steadied myself.

’Let’s see how much more I can take.’

I reached out and grabbed the chain attached to Steve too. It coiled around my arm instantly, biting into my skin. Pain stabbed deep, three times worse than before. I coughed, feeling something hot rise in my throat.

My body trembled as three chains linked from my soul to theirs. I could feel all of them, North’s fear, Steve’s strain, even Primus’s faint heartbeat.

And beneath all of it, something else.

I shut my eyes, trying to push past the pain.

I forced my Psynapse to spread inward, tracing the feeling of corrosion inside me. The crimson corruption was spreading, burning like acid through invisible veins. I followed it, deeper and deeper, until I reached the place where my soul truly existed.

It wasn’t a form I’d ever seen before. It was like standing inside myself, surrounded by darkness and distant echoes.

There, I saw it, a huge, faceless figure, thirty-three feet tall, made of violet light.

My soul.

It stood still, calm but trembling. And from its chest, I could see four blue chains extending outwards , glowing softly, pulsing with familiar light. I knew those signatures. My summons. Each bond connecting me to them.

But now, there was something else too.

A fifth chain, glowing crimson, wrapped around my soul’s arm like a parasite. It pulsed unevenly, whispering faint static noises. Each time it pulsed, the corruption spread further, painting faint cracks of red through the violet glow.

I reached for the corruption with my consciousness, but the moment I touched it, pain erupted, unbearable, tearing, like my Essence was being split apart molecule by molecule. I stumbled back, gasping, even though I wasn’t physically there.

And all the while, that pressure kept building. The force pressing down on our souls didn’t stop. My soul’s legs were trembling now, faint cracks forming along them, glowing white from inside, threatening to spread higher.

"Not yet..." I muttered to myself. "Not here."

I clenched my will, forcing the violet light to stabilize. The faceless figure inside me straightened its back. The crimson chain resisted, writhing like a living thing, but I held it in place.

Slowly, the spreading cracks paused.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the real world. My breath came out heavy and uneven.

The chains were still wrapped around my arms, their dull crimson glow pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat. Steve was still holding on, his face pale but determined.

North was barely conscious, her head drooping, yet I could still feel a faint resistance against the pressure from her. Primus was on the ground, gasping for air but alive.

But I could tell the situation was getting worse by the second. The pressure wasn’t just constant, it was growing. Every breath felt heavier, every heartbeat slower. If this continued, they’d all collapse before I did.

I shut my eyes again and reached inward.

This time, it was easier, almost natural. The moment I focused, the world around me melted away, and I found myself standing before the colossal figure of my own soul once again.

It loomed in front of me, thirty-three feet tall, its body glowing faint violet with streams of light coursing along its frame.

I stared at it, my mind racing. I needed a way to handle the pressure and corruption, to stop it from spreading further. That’s when I remembered Dante, how he had resisted corruption. He’d said he had to sacrifice a part of himself to endure the corruption.

Maybe that was the key.

But instead of cutting away parts of my soul, I tried something else. I focused on syncing with it, aligning my consciousness with that massive glowing being.

Yet, as soon as I tried, I hit something, a barrier. It was invisible but firm, pressing back against my mind every time I reached for it. The more I pushed, the clearer it became. This was the wall that separated mortals from transcendents. The barrier of the Transcendent Rank itself.

So that was it. The reason I couldn’t truly connect. The reason the power always felt slightly out of reach. That barrier stood between me and my survival right now.

I clenched my fists. I didn’t have time to wait for natural evolution. I had to break through.

Gritting my teeth, I extended my Psynapse as far as it would go. The pressure in my head built up, a sharp pain spreading behind my eyes. My veins throbbed, and the chains around my body seemed to tighten in response.

When it seemed like I could not go any further, I activated my Apex Body ability, channeling twenty percent of my Strength into my Psynapse.

The result was immediate. It felt like fresh blood had surged through my brain, like every nerve in my skull came alive. My Psynapse flared outward, flexing against the barrier that had stopped me moments ago. The resistance wavered, then began to crumble.

The pressure eased, just slightly but enough. I seized that moment and pushed with everything I had. My awareness surged forward, and suddenly, I was no longer standing in front of my soul.

I was inside it.

My perception shifted. I wasn’t the small figure anymore, looking up at the glowing being, I was the being itself. Every breath I took sent waves of light through my body.

And then the world around me changed. The oppressive darkness that had surrounded my soul trembled, cracking apart like glass. Through the breaks, light poured in.

The black void dissolved into a bright, open sky stretching endlessly above me. Below, an ocean shimmered with shades of blue and violet, calm and infinite.

As I stood there, the two remaining time runes from my mind space appeared before me, spinning slowly in the air. They glowed faint gold before merging with the scene, their energy sinking into the ocean below.

Then came the fragment of memory Dante had given me. It drifted toward me like a shard of light, humming softly and then it too merged with the ocean.