"You're looking at Roland Phils himself," Jason Kin replied with a faint smile. After adjusting the timer, he crouched down in front of the woman. "Tell me, where's Effie?" His calm demeanor was far beyond what any ordinary person could comprehend. To the woman before him, he was no longer a man but a demon. Her mental defenses crumbled completely.
"I… I infiltrated this place, but she spotted me. We fought… fiercely. She was wounded and escaped. Our people are chasing her now. I… don't know her exact condition," she stammered, trembling.
"So in other words… her life or death is uncertain?" Jason Kin's face radiated pure killing intent.
"Y-Yes!" she answered, her voice shaking.
"Good. Very good." His anger twisted into a cold smile. He raised one hand, grasped her by the neck, and effortlessly lifted her off the ground. A powerful suction burst from his palm. He had activated the skill Life Force Devour.
In an instant, her vitality was completely drained away. The once-lively woman crumbled into a cloud of black ash, scattering into the air. What remained in Jason Kin's palm was a small sphere of glowing red light pure, condensed life energy.
Life energy had many uses. The first was to temporarily boost one's strength, similar to the skill Berserk. The difference was that Berserk squeezed out your own latent potential, while Life Force Devour increased your power by absorbing someone else's life. Between the two, the stronger one was obvious. The second use was healing wounds, arguably its most common application. Much like the "life steal" skill in games, it could restore your vitality by taking it from others. Either way, Life Force Devour was both brutally effective and merciless. Under this skill, every living being was nothing more than wheat before Jason Kin's scythe ripe to be harvested at will.
Holding the marble-sized sphere of life energy, he snapped his fingers lightly. It vanished, sent straight into his divine realm, where it was absorbed by the Life Tree in the Domain of Life.
Just as he finished disposing of the woman, faint footsteps approached outside the door. Before he could extend his divine sense to investigate, the roar of machine-gun fire erupted. A hail of bullets poured toward him and Laffey like a torrential downpour.
Jason Kin's expression didn't change; he didn't even bother to move. Bullets struck his body and ricocheted harmlessly away. As a demigod, his life force was virtually infinite, and his body was indestructible. Earth's conventional weapons couldn't harm him. As for what could hurt him, even he wasn't entirely sure.
Laffey, a Tier 7 Epic, was equally unfazed. These bullets couldn't even scratch her true body's defenses. But unlike Jason Kin, she didn't simply stand there. In a flash, she had equipped her full ship rigging a twin-mounted naval gun floated to her right, an anti-air gun hovered behind her, and to her left were five magnetic torpedo tubes. On her feet were land combat boots. The system's gift, a high-energy laser cannon, had taken the form of a golden headband with a red gemstone at its center the laser's firing point. A railgun floated near her right shoulder. With her rigging deployed, Laffey radiated raw, violent killing intent.
"How dare you ambush us? No honor! Die!" Her small fists clenched in fury. The twin-mounted naval gun opened fire toward the doorway. BOOM! An explosion shook the air, followed by a chorus of agonized screams. Laffey strode toward the door, the laser on her forehead firing precise bursts. Each shot claimed a life. In the blink of an eye, the outside fell silent. Every intruder in the manor had been wiped out instantly.
"Master, all enemies outside have been eliminated," Laffey reported, walking calmly back to him.
"Well done." Jason Kin reached out and ruffled her hair fondly. Epic tier her strength was truly terrifying.
"Master, where are we going now?" Laffey asked curiously as he led her out.
"To kill our enemies, of course," he replied coolly. Extending his divine sense, Jason Kin had already located his uncle and aunt. The "Effie" from earlier had been an impostor, but her words were true. The masterminds behind this were none other than his two closest relatives. Poison hadn't worked, so they had sent assassins instead. Too ruthless. Too bold. Since they dared to provoke a god's wrath, there was only one outcome death.
In another villa on the Roland estate, Roland Edward, Jason Kin's uncle, and Roland Lisa, his aunt, sat in the living room sipping sweet tea, smiling.
"How's the situation over there?" Edward asked, calm even as gunfire and explosions sounded in the distance. To him, ordering the assassination of his own nephew was nothing worth fretting over.
"Second Brother, Phils is just an ignorant little brat," Lisa said coldly. "Last time he escaped by sheer luck. But no one's lucky forever. We've sent over a dozen killers this time if he's still alive after today, then the world's gone mad."