069 TRASHED THE APP FINALLY
Then realization struck Damen. "He stole it. This blast must be one of his victims' skills."
If it was possible to steal meta stats, why not meta skills?
Damen had already experienced the same when he obtained Flash Dash from Mad Cat. Kurt wasn't just growing stronger — he was becoming unpredictable.
Kurt's confidence surged.
He closed the distance and unleashed another blast of energy at Damen — almost at point-blank.
"Arghhh!" Damen screamed as the heat seared his jacket, disintegrating the fabric. Only the high-quality armor he wore saved him from certain death.
The monster pressed the offensive, firing blast after blast. Damen had no advantage … he wasn't trained to fight against ranged units yet.
"Damnit, I can't fight against range", he complained.
Before he could react, Kurt's claws sunk into his neck. Damen struggled, kicking wildly, but it didn't stop the monster. Kurt was busy siphoning his essence.
This was the second time Kurt had drained him, and he clearly intended to finish the job.
Resistance was futile.
Eryn screamed, summoning wind currents to separate them. But it was useless — her powers weren't strong enough to stop Kurt.
Damen's body felt strange, wriggling as if it were no longer fully his. His essence was slipping away. He didn't even bother checking his stats on his phone — it was meaningless.
"Is this my end?" he whispered. "If there's a guardian angel around me, now would be the time to show up."
Then, suddenly, Kurt dropped him, propelled into the air.
"What the hell?" Damen gasped.
Kurt's body froze mid-flight, restrained by an invisible force.
In the distance, Damen saw two figures approaching — a woman and a boy.
They were Sienna and Argent.
Sienna's hand glowed. Her psychic energy held Kurt firmly in place before she stepped forward, and Kurt's body was pulled toward her.
Argent watched with boredom as Sienna placed a hand on Kurt's distorted cheek.
"Get over with this sis, he's ugly", Argent said.
"Oh, Kurt… you've been a very bad boy. Stealing what doesn't belong to you… how should I punish you now?" Sienna asked softly.
Kurt didn't answer.
"Should we just kill him?" Argent asked.
Sienna shook her head. "Kill him? That would be a waste. He absorbed more power in a single day using my Ring of Greed than I did in an entire month pretending to be a pinky-pink teacher."
"He's also stricken with the otherworldly blood curse," Argent added.
"Yes… that too." Sienna glanced at Damen, who was bent forward, panting heavily.
Before Damen could respond, Sienna placed her palm against Kurt's forehead.
The abomination inside him recoiled.
Protruding bones slid back beneath flesh. Twisted muscle unwound. His body collapsed inward, reshaping itself until Kurt looked human once more.
Then Damen screamed.
Pain detonated inside his skull.
It wasn't his own pain—it was Kurt's.
The blue curse bound them, braided their existences together, and now Damen felt Kurt's life being torn away. His Breath failing, his thoughts unraveling and his fear dissolving into void.
"Is this… how it feels to die?" he wondered dimly, the sensation overwhelming him.
Then—
There was nothing.
No pain. No fear. Just emptiness.
Sienna withdrew her hand.
Kurt's body hit the floor with a dull thud.
His eyes were empty. His soul was vacant. Whatever had once been Kurt was gone.
And yet— his body stirred.
Kurt stood up and bowed deeply before Sienna.
He was dead.
What remained was a shell. A puppet. A marionette awaiting its strings.
"What should I call you now?" Sienna mused.
She smiled.
"Ivory," she decided. "That will be your name from now on."
"Yes, my sister," Kurt replied obediently.
Sirens wailed in the distance—the police had finally arrived.
"We should be going," Sienna said lightly to Damen. "Wait for my call. We'll go for coffee sometime… nephew."
Damen couldn't speak.
He had nearly died.
And his so-called guardian angel had turned out to be a bloodthirsty psychic god wearing a smile.
----
Dorin and Lander arrived at the scene with a battalion of soldiers. The governor had mobilized the reserve army to deal with Kurt—but the monster was gone.
"What happened here?" Dorin asked, her eyes scanning the carnage.
"What took you so long? I almost died," Damen snapped, brushing off debris.
"Where is Kurt?" Lander demanded.
Damen hesitated, tempted to fabricate a story.
The final appearance of Sienna and Argent could complicate things—they were his family, after all, and exposing them might have repercussions.
But with too many witnesses, especially Eryn, silence was impossible.
"They took Kurt away. One of them was the teacher, Miss Gallum," he said carefully.
"The other… a silver-haired boy?" Lander prompted.
Damen nodded.
Then, curiosity piqued, he asked, "Who are these two? So many Heroes died and couldn't stop Kurt, but those two just… took him away?"
Lander paused, his expression was unreadable. "That's none of your concern. Some things are beyond your paycheck."
Damen smirked faintly, "You don't pay me anything yet."
"Damen! Are you okay?" Eryn came running, hugging him tightly after giving her statement.
"I'm… surprisingly okay," he replied.
"That's strange," Dorin said, eyeing the wrecked dormitory. "We sent out so many Rank E Heroes… and they were all killed. How did you survive?"
"You really want me dead?" Damen quipped.
"No… I'm just curious," she said.
Damen gestured to his shredded armor. "It was the body suit Lord Nicaesa gave me. Rank C effectiveness. I'd be dead without it. Pity its usefulness is over."
Lander glanced at the battered suit. It was beyond repair.
Later, the Veyran family arrived to escort Eryn home while Dorin and Lander stayed behind, coordinating the aftermath.
Damen returned to his apartment, craving for rest.
But sleep wouldn't come despite the exhaustion, not after everything he had seen.
------
Damen sank into thought, his mind replaying Kurt's rampage and the nightmare he had endured. The parallels were undeniable, and if Kurt's fate was any warning, Damen's own path was perilous.
Both of them had started as nobodies.
Then, suddenly, they came into possession of life-changing tools — him, his mining app; Kurt, his Ring of Greed.
Both were greedy, taking what did not belong to them. And the more they took, the more they craved. Greed was never enough.
There was always something more to want.
During his brief but intense journey of growth, Damen had learned a law of nature: every gain demanded a cost. Everything had a price — even his cheat mining app.
He realized that if he continued to use it, he could end up like Kurt. One day rising to Rank D, the next losing it all. Even the benefits were fleeting, unstable.
And the feeling of dying… it affected him.
"Would I be caught one day, paraded like a witch and burnt at the stake? Or worse… would I turn into a monster like Kurt? Be killed?"
"Would I rather have less power and live a peaceful life… like what my parents wanted for me?" he asked himself.
The questions gnawed at him.
But after long, painful reflection, clarity emerged. What mattered most was survival. Life itself. Without it, power and wealth were meaningless.
"I'm giving up the mining app," he whispered to himself, resolutely.
He pulled out his phone, took a deep breath, and dragged the app icon to the trash.
"That's it, I quit," he said softly, a weight lifting from his chest.