Reborn as an Extra

Chapter 494: Mercy? Who’s That? Never heard of it... Part-2.

After becoming an S-ranker, Rio has become even more emotionless than before, but that’s not the only change that happened to him.

His ’Sword Intent’ also evolved to a higher form and became able to express itself in many types of forms and approaches.

A legendary skill is, simply speaking, a manifestation of a ’law’ of the ’world,’ and every ’law’ of the ’world’ is a semi-conscious existence.

It also has preferences for things it likes and dislikes.

The ’Law’ of ’Sword,’ which powers Rio’s ’Sword Intent,’ hates and loathes people who are cowardly and use their strength to bully the weak.

Now that Rio has become able to use his ’sword intent’ to manifest the ’law’ of ’sword’ to such a high extent, he can even manifest it with such power that even the emotions of the ’law’ itself can also manifest in his sword intent.

Rio has given this ability the name ’Approach.’

For example, when Rio was about to use the healing technique to heal Sara, he made his ’sword intent’ use the ’Gentle Approach,’ which makes his sword intent calm, smooth, and gentle like a slow and warm stream of water.

And when he used the ’Berserk Approach’ on Snegnar, he was aiming for uneven and unpredictable damage like a berserker.

Of course, he can still use his sword intent without using any kind of ’approach’ or emotions embedded in it.

...

[Sword Intent: Precision Approach!]

[Sword Sage’s Enlightenment: Rupturing Regeneration!]

Rio stabbed his sword into Snegnar’s body once again and then forcefully embedded his sword intent into his body.

His sword intent worked with absolute precision and directly damaged all of his internal organs and then a warm power regenerated them back.

Rio did not retract his sword intent and kept using it to continuously damage and regenerate Snegnar’s internals over and over.

”AHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHH!!!! STOP!!!! NOOO!!!! AHHHHH!!!!”

Ignoring Snegnar’s loud voice, Rio muttered to himself.

”Hmm, this new technique is still less effective... compared to Riya’s healing capabilities, this is laughable...”

”This skill combines my slicing ability and healing elemental control ability, but it lacking in terms of might... It’s still a farcry compared to Riya’s healing capabilities...”

Rio knew that Riya had used her healing magic to heavily suppress Alverto back in the Spire of Ascension, and her healing magic was so overwhelmingly effective against Alverto that he had to burn his soul to counter it.

’I don’t know when I will have to fight more demons in the future; if I can copy Riya’s ability to heavily debuff many demons at the same time, I can increase my damage tremendously...’

’I need to copy her area-wide healing capabilities... should I use light elementals to copy the purification effect or should I go with heavy miasma pollution?’

”AHHHHHHH!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

Rio frowned as Snegnar’s voice interfered with his thoughts.

”Oh come on, can’t you see I am busy here? Your voice is so annoying; stop crying like a kid. you are so pathetic... tch, forget it, I will just silence you...”

[Sword Intent!]

[Elemental Sword Art: Pain Type: Voiceless puppet torture!]

Rio stabbed his sword directly into Snegnar’s mouth, but it didn’t create any physical wounds.

Snegnar’s loud voice immediately went silent instantly.

”Good, now every time you try to scream, the energy will rebound and damage your own body causing you to feel pain similar to thousands of needless stabbings your body...”

”I just recently thought of this technique when I was experimenting on a very loud test subject...”

Rio nodded his head at his own words and expressed his happy emotions with his voice.

”Still, the previous test subject was much weaker; he collapsed in just a single day... you are a powerful S-ranker, so I am expecting a lot from you. I will try my best to keep you alive, hehe...”

Rio giggled in an excited tone as he stabbed Snegnar once again.

[Sword Intent!]

[Elemental Sword Art: Soul Type: Soul shard splitting!]

Rio cannot split a soul and destroy it completely with this technique, but it’s possible to slice away a small piece of the soul with this weaker skill.

The moment Rio sliced his soul, Snegnar felt so much pain that his eyes went bloodshot, his sea of consciousness nearly collapsed, and he almost fainted on the spot.

Damage to one’s soul causes the highest level of pain to an individual. Physical and mental pain can still be endured, but the pain that erupts directly from the soul is extremely overwhelming.

Even SS-rankers might feel weak and helpless against pain that comes directly from the soul itself, as it’s not something a living being can endure.

Rio also knew that if he sliced Snegnar’s soul too much, it would cause his sea of consciousness to collapse and cause him to die; that’s why he controlled his power and only did a little bit of damage.

It was just the right level of damage to cause immense pain without letting Snegnar die.

”Don’t worry, you won’t die. I practiced this skill with the previous test subject; I am just using it on you to increase the proficiency...”

Snegnar could not even scream, and the more he tried to scream, the more pain he felt from the energy rebound.

He was stuck in a vicious cycle and had no way out.

He looked at Rio with eyes begging for mercy, then tried to ask for forgiveness; he tried to tell Rio that he would do anything as long as Rio was willing to let him go.

But Rio didn’t even care one bit. He was using him as a mere ’test subject’ to further research new techniques and increase the proficiency of his skills.

”Don’t try to ask for sympathy... I already know your crimes; you have already tortured and killed more than a thousand people, haven’t you?”

”Ever since you became an S-ranker... No, ever since you became an awakener, you have been harming everyone around you...”

Snegnar was originally just a local thug who liked to pickpocket and do petty crimes.

But after becoming an awakener, he chose the path of darkness and went rogue.

He committed many crimes and managed to dodge being caught with his ever-increasing strength due to his high talent.

The main reason why the government is so hell-bent on finding every single talented person as early as possible is not only because they want them to work for the nation.

They also want them to not go rogue like Snegnar.

If a talented person is given proper guidance, it’s possible to make them a better person; it’s possible to stop them from falling into the wrong path.

The absence of proper guidance and an overinflated ego creates people like Snegnar.

Why do all powerful people try to follow the righteous path? Why do most SS-rankers never try to boss around others despite being so strong?

Why are literal demigods so humble and open-minded despite being capable of destroying planets in a single attack?

The answer to all that is simple. They all know the consequences of falling for the wrong ’Path’.

Not all ’paths’ in the world lead to greatness. There are some ’Paths’ that lead you to the side of ’Darkness.’

They corrupt you and make you degenerate into a hateful existence.

Eventually, you will start getting affected by the ’Law’ of ’Miasma and Corruption,’ and your resistance to degeneration will be way too low to resist it.

Following a wrong path and doing evil deeds is a shortcut to achieving ’demonification’ and becoming a demon that is hated by the entire world.

You will then suffer miasmic corruption, lose your sanity, and become a cursed existence whose soul will be at the mercy of miasma.

And everyone knows what miasma does to the souls that it captures. (If you have read my other novel, you already know what the Sea of Miasma is doing to the souls that it captures...)

”Come on! You can’t be collapsing just yet! We still have a long way to go! I am ready to accompany you for many days to come, hehe...”

Rio giggled like a demon from hell, and Snegnar cried and wept in despair.