The notifications kept coming, one after another, as his system desperately tried to adapt to the life-threatening situation he found himself in. His various resistance and recovery skills were increasing at a rapid pace, his body evolving in real-time to handle the punishment it was receiving. But despite these improvements, they were increasing too slowly to make a meaningful difference in his current predicament.

Levi gritted his teeth, his transformed fangs grinding against each other with enough force to crack normal human teeth. He was waiting,l for that critical hit.

That was his plan, his desperate gambit to turn this impossible battle around. He just had to survive long enough for it to happen.

"SHING!"

Suddenly, in a move so fast that even his danger sense barely registered it in time, Seraphina's tail whipped around from an unexpected angle. The barbed appendage, moving with the speed and force of a ballista bolt, struck his right leg just below the knee. The impact was accompanied by a sickening crunching sound as bone shattered and flesh separated.

Levi's right leg from the knee down was completely severed, sent tumbling across the blood-slicked floor of the grotto like a piece of discarded meat.

Levi collapsed, his body's balance completely destroyed. He managed to catch himself with his remaining arm and stump of his right leg, but he was now effectively crippled, reduced to standing on one leg while missing an entire arm.

Blood pooled beneath him, far too much blood for any normal person to lose and remain conscious.

Seraphina landed gracefully a few feet away, her transformed monstrous form somehow managing to look elegant.

She tilted her head to the side, studying him like he was an interesting specimen rather than a fellow sentient being.

"How disappointing," she hissed, her forked tongue flickering out to taste the blood-scented air. "I expected more from someone who managed to reach the top of the leaderboard. But in the end, you're just another piece of meat waiting to be carved up and consumed."

But at that precise moment, as Levi teetered on the edge of consciousness and death, something unexpected happened within his body. The strange Demonic Breathing Technique that he had learned earlier from the black monument in the secret realm suddenly started circulating by itself.

The dark, chaotic energy pattern of the Demonic technique spiraling through his meridians in that strange reverse-flow pattern triggered an immediate response from its counterpart.

The Divine Heaven Breathing Technique that he had also learned from the white monument began to circulate automatically as well.

The two techniques, which should have been completely incompatible and mutually destructive, suddenly found their rhythm within him. They began to circulate together in perfect harmony, one yang and one yin, one light and one dark, one creation and one destruction.

Together, they formed something greater than the sum of their parts—a complete and unified cultivation method.

The moment his Astra energy was circulated using this combined method, something happened within his body.

His Astra energy, which had always existed as a gaseous vapor distributed throughout his meridians and cells , suddenly began to compress. The pressure increased exponentially as more and more of the gaseous energy was forced together.

In the next moment, it felt like a small supernova detonating inside his chest, the Astra energy actually condensed and transformed into a single golden liquid that settled in the center of his chest, right where his heart was located.

The droplet was no larger than a teardrop, yet the power it contained was so immense that Levi was momentarily stunned despite his dire situation.

This was a sign of reaching the Genetic Soldier stage—the liquefaction of Astra energy. It was something that normally required months or even years of dedicated cultivation to achieve, yet the harmony of the two breathing techniques had forced his body through the transformation in mere seconds under the pressure of mortal combat.

At this moment, seeing that Levi appeared distracted and wasn't even looking at her anymore.

Seraphina's face changed as anger flooded her. For him to ignore her, to dare to lose focus on her during their battle, was an insult she couldn't tolerate.

"How dare you!" she shrieked, her voice sounding like a nails scratching a chalkboard. "You deserve to die!"

She laughed coldly, and struck forward with her blade. She stabbed directly at his chest, as the tip pierced directly through his head.

The blade moved so fast it seemed to have teleported.

An overwhelming sense of danger, stronger than any he had felt before suddenly flooded through Levi's brain and without hesitation, he immediately activated Crimson Thunder Step with every ounce of power he could muster, trying to phase out of the blade's path.

"Crackle!"

Crimson lightning exploded around his body as he attempted to move, but even with his enhanced technique and his newfound transformation, he was still too slow.

The blade was simply moving too fast, boosted by the overwhelming power of a true Genetic Soldier. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Levi watched the blade stabbed directly into his heart.

But then Levi suddenly vanished as though he had never been there at all.

Levi blinked in confusion, his consciousness spinning from the sudden teleportation but he gritted his teeth and focused.

It was then he heard something. It sound like a squeak but then more like a whisper.

A small, weak, pitiful sound of pure agony.

His eyes snapped to the source of the sound, and what he saw made his slit contract to pinpoints.

The little thief, had somehow activated its Substitution skill and had been used to substitute itself for Levi's position.

Levi's eyes went blank and time seemed to stop entirely.

The little thief was now impaled on Seraphina's blade. Its tiny body convulsed, and a trickle of blood that looked far too dark ran from the corner of its mouth. Its usually bright and mischievous eyes were glazing over, the light of life rapidly fading from them.

Then, like a dam bursting under too much pressure, emotion flooded through him with overwhelming intensity.

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