Chapter 1980: Survive for One More Minute
Chapter 1980: Survive for One More Minute
Eren's nails lengthened into sharp, curved weapons, and his hands aged in an instant.
They looked like the bony, worn hands of an old man—wrinkled, dark, and dry.
That was when Eren's heart began to beat like a war drum.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
He had activated two of his strongest Abilities.
Life Drain—which turned his hands into vampiric tools that sucked life force straight out of his target.
Hero's Heart—which boosted his strength, speed, regeneration, and other body stats as long as he kept absorbing life force.
Even though these Abilities they were not fully supported by Menaka's Mesh in Labh Salem, they were still very useful. Especially in certain situations like the one he had found himself in at this point.
These two powers worked in perfect sync. One drained energy. The other used it to push Eren's body beyond its limits.
It was the perfect combo for an assassination when the target was too big to be taken down in a single hit. And Eren was using it on a god.
Normally, none of this would have worked. An Immortal's body didn't contain mortal life force. Or it could be said they had too much of it—so much that a mortal couldn't extract it, like trying to drink the ocean through a straw.
But now?
Raashim's body was no longer fully divine.
He was breaking.
And that made him vulnerable.
Eren's arms wrapped tighter around Raashim's chest. His clawed hands pierced the god's body from both sides. Bony fingers dug deep between the ribs and into the fleshly heart.
This time, golden blood burst out.
Immortal blood.
The silvery blades still attacked. They sliced Eren again and again, cutting open his flesh, exposing bone, tearing muscle.
Eren looked like a skeleton from waist down that had clung to a god. He had never been injured like this before. If it hadn't been for the purest form of life force he was receiving from Raashim, he would have died a long time ago.
Raashim's mere thoughts, turned into lethal blades, kept on attacking the butcher but he didn't let go. Thankfully, he was tortured by Reva Rain using similar methods in the past. That experience had molded him into the current him. It was still fresh in his memories.
As such, the butcher had built up a certain tolerance when it came to mutilation of the body.
The process of Eren's body getting butchered by the countless blades and then healing from the verge of death kept on happening over and over again over a span of a few seconds.
Once again, his flesh was ripped to pieces. His skin peeled off in chunks. Blood sprayed everywhere. And yet… The wounds healed.
His muscles stitched back together. Bones cracked and then straightened.
Chunks of flesh that had fallen to the ground turned into sticky slime, then crawled back and reattached to his body.
Even his blood—lost in the air—turned back, purified itself, and returned to his veins.
All because of the power of Life Drain and Hero's Heart.
Eren was using Raashim's own endless vitality against him.
The constant breaking down and regeneration of Eren's mortal flesh was actually helping him strengthen it further. His Body Stats, already far beyond what a late-stage Grandmaster Ranker should have, began climbing even higher—turning him into more of a freak than he already was.
God Raashim could feel it. His strength was leaking away. His Immortal soul was dimming.
And the one behind him, drenched in blood and madness, was getting stronger.
Raashim's anger reached its peak. But so did his fear.
***
At the base of the altar where Reen was thrown down.
The slime scattered across the battlefield began to move.
Bit by bit, it slid across the ground, joining together. Slowly, it gathered into a growing mass. In seconds, it started to rise, taking the shape of a humanoid form.
Reen stood once more.
She was back on her feet, but something had clearly changed.
Her aura was weaker. Her translucent skin looked dull, almost pale. Her body trembled, and her hands shook slightly. Even though hers was a Spirit Body, she still felt the aftereffects of Raashim's attack.
Taking the full brunt of a god's wrath wasn't something even she could brush off.
Still, she was alive.
Barely, she thought, her lips tightening.
Reen took a deep breath, steadying herself. Her body had held together, but her soul had been rattled. If Thalisa hadn't stolen Raashim's God Origin before that counterattack, both she and Eren would've likely been erased from existence.
She turned her head toward the altar, her eyes locking onto it from below. From her angle at the base, she couldn't see what was happening up there with her normal vision.
But her Soul Sense told her everything she needed to know.
And what she felt shattered her heart.
"Erni…" she whispered.
Her eyes welled with tears as her Soul Sense painted a desperate picture. Eren clung to the god's body like a dying man wrestling death itself. His life was hanging by a thread.
If his Life Drain or Hero's Heart were just a fraction of a second slower, it would all be over.
Reen had seen Eren in a lot of fights. She had watched him fight Eliza Samael. She had watched him fight against an army of powerful Rankers during the Lazarus Project when he flipped Anfang upside down.
He had defied fate and changed his homeworld itself. All of it was done gracefully.
But she had never seen him like this. Never so close to the edge.
Her fists clenched.
She looked ahead at the array formation glowing before her, still active.
Despite the chaos, things were going mostly the way Eren had said they would.
Godfall had taken place.
Raashim couldn't regain his godhood anymore. He had already died as a god.
They just had to survive for about one more minute. Just so that the last vestiges of his existence die with his divinity.
One more minute.
Each second felt like an hour. But she couldn't waste time feeling scared or emotional.
Instead of running back to Eren, Reen turned toward the array.
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AN: Life Drain + Hero's Heart combo was first tried by Eren in chapter 1127.
Life Drain is one of the very first Abilities introduced in VEH, mentioned in chapter 318. Hero's Heart was acquired by Eren in chapter 1041.