Essence!

As the abilities of the thousands I killed drained away into nothingness I actually felt no guilt.

The lives of so many that I took were literally being deleted so that I could strengthen myself.

I didn't care one bit about it. If there was a useless ability, duplicate, or if I had a stronger form of that ability, it was thrown away.

The moment I clicked on the last one and confirmed I would be deleting them, a wave of pure energy overtook me.

An actual blinding light wrapped itself around my body.

It was mesmerizing as all kinds of different shades of colors floated around me.

I was entrapped in the beauty of it when a new message rang out.

[Notice: 1]: Host has gone on the path of death all essence the host achieves will automatically be put towards this.

[Notice: 2]: Host has ripped apart essence from abilities this essence has no form as can be used for either path.

Essence: 1.6%

Death: 0.1%

Life: 0%

As I read over the notifications, the shocking news was brought before me.

Apparently, each person is forced on a certain path when it comes to essence.

It seems that I am on the path of death which really does suit me.

But the essence I got from deleting abilities allows me to put it anywhere.

'Does that mean I can learn both Death and Life?' I questioned.

Wanting to test my thoughts I put 1% of the essence I accumulated into Life.

The moment I did this my entire body shook.

The bright light from the waves of essence that surrounded me began to enter my body.

The light began to dim as now there was a lot less surrounding me.

But then a second later once the essence finished being absorbed into my body a terrible feeling overcame me.

"AHHHHH!"

Burning pain that was unexplainable was felt in my insides.

It felt like I was being burnt alive from the inside out.

The pain didn't stop and in fact, grew stronger over time.

It got to the point I was on the ground clenching my chest as I rolled around unable to even scream.

Only a few minutes had passed but it felt like an eternity before the pain subsided.

Once it did, I was laying on my back breathing heavily while sweat crept through the floor of the planet.

But when the screen updated I knew it was worth it.

Life: 1%

Not much about my appearance changed due to unlocking essence. There wasn't even an added pressure. But it was rather a feeling from within.

Just as the essence got absorbed into me it felt like something… new was being made.

Preparing myself to face the immense amount of pain I put the rest of the essence I had stockpiled into death.

Once again the scene repeated itself as all the remaining bright light that was wrapped around me was sucked in.

Right after the last bit was absorbed a braced myself for a world of hurt but nothing came.

Death: 0.7%

Without any consequences, the percentage of death went up.

'Wait, does this relate back to the fact that I am on the path of Death but not Life? Then does that mean that it is only painful if I add life?' Wanting to discover if I was right I put that thought in the back of my mind to test later.

'Now I have prepared all that I can, it's time to put an end to this!'

Rising to the sky I flew back to where Willow was waiting.

Barely any time passed before I was standing in front of her.

"You're back!" Willow exclaimed however a moment later she gave me a weird look. "There's something different about you."

I gave her a light-hearted smile, "You could tell? I managed to reach level 100 and unlock essence."

Silence filled the air as an awestruck expression spread across Willow's face. "There's no way, just a week ago you weren't even close to the prowess I could output! How is it that you've come so far so quickly? This is just unfair!"

A hit of sorrow seeped out of Willow's expression that didn't even last a second before vanishing.

The only reason I was able to pick up on it was because of how much stronger my senses had grown once reaching level 100.

Simple gestures and slight changes were so much easier to pick up on now. Things that I normally would have never noticed let alone tried to pay attention to became so obvious to me.

'It seems that there were internal changes,' I concluded as I slowly learned just how much my body changed just by breaking through to a higher level.

The quiet and light wind which constantly blew all around was now noticeably more sensitive on my skin as I could feel the wind changing directions.

"It's true," I said honestly, not revealing any emotion or even really caring after all it wasn't much of a challenge getting to the required level.

Sure I had to kill hundreds of people and beasts but it only truly took a couple of weeks.

If I hadn't spent so much time traveling all around earth searching everywhere for the surviving humans then I could have unlocked essence much sooner.

Willow had no words, I didn't answer her question nor give her an explanation. I simply confirmed what she was struggling to believe.

A sigh escaped her mouth before she looked up to stare deep into my eyes. The moment only lasted a couple of seconds before she broke away.

"I suppose it's time then?" She asked.

"Of course," I answered as I turned and seemingly faced a random direction. "After all, they know we are coming."

This caused Willow's eyes to widen with shock as many different thoughts rushed through her mind.

But I quickly put a stop to that, "Don't worry I was the one to warn them, after all, I need to test just how much stronger I've become."