The Giant Black Heart and The Fire Sword vs The Immortal Cells

[The player's {Immortal Cells} have encountered the invasive outside forces.]

[The {Immortal Cells} have decided to conquer the outside invasive forces.]

[The [Blaze Attribute] and the [Heart of Evil] began to fight back the player's {Immortal Cells}.]

…

Zen watched the system notifications with eyes devoid of emotion. However, only he knew that he was feeling surprised deep inside right now.

He looked at his left hand that only had its bones left and saw that it was grabbing the fire sword directly. While his left hand had sunk in the giant black heart.

His bony left arm was starting to turn into ashes without any sign of regenerating back. His regeneration had reached its limit.

His right arm, on the other hand, was now pitch black.

The agony he felt inside didn't affect Zen as he decided to take control of the absorption process.

"It's working." Zen said emotionlessly as he felt the agony deep inside him intensify.

***

Outside the dome of fire…

Arthur, who still had his left eye on fire, felt something.

'What's happening!? Why is the presence of the Lord of Evil's Heart and the Fire God's Divinity diminishing!?' He felt nervous.

Originally, he only planned to let Zen absorb a little bit of Evil Energy from the Lord of Evil's Heart. Now, he could feel that its presence was slowly diminishing together with the piece of divinity the God of Fire used to seal it.

'Is it possible that it had escaped?' Arthur felt anxious. It would be a problem if it escaped, but the dome of fire made the chances of it happening very low.

It only took a few seconds before the diminishing presence of the giant black heart and the fire sword completely disappeared.

'Shit…' Arthur cursed inside his heart.

Soon enough, he decided to not continue thinking about it.

'Anyways, I would know after I opened the dome of fire.' Arthur thought to calm himself.

'As long as it didn't escape, everything's fine…'

***

Inside the dome of fire…

Zen looked at the system notification in front of him.

[Ding!]

[The player's {Immortal Cells} have successfully conquered the outside invasive forces.]

[Detected that the player's {Immortal Cells} have been stimulated, causing it to be enhanced.]

[Detected that the player's {Immortal Cells} have a higher level of existence. Assimilation is possible.]

[Ding!]

[The player's {Immortal Cells} have begun the assimilation with the outside invasive forces.]

[Assimilating, 0.1%]

[Assimilating, 0.2%]

…

Zen looked at the unbearably slow integration process. Then, he looked at the other system notifications on the side.

[Ding!]

[Congratulations to the player for upgrading their [High-Speed Regeneration] to [Sonic-Speed Regeneration].]

[Congratulations to the player for discovering a new sub skill of the {Immortal Cells}.]

[Cell Control

Type: Passive

Description:

Absolute control of the user's body at the cellular level.]

Then, Zen watched as his mutilated body recovered to its peak state in a matter of milliseconds.

"Well, this is cool." Due to the fact that he hadn't turned his [Apathetic State] off, his voice was still as unemotional as usual.

He decided to wait till the assimilation process was finished before he turned the skill off.

***

Outside the dome of fire…

Arthur felt the fluctuation inside the dome of fire slowly decrease.

'Finally, I'll be able to open the dome of fire!' Arthur estimated that it would be around 17 minutes before the fluctuations fully subsided.

Thus, he decided to wait patiently while maintaining the enhanced dome of fire. He didn't dare to slack since there was a possibility that the Lord of Evil's Heart was waiting for an opportunity to escape.

***

Inside the dome of fire…

It had been over 15 minutes since the integration process started.

Zen, who still had an emotionless face, watched as the assimilation process turned to 99.99%.

Ba-dump!

A heartbeat sounded as Zen felt the existence of another heart on the right side of his chest.

Following the heartbeat were black veins that rapidly spread out through his body.

Zen closed his eyes without emotion.

If he were to experience this while not in his [Apathetic State], then he would have screamed his throat out.

His skin turned pale. Two "L" shaped black horns grew on his temples as his hair turned white.

The transformation was completed in an instant.

Zen opened his eyes. One could see that his sclera had turned black. Only his shining red pupils retained their form, showing that he was still Zen and not a mindless monster that was craving for slaughter.

It was his form as a Revenant.

Zen observed all of this without an ounce of emotion.

However, deep inside, he was screaming, "What the… This is too cool! I now have a second form just like the Saiyans of the anime I liked to watch!"

Just imagining his enemy rejoicing in his defeat while he stood up, saying that this wasn't even his final form made him extremely happy.

Of course, his state of apathy prevented him from being able to express any of what he was feeling.

However, he found it strange since the integration process was still at 99.99%.

In the next second…

Boom!

Crackle! Crackle!

His whole body directly exploded in flames.

His skin, flesh, nails, muscles, nerves, veins, eyeballs and even the horns from his previous form were all burned instantly.

The only thing left of him was a skeleton, a blazing skeleton. The fire burned furiously, as if wanting to turn his existence into ashes.

Fortunately, his [Sonic-Speed Regeneration] was able to achieve balance with the damage from the fire.

Currently, the [Sonic-Speed Regeneration] that tried to heal his body and the divine fire that tried to destroy his body were in a stalemate.

However, this stalemate was only obtained when it was only his bones remaining.

Strangely enough, Zen was still able to see and feel, as if he still had a normal human body.

Fire lit up in the eye sockets of his skull, it flickered as if he was blinking using his eyes.

"Wow." Zen said emotionlessly. Due to not having vocal chords, his rough voice seemed to directly come from the fire inside him, making a reverberating sound in the air that would sting the hearing of anyone who heard it.

Again, if he wasn't in his [Apathetic State], then he would have been overwhelmed with the pain of being burned by divine flames.

'I-I guess this is my third form???' Zen's mind was filled with question marks.

Still, it was not any less cool than his second form since he also liked a movie in the past that had some resemblance to it. In fact, he thought that it had a strange charm and was even cooler than before!

His blazing skeleton state lasted for a short while before the fire in and around his body was extinguished.

Then his body was regenerated in sonic-speed. His body was even more flawless than before. It was without any blemishes, as if he didn't experience any cruel torture at all.

Zen saw the floating window in his vision.

[Assimilation, 100%]

Zen had reached his limit long ago. He had only been standing due to his willpower. Now that he saw the assimilation process completed, relief washed him internally, automatically disabling his [Apathetic State].

Severe exhaustion and fatigue that was suppressed earlier now caught up to him, directly making him unconscious in the process.