Void Reaper: The Essence Apocalypse

Chapter 41 41: I’m just a useless, pathetic woman

The door slammed shut behind Leon with a dull, heavy bang that echoed down the empty corridor for a heartbeat, then vanished, like the campus itself swallowed the sound and left him alone with the cold.

It slipped under his clothes almost immediately, biting through fabric and skin, forcing a short, involuntary shiver out of him. He instinctively pulled his coat tighter, as if a thin layer of cloth could do anything more than pretend to be protection.

The air was sharp, damp, and miserable, the kind that, in normal times, meant bad weather and a cold. Not the kind that meant your body might simply fail if it weakened at the wrong moment. For a second Leon found it almost ironic how quickly something as ordinary as being cold returned to being a real problem the moment civilization stopped cushioning it with heaters, hot tea, and a dry bed.

"Do you really think giving her the Beast Dominion scroll was a good idea?" Valeria asked as she walked beside him, her pace calm and effortless, like the temperature was just an abstract number, not something that clawed at flesh.

Leon snorted softly, stepping over cracked pavement, passing abandoned benches and trash cans that had been normal parts of campus a few days ago and now looked like props left behind after an evacuation.

"Purely from a system standpoint? You're right," he admitted after a moment without looking at her. "The scroll is rare. The skill has potential. And even if I wouldn't use it, I could've traded it for something more practical later."

Valeria's mouth curved into that thin, not-quite-pleasant smile.

"Exactly. Wasting resources is rarely a good strategy, especially at this stage of a world's development."

Leon waved a hand, like he was swatting away an annoying thought.

"Yeah, but if you look at her temperament, how she moves, how she talks, how she reacts under pressure, her chances of surviving direct combat on her own are… bad," he said evenly, not cruelly. More like someone judging the weather before leaving the house. "Ironically, controlling beasts weaker than her could be perfect. She doesn't have to fight directly. It gives her a margin for error she normally wouldn't have."

They walked in silence for a few seconds, broken only by their footsteps and a distant, unsettling screech somewhere deeper in the campus.

"Besides," Leon added quieter, almost to himself, "I wouldn't feel right about it if, after encouraging her to fight, she just died in her first clash."

He took a few more steps, then let out a long, irritated sigh.

"Bruh…" he muttered, hunching his shoulders. "Why is it so damn cold?"

Valeria glanced at him from the corner of her eye, still dressed in the same black robe that showed far more skin than common sense would recommend in this weather. She looked completely unfazed.

"Your Strength and Agility increased exponentially, reinforcing your muscles and movement system," she explained calmly, like she was stating an obvious fact. "But resistance to environmental conditions and disease is directly tied to Vitality. If you want cold, dampness, and infections to stop being an issue, that stat should be your priority."

Leon finally looked at her properly, head to toe, and a completely different thought sparked in his mind, turning into something half-joke, half-hope.

"Since we're talking stats and miracles," he said, raising a brow, "can't you make some kind of barrier? A field? Anything that warms me up even a little?"

Valeria shook her head slowly, and this time the bitter smile on her face looked less theatrical than usual.

"Sorry," she said. "It's best if you assume I'm not here at all."

She paused for a fraction of a second, then added more seriously:

"Unless someone attacks me directly, I can't use my power to help or harm anyone in a lower world. Essence Record would punish me immediately."

Leon's shoulders twitched again as the cold burrowed deeper. The realization that she wasn't going to give him anything beyond information settled in completely.

"You're pretty useless," he said without anger, more frustrated than anything, eyes forward.

Valeria nodded slowly, a hint of regret in it.

"True," she said quietly. "I'm just a useless, pathetic woman whose extraordinary beauty has half the universe hunting her. All I can do is feed you information you would've figured out on your own eventually."

After that, Valeria actually stopped, like the thought that had come to her carried enough weight that she had to arrange it before letting it out. When she looked at Leon again, she was more serious than usual, no familiar irony, and something that could almost pass for sincerity.

"Although…" she began slowly, stretching that single word. "Maybe there's a way for me to make up for it."

She stepped closer, not invading his space yet, but close enough that Leon could feel she was doing it on purpose again. Her voice stayed calm, low, stripped of jokes.

"I can use my body."

Leon's expression darkened instantly, like someone turned off a light behind his face. Whatever patience he'd been forcing himself to keep, gone. He knew exactly where this would lead: him losing the conversation and her turning it into another barrage of absurd, provocative comments.

So instead of answering, he just moved. Faster.

A few meters ahead, right where the path curved between buildings, two zombies shuffled out of the shadow, stiff-limbed, shoulders slack, eyes empty.

Leon didn't even slow down.

He drew his daggers and slipped past the first in one smooth motion, taking its head clean off. Then he pivoted on his heel and, with the same almost lazy arc, removed the second head as if he was venting irritation he had nowhere else to aim.

[Essence Record – Kill Confirmed]

[Target: 2x Normal Zombie (LVL 9)]

Valeria raised an eyebrow at his grim expression and the ease with which he dismantled the dead.

"Oh?" she dragged out. "Are you taking your frustration out on things weaker than you?"

Her words had barely settled when Leon vanished from where he stood, his outline blurring for a fraction of a second, then burst around the corner of a building where five more zombies spilled out through an open doorway, drawn by the noise.

Before any of them could make more than a guttural sound, they hit the ground one after another, heads rolling across the concrete.

[Essence Record – Kill Confirmed]

[Target: 5x Normal Zombie (LVL 9)]

"Yes!" Leon snapped through clenched teeth without looking back. "That's right! Beating up on the weak is fun! And one day I'm gonna kick your ass the same way I kick these damn zombies!"

Valeria paused, then let out a long, theatrical gasp. One hand adjusted her robe in a way that was clearly more provocation than necessity, while the other brushed her cheek as it pinked slightly. She looked at Leon through long lashes, leaning forward just a little.

"Instead of kicking…" she whispered softly, "I'd rather you spank me with those big hands…"

Leon: "…"

Leon's eyes went wide. His stride suddenly lost all confidence; he caught his foot on an uneven patch of pavement and only barely avoided face-planting. At the same time, the image of their first meeting, this cold, noble, almost perfect being, cracked in his mind and got replaced by the vision of a shameless, corrupted provocateur whose words, against his will, had rooted themselves in his imagination.

He shook his head hard, like he could physically throw the image out.

Then he sped up even more, almost fleeing, wordlessly putting distance between them.

Valeria watched him go, then laughed, loud, bright, ringing. Her robe fluttered lightly as she followed without effort, like the whole thing was just another amusing scene in a world she'd stopped taking seriously a long time ago.

***

The university pharmacy was about ten minutes from the gym, at least according to the campus map Leon had seen hundreds of times before all this crap. But the farther he walked, the more his brow tightened.

Morning had apparently decided to throw its own punch into an already hostile situation.

Fog began to thicken in a way that wasn't natural or harmless. It was heavy, sticky, cold, like someone was slowly lowering a wet curtain over the ground.

The temperature dropped with every step. Not sharply, but steadily, enough that Leon could feel the chill chewing through his clothes, into muscle, deeper still. He knew better than to move carelessly in conditions like this. So he slowed, placing his feet with more caution, listening, because visibility had shrunk to a handful of meters.

Beyond that was only gray. Milky nothing.

Leon didn't realize it, but an ordinary person standing in the same place at the same time would barely be able to see their own hands, maybe the tip of their nose. Leon, with sharpened senses and reaction speed, could still pick out subtle shifts and make out shapes a few meters ahead.

And then, mid-step, he felt movement to his right.

The instinct carved into him by Elite Soldier fired before thought could. Leon half-turned and kicked with everything he had, putting his whole body into it. His leg, reinforced by stats, snapped out like a whip: violent, spring-loaded, precise.

He felt resistance.

Hard and Meaty. Something that was neither wall nor air.

A heartbeat later, the silence ripped open with a furious, hoarse scream of pain as whatever he'd hit flew several meters and slammed into the ground with a dull thud. The force of Leon's movement scattered the fog around him for a brief instant, like someone yanked the curtain aside.

In that flash, he caught the outline of his attacker, long and low, moving with unnatural fluidity. The shape of paws. A tail.

Then gray swallowed everything again.

Leon settled into a stable stance, daggers loose in his hands but ready. He muttered under his breath, more irritated than surprised:

"For a cat… you're pretty damn big."