Warm blood gushed out of his eye socket and drenched his face before silver threads began to heal him.

He gritted his teeth and thrust his spear towards its core, but just like before, his aura faltered under the might of purple miasma, and the kareth struck his chest with its bestial front leg.

THWACK! Fwoosh!

He was sent flying once again; however, this time, there were no trees to slow him down, so he dug his spear into the ground and slid a few steps before coming to a stop.

He looked at the kareth with his bloodied face and finally understood why it wasn't attacking him.

The answer was simple:

It had no reason to go to the flies to kill them; it could just wait for them to reach him, and then kill them before they even knew that they had died, and right now, Rion was such a fly.

An immortal fly, but a fly nonetheless.

The difference between a two-horned and a three-horned was drastic because the latter's miasma was nearly as potent as the enhanced aura. Even though Rion's aura was being augmented by the god king factor of his bloodline and the Azrath weapon, it still paled in comparison to an enhanced aura.

Rion didn't move to attack; instead, he stood there, a dark expression marred his face.

Until now, his brutish strength and his aura were enough not just to defeat but to toy with his opponent, but this time, both of them were failing him.

His brutish strength was outclassed by the kareth's bestial body, and his silver aura lost its significance against the sickening miasma.

His grip tightened around the shaft of the spear, and his teeth ground against each other as his thoughts churned for a method to defeat the beast before him, but no answer came; he was stumped.

His thoughts continued until he remembered Zaelyane's words.

"Hmm? The difference between the auras?"

"Well... to awaken the basic aura, you have to accept 'what you are' but... for the enhanced aura you must deny 'what you are' and accept 'what you want to be'."

Suddenly, the marks of wings on his back began to emit a bright golden glow.

He closed his eyes and exhaled softly.

His mind cleared from the thought of the kareth, and he began to deny the parts of himself, or at least he tried to.

But nothing came to his mind; there was nothing for him to deny, as his current self was both what he was and what he wanted to be.

He rushed further and saw deeper into himself.

He saw his worries for others.

The impatience for not having a cure for the purple fog.

The guilt for not accepting Dora's love.

The fear of having to reveal his system and reincarnation.

But all of these were parts that he couldn't deny; these were what made his immortal self humane after all.

He suddenly thought, 'Is that what's holding me back?'

No matter how many times he said it, he wasn't really a human. He was beyond humans as he lacked the fundamental truth that pushed humans to their limits — the fear of death.

It was what pushed the humans to transcend their limits, and he lacked it.

Just as he understood that, the answer came to him within the next moment.

"What I deny or accept doesn't have to be truth..." he mumbled, and the silver spark within the core of his existence began to tremble.

"Denial doesn't need logic..." he muttered and exhaled deeply before he mumbled,

"I believe, therefore... I am mortal."

Just as those words left his lips, the world trembled, and the silver flame inside him shook violently, not because it was being strengthened but because Rion had denied something that was his 'foundation'.

During his basic aura awakening, he had accepted himself as a protector, and now he was denying everything he had accepted, just by conceptually denying his immortality.

However, that alone wasn't enough for him to transcend his limits because what he was accepting was a lie, but he had already thought of a solution to it.

He simply accepted a 'truth' or something that would equate to one.

"I am a mortal in the shell of an immortal."

The silver flame suddenly brightened and exploded before another flame took birth within him.

It started as a spark, and just a moment later, it grew ten times the size of the silver one.

Rion suddenly opened his eyes, and the kareth, who had already sensed the changes with him, ran over and struck him with its head.

He slid a few steps and smirked as a solid layer of golden aura dispersed all of the impact.

He looked at the kareth, and suddenly he felt the anger and hate he had never felt before.

He lifted his spear and mumbled while pointing its tip at it, "Your audacity precedes your worth."

Fwoosh!

Golden flames appeared around his body, and he appeared right before the kareth.

The kareth's sucker shot forward to munch on him, but instead of dodging, he grabbed its tail and pulled it off.

"KRAHHH!'" The kareth screamed and tried to crush him with its head, but before it could.

THWACK!

He landed a punch to its head, and its head exploded into bits.

The kareth's flesh wiggled and began to heal itself but he didn't let it.

THWACK!

He punched again.

THWACK!

Again.

THWACK!

And again.

He continued to punch, and finally the kareth's glassy red core came into his vision.

His hands moved towards it, and the purple miasma tried to stop him, but just as it touched his aura, it simply vanished.

He pulled the core and stepped back.

The kareth's body trembled for a few moments before it came to a stop.

He turned around and mumbled, "Not so mighty anymore, huh?"

___

A/N:

Meeh-llo! LazyGoat here!

I think this chapter might require a few explanations.

So, what is this Rion denying this and accepting that crap?

Well, the thing Rion is doing is forging a state of self. You can basically call it a third-person perspective of oneself, and in this state of self, he denied being an immortal, which forces his subconscious into the state he was before assimilating with the Immortal Body skill, which, as a result, would force him to continue improving without him having the fear of death.

Also, the Enhanced aura doesn't require actual truth. It requires a truth you impose on your subconscious.

But does that mean anyone can force themselves to believe anything?

No they can't. To do something like that, they would need an extremely strong willpower... Rion has that willpower because of what he went through before his reincarnation.

Comment on whatever questions you have in your mind!

Have a great day/night!

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