Adam wanted to vomit. It was a good thing his soul map didn't require physical eyes, because everything seen through his eyes was blurry. Even with the river raging and fury filling him, Adam felt his inborn emotions more strongly than ever.

He wanted to whimper. He wanted to rage. All the pain around him, the fear, and there was no target for it. A powerless desire for action bogged him down as Adam didn't know what to do.

Should he move forward and try to rescue someone? To rescue anybody? Should he leap over the whole mass of humanity and run after the Juungii bases?

Every decision felt bad. Each thought was pained by inaction.

There were always invaders. With them, Adam knew what to do. There was no need for thought. No question about the action. Accept the rage and let himself go.

Even at the time Brandon was gutted, or when his friends were about to fall, and when they found the people in the Labesati's base. There had always been a target. Always a way to avoid facing the victims. Even if it was just redirected at the next raid, the next invader, and the next base to take. The Earth was full of convenient targets for his rage.

Things were different this time. Because of the [System]'s bounty he was trapped inside his house, unable to leave it to unleash that rage. Because of the [System]'s fanatics, humans were left to suffer just out of his reach. Because of the [System]'s arrival, humanity had been doomed.

Even as his cheeks dampened from tears, Adam put his arms to his side, thrust out his chest, and screamed into the sky. There was no pseudo-skill or power involved with the scream, since that would have hurt such low-level people. Possibly, it would have killed them all. Adam wasn't so far overtaken by his emotions that he would allow that to happen. Although, if that was the only way to stop their suffering, then Adam might be forced to consider it.

The neutral markings on his soul map flickered, some turning sympathetic to him and others feeling hostility for his expression of grief while retaining freedom. The responses were all over, yet the suffering of their souls was constant. Except for one soul that remained neutral. One soul that was hale and hearty and felt nothing towards Adam.

Adam leaned backwards as far as he could while twisting his body.

"[Penance of the Damned]."

An instant later and the bean of light that cut through the air from twenty feet away would have hit him in the heart. Instead, it burned a line on the edge of his shoulder, melting the chainmail armor he wore there.

No blood came from the wound, since the beam was hot enough to cauterize it even as it passed. Adam could smell the ozone in the air from the temperature of that attack. Yet still his soul map showed the attacker was neutral. And he wasn't alone either.

"[The Light of Truth]," said thousands of voices at once. It felt like being trapped in a never-ending echo, as the sound from the numerous voices took a variety of time to reach him.

"[Penance of the Damned]."

Adam didn't even have time to wipe his nose or eyes after his emotional outburst, but now he had what he needed. Enemies. Invaders to fight. To kill. A reason to seep himself in the rage and push out his other feelings. Regret, guilt, and frustration had no place in battle.

Dodging too slowly this time, the beam took Adam in his side, right above his hip. It burned from his back, taking a moment to burn through his armor. Then it took less time to burn through his flesh.

Grunting from the pain, Adam recognized how powerful those beams must be to get through his high vitality so easily.

"[Gladiation's Approach]!" he snarled, much like the nearby man had done when speaking with him. His eyes were clearing of their tears, but he didn't need clear sight to attack when he knew where the enemy was.

"[Evil's Cage]," said seven identical voices at once.

Something hit Adam, ramming him all over the front of his body. It had so much force to it that he had rebounded and staggered backwards while dropping his hammer. The teleport step he had used only took him a few feet before it was interrupted, broken by the skill that several Juungii had used.

The jarring had cleared his eyes, and he could finally see what was around him. On every side except the one the hostage humans were on, there were two "Archbishop" tagged Juungii. A seventh was also standing further back in the direction of Adam's own territory.

They were all shorter than him. The same gray robes clothed them and their gray skin. Their non-descript heads lacked hair or markings of any kind. Each looked like a clone of the others.

"Heathen, know that we do not do this out of animosity," said the highest level of the Archbishops, at 79. "We only carry out the divine's will. Do not fight, for only the innocent suffer when evil acts."

Adam squinted at the invader. No animosity? That meant that their attacks were no different than a shingle falling on him from a rooftop. It also explained why the soul map didn't show them, or he had thought they weren't on it. Because they were, and they had been neutral, without feelings towards him, just like the souls of the humans who didn't know him.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Taking the moment to get a breath and look around, Adam realized it wasn't just the Archbishops that he was facing. There were also thousands of Juungii behind the humans, a restraint to keep them from moving. They were glowing. Feeding their power to the Archbishops, like during with previous fight with one.

Adam looked around like a caged animal. Even with a different situation before him, he didn't know what to do. To run? To fight? Take the slaughter to those feeding power, and sacrifice the humans in between them? Or should he face the powerful and try to kill them?

"I see your hesitation," said a level 28 Archbishop. "Do you worry for those like you? Have you infected them with your evil? Is that why they have such resistant to our education?"

"Perhaps you planted them in our midst to undermine future converts that we save?" questioned a level 31. "If so, they are full of sin and shall share in your punishment, as the great [System] has requested."

"What?" gasped Adam. "No! They are just normal peop…"

Before Adam finished, an older lady in the second row and about 30 people down, screamed. Her wrinkly and knobby hands reached up to her throat as the scream faded. Then she dropped on the spot.

The humans surrounding her looked even more terrified than before, their eyes wide. They clearly wanted to run, to hide, but they all held their ground, unable to defy the Juungii waiting on all sides.

"DAMN YOU!" shouted Adam. "SHE WAS NOBODY!"

A level 16 Archbishop bowed towards Adam and then looked towards the sky. "It is as the [System] has requested."

"To kill one, or more, does not matter," responded the level 28. "These natives have held no value to the mighty [System]. To root through them all for those who are one with your faction or not is an impossible task. There is no way to tell them apart."

"Whether we drain the energy from a few or all, the [System] will lose nothing," added a level 11.

"I'LL KILL YOU, THE PLANET YOU COME FROM, AND THEN ALL WHO WORSHIP THE DAMNED [SYSTEM]!" raged Adam.

He pulled his large sword from his back and ran towards the two on the left side. Using pseudo-skills was an issue with how close he was to the humans. [Arc Shockwave], [Incapacitating Shout], [Explosive Strike], and any with range were a problem. Much of his kit had an area effect, and then it would be him killing those he wanted to save.

"[Penance of the Damned]," said two more Juungii.

Two more beams of searing energy burned through Adam. One cut through his pants and thigh, causing his leg to buckle, and the other pierced his lung, taking longer to burn through his armor and chest.

Dropping to his knees, Adam stared with hate at the two Juungii before him.

"Your level of depravity is assured since the divine [System] would rather lose your energy than pass it on to others within it's embrace," said a Juungii. Adam didn't know which.

Heaving for air, Adam looked around. He was kneeling on the ground. His two most powerful weapons were out of reach. Enemies surrounded him, and even though he might be able to fight them, it would require him to abandon the humans.

Remembering what he had said to those Sentinel unit leaders, he had to choose. He couldn't choose sacrificing himself.

"Our people," he had told them. The Sentinel Army were his people. Conquering was his purpose. Killing the invaders was his vengeance for those dead and alive. Adam was to be the consequence for them coming to his world. He was not the savior or the protector.

Adam only had this one life. If lost, so was humanity. Sixty-eight times future Adam had lived this life. He had failed to protect. Instead, he had tried to build a weapon capable of destroying all foreign life. And that was the current Adam.

That weapon was Adam. He had acted it out, lived it, made it who he was. Rage, fury, and certainty overwhelmed his reason. To release his full power and doom these humans was his path.

CONQUER!

To wipe out everyone who stood in his way was a small loss.

CONQUER!

If people couldn't fight with him, then they were dead weight, screamed his soul.

CONQUER!

The river overflowed almost everywhere inside Adam. It took all the questions and doubts and made them simple. No one mattered if they interfered with his conquest. Any who did, needed to cease to exist.

The inside of Adam was scoured by the certainty. The corruption screamed so loudly in his ears that Adam fought his way to his feet even as more light beams tore into him. The memory of the guard's belief in him fell into the river along with all his other thoughts.

Adam drew in breath and went to roar. All he needed to do was to use [Power Through] and give himself up. So many enemies around would boost him beyond anything they could handle.

Instinctively, Adam prepared to become an apocalyptic beast.

Then something cold touched Adam. Even as another beam burned through his stomach, he swatted to keep the cold away from his hellish fury. The cold avoided his swat. It touched him in a place he couldn't reach.

Another memory came to him. Words that he had barely registered when he heard them, too caught up in his rage.

"Whether we drain the energy from a few or all, the [System] will lose nothing."

Drain? Energy? Why would the [System] matter to it?

The cold touch landed on Adam again. The river tried to submerge it. The heat tried to melt it.

Adam stopped his oncoming roar. Another few beams cut through him, but he ignored them. The ground changed from under Adam's feet to under his back as his body fell.

"Whether we drain the energy from a few or all, the [System] will lose nothing."

The words nagged at him. It was more than what was said. There was a connection. No big realization hit him. No deep memory rushed back to him. Just those recently said words.

The rage drained and Adam thought about connections. The girls could feel his emotions through his connections. Energy from Cruxannith still flowed to him, and his to her when he gained more due to their connection.

Adam had a lot of connections.

Closing his eyes, Adam took a deep breath.

Adam had all the connections he needed. The only one he was missing was the one that everyone else had. The one that had tried to drain all his energy to kill him for learning about it. There was a reason the [System] feared him knowing of the connection.

"[Soul Vision]," whispered Adam as he opened his physical eyes to the world around him while using the pseudo-skill.

It hurt to sit up, but when he did, he saw all the connections. The Archbishops were cautiously approaching him, unsure why the rampaging beast now seemed calm and docile. Their souls were radiant and expanded beyond their physical bodies as their connections with the lower tiered Juungii shared the energy from their souls. They were connected together.

The energy was thick around them. The Juungii's connections passed through all the areas where the humans were, which was why it was hard to see them. By comparison, their souls were thin and wispy, barely different than the surrounding energy.

It was difficult to focus on the humans' souls, but Adam saw something there. There was a connection. It bound them to the Juungii leaders. But it didn't come from their bracelets. It came from a tiny golden box on their heads.

Adam almost chuckled. Maybe he did and couldn't tell due to how woozy the [Soul Vision] made him when used this way. The Juungii all stopped moving towards the unhinged native, uncertain of what to do with him.

But Adam knew what to do.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.