Transcendent Gene
Chapter 83: First Kill [1]

Chapter 83: First Kill [1]

Gio couldn’t see properly in real-time. However, [Memory Book] showed him the world in perfect condition. As long as Gio was still seeing through his eyes, the things he saw would be recorded as if he was in perfect condition.

Well, at least at this level.

He saw Tover’s movements a split second late, but it was better than not seeing them at all. Another weapon was summoned from the ground as the man ran at him, a hatchet this time.

He grabbed it with his left hand and threw it wildly in the direction he saw Tover coming from. Without waiting to see if it hit anything, he formed another hatchet, grabbed it, and threw it again.

Tover couldn’t charge again. He was leaking even more of the crimson fluid than Gio was. He stumbled forward, his hand clutching his sword for dear life. The aura coming from him was sputtering as if it was running out of fuel, but it was still very present.

He could still use his power one more time.

Gio threw those hatchets at Tover one by one, but none of them hit their target. Tover stepped to the side and avoided one, stepped to the side and avoided another, getting faster with every step he took.

He sped up until he reached a drunken run, covering the few feet of distance between them. He raised his sword in the air, letting out one last huge wave of power.

Gio’s teeth were scraping against each other from being gritted so hard. His eyes, though out of focus, were hardened and as sharp as a blade. He put all the focus in his mind together just to see for a single second.

He saw that man in front of him. He saw that sword approaching within inches of his head. It was going to split him in half.

Desperately, he pulled at the handle coming out of the ground. He needed to bring it up in time to counterattack. There was no other–

’It’s too late.’

Gio instinctively realized it in that moment, but it was too late to care about it.

As long as he could strike first, it wouldn’t be too late.

As long as he could strike that man’s heart...

Gio ripped forward, tearing a spear out of the ground. He put himself closer to the approaching blade, but he was moving too. The spear whipped in his hands, its blade pushing directly forward when–

SHIK!

The sound of a human body being cut rang out.

And then, there was only the sound of explosions in the sky.

Gio and Tover stood in that position, the final position they took before a fatal blow was landed.

Their eyes were locked. Tover’s expression was still rage, and Gio’s was still unfocused.

Yet, only one of them still had the ability to move.

"Keugh...!"

Gio coughed out a mouthful of blood, stumbling backward. As he did so, he felt his hair being cut off by the sharp blade only an inch from his scalp.

His eyes stayed on Tover.

Why didn’t he finish the move?

Why did he–

Gio’s eyes widened. He drunkenly turned his gaze to the side, barely managing to glimpse the sight of Ulver with his arm out the truck window, a trail of purple light leaking from his fingers.

He could only give a nod of acknowledgement. He felt like he was going to pass out from just turning his eyes back to Tover.

’I have to finish this.’

That was what they were waiting for.

That was why they only intervened this much.

His eyes went to Tover’s chest before locking with his once more.

That spear was impaled through Tover’s heart.

Gio forced himself two steps forward and grabbed the handle. His eyes didn’t leave the other man’s once as he engulfed his hand in a white hue.

He could already see the life leaving them.

He could see bright as day the hopelessness that man felt when he realized he couldn’t move his body.

Yet, he paid it no mind. He allowed the white hue in his hand to travel up the spear handle, transforming its structure.

Crackle!

Crack!

Crack!

An ear-piercing sound rang out. The handle slowly turned to glass, followed by the blade. It became possible to see a refracted image of Tover’s bloodied insides for a moment.

Only for a moment.

In the next...

Crash!

Gio slammed his elbow into the glass and shattered it, sending fragments shooting through Tover’s heart.

The man was already on the verge of dying, but that impact was no different from his heart exploding.

His eyes widened slowly. That was all he could do.

"Keugh...! Kauggh...!"

He made strange gurgling sounds as blood forced its way up his throat and out his mouth. Strange chunks came up with it, falling to the ground with a disturbingly audible sound.

His eyes, filled with a mix of negative and hostile emotions, slowly lost all their light. The blood flowing to his brain was cut off just as it was for the rest of his organs.

And then he collapsed. He didn’t fall to his knees and die dramatically; he just collapsed.

In a single moment, he turned from a living person into a cold corpse on the ground.

Gio stared at it. His hands shook slightly.

His eyes didn’t leave the corpse.

They couldn’t.

"Gio!"

He heard his name being called, but it sounded far away. He felt his body being pulled away soon enough, and he was in the blue car with Garrison before he knew it.

Until it was out of his sight, his eyes never left the corpse.

Gio had killed more monsters and beasts than there existed people on Earth.

However, if it was humans...

This was only the third time.

Feeling the ground rumbling under him as they moved, seeing that corpse in his mind, and suffering from the grave wound in his shoulder, Gio fell unconscious.

It had been a much longer day than he was expecting.

***

"Gio!"

His eyes opened to his name being called.

The bright white ceiling of a hospital. The uncomfortable feeling of a hospital bed under his body.

He was familiar with them. It was a necessity for someone like him to be in the hospital, after all.

He put his hand over his eyes, protecting himself from the evil light that was blinding him.

It was a soft hand that had only ever touched a wooden blade, but it was a hand he had long accepted as his own.

"Hey, Gio, are you dead? Did you go deaf too?!"

"Shut up. I’m suffering."

His voice was hoarse. He must’ve been out for a while. Still, he could tell who was talking, and if he didn’t say anything to shut that guy up, his ears would be tormented for the next few hours.

"Haa..."

He sighed to himself.

"How did I even end up here this time?"

His recollection of the past few days...was it the past few days?...was foggy, however, he knew it couldn’t be something ordinary.

It usually didn’t take this long to get used to the light.

"You..."

That voice came from the side again.

"You don’t remember?"

Whenever he thought back to that moment, he wished he’d just kept his mouth shut. If he didn’t say anything, he wouldn’t have provoked that big idiot to talk.

Because if it weren’t for those words, maybe it really would’ve been buried in the [Memory Book] somewhere he never had to see it.

But someone questioned his memory, and that was an affront to the Original Gene he held.

So, it showed him.

It forced him to relive that memory clearly.

That memory of murdering another human for the first time.