Chapter 123 | Handsome Appearance!
The pill dissolved instantly. A wave of numbing coolness spread through his body, wrapping around his screaming nerves like a bandage.
But it wasn’t enough!
80%.
Dexter felt his limit approaching.
The fusion was consuming him. If he lost consciousness now for even a single second, the flames would consume him entirely. There would be nothing left but ash and a lingering trail of fire. No body. No soul. No Dexter.
The faces of Mira, Lyra, and Selene flashed through his mind.
Mira, laughing in the rain, her red hair plastered to her face, her spectral arms scooping water like a child playing in a puddle.
Lyra, blushing furiously as her telepathic voice whispered thank you inside his mind, her dark eyes shining with quiet gratitude.
Selene, clinging to his arm in the kitchen, her cold body pressed against his, purring softly as his warmth seeped into her frozen bones.
’I can’t leave them.’
The thought hit him with the force of lightning.
If he died here, alone, on the floor of his bedroom, consumed by his own ambition, Mira would never walk again. Lyra would never speak with her own voice as the shadow corruption takes place.
Selene would freeze to death, slowly and painfully, her ice consuming her from the inside out.
Their zeal might collapse, and they might actually become suicidal once more.
They had no one, no family, no protection. He was their only family, and if he died right here, it would be over for them.
’No!’
Dexter clenched his teeth hard as his fingers cracked through the tilted ground like it was made of paper as he squeezed hard on the earth.
’i refuse to die just like this!’
The fusion process continued.
85%... 90%... 95%.
Dexter’s vision faded and turned blurry as the edges of his consciousness dissolved into white static.
He could feel the last threads of his awareness slipping through his fingers like sand.
’Hold on! Hold on! Hold on!’
Dexter roared like a beast to himself!
[Fusion Progress: 99%]
The world suddenly went blank.
Everything, including the pain, the heat, and the trembling body, stopped as it all went silent.
Then—
[Fusion Completed: 100%]
BOOM.
A shockwave of abyssal violet fire erupted from Dexter’s body, scorching the ground black
The walls cracked, windows shattered outward, sending glass fragments into the night. The ceiling above him was also charred and burnt.
At that moment, Dexter collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
His body lay motionless on the scorched floor, surrounded by a faint aura of deep violet flame that flickered and then faded into nothing.
•—•—•
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The shrill, electronic tone cut through the fog of unconsciousness like a knife.
Dexter’s eyes fluttered open. And saw it was the alarm he had set it to remind him to take Mira to the bathroom before dinner.
He groaned as he felt every muscle in his body felt like it had been run through a meat grinder. His joints ached. His skin tingled with residual heat.
He pushed himself up slowly, blinking against the dim light of his bedroom. Then he looked down.
His clothes were gone and burned away entirely, as though they weren’t there in the first place, as he stood there completely naked.
But that wasn’t what made him stare.
His entire body was covered in a thick, black, foul-smelling goo.
It coated his skin from head to toe, including his face.
But the worst of it was that it was freaking horrible.
The stench was indescribable. It was the concentrated essence of every impurity, toxin, and accumulated waste product that had been locked inside his body for years—purged in a single day.
Dexter lifted his hand and watched the black sludge drip slowly from his fingers, landing on the scorched floorboards with a wet splat.
"...Gross."
He stood up unsteadily like Mia Khalifa does most of the time.
His nose wrinkled in disgust as he felt his body trembling in irritation.
’So freaking disgusting!’
Suddenly, he felt something new within his body. It was similar to suddenly realizing you’ve grown a tail. He knew it was the Abyssal Emperor Flames
He paused as he looked at his hands, then he closed his eyes for a moment.
Suddenly, a thin tendril of deep violet flame materialized above his palm.
It was incredibly beautiful. It had a violet core and two layers of white and gold at the edge.
The Abyssal Emperor Flame, the 6th Heavenly Flame.
And somewhere in the backyard, deep inside Selene’s broken body, the Eternal Winter Ice trembled.
Dexter extinguished the flame and headed for the shower. He couldn’t handle the gooey substance all over his body.
•••
The grime coating his body was thick and stubborn.
He grabbed a fresh bar of soap and desperately washed his body as the water gushing down his body changed to a deep black and crimson color.
By the time he was done an hour had gone by.
He had washed himself 4 times before the water turned clear.
As he rinsed the last traces of sludge from his hair, he happened to glance up at the small, foggy mirror mounted in the shower stall.
Dexter immediately did a double-take as he stared at the stranger in the mirror.
’Who’s that?’
Dexter wasn’t the type of person that looked in the mirror.
’Wait, is that... me?’
He already knew how ordinary he was, so he didn’t need the everyday reminder of the fact.
He had always showered every morning and never bothered to check his appearance because of how busy he was with himself and the girls.
It had been months, possibly two months or more since he had last properly looked at his own face.
And right now, the face staring back at him from the foggy glass was not the face he remembered.
Dexter had never considered himself ugly, but he was quite ordinary even more so amongst ordinary people.
His chin had been meaty, his cheeks round and his head not a perfect symmetry.
Years of cheap alcohol during his time at the Ashford estate had added an extra puffiness to his face, making him look tired and slightly bloated
The only thing remotely distinctive about him had been his hair.
He kept it long, because he couldn’t afford salon visits.
In the Ashford estate, he had been paid a servant’s wage. Haircuts were an unnecessary expense.
He could simply cut his hair with a pair of scissors whenever there was a chance.
Even after leaving the Ashfords and coming into money, he had simply forgotten about his hair, and he usually tied it back in a loose ponytail or let it hang loose depending on his mood.
But the face in the mirror...