Chapter 1833  In full control

The final bead that Axios used was called the Bead of Life. It had a pretty broken ability which was that it could basically suppress the target 100%. If that complete 100% suppression occurred, it translated to direct death without need for any intervention on Axios' behalf, but such a thing was unlikely.

The condition on the bead was that it would suppress the target 100%, but for every significant achievement in the target's life, a certain percentage of the suppression would be dropped. The achievements were judged in the same way that the system judged quests, so each achievement would be ranked, and the higher the rank, the more the suppression was lifted.

Theoretically, if the target had enough ranked achievements, the effects of the bead could even go from suppression to enhancement, but that was highly unlikely. After all, there was another condition to the bead. Achievements from Axios' life with the same ranking or greater as the target could erase the effects of the target's achievements.

So, to go from suppression to enhancement, the target would need countless ranked achievements of sufficient quality. Considering how driven Axios himself was, and the kinds of things he was forced to do because of his system, for anyone to have more achievements than him, and then to have enough to considerably reduce the effects of the Bead of Life was close to nil - especially when the target was an entire cultivation level below Axios.

Unfortunately, his target was Lex. To date, his name was still at the top of the Midnight Inn Guest Registry, meaning that he had the most significant achievements in his life compared to all the guests who had ever signed it.

Could it be helped? Even if one were to ignore the fact that he was the host of the Midnight Inn, his very first guest at the Midnight Inn was a Demi Dao Lord, and so was his second guest! Although most of his other achievements could not really measure up to that, that did not mean they weren't great or just outright absurd.

Oh, there was also the fact that he had also done some quests that were ranked so high, the rating went beyond letters and became stuff like Divine, Destiny and Death. Now he didn't specifically know which order the rankings went in, but they were pretty high up. So when the Bead of Life fell upon Dragon-Lex and covered his body, instead of being suppressed, he felt greatly enhanced!

Now, Dragon-Lex was smart, but even he couldn't understand the Nas' plan by making him stronger, but it didn't matter. This was the last piece that he had been waiting for. With this, Lex had enough karma connected to Axios, as well as enough karma connected to his system, not to mention he had seen enough of the karma develop between Axios and his system. He did not need to wait anymore.

Lex' eyes gleamed with amusement and anticipation as he looked at Axios. He couldn't wait to see how effective his Karmic Bead was in combat.

"By the way, the thing about using fate against someone is that it's only a good idea as long as you can influence fate on a large scale. These small tricks… they can easily be overcome if someone is strong enough," Dragon-Lex said, squeezing Axios' hand until cracks started to appear along his arm. "But I appreciate your attempts to entertain me. Let me return the favor by letting you see one final show."

Axios broke off his arm and retreated, the katana disappearing from his hand and reappearing in his free one. The loss of a limb was not a big deal to a Nas, as pure energy could allow them to regrow limbs quick enough. The situation was far from ideal though.

The Game of Life system could not help him anymore. A large number of all the system features could only be used with sufficient preparation during the setup phase. Without sufficient beads on the board, there was no other way for the system to help him.

In that case, he would need to rely on himself. Unfortunately for him… it was too late. For Lex, from the moment he had appeared here, it all really had been… just a game.

Dragon-Lex activated his karmic eyes, observing the thick bridge of karmic strings between himself and Axios. Out of curiosity, he strummed one of the strings, and learned that the channel was strong enough for him to do many things. But he had no interest in testing out his abilities against such annoying prey.

He summoned the Karmic Bead, and blew a single mote of Golden Inferno towards it, lighting the black bead on fire. Then… he placed it on the karmic bridge.

The bead sunk into the karmic strings before igniting them in a blaze of fire, devouring everything. Dragon-Lex had been meticulous: his target was not to simply kill Axios, it was to kill his spirit, leaving the body and soul intact. He needed both of them working just fine if he was going to study systems. At the same time, he wouldn't mind collecting some DNA from the Nas race. As annoying as they were, on the off chance he might unlock them as workers in the future was something he would wholeheartedly welcome.

Axios was planning his next attack when something happened he couldn't quite understand. It felt like his mind had erupted in fire. The suddenness and unexpectedness of it caused him to burst out screaming as he tried everything… anything to stop the flames. Yet even as he searched with all his senses, he could not detect the flames. Out of sheer desperation, he launched Infinity Vortex to its utmost strength, devouring any and all laws around him, hoping for some miracle.

In Lex's vision, though, Axios was on fire. Or, to be more specific, all the karmic strings coming in and out of his body were on fire, devouring his mind, even as the strength of the karma itself faded.

Good and bad karma, when collected, could be absorbed. Lex had that issue when he collected too much good karma. Similarly, other forms of karma could also be used up, and using karma to send forth an attack was a very good way of using up karma. That was why Lex made sure there was sufficient karma before he attacked.

The more the fire burned, the more Axios lost his mind, literally, the lower his chances of survival became. Infinity Vortex, in its strongest state, finally felt the fluctuations of karmic laws. In his desperation he tried to absorb the energy related to them, vanquishing the effectiveness of the laws, but his ability was not strong enough. Influencing karma was not something anyone could just do.

Even Lex, using only his tenets, could never accomplish this attack. With the Karmic Bead, though, it was easy.

Axios did not hear the thumping of the ground as Dragon-Lex walked up to him, step by step, looking down on him. By now, Axios' body was returning to its normal size since he could no longer focus on keeping his ability active.

The katana had been dropped to the ground long ago, and the string of system notifications Axios was getting were all being ignored for his mind - what was left of it - could focus on nothing except the pain of being burnt alive.

There was no pity in Lex's eyes. The Nas had tried, on more than one occasion, to kill Lex through the beads. Had he been any weaker, he would not have survived long enough to even have this confrontation.

After a few minutes, the screaming stopped, and the fire went out, even though the karma between them had not been consumed. The fires had stopped because Axios had no spirit left. He was a mere body with a soul. He was alive… and yet he was also dead. The odd state meant that his system did not detach, and instead, stayed fused with Axios' soul… with Dragon-Lex's Mark of Ownership.

"It is your privilege to fall under my flames," Dragon-Lex said solemnly, as he picked up the Nas' body. "But now you will know the consequences of crossing me."

The last line was directed not towards Axios, but towards his system.

The Karmic Bead emerged out of the bridge of karmic strings before disappearing, just as the Go board around Lex began to fade.

Lex dismissed his dragon form as well, returning to his normal state. The last time he used this form, he had been taken by surprise by the characteristics of it, almost losing himself in it. This time, he came prepared. Whether it was Lex, Dragon-Lex or Jack, they were all one and the same, regardless of their differing characteristics. Developing multiple personalities was not an issue he would suffer from, because at the end of the day, he was in full control regardless of how he acted.

This was especially important because the third form Lex had recently developed… it was even more troublesome than his dragon form. But that was for another time.

Both he and Axios disappeared, returning to the Midnight Inn.