"AHHHHH!!!"
The young woman screamed in agony, pain, and sorrow as her strength rapidly weakened. Her body transformed from a fit young woman in her prime to an 80 year old woman in her prime in under 5 seconds. Her skin wrinkled and sagged and her beautiful face turned ugly. Her bountiful body dropped and sagged as her hair turned white.
Vogue threw her withered form to the ground without ceremony. She landed in a heap, looking up at him with rheumy eyes that could barely see.
The now-elderly woman howled when she realized what happened. "What did you do to me!?" Her voice trembled as she screamed hysterically.
"It’s completely reversible if you do what I tell you to and if you don’t stop screaming, you ca forget about it." Vogue said indifferently.
The woman immediately went quiet, staring at him with fear and hope. Her eyes, despite the cataracts clouding them, showed complete obedience.
"Huh," Vogue was genuinely stunned at how quickly she complied. "It’s true what they say. Women are like pets. If you don’t show complete dominance, they won’t listen properly."
He shook his head.
"Follow me."
The woman struggled to her feet with the slowness of the very elderly. "As long as you don’t rape me, I will do whatever you want," she said quickly, her voice trembling.
Vogue’s eyes turned ice cold. He grabbed her by the neck again, much and activated Time Decay once more. Another five years of her life drained away in an instant, her already frail body becoming even more weak.
The young woman who had been aged to eighty was now 85 years old. Her breathing was rough and her heart struggling to pump blood through failing veins.
"Please! Please, anything you want, I am willing!" she begged, her voice barely a whisper now.
Vogue threw her to the ground with disgust. "Hmph! If I needed to sleep with someone, I’d rather do it with a young and healthy woman, not some dried-up corpse. Keep your assumptions to yourself."
With that, he turned around and started walking toward the next street, heading east along West 34th Street toward Madison Avenue.
It was full night now, all four suns having set below the horizon as the new three moons took place.
The radiants were hiding now, they were completely weak and vulnerable. Without sunlight to fuel their regeneration and strength, they became weak.
The elderly woman struggled to follow him as she gasped.
"J-Jessica. My name is Jessica."
Vogue didn’t acknowledge her introduction, walking in silence for a full minute before speaking. "The material of what you visualize, is it limited to common metals, or can you create even higher-grade alloys like titanium? What about artifact materials like Nevulium steel?"
Jessica voice was weak as she replied. "If I absorbed enough Nevulium steel, then I can create any artifact I want, but only based on my current rank. For now, I can barely create a Type 9 Artifact, which is the lowest grade. But once I become a Stellar Knight, I should be able to work with stronger materials."
Vogue’s face immediately turned cold and he turned around to kill her. "Then there’s really no need to keep you alive.what’s the use of you being alive?"
Jessica’s face changed drastically, pure terror flooding her body. She gritted her teeth but spoke."I-I managed to absorb a Nevulium ore before I came here."
Vogue stopped walking and turned to look at her with narrowed eyes. "This world doesn’t have Nevulium ore yet, does it? The trial just started. How did you manage to smuggle one in here?"
Jessica gritted her teeth, weighing her options, but ultimately decided truth was her only path to survival. "We have a device in my city that’s able to detect a trace of someone’s talent before the trial. I managed to embed a sizable Nevulium ore in my stomach before the trial descended. Now that I awakened, I’m able to use it."
"Ohh." Vogue was genuinely stunned that other academies and cities were actually able to detect talents before the Osympic Trial. But Terragrave City, didn’t seem to have access to such advanced technology.
"Which city are you from?" Vogue asked, curiously.
"Feviseria Continent, Stormhage Megacity," Jessica answered.
Vogue nodded his head slowly. This girl was also not from the Blue River Continent like he was and probably didn’t even know what or where Terragrave City was located. The world was truly unimaginably vast.
He hadn’t even entered the Inner walls of his own city yet, and now he was hearing about entire other continents.
"Alright, make an axe for me using the Nevulium ore you smuggled in," After thinking about it, Vogue spoke to Jessica.
Jessica immediately shook her head, and Vogue didn’t hesitate to grab her by the throat. "I-it’s not that I don’t want to! It’s that I can’t!"
She spoke rapidly to explain before he killed her. "The amount of ore is too little! It’s not enough to create a full weapon!"
"Hmph!" Vogue dropped her to the ground and glared down at her with cold eyes.
"Cough! Cough!"
She coughed violently, taking several moments to recover before she spoke again. "The amount of ore is too little to forge a complete Type 9 Artifact for you. But although I can’t create a full artifact, I can integrate my Nevulium essence with the weapon of your choice, reinforcing it. The weapon would become stronger than regular steel and slightly below a proper Type 9 Artifact, but much more durable."
Vogue considered this and nodded. It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing. He reached into his backpack and pulled out one of the premium machetes he’d looted earlier. "Integrate it with this."
Jessica looked up at him with her clouded eyes, her expression pleading. "I-I can’t use my full strength with this weak body. My talent requires physical stamina and mental focus. Please, restore some of my youth so I can work properly."
Vogue stared at her indifferently for a long moment, making her squirm under his gaze. Finally, he spoke. "You’ll manage with what you have."