MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin

As Adam walked by his lonesome in the streets of Los Angeles, while smoking one small smoke of the mind nourishing cigarette that was adding to his already heavy debt, he couldn't help but think about the profundity of life and the importance of money in said life.

He was not covered in an illusion this time as he wished to enjoy the hustle and bustle of the city this time around.

The only thing he made sure of was to slightly alter his appearance so that any photos that may be taken of him would not show his true appearance to the crowd, leaving no physical appearance behind of his presence in the process.

Sure enough, sounds of camera clicks started resounding soon after and some went as far as to take videos of him after taking some simple photos.

But Adam did not pay heed to the outside world.

In his mind, he was constantly replaying the last conversation he had with Medusa as he left the hospital ward of her residence.

His debt aside, he had asked her to do very important and very unorthodox. Moreover, it was even more ludicrous than the act of asking her to inject her poison into his body so that he could develop resistance against poisons.

Even so, she had not been shocked and only showed an intrigued expression on her face at his request. In the end, she revealed that she needed to pull some strings to have access to what he wanted.

So he could only wait until she got what he needed from her.

'Genesis, what do you think of the current situation?'

[We still need to judge whether the Adaptation speed increases when you die or not. But from what we have on our hands, we can summarize that the increase in resistance will be extremely slow and excruciatingly painful for you.]

Adam had no words to reply to those words. Even after using one of the strongest poisons in the world, his resistance had only increased to the D+ rank and that had also been achieved after a great deal of struggle.

Even though he hadn't still experienced the full brunt of Medusa's poison, he had the faint feeling that even going through the same painful and tedious process for an entire week wouldn't have been enough for him to achieve what he truly desired.

"The road to total immunity will be long and painful. But it will be extremely useful for me in the future."

Adam sighed under his breath. He was sure that it might take years at this point for him to realize his goals. However, the immediate profits he had obtained were already not bad.

His D+ ranked Poison resistance already made it so that he would fear no natural poison in this world and even poison of magical origin would have a hard time killing him instantly.

For him, that was more than enough for his current goals.

'I need different types of resistances though.'

Having to die every time was a pain and sooner or later it would reveal his secret to the world.

In fact, the devils should already know that he was Cain's son and soon this news would be known throughout the supernatural community if he continued to get killed during his confrontation with other supernatural entities.

Thankfully, he already had a clear idea about who he needed to ask for help in this regard.

For fire immunity, he obviously needed his mother's help. But when it came to it, he wondered if jumping into a volcano wouldn't be simpler for him to do. After all, this would make him avoid all the useless moral drama and burden that would come with this task.

No matter how much she tried to hide it, killing him once had evidently shocked Cecilia quite a bit.

For ice, he would ask help from Natasha or Theresa. Since Theresa was a Director, she had an even greater mastery over that element than Natasha.

But he didn't know how their masteries of ice might change in the future. So having the two options was great for him.

Obviously, if it didn't work, he could just go to the South or North poles and let the ice and snow kill him repeatedly until he was able to get what he desired.

For lightning and electricity, he would ask Makoto for help in the guise of training.

He also needed more experience in fighting people of the supernatural world and mainly people at the level of Executor and above.

In fact, he was even wondering if he shouldn't ask her to come with him just in case for the mission in France.

'Seems like I already have many ways to train this skill.'

Adam scratched his head, wondering why his future training seemed more akin to a torture session than anything else.

But there was something else that was bothering him internally.

About the Apocalypse that was soon encroaching upon them. Would it truly be only class II as Medusa had mentioned? What if it was even higher than that? What about the annihilation of all life or the destruction of the earth itself?

Should he fly in space now and experience the radiation of the sun with no protection and the cold of dark and lonely space to gain resistance to them?

Perhaps this would even help him get a better understanding of how his main skill— [The World] really worked and help him tune it out.

'Genesis. Don't you find it interesting? It seems like all my skill sets need me to go through unimaginable and prolonged amounts of pain.'

[...]

Adam laughed loudly, and the few people gazing at him took a few steps back in apprehension, wondering if he was crazy or not.

Adam though, had no care for them nor for what they thought of him. He only looked up at the sky, gazing at the stars, wondering if he should give his plans a try or not.

In theory, it shouldn't be impossible for him to accomplish all his plans. The only problem was that he couldn't quite control oxygen yet.

But what if he let himself repeatedly die in space? To what would he develop a resistance to in that scenario?

[Adam…]

'What?'

[Your psyche has been repeatedly unstable for some time already. Your tendency for self-harm has been growing exponentially throughout my time with you. It is definitely not good for you to have these exceedingly dangerous thoughts.]

'Oh. You are worried. Haha Don't be. It isn't like I want to do this, you know?'

The madness that had been growing in Adam's eyes as he considered flying into space right this instant calmed down considerably once he heard the voice of reasoning that Genesis provided him with… He couldn't help but leak out a tired sigh…

'Cain should also have this power and trait, right? Adaptation and Eternal Damnation…'

[While I do not have accurate data. I believe the curse on him should be exceedingly higher than yours. It's hard to determine how this would affect the different traits and abilities both of you receive but we can still deduce that he should have a similar or higher version of those skills.]

Adam adjusted his hat, " —And he lived for billions of years while honing them."

Adam had always wondered why Cain was so much feared despite the curse that was shackling his powers and existence. After all, even though he could revive this wouldn't really be enough to inspire fear in his enemies.

But now he could understand a bit about the reason behind his notoriety.

On one hand, he had the strongest spear — [Death]

On another hand, he had the strongest shields — [Immortality] || [Adaptation] || [Eternal Damnation] and most likely many more similar or higher-leveled skills.

Just how strong was Cain who without a doubt understood [Death] to a much higher degree than him?

Just how much had Cain evolved after billions of years with his [Adaptation]?

Just thinking about it made Adam shiver in both fear and anticipation.

Fear because Cain might become his enemy in the future and anticipation because he might become the same as him once he walked to the end of this path.

"I need more time."

This was his greatest weakness and handicap when compared to his other siblings.

He was too young. He had only awakened 32 days ago. While his other siblings were at least thousands of years old.

He sighed and walked away, hidden in the shadows of the Veil and The World.