“Did you just try to fu**ing slap me while I was talking?” Jacob’s gaze was dark.

“You think I can’t?” she was fuming, and she was at the 7th level of the Mantis realm.

“Oh, so you are saying that you are willing to use force on me just because I called out your stupid fu**ing bullsh*t?”

“I just said that I don’t want to see you for a while!” she shouted to his face, her wrist still in his hand.

“I did nothing wrong!” Jacob shouted himself.

“I can’t be with you, Jacob! I can’t!”

“Whom the hell asked you to, for Christ’s sake?!” Jacob was losing it.

“I see how you look at me!” Helena tried to get her wrist free, but she struggled. Jacob seemed to have a grip as strong as adamantium.

“What is that supposed to mean?!” Jacob could be the oldest human alive in the world right now, but he was still furious about such accusations.

“You want it!”

“Want what!?” Jacob despaired.

“You know what!” Helena cried out.

“I don’t think so!”

Jacob stopped and took a deep breath. Things were getting out of hand very fast.

“Helena,” Jacob released her wrist. “I did nothing to you. I helped you become stronger, that’s it. Think whatever you want, but if I need you in St. Peter, I don’t care about your stupid argument and paranoia. You will stay in St. Peter.”

“Oh, and what if I don’t?”

Helena released the strength for her Cultivation base to exert pressure on Jacob; incidentally, it had been him who had explained to her how this trick worked.

Jacob’s temper flared up.

“You dare try to suppress me?” he spitted each word with venom and enunciated them one by one adding as much hate as he could.

He hadn’t been affected in the slightest. Not only was her control sloppy, but he was also a master of auras.

“Jacob, if I want to go, I’ll go. You can’t make me stay.”

Jacob looked at her for a second, then he moved on the other side of the table, reaching up for the wall where he kept his sword. He slowly put the scabbard around his shoulder and then unsheathed the sword in front of her.

To punctuate his words, he used another trick he hadn’t taught her. Since his body had healed, it had become more durable and could now bear some of the pressure of his soul.

Jacob released a particular gate of his soul.

Killing intent.

It was a foreign concept to humans in this era but a common way to evaluate how dangerous a person was in his past life. Being the last human alive on Earth, Jacob probably had one of the most terrifying killing intents in his past life, even if Dragons were counted in such a contest.

And in this life?

Helena’s limbs spasmed, and she fell forward, vomiting the food she had just eaten.

“Helena, I gave those powers to you for one reason,” Jacob started while he was getting near her. “And it’s not to court you, nor to make you fall in love with me. Your talent is amazing, and we need the strongest people on our side to protect mankind. If you ever think for a second you can get away from St. Peter with your cultivation whole, you are sorely mistaken.

“Jacob, how do—”

His killing intent flared again, stronger this time.

Her heart stopped for a second.

“Let me finish before you say another word,” Jacob put his sword at her throat’s side, “if you ever abandon humanity for selfish purposes, I will kill you. I love you, Helena. I love you in a way that you cannot even fathom. But I have the feeling that we are not meant to be together in this life; and it doesn’t matter because I will always love you. Always. But, whether you are fifteen or two hundred years old, I will hold you accountable for your actions. I gave you unimaginable power. If you wield it for yourself instead of the rest of the people you are supposed to protect, I will kill you. I will hunt you down, even if it costs my life. I will weep your death for a thousand years, Helena, but I will slit your throat without thinking about it twice.”

Jacob knew he had let her get under his skin too easily, but the stakes here were too high. A common person would have tried to talk Helena out of what she was doing, but that would have let her think she had options. Here, now, during the goddamn apocalypse they were facing, there were no options. There were two sides, with humanity or against humanity. Selfish cultivators had created mayhem in his past life. People who couldn’t get past their emotions and whinings had created – even if unknowingly – dreadfully bloody wars.

If he had let Helena go without escalating it, she would have started to think she could act like this whenever she wanted. But, instead, Jacob nipped it in the bud. He brought it from 1 to 100 all by himself. And he wasn’t lying. He would kill her if she didn’t take their side.

Jacob was reluctant to act as such, but he had to be the guide of humanity in this life. He knew what people did in his past one. And he wouldn’t let anyone do that again.

Anyone.

“You can’t act on your selfishness. You can shout; you can be angry. But you have a power much greater than your puny selfishness. And if you can’t wield that power for good, it will cause harm. I don’t care about the ‘you can’t decide for others’ or any bullsh*t like that. I can, and I will. If you want to be free, I can shatter your cultivation right here and right now. Make you unable to cultivate. You will be able to do whatever you want, but you will not be in any position to cause harm to anyone.”

Whether people liked it or not, those bestowed with great power had even greater responsibilities.

“Now, think about your choice. I can either come hunting you down if you choose to act like a child, or I can be the one making you able to save the entire mankind. Now, what will you choose? Continue acting up because you think you are entitled to it and die, or grow the f*ck up and be one of mankind’s heroes?”

Jacob used his killing intent again and left a crying Helena on the ground.