Chapter 29: | Crystallization!
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Power surged through my body as rage consumed me.
I inhaled deeply, then let loose a thunderous roar that echoed like a quake through the vast cavern.
The very ground trembled in response, the stone walls resonating with my fury.
My tendrils lashed out, cleaving through solid rock and intercepting the flashes of searing blue light that shot toward me.
Explosions of debris and blinding energy erupted with each clash, painting the battlefield in chaos.
The struggle teetered on a knife's edge, a standstill drenched in violence.
But then, agony flared.
One of my tendrils snapped in half with a sickening crunch, severed cleanly by the massive pincer of a lower lord-class crab monster.
I snarled, my body jerking from the force.
Before I could react, another presence emerged from the shadows, a being wrapped in shimmering gold.
A high lord-class eel.
Clad in its radiant golden armor, its sleek form crackled with power, wings pulsing with concentrated electricity.
I couldn't help but chuckle, as blood leaked from my lips.
Arrogant bastard.
That pride would be its end.
Cracking my neck with a sharp jerk, I rolled my shoulders.
My body had recovered, my flesh reknit, mana flowing freely, power coursing through every fiber of my form.
It was time.
Tendrils surged forward like hungry serpents, barbed and brutal.
They tore into the crab's thick chitin, shredding its armored hide with ease.
At the same time, my tail swung in a sweeping arc, smashing into the orchin monster lurking nearby.
Its web of tendrils caught the blow, but even then, its defense barely held.
My throat swelled unnaturally as I drew mana deep into my core.
I opened my maw, preparing to unleash devastation.
But before the breath could leave me, a sharp dot of light formed at the center of my brow.
My instincts screamed.
Then in the blink of an eye, a lance of blue lightning streaked through the air and slammed into my skull, embedding deep, but not deep enough.
It sizzled and burned, but it hadn't reached my brain.
The eel wasn't strong enough.
Not yet.
And that was its mistake.
With a guttural cry, I released the infernal energy building in my throat.
Hell erupted from my maw.
A torrent of molten breath scorched everything in its path.
Flora wilted and vaporized, the very walls of the cavern warped and melted.
The crab screamed, a horrible, shrill sound, as the breath reduced its front half to charred remnants.
Its massive body crashed to the ground, smoldering.
But it wasn't over.
The eel vanished in a blink, transforming into a streak of blue light.
My senses tracked its movement, barely. My tendrils reacted with blind fury, snapping through the air toward its trajectory.
Yet the creature was a storm incarnate, vanishing and reappearing in pulses of electric energy.
Spheres of lightning hurtled toward me.
They struck with precision and brutality, numbing my nerves, seizing my limbs.
That was the opening the others needed.
The crab, half-dead and burned, lunged one last time, its ruined form grappling me, pinning me down with desperate strength.
And then the orchin struck.
Its tendrils stabbed through my gills, coiling with venomous intent.
In the next instant, a rain of blue lances tore from the heavens.
One by one, they pierced my flesh, digging deep, exploding on contact.
Agony racked my body.
My gills shredded.
My scales cracked and splintered.
The pain was blinding.
For anyone else, this would have been the end.
But I was not anyone else.
I was Alister Von Fai.
My tendrils blurred, driven by raw instinct and hate.
The sound of bones snapping and flesh being torn apart echoed violently through the passage.
For a heartbeat, there was silence.
Then, thunder.
Lances detonated across the stone floor, but I did not fall.
My wounds closed even as they formed.
My core pulsed, alive, adaptive, ravenous.
The battlefield belonged to me now.
This was no longer survival.
It was extermination.
Blooming Wrath activated.
A surge of raw power tore through my veins.
My crystallized form flared a deep, furious red as adrenaline flooded my system.
The test was over.
No more restraint.
It was time to stop playing.
Blurstep Surge.
My body vanished from its position, slicing cleanly through the water before reappearing behind the eel like a red phantom.
But I had miscalculated.
The lightning coiled within my body reached its peak, then detonated.
Agony burst through my nerves as lightning surged outward, ripping my flesh from the inside.
Blood exploded from my wounds.
The pain was suffocating, but it didn't stop there.
Behind me, I felt it.
A massive lance of condensed lightning erupted from nowhere and punched clean through my back.
It tore through organs and muscle, searing a path through my gut until it protruded out of my stomach, sizzling with raw energy.
I coughed violently, blood spewing from my maw.
My insides were being cooked.
Impressive… I muttered between clenched fangs, the only word I could muster through the pain.
This creature, it was built differently.
I hadn't expected to be pushed this far.
The eel didn't hesitate.
Blue dots shimmered across my body, marking me like a cursed diagram.
And then, pain again.
Dozens of lances shot into each dot with surgical precision, bursting against bone and muscle.
A symphony of agony, conducted by a monster who knew I wouldn't die easily.
It wasn't trying to win quickly.
It wanted to break me.
This thing was toying with me.
Testing me.
Hurting me for its own amusement.
And in that moment, I knew.
I had to end it.
I roared as adrenaline surged anew.
My blood boiled with fury, my pupils dilated until crimson consumed them whole.
Muscles bulged with unnatural mass, blood pouring from every wound, but I didn't stop.
Again and again I invoked Blooming Wrath, each cast tearing at the limits of my body and mind until I lost count.
My thoughts were a haze.
My flesh, a ruin.
But my soul, blazed like a storm.
And then.
Time bent.
The world slowed to a crawl.
Blurstep Surge activated again, but this time, I wasn't trying to dodge.
I reappeared behind the eel like a ghost of vengeance.
Pink lines and red dots bloomed across its golden body.
Markers of death.
Indicators of demise.
Then time resumed.
An afterimage of me shimmered in the water like a phantom, then vanished.
A beat passed.
And then, detonation.
Every mark on the eel's body exploded at once.
Its flesh tore.
Its scales shattered.
Electricity sparked wildly as the eel thrashed, mutilated from the inside out.
Its body convulsed, and then fell still.
The battle ended.
No, it ended in less than a second.
That was the truth of power.
Not just in force, but in precision.
Firepower without finality was useless.
Even a being like that eel, with overwhelming might, had failed because it lacked the one thing that truly mattered, a killing blow.
Defense… endurance… adaptability.
These are what matter when power clashes with power.
They were all Stage Ones.
Yet not a single one of them could kill me, a being beneath their class, because they lacked finality.
In the end, I could only describe myself with one word.
Invincible.
I chuckled as a hologram flickered into existence before me, its light glinting off the crimson crystals forming across my body.
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[You have slain.]
• A Stage 1 Tier 8 Level 29 [★★★★ Horned Golden Eel.]
• A Stage 1 Tier 7 Level 31 [★★★★ Resplendent Titan Crab.]
• A Stage 1 Tier 7 Level 20 [★★★★ Orchin Matron.]
[You have gained 6,740,000 EXP.]
[You have gained a level.]
[You have slain.]
• 525 Stage 1 monster's.
[You have gained 1,600,000 EXP.]
[You have gained a level.] x 40
[You have successfully devoured various monsters.]
[You're Physique reached its limit.]
[You're Physique have broken its limit.]
• Physique +1
[You can now ascend to the next tier.]
[Yes] / [No]
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[You have gained new skills:]
• Abyssal Brood Core
• Arclight Horns
• Blooming Flesh
• Boulder Crush
• Crystallized Titan Core
• Coiling Ambush
• Fortress Physique
• Glide-Fin Mutation
• Grasp of the Matron
• Predator's Lens
• Stormkind Mana Core
• Spined Bloom Growths
• Stonehide Aegis
• Tentacular Conduit
• Voltage Dive
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[Your grotesque physique would like to devour.]
• Abyssal Brood Core
• Arclight Horns
• Blooming Flesh
• Boulder Crush
• Crystallized Titan Core
• Coiling Ambush
• Fortress Physique
• Glide-Fin Mutation
• Grasp of the Matron
• Predator's Lens
• Stormkind Mana Core
• Spined Bloom Growths
• Stonehide Aegis
• Tentacular Conduit
• Voltage Dive
[Yes] / [No]
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[You may now ascend.]
[Yes] / [No]
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Without hesitation, I clicked "Yes."
Power immediately surged through my limbs as my body began to mutate.
But instead of pain, there was bliss.
A strange, euphoric warmth flooded my nerves.
I couldn't help but let out a low moan as the mutation coursed through me like a soothing massage.
Oh, how wonderful it felt, like a divine reward after endless suffering.
Truly delightful.
But the pleasure was fleeting.
It vanished as quickly as it came, replaced by a new storm of power that settled into my frame.
The only reason I had survived until now was because of Blooming Colossus Bastion and Blooming Wrath.
Nothing else could have saved me.
Then, I felt it.
A sudden drop.
My body weakened, the transformation receding.
The immense bulk I had taken on melted away, returning me to my base form.
Apparently, the skill deactivated automatically once the system no longer detected a battle.
How frustrating.
A shame, really.
The silence that followed was broken by Liora's excited voice.
"That was awesome!"
She gave me a thumbs-up, her golden hair swaying slightly as she leaned forward.
"Hey, how did your false Ascension do all that? Tell me, tell me!"
She demanded like an excited child.
If I had vocal cords, maybe I would've told her.
But I didn't.
So, I simply stared.
Unbothered, Liora pressed on, tapping a finger against her cheek thoughtfully.
"Hmm… maybe the outcome of your skill Ascension was influenced by your bloodline? Or maybe it had something to do with the medium that you used?"
She wasn't wrong.
Her hypothesis was surprisingly accurate.
I tried to nod in acknowledgement, but my body felt heavier by the second.
My limbs numbed.
My thoughts blurred.
My vision wavered.
This again?
Was this my limit?
A low chuckle escaped me.
So be it.
My eyelids fell shut, and the world around me dimmed to black.
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