Chapter 273: Debut of the Heavenly Spark Soul King (Patreon)

Krysta

Armor appeared around Aalam, the scales of the Left Hand of the Runescribe somehow expanding to cover his whole body other than his head and fingers replacing the plain black clothing he’d been wearing, and the draconic wings artifact used by one of his subordinates during Daevic’s fight in the previous round appeared on his back, changing color not to the black, white, and gray as when used by that cultivator of Yin Yang Cosmology, but becoming multi-colored, reminding Krysta and almost everyone else in the stadium of the Law Master’s own wings.

Then Aalam’s aura flared and he used three different skills at once, an artifact enhancement skill to empower his armor, a defensive skill somehow infused with natural energy to cover his armor in another layer of defense, and some kind of telekinesis skill, which used qi and mana in addition to psyforce, to slow down his opponent’s strike.

This then allowed Aalam not to block Taravan’s blade, not to divert the attack, but to catch Taravan’s sword in his left hand with enough strength Taravan couldn’t even take his sword back, the destructive lightning of the strike somehow completely disappearing when entering within 24 cm of Aalam’s body.

“Thank you.” Mana undulations containing Aalam’s voice emanated out as several hundred runes appeared from seemingly nowhere, forming five spherical arrays around the two combatants, each several kilometers in diameter. “I’ve been in need of more primal energy before advancing to B rank.”

The five arrays then activated and what followed surprised everyone watching.

First, one the the arrays merged with a domain skill Aalam activated, filling the area around him and Thunderstrike Taravan with a natural energy infused zone where Aalam’s Laws were strengthened while his opponent’s Laws were suppressed, the zone somehow even affecting Taravan. At the same time, the second array started to absorb Taravan’s energy, seemingly based on the same theory as the armor which had been repeatedly used by Aalam’s subordinates when fighting Taravan’s son, slightly messing up Taravan’s energy flow. And, most important, the third array activated and an absolutely ridiculous amount of psyforce formed knives to stab into Taravan’s soul, not penetrating deep but almost causing Taravan to scream out in pain.

These three arrays, however, were not meant to work on their own, only to throw Taravan off balance for an instant, and, in that instant, the other two arrays activated.

The fourth array shrunk down and somehow merged with Taravan’s armor, altering the disturbed energy flowing through it to the point the artifact started smoking, the armor suddenly no more than the materials it was made from. And, at the same time, the fifth array shrunk down and merged into Aalam’s karma-filled purple bastard sword, filling the blade with some kind of weird power Krysta couldn’t identify.

Then, with Taravan momentarily stunned, Aalam thrust his blade through the now useless armor and directly into Taravan’s heart, the stunned A rank not able to react in time to stop him.

“Thank you for the meal.”

The power from the fifth array appeared to activate inside Taravan’s body, doing something weird, and then all the primal energy from Taravan’s A rank soul quickly flowed into Aalam as Taravan’s body transformed into pure lightning-filled purple energy and Taravan’s spatial storage ring disappeared into the Left Hand of the Runescribe’s subspace.

“I am a crafter. And I make things because it’s fun.”

As Aalam spoke the words, the primal energy inside his body lessened by a considerable amount, the simple oath rapidly cleansing his soul, and, at the same time, Taravan’s armor and sword somehow melted down in front of him, merged with the purple lightning power Taravan’s body and soul had turned into, and flowed like liquid into the form of a spear, a spear which looked like the one Isaiah had used during his fight and one which continued to grow in power in front of everyone’s eyes as Aalam guided its creation.

Then, when the spear was fully made, a runic array appeared before Aalam and tore a hole in space to in front of Krysta and her family, through which Aalam tossed the weapon toward Krysta’s mother, who caught it, giving Krysta a better look at the artifact. It was purple gold, just like the artifacts it had been made from, with the perfect form and flexibility such a weapon required, but there were a couple things weird about it. First, she didn’t feel the power of lightning from the weapon, or any strong elemental alignment at all for that matter. Second, it didn’t feel finished, like it was a dead weapon, not yet infused with any kind of energy.

Still, however, it was at least Empyrean grade, and that alone was amazing.

Sure, it had been created from two Empyrean grade A rank artifacts and the condensed power of an A rank emperor, but Aalam, a mere C rank, had managed to transform those artifacts into something completely new using only a single alchemical ingredient, and that was unheard of.

“Master, given the nature of your expertise, would you do me the favor of explaining to everyone here and everyone watching the nature of the artifact my uncle was kind enough to give me?”

Looking around the space station, those from the United Federation of Planets still looked nervous, but almost everyone else’s jaws were hanging open, not yet having closed following the shock of Aalam killing Taravan. Krysta’s mother, however, the Alchemist of the Deep Woods, had regained control over her emotions and was studying the spear dispassionately, Krysta unable to figure out what she was thinking.

“This is an Empyrean grade A rank spear blank. Were an A rank with Law energy specializing in a subset of the elements of lightning, wind, fire, water, life, and death to spend a few hundred years refining it, it would transform into an Empyrean grade weapon perfectly suited for them. Were a god to do the same, however, the weapon would reach Divine grade and become considerably more powerful.”

“Thank you.” Aalam reached out his left hand and the spear disappeared from Krysta’s mother’s hands, seemingly sucked into the Left Hand of the Runescribe’s subspace despite Aalam being over 100 kilometers away. Then he summoned out several thousand red metallic cards like the one Isaiah had given Krysta’s uncle, created several thousand corresponding short distance spatial portals using the power of arrays, and telekinetically pushed the cards to various members of the audience, each the highest status representative of their various forces present on the space station. “The spear blank has already been listed up for sale, but please do look at the other items made by my subordinates as well as the trading pavilion for requesting products to be personally made by me.”

Aalam’s aura shifted, energy flowing into the wings on his back, and Krysta watched in amazement as the wing artifact, seemingly made from the wings of a powerful A rank Order Dragon, changed, advancing from an Empyrean grade C rank artifact to a Divine grade B rank artifact in front of all of their eyes, the power of order emanating out from them becoming absolutely incredible for a few seconds before lessening to match the same level as Aalam’s armor and sword.

“Anything under A rank is possible.”

One of the reasons Aalam was able to kill Taravan then became obvious to Krysta. The Left Hand of the Runescribe was not a particularly powerful Empyrean grade C rank artifact, and neither was the holy devil sword. They, like Aalam’s wings, were both peak Divine grade B rank artifacts—the difference between them and Taravan’s Empyrean grade A rank artifacts not high—and, somehow, Aalam was able to use them.

Somehow, likely due to the nature of the core he’d formed and some racial abilities or uniquenesses, Aalam’s energy had the same level of quality as that of a B rank. And this meant the difference between him and an A rank was a lot lower than anyone would expect.

Aalam, still ignoring the members of the Primordial Humans faction who were all glaring up at him but not yet doing anything else, then turned to the Law Master and bowed slightly. “Lord Kemizle, please thank your mother for me for her creation of such an amazing cultivation technique. I wouldn’t be where I am today without her grace.” A small crystal information orb then appeared in Aalam’s left hand and flew through a spatial portal to land in the Law Master’s right palm. “For the experimental results I’ve accumulated, as you’ve discussed with my knight, this is the price.”

Then, before Aalam could say anything else, three human A ranks appeared on the space station’s teleportation platform, two old women and one old man—who Krysta recognized as the three oldest A rank elders of Sunrise Valley—and they all rushed at Aalam, each carrying weapons wrapped in black and white fire.

Aalam, however, again just smiled. His aura, tightly controlled to the point his Laws had so far been impossible for Krysta to read, expanded to cover the entire battlefield in the center of the space station, and thousands of runes appeared around the three A ranks, forming several dozen suppressive arrays targeting each of them.

Then Aalam disappeared, moving far faster than Krysta could follow, and the next thing she could see each of the three A ranks had been sliced in half four or five times, the parts of their bodies starting to be destroyed by a new set of arrays.

It took about two seconds.

When facing three A rank combatants at about the same level of power as Thunderstrike Taravan, so long as he didn’t have to worry about refining their bodies and souls into alchemical materials while they were still alive, this was how long it seemed average A ranks would last in front of the Heavenly Spark Soul King.

“I am a scientist.” As Aalam absorbed all the primal energy from the three bodies, along with the three souls, he started making a third oath as a C rank, something Krysta was almost positive had never been done before by any C rank in the history of the Universe. “I study how the universe works because I enjoy it.”