R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 34 (Patreon)

R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 34 (in editing-v2)

Micheal took a deep breath as he held his blade Lightshorn out in front of him, concentrating intensely on his surroundings. The long blade gleamed dimly, golden Sword Energy glittering along its edge.

Several dozen meters across from him, a Dark Wraith clad in a long, white robe watched Micheal with equal vigor, wielding two half-meter long grey wands in his hands.

Unlike the Shadow Seeker guards that existed outside the Soul King’s Inheritance, the vague, shadowy figure of a Dark Wraith was something that also held tangible substance. Like a human, they possessed organs and structural bones, only instead of blood running through their veins, Dark Wraiths relied upon magical energy to exist.

The Shadow Seeker guards were made in the image of Dark Wraiths, a rather understandable point given that the Inheritance was created by a Dark Wraith.

Micheal had already won three Duels. He had defeated the Elemental Sorcerers of Ice, Fire, and Earth. Now, he was facing the last of the 4 Dark Wraith Elemental Sorcerers:

The Elemental Sorcerer of Wind.

Unlike the previous 3 Duels, Micheal didn’t take this one lightly. As soon as he spawned in, he kept a strong watch on his opponent, letting nothing escape his senses.

These Dark Wraiths were said to be assistants that worked directly for the Soul King himself. Of them, the Elemental Sorcerer of Wind was the strongest. While he wasn’t a Master, he was a Dark Wraith that specialized in 1 on 1 combat.

In the adventure novels Micheal had read back on Earth, typically, Wizards that specialized in Fire Magic were seen as the most deadly or most powerful.

In the reality of the 7 Layers, however, that assumption was proven wrong.

Of the four most common types of Elemental Magic, it wasn’t Fire Magic that was the deadliest…

It was Wind Magic.

The Dark Wraith’s lips began to move, chanting a Spell that Micheal couldn’t hear.

Unlike the other Elemental Sorcerers, whose Spells were verbalized for Micheal to hear, this Wind Sorcerer channeled the wind to block off all sound coming from his mouth. Thus, he still cast his Spell, but without giving any hint of what type of Spell it was.

Micheal could make out the Dark Wraith’s moving lips, but that was all. Humanity’s shop auto-translated all spoken words, it didn’t give him the ability to read lips and comprehend.

As soon as Micheal saw the Dark Wraith’s lips move, he sprinted forward, kicking off the ground so hard it formed a small web of cracks. A cloud of dirt and dust formed in the air behind him, billowing about.

“Two...no, three? Three.” Micheal’s eyes gleamed as he leaned slightly to his right, then his left, and then did a small leap.

In the same moment he made each small adjustment, a blade of invisible wind slashed through exactly where he had been standing, missing him by inches. Those blades went on to cut through the cloud of dirt behind him, tearing it to pieces, and landed on the ground below.

As soon as they touched the floor, they ripped three long, jagged cuts in it, sending up clumps of dirt and dust.

“Not too shabby.”

Fire was flashy and bright, while wind was invisible and soundless. A massive explosion of Elemental Fire would definitely be enough to burn most enemies to a crisp… but a single slice of razorsharp Elemental Wind would achieve the same result, except with far more subtlety.

The Dark Wraith ignored Micheal’s comment and jumped up in the air, waving both wands it was holding out in front of it. A half second later, a large gust of wind exploded outward, simultaneously trying to blow Micheal away while letting the Wind Sorcerer fly high up into the air.

Micheal flared his Ki and stamped down hard to resist the wind, sending out two of his Life Orbs to his back to help push him forward.

The Dark Wraith gestured down harshly with both wands, chanting one more Spell.

Micheal’s eyes lit up as he picked up on every single shifting current of air, his battle focus raised to a point that was difficult to fathom.

‘It’s not a Domain Proclamation.’ His eyes narrowed as he felt the fluttering in the air. 

To create a Domain, there had to be an enormous concentration of controlled Elemental Energy centered on a single, stationary point. Spells, on the other hand, channeled Elemental Energy in a specific, moving pattern. 

Abruptly, his body reacted on its own, his instincts warning him to move.

In a single, smooth motion, Micheal jumped up into the air after the Dark Wraith.

The Wind Sorcerer jerked his hands to point at Micheal’s new position, but in the same moment it made that movement…

Micheal smiled as he activated his Cloud Stepping Shoes, jumping off of thin air.

After his second jump, Micheal cleared more than 10 meters of height.

Immediately below him, an enormous tentacle of invisible Elemental Wind smashed down exactly through where he had been.

The tentacle continued past Micheal and collided with the floor, forming a 3 meters wide and 15 meters long crater in the arena dirt. The cloud of dust that immediately flowed up as a result threatened to obscure the entire battlefield, blocking both Micheal and the Dark Wraith’s vision.

In response, Micheal simply shut his eyes for a split second, his senses spread outward.

Without even looking, Micheal cut forward, his right arm transforming into a blur.

Golden light flashed out and all went still.

‘...’

‘You were definitely the best of the bunch.’

Micheal fell down to the ground with a quiet thud, using his Life Orbs to slow his fall once he came within range of the earth. After landing, he stamped hard with his right foot, infusing the movement with Sky Tier Ki, and sending out a large gust of wind. The earth cracked beneath his stomped foot, but the gust successfully cleared out the dust cloud, revealing the scene before him.

The Dark Wraith Wind Sorcerer lay on the ground, its body dissipating after being sliced in half.

‘I should make sure Sophia spars against you.’ With her Wind Sweeper Ability, as long as she devoted herself to training, manipulating Elemental Wind like a Dark Wraith Sorcerer was definitely something she could achieve.

“I’m all warmed up.” Micheal took a deep breath as he watched the body begin to disappear, stretching his arms and legs.

“It’s time.”

Warm green light surrounded Micheal, restoring his body and himself back to peak condition. Micheal shut his eyes tight as he enjoyed the feeling, doing his best to calm his beating heart.

‘In my first life, I never made it this far.’

During the original timeline, Micheal defeated the first three Dark Wraith Sorcerers, but failed to defeat the final fourth one. At the time, Micheal had yet to become a Master, a feat he only achieved on the 3rd Layer. Each Duel he fought had been one battled with his life on the line, bitterly risking everything he had to grow stronger.

The Wind Sorcerer's attacks had proved nigh impossible for him to detect at the time. Micheal had barely managed to concede during their first Duel, ending it mere seconds away from dying.

‘The records said you get teleported to-.’

Micheal’s thoughts cut off as he frowned, his gaze flickering from left to right in confusion.

‘Wait, what?’

He was still in the dirt arena.

‘The final Duel against the Soul King is supposed to take place outside a grand palace, isn’t it?’

While Micheal hadn’t managed to reach the final Duel in his first life, he was very familiar with what took place within it, thanks to previous participants sharing their experiences.

‘If I’m not being transported now… then that means…’

Micheal’s eyes widened.

‘I’m going to face a Recorded Clone of a previous challenger.’

For a brief moment, Micheal found himself stunned to silence.

‘Someone else found the Soul King’s Inheritance before me?!’

There was no record or history log that mentioned this. History said that Baron Fortuna was the first to discover the Soul King’s Inheritance and was the first participant, which had yet to happen in this timeline. This was a commonly accepted fact. 

‘Who on Earth..?’ Micheal’s thoughts trailed off as he saw a figure spawn into existence across from him.

Abruptly, time itself seemed to slow down.

Micheal’s heart spasmed, blood rushing to his ears as he looked straight forward.

Sweat oozed from his pores as his breathing turned ragged.

Standing before him was a human.

A man.

A man with long black hair, tied up in a fashionable ponytail, and a set of piercing blue eyes. He had a handsome, engaging appearance, with a strong chin and a small nose. His body was both tanned and toned, but not overly muscular, garbed in a pair of black slacks, black dress shoes, an impeccable white dress shirt, black tie, and black coat. He was the very spitting image of style.

In his hands was a deck of playing cards, glimmering with mysterious energy.

“Oh? How unexpected.” Constantine Lancaster smiled as he studied Micheal’s appearance,

“I didn’t think I’d meet another human in here.”

.