R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 71 (Patreon)

R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 71

The moment Micheal saw that glowing, red ember formed within Serena’s ashes, his whole world seemed to shake.

A split second later…

Micheal’s hands grew steady.

His back straightened.

His heart grew calm.

As the world trembled around him, Micheal stood strong and…

He began to resist.

‘Since when is my mentality so fragile?’

Micheal’s sense of self returned with a vengeance as an overwhelming wave of determination swept over his Soul.

Without hesitating, Micheal reached down and grabbed the red ember with his bare left hand. The moment his flesh made contact with the burning remnant, he felt the searing pain of fire begin to burn his skin.

‘Move.’

Micheal ignored that pain as he scooped the ember up and threw himself through the portal.

Not a moment later, a loud explosion rang out as some type of enormous force collided with the ruined Sanctum and obliterated it, turning the other side of the portal into a rioting mix of stone and smoke.

Micheal rolled on the ground of Tallanoran’s Inheritance, coughing up dust and smoke as he eventually tumbled to a halt, more than 30 meters away from the portal into the Sanctum.

As soon as he finished moving, he released the searing ember, letting it rest down lightly on the ground. He then quickly tapped on his Spatial Ring and pulled out a light bandage and a Mid-Tier Healing Pill, wrapping up the injury while swallowing the Pill to enhance his Recovery.

As a soothing, cool sensation overtook his hand, Micheal finally calmed down enough to focus back on his surroundings.

Micheal winced as he gauged the status of the Farian Shadow Guards standing guard inside the Soul King's Inheritance.

All that remained was a dozen gray statues, covered in hundreds of cracks, frozen in place in various positions, standing around the Sanctum.

Dead.

Even Lieutenant Minesville, a powerful Farian warrior that was second only to his leader, Shadow Captain Sprel, had been unable to escape his fate, his body turned gray and half collapsed near the entrance of the Soul King’s Inheritance.

Micheal clenched his fists.

A casual attack from a Titled Deity slaughtered the entire Farian force inside the Soul King’s Inheritance.

‘Shin and Sophia are still inside the Third Gate, they’re safe.’ Micheal observed, pushing aside his sorrow.

He expected the duo to emerge any second now, but the fact that they were still inside the Third Gate was a blessing in itself.

After Micheal finished observing his immediate surroundings, he turned his attention back to the ember of flame in front of him.

‘It’s growing stronger.’ Micheal could sense powerful, fiery energy condensing on the ember he had picked up.

‘Serena possesses the Red Phoenix Bloodline.’ He remembered, rapidly breaking down the situation to himself.

There were countless legends told about the mighty Phoenix, from tales of their fiery prowess and to stories of their overwhelming might.

In particular, however, all those tales had one thing in common.

‘Phoenixes can return to life after dying.’ A mystical rebirth, through the ashes of their death, that allowed them to return to the realm of the living.

‘Most legends contain a grain of truth.’ Micheal thought as he watched the glowing ember grow fiercer and fierce, bright orange flames breaking around it.

After a few tense seconds, a small smile appeared on Micheal’s face.

Within the depths of those growing flames, Micheal felt a familiar presence.

‘Serena.’ Micheal let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding.

Serena had died, inarguably, but Micheal had gotten lucky.

The years of training Serena spent alone inside the First Gate had given Serena the time she needed to raise her mastery of her Bloodline to the extreme.

And now…

She was undergoing Enlightenment, her Bloodline evolving as she experienced Death and Rebirth.

‘Alright.’ Micheal took a deep breath as he got to his feet.

When a being undergoes Enlightenment, the best thing he could do was to step back and avoid disturbing that being. In this case, Serena’s Enlightenment involved her returning to life through her Red Phoenix Bloodline, a concept that was mostly outside of Micheal’s area of expertise.

‘If I try to help her now, I could jostle her out of Enlightenment.’ Micheal quickly opened up the Shop, scrolling to the ‘Miscellaneous Earth Objects’ portion.

From there, he purchased a large…

Shed.

‘I didn’t even know I could buy this…’

Micheal cut the irrelevant thought off as he carried and then placed the large, rather drab green shed around Serena, providing some basic level of protection. The shed instantly lost its color as soon as it appeared, turning gray.

This shed wouldn’t stop any real attack, but it at least gave her some privacy and took her out of plain view.

After he secured Serena, as best he could in the immediate moment, Micheal turned his gaze back towards the portal that led to the Sanctum.

The portal was now clogged with collapsed stone, ruins of the Sanctum, all covered in hundreds of gray cracks. The rubble had filled the portal to the brim, blocking off access before it was cleared.

In the background, Micheal could faintly hear several loud explosions ringing out, shaking the stone rubble.

“What the hell was that?” Micheal muttered, his eyes cold.

Ever since he returned to the past, Micheal had been placed under an enormous amount of stress. He was constantly dealing with pressure that would have driven a lesser man to despair.

However…

‘My mentality is not that weak.’

“Temporal Bubble.” Micheal created an accelerated Temporal Bubble to buy himself time as he began to think.

Micheal didn’t think he was perfect. He knew that the stresses of reality had worn on his Soul, perhaps more than he thought.

Still, the fact that he had almost suffered a complete mental collapse in the midst of battle was unthinkable.

‘It’s him. No, I see it now.’ Micheal’s eyes widened as he stared at the world around him, realization hitting him.

“The Herald of Ruin.” If words could kill, Micheal’s voice practically spat venom as he mentioned the name of Orion’s Title.

“The power of Ruin… it isn’t just a simple physical attack.”

As soon as he spoke aloud, Micheal instantly realized his guess was correct.

When Orion activated his Title, 2 things happened.

The first: Orion gained control of what Micheal decided to call the ‘Fog of Ruin.’

Based on his knowledge of how other Titles worked, and the observations he had made, Orion’s Title gave him dominion over the Concept of Ruin.

Micheal had never heard of that Concept before, but he could use the name of Orion’s Title to ascertain a great deal about it.

The ‘Fog of Ruin’ that Orion controlled could be used to attack, devastating everything it touched.

“It brings ‘Ruin’ to the world around him.” Micheal muttered.

That same Fog could also be used defensively.

“It ‘Ruined’ any attack that it touched, causing me to fail.” Micheal nodded sharply.

His heart pounded as he analyzed everything he had seen, his mind racing.

The key to defeating a Titled Deity was knowledge.

Knowledge of their abilities, of their motivation, of their Title. Every tidbit of information mattered.

“And the second thing that happened…” Micheal murmured, turning to look at the world around him.

A world without color.

“He stole all color from the world.” Micheal frowned, trying to equate how it related to the Concept of ‘Ruin.’

After a few seconds, Micheal came to another realization.

“Ah. I’m overthinking it.”

“This is Ruin.” Micheal looked around him at the gray world.

“This is what a Ruined World looks like.”

Dead. No color. No life.

Desolation of everything.

Micheal grit his teeth.

Now that he was conscious of Orion’s Title, he could feel the impact it was having on him.

“As long as I’m in range of his Title, I’m constantly under its influence.”

For every second, of every minute, that he stood in this gray, lifeless zone, the power of Ruin was subtly attacking him.

It attacked his mind.

It attacked his Soul.

It tried to Ruin his confidence.

His self-esteem.

His courage.

His sanity.

As Micheal focused his senses inward, he could almost feel it trying to eat away at him.

It wanted nothing more than to bring him to Ruin, in every way conceivable.

‘It’s weaker, now.’ Micheal also realized.

When he had faced a near mental-collapse, Micheal had been mere meters away from Orion, under the direct, full focus of the Dark Wraith’s Title.

“Damn it.” Micheal cursed, adrenaline rushing through his veins, as he began to think.

He pulled up a description of his current Physique.

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—- Heartflame Physique - 3 Stars —-

A Physique that contains a hint of the essence of a Phoenix. From life unto death and death unto life. This 3 Star Heartflame Physique vastly enhances the host's ability to absorb latent energy in the air. Excess energy will be absorbed into and empower the flesh. Greatly enhances resistance to curses, mental attacks, and spiritual attacks.

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‘I’m supposed to be resistant to curses, mental attacks, and spiritual attacks.’

Micheal rubbed his still healing left hand through his hair.

“Damn it all.” He paused, shaking his head as he grasped control of his emotions.

“It’s a Titled Deity. His attacks can probably affect even those with immunity to them.”

A Titled Deity’s Title quite literally warped reality.

Micheal shut his eyes for a brief moment, before slowly reopening them.

“He needs to die. Here and now.” The words ripped free from Micheal’s mouth, his heart sinking as he spoke them.

He wasn’t ready to face a Titled Deity now.

If he had been given just a few more months to train, to move past the early stages of Magic, to regain more of his former strength, to train Sophia and Shin…

“No ifs. Focus. He needs to die now.” Micheal shook his head.

It was terribly inconvenient timing… but that was reality.

He didn’t get to pick his battles.

“He’s just obtained his Title, and he doesn’t understand it fully yet.”

Right now was the single weakest point Orion would ever be.

“If he doesn’t die now, then the Second Layer is lost.”

As soon as Micheal reached that conclusion, his mind ran through a sort of internal checklist.

‘What can I do to prepare, now?’

‘What can I do to grow stronger, right now?’

The Crown of the Angel King appeared in Micheal’s hand, and promptly found its way adorned to his head. He prepared Lightshorn and the Scythe of Oryx, ready to withdraw them at any moment.

And then…

Micheal opened the Titles System that he had just obtained.

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— — - Titles System - — —

Title: -

Traits: (1 unassigned)

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The blue screen that appeared was incredibly simple, far simpler than the Shop or his Status, but also eerily similar. The shades of blue were nigh identical, though the writing style of the letters and words was slightly different. The Shop and his Status were written in a more ‘mechanical’ writing style, while the letters in the Titles System had a more grand, almost cursive appearance.

There stood only two entries on the blue screen, a line for his Title, should he ever manage to obtain one, and a line for his Traits that read ‘1 unassigned.’

Micheal reached forward and tapped on the word ‘unassigned’ in the Traits section.

Immediately, a new blue screen appeared in front of him.

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— — - Titles System: Trait Selection - — —

Please select from the available Traits:

Iron Boned – Thick Skin – Courageous Soul

Heat Resistance – Inborn Strength – Black Veins

Alpha Restraint – Friction Resistance – Lightfoot

Mirror Soul – Steady Heart – Plasmic Blood

Curse Talent – Enhanced Lungs – Gravity Resistance

Hearty Health – Thunderous Legs – Golden Mind

Nimble Fingers – Fast Recovery – Plague Resistance

… (1/205 page)

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Traits.

When Micheal thought of a Deity, the first thing that came to mind was a Deity’s Title.

The second thing that came to mind was their Traits.

While very, very, very few Deities possessed a Title, virtually all Deities possessed multiple Traits.

Traits were similar, in ways, to Type Abilities from the Shop.

They functioned as passive modifiers that enhanced, changed, and modified certain aspects of a being.

Some Traits granted powerful strength, while others enhanced your mind, your Soul, or your defensive properties.

Other Traits granted you budding powers that could be grown and trained, allowing certain Deities to branch off on different paths, or enchanted certain aspects of a being’s power.

As Micheal scanned through the list of Traits available to him, he quickly realized the enormity of scale he faced.

“Each page contains 21 traits… 205 pages…” Micheal scrolled to the last page, rapidly doing math in his head.

“4291 Traits…” He stuttered, coming to a pause.

That was how many Traits he had access to, the pick one of any of 4,291 Traits to ‘assign’ to himself.

It was a massive number of Traits to select from.

Not all Deities had access to all Traits. In fact, the list each Deity was presented with varied, growing and shrinking over time, expanding as one gained experience through life.

The first line on the Trait Selection screen gave a clue:

He was selecting from a list of all available Traits.

Dark Void had researched these facts intensively, after the collapse of the Knights of the Round Table on the 3rd Layer, following the assassination of the White Knight by the Titled Deity Jay sol Arget.

The average Deity was presented with a list of anywhere between 200 and 400 Traits. Deities with expansive life experiences had access to anywhere from 400 to 800 Traits.

Only Deities that had lived monumental lives, full of emotion, turmoil, constant challenges and trials, had access to more than 1,000 Traits.

‘It’s drawing on everything I lived through…’ Micheal realized.

Micheal’s massive list of 4,291 Traits reflected the sheer, raw ‘experience’ of life he had been through, from the beginning of the first timeline to now, here in the present, second timeline.

He found it vaguely unsettling, but shrugged the feeling off quickly. Only he could see the number of Traits he had available to pick from, as long as he didn’t reveal this information to others, none would be the wiser.

Micheal quickly began to scan through the list of Traits, memories of research notes left by Dark Void guiding him towards the Traits best suited for him.

“Where is it…” Micheal muttered as he scrolled through the list, ever cognizant of time ticking away.

He had read through the research notes of Dark Void. He knew of most of the Traits that were considered ‘good’ and most that were considered ‘average’ or ‘bad.’

He also knew all that were considered ‘great.’

There were countless Traits that Micheal could pick from, many with excellent synergies with his own Abilities. There were ‘Talent’ traits that could be used to enhance one’s Talent, ‘Resistance’ Traits that bolstered one’s ability to withstand nigh everything.

Deities that stacked enough Traits were capable of possessing immense power.

However, through all of that, there was 1 Trait in particular Micheal was looking for.

A Trait that was rated ‘average’ by Dark Void.

A Trait that only Micheal could truly make use of.

“...”

“...”

“There! There it is!” After several tense seconds of searching, scrolling through page after page of Traits, on page 46, Micheal finally found the Trait he desired.

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— — - Titles System: Trait Selection - — —

You have selected the following Trait:

Glass Cannon

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