Chapter 210 - A Moth To The Flame (Patreon)

Jiran woke up to a system message that he ignored in favor of a languid stretch, or at least he tried to. His hands and feet met the solid walls encasing him, bringing an end to his peaceful awakening. His aura slid from his skin, sinking into the space around him without the slightest bit of chilly discomfort. A grin split his face and he hopped to his feet, feeling refreshed, invigorated, and beyond excited to test his aspect. But first, he faced the demons behind his eyelids.

Phase one complete

Phase two objectives: Annihilate every remaining member of the lost race

How about no. I bet you screwed up with them like you did the Timberling Mother and now you’re looking for someone to fix your mess. Well, I'm not your one-man racial clean-up crew. That doesn’t mean I don’t owe a few of them a good ass-kicking for nearly killing me though.

Despite his instinctive rejection of the mission, Jiran knew he had only ever escaped an arena after fulfilling the requirements the system placed on him. He racked his brain for another way and all he came up with was using Madra’s mana and restarting any future nodes as a bargaining chip. Unfortunately, whatever portion of the system he once communicated with through the quests had been silent for a long time.

At least the system thinks I’m capable of killing the revenants now. Which means they are somehow weak to an aspect. Can’t believe I was tired enough to fall asleep without testing it first. I must have been in here longer than I thought. Probably three or four days. I was lost in that blizzard for… a long time. This arena is significantly larger than the last ones. I suppose that makes sense and I should assume future ones will be even bigger. Someone as powerful as an emperor coming into an arena only a few kilometers wide would be ridiculous, they could cross to the end in a single step.

Too excited to remain still for another second, Jiran used Elemental Castigation to melt the frozen stone into a puddle of sand. There was nothing remaining for him in the shattered cave so he made his way into the blizzard. The blinding snow was everywhere and just as obnoxiously difficult to see through as he remembered. However, the feel of it on his skin was completely different. The windy air was no longer uncomfortable to him, even the snow that stuck to his bodysuit didn’t melt, as though he were the colder of the two. A silly grin stretched his cheeks as he fastened his goggles in place.

Several revenants were in sight. They kept their distance from the caves, aimlessly meandering through the blizzard. With excited tingles spreading through his limbs, he sent a thread of mana swimming down his tap and into his soul-space. It passed by the iceheart which was content to slowly beat, releasing fog that swirled around it, not going far and certainly staying well away from the gate that had devoured so much of it. He briefly considered destroying or kicking it out, then decided against it as it may prove useful again at some point and it was certainly harmless to him now.

Jiran’s thread of mana caressed the icy surface of his soulwall. It sank in smoothly, the old process of inverting no longer necessary before his mana became a part of his Manabody. Though a part, he could clearly tell it was not the same as his regular aura. The new energy, or aspect, moved under the same mental commands he used for his Manabody, yet held far more strength and his control over it felt supreme in comparison. He willed the new energy to move and it smoothly detached from his soulwall and aura to hang independently as an untapped cloud of potential.

He pulled gently and it gushed from his tap and flooded into the air. The energy blissfully sank into the webs of the framework as if finding a second home. His eyes remained on the nearby revenants the entire time, yet they didn’t respond in any way. Either they couldn’t see aspect the way they could aura, or they were blinded to anything happening near the caves. With a thought, a mere inkling of a desire, it raced outward along the synapses, moving well beyond the confines of his normal aura. He stretched his aspect as far as it would go and it made it halfway to the clouds before he could go no further. 

“Range is great, much better than expected. Now, for its power,” He spread his arms wide, flexing his understanding while demanding his aspect fulfill his desire. His voice was cold, detached, and his command absolute, “Be. Still.”

The blizzard froze. All movement ceased, even the nearest revenant was caught in his grasp. It was alone, the next closest more than distant enough that it either wouldn’t notice their fight, or wouldn’t arrive in time to save its kin. Jiran launched himself at the stunned beast. With his suit blocking its sight, it had no idea he was coming until it was far too late.

His aspect converged, wrapping it in a glacier-like grip. It fought back, snapping with jagged teeth and slashing with black claws, but Jiran’s aspect was more mana than Manabody and the beast failed to damage or devour its constraints.

With the revenant disabled, Jiran took the chance to study the elusive monster. His first realization was that its semi-physical form, seen through the naked eye, wasn't at all the reality of the creature. Its true body was that of a cloud, spread across several dozen meters. More interesting was its composition, formed entirely of mana that was jammed inside the synapses of the framework. Only a few released motes of energy were responsible for the illusion of its body. Since Mana Omnis had no way to see inside the framework, he had been unable to truly sense them before. With the new feedback from his aspect, their composition couldn’t have been more obvious.

And now that he could see it, the beast stood no chance. His aspect simultaneously crushed and froze its spread-wide form from every direction, condensing it into a much more solid collection of mana. He then tore the framework around and within it to shreds, giving it nowhere to hide as a lance of blazing fire tore through it. [-192k] The explosion was deafening despite being nearly a kilometer away when it impacted the ground. The storm was blown back, then summarily collapsed onto the cleansed land.

With its death, the revenant’s residual mana was free for the taking and Enthralling Touch lapped it up with a frenzy. Jiran didn’t allow it into his body as it was fresh, uncleansed beast mana. He instead manipulated it into a ball and dashed back to his cave with it. Nearly fifty of the beasts had been sent into a furor from his quick use of aura to rip the framework and they were rapidly approaching. Jiran wasn’t at all confident enough in his newfound power to face so many tier sevens at once.

Whatever had once prevented the beasts from nearing the caves was no longer in effect. They converged on where he had released his aura, scouring the area for clues. He made sure to keep his aura from interacting with the framework, winding it tightly in his chest as he retreated further into the cave. Once out of sight, he fed the captured mana his intent to create a formation in the form of a palm-sized coin. The gases comprising the air were remodeled into his image, forming a handheld mana purifier like the one in his old combat suit. He pushed the remaining mana into the formation and it glowed as the energy was cleansed, coming out the other end ready to be absorbed into his body.

Can’t deal with more than one or two of them at a time. It would be impossible to compress several of them at once to the point I could hurt them. Ripping apart the framework is also pretty taxing on my aura. I don’t think my aspect can get the job done, it's more of a stopping power than a tearing power. At least now I know how to hurt them. 

Before I do anything else, I need to get a look at what was causing that column of mana. If it's protective of the revenants and I start killing a bunch of them... No matter what, I need answers before I start traipsing around in its territory.

Jiran waited patiently until the beasts gave up the search. He then stalked into the blizzard with newfound confidence. The nearest pair of revenants were only a few hundred meters away and he crept toward them, testing exactly how effective his suit was at obfuscating his aura. 

Ten meters was the limit, the moment he took a single pace closer, both beasts zeroed in on him. During his approach, he adopted a less flashy method of murder and he put it to use before they had a chance to fight back. As before, he condensed and froze them with his aspect. Two was indeed his limit, as the fight they put up together stretched his new power to its absolute limit and the recoil sent through his aspect into his body brought him to his knees. With blood trickling from his nose and a blinding headache, he activated Elemental Castigation. Two slabs of solid elemental rock formed, one on each side of them. When his hands came together in a clap, they slammed shut, crushing and shattering their forms.

The sound of crunching glass when they died was drowned out by the blizzard, and the lack of light or heat gave away nothing of what he had done. As for destroying the framework, he utilized unaspected mana to burrow inside the synapses and burst them from within, which cost a significant amount of energy, though less than he would get back from draining what was left of their mana.

Enthralling Touch drew their mana into his new formation, each netting him nearly twenty percent of his total yet killing both had cost less than five. Topped off and with plenty to spare, he once more retreated to his cave and then spent nearly an hour restoring his old graphene suit along with all its protective and offensive formations. He kept the new aura-obscuring underlayer, making a mental note to upgrade everyone else's suits as soon as he saw them. Next, he hunted another three revenants to charge the suits formations with as much mana as they could safely hold. Finally, he carefully created two weapon formations, each packed with enough elemental energy to destroy the entire mountain.

Now that he was prepared to at least blast his way out of a dangerous situation, Jiran set out to trek up the mountain. He stopped cold after taking a single step from the mouth of his cave. The giant column of mana that once blasted into the sky from the peak was nowhere to be seen.

Does it know I'm coming? Why would whoever is capable of releasing that much mana care about someone as low-tier as me? Ugh, I hope I didn’t just curse myself again. Damnit, no backing out now. If I’m going to be here for a while hunting the revenants, I need to get a look at who owns this mountain.

With a determined stride, Jiran climbed. Unsurprisingly, there were almost no revenants above the belt of the caves that used to keep them contained. A few flew in occasionally, but they were easy enough to avoid. The real issue was that he was so used to zipping around on his aura or a jet of ignited gases. With only his feet to carry him through the storm, his pace was plodding at best. Eventually, he saw a lip in the rocky ground above him. From far below, it had appeared like the topmost peak of the mountain had been sheared off and that was exactly what had happened.

His steps grew hesitant, the closer he drew to the obvious lair of a massively powerful beast, the more nervous he became. Jiran dared not heedlessly stick his head over the edge to look around. He listened first, hearing no unusual sounds loud enough to pierce the howling wind. 

Advancing in a crouch, he ever so slowly peaked above the lip to find a completely flat surface nearly three kilometers across. Every centimeter of it was charred black and hundreds of swirling whiskers of smoke drifted into the air. There was no sign of the beast he expected to find, other than the bones of its last meal which lay in a heap near the center.

Bones? There are beasts here other than the revenants? I better learn what I can before I stumble into one.

Another careful look around with Mana Omnis running full blast revealed no signs of danger so Jiran climbed all the way onto the flat peak to get a better look. Halfway to the bones, they twitched. Jiran froze, not moving a muscle and watching with morbid fascination as time seemed to unwind. The bones messily jerked to a stand in the rough shape of a three-meter-tall humanoid. Muscles, flesh, and organs pulled themselves into existence, created from drawn in smoke and dust around them. Leathery skin came next, followed by a thick layer of ruddy fur that covered all but the beast’s once-humanoid face.

Long before it finished pulling itself together, Jiran activated every type of obfuscation at his disposal. Luckily, the creature was looking away from him when it threw its head back and roared at the heavens, or it certainly would have noticed the fluctuations in the screen of elemental light covering him. The sound was beyond intense, rattling Jiran to his bones and leaving little doubt that this was the very creature responsible for the column of mana. Worse still, its tier was far above his own.

It had little mana remaining in its body after its resurrection but Jiran remained perfectly still regardless. He was unwilling to risk using Identify since some beasts had noticed its use on them in the past. Once its lungs were empty, it paced back and forth while grumbling and thrashing its limbs in irritation. The motions were so quick, it appeared to be making micro-teleportations with each action. The rumbling noises it released were varied and articulate enough to possibly be a language. However, at the speed it was making the sounds, it was hard to tell. The seemingly intelligent actions were offset by the malicious, hungry glint in its eyes. The hard scowl plastered on its face, and the furious animalistic thrashing of its body left little doubt as to its nature.

Jiran had never seen a person go wild, but he had heard enough stories to know that was exactly what he was looking at.

I really got myself into it this time. What do I do now?

Sweat beaded from Jiran’s skin as he stared at the pacing death sentence. Suddenly, the mountain rumbled beneath his feet and the beast pounced, sticking its fingers into the rocky ground as easily as one might dip their hands into water. From its limbs, the last of its mana flowed into the sediment. When dozens of beams of bright light began leaking from the ground, Jiran realized that the column of mana was about to start all over again.

Except this time, he would be right in the middle of it.

Ahh shit.