Chapter 133- Test Your Might (Patreon)

The Remalon looked Jiran up and down, its glowing eyes piercing him to his core. His secrets were revealed and analyzed, every minute detail of his manapool scoured until his skills were found. Jiran could feel them being turned this way and that, scrutinized as though he were a slave about to be sold. He tried to resist but it was futile, the command for stillness that blanketed them was so absolute, a creature on the verge of death would have held off the grave just to obey.

Jiran couldn’t help but stare back, caught within its mana that churned in hypnotic patterns that spoke to the energies within him, whispering secrets that he was not ready to hear. Its mana weaved and spun, tying itself in knots that formed strands of intent-laced power beyond his comprehension.

Mana Omnis: + 7

Mana Confluence: + 5

A wide smile split the Remalon’s face, revealing a mouth full of glowing mana that filled Jiran’s heart with dread. It swept one hand to the right and every single Graymin vanished. Its other hand waved toward the city and everyone else vanished as well, leaving only Jiran, Ravenna, and the Remalon on the battlefield.

They’re gone? Just like that? Damnit there’s nothing I can do. I can’t even match a single square centimeter of this thing's mana. They have to be okay. I refuse to accept they’re all dead!

The command for stillness finally relented and Ravenna turned her head to meet Jiran’s eyes, the fiery determination swirling within her stronger than ever. She vanished from his arms, pulled through the framework against her will. His heart skipped a beat as he searched for her, quickly finding her hazy form hovering at the Remalon’s side. The thick mana obscured his sight, making it impossible to see details clearly from so far.

We aren’t dead yet, but what does it want from me and why did it take her, of all people? Because she was closest to me? Because I just healed her?

“What do you want from me?” Jiran didn’t yell, knowing it would hear him easily through its mana.

The Remalon shook its head and muttered a single word that echoed down a tunnel that suddenly appeared in its mana, “Measchuual.”

One word? I need to make it talk more or my translator won’t work.

“What does that mean? I don’t understand.”

A sphere of force appeared around Ravenna and began to slowly shrink in size. At the same time, several figures appeared on the ground between them. The mana blocking Jiran from seeing the figures was swept aside, revealing six Graymin Knights. The Remalon snapped its fingers and one of the tier five beasts exploded into a red mist.

“Soar-kaa,” It hissed in a strong accent while pointing between Jiran, Ravenna, and the knights.

Don’t need a translator to figure that one out. Kill or she dies, so be it. Not like I have a choice. There’s no escaping from this thing. Whatever it wants from me, it's going to get it, or we all die.

Elemental Castigation formed a circle of spinning fire above Jiran’s shoulder. He imagined the molecules vibrating so quickly that the electrons were ripped away from the atoms to form plasma. The disc of mana turned bright blue before Jiran unleashed its heat toward the unfortunate knights. The beam of deadly energy tore through their bodies in an instant, leaving nothing behind but a gaping fissure in the ground that bubbled magma and hissed superheated gasses into the air.

When he looked at the Remalon again, he saw Ravenna’s sphere was still shrinking. She reared back one fist, her entire arm consumed with flames. She screamed as her hand exploded against the shell of mana. She quickly healed herself and shook her head before sitting on her knees. Her hands rested lightly on her thighs as she met Jiran’s eyes and nodded to him with a look of serene acceptance.

He shook with barely repressed rage as he yelled, “Let her go! I did what you wanted!”

Thank the Fathers he didn’t tak—No! Don’t even think it. It might be able to read my mind.

Jiran clamped down on his thoughts, going so far as to pull his aura in and activate Oneness. His anger faded away to nothing as five more Graymin appeared—this time tier six rooks. He didn’t wait for the command, instantly rushing them with swirling chakrams of plasma rotating around him. He arrived at the beasts before his attacks finished charging enough to release.

They were far too slow to dodge or fight back. A fist coated in mana, shaped like a blade, slid into the chest of a rook. Enthralling Touch emptied its manapool even as his mana ruptured the creature from the inside out. The swirling blades sliced through the others, all of them falling to pieces in less than a second.

Jiran’s eyes were blazing with hatred when he saw her cage was so small she had to duck her head and curl into a ball. Five tier sevens appeared next and were instantly met by five blazing lines of energy that cut across the distance between Jiran and them. Two of the beasts had been reduced to smoking slag, the other three had teleported away in time. Of the three, one was a slayer and the others enforcers.

There was no time for thought or strategy. As the slayer appeared behind him, he blasted forward, ignited gases burned and blinded it as he raced toward the slower enforcers. Blades of mana on his hands plunged into the first beast’s chest. The mana exploded inside it at the same time that its hands began to glow from the incredible power brimming within them. The slayer appeared behind him again, its claw diving into the enforcer's chest as Jiran ducked at the last second. He pulled himself beneath its legs with a combination of aura and mana yanking on the nearby synapses. The framework buckled under the strain but a roar of intent reinforced the strands.

Jiran slapped his palm onto the back of the enforcer's leg and fifteen percent of his mana exploded into a glacial wall just large enough to lock it and the slayer together. He jumped off the solidified synapse beneath his feet, arriving before the second enforcer just as its hands rose above its head. Only enough time to form a single chakram had passed, and that deadly blade slid through its wrists. Jiran’s aura snapped out, hurling the fists and the destructive energies trapped with them at the two trapped beasts even as he began repeatedly stabbing his arms into the enforcer’s chest. He ignited the mana coating each blade that slid into its skin while simultaneously draining as much of the beast's mana as he could.

The explosion from the severed fists blasted them both through the air. Jiran felt his back being shredded but used the pilfered mana to heal himself. They rode the shockwave of force together and he didn’t stop sliding his blades of mana inside its body until Mana Omnis showed the light of life vanishing from within it. The two trapped in ice were still alive, their prison broken but still holding. Five charged beams of plasma finished them off before they could free themselves.

Healing swept through him, repairing his savaged arms and back. He looked up to confirm what he knew must have already happened in the few seconds that fight took. Confusion flickered through his Oneness at the seven spheres now hovering around the Remalon; six of them churned with the familiar crimson energy of challenger density. The last, and most important, was now the size of Jiran’s head, the muddy brown human remains within enough to tear away his state of Oneness completely.

“You fucking MONSTER!!”

This is it, this is the end. But I refuse to go down like she did!

Jiran threw his head back and released a roar laced with Enthralling Touch that pulled on the mana within the nearby corpses. They were drained in an instant, the mana far more than he could hold within his body but he didn’t want to hold it, he wanted to use it. Elemental Castigation formed a ball of gravity in each of his hands. He squeezed his fists tight, compressing the energy with all his might. His whole body shook from the effort, yet it wasn’t nearly enough, he was failing. The mana refused to compress far enough to become stable like last time.

Splitting my focus was stupid. Even two won’t be enough for what’s coming next. Wait a second, splitting! That’s it, that’s exactly what I have to do.

Jiran moved his hands so that both were at a central nexus of synapses where a dozen threads came together into a single point. He funneled his intent into each attached thread and they glowed as his desire slid down them and into the balls of elemental gravity. They shuddered, and a toothy grin split his face as they compressed the last few centimeters into the most powerful attacks he knew how to make.

As the torrents of all that mana and intent converged, five more graymin appeared nearby. The air immediately began to quake from mere presence. Identify confirmed his suspicions that the Remalon’s test was far from over.

[Graymin Bishop - Indomnifier: (Tier 8) ????/????]

Halo’s of spiny bone that jutted from their hips began to glow and vibrate as immense quantities of mana and aura mingled into attacks he had no chance of stopping. All five of their interlaced auras collapsed on his shoulders. Jiran fell to his knees, every ounce of his concentration, aura, mana, and strength concentrated into his two upraised hands. He pulled on his soulwall just to keep himself upright, uncaring of the damage he caused to himself.

Should I use her mana, too? No, it won’t help and it certainly won't be as potent as what I’ve already got.

The bishops’ halos stopped vibrating, whatever deadly attack they were preparing now ready to be unleashed. Jiran didn’t dare wait another second. As they vanished, he opened his hands, a parting smile on his face as he felt the synapses around him quiver with the beasts’ arrival. He smashed his fists together with another roar. The gravitic bombs shattered, their immense power combined and released.

A wave of power exploded outward, forming a kilometer wide sphere that pulled everything within it into its very center. Jiran was no exception, he was sucked inside, his body crushed under the indomitable compressing forces. Millions of tons of mass compacted into the size of a needle-head before the mana holding it all together was depleted. As suddenly as it started, all that mass exploded outwards in a terrific explosion.

Jiran opened his eyes to find himself looking down at a massive crater.

Am I a ghost? I definitely died.

He patted his body with his hands, each touch confirming that he was very much alive. Confusion warped his expression as his brain struggled to understand what was happening. He could no longer feel the Remalon and there was no sign of its mana. The bishops were gone as well, though he was certain his attack hadn’t been strong enough to kill them.

His mind replayed the last few seconds since it had summoned the five tier sevens. He had known at that moment the Remalon would push him until he failed, until he died. Seeing what it did to Ravenna only verified those suspicions, so he chose to go out with a bang. Now, he was looking down on what should have been his grave, having no clue how that was possible.

A dry, raspy chuckle came from beside him and he whipped his head around to see the Remalon floating within arms reach. It had no presence of any kind, as if it were already gone and what was before him was nothing more than an illusion. On instinct, Jiran’s fist flashed out and slammed into a barrier in the seemingly empty air right before reaching its face. It smiled again, the mana within its eyes and mouth glowing brightly before it truly vanished.

It’s form had been hovering between Jiran and the city of Mortan. Now that it was gone, he could see her walls still stood. From deep within the center of the city, a single flare shot high into the sky before bursting into a bright blue light. Jiran’s heart was filled with hope even as six spheres of challenger density slammed into his back.

- Present Day - Somewhere on Madra

Kaprokka appeared on the City of Firandel’s central arrival platform. He stored his armament before the excess mana could sweep across the land to disrupt the delicate formations that powered so much of their technology. He ignored the sprawling metropolis’s massive structures. Their sweeping arches and smooth surfaces, made from the most dense materials on the planet, held no interest to him. Nor did the countless millions of inconsequential lives that those shining beacons of civilization sheltered.

The peerless beauty before him was the sole focus of his considerable intent. Her chin was held high, her back perfectly straight, every centimeter of her regal bearing enough to drive a man mad with longing. But none of that was of interest to Kaprokka. It was the mana churning within her in impossibly intricate patterns that fascinated him.

Her voice was a silken caress, “Where is the infant?”

“I left him,” Kaprokka responded when she blocked her mana from his sight. The disruption from watching her mana flow caused him to click his tongue and scowl. When he said no more, she narrowed her eyes and the annoyance within her materialized into a vibration that caused the tall tower to quake beneath them. Kaprokka shrugged, the simple motion enough to dispel her mana and the block she formed to keep him from peeking. "He'll come to us in due time, so long as he doesn't die."

"Him? He must have been quite special. You truly did not kill it, nor bring it back? What scheme are you up to now?"

Kaprokka ignored most of her questions as he glanced down at his raised hands, hands which appeared all too similar to the infants just before its final attack. "Yes, a most impressive boy indeed. A challenger, and evolved already at the fourth tier.” The woman inhaled sharply, the movement creating fascinating fluctuations in her mana.

"Why did you leave it alive? Thoric will be furious!" She hissed.

"Not much of a conversation if you answer your own question in the same breath you ask it, Selaine. But yes, Thoric will indeed be furious.” A mischievous grin lifted the corners of Kaprokka’s lips as he chuckled dryly.

"Enough games! This is no laughing matter. We must annihilate the anomaly!”

“So sad, from a precious infant to an anomaly within a single conversation. Something tells me he would enjoy hearing the fear in your voice. Good luck finding him, I scrubbed his entire continent and left some fun surprises for anyone who tries to locate him. And like I said, he’ll come to us, no need to be so concerned.”

“You’ve lost your mind! Even thinking it can defy Thoric is blasphemy! And what makes you so sure it will come to us?"

"I left him a message he won’t be able to ignore, once he finds it. You should have seen him fight, Selaine. He was wild, untrained, unrefined, yet his mana thrummed so deliciously. I’ve never seen anything like it in one so young. And his reactions to seeing his woman die: Fascinating. Perhaps I should go back and kill the others… Oh, before I forget, some of those pesky lizards were nearby. I dropped in to… say hello. Don't worry, I didn't kill any of them."

Selaine rubbed her temples with a groan. "How can you make so much trouble for me in a single day? I truly despise you."

"I know," Kaprokka’s smile widened to show all his teeth before he vanished.