Chapter 559 - Fried Calamari

Eric howled as lightning cracked and thunder boomed like a thousand pounding drums as he dared to cross the barrier between seas of isekai dreams and twisted nightmare. Low, thick clouds were suddenly overhead, the air tainted with an ill green light as acid winds whipped Eric with strange mercurial drops that sizzled and crackled against clothing that disintegrated in seconds.

Yet the Qi roaring through his veins, the adrenaline pounding in his chest left no room for awe or despair, Eric thrust into a realm suddenly far more Jupiterean than Earth-like. Yet all he had eyes for was the impossibly vast abomination of mile-high limbs covered in bitter blue eyes screaming with psionic hate and lamprey maws that could consume a 16-wheeler between grinding spikes for teeth.

He didn’t worry about the impossible futility of taking on a creature that was miles in diameter… that seemed to stretch, hideous and strange, in ways he could scarce comprehend.

Instead, he howled his fury and charged, the air screaming with his Mach 5 passage as he tore through the air. Charging right for the closest maw that opened wide to receive him…

Before Eric veered away just as fast as 3000 Quickness could take him, as the air shuddered with the explosive snap of grinding spearhead teeth.

Perception Check: Critical Success!

The Phoenix’s insights have become your own.

You sense the peril before you!

His mind screamed desperate warning as the air around him became nothing but a single warped mouth.

In all directions.

All at once.

As if space itself had been warped and twisted, so that all directions led to a maw whose sides he could never touch… that would leave him tumbling in a 4th Dimensional Hell he had no hope of dodging.

Because a singe mistake was all it took for even someone of his caliber to fall before a foe who’s vast nature he had no hope of overcoming.

No hope of even understanding!

“Eric! Move, you idiot! MOVE!”

Not even Bunbun’s desperate cry that he should have no access to at all would help him avoid the death now folding him up and crushing his screaming knotted body in ways he couldn’t even imagine.

Because the boy he had been seconds ago, surrounded by inconceivable pressures and crushing darkness, had utterly met his match.

Quickness Check: Critical success!

Until the darkness blazed with brilliant flame that could freeze worlds or send planetary cores erupting as the ether rang with the Phoenix’s furious cry. A wing of frozen flame then cleaved through dimensions as easily as the kraken had folded his sylvan form up and swallowed him whole.

You have been struck by Greater Psionic Blast!

All sapient creatures lacking protection have been obliterated in a 1 mile radius!

And that awful System message, said like it meant nothing significant at all, filled Eric with a howling fury as great as the shrieking how of a wounded titan.

The pain to his soul was almost the equal of the agony he felt as another 2% of his core saturation blazed away to ephemerality as the fiery phoenix was replaced by a wild-eyed boy racing for the heavens with nothing save blood-rune jeans and a fiery blade in his hand, a heartbeat before multiple ascended presences could focus their unthinkably potent gazes from the highlands his way.

Yet Eric refused to feel anything but fury as he twisted around and glared down at the kraken that had somehow doubled in size… before a dismayed Eric realized that all it had done was reveal yet another tiny sliver of its true self, so much of it sealed away in a higher dimension.

Which meant that his deadliest attack had done no more than cleave free a single limb.

And even that, against a creature that could have millions of such appendages as it slid one 3-D sliver of itself with another and yet another...

“FUCK!”

And before Eric could do more than waste a moment in furious despair… the abomination was launching attacks from angles that left his danger senses screaming… and Eric couldn’t make out at all.

Not until they had already struck.

Your foe has successfully struck you from quin and gleen angles!

Your mind is presently unable to comprehend 4-Dimensional angles of attack!

Time seemed to scream as Battletime flared, Eric doing everything he could NOT to be torn right out of 3-D spacetime yet again, nor be forced to tap into his ever-dwindling core reserves.

But it was already too late when space warped and light became hideous screams and sound and the stench of hell itself as Eric furiously twisted and launched himself in the very direction the massive tendril was slamming him toward. A direction he only sensed with the pressure against his soul, furiously fighting against it.

A direction that his mind screamed would flatten him to a pancake.

A direction that Speed Racer and 1500 Physical Resistance, and perhaps just a trace of Dominion’s Essence helped him survive all of his cells being compressed to nothing… before he managed to pop free.

Willpower Check: Critical Success! You endure the madness of being twisted in unexpected directions in mortal form!

1500 Physical Resistance modified Vitality (3773) check at -1000 penalty: Critical Success!

Even squid horrors smacking against your paper thin web of 3-D cells FAIL to splatter you to oblivion!

Your Domain remains inviolate!

Eric’s mind screamed with oddly excited System Interface messages, the ever cheerful game show host-like voice glorying in a favored contestant surviving yet another hellish encounter that had Eric howling inside, even as he fought against desperate panic, realizing just how paper-thin reality truly was. Only now appreciating just how monstrous was the million-eyed abomination that could smack him right out of space-time as he knew it and send his paper cutout self careening in any hellish direction it wanted. Because no matter how fast he was… he couldn’t sense an attack launched one dimension up, less than a nanometer away from him when it hit.

A part of him wanted to cackle with mirth and terror.

Because as much of a cocky bastard as he sometimes was, it seemed that he might have finally met his match. And just like every cultivation opponent worth its salt… the fucker had been holding back.

Well, no longer, it seemed, as Eric weaved and juked just because it would be stupid not to… as the air erupted with glistening black slimy tentacles covered in glaring eyes and massive grinding maws ripping through the air in either fresh tendrils or ever growing circular blobs and it was all Eric could do not to scream in horror.

All he could do not to flee for the beach that called to him.

Warm safe waters, the cry of seagulls. Just knowing, somehow, that this horror wouldn’t dare intrude upon Titan Prime continent’s domain.

Unless he was wrong.

Unless his act of cowardice would imperil 20 million clueless mortals living sweet humble lives, going to school, coming home from work, missing their families... taking precious comfort in the presence of friends and loved ones.

So many lives so drastically different from his own.

with hopes and dreams so similar to his own.

All of them precious.

And Rachel was screaming in mortal terror, even now.

SO WHY THE FUCK WAS HE RUNNING LIKE A BITCH?

Eric’s howl was the cry of the phoenix.

Because if Squid-Horror-San had been holding back,

So had he.

“You want to play, motherfucker? WE’LL PLAY!” Eric’s mind raced with terror and possibilities in equal measure, charging forward not as a phoenix, but as a man.

Having sensed, for a terrifying heartbeat, the furious pressure pulsating against his daring.

The weight of sleeping Golds. Titanic beings that might be sleeping dragons real or metaphorical, ancient being in centuries-long closed-door cultivation… and he didn’t want to be the idiot cawing and flapping his wings and waking them up.

Besides. The blazing cost to his 3rd Tier Core Saturation, already below 87%, was a fuck-ton more than he wanted to pay.

And his 42 Scholarship played over and over again the System’s almost smug statement. That could have been mockery, amusement… or a hint for someone who’s veins were still roaring with a tainted pill’s wild Qi surge.

And he might need every last point of it, as he summoned forth his crimson wing.

The blade he could extend longer than any other in mortal form as his Crimson Orb whirled around his skull so fast it was just a flashing blur as his dachi erupted in crimson fire that stretched an extra 4 feet. Then an extra forty as he whipped and dived past bulges in spacetime that he just knew would erupt in globes of hungry mouths or whipping tentacles as he juked and dodged and roared his challenge as the titan changed directions and sent an exploratory tentacle toward the already battered deep water rig.

A tentacle that actually encountered resistance as Eric’s Dominion-infused Ward blocked it. For just a heartbeat, as the wujen below howled and chanted some formation-based chant that earned a moment’s pause… before the monstrous kraken summoned not one but three massive tendrils, eager to pulpify the entire structure.

Before the air flashed with blinding heat as Eric’s Bloodfire Strike extended from a 40 foot reach to 400 feet, for a cost of 300 Qi and 7.5 Temporary Soul Reserves.

More than enough to cleave completely through the closest tentacle that then crashed into the sea.

The air filled with fresh screams as countless eyes in this and multiple adjoining directions glared Eric’s way, and he knew it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough, as the creature shifted yet again, somehow, presenting another sliver of its 4-D globular self, the air filling with more tendrils than ever.

Battering Eric harder than ever.

Sending him cartwheeling so bad that he needed to flare his Phoenix wings once more, his Core Saturation crashing below 84%. And it hurt. It burned in ways he had no words for, Eric howling with primal FURY as he twisted out of a nightmare hell full of screams and the taste of brimstone and too many eyes crawling in his mind before he popped back into stormy skies, crackling lightning, howling ill-green winds and the desperate screams of panicked survivors and his own wild howls, his System Interface commending his battered form once more.

570 Psionic Resistance and Dense Neurons endures a plane that would have instantly obliviated your dam!

1500 Physical Resistance modified Vitality (3773) check at -1000 penalty: Critical Success!

Your Domain remains inviolate!

“Motherfucker!” Eric snarled, his white-hot hate turning his already massive blade to an eight hundred foot long bar of crimson death as thick as the mega yacht that had been shattered to scrap and kindling and sunk to the bottom of the sea. Crackling with furious heat, designed to pierce all resistances and armor and Soul Wards. Designed to cut through anything.

A strike that would not be denied.

Your Domain Remains inviolate!

The words echoed through Eric’s mind with a wild chill as he locked eyes with the writhing nightmare horror below.

His lips curled in a vicious grin.

Finally understanding.

Finally getting it!

His Domain.

His ability to shape and define the world around him.

Logically, there was no way a fragile 3-D less than paper-thin creature like him should resist a giant squid piercing its fragile flesh.

Yet he had willed it so.

Because his body was part of his domain, where his will was inviolate.

Where his will defined reality itself.

Because the monster he faced wasn’t really a 4-D creature at all.

No. It was a 3-D horror, same as anything else, that was daring to fuck with his mind.

Daring to mess with his Dense Neurons!

For that was the only reality that Eric would accept.

The only reality that mattered.

He glared down at the eye-covered horror that seemed almost to shrivel just a tiny bit when Eric howled his challenge.

A challenge that was the howl of the phoenix.

A challenge that shook the air and the mercurial seas.

“Lets end this, motherfucker! One strike, one kill!”

Eric’s 800 foot long blade of crimson fire flared all the brighter with his words.

Why wouldn’t it?

It was, after all, a projection of his will.

His domain.

Ultimately, it was just an extension of himself.

And this time, when he darted past limbs that twisted helplessly in normal space with a mere 1000 in Quickness, he did it knowing exactly how he had to dodge and twist and parry. Crashing into his foe with a Mach 5 scream as he struck the Silver Titan’s flesh with a weapon that was an extension of his will, his Dominion, his killing intent.

As to whether or not it would be enough to slay this titan of the sea in a single blow…

The abrupt explosion of hyper pressurized brains, viscera, and squid ink splattering him and everything else within a mile radius answered that question readily enough.

Charge boosted by Mach 5 Speed in Effect.

Windfire Strike has been extended to 800 feet length! 600 Qi Expended! Burst of Strength in effect! 15 1200/4 = 300 Soul Reserve Spent!

100% Additive damage bonus per 50 points in Strength & Quickness invested in your strike! You have invested 2000 Strength & 2000 Quickness into your strike at the moment of impact!

You have successfully struck your prey for an additional 4000% Damage!

NOTE! You have successfully infused Bloodfire Strike with the Essence of Dominion!

4000% Damage bonus (multiplicative with all other standard modifiers) has been further modified 5-fold for 20,000% damage bonus!

Bloodfire Strike is now Rank 29.

You have gained the perk: Dominion’s Reach!

You may now unleash a Transcendent Attack based on the Essence of Dominion for (Dominion Rank (5)) x Standard damage and DOUBLE standard Spiritual Energy Cost in Soul Reserves! (Modified by Crimson Orb! Aren’t you glad you took that perk!?)

Eric howled with a sense of triumph and wonder as he raced past his exploding prey. A heady euphoria that abruptly became a sense of overwhelming disorientation so great that he nearly crashing into the foul mercury waters, hit with a crushing wave of exhaustion as 300 Soul Reserves were torn from his body in the blink of an eye.

Because he had infused his strike with the furious potency needed to push it to an absolutely absurd 800 feet.

Because he had dared to push and twist his abilities, his sense of self, the Dominion of his own soul, his weight upon the world… to extend 800 fucking feet.

Had he not thought to send his Crimson Orb in play, no matter the unwanted questions it might raise… and had his Soul Reserves been anything less than the absurd 1700 that they were, he might have killed himself in the process.

He glared down at the still shockingly massive but now most definitely three-dimensional titan that had exploded all over the sea. Even if it was clearly dead, and had just as obviously never been more than the indescribably massive creature he now glared down upon, he still knew that such was only true because the creature had dared to enter his domain, his interpretation of reality where no cute bullshit phasing, ghost-walking, ethereal climbing, or dimensional shifting was letting his foes slip free of his blows. They could counter them the old-fashioned way, by being tough enough to resist or quick enough to dodge… or they could die.

And he didn’t care that his own furiously simple interpretation of the world had literally crushed and flattened his foe in ways he didn’t even want to think about, Eric coughing up only a little bit of blood as his body and weary soul screamed for rest, having tapped enough Soul Reserves to kill exactly 120 mortal sacrifices of average soul potential without his Crimson Orb.

And he had done it in the blink of an eye.

He shivered, even as he shook his head in rue. “With all my power and absurd attributes… having pushed Soul Reserves so high, and with a single awesome skill evolution… I nearly turned myself into a Grim.”

His laughter then became a scream of agony and ecstasy in equal measure as angry bolts of crimson lightning tore into him from the sky.

Rank 5 Essence of Dominion and 172 Willpower BESTS Rank 2 Dimensional Vastness and 78 Insanity.

No unexpected dimensions to be found here!

Right now, the only reality is your own, Contender.

Congratulations! You have successfully slain a worthy foe!

You have evolved in the crucible of combat and are now a Rank 1 Elite Disciple as Evelyn Death’s (Rogue Cultivator, Ascended Gold) chosen prodigy!

You have racially ascended to Bronze!

You are the first Terran to racially ascend on (or off) of Terra!

You have earned the Bronze-Tier title: Ascended Bronze!

All your attributes have been enhanced 5%!

You now enjoy +5% to all future attribute gains! NOTE! This 5% Bronze-Tier boon is MULTIPLICATIVE with all White-tier boons and titles previously earned!

You will now suffer significantly less bottlenecks than you otherwise would, while evolving your race!

Note! Multiple greater potencies are now aware of your existence upon Titan Prime! (In ways that have nothing to do with Yours-Truly!)

Eric howled with furious vindication and sweetest joy as all his muscles blazed in the best possible way, the lightning’s sting almost sweet. He didn’t know if it was heavenly tribulation or an extra jolt, so that all his DNA got the message. Either way, he had never felt so revitalized and utterly drained as he did in that endless, halcyon moment, gasping for breath in the middle of the howling storm, ignoring the stench of ammonia, mercury, and brimstone as he peered at the distant rig, relieved to see it still in one piece.

Only then realizing what an utter fool he was being as his inner phoenix gave a despairing cry, Eric’s now 1800 perception seeing quite clearly the ravenous beasts that were a cross between sharks and lamprey tearing into his rapidly deflating prey. All the hideous pressure only released upon death, filling the already obsidian black seas with alien biologies and ecosystems… and a ravenous hunger for sustenance and power that Eric recognized all too well.

And that oversized lamprey right there was going after the kraken’s magnificent beast core.

“The hell with that!” Eric roared, snarling as he charged through waters as thick as mercury that he nonetheless swam through like a fish, before encountering not one but dozens of oversized ravenous amalgamations of eye stalks, scaly flesh, and lamprey jaws that all exploded into satisfying goblets of jellified and flash-fried flesh, until the mercurial seas were stained with half a dozen alien frothy liquids bubbling strangely in the too heavy waters as he lashed out with a single desperate hand and claimed his prize, a heartbeat before a megalodon could tear out its core.

Now Eric’s core. With a final middle finger to the furious and quite sapient shark that could do nothing but swim and seethe as a cackling Eric claimed his prizes, sprung out of the water, and raced for the rig.

Swimming is now Rank 3!

Swimming is now Rank 4!

….

Swimming is now Rank 10!

How do you wish to—you have claimed the Effortless Undulation perk! You can now swim through molten steel or liquid mercury or the eldritch seas of Titan Prime as effortlessly and easily as you can regular salt water!

Eric couldn’t help but smile in relief when he caught sight of a shell-shocked Rachel, a sobbing Hai, and a near catatonic Lena all looking maybe the worse-for-ware, but definitely among the living, as were all their friends.

Though Vu of course had the thousand yard stare of a man who had just lost everything, his body cultivating relatives also looking exhausted and overwhelmed.

But they were alive.

All of them, alive.

Eric had fought against cruelest fate that had wanted to claim them all… or at least a vicious kraken too big for its beak, and he had won.

“It’s dead!” Eric roared, pumping his fist in triumph. “The motherfucker’s dead!”

He blinked, gazing down at the wary-eyed cultivators with growing consternation.

All the more so when he found out that the formation that had been so useful for keeping that not-so extradimensional squid horror away… was also resisting his naked feet when he tried to descend.

He frowned. Of course there were steps he could take…

But he was trying to be the hero, here! Not force himself where he wasn’t wanted.

“Um… you can open the formation now.”

For some reason, those words made the formation master chuckle bitterly.

“Yes. Quite useful at barring extraplanar creatures. A genuine lifesaver, wouldn’t you agree?”

Eric calmly nodded, no longer pressing against it. “I do,” he calmly said. “If you’re the reason why my friends are alive, then I owe you my thanks.”

For some reason, this made the man blink in surprise.

“Owe me your thanks?” The man tilted his head curiously. “How unexpected.”

Eric blinked. “How so?”

Liang gave a tired shake of his head. “Just tell us you’re not here to arrest us… or worse.”

Eric scowled, crossing his arms, tapping his naked foot, midair. “Are you fucking serious right now?”

“Deadly serious, I’m afraid.”

“No, really, right after I just took out a fucking Silver-Tier Titan trying to devour all your asses, because my classmate and her friends are depending on your rig not to die, when I’m only out here because I was looking for a nice distraction after a too long photoshoot… no offense, Rachel… and you think I’m somehow law enforcement? Seriously?”

The formation master sighed while Vu and his kin just stared up at Eric in speechless stupefaction. “He does have a point, Liang.”

Liang scowled, shaking his head. “He’s a Silver-Tier monster—”

“Hardly! I just ascended to Bronze, like two seconds ago.”

“The lightning tribulation. We saw,” Osirian said offhandedly.

“He did it. We saw it with our own eyes. He survived his tribulation like it was nothing!” An awed Vu commented.

Eric shrugged. “It wasn’t nothing. More nice and tingly. Definitely woke me up.”

Liang gave a cool shake of his head. “You took out an ascended Titan. A creature fused to the idea of vastness and deep space itself!”

“It was a deluded squid, nothing more,” Eric stubbornly declared. Because under the influence of his domain… it had been just that. And the Bloodfire blade he had struck with had cleaved through not just a single slice, but the entire thing. Because for Eric, a squid with too many eyes, mouths, and a bloated ego was all it had been.

And the fact that Rank 5 Dominion trumped Rank 2 Vastness was almost beside the point.

Osirian smirked. “I think he’s being polite. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could kill us as easily as he could the kraken.”

“Only if he breaks through the barrier, which is clearly resisting him!”

“True. But we both know what that means.”

Liang stiffened, peering up at Eric with a spark of something otherworldly in his eyes. “That means you yourself are an extraplanar creature.”

Eric shrugged. “Well, technically. Seeing as I was born on another planet and what I think just might be a neighboring plane of existence… maybe?”

Osirian chuckled dryly. “You’re just being polite, aren’t you? You could pierce my ward any time you like.”

Eric tilted his head. “Would doing so hurt you?”

The man flashed a bleak smile. “Immensely.”

“Then don’t worry about it. I was going to offer to take you guys back to shore, but if you’d rather stay here with the remains of at least three boats that I see, and none that are intact… none of them more than shattered kindling, really… that’s on you.”

“I want to go home!” A teary eyed Lena sobbed, forcing herself to her hands and knees as Hai held her still, the latter gazing at Eric with an odd mixture of awe and trepidation. No less than what Lena no doubt felt. But with an offer of salvation offered… the only thing greater than her fear was her desperation.

A sentiment soon echoed by every last survivor of their ruined yacht, even Triple M the DJ. Whose fault it totally wasn’t, having just done what her gig called for, never knowing that noise-hating krakens would be something she’d have to study up on.

Though perhaps now she did.

Eric grinned. “Well, it’s a good thing I stopped by, isn’t it?”

Osirian and Liang traded a look, before gazing up at Eric.

“Alright. So long as you give us your—”

Eric didn’t wait for Liang to finish, already sensing the barrier lowering.

His cocky smile became strained, however, when he caught a whiff of sweat, voided bowels and terror, forced to appreciate just how terrifying one of the greatest rushes of Eric’s life had been… when you were a mortal so fragile that even unintended backlashes would kill you. Or seriously injure what were, after all, just a handful of low-ranked body cultivators doing all they could to ascend to whatever degree they could.

Surprisingly, it was Rachel who was the most reserved of all of those cheering him on, hooting in his honor and eagerly, if desperately, saying that they’d love to hop on his craft… and where exactly was his boat again?

And that’s when he pulled it out.

“So, what do you think?” He said with a certain amount of pride for his vessel. “I’m calling it… Fin II.”

Vu gazed at the vessel for long moments. “Um… Eric?”

“What’s up BC Vu?”

The man blinked at this. “BC…”

“Body cultivator.”

“Of course.” The man gave a nervous chuckle. “It’s that, well… your vessel, that you pulled out of nowhere…”

“Yes?”

“Is a gigantic dingy made of shark bones and skin?”

Eric nodded. “Correct.”

Vu looked at Eric.

Eric looked at Vu.

“Why are the eyes still blinking on it?” Whispered one of Vu’s cousins.

Eric glared at his construct. “Behave. No necromancy here. You know the rules.”

For some reason, Osirian burst out laughing, muttering about overpowered faeries and forbidden arts.

“All I’m hearing is praise for my life-like crafting. Humans having been working with leather, scales, and bones since time began.”

Eric felt the need to state that very firmly. His fist most definitely did not burst into flame when bemused smirks turned to quick obsequious bows.

“Of course, honored cultivator!” Vu’s cousin all but sobbed. “You are an esteemed leatherworker and shipwright. The blinking eyes were a trick of the light.”

“Damn right.”

“And the fins moving are just the wind.”

Eric smiled in approval. Vu’s cousin, at least, got it.

“Eric… you do know that you have no clothes on, right?” Rachel nervously asked.

Eric stared at her. “Um…” He spun around and snapped his fingers. “Magic!”

Quickness check: Success!

Rachel scowled, crossing her arms. “You magicked on your blue jeans.”

“Or did I always have them on?”

She sighed. “I don’t suppose you have an intact shark on you?”

“How about one of these, instead?” Eric said, pulling out one of the odd finned lamprey horrors

Rachel blanched. She took a shuddering breath, gazing at the horror, then back at Eric, then back at the alien abomination again.

“Eric? I have an idea. Can I, um… borrow your tablet again? And can you put this on?”

Eric stared at Rachel for long moments when his classmate made it clear exactly what she was asking for. Then revealing how she had actually managed to save an outfit and why hardly mattered. The vest was soft leather and the shirt sheer silk, and it did look pretty decent. A great accompaniment to his blue jeans.

“You’re a fucking genius. You know that?”

She smirked while everyone else shuffled into his dingy. “Yes, I know. Now hold your sword up just a little bit higher? Can you make it more fiery? Excellent. Now give me those bedroom eyes, Eric. Blue Steel look. Show me that Blue Steel!”