Volume 5 - Chapter 26 (in-editing v6)

Volume 5 - Chapter 26

(see a typo/error/mistake/I forget something? Let me know in the comments, please! Thanks!!)

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Micheal entered the Realm of Intent.

The world around him became overlaid in an instant, ephemeral copies of everything in his vision lining up. It was still a strange sight, one that he knew he needed to get used to.

Lightshorn appeared in his hand, the Blood-Refined Mithril blade gleaming as stark white Grandmaster Sword Energy emblazoned alongside its length.

“Wow!”

Across from him, Jessica Wiles smiled, her head tilted slightly to the left as she stared at Micheal’s sword.

“You really are a Grandmaster. You must be super talented!” As she spoke, she slammed her two fists together.

Immediately, a small shockwave blasted through the air as golden Master Tier Fist Energy erupted over her fists. The impact also sent several small snowflakes fluttering into the air, where they slowly began to float down.

“I worked hard.” Micheal didn’t bother trying to correct her.

From her perspective, he must look like a Second Waver who obtained Grandmastery in just a few short years. It was only natural to think someone like that was incredibly talented, on par with a genius like Bastien. If she knew he was actually a Fourth Waver, the misconception would only deepen.

‘Her Mastery is pretty solid.’ Micheal noted, eyeing the depth of the golden Master Tier Fist Energy Jessica wielded.

All the Weapon Mastery Energies were inherently linked together, on a Conceptual level – while he might not be a Grandmaster of the Fist, he could still accurately judge the depth of a Fist Master’s Mastery, just based on his own experience.

‘Right. She hasn’t been Cursed yet.’

In the original timeline, Jessica Wiles suffered from an incurable Curse, a terrible thing wrought by the hands of Ashroth, the nigh unkillable Titled Deity of The Yil.

‘I still have time before he becomes a problem.’

Ashroth climbed up the Layers at a steady pace before eventually deciding to stop on the Sixth Layer, and set up camp, sometime between the Fifth and Sixth Waves. Once there, the Titled Deity went on countless incursions out of boredom, causing an uncountable number of deaths. This ancient monstrosity truly epitomized the dangers of giving any entity absolute power – he abused his power, constantly, repeatedly, without a care for the suffering he spread.

It was humanity’s eternal misfortune that Ashroth’s path crossed with humanity countless times. The Titled Deity’s actions heavily impacted the number of First Wave humans that remained alive by the time Micheal joined Humanity’s Last Army.

“Don’t even think about holding back, ya hear me?” Jessica interrupted Micheal’s thoughts, snapping him back to the present.

“I know I might look cute and breakable.” She grinned lopsidedly, before her eyes flashed blue and a wave of blue fire swallowed her entire form.

“But I can bounce back from even lethal attacks, so let’s go all out!” The flames slowly faded, revealing her untouched form.

Micheal nodded slightly. She had S Rank Regeneration, after all – who was he to argue with that?

“In that case, I hope you won’t hold back either.” Micheal slowly raised his sword, holding it out in front of him.

“I likewise, can recover from lethal injuries.” He didn’t plan on disclosing the specifics of his Life Orbs, unless truly necessary, just out of habit. Information security was always relevant.

Jessica returned his nod with a serious one of her own.

And then…

The fight was on.

Micheal’s eyes narrowed as a trail of ice appeared in his future vision, running along the ground right up to his feet. With a thought, his Life Orbs lifted him up, hovering a few inches into the air.

A split second later, the ice trail manifested in reality, spiking into existence in a fraction of a second. The sharp ice was a deep, dark blue, blending in with the black stone floor below. A small flurry of snowflakes fluttered off it, floating in the air around him.

‘Fast.’ Even with his precognition, it was still difficult to track the movement of the ice.

Abruptly, a phantom spear of blue blasted free from the icy trail, ghostily passing through Micheal as it pierced his chest.

Micheal smoothly sidestepped in mid-air, using his Life Orbs to counteract his balance, as he avoided the attack before it even began.

A tiny moment later, the spears of ice erupted forth from the ground, spiking through the air where Micheal had just been, following the trail of its ghostly predecessor.

‘1.63 seconds.’ Micheal’s perfect memory let him narrow down the exact amount of time lag between his future sight and the attack.

Instinctively, Micheal knew that this timeframe could change – it would fluctuate based on a number of factors. How strong his Soul was, how clear his grasp of the Realm of Intent was, how focused he was in the moment.

A phantom image of Jessica abruptly appeared, fist poised to slam into his face, barely an inch away from Micheal.

Micheal jerked back, raising Lightshorn out in front of him.

The phantom image shifted subtly, just a tiny fraction of a second after he moved, reacting to Micheal’s new position.

The phantom merged with the real Jessica as she vanished from her original position, and almost instantly reappeared, her golden fists slamming into Micheal’s blade.

A shockwave shattered the air as the two opposing energies collided.

“Wow, that’s really annoying, huh?” Jessica grinned as she locked eyes with Micheal, a flood of golden light clashing with the stark white energy on Micheal’s sword.

Micheal’s eyes narrowed.

‘Is she freezing her Fist Energy?’  His Sword Energy’s superior cutting force pushed her Fist Energy back, but at a much slower rate than he had expected.

‘A Conceptual Power? An Ability?’ Something had to be boosting it.

“You knew where I was going before I moved! Cool!” Jessica laughed out loud.

‘Her reaction speed is insane.’ Micheal leapt backwards, dodging several jutting spikes of ice as they tried to impale him from below.

Jessica Wiles, before she was weakened by Ashroth’s Curse, specialized in two specific types of combat – extreme, close range hand-to-hand, and large area denial and control.

‘She reacted to my new position, adjusting her manifestation point in less than a tenth of a second.’ Micheal’s analytical mind kicked into overdrive as he processed everything in his vision.

‘Am I thinking faster?’ The thought struck him as he landed and slid on the ground, his mind racing.

The Realm of Intent’s precognition had an effect not only on his senses, but also on his thoughts, in a way he couldn’t quite qualify. It was as if his mind was processing information from the future, feeding into his instincts on a subconscious level.

‘I need to get used to this.’

A phantom ice trail and a phantom image of Jessica appeared once more, just inches from Micheal’s face.

Instantly, Micheal dropped a Temporal Bubble on the image’s location, slowing down the flow of time.

In the same moment, he chanted out loud,

“S’vol Reize.” Micheal cast the 2nd Circle Spell, Mana Blade.

“I’ve always wanted to fight a Grandmaster!” Jessica yelled as she manifested once more, this time her fists clashing with a newly formed Mana Blade, setting off an explosion of energy as Grandmaster Sword Energy met Master Tier Fist Energy in a brilliant cascade of light.

And it was here that something unexpected happened.

The Brand of Janus pulsed in Micheal’s Soul as he created a Temporal Bubble, touching upon the River of Time.

That pulse created a Temporal Resonance, spreading throughout his Soul.

This resonance was an incredibly faint thing, to the point where it was virtually undetectable most of the time. Normally, the resonance would spread and then fade, as Micheal released the Time Bubble and moved on.

However…

In this moment, while Micheal was grasping onto the Realm of Intent, his Soul existed in an excited state, directly tapping into the Cognitive Sea, giving him a direct connection to the River of Time.

As the resonance spread throughout his Soul…

For the first time ever, Micheal felt it.

The world around him slowed to a crawl.

‘What?’

Micheal blinked as he felt his pulse throb, staring at a world moving in slow motion.

A bright, golden explosion of energy was mid-explosion just a meter away, as Jessica’s Fist Energy collided with his Mana Blade. The clashing particles of energy shot out in a flurry of colors, tracing bizarre patterns in the air as they fluctuated aimlessly.

‘What is this?’

The Temporal Bubble in front of him felt alive, in a way he had never noticed before. He could feel the ebb and flow of time, the tiny adjustments to reality that altered the flow of the River of Time in this specific area, at a level and depth he had never experienced.

Adrenaline pulsed in his veins as he realized he was experiencing something akin to Enlightenment, an opportunity he needed to grasp now or forever lose.

‘I need to… control it…’ Micheal stretched his hand out towards the Time Bubble, as he tried to grasp ahold of this fleeting sensation.

The resonance of Time fluttered, just out of reach as his Soul tried to lock onto it…

Until it hit his Mana Circles.

Anchored in the Conceptual Powers of Infinity and Eternity, his Echoes of the Eternal Mana Circles latched onto the Temporal Resonance like a thirsting man lost in the desert finding water.

His Mana Circles cast his Soul aglow with power as they seized upon the Temporal Resonance…

And Micheal gained control.

Micheal looked at the Temporal Bubble, as if seeing it for the first time.

Its shape and design was crude, artificially cut into a round circle, by a Soul that lacked the expertise and understanding to do more. What had seemed perfect and smooth before now looked jagged and unrefined, hastily cobbled together.

With a single thought, the Time Bubble shifted.

Jessica’s eyes narrowed as she dashed forward, blasting the floating Mana Blade away. Spikes of ice formed on her fist as she lunged forward, her right fist aimed right for Micheal’s head.

And then…

Micheal moved, unnaturally quickly, as he slipped around her fist, dodging the attack in one almost eerie motion.

“Woah!” Jessica dived and rolled, throwing up a wall of ice as she spun around, sliding along the ground.

“Freaky!”

Micheal floated, his Life Orbs keeping him up a few inches off the ground with Lightshorn in hand, as he stared at the icy wall.

‘It worked.’

In that tense moment, he had changed the entire shape of the Temporal Bubble, to the point where it no longer resembled a bubble, but rather, a large, fifteen meters wide section of the world that he designated, slowed down in time.

‘I was unaffected.’

His newfound prowess let him slow down the flow of Time for everything in that area… except himself.

Like a swan dancing upon a river, Micheal’s Mana Circles burned as his Soul shifted the currents of the River of Time, setting its course while letting him swim freely.

‘Incredible.’ Micheal’s perfect memory let him grasp every single minor step he took, immortalizing the technique and maintaining his understanding all in one fell swoop.

With a flick of his wrist, Lightshorn bisected the frozen wall, a slice of raw, Grandmaster Sword Energy shattering it like it didn’t exist.

Micheal flew over the broken wall, landing upon a boulder-sized chunk of blue ice.

“Not bad.” Micheal grinned as he looked down at Jessica, who was eyeing him with narrowed eyes.

“Hmph. Let’s see how you handle this!” Jessica threw herself forward, and their duel began again.

A dozen exchanges went by as sword met fist, ice clashing with metal, in a grand display of Weapon Mastery prowess.

Time and time again, Micheal reshaped his Temporal Bubbles, using his newfound understanding to manipulate them in a way more favorable to himself.

The minutes slipped away as Micheal adapted to controlling the Realm of Intent, rapidly mastering the power almost like it was second nature.

He wasn’t sure if it was luck, talent, or just the confluence of circumstances, with the Brand of Janus and his Eternal Mana Circles working in his favor, but he found it easier and easier to maintain the Realm of Intent as the spar went on.

“Woah, that one almost got me.” Micheal uttered as he knelt down, narrowly dodging an enormous fist of ice that whistled over his head. He slid around as he knelt down, using his Life Orbs to find his balance as he smoothly stood back up, Lightshorn held out in front of him.

“No it didn’t.” Jessica came to a stop, sweat dripping down her face as she glared at Micheal in consternation.

“I haven’t even come close to hitting you.” She pursed her lips.

It was true – even as he experimented with his newfound Time Zones, as he cheekily decided to call them, it rapidly became apparent how powerful a combo this was.

The ability to see the future was one thing – the ability to slow down Time for everyone else near you raised Micheal’s already fast reaction speed to a purely unnatural level.

‘My Mana Circles aren’t strong enough.’ The only problem, he found, was that his two Mana Circles weren't cutting it, not to handle this kind of output.

His Soul was more than strong enough, with the Brand of Janus and the Realm of Intent providing crucial links to stabilize this Ability, but his Mana Circles lacked the depth he needed to take full advantage of this newfound power.

‘I’ll need to commit to growing them, as soon as possible.’ He made a mental promise, adding it to the list of things to work on.

“Alright, if close combat ain’t enough…” Jessica abruptly vanished, reappearing almost a hundred meters in the distance as she traversed along the frozen ground.

By this point in the duel, the entire arena had been covered in a heavy sheen of ice. Micheal had been forced to use his Cloud Stepping Shoes and Life Orbs to stay afloat just to avoid giving the Glacial Knight a huge advantage.

“Try not to die!” Micheal’s future sight abruptly transformed.

“Glacial Domain…” His supernaturally strong senses heard her whisper, the words carrying in the still air as Jessical knelt down and slammed her hands into the ground.

“Ice Age.”

The world turned blue.

Micheal’s eyes blazed with energy as he imbued his entire body with Sword Energy, shredding parts of his clothes in his haste to encase his entire body.

Not even a split second later, he was fully encased in a world of frozen ice.

It was a stark transformation, happening so quickly that, if not for his future sight, he wasn’t sure he would’ve been able to react. The cold was incredibly biting, sapping at his will and strength far more than anything else Jessica had thrown at him.

“Shatter.” Micheal muttered as he swept his arms out, flaring his Ki.

The sheer raw cutting power of his Grandmaster Sword Energy ruptured the ice around him in a giant, explosive shockwave as he burst free, freeing himself in one glorious leap. The Sword Energy had helped shield him from the freezing cold, preventing what would otherwise have completely frozen his blood, muscles, and bones in an instant.

It would’ve almost certainly killed anyone else.

“Wow.” As Micheal flew up through the air, his enhanced strength sending him flying high in the sky, he activated his Cloud Stepping Shoes, jumping off the air as he surveyed the arena around him.

In what had once been a large, empty arena, now stood an enormous iceberg, easily 50 meters tall, towering upwards out behind him at an angle. It was a sight to see, a massive edifice of blue and white, all jagged edges and rough lines.

“You’re fine even after that? Geez, you really don’t go down easy, huh?”

The Glacial Knight’s voice carried as she manifested, appearing half made of ice and half flesh as she rose from the peak of the huge glacier, grinning at Micheal.

“I try not to.” Micheal returned her smile with a mischievous one of his own.

Before the pair of them could do anything else, however…

“Oi! Jessica! What did we say about freezing the arenas!” Gabriel Ferreira, the Solar Knight, yelled angrily from the sidelines. Yellow flames glowed around his figure as he leapt towards them landing on the edge of the giant iceberg in a flash of golden light.

Jessica’s Ice Age technique had spread past their arena and bled into the surrounding areas, coating the general vicinity in a thick layer of ice. The brunt of the attack had been aimed at Micheal, but even the outside portions were still powerful enough to form a layer of ice at least a foot thick for hundreds of meters.

“Oops! Sorry, Gabe!” Jessica tilted her head slightly to the left as she stepped fully free of the ice, her body transforming back to normal flesh.

Si Hae-Won, the South Korean ‘Thousand Shadows Knight’ morphed into existence, appearing from one of the shadowy edges near the top of the glacier.  

“Don’t listen to him, Jess. He’s just mad he can’t land a hit.” The Thousand Shadows Knight giggled as she took off her helmet, revealing pale white skin, dark brown eyes, and tied-up black hair. She looked to be in her mid 20s.

“Not my fault you like to scamper in the shadows like a rat, Hae-Won.” Gabriel bit back as he took off his helmet, revealing a bronzed face with green eyes and brown hair, a man in his late 20s.

Micheal released the Realm of Intent as he watched Shin teleport into existence, appearing beside him. It was good to know that his future sight could also predict true teleportation.

“Bro… that was sick.” Shin held out a fist, which Micheal swiftly bumped back,

“Good job out there.” Micheal grinned as he accepted the compliment.

“Thanks.”

“Oh hey,” The Solar Knight grunted as he stepped forward, acknowledging Micheal and Shin’s existence with a nod.

“This the pair Yama was talking about?” He turned towards Jessica.

“It is! We were sparring!” She stepped up to introduce them.

“Gabe, Hae-Won, meet Micheal and Shin.” She smiled winningly, before turning towards the duo.

“Micheal and Shin, meet Gabe and Hae-Won!” She clapped her hands together.

“Well met.” Micheal nodded while Shin waved.

“I heard about your fight with the Apex. Yama mentioned you provided crucial aid.” Gabriel stared at Micheal intensely as he continued,

“Good job. We need all the help we can get up here.”

Si Hae-Won, in the background, returned Shin’s wave with one of her own.

“We just did what we felt was right.” Micheal returned with a slight nod.

Gabriel grunted in response, vaguely approvingly.

“And on that note.” Micheal considered the time that had passed, making a decision as he realized the spar had lasted longer than anticipated.

“I think we’ll call it here.” He turned towards Jessica, who looked back expectantly.

“I’d love to spar more, but…” Micheal continued, his eyes narrowing.

“We’ve got an appointment with the Duke for dinner, and we can’t afford to be late!”

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