Wolfe drew as heavily as he could, generating a surge of mana in his body to separate the new cores and finalize the process.
From the viewpoint of the Witches watching, the mana in the area seed to have been suddenly depleted, with everything pulled into Wolfe’s body, including every bit of mana that had been flowing through the hundreds of portals beneath them.
Then a massive vortex began to form overhead, and a storm cloud ford, spreading to the horizon in a wave that displaced the existing cloud cover.
There were whistles and cheers of encouragent from below them, and the older Witches, as well as King Leandro, motioned for everyone to get off the platform.
"The universe tests Kings. We should move away, so we don’t take splash damage." The Incubus King explained.
Cassie looked around, and saw a horde of human and inhuman creatures beneath them, of sorts that they had never seen before. But Leandro wasn’t concerned, and the crowd opened to leave them the place of honour beneath the platform.
"We will have to introduce you all later. But most of these people you will never see again. Only during the advancent of a King are the barriers between worlds so thin that they can cross." The Incubus King whispered.
The energy in the storm was building when Wolfe opened his eyes and looked around at the gathered visitors, then to the storm overhead.
The power was a swirl of energies from around the universe, and Wolfe realized that he had accidentally incorporated them all into his mana cores when he was balancing himself.
Well, that shouldn’t really be an issue. He could change the attunent at any point now, it only had to match for him to advance, as far as he could tell.
The power of the storm cloud was imnse, and continuing to grow by the second, while Cassie began to hear murmurs from the crowd.
"Is this normal?" She whispered to King Leandro.
"For a King who ford his pentacles before advancing, yes. You see, the power of the Pentacles increases the power of the trials, but not as much as the power of the new King or Queen. So, the storm this ti will be especially impressive, but I don’t think that Wolfe is going to have too many problems dealing with it."
The energy surged and a bolt of lightning crashed down on the barrier over Wolfe.
The power flared on the shield, then transferred inside to him as the crowd cheered.
"Oh, that’s an interesting barrier. It feeds energy both ways, with a dampener to prevent major surges. Is that one of the old spells?" King Leandro asked.
Silvana nodded. "Yeah, It is the one that was on the platform before. Most King Rank and many Saint Rank advancents were done right here."
King Leandro smiled as another lightning bolt hit the barrier, and Wolfe took control of it back from the Witches so he could reinforce it.
Three lightning bolts struck in rapid succession as the storm gathered energy, and so in the crowd began to discuss whether the new King was going to make it through the process completely unscathed, or if he would take a hit or two at the end.
They all sounded certain that Wolfe was going to make it, which was reassuring to Cassie, even though the next few strikes shook the ground despite being stopped thirty tres above their heads.
Then the sporadic strikes turned into a constant barrage of Lightning, while the crowd continued to cheer Wolfe on, even though not a one of them knew his na, and none of them had ever t him before.
Wolfe looked upward at the clouds as the surrounding air beca a constant white glow with the residual energy of the lightning strikes, and he got an idea. He was making steady progress with his new cores, but his mana density was so ridiculous that they were only just beginning to stabilize.
If they weren’t full when the storm was over, it would be a real annoyance.
So, he took down the barrier.
The next strike hit his upraised hand, and power surged into his body, crystallizing in the air around him as Wolfe concentrated the mana to match it to his internal mana density.
Without the container of his body, it simply ford mana crystals on the ground around him as it exceeded the amount of mana that he could absorb in such a limited ti.
He couldn’t tell over the noise and blinding light, but the platform had fallen silent when they realized he deliberately disabled the barrier. Now, they were staring in shock at the pile of mana crystals that were growing around Wolfe.
"He’s insane. What sort of mana system is he trying to build? Did he try to copy the Disgraced One?" One of the viewers, a golden haired woman with white feathered wings, asked.
The man with tentacles growing from his chin glared at the woman, then shook his head.
"I don’t think so. It is similar, but not the sa. He made the ridian point mana focuses, but he’s made an Empyrean Knot out of his central Mana Cores."
A few other viewers nodded, while so looked confused.
"Can you just mix and match like that?" Soone behind Cassie asked.
"Logically, no. But I don’t think that anyone told him that. It has already worked, and now it looks like it really will have the resonant capabilities of a proper Empyrean Knot."
Cassie turned to Leandro for an explanation.
"The knot shape that Wolfe made for his central two mana cores is a practice of the Upper Planes, while the rest of the modifications, including the mana storage, belong to the Lowest Planes.
They should be diatrically opposed to each other, but sohow it just... worked." He whispered so only Cassie and Ella would hear him.
"He’s never been conventional, but where would he have even found out about things like that?" Ella asked.
"My guess is that he sorted the Noxus Family’s library by most relevant, and then just mix and matched without checking the source."
Reviews
All reviews (0)