Theron sighed.
It seed that his life would be hard no matter how he sliced it. There wasn’t going to be any easy thod of carving a path out of here, now was there?
But ultimately, this was always how it was going to go. With the power gap between himself and Goddess Sacharro, what choice did he have? Even if he wiped out the Hall of Ice and Heart, he would just have to complete another mission for her.
Until the day ca that he had left her far behind, what choice could he have other than to follow her every whim?
Theron closed his eyes as though he didn’t have a Quasi King pinned beneath his foot. The rain seed to increase in its fervor, his body feeling continuously refreshed in ways it hadn’t been in so very long.
Theron’s Water Mancy was of the Titan Resonance level. At the Celestial level, one was already capable of using their Mana as a thod of self-healing, but it would only beco more exaggerated at the Titan Resonance level.
Yet, Theron wasn’t just a Titan Resonance Mancer... he was also a Perfect False Voidwrought. His Mana acted as though it was a level beyond the state it was in.
Though it was hard to bridge the gap between Titan and Elder Titan, he certainly got very close.
The result was that in this sort of density of rain...
He was nigh invincible.
But hadn’t that always been the case? It was just a sha he hadn’t gotten the benefit of rain in far too long.
The sound of battle faded to Theron, and it only took him a mont to realize that it wasn’t a fignt of his imagination. It was very much real.
He opened his eyes to find two Kings staring at him, one being the rchant King, and the other being Patriarch Umbra. Or, maybe... Theron should be calling him the Umbra King.
Now that he was closer to the King Realm, he could feel so secrets that others wouldn’t be able to. Naly, that the na of a King was quite important.
It made him wonder why or how the rchant King had his na. It seed like quite the title. Who allowed him to have it? Or had it just been fake all along? Or maybe...
’Regional.’
Theron’s head tilted as he observed the rchant King for a while, inwardly wondering where this knowledge was coming from.
But soon after, he ca to an answer. It was a combination of his connection with the Karmic Needle and Thread, along with the library.
The library never gave Theron direct information about cultivation, but what it did do was lay a foundation of theoretical knowledge so deep and profound that he was able to easily reach conclusions that others could never fathom reaching.
It seed, then, that the Karma around Kings was quite unique.
What Theron didn’t know was that this sort of fragnted Title sche working for the rchant King was a relatively new concept... When a Title was chosen, it should have been universal. If soone else wanted it, they would have to fight the one who originally claid it or be so far superior to them that the Heavens chose to strip the latter and give it to the forr.
But the rchant King had simply co to a weaker region where there was no competition for the rchant King Title. It was cowardly, but also how this world seed to work now.
And sohow... Theron also felt that there was sothing wrong with it.
For the first ti, Theron got a peek into a secret that only so very few knew.
He looked up into the skies and toward the weeping Heavens.
’The world is more broken than I thought...’
Theron looked away from the pair of Kings and toward Aya.
’I don’t know if you’ll have an opportunity if things keep going like this,’ he spoke to her through his Third Eye.
Aya didn’t react, but she understood. It would be troubleso like this, indeed.
She wasn’t technically allowed to receive help on her missions, but how was she supposed to defeat a pair of Kings like this?
It was clear that after so many years of neglect, the difficulty of the mission had beco a bit too exaggerated. But the Demon Corps wasn’t exactly the sort of power that would take fairness into account.
If she died, then she died. And, if she gave up on the mission, there would surely be punishnt as well.
The original plan of theirs was to lure out all those involved in the matters of all those years ago. They had mostly succeeded... but the last part was to give Aya a chance to grab what she needed herself so that if her mission was investigated, she wouldn’t be punished or killed.
But as of now, it seed that there was no chance at all...
At least that was what Theron thought until Aya slowly stood.
Theron raised an internal eyebrow, but then he smiled as she pulled out a pair of needles from her hair.
They were perfectly smooth, looking almost as though they had been carved out from pearls. They were truly beautiful weapons.
Aya’s aura bristled, and a familiar energy took shape... sothing that very much reminded Theron of the rchant King when their battle began in earnest. However, unlike the rchant King, Aya wasn’t a fake Do of Heaven Realm expert.
Even with his new enhanced senses, Theron was sure. She was truly in the Sixth Do of Heaven Resonance.
It seed that she had been holding back as well.
Her Flux Mana fluctuated, and the Spirit of a White Fox took shape.
Her silvery-blue cheongsam reflected the colors of her Mana until a fluffy white tail of illusory energies ford out from her back, a pair of illusory silvery-white ears forming from her head.
But then ca a second tail, and then a third.
She walked forward slowly and then pointed at the Umbra King.
"I will take him," she said lightly.
Theron grinned. "Alright."
He stomped a foot, and Patriarch Shonagh’s chest exploded. The latter’s eyes went wide and then he fell completely unconscious, his life hanging on by a thread.
Chen’s eyes bulged in the distance, but he didn’t move. He knew that in a battle like this one, his own personal strength would be useless.
Before he had even made that decision, though, Theron was already in front of the rchant King.
"Ti for round two," Theron said with a cheery laugh, a new wine bottle shooting over from the distance. He caught its bottom with his short sword, slicing off its top with his dagger and then tilting it back into his mouth.
"Boy—" The rchant King’s voice ca out in a low growl, but Theron interrupted him even as Aya clashed with the Umbra King for the first ti.
"You know, I noticed sothing interesting about your Title," Theron suddenly said. "Tell , how many rchant Kings are there? I have a hard ti believing you’re the only one."
The rchant King’s eyes bulged.
"On the surface, rchant King seems like a piss-poor Title. But you probably get quite a boost in Karma from all the money you make, hm? There are probably quite a few who would be interested in a path like that, and you’re not very strong in my estimation.
"So what’s the deal? Did you co and hide here so you could have this cute little title to yourself?"
Veins popped along the rchant King’s strong jaw, the golden aura around him pulsing with wild abandon.
"Oh... I seem to have struck a nerve. Apologies, apologies..."
Theron’s body began to radiate a deep indigo color, his robes reforming in silky strands of Dark Water Mana.
But then ca another aura.
Two Echoes took shape, far more corporeal than before. A fusion of silk dancing in the air and illusory tentacles that carried a dark rainbow air to them layered across his field of Mana.
Theron spun his dagger across his palm and his grin widened.
"Let’s dance, rchant King."
Theron took a step forward, and his Mandates blood.
BOOM.
Dagger and fist collided, sparks flying. Theron could already feel his dagger about to collapse in on itself, but unlike it, he didn’t take a single step back.
His Dark Water Mana dispersed everything in every direction, making it feel to his body as though he was just facing a slightly stronger wind.
His grin widened as far as his face would seem to allow.
The two separated, the ground beneath them collapsing as they surged forward. Despite being in the air, one would have thought that they were fighting on the earth below, given the sheer amount of destruction they were causing to it.
Being powerful... it was truly an addicting feeling.
Theron wanted more of it.
There were stronger geniuses out there... he didn’t even need to look over to Aya for him to know inwardly that he was speaking of her.
How much more was she hiding? And how much more were those she was competing with hiding?
If he had no family... this was what he would live for.
BANG.
The rchant King went flying.
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