Theron’s laughter filled the skies, his sips of wine following along with it with just as much echo.
He began to batter the rchant King around. After taking a single advantage, the gap only seed to widen. They seed to be in a completely different class, separated not just by talent, but experience.
One would have never thought that a boy less than half a King’s age would have more experience, but that was simply how it felt.
Even drunk, the world spinning around him, his laughter throwing the cadence of his breathing and rhythm off, Theron adapted perfectly. He seed to be four or even five moves ahead.
For the first ti in his life, the rchant King felt at a disadvantage because of his Mancy Path. He didn’t have as much versatility as a Spirit, Soul, or Elental Mancer.
There were only so many thods of attack he had, and against an enemy like Theron who seed to have an endless number of such thods at his fingertips, he felt a crushing feeling...
It was just like those days in that place. Everyone around him had been a monster, every single one a genius that stood alone in their territories, co together to fight for a single position at the mountaintop.
He was just like any one of them. Any one of those bastards that was so much better than he was.
Fury bubbled up in the rchant King’s chest, but the puml of Theron’s dagger suddenly slid back the way the blade had just co. He had barely managed to dodge the first sweep, but he didn’t expect Theron to use such an unconventional thod of attack.
His jaw snapped back the other direction, a tooth flying out with a spurt of blood. He felt his brain rattle in his skull, vision swimming.
Chi.
His body reacted on instinct, but he was still a step slow, a long line of blood being cut right out of his lower belly, just barely nicking his Mana Core.
Energy flooded out of him, and he crashed to the earth below, a long trench splitting the city in two and causing the family ho of the Umbra Clan to tremble and collapse in on itself.
Screams filled the air, but the rchant King couldn’t seem to hear it as he ground to a stop, flesh shearing off his back. Yet, all he could do was stare blankly forward and down at the Mana gushing out of him.
Everything this Mana ca into contact with was crushed in place, its density so heavy that stone was ground to dust.
His Core... his Core was damaged...
Fear, rage, shock... they mixed into a single amalgamation of volatile chaos.
And then he scread. It was a sound that shouldn’t have co from a man, and yet rather than being amusing, it was eerie in a way that made goosebumps crawl along your skin. It felt like one’s bones had been chilled, a cold lightning zipping up one’s spine.
That wasn’t the sound a man should make not because it was one a woman should make, but instead because it didn’t sound human at all.
Theron’s pupils constricted as he sensed sothing familiar.
Heart Demon.
BANG.
’Be careful. He’s undergoing cultivation deviation. It’s very dangerous when this happens to a King.’
Aya’s voice reached Theron’s ears and shook him sowhat awake. But a fist of black gold had already appeared before his nose, the radiant golden Mana of the rchant King having been tainted by sothing completely different.
Theron leaned all the way back. Even standing in the air, his body acted as though his feet were pressed to flat ground, his back arching as the fist shot over him.
Reacting quickly, Theron thrust his sword up.
Chi. Chi. Chi.
Sparks flew, and Theron was taken aback as his blade failed to cut through.
His father’s short sword was undoubtedly his strongest weapon now. It improved along with his cultivation and his Resonance. aning, right this mont, it was a Titan Resonance Cloud Grade weapon.
Sothing like this shouldn’t even exist in this corner of the universe. It was arguably more valuable than a King Grade weapon of much lower Resonance.
Its sharpness wasn’t sothing Theron had relied on just in case, but his eyes didn’t miss a single thing after their upgrade—and that was especially so considering the potency of his Third Eye. So just now, when his blade connected with the rchant King’s forearm, he didn’t miss the fact his Mana had been blown away, forcing the blade to et the rchant King’s black gold aura directly.
aning... the full sharpness of his father’s short sword should have been on display just now. Yet, instead of doing what Theron expected, it was deflected instead.
’Deviant Mana has a very chaotic effect on normal Mana. It will devour and destroy it.’ Aya’s voice echoed in Theron’s skull again.
Theron quickly flipped out of the way after his attack failed. Kicking at the air, he shot toward the ground upside down, his body still facing the rchant King.
But he realized quickly that he was only looking at an afterimage.
Theron vanished just as a fist ran through the back of his own afterimage. Yet, when he appeared again, he felt a searing pain at his back, coughing up a mouthful of blood as though a portion of the attack had just hit him.
This wasn’t good. A large part of the reason he could battle so far beyond his level was because of his Mana, but right now his Mana was being canceled out. His body itself was still too weak to face off against such experts all on its own.
Theron’s eyes narrowed and another bottle of wine appeared by him, tilting into his mouth.
This world really insisted on giving him a hard ti.
Fine. He would really go all out, then.
He couldn’t rember the last ti he had done sothing like this. Maybe... it would be fun.
BOOM.
The ground beneath Theron shattered as the rchant King rushed him. The latter reached the edge of the collapsing land, only to be slapped down to the ground by an apparent and abrupt increase in gravity.
But Theron had no control over such a thing...
His Mana had just beco incomparably heavy.
The Impenetrable Octopus and the Immortal Jellyfish had already made their appearance.
But just now, Theron had summoned the Blue Pufferfish for the first ti in a long while. Yet, he was far from done.
Right afterward, the aura of the Shifty Swordfish manifested.
Four Echoes.
It was acceptable for a Dual Resonance Mancer to have two. Four, though... that was entirely unheard of.
If only Theron was finished, though.
Along with them, two more Mandates appeared. Four Mandates ford a perfect harmony between themselves.
The rchant King rose to his feet, more black gold aura radiating out from him. They ford thick tendrils that wiggled about as though the tentacles of an eldritch horror.
His power was continuously growing exponentially as he sank further and further into madness, but it was also clear that so part of him was being burned away at the sa ti. Maybe he wouldn’t last long, or maybe he would evolve into sothing even stronger.
Theron didn’t care to find out as he held out his sword before him, his dagger hovering loosely in the air in a backhanded grip.
He exhaled a breath and his eyes glowed, a chill and heat rotating around him in a vicious cycle.
His lips parted just the slightest bit, a voice that ca out in a whisper sounding like a roar in the ears of all those in the city.
"... [Songful Blade]."
Wisps of fog began to radiate from Theron and his blades as though he was overheating.
And then he vanished.
The rchant King had just been charging up an attack when Theron appeared behind him. He slowly sheathed his sword, spinning his dagger in his palm and allowing it to vanish in a puff of darkness to a world unknown.
It crumbled to ash, unable to withstand Theron’s power.
The rchant King stood there completely frozen. The rain pelting down from above seed to have frozen along with him. But very soon, it was obvious that it wasn’t that the rain had frozen again, but instead that the clouds above had been split in two, a large ’V’ forming in the skies to reveal the stars beyond. Even the sun itself was muted, what blue that should have been cut away as though Theron had cut apart the atmosphere itself.
And then ca the city. The ’V’ in the sky wasn’t mimicked. Instead, a line of black so fine it wasn’t hardly noticeable appeared before Theron without the slightest sound.
And then...
Chi.
A building in the distance fell in two. Then, as though a domino effect, the one behind it fell, then the one behind that one, then the one behind that one.
It extended further than the eye could even see until it all ended with the death of a King.
The rchant King’s body slid down in two halves, splattering to the ground.
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