Lassim barely had ti to absorb Karvus’s hurried rundown of the situation before the elder cracked a wild grin, and launched into the air, through the entrance and out into the sky.
"Keep up!" Karvus barked over his shoulder, already accelerating toward the volatile heart of the nearest device.
Lassim followed closely behind, weaving through the thick, sunlit and burning air as they flew over the island below them. Each pulse of the day attuned elental mana exploded into beams, like pillars from a sun, up from several points just beneath the island’s surface as they surrounded him.
Flying alongside Karvus, Lassim studied the elder’s sowhat crazy appearance and mad look in his eyes. He also noticed the erratic bursts of lightning that flickered around his body, almost as if Karvus couldn’t contain his eagerness to unleash his powers for so reason, as he easily kept up with Karvus’ speed.
The Elder himself was actually quite weaker than Lassim’s full power, only a Spirit Ascension stage 9 spirit warrior. He’s not the first Elder he’s t that had a lower cultivation that matched the Outer Sect or weaker Inner Sect disciples, but that just made him all the more impressive that this Elder had sothing special about him that put him above his peers.
Karvus spoke without turning his head. "These little flares are nothing! Yah know, I was blowing the Sun Sect buildings to bits long before they knew what hit ’em." He flashed a grin. "Turns out the stuff they built out of their precious sunlight essence is even better for explosive techniques than normal stone.
Just touch and… boom!"Lassim raised an eyebrow, as he still didn’t quite understand what Karvus’ technique was and what it was capable of. He explained that he could convert any object into a bomb, but he still felt like it was sowhat impossible. His words just sounded more like a crazed madman that a respectable Lightning Sect Elder.
They dipped lower, closing in on the nearest device’s location. It was an abandoned Sun Sect building, a squat, sun-scorched structure half-buried in rubble and fallen trees from a previous explosion that Lassim saw traces of, yet from within, it was humming with the sun-charged energy.
Lassim cleared his throat. "So, you think you can actually control these explosions? I an, this is more just a battle art of yours, not necessarily a thod to disarm, right?"
Karvus snorted, clearly thrilled by Lassim’s question. "Disarm? Nah. I told you earlier, DISMANTLE. I’m not interested in disarming these things. But putting them into lots of little pieces—that is what I can do.
I touch it, give it a little jolt of my lightning mana, let it recognize who’s in control." His eyes glinted with a reckless excitent. "Once the core is inserted, I can coax it to be unstable enough when I want. Then, I’ll implode the whole thing when we get far enough away."
They landed in front of the building, and Lassim felt an imdiate wave of heat radiating from the structure. The sunlight mana gathered in erratic pulses, rippling through the air and scorching what was left of the walls, turning them red hot like an invisible fire. He had to squint as they approached, the brightness nearly blinding despite the fact they hadn’t even gone inside yet.
Any brighter and he’d need to put a blindfold on.
Lassim extended his spirit sense, which gave him a much better and detailed view. Everything was drenched in the day mana, making the area feel like a furnace even from the entrance. "So, these devices," Lassim began, sensing the chaotic energy inside, "Where exactly is this one? I can’t even tell with how intense everything is."
Karvus waved Lassim forward. "Most are in the core ditation rooms, where the Sun Sect conducted their training. A majority of these buildings are places where the day elental energy was focused and helped speed up their cultivation. It’s similar to the tempering fields back at headquarters, if you’ve ever been there.
Don’t waste ti asking any more questions; we ain’t got much ti left for this one. Just stick close, and when I say move, you move. Bring up that barrier of yours too, or whatever your defense technique is as we go. I’ll need your protection."
With that, Karvus took the lead, striding forward without a trace of caution as if he were stepping into his own territory rather than a ticking ti bomb. Lassim followed, silently rotating his cultivation to activate [Aegis] that covered both him and Karvus, sowhat abating the feeling of the thick press of the sunlight mana against their skin.
"Ooooooo~, that’s nice! Maybe you’re not so useless after all." He complinted as he sowhat moaned at the icy relief [Aegis] provided.
Inside, the structure was eerily quiet. Shafts of sunlight stread through gaps in the cracked stone walls from the illuminating haze of golden energy that perated the rooms they walked through.
The walls seed to hum, vibrating with a barely restrained power that was channeled through them, and Lassim felt the spiritual pressure of the mana building with each step they took deeper inside the forr training center.
Karvus didn’t slow down.
Ahead of them, the hallway narrowed, and Lassim could sense an intense surge of sunlight mana emanating from a doorway up ahead. The first device was close.
"Brace yourself," Karvus muttered. "This thing is ready to blow, whether we like it or not." He gestured for Lassim to hold back. "You’re on protection duty. Don’t worry about anything else except making this ice thick enough so it doesn’t lt before I’m able to handle the device."
Lassim took a step back, positioning himself a few paces behind Karvus as he lifted his hands forward to help control the [Aegis] with Mari’s internal support.
Karvus strode forward with reckless abandon in the next mont. Reaching the doorway, Karvus barely paused, before pushing the door open, revealing a small, circular chamber.
At its center sat a chanical device, its exterior covered in day elental glyphs and gleaming tallic plates that was designed with many flourishes and symbols that marked it as the forr Eternal Sun Sect’s property.
This device was originally used to release a consistent and level amount of sun attuned mana that would temper the disciples in the room and help fill their reserves with a slightly higher quality of mana, eventually improving the purity and density. A true requirent for reaching the highest stages, unbeknownst to most cultivators except for Lassim whose mana had already reached the divine stage.
However, the devices’ energy was anything but stable. Sunlight mana pulsed from it in erratic bursts, filling the room with an intense heat.
Without hesitation, Karvus extended his hand, a faint crackle of lightning energy gathering at his fingertips. "Here’s where the fun begins." He grinned back at Lassim, his eyes gleaming with barely restrained enthusiasm. "Keep that barrier of yours steady, Volten’s Disciple, or we’re both going to end up charred. Be ready to keep up with my retreat when you see haul outta here."
Lassim nodded, his focus razor-sharp as he extended another series of layers of ice barriers around Karvus, careful to avoid the elder’s technique and extended hands as he walked forward. He did his best to maintain a buffer against the sunlight mana’s flares but give space for his hands to eventually reach the device.
Lassim could feel the heat intensifying as Karvus stepped closer to the device, his water mana depleting and being pushed away at a rapid pace, requiring him to weave more and more mana into [Aegis].
Karvus reached out, resting a hand on the device, and Lassim felt the shift in the ambient energy imdiately as the elder’s lightning mana poured into the device with an overwhelming surge, instantly conflicting and destabilizing the sunlight energy contained within.
The device reacted violently, its exterior glowing brighter as the internal chanisms began to overload.
"SHIT!" Karvus barked, his voice tense but elated. "GIANT BARRIER NOW DISCIPLE!!!!"
Lassim poured more of his mana into the barrier, thickening it as the sunlight energy inside the device pulsed erratically. He and Mari pushed a large amount of Lassim’s divine level mana into making the wall as sturdy and thick as possible, even activating [Grand Aegis] for the additional help from Aegrasian.
The ice wall pushed Kravus further away into a roll, but just in ti too as the circular room grew unbearably hot, the very air seeming to vibrate as Karvus’s lightning continued to push the device closer to critical mass despite no longer touching it.
Then, with a crazed laugh, like a psychopath mid sorsault, Karvus snapped his fingers and triggered the implosion.
A soundless shockwave rippled through the room, and Lassim felt the sunlight mana contract inward with his spirit sense as he observed the device on the other side of the ice wall had crumpled in on itself, its core collapsing under the force of Karvus’s technique. The sunlight energy dissipated, the oppressive heat vanishing in an instant as the device crumbled to dust.
Karvus ca to a stop and stood up, wiping the sweat from his brow and the dust from his sect Elder’s robe. "One down. Not bad, huh?" He gave Lassim a wild grin. "Did I scare you good saying you’d need to run? Hahaha! The look on your face is great!
I can make them implode or explode. Aaaah, that hits the spot seeing you so serious and scared. Anyways, only a few dozen more to go!"
Lassim managed a wry smile as he was definitely worried his barrier wouldn’t be enough to hold up to the explosion. This Elder seed like sothing was genuinely wrong with his head.
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