CHAPTER 102: | RETURN OF THE [???]

  ---

  I’ve always said it was the end of the world... but everyone kept saying I was crazy.

  “A crazy bastard...”

  My world spiraled into a wonderful blur.

  I could feel the heat of my own breath, the insanity creeping up inside me...

  “But I wasn't insane?! I wasn't insane! Iwasntinsane!Iwasntinsane!Noo!EveryoneIsinsane!Imnotinsane!Yesss...itsyoutheinsaneone!”

  I stared down at the ground.

  It was too close, yet too far.

  "..."

  Am I insane, saying that it's 'too close yet too far' when I'm high above the sky, suffering from this sheer madness?

  “Lumicor!Lumicor!Lumicor!Lumicor!Lumicor!Lumicor!Mylovelychild!Mymostbeautifulchild!Icovet!Covet!Covet...covet...covet...you...”

  Tears welled in my eyes... Pain.

  It was pain, sharp and demanding, that I was feeling right now.

  ‘Ithurts!Ithurts!Ithurts!Itfuckinghurts!My faceisburning!It'sburning!Buticantdoanythingaboutit!'

  “Lumicor!Helpme!S-save...save me!Please! Please!Pleasepleaseplease!I’mpleading you!I imploreyoutohelpme!Please!Don't leave me aloneinthisdarkandemptyplace...It hurts...mybodyhurts!Saveme!Savemefromthishell!”

  Her shouts stopped.

  It was the desperate cry of someone lost to madness, a victim of a mental illness, perhaps the dreadful PTSD that had broken too many people to count, or an unknown malady.

  She felt the world had abandoned her.

  She felt like everything was ending, and the lives she had taken were assimilating into her, fusing with her being, haunting her like ghosts of the past.

  But she couldn’t move...

  No, she couldn't even hope to seek refuge.

  Her son, her beautiful son, was fighting something of an extreme origin, something she somehow felt intimately close to, like an ancient forefather.

  She gazed at the radiance exploding across the sky as the world turned into a searing whiteness.

  The heat was intense, but her eyes, which had taken on the traits of countless others, mutating hundreds of times, remained fixed.

  She stared into the final moments she would see before her reason was utterly lost.

  “How beautiful... noooooo!helpme!helpme!helpme!helpme!helpme!gooooodssssss!ithurtsssss!noooooo!itburnssss!”

  Her clarity was gone.

  Her voice became coarse and horrific, so terrifying you could feel that something supernatural had invaded her, like a demon from the Old Testament, or Satan himself, possessing her body.

  Moths of flame began to rise from every corner of the ocean before they exploded into a blinding radiance.

  Their temperatures flared up to thousands of degrees before settling into shafts of light, illuminating the world as they transformed into paper-thin needles.

  “Will your weird spell be able to block these, Alister?”

  Lumicor fired hundreds of thousands of those paper-thin needles at me as I merely smirked.

  ‘Did he really think that my martial art, ‘The Heavenly Claw of the Mad Demon,’ wouldn’t be enough to take his attacks? Did he arrogantly conclude that the ‘Mantis State’ wouldn’t be able to block these flimsy things?’

  “How arrogant... but I like it!”

  It was a Heaven-Tier technique for a reason, so how could it be rendered useless by this small challenge?

  I calmed myself, then placed one foot forward and one foot back before lowering my hips into a deep crouch.

  I closed my eyes, and the thousands of dormant eyeballs around my body popped out into existence.

  I was creating a new step of the Five Zen of the Distorted Emperor.

  “THE SECOND ZEN OF DISTORTION: FALLEN AUTHORITY: EYE OF THE FALLEN.”

  It was a new variation from ‘THE SECOND ZEN OF DISTORTION: FALLEN AUTHORITY,’ a move that had limitless potential in my perspective.

  It was this technique that would be the first to ascend to become an ‘Ascendant.’

  This moveset would be the initial breakthrough, and the ‘EYE OF THE FALLEN’ would be an omniscient technique, tracking all movement in reality, be it the slightest tremor of the earth, a shift in space, or the buzzing of a fly.

  It would be the foundation of my ‘FIVE ZEN,’ and the first that I would never forget.

  Imbuing Mana into all the fully awakened eyes on my body, a nauseating load of sensory details rammed into me like a bull ramming me towards the heavens.

  WHUMMP!

  It could be felt.

  It was disgustingly precise, the radiance, the ambient energy, the intent, the width, the thickness of the projectiles, the movements of the currents, the microscopic organisms living everywhere, and every muscle, curve, and spore inside my own body could all be seen in excruciating detail.

  But I held on to my disgust, ignoring the fact that I had only achieved this height of vision thanks to my newly acquired Demonic Core.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  I gazed at all the paper-thin needles coming at me in slow motion.

  It was sickening, the sensory overload it put my brain through... no, into my main core that was fully customized for me, was just too much.

  But I remained unflinching at the sight before me.

  If I failed to defend this, forget about my life.

  Samantha, and my cute subordinate that needed more tutoring, and my newly acquired Judge of Truth would meet their untimely demise.

  After regaining her clarity, Ashin Sae Acoustine was now coughing buckets of blood, drawing a magic circle to continue her inheritance ceremony that was interrupted earlier.

  Well, it kind of happened that after I was showing off my masculinity to Samantha, that damned wench pulled my quirky girl away from me.

  “Damn! Samantha being extremely possessive was kind of cute and kinda beautiful, that I would want to be whipped by her... What am I saying?! Forget it... forget it! Damn it!”

  Whew... I nearly spilled the beans or maybe had already spilled it... whatever.

  Now, forget those details, too much detail just for a bag of potato, and let us begin our act, the first act of this great venerable.

  “Right... cought! Ahem... Forget those unnecessary words and let our sacred duel begin, Lumicor!”

  My Mana was now more potent than ever, more than three times stronger after obtaining Varuna’s demonic core named ‘Ocean Essence.’

  It was unbelievably powerful, topping up my main core, which was still developing.

  Give it a few years for the mana circuits in it to mature, and only then would it outshine ‘Ocean Essence.’

  But why didn't I hasten its development when I'm ever knowledgeable and powerful?

  Is it because it would interfere with its potential?

  Those kinds of nonsense?

  No, it wasn't because of that.

  It was because interfering with the intents or the circuits inside of it would greatly endanger me, or worse, cripple my foundation.

  Even if I possess a greater degree of control than most, this area is simply restricted to modify.

  Since it requires a level of control greater than the one I currently possess.

  Only those with the brains like Lumicor, or perhaps that little girl Liora, would have the chance to modify their core, but the chances of them succeeding are less than a percent.

  I smirked, satisfied at my mastery in explaining things that carry great knowledge for the progression of my story.

  So hear me, plebs, that I will transcend futility and become an Ascendant!

  Taking a step, my body turned into a blur, then into a ghastly figure that phased out of reality, appearing inches away from the paper-thin needles sent flying at me.

  Then I completely vanished into the folds of reality as I entered an unknown space, a place where their eyes didn’t peer at me, a perfect place to carry out my plan.

  But now wasn't the time for that.

  Smiling, I then reappeared into reality as my palm rippled like a calm lake, and like the serene abyss, as the world also rippled under my command.

  “THE FIRST ZEN OF DISTORTION: IRIECE STYLE: RIPPLE OF THE VAST MULTIVERSE.”

  Now it was decided that ‘RIPPLE OF THE NIGHT SKY’ would become ‘RIPPLE OF THE VAST MULTIVERSE.’

  I was particularly planning to abandon this technique, like the others I planned to be a one fluke technique, but Lumicor reminded me that I needed something like this, a technique that will destroy all.

  Ten rings, unlike before, didn't appear on my index finger, but on my wrist, circling my thin yet muscular, yet feminine wrist, spiraling like the ring of a black hole, ready to devour all.

  Lumicor's face went full of shock.

  He was shocked that the technique I showed him just a few hours ago had now been modified into something greater, into something more powerful.

  It wasn't the technique that shook him, but the ingenuity of the man named Alister in front of him.

  A cruel smirk flashed onto my face as I couldn't help but shout these words in my head.

  ‘Be shocked, Lumicor. Revere me, for I am the first to reach Ascendance. Look into my palm, and see how it will obliterate all of your techniques, even your awakened armaments, into futility.’

  I know it was kind of cringe, even edgy, but I felt like it was the right words at the moment, so I continued my endeavors and struck my palm into the paper-thin needles.

  My palm, now shrouded in an armament of its own, a molten orange layer, met the needles that seared my palm, even despite my impeccable fire resistance.

  But I ignored it as the ten rings that circled my wrist lapsed like time forwarded at a rapid pace.

  WHOOSH!

  They were absorbed into my veins, then traveled into my palm before being released at a supersonic speed, destroying all of the paper-thin needles at my palm.

  Before the folds of realities rippled violently as it attacked the weakest of the intents of all spells activated.

  “I-it can’t be! This can’t be happening!”

  Lumicor's shouts could be heard as he staggered at the momentum of the technique that Alister used.

  He felt it to his very bones, the intents that encircled him in a dome, creating a field of perception, or a divine sense that those eastern fools proclaimed about, was shredded in an instant.

  His attainment to the world of intent, which was in the tenth stage (Understanding the Intent of others), was rendered useless before his eyes.

  He was powerless yet again.

  He felt his mana circuits shaking violently from the ripples that his technique made in the world.

  Then his armaments phased in and out from the lack of supply as he felt the weakening of his form.

  His spells, the hundreds of thousands of paper-thin needles, were destroyed, and now his armaments were beginning to give up.

  But before he could react, before he could stabilize his mana circuits, his world, Lumicor's world, turned white as all he could see was a fist hitting his stomach before his vision gave up, knocking him out cold.

  I cackled at his defeat, at Lumicor's defeat, the victory that I longed for without hastily awakening my race, since its risk was quite high right now had succeeded.

  I slowly removed my fist that had punctured his stomach, cackling yet again.

  Then I hoisted him onto my shoulder like a sack of potato.

  THUMP!

  Before I begun my slow descent to the ground.

  “Summoner, that was quite an impressive technique that you’ve showcased. I didn’t think that the lowly concepts of ripples would be elevated to this height! I didn’t think anyone would be able to bring that concept to such profound heights! This Heavenly Earth Venerable Tellus is impressed by your wisdom!”

  I side-eyed Tellus, who was pretending to be a sage when he was just boot-licker trying to lick me for some feeble knowledge that he could brag about.

  But it was no time to be sour, since I’ve got two more problems, dealing with Lumicor after he woke up, and Amara, that foxy bitch who’s gone berserk right now.

  I lifted my gaze, glancing at the monstrosity she'd become, hovering in the sky and looking at me with eyes full of insanity, then into Lumicor with a twisted sense of obsession before she then hurled a grotesque tentacle right at me.

  ‘This reminds me of the tentacles that I massacred inside of the imperial palace, now assimilated into the arena.’

  I cackled at my revelation before lifting my index finger as the ground heeded my command and rose to the sky like blades, intercepting her tentacle.

  Tellus glanced at me, it was quite weird that he was glancing at me even though he was inside of my body, but forget about that right now, since he's too eager to show off by fighting Amara.

  But this was no time to play.

  I raised my arm as Tellus expectantly ejected from my body, assuming the form of the ‘True Water Dragon’ of the spell Varuna created.

  He then soared into the sky and toward Amara, but I muttered coldly.

  “Stay here, Tellus...”

  Tellus’s whiskers twitched at my words as his golden eyeballs rolled down as he gazed at me unwillingly, but nevertheless heeded my command as his body transformed into a clay doll before he descended to the ground, looking at me leaping from the ground and passing him gloriously.

  “Take care of Lumicor... Make sure he doesn’t escape!”

  Tellus nodded his head in acknowledgment.

  Even though he wanted to show off right now, he knew now was not the time since even his Summoner was quite serious about this situation.

  He waved his hands as ten spiked tails, a meter width and five meters long, separated from the earth then hovered into the air before they pierced through Lumicor’s limbs, neck, and stomach, sealing him into the ground.

  “This should do.”

  Then he turned his attention into the sky, watching as thousands of tentacles rained down from the sky with his summoner charging toward them valiantly like a righteous heroic figure from a tale fighting an evil god.

  I smiled at the thousands of tentacles raining from the sky.

  Amara’s figure didn’t look like what she was moments ago.

  Her intent was now split in two, one screaming for help, and the other screaming for the destruction of the world.

  “Theworldshallperishathiswill!WetheservantsoftheevilgodXutieshallriseoncemoretodevourthisworld!weshallrevivehisexellencyxutie!”

  I cackled at her meshed-up words as ten rings lapsed on my wrist in an infinite rotation, powering up my next move.

  I then took a step, entering into an unknown world before appearing into the folds of reality again as my fist met her tendrils.

  “THE FIRST ZEN OF DISTORTION: IRIECE STYLE: RIPPLE OF THE VAST MULTIVERSE.”