The air around Kal began to glow to even the naked eye as the abyssal mana condensed against his skin and it rushed to enter his core. His soul raged as more and more of the incoming mana turned to wrath and Kal’s body heated with it, each breath becoming steam as his hand remained clamped to his knees as he gritted his teeth to the escalating pain.
Kal’s focus was split between spreading the webwork of channels across the surface under his skin and watching the newly generated wrath pour into his second core.
Error due to presence of a unique resource and the manual forging of a tier 1 core you must provide the necessary resources:
Wrath provided: 193932/256760
Wrath provided: 194921/256760
Wrath provided: 195641/256760
At this rate, he would break his core before he even got close to diverting the flow of abyssal mana. Kal grunted as he placed his right hand on the platform beside him and activated Flames of Wrath. He dumped every point of wrath he could into the skill and crimson flames exploded from his hand in a furious wave away from him.
The flames continued to spread and grow larger as he expanded the webwork. More blue flashes behind him urged him on as expanded each channel. His skin darkened as the abyssal mana raged through him.
The vortex roaring above him expanded further and further as more of the sky above him was dragged into his grasp. Seconds passed as the last of his web of channels was completed, every inch of the boundary between his body and the world around him was aglow with his will and the dark mana flowing through it.
His mind ached with the weight of it all on his mental energy. Slayer’s Apathy would lessen the weight but he didn’t dare risk that. Blood began to pour from his nose before turning black and disintegrating as was exposed to the concentrated abyssal mana.
The mana storm raged and his drawing of the power leaking from it seemed to only push it further. Bolts of blinding white light arced across the sky to slam into previously unseen platforms, shattering them and sending their debris to crash down around him.
Kal roared as his skin began to crack as he turned his will from his soul forging back to draw all he could into his core space. The vortex’s ferocity increased with his own and his soul’s fury in competition with the foreign but malleable mana within him.
Even as Kal’s skin continued to darken and blood poured from his nose he could still sense the overpowering flow of mana still rushing past him. His Flames of Wrath roared in front of him and soon rose to lick at the vortex. Its use would allow him to do this for longer but Kal knew he needed to go further than he already was.
Why was he doing this? These people were kidnappers and fanatics. The only people worth saving were Dalen, Leo, and Melisia. Couldn’t he just take them with him? Then he remembered the kids he saw when he arrived. It made him sick to have even considered the idea.
“Focus idiot!”
Kal’s mental energy was nearing its limit but he needed to do more if he was going to give them time to flee. It was time to put his new class feature to the test. Kal raised his right arm into the sky and focused his will on his newly forged channels. The whole array burned with dark light but he focused on the branches that ended at the tips of each of his fingers.
Their channels began to edge slowly forward as he concentrated his full 1132 points of will against the boundary. His mind shuddered but he spent his free points to push himself further. A sharp pain lanced through his head and he choked a mouthful of blood but an instant later the channels burst through the barrier and shined with the blue-white light of his will.
The vortex above him became a pillar of burning darkness as his hand acted as a lightning rod, anchoring the furious mass to him. Kal’s mind faltered as the sheer volume of mana pouring into his core space shook the branches of his forging.
Now even the flames raging in front of him weren’t enough to hold off the insane rise of his wrath.
Health:
3621/3930
Stamina:
7232/7400
Wrath:
3211
Health:
3421/3930
Stamina:
7230/7400
Wrath:
4332
Health:
3401/3930
Stamina:
7229/7400
Wrath:
5652
Kal groaned as his wrath continued to rise but still, the lights of dying cores flashed into peripheral vision. The mana storm rained more bolts of death across the gray plane as more platforms exploded throwing debris in all directions.
It still wasn’t enough. He was nearing his limit and the pain of the conversion was limiting him further. Kal spat more blood as he stood, preparing himself for yet another risk. The moment his wrath reached its limit he concentrated every remaining ounce of will on the branches sprouting from his hand.
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Then he activated Wrath Incarnate.
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Melisia stared wide-eyed at the boy, no, the man that only a few weeks ago could be bested by even the weakest laborer. Dozens of tiny cracks continued to spread across her core every moment but she couldn't pull her eyes away.
Her perception skill Comprehend The Astral Threads flickered on and off, each time bringing her closer to the end but she didn’t dare miss what was happening in front of her.
Kalum sat stock still as pillars of dark mana slammed into his body before a wave of endless crimson fire rolled across the platform.
Leo sat gasping, holding the wound on his side next to her. Even he could see the tremendous power raging around Kal’s still form.
“How- how is he doing that!?” Leo gasped between breaths, “How did he get so strong!?”
Before Melisia could bring herself to answer Kal raised his and her eyes widened even further as five points of white-blue light appeared at his fingertips before the insanity of the vortex above doubled in size,” a skill?”
The fear that had dominated her mind when he arrived had only increased as his eyes burned with the battle madness she had only seen in monsters but that feeling had faded as he bent down to help her.
She had heard him speak to Dalen in a far more confident voice than anything she had heard from him before as had said he would do the impossible.
Kalum grunted and she saw him spit blood but at the same moment she saw the same face of grim determination he had expressed the day they found his core. He stood and the oppressive aura slammed down on her as his body tensed.
But at that moment even as she shook in sudden fear she knew he would do it.
The threads protruding from his fingers stretched into the sky and all down his arm more burst from beneath his skin. Each thread spread throughout the raging vortex of mana and visibly pulsed with condensed power.
Kalum did not flinch as it surged into him even as blood began to spray from his outstretched arm. Cracks vanished and others burst open in their place every moment, the blood turning to ash before even hitting the ground.
Bolts of mana careened from above to shatter platforms before curving back around to rejoin the storm but the destruction only shed more light on Kalum’s steadfast form as he warped the sky above them.
Kalum raised its left arm and roared as more threads burst from its fingers to join with the growing tree of dark power. The roar raised the hairs on her neck but then the foreign mana that had assaulted them for so long was yanked away from them with such force that every single person on the platform suddenly awakened in a wave of invigoration as their resources began to return.
Melisia gasped as her stamina rose above zero and the first tick of mana returned to her. Leo leaped to his feet as his strength returned in an instant shortly followed by the rest of the order. Chaos erupted instantly as they saw what was happening and their identify skills started working.
But then Kalum’s voice roared across the platform, “Flee…”
The tone was only a whisper but it ran through the order like a lance and his terrifying aura turned the chaotic disorganized awakening into a terrified scramble.
Dalen had managed to stand and stumble over to them, “We can’t just leave him!”
“We have to! I don’t know how he is doing it but he is stopping the foreign mana from reaching us,” Melisia said but her heart wasn’t in it either. She had failed Kalum already, she didn’t want to do it again.
“Damn it!” Dalen yelled towards Kalum, “You better not have been lying-” Dalen’s face looked confused, “Wait what the fuck is that?”
A large dark shape fell from the storm above towards their platform and an instant later they all flinched as a tremendous weight bore down on them.
“Kid! Hey kid! What the fuck are you doing!”
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Nyx shot to her feet the instant the first tick of stamina returned, her eyes wide as she saw Him. The dark mana that had strangled them all was bending to his will before her eyes. The once unseen mana had condensed to the point that it seared her eyes just to watch but even as the order began to flee and his terrible presence fell upon her she could look away.
[Kalum Lesta | Slayer of Fate 68]
“Incredible…”
“Retreat! We must escape this place before the mana reaches us again!” Elder Jaliete's voice echoed through Nyx’s mind as she reinforced His words. Nyx had been fighting her way towards the rear where the fighters guarding the children were being overrun when she had fallen but now she breathed a sigh of relief as she saw them being carried by the surviving guards.
“Where is my son!” Nyx turned to see Eliza running towards her, her face was white with fear as she looked among the running followers.
Nyx’s heart fell, “I haven’t seen him,” she turned to look back toward where the children had been before the rush but she only saw Dalen, Melisia, and Brightwing looking at something in the sky beyond Kalum Lesta.
She followed their gaze to see a large humanoid form plummeting towards the platform but what she saw next sent her into a desperate sprint against His command.
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Kal’s mind and body screamed in agony even through the numbing effect of Wrath Incarnate. As his body charred and sizzled with the overflow of power his regeneration flooded him with vital energy reinforced by the empowerment of Wrath Incarnate.
Wrath provided: 243213/256760
Health:
1401/3930
Stamina:
5229/7400
Wrath:
0
Health:
1401/3930
Stamina:
5229/7400
Wrath:
7399
Health:
1351/3930
Stamina:
5200/7400
Wrath:
0
All of his remaining will was bent to managing the switch funnel power into his core as his wrath continually maxed out. Wrath Incarnate urged him to turn and use the power against the pathetic creatures behind him but his will remained stalwart as his own anger clashed against the power burning through him.
Then at the edge of his awareness, he felt the presence he had been dreading, “They need more time!”
Vorayx slammed into the platform among the remnants of Kal’s crimson flames sending cracks all the way to running survivors. Kal couldn’t stop yet, they were nowhere far enough away to have a chance of outrunning the abyssal mana so Kal activated Flesh of Iron and held his focus on his task.
Vorayx stood from the crater he had left in the platform and chuckled but even the condescension had disappeared from his voice now only rage remained, “You will run no longer mortal!”