Owen moved steadily through the last swarm of monsters. Each of his sword swings and footsteps were controlled as he flowed through the group. Despite being in a group of monsters with each of them ranging almost a hundred levels above his own, he was able to the the group without taking any hits.
Owen had been testing his new limits and it felt like his body somehow resonated with his skills at an even deeper level than usual. Whenever they had stopped for short breaks, Owen had worked with everyone in slow moving sparring once he had noticed the change. Now that he was using the skills in real combat, he almost felt like a new person as everything felt instinctive. He could almost sense each of the monsters attacks the moment they began and was able to weave in and out of their range at will.
He wasn't focused on purely dodging though, each of his movements as he pushed to the other side looked like a dance, but his sword brought with it death. Each step to dodge an attack was turned into his own counter attack and monsters fell in droves. While his friends weren't actively watching what he was doing, since they had their own fight, each of them could tell there was a specific flow to the battle that Owen seemed to have full control over.
Owen was well aware that this result was a combination of having gained almost 300 stat points in such a short time, as well as chaos's effect on his body. His core space had gained a foreign feeling as he absorbed more chaos energy. He had already noticed that his skills directly related to chaos energy were the ones that gave him his new combat ability, but he was worried what it might mean for his other skills.
His mana manipulation skill hadn't yet had any issues, but creating essence marbles and purifying mana had become several times harder, without any clear reasoning. He could only assume that his body was becoming attuned more to chaos than mana, but he wasn't sure what the consequences of that would be. Everything that existed was made from mana primarily and while chaos was the reasoning behind the diversity of things mana could be, it was still a separate energy.
He hadn't even heard of anything made exclusively from chaos, though the thought that he might turn into something was made from chaos, scared him. The combination of feeling more in tune with those skill and his core space feeling different didn't help his worries, though he kept them off his face. He had decided to see this journey through and he would see it to its end.
He finished cleaning up his group of monsters and joined the others who had also finished and sat next to them while waiting for Malik. "How you feeling?" Owen asked and he shifted his waiting to bumped into Myra's side while they were sitting. She leaned back into him and sighed. "I'm worried, but its going well. I have gained several levels since we left and these constant crowds of monsters are letting me get more familiar with my skills. Its been a nice vacation." She answered and leaned back up to bump him back.
"What about you, you looked like a force of nature out there." She smiled and Owen smiled back. "It's been good, I feel more in tune with my skills than I thought possible. It's been kinda addicting, I hadn't even wanted to finish the fight." He responded and they leaned back into each other. "It isn't all good, I almost feel more distant with my mana skills, they were a lot more sluggish than my other ones." He hadn't wanted to mention the problem, but he also didn't feel like lying to her was a better option.
She pulled him into a tight embrace for several seconds. He held her in return and when she let him go, he held back a sigh. She knew as well as he did what might happen if his body fully attunes to chaos. He would become a walking calamity to everything made of mana, if his own body didn't implode first. "I'm okay with it," he whispered. "This is what I want, but I promise, if I find a way out of this while still completing my goal, I'll do whatever it takes."
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Myra tried her best to be supportive. She knew Owen had a lot of regrets, most of them about not connecting better with his dad, before he was gone. He had told her about how meeting her parents had felt and how it had made him want to be closer to his own dad.
She wasn't sure how she was supposed to support him best though. She felt like a coward. Her boyfriend, her Owen, was marching towards his death and she couldn't pluck up the nerve to stop him. She knew that it was a noble cause, but she still felt like there were other ways to keep the sins at bay.
She huddled closer into his arms and thought about what she could do. She didn't have anything strong enough to destroy the karmic threads, which meant Owen would still have to do it if they continued. Everything was happening too fast. They were already almost done and in a few days, Owen would be dead. The thought sent a shiver down her spine and she reflexively hugged him tighter.
It was too soon and she felt tears well up in her eyes, but she blinked them away before she started crying again. The past several days were rough and the worst part was not being able to help somehow. Owen promised it would be okay, but they both knew that was an empty promise.
How could Owen win if he died as well.
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Owen felt Myra hug him tighter and a pang of guilt flashed through him. He knew he was probably the worst boyfriend imaginable. But he felt like this was something he needed to do. It wasn't just a feeling though, he could knew deep in his spirit and soul, that he needed to accomplish this task. As long as he did, everything would be okay. His farseeing skill seemed to resonate with his resolve and he wished he had it high enough leveled to see what the future would look like.
The air itself had felt like it was growing tense and he wasn't the only one who noticed it. The world seemed to be ready for something, but his gut told him it wasn't directly related to their task. As the tension built, they continued their culling as they moved ever closer to the domain.
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When they arrived at the domain of lust, Owen hardly felt the outside influence trying to control him and instead burst forward. Malik had already scouted out the camp and the four of them launched themselves at the group of initiates. There were more than a hundred of them at this point and Malik could tell they were saving everything for the fight at the final domain. Of course they didn't actually know what domain they would stop at next, but it wasn't hard to deduce, since they would need to either fly or swim to the island the last domain was set up on.
They tore through the common initiates and forced their way into the castle interior. It was an unusual add on to include in a domain and Malik was confident that this wasn't something that had happened in the previous timeline. The castle felt more like a stage piece in a play, rather than a real castle.
It was practically empty and was mostly just the battlements, with the inside mostly taken up by stairs leading to the top of the battlements. There was a single building that sat inside the walls and their team broke past every defense in their march towards it.
The fight lasted less than five minutes, as none of them wanted to waste anytime. Owen was already sitting down inside the room when Malik arrived and he winced as he watched the foreign energy appear and begin to tear away at what appeared to be nothing. Owen's face was relaxed the entire time, but Malik still winced as a blob of chaos almost the size of Owen's chest was absorbed through his arms, despite the mana barriers of each of them trying to hold it back.
Owen's face contorted for less than a second, before opened his eyes. Malik flinched. Owen's eyes had been replaced with whirling spheres of energy, but it didn't seem like he had noticed. Owen looked between each of his friends and each of them flinched somewhat in return. "Is there something on my face?" He tried joking, but even he could feel that the changes to his body had been extreme. He felt like everything was vibrating, but couldn't find the source. Everything looked different as well, like someone had added a tint to it. The benefit, he was able to see mana, without having his mana manipulation skill activated.
Seeing that everyone was still worried, he tried to create a pool of water to see his reflection in, but his mana moved like sludge. Each time he tried to pull it from his body, it felt like he was pulling string and his body somehow absorb the mana, before it could be used for anything. He stared blankly at his friends and worry crept into his voice as he asked. "What's wrong with me
?"
Myra pulled out one of her axes and turned the blade broadside to Owen. He looked into it and finally saw what had startled everyone else. "My eyes," he murmured. "That isn't the only thing that has changed," He started. "I can't use my mana anymore. I still have it, but it gets absorbed by my body before I'm able to use it for anything."
"How do you feel though?" Myra asked and each of his friends looked at him expectantly. "I feel strong." Owen said. "Stronger than I've ever felt." Getting to his feet, he turned his bracers into their spear form and struck out at nothing. He hadn't imbued his blade with chaos, but regardless, a torrent of energies left the tip of the blade and destroyed one of the battlements in less than a second.
He watched in pleasure as Malik's eyes bulged and he turned to Owen in shock. He already knew why Malik had been surprised, he had tried earlier to break down one of the walls, but despite his strongest attacks the wall stayed standing. Owen meanwhile had just evaporated one with a single thrust of his spear. "Powerful is an understatement." Malik said as he moved closer. "I wouldn't have been able to fight against that attack." He continued and Owen felt proud, even if he knew it was more the energy's interactions with mana, rather than actual personal strength.
"I don't think we are going to have any issues with the next domain." Owen grinned, though his face fell seconds later. "I need to see if I can get my mana moving again though, I still rely on it somewhat and I'm worried about what not being able to use mana will mean for me." No one pushed them to hurry, though Malik's expression got increasingly more worried as the hours passed.
Finally, it looked like the man couldn't take it anymore and he interrupted the others conversation as they tested things with mana. "I got another message from my sponsor, and they asked us to hurry. Apparently, several demigods are racing to see who will ascend first and what we are doing is slowing down the sins."
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Xerxes felt his energy being siphoned away, as the array did its work. Rat had moved her realm to rest above all of the other eleven realms of the zodiac. They were racing against the clock as the sins and virtues were also preparing to try an ascension.
Xerxes smiled grimly as he looked through the realms and at earth. Owen was earning more favors from demigods, than anyone else in existence. At least, the zodiac would potentially be at his beck and call, as long as he survived. Though that wasn't possible. Xerxes forced himself to focus back on transferring his power to Rat.
The havoc that Owen's team was causing among the sins, was the only reason they had been willing to try and have an early ascension. The heavens could only withstand so much pressure and as long as they ascended first, the sins and virtues would need to wait several millennium for the heavens to recover, before trying again.
None of them wanted to see what would happen if the heavens themselves broke. The universe was already in enough turmoil, but the untold damage that would be caused by the barrier between the mortal and immortal realm, would reach untold proportions.
Focusing his channeling, he nodded as they still had three days of transferring energy, before Rat would be strong enough to break through. Turning his attention back towards his heir, he sighed. The boy had been almost nonstop fighting his way through monster breaks and had reached incredible levels of strength in an incredibly short amount of time. He just hoped he was ready to say goodbye to earth. It wouldn't be long, before his strength would be pushed within reach of the peak.
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Worlds were destroyed from the waves of energy that launched from the fists Envy threw in frustration. That stupid boy was throwing his life away, in a silly attempt in revenge that would put both Pride and Wrath to shame. The biggest problem, it was working. The virtues had gotten involved and had started picking fights here and there, in an attempt to distract them, but Envy had singular focus in their goal.
The event between regressors had long since been cancelled, as that stupid boy and his team were killing them left and right. There was only his own left, but their strength wouldn't be enough to stop the domain's destruction.
Envy peered into the future and flinched. The odds of being the one to ascend had gone from around 70% in the past several months, to under five percent. It was still a possibility, but the virtues were prepping Diligence for ascension and the zodiac was meddling in their affairs as well, having Rat collecting energy for their own ascension.
Envy wanted to kill them all. This was their opportunity, they would take it and find a way to stay in the mortal realm. Everything would pay for the insolence. Envy let out a cackle that shook their realm and sections of it shattered. They were slowly absorbing the other sin's energy and their ideals and goals were so... delicious. Envy turned their attention back to Earth and cursed again at the human boy that continue to be a pain in its side.
They would pay back the inconvenience tenfold, personally.