System-hosts dictate. The Class embody. From them flow the essences, each an elemental expression of reality, living ideas that one can claim, shape, and wield for their own.
And it's through these essences that I bless you, O child of merciful destruction.
I grant you my seed and place my decree upon your spirit, for you to mantle that essence which you were blessed! For you to command the power you wish to reign over. For you to become a dragon: a Sovereign of Destruction Incarnate, for even the Fathoms are but a passing dream, but still long may you soar, should you become power unto yourself…
-Ignium, Bearer of the First Flame and Lord of Dragons
50
Dragon Breaker
As the Knight approached, Wei didn't remain idle either. He captured a small bit of distance using his Intent and struck it with spear and calamity both. But the concept did not break, for each blow was sacrificed, converted into Velocity Charges. He wouldn't use the powers of his System directly against this dragon; not unless he needed to, or they were thoroughly beaten.
Velocity Charges: [44/174]
The essence of nature flooded out from the Knight of Lust, and telekinetic strings lashed across the Moongrave, leaving deep gashes even through the alloy. Wei regarded the transformation of his foe and felt a smile tug at his lips.
So, they still had one technique left: a metamorphosis of power.
The Knight of Lust had gone from being a lizard-like humanoid standing just over two meters tall to a 40-meter-long behemoth. Her scales were massive, each one the size of a tower shield, and they shone with a voluminous gradient. Between each scale sprouted rows of roses, serving conduits for the Knight to direct her telekinetic strikes. The desiccated corpses that composed the bulk of her wings were no more. Now a forest of pink petals was all that remained of her four flying appendages. Her neck had also turned long and sinuous, while her arms and legs grew to be as thick as pillars, sporting vicious claws that extended further than Wei's Broken Crescent. Finally, there was also the silver-tipped stinger that made up her many-sectioned tail.
Petals filled the air, each becoming a rainstorm of descending blades. Hundreds of gleaming rapiers hovered beside the Knight's beating wings, and a garden expanded below where she flew.
Wei readied himself as this bout entered its final stages.
Despite the impressiveness of the Knight’s transformation, he could feel just how much essence was bleeding out from her. Wei’s Class was a single level away from hers, and even if she allocated all her free points to increasing her foundational sin, he doubted she could maintain this state for more than a minute. Of course, it was foolishness for her to think that she was even going to last a full minute against him.
He had seen her skill and found it lacking, and before the Dancer, she was just an overgrown lizard throwing a tantrum.
A piercing shriek of primal rage emanated from the Knight as she cut out with her silver tail. Directed by her strike, every telekinetic root sprouting free from her body reached out and captured an essence-formed blade, and then, with a surge of speed, the Knight of Lust descended, carrying an avalanche of swords and force in her wake.
But her sudden charge was betrayed by her dilation echo, and the same moment she shot forth, Wei flung himself into the air with an eruption of stone, meeting her charge. Striding upon bolts of lightning, Wei dodged between darting blades. With fifty meters of distance between them, Wei thrust his spear forward. A cascade of heavy wind swatted hundreds of silver-tipped rapiers aside, only for the Knight of Lust to tighten her telekinetic tendrils and push through the gale.
Maddened laughter sounded from the dragon. She thought she had won this bout of Strength, only for Wei to consume ten Velocity Charges. He was the storm, and the storm was him. So it was that he could direct every bolt of lightning with a thrust from his spear, a dozen cyclones, with a sweep of his Eidolon, a rising tsunami guided by a turning kick, or shake the earth with a casual stomp. More, he could accelerate any of these attacks at will.
Velocity Charges: [34/174]
A flash of darkness then white colored the billowing gales as its force multiplied. But rather than pushing against the blades, Wei let his strike drift over them—only targeting the Knight’s wings. A chorus of cracks sounded through the air as once flapping wings came loose. The Knight of Lust cried out but maintained enough focus. Her telekinetic blades stayed the course.
Only trajectory was intercepted by the young master himself. Summoning his shield via his Inventory, Wei smashed through the wall of swords as he drove the tip of his Broken Crescent clean through the dragon's chest.
Telekinetic tendrils snapped, broken lengths of silver and wilting rose petals filled the air. A shockwave followed as blood and bits of scale broke free. The spearhead of the Broken Crescent functioned like a churning drill. Wind and water circled at cyclonic speeds, drilling through scale, burrowing deep through flesh, and grinding upon bone.
"Off!" the Knight of Lust cried, her voice shrill and deafening. "Get off!"
Telekinetic tendrils shot out from the roses adorning her body. Wei found himself too close to evade the first few strings, but they left little more than shallow cuts as they glanced off his skin. He felt his Aspect of Fortification growing once more and continued his onslaught. He consumed another ten Velocity Charges at once and slammed his shield hard against the dragon's chest. Another blast wave of force spread across the sky, creating an empty pocket of sixty meters, devoid of raindrops, rapiers, or rose petals.
The Knight of Lust tumbled back. Wei expended more charges, chasing immediately after. Lashing whips of force and desperate emanations of choking pheromones swept over him. He blocked the former, using it to infuse his shield with weight, and he shattered the latter with his Intent, giving the Knight no chance to work their more esoteric powers.
As the mass of the young master's shield crossed the threshold of a ton, he consumed all his remaining Velocity charges. The world around him blurred. The sound barrier exploded. He impacted the Knight's chest once more, targeting the wound he inflicted mere seconds ago.
But the Knight of Lust anticipated his approach. Their silvery tail lashed upwards, trying to strike Wei from the sky, only for the young master to cut down with his spear, Relativity providing him with a dilation-echo in forewarning. A bolt of lightning ripped out from the Broken Crescent and swatted the stinger aside. In desperation, Knight of Lust reached out with her hands, trying to clutch the young master, but he slipped between her claws, reflexes a full second too late.
The bronze edge of his shield punched deep into one of the Knight's open wounds, and Wei felt the bones behind shatter into fragments. But there was so much momentum behind him that he kept going. His shield made the wound larger, and into the bloody gash he went. Blood and viscera splattered over his eyes. Wei barely shut his mouth in time. Despite this, his Omniscience kept him perfectly aware of everything that was happening.
Even as he tunneled through the dragon's innards, he knew when to cut. His spear licked a gouge out of the Knight’s spine; simultaneously, the falling rain reshaped itself to a jet of lancing water and blasted a bloody furrow along the dragon's back, flaying it clean of scales, ensuring an easier exit wound for the young master. Gore erupted free from the back of the dragon like a geyser as Wei burst free. Blinking, his eyes cleared of blood, only for him to see the ground fast approaching.
Once more, he lifted his shield in anticipation. He impacted the metallic surface of the Moongrave below. At the start of this day, such an impact would have left the young master splattered. Things were different now. He possessed strength beyond any cultivator on his world, and rather than greeting death, he brought destruction upon the land. A 40-meter-wide dent formed upon the face of the Moongrave. Metal furrowed inward as if struck by a falling asteroid.
Shaking a spreading numbness from his arm, Wei let out a wheezing laugh as he looked at his shaking hand. Not even a mark. Nothing more than a bit of discomfort. Before he could continue marveling at staggering boosts provided to his physicality by his Aspect Advancements, a shadow loomed over the young master, and the Knight fell, screaming.
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Unfortunately for her, Wei had no intentions of letting the dragon fall on him.
With a contemptuous sweep of his Eidolon, a cyclone passed over him and seized the dragon, catching it in a whirlwind. The Knight of Lust was bashed and dragged across the landscape. She flailed. She clawed. She broke and she bled. The cyclone holding her plucked her scales clean of roses and strikes of telekinesis snapped before they could tether to the Moongrave.
Four seconds of brutalization followed. Four seconds as the Knight was slammed down over and over. Bones breaking. Smears of blood across a full hundred meters.
Class: Tyrant Lv. 24 > Lv. 25
>Specialization: Cataclym’s Herald Lv. 25
Arrogance: [629/770]
Allocatable Points [5]
Strength — 183 > 191
Speed — 146 > 152
Enlightenment — 130 > 135
Awareness — 153 > 162
Constitution — 104 > 109
Will — 154 > 170
Class Tier Ascension/Class Divergence Available
A sudden surge of essence filled Wei's Eidolon as his Class reached its next level. And just in time, releasing the Knight from her torment, he cast her broken form out from his dissipating vortex. The last trickles of essence dripped out from the Knight. Her Broken wings wilted away, while her scales cracked and dissolved. The last tendrils of telekinetic power simply ceased to be. With a final exhalation of aura, the Knight of Lust's dragon form peeled away from her true self like dust, leaving only a broken and battered humanoid lying amidst a storm-scarred landscape.
Wei took his time as he walked over to her and felt a final trickle of power gush out from her being. Spatial essence quivered within the palm of her hand. Observing her with Omniscience, he realized she was triggering her inventory skill as well. Not interested in dealing with any final tricks, Wei casually sliced across the air with his spear, and a wind-formed blade glided clean through the Knight's fingers. A despairing cry came from her as a swirling crimson orb tumbled out from her maimed claws.
Omniscience Advanced > 25
[12/10] Aspect Advancements to Core Ascension
"Bastard!" she cried. "Bastard ape! Bastard!"
Wei walked over and picked up the orb. Examining it using his enlightenment, he found a peculiar sense of power emanating from it, but also a complex array of ciphers lining its marble-like surface.
Spatial Navigator. This item allows the user to hijack and redirect connected spatial essence streams within a spatial network. With this object in hand, the user can use a Reference Circuit to connect to its inner functions and bypass direct channels of travel where other options in a spatial network might be blocked.
"Interesting," the young master said, smiling at the item. "Suppose this is how you travel without the Harbinger noticing."
The Knight of Lust groaned. Faintly, Wei could feel her her wounds rapidly healing. Patches of scales along her neck were already beginning to regrow. Fusing her with his Intent, he nodded as he beheld her Constitution.
Concept-Integrity of [Knight of Lust’s Constitution]: [110/110]
"Quite substantial," he mused.
He wondered if everyone past the hundred-advancement threshold could regenerate this fast, or if it had something to do with her draconic nature.
After a few more moments of trying, the Knight of Lust gave up and simply flopped onto her back. She coughed out a mouthful of blood and glared warily at Wei. Finally, a long, pained hiss whistled out from her punctured lung.
“Broken by a damned boy…” A beat passed, and she gave a chuckle. "How? You were so easy to bleed before, so weak, so fragile. So how? Is it truly just because of your System? Is that the only defining factor between us?"
Wei looked down without expression.
"My System has proven instructive and potent. But I haven't used it properly, aside from on your pheromones. What you lost against was my Class and your hubris. You should have killed me in the sanctuary. You should have honed your skills. But then again, I should have died multiple times today. Should have died with my world. I should have fallen to my father. But despite the heaven's best attempts, I remain. I remain. And I will see all who stand against me broken.”
The Knight of Lust just stared at him, her expression inscrutable.
"The Inheritors… they will have you, boy. They will take that System from you. From your corpse! You cannot stop them. You think I am a true power in these Claimed Hells? You think I am—”
"You are nothing," Wei interrupted. "I have already fought greater powers than you. But it makes no difference. I will make you all obstacles. Whetstones to temper my will and power. You, however, have been used up.”
"So, time for you to kill me then?" the Knight of Lust glared. "Dead at the hands of a mongrel ape. But at least you're a warrior. At least—"
"No," Wei interrupted her a second time. "You mistake me to be merciful, but I will not give you death so easily. The fight between us is done, but you still owe me a conversation. And I have a great many questions for you to answer."
At that, the Knight of Lust laughed, the sound of her voice deep and bitter.
"You foolish mongrel boy, I told you, there will be no torture you can inflict that will break me. Pain is nothing."
And then the source began to spill out of Wei. Slowly, his Intent swept over her Aspects once more. The Knight of Lust went still. "What is this? What are you doing?"
"Do you know what my System does?" Wei asked. “Do you know what prize you were meant to obtain?”
The Knight of Lust didn't reply.
Wei considered what he was going to break first. Her Constitution, perhaps? No, that would make her too fragile. He couldn't risk her dying of her wounds before he got all he needed from her. Her Strength? That had to go. Speed? No, he remembered breaking the Speed of the Knight of Wrath, how they couldn't be moved thereafter: An object stuck in stasis. Wei intended to bring her back to the Specialization Rift so he could reconvene with the others. No, the Aspect he was going to break first was her weakest— and amusingly, his strongest.
Concept-Integrity of [Knight of Lust’s Will]: [60/60]
"Wait!" the Knight of Lust cried. "Wait!"
Wei didn't listen. His boot came down with the full weight of his Authority, and every ounce of willpower within the Knight of Lust shattered outright. A harrowing howl left her body as she felt something within her break, never to heal.
"What did you...? What did you...?" A sob left the Knight of Lust. She struggled and twitched, but her body remained as crippled as her Will.
Wei looked down at her. "I am curious. What is it like to have no willpower?"
His answer came when he met her eyes. The glare was gone now. So was any kind of spirit. What's more, she felt devoid of any essence, any true animation, really. The way she acted seemed like a shell, a person, hollowed inside, waiting to die.
Mixed feelings came over Wei. This was an act of true destruction, truer than even what his calamities were capable of. But also, to do this to someone, to shatter their will, their ability to choose—something about that seemed horrifying to Wei.
A sudden presence entered the perimeter of his awareness. Looking up, the young master prepared himself for another fight, only to recognize who it was immediately. Slowly, his jaw dropped and his eyes widened. A massive figure flapped closer across the sky, bobbing up and down as an endless stream of trash and fecal matter spilled out from his wings. Where the Knight of Lust was fragrant, this newcomer was foul; where she was characterized by roses and blades, he was rot, fungus, rusted metal, and general detritus.
There, at the center of a festering, fetid construct, was Roggi. His crimson eyes gleamed like gems in the sky, and his massive beard was now stained with questionable clumps. Wei looked on at the approaching Oathbearer and finally noticed their Class.
Architect of Decay Lv. 8
All in all, the Oathbearer looked kind of like some manner of garbage-butterfly. Unable to help it, Wei shuddered as he stifled a laugh.
The Knight of Lust looked at him with confusion until, after a full minute later, Roggi finally arrived, trash and filth spilling out from his wings as he roughly landed a few meters away from Wei. Looking around, the Oathbearer took in the devastation, looked at the Knight of Lust with an expression of surprise, and finally squinted at Wei before he grimaced.
"Come on! Come on! Twenty bloody levels! Twenty! How'd you do that? What is wrong with you? Are you trying to make the rest of us feel bad?"
Wei couldn't hide a grin. "I'm not trying to do anything. Do not blame me for your own failures."
"Failures? You know what I went through in that rift? You have any idea how many things they made me fight? The options they gave me in the end?”
“At least they heard your wish. Finally, you can live your dreams of being a bird of a manner. Just one possessed of a disgusting scent."
The massive Oathbearer simply shook his head, and mushrooms began to fall out from his clumped hair. Wei suppressed a look of disgust as he gestured toward the Knight of Lust.
"An encounter with our old friend. This one tried to take another shot at me. Didn't work out so well."
"I could see that," Rogi said. "So, you're going to finish her off, or..."
"Questioning. She is broken.
Roggi just stared. “Right. Well, the others are back too. They were looking for you. And I thought, why not just follow the big bloody mess? You know, the kind that you always leave."
"Always," Wei replied, frowning. "We've only met today. You presume much about me.”
"And every single time you leave, everything in your way is completely destroyed. I don’t think I presume anything, lad.”
Wei simply scoffed. "Fine. Pick her up and let's go."
"What?" Roggi cried, staring at Wei.
"Pick her up and let's go," the young master said again.
"Why am I picking her up?"
"Because, Roggi, since you're here, you might as well participate. And since I've completed the harder task, someone needs to do the menial work. Also, I dislike her and find the idea of your stench overcoming her fragrance amusing."
It was that last part that finally convinced Roggi. "Right. Come here, ye bastard. This is for tossing me through the wrong portal." A sob came from the Knight of Lust. "Oh, don't whine. If you didn't do what you did, I might actually be a real bird right now."