Essence poured into Sam and the Overlord, but his body was in too much turmoil to pay much heed to it. Rather than let himself succumb to the darkness, he rode out the release of his final skill, his body tearing itself apart in the process. He had no wish to potentially be unconscious in the presence of the Overlord. Instead, he bonelessly plummeted out of the sky, his corrupted father falling with him.

He impacted in a massive spume of sand, throwing up the yellowish substance all around. Forcing himself to his feet was one of the hardest things he had ever done, but after going through two thresholds in every stat, it was not impossible.

Eyes squinted in pain, he watched as the Overlord struggled to his feet, taxed from his own overdrawn abilities.

“Are you going to attempt to kill me here?” Sam asked. “Because if you are, then you’ll find that I won’t go down that easily.”

“You know me better than that, Sam. My Dao would never tolerate fighting you in anything less than top condition. The tournament sealed that into my destiny.”

With an inscrutable look, the man took off on his slab of red light, noticeably faltering when Sam realized that he could barely move of his own accord. Then he was gone, a bolt of red light zipping away through the patchy clouds above.

Sam turned to his friends a moment later, remembering how dire their situation had been. Eduardo was sitting cross legged, his face twisted in pain as healing energies swirled through his form as Lao laid his hands on him. A small nub of flesh had begun to grow where his stump was, but at its current pace, it would take hours. Severed limbs were still far beyond the abilities of any natural regeneration at their rank to fix. Sam remembered Gordanus telling him about how the body’s natural mana could not replenish flesh without surrounding the damage on both sides.

He stumbled towards them, ignoring the pulsating message waiting for him to open.

“Shit, this was not a fun experience,” Eduardo said, surprising Sam with his coarse language. He rarely swore.

“Tell me about it,” Sam replied, his body still patching up the many holes left all across his form by Dao Juggernaut. He still had no idea why the skill was so painful and taxing to use. Perhaps to do with the fact that he was channeling the raw power of the universe into himself.

“I was not expecting the Overlord to come calling,” Lao added, his forehead beaded with sweat as he focused on healing. “He must have been drawn by the massive energy signature that the Titan was exuding.”

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

“Well, that all went as well as could be expected, given his appearance. He realized that this was not the best time to pick a fight. Though, hell, when did he get so strong?” Asked Jeffrey as he tinkered with his weapon.

“He must have used his training token,” Sam replied. “I wonder why he waited so long to use it though, as I haven’t heard anything about him until now. He must have waited until I returned.”

“At least we were all able to gain a few levels from that horror show,” Talnor said. “We all played a slightly larger role in the conflict than before.”

That reminded Sam to check his notifications. With a slight smile, he opened them.

You have killed the Chaotic Titan!

You have leveled up!(x3)

His smile turned to a frown as he saw the markedly lower number of levels that he had gained. Sure, he was higher level, and needed more power, but the difference should not have been so large. It must have had something to do with the oversized role that the Overlord had in the conflict. Still, he was climbing up the Rank quite rapidly, and only fourteen levels were left until he reached E Rank. At that point, his dominance over the planet would be assured.

En route to the next target, Sam decided to use the elemental cultivation aid that he had won during his war with the Grakoth. He pulled out the shimmering artifact and closed his eyes, concentrating on the wealth of insight contained within. Then he crushed the cultivation aid, letting that energy rush into him. As he did so, he was swept away into a vision.

He stood upon a desolate planet, surrounded by nothing save for glowing lava flows and towering volcanoes, letting the lifeblood of the world escape into space. He could sense something dying, deep within the planet. Something vast, primal, conceptual even. Suddenly, he knew that he was standing upon a world succumbing to the vagaries of time. It was almost as if the world had some sort of spirit residing within it, representing everything that it meant on a universal scale. Perhaps Earth had one of its own, unless it was too young to the world of the System.

Thousands of years passed in a manner that made them seem like seconds. Cracks spread across the planet and great drifts of elemental energy escaped into the void. Eventually, a massive bird rose from the planet, spectral and somber. It looked like a phoenix made of yellow energy, and when it fully left the planet, it let out one keening cry, before shattering into an infinitude of specks of light.

Millions of years passed, and Sam found himself standing before the same planet that he and Manarox had conquered, icy and frigid, unloved by the grace of its sun. Now he knew why it was so desolate. In consideration of this, he realized that Earth must possess one of those spirits as well. If he could find it, perhaps it would be another route to power.

In watching this scene, he was made privy to secrets of the element of Earth, and insights drifted beneath the surface of his mind, bumping his mastery up. The vision faded into black, but the lessons he had learned remained in his mind. All in all, he gained three elemental mastery percentage points, a worthy trade for the amount of time the vision took.