Chapter 876 - What is it planning?

We find Maya and Min-Jae inside the barrier with 20 or so Easy difficulty lynthari. I feel my head beginning to hurt the moment I see these cat-eared, cat-tailed, overly curious, and uselessly tall creatures.

Apparently, it is easy to enter the barrier, you just need to push a little bit, so we enter it as well. The difference in the air inside is as if we just travelled from a sauna into a room with AC. Well, a sauna that could set you ablaze.

On the ground, I see a few barrels with water and even food the lynthari are still chewing.

“We bought some resources from the corporation we met and shared them with these guys,” Min-Jae says after greeting everyone as we awkwardly shake hands.

I notice the korean boy is already taller than me and make sure to check it a few times, even looking to see if he wears tall shoes. But there is no trick to it. He is just taller.

Well, his mana reserves are trash, so that is still an overwhelming win for me.

There are a few missing days in the memory of Maya and the uselessly tall boy as they talk to the others about what happened and about how they tried to run into the Labyrinth from the Adjudicator.

Everyone automatically blames it all on Lissandra. Deservedly so. But there is something different. Both Maya and Min-Jae feel… off? It is difficult to describe, so I run checks over them multiple times and compare their signatures to the previous ones. And, of course, even then, the cursed [Perception] does not level up.

Still, I find them the same, just stronger. Especially Maya feels sharper, more determined, and directly stronger than before. Meanwhile, Min-Jae is… I do not know. Also slightly different or something. I am no expert here, so I watch Izzy checking them, as I am sure she is the best for that. Her [Empathy] and her knowledge of them will take care of that, and I am sure if something is wrong, she will let us know.

Meanwhile, I continue to perform checks to confirm they are not mimics, possessed, ghosts, or similar stuff.

During it, Min-Jae sits next to me and, annoyingly so, without him realizing, he sits on the boulder that is taller than the one I sit on, making him even taller.

“Your checks on me are getting more and more intrusive,” he says with a slightly tired smile.

“I want to be sure,” I tell him.

“I know,” he nods, pausing for a while before carefully asking, “And what if I was not me? What if I am a copy or some monster that killed the real me?”

For a while, I pause as well, giving it a thought before saying, “If something killed you to take your place, I would kill it. If you were a copy of the already dead real you, I have no idea.”

“Would you not hesitate at all if my killer behaved and looked like me?” Min-Jae asks.

“I would make it quick.”

For some reason, he nods, as if confirming something. As he stands, he says, “I think I would not be able to do that.”

“That is okay.”

He adds with a smile, “Yes, I think that is okay too. Thank you.”

I watch as he leaves me and walks towards the others. My eyes react to my will, burning in my sockets as I watch his back. I watch every slight movement of mana around him. How the ambient one reacts, how his own mana leaks, and the imperfections I have noticed in his mana control.

Even then, I find nothing, so I blink a few times, and my eyes calm down as I filter out the amount of information I take in and restrict it a little, something I have been doing ever since Lissandra broke Elian’s spy glasses.

Instead, I look past the barrier around us and at the white glowing dome encompassing the entire planet. As always, I observe just parts of it, still careful not to overwhelm my brain by seeing too much, though as time passes, I peek deeper and deeper.

“Psst, human,” a voice next to me sounds, and I decide to ignore it.

It takes a few seconds until that voice sounds again, “Are you deaf, human? Human. Human. Yes, you with pretty eyes. Humaaaaaaaaan. Humaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan. Huma-”

“What?” I interrupt and look to my left, where the lynthari girl, maybe 10 or so years old, crouches behind the boulder along with a boy a few years younger.

“Teach me your ultimate killing technique. Our Hell difficulty attendees always said they have one, but refuse to share!” she says.

“No.”

“I thought you would say that. But! As a trade, I offer Timas! You can pet his head and scratch his ears. Look, he is widely considered one of the cutest lynthari!” she says as she pulls the boy closer.

The boy looks at me with big blue eyes, contrasting with his black hair, cat ears, and tail. He blinks a few times and gulps before making a shy smile and twitching his ears.

“Aaaaaa,” it is not me, but the lynthari girl who does not resist and takes him into a hug, rubbing her face against him, “So damn cute!”

As she regains her bearings and lifts her head to talk to me, I am already gone, teleported away, just near Izzy. I place my hand on her shoulder and whisper to her, “I need your help.”

“Sure!” she says instantly, and we walk out of the barrier back into the hot desert. Sophie notices us leaving but does nothing to stop us.

Outside, I create an orb, place a mark on it, and sling it around us, and quickly make it gather more speed until it whistles loudly as it pierces the air. I gradually stretch it into a sharp, aerodynamic projectile and add weight to it, and the sound it makes changes as the speed increases.

When I launch it, I add a boost of kinetic energy to it that crackles in the air, sending a shockwave around us.

I then wait for a while and look into the distance where it flew with my eyes before nodding and putting my hand on Izzy’s shoulder, at which she lowers her natural barrier, and I teleport us towards the mark I placed on it.

This place looks like any other spot in the desert, but I look towards the sky as this time I compress mana enough until that threshold passes, and it turns black. Then I launch it towards the sky and wait.

“Nat…” Izzy says in warning, “I hope you aren’t-”

“I am,” I confirm to her.

“Sophie will kill you.”

“Only if she learns about this.”

“I will tell her.”

“Well, that is unfortunate,” I shrug.

Together we watch as the clouds in the sky stop moving and the area of dozens of square miles turns darker as these clouds concentrate rapidly.

An immense pressure lands on us, making the hair on the back of my neck rise and my body feel cold, as if I am about to shake with fear. Still, even then, I face that pressure. My own mana blazes into the area, not even trying to resist that pressure directly, but by behaving like a tree bending in the wind as I protect myself and Izzy.

The dark clouds covering the sky as far as I can see get pierced by the bright white light, and a deep suppressed roar shakes the planet as the clouds take a faint shape of a one winged wyvern.

The enormous shape covering what feels like the entire sky speaks, in that usual way, the system cannot translate.

I wait for it to finish before saying, “You know I can’t understand. I wanted to ask what you plan to do with this place.”

Once again, that sound reverberates, like a sound of a breaking mountain falling into the lake, and this time it sounds annoyed or maybe angry.

“What do you think?” I ask Izzy.

“I-” she starts, furrowing her brow in concentration.

But before she can finish, I let all my mana explode around us, carefully weaving it so that not a drop touches or damages Izzy. It erupts like a blazing flame, swirling into a protective whirlpool as I channel the raw mana to face the presence pressing down on us.

The pressure intensifies as I compress and concentrate my mana. It flickers violently, like a flame fighting against a hurricane or the surface of a lake struck by a shockwave. The mana shifts into a tricolored hue, with white and golden streaks flashing at its core.

For a few long seconds, I feel as though my mana might escape my control at any moment. Yet, I continue to feed it, fully releasing the seal on my Ignition Heart, and in cold determination, I look towards the sky. I don’t hesitate or worry and only focus on protecting the two of us.

Then, as if from nowhere, the pressure vanishes. Released from the crush of that weight, my mana surges outward, expanding and blanketing the area in the size of a small city.

It almost looks as if it is over, but as tons of sand rise all around us, the pressure returns with greater intensity than before.

[Eclipse - lvl 74 > Eclipse - lvl 75]

[Eclipse - lvl 75 > Eclipse - lvl 76]

[Weave - lvl 32 > Weave - lvl 33]

[Weave - lvl 33 > Weave - lvl 34]

[Manifestation - lvl 52 > Manifestation - lvl 53]

The area around us instantly turns black and white as I expand my domain, and within it, only the colors of mana remain. In [Focus], I watch it all happen, regain control of my mana, and quickly pull it back from that wide area to our position. The crown above my head dissolves, adding another huge chunk of mana to the fray.

Again, it is my mana that moves like a torrential tide, splashing around, washing over both of us, and shooting out to meet the pressure. Luminous particles of mana scatter away after each clash, only to get pulled back to me. They merge with everything I already channel, feeding the flood I surround us with.

After another five long seconds, the pressure is gone, this time fully, and the voice from the sky speaks again.

I look down to my right at pale Izzy, who stands close to me, holding onto my clothes.

My eyes activate to their fullest as I use the complete capabilities of my new body. A long wound opens on my palm, shooting ahead deep red blood with particles of white and golden swirling inside it.

“Nathaniel,” Izzy whispers somewhere in the background.

With ease, I move all the mana gathered around toward that blood, which stretches into the shape of a javelin.

I grab the weapon, one of my legs slides back as I take a stance, and I reach out to throw.

The javelin shoots ahead and disappears immediately, and with it, all of my mana is gone as I watch a straight line through the sky that leaves what almost looks like cuts in the air. A line of blood red with gold and white peeking from inside, and faint blue and purple leaking further.

[Empyrean Lance - lvl 59 > Empyrean Lance - lvl 60]

[Empyrean Lance - lvl 60 > Empyrean Lance - lvl 61]

[Empyrean Lance - lvl 61 > Empyrean Lance - lvl 62]

[Empyrean Lance - lvl 62 > Empyrean Lance - lvl 63]

[Empyrean Lance - lvl 63 > Empyrean Lance - lvl 64]

[Weave - lvl 34 > Weave - lvl 35]

[Weave - lvl 35 > Weave - lvl 36]

[Manifestation - lvl 53 > Manifestation - lvl 54]

Then, there is silence. Everything feels as if it has stopped moving.

The pressure feels different now, it is as if a heavy weight is pressing down on me while a powerful wind blows against my face, whipping my hair around.

I continue to look up, unblinking and without hesitation, as the clouds weave together again. They erase what remains of my attack, they become denser, forming a dark shape of a one winged wyvern made of clouds that lowers itself to the ground with its building-sized head, stopping right in front of me.

That voice, akin to breaking stone and thunder, sounds again, this time deep and deliberate.

“I don’t know what you are saying, and honestly, I don’t think I give a fuck anymore,” I answer and take a step ahead. “I came here to speak, as I think even you have to acknowledge your ass would’ve still rotted on the 12th floor without me.”

I take another step, making sure to stay between Izzy and the clouds.

"Yet, you behave like an ungrateful dick. Like total fucking trash. Sure, push me, try these silly games to pressure me or whatever form of play or tactic this is, but you do not fucking mess with my people."

That deep voice vibrates, and the clouds reach closer, almost touching me, so enormous that I cannot even get all of it inside my vision.

“I said I have no idea what you say, but I know a bitch when I see one,” I mutter, feeling blood in my mouth as I give a smirk and stare the clouds down. “How did it feel to rely on her to get out? Not even a human, but an imitation of one, created by the system.”

One of my eyes bursts open, and I close it.

Both of my hands twist, stretching until they break and contort in ways they probably shouldn't.

“So scary.” I push through before even my tongue explodes inside my mouth.

Amused by that, I give a smile, showing my teeth as blood flows from the corners of my mouth down onto my shirt.

The clouds freeze as they stand. A loud roar follows as they spin around us before shooting back towards the sky.

Just a second later, everything is back to normal as if nothing ever happened.

The temperature within my body increases as I use the heat from the still unsealed Ignition Heart. That heat activates my Heat Resonance Restoration passive, which spreads through my body and heals me faster the higher the temperature is. With how high the heat generated by my heart is, I get healed very quickly.

My tongue regrows inside my mouth, giving me an extremely odd feeling. My arms twist and snap back together. Thanks to my low constitution, the healing is near instant. The problem is with my traits. My eye, the function of my body as a mana vessel, and my blood take longer, clearly showing just how high-grade their tiers are.

But as always, I don't need them. Even if I lost everything, I possess enough confidence and arrogance to know I would do just fine. I gained all of this myself. I control it all, and it is the result of my own mind and effort.

Only once I feel more restored do I glance at Izzy with a question: “So what do you think? What is it planning? Should we try to ditch the planet as quickly as possible?”

Izzy looks at me with an expression that makes me add with a smile, “Don’t worry.” I reach out and caress the top of her head as I used to years back on the 3rd floor, “it was just playing with me. It hates the system and humans, so such a reaction was expected, and I was fairly confident it wouldn't kill me, because of Liss and Diligence.”

“You know I’m not a child anymore,” she says and tries to push my hand off her head, but I reinforce my body and continue petting her.

“How cute, our little Izzy is an adult now,” I tease her, but through our touch, I sense something, so I ask, “What happened to your Burning Blood?”

“It changed, and evolved.” She gives up and, with an expression of an angry kitten, stares at me. “It is Glacial Vein now, and it cools down my body because of Noodle’s evolution, and now that our fragment is a part of us, and threatening to cook us alive.”

“That is cool, you will have to let me test it. And, so, the wyvern?”

She gives up, “I think it just wants to leave, Nat. It is so tired and angry... for now, it doesn't want to cause trouble, I think, I repeat. But once it is free...”

“Well, that will be someone else’s problem then. The same as Starless Sky is.”

“Are you not worried how it could affect us?”

“You know my feelings.”

“A bit.”

“A bit,” I snort and let go of her head. “First, we will have to clean up our backyard... or to say it more accurately, empty our septic tank. We will take care of the rest later. You have to start thinking longer term, Izzy. Just like my sister apparently does.”

“Are you going to start talking about how cool she is?” Izzy sighs as I start walking towards our group.

“Yup.”

“You want to walk back and talk about silly stuff to calm me down before we return to the others.”

“Yup. Is it working?”

"Perhaps."

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