Chapter 19: Divine

The eight-pointed stars formed a formation in the air. Circuits of mana swirled around them and the thickness of energy around the king bear grew to the point that Jaxir knew without even thinking that there was no point in even trying to send out an attack right now.

Whatever he sent, if even Bind didn’t work, would get ripped apart long before it reached the beast.

There was nothing he could do, and something told him that even activating Encore and using Twinkle Steps to escape to the ceiling again wouldn’t help him in the slightest.

It had taken him a ton of effort to get to this point, but he had barely taken out a quarter of the king beast’s HP. Now it was already in a phase two he couldn’t do anything about.

"Dammit."

Jaxir found that he was truly furious. Deep inside, he felt hints of something else.

Humiliation.

It was like he could see his loss looming in front of him already and the idea that he could do nothing about it was ripping him apart from the inside out.

"Not like this."

The cold in Jaxir’s eyes trembled, plumes of energy radiating from them as he raised his staff.

He roared, his own senses reaching forward and trying to rip the twinkle mana free of the king bear’s control.

Suddenly, the situation shifted. A wild tug of war formed of energy wrapped in twinkling starlight and pulsing waves of gravity took shape.

Veins bulged across Jaxir’s forehead and his clenched jaw. He could feel his heartbeat accelerating beyond normal, manageable levels, the health warning signs of his pod certainly beginning to ping out continuously.

He didn’t care.

"I’ll be damned if I lose to this stupid, overgrown beast."

Jaxir’s eyes blazed with focus. He didn’t even seem to realize what words he spoke at all. A pride buried deep within his bones, covered in eras of ash and pain blew itself free, sparkling with hints of what had once been.

He raised his staff up higher. Blood leaked from his nose, dribbling down to the ground. His feet, however, left it, gravity rolling so wildly around him it couldn’t seem to decide which way was down.

Two large magic spheres began to take shape.

Jaxir realized he couldn’t just wrestle the mana free. The king bear was casting something, and the circuits seemed to give the mana purpose. Once the mana was aligned with what the beast was casting, it became several times harder to rip free.

If Jaxir was just trying to rip it away, he would slowly lose. However, if he assigned it to a cast of his own, then he could give the mana purpose as well.

So Jaxir used the two abilities he understood best.

Charge and Cast.

The mana sphere swirled with might, starting at the size of tennis balls, then growing to the size of Jaxir’s head, then doubling to wider than even the barrel of his torso.

Their size exploded further and Jaxir felt like he was about to lose control. Cast wasn’t supposed to be pushed this far, at least not at Level 30.

And Jaxir realized that as hard as he tried to push his understanding beyond Level 30, he seemed to have reached a ceiling he couldn’t push past.

He hadn’t made it to Level 30 on his own and had instead relied on a comprehension of twinkle mana. That was fundamentally different from an understanding of Cast and Charge itself.

His foundation wasn’t good enough.

It was too late to change that, and he certainly didn’t have the space to do so here. If he lost control of these spheres, he’d end up killing himself before the king bear could do that for him.

A second dribble of blood flooded down from Jaxir’s other nostril. His eyes went bloodshot, a hidden circuit of magic beginning to pulse within, but it didn’t seem to do anything to stop the two spheres from trembling in place.

They were about to collapse.

Jaxir’s teeth clenched, and as though he was fighting against the weight of the world itself, he pried them open, unleashing a roar weighing just as heavily on his chest.

A third sphere of magic began to form, the rotating bright copper light swirling into a new life.

Jaxir felt like his mind was being split in two. Dual casting had been so easy, but adding just a third made him feel like he was pushing beyond limits he had already had his back pressed firmly against.

Something in his head shattered. Like clattering glass crashing against a marbled ground, it broke apart and the third sphere exploded in size.

The three spheres of mana all rolled to life and a delicate balance was tipped.

The eight-pointed stars of the boss dimmed and its momentum seemed to have been interrupted.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Jaxir held his staff forward, blood falling from his ears and eyes now. His HP had begun to tick down at a rapid pace as though he had cast Wither on himself.

But right this moment, he didn’t care. In his eyes, he had won. He hadn’t folded to this stupid creature.

And then he unleashed the spheres.

They cut through the air like the descent of atomic bombs. They swirled as though the descent of a trio of stars, every one so heavy the king bear found itself being dragged forward toward their influence and might.

With three of them jetting forward in a formation that formed a unique unity between them.

It was simply an undodgeable attack.

The king bear was swept into it and swallowed whole.

The spheres of twinkle mana landed, swirling into a perfect fusion that turned them into a single rotating star of destruction.

Jaxir covered his eyes with an arm, wild winds whipping against him and his clothing.

He squinted, trying to make sure he saw what damage he ended up doing, and also prepping himself for what would come next. It was impossible for him to do more than 30,000 damage in a single attack. He needed to prepare for the rest of his battle.

He didn’t care about the wobble in his knees or the lightness of his head. The only thing he cared for was victory.

Something within him had truly been kindled once again.

He had once been such a prideful man. He wouldn’t allow himself to lose to anyone, anything, no matter what the circumstances were. He lived life by the beat of his own drum, a man of conviction, of purpose, of heart.

He was still that man. He demanded that of himself.

Despite his thoughts, if one asked Jaxir which version of him they were speaking of... the 21 year old who had almost pissed his life away... or the fallen deity...

He wouldn’t have an answer as these thoughts were identical for the both of them.

As far as Jaxir was concerned, there was only one of him, and that was a man who refused to lose until he had nothing left to give.

―

[Kindled Divinity of Twinkle Twinkle Bear King has Shattered]

―

[Unique Instance Triggered, Fall of a Divinity]

―

[Victory: "Jaxir Chance"]

―

In the outside world, a certain valley began to glow with a wild light and then a pillar shot into the skies and then a leaderboard flickered to life for all those close enough to see it.

―

[Twinkle Twinkle Dungeon Leaderboard (Nightmare)]

Jaxir Chance (Divine Clearance) Golden Fleece Guild [Corin Voss, Adisa Marrow, Ryven Kade] (Perfect Clearance) Violet Seraph Guild [Vesna Adair, Nadia Ferris, Ilona Thraece] (Perfect Clearance)

―

Aidylan was amongst the few who saw the pillar of light when it formed. His eyes sharpened.

Unfortunately for him, he could see the pillar, but he wasn’t close enough to see which leaderboard type had appeared.