Chapter 132: Slayer’s Fate - II

Detonating those enchantments in the heir’s room created the perfect concealment for Aventine’s magical aura.

A 7th-Circle Spell that was not cast using his own mana had a massive chance of failure. Thus, he needed a way to prevent his foes from ruining his casting, and he needed to do it in a way that still gave them full confidence in defeating him.

Surely, any intelligent A-Rank would flee the moment their enemy emitted an S-Rank aura.

Thus, Aventine waited until the moment his enemies crossed the point of no return, set up his magic, and stalled for enough time to complete its activation.

Only Ragi’s reckless charge had caught him off guard. The damned Wolfman truly charged in without looking back.

Aventine had read the Wolfman’s mind, but Ragi’s advanced charge threw off his timing.

So, he was forced into a swift and sudden stopgap melee.

’Luckily, my physical attributes dwarf theirs.’

Wielding the <Sword of Light> despite lacking training wasn’t hard when his opponents were slower, weaker, and softer than he was.

Still, their skills, honed by decades upon decades of combat, had shone despite the despair-inducing gap in their stats.

Ragi was able to parry his blade despite the blindness.

Grevira matched him momentarily with pure, one-handed finesse.

Still... before Aventine, their skills only shone like fireworks—swiftly snuffed out by the darkness of the night.

After all, they had to contest a type of perception so keen that their opponent could read their minds and act preemptively. Coupled with monstrous stats unlike any other A-Rank out there...

They had no hope from the very start.

7th-Circle Fire Magic.

[Pillar of Incineration].

First, there was only an infinitely heavy pressure, pressing down upon a clean circle on the floor. It was as if a giant, invisible pillar had slammed onto the leaders of the 16 Claws.

"...N....o...!"

They could barely utter a sound before the temperature instantly spiked to 6000 °C.

Aventine watched as everything within that circle was vaporized. In fact, he could not ’watch’ it anymore in the normal sense, as he’d wrapped his eyes in the darkness of the <Power of Death>.

The incandescence of such a high-temperature pillar rivalled the shine of his light-attributed slashes.

Not to mention the sudden air explosion caused by the spike in energized molecules—

—BOOM!

Air particles were displaced at supersonic speeds, forcing Aventine to command them with <Power of the Sky> to keep him and his companions relatively safe from harm.

Even then, the massive pressure wave shook him and Gron, forcing the latter into unconsciousness.

’...I should have thought about this through a little further.’ Aventine smacked his lips as the pillar of high temperature promptly vanished.

—CRACK!

All of the materials that could survive a few seconds worth of the surface of Earth’s Sun suddenly shattered and crumbled from the thermal shock. Everything rapidly cooled, creating a crater of brittle stone and obsidian formations.

All of the metals in the range of the <Pillar of Incineration> were melted down and suddenly quenched by the sharp rise and fall of the surrounding temperature.

As for the leaders of the 16 Claws?

Only some of their charred corpses remained.

"Tsk, tsk."

Seeing this, Aventine clicked his tongue in admiration.

Indeed, despite being exposed to such high temperatures, an A-Rank still had room for defense.

At Aventine’s level, he could indeed withstand it for some time, but it would be the same as a normal person being burned by a normal fire.

Once he breached S-Rank, however, walking on the surface of a yellow-dwarf main-sequence star should be possible.

His stats, after all, had yet to undergo that evolutionary change.

"But that won’t be so far off..."

[You have levelled up!]

[You have levelled up!]

[You have levelled up!]

There were 13 A-Rank Beast Humans within the <Pillar of Incineration>, enough to boost Aventine from Level 139 to Level 142.

Furthermore...

[Absolute Awareness: Divination]!

Looking at the newly recycled threads of <Fate> that wrapped around his body, Aventine smiled in satisfaction.

’This is indeed the path I must now tread.’

A path of slaughter.

He would kill his way to S-Rank, forcibly achieving Evolution using the Gaea System, and absorbing as many of <Fate’s> threads as he could in the process.

Those he had to kill—and destroy—were everything bound by <Fate> and recognizable by the Gaea System as something living.

If the Gaea System could also recycle the <Fate> threads that bound inanimate objects, Aventine would have destroyed those too.

Alas, the Gaea System only cared about killing living things to absorb their lives and existence.

Aventine thus promptly summoned his status screen.

[Name: Aventine Tidea]

[Level: 138 » 142]

[Health: 9930/9930 » 10,210/10,210]

[Mana: 10,730/10,730 » 11,020/11,020 (Mana Storage Capacity: 900/900)]

[Gift: Absolute Awareness (???-Rank)]

[Physique: 993 » 1021]

[Mind: 985 » 1013]

[Spirit: 1073 » 1102]

[Traits: (NEW!) Fine Motor Control (E-Rank), (NEW!) Parallel Thought (B-Rank), Perfect Estimate (B-Rank), Power of the Sky (A-Rank), Power of the Sea (A-Rank), Power of Death (A-Rank), Soulbound Anchor (S-Rank), Blessing of Light (SS-Rank)]

[Divine Branches Contributed: 6/42]

[Law of Fate Comprehension: 0.42% » 0.48%]

o=o=o=o

[Class: Mage (4th Circle)]

[Engraved Spells: Mana Core (300/300 (x3) | F-Rank), Mana Storage (3/3 | E-Rank), Manakinesis (Lv. 9 | Complete Mastery | D-Rank), Mana Manipulation (Lv. 1 | C-Rank) ]

[Memorized Spells: Water Bullet (Available | E-Rank), Fireball (Available | D-Rank), Chill (Available | E-Rank), Earthen Grasp (Available | E-Rank), Mana Flash (Available | F-Rank), ...999+ more available.]

[Psychic Techniques: Mind Force (E-Rank | Growth-Type | Blood-Imbuing Mastery: 100%, Bone-Imbuing Mastery: 15%)]

[Martial Arts: Pure Instinct (F-Rank | Growth-Type | Autonomous Reflexes Mastery: 100% | Danger Sensing Mastery: 0%)]

Looking at the rise in his comprehension of the Law of Fate, Aventine further confirmed his path going forward. A part of him felt a grand thrill enveloping his body.

’Is this not the greatest <Act of Blasphemy>?’

Perhaps... the moment he fully comprehended the <Law of Fate>...

There was no need to commit such blasphemous acts through rivers of blood and fields of corpses.

Instead, he could command <Fate> itself!

’What a beautiful dream,’ Aventine smiled wryly.

Unfortunately, it will still take time.

"I need to kill more... This is hardly enough."

His eyes flashed with malevolence.

The earlier spells that lured Grevira and the other leaders into his trap were only for display.

There were still a bunch of cannon fodder waiting to be harvested.

—Crack. Crack, crack.

Aventine stretched, feeling his body become light from the refilling of his mana and health.

Levelling up brought quite an addictive wave of euphoria—especially now, since he was no longer burdened by the act of preserving his Level at 1.

He could enjoy the dopamine rush to the fullest.

His mana, however, continued to move.

5th-Circle Earth Magic.

[Skull-Spire Graveyard].