Chapitre 22: The Selection Exam [9]
When skills were first introduced to the human race, the world was coming to end and the kingdoms of the magic realm were collapsing anytime soon. Just like magic, they were gifts from the gods who created the magic realm in the first place.
When the first holy war came to an end, humans discovered that skills were different from person to person and their strength depended on one's original bloodline and how strong their connection to the gods was in general. Due to that, the main Mage families of every kingdom had powerful skill users because they were all directly connected to the gods through their magic—and hence, most magic schools were occupied by the descendants of those families.
But not long after that, the Archmages of the human kingdoms sat down and created the skill ranking system. This was created to ensure which skills were dangerous enough to seal away in case someone intends to use his or her's for evil. It was a safety measure put up to prevent civil wars within the human kingdoms—the ranks were divided into categories of S, A, B…. all the way to F.
With S being the deadliest of them all.
In the human domains of the South and East, only the Vermilion and the Rivian families had S-ranked skill users, marking them as the most powerful families amongst all the kingdoms. And as for the rest of the noble families, their skills were ranked between A and C. The weaker categories were usually not even recognized, and they were mostly obtained by lowblood magic users.
Though during the second holy war, a few lowbloods ended up awakening very rare and powerful skills in order to save humanity.
According to the alchemists and mages of the kingdoms, those skills were born to balance the scale in case the human race was close to extinction.
What happened to those humans was known as a second awakening or known to history as humanity's last stand against the great demon commander, Belzebab, and his army of shadow monsters. This second invasion was two hundred years ago and sadly, humanity lost the Eastern lands to the demons.
Such a loss was too much, so humanity formed a pact with the gods of the divine realm and created a divine barrier to protect the human domain from any other race that intended to harm humanity in the Southlands.
The humans who had awakened for a second time vanished from the realm after that, and no one ever inherited their skills ever again.
In the present day, the only person who is believed to have had a second awakening is Obsidian Rein. He awakened an unranked skill, unranked because of how powerful it was when released. He had only used it twice, and those who've witnessed it have called it, 'The gods' wrath.'
In these modern times, skills have been made a requirement for those who wish to use their power to fight for the greater good of humanity and the realm. All magic-based academies across the three kingdoms have made it a priority to help students develop their skills along with their combat abilities and magic to prepare humans for the coming war against the demons.
.
.
.
.
Arthur stared at the beast and all the destruction it was causing.
As they stood, everything around them was slowly being devoured by the monster's power. The only reason they were still alive was because of their uniforms ,they had created a thin layer of mana around their bodies to protect them from the monster's destructive abilities—but they weren't sure of how long it was going to last.
Dark sister's blade was glowing blue and red with electricity cackling from the sharp edges. Bairon and Elizabeth had managed to feed it with enough magical energy from their strongest spells, changing its appearance in the process.
As an effect…it was heavier and much harder to wield now. He was completely overwhelmed by the intensity of the magical energy these two had in their strongest spells. Weren't they supposed to have little mana left?
Some of the magical energy was leaking into his body through his mana veins, causing excruciating pain because he wasn't compatible with one of the attributes that created the two spells in the first place. His body was rejecting it.
But there was no turning back from this. Although his sword skills were amateur at best and his magic was shit, he had let his selfish desires blind his weaknesses—he was doing this for himself and no one else.
He then made an idiotic smile as he grabbed onto the handle with both hands and clenched them to toughen his grip. From this distance, he just needed to get close enough to release all the power in his body and the sword with one powerful swing.
"I'll cover you!" exclaimed Bairon with a wry look on his face. He still had some mana left for a few more lightning spells.
"I'll boost your physical abilities using my skill," added Elizabeth and her blue eyes shone when she activated her skill. She then put her hand forward and called out his name:
"Arthur Bellrock! Become stronger!"
Her words sent a surge of energy through Arthur's body, tensing his muscles instantly. All the pain was gone, and he even felt a lot stronger thanks to her skill. It was incredible.
"Thank you," he nodded. Then charged for the monster with all the speed he had left in his human legs. Thanks to her skill and the lightning surging through his body, he was moving so fast that he appeared like a blue flash of light to anyone with normal eyesight.
The monster shrieked in terror once it noticed his magical energy and produced black tentacles that it swung uncontrollably at him, hoping to crush him in the process. The beast had grown much in size and no longer looked like a spider at this point: It had turned into a pure black monstrosity with ebony and red lightning shooting out of its body, destroying anything it struck.
The only good thing about that was it had grown slower as the fight continued. Also, its telepathy ability was shut down thanks to Bairon.
He was almost close when—
One tentacle appeared above him. It almost crushed him, but he sidestepped out of the way. And Bairon destroyed the rest of it with his lightning.
"RAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!"
The monster screamed from the pain of losing a tentacle. Then shot multiple bolts of black lighting at Arthur without control, evaporating everything close to him.
But none of them got even close to hitting Arthur...he was now moving so fast that everything was too slow to catch up to him.
His mind was blank as he moved through the beast's attacks like they were nothing. His body was moving on its own, the mana coursing through his veins right now caused his left eye to pulse, and the sword in his hand pulsed back with a strange energy that felt so familiar to him.
He felt powerful.
Arthur finally made it to the beast. He leaped off the ground and stayed in the air for a few seconds before swinging his sword from over his head and—
—SLASH—
A combination of lightning and blue flames cut through the monster's body, bisecting it into two parts and destroying the core which was the source of its magical energy. The combination also cut through to the next floor, wiping out every nearby monster by scorching them instantly with fire and lighting.
'Incredible.' Arthur coldly glared at the destruction as he remained suspended in the air. Whereas his sword was still flickering with electricity from the leftover magical energy in it.
The floor and gone silent, and all he could hear was the sizzling of the tarantulus' flesh as it burned away to ash.
"I am so glad I chose you, dark—" he paused when the beast's voice reached his mind.
It sounded like whispers belonging to older women, all speaking to him at the same time.
'The demon lord is…here.'
It said Telepathically before disconnecting once its physical body fully vanished.
Suddenly, Arthur's vision blurred, and he let go of his sword after feeling a wave of weakness rise throughout his body. He had exhausted all the mana he had left, now he had to pay the price. Everything turned dark and his body fell.
Quickly, Bairon conjured up a pool of water that saved Arthur from hitting the ground and causing any more injuries than he had now.
"Arthur!" Elizabeth exclaimed as she rushed to his aid right after he landed in the pool of water.
"What was that feeling before he swung the sword?" Elizabeth asked Bairon in a trembling voice while staring at the aftermath of Arthur's attack—this wasn't the work of a boy with little mana.
'Even though we had combined our magic, it wasn't supposed to be this powerful. Did he somehow amplify it?' she asked herself.
"How did he…How did he-" She had no words for this.
"I don't know," Bairon answered, staring at Arthur's unconscious body.
'Did he just use cursed energy…? Or it's just me…' Bairon mused.
With that, the selection exam came to an end.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone