Bab 24: Sovereign

His power, which had been elevated by a thousand and five hundred times, suddenly shot up and further concentrated into a thick stream of might and valour.

In a moment, his healing factor burst with fervour as he healed and with a step, he vanished, leaving sonic booms in his quake as he reached the grey haired entity in an instant.

Seeing this, the entity smiled and simply waved its hand.

Suddenly, Adonis puked a mouthful of blood as his newfound power instantly vanished and on the contrary, he felt himself further weakening.

As he fell to his knees, the entity's leg rose and collided with his falling chin, sending him flying upward but just as was about to fly off, the entity grabbed his leg and slammed him back down to the earth below with terrifying power.

Adonis didn't falter as he immediately rolled out of the entity's follow up stomp and reapplied [stack].

'I'm pretty sure she just reversed my stack. Is it a close range or long range ability?'

His mind was calm and collected as he analysed the situation.

The earth below him rippled then morphed into a sea of mud as he rapidly began to sink. Seeing this, he jumped in the air but as if the entity had expected this, it launched a raffale of fire balls his way.

Adonis gathered all his power and clapped his hands, generating enough air pressure to veer him away from the incoming fire balls but suddenly, the sea of mud below him trembled once more and spikes arose from it, snaking through the air to impale him.

'Is her element imagination? Elements like that exist?! Assuming that's the case, it must have a weakness. It has to have one. At least one mistake I can exploit.'

'Let's try and backtrack to see if she's done anything weird.'

As he thought this, Adonis clapped his hands once more and dodged the spikes.

{Solidify.}

The sea of mud became solid and he landed on it but he was still forced to dodge once more as waves upon waves of fireballs assaulted him.

Like this, a pitiful game ensued where he was forced to constantly dodge and run, toeing on the line of life and death as he struggled to find his enemy's weakness.

Soon, though, it came to an end.

'I see.'

Adonis landed on the floor.

"How overpowered."

"It seems you've found my weakness, cutie." Said the androgynous entity with a chuckle.

Adonis sighed, already aware the entity before him was simply toying with him.

{Blindness.}

His spear shot into his palm and he swung, a wave of compressed air crashing into the entity as its body was pulverised.

Its weakness was very simple. The entity could use its element only on things it could physically see.

For how overpowered its element was, such a drawback was a mere joke and if it wasn't for the fact that the entity pretty much served the answer to him on a platter, he wouldn't have ever found out.

'If monsters like this exist in the world out there, I'm finished. I could've died a million times over.'

[The Seventh level will soon begin.]

'I hope I awaken a good element or atleast a usable one.'

He rolled his shoulder and breathed out as he closed his eyes and reminisced on the experience he'd gained during these last few battles.

At the beginning of this battle, before the twins got involved, he'd felt it, he was almost there, his style was at arm's reach but for some reason, he couldn't seem to fully grasp it.

It was important to know that the formation of one's martial style physically manifested itself just like the pure heart which was why a true martial style could only be formed after an ultimate enlightenment.

You couldn't just decide what your martial style was and then roll with it. It had to come out of you naturally.

Obviously, you could lie to yourself but then your martial style would be incomplete.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, a strange lustre hidden deep within its depths as he exhaled and looked forward.

Seven figures began to materialise.

As soon as they fully materialised, their expressions immediately soured as they heard a chuckle.

Looking at Adonis' smile and chuckle, for some reason, they found themselves consumed by rage.

Adonis observed the colours that hung around them with rapt attention using his [Order] gift to play with their emotions and minds as he saw fit.

As he saw these dignified experts begin acting like rogue teenagers under his control, he couldn't help but think, 'Are we all so fickle? Pieces to be moved along a board we're not even aware exists?'

They shot at him, frothing at the mouth as they roared out in rage.

Adonis side stepped, dogging the attack, then sighed.

His spear pole spun in his palm before he firmly cleaved, reaping yet another life.

'Is this what I love about battle? This sensation of control? Puppeteering the world around me as I see fit?'

His knees bent and he squatted, dodging a high kick before he swept his opponent's leg and promptly knocked them out with a kick to the jaw.

'Or is it pain? Do I like inflicting pain upon others?'

[Layer; 300x]

He vanished, appearing before another enemy as he swung.

[Trial difficulty has been revised by the administrator.]

Suddenly, all of his opponent's bodies levitated and liquified just like the grey haired entity as they all fused into one new being.

Unlike the grey haired entity, his new opponent didn't have any defined features. It simply was a humanoid figure entirely made out of darkness.

Despite its eery and nightmarish appearance, Adonis didn't seem to mind it, his focus elsewhere as he dove deeper and deeper into his own mind.

'Or is it opposition? Do I fight because I love challenges or do I fight because I hate it? Both?'

The dark entity vanished, reappearing behind him as its hand shot forth, aiming to grab his hair but as if he'd predicted it, he spun and his leg rose, landing onto the entity's chin as he performed a clean spinning hook kick.

Unfortunately, this entity didn't seem to have a normal body as it simply tanked his kick then grabbed his leg, twisting as his ankle promptly broke before he was flung into the distance.

The entity waved its hands and a wave of darkness descended from the skies, forming a myriad of shadow beasts that pounced on Adonis with lust filled pupils.

'Or is it thrill?'