Chapter 588 - Lioren

POV Lioren

I’ll never understand humans. They're strange, often weak, but every now and then, one is crazy enough to surprise even a demon.

Adrian used to be like that. He had his own rules, ones I could never understand. Following them he broke through Beyond floors at a speed that left even handlers speechless. Nathaniel is similar. He also has that spark that makes me want to destroy him, but even more so, I want to ignite it further just to see how brightly it can glow before dying off.

Sometimes, I saw his disciple tell him something, but Nathaniel did not understand it. When that little girl behaved more like a demon than a few full demons I once knew, he seemed confused.

Perhaps he considered it merely a funny quirk of his disciple, but just as I do not fully understand him, he does not fully understand us demons. But out of all the humans whose minds I could end up trapped in, this petty little shit was not that bad.

There’s one thing I’ll never tell him or let him see in my memories, but sometimes I think he’s more terrifying than any demon I’ve ever known. And yet, there are moments when he’s so soft it makes me want to punch him.

But isn’t that why little Vega and I didn’t mind becoming his friends? Why were we drawn to the light he keeps hidden inside?

We demons aren’t used to that. We hate those kinds of feelings. But like everything else among us, strength decides everything. And if he’s the strongest, no demon would ever speak against his rules or behavior, no matter how soft they might seem.

Because the strongest have that right.

Funnily enough, I am currently much stronger than Nathaniel. I have more kinetic energy than I have ever had. That disgusting amount of mana is transferred to it immediately, to the point that I have trouble using it all and feel the desire to use it wastefully.

My body is healthy and moves the way I want without requiring constant infusions of kinetic energy. I do not have to worry about my heart breaking apart every time I channel more kinetic energy.

His physical stats are not as high as mine used to be. His strength, dexterity, and constitution are pathetically low, and I have to rely on kinetic energy to enhance them. Even a single hit could be dangerous to me if I let it pass. If it were someone else, they'd be in trouble.

But not me.

I’m someone who became a Champion candidate barely a few months after stepping into the tutorial, even with my fucked-up body. I’m someone multiple Champions said would have become an Absolute candidate if not for my broken body.

Using kinetic energy is something I can do very well. And his body helps too; it almost instinctively channels these huge amounts of kinetic energy without breaking. Every time I reach for more, I do it with hesitation in the back of my mind. I expect something to break or tear. But it does not happen.

I ask for more kinetic energy, I channel it, and I get it. My skill, along with the instinct of this body developed over two years of stopping insane amounts of mana from breaking it apart, makes that possible.

He often says there are geniuses he could never match without discipline and effort, and he genuinely believes that. But he also believes that if he puts in the work, he can achieve whatever he sets his mind to.

Until now, I’ve fought that mute, nimble girl using only what I’d be capable of even without Nathaniel. But the longer we clash, the more I watch her move, the faster my heart beats. She pushes her speed until I can no longer track her with my eyes, yet another monster from this tutorial.

So I stop relying on sight. I don’t even try to follow her movements. I focus on the space around me, on the vibrations and the absence of them in the areas she passes through with her field.

I move to the side, I dance around her blade, I slow her movement with a spike of my restrictive force, and attack her.

She ducks, she jumps, she spins. Her perception is what you’d expect from someone so new to the system. It is lacking, and she barely manages to predict my attacks. But she has something else. An instinct. A kind of pulse that tells her to move before her mind catches up. It is hard to pull off, but she is one of the rare people who can.

I trail her movement and follow behind her, moving in between the attendees. Waves of kinetic energy shoot from me, exploding the droplets that appear near her to direct her where I want her to go, and I use more of that immense kinetic energy channeled through my body.

And that body handles it.

So I use more. And more.

I catch up to her. I dodge under her attack. My needlepoint pierces where her head was.

More.

I appear in front of her. She seems so slow that, for the first time in my life, my body and my kinetic energy move quickly enough to match my senses, one of my best qualities.

I grab her left arm and tear it off. Something to amuse that guy I am sure is watching.

Her avatar swings at the same time I do. I catch her hand before my other one strikes, punching a hole through where her heart should be. Even then, she rips herself away, leaving her right arm behind in my grasp. Armless, she drops low and charges with incredible speed, nearly headbutting me before I switch to Breaker Style and completely destroy her avatar’s body.

I expand my senses and move again. My body pushes me forward, craving more of this feeling.

Rooms flash in front of my eyes as I pass by them. I ignore the attendees, destroy avatars, and go deeper into the labyrinth. Each room is different, some bigger, others smaller, each with its own traps. The rooms are indestructible, even to someone of Champion rank. The Labyrinth of Xyphos is a real place that exists outside of the tutorial, something I heard about in Beyond.

Then I reach a simple room. No traps, no avatars, just a hundred attendees trapped inside by a barrier that allows entry but not exit. The temperature in the room keeps increasing while they do everything they can to destroy the door that is slightly different from the previous ones. Here the "test" is to destroy this door.

Landing nearby, I slow to a walk. As if knowing my intention, the heart beating inside this body increases its output. Each heartbeat sends a huge surge of kinetic energy through me and shakes the air. It is audible. It is raw and makes the tips of my fingers tingle.

I wait.

More and more energy courses through me, an amount I have never held in my life, an amount he handles so casually and wastefully at all times.

Then more of it. I grab it, I move it, I feel it.

It’s something I do slowly, making sure the guy whose body I currently possess can feel every part of it. So that with his own body, he can sense the proper way to move kinetic energy.

Then I release it toward the door.

There is no shockwave. No side effects hurting people in the room. All of it is perfectly directed ahead, not a speck of kinetic energy wasted. The wooden door explodes outward, turning into huge pieces that fly into another room.

I move in, eager as I sense another presence, but then I halt my movement. A silver-haired woman stands there; the wooden shrapnel from the door is deflected by a short burst of mana. And for the first time, I am thankful it is not an avatar.

She looks at me with that typical expression, but she does not say anything until I reach the door in front of her.

Only then she calls, "I wouldn't open that. My avatar is in there."

I stop moving, and when I turn back to her, she’s smiling. "Run, little demon. You unfortunate Absolute Candidate, born only to never reach the true height of your potential. You have three seconds."

The moment the words leave her mouth, everything shifts. My body reacts before I can think. I turn and explode forward. Air tears around me. Rooms whip past in a blur. Walls stretch and smear like streaks of paint. My feet hit the ground faster than my eyes can process. I feel the pressure building in my limbs, the force of speed pushing against my bones. My senses struggle to keep up, and I move on pure instinct, catching only fragments of what’s around me.

In the first second, I pass by four rooms.

In the next second, I pass by seven more rooms.

In the final second, I pass by twelve more rooms.

And even there, the mana radiation reaches me. The labyrinth, impossible to be damaged by any Champion, shakes and cracks. A thousand avatars and attendees are wiped out in a split second as the two monsters begin their fight. The sheer pressure blows dozens of doors open. The usually impenetrable barriers vanish, and the rooms themselves break.

I move away from that place for the next few hours, never stopping for too long and collecting as many points as possible.

I find a low arcane greatsword that I use for a while before throwing it away. I test the avatars of Beyonders. And I move my body and use kinetic energy as much as possible. I revel in that feeling and I teach the owner of this body by letting him experience it all.

Then, finally, I find him, an avatar with gray and brown eyes and a crown floating above his head, guarding the exit of the labyrinth.

So we fight.

During that fight I show him every weakness I have noticed he possesses, as well as those mirrored by his avatar. Some are caused by a lack of experience, and some are due to bad habits he has slowly built and will need to change.

His avatar is the toughest fight yet, even more difficult than that girl. He can fly, he is difficult to catch, does not seem to tire, and only becomes stronger the longer the fight lasts. His eyes and mind analyze the opponent, creating countermeasures using the multiple specializations at his disposal to face me.

But at the same time, it is so easy. So fucking easy.

I unleash the full output of this body and channel it through everything I know. The mana around me freezes as I bring it to a stop. It doesn’t matter how much the avatar releases, I shut it all down.

His crown turns black, but even that is useless against me as I do not rely on mana. His speed increases, his reactions increase, his damage increases. And I go all out; I match his output, and even here I show Nathaniel what it feels like to fight against him. He is, at times, a smart human; he will notice even things I might have missed.

In a final spiteful, petty move, the avatar does something Nathaniel had not done until now and fully lifts one of the seals on its Ignition Heart, and the amount of thermal energy he releases matches the amount of mana he currently possesses.

The heat fills the room; the air dries up and cracks as if it were about to shatter. The avatar moves that heat and these golden flames around, manipulating them as if they were water. They are reminiscent of waves, seeping out, crashing, devouring everything around, as well as his body.

I'm sure that if it were not an avatar but Nathaniel, he would be smiling. I can feel the same smile on my face.

I phase through the flames; I even halt their movement for a brief moment, something I did not even think I would be capable of.

Then I defeat him completely, leaving no doubt about who is stronger.

When I stand there, breathing heavily, I unleash that heart once more. Each heartbeat fills me with more and more kinetic energy. It builds up to the point that even this ridiculous body is unable to channel it, but I am cruel, so I push further.

The body finally starts breaking; tears appear on the heart, and the construct etched into it begins evaporating.

And all of that kinetic energy moves around me in a way I have been in love with ever since I was a child. It is this energy that saved my life, that allowed me to live normally even with all the disabilities I was born with, and I have never once stopped being thankful for it.

"Beautiful," I whisper as I observe that ever so chaotic movement for one last time.

And in that moment, understanding comes, clearer than ever. With newfound confidence, I reach for it, and as naturally as breathing, I grasp all that kinetic energy like it’s the easiest thing in the world.

Then it all unravels. That vast power collapses in on itself, vanishing in a cascading chain of motion, like a castle of sand washed away in an instant.

I think of the last thing I could say to that guy, but only cheap words come to mind, nothing satisfactory. So I just stay quiet and leave behind a memory of a feeling.

My memories and my being start to dissipate as I let go, but I don't hesitate. Without fear, I step toward the door and exit the labyrinth.

This past year... was fun.

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