Chapter 567 - Frustration

I exit the cave and propel myself higher into the air, rising toward the top of the floating island before stopping near its edge. Gathering a large amount of mana, I unleash a powerful pulse, sending it as far as possible in an attempt to detect any beasts.

I detect them, along with several signatures of attendees, mostly from Hard and Normal difficulty, with a few from Hell.

As for the beasts, there are thousands of them, tens of thousands, but most of the signatures feel weak.

Flying into the air again, I collect more mana. It swirls around me and compresses into the shape of an orb that turns pale blue, dark blue, and purple, on the edge of destabilization. I create a few more and compress them further, turning them bright white.

Each of them shoots ahead toward where I sense groups of monsters and no attendee signatures, and I boost myself toward another island with notifications about kills following me.

Even though this time I find stronger beasts, there are still no Special grade ones, so I repeat the process. So instead of continuing to search this way, I rise high enough to be over all of the floating islands, with the humongous area of the second event stretching below me.

I activate Mana Wavelength Iris and then compress my mana to the point it turns into that oppressive, all mana-devouring black. I use it to strengthen my body and to power my trait.

The pressure becomes incredible, even with my mid arcane passive protecting my mind. I take in all that information, all those mana signatures, fluctuations, and movements.

I quickly activate [Focus] to filter the information, narrowing it down to mana signatures. My thoughts race at such incredible speed that the outside world feels sluggish. I locate Savant, then Myrra. I find Jean. I pinpoint every member of Group 4. My eyes take it all in and track every one of them.

But best of all, I locate three out of five Special grade beasts.

I gather all the black mana coursing through my body and force it out, shaping it into a javelin.

When I stop using kinetic energy to keep myself afloat, I begin freefalling through the air. The wind whistles past me, pressing against my body. I feel it in my hair, on my face, slipping between my fingers. Only when I'm close to the treetops do I boost myself forward, passing through them and into what barely qualifies as a clearing. The ground is broken, the trees are scorched, and pools of lava bubble across the landscape.

The air here is blistering, most of the heat radiating from the beast nestled in the crater, partially submerged in lava as its body melts the surrounding rock. It shifts, waves of heat rolling off its form. Its obsidian horns pulse, glowing veins of magma coursing through them. The ground beneath it cracks, molten rock still clinging to its hide.

The Emberhorn Behemoth is a massive, bull-like creature with a thick, dark hide cracked with glowing veins of magma. Jagged obsidian plates run along its back, radiating intense heat. Its broad head is low, with two massive, curved horns pulsing with molten energy. Its deep set eyes glow dimly, and smoke rises from its nostrils.

Noticing me, it shifts, dragging itself from the lava, its hooves sinking into the half melted ground. With each step toward me, smoldering cracks spread beneath its weight. The heat distorts the air, making everything waver. Its horns pulse brighter.

I don't wait.

The black javelin I created streaks through the air and drives deep into the beast's neck. Compared to its massive size, it looks insignificant, but I know exactly how much mana I poured into it.

With astonishing speed, the javelin starts absorbing the beast's mana and breaks the structure of the skill it tries to use. My Mana Wavelength Iris allows me to see how normal mana reacts to it, revealing just how oppressive the black mana is.

Another projectile forms near me, this time it's [Empyrean Lance] with its golden and white core glowing brilliantly. Threads of luminous energy weave themselves together, layer upon layer, condensing into a single radiant lance that hums with immensely compressed mana. And just as before, the lance pulses like the heartbeat of a star.

It shoots forth as well, and the beast senses it. It stops trying to pull the black javelin out of its neck and instead turns to the new threat. A deep, loud, roar vibrates the air, and the lava of all of the pools around ripples.

The heat, already overwhelming, intensifies even further as a concentrated wave of it crashes against the lance.

It sizzles the surface of the lance; it burns mana and dims the glow of the lance. Even so, whether due to the sheer strength of the skill or the black javelin lodged in its neck, the beast fails to destroy it completely. The lance pierces through its side, then through its entire body, exiting on the other side in a geyser of blood that sizzles and evaporates from the heat.

The wound, too, scorches and shivers, nearly closing as all the bleeding stops.

When its enormous eyes turn back to me, they are full of anger.

Then I teleport, appearing right over the beast through the [Ley Line] my [Empyrean Lance] pulled.

Right away, the heat crashes against my body as the beast lunges, jaws snapping at me. Each movement cracks the ground, sending splashes of lava through the air.

The heat radiating from its skin isn't just thermal energy or a fragment of eternal fire but a purely mana based skill or trait pushed to the extreme. The beast intensifies it even further, causing the lava around it to rise and flow through the air toward us.

[Redistribution] works overtime as I absorb the heat reaching me and store it within the orb hovering nearby. Simply handling it, absorbing it, and taking control with [Redistribution] converts the heat into thermal energy instead.

Half of my mental capacity focuses on just that to stop myself from burning alive. The heat surges to an extreme as I ignore the beast's scorching skin searing my now bare feet and move to grab the black javelin, yanking it free. The weapon is now vastly stronger than the one I originally fired, having absorbed all this mana.

I mold and reshape it, forcing it under my control with effort. Then I modify its structure to absorb more mana without destabilizing and transform it into another orb.

Within a blink, all the heat reaching me vanishes, reverting to mana as the black orb absorbs it. Like a whirlpool, the orb pulls everything inside, breaking the skill’s structure to restore it to its original form, mana, which it then devours.

The flames and heat from the beast’s skill vanish, leaving only a few pathetic remnants behind. Despite its power, the beast is slow, relying on its durable body and the flames and heat it can create. Even the lava it tried to move crashes to the ground, unable to be controlled without mana.

I leave the black orb behind where it is and I teleport again and appear in front of that eye, which is easily twice as tall as I am.

Its pupil dilates as it turns toward me.

Then I grasp the golden orb of absorbed heat, now transformed into thermal energy. I punch my hand through the eye’s surface and release all the heat within the orb.

The pupil widens even further, its surface blistering and warping in an instant. A sharp hiss pierces the air as the eye sizzles, bubbles, and then bursts apart, spraying me with scalding liquid. The thick, red hot fluid clings to my skin, but I barely register the sensation before the true destruction unfolds.

The heat surges past the ruined eye, racing through the creature’s skull and deep into its brain. Flesh sears, nerves rupture, and boiling fluids expand until the entire mass collapses inward, cooking the brain from the inside out.

The enormous body spasms violently, limbs jerking before locking in place. Then, with a final shudder, it topples, crashing into the crater with enough force to send molten rock splashing high into the air. It twitches once more, then goes still, steam rising from its smoldering corpse.

One of the special grade beasts have been defeated!

The remaining Special beasts have sensed the Emberhorn Behemoth’s fall. Now more alert, they will grow increasingly aggressive toward any perceived threat!

And that's it.

There is no telling me how many points I have gained at all.

Even in my current state, I can’t help but deeply resent it, as if another layer of control has been stripped from me.

Not once did the system do something like this. Even during previous events, the system has shown us notifications and points. Just now, it decided it doesn't want to.

With anger, I teleport and surround the black orb with [Eclipse] and [Mana Domain]. Then I activate the Mana Wavelength Tyrant. The mana around me freezes in place, all of it, no matter if it's ambient mana, the beast’s lingering energy, or my own. It all stops and waits. The black mana resists more than the rest; the more it absorbs, the more difficult it is to control. But it hasn't reached that point yet.

I grab the black mana orb and change its shape, turning it into a spear that is longer than I am tall, and fly into the air, further boosting myself to increase my speed.

After landing on the floating island I visited first, I locate the remains of the ruins I saw with my eyes during the scan.

As I reach the area, some beasts rush at me immediately, but a concentrated pulse of kinetic energy blasts them away. Then I [Focus] more and stomp, releasing kinetic energy in modified vibrations. It ripples through the surface. The ground splits open, and rocks push through the dirt to the surface. I repeat the process several times, releasing more and more.

I do it until, in frustration, I release much more of it, and the area around me explodes into a shower of debris and the remains of the ruins.

Lighting up a single thermal orb, I jump down and blast away more bedrock, and enter the tunnel made out of stone. Its walls are covered in long unpowered inscriptions, and roots and greenery cover them.

There are beasts, all of them feel ethereal and spread an incredible chill as they move through the air. Just a bit of the first seal lifts up, and I don't hold the thermal energy that the Ignition Heart generates; instead, I let it immediately seep into the air, blazing the tunnels and filling them with golden flames.

The beasts, incapable of resisting or escaping, die even as they try to run away.

I send multiple pulses of mana through the ruins and locate what I was looking for and what I saw previously.

[Ley Line] stretches toward the direction I want to head, and I teleport, only to reappear just a step away. The black mana spear I hold interferes with the teleport, disrupting it as the black mana eats into the skill. So I don't attempt it again.

Changing my direction, I run through the tunnel until I reach the metal door and blast it away; the metal, as thick as I am. It creaks and bends audibly until it gives in and a tear appears in the door.

I step through, and release another wave of thermal energy, killing more beasts.

Further ahead, there is another door, much larger and thicker this time, but without mana powering the inscription, it lacks strength. They resist my blasts of kinetic energy, so instead, I grab hold of the thermal energy and release it in a thick stream, then narrow it until it's thinner than my pinkie and focus it on a single spot.

The metal around the spot begins to melt and sizzle until, after a few seconds, the stream of thermal energy pierces through. I move it, carving a circular hole halfway through. Then I stop and release a blast of kinetic energy, bending the half cut metal open like a can.

I enter the massive ruin and find a similarly huge pillar in the middle. It's crystal white and transparent, and inside of it, a heart is located, surrounded by incredibly intricate inscriptions. There are also circuits filled with a substance that resembles blood, sustaining it.

That heart inside is still beating and generating all this incredible mana needed to keep this enormous island afloat.

There are inscriptions taking some of that mana and using it for healing in some twisted way using pieces of flesh and cut off hand also in the pillar. Other inscriptions supplement the heart with something else, pale blue liquid from a nearby tank. There are even secondary inscriptions intended to kickstart the heart if it stops beating and who knows what else.

That heart isn't even human. It is easily half the size of my entire body.

I glance over the room and take in everything I could use - all the inscriptions I can remember. Then I lift the spear made out of black mana and, with a boost from kinetic energy, driving it into the pillar.

The spear pierces through the crystal and stabs itself into the heart, immediately starting to hungrily absorb the immense amount of mana.

The mana that keeps the island afloat doesn't vanish immediately. Other failsafes and mana storages act as an emergency supply, preventing it from falling.

But not for long.

The system doesn't want to tell me how many points I have.

Fine. I’ll collect so many that no one will ever come close to first place.

I wonder what an island's worth of beasts is worth.

***

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