Chapter 496 - Threads of the Devourer

Passive Skill: Mental Attunement Loop (Mid Arcane) - The user’s mind functions in an unending attunement loop, immensely reducing the mental toll of continuous high-energy and mana usage, seamlessly sustaining even the most demanding skills and traits. This allows unrestrained high-energy and mana manipulation over extended periods without fatigue.

Close to five hundred thousand shards disappear, and the passive appears in my status. The description is simple yet perfectly aligned with my ever-growing goals and the increasingly intricate ways I use mana.

There were passives offering more—some designed to help my body better withstand the strain of mana, others to enhance my mental capabilities—but I chose to pass on them.

This passive is straightforward, and its simple description assures me it delivers exactly what I need. The rarity only reinforces its effectiveness. Impressively so.

Right away, that pain hits me, but this time I don’t have the luxury of waiting it out as the hells descend outside, the eye staying high in the sky but threads resembling veins stretching down towards the ground, connecting to bodies of people who died during the Framework activation.

These corpses twitch, bulge up, and quickly grow in size until they tower over most of the houses—giants made of exposed flesh and bones poking through with twisted expressions and blood dripping from them at every move, burning the ground.

And the eye in the sky, even though weakened, gradually grows stronger and stronger, creating more strands that reach down towards the people killed by these giants. They have no text over them, but the eye has.

[Bloodroot Devourer - lvl ????]

This prisoner doesn’t seem like the type to talk to.

(We bail?) Aaron sends through the link.

(Sophie, did you get the out-of-the-moon teleport array thing?) I ask.

(Beatrice escaped to the palace before we could get to her. She was extremely aware of Lily, and she was gone the moment Lily attacked.)

(I gave it my all.)

(I know you did, Lily,) Sophie sighs and I can sense her constantly checking on Izzy. (The good news is that I deployed my web over the Archon’s palace, so he shouldn't be able to teleport away yet.)

All this communication continues very quickly—a rapid stream of messages as Sophie, Maya, and Lily move at high speed towards the said palace. I can tell because every one of them is connected to me by [Ley Line].

(So you recommend staying and trying to get there while that eye, which is probably a soon-to-be-at-full-power Champion, hunts us. Sounds good.)

(Dennis, don’t talk to me like that. It’s my sister who is also in danger.)

(I will hold it off.)

After sending my message, silence follows, and I’m grateful to be alone in my room. My hand rises to my lips, where I feel the corners curved upward. My heartbeat, now more noticeable to me, confirms it.

The eye looms above, towering over the chaos. Powerful attacks are directed at it, but they are blocked by the once-human figures now transformed into fleshy golems—some with wings, flying around the eye in its defense, while others remain on the ground, creating more corpses.

It’s still weak, far too weak to be called Champion, but it grows stronger by the second, making me curious if it was crippled or if it can fully regain its title.

(Nat, you think you can fight a Champion?) Aaron asks carefully.

And I answer honestly, (No way. A Champion would beat the shit out of me in one second, but that thing—it’s not it yet.)

After that, I push the link to the back of my mind, only monitoring it for urgent messages.

“Use Trait strengthening token on Mana Wavelength Iris.”

The pain I was feeling from my new passive being applied intensifies as now the strengthening of my trait is applied as well. Even though not fully applied, the passive should help with this damn powerful trait.

Not that long ago, I strengthened this trait for the first time, and it should have taken me months longer before I felt like I could do it for the second time. But now? With a new passive?

I reach my hand, and Fracture flies to it, still in its sheath and pulled by my [Ley Line].

The mana in my crown begins to spin, and with a surge of kinetic energy, I shatter the window and leap out of the tower. Far in the distance, I notice a huge mecha mana armor form—slender and deadly, equaling its size to the flesh abominations. Maya fights to create a way for Lily and Sophie into the palace.

At the same time, blue flames explode around the tower, along with dozens of lifelike projections the twins create to distract the flesh golems attacking it.

I boost myself and fly into the air, heading towards the eye, Mana Weaving creating a huge projectile behind me.

A few monsters attempt to block my path, but at incredible speed, javelins streak past me with a terrifying whistle. Red and white lightning arcs around them, annihilating the monsters in a single strike before the javelins pivot and surge toward new targets.

I launch the massive javelin at the monster, but the eye shifts focus to intercept the attack. Vein-like tendrils extend from it, effortlessly swatting both my strike and Tess’s out of the air.

As I form another weapon and clash against the fleshy monsters, a constant barrage of javelins supports me.

The monster releases even more fleshy veins—hundreds of them—twisting, shifting, and forming a shape, an inscription. Then a single pulse of mana flows through them, and activates it.

I find myself unable to fly no matter how hard I try. My kinetic energy is still there, but it’s impossible to use it to create the effect of flying.

My Mana Wavelength Iris takes in that incredible structure made by fleshy things. An immensely intricate design, able to generate effects like that so simply. The sheer knowledge and control needed for something like that—a beautiful movement of mana to allow it.

I stare at it even as I land on the ground in between the buildings, absorbing the kinetic energy of my fall. Three fleshy golems charge me, blood dripping everywhere and melting anything—stone, people, or metal.

Mana surrounds me, and I allow myself to compress it more than I did before. There are more threads through Mana Weaving, and mana flows from me in waves.

It hurts so much, my new passive and trait still applying to my body, a process that will likely take hours longer. But gradually, there are changes already applied, making me stronger.

Kinetic energy flows through my armor, and I crash against a fleshy giant. A hit from my armor breaks it, slamming it against the buildings nearby. My armor moves slowly because of its weight and size, so I pump more kinetic energy through, speeding it up and crashing against another fleshy golem. Grabbing its shoulders, I tear it in half. The last one’s head flies off after my punch.

Immediately after, my armor disappears, and I softly land on the ground, all that huge amount of mana pulled back into my crown where I make it circle.

Three javelins, as long as a bus, form over me. Weaving from mana, compressing, filling with golden thermal energy. They shoot forth, a shockwave in their wake sent through the street.

All three explode in the fleshy veins that grasp them far away from the eye. A few of Tess’s javelins meet the same fate.

Getting a message, I teleport through [Ley Line], ending near the palace where Sophie, Lily, and Maya went. The huge armor forms around me again, and I clash against the fleshy golems trying to follow the trio. At the same time, Min-Jae, already here, starts throwing huge pieces of broken buildings at the monsters. These pieces are as big as cars and build up a lot of speed, obliterating the monsters.

To test something, I tear the fleshy tentacle connecting one of the monsters to the eye, but the monster continues to move and attack even then.

One of the tallest golems falls down, unable to stand within the field Min-Jae creates around it. With a sweeping motion of his hand, Min-Jae brings down an entire tower along with a smaller one nearby.

With all of them dead, I teleport to the boy and gesture at the eye. “Throw me at it.”

To his credit, Min-Jae doesn’t hesitate and doesn’t ask why. I lower my natural defense, and his skills envelop me, shooting me right towards the eye at incredible speed.

Forming armor around my body, I pierce through the monsters in my way. When these fleshy tentacles reach for me, I increase the armor's size so they grab the armor instead of me. Their movements are still incredibly quick.

The eye turns to me, looking, observing, its veins forming inscriptions once again. This time, I allow my Mana Wavelength Iris to take over. I observe the same way, reacting to the movement of the mana.

At the same time as the monster activates the inscriptions, I add a bit of speed to the crown—an instability releasing a pulse of disruption I modify to counter the attack that was supposed to vibrate my body and mana apart into pieces of flesh.

My pulse and the monster’s attack collide, disrupting each other.

And I live.

The eye blinks, and the tentacles form into another shape. More of them attacks the armor around me, trying to pierce it, to tear it apart with great force. For my armor to last this long tells of how durable it is.

But the monster grows stronger. Its movements become quicker, the pressure it radiates increases, and it moves mana at a much higher speed. Another inscription activates, and I barely counter it—half of my armor evaporates into nothing.

A red and white lightning passes by me, destroying fleshy tentacles in its way and the ones that try to stop it, before nearly reaching the eye—only for a last-second mana barrier to stop it. And what a powerful barrier it is. With my eyes, I can tell right away I won’t be able to break it apart.

(Tess, there’s a box full of sand in my room. Just throw it at the monster if it looks like I’m getting my ass kicked,) I send through the link.

Finally done, I let mana cycle in my crown one more time, and after the disrupting wave the effect that didn’t allow me to fly disappears.

My armor gets pulled back to me, mana seeping into my crown.

The monster, now feeling at least 50 levels stronger than me, moves. Its tentacles form ever-changing shapes of inscriptions that hurt my eyes—a terrible attack I’ll have no way of facing.

At the same moment, an orb forms over the palm of my hand.

Light blue.

Dark blue.

Dark blue with wisps of light blue.

Dark blue with wisps of light blue and purple.

An orb on the brink of destabilization and turning bright white.

Then another color.

An orb made of black mana. So domineering, yet so calm in my hand now.

With my [Focus] and [Mana Manipulation] at level 60, with my body getting used to the strengthening Mana Wavelength Iris, and with the new passive still being applied, I connect the orb with the crown floating over my head.

Within a blink, the crown turns an inky black, all movement of mana within it ceasing in an instant. The stillness is unsettling, unnatural—yet it doesn’t stop there. The crown begins to draw mana from me, pulling from my body and reservoir without hesitation, consuming it with relentless efficiency.

The air around me shifts, growing dense with an oppressive weight. The battlefield seems to hold its breath as the crown absorbs mana endlessly. A quiet power builds, steady and unyielding.

This time, I might just make it work.

***

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