Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 42 - I Have Become Death

Congratulations, you have reached level 75!

Your health has been regenerated by 70%!

Your Spirit Energy limit has increased by 200!

You have received +2 Strength, +2 Toughness, +2 speed, +3 Intelligence, +3 Willpower, and +8 Spirit!

You have received +20 free stat points!

All your spells have refreshed and are no longer on cooldown!

Several things happened all at once.

Lightning struck from on high. A massive bolt that almost seemed to move in slow motion as it headed straight for Xavier’s head. His spells reached the ends of their cooldown. He tossed all twenty of his free attribute points into Willpower. He cast Soul Block, infusing fifty souls into it, hoping it would be enough to absorb the spell—the one powered by seven strong E Grade mages pooling their power.

And he cast Willpower Infusion.

Lightning struck the soul apparitions. Xavier’s eyes widened. The apparitions… they weren’t strong enough to block the strike! They dissolved, the lightning tearing straight through them with devastating power.

The lightning struck him. Xavier’s entire body shuddered. Pain burned through every inch of him. He felt his health, which had just inched over ninety percent after receiving that level, drop down by more than half.

How damned powerful was that spell!?

Xavier’s body stopped shuddering and jolting. He sunk down, his right knee slamming into the stone ground. Purple mist flowed up from his Willpower Infusion spell, making its way toward the seven mages.

Will it be strong enough?

The misted energy entered the mages as they floated above him in that circle of theirs. Each one of them threw their heads back. The hoods of their robes fell down, exposing their faces—all of them human. All of them strained in effort. He felt their mental resistance.

Weak.

Xavier grinned. Stood. His mind took control of the mages, turning them into his thralls.

Turn your lightning upon your allies, he said with a mental command.

There was a shift in the battlefield. When he’d come through the portal, the army on this side had looked shocked, but they’d snapped into action, no doubt thinking whoever had just leapt into their world was a raging idiot who would die in an instant.

But he was still alive, and soldiers were increasingly dying around him.

Xavier needed them to fear him. Needed them to shudder when they saw him. Needed them to falter. He was holding his own, but he still didn’t know how long he’d survive over here.

He surged his aura, disrupting the balance in his core. In both his cores. A ripple swept out from him. The shock in those around him turned to fear. He could see it. Their blood running cold. The doubt overtaking each and every one of them.

Lightning rained down from the mages above. This time, it did not rain on him. The seven mages pooled their power once more. Their lightning created a chain—a violent area-of-effect spell that took down hundreds of enemies at once.

That spell definitely could have taken me out.

Xavier looked at his Mastery Points. Watched them rise. Far faster than he’d expected—far faster than he could have hoped. And that’s when he realised something.

Soul Strike.

With the number of soldiers dying around him his Soulkeeping reserve was already back to full. He infused all 1,970 souls into a single spell.

Now the lightning was coming from him.

Almost two thousand soul apparitions sprang to life around him. The fear that had rippled through the surrounding soldiers turned into a surge. Xavier had heard the Endless Horde roar and shout. Had heard their battle cries.

But he’d never heard them scream in fear until now.

Death radiated out from him. Each soul apparition that materialised was another translucent, glowing soldier that fought for him. Each soul was strong enough to kill at least two or three of the enemies.

Over six thousand E Grade soldiers died after one spell.

Another roar ripped from Xavier’s mouth. He couldn’t believe what he’d just done—what he was capable of. These E Grades… they were so weak. Nothing compared to the wave bosses he’d been facing. He’d figured one soul would be able to take out one of them, as he could one-hit them with Soultaker easily, cutting off heads and bisecting bodies clean in two.

Congratulations, you have reached level 76!

…

Congratulations, you have reached level 77!

…

Congratulations, you have reached level 78!

…

Xavier stumbled back in slight shock as the level notifications sprang into view.

Three levels? He’d gained three levels, all at once?

That’s absolutely insane!

Not only that, his health was now back at full. And Soul Strike—just as he’d realised before he’d cast it—didn’t suffer from any cooldown because of the levels he’d gained.

It took a mere instant for him to reap the souls from those he’d just slain and refill his soulkeeping reserve.

And so he cast the spell again—but not before distributing his sixty free attribute points.

Spirit increased from 2594 → 2654!

Willpower increased from 1591 → 1641!

He’d split the points, putting thirty into each, and marvelled at how many that actuallygained him with all the percentage modifiers.

Absolutely insane.

Lightning spread out from him. Hundreds and hundreds of bolts shifted into soul apparitions. Screams sounded from the soldiers as death swept through thousands more of them.

God, he’d never felt so much power!

More levels came. He felt a hunger. Deep inside of him. One he’d been holding back for so long. With all the death he caused, all the souls untethered from their bodies, that hunger threatened to take him over. It mixed in with something else. That primal, bestial will that had surged through him earlier—that had made it possible for him to take control of over a hundred E Grades around him.

The hunger is from my Soul Reaper class, but that primal, bestial energy… it’s from everything I’ve assimilated into me.

He didn’t know what the consequences of that would be, and right now… he honestly didn’t care.

Part of him knew he was only as powerful as he was right now not just because of his titles, but because of the sliver of E Grade material he’d assimilated into himself—it was making his body and core work in a way that an F Grade’s simply shouldn’t.

And that’s why it would kill him if he didn’t advance soon.

More levels came as he wrought more destruction upon his enemies. The hunger. The primal thrill and power. Each threatened to cloud his mind. And each wanted the same thing—for him to bring more death.

Their goals were his goals. He didn’t fight off the hunger or that primal ferocity. He let it all fuel him in his rampage. Those bells still rang inside his mind—the city’s warning bells that had sounded when he’d first come through the portal—but those he could ignore.

Waves of lighting death rippled from him. Again and again and again. He’d built up the range of this spell until it could reach for miles—that’s how he’d destroyed entire waves in an instant back outside Queen Alastea’s castle.

And that was how he would devastate this world.

Congratulations, you have reached level 87!

…

Congratulations, you have reached level 88

…

Xavier glimpsed the countdown timer.

Degeneration Countdown Timer: 13 hours 35 minutes and 18 seconds.

Xavier gave a dark grin. He’d gained more levels since he’d come through that portal than he’d gained in the last ten hours. He worried that soon the System would curtail his Mastery Points for a second time, considering how quickly he was leveling up. It had done it to him before, as he’d taken down wave upon wave of the Endless Horde.

He wouldn’t expect anything left.

Only ten more levels. Then I should be able to advance.

Finally, advancing to E Grade was actually in sight. This floor had taken far, far longer than he’d wanted it to. He needed to get back to the tower. Needed to move forward.

He disturbed the points, barely looking at them as he did.

Each level didn’t only bring him closer to his goal, it made him stronger. With every level he gained, he split his attributes to Spirit and Willpower. Spirit helped him in this moment, and he dropped more and more enemies with every Soul Strike he unleashed.

Willpower, that would help him later—when he needed to control his enemies. If not for manifesting that ability, he would have died many waves ago.

As he dropped the points from gaining Level 88, a thrumof power rolled through his entire body. Through his very soul. His core burned brighter than it ever had, his aura still unleashed. Still pulsing through his enemies and causing them nothing but fear.

He’d hit another threshold. He was gaining so many levels so fast he hadn’t even noticed it was close.

Spirit had just had its 3,000-point threshold.

Xavier had unlocked another realm of power.

Now I have become death, the destroyer of worlds.

The words came to him unbidden as he unleashed his most devastating Soul Strike yet.