Morning of the Ninth day, the Grandmasters are still stuck in their bitter battle, riddled with injuries, while the demons are being healed by Alvarach.
Talia had fallen to a combined attack, leaving her in a state worse than that of Rita, her presence on the battlefield decreased by ninety percent as a result.
As it were, only five Grandmasters were rumbling with action, but against four inexhaustible opponents, they wouldn't last much longer.
Meanwhile, Zydrax gives Ezra good news.
[The second part is complete]
'What exactly did you do?' Ezra questioned. He felt the changes, but feeling and understanding the process were two different things.
[I connected tendrils of pure elemental energy and infused them into every mana particle within you]
'So now you just have to meld it and I'll advance to Mythic Rank?'
For the first time in a long time, Ezra felt excitement.
[It's not that simple] Zydrax explained. [Your core essence and your element orb combined together into your heart, giving you better control of your elements. I have my speculations but it's not a phenomenon I'm familiar with so I'm not certain.]
[The one thing I'm certain about though, is that it's going to increasingly affect your cultivation going forward. Whether that's a good or bad thing, I can't say at the moment]
'Doesn't matter as long as I can as long as I can advance to Mythic rank'
[Normally, it takes years to achieve this rank as you would have to do it by your lonesome, taking steps in bits, else you could easily meet a tragedy]
[I've bypassed all of that. Moreover, the threshold of reaching Mythic is to have at least thirty to thirty five percent of your total mana reserves melded into liquid form]
'But you're going a hundred percent at once?'
[No, sixty seven percent. Anymore, and you'll be incapacitated for at least three days as your body adapts to such a drastic change, but with Alvarach on your neck, we can't afford such a thing]
'Why did you infuse elemental energy into all of my mana particles then?'
[I don't like doing things twice] Zydrax replied. [With tendrils through all your mana particle, once you meld the sixty seven percent, the already infused energy will ensure that reaching hundred percent afterwards will be far easier]
'Ok' Ezra mentally nodded in understanding.
[Sixty seven percent should land you right at the start of Peak Mythic rank, and by my estimations, stronger than Alvarach, though only by a small margin]
Ezra clenched his fists, imagining his victory.
A blinding ray of light had come through in such a dark situation.
'With this, I will win'
Ezra was in no doubt of it.
[I forgot to mention, the melding process will take six hours at the very least. You will feel pain all through and lose consciousness else the process fails]
Ezra wasn't worried, from his time as Kevin till now, the most present factor in his life was pain.
Toiling away for years to eventually breakthrough to become an Expert rank knight, betrayed afterwards and then reincarnated.
Dodging poisoned food and evil gazes from a young age, recruiting Cabrera and Frederick into his fold, setting up an information agency, obsessively training in a chamber for seven years, only to reach Grandmaster rank and have his core destroyed.
He'd truly come a long way.
At this point, rather than apprehension towards the coming wave of pain, his mind was occupied with the increase of strength that would accompany it, excited at the possibilities.
Pain was his friend, every time it visited, Ezra was either taught a valuable lesson or left with greater strength.
No pain no gain.
This was the quote that suited life the most, and by now, he'd accepted it, welcomed it and embraced it.
For pain was temporary, but its benefits were not.
With a small smile, he replies Zydrax.
'Pain has never been a problem, begin'
[As you wish]
Like the turning of a switch, Ezra rebounded as his body lit up. Glowing with a light blue hue.
'Ack!'
Ezra bit his tongue so hard, it bled. The pain was so sudden, staring right at the highest level right away.
The mana particles within him seemed to have entered a frenzy as they shook crazily, causing his internal to go haywire.
The pain was no joke, but Ezra was held on.
He grit his teeth, muffling any sound time and time again, completely focused on staying conscious.
An hour in, the pain suddenly decreased by half, allowing Ezra to catch his breath.
Soon after, the blue glow was tinted with red hues at multiple places.
Even after removing a large amount of demonic blood, some parts of demonic essence inevitably remained.
The remains were reacting to the mana frenzy.
Going further, Ezra's senses were soon isolated.
It was unknown how much time had passed.
Apart from the sight of the ceiling, he couldn't hear and forget moving, his body was completely numb.
The pain had faded.
Not exactly, Ezra had just adjusted to it.
His brain also heated up.
Through most of this ordeal, Ezra was lost in his imagination, simulating how the battle would take place.
After one point, the elemental energies in his heart began fluctuating, prompting faster blood circulation.
This sensation forced Ezra back to reality.
His blank gaze gained liveliness as he inhaled heavily, the energies in his heart were brighter than all others.
From his pores, mana particles gushed out, filling the room.
The glow extended outward and Ezra started floating.
The energies in his heart went into a frenzy, spinning faster than a spindle as it constantly refined the rest of Ezra's mana to maintain a white colour.
His skin began smoothing.
But Ezra discovered a problem.
The runes carved into skin were being erased!
'Zydrax, don't erase the runes'
Right after, he felt a massive itch coming from the carved runes as they heated up, carving themselves into his bones.
It was painful, but in this process of healing, Ezra barely felt anything.
Without warning…
*OOM!*
The sound of a well made gong resounded, accompanied by a circular wave of mana that Ezra expunged.
*Bam*
Still disoriented, Ezra fell onto the bed, and his weight crushed it.
"Ugh!"
As if waking from a relaxing night, Ezra stretched, each snap of his bones caused wind outburst.
Rubbing his eyes, affected from glaring at the ceiling for so long, Ezra got to his feet.
After another long yawn, the last of his sleepiness was wiped away.
The brightness of day told Ezra it was afternoon.
Clenching his fists, Zydrax popped in.
[How do you feel]
"The feeling's the same after a breakthrough. I feel energized and rejuvenated" he replied. "I'd have to do tests to give accurate measurements"
[The breakthrough took twelve hours, also, instead of sixty seven percent I was going for, approximately seventy five percent of all your mana has melded to liquid form]
A cold smile came upon Ezra. "I can say one thing though, I'm as least thrice at strong as before"
[That's good enough]
Ezra nodded, inhaling before coughing.
Laying on a bed for nine days straight, his body held a foul smell.
"How long do I have?"
[Two hours, give or take]
"Good" Ezra answered, walking out of his room.
The wave of mana would spread to every edge of the planet, informing them of a Mythic rank breakthrough.
Upon reaching Alvarach, the demon would definitely come here.
The momentum from expunging that wave of mana had wrecked the room.
The windows were broken and everything else was smashed against the wall.
The door had been broken off, and outside, a bunch of paintings and ceramics had broken.
Ezra walked out to find someone standing.
A familiar figure.
"Valentine" he called to her like he was greeting.
The girl was currently stumped, looking at the destroyed room with shaking eyes.
As a master, Elisa had naturally splurged in building her home, so it was not so easily damaged.
But what was this?
The furniture was embedded into the wall and the door had been blown to pieces.
Not to mention the wave of mana that passed through her, giving her a dreadful feeling.
"D-Did you do this?" She asked, pointing at the room.
"Ah that" Ezra raised his hands and four pouches appeared on the floor, making a clang sound.
Filled with Gold and Platinum coins, Ezra simply said. "I apologize, but I believe this is serve as appropriate compensation"
Picking the pouches, Valentine regained a semblance of composure. "Yes. This will be enough"
"Now, where is your restroom?"
"Go right…
With a thank you, Ezra went to the restroom.
He had to take a good bath before fighting Alvarach.
Done showering, Ezra discovered that he'd grown an inch, now 6'9.
Putting on casual clothes, Ezra quickly went for his next priority.
A new weapon.
Along with plans to attack Alvarach, Ezra had also planned many things to clinch the battle in his favour.
Flying through the broken windows, he flew towards Kingsmere…before halting and facepalming.
Valentine was a space mage, how could he forget.
With Valentine's help, he arrived at Traxford and not Kingsmere through a portal.
Kingsmere had defences against space mages.
Traxford did as well, but by connecting to her mother's set portal, Ezra arrived in Traxford soon after.
Without fanfare, he took off to Kingsmere.
At the speed he was going, he'd get there in twenty minutes.
Meanwhile…
The wave of mana continuously expanded, passing by Quartez in no time.
"Impossible!" Alvarach shrieked, throwing off all the Grandmasters.
Everyone had felt the pressure from the wave of mana, but only Alvarach could decipher it further.
"It cannot be!" He reiterated, as if going through a midlife crisis.
The Grandmaster demon couldn't help but be perplexed.
Without warning, his claws lit up with flame.
Slashing horizontally, the fire left his claws and became a slash of fire, heading towards unsuspecting Grandmasters.
Sending ten more slashes alongside them, he took off without seeing the result of his action, bursting through his barrier towards where he felt the presence of Mythic rank through the mana wave.
On his way he takes note of the town in the distance, where multiple peak masters were gathered.
Using the same skill, he sent ten slashes of fire towards the settlement as well, and flew past it before the skills hit.
He'd previously restricted his sense to the whole of Quartez, so he didn't notice the arrival of peak masters.
Moreover, in his rush, he failed to see the three Grandmasters situated among the ranks of the Peak masters.
How lucky. Had he found them, Alvarach would've taken his time to kill them.
But he didn't spare much thought on that.
If his senses were correct, and they usually were, he needed to put such a troublesome element out of the equation as fast as possible.
He lit up with flames and sped off.
This time, Alvarach was definitely fazed.
On the other hand,
"WATCHOUT!"
Thanks to Jerry's timely warning, the Grandmasters dodged the slashes of fire.
Most of them anyway.
Thanks to a surprise attack, Hisle's King, Daniel Sigur was pushed into the trajectory of a fire slash and was cut diagonally.
Moreover, the slashes exploded upon contact, so the others didn't go unscathed.
During the terrible situation, Rita was trying to get a healing potion from her space ring.
That coincided with the moment Alvarach burst through the barrier, providing an opportunity.
"Huh?" Rita was desperate, but after trying from the past night, she wasn't expecting it to actually work.
Regardless, she popped the lid of the two potions in her hand and downed it at once.
A light shone on her body as her burns healed and skin expunged poison from Alvarach's claws.
Now in a better position, Rita attacked the Demon Grandmasters, eager to take revenge.
With Daniel's death, the demon Grandmasters more or less matched human Grandmasters.
Thanks to Rita though, they were able to hold on.
Nearby
*Boom*Boom*Boom*
The town filled with Peak masters was silent.
After drinking till after midnight, many were still sleeping.
Furthermore, they had no mission today, so a good rest wasn't out of place.
As such, lest a few, most were asleep.
Which was why Alvarach's attack caught them like lightning on a sunny day.
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