Seven Foes, Seven Paths! The system declared in its description...
Then there was the lore about seven Kings and seven Heroes... the implications were clear!
The seven Heroes each repeated a key to defeating each King...
And this time the Blood King had yelled, calling him Swordsman with a fury meant to be reserved for a mortal foe.
That could only mean one thing! This King’s nemesis was the Hero Swordsman!
The concept of winning this battle was laid bare in Seth’s mind. The Swordsman clearly represented a sword-wielding class, just as much as the other Heroes did.
Seth had no clue about the standards of sword-wielding classes in the origin, but that didn’t dull his excitement...
Since the origin principles were so similar to games of Earth, why wouldn’t the classes it produced follow the same logic?
The crimson light struck his metallic frame as his figure spun downward with controlled grace. His item, Xenon’s Sphere, burst into a liquid-metal stream flowing around his figure.
Seth’s eyes gleamed as the orb formed two long, sleek blades — swords to be precise. He reached his destination several feet above the water, but low enough to strike his target.
Runes flashed across the dual blades as his genetic battle armor activated in full gear, his skin long recovered from the heat and gaining immunity instantly.
[Racial Trait: Universal Adaptation!]
He grinned savagely, the radiance of the lit blue face shield highlighting his bloodied teeth.
The blades trembled with manic intensity, his essence trait Oscillation pushed to the limit. Forget the 12X boost on sharpness the trait once promised.
Backed by awakened-rank essence, the effect was amped to 20X...
BUZZZ!
The already lethally sharp edges blurred with a deathly promise, and with a sudden twist he unleashed a vertical cyclone slash right at the monster’s crimson horns...
Skrinnng!!!
Sparks sprayed and danced as the blades sank straight through the crystalline crimson conduit horns, killing the pulsing beam in an instant!
The monster’s head swung back, not from pain but in an attempt to strike its foe. The horns were an attachment of its helmet, never a part of its body, so naturally such a reaction wasn’t expected.
Knowing this, one might think Seth’s action of going for its horns was wrong. But it wasn’t. If he sought any hope of engaging in a full-on close assault on this monster, he had to eliminate the number one hindrance — the horns!
As for the rest of the armor?
Seth’s eyes gleamed as his figure nimbly swerved out of the way, his genetic suit assisting his evasion...
"Swordsman, you will not see the death of this King!" The monster’s coarse but furious voice roared, and the bloody sea beneath awoke in that instant.
The Blood Sea showing its true nature... it was never a sea.
There was only one sea in this space... and that was the Immortal King Blood-Sea!
As for the shallow ocean? All along it was just the physical manifestation of the monster’s terrifyingly vast essence!
The sea rose, evaporating into a mass of pure, unfiltered savage essence. The wetlands cracked dry in an instant as essence stormed into the colossal figure of the King, making it whole again.
Wind was pulled back into the atmosphere. Seth’s expression warped, instantly turning grim as thrusters pumped jet fumes from both his feet and arms, his figure swerving into a rapid retreat as he resisted the oppressive suction.
Wind and crimson essence raged in the atmosphere as a towering whirlwind swallowed the Immortal King Blood-Sea.
The air trimmed with savage storms, furious gales scraped across the dry terrain, the unpredictable pull growing unbearable.
Seth’s armor strained against the pressure...
[Warning! Warning! In order to resist the tempest better, it is advised for master to gain footing!]
Seth didn’t need to be reminded twice. Gritting his teeth, he glanced downward. Getting to the ground without losing to the oppressive current was near impossible unless...
His swords undulated, bursting into a liquid-metal mass. Shaped by his will, the Xenon Sphere formed a massive chain anchored tight to his waist.
He embodied the anchor head with his essence trait, Burden of Will!
Fueled by the enhanced essence of awakened rank, plus the boost from the Gene skill Absolute Weapon Resonance!
The weight of the already heavy anchor multiplied by ten.
His hair whipped upward at the sudden pull. Mark deftly deactivated all thrust to avoid disrupting the descent, while configuring the armor to steady the landing...
Seth’s eyes flashed, his muscles tensed, as his figure drew a purple trail streaking downward at incredible speed.
Boom!
Clouds of debris and dust rose as his frame barreled into the earth, a crater forming in his wake.
His feet went numb from impact, blinding pain hitting Seth as his very bones creaked and trembled...
Regardless of Mark’s attempt to diffuse impact, it couldn’t escape Newton’s third law nor break through the restraints of impulse and momentum transfer.
No matter how defensive the armor was, it couldn’t absorb all the force. Some sank straight into the body within.
As Seth battled against the raging unstable currents of wind, changes were occurring to the very source of the calamity itself. The towering crimson whirlwind slowly shrank and condensed into a massive cocoon.
But this did nothing to calm the storm; it only made things worse. The foggy skies peeled with thunder as the winds raged even more fervently, as though the plane reacted to whatever was brewing within the cocoon.
Boom! A devastating wave of compressed gales swept forth as the cocoon shrank, its luster turning brighter.
Boom! It shrank again!
And again!
Seth crawled out of the crater, the chain anchor strapped tight to his hips, his teeth gnashed together as he realized...
That thing was getting stronger!
As though it wasn’t overpowered enough. Previously, if he had to gauge the prowess of the Immortal King, he would say it was around the level of a Mid-Stage Monarch-grade Awakened — one that had awakened a class at the very least!
A notch above Seth in both raw power and might. But you see, that gap was approachable if Seth threw all his cards in...
But if that thing completed whatever it was doing? Forget even matching it — Seth didn’t even know how he’d fare, but he was sure victory wouldn’t be easy.
Boom!!! The cocoon shrank as a disastrous shockwave stronger than the last swept forth, this time sweeping Seth backward.
Because he had been fighting an opposing force, this sudden change in momentum caught Seth off guard.
The chains around his hips clattered as they stretched taut, the only thing keeping him from flying out of sight being the heavy anchor.
’Forget it, I can’t get close at this rate!’ He acknowledged his limits painfully.
The cocoon kept shrinking wave after wave, compressing even smaller than the initial size of the behemoth.
Continuing to shrink and shine until a blinding gleam of crimson washed over the land.
The cocoon reached its limit at around nine feet tall. It stopped and began to rattle.
The entire plane trembled in tandem with its rhythm. Seth’s heart hammered against his ribs.
Sweat pooled from his temples and his back, his hair standing on end as an aura cold and ruthless washed over him.
His jaw tightened as cracks resounded, a terrifying gleam spilling from the thin rough line running across the cocoon...
His pupils constricted at the sight of the massive aura bellowing from within...
---
Back in the majestic spaceship hanging in the void above the massive Verdant Moon...
Within the spectating room...
Farad’s two opened eyes gleamed as he observed Seth along with the others, his Will reverberating in the air...
"This is the part where even the brightest are extinguished..."
He relayed, turning to the lizard man beside him. The lizard man nodded. "It’s a pity, but it’s true. No one has overcome Blood-Sea in eons, precisely because of this irritating trait of all Immortal Kings."
His bright green slits flickered, claws scraping against his scaled chin. "The battle might as well be over."