’This guy has a serious problem... what’s it called again... complex superiority? Inferiority? As expected, it’s difficult for an esteemed being such as I to navigate this vulgar ensemble called language.’
Finally, Koll launched him skyward and rocketed straight up to crush him with another barrage of a hundred strikes.
But Revant would be damned before he’d let the same attack nail him twice. He twisted mid-air, wrenching himself from Koll’s path.
...Or so he thought.
A vicious storm of blows hammered him from below—like a metal slab swung with titanic force and slammed against him, sending him tumbling and reeling high into the sky.
He lost control of his senses entirely. Everything went black. By the time he regained consciousness, Koll was already on him, raining hellish blows down.
’...ah, damn me. That fool of a master has infected me with his weakness. Flock with the birds you want to become.’
Koll seized his collar and began burying a relentless stream of strikes into his face. The Tyrant’s grip felt like being held captive by shadowy metal fortresses—the hold was impossible to break.
Worse, Revant’s strength had diminished drastically due to the sudden separation from Northern. He never thought he’d miss his master so much.
Then something happened that rattled them both to their cores.
They moved.
Well, they’d been moving all along. But this movement felt different—it wasn’t their intent to move, yet they moved anyway.
They were Willed to move. Koll was Willed to scurry away from Revant like a terrified rat, and Revant... he was Willed to descend upon Koll like a demonic cat straight from hell.
For a moment, the world wanted Koll to lose and Revant to win, unleashing an infinite torrent of blows upon Koll.
But as quickly as the Will manifested, it vanished.
Both fighters froze.
They felt like pawns being moved across some vast chessboard—granted, Revant didn’t know what a chessboard was, but he certainly despised the word pawn.
The next second, the strange commanding force that had locked them in place dissolved, leaving them standing there, staring at each other in bewilderment.
Revant glanced back at the sky.
’Oh master, what have you gone and done now?’
***
In the vast distance, Eli and Thalen flew toward the ice plain at breakneck speed, but they were still falling behind. The Paragon, despite his considerable flight speed, couldn’t help but feel appalled remembering the unfair velocity of the figure he’d glimpsed earlier.
Thalen sat atop the massive bird, gripping its feathers tightly and staring ahead.
Then his eyes caught something. The entire land convulsed violently the next moment—he wasn’t even given time to process what he’d seen. The air itself shuddered continously, as if a thunder blade was cleaving the earth.
From their distant vantage point, they watched the ground quake as the colossal ridge collapsed. They’d actually missed a similar tremor because they were simply too far away.
But now, closer, they could piece together what had happened. Apparently both ridges of the Leviathan had been severed.
"H—How?"
Eli couldn’t steady his trembling voice.
Even Thalen couldn’t respond. He stared into the distance with earnest confusion, a blank and unsettling sensation spreading through his chest.
That was Northern ahead—he knew it. He couldn’t recognize the other figure, but he sensed it was Northern who’d just unleashed that devastating attack that shook everything and tore along the landscape.
He couldn’t help but stare, his face pale and vacant.
A moment later, he buried his face in his hands.
’He’s barely seventeen. He’s a Sage, yet he’s battling a Leviathan that none of us—Ascendants, Paragons—could defeat. And he’s... just a Sage.’
Thalen shook his head.
He’d lived nine hundred years, and throughout those centuries, he’d spent considerable time among humans on Tra-el, observing them—their finest prodigies—encountering them here and there.
He couldn’t think of any school of thought that supported such an absurd anomaly. It was simply impossible.
This was the kind of fantastical tale you told young drifters to foolishly motivate them, to make them aspire to greatness. The kind of dream politicians planted in citizens’ hearts to fill them with hope.
But the thing was, such hope was built on impossibility. Northern was that hope—something that, if he could even be called that, should NEVER be possible.
And yet...
Here they were.
"What do you think?"
Eli’s voice carried up from below, breaking through his tormented thoughts. He withdrew his face and looked ahead.
"Honestly... I’m wondering what the hell we’re even doing here."
Eli laughed softly.
"I won’t lie—I feel you. I used to feel so powerful, you know? I am strong... I know I’m strong... at least I believed so... but suddenly, watching this, I’m not even sure what I know anymore... haha."
He ended with a short, awkward chuckle.
Thalen shook his head dejectedly as he stared forward. Then Raven in her human form caught up, her single enormous wing flapping once as she halted beside them, regarding them with an even expression:
"Is something wrong?"
At that moment, they all felt a compelling force urging them to move. They did—didn’t they?
They weren’t quite sure what had happened, but suddenly they couldn’t move anymore—even when they desperately wanted to.
Raven’s gaze darkened into a frown.
The strange force vanished as quickly as it came, but left an ominous tension in the air. Even Lynus and Jeci, trailing a few meters behind, were stunned.
They stared at each other in silent shock. None voiced it aloud—it was difficult to articulate at first.
Eli then stared ahead with a deep scowl, befitting a handsome, eagle-like creature such as himself.
"I think... the world is starting to buckle under the weight of those Origins’ battle. We need to inform Lord Rian immediately."
It was both surprising and understandable how Eli suddenly spoke with greater respect toward Northern—no one wanted to address it, because there was a certain unspoken understanding in the air.
Raven nodded.
"You’re right, but there’s only so much he can handle... we have to do somethin—"
She froze mid-sentence as the entire plain shuddered again.