As Northern flew, he had more time to observe how his body worked now. To put it simply, he felt his body relate with the environment at a higher level than it ever had.
But then again, his body had not exactly been relating with the environment at all before now. What made the difference was his hyper senses and intensified muscle formation—he could reach out to his surroundings at a profound level and that was why he could even fly without having a flight talent.
But now, it was different. He couldn't just reach out to the surroundings; he was perpetually in harmony with the world through the entropy flow of everything. From the soft breeze to the invisible heat beneath the ground, to the essence buried in the unseen weaves of the air.
He could forge a connection at a much deeper level. He didn't particularly need to turn his eyes to see—it was more like all the directions in front of him bent into his view, and somehow he could just see them all.
It was the same for hearing and smelling. The world seemed to acknowledge him in a different way. Not as a master, but more like a friend—a fondly cherished one.
Not to mention the fact that he discovered he could also absorb the entropy of his surroundings and use it to strengthen his body. He tried this the moment he noticed it and felt his body grow slightly hotter.
But everything entered a new level of intensity, and without expecting it, he streaked through the air like lightning.
If he hadn't gained that strange sight where directions bent into his view no matter the angle, Northern would have probably crashed or tumbled because he couldn't see clearly while speeding so fast.
However, he managed to adapt mid-flight. Although there were probably more benefits he could gain from the improvement, he now understood his evolved body at a fundamental level, and that felt satisfying.
He flew past the forest where the party of Drifters that left Lithia were still trapped. They were pushing back against a horde of monsters and doing very well at that. With his summons present, there seemed to have been no significant losses, or any at all.
But their pace seemed slow. Northern, of course, did not expect them to have reached Verulania by now. It took him almost two days to get to Lithia from Verulania, and with a large number of Drifters, it was bound to take longer. In fact, it was impressive they'd covered so much distance, though they still had a long way to go before reaching Verulania, and the horde of monsters seemed to be increasing.
The moment he passed overhead, his summons all glanced up and at that instant rained down devastating blows of terrifying slaughter on the monsters. It caused the party to surge forward quickly and baffled the Drifters as to why, but the sudden boost soon faded, weighed down by tired humans who needed to rest.
Eventually, Northern reached Verulania, and the first thing that demanded attention was a devastated battlefield in the center of the city. A large crater sat at its heart, and there were several other craters with broken buildings scattered all around.
The voice of the man in broken armor, with blood running down his face and fresh injuries scattered across his body, reached Northern's ears.
"Don't tell me… You people collaborated with terrorists. You stole the airships to trap the students—so they couldn't return to the Academy?"
Then the other large man, who was even more wounded but standing with greater dominance, responded after a faint smile.
"The Prophet is a very shrewd man. I don't know where he found those cultist freaks… but they've been quite useful to our cause."
Northern frowned as he continued to listen to the conversation while floating high above in the sky. It was midnight and the twin moons were dim, the sky especially dark, so no one saw him—certainly not since everyone was busy fighting for their lives.
He also erased his presence—another boon of his new body. Taking advantage of his close bond with the world, he could erase the subtle entropy emission from his body that formed his presence, which other Drifters could sense and use to gauge how strong he was.
Right now, it was very possible for him to be standing before a man who wasn't looking his way, and the man would have no idea.
Of course, he could also—with the entropy relationship—do the complete reverse of this.
He stayed up and observed the battle, and finally, as he saw it coming to an end, Northern changed his name to Titan's Reckoning and dropped.
***
Northern glared up at the indifferent man. He certainly was strong, and his talent was very unique too. Not to mention, he was a Paragon as well.
Apparently, Lieutenant Dante had gone really far with his plan to create Paragons. And Koll most definitely had a lot to do with how this was even possible in such a short amount of time.
The broad man's thick voice broke out, almost pushing the air itself.
"A student of the Academy, huh… what is a toddler like you doing on the grounds of providence."
Northern stared at him blankly, his eyes blinking twice before he forced out a grin.
"This bastard… did not just call me a toddler."
Ultron raised his hand immediately, sucking in all the air as he did. And he brought the hand down on Northern like a hammer.
Before the hand could even dive down though, he felt something plummet into his stomach, and for a moment, the world felt… blank.
His vision turned white, all the sound in his environment blanked out. He didn't even know it, but it seemed his brain shut down in that moment—it was almost as if he was taken out of existence.
His body folded forward, exploding a massive torrent of air blast that threw debris into the air from his back. Then another round of shockwaves tore behind his back in a massive circle before his body vanished.