Although I was not actively pulling Essence from my surroundings, my Anima Depth would passively start drawing Essence if I start casting spells, just like any other Adept, but this pull had a limit, as I could only draw the Essence surrounding me, this was one reason the Adepts were easily killed in the camp every morning, but this Title changed everything, by making me a Storm Source and expanding my reach far beyond my surroundings.
The tools that Orath had used to hold back the Adepts in the camp would be useless against me with this title, and there was also something else that was making me excited.
One of the greatest weaknesses of the Hollow Avatar was the fact that it could not wield my Anima, just the lightning I converted and placed inside my channels, if I activated this title and became a Storm Source, while actively pulling all the Storm Essence around towards me.
Did it mean that without Anima, my Hollow Avatar could fight with Essence using this title?
This was something I needed to find out rather quickly, because its implications were vast. The third part of the title gave me something that my improved channels were giving me, and that was immunity to lightning.
Still, this title took this further, and it was giving me total immunity to lightning spells a tier above me, which was Arcanist, and it would blunt the damage against Sovereign tier spells.
This was a ridiculous advantage, and the final portion of the title wrapped it all into a pretty bow, where the longer I was casting lightning spells, a storm would begin to rise around me.
I don’t think I would be changing the Demon Slayer Title any time soon; its importance to me could not be overemphasized. However, with this title, I would no longer be a mage, but a living calamity.
This shook me to the core, because I could see myself clearing out every demon to the horizon with this title, and my lightning would scour the earth until everything below me became ash and glass.
No wonder they say Legendary Titles usually only appear at the Sovereign level; this power was ridiculous.
The world had spent hundreds of mornings trying to teach me I was not lightning. The title was the world, finally, conceding the point.
∞
I went out of my head and looked around me for a moment. The staircase kept heading upward, and I buried my mind back into my Status Screen to check out the first of the two Legendary disciplines I half-knew.
I knew that I had used it in the last loop before the tribulation when I had taken apart Khaazims as if they were made from rotten wood. My status screen had vibrated as it had never done before, but my mental state at that time was not focused on seeing what I had gained.
[ Lightning Edict ]
[ Discipline — Legendary — Broken-Celestial ]
[ Type: Command / Instant ]
Effect: The caster declares a state, and the target is compelled to it. Functions on matter and energy, with resistance scaling with the target’s tier.
Cost — Anima: Moderate.
Note: Target must be infused with Lightning Essence for a change to be effected on it, and there may be a small chance that the Hollow Place would widen with each use.
Consumed: Surge, Lightning Cascade, Abyssal Toll, Abyssal Direction.
On the surface, the simple description of this spell was not as bombastic as the Legendary Title, but this skill had swallowed Surge, Lightning Cascade, and Abyssal Direction, three rivers gone into one sea.
What came out was a very strange ability. Sure, I would not be throwing lightning with the Edict; it did something far more scary. If I told a thing what it would do, as long as they were infused with lightning essence, then I could change their state.
I recalled what I did to the Khaazim in that loop. I erased every bit of moisture in its body, and it practically became stone. And this was not even using this spell to its full potential.
If my enemy could survive a lightning strike from me, there would be traces of my lightning essence in their bodies and wounds, and with that, I would have access to their bodies that no one should have.
What was stopping me from saying, burn, break, and their bodies followed my edicts and became broken or spontaneously combust?
This power was one of the most sneaky and disturbing abilities that I had ever seen, and I don’t think that I liked it that much, but with the sort of enemies that I would be forced to face in the future, there was no doubt that I would be using this spell a lot.
Although the section where the System informs me of the small chance for the Hollow Place to widen was disturbing, and if there was any reason not to use this spell, this may be it.
It was as if this spell was made for the Avatar, because I think it drew power from the Hollow to make these changes in the bodies of my target, due to the fact that some of the things this spell was promising me it could do were far beyond what any lightning essence could do.
I had not even used this spell for the moment, and had not seen its full reach, and I needed to see it, only then would I know if the benefit was worth the cost.
∞
I sighed and looked at the final Legendary spell. I had not expected to acquire a third spell, especially a legendary variant, and merely by looking at its name, I knew where this spell had come from because I had been killed by it more times than I could count.
A small smile crossed my face as I suppressed the shiver that brushed past my soul as I remembered the tribulation lightning that had taken me apart.
How great would it be to turn the instrument of my dread against my enemies?
[ Lightning Tribunal ]
[ Discipline — Legendary — Broken-Celestial ]
[ Type: Judgment / Channelled ]
Effect: Calls down one descending bolt of tribulation-grade golden lightning upon a chosen target. Bypasses ordinary defence. Weighs the target and unmakes them at their Origin.
Cost — Anima: Severe.
Draws upon: Lightning Law Shard.
Note: Repeated use risks drawing the attention of the heavens.