Chapter 1017 The price of power
There were many moves that Max learned from the universal warehouse, ranging from sword moves to movement techniques to even auxiliary techniques.
If a move was unique and could achieve something that no other move apart from it could, Max learnt that move just to cover all his bases.
In total he learnt 32 new techniques, however, the most important one's amongst them were :-
[ Dragon's Heartstrike ] : A martial arts technique that concentrated the user's entire body strength amplified by divine essence into a single, devastating punch.
This fist technique was perfect for close range hand to hand combat, and was capable of breaking through solid barriers or delivering a knockout blow to an opponent.
It was a technique that Max would rely on should he ever find himself in a fist-fight against the perfect warrior ever again.
Then there was also the sword move- [ Celestial Severance ]
A forbidden move that laced the users sword with close to 50% of their divine essence reserve at once, giving it incredible power for an extremely short duration.
The move practically burnt a hole through one's divine essence reserve to give a short boost to their strength during which time any sword attack inflicted upon the opponent would have five times the normal damage output.
Perfect for decisive combat, it was the move that could potentially become the finisher against the perfect warrior.
Just like these two, Max also learnt a total of 30 different moves before calling it a day as he felt assured that he now had enough of a move arsenal to fight the perfect warrior under any given circumstance.
With this, his preparation to fight him and ascend to the celestial realm finally reached its final phase as from here till his ascension the only things left for him to do was to perfect these 32 moves and raise his level to that at the peak of tier8.
Thankfully, both these tasks worked in synergy to one another as Max could both level up and master his moves within the ultimate levelling pagoda at once.
Wasting almost no time after learning the new moves, Max walked into the ultimate levelling pagoda with the singular motive to reach the peak of tier8 in what could potentially take him close to 6-7 years of constant gruelling battle against swarms of monsters.
He had already not shown his face for the past 2.5 years to most and the universe could potentially become a very different place the next time he popped out, but Max did not care about it.
Almost as if nothing that he worked for mattered anymore, Max forgot his motivations to gain strength in the first place.
Initially at the start of his journey he did not wish to live a life full of regrets and hence he decided to live it to his fullest every single day.
Back then, Hazriel had given him a mission.... a destiny to fulfil! and Max worked hard to achieve it.
Along the way, he made many friends, lost some loved ones and tried his hardest to grow stronger as to protect everyone that he loved, however, ever since he took in the seed of destruction, although he did not realise it himself, he fell to the seeds corruptive effects although he did not realise it himself.
While the seed could not corrupt his base morals and turn him into a destructive criminal, what it could do was to use his biggest desire to grow stronger and using it as a goal to strive for, the seed made everything else feel redundant in his heart.
What started as a desire to protect his family from the perfect warrior, to keep them safe and happy, turned into an obsession to defeat him and prove himself as the strongest while their safety became an afterthought.
While he was once a loving father and an even more loving husband, the Max of now did not even seem to care about his own newborn children and although he had not met his wives for years he was ready to not meet them for many more years if it meant that he could walk closer to becoming stronger.
It was a clear deviation from his true personality, yet with no-one left to challenge him, no-one left to correct him and no-one left to question him, there was sadly no one who could bring him back to the right path anymore.
He could have easily grown stronger without ignoring his family.
Yes it would have taken longer, perhaps many more years than he would have fancied, however, then he would have truly lived a fulfilling life rather than the crazed one he lived now.
In his mind, he hoped that the future generations of the Rajput family would always look up to him just like he looked up to Rudra, however, the truth of the matter was that except the elder kids Jake, Amy, Kartikeya and Kremeth, none of the others thought much about Max.
While they loved their mothers dearly, the other kids couldn't care less about who their father was since he was never around anyways.
Since they had not fought for nor witnessed life outside the Rajput Capital, they did not value it as much as Max hoped they would as to them such luxury and grandiose was normal.
The Rajput spirit that Max was so proud of was dying in the next generation because of his own negligence and yet his singular focus was on mastering a few moves and honing his reflexes.
Of Course the universe was always going to remember Max Rajput as a great man and an urban legend that would be remembered till the end of time, however, while Max Rajput was the strongest vampire god, his story after reaching that pinnacle was sadly not happily ever after.
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