Chapter 281: The Attack Reached Its Final Destination
I stood at the edge of the crater, spinning my staff once before letting it vanish in a flash of light. My feet touched down beside the crater’s rim, and my wings slowly faded behind me.
Azalea flew over, landing beside me in a hurry. Her eyes scanned my empty hands, then darted to the crater below.
"What are you doing?" she asked, worry clear in her voice.
I gave her a wink and a small grin.
"Trying to finish this. Don’t worry—I’ve got a plan. But I need you to stay back. Make sure it doesn’t turn its attention to you again."
She looked unsure for a second but then nodded and took off, flying a safe distance away.
I rolled my shoulders and exhaled slowly, centering myself as I looked down into the crater.
The Deathmist inside was churning violently again, trying to reform. I could already see the phantom’s shape taking hold—twisting, rebuilding.
Once more, it chose the form it had used before. Azalea’s shape, sculpted from Deathmist. But it wasn’t as solid this time. The mist looked thinner, less stable. It was weaker now.
"Hey there," I said with a cheeky smile, stepping closer to the edge. "Enjoying the action so far?"
Of course, it didn’t care for pleasantries. No reaction. Just a sword lifted in silence, its glowing red eyes fixed on me.
Behind it, the air began to churn. Several vortexes swirled open in the Deathmist, each one hissing like a broken seal. One after another, they spat out swords made of pure mist—long, jagged, and sharp.
The phantom pointed at me.
The swords shot forward, screaming through the air straight toward my chest.
The first mist-forged sword came whistling toward me, splitting the air. I didn’t move. I simply raised my palm, fingers slightly spread, and activated the new ability pulsing within my core.
"[Sovereign Absorption]"
A swirling violet vortex snapped into existence just inches in front of my hand. It wasn’t large—only the size of my head—but it spun violently, dragging the very air around it.
The sword slammed into the vortex.
BOOM!!!
And the sword instead of piercing through, it slowed. Mist flared, distorted, and began to unravel.
Streams of raw energy split off the impact and raced along invisible threads straight into my heart. I felt the surge—the core inside me reacting instantly, absorbing the foreign energy and converting it into usable Essence. It wasn’t perfect. Some power still bled through.
But the sword hadn’t stopped.
The vortex spun faster, straining to contain the force.
Deathmist warped and flared around it, folding inward as the absorption deepened.
Sparks of violet danced along the edges where the vortex met the blade. The two forces pushed against each other—one devouring, the other resisting. A screech echoed in the air, like metal grinding against itself.
Then a sharp crack split the space between us.
The vortex began to distort—its edge warping as the blade pressed deeper, slipping through the swirling barrier like a wedge through ice.
And then it tore through.
The sword burst past the last line of resistance and slammed into my chest.
I staggered back two steps, coughing, but still upright—alive, and with more Essence in the tank.
I smiled.
Another sword screamed toward me, then another. I raised my hands again—both this time—and formed twin vortexes. They caught the attacks, each one slowing, distorting, and bleeding energy into me. I clenched my jaw, holding my ground.
My core pulsed, heat surging within me. The Essence storage ticked upward.
96... 103... 117...
More swords rained down. They didn’t stop. I gritted my teeth and let them come. Blades made of Deathmist tore across my shoulder, scraped against my legs, slashed through my arms. I tanked every hit. My body trembled, but I stayed upright.
127... 132... 141...
"Come on," I hissed, wiping blood from the corner of my mouth, "just a little more."
Then came the last sword, the largest, wreathed in dense mist like a phantom’s crown jewel. I didn’t bother with defense—I stepped straight into it.
[Sovereign Absorption] kicked in hard. A vortex flared over my chest, sucking the energy and funneling it straight into my core.
It hit my chest with a deep thud . A shockwave rippled through my bones, but I welcomed it.
145/145.
The moment it hit full capacity, my Essence Engine responded and started compressing it.
The phantom let out a shriek and dashed at me, sword raised high. A flicker of warning passed through my mind but I didn’t back away.
I raised my staff again, summoned from thin air, and met its blade head-on.
CLANG!
The strike echoed like metal dragged across a canyon. I stepped in, pushed against the sword, and locked eyes with the phantom.
"You’re too late."
The phantom brought its sword down again in a flurry of blows—fast, brutal. I blocked one. The second scraped my arm. The third bit into my thigh.
But I activated Sovereign Absorption again and again—on my palms, my shoulder, my staff itself. The swirling vortexes drank up what they could from each attack, and the pain that followed felt distant, like background noise.
We clashed in a brutal melee, and with every blow, energy surged into me. My core immediately got to work, tirelessly converting it into Essence.
145/145 (+145)
"Enough." I growled.
Crimson mist erupted behind me as a pair of wings took shape on my back.
I rose into the air with a single flap of my wings, violet sparks trailing behind me. My hand lifted, staff glowing with pure Essence, and I whispered the words that would end it.
"[Garden of Death]"
The phantom froze mid-strike, its blade suspended in the air. Space around it locked tight as both my Psynapse fractures focused entirely on the skill. I channeled all 290 units of Essence into it—forcing every drop into the cast.
And then instead of small five petal flowers made of Essence, it appeared.
A massive inverted lotus—transparent, shaped from spinning violet Essence—blossomed from nothing.
Each petal was massive—easily the size of an arm—and slowly spun in place, forming a huge, upside-down lotus in the air.
Essence churned inside each petal like waves in a stormy ocean, glowing softly with violet light.
The pointed tip of the flower hovered just above the phantom’s head, aimed like a spear. It turned once—then again—and then unleashed a thick, concentrated beam of Essence straight down, slamming into the phantom with full force.
BOOM!!!!
The impact lit the sky.
The beam wasn’t like the others. It didn’t punch a hole. It pinned the phantom in place, dragging its form down like a mountain pressing on smoke. Mist scattered in waves as the deathmist struggled to hold shape.
Then the lotus began to spin faster.
The beam narrowed, growing thinner and more precise. Every turn of the lotus sliced through layers of the phantom’s body, carving it apart from the top down. Explosions erupted inside the sealed space as the phantom screamed.
It tried to resist.
But every movement made the lotus spin faster, each rotation slamming it harder with layered beams and cracking pressure. The air itself shimmered. Cracks spread along the ground as waves of violet Essence rocked the space.
I hovered in the air, sweat trailing down my brow, feeling the strain in every nerve. This was the final strike. This was everything I had. A plan that took shape in my mind, sparked by the memory of that initial finger strike. This entire battle was a clash—a contest between my Sovereign Essence and the Deathmist.
Azalea floated nearby, watching in awe and silence.
Down below, the lotus gave one final shudder—and the central beam intensified, forming a bright spear of Essence that pierced all the way through the phantom’s body.
BOOM!!!
A shockwave tore through the area. The sealed space shattered.
Where the phantom once stood...only scattered Deathmist remained.
The lotus above flickered... and slowly unraveled into strands of Essence before fading into the wind.