Chapter 185: Has He Gone Mad?!
"What an unlucky day for Gigantica!! She was the first to be chosen!"
Gamemaster Biscuits commented while showing a 6-foot white fluffy bunny with one sliced ear off.
Her thighs were big enough to feed a village... and they were also the source of her strength. Yet, in this game, she was restricted from using them; the Glider was a must-have.
’Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit... it’s right behind me...’
Gigantica kept looking behind, her scarlet eyes reflected nothing... However, she could feel the vibrations getting more intense.
If the Rifters couldn’t run away from the Leviathan on the surface, there was no way in hell they could pull it off underground... It’s home, where it lived most of its life, and carved it with its own body!
Gamemaster Biscuits knew this, the viewers knew this, and the Rifters also knew this... Yet, they could do nothing but pray that the duration of the mark ends before the Leviathan gets to them.
’About two minutes remaining... If the Leviathan catches Gigantica and switches to me, I will still survive its hunt.’
Levi thought inwardly, his spiritual vision reflecting a scene of the Leviathan getting dangerously close to Gigantica... Its speed was so terrifying, it sent shivers down his spine.
’Good job on surviving...’ Ash’Kral said sarcastically.
’What’s your problem?’ Levi frowned.
’I thought you were more ambitious than this.’ Ash’Kral said, ’Even if you survive, you will lose the game, and whatever faint hope the Void seed has in you.’
Levi went silent, understanding that Ash’Kral was telling the truth... The frontrunners were so far from them, he couldn’t see them in his echolocation’s range.
He had it at a thirty-kilometer limit!
So, even if he survived the hunt and kept gliding at the top of his speed, he could never catch up to them.
After all, he wasn’t racing against nobodies... those four Rifters would never make a fatal mistake that could take them all out and let Levi snatch victory by some miracle.
It wasn’t happening.
’What do you expect me to do?’
’You already know the answer.’ Ash’Kral smirked coldly.
Levi knitted his eyebrows... His original plan to impress the Void seed was taking hold of his mind. He worked so hard on it, even when he was absolutely terrified of going through with it.
The moment Sandwitch took hold of Sandscale Leviathan and chased him down... Although he was supposed to be scared, in reality, his soul sighed in relief.
This showed... his plan was much scarier than this.
In such situations, Levi prioritized his rational thinking over anything... It was clear to him that sticking to his original plan was nothing but a death sentence under the current circumstances.
Thus, he shouldn’t go through with it... His brain said.
Although he would lose the game, at least, he would survive to play another... right? What’s more important than survival? But Levi soon smiled bitterly.
He realized... this kind of thinking didn’t work for him... Not when his life hung in the balance by the three seeds and their ideologues.
Each one wanted him to be something.
Each one responded to a different emotional setting.
Each one wanted to owe him whole.
Unless he found a solution to uniting them, he couldn’t afford to lose any more favor of either of them... Otherwise, he might not even receive the basic benefits from each seed... but the hellish agony would remain.
Ash’Kral told him... this happened to a couple of partners, forcing them to kick the bucket to escape the eternal pain.
’You think of it as having less than two minutes to survive...’ Ash’Kral shook his head, ’Boy, you have less than two minutes to show the Void seed that you are a host worth investing its time on.’
’Believe me when I say... The Void seed is the only one; you don’t want to antagonize this early in your journey.’
Many thoughts coursed through Levi’s mind... his vision switching between the Sandscale Leviathan and the path to safety.
His instincts were screaming at him to run away, to survive, to not fall into the trap of becoming the seeds’ slave.
A slave to their desires and wishes.
But Levi knew deep down... His true path of survival wasn’t this road before him.
What was the point of surviving now if his actions were bound to sever whatever thin line was connecting him to the Void seed... forever?
Levi’s hands tightened around the staff, his fingers turning slightly white under the gloves... He realized that if he wanted to continue on the journey, he had to make some changes in himself.
Changes that included saying once in a while...
’F*ck it.’
Under the confused eyes of the spectators, Levi made a sharp turn, changing his path from heaven to hell... heading straight towards Sandscale Leviathan!
"What is he doing?" Gamemaster Biscuits asked a question that spoke to everyone’s thoughts.
His move took them by surprise, to the point, it drove some of them to wonder if he had lost his way or something.
But this assumption didn’t survive for long... Levi had shown immense scouting abilities for him to make such a fatal mistake.
Meanwhile, Levi swiftly entered Sandwitch’s radar after pulling such a confounding stunt.
’Who is foolish enough to head towards the Leviathan?’ She raised her brows in puzzlement, her heat vision painting more details the closer Levi got.
Once he was tens of meters away from the Leviathan’s lower body, she finally recognized him.
However, before she could react, she was left stunned at the rest of the viewers’ sight of Levi landing above the Leviathan’s back... gliding in her direction at his top speed!
Although the Leviathan was mildly slithering right and left, Levi wasn’t thrown off... maintaining his balance by staying with the Leviathan’s flow!
’Has he gone mad?’
She exclaimed in disbelief at last... her reaction supported by Gamemaster Biscuits and the viewers.
-What the f*ck is the Celestial thinking about?!-
-Don’t tell me he wants to defeat her right on top of her Leviathan?!-
-He is batshit crazy!! That’s why a fan!-
’Bringing your soul to me... How kind.’
No hesitation, she turned around and manifested two gigantic sandy arms from on top of the Leviathan’s head.
She knew that her time as the Leviathan’s Whisperer was on its last leg... Since Levi was riding on top of it inside a tunnel that limited the Leviathan’s movement, she knew her orders were limited in nature.
She needed an open space for the Leviathan to make its move freely without endangering her as well... In the tunnel? Not so much.
Thus, she ordered it to ignore everything else and reach the first open space in its direction, which helped Gigantica survive her assured damnation.
Whoosh!
She was seen hiding inside a deep crack in the tunnel’s wall, her thighs thick enough that they got stuck deep inside... Yet, she neither cared about her destroyed Glider nor the tightness of her hiding spot.
Her heart was beating out of her chest in fear as she stared at the Sandscale Leviathan slithering past the crack... showering her in sand.
After it left... Gigantica’s heartbeats were closing in on the two hundred mark, but she still got out of the crack and peeked outside.
That’s when she saw... a giant javelin flying in the direction of Levi while he was standing on top of the Leviathan’s back!
’Celestial... Did he come back to save me?’
Gigantica’s emotional turmoil reached a critical point, where her emotions took control over her rationality... Her Snow Bunny species genes didn’t make it any easier, as they easily fell in love with anyone performing a big, loving gesture toward them.
Thus, with eyes showing pink hearts and a hand on her thumping chest, Gigantica watched as her Prince Charming was carried away.
Unaware that he had gained a new admirer, Levi was busy fending off a second wave of sand javelin!
Sandwitch aimed at Levi’s fast-approaching heat signal and swiftly threw her arm out.
Whoosh!!
The gigantic golden arms behind her launched a giant javelin simultaneously... piercing through the air as it got closer to Levi.
Just as he was about to get away from its path, Sandwitch uttered coldly, "Shatter."
The javelin exploded into hundreds of fragments, which started to shape in mid-air as mini javelins... each half meter long!
They covered the entire tunnel, leaving no place for Levi to dodge!
’Echoforging: Resonance Barrier!’
Levi instantly entered a defensive mode, creating a vibrational invisible barrier around him. Once the javelins touched it, the intense vibrations broke them into a shower of sand grains!
Although hardened sand was strong... its structure was still created out of sand grains, which were easily affected negatively by abilities that could break them apart from each other.
If it were a javelin made out of granite or such... Levi’s barrier would have a difficult time breaking it apart.
With full trust in his barrier, Levi pierced through the rain of javelins while pointing his Starpiercer Rifle at Sandwitch’s head.
Then, he fired a mixture of bullets... switching between Ignition marks and exploding sound bullets.
Booom! Boom! Boom!...
Sandwitch extended the golden arms in front of her, blocking his counter-attack... This time, she learned from her mistake.
The moment a round struck the golden arms, she brushed them aside, flinging a chunk of sand into the walls before returning the arms to their original position.
The sand chunks carried the ignition marks, detonating against the walls after a brief delay.
The sound bullets only punched small holes in the golden arms, not nearly enough to pierce through and reach Sandwitch!
Seeing this, Levi knew that Sandwitch could only be taken down from close range... her sand-based abilities were too versatile to defeat her from a distance.
He switched back to the Judgement’s Chainstaff... a scene everyone was still having difficulty grasping, as it was common knowledge that only Solarbound Daywalkers/Sleepwalkers and above could own two weapons.
Also, they couldn’t switch between weapons as smoothly as Levi was doing... they had to desummon a weapon and summon the other!
Such a process made switching weapons in the heat of battle impossible, which led most Solarbound Daywalkers to craft an improved version of their first weapon.
Instead of questioning whether Levi was a Solarbound Daywalker and somehow bypassed Nocturnal’s strict systems, which was an insane thought to have, everyone started considering whether he was truly a human... as they had predicted before.
Half-Radian bloodline and a multi-form living weapon... Two aspects humans had no place owning at this level of strength.
In a universe with millions of different known and unknown races... they believed that the Celestial’s Origin to be much more mysterious than a simple human wielding a nightcrawler.
Since Levi’s details about his power system were protected, unless Ash’Kral showed himself, his identity as a Daywalker could never truly be confirmed.
Levi wanted it to be like this, which was one of the reasons he exposed his Radian bloodline right away... He couldn’t afford to show too many similarities between himself and his real identity to minimize getting found out so soon.
He wasn’t delusional to believe his identity would remain a secret forever, but he preferred it if it happened when he was strong enough not to give a shit anymore.
For now... Levi had a single thought roaming his mind... Sandwitch had to be defeated in less than a minute.
Fortunately... Sandwitch had the same thought.
Instead of waiting for Levi to arrive, Sandwitch wore her glider and swiftly rushed to meet him in the middle... close to fifty meters still separating them.
As Levi watched the two gigantic sand arms follow up close, he summoned his own arms to take on the fight against them.
’Echoforging: Unarmed Style!’
Two massive sound arms emerged from behind his back, rising nearly ten meters into the air. They seemed almost alive, vibrating and sending ripples through the surrounding air.
The arms radiated powerful energy, producing a low, throbbing hum that shook the tunnel walls and sent sand and dust flying.
Their sheer scale and force left Sandwitch frozen for a moment, while the viewers stared in amazement at the sight of sound taking physical form, looming over the battlefield like colossal protectors!
The most shocking part? They weren’t attached to Levi’s weapon!
’To create an ability with no weapons’ support... his Solarity Access must be above 50% like us... Trueborns .’
Sandwitch thought solemnly as her giant golden arms smashed against Levi’s, neither giving an inch...