LIGHTNOVELONLINE 285. Second Try (III)
Even the chains had gone totally still.
Then the rumbling began. A shattered continent made enough rockfall to fill up canyons. It looked like a fuzzy mountain range from a distance, but it all started to tremble then, shivered by some force deep within…
Then it burst with the fury of an erupting volcano.
A thousand thousand chunks of mountain-sized stone shot out like massive cannonballs. There was a lumpy shape beneath, bleeding head-to-toe—but it was easy to tell it was Zane. Dragging in deep heavy breaths. Teeth clenched, hair matted to his head with fresh and dried blood… but standing. Fists clenched. Burning bright as ever.
His body was a kind of metal borne of the Titan Rhinoceros and it didn't contort or crack like the bodies of normal men, or even like chunks of normal metals. But still it was caved in at one side, and you could see the breaks, the places where it couldn’t hold… A huge chunk of his right side had taken the worst of the blow, and most of it was crushed in—all the way up his chest. A chunk had been smashed out of his torso, and rivers of blood flowed free.
But he was breathing. And the blood spurting out of him came with a life, a striking intensity—fresh and crimson, pumped by a heart that still beat strong as ever… that life was clearest in his eyes. They were not a dead man’s eyes—those eyes bared all the fury of his soul.
He moved with purpose. Lashed his good arm up high—and a Chain wrapped the God Golem’s throat.
Zane let out a ragged bellow—and brought it down. Those links flared the brightest they’d gone all fight, locking to a blinding immensity, so bright that from space it looked like a purple sunrise coming over the horizon of that shattered planet…
This was his finishing blow.
The God Golem had come over its shock by now. It tried clutching at its throat, but its arms were clumsy and slow, weighed down by Zane’s chains—he had the beast physically dominated. Even as his body was wrecked and battered he held on with the last of what he had—he gripped, set his jaw, and pulled…
The clawing began to falter. Slowing, scrabbling madly against the chains, steel grinding on steel, clenching and yanking, but not even the God Golem, with all its power, could break Zane's strength then.
He was going for the kill.
His chains only flared fiercer, scalding the tips of those pillar-like fingers, scattering showers of sparks—
By now, the chains had broken past the mechanical pipes in its throat, the vital channels of its power. The Golem’s metal-trap jaw hung wide, revealing insides that had gone the color of Stormfire. There was a high-pitched whining sound; a cyclops eye flickered… Zane felt pillar-sized cables snapping under his chains, melted clean through—and he knew he had the thing exactly where he wanted it.
He stomped his feet. Grasped with all the whole muscle he had left—pushed even the torn ones, burning with pain, to their limits. He held with everything he had, mouth wrenched in a silent roar.
It was raw strength against raw strength. Flesh overpowering the machine.
For a moment they held there—Zane’s Chains enduring some obscene amount of force as two titans wrestled it at both ends—something had to give…
It was the Golem’s neck.
Its eyes dulled first. Its great head began to sag, began to droop off the body—then it lolled off, tumbling over itself, burning up like a meteor as it fell through the atmosphere, crashing through cloud layer after cloud layer, lighting them up too, before sinking deep into the planet surface, sinking back into that messy sea of shattered islands…
The rest of its body followed suit. More steel mountains dropping back into a stone sea.
Zane’s whole body still kept maximum tension—he almost could not let go. He did not let go until it all vanished beneath the surface. Until the notifications popped up in his view—
Skill up!
Prometheus Noose III -> IV
Skill up!
Prometheus Noose IV -> V
He let out a ragged breath—and his vision went black…
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
Essence Level 384 -> 390
***
It was quite a strange thing every time Zane exited this killing field.
He always felt on the verge of keeling over. But the moment he came out and took in his Levels, his body went back to fully fresh.
It was just his mind that still bore the load. His heart that still thumped wildly, powering blood to still-twitching fingers—fingers ready to crush and smash…
But it really was over.
He blinked, and came out into the light. He felt… fine.
Planet 1
Cleared
Progress: 100%
High Score: 100%
The notification shone over the portal which had gone from white to green for Zane. Done.
Huh.
The portal just next door, meanwhile, came to life. Flared white.
Planet 2 has been opened
Progress: 0%
High Score: 0%
Zane blinked at it for a bit. Then yawned.
His body—his soul, really—had had a pretty good workout just then. He felt good; he was settling down fast now that his body was registering, at last, that the threat was over.
He had gotten his vengeance. And he was pretty close to Level 400 now.
There were many breakthroughs to be made soon in his future. Ascension and all it meant… he would be back for this new world after that, he decided.
For now, he ambled back to the main teleporter.
He was quite looking forward to taking a rest. And meeting someone who’d help him do it.
***
These past few days Lin Rai had been stumbling around her mountainside palace in a daze, struggling to make sense of things.
When she heard what happened with Zane this latest run, she just blinked. Blinked a little more. Then she had a thought, and things finally started to make sense.
In the end, Lin—first of her generation, a super-genius just like all heirs of the True Dragon—simply decided that it would be better for her mental health if she didn't compare herself to Zane Walker…
That man was made of different stuff.
***
It was less of a big splash this time around in general—but it still left many who were tracking Zane’s progress flabbergasted. He quickly moved up to #3-ranked Outer Faction disciple.
Zane, for his part, was a little surprised it was not #1.
There were some pretty strong folk on the high end in the Outer Faction, it sounded like… then again, Zane expected to make some pretty big leaps anyway in the next few days.
Outside the secrecy of the Lightning Constellation—out in the broader Azure Flame Faction systems—the news traveled far….
It even reached the ears of the #1-ranked Outer Faction disciple.
***
Planet Dragon’s Head
Path of Core Magma
His name was Kakorax—Level 499. He was well-built, bare-chested, with dragon horns rising proud from a spiky-haired head. Handsome in a razor-sharp way. His eyes were golden and dangerously intense, like the surface of a bubbling pool of magma.
He had been at Level 499 for almost sixty years.
The instant Kakorax stepped foot into Minor God territory, he would vault past the lower ends of the Inner Faction and become one of the true elites of the Faction. He could do it at any moment—he simply chose not to. He was what was called a ‘dormant dragon.’ Biding his time, waiting…
Kakorax hated biding.
He sat alone that day atop a windswept barren peak, and looked far over the magma kingdoms below, a thousand little embers burrowed and spires of cooled black volcanic stone…he curled his lip. Such little folk, living such little meaningless lives… it galled him that he, Kakorax, was jealous.
A low guttural growl started in his throat.
Soon this exile would end, Kakorax swore, and he would be unleashed upon the world more. He was so close to that last peak Concept he could feel it—
He heard a pitter-patter coming up the winding stone steps.
It was Fraxus, his servant.
The man hadn’t even started speaking and Kakorax already felt a spike of annoyance. It was the way Fraxus held himself—always drooping and trembling, like a boulder about to wobble over. Kakorax could at least respect a weakling that showed spine.
“Trouble!” screamed Fraxus in that trembling whine of his, stumbling up to the dais. “Big trouble—horrible, my lord, truly horrible—”
“What is it?”growled Kakorax.
“It’s—relating to challenges, my Lord, one linked to your name—”
Fraxus had such a hard time getting words out sometimes because he was terrified of Kakorax—he was always nervous Kakorax would eat him at any bout of rage. He was not wrong.
“Spit it out.”
It tumbled out in a rush—“Zane Walker has cleared the God Golem!”
A pause.
Kakorax heard ‘Zane Walker,’ and twitched.
Sage Noughtfire had thought to put Kakorax’s name on Zane Walker’s incentive list, as #3—like the Third Prince of the True Dragons was merely some kind of stepping-stone for some low-bred lunk of a human.
The day Kakorax had heard he’d fossilized a mountain range in molten rock.
Then Kakorax processed the rest of the news, and stilled.
“…What?!” he hissed.
Even Kakorax would not find it easy to take down a Monster Lord high in the Level-400s…
“At—at this pace—” squeaked Fraxus. “It could be mere mere months before…”
The whining voice trailed off.
Kakorax lashed out a wing blinding fast and Fraxus was sent spiraling off the mountain peak; shrill shrieks trailed him as he went.
The great dragon turned his head skyward and spewed a stream of magma that flooded the heavens. Turning night to a vicious red day. When he was done, meteors fell in bright streaks… shattered melted remnants. There was a hole in the sky where the moon had been.
He knew now it would not be long now until Zane Walker came to challenge him….
Kakorax breathed in heavy, deep, each breath steaming a cloud in the cool air.
That human truly was growing… fast…
It would not be fast enough.
It was time.
“Zane Walker,” he snarled, a low hoarse note echoing down the canyons, rattling the hills. “I will make slag of you!”
He sat back down burning up with the feeling. And made to break through.
***
Zane, of course, was not aware of any of this. He hadn’t actually thought of that fellow at all so far. He was busy with other things.
Jawl had just handed him a nice-smelling letter with familiar neat handwriting. It was from Reina, inviting him to the Temple of the World Tree for their weekend meetup.
He happily went off to the teleporter.