Chapter 248

Clash of Kings (V)

The world stood still for a few moments as the color began to return. Ashes and dust and the few still whole pieces of debris settled, laying down on top of the land unwound. The whole of creation seemed to break down for that solitary moment, terrorized into raw awe and silence.

Within the epicenter of it all, watching the smiling face of dissipating silhouette, the man who procured the seemingly world-ending skill... was the most shocked one. While he was certain it was the ‘big bang’ sort of a skill, one that will certainly leave an impact, his estimates were roughly a hundredth of what actually occurred.

That’s what happens when the Skill costs almost 5 million Mana to cast... I guess... -- that was the reality. He didn’t even breach 5 million Mana in his past life, and as far as he knew, only a few people did-- if even that as they could have just been bragging-- so to see the skill explode like that...

What was even stranger was that the skill was likely immediately restrained as he saw the fabric of reality wrestle and knead it down since it was physically impossible for the world to support it. And since he used the world’s Mana to cast it, a mere cursory sensing would reveal the utter and terrifying lack of Mana anywhere nearby. It felt almost like Earth did on the day the Towers fell-- just completely dry and strange.

Looking around, he shuddered; everything was a ruin, from heaven to earth. From far above, from the gaping hole in the ‘sky’, the shone shone for the first time, and the first sight it illuminated was one of utter destruction that shouldn’t be allowed. Just around then, a string of notifications muddled his sight as he was besieged by them, one by one.

[Congratulations on clearing the ‘Kingdom of Sand’ Raid!

You have received the following Titles:

King of Sands -- your feat is easily recognized, granting you easier access to legendary quests & stores

Regal Victor -- as a proven Victor, you gain an extra 20% bonus to your Main Stats during the future ‘Regal Imporiums’

The One Who Conquerors -- as the Conqueror of the Second Crucible, you gain a 20% boost to experience gained, 10% boost to Main Stats, and the notoriety among the denizens of the Tower

Kingdom’s Destroyer -- as the one who fell a Kingdom, you will gain a bonus of 40% to your Damage whenever battling a hostile Kingdom

You have gained permanent access to the element of ‘Sand(E)’

You have gained the following items: ‘Regal Cape’, ‘Regal Blade’, ‘Regal Robe’, and ‘Ring of Dissolution’

You have reached level 58!

You will gain the opportunity to meet a remnant of the Divine in... 1 hour. Countdown begins now.]

[... Recalibrating ...]

[Due to the nature of the conflict, Divine Overseer had taken a look into the battle. Their verdict is as follows:

The Victory shall withstand the Judgement

The Rewards shall be dolled out as promised

The Skill in the Conqueror Cain Gregory’s arsenal, namely one dubbed ‘Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust’ shall be Eliminated from the Convocation. It shall be legislated as the ‘Forbidden’ and calibrated as an (SS-) Threat. Due to the nature of conflict, all reparations shall be paid by ‘???’ and not Conqueror Cain Gregory.

Furthermore, the Weapon in the Conqueror Cain Gregory’s arsenal, namely one dubbed ‘Core of Desolation’, shall be readjusted to be in line with the rest. Its rating of ‘Heroic’ shall be diminished to ‘SS-’, with its [Singularity] option being completely removed. Furthermore, its [Avatar of Desolation] option shall be readjusted as follows:

[Avatar of Desolation] -- upon receiving a fatal strike, the Core ignites, suffusing environmental Mana into you and charging your Aspects. Turn into an Avatar of Desolation for 10 seconds (down from 3 minutes) thereafter, increasing the potency of your ‘Desolation--Ruin’ element to SS- (down from ‘Demigod’), but removing access to all other Elements. As the Avatar, you become immune to ALL forms of Damage except direct Chaos and Stardust-suffused Creation. After 10 seconds, the form ends and you are left with 1% of your max Health. Upon the duration’s end, the weapon is destroyed (changed from once a Cycle)

As reparations, Conqueror Cain Gregory shall be awarded and afforded one(1) additional question during his meeting with Dyon the Unborn’s Divine Remnant.

The Verdict ends thus.]

[Congratulations on clearing the Second Crucible! The portal to the Third Crucible shall unlock in three days! Good luck, Conqueror Cain Gregory!]

Cain stood in place, dumbed beyond belief, as he read through everything. And then reading through it again. And again. And again. And again. Naturally, it wasn’t the rewards or anything of the sorts that shellshocked him-- but the simple case of the ‘Verdict’. It was... bizarre. Suffice to say, he’d never experienced it before-- he hadn’t experienced anything remotely close to it before and, as far as he knew, nobody did.

For all intents and purposes, ‘Gods’ have just dropped a major nerf hammer onto his head. To be more specific, it wasn’t him that created this problem-- it was... Taima. A young, strange boy with strange ideas that somehow managed to create a weapon that outright forced a Tower to nerf it to all hell and back. Then again, Cain also played a huge role in it, as the Skill he created, Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, had been outright removed from his skill slots rather than just nerfed.

A perfect set of circumstances led to this: Taima being simply that talented, Cain becoming a Spellweaver well ahead of time, having the idea to actually create a Skill that costs 5 million Mana while he’s yet to hit thirty thousand, and then having the opportunity to execute it to such an effect.

None of it... made any sense whatsoever. If it hadn’t been for the abrupt shouts of others, he’d have likely stayed in the strange, ethereal daze for days on end contemplating what he had just read.

“Holy shit!! What in the hell’s fuck was that?!!” Jamal was the first to scream out.

“What the hell?!” Senna cried out. “What’s that skill?! Is that even legal?!” Nope, apparently!

“Did you get so pent-up that you decided to fuck the sky?” Emma, unlike others, seemed completely calm and even decided to make a joke. “I guess I ought to step up as a wife-to-be. Can’t have my husband-to-be blowing holes everywhere.”

“Did-- did you just blow a hole in the sky?!!” Kramer shouted from the back, losing his seemingly forever-calm. Even he was unable to entirely process what had just occurred.

“... why do the rest of us even exist?” Daniel lamented, glancing up at the sun. “Just to suffer?”

“...” Elypso, Lek, Taima, Sera and others just... stood frozen at the far end of the throne room. Perhaps more so than Emma and others, they understood what had just transpired to be impossible. Yet, they witnessed it, with their own eyes.

“Ha--ha ha ha,” Cain laughed swiftly, rubbing his nose. “Did y’all see that? Tsk, tsk, tsk, if that ain’t the legendary big-dick energy, what is? Muhahaha, kneel before me, mortals!”

“... was the cost of executing that Skill all of your brain cells?” Senna asked.

“Khm, oi, there are times you poke fun at the daddy, and there are times you get behind him and cheer. This one’s the latter.”

“It’s never the latter.”

“Ugh...”

“But, seriously, what was that?” Emma quizzed, glancing up and covering her eyes. “It was like someone dropped a tactical nuke or some shit.”

“True,” Cain nodded. “As an added bonus, however, this one radiates awesome units instead.”

“Goddammit...”

“How do you take something so cool and just utterly fuck it up?!”

“Did you guys receive the rewards?” Cain asked, wondering whether anyone else got the notification about the ‘Judgement’ and the ‘Verdict’.

“Yup,” Jamal nodded and even Daniel confirmed that the others got the floor-clearing rewards. “They’re pretty bonkers to be honest. Can’t imagine what utterly world-breaking shit you got.” Cain looked at him strangely for a momenet, musing inwardly all the while.

Despite all the monetary awards, however-- which were plenty, in fairness-- he was the happiest with the 3 questions he will be allowed to ask. In a way, it was actually worth sacrificing probably the strongest Skill anyone from Earth had ever used at any point as well as parts of a world-breaking weapon just for that one extra question.

He was set on only 1 question thus far, deliberating on countless others and which to ask. Regardless, he knew, that today would likely changed how he viewed the Towers forevermore.