by Aaron Oster
Morgan didn’t have much time to celebrate, as a gust of powerful wind slammed into him, threatening to tear him from his feet. It ripped into him, spinning fiercely and trying to burrow into his skin. Morgan looked down at himself, seeing a tiny trickle of blood forming at the point, then looked back up just in time to see a spinning shell the size of a boulder coming right for him.
He threw both hands up, bracing his feet on the ground, and caught the oncoming beast. Aida the Cackler continued spinning, the sharpened edges of the shell trying to slice his palms wide open. His feet were driven back through the dirt, but despite all that, he maintained his balance and kept the shell from cutting him despite the immense power behind the attack.
The shell’s momentum eventually ran out, and as soon as it did, Morgan let go with one hand then brought a hammer fist down on top of it, slamming her into the ground. There was an audible crack as the shell shattered, creating a crater over two feet deep as it impacted with the earth.
Aida poked her head out, looking dazed, and Morgan used the opening to kick downward, shattering her skull.
He grinned.
Two down, one to go, he thought, turning his gaze on the last beast. It was the six-headed monster named Hoard the Mangler. Morgan had faced a hydra once before. He’d done so alongside Lumia, and even with the two of them working together, they’d very nearly lost. Destroying a hydra’s head wouldn’t kill it – Morgan knew that much. The only way to defeat one of its kind would be to rip the core from its body, and with that tough skin, Morgan knew that the Advanced version of himself would have had an extremely hard time winning, even with Lumia’s help.
The beast’s mouths all opened wide and unleashed a maelstrom of power. Sand, wind, lightning, fire, venom, and ice all tore a massive furrow through the undergrowth, blotting out the sky and threatening to drown him.
Time to see how tough I really am, Morgan thought, lowering his arms and extending his feet into a defensive stance.
This was as good a chance as any to test how much he could take. The last two beasts had barely done a thing, and he needed to have a good idea of his defensive capabilities. The power washed over him in a wave.
Burning, searing heat, freezing cold, jolting lighting, slicing wind, and burning poison all assaulted him at once. Morgan felt all of it, could feel the ice encasing his limbs, even as the heat tried to destroy his body. His skin was cut open by the winds, and blood sprayed from over a dozen wounds, but when the attack faded, and Morgan was left encased in a block of ice, he was still alive.
More than that, the wounds he’d endured were little more than flesh wounds. They might look bad to the untrained eye, but to him, they felt little more than a minor annoyance. Morgan flexed his muscles, and the ice shattered. He landed back on his feet, brushing bits of ice from his skin.
He wasn’t invincible; the cuts crisscrossing his body made that abundantly obvious. However, he was far more durable than he had been previously. So much so that a full-on blast from a Pinnacle Beast only a single rank below him had caused only minor flesh wounds.
Okay, he thought to himself, as the hydra opened its mouth for another attack. He’d tested his defenses and strength. Time to test how fast he was.
Morgan’s muscles tensed as the hydra’s attack built. He was about forty yards away from the beast. When he’d been at the Advanced stage, it would have taken about two seconds to cover the distance. How quickly could he move now?
He grinned, then launched himself forward. The air sped past him in a rush, and his fist slammed into the area between the third and fourth head. He tore straight through Hoard the Mangler’s body, emerging from the other side holding a core larger than his own head. His body was completely unharmed and clear of any blood or gore.
Morgan turned, watching the beast fall, its body split cleanly in half. The entire motion had taken him less than half a second.
A slow clapping began from above, and Morgan looked up to see Gold descending, a wide grin plastered on his face.
“You satisfied?” Morgan asked, dropping the core to the ground.
“More than satisfied,” Gold replied, brushing some lint off his clothes. “You just showed me that you’ve got what it takes to complete this mission. Honestly, before now, even I wasn’t sure. But, if you could do all that without using any of your skills, then I’m quite confident in your ability to take on a god and win, even when they’re at full power.”
“You going to explain the plan to me now, then?” Morgan asked, moving to collect the cores of the other two beasts.
Gold had been kind enough to bring them to him, and what kind of person would he be if he wasted such a rare opportunity.
“In fifteen minutes, you will go to the top of the wall separating the dwarven lands from the beastmen. There, you will wait for your guests to arrive. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, and I’m sure you’ll be smart enough to figure out what to do once they do.”
“And what will you be doing?” Morgan asked, pulling the last core and dropping it next to the first two.
“Distracting the others, of course,” Gold said with a mock bow. “One god, you can handle, but if all of them were to gang up on you again…”
“I see your point,” Morgan said, remembering well what had happened the last time.
Sure, he might be stronger now, but even he wasn’t stupid enough to think he could take on all four at once and win. Besides, he only needed the one.
“Just one question before you go, then,” he said, realizing that Gold was about to leave.
If Gold was surprised by the foresight, he didn’t show it, simply making a motion for him to go on.
“How exactly am I supposed to take her Essence after she’s defeated?”
“Oh, I trust that you have all the tools you’ll need right in there,” Gold said, pointing at the center of his chest, where his core was located. “I’d recommend you do a thorough examination. Things will be quite a bit different than you remember.”
He winked before pulling open the space between worlds and stepping through. Morgan got a brief flash of several people he recognized before the portal slammed shut, leaving him alone once again.
65
Morgan stared at the spot where Gold had stood just moments before, watching the tear in space slowly heal itself. To someone who couldn’t see what he could, there would be nothing there. But now, Gold’s method of travel was quite clear. Instead of teleporting or opening portals, he simply connected two points in space, hopping through several dimensions to skip a long travel.
Though Morgan wished he could do so himself, he knew that then, it was still beyond him. It was something that he might, one day, know how to do, but for now, he would just have to content himself with understanding. Knowledge was power, after all, and knowing how it was done could give him a real edge in his upcoming battle.
His eyes flicked over to the spear, still lying buried in the ground. Even from there, he could feel Sarah’s consciousness, stronger and clearer than ever. He could see their connection as a violet line, stretching from his core to the heart of the weapon. He knew that as soon as he held it, Sarah would speak to him, but he needed to examine the changes to his own body first.
He had only fifteen minutes before he needed to go to the wall, as Gold had instructed. Despite all that had happened between them, he could sense no malice from the man, and the fact that he’d felt Katherine, Lumia, Grace, and Elyssa on the other side of that portal meant that they were all still alive. Of course, he hadn’t felt Hilda’s presence, but perhaps she was resting.
Morgan had no clue what Gold’s plans were involving his friends, but that they were alive and well proved that he had been right in trusting that they could take care of themselves. Knowing they were safe took a huge weight off his shoulders and made it much easier to concentrate on what needed to be done.
Turning his mind to the task at hand, Morgan reached within himself and pulled on his core, summoning hi
s status for the first time and seeing what his advancement had wrought.
Name: Morgan
Title: King of Eternity
Pinnacle Supermage: Rank - 80
Energy to Next Rank - 0/750,000,000
Ability - Downfall
RP - 16,500/16,500 (Regen - 156.0 per second)
Strength - 1,750
Agility - 2,100
Constitution - 1,710
Intelligence - 1,650
Wisdom - 1,560
Traits - Eternal Soul, Perfect Aura Control, Devourer, King’s Might
Skills - Gravity Release, Bestial Might, Starforge, Earth Mastery, Expanse, Rift
Superior - Infernal Star, Light Star, Meteoric Downfall, Continental Collapse, Soulstream
Ultimate - Eternity Beam, Sunscorch
Morgan stared at his status, taking it all in. To say that he was shocked by the changes would have been a gross understatement. All of his attributes had taken a massive leap, which would explain why he was so much stronger, faster, and more durable. But there was more. His Ability Advancement tab was now gone, and in its place stood a Title — King of Eternity.
He had no idea what that meant, but he had a feeling that as soon as he looked closer, he’d have the answer he wanted. There was still more. He had a new ability, Downfall. In addition, his Traits had been shuffled to the top of the list, and like that of his skills, he now seemed to have far fewer. Still, despite the decrease in skills and traits, he didn’t doubt for a second that they were far more powerful than his previous ones.
His skills were now divided into three categories instead of two — Regular skills, Superior skills, and Ultimate skills. He had a feeling that the Superior skills had taken the place of the Extra skills, and the Ultimate ones had to be even more powerful than those!
Too excited to resist, Morgan began diving into his status’s descriptions, starting with the Title.
Title: Only those who have reached the Pinnacle can hold a title, showing the uniqueness of the titleholder. Titles are bestowed based on someone’s actions, abilities, and overall temperament and grant a special boon to the titleholder.
King of Eternity: This title is granted to the King of Beasts after bathing in the Eternity Wells.
Effect: All skills cost 25% less to activate.
Morgan read then re-read the description. He wasn’t sure if he was seeing things the first time, and the second time still didn’t convince him. He hadn’t expected much from this title, figuring it was probably something like he saw on every Pinnacle Beast. For example, ‘The Smasher’ in the beast named Grido or ‘The Cackler’ in the beast named Aida.
Or ‘Pinnacle King of Winter’ in Octagon, Morgan thought. Or was it ‘The Bitter?’
He wasn’t sure and decided he would ask Gold and see if he could get an answer out of him. If a title added this much strength, he could begin to see how Pinnacle Beasts were able to keep going as long as they did. If all of his skills cost him twenty-five percent less RP, he’d be able to fight for much longer, especially seeing as his regen was now at 156 per second!
Morgan kept going.
Pinnacle Supermage: You have reached the Pinnacle of power for what anyone, either super or mage, could hope to achieve. You are at the peak of advancement and can go no further. Raise your rank to unlock even more might, and make the world tremble in the wake of your passing!
Well, there wasn’t much there, but it was gratifying to see that he’d finally done it. He’d finally reached the Pinnacle of what he could achieve, and yet, there was still more room to grow. He was only at rank 80, which meant he had plenty left before reaching the final rank.
The old final rank anyway, he thought, closing the tab and moving on.
Samuel had screwed with the world in a last act of desperation, and people could still advance past what they normally would have been able to do. Someone would need to fix that eventually, before things got out of hand, but right now, Morgan couldn’t worry about that. He moved on, pulling up the description of his new ability.
Ability - Downfall: Your might will be the downfall of many. The King of Beasts will not be stopped!
That was vague at best, leaving Morgan feeling less than satisfied, but he was confident he could glean the meaning of his ability by reading over the skills. This was the part he’d been looking forward to the most, and he eagerly pulled them up, starting with his traits.
Traits:
Eternal Soul - Both your body and soul have undergone an evolution, reaching the Pinnacle of power achievable by mortal beings. Your body will perpetually heal itself, fully restoring any injury in the span of a single hour, with lesser injuries healing even quicker. The ravages of time, illness, or disease will not affect you. Your body will passively resist 50% of any damage, and your soul will remain eternally youthful.
Perfect Aura Control - Your gifts of sight and power have reached their Pinnacle. You can sense the energy of the world with perfect clarity and make all in your presence feel your power. You can expand your presence at will, projecting the might of your soul for thousands of miles around.
*The traits that are passed on to those below the Pinnacle will remain as Aura Sense and Aura Flare.
Devourer - The hunger of a beast is never-ending, and the hunger of a king encompasses all. You can tear the power from any in your path and can store the power for later use. Even the power of the gods cannot escape your hunger.
King’s Might - The might of a king cloaks your body, infusing your aura with the light of the divine. The power of all abilities and skills are automatically boosted by 25%.
Morgan paused after reading over his traits. They were even more awesome than he could have imagined! Looking down at himself quickly, he noticed that almost all of the cuts had stopped bleeding. Even more, they were already in the stages of scabbing over. He hadn’t even noticed until then, which was shocking, considering how quickly he was healing.
Not only that, but it would actively resist half of any damage he might take, which explained how he was able to weather such powerful attacks from those Pinnacle Beasts and barely take any damage in the process.
His Perfect Aura Control was like all of his Aura traits rolled into one and magnified many times over. The Devourer trait showed him that what Gold had said was right. Using it, he could pull anyone’s core, even that of a god, and store its power. It was a shocking sight and opened a whole new world of possibility. For example, could he now absorb the power of a god?
Morgan would have liked to ponder that more, but he knew that his time was limited at the moment. The last trait was King’s Might, which actively powered up all his skills by twenty-five percent!
His Suppression was gone, which meant that he was stuck with permanently feeling whatever emotion might come at him, but Morgan was strong enough by now that the thought no longer bothered him. Plus, the excitement of having so many new skills and abilities to play with urged him on.
The fact that his traits were so amazing made him wonder if the increases to his skills would be considered lesser by comparison. As soon as he opened them, he saw that he couldn’t have been more wrong.
Skills:
Gravity Release - Gravity no longer claims a hold over you. You may now soar through the skies or even into space itself! This skill will increase in cost, based on speed and height.
Base Cost - 75 RP per second
Base Speed - 200 ft per second
Base Height - 600 ft
Increase Cost - 1 RP per second per additional foot of Height/Speed
Bestial Might - Tap into the power of your bestial nature and increase your Strength, Agility, and Constitution by a factor of 5. Your body will heal itself 5 times faster while this skill is active.
Cost - 1,000 RP
Duration - 30 seconds
Cooldown - 30 seconds
Starforge - Forge mighty constructs using the power of the stars. You can channel any skill through the constructs, summon them at a di
stance of up to 50 yards, and change their size and shape at will. The power of gravity and lightning suffuses these constructs upon being summoned and maintains them for a full 5 minutes.
Cost - 500 RP per construct
Duration - Until dismissed
Earth Mastery - The element of Earth and all minerals and materials within bend to your will. You may infuse your body with their strength and power or summon mighty storms of raging sand.
Cost - 250 RP per second
Expanse - Create expansive or narrow pockets of air, which can be controlled, sustained, or unleashed all at once. The element of air is as limitless as the expanse of space itself.
Cost - 500 RP
Sustained Cost - 75 RP per second
Rift - You may travel through space at will, covering vast distances over short periods of time or moving within the space of your spatial control instantaneously. Opening rifts to store items, create tunnels, or carry passengers is now well within your power.
Cost - 75 RP per second
Blink Cost - 100 RP
Rift Cost - 300 RP
Spatial Control - 100-yard radius
Morgan closed his eyes, picturing what each of those skills could do. When combined with his title, his new flight ability could see him soaring thousands of feet into the air and flying hundreds of miles per hour. His hypersonic speed boost was gone, but Morgan didn’t mind in the slightest, as this skill was far better all around.
Bestial Might had taken over for his Maximum Increase, further boosting his Strength and Agility while adding a boost to his Constitution. His body would heal even faster while it was active, which was a huge plus.
