Heir of Synthesis: The World Mage

The moment Priam confirmed the command, the world around him seemed to freeze for a fraction of a second.

Inside his Nexus Seed, a Power Rune he had left prepared for emergencies began to burn violently, turning into pure and overwhelming fuel.

This power rune had been made using the best Yang materials Priam had managed to get in the Mortal Plane. To use this technique of his at full power, it was the best he had.

His eyes locked onto Walhart ahead.

Priam hadn’t intended to use this here. But that bastard had chosen to sacrifice the Young Mages who trusted him and joined his faction. He didn’t deserve to take first place, and Priam wouldn’t feel good letting that go.

If he had the strength to win and fuck that idiot over, why wouldn’t he?

Wasn’t that what living intensely meant?

At that instant, Priam shot forward, and his fists attacked the elemental sea.

**KBOOM!**

Heaven and earth trembled in unison.

It wasn’t a subtle strike or a gradual release of energy. It was a large-scale explosive calamity.

The greatest flaw of Rumbling Heavens was precisely that its power spread over a large area. But in this situation, it was perfect.

An invisible shockwave, but one filled with crushing physical density, exploded from Priam’s body. The energy expanded like a supernova, obliterating everything that dared to exist in its path.

The elemental sea ahead was completely subdued.

The power of the elements, which until then had seemed like an impassable barrier to the candidates, bent, burst, and tore in half, opening an immense gap.

All the power ahead of Priam advanced violently to the sides and forward.

”!”

The other four factions that were proudly marching in the lead were caught off guard by the brutal reverberation.

The entire environment was absurdly affected. What Priam did at that moment was exactly what the Elders had warned before that they couldn’t do: enter the place and use their powers.

If they tried to save someone inside, their power would cause such an absurd disturbance in the elements that all the Young Mages would be affected and could die. It would be like throwing a bomb into the middle of the sea, making the waters move violently in every other direction.

But... that was the power of a Sage.

Priam used such a thunderous force that it was somewhat comparable to the power of a Sage, causing the same effect.

The three Super Geniuses closest to him widened their eyes, but reacted instinctively with everything they had.

Their power, which had been focused on advancing, moved backward.

Fortunately, because the three were relatively close to Priam, the movement of elemental power coming from behind was ’smaller’. As for the one farther ahead...

...he would suffer pressure several times greater, because the elemental power coming from far away would accumulate and strike them.

”FUCK!”

Walhart, who was leading the march relentlessly at the 95% mark of the path, roared, completely stunned.

He was forced to move and protect the few survivors of his faction. If all of them died, he could be disqualified as the leader of a faction. He could sacrifice a large part of them, but losing everyone would damage his image in an irreversible way.

So, he ran and activated all his power at the rear of the defenses, desperately.

**PUFF!**

Walhart widened his eyes, feeling an invisible impact crush his chest, and spat out a large mouthful of gushing blood.

Behind him, the survivors of his faction fell to their knees one after another, their internal organs severely shaken by the pressure.

”RETREAT! RETREAT IMMEDIATELY!” Walhart roared through bloodstained teeth, panic and despair finally replacing his manic arrogance.

The chain reaction of the explosion was so violent that Walhart felt he wouldn’t be able to endure it.

But after the impact against him...

...the sea of energy began to recede back.

The force of that pull was terrifying, especially because he had been forced to use everything he had to defend himself.

”Ahhh!”

Everyone in Walhart’s faction screamed in fear, seeing their bodies being dragged backward... even that Super Genius found himself powerless and was pulled back as well.

As he retreated...

”SON OF A BITCH!”

He roared, seeing a gust of wind shooting forward.

Leading it was Priam, with a smile on his face. He and his entire faction were moving with the help of the wind element.

Priam attacked and, at the same time, used his control over energies to leave the path ahead clear.

”EVERYONE! STRAIGHT LINE! RUN WITH EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT!” Dandara thundered, pointing her hand forward.

The 1,200 rejected Mages, who seconds earlier had been waiting for inevitable death, ran as if their very souls depended on it. They shot through the vacuum corridor like arrows.

Under the stunned gazes and bloodied faces of the four Super Geniuses behind them, Priam’s faction crossed the distance at a dizzying speed.

80%... 90%... 95%... 98%...

In the blink of an eye, Priam, his companions from the Ylisse clan, and the entire army of rejects firmly stepped onto the 99% mark of the path, positioned perfectly at the finish line.

Everything happened too fast. In mere seconds, all the factions and the elemental power had already stabilized.

Walhart looked around with his face twisted. He was back at the 90% mark of the path, losing all the ground he had conquered at the cost of so many lives.

The other three Super Geniuses didn’t do much better. All of them had retreated a little, now standing around 70% of the path.

The elements went back to pressing down on them as before.

But now... the entire place, including where the Elders were watching from... everything sank into a shocking silence.

”What... what are those monsters?!”

The end of the valley was finally in sight. And everyone in Priam’s faction could vaguely make out some castle walls, with five immense bodies inside bubbles that looked like barriers.

”They’re... Primordial Chaos Beasts!”

A young man shouted in fear.

They were three meters tall and covered in grayish scales that covered their entire bodies. They were like enormous lizards, all with their eyes wide open and exuding...

An intense Yin of death.

”They’re just corpses. They must be puppets, used in this test.” Flaris spoke lightly.

Priam nodded. In his clan’s coming-of-age test, something similar had been used. So, the sect would use this to evaluate them too?

Wasn’t this third test only about reaching the end of the valley?

Everyone’s pupils contracted when they saw those lizard monsters. Even dead, they sensed a fatal threat emanating from each one of them.