Dimensional Descent

The crystal that coated Myghell’s skin seemed to rapidly shrink, concentrating the pulsing Blue Runes that had run within them toward his forehead.

His muscles bulged a fold in size, suddenly gaining a rough texture to them and eventually losing all of its color. Before the eyes of everyone, it became a thick, leathery coat, one that bulged with both power and a pure, unblemished white that gave off its own light.

At the same time, Myghell’s hair and eyes lost their gold color as well, becoming bright shades of white. It almost became impossible to see his hair as anything other than strings of lights, it didn’t even look real any longer, having completely lost its physical form.

The illusory form of a majestic elephant appeared to his back, a surging tide of Gem Force flooding the surroundings.

Myghell didn’t even seem to try, but everything was suddenly coated in his aura. The ground and even the golden walls that surrounded them all began to grow crystal formations of their own, almost like rapidly spreading ice forming crystalline constructs.

With a snap, Myghell’s great sword flew back into his hand. A single flex of his forearm caused the sturdy metal to whine, the imprint of his palm and fingers being etched onto its body. The level of strength it took to accomplish such a feet was simply beyond one’s wildest imagination, and yet he had done so on nothing more than a whim.

Myghell’s head tilted to the skies, a roar escaping his lips. Explosive, concentric circles of collapsing and booming wind shot out along with his voice, shattering everything in its wake.

In that moment, a surge of Force began to violently shoot toward Myghell, his chest and stomach expanding by a size as the gem on his forehead only grew all the brighter.

Leonel flipped through the air, landing on his own two feet. His body was still covered by a blazing fog of red, a line of smoke rising from his body and becoming a thin line of energy in the air.

From the moment Myghell ate his sword, Leonel had already understood what his ability was. Leonel had run into this ability before, but this was either a mutated form of it, or it was a unique ability that mimicked what the original ability could do.

Of course… This ability was the Swallower Ability Index, the very same ability shared by Aphestus of Valiant Heart Mountain.

Aphestus was able to gain the abilities of the beasts he ate, but this was a by product of the Steal Tier, or Tier 4, of the Swallower Ability Index. Of course, Aphestus could only do this for low level beasts, so there was a heavy cap on when his ability was Tier 4 and when it was not, but Myghell seemed to be very different.

Leonel was absolutely certain that Aphestus could not eat a sword. The unspoken limitation of the Swallower Ability Index was that whatever was eaten had to be organic. But, clearly, not only was Myghell not bound by this, but he even seemed to be capable of swallowing the Force in the atmosphere, forcefully refueling himself and making it all his own.

When faced with such a person, not only was their stamina practically endless, but… their affinities suddenly became whatever they wanted it to be.

If Aphestus ate a low level creature and it happened to have a sturdy bone structure, he would gain a portion of that. If it had a Fire Elemental Affinity, he would also gain a portion of that… So on, and so forth.

But, what about Myghell? If he swallowed Force itself, what did that represent? What did it mean? What if he swallowed a Force Crystal? A Pure Force Crystal?

With his ability, could he give himself whatever affinity he wanted so long as he ate enough? In fact, couldn’t Myghell hunt and kill humans as well, swallowing their Ethereal Glabellas to take from them what he pleased?

This level of innate talent… Was something even he had to respect.

Leonel slowly walked toward Myghell. He could somewhat understand how the Starry Order Elders felt. Myghell might, quite frankly, be one of the only people in existence capable of adapting to an Innate Node that wasn’t his own. In fact, he was capable of adapting to almost anything, so long as he had time and the resources before him.

Leonel’s spear swept out to his side, the casual action causing many of Myghell’s forming crystalline structures to shatter beneath the wind pressure alone.

The sound of shattering glass and falling crystals resounded, the beauty of the resonance feeling nothing like the sight of the destruction.

Myghell’s inhale ended, the devilish grin on his face having grown only wider as his gaze landed on Leonel.

He seemed to have grown an extra foot tall. His body up to his neck was covered by thick, leathery skin and his eyes were nothing but glowing orbs of white, following the tone set by his hair.

The twinkling Gem Force around him only grew further in density, the small shards suddenly growing to the size of fists hailing down from the skies above. The rough beating of them and Myghell’s heart seemingly fusing into one deathly rhythm.

”Judgement.”

Myghell’s voice seemed to have dropped by an entire octave. Even before the attack came, Leonel’s pupils constricted, his body flipping backward and just barely dodging an enormous crystal pillar that had appeared from thin air.

However, his feet had barely touched the ground again when his wings were forced to flap with all their strength, sending him beaming out of the way of another falling crystal pillar.

Myghell’s uproarious laughter resounded as these thick, destructive pillars continued to manifest from thin air.

”Judgement. Judgement! JUDGMENT!”

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

A relentless barrage fell. The momentum was so great that the wind pressure alone made Leonel feel as though his skin was being torn in two.

The golden barrier could finally no longer withstand the pressure.

Three crystal pillars fell all at once, cutting off Leonel’s path of retreat from all sides.

When they hit the ground in unison, everything shattered, shards of gold flying wildly throughout the arena.