The Almighty Ring

“Darling, what about your own?” Sylphy nudged.

“Let’s measure your combat power,” Ariel joined in. Jiang Fei might have just ascended into Level 5, but he had the power of two Cores of Will. If all failed, he should be the prime fighter to fend off the attack of the Valsalrians.

“Here, measure mine,” said Jiang Fei. He handed over the disc and let Isabella measure his power level.

With a simple push of a button on the side, needles on the disc started to spin around. When they stopped, a number procced up and Isabella jumped with joy.

“Darling, you’re so strong! Your numbers are so high!” Ariel cried. Jiang Fei’s combat level measured at 65,000, almost as high as Hua Mulan’s.

“That’s it?” Jiang Fei barked dejectedly. He had expected to have slightly more that just 65,000. To be fair, if told he was this strong before he met Balsris, he would have been happy since he had just ascended to Level 5. Right now, it was condition critical. Alexis was coming and he needed at least 10 times more power to fight on par with him!

“Not to worry, you haven’t activated your domain ability,” Isabella noted. Isabella herself was only about 30,000 combat power before activating her domain. With her domain activated, she gained at least three times more power.

“What’s the use? It’s not like I could increase my own power,” said Jiang Fei with the same dejected tone. Alexis was like a huge shadowy presence haunting him. Even if he managed to gain five times more power simply by activating his powers, he was still weaker than Alexis.

“Just try it, who knows what would happen,” Ariel chimed in.

“True. No harm in giving it a go,” said Jiang Fei. Alexis aside, he was curious about his own power level after activating his domain.

Everyone got ready, expecting to be weakened by Jiang Fei’s Enfeeblement. But when he activated it, nothing changed. Isabella was still brimming with power, Sylphy was still able to walk around unhindered, and Ariel could still sense everything around her, as if nothing had changed.

“What’s going on?” Isabella was unsure about what happened, or if anything did happen for that matter. Even the measuring disc was not proccing a new number.

“Is it broken already?” Sylphy jotted.

“0541, find out what’s wrong with this thing,” Jiang Fei ordered.

“Starting analysis, wait a moment here,” 0541 said. He then started to diagnose both Jiang Fei’s body and the disc.

“Captain, congratulations!” 0541 returned with a surprise.

“Come again?”

He was confused. Why would 0541 be congratulating Jiang Fei when his own domain ability was no longer working.

“Captain, your domain ability has returned to its original power!”

“… Come again?”

“Allow me to explain. I had devised a plan for you to develop your power as well as your domain ability. Unfortunately, when you failed to ascend into Level 5, something happened. Even though you weren’t a Level 5 Metahuman, you unlocked your domain ability. It wasn’t natural and so your domain ability became… something else. As you know, you have the power to enfeeble others, to weaken your opponents to match your own power level. Now, your original domain ability has returned!”

“Original? What’s better than weakening others?”

“If you would allow me to finish,” 0541 interjected with a mildly annoyed tone.

“Your domain ability is a kind of self-enhancement. Right now, instead of enfeebling others, you will gain enhanced combat power!” 0541 explained.

“The f*ck is that? How is that better?!” Jiang Fei snapped. He was already in a state where his domain ability was activated yet there were no changes to his combat level.

“Please let me finish!” 0541 raised his voice a little before laughing it off. He then proceeded to explain the reason why he did not gain any power even though his domain ability was active.

Jiang Fei’s current domain ability was indeed a self-enhancement skill. However, the amount of buff it provided Jiang Fei was not static. Isabella’s domain ability was to increase her physical damage as well as her defense power by a notch. In other words, there was a limit to it. Jiang Fei’s power, on the other hand, was unlimited!

With powerful skill comes a big price. To gain more power, Jiang Fei must have an equal amount of will. Be it from anger, thirst for victory, vengeance, the desperation to save someone else, or simply just to become stronger, Jiang Fei’s domain ability needed something in order to grant him strength.

In simple words, as long as there was a desire to become stronger, there will be power poured into him. The stronger the desire, the stronger he would become. Hence, technically speaking, it was a power buff with no limit.

The readings on the disc showed no changes since Jiang Fei had no desire to fight then. He had only wanted to measure his own strength, resulting in zero enhancement.

“I see…” said Jiang Fei. He then closed his eyes and focused all his concentration into desiring for power.

“It’s working!” Isabella cried as the needles on the disc started to spin again. It jumped from 60,000 to 100,000.

“This isn’t enough! We need to find a way to trigger a stronger emotion!” said Hua Mulan. Jiang Fei was the last hope for stopping Alexis from destroying Earth. If he had only 100,000 power, he would only be fodder to be dusted off.

“What else is there?” Isabella grunted.

Ariel walked forward and thought of something.

“0541, remember those images you showed Jiang Fei before?” Ariel said.

“I understand. I’ll try!” 0541 understood what was Ariel trying to do. He quickly scoured his memory bank and pieced together a few images before projecting them directly into Jiang Fei’s mind.

What 0541 made Jiang Fei see was the scene where both Ariel and Isabella were killed by the Divine Light God. That was only one of the traumatic scenes Jiang Fei could never forget. Others included how Isabella was about to die from being struck by Valium.

“ARRRGHHH! NOOOO! ARIEL! BELLLLLLA!” Jiang Fei screamed from the top of his lungs. The rage and despair that was once but a scar to him was renewed. The urge to grow stronger rose like vomit in him, triggering his domain ability to grant him more power.

Everyone could only stare in awe as the disc could not stop spinning violently. The disc was already showing more than 1,000,000 combat level and did not showing signs of stopping!

Noting that the result was not satisfactory, 0541 decided to project false images, composited. He showed Jiang Fei a scene where the Valsalrians had invaded the solar system and Earth itself. Not only did they destroy Braveheart, they took everyone Jiang Fei knew in custody and slaughtered them all one by one in the most gruesome manner.

At this point, Jiang Fei had reached the epitome of wrath. His eyes flung open, blaring with the bright glow of crimson fury. The hate he had for the Valsalrians was so potent that he could just cleave the aliens in half and drink all their blood clean!

The disc in Isabella’s hand was spinning faster as Jiang Fei’s power rose. Before long, the needles finally stopped and the disc showed 4,200,000.

“How… How strong… If 0541 is right, and darling’s power has unlimited growth, could he really be invincible?” Ariel gasped. Jiang Fei’s domain ability had shot his combat power from a low 60,000 to an astounding 4,200,000; a regular greenhorn Level 5 Metahuman to an ultra-powerful Valsalrian Commander. Such a power boost was unheard of.