MIGHT AS WELL BE OP

Chapter 724: Ba-dum

Vega’s body floated in midair, suspended by an unseen and unkowtforce. Her chest remained still, unmoving, her heart silent as though life itself had abandoned her. The rhythmic thrum of existence was absent, leaving her body in an eerie stillness, the illusion of death etched upon her delicate frame.

Silence stretched endlessly within the chamber as Anthony, Klaus, and Amara simply stood and watched, their breaths caught in anticipation, their hearts trembling at the weight of the moment. They waited, waited for either an end or a miracle.

Then, at last, a sound came.

Ba-dum.

It was faint, subtle at first, almost imperceptible, so soft that those within the chamber wondered if their ears had deceived them. The still air carried the fragile beat as though it were a whisper from the abyss.

Then it came again, stronger, echoing across the chamber with a fierce and undeniable resonance.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

With every reverberation, the sound grew, echoing like war drums announcing the return of a forgotten goddess. Each pulse awakened the rivers of life within her body. Blood flowed once more, pumping faster and faster, rushing through every vein, every organ, saturating her brain, her spine, her eyes, her ears, her lungs, her kidneys.

Her body, once like a corpse, now seemed to ignite with vitality as circulation roared to life within her. The process was violent yet harmonious, a storm of renewal. Her chest suddenly heaved upwards as though dragged from the depths of death itself, and she inhaled sharply. A torrent of oxygen flooded her nostrils, racing into her lungs, spiraling into her brain, and spreading through her body in a breathtaking pathway of revival.

Just as her eyes seemed on the verge of opening, the core within her lower abdomen convulsed violently. It shook with untamable force. Mana, raw, boundless, and unrestrained, erupted in immeasurable quantity, surging toward her like crushing tidal waves. It poured relentlessly into her, flooding her mana core, filling it to its absolute brim.

The very next instant, her core was completely saturated.

In that moment, a gentle yet devastating explosion spread outward from her body. She broke through the barrier instantly, but the breakthrough did not halt there. It escalated, climbing higher and higher.

Her mana rank surged violently, tearing through the Zenith Mana Rank and without pause stepping into the vast and terrible power of the Hyperion Mana Rank.

BOOM.

A roaring torrent of energy exploded outward once again, shaking the chamber, rattling the very air around her as she transcended barriers that would leave others trembling for centuries. Yet her ascension continued still.

Level One of the Hyperion Mana Rank... then Level Two. Level Three. Level Four. Her core did not relent. Level Five. Level Six. Level Seven. Level Eight. Level Nine. Peak Hyperion.

Another wave of devastating force tore through the chamber. The atmosphere itself grew heavier, suffocating, as immense waves of aura and mana spilled endlessly from Vega’s body. The weight of it crushed against walls, pressed against lungs, distorted the very space around her, and yet she remained utterly unconscious, her eyes closed, unaware of the storm she birthed.

BOOM.

With another thunderous explosion, she shattered the next wall. She stepped into the realm of the Transcendent Mana Rank.

Level One. Level Two. Level Three. Level Four. Level Five.

Instantly, the devouring madness of her core began to slow. The ravenous hunger with which it consumed the surrounding mana lessened, subsiding into steady breaths. The saturated atmosphere, once drenched in overwhelming energy, began to clear. Oxygen crept timidly back into the chamber as though fearful of being devoured again.

Yet still, Vega’s eyes did not open. She remained floating, her back parallel to the earth, her body suspended like a divine effigy caught between mortality and eternity.

Though her eyes were sealed, her consciousness wavered between two states, somewhere between awareness and oblivion. She was both awake and dreaming, alive and transcending. Within her mind, it felt as though the hidden laws of the world, truths buried in the marrow of existence, were opening before her. Her soul expanded, her mind stretched outward into infinity. Knowledge beyond comprehension flooded her, and yet she felt no fear, only bliss. She attempted, almost unconsciously, to sense her surroundings, but found nothing save for a dark, infinite expanse.

Suddenly, her consciousness was pulled violently. She resisted, straining against the invisible current, but resistance was meaningless. The pull was irresistible.

Within the chamber, as Klaus, Anthony, and Amara kept their unblinking gazes upon Vega, her body twitched at last. A single muscle moved.

Her eyelids quivered. Then, like fragile curtains parting before dawn, they fluttered open.

Her purple eyes returned to the world. But they were no longer simply purple. They shimmered with something higher, something ethereal and unfathomable, eyes that seemed to reflect both galaxies and eternity.

Slowly, gracefully, Vega shifted her position midair. From lying flat she rose upright, standing as though the air itself bent beneath her command. Anthony, Klaus, and Amara did not rush forward. They stood still, giving her space, allowing her to absorb what had transpired, to orient herself in the aftermath of an awakening.

And Vega, indeed, was doing just that.

Her skin glowed with refinement, as though sculpted anew by the hands of the cosmos. Her flowing purple hair gleamed brighter, strands catching the faintest light as if spun from divine silk. Her waist curved with deadly elegance, her figure exuding a beauty already unrivaled yet now sharpened into something even higher. Though her beauty had already surpassed what higher existences could rival, her charm had deepened, blooming into something irresistible, something transcendent. Yet beauty was not the only thing that shifted. Her very presence, her aura, her demeanor, all had changed.

She paused, hovering midair, reflecting upon the torrent of power and insight that had been thrust into her being. She tried to grasp the enormity of it, to measure the impossible weight of what she had gained.

She felt as though, with a single punch, she could shatter the world. With one blow, she could tear a rift in reality itself. With a strike, she could erase even the stronger entities dwelling in faraway galaxies. But she knew, deep down, that such feelings, though intoxicating, were but the illusions of ascension.

Still, she could tell her being had been forcefully elevated beyond recognition. She was no longer the same Vega who had once stood upon this earth. She was different, greater. She knew that she could defeat ten versions of her previous self, and even then she felt she was being painfully generous in her estimate.

’This feeling...’ she thought silently, oblivious to the three who still stood within the chamber, their eyes locked upon her.

Her perception had sharpened to unimaginable levels. Everything around her seemed slower, agonizingly slow. The world had changed. Its colors gleamed brighter, its air tasted fresher, every detail presented itself with perfect clarity.

Her mind raced through her abilities and talents, and a smile curved her lips. The talent she possessed, one that allowed her clone to cultivate and transfer their gains back to her original body, had been strengthened immeasurably. Before, she could only sustain one such clone. Now, impossibly, she could wield three.

She could hardly believe it. She dared not even imagine it fully, and yet she already foresaw herself exploiting this gift without restraint.

Her innate ocular ability, the Eyes of the World, had ascended as well. They had evolved into the Eyes of the Universe, a power whose depths she could not yet comprehend. She trembled with excitement at the thought of exploring the abilities now unlocked within her. She smiled then, smiled with the unrestrained joy of a child who had been handed a priceless treasure on the eve of winter.

Her elevation in mana rank did not surprise her much, she had anticipated it, though never to such a ridiculous extent. She had never imagined breaking through not one but two entire major ranks in a single surge. And yet, impossibly, she had.