Chaos Heir

Chapter 1406: Gods

The alien’s sound confirmed what humankind had only guessed from the video the Niqols had shared. Even without relying on special techniques, humans could understand what the Scarlet Eyes said.

Of course, Rodney wasn’t in the mood to rearrange his mental notes about that universal threat. His brain wasn’t only on fire. Those huge drawbacks also served the sole purpose of telling his opponent about his secrets.

Imagination was one possible interpretation of Rodney’s element. He preferred “thoughts” as a definition, but both worked and didn’t at the same time.

Rodney’s mana turned his thoughts into action, basically manifesting what his imagination could produce. In its infancy, that element had only been able to cause short, simple events, like a destabilizing noise. Still, its power had grown together with Rodney’s understanding of its uses and limits.

Theoretically, imagination had no limits. Except that every action required a specific force, or forces in Rodney’s case. His spells didn’t only affect his mana reserves. His mind also played a primary role since it bore the weight of what he summoned, making his mental capacity and resilience critical variables.

The mana reserves were easy enough to expand. Rodney had no shortage of wealth, and his connections to criminal and lawful forces had given him access to all kinds of resources. He had even relied on Baoway’s supplement to reach the fifth level.

Meanwhile, the mental side had been tough to improve. Humankind had an extensive list of workout routines that could improve mental resilience and precision, which Khan had also relied upon in his first attempts to control the chaos element.

Yet, Rodney also needed creativity, which no training could manufacture.

Rodney was a shady but frugal man. He prioritized practicality over grand showcases of power. He didn’t need vast barrages of destructive spears when a simple, well-timed, and precise attack could achieve the same results.

Nevertheless, it was unwise not to master an element, so Rodney had tested himself countless times, abiding by his natural inclinations to discover his limits and capabilities.

Sadly, Rodney quickly realized he had no creativity at all. He was good with plans and schemes, but they all needed real pawns and variables. Still, that also became his main advantage.

Sticking to reality gave Rodney’s training a proper direction. As long as something was theoretically possible, he could imagine it and make it real.

Rodney also discovered that the mana consumption and mental pressure were lighter when he only affected himself, culminating in his best technique.

Rodney could imagine himself being behind the black alien, so his spell had made it real. His previous momentum, position, and direction didn’t matter. It was theoretically possible that he could manifest himself in a different location, so it happened.

“As long as I can think it,” Rodney explained, still using the Nak’s language to speak, “I can make it real. I can even bend reality to a certain extent.”

Obviously, Rodney had a reason for engaging in that conversation and revealing more details about his element. He was buying himself time to cool down his burning brain. Chances were he would have to use his miracles often, so he planned to seize all the breaks the fight gave him.

“[You need time to make my death real],” The alien evolved warrior said, “[If you have enough life to pay the price, son of the mana].”

The alien’s statement hit home once again. Rodney indeed needed to gather more data to envision his opponent’s death. The latter’s capabilities were still too vague for Rodney’s mind to create that reality.

“You are correct, warrior of the True Chaos,” Rodney confirmed. “I actually can try to kill you right away, but I’ll die if my calculations are incorrect, so keep using your abilities. I need hard data.”

That was another drawback of Rodney’s element. Affecting himself was fine. He knew exactly what he was made of and how much energy he needed for each action.

However, affecting another being always featured barriers, which became steep mountains to overcome when it came to mighty warriors.

Realistically, imagining a headless version of the alien evolved warrior wasn’t hard. Yet, turning that thought into reality featured countless hurdles and limitations.

Living beings posed innate opposition to forces trying to affect them, and Rodney had felt them even without doing anything of the sort with his opponent.

Rodney could test his luck anyway, but the attempted spell would use more mana to compensate for eventual variables, risking taking his own life before it could turn into reality.

“[Imagination is the weapon of the lost],” The alien warrior said through a simple breath. “[The sons of the mana must rely on dreams now that their God is dead].”

The evolved warrior didn’t care about the destroyed tide of smoke and sent his fuming True Chaos toward the gaseous creature on his arm. The latter had shrunk to return there, but its size increased again, coiling around his whole body and settling its head on his left shoulder.

“There are no gods,” Rodney responded, almost forgetting he was buying himself time to recover. “None worth worshipping anyway.”

A sharp, ringing noise resounded in the area, attempting to make the evolved warrior’s pointy ears bleed. The alien easily endured the attack, only to discover that his gaseous creature and the smoke flowing over his figure were the actual targets.

The True Chaos flickered intensely, seemingly struggling against the influence radiated by the specific noise, making the alien unable to control it, theoretically leaving him defenseless against the imminent attack.

Rodney exploited that window to charge at the alien, his attack aided by the mutated mana released by his burning brain. His figure became a blur, suddenly appearing before the evolved warrior and taking him by surprise.

Nevertheless, despite another perfect execution of a series of tricks and well-timed gestures, the alien remained stronger and faster. He didn’t need any external True Chaos to react to the attack. Rodney had pointed his sharp fingers at his skull, but a black hand was already on his wrist, trapping him in place.

The alien didn’t limit himself to keeping Rodney still. The gaseous figure on his shoulder was more resilient than the fuming True Chaos on him, recovering quickly and shooting toward Rodney.

The elliptical mouth instantly enveloped Rodney’s head. Its gaseous maws were about to close when a single word resounded from inside them.

“Miracle,” Rodney uttered, voicing his thoughts to change reality once again.