Chaos Heir

Chapter 924: Ecstasy

The world in Khan's senses instantly changed. He experienced what those around him had faced whenever his mood changed, but its intensity was at least twice as powerful as what he was capable of.

The symphony remained silent and invisible but gained a strange weight. Khan felt the air had turned into boulders without losing its gaseous properties. A mountain was pressing on him now, threatening to squash his body into a gory pulp.

The bone crown and armor shattered under the invisible weight, but Khan's eyes remained fixed to the sky. Baoway's star still shone, but Khan felt like a giant shadow had appeared above him and was about to crush him.

Veins bulged and muscles tensed all over Khan's body as he summoned the entirety of his physical strength to lift his left arm. Meanwhile, mana accumulated in his palm, quickly giving birth to a chaos spear that flew upward once he completed the gesture.

Some surprise invaded Bruno's honest eyes. He knew full well the amount of pressure Khan was currently under. Yet, he had still managed to launch a spell through sheer physical might.

The feat would have usually been impossible for fourth-level warriors. Even soldiers in the fifth level would struggle to stand under that pressure, let alone launch spells.

However, those estimates took into consideration humans. Khan's body had long since surpassed the limitations of his original species, and the toxic pool had deepened the transformation. His strength wasn't only alien. It had also partially evolved.

The spear flew toward the seemingly empty air and quickly slowed down. The invisible pressure weighed down on the spell instability, condensing its energy and threatening to flatten it. Yet, Khan detonated it before it was too late, giving birth to the too-familiar purple-red pillar.

The pillar's violent energy carved through the invisible symphony, expanding for a few seconds. However, Bruno's influence quickly overcame those wild flares, resuming their compression. The purple-red mass of mana shrank under Khan's astonished gaze, eventually shattering into wisps of bright wind.

One of Khan's best spells had revealed itself to be utterly useless against Bruno's simple attack. Khan didn't even hold back, but the result remained disappointing. Yet, the exchange provided some helpful insight.

Khan reviewed the exchanges while keeping his eyes on the sky. His spear had been useless, but his previous mana wave had successfully dispersed Bruno's attack. Of course, the two offensives had different intensities, but Khan still understood something.

'I can't fight evolved soldiers like this,' Khan realized. 'It's all about the mana and its properties.'

The weight on Khan gradually intensified, but he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath to steal a moment of peace under that increasing pressure. Simple spells wouldn't work if the mana inside them lacked power.

'Not as energy,' Khan thought, focusing on the spell learned from the Nak's hand, 'But as a living fuel in a different shape.'

Khan opened his mouth, and a clicking cry echoed at the bottom of his throat. The scream grew louder until purple-red flares escaped his body, violently flowing around him and destroying anything in their path.

The ground under Khan vanished, leaving him floating above an uneven hole. The same went for the silent influence around him. His defensive spell had dispersed it, relieving him from its burdensome pressure.

Bruno felt surprised once again, but his honest smile broadened now. Khan's feat would have been impossible without a deep understanding of mana. Even newly evolved soldiers would struggle with it.

As for Khan, his quick understanding came from different factors. His broader perspective had played an important part, but most was due to his many struggles with his element. He had paid a steep price to learn each of his spells, so he immediately spotted their critical differences.

The chaos spear had a human foundation. Khan had mastered it after blending alien theories into its blueprint, but its origin didn't change. His execution surpassed fellow chaos wielders' since he didn't suppress his element's nature, but the outcome still fell short of its innate destructive properties.

Meanwhile, the spell learned from the Nak's hand was a pure expression of the chaos element's destructive nature. The cloud also met those requirements, so Khan focused on isolating that aspect to apply it to his other abilities.

'With this,' Khan thought, slowly opening his eyes and looking at the pleased Bruno, 'All my spells will improve.'

Bruno wanted to praise Khan, but his eyes widened. An unstoppable force suddenly slammed on his chest, making his whole body shake. He didn't move from his position, but the ground around him suffered nonetheless.

Khan had never been the type to let advantageous positions slip by. He also had plenty of battle experience, turning certain successful strategies into habits that didn't require any

thought.

Removing the surrounding pressure and Bruno's surprise had created one of those opportunities, and Khan didn't hesitate to act. Explosions of mana happened inside his legs before he tapped the air, charging at an unfathomable speed ahead.

The charge eventually put Khan back into Bruno's influence, but the accumulated momentum was too intense. Khan pierced through that pressure without slowing down, slamming his right knee into Bruno's chest.

The impact didn't do much to Bruno's body, but his whole influence shook. Also, the ground behind him almost exploded, shattering into small chunks of soil and sand that fell into the newly created hole.

Khan didn't let Bruno's motionless body trick him. He had seen his attack's impact on his aura, so he knew it had some effects. That created another favorable opportunity, so Khan lifted his hand, a purple-red short sword growing from his stretched fingers.

Khan went for the kill, lunging the chaos claws spell at Bruno's neck. Yet, Bruno's eyes suddenly pointed at him, and his left hand materialized before Khan's chest. Bruno had lifted his arm, but Khan couldn't follow that gesture.

A tinge of mana escaped Bruno's palm, and the entire symphony went silent, fusing with it. His arm descended, and an unstoppable pressure fell on Khan's chest, pushing his whole body

down.

Khan slammed into the ground, but the attack didn't stop there. A hand-shaped hole appeared around Khan as Bruno's pressure continued to fall. The surface sunk, pushing Khan down alongside it while his body did its best to oppose the invisible force.

Bruno interrupted the attack when he realized what he was doing. He had instinctively reacted to Khan's offensive, unleashing more power than necessary, and worry filled his face as he stared at the hand-shaped hole before him.

"Prince Khan!" Bruno called, but only a laugh came from the partially submerged human figure at the center of the hole.

Khan's body hurt all over, but pure ecstasy filled his mind, making him unable to stop laughing. A feeling he hadn't experienced in a long time washed him over, fueling a

competitive spirit he had kept in check for years.

"Finally!" Khan shouted, a faint clicking cry echoing in the back of his throat. A mana wave accompanied the word, shattering and blowing away the soil around and above him.

Bruno watched as Khan stood up, ran his hands over his face, and pulled his hair back. His eyes looked brighter among that excited expression, and his aura seemed to have gained new

intensity.

"Do you know how long it has been since someone could fight me?" Khan asked, a tinge of craziness invading his expression when he looked at the evolved warrior.

Khan's last real battle had been against Izraz, the Thilku on the military planet, which had been more than a year ago. Still, that fight had a disappointing conclusion. The sparring against Tlexicpalli had only been for show, too, so Khan never had a real opportunity to blow off some steam and test the results of his training.

However, Bruno didn't only force Khan to improve his spells to make them slightly effective. The evolved warrior had also remained almost unaffected by a full-power execution of the Transcendent Step. That only was the foundation form, but it remained one of the best

physical attacks in Khan's skillset.

"Prince Khan," Bruno called again, relieved his attack didn't kill Khan. "I apologize for my previous outburst. Your ability surprised this old man."

"Don't talk to me like those politicians," Khan laughed before coughing and spitting to his side. He had eaten some soil during the previous exchange, and some was still stuck in his

throat.

"Prince Khan," Bruno called for a third time, worried about Khan's condition. "Your resilience deserves praise, but you should visit a doctor now."

"Old man, stop," Khan ordered, grunting to push out the remaining soil in his throat and

spitting it to the ground. "You belong to the same world I'm in, and I don't want to return to the other just yet. Entertain me until I've had my fill."

"It's dangerous," Bruno commented, hoping to appeal to Khan's reasonable side. "You have already proven your worth, Prince Khan. There's no need to risk suffering injuries."

"I see that need," Khan scoffed. "Stand still if you want, but don't you die on me. I have months of boring meetings to vent."