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Chapter 75: The Predestined Fate [1]
10 years after the tower competition..
Many things had changed over the years, Axel was currently 25, while Akon was 20. After Axel had created the cure to the cancer, he had personally cured Rugen and many more innocent people in the city of Delmar. Unfortunately, the procedure of the cure was quite complicated and only Axel is able to perform it.
And he alone could not cure everyone, so every 6 months, he could cure a certain number of people at once. He didn’t care too much about them, but a part of him still wanted to help them nonetheless.
Rugen was shown to be extremely talented in the Berserkers path and he was born with an extremely unique physique, the kid was already a 3 star berserker, and strong enough to handle multiple of those in the same level. Even fight against a normal 4 star warrior for short while using his secret technique. Rugen had actually become the direct disciple of the vice lord of the Berserker sect.
While his little brother Akon had shown immense talent in the Sage path, as such reluctantly, and discussing heavily with his master and the librarian, then with no choice he had chosen to admit Axel on the Sage tower, the reason why he was unwilling to is that what if Akon is in danger, what if the Sage decided to threaten him or do something to his brother. Maybe even other dangerous individuals would go after his brother when he’s not keeping an eye on him constantly.
But his master and the librarian eventually convinced him that he could not protect Akon all the time, that the boy needs to grow strong enough and protect himself on his own. Seeing Akon’s talent, the Sage tower’s vice master had taken him as his disciple, and the powerhouse had personally assured the safety of his brother reluctantly because of his master’s insistence.
But most importantly Akon himself, wanted to go there and become a powerful Sage, so for the combined reason of all that, he had to reluctantly let his brother go. Of course, he had bound an artifact to his little brother, that would let him know if Akon is ever in danger, and one extremely powerful defensive artifact that he would wear all the time.
Axel programmed it in a way that the artifact would only activate when his life is in danger, yeah, it couldn’t activate at just any time in practice or sparring or any of his experiments, if the artifact automatically interfered with Akon’s daily life, now that would be more inconvenient than convenient.
As for Axel himself, surprisingly, he was still in the 4th circle, but at the peak of the 4th circle. That’s because he had fallen for a trap, and an extremely life-threatening trap, which forced him to halt his progress.
The supreme meditation technique was a trap, a goddamn trap. Left behind by the very person who created it. Axel was currently practicing the sword art left behind by the Mighty Berserker; he had made little progress in it after a certain point, and the art was extremely powerful nonetheless. As he practiced, a disturbing voice in his head continued to ring out,
"Oi brat, damn brat, you dare ignore me, you little shit listen to me."
"Listen to me goddamn it, I have sword arts countless times powerful than even this,"
"Just lend me your body for a day, just a little access, and I’ll show you the pinnacle and true secrets of Runecasting."
"Just imagine, a sword art purely based on the runic path complementing everything that you had learned up until now, manifesting all at once in the best possible way of combat."
"And there is a glaring problem when going to the very extreme of all the stages, why do you think I didn’t do that myself?"
Axel gritted his teeth and ignored the voice in his head, yes, it was a remnant soul, to be more precise, a will left behind by the former most powerful 8th circle Runecaster, the one and only ’Durein Nightcrown’.
At first, Axel did not notice anything after learning the meditation technique, even before learning it, he checked it thoroughly. There was nothing wrong with it, as far as he could tell. But that was largely attributed to the fact that Durein Nightcrown himself had the runic eyes. So, it was quite easy for him to hide the suspicious details of it from another person with runic eyes but who would have lower mastery over it.
Only after Axel had reached the peak of the 4th circle did he sense an incongruity; his gut feeling was constantly warning him not to progress any further. It was a grave sense of danger that he felt from within, unlike anything before.
He tried everything but was actually unable to flush out the will or the existence of it. But he could feel something instinctively foreign in his mind, the more time passed, so he simply gave up on trying to find the source of the problem and stopped doing anything to progress his levels as well.
After a year like that, the will had manifested itself in rage, it kept itself hidden quite well. The damn extra connections that he made between his circles and the red sun, those threads were tainted by the foreign existence. Only when the will revealed itself did he notice the problem.
He was extremely shocked and afraid that out of nowhere how an old voice started speaking and threatening him, but he remained unyielding seeing how the will could not do anything to him, the problem was here that since he had used the meditation technique on his circles, the more he advanced on the higher stages, the more he would lose control of himself to the will.
It was clearly, a backup revival plan left by the old fart in case anything went wrong or he died. Axel tried to find any crucial information he could, but the old monster was too smart to be played by an amateur like him.
That’s why he could not advance to the 5th circle, it wasn’t impossible to rid the foreign influences in his soul space.
However, it would take time, an extremely long time at that, thankfully he now had no shortage of time, the biggest problem being the constantly annoying blabbering of the old monster.
Not only that, Axel had to make sure to interact with the will as less as possible, because he found out that, the more he interacted with the will, even just simple talking, its influence on his circles would increase ever so slightly, it was almost impossible to notice, but he did notice it nonetheless.
While he could ask for his master’s help or the librarian, but he in the end did not, the reason being he would have to reveal to them how the meditation technique worked, then the secrets of his soul space, how each circle was placed and workings etc. Even he did not know why he did not trust them completely, when he actually should.
The will did not have any control of his as of now, nor could it read or invade his memories, he made sure of that. The will did not know anything of him, or read his emotions for that matter, it only see’s thing through his own eyes and senses that’s all, for now at least. So, he wasn’t in a hurry, he would find the solution in in due time.
The will interrupted Axel’s internal thoughts for the umpteenth time,
"Hehe, brat, you think I don’t know that you’re not a native of this world?"
Axel halted in his tracks, his eyes widened in disbelief as he remained unmoving, his mind turned blank in terror. The old will chuckled to itself, and did not speak a single word more, not even a sound.
Gritting his teeth he asked, "And how the fuck do you know that?"
The will waited without answering, it amused itself, seeing the rising anger within the boy, but eventually spoke, "Because no one from this world could reach the limits of each of the circles, no matter what magic path they follow."
"The same goes for the warrior paths," added the will nonchalantly.
Axel rubbed his eyelids in frustration and spoke again, "I need a real answer? And the reason being?"
"It is a limit placed upon them, by the will of the world itself, it naturally does not want any individual to become too strong," stated the old will.
Axel asked hesitantly, "Were you actually able to fight off against multiple 6th circle mages just being a 3rd circle yourself?"
"Obviously, I could. No one but me. Heh...." revealed the will with a smug smile.
Which in turn made Axel frown, that would indeed mean that Durein Nightcrown was far stronger than him in combat prowess, at the same stage. But the old will spoke again to confirm his worries,
"Let me guess, you’re thinking that it would make me even stronger than you in combat prowess at the same level? When I did not even reach the absolute limits of each circle, unlike you?"
"Heh, obviously there’s a reason for it, one being, you’re too inefficient in you’re uses of the runes, it’s too crude and forceful. There’s more, but I won’t tell you, I already said enough."
’And likely the procedure of Bio-rune-engraving,’ thought Axel to himself, but did not say it aloud.
Then Axel had a thoughtful expression on his face, but his thoughts stopped midway.
"Wait, you just said, there are obvious limits forced upon them, the natives of this world?"
"Why do you refer to the natives as ’them’? Don’t tell me you’re also....also an outsider?" muttered Axel in grave shock.
The old will’s smile broadened, "Obviously, otherwise how could this lord become so strong, creating new methods and techniques outside of the box, far different from the norm of the power system that exists within this world?"
"Being an outsider gives you somewhat of an invisibility towards the will of the world. And for some reason, the will actually favors the outsiders more than the natives, which should normally not be, yet it is," revealed the will of the Durein Nightcrown.
Axel listened to the explanation in shock as he absorbed the information from the old monster. Axel wanted to ask so many questions, for example, about his grandfather. Then prime nexus, and if the old man was from the same Eldarion continent as him
But the will thought to itself in pity,
’Poor boy, unfortunately, you will face the same end as I did by the inhabitants of this world; the fates of all the outsiders are the same. By these treacherous natives.’
’That’s why I must take over your body and purge all the natives of this world. That is the reason I was left behind, after all.’ stated the old will in a ruthless tone and boundless killing intent contained within.
