Ch. 791..800
Chapter 791 791 – Light
WHOOOOM!
Even though the peacock had a human's intelligence, that didn't mean that it wouldn't attack Shang.
After all, all the different Mages also always directly attacked Shang without waiting.
The peacock's majestic tail unfurled, and the tips of its feathers began to shine with red and green light.
Shang had already started to charge forward, but the peacock's speed was still far greater than his.
The next moment, the space around the peacock seemed to warp, very similar to how the space around Shang's Addum warped.
Shang's instincts screamed at him, and he put his Addum in front of him.
BANG!
An insanely powerful heatwave hit Shang's Addum, which started to glow.
The heatwave had arrived in less than an instant, and if it had hit Shang without preparation, he would have immediately died.
Thankfully, his Addum protected him from the heatwave.
Additionally, Shang could now tell how hot the heatwave was, which gave him some valuable information.
The peacock didn't seem surprised, and its tail moved slightly.
WHOOOOM!
The heatwave hitting Shang's Addum spun and created a tornado, hitting Shang from all sides.
SSSSSS!
But since Shang could feel how hot the heatwave was, he released just enough Fire Mana to keep his body at a temperature that wouldn't immediately kill him.
Nevertheless, Shang's body was still burning in several places, and he was receiving injuries.
The omnipresent nature of the Blaze made it impossible for Shang to avoid it.
Even more, the invisible Blaze in the surroundings had the peacock's will imprinted on it, making it impossible to absorb it via Void Break.
This meant that Shang was surrounded by extreme heat, and if he used Void Break, he would absorb the Blaze with the peacock's will on it, which would result in Shang turning into ash.
This was the first time that Shang's Void Break had been countered.
He wondered if the peacock had done that on purpose or not.
In the sweltering heat, Shang shot forward directly at the peacock.
Shang's body was currently on fire, and his clothes were already burning away.
Shang reached the peacock, which only looked at him in interest.
Apparently, Shang still didn't look like a danger to it.
The next instant, Shang's Addum began to shine even more, and its edge seemingly started to melt under the insane amount of Fire Mana stored inside it.
Shang readied his attack.
Suddenly, the shine on the peacock's tail vanished.
CRKSH!
Shang seemingly exploded into a shower of blood!
What had the peacock done?
It simply stopped releasing its Blaze.
That was it.
Shang hadn't been able to react quickly enough to the sudden change in temperature, which meant that he was still releasing enough Fire Mana to counteract the Blaze's temperature.
So, when the Blaze suddenly stopped, Shang's overheated body froze in an instant, and due to the rapid change in temperature, a huge part of Shang's skin and muscles exploded.
The next moment, the peacock released more of its Blaze again, which reached the bloody mist in an instant.
Suddenly, something shot out of the bloody mist.
In an instant, it reached the peacock's head.
The peacock's eyes widened in fear, and it even released a frightened squeak like a chicken.
SHING!
Some Wind Mana appeared around its head, and its head moved to the side at insane speeds.
Shang's attack missed the peacock's head.
The peacock's body was already quite a couple of levels above Shang's, and with the addition of the fast Wind Affinity, it was even faster.
At that moment, the peacock could see the attack that Shang had just released.
It was a brightly shining object which looked a bit like a shooting star.
Surprisingly, the peacock couldn't feel any heat or cold coming from it.
There were also no absorption properties.
It wasn't even that heavy.
It didn't look dangerous at all.
Yet, the peacock felt danger emanating from the shining object.
The shining object passed by the peacock's head without touching it.
Then, it passed by the peacock's body.
It had missed its target.
But that wasn't so bad.
It didn't necessarily need to hit the head.
BOOOOOOM!
The shining object hit the peacock's extravagant tail!
As soon as it did, an impossibly bright light appeared, consuming the peacock's body.
The peacock felt the approaching danger, but as some time passed, it noticed that nothing was happening to it.
A bit later, all the light vanished again.
The peacock was still fine.
It was like nothing had changed.
The next moment, it noticed the heavily injured Shang.
The heat and cold had injured him to a devastating degree, making him resemble a burned corpse.
The peacock grew annoyed and summoned more Blaze, but this time, it would mix normal wind with it, creating pockets of colder air between layers of hot air.
And then, it shot the wave of mixed air toward Shang.
Shang immediately pointed his Subsis upward.
WHOOOOM!
The entire world turned dark as the saved-up Darkness Mana in the Subsis reached the extreme of darkness without the absorption qualities.
Surprisingly, the peacock's senses still worked in the world of darkness. After all, without the interrupting effect of void, the darkness had no effect on someone's Spirit Sense.
After that, the peacock suddenly saw Shang's body vanish and reappear behind it.
This surprised the peacock quite a bit.
This was far faster than it had expected its opponent to be.
Even more, its prepared attack shot past Shang since he had just vanished, which also surprised it.
Earlier, its opponent hadn't been able to react to the speed of its attack without blocking beforehand, but this time, its opponent had managed to evade its attack.
Physical speed was one thing, but the speed of someone's thoughts and reactions was something different.
Something had changed, but it couldn't tell what.
Meanwhile, Shang readied his Subsis and stabbed at the peacock's body.
An instant later, a long blade of ice appeared on the Subsis' tip, essentially speeding up its attack even more.
Chapter 792 792 – Defense
WHOOOOOM!
Shang's body caught on fire suddenly, and if he hadn't been prepared, he would have turned into ash.
Even more, a powerful and heavy wave was stopping him in his tracks and throwing his body away.
Just now, the peacock had released an extremely condensed wave of Blaze.
Due to the difference in power, Shang couldn't resist the wave and was thrown into the distance.
Luckily, the heat wasn't as hot as normal since the wave was more focused on pushing Shang away.
But it had worked.
Shang didn't hit the peacock.
One had to remember that a weak Initial Beast Lord was as talented and creative as a powerful Peak Ancestral Beast.
Weak or average beasts usually had some kind of weakness.
For example, the peacock was obviously a beast that focused on ranged attacks.
Usually, one would think that it had a weak defense or that it was slow.
But that wasn't the case.
Its body might not be the hardest, but it obviously had a couple of means of stopping its enemies from coming close to it.
The next moment, green wind appeared around the peacock's body.
BOOOOM!
Shang's body suddenly stopped being thrown into the distance and actually started to be pulled towards the peacock!
Yet, the peacock had just vanished!
The peacock had appeared 50 kilometers away in the distance in an instant!
The force that had pulled Shang in was the vacuum the peacock had left behind by shooting away at inconceivable speeds.
It was so fast!
Even more, this was its natural speed, not Mana Step.
This meant that it didn't use a lot of Mana with that move.
And the worst thing was that it had left Shang's domain of darkness, which meant that he couldn't use his Concept of Twilight to move rapidly.
In the past trials, this had been one of the biggest dangers. After all, Shang would have wasted a lot of Mana if his opponents had managed to leave his domains.
WHOOOOOM!
The domain of darkness vanished as Shang used Void Break.
The Blaze had already vanished from the surroundings, and the peacock was now 50 kilometers away, which meant that Shang could use Void Break again.
After absorbing all the Darkness Mana, Shang's Subsis began to warp the surrounding space again.
With Void Break, Shang had gotten rid of this past weakness of his.
Shang's burned body was surrounded by Fire Mana and Ice Mana as he shot toward the peacock in the distance.
The peacock looked at Shang with angry eyes.
Suddenly, Shang's instincts were screaming at him!
The peacock wasn't doing anything, and from this distance, Shang was also fast enough to react to any of the peacock's attacks.
Yet, Shang's instincts were telling him that he was about to die!
WHOOOOOOOOOM!
An instant later, an incredible amount of Blaze appeared below Shang, and it shot into all directions.
It was like the Blaze had just been under immense compression before an opening appeared in whatever it was that was compressing it.
A huge amount of Blaze had just moved past Shang, transferring all its heat to his body.
Shang's skin had vanished, and a majority of his muscles had vanished.
The heat had been so much that not even ashes remained.
By all intents and purposes, he should be dead.
Yet, somehow, the most severe injuries on his body healed in an instant, and he returned to his half-burned state from before.
At that moment, Shang was glad that he had listened to his instincts.
When Shang had felt the danger, he had quickly thought of a way to defend himself from whatever was coming.
But the problem was that Shang had no idea from where the attack would come, which made a directional defense impossible.
On top of that, the peacock's Blaze was insanely fast.
So, Shang was forced to strengthen his inherent defenses.
Shang had absorbed the Darkness Mana inside his Subsis, which was effectively the same as using Void Break, increasing the power of his body by one level.
But that wouldn't be enough to resist such a powerful attack.
After absorbing all the Darkness Mana, Shang transformed it into Light Mana with an extreme of mass.
And then, he had used that Light Mana on his own body.
The mass and weight of his body had multiplied, which effectively meant that there was now much more of his body to burn.
Instead of having to burn through one layer of Shang's skin, the Blaze had to burn through a layer that was as thick as ten layers.
If Shang hadn't done that, his entire body would have vanished since the Blaze had effectively burned several Shangs of mass.
Sadly, this meant that the stored Mana inside his Subsis was now used up.
Luckily, Shang had survived, and he had also seen what kind of attack had hit him.
It was a mine.
The peacock had incorporated the heat part of the Blaze in the Wind Mana. After that, it had essentially conserved the Wind Mana in the air.
This meant that the air didn't seem to have any Wind or Fire Mana, but in truth, there had been a lot of that present.
And when the peacock had willed it, everything burst apart, releasing the stored energy.
When the peacock had shot into the distance, it had probably placed a couple of these mines in the atmosphere.
It might even be able to slowly move them around.
Shang was still over 40 kilometers away, and there could be any number of mines between him and his target.
'And I can't even hit it from here,' he thought. 'It's difficult enough to hit from melee range, but it's impossible to hit it from here.'
'Luckily, I managed to hit it earlier. Otherwise, I would probably die.'
'But victory still isn't certain.'
Earlier, when the bright light had consumed the peacock, Shang had placed all his Death Mana on the peacock's body.
And the Death Mana used the Concept of Purgatory this time.
Shang called this attack Radiation.
Chapter 793 793 – Radiation
The Concept of Purgatory had an interesting effect on an opponent, which was very different from the effect it had on the user themselves.
The Concept of Sickness absorbed someone's Mana and life energy.
The Concept of Weakness weakened someone's defenses.
And the Concept of Purgatory put the effects of old age on the target.
Important to note was that the target wouldn't just continue to age indefinitely but that the strength of the effect was based on how much Death Mana Shang had used.
And what specifically did all of this mean?
Well…
Shang shot forward again, and the peacock released its Blaze again.
Shang could react in time and adjust his temperature.
The peacock was quite surprised again. Sure, it was quite far away, but it had also noticed that its attack wasn't as fast as usual.
Of course, that was to be expected.
Older people aren't as fast.
Then, the peacock noticed that Shang had come close to one of its mines and detonated it.
The mine detonated, but Shang managed to defend himself from it, even though he still got quite injured.
The peacock grew frustrated when it realized that it had detonated the mine a bit too late.
But that was to be expected.
Older people sometimes grew distracted, and they couldn't focus as well anymore.
Nevertheless, Shang had still received quite some injuries from the latest mine, and he had already used up over half of his life energy.
Shang also couldn't use Void Break since there were probably more mines placed around him.
There were still around 20 kilometers to go, and the closer he got, the more dangerous it would become. After all, even though the peacock wasn't as focused and fast as before, it was still far superior to Shang in these things.
In the distance, Shang could see the peacock preparing some kind of complex tornado.
If it managed to unleash that, Shang would need to evade far to the side, which would destroy all of his progress.
Even more, the peacock could also use the same thing it had used earlier and shoot into the distance when Shang came closer.
This was very problematic.
'Seems like I can't win the normal way,' Shang thought.
Shang readied his Addum.
And then, black fire burst out of his Addum.
Shang slashed forward, and a powerful black wave of fire shot at the distant peacock.
The peacock could feel the power of the attack and wanted to cancel its own attack and evade to the side.
Yet, it noticed that the attack was rapidly growing weaker the closer it got.
Even more, the feeling of threat from the attack also rapidly reduced.
All powerful beings trusted their instincts since they were very reliable.
Even Shang trusted his instincts.
Hiding the danger of something was only possible when the target was in a relaxed state of mind and only when the attacker was quite a bit more powerful.
Obviously, none of these things were applicable to the current situation.
So, when the feeling of threat from the attack vanished, it actually meant that the attack stopped being dangerous.
After just half of the way, it had already stopped being dangerous to the peacock.
And then, the attack completely vanished just one kilometer away from the peacock.
It was just gone.
The extremely powerful black wave of fire was just gone.
And the peacock's opponent was still around 18 kilometers away from it.
The peacock grew a bit confused.
The next moment, all the burns on Shang's body disappeared, replaced by withering flesh.
Shang pointed his Subsis at the peacock's head from 18 kilometers away.
And then, he shot a Needle at the peacock.
From such a distance, Shang obviously couldn't hit the fast peacock.
After all, there were 18 kilometers between them.
…or were there?
In an instant, the Needle reached the peacock's head.
BANG!
And the needle made of darkness exploded on the peacock's head!
The tornado the peacock had been readying dispersed as the peacock became shocked by what had just happened.
What had been that speed?!
How had its opponent hit it from so far away?!
Well, the truth was that Shang hadn't hit it from far away.
In fact, Shang had only been a bit less than two kilometers away from the peacock.
In the past, when Shang had used a ranged attack with the Entropy ability of his sword, it didn't grow weaker as it traveled.
This time, it did.
The reason for that was that Entropy was consuming Mana.
What kind of Mana?
All Mana!
Including Space, Gravity, and Time Mana!
Shang had destroyed everything between him and his target, essentially deleting 16 kilometers of distance between them.
To illustrate, this was like putting two dots at opposite ends of a piece of paper, cutting out the middle 80% between the two dots, and then gluing the two remaining pieces of paper together.
The next moment, the peacock fell into a panic and burst away with its Wind Mana.
In an instant, it traveled another 50 kilometers away and land-
BOOOOOM!
The peacock hit the ground and lost its footing!
Its body rolled forward, leaving a humongous crater behind!
In a panic, it quickly righted itself, but many of its feathers were damaged and destroyed.
The next moment, it noticed that Shang was already shooting at it again, and it used even more Wind Mana to retreat.
This time, it didn't land and decided to stay in the air.
But that also felt quite exhausting.
It wanted to get to the ground, but it felt uncertain and insecure.
It feared that it would lose its footing again.
Nevertheless, the peacock focused on Shang again and readied its attack.
Yet, the Blaze it created was very unstable, and the peacock realized that it had to release the attack early.
It just couldn't control as much Blaze as usual.
The Blaze shot at Shang, but Shang quickly managed to dodge.
The next moment, the peacock felt like it was slowly sinking toward the ground, which made it realize that it had lost focus, and it shot into the distance again.
Shang kept flying after it.
Chapter 794 794 – Missile
Over the next couple of seconds, the peacock continued running while launching pathetic attacks.
It was still faster and more powerful than Shang.
Yet, it had severe problems with its focus.
Sometimes, it even forgot what it had just wanted to do.
Naturally, this was the effect of Shang's Needle.
One had to remember that Shang had constantly remained in a heavily injured state throughout the fight.
When he healed his old injuries, they were quickly replaced by new ones.
Shang had been in such an injured state on purpose to refill his Death Mana.
Additionally, whenever the peacock injured Shang, he received more Death Mana.
After eliminating the space between him and the peacock, Shang had filled the Needle with Death Mana with the Concept of Purgatory again.
When Shang had used Radiation earlier, the effects of Purgatory had been spread across the opponent's body.
Weaker muscles.
Less focus.
Slower.
Not as resilient.
However, Shang's Needle was a precision attack, and it focused all the effects of Purgatory on the spot it touched, which had been the peacock's forehead.
This meant that all the effects had been focused on the peacock's mind.
This put the peacock's mind into an early stage of dementia.
It was a weak and old mind in the body of a young and powerful beast.
The peacock wasted a lot of its Mana in weak attacks, and Shang could even focus on actually slowly inspecting his surroundings.
Instead of rapidly absorbing all the surrounding Mana with Void Break, Shang was using Void Break very slowly to look at all the Mana he was absorbing.
Naturally, this meant that Shang couldn't absorb as much Mana as usual and that it took several times longer.
However, the end result was that Shang could tell where all the foreign and hidden Blaze was located.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Across a vast space, individual pockets of Blaze were exploding while Shang was nowhere near them.
The peacock had just retreated again, and its last attack had already passed.
WHOOOOOM!
This meant that Shang could use Void Break again!
As Shang chased the peacock, he used Void Break two more times to refill the Mana of his swords.
Even more, Shang even summoned Entropy Ore to allow his Addum to return to its peak.
The fight was essentially already over.
The peacock was only launching pitiful attacks, and it was using far more Mana than it was regenerating.
It would run out of Mana soon.
After a while, Shang saw the peacock's eyes lose focus, meaning it forgot what it had just been doing again.
Shang saw his chance and readied his Addum.
Shang's Addum warped the surroundings with its incredible heat as it swung forward.
SHING!
A thin streak of warped space shot at the distant peacock.
The peacock's eyes regained focus, but it was already too late.
BANG!
The front of the peacock's head exploded, a burned black hole now visible on it.
The burned hole reached the peacock's brain, but it didn't destroy a lot.
The peacock was still alive, but the powerful attack on its head destroyed all of the peacock's focus.
This was another one of Shang's new attacks.
This was a long-range precision attack, but compared to Needle, this one had far more destructive power.
Shang launched this attack by creating a small ball of heat and then infusing it with more mass.
This essentially made a non-explosive and heavy bullet made of extremely hot fire.
The small bullet would burn through an opponent's defenses and spread its heat deep into the target.
Shang called this new attack Missile.
After the peacock was hit by Missile, Shang used Void Break again to refill his Addum with Fire Mana.
Then, he lifted his Addum high.
The peacock was completely absentminded, and it couldn't take note of its surroundings.
The space above the peacock warped.
Shang swung down.
Meteor!
BOOOOOOOM!
The peacock's head exploded into pieces!
Meteor was one of Shang's slower attacks, but its destructive power was extremely great.
Luckily, the peacock's natural defenses weren't very impressive.
The peacock's headless body fell to the ground, and Shang took a deep breath.
The applause returned, and the body slowly vanished.
'Finally,' Shang thought with a sigh. 'Fortunately, I can use Entropy in my inner world without fear of being found out. Without it, I probably wouldn't have won.'
"Level 17: Average Initial Beast Lord," the voice spoke.
At that moment, Shang remembered what he had just fought.
'Right! That was a weak Initial Beast Lord!'
'That was a far below-average Beast Lord!'
The peacock definitely hadn't been a pushover.
It had seen through one of Shang's weaknesses in an instant and had used it against Shang by letting him freeze himself.
After that, it had even placed traps while retreating.
Sure enough, this was almost like fighting an intelligent human, and a quite experienced one at that.
It was shocking to think that this was one of the weakest Beast Lords.
"What's even the point of keeping score anymore?"
Shang didn't show any reaction to the jester's words.
"You actually jumped a full Realm against a beast," the God said. "And it was even against a Beast Lord."
"I wonder how far you can go," the jester said.
Shang didn't say anything.
The jester looked at Shang for a while, and a small smirk appeared on its face.
"Interesting," it said. "That's not too dumb. You know that?"
Shang didn't react.
"Alright, go ahead," the jester said with a chuckle as the Affinity Wheel slowed down.
"Have fun," it said.
Shang was readying his Addum and Subsis again.
He knew that he couldn't possibly win his next fight.
However, that wasn't his intention.
Shang wanted to experience something.
Death.
The higher level a Concept of Death was, the closer it came to death.
The level three Concept of Death, Purgatory, was already as close to death as it got without outright dying.
So, the next one was probably just straight-up dying.
Something like this could probably only be comprehended in a Pit of Death, but Shang didn't have access to that.
But he had access to something else.
Actual death.
He could comprehend death by dying in his trial.
Chapter 795 795 – Death
Shang's next opponent was a beast with a Water and Lightning Dual Affinity.
The battle went surprisingly well for some time, but then the beast managed to hit Shang by combining several different kinds of attacks.
From that moment on, Shang was on the back foot, and he was concentrating more on staying alive than actually winning.
Of course, due to the way Shang fought and since he was weaker, this meant that he essentially had no chance at victory anymore unless he was very lucky.
In the end, Shang used an all-out attack with the Entropy ability of his swords, but the beast quickly avoided it by moving to the side.
Shang could only look at the big blue stork with a couple of silver feathers.
Several balls of lightning and water were floating around the area, which had been the reason for Shang's difficulties.
The stork had seen how Shang absorbed the surrounding Mana to increase his power and used the balls of lighting and water to block his Void Break.
Of course, if Void Casting were so easily countered, the Mage Lords wouldn't use it.
There were several ways to deal with something like that.
But there was one issue.
Control.
Shang could see the balls, and he could focus on absorbing only the neutral Mana, but the stork's mind was too strong, and its reactions were too quick.
As soon as Shang decided to absorb a smaller bit of Mana, the balls of lightning and water would shoot to that place and fuse with the Mana, resulting in Shang partially absorbing Mana with the stork's will on it.
If Shang's mind were more powerful, he could simply ignore the balls of lightning and water.
Sadly, the stork's mind was an entire Realm above his.
An Initial Beast Lord could fully counter Shang's Void Break.
A Peak Ancestral Beast could partially counter Shang's Void Break.
And a Late Ancestral Beast wouldn't be able to do anything as long as Shang used a bit of effort to use Void Break.
Of course, as Shang's mind became more powerful, he would also be able to use it against stronger beasts, but for now, this was where his limit was.
The stork had completely countered his Void Break.
If he used it, he would get severely injured.
If he used it and canceled the will on the Mana, he would use more Mana than he was gaining.
If he destroyed the balls, the stork would just make more, and since it had far more Mana, Shang would essentially use more Mana than it, proportionally speaking.
At the moment, Shang's body was half-dead, and he had also used up all of his Death Mana.
When Shang had used Radiation, the stork had just surrounded itself in a bubble of water and lightning.
All the Death Mana entered the water, and after the stork dispersed the bubble, the Death Mana just scattered.
However, Shang didn't give up.
He knew that he would lose.
There was no way around that.
But if one wanted to experience the true essence and weight of death, one had to die at someone else's hands.
Because of that, Shang decided to keep fighting, even though he knew that he wouldn't win.
BANG!
Shang quickly jumped to the side as a bolt of lightning exploded on the ground below him.
And then, time seemed to stop as Shang saw another bolt of lightning right in front of his face.
It was like reality had been transformed into a singular image.
It was the end.
In that brief moment, Shang could only have one thought.
'No!'
This single "no" represented all the unwillingness, helplessness, and terror of being in such a situation.
It was death.
There was no way to avoid it any longer.
And then, it was over.
It just abruptly ended.
No specific last thoughts.
No regrets.
No life shooting through one's mind.
No happiness.
No sadness.
No climax.
It was just over.
It was even abrupter than falling asleep.
The process of falling asleep was similar to how life and death worked.
One closed their eyes and waited.
They wouldn't know when they would fall asleep, but at some point, they would.
And when it happened, it happened so quickly that the person wouldn't even take note.
It was just over.
Death was like that but without retrospective.
Death was the great equalizer.
One could save a million people, but when one died, it didn't matter.
One could kill a million people, but when one died, it didn't matter.
A good person wouldn't be able to appreciate their past deeds and see the people honor them.
A bad person wouldn't be able to regret their actions and see the people despise them.
A popular person wouldn't be able to appreciate how long their name would remain known in the world.
An unknown person wouldn't be able to lament that no one missed them.
It didn't matter.
Nothing mattered.
When death arrived, all of one's life's accomplishments were worthless.
It could be compared to a job. At the end of the month, two workers would get the same payment, no matter how productive they were.
Why put in the work when you get the same income as your lazy coworker?
It didn't matter.
It was hopeless.
Pointless.
Disheartening.
Discouraging.
It was regret.
Paradoxical regret.
The act of dying itself was almost always filled with regret, but after one had died, there was no regret.
A dead person didn't have feelings and, therefore, couldn't feel regret.
Shang thought about all of this as he sat on the ground in his inner world.
The God had already resurrected him.
Shang remembered his first death in the first trial.
Back then, he had also died to a bird, but a different one.
His death back then had been crueler than this.
Shang remembered how harrowing it had felt to die back then.
This time, it wasn't as bad.
Shang's goal had been to die to comprehend the level four Concept of Death.
Because of that, he viewed his death with a dissociative mindset.
Additionally, Shang had changed a lot, and he was used to going through horrible experiences.
'Hopelessness,' Shang thought. 'When I was dying, everything felt hopeless and useless.'
'I felt like achieving my goal wasn't as important since everyone will be the same eventually anyway.'
'So, what's the point of working so hard to reach my goal?'
'But now, while the logic is sound, I can't empathize with that mindset.'
'My goal matters, and I want to reach it.'
'I am not dead, and I want to become the strongest.'
'Does it matter that we will all be the same in the end?'
'From an objective standpoint, probably, but from a subjective one, I don't think so.'
'Value is what I perceive as value.'
'And if I have a shot at becoming the most powerful being in existence, I will do my best to get there.'
'To me, value is power.'
'Without power, you will be suppressed.'
'Without power, people will abandon you.'
'Without power, you have no control.'
'Without power, you have no freedom.'
'Without power, you have no happiness.'
'Without power, you have no life.'
'Without power, you have nothing!'
'Power is the most important thing!'
'It's the core of life itself!'
Shang stood up and readied his two swords.
"Start the next trial."
Chapter 796 796 – Shooting Through The Levels
The jester had been watching Shang with interest.
Almost everyone only experienced death once, and they never had an opportunity to think back to how it was to die.
Nearly dying and being in the process of dying were very different from actually dying.
Some people would gain the opportunity to feel how it was to come close to death, but they weren't allowed to actually touch it.
But there still were ways to comprehend the level four Concept of Death.
For example, the Death Empress had once put herself into a coma for over a thousand years, which was about as close to death as one could get.
One wouldn't be able to experience the world or think about one's decision while one was lying in a coma.
Everything only happened after.
It was interesting to see someone actually experience death and have the opportunity to reflect on it.
"Sure," the God said as the Affinity Wheel spun again.
Shang didn't move or say anything as he waited for the Affinity Wheel to stop.
When it finally stopped, he simply used Void Break and unleashed Missile.
In an instant, the Mage had been killed.
Shang reloaded his swords and waited for the next fight.
BANG!
More waiting.
BANG!
More waiting.
BANG!
More waiting.
BANG!
More waiting.
BANG!
More waiting.
BANG!
More waiting.
And then, Shang actually had to put some effort into fighting.
The next level was the powerful Mid Ancestral Mage.
Shang's attack was powerful enough to break their Mana Shield in one strike, but it was slow enough that an experienced Mid Ancestral Mage could avoid it.
So, instead of using Missile, Shang used up the Mana in his Subsis to create a vast corridor of darkness, engulfing him and the Mage.
He shot through the corridor at insane speeds and reached the Mage in an instant.
The Mage released a powerful and quick spear made of metal, but Shang vanished and reappeared to the side.
A Missile later, and the Mage was dead.
Shang waited for the Affinity Wheel again.
"Level ten: Weak Late Ancestral Mage."
When the bell rang, Shang released another corridor of darkness.
The opponent readied a couple of powerful Spells, waiting for Shang to arrive in front of him.
BOOOOOOOM!
And then, the Mage died as Meteor struck him.
Missile wasn't powerful enough to get through a Late Ancestral Mage's Mana Shield in one shot, but Meteor was.
Sadly, Meteor was quite a bit slower, but the opponent wasn't very experienced.
Shang waited for the Affinity Wheel again.
The differences in power between the Mages were far greater than between beasts.
Killing a weak Late Ancestral Mage was about as easy as killing a weak Late Ancestral Beast, but killing a powerful Late Ancestral Mage was even more difficult than killing a powerful PEAK Ancestral Beast.
"Level eleven: Average Late Ancestral Mage."
The opponent appeared, and Shang shot toward them after summoning the corridor of darkness again.
The Mage released two Spells, but Shang side-stepped them without too much trouble.
BANG!
Shang hit the Mage's Mana Shield with a Needle, but it didn't deal a lot of damage.
Nevertheless, the Mage noticed that Shang was quite dangerous and used Mana Step to flee.
Shang absorbed the corridor of darkness with Void Break and released it again, engulfing the Mage once more.
The Mage readied his next Spell, but then Shang suddenly disappeared and reappeared right in front of the Mage.
Shang's Addum swung forward, and Missile was released.
The Mage realized that the attack was powerful but not that powerful.
He could take that attack and hit his opponent with a Spell of his own from melee range.
Missile hit.
CRACK!
A huge hole appeared in the Mana Shield, and the Mage's body was blown apart.
A second later, the Mana Shield dispersed, which was unusual.
Normally, a Mana Shield exploded or collapsed when the Mage ran out of Mana, but this one dispersed after a second.
This meant that the Mage hadn't actually been out of Mana.
A bit later, Shang began to age and fell to the ground as a half-dead husk.
When Shang had used Needle earlier, he had loaded it with Death Mana using the Concept of Weakness.
But instead of using it to eat up and destroy the Mana in front of it, he essentially infused it into the Mage's Mana Shield.
In comparison to the Concept of Sickness, this kind of usage of the Concept of Weakness didn't continuously eat the opponent's Mana.
But what it did do was infuse its surroundings with weakness.
Shang had created a weak spot in the enemy's defense.
Needle hadn't been nearly strong enough to break that weak spot.
But Missile was.
Missile couldn't make the opponent use up all their Mana, but it was strong enough to break through that weak spot.
At that location, the Magic Circle that represented the Spell Mana Shield had become so weak that it broke under the stress of moving so much Mana through it.
This was like weakening Shang's Mana Pathways.
In that case, when Shang used Void Break, his Mana Pathways would explode.
The same thing was true here.
The Magic Circle broke apart, creating a gap in the Mana Shield.
Even though the Mage hadn't run out of Mana.
The God waited for Shang to refill his Death Mana.
Eventually, Shang sat back up again, and the Affinity Wheel began to spin again.
"Level twelve: Powerful Late Ancestral Mage."
Shang knew that the next battle would be quite difficult.
His enemy might not be on the level of a Cloud, but they were still three levels above him and quite talented.
The Affinity Wheel eventually stopped.
Earth.
A moment later, a tall woman with long brown hair appeared several kilometers away from Shang.
Shang readied his two swords and planned his strategy.
The jester slowly lifted its small hammer.
DING!
It hit the bell, and the brown-haired woman opened her eyes.
Shang immediately shot forward.
Chapter 797 797 – Spires
The Mage opened her eyes with a serious expression and activated her Mana Shield.
For Mages of such a level, the activation of Mana Shield could be considered almost instantaneous.
Shang used Comet to charge at the Mage. For now, he decided to keep the Mana inside his weapons.
WHOOOOOM!
Suddenly, all the Mana in the surroundings vanished.
However, Shang hadn't activated his Void Break.
'Void Casting!' Shang thought.
Shang could feel the absolute density of Mana the Mage was now keeping close to her.
This was more Mana than a Peak Ancestral Beast could use.
All the Mana entered her right hand, and she pulled it to her forehead.
For just a moment, she held the concentrated Mana to her forehead with closed eyes.
By now, Shang was only three kilometers away from her.
And then, she opened her eyes and pointed her hand at Shang.
Shang's instincts immediately screamed at him.
BOOOOOOM!
Everything happened in a single instance.
Back in the northern battlefield of Ice Wyvern Zone, many huge spears and spikes had been pointing towards the middle due to the two sources of Ice and Fire Mana.
The Mage had just created something very similar.
In just an instant, several kilometers of space had been filled with powerful spires pointing away from her.
Like a fan, the spires stretched across nearly ten kilometers.
This was a brutal level of destruction.
CRK!
A couple of Shang's bones shot back into place as he charged off one of the spires.
The problem was that he was over eight kilometers away from the target again.
When the Mage had unleashed that Spell, Shang had protected his body by unleashing the Mana stored in his Addum and transforming it into a huge and massive shield.
Sadly, the power of the attack still threw him into the distance and broke a couple of bones.
When the Mage saw that Shang had survived, she didn't hesitate and prepared her next Spell.
Based on the movement of the Mana, Shang could tell that she was preparing a different Spell.
A moment later, her Spell was finished.
BANG!
A great number of the spikes jutting out of the earth in front of Shang exploded off like they had been shot out of a cannon.
CRK! CRK!
Shang moved his Addum and Subsis around, destroying the spires.
The spires broke into pieces, but the pebbles still hit Shang's body, leaving several bruises across his body.
But that was far better than getting hit by a spire.
Shang could defend himself from the enemy attack, but he quickly noticed a problem.
The spires didn't stop.
This told Shang that the Mage hadn't used a one-time Spell but a continuous Spell.
Right now, she could command any spire to explode out of the ground.
Shang's speed took a heavy toll since he had to defend himself from all the spires in front of him, and the Mage got more time to ready Spells.
At that moment, her Focus also finished its Spell and shot a huge wave of earth at Shang.
The wave wasn't really dangerous, but Shang had to either strongly evade to the side or get pushed back.
This was obviously just a Spell to gain more time.
Shang decided to use the Mana in his Subsis to make a hole in the wave of earth and get through it quickly.
And as soon as Shang came out of the earthen wave, he transformed the absorbed Earth Mana into Light Mana with an extreme of brightness.
The world became filled with light, and the Mage had severe difficulties in perceiving Shang's location.
But then, she noticed something, and her eyes shone.
WHOOOOM!
All the Light Mana vanished as the Mage used Void Casting again.
Shang hadn't put a will on the Light Mana he had scattered, allowing her to use it for Void Casting.
But that was a common mistake.
After all, only very few Ancestral Mages knew Void Casting, and the warrior in front of her obviously didn't know anything about such an advanced kind of Spell Casting.
She hadn't seen the warrior use anything similar to Void Casting.
Yes, Shang hadn't used Void Break ever since the Mage had appeared.
The Light Mana was gone, but Shang kept charging at her.
The Spell the Mage had prepared with Void Casting was finished.
She pointed her right arm forward, right at Shang.
But then, she noticed something.
Her Spell was… weak.
In fact, it was even weaker than without using Void Casting!
But that made no sense!
And then, Shang snapped his fingers.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
The spot in front of the Mage's Mana Shield exploded with darkness, consuming everything around it.
Sepsis!
Earlier, Shang had used Radiation, but instead of using the Concept of Purgatory, he used the Concept of Sickness.
Because of that, all the Light Mana had been laced with Death Mana.
When the Mage had used Void Casting, she had pulled all the Light Mana and Death Mana to a spot in front of her. Compared to Void Break, Void Casting didn't pull the Mana inside a Mage's body. They only temporarily kept it in front of them to create a Spell with it.
Death Mana with the Concept of Sickness usually didn't absorb a lot of Mana very quickly, but things were different when someone actively increased the pressure and shoved Mana into it.
One could view the Death Mana like small holes in a big container of water.
The pressure of the water would create a couple of small streams flowing out of the holes, but not that much.
But if someone increased the pressure severalfold, the stream would become far stronger and more intense.
The Mage had pushed all the Mana very close together, which meant that she had essentially pushed all the Light Mana into the Death Mana.
Which was why Sepsis showed such power.
Shang knew all too well how frustrating it was when someone countered his Void Break, but that also meant that he knew very well how to counter Void Break and Void Casting.
Usually, Mages wouldn't fall for such a trick, but things were different for Shang.
Shang was using Death Mana, and nearly no Mage even knew how Death Mana felt or looked like.
When all the Darkness Mana scattered, a huge area of darkness was created.
Shang immediately used his Concept of Twilight to travel through the darkness, right toward his target.
He appeared in front of her and attacked.
SHING!
But she used Mana Step.
Sepsis was strong, but it wasn't enough to win.
Chapter 798 798 – Peak Ancestral Mage
The Mage's Mana Shield was vibrating, but it was still in one piece.
She had probably lost over 60% of her total Mana.
The Mage had appeared several kilometers away, and she glared at the distant Shang.
WHOOOOOM!
But then, her eyes widened as all the Mana around Shang vanished.
That warrior could also use Void Casting?!
How?!
All the darkness around Shang had disappeared, and his Subsis turned black.
Shang swung his Subsis upward, and a huge corridor of darkness engulfed him and the distant Mage.
The Mage immediately realized what had happened.
When Shang appeared, she used Mana Step to retreat again.
BANG!
Shang exploded out of the corridor of darkness and shot after her.
When she saw that, the Mage gritted her teeth.
Just now, she had laced the surrounding darkness with small bombs of Earth Mana.
If Shang had used Void Break, all these bombs would explode inside his body.
But he didn't.
The next moment, Shang's body began to shine brightly, engulfing the surroundings in light.
However, compared to Radiation, this light wasn't nearly as overwhelming or powerful.
It was literally only that, light.
The Mage knew why Shang was doing this.
If one wanted to fill the surroundings with Earth Mana, one would need to use quite a bit of Mana and put some effort into actually distributing it.
With water, it was way easier since it wasn't as dense and since it was liquid.
With wind, it was even easier.
But with light, it was the easiest.
Every little bit of Shang's surroundings for several kilometers had a bit of his Light Mana, and if the Mage tried to use Void Casting again, chances were she would pull a significant amount of Shang's Mana with her.
Earlier, thanks to the Death Mana, the Mage had received a devastating attack. Something like that wouldn't happen with other kinds of Mana, but there were still problems.
For example, Shang could simply move his Mana around when the Mage was creating the Magic Circle for her Spell, which would mess up the Magic Circle.
That would disperse her gathered Mana, make the Spell fail, and make her lose a lot of her own Mana.
It wouldn't injure her, but she would lose time and Mana.
The Mage realized that she was in trouble.
She couldn't use her Void Casting anymore, which was one of her greatest weapons.
Her Void Casting was why she was so powerful in her company in the real world.
Nevertheless, she readied her next Spells without using Void Casting.
Just when she was about to unleash her next Spell, Shang used Missile.
Sadly, Missile wasn't nearly as powerful as usual since Shang's Addum didn't have one Void Break of Mana stored inside it, but it was still quite powerful and dangerous.
The Mage noticed that getting hit by Missile would use up more Mana than Mana Step.
She put her readied Spell in her backhand and used Mana Step.
And then, she launched her Spell.
A huge storm of earthen spikes shot toward Shang.
Shang readied his two swords.
And then...
SHING!
He vanished from his position and appeared several kilometers to the side.
Mana Step!
Why had Shang avoided using Mana Step in the past?
Because his mind was so weak.
But now, his mind was no longer so weak.
Mana Step was still quite expensive to use for him since his body was so heavy, but he could use it several times now.
SHING!
Shang used Mana Step again and appeared right in front of the Mage.
The Mage used Mana Step again in panic.
Shang shot after her with Mana Step and launched a Needle.
CRK!
The Mage's Mana Shield cracked, but it didn't break.
However, the Mage's Mana Step was stopped at the same time.
She might not be out of Mana, but she didn't have enough Mana to use Mana Step.
With three Mana Steps, Shang had used up over 60% of his stored Mana inside his mind, but it had ended the fight.
BANG!
Shang swung his Addum, breaking the Mana Shield into pieces.
The next moment, his Subsis impaled the Mage.
The Mage's last moments were filled with dread, and she turned into a dried husk rather quickly.
The next moment, Shang also turned into a dried husk and fell to the ground.
He needed to refill his Death Mana.
The applause returned, and the corpse vanished.
The fight hadn't been easy, but it also hadn't been overly difficult.
Shang received a couple of bruises and broken bones, but he still had a majority of his life energy, and he hadn't really been in true danger.
But still, he had been serious, and he actually had to put in quite some effort to win.
When he finished refilling his storage of Death Mana, the Affinity Wheel started to spin again.
In the next fight, Shang didn't have a lot of trouble.
Due to the big difference in Mana, Shang had to launch several attacks at the opponent's Mana Shield, which made the fight take quite some time, but Shang hadn't actually been in danger.
It was just annoying and exhausting.
However, the next fight wasn't easy.
It was about as difficult as Shang's battle against the Earth Mage from earlier, but it also took way longer due to the difference in Mana.
At this point, Shang already needed to launch several powerful attacks to destroy the opponent's Mana Shield.
And even worse, he couldn't give them any time to refill their Mana since their rate of Mana regeneration was insanely fast.
Nevertheless, Shang won in the end.
"Level 15: Powerful Peak Ancestral Mage."
Finally, it was time.
Shang would have to fight a powerful Peak Ancestral Mage.
Earlier, the God had said that he wasn't sure if Shang would reach this spot.
But now, Shang was here.
However, getting here was different from winning.
How powerful was a powerful Peak Ancestral Mage?
They could probably win against the Peacock Shang had fought against with quite a lot of confidence.
But maybe, they weren't as powerful as an average Initial Beast Lord.
Shang didn't know.
After all, Beast Lords were insanely powerful.
Shang believed that he had a shot at winning, but the chances weren't too good.
Would he win?
Chapter 799 799 – Battle Of Distance
The Affinity Wheel stopped.
Space.
One of the extremely rare Affinities.
Although, these Affinities became less rare the more Shang advanced since these people were being searched for by the Empires and protected.
In the beginning, they might be a thousand people amongst trillions.
Then, they might be a thousand people amongst billions.
And now, they might be a thousand people amongst a couple of million.
It was still rare to fight someone like that outside of extreme places like the Hibye, but it was no longer unfathomably rare.
A second later, Shang's opponent appeared.
It was a young man with a serious expression and silver hair.
He wore robes made of different shades of grey, and Shang recognized these robes.
From time to time, foreign Mage Lords arrived in the Hibye due to the Ancestral Sword from the Weapon Grandmaster.
All of these Mage Lords came from other Empires, and these people all wore the uniforms of their respective Empires.
After all, they wanted to make a good and powerful impression while going to a different Empire.
The people of the Lightning Manor had purple robes, but they rarely wore them inside the Empire since the Lightning Manor was far more relaxed than other Empires.
The Twilight Dusk Family wore black and white robes.
And these robes with different shades of grey were worn by the people of the biggest and most powerful Empire, the Judgment Palace.
From what Shang had heard, these robes were designed like this to show that life and death are not as different as they appear to others.
The darker shades of grey represented death, and the lighter shades of grey represented life.
But what was the point where life ended and death began?
Was there a point?
That was why the robes were designed in this way.
Shang could feel a strong feeling of threat emanating from his opponent, which allowed him to gauge his power.
He had a twofold Spirit Sense, which meant that he probably belonged to the top one percent of Ancestral Mages.
That meant that, even without his Affinity, he could join the Lightning Manor as a Spark.
Sparks were the lowest members of the Lightning Manor, but they still represented the peak of the world.
It was still very impressive to become a Spark.
Nevertheless, there was still quite a distance between a Spark and a Boltling.
But due to his Space Affinity, this Mage probably joined the Judgment Palace in an equivalent position to a Boltling, even though he wasn't nearly as strong as one.
Yet, all of that didn't matter so much.
In the end, he was a very talented Mage that was four levels above Shang.
Shang took a deep breath and readied himself.
The jester slowly lifted his hammer.
DING!
The bell rang, and Shang charged forward.
The Mage opened his eyes and looked directly at Shang.
WHOOOOM!
The man swung his arm to the side, and in an instant, Shang felt like the distance between him and his opponent enlarged severalfold.
Shang seemed to slow down drastically, but that was only an illusion caused by the expansion of space.
The man quickly started to ready several Spells, and Shang noticed that this was quite troublesome.
'I can't use darkness since he is so far away, and if I charge there normally, he would have already prepared several Spells.'
'I can't allow him to prepare more Spells!'
WHOOOOM!
Suddenly, Shang's surroundings started to turn into nothingness.
Domain of Entropy!
Shang's body started to vanish slowly.
However, the space between Shang and his opponent was vanishing far quicker.
Usually, Shang couldn't destroy as much with his Domain of Entropy, but the space in front of him was just that, space.
The Mage had enlarged the space, but he couldn't make more air and earth to fill the space.
The enlarged space wasn't empty, but it was like everything inside the space had been stretched, reducing its density.
The amount of Mana inside the additional space was the same, but the density was far lower, which increased the overall volume.
This meant that Shang's Domain of Entropy could destroy a huge part of the Space Mana for only very little cost.
By now, Shang had improved his Domain of Entropy.
He could enlarge his Domain of Entropy significantly at the cost of having to destroy irrelevant Mana.
At this moment, Shang's Domain of Entropy enlarged to a size of several kilometers, destroying all the Space Mana around him.
The many additional kilometers of space were destroyed in less than an instant.
In comparison to normal kinds of Mana, Space Mana didn't have a speed.
It was always present at all times.
This meant that the surrounding space didn't need to fill in the void that Shang left behind by destroying Space Mana since there technically had never been a void.
The distance between Shang and his opponent returned to normal, and Shang swung his Subsis.
WHOOOOM!
A corridor of darkness was summoned, surrounding both of them.
The Mage was quite surprised that Shang managed to destroy all the additional space he had created, but he immediately reacted.
Shang appeared in front of the Mage, but just an instant later, the distance between Shang and the Mage enlarged again.
This time, it was more problematic than before.
Earlier, Shang had already traveled several kilometers into the enlarged space, which meant that he had been surrounded by Mana with low density.
Now, he was standing at its edge, and if Shang enlarged his Domain of Entropy now, he would also destroy all the Darkness Mana around him with average density.
Even worse, the Mage had been incredibly smart and had reduced the density of Darkness Mana around him to such a degree that Shang couldn't even travel to that place with the Concept of Twilight.
Shang quickly analyzed his surroundings.
'Got no other choice,' he thought.
WHOOOM!
Shang used Void Break to absorb back all his Darkness Mana.
When the Mage saw that, a twinkle appeared in his eyes.
This was why Shang didn't originally want to use Void Break this early.
Someone like this definitely knew how to counter Void Casting, which would also counter Void Break.
This meant that this only worked once.
The next time Shang used Void Break, he might fall into a trap and die.
Nevertheless, Shang managed to get rid of all the Mana surrounding him, and before the surrounding Mana filled the void, Shang enlarged his Domain of Entropy to consume all the space.
The enlarged space between him and his opponent vanished again, and Shang shot forward.
His opponent was barely a couple of meters in front of him now.
It was impossible for him to evade.
Chapter 800 800 – Strange Domain
Shang's Addum slashed forward, its edge glowing with intense heat due to all the absorbed Mana.
On top of that, Shang used the Mana he had just absorbed with his Void Break to increase the power of his attack.
This would be the best shot he would get, and he would take advantage of it!
BOOOOOOOOOM!
Shang's Addum exploded onto the Mage's Mana Shield, shooting him into the distance.
In an instant, the Mage had already been shot away by over 20 kilometers.
Several parts of the Mage's body exploded with blood due to the g-forces acting on his body.
Even though his Mana Shield wasn't broken, he still received some injuries.
The Mage took a deep breath and gritted his teeth in pain.
However, he didn't try to stop his body and let the momentum carry him further.
Naturally, Shang didn't wait and immediately shot after the Mage at his full speed.
With this attack, Shang destroyed nearly 40% of the Mage's Mana.
That was a lot of Mana, but one had to remember that Shang had struck his opponent from melee range with two Void Breaks worth of Mana.
The Mage slowed down, and in the end, he was nearly 50 kilometers away from Shang.
Shang managed to use up a lot of the Mage's Mana, but the Mage now had time to prepare his Spells.
Unless Shang used Mana Step.
Sadly, Shang wasn't sure if he should use Mana Step or not.
Shang could reach the Mage with three Mana Steps, but that would consume 60% of the Mana inside his mind, which didn't recover nearly as quickly as the Mana of his opponent.
However, if the Mage managed to survive the attack, he would know that Shang could also use Mana Step, making him prepared for future uses.
Then, Shang wouldn't have the surprise effect of Mana Step.
Shang preferred using Mana Step to end a fight since it often gave him the opportunity to kill his opponent.
'But if I don't use it, he gets to prepare at least five Spells.'
'Can I survive a barrage of five prepared Spells?'
Shang's mind was very powerful, and his thoughts moved at incredible speeds.
He debated long with himself, but nearly no time passed in the real world.
In the end, Shang came to a decision.
SHING! SHING! SHING!
Shang used three Mana Steps in rapid succession and reached the Mage in an instant.
The Mage's eyes widened in shock, but after that, they quickly narrowed into a gaze of determination.
SHING!
Suddenly, the Mage's Focus teleported from the Mage's right to his left.
Nothing else had happened.
But then…
SHING!
Shang gritted his teeth.
The Focus hadn't teleported!
It had rapidly moved from one spot to the other, destroying the space and building a new space!
An extremely thin and dense line of space!
Everything below Shang's shoulders separated from his body.
He had been bisected!
BOOOOOOOM!
Yet, Shang's Addum still exploded with black fire and hit the Mage's Mana Shield!
At the same time, Shang's body regrew in an instant, but due to the nature of his injury, he had also lost a lot of saved life energy.
Shang's life energy had dropped to a measly 10% of what it was usually.
However, his opponent also received a terrifying attack, and the Mage was shot into the distance again.
The Mage puked blood as he received more injuries, and he even lost concentration for a bit, which meant that he lost all his prepared Spells.
Naturally, Shang charged after the Mage again.
After some time, the Mage regained control and readied his next Spells.
WHOOOM!
Shang used Void Break to absorb Mana.
Shang had noticed that his most recent attack had completely disrupted the Mage's concentration, which meant that he couldn't have prepared a trap for his Void Break, giving him a rare opportunity to use it.
He immediately used the Mana to create a corridor of darkness, allowing him to move nearly 30 kilometers in an instant.
The Mage was only around 15 kilometers away from him now.
Sadly, Shang couldn't reabsorb the Darkness Mana he had just used since the Mage had already regained control.
In the distance, the Mage had summoned more space, and he was preparing his Spells again.
That was when Shang's Subsis began to burst into black flames.
Shang's Addum had already used Entropy, and now, his Subsis was also using it.
Shang's Subsis stabbed forward, and a line of black fire appeared between Shang and his opponent.
BANG!
The line of black fire hit the Mage's Mana Shield, but it wasn't nearly as strong as the past two attacks, throwing the Mage barely two kilometers away and failing to interrupt his concentration.
The Mage's eyes were still determined as they looked at the distant Shang.
But then, he saw something terrifying.
Shang's Addum had transformed into a Subsis after using Entropy!
And at this moment, it was stabbing forward, and a Needle made of Darkness Mana was shooting out!
Even more, the Needle had a tip made of Death Mana with the Concept of Weakness, transforming the Needle into a ranged Injection!
This wouldn't be nearly enough to destroy the Mage's Mana Shield normally, but right now, the Mage was very low on Mana!
Lastly, the earlier attack with Entropy had created a tiny tunnel with nearly no space.
This meant that the Needle reached the Mage in nearly an instant!
BANG!
Yet, the Needle didn't hit the Mage's Mana Shield.
At this moment, the Mage's Focus broke into pieces as it appeared between the Needle and the Mage.
SHING!
And then, Shang appeared right in front of the Mage as he used his last two Mana Steps.
At that moment, time seemed to stop.
The Mage saw his end approach.
Yet, he noticed something.
Originally, he wanted to use Mana Step to escape, but his instincts were screaming at him not to do it.
This warrior had outmaneuvered him every step of the way, and using Mana Step was the most obvious choice now.
This probably meant that this warrior had also foreseen that, which meant he had something to counter his Mana Step.
At that moment, all the clues of the battle came together for the Mage.
After that, the Mage did something outrageous.
He shoved all of the Mana he had stored up into his Mana Shield…
And dispersed it.
The immediate surroundings of the Mage became insanely dense with Mana.
Shang's Subsis was moving toward the Mage.
But before it could reach him…
Shang's body completely vanished.
BANG!
Shang's Subsis shot through the Mage's body, but without anyone controlling it, it didn't remain stuck and just shot into the distance.
A huge hole appeared in the Mage's chest, but it was not a mortal injury.
He had survived.
He had won!
Earlier, he had noticed that this strange Domain that his opponent had summoned was also injuring him, and he had also noticed in what situation he had used it.
He had only used it when the Mana in the surroundings wasn't as dense!
This meant that the more Mana he had to destroy with that Domain, the greater the price he had to pay.
So, the Mage had pushed all his remaining Mana into the small space between them.
If the Domain were active, the warrior would need to pay all the cost for getting rid of so much Mana.
And what if the Mage had used Mana Step?
Maybe this weird Domain had a way to cancel that?
If that had happened, the Mage would have died.
Luckily, he had combined all the clues just in time.
The Mage fell to the ground in relief.
And then, he vanished as well.
On top of the Affinity Wheel, the jester only smirked.
"Better luck next time," he said with a chuckle before he went on to resurrect Shang.
Shang had lost.