Chapter 199 – You Can’t Lose!

The sound of the explosion was so loud and deafening that every single spectator felt as though it were happening right beside them.

The teachers and Dean of the Academy watched how Cassius’s attack destroyed the entire Storm Domain, but that Skill didn’t simply vanish.

When a Stormblessed was angry, the Heavens themselves were angry.

And so the residual power of the Storm Domain spread through the entire Testing Ground, burning, slicing and drowning everything in its path with ruthless fury.

However, before any of the remaining participants could be touched by it, a teacher of the Academy acted instantly and teleported all of them high above the sky.

There, a new earth was born out of nothing, forming a flat landscape with nothing but dark yellow sand beneath them. A barrier was erected, wrapping the new land protectively.

All the participants were regrouped together, their eyes looking down below in tremendous shock.

They watched as half of the Testing Ground churned in a perpetual storm that refused to die down and seemed only to grow stronger as time passed, as if feeding itself from the world.

The voice reverberated through their minds, making their hearts shudder:

<It is an obvious fact that the battle between Cassius Desdemona and Emrys Stormblessed would either kill you or wound you fatally.>

They all drew a deep breath.

<This new platform has been created solely for you to finish the Test. The ranking must be made no matter what. So here are your two choices: either you continue fighting, or you forfeit.>

None of them were able to respond, their minds feeling as though they were on pause.

They had always known that Emrys and Cassius were on an entirely different level compared to them.

But at this point? To the point where even the residual power of their skills was enough to kill them?

Nafissatou clenched her jaw tightly, so tight it was about to snap, her despair deepening as she grasped the extent of Cassius’s power. At her feet was the unconscious Océane.

Raven was holding his sister tightly, having noticed she had been poisoned. To his right stood Anesthesia, gripping Love by the throat, and to his left was Sarah.

Lazy’s face was still smiling, but something deep in his soulless eyes was hard and serious. Beside him, Diaila was shivering in dread, kneeling on the ground.

’I... I’m going to be among them?’

For the first time, she wondered if it had been a good choice.

Meadow, meanwhile, had finally found Omm and taken him with her, looking at Jeanne with a promise of revenge for what she had done.

Jeanne didn’t care about her. Her mind was still replaying how weak she had been against Jurkil Julaibib’s unexpected strength. Yet even in that state of anger and self-hatred, she didn’t let go of Omm’s left hand for a single second.

So Omm stood between Meadow and Jeanne, but his mind wasn’t registering either of them. His hazel eyes were fixed on the scene below.

No, every single being in the Kingdom, and even those from outside who had come only to watch the Test, were looking at the scene, their heartbeats rising again and again until they echoed all around.

There, on the ground destroyed by the storm of Emrys’s attack, was Cassius Desdemona.

He was on his knees, both arms completely gone, hugging his body with what remained of them, trying to ease the horrendous pain eating away at his mind and body as the impact of his reckless skills and Emrys’s golden lightning still raged unrestrained inside him.

’Faster! FASTER!!!’ He screamed at his Innate, his mind breaking further and further amid the anguish.

Atop his head, the Snake of Adaptability hissed loudly and pushed itself far beyond anything it could have imagined.

The Loop was closing at a speed never before seen, but Cassius feared it wasn’t fast enough.

Not only because his mind and his whole body were being destroyed faster than the adaptation could keep up with, but also because Emrys Stormblessed would not give him the time.

And he was right.

He gritted his teeth and lifted his bloodied head with immense difficulty, looking with his only one eye Emrys hovering just a few centimetres above the ground.

He was half naked, his right hand severed, somehow still bleeding. His body was covered in burn marks, half of his face in a terribly mangled state.

Half of his internal organs had failed him. But Emrys was still going, thanks to his lightning momentarily taking over their function.

The Chosen One was in far better condition than Cassius.

The two of them looked at each other, sensing the tiredness and exhaustion in each other’s eyes, and saw how each of them wished to end this pain once and for all.

Emrys didn’t know what Cassius was doing. Even so, he could feel that if Cassius ever succeeded, everything would become a lot harder.

So finally... Emrys Stormblessed used his Sword.

The sword was not in his hand, but it never needed to be to be activated. It was linked to his Soul. And so he parted his lips, and before even a word escaped his mouth, a godly face made of golden lightning appeared in the Heavens.

Only then did his words echo around them.

"Third Manifestation..."

Cassius’s only remaining eye widened, and he felt the lightning inside his body grow more rebellious, destroying him faster.

His Innate was failing.

"...Zeus."

The godly face melted into pure golden liquid that fell from the sky toward Emrys, as if the gods themselves had sent down a nectar from the heavens for him.

When the golden liquid touched him, Emrys ceased to be human.

His body transformed into that of a Lightning Spirit. But not just any Lightning Spirit.

A Spirit at the rank of a {Prince}.

His blood, flesh and bones became lightning. His hair grew longer, sizzling and crackling, and a golden crown hovered just above his head.

An impossible amount of authority radiated from him, pressing down across the entire Testing Ground.

Every Lightning Spirit that existed within the Testing Ground answered his command and gathered in his right hand — now momentarily regenerated — forming a golden sword.

Behind Emrys, a vague illusory figure of a man could be seen. The man had golden eyes with pupils shaped like lightning bolts.

It was none other than the Golden Beggar, one of Emrys’s gods.

Cassius watched all of this with a mind barely intact. In that instant, he saw his defeat as clearly as the midday sun, and a bitter feeling began to sprout inside his heart.

He had only one final move left.

Only one.

And Cassius doubted his current state would allow him even that much. He was dying.

He had overestimated his own Innate.

His Snake of Adaptability... was unable to adapt to Emrys Stormblessed’s lightning.

And in the nobles’ room, inside the arena, Sefira Desdemona was standing, her family around her, as she watched her son’s current state.

Her red eyes began to quiver, and unconsciously, the image of Cassius in a perfectly healthy body, smiling lovingly at her, overlapped with his current broken image on the screen.

Sefira’s legs finally gave way and she dropped to the floor, kneeling, unable to bear the sight.

Aldrin, Morgan and Dorian rushed to her, trying to help her up. But never had they imagined they could be so weak.

They were unable to lift Sefira. They themselves had no strength left in their bodies. All they could do was watch, hardening their hearts for what was coming.

In the Testing Ground, Emrys lifted his sword upward, about to attack.

This was the end, all the watching people thought and believed.

However, Cassius had not given up yet.

His Innate might have failed at a complete Adaptation because of the special attributes of Emrys’s lightning, but it was enough to help him bear the pain and stand.

It looked impossible without his arms, but he did it, rising — albeit swaying heavily — before Emrys and his approaching attack.

"You are... incredible, Cassius." Emrys said with genuine respect. "But it’s over."

"O-Over?" Cassius’s scarred, burned lips pulled into a dangerous smile. "Not... so fast. There is still one thing left."

With those words, the Last Born decided to give everything he had into his next attack.

And out of respect for his opponent, Emrys went one step further and activated his Ultimate Skill.

The other participants cried out in shock.

Cassius closed his left eye and focused. But he couldn’t. The pain was far too great.

His mind was darkening. He was losing consciousness.

However...

[...My Beloved Blessed.]

Suddenly, those words boomed through the world itself, heard by all. They all snapped their eyes wide open and looked behind Cassius.

An illusory figure made of silver threads appeared behind his broken body. It was a woman, her face entirely veiled, leaving only her eyes — like twin pools of threads — and a wheel turning above her head.

She embraced Cassius from behind in a protective, loving manner.

’...Q-Queen?’ Cassius whispered brokenly, swaying, yet held tight through mysterious means by Ananke.

[Yes.] Ananke whispered back, her voice pained, hugging him further. [It’s me, my beloved blessed. I’m here. I’m here, and I will not let your mind break.]

’Even if I must spend everything of my GeumGeum.’ She added inwardly, and acted, using everything in her power.

A wind of mystical power erupted, making the world suddenly cold.

Slowly, before everyone’s eyes, threads appeared all around Cassius. Some of them sank deep into his head, stitching his broken mind back together with a care beyond understanding.

The remaining threads went toward his missing arms, creating from scratch arms made of threads, attached to his nervous system perfectly.

In that instant, everything inside Cassius’s mind became clear and smooth, like water flowing upon itself.

For the next minute, his mind reached a level of clarity far beyond anything he had ever experienced.

’Queen—!’

[Fast.] Ananke answered, her voice terribly weak, still embracing him. [Do it fast! You won’t last in this state! So hurry! You cannot lose here, Cassius. Not after everything! You can’t!]

Her desperate words summoned all the time he had spent training, all the times he had told his mother and family that he would win.

He remembered boarding the flying carriage, telling his family he would see them when he was crowned Palatine.

How could he fail them now?

How could he fail his own Goddess, who had made him who he was with her Blessing?

How could he fail Isolde, who was probably watching him right now?

How could he fail when his own sect’s members were watching, expecting him to be a strong and reliable leader?

Just how?

Were all those boastful words and efforts and plans... just to lose when the moment to win finally arrived?

Cassius’s mind seemed to burst into a colourful light of understanding. His crimson left eye began to shift. The slitted pupil changed, becoming like a snake eating its own tail.

A catastrophic presence exploded out from him, turning the surroundings within a radius of about four metres to ashes.

In that state resembling Epiphany, Cassius gathered all the insights he had learned through this battle.

A failure of his Innate had made him understand and learn more than he could ever have expected.

The slivers of insight in the Lightning Path, the Blood and Fire Path, in his own Innate, and even more... in his Left Eye.

All of these insights fused into one single understanding that transmuted the complexity of his Ultimate Skill.

Cassius’s crimson essence covered his whole body. He smiled faintly under his breath and pointed his thread-made finger downward, gathering all his remaining essence into its tip.

The wind stalled, and with that, the raging storm completely halted. All spectators forgot to breathe.

It was time.

Emrys Stormblessed slashed downward with his sword, and the world before Cassius’s eye seemed to split in two.

An arc of lightning appeared, fast and furious.

At the same time, Emrys’s Ultimate Skill activated: a golden spear longer than most buildings shooting straight toward Cassius.

Cassius Desdemona, meanwhile, looked at the two attacks and knew that even if he wanted to evade, he couldn’t.

He used every last bolt of golden lightning still racking his body and activated his Last Stand.

"New Ultimate Skill..." he whispered under his breath.

The Desdemona Bloodline within him roared, his Birthright Mark brightening exponentially, which looked the same as the pupil of his left eye.

A profound, ancient Hiss slithered through the minds of all things.

A wrathful, exploding Roar reverberated through the chests of all living things.

A cracking sound like shattered glass drowned the silent world.

Then finally...

"...The Serpent’s Feast."

BADUM—!

Behind Cassius, from a crack in space, two enormous beasts descended.

One was a long, slithering snake with pointed horns atop its head, made entirely of blood that constantly dripped down.

The other was an eastern dragon made entirely of crimson fire, small bursts of flame continuously erupting across its scarlet scales.

The two beasts roared and hissed, each taking a side of Cassius, causing Emrys’s own lightning to burst and strike down the coming attack, weakening them a bit.

Then they shot toward the approaching attacks at intense velocity, coiling around each other at the same time, taking the shape of Infinity.

Their maws were wide open, revealing within them a realm of crimson that stained the world around in the same shade.

Emrys’s heart dropped, and he immediately attacked a third time, using his bloodline to the fullest.

A storm was born, fuelling his skills to a whole new level.

Then, just an inch before the two beasts collided with Emrys’s three attacks, they fused into one apocalyptic beast of Fire and Blood, its enormous scales formed from both elements.

The attacks collided, sending a deafening noise spreading through the entire Testing Ground.

The storm-infused attacks and the jaws of the beast held in a standstill for an instant.

Then the enormous scarlet snake opened its mouth wide and swallowed all of Emrys Stormblessed’s attacks whole.

—End of Chapter 199—