Overpowered Wizard-Chapter B4 Ch22: I’ll Keep Going

There was one other sticky point.

Ruvaria could ascend.

She could come along with Zarian.

He stopped to think about it. And to be honest with himself. “I want her. Even if she’s weaker than me. I still want her. And I think she’ll want to stick with me in return.”

And they could figure out a way to work things out with Lucy once they reached God Land. So, with that all in mind, Zarian had a freaking tournament to finish.

He’d have to deal with his latest daughter somehow. Or maybe that wasn’t really his problem. As much as he loved Para, he was thinking that some time with just himself was doing him some good. Yeah, he would like Ruvaria’s company, too, but things would be different.

It would be just him in his body.

I … should really spend some time by myself more, huh? And just disconnect to reconnect. I clearly rely too much on others with the inner emotional work when I should find my own enlightenment.

He still wanted Ruvaria around, though. He could find enlightenment, maintain a girlfriend, figure out his marriage situation, and blast his way upward if he wanted to. He just had to put his mind to it.

“Okay, cool, I’m oriented now. Thanks for waiting. Shall we?” he asked his grimoires. They made their usual noises, but with more urgency.

Someone flew through the sky and landed a hundred feet away with an impressive explosion of force. Zarian groaned. His grimoires made disappointed sounds as they turned toward the latest person to interrupt them.

It was an orc. An old orc. Grayish green and wrinkled, but still an orc nonetheless. He stood over seven feet tall while hunched. He wore brown and worn-down monk clothing that was filled with pitted holes.

He had dirty wraps around his big feet and hands. Other than that, he held a big curved scimitar that had some chips in it. But the weapon was supernaturally sharp and of high quality. High enough to be unknown.

Zarian felt annoyed. But he was also curious. The old orc was only Level 197, but he was able to stand under the wizard’s dense aura. His class was mythical even though it had a simple name: Hero Chopper.

“When you are ready, I’ll test my sword fighting against you,” said Bukka the Choppa, lowering down into a seat. He placed his big sword on his lap. His voice was like gravel rolling over more gravel. “Don’t mind me.”

Zarian smirked. “What? You’re going to just watch me?”

“Yes. Are you going to advance and progress your rank?”

“I want to. But it’s a little unsafe for me to do that currently.”

Bukka the Choppa nodded his grayish-green head. The wrinkles covering his face wrinkled further as he pondered deeply. The old orc then nodded again. “Then I’ll defend you with my life. Then you will let me test my sword fighting against you.”

“What if I kill you? I’m stupid strong.”

“If I die, I die.”

Zarian erupted into laughter. There was something earnest about Bukka the Choppa. Gritty and real. Zarian could tell because of Wonder. And his Wonder was up there, and it would grow even faster with the compiling stats and traits. More importantly, as Zarian filled up his massive aura supply, the old orc remained undisturbed.

Huh … he’s not ultra. Is this an actual old monster of the Star System? Zarian wondered if this old orc could put Cal in his place. Could he survive Para? The guy was just sitting there, unmoved, like a statue.

“Fine. I’ll let you watch over me. And if the fight’s good enough, maybe I won’t kill you. If you can surprise me, I’ll concede it as your win, and you’ll advance to the Final Round. Do you agree?”

“Yes,” agreed the old orc.

I wonder how Ruvaria would react to this? Zarian mused. Hell, would Ruvaria the Genocider and Bukka the Chopper be aware of each other? Ruvaria had been off Corma plenty of times. Zarian asked the old orc.

“Hm. That would explain a lot. I recognized Ruvaria’s handiwork around you.”

“Okay, now I’m curious. How the heck did you survive her?”

The next words out of the old orc’s mouth were stunning. “I’ve beaten her once, forcing her to flee. It was a close fight. Since then, I’ve honed my profile to defeat monsters like you.”

Zarian blinked. The old orc … wasn’t lying. Still, he couldn’t help but blurt out, “Impossible. She’s stronger than you.”

“I didn’t win because I was stronger, smarter, faster, or anything. I won … because I’ve trained with my sword so I can beat a monster like her. She was on a rampage against worlds with orcs. Even if the orcs have caused no harm. I had to stop her, or many would’ve been lost. Thankfully, we only had to fight once.”

Stolen story; please report.

Yeesh. Zarian winced at hearing that.

Bukka chuckled. “You like her, hm? Well, I suppose it’s good that happened to her. She’s calmed down a lot since then. The turning of the eras has done her some good. It’ll be a shame if you fall here. Someone needs to keep her tender, or I fear the Genocider would rouse again.”

Zarian would’ve considered the old orc’s confidence the height of foolishness. But there were no lies. Somehow, this weaker star adventurer had overcome a magical juggernaut like Ruvaria.

“Okay, I’m curious to see what you can do. But let me sort a few things out.” Zarian turned to his grimoires again, giving the orc his back. With only his lion tail covering him really, the wizard was as vulnerable as anyone could be even with all of his power. But he couldn’t help but follow his Wonder stat.

He waited just in case something else tried to intervene. His grimoires scuttled, growled, hummed, and rattled about impatiently. Zarian swept his senses in all directions and caught multiple star adventurers and other contestants from the other universes. But none were close enough to be a bother during the skill combination. This might take a while, though.

He was going to do it himself.

First, Zarian looked back in his head at all the skill combiners he’d witnessed. He compared the process with his mental notes. Because of his free evil alignment, his memory was scary sharp. He could recall all the processes from the Star System getting involved with his personal profile and the profile of others he’d observed in sharp detail.

Everything that made the basic parts of the system came down to magic being merged with life and reality using a series of computational symbols – runes, but divine runes, made specifically for the system. Zarian recalled how he and Hannah had delved into different runic languages and how Ruvaria had taught him older runic languages. She’d gone as far as stuff from before the era she was born into.

To manipulate a major process of the system himself required deep, deep, deep understanding of the system’s runes. Zarian, unfortunately, wasn’t fully privy to every part of the system’s secrets. And Zarian was sure that even the System would be unwilling to give up his core matrixes. But he had seen this process enough times.

So, Zarian replicated the god runes of a universe system. Sorcery could pull this off mainly. That was the whole point of it. Bending, carving, and stamping aura-made runes into the tapestry that was reality, magic, and metaphysics.

Blue-white symbols that matched some symbols the System had used flashed into existence around Zarian and his grimoires. More and more compiled around him, some fixed into place, others scrolling by like code bits on a screen, rotating around Zarian in a globe. Bukka the Choppa hummed as he watched the wizard push his sorcery muscles and go beyond just the basics of magic copied onto a page.

“Alright, I’ve got the platform set,” Zarian said. “Now we’re going to execute. It’s been good knowing all four of you. And yes, even you Morphs. Let’s say hello to who you all become as one.”

Gator let out one last growl. Morphs gurgled and spat. Void kept humming as normal. And Black, the first grimoire, rattled with a final note of goodbye. Zarian’s heart hitched a little. In a way, combining all of his grimoires was like killing who they were before. But they were all ready to become something more together.

“Let’s go.” Zarian moved his hands. Blue-white system magic flowed in bright streams where his hands moved. They flashed before turning into interlocked runes that spiraled around each of the grimoires. While what happened on the outside was theatrical and whimsical, Zarian had to work even harder on the inside as he slowly took apart parts of his profile while it was attached to his soul. Once he fully committed, the metaphysical result came to exist.

Gator became a dried, dusty husk

Void quietly shattered.

Morphs melted.

And Black dissolved into smoke and flakes. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

They all died as their inner runes became pulled apart. All of their spells fell into pieces. But all of their magic didn’t disappear. Zarian stood on a precipice that could lead to the next stage or lead to exploding and dying. There was a reason this was the work of the System, and it occurred to him then that bringing all of his grimoires together was a little like quantum coding and countless nuclear fusions happening at once.

Of course, someone decided to teleport from a quarter of the planet away and attack. It was another contestant, but an assimilator this time. He was shaped like a twig of a man made of liquid metal.

His metallic body streamed into separate tendrils, thrusting to pierce through the gaps in the system magic Zarian had wrapped around him. The wizard could see it happening, but there was nothing he could do while all of his aura was focused on playing system god – and it was actually hard to pull off.

Bukka the Chopper revealed his Aura Ignition. He went through the stages faster than anyone Zarian had ever seen. First Stage, blue-green, the wild start. Second Stage, green-yellow, more power and greater techniques. Third stage, yellow-orange, stability.

Then he nearly shocked Zarian out of his focus when Bukka went even further.

Fourth Stage, the yellow parts became more orange before shifting further into the red. The orange-red color came with reality warp.

With one swing of his sword, Bukka cut the assimilator into a million pieces and annihilated him. He covered the area around the assimilator with lots and lots and lots of cuts, each one traced with orange-red lines matching the colors of his Fourth Stage of Aura Ignition.

Nothing else was damaged. Zarian remained completely unaffected. And there wasn’t even a scratch on the ground or anything. All that remained of the assimilator was fine dust on the crushed floor.

Bukka snuffed out his Aura Ignition and went back to being an old orc. He did go up to Level 198, so good for him, but Zarian had to brace himself for the next part. Combining the essence and the runes in his grimoires was hard. There were gaps that the Star System would’ve normally filled, but Zarian had to replicate it himself with his subpar knowledge.

Gator’s dried husk opened and accepted the remains of Void, Morph, and Black. But nothing much happened afterward as Gator’s corpse closed up and contained the metaphysical manifestations.

Inside Zarian, the runes mixed. Some fitted together like puzzle pieces. Others got stuck, bit into each other harshly, or bounced off when they didn’t fit well together. Things were getting shaky, and Zarian feared he’d fail, blow himself up, and lose his grimoires for no reason.

He was about to ask for the System’s help. He could almost feel that Infinita was eager to jump in. The offer to combine skills was still there. Yet, Zarian hesitated.

“Is this the limit of your ambition, young man?” said Bukka the Choppa. “Will you truly stop here? How can you be the master of such power that could annihilate us all and be so quick to quit?”

Zarian growled. “No. This isn’t where my ambitions end. I’ll keep going.”