Overpowered Wizard-Chapter B4 Ch52: Greater Realmư

A new realm. A new world. Bigger than the last. Stronger, too. But it was still puny compared to the peak of Zarian’s might.

Once the realm magic slid off, he waited for the others to orientate themselves while stepping into their first Master World.

It was a magical metropolis that gleamed with runic chrome, glass, and finely curated plants placed neatly on the sidewalks between immense towers that reached thousands of feet. Twilight was upon them, and Zarian watched the three suns set from the edge of the open-aired reception temple that took in new Master Rankers. There was a lone Champion Ranker, mid 200s. She was in charge of the induction, a friendly face and an enforcer with some power to back it.

“Excuse me, you six. I’d prefer it if I had all of your…” She trailed off before shooting an identifying ability.

Zarian casually snuffed it with aura alone. “Excuse us. We’re a bit more ahead of the curve, so you don’t have to bother. We’ll just hang out over here.”

“I can’t let you do that.” The Champion Ranker teleported from the stage and landed in front of Zarian. She was tall, statuesque even, with red skin and silver armor. She exuded a decent aura with the proper amount of stats a champion of her caliber should have. The traits were mostly legendary, a few mythical, and her skills were few but maxed out. “We have protocols here. I imagine you’ve pushed fairly hard to get close to Level 200, but I’m Level 253, and I’ve been at this game far longer. Now, I need you to wait with the other Master Rankers.”

“You and Foodie would cause a big mess if you fought here. I’ll do what I can to contain it,” Zarian said lazily.

“Ugh. Another narcissist. Alright, fine, I’ll help you with your ego. Don’t blame me for hurting you a little.” She reached for Zarian.

He unfurled his magic and formed wards before Foodie punched the champion through the edge of the ceiling and into the stratosphere. She didn’t teleport back. She flew further out into space. The backlash had nowhere to go as Zarian’s wards siphoned the energy and dissipated it safely.

“Oh, no!” Bianca slapped at her cheeks.

“Yeah, Bianca, poor girl didn’t know what hit her,” Gilbert said.

“Huh? What? Oh, I wasn’t saying ‘oh no’ about that. Foodie missed the moon by an itsy bit.”

“Well, Mistress Darkrun, how are you feeling?” Naomi asked from next to her discipleship goddess.

“The aura is better here.” Foodie curled and uncurled her hands. “We’re on a Master World, right? It’s like a Super World, but greater. The aura of the realm feels good. I’m stronger here.”

“Yup,” Zarian said. “I feel it, too. What about you all?”

The disciples confirmed that they could feel a boost as well. More importantly, they could feel the power of the Darkruns pouring into them passively.

“It’s nonstop. And intense,” Hannah said. “There’s more than just power. I can feel the depths of your knowledge, and it’s scary. How can you hold all of that?”

“We’ll go over it as we carry on. I don’t think a Master World is good enough for us,” Zarian said. He was already at Level 200, and it wouldn’t take long to get the others up there as well. They could make it happen within a week or less. Zarian and Foodie just had to push them hard enough.

“Next up is a Champion World, right?” Naomi asked.

“Depends. Mega Worlds are bigger, but they have fewer challenges. A Champion World is the equivalent of that and has more challenges in the Greater Realm.”

“I know we aren’t looking back and all, but isn’t our old world ascending soon?” Gilbert asked.

“It is. And Ruvaria’s there.” Zarian chuckled. “Whatever poor fool tries to enforce their will on our home is going to regret it.”

“So what are we waiting for?” Hannah looked out toward the setting suns and back at Zarian.

Their most senior Darkrun held them in suspense while playing with the seam on the cuff of his shirt. It was Hannah’s making. Celestial Quality. It wouldn’t take long to get her making eternal clothing. She’d do a better job at it than him.

No, that wasn’t true anymore. He had access to her powers. There was a lot to explore there. But that was for later.

As of now, he wanted to get a decent welcome party – and there it was. In front of the sunset, a man dressed in a chrome suit appeared. His form burned like flaming metal, his cape fluttering behind him as he drew closer.

Zarian motioned for the others to get behind him. They even had an audience from the other inductees who had recently ascended. The light dimmed further, and the chrome-dressed man came to a hovering stop at the edge of the open temple. Below him, a thousand metallic steps covered the way down, with temple workers stopping their duties to kneel.

“Who are you to punch my overseer into space?” said the Paragon Ranker.

“The guy who’ll blast you into space if you aren’t careful.” Zarian shrugged. “I was enjoying the sunset, and I wanted to see the stars before moving on to a stronger world.”

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Zarian summoned his wizard hat and donned the skill-based article. Ignoring all the new options from the discipleship, he rubbed his metaphorical hand over his skills before delving a little deeper and tapping on the magic in his soul, his traits, eternal and celestial.

His disciples shivered and withdrew a few steps further. Foodie and Naomi smiled like she-devils and stood their ground close behind him. He would have to be a bit more careful with them so close. That, and he didn’t want to kill billions of people for no reason.

“You can’t be any higher than Level 200,” the Paragon said.

“I’m sensing you’re in the low Level 300s.” Zarian waved him off. “You’re not strong enough for this fight. I would just chill out and let us be on our way.”

The posturing persisted, and the sunset dimmed into a low, dull red ember. Zarian was curious about what the man would do. Would he take the hit to his ego and just let it go? Or would he–

Zarian tilted his head and used Meta Unravelment +6, one of his Infinite Skills. He targeted the city-busting chrome shard that the Paragon formed and brought down within a nanosecond.

The massive attack dissolved into aura and silver glitter that rained over the shiny city. The unaware denizens below stopped to look up, children cheering and clapping.

“That was too extreme of a reaction, if you ask me. You were going to kill all these people for your ego.” Zarian reached back, and Foodie provided him a cigar, already cut and burning. He puffed on it, rolling the smoky flavor around his mouth as the frustrated Paragon glared down at him. Zarian blew a stream in his direction. “Final warning. You don’t want the smoke. Sunset is almost over. Once the dark arrives, if you’re still here, you’ll regret it.”

“This is just one world. A minor world among greater worlds. The deaths here will be the fault of you alone.”

“Funny.” Zarian rolled his cigar around some more. “I have no intention for innocent causalities. And because it’s my intention, none of your actions will breach that. If you don’t believe me, why don’t you ask the System to warn the world of its incoming destruction.”

It wouldn’t send a warning. The system knew Zarian could protect the world and fight off a Paragon.

The Paragon snarled, his teeth all metal. The last light of the suns were almost snuffed out. The Paragon waited until the dark arrived fully.

Zarian’s seals rattled like heavy locks. His inner darkness wanted to come out. He settled on the basics as hundreds of mountain-sized, chrome-colored projectiles rained in from space.

At the street level of the metropolis, the denizens went about their evening cheerfully, with music playing from the local taverns. They didn’t see the incoming apocalypse as Zarian wove an illusion with sorcery far and wide.

He unlocked Twenty Percent Darkness and seamlessly intertwined it with his magic, darkening all of his abilities further. It was the foundation for punching far above his weight – safely. He cast one spell from his Bibliotheca of the Dark Star Eater – Feast of the Abyss – and consumed the space the chrome projectiles occupied, letting none pass through.

Meanwhile, the Paragon attacked directly with explosive punches and metallic bursts of aura that would rip apart the local area and kill millions of people. Zarian’s power rose higher than it needed to, eternal and celestial traits blooming. Pure aura manipulation and stacks of wards snuffed the explosive punches and softened them. They landed like heavy pillows against his chest, pushing him back a step and no more.

With a bit more effort, Zarian tapped into Overpowered Times Four, the celestial trait boosting one skill by 1250%. The recipient of that was his Unrivaled Grand Magus Hat +5.

The feedback loop in power was fun for Zarian, and almost too extreme for his disciples, Hannah falling to her butt, Gilbert landing on a knee, and Bianca shrieking like a mad banshee.

He wasn’t going to apologize. They would have to get used to this, and he was in the middle of snuffing out the Paragon’s every attempt to crush him and cause widespread destruction. Subtle darkness, aura powers, sorcery, and a hint of wizardry did the job, all backed by powers he shouldn’t have at his level and rank.

The Paragon’s fury shifted into disbelief. Then realization, which was quickly followed by fear. He stopped and took in Zarian fully, probing with powers for identifying, each attempt failing against the Conquest Wizard’s magical sphere of influence.

When nothing could break through the informational wall, the Paragon teleported away.

Zarian powered down after that, sealing up what wasn’t necessary, especially Overwhelming Darkness.

“Why let him live?” Hannah asked, panting.

“To send a message to his friends,” Foodie said, giggling.

“And invite more prey if they’re dumb,” Naomi added brightly.

The First Disciple and her Darkrun Mistress high-fived, their palms clapping like thunder.

“That doesn’t sound very good, Naomi!” Bianca sang.

“That asshole was going to wipe out a whole world for his ego. He’s prey,” Naomi countered.

“I know. Just messing with you. It’s good to feel strongly about that. That’s important with free good. Keep that in mind, too, Gilbert.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure. Make an asshole’s day worse and all that.” The man dusted off his legs and glared down at his Ultra God. “What’s next, boss?”

“My First Disciple, let’s do a presentation.”

“Yes, sir.”

Zarian connected deeper with Hannah, and together they created a high-def magitek television screen. They experimented with a mixture of sorcery and runic engineering, with Zarian providing her consistent processing support so she could think faster, far faster than before. Then they had a working screen that displayed hidden system information and the characteristics of the worlds that held Zarian’s attention.

“I’m iffy about jumping into the deep end right away. Here we have a Gauntlet World. That’s the equivalent of a Paragon World in a High Realm. Level 300 and up type of stuff. As fun as that would be for me and Foodie, it’s not without risks. So, how about we go for the hardest Champion Worlds and build you all up on Level 200 challenges? That way we…”

Zarian trailed off as one world on display went dark. He turned, focused, and cast his perception as far as it could go. It ran into an informational block that was unyielding and certainly divine. It was a type of divine power that was all raw bitterness, refusing even the will of the system. Zarian couldn’t even pinpoint the source of the divine block. Not from this distance. He’d have to eyeball it.

Could it be Para? Could it be something that would distract them, slow them down?

“Nope,” he said, turning back to the others. “That’s not our problem right now.”

“Are you sure about that?” Gilbert asked.

“I’m not in the mood for unclear side quests. Now hurry and pick a world. Pick two, in fact. I’ll follow my disciples to a world of their choosing. Foodie and her disciple will take a different one. We’ll reconvene after everybody hits Champion Rank, then raid the Gauntlet World together.” Zarian snapped his fingers as something else came to mind. There was always more. “Don’t be afraid to call out for powers that interest you. Traits. Skills. It doesn’t matter. Your local Ultra God and Ultra Goddess can help facilitate what you want, dear disciples. We will mold your profiles and support your souls as we go.”

And we’ll do the same for ourselves as we improve. Though that would require even bigger challenges for the Ultra Gods. What could push Zarian above Thirty Percent Darkness? What could push Foodie to Fourth Ignition?

They made their choices, and then they were off to the races. The waiting Master Rankers who hadn’t dipped out watched them disappear from the temple. The people of the chrome metropolis carried on with their night none the wiser.