SSS Ranked Talent: I Can Upgrade My Skills Infinitely-Chapter 167: The War of Elements, Fire Against Watermain

[Status: Stoic / Hostile]

"They’re guarding the path," Seraphina said.

"They’re stepping stones," Alvian said. "Seraphina, watch Valeria. I’ll clear the way."

Alvian stepped off the platform. He didn’t fall. He activated the [Tablet of the Earth Core] inside his body. He synced his personal gravity with the nearest rock. He fell toward the rock, landing on its side with a heavy thud.

A monk saw him. The monk didn’t move. He simply punched the air.

"Push."

A wave of gravity slammed into Alvian. It was like being hit by a train.

[Passive: Terra-Form activated.]

Alvian didn’t budge. His density was too high. The gravity wave washed over him and dissipated.

"Inefficient," Alvian stated. "You push. I anchor."

He charged. He ran along the side of the floating rock. The monk tried to punch again, but Alvian was already there. He drove his knee into the monk’s chest.

"CRUNCH."

The monk turned to stone dust upon death.

Alvian looked at the next rock. It was fifty meters away. Gravity shifted. Down became Up.

Alvian adjusted instantly. He jumped "up" toward the next rock, which was now "down".

He moved through the field, a pinball of destruction bouncing between the floating islands. He killed the disciples with efficient strikes—a punch to the throat, a kick to the knee, a throw into the void.

He reached the inverted mountain.

Standing at the temple gate was the ruler of the shard. Echo Zhang.

He was an old man, floating in a lotus position. He had a long white beard that defied gravity, floating in a perfect circle around his head.

[Boss Identified: Echo Zhang (The Gravity Grandmaster)]

[Level: 60]

[Status: Enlightened / Glitched]

"You carry the weight of the world," Zhang said, opening his eyes. They were black holes. "But can you carry the sky?"

Zhang raised a hand.

"Planetary Devastation."

The floating rocks around the mountain stopped moving. Then, they all rushed toward Alvian. Hundreds of them. A meteor shower converging on a single point.

"Alvian!" Seraphina shouted from the rune platform, which was struggling to stay stable in the chaotic gravity.

Alvian looked at the incoming rocks. He couldn’t dodge. There were too many.

"Physics Lesson Number Twenty-Four," Alvian whispered, his eyes glowing gold. "Center of Mass."

He didn’t use a shield. He used the [Tablet of the Earth Core]. He amplified his own gravity field. He didn’t push the rocks away. He pulled them in.

"System. Maximize [Mass Increase]. Become the Singularity."

"VWOOOM!"

Alvian became the heaviest object in the shard. The rocks didn’t hit him; they entered orbit. The massive boulders began to spin around him, caught in his gravitational pull. He formed a shield made of the enemy’s ammunition.

Zhang frowned. "Impossible. You control the attractive force?"

"I control the board," Alvian said.

He pointed at Zhang.

"Release."

He reversed the polarity. The orbiting rocks shot outward, not randomly, but aimed directly at the Grandmaster.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Zhang raised a gravity wall, but the sheer mass of the bombardment overwhelmed him. The rocks smashed through his defense, burying him under a mountain of debris.

[-50,000! Crushing Damage!]

Alvian walked up the inverted stairs to the pile of rubble. Zhang pulled himself out, coughing dust. He looked broken, his glitched form flickering.

"You... you understand the weight," Zhang whispered.

"I understand that you are in my way," Alvian said.

He reached into the rubble and pulled out a jagged, brown crystal. The [Earth Anchor].

The moment he touched it, the gravity in the shard normalized. The floating mountains groaned and began to fall into the void.

"Time to go," Alvian said.

He used [Void Step] to return to the platform where Seraphina and Valeria were waiting.

"Hold on," Alvian ordered. "It’s going to be a bumpy ride to the next one."

He activated the Anchor. The world twisted again.

[Shard Conquered: Earth.]

[Reality Anchor: 3/5 Acquired.]

Three down. Two to go. And the clock was ticking.

The warp from the Earth Shard was not the gentle transition of a standard teleportation gate. It was a violent, tearing sensation, as if the universe was trying to pull their avatars apart pixel by pixel. The grey mist of the Dimensional Gap swirled around them, thick with the static of corrupted data.

Alvian held the [Earth Anchor] tight. It pulsed, a heavy, rhythmic thrum that stabilized their passage through the void. He looked at his team. Valeria was pale, the strain of the constant gravity shifts in the previous zone still evident in the set of her jaw. Seraphina was checking her daggers, her mechanical eye whirring as it tried to recalibrate to a new set of physics.

"Brace," Alvian ordered. "The next zone isn’t stable."

"None of this is stable," Seraphina muttered, sheathing her weapons. "We’re in a trash can, Alvian."

"We’re in a mine," Alvian corrected. "And we just hit the motherlode."

The mist parted. They didn’t land on solid ground. They landed on a bridge of solidified steam.

To their left was an ocean. It wasn’t contained by a shoreline; it was a massive, spherical blob of water suspended in the void, churning with violent currents. To their right was a star. Or rather, a mountain of pure, liquid magma that burned with an intensity that distorted the visual feed of reality.

The two shards—Water and Fire—weren’t separated by the grey mist like the others. They were colliding.

"BOOM!"

A geyser of steam erupted where the ocean sphere brushed against the magma mountain. The sound was deafening, a hiss that sounded like the universe screaming.

[Zone Identified: The Twin Shards (Fire/Water)]

[Environmental Hazard: [Thermal Shock]. Extreme temperature fluctuations.]

[Status: War of the Echoes.]

"Two shards," Valeria shouted over the roar of the steam. "Why are they together?"

"They aren’t just together," Alvian analyzed, his violet eyes scanning the chaotic horizon. "They are at war. The System deleted these assets because the conflict script was broken. It’s an infinite loop of destruction."

He pointed. From the magma mountain, legions of burning figures emerged. They looked like the Magma Troopers from the Industrial District, but glitchy, their textures flickering between rock and fire. From the water sphere, shapes of liquid blue rose up to meet them—twisted reflections of the Tide-Shapers.

They clashed on the bridge of steam. Fire met water. Explosion met suppression.

"We need the Anchors," Seraphina said, shielding her eyes from a flare of magma. "But they’re in the middle of a battlefield."

"The Anchors will be with the Commanders," Alvian stated. "The Echoes."

"System. Scan for High-Density Mana Signatures."

[Scan Complete.]

[Target A: Echo Yan (The Pyromancer King).]

[Location: The Magma Throne.]

[Target B: Echo Shui (The Abyssal Queen).]

[Location: The Deep Palace.]

"Echo Yan and Echo Shui," Valeria gripped her sword hilt. "Twisted versions of the District Governors?"

"Memory fragments," Alvian corrected. "The System recycles character models. These are the original templates that the Governors were based on. They are stronger. Rawer."

He looked at the battlefield. It was a stalemate. The fire couldn’t burn the ocean, and the ocean couldn’t drown the mountain. They were locked in a perpetual cycle of cancellation.

"Inefficient," Alvian muttered. "If we intervene in the middle, we get crushed by both sides."

"So we wait?" Seraphina asked.

"No," Alvian said. "We split them."

He turned to Valeria. He looked at her armor, battered but unbroken. He looked at the golden aura of the [Titan] that simmered beneath her skin.

"Valeria," Alvian said. "You handled Ignis in the real world. Can you handle his ghost?"

Valeria looked at the magma mountain. The heat was intense, but she didn’t flinch. She smiled, a fierce, challenging expression. "Fire is just spicy air. I can take him."

"Seraphina," Alvian looked at the rogue. "You go with her. She is the anvil. You are the hammer. Find the Fire Anchor."

"And you?" Seraphina asked, eyeing the massive sphere of water floating in the void. "You’re going for a swim?"

"Water is my element," Alvian said, equipping the [Lance of the Void Winter]. The black metal drank the light of the burning mountain. "I’m going to teach the ocean about frost."

"This is dangerous, Alvian," Valeria said, her voice dropping. "Splitting the party in a high-level zone..."

"Efficiency dictates a multi-pronged assault," Alvian replied. "If we attack one, the other might intervene to steal the kill. If we kill both simultaneously, the loop breaks."

He reached into his inventory. He pulled out two [Mana Crystals] and handed them to Valeria.

"Don’t conserve resources. Burn them. If you get into trouble, break the crystals. The mana surge will act as a flare. I will come."

Valeria took the crystals. She closed her armored fist around them. "We won’t need them. I’ll bring you that Anchor, Alvian."

"Good."

Alvian stepped to the edge of the steam bridge. He looked at the sphere of water. It was dark, deep, and cold. Perfect.

"Go," Alvian ordered.

Valeria and Seraphina turned and sprinted toward the magma mountain. Alvian didn’t watch them go. He trusted them. He had forged them into weapons, into survivors.

He turned to the water.

"[Void Step]."

He vanished from the bridge. He reappeared inside the water sphere. The silence of the deep enveloped him instantly.