Endless Evolution: Last Star

Chapter 2016: Soaring Energy

No one argued with Kamora – she was right. They had spent enough time preparing, and Adam had to retrieve the Fifth Anchor.

Frida, just as she had said, went with them, as they had already been flying upward for some time.

Silvana was beside him in her spectral form, but unlike the others, she wasn’t thinking about the Fifth Anchor or Nova Hail. She thought only of Lamor’s response.

He shared his thoughts with her and explained what that level of connection meant, but it wasn’t enough.

Lamor simply couldn’t fully convey to her what he had felt when he and Kamora had created the Manifest Nexus.

However, there was nothing strange about that. For every pair, this experience was unique, and Silvana and Adam were no exception.

All Silvana had to do was remain patient, and that was exactly where she was having major trouble.

“Damn it,” Silvana bit her lip. “I shouldn’t be thinking about this right now. But… ever since my training with Aiden… that’s all I can think about.”

The reason Silvana had agreed to Aiden’s terms was that she wanted to become stronger and more useful in battle. She had her abilities, sure, and they were quite powerful, but that wasn’t enough for Silvana.

She was certain that only when she could take part in battle would her contribution be truly meaningful.

Sure, maybe Silvana was too hard on herself, but she couldn’t help it.

Whooooosh!

Powerful gusts of wind swept past as Adam and the others approached the Nova Hail.

The distance between the Nova Hail and Azure Island was greater than that between Heaven Island and Azure Island, as they had been flying at high speed for several minutes already.

“Wow… Why is it so high up? Where are we even going?”

Frida decided to answer.

“To the High Clouds.”

“High Clouds?”

She nodded.

“Above the ordinary clouds, there’s another layer of clouds. These clouds aren’t as dense and move in waves across the sky. Also, the area between the two layers of clouds is called the High Area. Quite often, particularly powerful monsters battle at this altitude.”

Frida continued:

“When the Ascended Lords or even the Lesser Lords battle, the High Area becomes a suitable place for it. Usually, most of these battles end without any consequences for the territories below them.

“The Nova Hail are located among the Hail Clouds, which is exactly why we have to travel such a long way to reach them.”

“Nah, that’s not the only reason,” Kamora said.

“Ah?” Adam turned to her.

She chuckled.

“If Adam weren’t so slow, we’d have been there ages ago. Frida and I could have made the trip from Azure Island to the Nova Hail and back several times already.”

Adam frowned.

“Great, good for you.”

Kamora rolled her eyes.

“Don’t be so sensitive. I’m just kidding, although…” Her eyes swept over him. “You really are slow. I’d forgotten just how slow K4-Phantoms can be.”

Adam’s eyebrow twitched. He wanted to respond, but decided to ignore her.

After that, Adam looked down at Azure Island and Heaven Island, beneath which lay the first layer of clouds.

“Damn, is all this space the High Area? It’s a huge place!”

“Yes.” Frida’s voice was calm. “In fact, right now, there are probably several Lord-Level fights taking place somewhere. Though none of them are close enough for me to sense them.”

Adam nodded as they continued on their way.

About thirty seconds later, new clouds finally appeared overhead. Just as Frida had said, the clouds rolled in waves, like a multitude of rings radiating from a single point.

If Adam hadn’t known that this was their natural shape, he would have thought it was the result of a shockwave from an explosion.

But something else quickly captured all of Adam’s attention.

In the center of the High Clouds were floating white crystals, their tips pointing downward as if they were ready to fall at any moment, but in a thousand years, that had never happened.

Surrounding the crystals were blue energy orbs filled with electricity, hovering like satellites around planets.

Below the crystals, like a platform for an arena, stone islands hovered, held aloft by the collective energy field of every object there.

“Wait… So this is the Nova Hail. But didn’t you say this was the energy of the Last Star, not the Midnight Crystals?”

Lamor crossed his arms over his chest.

“We didn’t lie to you. Take a closer look, Adam. Are these actually crystals? As far as I’m concerned, it’s just energy.”

“Ah?”

Adam was a little confused by this, but when he looked at the white crystals again, he understood what Lamor was talking about.

The crystals were actually extremely dense energy, so dense that from a distance they appeared to be physical objects.

However, this energy was in its physical form, so Adam was partially right as well, but only partially.

If a person touches these crystals, they’ll feel their surface, unlike energy flows, which would simply pass through their hand. However, if they try to separate or break these crystals, they won’t succeed, as they’ll return to their previous form.

After a moment, Adam nodded deeply.

“So I have to compress the gathered energy into the same state as these crystals? Then I’ll be able to unleash the Nova Blast?”

Lamor nodded.

“Yes. You can use both your own energy and the Nova Hail energy, but I don’t advise you to spend your reserves on creating the Nova Blast.”

“Hmm? Why?” Adam asked. “Shouldn’t that speed up the process?”

Lamor shook his head.

“You’ll only make things harder for yourself. It’s hard to say for sure, but I’d say that to create the Nova Blast, you’ll need between 400% and 600% of your peak energy. As you know, you don’t even have a quarter of that right now.”

Adam gulped as he looked at the Nova Hail.

His expression changed as the numbers were terrifyingly large.

Clap!

Kamora’s hand smacked Adam on the back.

“Come on! It’s time to get started.”

Adam nodded. Kamora was right, a truly rare occurrence.