Rivers of the Night

Chapter 764: Hardly

Theron no longer used his Dark Mana to shift and move. He felt the earth beneath him and anchored himself, his Dark and Water Mana fusing once again into river-like streams that pooled around him.

But just when it seemed like he was going to attack, his spear actually thrust downward, piercing into the ground beneath his feet.

A surge of might pooled into the cobbled stone, turning those that survived over and shattering the rest. There was a pool of subtle indigo energy that hovered around him.

Alfone’s eyes narrowed, but Theron had already almost delicately pointed at the air.

[Shadow Dagger].

Chi. Chi. Chi.

Half a dozen [Shadow Daggers] were formed in quick succession, each one moving so swiftly they were already upon Alfone before he seemed to do much.

However, this felt like a repeat of what had happened only just moments before. As distracted as Alfone seemed to be, it was like he could retroactively act whenever he so pleased.

Or, more accurately, he had already acted to begin with; it was just that his ability to superimpose was far more textured, layered, and complex than Orchu.

He didn’t just use the superimposition abilities of their bloodline as a raw form of defense and evasion; he was also able to parlay it into illusions and tactics as well, giving it both form and function.

However, just as there was about to be a repeat of history, the [Shadow Daggers] diverged from their original path, shifting toward unexpected locations.

[Void Pit].

Theron didn’t even move, a vast circle of black appearing right behind him just as his [Shadow Daggers] cut through empty space.

The world shuddered, and the flickering image of a man took form before Theron, only for the ground to collapse and for this very superimposition to fall into the depths of endless black.

[Phase Slip].

Theron’s body separated into two halves, tendrils of darkness barely holding them together. This form of [Phase Slip] was one he had never personally used before, yet its effectiveness spoke for itself.

The tendrils of darkness snapped back together after a line of blue and silver passed through it.

[Prismatic Tide].

A pyramid of water appeared just behind Theron, the line of blue and silver slipping into its body as though a single stone into a vast, endless ocean.

[Echo Shell].

BOOM.

[Prismatic Tide] exploded, but it did nothing but flutter Theron’s robes, four perfect blue shields appearing around him.

Theron raised a hand to the skies.

"Die," he said lightly.

[Tidal Crush].

Chi. Chi. Chi. Chi.

The four [Echo Shells] collapsed into moats of blue light, fusing into Theron’s new Spell with a momentum that somehow both felt like a stampeding horde of horses and a fluttering fleet of butterflies—light and airy, yet carrying the heft of energy far beyond one’s wildest imaginations.

A tide of indigo rose high into the skies. It towered over buildings, reaching for the heavens as though to replace the clouds and stars themselves.

BOOM.

The tsunami of Mana collapsed and crushed everything in sight.

It all happened far too fast. In one moment, Theron was a spear wielder, and in the next he seemed to have become a legendary mage. What too few of his enemies understood was that...

He didn’t even like the spear all that much. It wasn’t his main weapon.

And even compared to his short sword and dagger... that could be considered secondary to his true preferred manner of battle.

Spellcasting.

Theron opened a palm, and the waters that formed the tsunami rushed back toward him, forming concentrated spears of water.

In a crater deeper than even the tallest building of the city was tall, a body lay.

"Young master!" Granny Chu shot forward, slipping through space with wide eyes.

Everything had happened so fast, and even she was having a hard time understanding how Theron was layering his attacks. The fact that he kept switching between Dark Mana, Water Mana, and their fusion made it all the more difficult to track.

Somehow, he had used [Prismatic Tide], a spell designed to store energy in a water prism and amplify attacks, and [Echo Shell], an attack that absorbed attacks to amplify one’s ambient Mana and strengthen one’s spells, as though they were simply a pair of spells designed to be connected with one another.

But that was absolutely impossible. They both had similar functions, but completely different end results. Using them with such familiarity, and as though one could be connected to the next, would have required Theron to be the one who created both of them.

But the creators of these spells were legends, and they weren’t the same person in the first place. How could Theron do something like that, even to the point of connecting them to a third spell in [Tidal Crush]?

None of that even touched on how he had controlled the battlefield like it was the back of his hand, weathering the complexities of Space Mana as though it was his own backyard.

Those sorts of senses... how could someone beneath the King Realm have them?

Anyone else, even with Theron’s level of strength, would have died ten times over to Alfone’s efforts. Alfone was precisely why Space Mancers were feared so much, yet Theron had made it look like a complete walk in the park.

Granny Chu picked Alfone up, her face covered in abject panic. Alfone was the heir of their Clan. Even though General Ameridia existed, she was a woman. It wasn’t as though leaders among women didn’t exist—the Matriarch of the Ice Hall had, well... been a Matriarch.

But the problem was that the unique bloodline issues the Chron Clan had forced their hand in certain matters. If their leadership wasn’t given to a man, it could very well mean the end of their Clan as a whole, and Alfone was undoubtedly the best choice. It was why he was coddled so much.

But...

He was hardly breathing.

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