Rivers of the Night

Chapter 798: Confluence

Time slowed around Theron and he took a breath, the deathly chill in his eyes growing more focused.

He couldn’t see the speed of a Transcendent at all. But he could feel it.

As he exhaled, his blade was already crossing through the skies.

Chi.

Claw and blade met, a shudder echoing across the skies.

Theron should have been sent flying, he should have shattered on impact, he should have been little more than minced meat left to rot beneath the sun.

But instead, the leaking of the Dagger Call Platform vanished the moment he made contact with Urong. The latter thought that he had begun to regain control over the situation, only to feel like a mountain had fallen onto him from above.

Theron took a breath as they both froze in place, and then he unleashed another attack.

BANG.

Urong’s body bent, his arm cracking and nearly shattering in place. The violent surge of what should have been his own attack was somehow controlled by Theron and thrown right back at him.

Dark Mana.

The thought was fleeting across Urong’s mind before he was sent flying.

Or, rather, he should have been sent flying.

Instead, he was swallowed by a portal of darkness and then found himself going from flying across Theron’s face to flying right at him.

He had exited stage left only to appear right in front of Theron once again.

PUCHI.

Theron’s short sword thrust forward, aiming for Urong’s heart, but the latter reacted quickly, blocking with a forearm Theron skewered in two.

In an act of madness backed by deathly still eyes, Urong ripped his arm to the side and slapped out with a palm toward Theron’s chest.

Urong had already decided to take Theron as a real opponent. He had not the slightest hint of surprise on his face toward what happened. Instead, he acted with sharp malice.

Since Theron wanted to use momentum to harm him, Urong would likewise use momentum to destroy him.

Theron felt time slow around him again. It was little more than the perception of his Third Eye, but it had grown so powerful that the world did feel like it was moving in slow motion around him...

All while the Mana in his Meridians was roaring.

’[Dark Confluence]. [Oceanic Confluence].’

When Urong sensed the twin pair of Spells Theron cast, he couldn’t help but be speechless. Were those...

Gold Spells?

Urong couldn’t remember the last time he had seen a Gold Spell. To him, these were things that toddlers and little kids played around with.

For it to be used in battle... against him...?

Was this supposed to be an insult?

These two Spells were none other than the two control Spells that the Nightingale Ancestor Bird had picked out for Theron. The irony of it all was that he had never been given a chance to use them in battle before he went on his hiatus from the world of politics and scheming.

The reason wasn’t because he hadn’t had an opportunity, but because the ability he had thought of using with them was so powerful that it wasn’t worth revealing the trump card on small fry.

Since then, Theron had refined them a great deal.

Urong was still sensing the base of a pair of Gold Spells, but in action, they had already been completely altered by his Profound Truths. They were no different from Saint Spells. The only reason Urong was fooled was because they were cast too quickly, and Gold Mana shifted first before Saint Mana reacted.

But then, as quickly as Saint Mana reacted, Theron’s Void Cores surged and Transcendent Mana shifted just the slightest bit.

It was small and insignificant, only the amount a Quasi Transcendent would be capable of, and far from what a Half-Step Transcendent would be.

But it was enough.

Theron’s expression sharpened and the skies rumbled from behind the Dagger Call Platform.

A bolt of lightning streaked across the air and pierced right through Urong’s body. His forward movement froze in place, his hair frizzing and his grey skin turning nearly black.

Bolts danced across Theron, his hair rising into the skies.

Urong’s pupils constricted into pinholes. ’You... Tri Resonance?’

Theron didn’t spare him an answer.

With another step forward, lightning streaks formed around his blades, sparking even out of the corners of his head.

In the depths of his irises, one formation after another took shape, and when he held out his short sword before him, the world whined and groaned as a series of magic circles appeared before it.

High in the skies, the rumbling only grew more intense, as though the fury of the Heavens wanted to descend, but it couldn’t seem to lock onto Theron with the Dagger Call Platform in the way.

Urong should be honored. Theron had only theorized this movement. Even in all the time he had spent in the wilderness, he never once went as far as to use it.

But it seemed that he would need to prove a point.

After all, he would be a newly crowned Demon Duke...

Now wouldn’t he?

PUCHI.

Theron vanished, and when he appeared again, he was already standing behind Urong, exhaling a breath that sparked with lightning.

He sheathed his short sword, the Demon Duke standing to his back completely frozen in place.

But then, the Demon Duke convulsed and streaks of lightning burst out from his wounds. He shook as though he was being continuously shocked, and then his body stopped moving altogether, his head slowly falling from his shoulders.

There was a deathly silence in the city, one that pervaded all the more due to the rumbling skies above. However, Theron didn’t seem to care as he focused his attention on restraining the lightning in his eyes.

Slowly, they faded and the goosebumps on his skin slowly faded as well.

’It seems I was correct,’ Theron thought calmly.

The chill in his eyes slowly faded as well, and soon he was wearing his same usual gentle smile. He looked down at Ayame and gave her a thumbs up, but she was looking at him with a peculiar light in her eyes.

It seemed that even she could hardly believe that he had managed to do it.

Whether it was [Dark Confluence] or [Oceanic Confluence], they had very simple descriptions. Most Mancers would be aware of them.

[Dark Confluence] was a shadow domain that enhanced all Dark Mana techniques. It pushed other Mana away and increased the concentration of Dark Mana as well.

[Oceanic Confluence] creates a salt-infused domain of water, merging aspects of Water and Earth Mana to amplify the power of both while gaining exceptional control.

Salt-type Water Mana techniques were incredibly rare, as they gave Water Mancers control over something they never usually did, and that was the Earth beneath their feet.

Of course, this was perfunctory control. What it really did well was move Earth Mana away so that it could be replaced by Water Mana and more efficiently flood an area.

However... Theron had had another idea for [Oceanic Confluence].

He had already learned early on in his Water Mancer journey how to control Water Mana polarity and use it to enhance his Mana Control. But what if he controlled the polarity of this ocean of salt enough to form arcs of lightning?

Theron’s original plan was to use this as a proxy to direct Lightning Mana, enhancing his control domain by several fold. Not only would it have an attacking component, it would have a restraint component as well, as Lightning could be both.

However... it had become so much more.

First, he used [Dark Confluence] to expel all Mana in the region. Then, he immediately used his Void Cores to swap all of his Dark Mana for Water Mana.

Once that was done, there was nothing more than pure water left...

Aside from his own Primordial Earth.

Using his Primordial Earth, he cast [Oceanic Confluence], providing it with the salt it needed to function as it should. The trouble was that Primordial Earth wasn’t normal Earth at all.

It was Earth that contained the starting recipe of Existence itself.

When it was fused into [Oceanic Confluence], it wasn’t normal Lightning Mana that was attracted to it.

It was Tribulation Lightning.

All of a sudden, the rumbling of the skies above became very much understandable.

The Heavens were enraged because Theron was stealing their power. And yet, there was something thrumming deep within Theron’s blood that really liked it.

He remembered that feeling. When he met Alpha for the first time, that feeling had also been there when he triggered his bloodline tribulation.

For some reason... his blood really liked to piss the Heavens off.

Suddenly, an idea came to Theron’s mind.

’The Bloodline Marble. Is that what I’m missing to unearth its secrets?’

Theron suddenly began to laugh. To think he just needed this.

With a thought, the Dagger Call Platform vanished and the skies opened up like the maw of a wild beast.

"Come, then."

It had been quite a long time since he had faced off against Heaven’s Wrath.