Chapter 140 - 137 : Force Waves (1/2)
Not even 5 minutes after he started looking at the World Tree, Arthur started flying toward it. He just couldn't hold back his urges. Something about it was drawing him near it.
Just for precaution, Arthur possessed a Griffin made of bones. It was a weak race of Griffin but it nevertheless was one. With a body of a lion and a head of Eagle, all made of bones, Arthur flew toward the tree and activated [Eyes of The Noble Sea].
[Eyes of The Noble Sea]: Lets the user see any kind of energy. Range and intensity depend on the intelligence stats of the user.
Cost: 500 Mana per second.
The lifeless eye sockets of the beast flashed with a blue light, dazzling and eye-catching. All around him, he could see blue lines of Mana in everything, be it the grass, plants or even air itself.
When his eyes shifted to the towering World Tree, he was surprised to see a cluster of Mana condensed in it and around it. It was so dense that Arthur front view was covered in blue. The Mana seemed to be spinning like a whirlpool and some it would disperse to the surroundings, merging with the ground.
It's the first time he saw such a high density of any Energy, even in the Underworld, when he possessed that wolf, none of the Gods had such high reserve of Nether Energy. This was beyond his imagination.
Seeing the beautiful yet worrying sight in front of him, Arthur's confidence wavered. Too many strange things happened all around Astria but this surpassed them all. He knew that the World Tree was giving life to the Itas Continent but the sheer quantity of Mana really made him feel a bit fearful.
The thing is, he was once attacked by it, so if it's sentient and decided to go all out, no matter how resistant he was, he can't defend against an attack containing that much Energy, not even a God could.
A thick Dark Barrier was created around him, and to be safer, he circulated the Dark-Star Body Strengthening-technique which created an extra defensive layer around his bare bones. The bones already turned jet black and illusory black claws appeared on the ancient shattered claws of the Grifin. With an appearance that would scare anyone, black flames burning around the edges of his face and his two eyes still pulsating with a blue light, Arthur continued advancing.
When Arthur reached the exact place he was attacked on last time, his cautiousness rose and 'The Dark Anguish Technique' began circulating, making the black flames more intense and increasing the ominous aura that was being emanated from him.
5 meters... 10 meters...
He passed the place where he was attacked last time but his speed was very slow and it didn't seem he was going to accelerate. Slowly but surely, the distance between him and World Tree was decreasing. A few minutes later, Arthur was still as tense as before if not more.
His senses were on high alert and as he was advancing, his eyes caught a small fluctuation of Mana, without even thinking about the cause [Fasther Than Death] was executed and he teleported a hundred meters back.
His eyes were gazing at the place he was previously at but nothing happened, instead, he felt a pushing force coming right at him so he teleported once again, backing away further yet the pushing force appeared to be way faster than his teleportation.
The Griffin emitted a loud noise, making the air turbulent and spat an incredibly big flame ball. The Dark Red Flameball was twice the size of the Beast and in less than a second, the invisible pushing force and his attack clashed with each other.
In terms of size, the flame ball that Arthur spat was not the biggest but he consumed 10% of his Mana and that is certainly not a meager amount. Ancient Flames normally doesn't consume Mana but if the user wishes it, he can sacrifice his Mana to make it a bit stronger.
'Whoooooooooooosh' 'Baaaaaaaang'
As expected of the destructive Ancient Flames, it created a loud explosion once it crashed into the invisible force. Arthur could see that this force was like a wave, it was not dangerous and it only meant to push him further back. What's even more surprising is that his attack only managed to reduce the force by half before it vanished.
The damage done by his Ancient Flames was not enough but it's not like he'll just sit there and watch, with his Dark Barrier still up and the force being a dozen of meters away from him. Arthur opened his mouth again and started condensing a small Void Orb.
If destruction is not the solution, then being eaten by the Void is! A small, harmless-looking violet orb condensed inside the Griffin's mouths before it was spat at the incoming wave.
The second he spat the Orb, Arthur teleported some distance to the left and simultaneously activated the orb's power.
The Void Orb exploded at Arthur's command, transforming into countless creepy mouths. On the outside, it seemed they were eating the air but if one had eyes similar to Arthur's, they would be able to see the mouths devouring not only the air but the dispersed Mana around it.
Endless devouring, they were small in size but the expected clash didn't happen as the force was being devoured by the small mouths, which made them a bit bigger and more effective at devouring.