Chapter 218: Positive Results
**BOOOOM!!**
Suddenly, in the deepest part of the channel, a violent explosion shook the earth.
At the center of the swirling dust and corruption...
Priam landed on the ground.
"ARRRGH!"
He roared.
A moment later, the muffled sounds of his meridians and bones readjusting echoed throughout his body.
And then...
The world stopped.
A golden aura erupted from his entire body like a pillar of light, piercing through the clouds of dust as it shot toward the heavens.
The radiance was so intense, and the pressure it gave off so overwhelming, that everyone on the battlefield—both in the main channel and the neighboring sectors—froze in shock.
Even the Corrupted Beasts came to a halt, stunned by the pressure.
It was the unmistakable golden color of a Celestial Mage, erupting in its purest and most uncontrolled form.
The feeling emanating from it, however, was unlike that of any Mage class. It carried a trace of the power possessed only by a Sovereign.
Only a handful of mages with exceptionally sharp perception understood what was happening.
Within seconds, the golden pillar faded away.
But the change inside Priam had already become irreversible.
The Sacred Rune had finally been condensed to perfection, merging completely with his Core.
The overwhelming pressure of a true Mage Master flowed from his body in visible waves.
"I FINALLY BROKE THROUGH, DAMN IT!!"
The power now burning through his veins was intoxicating.
When he had used the EX Training Amplifier earlier, Priam had spent dozens of days studying obsessively, determined to understand everything he still lacked about this breakthrough.
Fortunately for him, one of the most effective methods of condensing the rune and reaching the next rank was to force liquid Ether to compress through the frantic, extreme movements of real combat.
It was the preferred method of the Primordial Chaos Beasts—the most brutal, fastest, and most dangerous path in the world.
Nearly two-thirds of those who attempted it died horribly, their bodies exploding from the inside out.
Humanoids generally followed the opposite path. They condensed Ether slowly, gently, and safely through meditation.
It was an unbelievably slow method that demanded tremendous natural talent. Ordinary people could spend their entire lives trying without success, though it was rarely fatal.
The third method belonged exclusively to certain Demons, involving the refinement of other beings’ life force to create an intermediate rune.
Normally, they refined ordinary beasts rather than mages. But since everyone viewed beasts as nothing more than resources, nobody considered it wrong.
Given his circumstances, Priam’s choice had been obvious.
With a practically inexhaustible source of liquid Ether obtained by absorbing corruption, he had bet everything on the most aggressive path.
And he won.
Barely a year after joining the sect, Priam had become a Mage Master.
Even Uswyn—the genius among geniuses—had needed a full three years to accomplish the same feat.
Priam let out a short laugh, snorting as his hungry gaze locked onto the horde of Corrupted Beasts surrounding him.
"Haha... you had plenty of fun making me run, didn’t you? Now it’s my turn to strike back!"
His body overflowed with such colossal power that he felt like he would explode if he didn’t unleash it immediately.
Before the stunned eyes of every Mage Master in the channel, the slaughter began anew.
**BOOOOM! BOOOOM!! BOOOOM!!!**
This time, however, the balance of the battle in that channel began to shift.
It didn’t take long for the soldiers to realize that enemies were becoming scarce.
Priam was no longer prey desperately dodging attacks and striking only at rare opportunities.
He had become the nightmare itself.
He flowed through the beasts like a golden specter, alternating impossible evasive maneuvers with devastating attacks.
By himself, he was obliterating more than a third of the entire horde!
Back in the rear lines...
All one thousand Holy Mages watched with wide eyes, dropped jaws, and blood boiling in their veins.
"He... my God..."
"How is this even possible?!"
Disbelieving stammers and gasps spread throughout the group.
Within minutes, their initial shock gave way to radiant excitement shining in their eyes.
The very air around them seemed to tremble.
They simply couldn’t take their eyes off the young man mercilessly massacring the enemy army.
’Is he... really going to be our leader?’
Instinctively, a shiver ran down the spine of every one of those thousand women.
An overwhelming, unmistakable certainty filled them.
The moment they left this place, all of their destinies had changed forever.
***
Two hundred seventy-four days and twenty hours had passed since the beginning of the great conflict.
At that moment, the final four hours had finally arrived.
The last round.
Priam opened his eyes.
The instant he stood up, every Holy Mage around him rose to their feet in perfect unison.
He gave them a slight nod in greeting.
"Meow!"
Mirra leaped from one of the women straight onto Priam’s shoulder.
Over the past few days, since the battles no longer posed much of a challenge to him, Priam had spent some time talking with that army of women. His ability to communicate with women wasn’t rusty—in fact, it had improved quite a bit.
It didn’t take long for him to gather valuable information about the group’s past. This wasn’t the second or even the third faction they had joined. They had gone through all kinds of strange situations before.
Yet they had endured every single one of them.
They might not have been especially talented, but they unquestionably possessed the determination to endure and push through any hardship. Most of them might not have had much defensive ability in combat, but calling them weak would have been completely wrong.
Because of that, Priam became absolutely certain of their good character.
Likewise, they came to feel that the young mage was someone worthy of entrusting their lives to without the slightest hesitation.
Feeling more at ease, Priam allowed Mirra to interact with them.
The little girl had been feeling a bit down after spending days cooped up inside her internal space.
Even so, Priam had to be extremely careful about who got close to her, since his partner was still a vulnerable Mage Acolyte.
The outcome of that decision left him very satisfied.
Mirra was a Holy Mage, and among them she had found nearly two hundred specialists in the power of nature. The little girl had gained an army of mentors ready to teach her how to draw out the full extent of her talents and become an excellent support mage.
Priam calmly started walking toward the front line.
Along the way, he finally glanced at the bracelet around his wrist.
*89 million points.*
’Hmm... I guess I won this damn competition this time, didn’t I?’ he muttered inwardly, overflowing with satisfaction.
Even though he hadn’t been shaken by his previous defeat, being thrown all the way down to last place had left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Now, the feeling of turning everything around was incredibly refreshing.
*ROAR!*
The final wave of Corrupted Beasts charged forward with savage roars.
Priam smiled confidently, activated his Elemental Physique, and shot straight into battle.
---
Some time later.
Far away, on the Outer Branch’s planet.
Mishnar calmly left her quarters and headed toward the central hall.
As she entered, she found hundreds of Elders and Elders of Laws already gathered there.
She looked through the massive gateway toward the sky, watching the first rays of sunlight appear on the horizon.
The signal had been given.
The two hundred and seventy-five days had come to an end.
At that exact moment, in the center of the hall...
*CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!*
The dry, uninterrupted sound of thousands of crystals shattering echoed throughout the chamber for several long seconds.
Mishnar and everyone else remained expressionless.
When a disciple registered with the sect, each of them received an emblem linked to their corresponding Life Emblem in the main hall. Whenever a disciple died, their emblem shattered.
Since the great conflict had taken place within an enormous space-time distortion, confirmation of all casualties was only synchronized after the entire process had ended.
After a while, silence returned.
"Reporting to the Leader Elder: there were no recorded assaults against our fortress. The disciples successfully held the line. As for the casualties... the mortality rate was only 35%."
For a second, everyone there forgot how to breathe.
Only 35%?!
They had all expected a number much closer to fifty percent of the entire force.
The outcome was extraordinarily favorable.
But then...
Suddenly, every Elder in the hall turned toward one corner in shock.
There, the leader of the Elders of Laws stood completely still.
His face was grotesquely twisted, and his entire body trembled with barely restrained fury.
Clutched in his shaking hands was a Life Emblem, split cleanly in half...
He had just discovered that his son, Walhart, was dead.