Voltaic Electromagnetism: A unique skill created through the ingestion of high lightning mana, transforming the heart and liver into a producer of lightning mana fueled by the demonic blood coursing through the owner’s body. Allows the user to create electromagnetism using the mana coursing through the demonic blood as the main conduit instead of electricity. The skills combined are: [Mana Efficiency Lv. 10] [Mana Control Lv. 10] [Health Recovery Lv. 10] [Mana Recovery Lv. 10] [Stamina Recovery Lv. 10] [Lightning Resistance Lv. 10][Speed of Sound Lv. 10] [Unyielding Endurance Lv. 10]
This was the name of my unique skill earned after my stay in the Twin-Elemental Lake, mutating my heart and liver with my demonic blood and my natural lightning mana. Due to the sin crystal I received after I became a Warbringer, this skill had become even stronger the more I got used to my Original Sin ability, although, after I had given up on it, that increase in power had also disappeared.
Nevertheless, it didn’t diminish my overall competence with it. I was still “Voltaic Red” Vifi’Yok at the end of the day, despite [Original Sin: Satanael] weakening me to pay off my debt for a second life. I still had access to all my [Voltaic Electromagnetism] Abilities like my [Voltaic Lightning] Ability that was responsible for my speed, and also the six weapons I chose for myself using [Elemental Meisterweapon].
Therefore, my confidence whenever I faced a rank A dragon wasn’t some lingering feeling I had due to my years in the military. I still knew I could contend against them, as the level range of a rank A was between 125 and 200—meaning a rank A needed to be level 75 to evolve into a rank S. I was placed right in the middle for a level 155. Even if rank As received a massive stat boost from evolution alone, I could at least contend with my discipline and training.
Which was why this battle wasn’t lost just yet!
Don’t you die on me, Tasianna! My eyes locked onto the fairy woman inside the giant slime body, created by the two former elemental emperors. Her eyes were closed, expression calm, like somebody sleeping unperturbed and without any worries.
My arm guard started to buzz into effect, the cogs spinning as the catalyst inside it started to absorb my mana. [Elemental Weapon Invoke] activated, turning my mana into a halberd of red lightning. I wanted to charge forward like the cavalry to pierce right through the slime’s body, eviscerating the growing gel to save Tasianna, but I could feel it. I couldn’t properly magnetize my feet right now.
A strong wind was blowing inside this cavern. It felt unnatural as it disrupted my efforts to activate [Voltaic Lightning]. The mana magnetism, as everybody in Aurora loved to call it, was in conflict with everything in the air, suggesting this strong wind was unnatural, created by the elementals. Whether these things actually understood how my [Voltaic Electromagnetism] worked or not was irrelevant here. All that mattered was that there was a wall I had to overcome.
Sadly, in the one year I spent on Frozen Nest, I hadn’t been able to properly learn a method to solve this issue. Yet, why did I? With my agility and the various abilities and skills I nurtured in my time in the army, during my stay as a member of the Yok family, and the Warbringer training I had to endure to be qualified for a sin crystal.
My stats weren’t as impressive compared to a rank A monster, yes. I even had less total stats compared to Hestia, due to her over bloated mana capacity. However, that didn’t make me lesser than them. In fact, I fully believed I could even beat Nongramos if we really went to that point… as delusional as it might sound to normal people, the training I did as a Warbringer and on Frozen Nest nurtured that feeling.
And now, let us put this shit to the test!
Let’s go!
Mana Release activated. Aura used as control unit: [Warbringer’s Authority Lv. 4]. Territory [Magnetic Storm] has been established
The rules of how my voltaic lightning worked changes when my Territory is up.
As my mana gushed out of my body, a cloud formed above me as red lightning started to strike the icy ground below. I felt my blood boiling as my red lightning started to discharge from my body due to my aura turning any released mana into electricity.
[“Certainly reckless with your usage of a Territory. What would happen if I chose to challenge it? Inside this palace of mana, where the divine mana I had once lost is now returning to me? What then, Vifi’Yok?”] the elementals taunted.
“I don’t give a fuck!” I shouted in response as I tensed up my legs and got into my combat posture. “I’ll walk over that bridge kicking and screaming when it happens. Until then, I hope you have an answer to this!”
Thunder Clap.
I threw my lightning halberd into the air as I slammed my palms together, letting out a shrill clap that echoed inside this giant cavern, only for it to be replaced by the sound of lightning. The giant slime started to roll forward for a moment to the elementals’ surprise, only for its bulbous body to be launched off the ground, flying towards me like a ball.
I didn’t need to use my [Voltaic Lightning] if my Territory simply gave every living being within my Territory a polarity! A [Thunder Clap] outside [Magnetic Storm] might be able to do the same, but within it, that attraction and repulsion was unpreventable unless you had your own Territory active and it somehow managed to counter the effect.
My smile grew as I caught my halberd and stomped my feet on the ground. My target was now point-blank.
“Voltaic red!”
Survive, Tasianna… Thunderspeed Roar!
I threw my red lightning halberd in front of me with all my might, using the same “mana magnetism” technique I would use for my agility to shoot the polearm like an arrow. The speed and force thrown was compared to a “rail gun,” as Donut liked to call it, and I certainly loved the sound of that name!
With thunder striking the cavern, the blob exploded into a steamy mess as its globules were ripped off its body while other bits were vaporized. Sadly, despite how gruesome the damage would have been on somebody with flesh and blood, to the point the slime stopped existing, I noticed everything around Tasianna, the elemental king’s core, and the scale amulet were frozen solid, forming a clear, prism-like sphere.
I clicked my tongue as the sphere managed to survive my attack, noticing it was slowly forming more slime around it. Yet, I could continue trying to break her free as my [Thunder Clap] was still active. The sphere flew towards me as I materialized a head-sized gauntlet around my prosthetic. If I still had access to my full demonic abilities, this fist would have been even larger!
[“Blackgard seed of the invaders!”] the elementals cursed, proving two things to me.
First, this thing couldn’t use a Territory at all. Second, no matter how much they tried to act all stoic, noble, and arrogant like a king, they sure had no idea who they were messing with!
Voltaic Red: Bunker Breacher!
Unable to stop the sphere from reaching me in time, the slime shot forward and formed multiple protective layers around it as my red-hot first struck the sphere once again. However, unlike with thunderspeed roar and rumbling crash—my spear and hammer attacks respectively—[Voltaic Red: Bunker Breacher] had a far more skewed niche in my arsenal, and that it was my most precise attack.
No explosions, no fanfare, no weird conditions like [Voltaic Red: Thunderclouds], my archery Ability. It struck my target, slamming right into it as an imprint of my fist was left on the sphere before the electricity stored inside was shot inside like an injection. The electrified mana crackled as a lightning scar in a fern-like pattern appeared on it.
As I put my body weight into the punch, the fern patterns started to spread around the sphere, causing it to crack and splinter from within, until it fell apart into a million crystalline pieces, allowing my fist to finally hit the prism-like sphere. Although the protective layer had absorbed most of the blunt force, my gauntlet still cracked the surface of the sphere, sending it flying away from me.
Let’s do this again!
[Voltaic Red: Bunker Breacher] was my armor and building destroyer that sent my red lightning into my targets, breaking up the pieces and mana inside to cause it to collapse. Very useful on dragon scales as well, although the reason why it was more niche compared to my other attacks was that any type of mana protection or high [Lightning Resistance] could prevent the attack from showing its true worth.
It still was powerful enough to kill rank B adventurers without any issue, but if they had a [Defensive Rune: Auracoil] or a [Draconic Barrier]-powered scale barrier like most dragons, bunker breacher would feel like a strong punch. As evident from the fact I still couldn’t free Tasianna with that attack.
This fact meant that the prism sphere managed to repair itself as it floated in the air, only returning to me when the force I asserted dissipated. However, this time, instead of letting the sphere fly back to me, the elementals started to create water and wind from the mana around, manipulating them to stall the sphere’s descent. Unfortunately, unless they had a better way to do so, this was a futile attempt.
Noticing this as well as I quietly waited for my prey to reach me, the elemental launched the remaining scales at me. Seeing this, I dispelled the gauntlet and took a deep breath as I waited for the scales to reach me, before jumping up and using [Air Walk] to stomp the ground, launching me onto one of the scales.
I activated my lightning speed as I raced along this street of scales, using [Magnetic Storm] to turn my boots into magnets that naturally pulled me towards each scale. I continued this until I felt [Magnetic Storm] had fully polarized every single dragon scale in the room before I clapped my hands, causing a repulsion effect to occur as I launched everything away from me.
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Laughing for having forced me into this, the elementals prepared to cast something massive as I pulled out my crossbow and rapier. Charging both of them with my lightning, I prepared my next attack as I aimed my crossbow at the ground.
Voltaic Red: Thunderclouds.
My arm holding the crossbow discharged a massive burst of electricity, turning it into a porcupine with lightning needles. Channeling my mana on my crossbow, the needles were magnetically attracted to the weapon, reloading the weapon automatically for me as attraction and repulsion was happening at every moment. It shot the lightning bolts out like a stream of water.
However, instead of landing on the ground, my [Territory] caused all the lightning bolts to fly around me with the random nature of coursing electricity. They reflected off the air as attraction and repulsion was once again activated, making it look like oh-so-many projectiles were flying around me in a similar manner to a barrier of scales.
As I clapped my hands to reverse the polarity of everything else, the scales were shot at me again. Attracted by the scales, the bolts shot towards them with breathtaking speed as they ripped through all of them as if they were nothing but wooden shields.
Arrgh, too much mana! I complained as I felt my body feeling lighter. [Voltaic Red: Thunderclouds] was a hyper defensive Ability with the chance to kill somebody in the blink of an eye, but it required not only an immense cost of mana so I could pull off all this attraction and repulsion effect but I also needed my Territory active for it to work.
As useful as it was, it was my most conditional Ability for a reason. So, what did my third most used [Voltaic Electromagnetism] Ability do? What was [Voltaic Red: Thunder Divider]’s purpose?
Well… I took in another deep breath as I stood in the air, watching a torrential monsoon forming before me, as four tornados started to form on the edges of this cavern. The many icicle stalactites and stalagmites broke apart as they were suck towards the tornados. They were ground into powder as it was transformed into water to feed the giant wave.
Even the giant spire delivering the “divine” water to the peak was shattering as I concentrated, while the little lake was fully absorbed into the prism sphere Tasianna was stuck inside. Yothmlak’s corpse was eviscerated under this storm, turning his body into another addition to the wave.
I could feel my skin and hair being torn off me. It stung like a thousand little burns, singeing me as I couldn't do much to prevent the damage. Instead, I placed my crossbow back into its holster while I raised my rapier in the air, letting it act like a lightning rod as the thundercloud above fed it with red electricity. The thundering my Territory caused made it look like this cavern was tormented by a natural catastrophe.
Meanwhile, the elemental finally managed to find a solution to prevent the sphere from reaching me, and that was to simply brute force it. I shouldn’t be surprised that the wind elemental emperor, a former demigod, was so able with the manipulation of wind that it mystified even a mage like me. I had to even activate the auracoil on my rapier to prevent the elemental from sucking the air out of my lungs to forcibly suffocate me.
Voltaic Red—
[“Let yourself be consumed, Vifi’Yok. There will be no pain as you will become part of my ascension!”] the elementals said, but I heeded it not. I kept my mind focused, slicing through the disturbance of all this noise like a keen blade.
The electricity surging from my body eventually stopped as everything was focused on the point of my rapier, letting it glow like a firefly.
[“Let the sound of the wave and the approaching storm be the last reminder of this life! May you be reincarnated as a fae in the world I shall remake!”] the elementals declared before the sound of crashing waves slammed right onto the ground like bombs.
—Thunder…
The sound of thunder and cackling lightning stopped as I opened my eyes, seeing the monsoon creeping closer to me. I could feel myself being pulled into the tornados, while my stomach was complaining as I saw the water filling up the cavern. I couldn’t stop my body from shivering as I felt this bottomless dread creep up into my heart.
… I felt so alive.
Effects: [Excited: 20%] [Anger: 20%] [Fear: 20%]
“Divider!” I shouted with all my might to scare off my fears, clutching my rapier with all I had as I twisted my body and slashed with the blade, causing the lightning stored at the tip of the blade to shoot forward.
Like a condensed and sweeping version of [Voltaic Red: Thunderspeed Roar], the lightning blade extended from the rapier slashed at everything around me circularly. Faster than even a blink. Even the trail of red lightning that was synonymous to me only lasted a fraction of a moment before it all disappeared.
… Shik! The sound of a slicing blade appeared in my ear as the waves, tornadoes, and even the walls of this mountain were sliced before a stream of electricity streamed from me, blasting what I cut away.
The waves crashed against the ice wall as it was expanded, as I was unable to cut through the mountain, while the wind dissipated into nothingness. The prism-like sphere crashed right into the ground, lodging itself there with the lower part of it severed.
[“Stain!”] the elementals returned to how they used to call me. All the “respect” they showed me had disappeared as if it never existed in the first place.
I slowly walked towards them as I inspected the rapier, smiling fondly as the metal blade did not survive the attack. The tip and its blade had melted away. The handle was still intact, but it was practically useless in this state.
This was why I preferred using my voltaic red Abilities with my elemental meisterweapons. They were one-time used but could be easily remade each time, making the fact my attacks were unsuited for physical weapons a non-factor. Yet, it couldn’t be understated that weapons made from monster material and adorned with enchantments were still the best for my Abilities. The stats and skills they possessed made each of my attacks so much more lethal.
The old man will shout my ears off once I show him this. First his manatech armguard, now the rapier he made for me… I’m sorry Grimnir. I should be taking more care of my weapons as a soldier.
I sheathed the blade back into its scabbard before forming a lightning halberd. Standing right in front of the sphere, I smiled as I stared down at the elemental.
“Thanks, it seems you proved Donut’s words to me. That Corruption Eater really had opened the floodgates,” I said, almost like a boast, as I still couldn’t believe my emotions had reached 20%. “Although, I am a bit mad that the way to do so is to let myself go. Be the wrathie the other sins keep repeating like a stereotype. Can’t escape my nature… But, I guess it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I bring us victory! Release, Tasianna, or I will destroy the necklace you are residing in. I can feel it at this point, elementals!”
“Kurrraaaaagh!”
… Of course. Couldn’t have fought faster, haaaaaa.
I clicked my tongue as I heard that roar, turning around to see the monkey had finally arrived. The same white fur, that same colorful chest, and that “true” ice spear it held was too noticeable to ignore. It truly styled itself like a ruler as the other monkeys of his posse arrived like an army.
[“You never had a chance to win this. A valiant effort, Stain, but at the end of the day, you are still nothing more than a pawn in somebody else’s plans,”] the elemental taunted me. [“Tasianna’s mana is merging with the true ice quite well, not to mention all the mana we had left behind. True ice is forming. You will not break the core so easily, and definitely not with our army ready to avenge all the deceased.”]
“Haaaa… Trying to demotivate me? Me? Seriously? I think not, fae,” I turned around, ready to end this farce only to freeze in place as I saw a humanoid ice golem form in front of me. My eyes were glued as its face, causing my hands to shiver as I recognized it.
“… H-how.” I stuttered as the golem bore a stark resemblance to something I deeply cared about. Somebody I had thought I would never miss until I lost them.
The goatee, the slick back blue hair, the bulky muscles with a tummy that suggested he loved eating… Yeah, that damn stomach of his that even my adoptive mother and siblings always kept complaining about. Ha, he was a dutiful Warbringer indeed, but he was also a glutton that always made it hard for our farmers.
Yet, he was the first person I had grown to love and care for, yet it took me until his death to understand that my heart still yearned for more than war and survival. I ate the food of the humans for him, and walked forward as a Warbringer to not only make him proud but also to avenge him.
The golem bore the appearance of my adoptive father of two years, Oshul’Yok.
[“Mana. It will be and always will be the one correct answer,”] the elemental answered, its words sounding like a lullaby. [“Even you deserve to experience a soothing tale, Vifi’Yok. A tale even us fae would love. You might not yearn for it, but your mana—the emotions spurring them to fight for you—demand it. As a god, let me answer your faith.”]
“I—S-shit!” I cried out as I noticed an aura was affecting my mind, but it was too late as the elemental once again captured my feet with ice, leaving me open to be consumed by the slime pouring out of the sphere.
I tried to fight against it, but the chill had fully wrapped itself through my body. Its bite was sapping all the strength I had left until I unconsciously deactivated my Territory.
[“… Incredible. Incredible! So this is the power the Origin Gods have gained from their word! What a pittance of what it could be, and we—I shall be the one to wield it as a new god!”]
Warning
[“No,”] the wind and water elemental kings’ voices burst from their cocoon of their own making. A metamorphosis they had never expected to feel so empowering.
The purity of true ice flowed through their mana body, while the taint of demonic energy granted them a yearning. Emotions they had never felt before spurred their minds, enlightening them to a world they would have never been able to experience as elementals.
Wrath so pure that it put their previous anger of the Origin Gods to shame; a gluttony so voracious for their lost throne as the primarchs of Peolynca; the hedonistic lust to reobtain what they wanted at all costs; an unending envy to all the gods for taking what they were supposed to deserve; an unfulfilled sloth that made it impossible for them to soothe the chaotic maelstrom of emotions they felt; the shameless greed to gain more than they were due; and, lastly, an unbreakable pride of their own might and existence.
The lingering demonic mana that resided in Nordoramsul’s artifact had already corrupted the Wind and Water Elemental Emperor into something similar to the Earth Elemental Emperor. Their actions and thoughts were no longer the ideal the faefolk would have wanted from their former elemental emperors.
No, they were now beings who wished for more.
[“I shall not be imprisoned again,”] the elementals, now considering themselves as one being, declared to the Divine System as they burst through the tip of the glacial peak, sending ice sheets, elementals, and the lake responsible for the ice elementals’ dreams of becoming the one true Ice Elemental Emperor falling into the deep cold waters.
The being’s body was still only a grotesque slime with no form, but the ice flowing through its “heart” was hardening everything, causing it to slowly form an appearance it deemed worthy to rule over its followers.
[“Ice beasts and ice elementals, I am your god. Rush before me and fight for our dream, so that I may correct a past broken oath and release us from this prison!”] they announced as the mandogonga roared like a general, rallying anything around it to fight. [“Thalaxarus… I will return to the ocean. To the wind. To our home.”]
As a natural disaster Frozen Nest and Iceskale had never seen before descended onto the tundra, a lone, green-feathered dragon watched everything occur. His emerald eyes glistened with rage as he clicked his tongue for his failure.
All right. Little scamp, you better be ready.