Ascension of Chaos

Ashley

Silence fills the remains of the Unique Domain as the King of Destruction and I have a stare down. With the exception of the System Messages flooding my little message box due to the simple fact that the king is staring at me.

The King of Destruction is actually rather beaten up right now after what I pulled. He has cracks throughout quite a few of the scales covering his body, and even has a couple of cracks on his claws. Both the claws on his hands and his feet.

Other than that though, the giant, wingless lizard doesn't have any actual injuries. Just damage to its claws and defenses.

After a few more seconds, the King of Destruction finally opens his large mouth and makes a massive orb of power form in front of its teeth.

I grit my teeth as I try to fly away from the attack, but the king's head just follows me with ease. But moments before what I'm assuming is a breath attack is about to shoot out of its mouth, a large, purple fist suddenly appears out of nowhere. Following which it slams into the King of Destruction's head, smashing some sort of screen that appears on it and sending the king's head turning away from me the moment before the attack fires.

And what an attack it is. It's a breath attack just as I expected but it is far larger than I was expecting. So large that the beam is at least twice as wide as my body is tall, and it's made of pure destruction mana. Enough of it that the attack clears the sky of clouds and ash everywhere it passes.

Then I finally spot Blake flying nearby while covered in sweat and panting as if he'd just run the marathon of his life.

I feel some of my anxiety fading away at the sight of him. And at the same time, I begin sending my own attacks flying at the King of Destruction while flying towards the ground and nodding at Blake.

Blake nods back and he goes to the ground as the king is focused on the attacks we both send flying at him.

Once I reach the ground, I immediately get to work setting up large silver barriers using a certain prince's skill. All large enough to block the King of Destruction's gaze for some brief periods of time. Simply so that we can, or rather, so that Blake can get away from the True Damage skill.

It's not a big issue for me, since my skill is perfectly fitted for the King of Destruction's True Damage skill with my damage reflection. But it is for Blake's, since his skill is a flat barrier that can only take a set amount of damage.

After I finish setting up the barriers, the King of Destruction turns his gaze back down to the ground and begins looking for us. Proving that he doesn't likely have any real sensory skills.

Which I guess makes some sense. What with the king having only been born a month and a half ago, and him being named the King of Destruction and all.

And Unique Monsters always have limited skill sets to specialize in certain areas.

Even with that though, it doesn't take the king too long to find us.

We are the only living beings left in the Unique Domain other than the king after all.

And I've confirmed that simply by the sight of the king's own scales beginning to show more glowing crimson cracks when the king's gaze reaches me. Proving that his gaze is being reflected back at him.

A fact that the king doesn't seem particularly pleased about, making him blink and turn his gaze towards Blake instead. Seemingly being smart enough to realize what was causing the problem.

Then something happens that surprises me.

I lose track of Blake. And I'm not the only one as the king begins to look around in confusion the same as me.

The hell?

My confusion doesn't last long though. Not after I see a message sent to me by Blake. One telling me his current plan.

Oh. Interesting.

In that case, I go ahead and activate several skills at once. Starting with Ashen Coverage, in order to spread a cover of ash all throughout the entire volcanic region. Then I activate a couple other cover skills and even use some of my recent Skill Points from the massacre I got to purchase a couple more.

And without hesitation, I activate these new cover skills to spread more ash and some illusionary flames and other such things throughout the volcanic region to make it harder for the king to see. Following which I proceed to activate Frigid Tempest Call, whispering the chant as I finally let my System Messages flow. Cutting off the annoying ones about the True Damage not long after they start, of course. And with repeat messages about repeat skill trees hidden.

{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 7/30 charges remaining.}

{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 6/30 charges remaining.}

…

{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 1/30 charges remaining.}

{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 0/30 charges remaining.}

{You have used up one charge of- Warning. User has no charges remaining. One unit of Chaos Energy has been expended to refill 10 charges. You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 9/30 charges remaining.}

…

{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 1/30 charges remaining.}

{You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 0/30 charges remaining.}

{You have used up one charge of- Warning. User has no charges remaining. One unit of Chaos Energy has been expended to refill 10 charges. You have used up one charge of Chaotic Source! The True Damage has now been redirected! 9/30 charges remaining.}

…

{You have been granted 3 Skill Points for killing a monster within a Unique Domain.} x828

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Kobold Lord} x21

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Kobold Knight} x140

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Ashen Drake} x171

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Minor Dragon} x10

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Fallen Revalta} x342

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Fallen Terra} x14

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Fallen Magma Digger} x101

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Fallen Molten Fang} x7

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Fallen Drachne Queen} x1

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Drachne Lord} x20

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Fallen Elemental} x1

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Dragon's Destructive Breath, is now unlocked for your usage.}

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Destructive Charge, is now unlocked for your usage.}

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Terran Wings of Destruction, is now unlocked for your usage.}

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Destructive Stomach, is now unlocked for your usage.}

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, High Magma Resistance, is now unlocked for your usage.}

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, High Poison Resistance, is now unlocked for your usage.}

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Amorphous Body, is now unlocked for your usage.}

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 130. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 131. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}

…

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 175. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}

{Congratulations, you have now reached the maximum possible level for Class E! To continue leveling any further, please head to a Spire and ascend to Class D!}

I gloss over most of the messages and just begin to read the skill descriptions for the skills I got, only for another wave of words to appear in my vision on top of it all. A wave of words that give me pause.

Because I forgot there were objectives to complete for the quest.