[In Mid Air Above The Ice Wall Covering The Giant Stone Shrine, Current Time, Sam’s POV]
Exhilarating.
Sam could only describe the feeling as such. His body was exploding with raw force. The world had never been so clear in his eyes.
The ascension trial was not an easy one at all, and he may have even performed just slightly better than the worst considering the difficulty, but the power he received was very well damn worth all those five months spent fighting in that strange world of trial.
It felt weird to return to this world after five months. Not a single second had gone by here—Sam was always amazed by that aspect of ascension. He did not get enough time to explore his new strength, but protecting the western side of the shrine cannons gave him a few insights into where this new limit of his powers lay.
He didn’t need the sword Damian gave him to summon lightning anymore. But still, the spell inscribed on the sword produced much more lightning than his skill alone could. At first, Sam felt like electricity ran through his veins, but now that had changed; the electric form he could once take only for a few minutes felt more like his natural state, and this human form felt.. fake, limiting, weak, tiring.
The lightning gave him power—the kind he had never before sensed in himself. Before, he just had to enhance his body with a bit of lightning to gain extra strength on top of his STR stats, but now he felt as though as long as he had his lightning, his body would always hold double the strength of any normal transcendent. He had sensed it, though: he was not as powerful as Damian or most of the Highsword Transcendents. If he had to give himself a rank on his own, he would probably be above Silverspell and Sesha, the two weakest of the bunch. It was altogether a different case with this amazing sacrium weapon in his hands, though.
With the sword and the unlimited lightning it called that he could now store in his body far more than before—he was second only to Damian, probably. Sam wondered if the Demon Lord felt the same power with his darkness.
Sam did not forget to do his job properly while testing out his new strength. When he sensed Shadecaster about to launch an attack toward Sariel and Amy’s giant laser cannons, Sam didn’t hesitate for even a second and was in front of the attack in a moment. His speed, already at the peak for a second ranker, had gotten another significant boost.
Creating multiple lightning javelins, Sam destroyed all the dark arrows of Shadecaster. The bastard used the explosion to create distance between them and then released his never-ending hordes of flying monsters on him to slow him down. Sam cut through each and every monster that came in his path effortlessly, and within minutes, once again caught up to Shadecaster.
But the guy was waiting for him too. The second Sam flew straight toward the giant, flying, legendary-ranked monstrosity, it suddenly raised its wings high and let out hundreds of flying monsters from its shadow as if it were their mother and they were its babies. The reality wasn’t as simple, though—when all hundreds of these flying monsters, along with the giant legendary one, opened their mouths to attack, Sam cursed out loud.
They were all psychic element holders. The bastard Shadecaster had made a special unit of these creepy monsters with the most annoying power. Sam could have easily gotten away with his speed, but the attack was not aimed at him. Instead, it was aimed toward the cannons placed in a line on the third step of the stone shrine, where Sariel and Amy, alongside hundreds of pigmen warriors, were. He couldn’t dodge it; Sam had to stop this thing right here.
It shouldn’t be hard; he just had to time it perfectly.
Sam waited, holding his sacrium sword with two hands. Before, he could refill his mana pool five times from a single full mana container, but now he had just done it once and half the container was empty. This wasn’t an important factor for most Transcendents, but to Sam, this increased mana capacity was worth its weight in gold. He could finally use his sword at full power without holding anything back.
Fighting against the black army, which had giant Emperor- and Legendary-ranked monsters—he was like a wolf cub fighting against a full-grown elephant. But now, he could tell the balance was reached. He too was a gigantic wolf, tearing apart a monstrous foe head-on.
The hundreds of chained psychic attacks in one wide wave came along with an overwhelming feeling of nausea and headache. Sam ignored all of it and kept his focus at the peak. The second he was meters from it, Sam opened the giant wormhole at the very last second, placing the endpoint directly beneath the legendary monster and its hundreds of flying companions. Psychic waves didn’t do as much damage to black pigmen monsters as they did to humans, but still—it hit the big flying monster from really close, making it bleed internally while killing dozens of Emperor-ranked ones beside it.
He wasn’t good at this wormhole control thing, but with a lot of mana, anything was possible. Sam could afford to use more mana than necessary. It didn’t end there, though.
Right behind the psychic attack, Sam flew through the wormhole and closed it behind him. He transformed into his newer version of the pure lightning form and pushed through the giant body of the dark, enormous creature—electrocuting it from the inside. It may not have died, but it sure as hell wouldn’t be able to fly anymore.
Besides, the monster was just in his way—the target was the Shadecaster himself. And the guy seated atop the giant saddle, experiencing second-hand electric shock, was now finally in his hand.