Slowing the devil's movements had taken all Eldrian had. Literally.
While he had remained conscious, he couldn't even lift a finger. Falling through the air, he prayed it had worked. The ground coming closer at a terrifying rate.
His head was on a direct course for an early meeting. But, Eldrian didn't consider it that bad a thing. Dying wouldn't matter much, he knew that. Still, he would prefer not to die at this moment.
Ceph saved him at the last second, his reaction just barely making it in time. As a result, Eldrian was groaning in pain. His arm left and only arm broken from the fall. His ribs were also piercing into his lungs.
Still, it would have been his neck, had Ceph been a second later.
Eldrian wished Ceph hadn't taken so long to react. But he was happy to not have died. And, he realized, they had managed to kill one of the devils. Eldrian did not know which, but this likely meant the tides had shifted.
'Still, this amount is... insane,' Eldrian mussed. He had thought he was used to insane XP values, but this took the cake. It was so shocking it even eased the pain as Eldrian stared at the number in disbelief.
Though, really, Eldrian was far too calm considering the situation.
[Devil King, Zelth'terkt slain. Participants, 3: Rewarded 433.5B XP.]
[Rewarded Title: Devil King Slayer.]
'This is just obscene,' Eldrian thought.
Granted, it made sense. The devil had fought on equal footing with Zamia and Agamemas. Which meant it was past the level of a normal Tier 10.
Given that Zelth'terkt had the title of Devil King, that made him one of the strongest beings in the world, apart from Legends. Part of an exclusive group, limited to only a few thousands, or ten thousand, at most.
Sure, he wasn't a Legend. But he was as close as one could be without mastery of a bloodline or aura could get. At least, this was Eldrian's understanding of things.
Zamia and Agamemas weren't Legends either. They were just super powerful Mythical creatures who could rival the weaker Legends. This devil king was likely a similar case. In fact, he might have been close to becoming a Legend.
'So, I guess it makes sense, but...' This one participation kill gave Eldrian ten times the total XP he had accrued during his entire ANW lifetime. It just didn't quite feel real.
'And this obscene amount of XP only brought me to level 52. Just how much XP do you need to gather to reach level 100?'
A trend of XP growth had been analyzed by players recently. It had been exposed that with every five levels, the increase between levels suddenly jumped. By about the amount of the number divisible by five before the new fifth level.
Which, simply meant, there was more certainly a soft cap to leveling. And, given the little amount of stats it gave, leveling was considered more or less useless.
'Still, I do now have 86 free attributes. It should be safe to use some. But, I'll wait a while more. It won't make much, if any, of a difference.'
Given the fact that Eldrian's attributes were now over a thousand, twenty or fifty wasn't going to change things by much. Even a hundred would only be a 10% increase, and that was more than he had, and if he put it all into one attribute.
'But, it isn't useless,' Eldrian mussed. Why, you might ask, was he just mussing? Well... he couldn't move. He was completely drained. According to his stats, his attack had used all his mana, all his stamina, and most of his HP.
Which, considering that auras didn't use mana or any of the other, meant this was a special case. Eldrian felt inclined to think that the usage wasn't from his aura, but from backlash or something.
'Oh, my HP is dropping. I wonder why?'
Not only was Eldrian's body drained, his mind was also foggy. While not shown in his logs, Eldrian was sure he had used a huge amount of XP in that attack. Though, given the obscene amount of XP he had gained, that hardly mattered.
'I do wonder what my soul is currently like... I am sure the attack wrecked it, and the influx of XP is sure to have done some damage too... Yeah, I don't feel too good. I hope it isn't cursing me or something.'
"Eldrian, are you alright?!" Ceph asked, rushing down. His words making no sense to Eldrian.
'Huh, guess I am still using Chronos somehow. Time's still slowed,' Eldrian thought, watching as Ceph dove in a panic. All in slow motion. What was probably only a second or two looked to Eldrian like a minute.
It was quite the sight. Ceph needing to morph into his elven form to keep his wings from getting caught in the trees' branches. Seeing it all pan out in super slow-mo was quite a sight.
"Hey, Eldrian! Answer me!"
Of course, with time slowed, Ceph's words made no sense. The sound was just a long string of sound. Impossible to make sense of. 'He's probably asking if I'm alright. Can't really say I am fine, though,' Eldrian thought, trying to form a smile. His facial muscles didn't respond.
'Why am I so calm?' Eldrian asked next. Sure, he had had worse injuries. But this wasn't slight in the lightest. 'Wait, why can't I even feel the pain anymore?'
Slowly, it dawned on Eldrian that he was still using Tranquility. Or rather, it was just flowing from him. The icy mist freezing his surroundings should have been his first clue. But his attention had been on the insane amount of XP he had gained.
This icy mist was keeping Ceph from approaching any closer. The frigid air, so cold that it hurt to breathe, told Ceph it would be a death sentence to get any closer.
'Well, this is bad,' Eldrian mussed. Realizing he had no control over the flow. 'I need to do something. But...' Frustrated at how calm he was remaining, Eldrian tried to kick himself into motion. Alas, he still couldn't move. Nor could he even gather his will into Mageia.
When he tried, it was like he was trying to gather mist into his hands. It simply flowed through the cracks between his fingers, over the sides, or went with a gust of wind to gods' know where.
'Wait, am I becoming even calmer? This isn't good.' Yet, the monotone with which Eldrian thought these words made it feel like there was no urgency. Like it was a non-factor.
'You know what? I think I get it. This is what it feels like to really be tranquil. There is so much I should be concerned about, but I just can't be bothered.'
Instead of worrying about his situation, Eldrian wondered about the possibilities of magic. It was just such a wonderful thing, wasn't it?
'Yes, I finally get what Ziraili was saying. It is so simple, really. Ironic, isn't it?' Eldrian would have smiled. Could he move any muscle.
By now, Ceph's shouts were no longer even registering. The sound was like a backdrop, in any case.
'We see the world in different levels of complexity. It's so simple. It all depends on our own view of reality.'
'It is like a puzzle. It's a mess when you just have the pieces scattered on a table. But, put them all together, and it becomes a beautiful picture.'
'When we dive deeper. It is like each individual puzzle piece becomes a puzzle of their own. When they are viewed as a whole, it is simple. When they are viewed as individual pieces, it is complicated.'
'Ziraili wanted me to realize that I could view them as wholes. That I should, really. That searching for the pieces is a waste of time. We only need to see the final piece. How it came to be is a question, which, while fascinating, won't affect the end result.'
'The picture represented by the entire puzzle is what is most important. Not the pieces. Even missing a few wouldn't hurt the end result.
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