Calista was shocked to see that there was a masked man next to Zavier. She hadn't felt his arrival at all amidst all the confusion and the ruckus caused by god's gift.
But she was happy to see that at least it was an unexpected ally this time who had come to support them instead of an enemy that might have bolstered Kyouko's ranks even further.
The one who was the most surprised at this moment was someone who had actually managed to catch a glimpse of the skill that had stopped her god's gift.
It was something that she had thought that she wouldn't be able to witness in her entire lifetime. Because only someone who was the most desperate and the most talented individual at the same time had it in him to even think about the skill known as Blood Blade.
At one point she too had been obsessed with looking for ways to increase her strength exponentially in the fastest way possible but her enthusiasm had only lasted until she had found out about the side effects of the skill.
At that time, she had thought that only a madmen would choose such a skill that sacrificed the future of the individual for present strength.
But now she was witnessing one such individual right in front of her; someone who had not only learnt Blood Blade but was even fighting on the battlefield at the expense of his life.
Her face could not shake off the surprise she was feeling. She wondered what it was that drove him to learn such a self-harming skill when he was such a prodigy when it came to magic.
"Is he really a madman?"
Kyouko could only wonder to herself regarding that question because at the moment she felt that it was unnecessary to ask such questions.
"Color me surprised. I wonder if it is your foolishness or your madness. No matter your reason for learning this skill, let me tell you something out of respect for your determination. Even the craziest of my fellows would have thought twice before even looking at a skill like 'Blood Blade'. I wonder if you will be the one to break the taboo or will you succumb to an early grave as well."
"You don't have to worry about that."
Zavier retorted with an expressionless face.
"Of course, I don't. after all, you won't be living past today. If you had practiced the skill for a little longer than you might have been able to unleash enough of your potential to bring me down but the way that you are now, you are only a slightly stronger and berserk ant; but an ant nonetheless."
Zavier could not help but agree with her. It was 'time' once again that was not on his side. He was barely equivalent to a mage of C rank. Even if there were two of them, they could hardly make a dent on a battlefield filled with S-rank and A-rank mages.
Zavier wondered if he had been sent to a wrong era. This wasn't what he had been promised. He had been given a life that could be used as a compensation for his regrets. But following his birth, he had already died twice and from the looks of it, it didn't seem like that was the last of it either.
He was now facing an S-rank mage with the strength of two C-rank mages.
[User can activate the 'Insane' status to increase his strength further.]
Zavier of course knew what the insane status was but he had not tried it before because it was a time constrained ability that gave him manifolds power in return for a period of intense weakness afterwards provided that he didn't consume all his life force by then.
Zavier didn't feel that it was the best option for him to use the insane status of the Blood Blade skill because he knew that it was supposed to be the very last resort. Using it at such an early stage, would have only led to a disaster that would have resulted in him dying a horrible death.
As such he wanted to delay it as much as he could. But the more he looked for an alternative way to survive the more he got convinced that the only feasible option available to him at the moment was to activate the insane status.
Valerie had already exhausted all her energy in casting Vestal's pray earlier. Despite her ability to cast a sacred skill, she was still an A rank mage that was only capable of forcibly casting the sacred skill. She was not truly an S rank mage and had to pay some price for activating such a demanding skill. It was terribly difficult to control the sacred energy that was required for casting a skill of that calibre.
Other than her there was only Calista who was an incredible A rank mage but she had expertise in a different way of combat. She was suited towards group fights instead of one on one showdown like the way they were facing.
Since they had no one, Zavier had to take over otherwise one of them would have ended up dead at the very least while trying to cause a distraction for the others to escape.
Zavier took a deep breath and asked the system the question that he had been meaning to ask since he himself did not know the answer to.
"What is the maximum time that I can sustain the insane status for in my condition?"
[User can barely hold on for 180 seconds at the maximum considering the current condition of the body and the magic rank provided that the user does not end up consuming all his blood before the time limit expires in which case the user will fall into a comatose state.]
Zavier had anticipated that the limit would be short considering that his power was being increased manifolds and he who had been a mere student at the moment would become instantly equivalent to the two teachers who had come with him.
Zavier finally made up his mind and asked the system to go ahead and activate the insane status for him. He knew that Kyouko had already made her mind to not let go of him and Valerie both since they could eventually threaten her. Therefore, if he wanted to survive, he had to make sure that he had enough power to stand up to Kyouko and beat her.
The only other way led him towards a horrible death so he wanted to go out on his own terms at the very least.
As soon as he initiated the insane status of the Blood Blade skill, he felt that all the blood in his body had been replaced by burning and scalding lava. He could feel how close he was to immolating at the pace that he was overworking his body. The unimaginable pain and the discomfort of being burnt from the inside out was the least of his worries though. He was wondering if his true limit truly was the three minutes that he had been led to believe.
At the moment he was having difficulty even breathing, how was he supposed to last three minutes in such a condition.
But then all his questions were answered by his body itself. The pain that he was feeling was sent into the background as if it was never there.
It was then that he understood that the so-called 'Insane' status was nothing more than fooling the body into using all its latent potential. Since consuming the latent potential was harmful to the body, there were natural fail safes in place to stop such a thing from ever occurring until and unless it was a life and death situation.
Zavier had heard in his previous life that there were some people who would suddenly break out with enormous power in the middle of a crisis situation in order to save their own or someone else's life. Someone had lifted a 1-ton stone; someone moved faster than what was humanly possible and someone managed to survive below the rubble of a fallen building for a week long until they were excavated from below the heavy mass later.
It was only now that he felt what all of them might have actually done. They had made their body ignore the pain that they felt by overclocking their body and had eventually forced their bodies into using its latent potential.
As soon as Zavier's pain vanished, the inhibitors in his body were all released and he felt that he had fallen into an ocean of blood that was constantly filling him up with unimaginable power; a power that he longed for but had yet to even get close to.
The muscles on his body all bulged with the unbelievable power and strength that had been forced into them as a result of the activation of the insane status. Nerves all over his body could be seen because his whole body was under immense stress but was unaware of it. The pain was the key to the inhibitors putting everything back into place but when it was switched off, there was nothing to stop Zavier from going berserk.
"Three minutes; I have to make them count."
It was not only that one Zavier who activated the 'Insane' status either. The clone with the magus system also activated it at the same time as him. Therefore, there were now two of them who were at least equivalent to an A rank mage. They were more than enough to maintain the status quo just as Valerie and Calista had managed to hold off Kyouko for a while on their own.
Zavier felt that he was on the verge of bursting out in extreme anger and madness. His eyes grew more ferocious and bloodshot, his pupils dilated as if he was in some kind of trance. In reality, Zavier was experiencing the feeling where his world had slowed down for the very first time. His mind was taking in things all at once and was processing them as if it were nothing and yet instead of feeling the amazement and the emanating strength; all that Zavier was capable of feeling was a bubbling rage and inexhaustible wrath that he had to direct at someone. Fortunately, that someone was the opponent in front of him who wanted to wipe him out.
Kyouko was the sole target of the maddened Zavier. He kept growling at her as if he was some rabid animal but in reality it was him trying to hold himself back from lunging at her. His condition was anything but normal after he had activated the insane status of the Blood Blade skill.
Kyouko could see what Zavier was doing but didn't move to stop him. She was too busy feeling shocked at what the youngster was doing. She could tell how talented Zavier was. It was the very reason that she had wanted to get rid of him herself earlier. But now she wasn't so sure that she needed to interfere just to get rid of him. To her Zavier was his own worst enemy. Not only had he practised an inhuman skill like Blood Blade to get stronger faster, he had also not hesitated to forcibly raise his status for a short duration at the cost of his future potential just to fight Kyouko.
She felt that she didn't even need to lift a finger and Zavier would die an early death based on his inclination towards recklessness.
Kyouko carefully monitored the rising aura of Zavier so that she could move in to eliminate him at any time that he felt like a threatening enemy to her in any way.
Read latest chapters at f(r)eewebnov𝒆l Only