NOVEL NEXT Chapter 293: Special Tier 6 Skills
Alix steps down from his carriage, his boots pressing into the blood-stained cobblestones of the capital square. The fires from the battle still smolder, but the fighting has ended. His gaze sweeps over the ruined city with calm detachment.
"Let everyone rest for the night," Alix says, his voice steady, carrying across the square. "And take all the gold coins to me."
Kaelen bows deeply, armor rattling. "As you wish, Your Majesty." He immediately turns, barking orders to the nearby captains. Soldiers scatter at once, dragging crates, breaking open vaults, and hauling bags of coins.
Alix raises a hand and the great carriage behind him creaks forward—not from reins or drivers, but as if pulled by unseen strings. It glides across the stone smoothly until it settles in a clear space at the edge of the square. The soldiers stare, silent in awe, but none dare question.
He enters the carriage, its interior a stark contrast to the battlefield outside. Soft light flickers across polished wood, shelves stacked neatly, and in the center, a wide bed draped with dark silk. Alix lowers himself onto it, his expression unreadable.
Mhazul lingers at the doorframe, his massive silhouette blocking out the light.
"Stand guard outside," Alix says. Then, before the warrior turns away, his tone sharpens. "And one more thing."
Mhazul bows his head slightly. "Your command, Majesty."
"Tell the five human leaders to rally the soldiers tomorrow." Alix continues, his eyes glinting faintly. "Send them into the noble territories. Demand their surrender—and their gold. If they yield, take everything. If they resist…" His voice drops to a cold edge. "…destroy them."
Mhazul said. "As you command."
The carriage is quiet; the camp noise is a distant rumble swallowed by walls and ash. Mhazul's boots fade away until the only sound is the slow creak of wood and the faint thrum of the mana-stones set beneath the carriage floor.
Alix settles into the meditation chair, a low sculpted seat carved with rune-etchings that glow faint when touched. He sits, plants his feet, and closes his eyes.
He does not need sleep. At Tier 6 his body demands little rest; his mind wrestles instead with bigger things—laws, patterns, the architecture of power that, in this world, decides whether a man bends or breaks.
Alix steadies his breath. The world outside the carriage fades—the crackle of distant fires, the murmur of soldiers celebrating, even the soft groan of wood under shifting weight.
In front of him, the system's transparent screen flickers to life, faint and obedient, the symbols of his skills arranged neatly before him.
"Tier six," he murmurs to himself, voice low and steady. "Elemental framework. Fire, ice, steel, storm…"
His hand lifts, and a small sphere of flame blossoms in his palm, dancing gently. It flickers with life, yet its essence feels… shallow. Limited.
Alix frowns. "This is surface power. Pretty, destructive, but shallow. It bends to will, but not to law."
He lets the flame dissolve into embers and exhales slowly.
Laws.
They pulse inside him—every single one—woven into his very soul by the system. Space, Time, Gravity, Life, Death, Flame, Storm… each an ocean he carries but has not yet set sail upon. At Tier 6, he cannot wield them directly without the frame of a Tier 7 skill. That is the nature of this world. But he is not of this world.
His lips curl faintly. "I will not wait for Tier 7. If I already carry the laws, why must I follow their rules?"
He closes his eyes, focusing on one of his Tier 6 skills—Flame Spear. The interface outlines it, familiar: Condense elemental fire into a hardened projectile. Velocity scales with focus. Power limited to Tier 6 flame.
Alix speaks into the silence. "Limited to element. But what if I… overwrite?"
He pictures the structure of the skill—a lattice of mana channels, spinning in his mind like gears of a machine. At its core: fire essence. Around it: trajectory, release, impact.
And beneath it all, hidden but present, is a thread he can touch. A deeper foundation. A whisper of Law of Flame.
He brushes against it. The air inside the carriage tightens, heat rippling faintly though no fire burns.
"Good…" His tone sharpens with concentration. "Now… fuse it."
The flame gathers again, this time not just an elemental spark but a fragment of law woven into it. The sphere in his palm shimmers—burns hotter, cleaner, brighter than any Tier 6 fire should. It does not flicker; it exists, absolute, as if reality itself acknowledges it.
For a moment, the entire carriage creaks, wood sweating with sudden heat.
Then—
CRACK!
The sphere collapses, vanishing into nothing. A faint scorch mark blackens the air itself, as if space rejected what it briefly held.
Alix exhales sharply, chest rising and falling. His forehead dampens with sweat, though his eyes gleam with cold light.
"So that's it," he mutters. "Law is not meant to bend. It demands to be understood. Element bends to will. Law…" His voice lowers to a whisper. "…is will."
The transparent screen flickers, his skill list glowing faintly. The Flame Spear icon change.
Alix stares at the screen, watching as the familiar icon shifts. A faint golden frame outlines the Flame Spear, the text beneath it glowing with new weight: [Special Tier 6 Skill – Flame Spear (Law Infused)].
His lips curve into the faintest smile.
"So that's how you do it."
For days he's been hammering at the wall, failing, watching skills collapse in on themselves. Tonight, finally, one breaks through.
He leans back in the chair, eyes glinting with satisfaction. "The system itself recognizes it. Not Tier 7… but not Tier 6 either. Special."
His gaze sweeps over the long list of skills floating before him—dozens upon dozens, each tied to different elements. Fire, ice, lightning, shadow, steel, wind, gravity, and more. Each one a weapon he has relied on countless times. Each one now waiting to be remade.
"Seventy," he mutters. "At least seventy elemental Tier 6 skills. If I tried to fuse law into all of them tonight, I'd collapse before dawn."
His fingers drum lightly against the armrest. He doesn't need sleep, but even his mind demands pacing. "Pick the important ones first. The bread and butter of combat. Flame Spear for precision… Lightning Step for movement… Steel Shatter for defense… Shadow Bind for control."
The screen flickers as he selects the next skill. [Storm Veil]. A simple yet vital one: compress elemental lightning into the body, magnifying speed and reflexes.
"Let's see if you can carry more than thunder."
He closes his eyes, weaving mana through the familiar structure, tracing the lattice of lightning that races along his veins. At its heart, he finds it—the whisper of Law of Storm. Not just thunder, not just flash and crackle, but the inevitability of skies breaking open.
A spark dances along his leg, vanishes, then reappears on his shoulder. His body hums faintly, space around him warping with the static of restrained law. For a moment, he feels as if he could simply decide to be elsewhere.
The system dings faintly. [Special Tier 6 Skill – Storm Veil (Law Infused)].
Alix exhales, tension loosening in his shoulders.
"Two. Good." His voice is calm, but his eyes sharpen, firelight dancing in their depths. "Tonight, I remake my arsenal."
And so he works.
Skill after skill, the night stretches long and silent, broken only by the faint crack of law fusing with element, or the soft ripple of failure when a structure collapses. His mutters fill the carriage, steady, relentless:
Hours pass, yet his focus never falters.
Outside, the camp sleeps. Fires burn low, soldiers rest, unaware their king sits within his carriage, making miracle.
---
The horizon bleeds pale gold as dawn creeps over the battlefield. Smoke still hangs in the air, and the distant crackle of dying fires fills the silence.
Far from the city, three figures hold their post at the valley's edge—where any reinforcements to Myren should have appeared.
Zurrak, crouches low on a ridge, his black fur shimmering faintly with distortions of space. He says nothing, his void-filled eyes scanning the empty plains.
Grathum breaks the silence with a snort, leaning on his molten great-axe. Heat hisses off his skin, the stones beneath his feet glowing faintly red.
"Tch. At least send some weak humans for reinforcement. It's boring to just wait here all night."
High above, Velira coils lazily through the sky, her storm-wreathed wings cutting through the morning wind. Her voice rolls down like thunder.
"I just want to be at His Majesty's side. This should have been Mhazul's duty, not mine."