NOVEL NEXT Chapter 676
Sam then realized that his musings were going to spell his end as Hurricane's Vengeance rammed the lightning bolt down upon the fabric of the world itself. A thousand rivers of electricity fell like a waterfall, spreading out for miles. The vast majority of that power locked onto Sam, and descended towards him.
Sam felt his body painstakingly knitting itself back together. He paid it no mind, instead focusing on defence. He had asked the System to deliver him a challenge, and the whole purpose of that was to facilitate progression.
It was time for him to push past his limits and attain the world shattering power that he needed to do the impossible. Sam reached deep within himself, and focused intently on his two Dao Fragments. He was at a stage of power that ensured that his insights into the nature of the cosmos were far deeper than any mortal's could ever be. He lived and breathed the Dao, and simply watching the world go by was enough for him to catch a glimpse of the concepts that underpinned reality. Catalyzed by peril, his mind raced to understand the core tenets that held together the concepts of the Passage, and of Retaliation.
The world seemed to slow down as Sam felt his mind nearing the gravity of an impending Dao vision. He couldn't afford such a thing in the middle of such a fraught fight. Instead, he convinced himself that his knowledge was sufficient enough to be worthy of such inspiration. He already had a Seed Stage Dao, and he hardly needed to reuse the training wheels that had allowed him to reach that point in the first place.
"The Passage is representative of my path through the Multiverse," Sam muttered to himself. "Not just of the present, but of the past and the future." A thousand transcendent insights gathered in his subconscious as he forced enlightenment upon himself by dint of his superior mind. As he gazed into the oblivion of the river of electricity falling towards him like an executioner's ax, he suddenly found a way forward. "A passage does not oppress. It does not dominate. It is simply the way from one place to another."
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Sam raised his left hand and used Wormhole Call. Only, this time he imbued the ability with the energy of his Dao of the Passage. A rippling slice of golden lightning exploded forward, locked onto a shard of its own Dao energy behind the incoming tide of light. A swirling tunnel formed through reality, passing through the lightning like it wasn't there. Reality bent within it, until it looked like it was a window pane leading from one place to another. Sam leaped through, pushing off a wall of Earth elemental energy. He appeared in front of Hurricane's Vengeance, Terra's Will on fire with multihued energies. A chime rang through his soul as his Dao Fragment ascended to a Dao Seed. The Dao Seed of Travel.
The lightning dragon paused for a moment, the brute engine of elemental progression that made up the paltry intelligence driving it reassessed what it was seeing. What looked like a gnat to it hovered in the air, held aloft by swirling loops of red, blue and gold. The hammer clutched in his right hand was like a toothpick next to the dragon, but suddenly, it expanded a dozen fold in the span of a millisecond. Before it could reach full size, space tore in front of it, reopening underneath the dragon's chin. Like a pile driver, the hammer slammed into Hurricane's Vengeance, sending a shockwave of power into the elemental matrix of the monster.
The dragon swiped out, enraged. Thousand foot long talons of electrical power rent the air, the smell of ozone reaching Sam's nose. He simply smiled, and summoned another portal beneath himself. His Dao Seed of Travel granted him far greater control over his teleportation ability than before, when he had simply been forcing it on account of pure power. Now he could actually control the portals, allowing for the creation of more than one. He could also send objects through that weren't coated in his Dao, dramatically reducing the cost. They were more like actual portals now, similar to the ones Granthar had created.
Sam retracted Terra's Will as he slipped through the portal, dragging it in behind him. A flickering blade of lightning struck the end of the weapon, and a surge of electricity shook Sam's body. His health dropped, but he had avoided the worst of the damage.