Transcendent Resurgence: Regressing on an abandoned Earth

Zyrus felt a tremendous amount of mana coursing through his body. This was the result of his 'Avatar' skill which allowed him to exert a greater influence on the surrounding mana. Crystalline horns elongated from his forehead while wings that resembled the starry sky unfolded behind his back.

10 meters…30 meters…50 meters…

The dragon shaped silhouette grew bigger and bigger with every passing second. His Balaur summoner class and many other skills and talents needed mana to function. Avatar could indeed increase their power, but what about his subclass? The way he used runes didn't rely much on mana.

'However, the way devour works makes up for the imbalance.'

This was a talent he gained from Jörmungandr. 'The world devouring serpent' and 'He who dwells in the cosmic ocean' were one among the many grand titles Jörmungandr had. If one were to pinpoint a single trait that was interlaced with every tale of Jörmungandr then it would undoubtedly be its size.

The bigger one was the more they could devour. The way Zyrus absorbed cosmic energy worked in a similar sense. Avatar couldn't help him control more celestial energy, but it could increase his size and indirectly help him get more energy from the cosmos.

[Commencing the Duel of Kings]

[Restrictions on the kings have been lifted temporarily]

A meter tall Imp and a hundred meter long dragon opened their eyes at the same time. Both of them had changed in both body and essence.

The Imp king's green eyes reflected his attainments in the temporal magic. All of the gray ash was now beating with the same rhythm as the imp king's heart, forming an hourglass shape in the sky.

On the other end, Zyrus' eyes had become totally black in color. Those with faint mentality would have their wills scattered just by looking at the eyes that resembled the depths of void.

*ROOOAR*

[Eclipse Snare]

Zyrus circled around the imp king while slashing his tail at the latter. His vast mana reserves were being depleted like a broken dam, but at the same time, the rate at which he recovered his mana and stamina was not far off in comparison.

It was a harrowing sight to see a gigantic void dragon move in and out of the clouds. Not even the imp king was able to suppress the immense pressure exerted by the dragon's might. This was the case when Zyrus was using his bloodline and various skills and authorities to create an imitation of a dragon.

The Sylvarix race could theoretically evolve without limits, and dragons were included in those limits.

[Time flows endlessly]

*Click*Clock*Click*

The mana eclipse was frozen halfway. All of the energy that Zyrus had gathered via his skill started retreating like a lunar tide. No skills were unaffected by the passage of time.

'That skill shouldn't belong in this ring, not that I'm one to talk about it,'

Zyrus observed the hourglass that seemed to contain infinite wonders of time. What the imp king could borrow was merely a tiny fraction of that power. Be it the time acceleration skill or the hourglass itself, both were the powers that belonged to the imp king of the future.

[Arcane lance]

[Shackles of Nihility]

Zyrus didn't waste any time and used another barrage of attacks. Time was of the essence– quite literally in this case. He didn't know which spell the imp king was using, but the threat he felt from the hourglass had far surpassed any foe he faced in the sanctuary.

Neither the shackles that contained the concept of nihility nor the blackish green lances that were coated with abyssal and poisonous mana were able to reach their target. Anything that came within a hundred-meter radius of the imp king was corroded by the passage of time.

Zyrus knew very well that space and Time magic wasn't something one could use in the second ring. Regardless of his ability's rank and potential, it was a fact that the mana he controlled was inferior. This was the difference between league of existence.

The 13 curses of void he used weren't the original usage of his void laws. They were the result of the cube's interference which allowed him to use the power of laws while being in the sanctuary. If both he and the imp king were back on earth then Zyrus would be able to use far more power by using the same shackles of nihility.

Eclipse Snare was on cooldown, and most of his other skills were either aoe or control type. This only left him with two options– the Twilight Crusher and the Spatial Stab.

His weapon was ranked high enough to not be affected by the Imp king's temporal magic. Less needed to be said about spatial stab; it was by far his strongest single target attack. The imp king would be dead for certain if he used that move.

"Is that all you have? How disappointing."

"What can I do? My regular skills can't bypass your magic, while my strongest attacks will kill you in an instant."

"Hahaha…Just so you know, I'll be getting stronger with each passing second," The imp king pointed at the hourglass where ash was slowly settling down to the bottom.

That ash represented how much power he could borrow from his future self. The whole setup was done to show Zyrus his weakness against enemies who were above his league of existence. With his class and titles there was no one who could stand against him on the same level. Even if he fought against millions the outcome wouldn't be any different so long as his abilities weren't restricted.

Zyrus also knew this very well. Whatever Aurora was planning must be for the enemy he would face back on earth. So, instead of taking the easy way out, he decided to focus on something he had yet to fully develop.

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[Rune Vision]

[Eye of Annihilation]

Purple-red pupils appeared inside Zyrus's black eyes. This was the combined manifestation of the skills he had used.

'Fascinating…'

Everything he saw was intricate and beautiful. Even the tiny pieces of rocks that were being shattered under the players and the specs of clouds far in the horizon, all things looked so much more detailed. The world he saw was no longer the same. It was the true appearance of the world that was governed by countless laws.

The imp king stood out like a towering pillar in such a world. Compared to the time laws around him, the hourglass in the sky wasn't worth mentioning. The laws of time were even more pervasive than the abyssal mana. Even the players fighting below were being affected by the accelerated flow of time.

The worst thing was, even he didn't feel it before activating the two skills.

'If it is to this extent…Then I have less time left than I'd thought.'

[Days of the bygone era]

As if to prove his thoughts correct, numerous Imp kings started to appear out of thin air. Some were youthful while others were middle aged and wise. The worrying thing was that all of them held the same amount of mana.

"Let me guess…You can't die as long as a single one is left remaining."

"As expected of an arcanist. Now, try to survive this," The imp king raised its bony hand and pointed at the gigantic dragon flying above. Dozens of other imp kings followed his actions and did the same.

[Your opponent has consumed all their turns]

[The racial talent "Mimicry" has been strengthened]

Zyrus felt a chill down his scales as he saw the imp king use more than 20 turns on strengthening a single skill. With this much external assistance it was possible to mimic skills which were above one's league of existence.

'As for what it'll mimic, that's pretty fucking obvious,'

An Imp was an Imp afterall. How could the one who was their king not have a trick up his sleeve?

[Time flows endlessly]

[Time flows endlessly]

[Time flows endlessly]

.

.

.

The turns were used to enhance the Imp king's mimicry skills, and it was targeted at every version of him that were present at this moment.

Zyrus didn't want to die of old age within seconds, so he had no choice but to pause his attacks and focus on defending.

[Curse of Uncertainty]

[Curse of Oblivion]

Two curses were unleashed at their full power. The green haze that seemed to pass through everything met an obstacle for the first time. Void quandary made it so that no targeted skills could find Zyrus. Even if the imp king didn't target Zyrus and used time acceleration in all directions, the laws of time would still be held back by Quantum erasure.

The fight had reached a stalemate where neither side was able to deal with the other. At this moment, Zyrus also realized one important fact.

'For the first time since my regression, I'm fighting a strong opponent without the intent to kill.'

Nidraxis, Glemorax king, the field bosses and even the giant in the Streit bastion. He had fought against many strong enemies and created new curses of void to deal with them. Zyrus thought of a crucial factor that was common among all of them– to a certain extent, he wanted to kill them.

His emotions and past experiences made it possible for him to come into contact with the void laws. Emptiness, anger, vengeance…all the negative emotions paved the way for him to use the form of void that erased everything. But what if he wanted to reach the other end of the realm of order? Where should he channel his willpower if he wanted to replicate the infinite void?

Zyrus realized that this was the final thing that was holding him back. Laws were ever-present. What made them exert their power was the will of the caster.

Before he didn't have to think hard about such things as they happened naturally.

Humans and most creatures in the universe for that matter were unable to truly comprehend the vastness of void. However, there was one thing which many civilizations had– something that correlated to a similar emotion.

Enlightenment, Satori, Nirvana, Ataraxia...they all hinted at a similar state of mind.

As aurora had said, all things exist in contradiction. These emotions were the polar opposite of what Zyrus felt when creating the curses of void.

[Vanquish]

[Sphere of Infinity]

What Zyrus had to do now couldn't be any clearer. He stopped resisting the accelerated time and let it seep through his whole being.

Previously he was like a reef that stood against the tides of time, but that was the wrong approach.

Void didn't need to resist time. It existed before the dawn of time and it shall remain when all the creation meets its end.

That, was the infinite void.

Zyrus's various skills and authorities acted on their own and started to merge into a new power. At this moment, he realized the path he had to walk upon from now on. This was just the first step of a long journey, but still, this was enough to end this fight.

A pitch-black darkness engulfed the space created by Matope. There was no sound and nor were there any fluctuations of mana. It wasn't eroded by the acceleration of time. It wasn't bound by the constraint of space.

[Curse of tranquility: An eternity of silence]

This was still a half-finished authority as Zyrus's league of existence couldn't handle any more laws of the void.

The hourglass in the sky sank like sand in the ocean. This marked the end of the flag march that lasted for a whole decade.

"I…admit defeat."

The imp king was shrewder than others gave him credit for. By using the temporal magic to accelerate time, he had effectively saved the lives of both his kin and the players.

The players looked at the obsidian sky and the void dragon that lay in the midst of it. At this moment, Zyrus seemed grander and more majestic than the system's notifications.

[Congratulations! Your flag has evolved once again]

[You have earned a faction insignia]

[New buffs and effects have been added]

[All faction members have been given the right to attain the blessing of order]

[Congratulations! You have cleared the First ring of the Sanctuary!]

*ROOOAAAARRR*

" "All hail his Majesty" "

" "All hail his Majesty" "

A dragon roar pierced through the third zone and reached each and every corner of the Pisces archipelago. Zyrus squinted his eyes open, but what was seen in them wasn't the joy or pride of victory.

'This feels worse than dying,'

Every cell of his body was being crushed by his own power of laws. He was currently at a very crucial stage of his void body cultivation. Only after creating the mark of ouroboros and creating a void core would he complete his newest authority.

Just like how young animals are unable to eat food at their birth, he was in a similar situation. For an infant Void dragon the space in the sanctuary was too tough to digest.

Fortunately for Zyrus, there was a way out.

[Returning to earth in 00:00:05]

A hive that had occupied the solar system was awaiting his arrival.