Chapter 218: Chapter 195.2 : Light And Darkness

Micheal showcased several other destructive techniques, most of which involved obliterating an abandoned island. Ray was curious to see if Micheal would let off a nuclear attack, but this never came. That being said, the Transmigrator wasn't left wanting. The aged Ascendant's attack potency was far above nukes.

In one video segment, the Raven ascended high into the skies and all but summoned a meteor. The several-hundred-metre-wide ball composed of some of the strongest metals known to man materialised in a second flat, before zooming downwards. Yes, zooming. Micheal wasn't content with gravity's aid alone and attached a cluster of rocket thrusters to speed up the sphere of death's descent.

The collision was what one would expect; the small island was destroyed to its last inch. Had Micheal not contained the explosion with a wall of White Mist, the resultant sound would be heard around the planet, several times over.

Creating and setting off colossal bombs, launching missiles, firing skyscraper-sized cannons, etc. Micheal had no shortage of bright and flashy techniques in his arsenal.

No less impressive were Micheal's speed feats. His combat speed ranged from hypersonic to high-hypersonic speeds while his travel speed was equal to that of a rocket. Yes, a rocket.

When he wanted to move quickly, he would transform into a giant black rocket and blast off. Moving at dozens of times the speed of sound, Micheal could get anywhere from anywhere else on the planet in a matter of minutes. Knowledge of this feat was a major deterrent to evildoers everywhere.

Relatedly and similarly unnerving, was Micheal's shape-shifting prowess. His Unique powers allowed him to transform into all manner of things. In a video segment, Micheal demonstrated this ability, going through a hundred different transformations, starting small with a dog and growing much larger.

Dog? Yes, even a dog was possible. Important to note, only his head had to be intact for transformations. He could keep his decapitated head alive with Psi alone, so everything bigger than a head, his head, was on the table for transformations.

In the following segment, Micheal used his transformation skills to infiltrate highly secure facilities and blend into unknowing crowds. He did so with ease, accomplishing his stated goals without any the wiser.

Micheal wasn't touted for his covert skills, but the Light of the World was undoubtedly and ironically the best at hugging the shadows. While he couldn't be in multiple places like Dimitri, he could be anywhere, anyone or anything. This fact was unsettling to the wicked and reassuring to the righteous.

Coming to this section of the documentary, Ray thought of his own surroundings.

Since learning that Micheal had visited their mother, the duo had been acting under the assumpting that they were being observed.

They understood the concerns/fears Micheal would have, knowing what he did, and knew that he'd be paying close attention to their actions going forward. There was no doubt in the duo's minds that there were staff members - and possibly students - reporting their every action to Micheal.

The duo had considered the possibility that Micheal himself had been in their vicinity within the last week but didn't think it too likely. They also considered the possibility that Lane and the others were Micheal's spies but again, didn't think it too likely. Regardless of whether it was through his lenses or others, Micheal was watching, watching their every move with keen eyes.

To this knowledge, the duo shrugged. It did bother them a bit but not so much that they lost sleep over it. As long as Micheal kept a respectful distance as he had been, they could overlook his gawking, treating him no different than a fanatic fan.

The last section of the documentary focused on Micheal's various adventures. He had earned his S-Rank Adventurer title well and true. There were videos of him in outer space, videos of him striding across the ocean floor and videos of him deep in the Earth’s mantle. There were even rumours of him visiting the Earth’s core at one time or another.

These rumours weren't farfetched, it was perfectly possible after all. What was farfetched, was the accompanying rumour about Micheal having thoughts of destroying the world with his Psi. Theoretically...it was possible. Micheal was far from a planet buster in the conventional sense, but through prolonged efforts using White Mist, it was understood that he could eventually destabilise the planet’s core enough that it would lead to an implosion/explosion of sorts.

'Wonder if these videos are legal in Luxen...probably not,' Ray commented as he watched Micheal hop across the moon's surface.

The moon was a favourite destination of the Ascendent, who was said to have visited it dozens of times in the last three centuries. Micheal and the filming crew roamed the so-called Heavenly Plane, circling the satellite several times and inadvertently disproving the idea that the floating grey rock was the resting place of the Five Divines. The Gods that had once aided humanity had clearly gone elsewhere.

The documentary ended with a shot of Micheal on the moon, holding the distant Earth in the palm of his hand.

'All this, and he's still not considered the strongest, Astra must be something else. She's snatched away his long-held title of strongest away from him...and then there's the matter of Val, whose existence calls into question Micheal's title of World's Strongest Man. Hmm, wonder who's stronger between them two, the World's Light or the Sword of Light?'

The question sounded absurd after going through Micheal’s feats, but it wasn’t.

The Head of the Radiant Knights was a fearsome character himself, known for two absurd abilities. His existence answered a long-standing question. With Onic Masters already being pseudo-Ascendants, what would happen once they stepped into the Ascendant realm? Would their Standard Class-esque powers be enhanced like Onki users or would they acquire additional powers?

The answer: both.

Val’s Telekinetic, Telepathic and Clairvoyant class abilities rose dramatically upon becoming an Ascendant, and at the same time, he acquired two new space-time abilities.

The first allowed him to peek into the future. Just peek. While the mechanism behind his power was similar to Mira’s, unlike the Raven, who could ‘see’ days ahead, the Sword of Light's limit was stated to be a few seconds at most. Still, when one could move at hypersonic speeds, even a tenth of a second ahead was no different than an eternity. It was also said that Val's precognition was always active, making surprise attacks impossible.

The second new ability allowed him to seemingly strum the fabric of reality with his Psi. The technique, Heaven Ripple, came as a result of pouring sufficient Psi into this esoteric ability.

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With a slashing motion, by either his limbs or his signature sword, Justice, he could unleash crescent-shaped distortions in space that would expand out like a ripple. It would race out at inconceivable speeds for around a hundred metres before reality ironed out its existence. Anything that the invisible ripple touched would be split. Just like Micheal's Black Sun, Heavenly Ripple was thought to be unblockable.

These two hax abilities, his base Ascendant stats and his martial skill, perfectly combined to form a most formidable fighter and earned Val a spot on the podium. Whether he was silver or bronze was a question without an answer, though, most still believed that Micheal was a tad stronger.

'Too bad, there's no footage of Val going all out. Or Astra for that matter. Well, if we continue on the path we're going, we'll eventually get to see them in action one day. Hopefully, sooner rather than later.'

Ray would sit with his thoughts for a bit more, thinking up flashy scenarios and fight sequences between Silver and the legendary figures named. Not the current Silver of course, but a different one, the original Silver, one whose power exceeded even Exceeds.

He sipped away merrily, fantasizing with a smile on his face. Eventually, he had his fill of both delights. After trouncing the Ascendants one last time, Ray called it quits. He contemplated watching more videos but decided against it. He’d do so later.

Exiting the cinema, he sought out his other self. A quick scan told him that Ralf was in his private dome. Ray teleported to the private dome’s front door and knocked. Ralf greeted him with a smile and spared his other self a few minutes for chatter, but only a few minutes. He was still busy working on a game and didn't want to be disturbed for another hour or so.

Hearing this, Ray didn't pester him further. He wished him good luck on the game and looked for another source of entertainment. Before he left though, he was asked/tasked to relieve their body of its waste.

Ray agreed and moved at once to do his duty. Shifting to the outside world, his senses anchored to reality. He was in Prime's dorm room, on the bed. He took a moment to take it all in, then slowly got up and floated himself to the bathroom. Nature called and he answered with his Psi.

Done, a spotless Ray returned to the bed and…simply stood there. As he was a second away from toppling onto it, a thought struck him and with it, pause, then contemplation. His eyes moved back and forth between the warm bed and the corridor leading out.

‘Might as well, right?’

This thought was the deciding factor in the mental tug of war. Ray gathered the scattered clothes to his person and was soon out. He strode down the lit-up corridor. It was empty, as was the next and the next. Only after reaching the bottom floor did he come across people, all of them being staff. Ray drifted past them without a word.

At 6 am, the sun had yet to greet the Grey Wolf Academy, causing the darkness of early mornings to dominate the overall colour scheme. Said darkness was broken up by various light fixtures, mostly coming from stylishly designed lamp posts. A chilly breeze swept through the Academy; the flowers and grass swayed gently while the clouds of mist roamed the grounds aimlessly.

Similarly aimless was Ray. He enjoyed himself though. The lighting, silence, mist and ancient architecture present combined to give the grounds a mystical vibe. He readily soaked it up. The Academy was quiet and relatedly, there weren’t a lot of people out and about, exactly as he preferred.

Ray didn’t rely on the poor visibility alone to obstruct his form. To avoid others’ attention, he kept to the shadows. Skulking and scuttling around, he ended up making a game of it, darting here and there, hiding behind trees and statues and using the pockets of mists as camouflage.

Getting bored of his game minutes later, the Transmigrator sought someplace to rest. After a quick scan of his surroundings, he found the perfect spot, the Lake of Endless Ripples.

The artificial lake was closer to a work of art than a natural body of water. It was a hundred metres in diameter and perfectly circular. No fish or other life forms swam in the multicoloured waters. At the centre of this lake, a large metallic spike could be seen peeking its head above the surface. This spike was responsible for the endless ripples the lake was famous for, and had been releasing pulses for sixty years straight at this point, rain or shine.

The artificial lake stood alone, far from all else, and was surrounded by a ring of neatly planted red-leafed trees, flowers and a sea of well-trimmed grass. Four winding stone paths led to it, breaking the formation of beautiful fauna at the cardinal points, with each path leading to a long wooden bench facing the lake.

All were empty at the moment, making it a prime destination in Ray's heart. The Transmigrator followed the pebble-strewn path to the southern bench and took a seat.

He shut his eyes and took a long breath. The chilly winds, the scent of flowers, the sound of the rippling water; he relished in the sensations reaching him in the passing moments. It was quite literally a breath of fresh air.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t experience these sensations in the Mental Space - he could. Still, the fact that it was the real world and not a fake of his own creation that he could bend to his will added a qualitative difference in his mind, one that both unnerved him and delighted him. At this moment though, he felt the latter emotion more strongly.

'Hm?'

Ray’s tranquillity didn’t last long, not even a minute. It shattered as his senses locked onto a ‘visitor’. Someone was approaching his position from behind.

The visitor in question moved as he had, silently while sticking to the shadows, though, unlike Ray, the visitor did so out of habit, not for his own amusement. The visitor reached the bench and without a word, took a seat on the opposite end, then made himself comfortable.

The seconds passed in silence until a sigh was heard. Ray slowly opened his eyes and glanced over to his right. There, a black-eyed youth, donning his signature red scarf, sat, nonchalantly.

Ray resisted the urge to sigh again and instead parted his lips to speak.

“Lane.”

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