Chapter 420 Zephyrus Tribulation  

Mercuria Continent, inside the Inheritance of Erudition.

While Erudis had his attention fixated on what was happening through the orb in front of him, watching what seemed to be a fight between the strongest person of a kingdom and a Spiriveritas like him, an orb quickly flew to where he was not long after, immediately showing two beings that had bark the color of pink and cyan, respectively.

"So, what's going on with Verdante?" Erudis asked the two.

"Well, as you can see through the live image through the orb, Verdante has offered the guardian of the Seraph Kingdom a chance to have the latter do whatever he wanted with the former. Though, from the looks of it, it seems that Verdante is going to win," Vytalis, the one with pink bark, responded.

However, Erudis could not help but frown instead in response to Vytalis's words. Sure, he could see right now that Aurus had seemingly increased his power by a thousand times, even going so far as to triumph his power when he went all out. Nevertheless, the divination he had done earlier seemed to say otherwise.

'Perhaps my divination is wrong,' he could not help but mutter inwardly. Then again, there was basis for his doubts. After all, divination involved manipulating time and fate, something that he had only barely touched thanks to his Epiphany of Omniscience. In any case, even with his superficial understanding of divination, most of his divinations were right, with only a few rare cases of it being wrong.

"Keep watch over Verdante, Vytalis, Mannelyn," Erudis said not long after, to which the two nodded in response before their conversation. With the orb flying away as he focused his attention on the orb showing Aurus fighting against Wilhelm, he could not help but become silent for a bit as he pondered as to what he should do. Eventually, he turned off the orb and stood up from his seat, scratching his head as he muttered, "Although there's a chance of my divination being wrong, I'm just going there to see if fate has ordained what shall happen."

Whoosh!

A few seconds later, he disappeared from where he was standing, hastily making his way to the Maerr-viki Continent, wanting to see the outcome of the fight for himself.

…

"[Pseudo-Animate Ascension]."

Swoosh!

In an instant, the aura surrounding Aurus had intensified to the point that it quickly surpassed the aura Wilhelm was emanating. At first, the difference between the two was considerably small, though it did not take long for that to change as Wilhelm quickly felt like he was looking at someone that shouldn't have existed at the same plane as him. To him right now, it was as if he was looking at a Transcendent that was beyond Rank 5, a chasm way too far for him to fathom.

In fact, the aura Aurus was emanating was incredibly imposing to the point that the strengthened barrier surrounding the two started to vibrate faintly, as if it was submitting to Aurus's will. Then again, Aurus's species was half-royalty among the Spiritii, which was now changed to full royalty due to him reaching the peak of [Purification of Noble Blood].

Seeing how Aurus continued to grow stronger while Wilhelm was substantially weakened by the two domains Aurus had conjured, as well as the fact that the barrier seemed to be verge of breaking down, Dalton could not help but let out a sigh as he muttered, "I hope I get something else out of this."

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Without hesitation, Dalton quickly made a few gestures once more, layering magic circles on top of other magic circles as a synergistic resonance appeared between them. After allowing the magic circles to be filled to the brim with energy, he then sent them towards two locations. The first location was the barrier, with the goal of reinforcing the barrier to the point that it was able to endure the aura Aurus was emanating.

As for the second location…that was Wilhelm. Just as Aurus was preparing to unleash the strongest move he had unleashed in his life, an incredibly sturdy barrier made out of reinforced mana soon covered Wilhelm, even going so far as to stack on top of the domain surrounding his body and resonate with it, increasing his defense even further. Although the barrier did give him a bit more confidence in being able to withstand the attack, as he had finally realized that Aurus had concealed a lot of him, Wilhelm did not put everything into the barrier Dalton had conjured. After all, Dalton was just a Rank 9 class holder. The gulf of power between someone at Rank 9 Animate and Rank 1 Transcendent was already vast. Much less to say between Rank 9 and the power Aurus was exuding right now, which to Wilhelm, felt like someone at Rank 6 Transcendent.

"[Transcendent Immolation]!" Wilhelm shouted while Aurus was just about to enact his move, transforming the silver domain covering his body into a swarm of silver flames that enveloped him from head to toe. At this point, he was placing literally everything into the domain he had nurtured all throughout his life. The mana he could wield, the knowledge he had amassed, even the cells making up his body were not spared from this as his body started to slowly disintegrate.

In any case, he knew that this would just be a small price if he were to survive against Aurus's attack. And if he didn't, then it would just be his bad luck.

As for Aurus, he calmly looked at the happenings around Wilhelm, noticing how an outsider conjured a sturdy barrier around him, as well as the fact that Wilhelm went all out in enhancing his defense. Even though the primal instinct was fuming right now that it had allowed Wilhelm to be able to endure against his attack, Aurus was not concerned. After all, he was going to use something that even the primal instinct did not dare use.

"Identify [Spellswords of Ruination]."

Ding!

________

[Spellswords of Ruination (Legendary)] (Level 40/40)

Grade: X (Transcendent)

An offensive skill formed from the fusion of multiple skills that harmonize and resonate with one another, allowing one to harness the power of Wind to unleash great feats that would easily mow down a nation's army, or perhaps, even flatten a continent. As a skill with a fixed name, it holds inconceivable amounts of power, which have now shown its true colors due to it now being at the X-grade Transcendent level.

> Has access to all Wind element spells from Level 0 to Lower Level 5

> Has access to all special moves contained in [Nine Realms' Myriad Spellswords (Wind Variant)]

> Obtain access to a set of powerful moves called Lost Arts

> Obtain the ability to fuse the ultimate moves contained in [Nine Realms' Myriad Spellswords] and the Lost Arts, giving rise to a set of more powerful moves called Ultimate Lost Arts

> Obtain access to an ultimate move, Divine Art: Zephyrus Tribulation

FP Cost: Depends on the skill/spell used

________

Briefly looking at the last line of text on the screen he quickly dispelled, Aurus went ahead and recalled the knowledge the skill gave him in regards to the usage of the Divine Art. After standing still for a few seconds, he then took a few more steps forward, looking at Wilhelm, who was currently focused on increasing his defense to the highest it could possibly go.

Lightly nodding at the man's courage, Aurus went ahead and quickly conjured a thousand blades out of wind, reminding himself that he was in a race against time. After all, the amount of FP he had could only support the skill for so long.

With that, he fused the thousand blades together, forming a giant sword that would normally be wielded by someone a few times larger than Aurus. However, for some reason, Aurus was able to grab it at its hilt and wield it like any other sword.

Pointing the sword towards the sky, he then bellowed, with all of the people listening to him, "Great god of wind from beyond, listen. I, Verdante, beseech your presence in order to vanquish this heathen." "Instill my body with your divine gust, and smite the foe that I wholly distrust."

"[Spellswords of Ruination: Divine Art]."

"[Zephyrus Tribulation]!"

Swinging his sword down, the blade quickly touched the ground, only being a couple of centimeters away from actually touching Wilhelm. Seeing this, the bystanders could not help but wonder if Aurus was putting up a facade all this time. Though, that thought quickly dispelled as the sky started to rumble in response to his words.

Rumble…

At that instant, a great portion of the FP Aurus had stored in order for [Pseudo-

Animate Ascension] to continue being active was quickly consumed, slightly catching Aurus off guard. But soon after, he could not help but look up at the sky as the clouds above them started to part into two. Not long after, the sun that seemed to bring life into the world quickly transformed into a massive green ball of energy, infused to the brim with the element of Wind.

Psh!

Without anyone being able to react to what happened next, the green ball of energy quickly shot down a ray of green light that seemed to be amplified by the buffs that Aurus had activated beforehand. Naturally, what happened next was pure chaos.

Bang!

As the ray of green light collided with Wilhelm's body, the barrier shattered in less than an instant as a large shockwave spread throughout the surroundings, blasting the bystanders, as well as Aurus, away. Even Argentum and the others were not spared from this, only being able to stabilize themselves after colliding with a tall building some tens of meters away.

After about ten seconds or so, the ray of green light disappeared as an arrogant harrumph could be heard throughout the area. Hearing that, Aurus gradually stood up and bowed towards the sky, knowing very well that he had actually called a god. Of course, he did not know how the skill had the ability to do so as he was still an Inanimate, yet as the god was here, he still had to show respect.

Eventually, everything settled down as the bystanders gradually came back to where both Aurus and Wilhelm were. As for Dalton and Zeldrion, who were far closer to the blast, they actually arrived earlier. After all, they were both Rank 9 class holders, with the latter finally grasping the requirement needed to ascend to a higher existence level.

Quickly conjuring up a barrier, Dalton watched as the dust surrounding the two settle down, instantly noticing that Aurus was sitting down on the ground, watching the dust around Wilhelm to settle down. Though, at this moment, the aura surrounding Aurus was far weaker than what he had experienced so far. In fact, he even had a hunch that he would be able to kill Aurus in his current state.

However, those thoughts were quickly stopped as Wilhelm was finally shown to the masses, instantly eliciting gasps from many people around them. Well, that was because…Wilhelm was dead.

With his lower torso entirely vaporized, while only a quarter of his upper torso and his head remained, it would be no surprise for one to come to the conclusion that a Transcendent had just died under the hands of an Inanimate. Surprisingly, even Dalton was visibly shaken as he saw the aftermath of the attack, prompting him to slowly turn his head as he looked at Zeldrion. But, rather than seeing an enraged Zeldrion wanting to enact revenge, he instead saw Zeldrion calmly staring, as if it was just natural for something like this to happen.

Just before Dalton could ask him why, Zeldrion could not help but chuckle as he muttered, "It seems he has survived."

"Survived? What do you mean survi—" Before Dalton could finish his words, he noticed that Wilhelm's seemingly mangled corpse started to wriggle. Soon, a great burst of silver light emanated from his body as the silver light transformed into the parts he had lost from the attack. About a minute later, Wilhelm was back to normal, as if he hadn't received any attack in the first place…if not for the fact that he was now mostly naked.

"[Glistening Resurrection]. That's the skill I bet my life on when I saw your attack," Wilhelm started to talk, slowly walking towards Aurus as he quickly put on a set of clothes from a rift he summoned. "Fortunately, that bet paid off and I still live."

Now standing in front of Aurus, he then asked, "In any case, I've lost a great portion of my strength from that ordeal. Would you still like to continue or would you like me to concede?"

In response, Aurus stared at him for a bit before letting out a chuckle.

"How about we continue?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

We are very close to the end of the novel. For those that have stayed with me all this time, I thank you from the very bottom of my heart.