"A good warrior smiles in the face of defeat," said Erin Voldor as he saw Arthur's expression. "But a fake confidence is the fastest ride to death."
The chains shot out from Erin's body, impaling the floor, walls, and ceiling. Then, all mana in this place started flowing through the chains toward Erin Voldor, like blood through veins, making him more powerful.
The forger paused when he saw Arthur's smile, seeming to understand its hidden aning. Arthur turned toward him and nodded, signaling for him to retreat. The forger looked around the cell before running to one of its corners, allowing Arthur and Erin to take the stage.
"Is your arrogance big enough to think you can use stats against ?" asked Erin while spreading his arms, his muscles bulging beyond the limits of the human body. "As long as you are in my domain, I am invincible!"
"If you were invincible, the reason would be this Manaless Domain," said Arthur as he stared at his palm. "The mana dissipates the mont it leaves the mana essence, which makes it impossible to conjure elents."
"A Manaless mage like yourself is a helpless sheep waiting to be eaten by the wolf," said Erin Voldor before he stepped toward Arthur, his aura exploding in the room. Gray was pushed against the wall by the aura representing strength.
"That just ans that I have to use the mana elsewhere," Arthur said before closing his eyes. Erin Voldor felt sothing was wrong, and he rushed forward to attack. However, Arthur was elsewhere at that mont.
A myriad of colors covered the endless stretch of sky, which overlooked a deserted land. Arthur looked at the wasteland, black as if sothing had devoured its life. This was the world inside his mana essence, the source of everything.
Arthur looked around before he turned toward the giant in the wasteland, golden and magnificent. The chains of order chained his body, and his eyes were closed. The giant was created from the golden mana of creation, the only life in this wasteland.
"You are here," bood a voice from the sky, and Arthur raised his eyes to look at the giant opening his eyes. The pair of golden eyes stared into his soul, and Arthur felt a sense of familiarity rather than suffocation. "I have been waiting."
"And you must be King Arthur," said Arthur as he stared at the giant and then at the chains. "What are these for?"
"These chains keep the world afloat, the unbreakable laws that govern the universe. I am chained because my descent will destroy the world."
"The sa as the guardians," said Arthur with realization. "However, you are not in the void but my mana essence."
"Your mana essence is connected to this world, and it allows to give you my strength," said King Arthur as his finger twitched. "Right now, that finger is all you can use."
Arthur stared with shock and realized that every inch of the giant's body was chained except for this finger. The fact that all the power he had assimilated was nothing more than a finger sent chills down his spine.
"Are you here to free at last?" asked the giant, and Arthur was stunned, speechless. "I am humoring you, for I know you more than anyone else."
"This is not our first eting, is it?" Arthur asked as he rembered the ti he was researching runes in the Do Mansion. "You once told it was too early to et you."
"It was, not anymore," said the giant. "However, you are still too unstable to co here often. Finish what you must in haste before the chains of order reach you."
The words confused Arthur, but he rembered he needed to try the new thod again. Therefore, he raised his hand toward the sky and summoned a rune of his, feeding it with his mana.
"Oh, ho?" muttered the giant with interest. "Are you trying to turn yourself into an artifact?"
"That is the plan!" said Arthur before the rune of his turned into a Reality Gate that fell into the wasteland, shaking the world. It was lined with runic engravings resembling flas, and it was burning.
"You are going to burn yourself, boy," said the giant, and Arthur knew as such. If he created a Reality Gate within his body and fed it with mana, it was akin to turning himself into a human torch.
"Not unless I turn into nothing for a second," said Arthur before raising his hand again and summoning another runic line, adding more power to the fire rune. The Chains of Order started to shake, and Arthur could feel his body turning into runes.
"You are overstraining your body," said King Arthur. "Even if you managed to turn into flas, reversing that process will take ti and energy."
"Always a better option than dying," said Arthur as he began to fade while the Reality Gate opened. "Don't get burned, King."
"You too, kid."
Arthur snapped his eyes open and found a fist coming toward his face. Although his first instinct was to dodge, the heat from his body told him there was no need. The fist smashed his face, but it went through as his body turned into flas.
Boom!
The wall behind Arthur was destroyed, resulting in a big hole as big as his head. Erin Voldor stared with shock at his arm going through Arthur's body, covered in flas. Yet, even with half of his face made from fire, Arthur grinned.
"Your berserk ability is useless now, Erin," said Arthur as he pulled back his arm and punched with his fist. His arm turned into a pillar of flas that slamd into Erin, flying through the cell's door.
Ssssss!
"AGH!" groaned Erin Voldor as the flas burned through his clothes and flashed, but Arthur had no intentions of stopping his attack. The pillar of fire kept pushing him through the underground corridor until he slamd into a wall, and the flas exploded to engulf his body.
Arthur's attack stopped, and the pillar of flas was cut off, but he couldn't turn it back into his hand. Instead, his body was turning into runes and then into fire, and the process happened simultaneously.
"Dude, you are on fire," said Gray, rubbing his eyes with disbelief. "You have an astral blessing similar to the leader?"
"You can say he inspired it," replied Arthur as he stared at the flas. Lyle had a similar ability, where he turned his body into the wind. So, an astral blessing might be no more than a reality gate within the mana essence. "Isn't that similar to an ability?" muttered Arthur before shaking his head.
Arthur used his runes through external mana. For example, if he wanted to use a rune, his ability allowed him to create it before he infused mana into it. Although this had a similar presentation as an ability, the process was different.
This ti, Arthur built a Reality Gate within his mana essence. It was the definition of ability, so Arthur gained an ability like the one he gave Oren. However, this one was different because Arthur forced the mana to turn into fire inside his mana essence.
Even Oren couldn't turn into flas, even with this Reality Gate. Arthur managed to pull this off because he replaced his body with the fire itself, igniting them within his essence. It was a risk he had to take to beat this no-mana zone.
Erin Voldor fell to the ground, charred. However, the most he received was first-degree burns. Of course, Arthur didn't hope to defeat him with that single strike, but at least Arthur wouldn't receive damage unless Erin used sothing other than his stats.
"Hah… hah…" Erin Voldor gasped for air, his hair looking disheveled and face filled with burns. However, his eyes were full of rage. "Ha," he breathed in, making his chest inflate before roaring. "ARTHUR SILVERA!"
Erin Voldor slamd his fists on the ground, making the chains explode from his body. Arthur saw how chains ford from chains through the door and impaled the floor, ceiling, and floor.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
The clinking sound filled the corridor before the chains reached the door. Arthur rushed forward and brought both of his hands together, turning them into flas that exploded toward the chains.
Arthur believed the chains would absorb the flas, but that didn't happen. Instead, the fire explosion was enough to push them back, halting their progress.
"God of Destruction should be able to absorb the mana within the elents," muttered Arthur with a frown. "However, this is rely my hypothesis from incomplete data. Maybe Erin cannot do that."
It was good news for Arthur, but Erin wasn't defeated yet. He was still a descendant of a guardian with de-rank mana, so taking him down here was different from the trial.
Erin could see a red hue surrounding his body at the end of the corridor. He rose from the ground while glaring at Arthur, his wrath making him look like a beast.
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