Blackout Ascension: Return of Primordial Heir-Chapter 62: Mana Aberration

The ride from the capital to Oakhaven took two hours on royal wind horses. These magical steeds hovered a few inches off the ground, their hooves never touching the ground. They moved faster than a rushing river, obscuring the green trees and open plains into a smear of color.

Kairos rode at the front. The wind whipped his dark hair back. He didn’t feel the usual nervous flutter in his stomach. For the first time in his life, riding toward a monster attack didn’t feel like a desperate gamble. It felt like a simple job.

Smoke painted the eastern sky. It wasn’t the clean, gray smoke of a normal wood fire. It was a sick, unnatural purple black cloud that stained the clouds.

"I see the village!" Ignis shouted over the rushing wind, pointing ahead.

Oakhaven was a large, peaceful farming settlement built near the edge of a dense forest. Usually, it was surrounded by neat rows of golden wheat. Today, the wheat fields were completely trampled and burning with corrupted flames.

They pulled their wind-horses to a halt at the edge of the village square.

The scene was pure chaos. Terrified farmers were running toward the stone chapel, carrying the crying children in their arms. A line of thirty Solaris border guards stood between the civilians and the burning fields. The guards wore standard iron chainmail and held long steel spears. They looked absolutely terrified.

Bursting out of the burning wheat, there were five Mana Aberrations.

Kairos narrowed his eyes, studying the monsters. They didn’t look like the Black Mist Knights. They were twisted, nightmarish beasts. They walked on four asymmetrical legs. Their bodies were composed of bulging, mutated muscle that looked like peeled flesh. Thick black mist leaked constantly from their open pores. They had no eyes. They just have massive jaws filled with jagged, glowing purple teeth.

"Hold the line!" the guard captain yelled, his voice cracking with fear. "Do not let them reach the chapel! Thrust on my mark!"

One of the Aberrations let out a deafening, gurgling roar and leaped at the shield wall.

"Now!" the captain yelled.

Five guards thrust their steel spears into the beast’s chest. The sharp steel hit the corrupted muscle.

SNAP!!

The steel spears didn’t pierce the monster. They bent and shattered like cheap wooden twigs. The Aberration didn’t even slow down. It crashed into the guards, sending three men flying through the air like ragdolls. The monster raised a clawed paw to crush the fallen captain.

"Hey, ugly!" a loud, arrogant voice echoed across the square.

The Aberration paused, turning its snarling head toward the sound.

Ignis walked casually past the terrified border guards. He wasn’t wearing heavy armor. He just wore his academy uniform jacket, left open to show the fresh white bandages wrapped around his ribs. He held his standard iron sword loosely in his right hand.

"You are ruining good wheat," Ignis sighed, shaking his head. "Do you have any idea how much I like fresh bread?"

The monster roared, dropping the captain and charging straight at Ignis. The ground shook under its thundering footsteps.

"Lord Ignis, get back!" the captain screamed, scrambling in the dirt. "Your sword won’t cut that hide! It is too dense!"

Ignis didn’t step back. He just smiled.

Three months ago, Ignis would have summoned a fireball to blow the beast away, risking the nearby wooden houses catching fire. Today, he just took a calm breath.

A line of intensely pure blue fire ignited along the dull edge of his iron sword. It just hummed with a terrifying, compressed heat.

Ignis stepped smoothly into the beast’s charge. He swung the iron sword in a simple upward arc.

The blue fire didn’t even meet resistance. The highly concentrated heat melted the monster’s corrupted flesh the second the blade touched it. Ignis sliced cleanly through the Aberration’s neck, detaching its massive head in one flawless motion. The beast’s body collapsed into the dirt, shattering into gray ash.

Ignis flicked his wrist, extinguishing the blue flame. He didn’t even break a sweat. He looked down at the stunned guard captain. "My sword cuts just fine, Captain. But thank you for your concern."

The remaining four Aberrations stopped destroying the field. They sensed the sudden death of their mate. The dark mist leaking from their bodies flared suddenly. They turned their heads toward the four young boys standing in the square.

"They hunt by sensing mana," Luna noted lazily, sitting sideways on his wind-horse, looking bored. "They realize we are the biggest meals here."

"Good," Terravarous rumbled, stepping forward and cracking his knuckles. "Saves us the trouble of chasing them."

Two Aberrations charged at the giant simultaneously, bounding across the ruined field like mutated wolves.

Terravarous didn’t summon his full Diamond Skin. He just stood still, watching the beasts close the distance.

The first monster leaped, snapping its shining purple jaws at Terravarous’ face.

The giant raised his left forearm. In a fraction of a second, a three-inch patch of his skin turned into glittering, unbreakable diamond.

CLANG!!

The beast’s jagged teeth bit down hard on the tiny diamond patch. The monster’s jaw shattered from the sheer physical impact against the unbreakable stone. The beast whined in pain, its momentum halted.

Terravarous didn’t hesitate. He pulled his right fist back. He relied entirely on the brutal physical strength he had built in the basement. He unleashed his bare fist straight into the side of the monster’s skull.

The raw force of the punch caved the beast’s head in. The monster turned to ash before it even hit the ground.

The second Aberration tried to flank him, swiping a massive claw at his exposed ribs. Terravarous just shifted his focus. The diamond patch on his arm vanished, reappearing as a small shield on his ribs just as the claw struck. The claw deflected harmlessly. Terravarous grabbed the beast by its neck, lifted it from the ground with muscle, and slammed it down onto the hard cobblestones so hard its spine snapped.

Another pile of gray ash blew away in the wind. The border guards watched in silence, their mouths hanging wide open. They had just watched a teenage boy suplex a monster that had broken their steel spears.

"Three down," Ignis grinned, leaning on his sword. "You are falling behind, Kairos."

"I was letting you guys warm up," Kairos replied evenly. He slowly drew Asteria from its scabbard. The holy silver blade caught the afternoon sunlight.

The fourth Aberration suddenly shrieked. It realized it was outmatched. With the feral instinct, the beast tilted around and leaped toward a group of terrified villagers huddled near the chapel doors, hoping to grab a hostage or an easy meal.

"Oh, no you don’t," Luna sighed.

The Night Emperor didn’t even get off his horse. He just raised his pale right hand and pointed a single finger at the leaping beast.

Luna had spent the last three months meditating, carefully mapping the edges of his Cosmic Lock. He had learnt terrifying control over his own mind. He didn’t cast a gravity field that crushed the whole village.

"Sit down," Luna whispered.

A microscopic dense point of gravity appeared above the monster’s back.

BAM!!

The Aberration was slammed out of the air. It crashed into the dirt just ten feet away from the screaming villagers. The beast struggled wildly, its bulging muscles spasming, but it couldn’t move an inch. The gravity was so heavy it was crushing the monster’s organs into paste. A second later, the beast stopped moving and disintegrated into ash.

Luna lowered his hand and yawned. "I really hate outdoor missions. The dust gets in my eyes."

Only one monster was left. It was the largest of them. The alpha. Thick, toxic black mist oozing from its jaws, killing the grass beneath its paws. It locked its face entirely on Kairos. It recognized the holy light shining from Asteria. It knew Kairos was the greatest threat.

The alpha roared, a sound that rattled the wooden windows of the nearby houses. It lunged forward.

Inside Kairos’s mind, the blue interface came to life.

[WARNING. FATAL THREAT APPROACHING. ENEMY MASS EXCEEDS BASE DURABILITY. SUGGESTION: ACTIVATE DOMINION. STOPPING TIME IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.]

Kairos didn’t even blink. He looked at the flashing golden letters of his title. He remembered the agonizing pain in his chest. He remembered his promise to Seyana on the balcony.

Mute alert, Kairos commanded internally. I don’t need it.

The blue screen vanished. Kairos was alone in his own mind. Just a boy and his sword.

The monster closed the distance in a heartbeat. It swung a mutated arm, aiming to crush Kairos into the ground. The strike was fast. Three months ago, Kairos wouldn’t have been able to track the movement with his natural eyes. He would have panicked and stopped the clock.

Today, the monster looked slow. Kairos’s Agility was sitting at 95. His nervous system had adapted to the grueling repetition of the iron sword.

Kairos stomped his boots firmly into the ground, gripping Asteria with both hands and swung the silver blade upward to meet the falling claw.

CLASH!

The impact was massive. The sheer weight of the alpha monster was enough to shatter a stone wall.

But Kairos didn’t buckle. His Strength stat of 88 absorbed the blow perfectly. He held his ground against a beast that weighed three times as much as he did.

The monster gurgled in confusion, trying to push down harder on the sword.

"You are strong," Kairos said quietly, looking up at the snarling beast. "But you are predictable."

Kairos twisted his wrists smoothly. He redirected the monster’s claw to the side, breaking the beast’s balance. The Aberration stumbled forward, exposing its heaving chest.

Kairos moved like a shadow. He stepped smoothly inside the monster’s guard, reversed his grip on Asteria, and struck the holy silver blade straight up into the center of the beast’s corrupted heart.

The purifying light of the sword flared brilliantly. The monster let out one final, shrieking cry before its body went rigid. It shattered into a massive cloud of gray ash, raining down over Kairos’ dark jacket.

Kairos pulled the sword back and gave it a quick flick to clear the dust. He slid Asteria smoothly back into its leather scabbard.

He took a slow, deep breath. His heart was beating normally. He had won the fight using nothing but his own two hands and his own hard earned strength.

The village went dead silent. The terrified farmers slowly peeked out from behind the chapel doors. The border guards stood still, their broken spears resting in the ground. They stared at the four teenage boys standing amidst the piles of gray ash. The Vanguard Generals hadn’t even broken a sweat.

The guard captain slowly pushed himself up from the dirt. He took off his iron helmet and walked over to Kairos. The older man dropped to one knee, bowing his head in undeniable respect.

"We... we owe you our lives, my Lords," the captain stammered, his voice shaking. "We could not scratch those demons. You slaughtered them like stray dogs."

"Stand up, Captain," Kairos said gently, offering his hand to pull the man back to his feet. "You held the line to protect your people. That is what matters. Get your wounded to the village healers. The threat is gone."

Ignis walked over, kicking at a pile of ash with his boot. "That was almost too easy. I didn’t even get to use my new sword forms."

"They were just mindless grunts, Ignis," Luna pointed out, gently steering his wind-horse toward them. "Mana Aberrations are the lowest tier of the Void army. They have no brains. They just run and bite. The Black Mist Knights are far more dangerous because they can think."

"Luna is right," Terravarous agreed, folding his thick arms. "This was just a minor tear in reality. We cannot get arrogant."

Kairos looked past the village, staring out at the distant horizon.

His friends were right. This fight was a victory, but it was very small. It proved that their three months of brutal training in the dark basement had worked. They were no longer the fragile academy students who had almost died on the balcony. They had evolved. They were true Vanguard Generals now.

But Kairos knew the truth. The Fallen wasn’t going to just send mindless dogs forever. The ancient enemy was testing them. The enemy was probing the magical leylines, looking for weakness.

"We did good today," Kairos said, turning back to his friends. "But we are not finished. We need to ride back to the capital. We rest for the night, and tomorrow, we pick the iron swords back up."

Ignis groaned dramatically, throwing his head back. "You are a terrible leader, Kairos. Can we at least stop at a tavern and buy some real food? I am so tired of Seyana’s healthy apples."

"I will buy the food," Terravarous offered, a faint smile touching his face. "You earned it today, cousin."

They mounted their wind-horses. The villagers cheered loudly, waving their hands as the four young heroes turned their steeds back toward the main road.

Kairos smiled, feeling the warm sunlight on his face. The Great War was still looming in the dark, and the true nightmare was yet to come. But as he rode alongside his friends, Kairos knew they were ready. Let the shadows come.