Crusader King

It was truly ironic, Cades had indeed expected that he was on the verge of ascending one more, but he had more so expected that because he hadn't been absorbing magic power lately, or even absorbing much at all during the entirety of that which he now began referring to as the wooden world in his mind, on the other hand he had been growing weaker physically while also growing stronger.

Indeed, physically speaking he was slightly weaker than when he was at the peak of the lord-level, but back then he had no idea how to control that strength, he hadn't even realized, with his back then foolish mind, that his entire body was falling apart because of his own false strength, no, he had only begun realizing this as of this very moment, and as soon as he did he began realizing that which he already knew to be true was now more true than ever before.

One could say two opposite thing about Cades right now, and yet both would be true in their own way.

The first was that Cades was much weaker than before, and that would be true in a physical and even partially mental way, in relation to a healthy mind, but on the other hand one could also say that Cades was stronger than ever, and indeed, in almost every other way Cades was incomparably stronger than before, even his own, fractured and slowly failing, mind was much more capable than before.

And yet, despite his physical strength slowly fading away, growing fainter and weaker over time, it grew more powerful, his utilization, his will and every single ounce of his intent began to flood his body, empowering it far beyond what was normal, far beyond his capabilities of back when he had been an apex, he could now feel how he was growing, he could feel, and that was the power of this rank after all, the rank of the transcribe was also something one could refer to as the rank of a reader, the rank of understanding, it was the rank that made one understand others and as it seems also oneself.

Finally, as his body had finally stopped paining his mind, he began to show a sly and crooked smile, one that he would normally never show, but right now his facial muscles had ever so slightly deteriorated so he wasn't as capable of smiling, or really anything else, right now.

But at the same time he felt happy, he felt happy not because he had grown stronger once more, sure that was part of the reason, a big one, but he more so felt happy because he had learned something new.