Chapter 191: Inevitable Conclusion
Coop’s feet were rooted in place in the instant that Inheritance of the Mists took effect. The skill’s buffs and debuffs were applied, and his mind raced through his updated status. Time seemingly froze in comparison. The Icon of Mana paused its rotation, anticipating an action from Coop with his sudden change in posture, but it would be left confused for the moment.
While the pair of combatants were dancing to the death, the piles of sand had continued to grow. They were scattered throughout the open cavern after the bottom of the valley collapsed and revealed their new underground arena. The sandstorm of stillness that engulfed the valley had fallen apart, letting gravity drag the particles back down to earth, but the Icon was prepared to fight on. It had adapted to more aggressively leverage its superior mobility in order to maintain its advantage. Its strategy hadn’t really changed with the change in arena, just the speed with which the Icon executed its plan had increased.
On the other hand, Coop was rolling the dice, committing to the fight after his failed retreat, but hoping for an adjustment that could help him turn the tide. The apparition that he summoned would make or break him. The spirit, if he wanted to call it that, was based on his original armor summoning skill, Salvation, but he believed the skill actually took his combination of arms into account before determining what would appear. He doubted that it was a coincidence for the first apparition to have wielded a spear when Coop was using his standard spear and shield set.
Coop squeezed the handle of his ethereal shortsword as Inheritance of the Mists possessed him, feeling the flex all the way up his forearm, into his triceps. His grip tightened as he tried to mentally fortify himself in order to withstand the apparition that would answer the call of his ability. He hadn’t had much opportunity to learn from the first encounter after using the skill, but it had been enough to encourage him to apply caution. If he wasn’t in a position where it was necessary to push himself beyond his limits to achieve a good result, he wouldn’t have accessed power that he wasn’t sure he could control.
Coop’s expertise was limited with this particular skill, given that his sample size was one, so any determination he made was more like conjecture than conclusion. The first apparition he summoned was the Lightning Lord. The ghost that haunted Coop on that occasion had an unbelievably arrogant personality, fully embracing the god-like designation that the system had bestowed upon it. Rather than allowing Coop to borrow its power, the apparition had possessed Coop like an empty vessel with the intention of establishing dominance. It declared that Coop was inadequate and had demonstrated its case by burning through his mana and his health while annihilating the monsters within the entire Mangrove Forest in a matter of seconds. It took Coop to the brink of death while laughing and threatening him all the while.
The Lightning Lord hadn’t bothered to provide any sort of guidance, mentorship, or instruction. If the Lord had given some goals to work towards, Coop would have been happy to diligently pursue them while he grinded out everything else that needed doing. That’s just who he was. Instead, Coop was left with the vague idea that he had to progress before Inheritance of the Mists would be something that he could truly rely on.
And yet, here he was, falling all the way to his final backup plan. In retrospect, calling Inheritance of the Mists the ace he kept up his sleeve was a mistake. It wasn’t an ace, it was a wild card. It was up his sleeve because he didn’t want it in his hand until he was properly prepared.
While Coop consciously worried about the impact the skill would have, whether or not it would provide him with deliverance or destruction, he subconsciously adjusted the grip he had on his sword, loosening it, moving his thumb a centimeter down. He released the fingertip of his pointer finger ever so slightly off the leathery handle, retreating his knuckle from the edge of the hilt as he suddenly understood a more appropriate way to handle the weapon. He adjusted the point of the sword down eight degrees, slightly off-center from the monster’s wing base to be closer to the ideal ready position, and he felt his left heel lift a millimeter off the sand glazed stone. The tension in his upper abs loosened a tiny bit and his breathing marginally slowed, providing him with deeper breaths as he filled his lungs. His head leaned forward a nominal amount, and his eyes partially lost focus on the monster’s feet, instead taking in its entire form without any particular concentration beneath his brows. His pupils dilated, subtly backlit with ghostly energy as the possession fully took place before he was completely aware it was happening.
Fifty stacks of the Haunted debuff reduced his maximum mana by 50% as they reserved half of his total, but he had already consumed nearly half of his mana anyway. Losing access to his complete mana pool wouldn’t have any immediate negative consequences. If the fight continued beyond the duration of Inheritance, he might have to deal with the reduction, but that was for a future version of himself that survived the encounter with the Icon of Mana to figure out. The Delusion debuff indicated that he wouldn’t be able to contact another apparition until its expiration, which was undeclared by the effect. He sardonically hoped that just one would be enough. Of course, zero would have been better.
The buffs he received were distinct from what he would expect given that they were meant to be beneficial. Instead, they aligned more closely with debuffs if he judged them by name or effect. Overburdened indicated that he was wielding power beyond his ability and would only benefit from a fraction of the potency. Spirit Burn warned him that he lacked the resources necessary to fund the skills he had been granted and would receive a severe penalty cost for casting them. Mental Transcendence alerted him to the fact that he was possessed by something considered beyond his capacity and risked losing his autonomy for the duration.