Chapter 225: Soul Bound
The Elite High Priestess clearly believed she had crippled Coop. She looked down on him, as if to say ‘Checkmate,” after dispelling his ethereal weapons and armor. Coop couldn't fault her for the confident attitude. It had been the experience of all those undergoing the assimilation that those who rose to power did so with heavy reliance on the abilities granted by mana, and she had already dissected his skills one after the other.
From her perspective, Coop weaved mists into all of his abilities, manifesting ghosts, equipment, and environmental effects with the ethereal energy. There was no reason for her to expect the Champion of Ghost Reef to be such a barbarian that he would simply punch through her own convoluted Mind-based pinnacle spells without the aid of mana.
Her class was one that stripped power from her opponents, casting their mana out to the Void that she could call upon while retaining her own power. If the Endless Empire had managed to sponsor her, Coop was absolutely certain she would have been designated another Legendary class by the faction.
She had one of the rare affinity combinations that the City titles had clued Coop in on, combining opposite cosmic forces to create a greater whole. Ghost Reef had earned the Haven of Twilight title for having residents pursuing such complementary paths, and she embodied that dichotomy in a single package.
Coop wasn’t sure if the leader of the Cult of Chakyum had carefully selected his inner circle to be particularly capable, or if they had self-selected by fighting amongst themselves, but the end result was the same. They were strong enough to execute the Cult’s aspirations of regional domination. Much like the Sapphire Armada, the Cult of Chakyum excelled in their selected strategy. He sincerely believed that both groups had the capacity to leverage their superiority into global domination given enough time and resources. Unfortunately for both groups, they had locked themselves onto a collision course with Ghost Reef and its Champion.
Chakyum had struck gold with the Herald of Cosmos. Anyone who dared face the Cult with any reliance on mana-focused skills would be rendered powerless when they met the Elite High Priestess. The opposing forces of light and dark granted by her affinities allowed her to nullify formations of mana. Chakyum was free to pursue his own purpose until the time was right, so long as he had her anchoring his organization.
Coop couldn’t help but shake his head at how unlucky they were to face him specifically. His original strategy was to create a build that eschewed the power spikes granted by mana in favor of raising his baseline strength as high as possible. While he had hoped to exceed others’ peak power levels with his raw stats alone, he did end up relying on his own skills to elevate himself beyond what others could reach on occasion, but that was mostly in the case of uniquely outstanding individuals. Really, he had stayed true to his original vision, turning the Revenant into an overwhelming machine of stats.
Each of the High Priests had been able to temporarily hold him off by matching him in one stat or another, but their efficacy could be attributed to the ridiculous level gaps they were able to create. On even levels, Coop was confident in his own standing. The path he chose was valid.
If it wasn’t for Chakyum’s peculiar interest in Coop, the Cult would have been free to quietly expand their influence at their leisure, riding high on the growing strength of its Priests. Unfortunately for them, the region had grown turbulent with Coop’s arrival, and they were coaxed into accelerating their plans. Their current advantage was revealed to be tenuous when the first High Priests were killed by the outsider. But even after consolidating their power, the Cult of Chakyum was still well-positioned to accomplish their Master’s ultimate mission in the long run. Coop’s challenge should have been a minor hindrance at most, that is, if they could contain the Revenant.
While Coop fought amongst the council of Chakyum’s High Priests, the Herald carefully analyzed his abilities. From her perspective, there was nothing particularly unusual about his level of power. Many had skills that temporarily endowed the user with elevated capacities. She merely had to look at the interloper’s allies to see several other examples of humans fighting far above their weight class. They shouldn’t have the endurance to overcome the oppression of raw levels.
In the end, she concluded that Coop’s impossible Strength was granted by the weapons he wielded, his evasiveness by his mists, and his lethality by the ghosts he called upon. It was the same way with those he fought alongside; even the High Priests heavily leaned on their skills to rise to the occasion and meet the surges of power that intensified throughout combat. By itself, the gap in levels wasn’t enough for them to completely rise above the risks presented by the most diligent warriors.
The Totemic, Sip-Hau, had been fully empowered with his personal nature magic and was still overwhelmed by the Revenant that dared to challenge Chakyum’s Priests. The only explanation that made any sense to her was that the manifestations Coop wielded were equally special. She had already negated his ghosts and dispersed his mists until they couldn’t continue being a factor, and yet, he smashed through the bloodlusted High Priest, even with enhancements.