Tyrants of Earth - The Legend of Artigan

‘I don’t know what visualization technique you plan on using, but my advice? Make sure you choose one that fits your Epic.’

It was what Gamielle had told him before he went back to Earth and got ambushed by Pinkie. Ryan had tried hundreds of visualization techniques over ten days. He had narrowed it down to a couple notable ones.

None of them really felt like they would fit. All of them could work but Ryan had a feeling his Epic would reject it in the end. No… that was a lie, he just didn’t want to follow a path that someone else had neatly paved for him.

Ryan was greedy. If he was going to sacrifice the ability to use Qi and mana in his right arm then he wanted something greater than anything that had come before him.

The Epic awaited eagerly. It was no complex work of wonder or a beautiful last stand. The core was a ravenous beast that demanded to be fed. It devoured the emotions of others, growing at every push forward. Every impossible step forward, every unlikely tale adding onto the burgeoning mass.

In its center lay the passive. A core so hot that it made everyone that looked at him flinch.

Ryan started with the marrow. He had one understanding that helped bind the visualization technique with his Epic. It was an undying burning belief that pushing himself forwards would be worth it. That, unlike the cold reality of Earth, the Trial System would reward him if he kept moving forwards.

That unrelenting belief was his fuel, it helped him push forwards into impossible tasks. It burned in his marrow as he bound it.

The arm flared as it radiated heat. Just from this alone, the arm could wave down heat and burn all his opponents to ash.

But Ryan wasn’t close to being finished. He focused on the arm and took the next step.

Heat could make someone flinch but it could also give life. Marrow surrounded by bones. Bones that were alive.

He picked coral for this step. For no other reason than coral looked like bone and was alive. Life, that was what mattered.

The binding for the coral was adventurers. Yes, really. Ryan wanted to show the world that adventurers mattered. A simple pure belief in something that he knew was right. It was how he’d stayed on the right path. Adventurers weren’t just necessary but beneficial. They weren’t heroes, they weren’t villains. They were in the end, just regular people given a chance to make something of themselves.

Imperfect, and sometimes brittle, but damnit they were alive and glorious.

His visualization of coral wasn’t enough to contain the fuel that was his Epic. But that was the point. One day it would grow into something glorious, greater than the vibrant coral reefs he’d only seen in pictures.

The remainder of the fuel seeped through the porous bones of coral and Ryan took the next step.

Right into infinity.

The excess energy that flowed, went into the path of a figure eight. Vast and momentous, it would never stop. It moved and moved and kept picking up momentum. The buildup of unstoppable force unnerved even him. There was too much in motion here. It would keep building and building until his entire arm exploded from the force.

There needed to be a release valve. So he took the next step.

The release of infinity would be at the wrist.

He broke one end of the figure eight and the force rushed out in an uncontrolled mess. It seemed like a major mistake. The entire structure buckled and the crack at the end of infinity threatened to spread.

Ryan started shaping the uncontrolled spill into a usable form. In the end he chose to visualize the spill into roots. The power drew back into extensions of infinity. Roots that had five splits in the end. His hand felt both alien and overwhelming at once. Like he could reach out and crush anything in his grip.

At the edges of his fingertips he could push the excess aura into smaller tendrils of roots.

Everything flowed in harmony.

He clenched his hand.