Monarch of Profound Toxin

"Mr. Magnaseeeeeeeen!" Guild Master Ganyak hir Gawak howled as the pillar shot upward at cheek-quivering speed. "Pl-Please! Stop!"

It nearly immediately did and the momentum carried them both a couple of meters into the air, Eik landing comfortably on his feet while the Alchemical Advisor to the Supreme Divinity of Toxin plopped onto his ass with a grunt.

Eik gazed out over the mass of people below. He had been especially careful with the thickness of the pillar, so as to not cause any structural damage to the buildings belonging to the guild nor any harm to the VIP guests on the front rows.

However annoying he may have thought the sniffling upper crust of society might be, he had no desire to actually hurt them. Not to mention that his relationship with Andihar, Gul, the guild master, and of course his lovely, sweet Ihasu, had taught him that not all of them were self-absorbed cloud-snorters.

"Please stop…" the guild master gasped.

"It's stopped," Eik grinned.

Now that he didn't have to look the audience members in the eyes, it was a lot easier to deal with the whole thing.

"Are you trying to kill me, young man?" the old man scolded.

"Oh, please, Mr. Guild Master. We both know you're just fine. I made sure of that myself, did I not?"

"Huh… You're right," he said as he climbed to his feet, amazed. "Every day since you've granted me this new strength, I have discovered limits which would have previously hindered my daily life evaporated one after the other."

"I'm glad to hear it."

The guild master crawled to the edge of the pillar and looked down. "We're pretty high up. What about the guests below?"

"They're just fine. My own family is down there as well, after all."

Carefully, Ganyak hir Gawak turned his head to look back at Eik again, speaking as he did. "What do you intend to do with thi…" he trailed off as he made eye contract with a glimmering blue crown rising up from Eik's head. However, more alarming than that was the gigantic incarnation of Profound Toxin tower above them.

Its movements mirrored Eik's own as they stared down upon the throng on the streets. The X-ranked Worldbreaker raised his arms high, calling for the people. And answer they did. Cheers rose up across the entire city.

From the pillar that measured more than a hundred meters in height, the avatar of blue which, in and of itself was a titan, could be seen by nearly all in the city. Following Eik's movement perfectly, the colossus held out a hand as a small but intensely bright droplet of luminescent azure toxin manifested above its palm.

Pinching it between two fingers, Eik directed the giant to send it into the cloudless sky with a grand, underhanded lob throw. People watched with their jaws hanging limply on the joint as the droplet exploded and spread itself across the sky. Such vast distances did it reach, that even the furthest horizon turned blue.

Many would recall seeing this particular inverted, cerulean ocean back when Eik Magnasen had fought Gilim Ougi, but back then it had not even covered an entire city district in measure. This was… incomparable.

They had seen what it had been capable of back then. Enormous crystalline blades had caused spectators to flee the stands in panic. A size like what they were seeing now left very little to the imagination if the power output had scaled accordingly.

Whether he was their X-ranker or not, it was an utterly terrifying thing to realize. Just the mere fact that might of such enormity was even possible was nearly unfathomable.

"Now…" Eik's etheral voice boomed into every head in attendance. "The Alchemist Guild of Gimleh has requested that I do a… performance for you. They told me an hour ago, so I'm a little grumpy about that still, not gonna lie," he said, hoping for a laugh. But the nervous chuckles were scattered and few.

Fuckin' hell. Had that come out that dark? Did reaching X-rank just spell the end of his career as an A-list comedian?

That would have killed when he was an S-ranker, for sure.

"Before any of that, however," he continued pivoting slightly. "I suppose I should address the reason why we're all here today. It is this, is it not?" From his belt pouch of holding he retrieved pill after pill of his Legendary Mystery Medicine and poured them into the now semi-solid gathered hands of the Monarch's avatar.

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"For those of you who are unaware, these are the Legendary Mystery Medicine—my revolutionary concoction that grants a permanent boost to your power. This has served me well. And now it has brought me here. To this place. To this day. This day where I, Eik Magnasen, can call myself… the Elixir King!"

And with that, the avatar brought its hands high above its head in a move that resembled a child throwing water onto their own head, and let the tiny, chromatic pearls scatter and rain down upon Gimleh like hail.

If he had assumed that the crowd had already reached peak excitement, this moment proved him dead wrong. It was chaos. People were running and stumbling over each other to get their hands on at least one pill. Nobody—not even Eik himself—knew which of the little orbs were what rank. That could drastically alter the resale value.

"And don't get any ideas about taking those from each other now. I'm an X-ranker and a Worldbreaker. If I see any of you attacking your neighbor for a pill they caught, then… And I will see, I promise. Oh, and only one per person, so all of you quick boys and girl had better hold yourselves back, y'hear?"

Eik looked down at Guild Master Ganyak hir Gawak, who was still on his stomach and looking down at the city, with satisfaction.

"Oh, no…" came the groan from the guild master.

"Sorry?" Eik asked, the voice amplification dropped for the moment.

"This is going to absolutely punch the economy," the old man whispered.

Eik looked down at the mayhem once more, and then back to the guild master. "Oh, uuh…" he drawled sheepishly.

Nuts! This is why you give a notoriously reckless man with way too much power for his own good more than a god damned hour to prepare his huge mega stunts.

Then something clicked in his mind. "No, wait! Purchasing power! Yes, that's right! Increased purchasing power will enhance the economic circulation. Right?"

Ganyak hir Gawak just looked up at the new Elixir King dejectedly without bothering to answer. If Eik had any sort of ability to read people's eyes—and he would like to think that he did—then the old fart was contemplating his hasty decision to subordinate himself to this pill-slinging son of a gun.

Choosing very deliberately to move on without thinking any more about that, Eik turned his gaze back to the crowd below and waited for things to calm down. Once every pill had been snatched up, the disorder actually died down rather quickly as people had listened to Eik's command to leave each other be.

There were a few exceptions, of course, who thought they could outsmart him or do it sufficiently secretly so that he wouldn't notice, but they were quickly dealt with as Profound Living beasts swiftly arrived at every scene.

And just as that seemed to be the end of it, Living Manifestation began to pour out of the continental Apocalypse Canvas. First ten scattered individuals—all winged and soaring through the sky above Gimleh. Then a hundred. And a thousand. Ten thousand. A hundred thousands. When it quickly passed a million total beasts, the folks below were growing more and more nervous.

The airspace was practically blue at this point but before people could stars running for their lives, Eik's voice rumbled into their brains.

"We're facing a crisis of cosmic severity. An ancient Worldbreaker has awoken from an aeonic slumber. I am certain you are all aware of this." All hovering in the air above him, the Living Manifestations made for an impressive backdrop to Eik's speech. He spread his arms.

"And it may feel like a daunting opponent to face, but we are not helpless!" he shouted, the sound practically shaking the earth beneath their feet. And at the moment the last syllable left his lips, the more than a million summons roared in choir, crushing the city in deafening cacophony.

"We are not powerless!" he continued and released millions of crystalline shards from the Apocalypse Canvas to hover above the flying Profound Toxin beasts as the inverted ocean of blue seemed to approach the earth at speed.

All spectators stood transfixed by the extreme display of might.

"We are more than capable of standing up to this adversary!" Eik's voice resounded, still hanging inside the chest of the titanic toxic Monarch as he raised his hand high above his head and charged up his aura for a region-wide release. All eyes were on him. "We… will… break them!" he hissed.

As the words flowed, an invisible force settled over the land and bringing a spiritual pressure of such magnitude that it suddenly became difficult to breathe. There was no doubt about the origin of weight of energy.

And the fact that even unawakened children were still standing on their feet was a testament to Eik Magnasen's absolutely impeccable aura control. Even less than one percent of his overpowered, X-ranked, Worldbreaker aural pressure could have taken the life of a child like that, and yet, here he was affecting all people in the entirety of both Gimleh city proper and the Alliance headquarters situated above the city.

And the sensation of the crushing force of the aura had another property that other auras didn't have.

When one's personal Ak'ki encountered a stranger's aura, it would naturally feel like a threat. It would be uncomfortable. It would be frightening and nerve-racking. It would feel like an attack. Except… that's not what this felt like. Not at all.

This was something different. Yet another thing that shouldn't have been possible.

Yes, it was difficult to take a breath, and yes, it felt like a power that could grind anything to dust at any moment, but it was much more similar to the feeling of being swept up in the strong arms of a loving father and squeezed in a bear hug. It was nothing like an attack.

It was protective and warm. And it touched every single person in the city.

It was a clear promise.

Eik had determination. He had power beyond belief. And he would stand between them and the Lord of the Moon until his last breath.