Chapter 358: Way Of Will
"Captain, W-what’s happening?" skinny Greg trembled in his oversized brown tunic flapping against the raging gales as he struggled to hold a stable footing as he asked, glancing towards Zoan.
Everyone glanced the captain’s way as they all gasped for support to keep themselves from being overwhelmed by the current wrought by the brewing storm.
Zoan stared at the sky wearing a cautious frown, as the atmosphere suddenly grew cold, the air tint warping from crimson to grey.
The abyssal force raged dense and terrifying, coiling round the frames of those of pure essence digging into their pores as the overwhelming element standing on par with divine essence would actively try to corrupt all of those within its reach.
Yes, corruption, a blight of the likes even the awakened-rank wouldn’t remain immune to, digging into their pathways, sinking to their core and tainting the soul.
And at that point it would be too late to do anything to fight it, even genetic lineages wouldn’t help you unless you had divine energy to resist the corruption effect of the abyssal essence.
The time of all evolvers within the abyssal zone was ticking in the favour of the corrupted, not only will the corruption continuously sink its claws deeper into their soul, it will also constantly cause massive dips in stats and a debuff effect.
Just like that the zone had become several times more dangerous, plus there was that terrifying aura towering from the core and shrouding the entire zone.
They could feel the visceral disparity in strength, if they tried to progress any further they might just all lose their lives. The gaze everyone directed towards their captain intensified and went grim.
Zoan remained in silent deliberation, to others retreating might be a no-brainer but to Captain Zoan it wasn’t as easy, though it was true she was afraid of going home, there was also the fact that she felt drawn to something here... or someone.
Since a day ago this pestering tug had begun, and it was through this she was able to, fortunately and unintentionally, lead them to the island.
And since she stepped a foot on this soil she only grew worse, and there was this urge, this pull that seemed to influence her cognition, and at this point it was clear there was no going back for her.
Even if it was dangerous, the pull exerted a greater influence than fear to her mind at the moment.
And so without glancing back, mostly because she felt too guilty to look them in the eye, she announced, her tone mostly cold, "I understand if you can’t follow me as I advance, so I bid you all farewell."
She finished saying this and quickly started moving slowly pushing against the raging flow of wind as she marched.
Behind her grunts and footsteps rang, a flash of guilt flickered in Zoan’s eyes, the crew still chose to follow her in the end, this was selfish of her and she knew it.
But still her eyes rose, settling over the brilliant glow of gold in the distance illuminating the grey-shaded zone, for some reason her heart shook, causing her lips to curl downwards into an unpleasant frown.
Meanwhile, several kilometers forward...
The source of the brilliant cloak of gold was constantly wrestling with the waking flow of Abyssal energy.
Both higher forms of their respective side’s force essence, one could even say they were two sides of the same coin, seeing as they were direct counterparts, one purified, the other corrupted.
At the core of the divine cloak floated Seth, letting out strained grunts and hissing from pain, Seth battled against the suction force of the divine weapon.
If this continued the enemies wouldn’t even have to do anything before he died, instead he would be drained dead by his own weapon, how tragic.
What made things worse was that the divine item sank its claws around Seth’s gene skill: Absolute Weapon Resonance.
Pulling on the buffing effects without restraint, and this was happening without Seth’s consent, the damned weapon was moving as though it had a mind of its own.
Seth writhed mid-air in agony as his own essence flooded his pathways, his reserves dwindling to empty and the unit count dropped so fast it was genuinely terrifying.
The divine energy reacted with the abyssal force, the two gaging against one another, meanwhile while Seth struggled with all his might to resist the suction flow, he felt a presence in the weapon buzz alive... a spirit.
"Fuck, how come I never considered it? This is a realm of infinite possibility, how could I consider that a freaking divine weapon might have a spirit?" Seth muttered in a silent and regretful realization.
As the weapon spirit blazed to life even brighter, it turned out that yes, the Solaris Arc divine bow had a mind of its own, an ancient weapon spirit and it was awake.
And as for why it was doing this, Seth couldn’t fathom a reason, it wasn’t until the spirit surged and flowed through his involuntary grip over the weapon, launching a lethal bombardment against the outer wall of his mind.
Seth was immediately hit with a sudden surge of nausea and pulsing pain, his vision going blurry, a warm stream trailing down his nose.
Seth’s heart sank. A mental attack, a force he was meant to be immune to at least when it came to beings of around his level, but since the weapon acted through a physical measure directly channeling the spirit strike via internal injection.
The system didn’t flag the attack and the title Charmed But Unfazed suddenly became useless, Seth surged despite him understanding that it couldn’t pose much help.
The effect of will against such attacks was merely defensive, allowing the host to tank the mental strikes and keep sane and clear of mind.
And to achieve this state stably under a constant bombardment, would need a sustained and massive flow of will, an amount Seth even in his maxed-out stat state wouldn’t be able to provide unless...
His eyes flickered as his will roiled into action, its space affinity allowing it to interact with space on an intimate level to a certain degree.
Capitalizing on this advantage and trying to focus this amid the torturous drain in energy, his will sinking into his soul layer and beginning to interact with his inventory space...