The Second Stage Descends!
The next day at around noon, just as Elizabeth's class was about to come out of their break, it happened…
[ALERT!!! The Second Stage of the Cataclysm is upon you! Playtime is over and the kiddie wheels are off. Cataclysm Quests have been unlocked along with the Universal Countdown Timer. Strive to survive and conquer to last until the very end.
Cataclysm Quest 1: Survive The Second Stage
Spirit Grade Difficulty: D
Objective) Stay alive until the Second Stage of the Cataclysm ends; or until the deadline expires.
Description: Completing the Quest shouldn't prove to be too difficult considering your evasive capabilities. But it would be in your best interests to put in the effort to not only survive, but thrive in impending conditions.
Deadline: Varies; 240 Days Max
Universal Countdown Timer: ~500,000 Years
Description: Current projections expect for the Cataclysm to end around half a million years from now. This dimension has until then to see to it that you become the Cataclysm's Champion, else it will be erased along with all the other home dimensions of the fallen chosen.]
"And so it begins," Elizabeth muttered to herself in melancholy as the skies began to darken. Suddenly, everyone around her felt chills run down their spine as a certain someone's schadenfreudian smile had returned to grace the world. "How fortunate," Elizabeth addressed the group of panicked apprentice mages. She continued, "Looks like from now on you'll also have live practice along with sparring sessions added to your routine."
As her words died out, a massive tear in the fabric of reality appeared just ten meters above the ground. Elizabeth estimated the tear to be anywhere from one to two kilometers long and from it, an endless horde of small green-haired humanoids began spawning.
[Status
Name: Unknown
Bloodlines: Low-tier Mortal Grade Opal Vymling (5%)
Level: 1
Rank: Beginner-Phase Mortal Stage Devil]
"Now, now," Elizabeth said to her class of panicked apprentice mages. "While these little devils are numerous, they're mostly… Well, weak." She thought for a second before casting, "Fire Javelin!" With a swift bolt of red flashing across the air and coming into contact with the never-ending wall of Vymling Devils, a horrific explosion instantly massacred what had to be hundreds if not thousands of invaders. Those that weren't instantly incinerated by the potent Fire Magic were maimed, if not injured, by the subsequent shockwave of the blast. Within a radius of twenty meters, there was only a thick aura of death and a noticeable gap in the wall of invaders.
"Ho? This is actually a pretty good haul of Death energy… Mhmm," Elizabeth promptly showed off exactly why Mages were to be feared as multiple long range and area of effect attacks made short work of ALL the invaders that spawned from the large tear before her. Fire, Ice, Death, and even Yin-type Javelins were shot with merciless intent reaping the lives of tens of thousands of Vymling Devils before the tear from which they came finally closed.
[Status Alert!
Name: Elizabeth Ultimatia
Bloodline: Ancient Godslayer Fiend 0.0101%
Threshold Crossed!
Bullet Hell Codex Information Retrieval: Successful!
Skills:
*New) Bullet Hell Codex: Energy Bullet
Spirit Grade: F (Void Spell Seed: Base "Bullet" Incantation)
Energy Cost: Variable, with a minimum of 100 units of Inner Strength required to make a bullet of the lowest quality.
Description: Congratulations, with your Ancient Godslayer Fiend's bloodline purity crossing the threshold of 0.01% mark, the second skill of the Bullet Hell Codex has been unlocked. Your energy reserves and ammunition count will from now on, forever be tied together.
Current Effect: Manifests a bullet of the user's choice out of any type of energy they can freely manipulate. The more energy that goes into making a bullet, the more damage potential it will hold.]
"A pity…" Elizabeth murmured to herself. She honestly felt sad there weren't more invaders for her to try her new skill on.
"Anyways," She turned back to address her apprentices. "You're to start killing those little vermin whenever the opportunity presents itself. Many of you are already capable, but for now, let's leave the matter. Resume sparring," she ordered. The image of a tyrant had already solidified in the hearts of most of her apprentices the moment she annihilated the horde of invaders from the rift in reality. To them, only a tyrant could conduct that kind of wide-scale massacre with nary a frown on their face, but Elizabeth had to be a psychopathic tyrant to be able to do the same with a twisted smile in tow…
Almost two hours later, as she sparred with Jasper, Elizabeth had to take a moment in the middle of their fight to launch another Javelin at a smaller rift that had spawned just outside the bounds of her school. "Don't pay attention to that, keep fighting!" Elizabeth poked Jasper, who had grown distracted by her overwhelming Magic attack. How could he not flinch when she had accurately shot her explosive javelin right at the center of the second group of devils that would have descended upon them; all without bothering to look!
Since the Second Stage of the Cataclysm had started, she would periodically have to wipe out groups of invaders that spawned at arbitrary intervals from the rifts in spacetime, and she wasn't the only one who had to deal with them either. Across the whole world, similar rifts, both large and small, had begun introducing the Opal Devils to the people of Earth. As Level 1 weaklings, even regular civilians could fend for themselves; weapons would even reduce the invaders to nothing more than pests. However, their numbers and the fact that they would only grow stronger as time passed was a cause for concern.
…
"Oi, Kemper, I see you've broken through to the Pawn Stage," Elizabeth said on the morning of the third day of training her class. It was half-past eight in the morning when she found the short boy meditating by the beachfront.
"I broke through just an hour ago. I made sure my Magic Connection was Seamless like you explained…" The boy replied. He and Elizabeth were both talking in English.
"Mhmm… I would expect nothing less considering the Gauging Formation my colleague laid down for our class." The formation she was talking about was laid out by Jane and would guide the apprentice Mages in cultivating perfect foundations; it was accurate up to the Saint Stage.
"Anyway," Elizabeth started, "Since you have Magic, let's get down to business now… You can practice whatever I teach you on your own free time later, understood?" Kemper only returned a serious nod.
For the next ten or so minutes, Elizabeth explained to him the basis of incantations; providing several examples with energy types that she was both familiar and unfamiliar with. Casting beams of fire, armaments of ice, and even balls of water, she let Kemper pursue Spells creatively; he was free to let his imagination run wild. Since the boy was picked as the apprentice for Wood Magic, he had many avenues worth pursuing; healing, offensive, defensive, and even sealing techniques could be easily learned from the get-go.
"Just remember that you're only allowed to use Magic against sparring opponents on your level," Elizabeth said before turning around, at which point she was almost surprised. "Sun… What's up?" She asked, with eyes brightening from a probe of his cultivation.
"I just broke through to the Saint Stage," He stared at her with a confident smile, asking, "Do you mind if I spar with you for a little while? Even Tristan couldn't keep up with me in a purely physical spar…"
Whilst raising an eyebrow, she smirked, saying, "Follow me." She proceeded to walk from the beach's shore with Sun until they were about half a kilometer out on the ocean. Both of them walked on the water so casually, it would have scared the bystanders that had started paying them attention, if not for the constant absurd things Elizabeth had done since the training camp began.
"Are we sparring with weapons?" Elizabeth asked before the battle began.
"It's your call," Sun nonchalantly replied.
"Alright then, no weapons it is~"
With a practiced bow that she had learned from Sun himself, Elizabeth and Sun faced each other and conducted a little pre-spar ritual before they crashed into each other like magnets with opposing charges. Almost immediately, Elizabeth became aware that she was totally outclassed when it came to speed. Without her Time Blade Mystic Art bolstering her speed she was barely half as fast as Sun.
Resounding booms and shockwaves alerted those that weren't already paying attention, as every time Elizabeth and Sun clashed it sounded like a gunshot; when their speed was accounted for, it was like an all-out war with the rate of hits easily exceeding dozen by the second. With everyone gathering by the beach to watch this rare battle between titans with strength surpassing the Mortal Realm, Elizabeth's apprentice Mages took on grim looks as their teacher looked to be losing.
Even with the apprentice Mages barely being able to register such a quick-paced fight that took place so far away, it became obvious to anyone by the chasing lights that Elizabeth was constantly being pushed back. Elizabeth, almost always donning her white dress, proved to be of stark contrast to Sun, whose armor was black with neon orange highlights.
To the apprentice Mages who sat by the sidelines, figuratively eating popcorn and watching the show, Sun's black and orange silhouette, which blurred into little more than a streak of light, constantly pushed Elizabeth's white, further and further back. However, from the combatants' perspectives, it was almost the opposite.
While it was true that Sun was pushing Elizabeth further and further back, it wasn't because of the hits he was dealing; not at all. Sun's hits would barely even register when they hit Elizabeth's body after her Death Thai had reached complete master for the King Stage. In fact, with Elizabeth's current Strength and Defense parameters, she was more than capable of seriously threatening Sun, which in turn forced him to rely on hit and run tactics. He was abusing speed, so as to lower the risk-to-reward ratio that sparring seriously with Elizabeth would bring.
[Mystic Art: Death Thai
Level 94
Experience: 811,000/815,348
Grade: SS
Current Effect: Unarmed combat at the Saint Stage yields a 250% buff to Strength and Defense. (Total Applied: 300%; Total Achieved: 1050%)
Secondary Effect: Distills the essence of Death into one's body whilst utilizing Muay Thai.]
Every so often, Elizabeth would land a grazing hit on Sun's body which still packed a wallop even after being dampened by his armor. His body would go flying — skipping atop the water even — when she seriously hit him. For the next couple of hours, they kept at it; fighting over the ocean with wanton abandon. As powerhouses with near-perfected vessels suitable for cultivation they could have kept the high-intensity training going for days, maybe even weeks with the use of Resting Pills. But by sundown, because of Death Thai's property of Battle Hysteria and Elizabeth's own growth from the experience in tempering, Sun had to resign himself to the fact that he was slowly starting to win less and less of the small battles their sparring endeavor presented.
"Uh… Thanks, for today," Sun said. His action of starting to talk for the first time since they clashed in the morning caused the fight to instantly die out. He almost sounded depressed as he smiled lifelessly at Elizabeth, saying, "I should continue cultivating… My cultivation base should have stabilized by now."
Watching Sun walk away, Elizabeth said, "Hey!" When Sun turned around and she knew she had his attention, she smiled at him genuinely as she said, "We can spar any time~" It seemed that did the trick as Sun nodded with a little more life in his eyes, before leaving to continue his cultivation within the beach resort.