188. The Second Concept (IV)

𝕎𝕖 𝕒𝕣𝕖 𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕠 𝕠𝕗𝕗𝕖𝕣 𝕪𝕠𝕦:

- 𝟙 ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕖𝕥𝕖 𝕋𝕚𝕖𝕣 𝟜 𝔼𝕝𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕣𝕚𝕔𝕚𝕥𝕪 𝕀𝕟𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖.

- 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕊-𝕘𝕣𝕒𝕕𝕖 𝕊𝕜𝕪-𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕜𝕖𝕕 𝕋𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕎𝕙𝕚𝕥𝕖 𝕃𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕃𝕠𝕥𝕦𝕤 ℙ𝕖𝕥𝕒𝕝, 𝕒 𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕖𝕩𝕔𝕝𝕦𝕤𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕥𝕠 𝕄𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕥 𝕋𝕙𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕥. 𝕀𝕥 𝕓𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕞𝕤 𝕠𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪 𝟙𝟘𝟘,𝟘𝟘𝟘 𝕪𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕤, 𝕔𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕗𝕦𝕝𝕝𝕪 𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕕 𝕓𝕪 𝕘𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤 𝕠𝕗 𝕋𝕙𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕥 𝕘𝕒𝕣𝕕𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕣𝕤—𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕦𝕞𝕡𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟.

𝕀𝕥 𝕤𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕘𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕒 𝕘𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕥 𝕠𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕃𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕤—𝕖𝕟𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙 𝕥𝕠 𝕨𝕚𝕡𝕖 𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕕𝕖𝕗𝕚𝕔𝕚𝕥 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕞𝕒𝕪 𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕦𝕣 𝕓𝕪 𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕘𝕠𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕙.

𝕎𝕖 𝕠𝕗𝕗𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕒𝕤 𝕒 𝕘𝕚𝕗𝕥. ℕ𝕠 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥 𝕣𝕖𝕢𝕦𝕚𝕣𝕖𝕕. 𝕎𝕖 𝕠𝕟𝕝𝕪 𝕨𝕚𝕤𝕙 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕜𝕖𝕖𝕡 𝕄𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕥 𝕋𝕙𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕥 𝕚𝕟 𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕨𝕙𝕖𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕓𝕚𝕕𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕘𝕖 𝕠𝕔𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕤 𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕥-𝕀𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕘𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟.

And floating there in space—close enough to touch—a flower unfurled. A flower that seemed made out of pure electricity; it was strange it managed to hold a form at all. It was like no electricity Zane had ever felt. It didn't crackle. It flowed like water. Each petal was a collection of perfect white arcs, as though drawn through a stencil.

And that aura… there was so much essence in it it overwhelmed his senses. He felt like a blind man seeing light for the first time. He just stared at it, blinking, not really sure what he was seeing.

𝕎𝕖 𝕨𝕚𝕤𝕙 𝕪𝕠𝕦—

the screen fizzled.

Zane blinked.

𝕋𝔸𝕄ℙ𝔼ℝ𝕀ℕ𝔾 𝔻𝔼𝕋𝔼ℂ𝕋𝔼𝔻

𝕍𝕚𝕠𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕠𝕗 𝕌𝕟𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕒𝕝 𝔽𝕚𝕣𝕤𝕥 𝔻𝕖𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕖: ℕ𝕠 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕔𝕥 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕖𝕥𝕤 𝕕𝕦𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕀𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕘𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕡𝕙𝕒𝕤𝕖 𝕚𝕤 𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕕!

ℕ𝕠 𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕧𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕖𝕥𝕤 𝕡𝕣𝕚𝕠𝕣 𝕥𝕠 𝕊𝕦𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕕𝕦𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕠𝕟 𝕚𝕤 𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕕!

𝕍𝕚𝕠𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤 𝕠𝕗 𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕒𝕝 𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕚𝕤 𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕚𝕔𝕥𝕝𝕪 𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕙𝕚𝕓𝕚𝕥𝕖𝕕. 𝕎𝕙𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕒 𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕖𝕥 𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕧𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕤 𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝔽𝕒𝕥𝕖, 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔽𝕒𝕥𝕖 𝕒𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕖.

𝔾𝕒𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕔 ℍ𝕖𝕘𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕟 𝕄𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕥 𝕋𝕙𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕥 𝕚𝕤 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕓𝕪 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕘𝕖𝕕 𝕒 𝕡𝕖𝕟𝕒𝕝𝕥𝕪 𝕠𝕗: 𝟙 𝔸𝕣𝕔𝕙𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕖. 𝔾𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔼𝕞𝕡𝕚𝕣𝕖, 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℂ𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕒𝕝 𝕀𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕦𝕞, 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕓𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕚𝕗𝕚𝕖𝕕 𝕠𝕗 𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕞𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕧𝕚𝕠𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟.

𝕋𝕒𝕞𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕄𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕒𝕝𝕤 𝕣𝕖𝕧𝕠𝕜𝕖𝕕.

The flower vanished.

Zane felt a sharp lurch in his gut. He blinked.

Sunlight splashed over his face. The world colored in.

He was staring up at a 60-foot-tall marble statue of a curly-haired man with a slingshot, staring up defiantly at the clouds…

Zane blinked again.

What was that all about?

Most of it flashed by too fast for him to read it all. He stood there thinking.

Someone tried to do something—give him a treasure? It didn't work though. The System, it seemed like, shut it down. That much he did get.

Weird.

He would let Reina know about it. She could figure out what it meant. Whatever it was, it seemed like it didn't work out. Now he was here.

He stood there a bit longer, staring off into space. Then noticed the town square around him was fully cleared out. The army of the Nova Roma Faction, all dressed in battle tunics, flanked each corner. Lined a long winding street heading out…

The soldiers were all trying not to stare at him. The bubbling crowd beyond were all staring at him, some shouting, some pushing past each other to try to get a look at him.

Right.

The second Concept. He was in Italy.

He shook his head.

Whatever it was, it seemed to have passed.

Back to the matter at hand.

***

News had spread that he was trying for a second Concept. Well—he doubted they knew that specifically. But they knew he was trying for something. He was spotted here yesterday, at the very least, which meant today the streets were clogged with excited locals. Some parents raised their children on the heads of the guards to get a better look at him.

Kind of weird how he hardly batted an eye at this kind of thing anymore.

Oh—there was the news crew again. The same blonde man and lady not-so-subtly trailing him, enthusiastically speculating on just what he was trying today. They seemed to think he'd be going for Core. Level 200.

It did strike Zane as kind of weird that he'd be shooting for a second Concept before he even hit Core. Then again, his soul talent always did outpace his Leveling talent.

Lots of weirdness today.

Anyway.

He was grateful the army was there. He remembered the early VGI days when he just got mobbed, and had to mean-mug and flare his aura to keep people off him. That was… it couldn't be more than two months ago?

He scratched his head. Life came at you fast.

By the time he'd gotten halfway up the mountain, he'd switched fully back to Law mode. All he was thinking about was Chain Combustion. The noises of the crowd faded away. The world muted in his mind. He was already one-foot here, one-foot in the Astral Realm.

He was ready.

Ideally, he'd get the second Concept today. He could push his limits tomorrow with the help of more soul rejuvenators. But it would cost him dearly later on. He felt fine right now, but there was this soul-drooping lingering weariness creeping at the edge of his mind, a kind of sludgy humid brain-fog for the soul—it got intense in brief spells before fading, drowned out by his elixirs. He felt like a really sleep-deprived student pulling an all-nighter, cramming for some test by downing Monster energy drinks over and over.

…Though in school, he'd never been one to do that kind of thing; he could never focus enough for that, now that he thought of it. Now he could focus on Laws for hours at a time. Imagine that.

Point was—if he could get it today, it would save him weeks of recovery. On top of the weeks of recovery he'd already have to do after this grueling session.

He hiked to the top of the mountain, right under a whirlpool of dark clouds, searing lightning—rain lashed at the grounds, splattering streams of live lava, making a hissing steaming mess of the place. Tufts of steam drifted from the peak, curling down the mountainside.

He strode right in the middle of it. Sat down. Closed his eyes. And honed in on what he came for.

***

All around him, lightning struck magma. Over, and over, and over. Nature fighting itself… birthing new, passionate feelings. Feelings he could sense so clearly in the Astral plane.

He found the point of white-hot contact. Found a feeling birthed at its core, a passion—the very heart of Stormfire.

All passions had a way of spreading—fire, lightning, joy, anger, excitement… he had to find it in Stormfire too.

He looked deeply into the Plasma. Feeling for the essence of it.

It all started at a feeling—give that feeling to anything, intensely enough. And it would start to feel it too. Start to sustain itself. Start to burn up, even without your feeding it. It just needed that spark.

It didn't matter where you started from. Air, or water, or stone.

Every little thing had latent energy. Power bound up inside—dormant feelings. Begging to be let loose. Once he really searched for it, he could find it. To make a Chain Combustion was really to use one match to light another. But you could light anything. He felt it so clearly now.

He just had to give his Stormfire permission, he realized. He had to let it free—let it run wild, strike out on its own. Chain into the world. That was the essence of the Concept.

He reached out with a hand. It was instinct. It mirrored his reaching out with his soul. A flicker of Stormfire bloomed at his fingertips… he saw it bare in his mind's eye. The way this Law would knock on the door of matter, break down the walls between material things—let loose their energies, one by one, springing new energy into new energy, sharing freely, endlessly…

He opened his eyes. Of the body, and of the mind. They flashed as one.

His Stormfire flickered harder, spasmed—and a single brilliant spark flew out. Landed right on the stone by his feet—a feeling, passionate and intense, striking deep down within it—to its very core…

And it woke the slumbering power within.

ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕡𝕥 ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕙𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕕!

𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕡𝕥 𝕠𝕗 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕚𝕟 ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕓𝕦𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

Instantly the stone exploded. Went up in a blaze of shining Stormfire.

And all that power gushed out—dashed ground, struck boulders, struck magma even, turned scalding red coals blue. Then the reaction went so fast it gave him whiplash. Like cannon blasts going off one by one, erupting all around him, spreading so fast, so far he could hardly clock them—BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

One spark and ten-odd explosions rippled out. And it just kept going, flowing down the mountain, up the mountain, striking up into clouds, turning black to lighting-blue, rocking the earth and skies to their very cores—

He was still smiling, basking in his success, when he realized this was getting dangerous fast.

He struck out with Emperor's Soul. Felt pockets of furious feeling sparking up all around him—and forced them down with a clenched fist.

One by one they smoked out.

Which left him standing there coughing, surveying the damage.

Hmm.

He appeared to have decapitated the mountain.

Where there was a peak, there now lay one big smoking crater. It reminded him of a volcano that had blown.

Like Mount Vesuvius, actually. Which had erupted here so many years ago, and drowned the town below in ash…

He had quite an unpleasant thought.

Just in case, he peered down the mountain.

He was pleased to find he had not accidentally recreated that disaster. There was still a crowd bunched a few dozen miles down, staring up flabbergasted. Very much alive.

So. He flexed his hands.

The nice thing about Stormfire upgrades was the moment he used it, it'd apply to every Stormfire Skill.

Now when he threw a Stormfire Punch, it would set off a chain reaction of explosions all over the enemy. If he sliced, it'd do the same thing. Just multiplying the power, the intensity of his blows. Turning one punch to ten. It didn't drain his essence much either since it drew its explosive power straight from the source. He could focus his essence on powering his body… and heaven knew he needed a lot of that.

He nodded, satisfied. That made for yet another huge breakthrough in power. Second Concept was a success.

It should serve him well soon.

***

As he made his way down the mountain the crowd was mostly quiet. There was something of a kerfuffle when he'd first blown the top off the mountain—he'd heard lots of shouting, saw lots of pointing. Now it was just stunned silence. He passed easily down the roads between lines of pale-faced warriors.

He was kind of hungry. His tummy was rumbling. He was looking forward to dinner.

Hopefully without getting trapped in some inter-dimensional waiting room this time.

***

"—Pretty sure," gasped Becca. Her hair had gone all frazzled from the shockwave. "We just witnessed yet another first-ever achievement. First to a second Concept! That shockwave, that aura… it's like nothing I've ever felt. It almost felt like we were witnessing some kind of—of nuclear blast!"

"Just when some were beginning to think that after her recent performances on Heaven's Peak, Irina Volkova could be the strongest in the world," said Tyler, shaking his head. "Goodness. I mean—what can you even say at this point? It feels like every other day Zane Walker pushes the limits of what we think man is capable of."

"And on that point—pardon me," said Becca, a little miffed. "Irina Volkova is very impressive. I mean no disrespect to her or her fans… But anyone who thought that, before or now, has been captured by hype. You can't stand here with a straight face, and tell me anything on Earth can survive a shot of that."

Tyler nodded. After exclusively covering Zane for quite a while, they had developed something of a homer bias.

***

Zane told Reina about that weird alien stuff when he got home. She listened with rapt attention, brows knitted together.

She was silent for a little, just thinking. She brushed a lock of silky-black hair out of her face, pursed her lips. Then—

"It sounds like this 'Mount Thunderclast' was trying to jump the line and bribe you ahead of time," she said slowly. "I think the Alien Factions will get a chance to make us offers after this is all over. The System enforces strong rules about this process though, clearly… It sounds like they're not allowed to make first contact right now."

Something seemed to baffle her. "How do they know who you are? It said they can't surveil us yet—can they check the World Rankings? Or…"

But she hadn't heard of any of the other top World Rankers getting this kind of offer. Just him.

Zane didn't get it either.

He put it out of his mind pretty quickly.

Back to Leveling.