The shockwave from Lyra’s barrier still echoed across the frozen biome long after the tsunami finally collapsed.
Golden light slowly faded around the protective dome while shattered waves crashed back across the glacier in every direction.
Beneath the storm, the Leviathan continued roaring furiously, its colossal body twisting through the broken sea with enough force to split entire sections of ice apart.
But the creature had changed.
The elegant control it displayed earlier was gone.
Now it was enraged.
Violent.
Wild.
And honestly…
Far more dangerous.
Lyra nearly collapsed the moment her barrier disappeared completely.
I caught her before she could fall into the snow.
Her breathing had become unstable while the remaining traces of Light mana flickered weakly around her trembling body.
Even standing now clearly required effort.
“Easy,” I said calmly.
“I-I’m okay…”
She absolutely was not okay.
The spell she used earlier had gone far beyond her current limits.
Sanctuary had protected all of us from an attack capable of wiping out entire teams instantly, but the backlash clearly exhausted almost everything she had left.
Kael immediately moved closer, his usual grin completely gone for once.
“That was insane, Lyra.”
Faelyn slowly lowered her chain while staring at the shattered battlefield around us.
“You blocked that entire attack alone…”
Even Varkas looked genuinely impressed.
Interesting.
Respect formed quickly once survival entered the equation.
Another deafening roar interrupted the moment.
The Leviathan erupted upward from beneath the frozen ocean again, this time abandoning ranged attacks entirely.
Its enormous body slammed directly through the glacier toward our position while golden light pulsed violently beneath its scales like unstable mana overflowing beyond control.
Authority of Knowledge reacted immediately.
Mental state: berserk.
Combat pattern shifting toward physical annihilation.
Good.
That made things simpler.
Kael instinctively stepped forward again, lightning crackling around his daggers despite the exhaustion already visible in his movements.
Faelyn prepared to follow him immediately afterward while Varkas raised both revolvers toward the charging monster.
“No,” I said calmly.
The single word stopped all three instantly.
For a brief second, only the storm moved around us.
Then slowly, I released Lyra’s shoulder before stepping forward across the frozen battlefield alone.
The Leviathan roared again.
This time, I answered.
Darkness exploded outward beneath my feet.
Black mana spread across the glacier like living shadows while thin streams of dark energy wrapped themselves around my body and weapon simultaneously.
The temperature surrounding the battlefield dropped even further as the pressure of my mana finally stopped hiding beneath restraint.
Behind me, the group fell silent.
Interesting.
Even weakened, the difference between S Rank and ordinary elite fighters remained overwhelming once fully released.
The Leviathan lunged first.
Its colossal jaw crashed downward hard enough to shatter the glacier beneath me entirely.
And missed.
For the first time since descending into Nythera, my body moved instinctively without hesitation.
One step.
That was all it took.
Darkness burst behind me while my body vanished from the creature’s path entirely before reappearing above the frozen sea itself.
The sensation felt strange for only a fraction of a second.
Then natural.
Like muscles remembering movements they had repeated millions of times before.
Interesting.
So my combat instincts were recovering faster than expected.
The Leviathan twisted violently toward me, but I was already moving again.
Black energy erupted from my scythe the moment I swung downward.
A massive crescent-shaped slash of condensed darkness tore across the battlefield before crashing directly into the monster’s side.
The impact exploded across its scales hard enough to carve a deep wound through layers of reinforced mana armor while black flames spread through the injury immediately afterward.
The Leviathan screamed.
Good.
That meant the damage bypassed part of its natural defenses.
Behind me, Kael stared openly now.
“Okay… what the hell…”
I ignored him.
The Leviathan retaliated instantly, swinging one of its enormous glowing fins toward me with enough force to generate another tidal shockwave through the frozen sea.
This time, I didn’t dodge.
Darkness gathered around the blade of my scythe before colliding directly against the impact.
The explosion shattered nearby glaciers instantly.
Snowstorms erupted around us while black mana and golden light violently consumed each other across the battlefield.
Beneath the pressure, the frozen sea cracked apart for hundreds of meters in every direction.
Interesting.
Even while holding back, this body was adapting rapidly.
The Leviathan roared furiously again before gathering concentrated Light mana inside its eyes.
Authority of Knowledge instantly predicted another large-scale attack pattern.
Too slow.
I moved first.
Darkness surged outward across the battlefield before piercing directly into the creature’s glowing eyes like black smoke invading pure light itself.
The reaction was immediate.
Blinded.
Its attacks became chaotic almost instantly as the creature started smashing blindly through the glacier around us in pure rage.
Good.
That ended the fight.
I stepped forward through the collapsing battlefield calmly while black mana continuously flowed around my body like liquid shadow.
Every movement felt lighter now.
Faster.
More natural.
The seals limiting my combat instincts were weakening.
And honestly…
That sensation was becoming addictive.
The Leviathan sensed me approaching too late.
Darkness gathered above my palm.
Not wild mana.
Not unstable destruction.
Pure condensed annihilation compressed into a sphere small enough to fit inside one hand.
The surrounding air distorted immediately beneath its density.
Even Kael instinctively stepped backward behind me.
Interesting.
Fear.
Reasonable reaction.
The Leviathan roared one final time before charging blindly toward me through the storm.
I simply raised my hand.
Then released it.
The sphere of darkness crossed the battlefield instantly before crashing directly into the creature’s chest.
For one second…
Nothing happened.
Then the Leviathan exploded inward.
Black energy consumed the colossal monster from the center outward while layers of scales, flesh, mana, and bone collapsed beneath overwhelming gravitational destruction.
The creature’s roar disappeared abruptly as the entire upper half of its body imploded violently into darkness before erupting outward in a storm of shattered ice and corrupted mana.
Silence followed immediately afterward.
Only the sound of the snowstorm remained.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
The remains of the Leviathan slowly disappeared beneath collapsing waves and drifting snow while fragments of black mana still floated through the frozen biome like fading embers.
The battle that had shaken the entire glacier moments earlier ended so abruptly that even the storm itself seemed quieter now.
Kael was the first to break the silence.
“…Alright.” He stared at the shattered battlefield before slowly turning toward me.
“I knew you were strong.
But what in the actual hell was THAT?”
“I solved the problem,” I answered calmly.
“That is not an explanation.”
Faelyn looked equally stunned, though unlike Kael, fascination had clearly replaced shock inside her expression.
“You fight like a completely different person once you start taking things seriously.”
Interesting observation.
She wasn’t wrong.
The moment combat became real, fragments of old instincts naturally resurfaced.
Positioning.
Timing.
Mana control.
Even the way I moved through the battlefield had started feeling increasingly familiar as the fight progressed.
Not remembered consciously.
Remembered physically.
Like my body still carried traces of countless battles my mind had yet to recover.
Behind us, Lyra was still trying to steady her breathing while Varkas kept his eyes fixed on the remains of the Leviathan partially submerged beneath shattered ice.
“That attack at the end…” the demon muttered quietly.
“You compressed Darkness mana to that level without destabilizing it.”
“You noticed?”
“I use Hellfire.
Of course I noticed.”
Kael blinked several times.
“Can someone explain the terrifying magic conversation to the normal people?”
“You shoot infernal bullets,” Faelyn replied flatly.
“You stopped being normal a long time ago.”
For the first time since the battle ended, Varkas actually smirked faintly.
Good.
The atmosphere relaxing after surviving something like this mattered more than most people realized.
Teams that stayed tense after dangerous encounters eventually collapsed under pressure.
Authority of Knowledge activated instinctively while I approached the corpse of the Leviathan.
The creature’s mana still lingered heavily across the frozen sea, especially around the shattered cavity left in its chest.
Then suddenly…
Warmth surged through my body.
Not physical warmth.
Power.
The sensation hit far harder than it had against the corrupted bear earlier.
Energy flooded through my mana circuits violently enough to make my muscles tense instinctively while fragments of buried knowledge surfaced somewhere deep inside my consciousness.
The world around me sharpened again.
Mana became clearer.
Movement easier.
And beneath all of it…
Pleasure.
Dangerously intense pleasure.
Interesting.
No. New chapters come out on g.com first.
Not interesting.
Addictive.
The realization disturbed me slightly more than expected.
Absorbing energy from defeated enemies didn’t simply strengthen me.
It created euphoria.
Satisfaction.
The kind capable of turning battle itself into an addiction if left unchecked.
For a brief second, I finally understood how people could lose themselves chasing power.
“…Noctis?”
Lyra’s voice pulled me out of the sensation immediately.
I exhaled slowly before the pressure surrounding my mana stabilized again.
“I’m fine.”
That was only partially true.
Something else had surfaced alongside the absorbed energy.
Knowledge.
Fragments of old understanding returning naturally through instinct.
Crafting.
Alchemy.
Reinforcement techniques.
Interesting.
Another seal had weakened.
I crouched beside the Leviathan’s remains before placing one hand against the creature’s fractured scales.
Authority of Knowledge immediately began identifying the most valuable materials still intact beneath the damage.
Leviathan scales.
High resistance against elemental pressure.
Leviathan blood.
Excellent mana conductivity.
Light-water hybrid core fragments.
Rare.
Very useful.
Without wasting time, I carefully extracted several intact scales alongside concentrated blood crystals that had formed naturally around the creature’s remaining mana channels.
Behind me, the others watched silently while I worked.
Kael eventually tilted his head slightly.
“You know what you’re doing?”
“Yes.”
“That answer somehow raises even more questions.”
Fair.
I ignored him while examining Lyra’s staff afterward.
The structure itself remained stable, but after witnessing the pressure generated by Sanctuary earlier, the weapon clearly needed reinforcement if she wanted to survive using higher-level Light magic safely.
Perfect timing.
I slowly pressed several Leviathan scales against the staff before channeling Darkness mana carefully through the material itself.
The reaction was immediate.
Blue and golden light spread through the weapon simultaneously while the monster’s remaining elemental essence fused naturally into the wood beneath controlled mana compression.
The others visibly froze.
Faelyn blinked.
“You can craft artifacts too?”
“I remembered how.”
“That is somehow even more concerning.”
Honestly?
She had a point.
The process itself felt strangely natural despite only rediscovering the knowledge moments ago.
Mana flowed instinctively through my hands while the Leviathan materials reshaped themselves into refined reinforcement lines across the staff’s surface.
A few seconds later, the transformation stabilized completely.
Lyra stared at the weapon in disbelief the moment I handed it back to her.
The staff looked entirely different now.
Pale blue crystal veins flowed beneath the white wood while faint golden particles drifted around the head of the weapon like lingering sunlight trapped inside water.
More importantly…
Its mana flow had become vastly smoother.
Lyra carefully infused a small amount of mana into the staff instinctively.
The response was immediate.
Water and Light magic surged through the weapon effortlessly, stabilizing around her body with almost no mana loss at all.
Her eyes widened.
“…This feels incredible.”
Good.
That alone made the Leviathan worth fighting.
Then suddenly, Authority of Knowledge reacted again.
Multiple mana signatures approaching rapidly.
Human.
Armed.
Hostile intent detected.
Kael noticed the shift in my expression immediately.
“Please tell me we’re not fighting another giant sea monster.”
“No.”
I slowly stood before turning toward the snowy cliffs overlooking the battlefield.
“This time it’s nobles.”
Several figures emerged from the storm moments later.
Perfect uniforms.
Expensive weapons.
Confident expressions.
And standing at the center of the group…
The same arrogant noble from the academy plaza.