The Monarch Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 323: The Hand That Devours Lightning
The jewel embedded in the back of my hand spat out an eerie glow.
Creak… creak…
It sounded like the chilling background music that plays right before a ghost appears in a horror movie.
With that gloomy noise, countless hands began to burst out from the Shining Trapezohedron.
“Hiiiiiik!”
Jiyoung’s shriek echoed in my ears.
Under normal circumstances, I would have nagged her to be a little braver, but I decided to let it slide this time.
Because even my own spine was crawling.
Hands so pale they looked completely bloodless.
The swarm of hands had multiplied until there were a hundred of them—enough to blot out the incoming Thunder Birds.
My left hand, which had activated Hundred Hand, was rattling violently.
My wrist shook uncontrollably.
Even with three thousand points of strength suppressing the tremors, it was barely enough.
“My arm is moving on its own…!”
It was sucking up my mana like something possessed, and now even my arm was splitting apart after the hands.
“Screeeeech!”
The Thunder Birds slammed on the brakes and unleashed a barrage of lightning.
An entire flock had poured every ounce of power into the attack.
The sheer firepower rivaled high-tier magic as countless bolts slammed into the proliferating arms.
The Thunder Birds’ lightning snaked around like writhing serpents, striking again and again.
Even the tiniest amount of current that seeped through made my arms tingle painfully.
But.
The arms vomited out by the Shining Trapezohedron did not fall.
No.
Instead, they devoured the lightning.
Mouths split open across all one hundred palms.
Chomp. Gulp! They chewed and swallowed the bolts whole.
“That’s… a little gross.”
“Master, where did you pick up another weird thing this time?”
“Truly ferocious. It takes after its master.”
“Mister, that’s kinda scary.”
“Are you alright?”
They were all skilled enough to have reached Diamond rank, yet they still looked repulsed by the arms spat out by the Shining Trapezohedron.
I couldn’t blame them.
Even I was having trouble handling it.
The arms that had torn apart and swallowed every bolt of lightning now advanced relentlessly toward the Thunder Birds.
Brutal hands ravaged the yellow feathers.
Crunch—crack—
Feathers were ripped out, flesh and bone torn apart.
Everything that was shredded was funneled into the mouths on the palms.
◈ Devoured
Huh?
Even the grotesque hands’ feasting counted as Devour?
***
The essence of the Thunder Birds accumulated through the Shining Trapezohedron as a medium.
Surprisingly.
This thing swallowed the blood and flesh itself, then spat out only the pure essence.
The Shining Trapezohedron is absorbing vitality.
Durability has increased.
What Yog-Sothoth had embedded in the back of my hand was a fragmented form capable of only minimal functions.
The durability displayed by the system had a maximum of 10,000, but the current value was only 50.
Just 1/500th of capacity. It was clearly meant to be used only for observation.
But after I partially unlocked its functions with Black Wisdom, it began hunting the blood and flesh of living creatures to restore itself.
Crunch! Crack!
“Screeech! Screeech!”
The Thunder Birds tried to shake off the hands using their thunderous roars and monstrous strength capable of shoving aside house-sized boulders.
But every single one caught by Hundred Hand was reduced to prey.
Essence Devoured – 50.2%
Restored Durability – 32
Well, damn.
Each bird gave roughly three percent essence.
Nearly twenty Thunder Birds had been turned into food for the Shining Trapezohedron without putting up any real resistance.
An alien power.
It swallowed lightning, tore apart feathers harder than steel, and possessed a grip strong enough to separate bone from flesh.
It truly lived up to the abilities of an Outer God.
On the other hand.
Thump—thump—
The Primordial Dragon Heart was beating furiously.
About one minute.
That was how long I had kept Hundred Hand active.
In that time, I had burned through roughly sixty percent of my mana.
Even taking the heart’s recovery rate into account, that was an enormous amount.
–Are you alright?
“Yeah. More or less. Aside from feeling like I’m about to have a heart attack?”
–I was referring to your mind.
“Thanks to Black Wisdom.”
The result of using Devour to remove the risk and claim only the sweet reward.
Because of Black Wisdom, I hadn’t suffered any mental erosion from the Outer God’s concept.
Hundred Hand.
It was more powerful than I had expected—and at the same time, incredibly dangerous.
Should I wrap it in demonic energy?
No. It was already plenty strong when used normally.
The real problem was that it didn’t listen to its user very well.
If I used it while moving with a team or guild, it was the kind of skill that would tear my own allies apart.
“I’m going to need to research how to actually use this thing.”
***
The insane mana consumption was another downside.
Even I—who had diligently stacked my magic power stat since the tutorial—could barely handle it.
If I used Black Wisdom in tandem, maybe I could somehow control it.
Whew.
I had obtained something incredible.
It was difficult to use, but if I could master its control, it would be extremely useful.
Consider it another dagger planted in the hearts of the Old Gods.
* * *
S-rank Gate – Thunder Roaring Skies.
As the name suggested, this was a place where Thunder Birds were the main enemy.
“Screeech!”
“Shut up and stop screeching.”
Wind Release – Northern Wind Great Assembly Style
Heavenly Flower Staff Technique – Great Quake Staff
Together with several clones, Ping Lei unleashed a massive gust of wind.
Even the Thunder Birds that created lightning storms struggled to keep their balance against the wind created by Seon magic.
Lightning discharged from their feathers in every direction.
Ping Lei’s real body didn’t miss the opening created by the strong winds.
Earth Release – Great Pillar Strike
Among the fluid, flowing techniques of the Heavenly Flower Staff Style, this was one of the few sharp, piercing moves.
The immense power of Earth Release concentrated at the tip of the staff.
Boooom!
The earth energy—natural enemy to lightning—ripped through the Thunder Bird’s body.
Though faint, he had even manifested strong ki.
The Thunder Bird that had been scattering lightning under the influence of the strong wind collapsed from the vital-point strike.
“To use that much Earth Release in a place with no ground at all.”
“Master. You really enjoy saying things like that, don’t you?”
I’ve been caught.
Half of it was sincere, though.
Earth Release drew power from the land itself.
To infuse that much terrestrial energy into his staff using only his own Seon energy in midair was truly impressive.
Ping Lei kicked off his clones and escaped from the falling Thunder Bird.
He dove beautifully toward another target, but—
“Screeech!”
The Thunder Bird used evasive maneuvers to slip past him.
He was about to plummet straight down.
Vibration Barrier
A barrier deployed at the perfect moment caught Ping Lei.
“Haaap!”
***
Vibration Barrier x 15
Vibration Barrier x 15
Aegis – Absolute Protection
Jiyoung fixed the barriers to both hands and closed in on the Thunder Bird that had just performed an evasive maneuver.
A barrier created by first manifesting the result of ‘defense’ and then stacking it.
The prism-like barrier containing multiple colors slammed into the Thunder Bird with a thunderous bang!
Feathers harder than steel scattered in every direction.
Under the immense pressure, the Thunder Bird’s eyeballs burst with a wet pop.
Hmm.
Not a pretty sight.
“Eek. That’s not something a teacher should be saying.”
“Why are you always picking on me?”
“Seriously? It’s way better than those hands from earlier.”
Ah.
I’ll give her that one.
“Mister. These birds are kinda fun.”
Mechanic Control
Call Mechanic – Mana Cannon x 10
Synchronization
Simultaneous Fire
Enrique kept a comfortable distance and bombarded the Thunder Birds one-sidedly.
“Birds. There’s a thrill in fighting them on the edge.”
Karla maximized her signature hit-and-run tactics, relentlessly targeting only vital points.
The neck.
Or the heart.
Every time her massive scythe danced, another Thunder Bird plummeted from the sky.
“Whoops. Can’t waste food.”
Using the power of Polar Night, I snatched a Thunder Bird out of the air and activated Devour.
Devouring Thunder Bird's essence.
Essence Devoured: 100%
Perfectly absorbed the essence of one species.
Skill – Thunder Wings has been added.
Thunder Wings
Rank: ★★★★
Type: Active
When flying with wings, consumes mana to add lightning attacks.
A full four-star skill.
The essence of a Thunder Bird, huh.
I had obtained it in my previous life too, but back then I didn’t have wings, so it was useless.
Its high rank had made it useful through lightning synergy, but I never knew exactly how strong Thunder Wings actually was.
Good.
In this second round, I had also obtained Dragon’s Wings.
***
Let’s give it a try.
Thunder Wings activated.
Yellow lightning surged from various spots across my Dragon’s Wings.
In an instant, it covered a thirty-meter radius with electricity.
“Whoa!”
“Master! Isn’t it too much to cause collateral damage while we’re hunting?!”
“Sorry. It’s my first time using it.”
I immediately apologized after Ping Lei’s complaint.
It was a lightning storm that didn’t distinguish between friend and foe.
As expected of a four-star skill, its power was considerable.
The mana cost was high, but compared to Hundred Hand it was practically polite.
The wide range and lack of preparation time made it very useful when going solo.
The Blessing of the Thunder God has descended.
Lightning control ability increases when using Thunder Wings.
Oh?
Zeus’s blessing—which had only shown itself when I used lightning techniques—was finally making itself useful again.
In that case.
Thunder Release – Thunder God activated.
Crackle!
The basic Seon technique of Thunder Release that synchronized lightning with the body.
It was also the test Sun Wukong had given me to see if I could learn Seon magic.
I often used Thunder Net for restraining, but I never thought I’d be using this technique again after learning it.
With both Zeus’s blessing and Thunder God active, I deployed Thunder Wings once more.
Rumble!
It was strong.
Just by flapping my wings, a lightning storm erupted across the area.
Bolts far more powerful than those of the original Thunder Birds.
This was stronger than even the Thorns Missile wrapped in demonic energy.
“The short range is the downside, I guess.”
At long range, I could restrain with Thorns Missile plus demonic energy.
At mid-range, Thunder Wings.
Most enemies would probably turn into fried chicken before they could even get close.
Of course, that assumed they didn’t get skewered by the Thorns Missile and demonic energy first.
“Zeus’s blessing has boosted the power tremendously.”
Hehehe.
What a lucky break.
–If you step forward, it looks like this will be cleaned up quickly.
“They all need to build up some experience.”
In the upper floors of the Tower, there were many battles that took place in the sky.
People like Jiyoung, Ping Lei, and Hyung-nim who weren’t specialized in aerial combat needed more experience.
–At this rate, it’ll take all day.
***
“Don’t worry. The Statue of Liberty looks even more beautiful at night.”
–You even calculated that far?
“Of course.”
That was obviously a lie.
I hadn’t even known we would reach the Statue of Liberty today.
It was a good thing an S-rank gate had opened. Otherwise, Jiyoung and Nyx might have joined hands to protest.
I’d let them practice aerial combat a bit more, then take down the boss.
If I used Shrink with real determination, reaching the end of the gate wouldn’t take long.
One hour after entering the gate, I used Hundred Hand once again.
This time, I even mobilized Black Wisdom.
I tried controlling the hands that burst out from the Shining Trapezohedron.
“Half-success, I suppose.”
Controlling each hand individually was impossible.
Whether it was demonic energy or aura, adding any extra power was difficult.
The power of the Outer God dyed everything poured into it with its own color.
The harvest was that even if micro-control was impossible, I could at least designate targets for the hands to tear apart.
One more thing.
The higher the durability rose, the stronger Hundred Hand’s grip became.
It didn’t skyrocket dramatically, but I could clearly feel it growing little by little.
The speed at which it dismantled Thunder Birds had increased noticeably.
After testing it three more times, I roughly got the hang of it.
“As long as it’s not a chaotic melee, I won’t end up team-killing.”
Really now.
First Mind Sword, and now Hundred Hand.
I had obtained powerful trump cards in succession, each with heavy ‘restrictions’ on their use.
Since their aerial combat training seemed sufficient now—
“Let’s finish this.”
Thirty minutes later.
The S-rank gate’s boss monster, ‘Thunder Bird King,’ let out a single scream before turning into dust.