Chapter 431
"Heaven itself has answered!!"
However, behind the ferocity of that second explosion, behind the light that shot into the sky and left everyone frozen in place, behind the power surging violently through his body, Xavier felt something that no one else could see.
A resistance.
A rejection.
A fierce conflict from within himself.
The Authority of Perception Alteration and the five elemental forces that had just awakened did not immediately merge with him like water flowing to a lower place.
Instead, they spun chaotically, colliding with one another, drifting apart, refusing to cooperate.
Like six wild horses being harnessed to the same carriage for the first time, they ran in six different directions, pulling Xavier's body toward every corner, making him feel as though he would be torn apart by the very power that was supposed to belong to him.
The synchronization failed to occur, not once, not twice, but repeatedly.
Every time he tried to unite them, every time he attempted to control them, every time he tried to make them a part of himself, they rebelled even more fiercely, as though refusing to submit to a teenage boy still drenched in blood and tears.
The pain caused by that rejection was unimaginable.
It was not ordinary physical pain, but a pain that tore through consciousness, that shredded the soul, that made Xavier want to scream even though his voice was trapped in his throat.
His body trembled violently, his eyes burned from the light shining far too brightly, and his bones felt as though they would shatter from the pressure rising from within.
Around him, the soldiers who had just been thrown away by the second explosion slowly began to stand up again.
They saw that the boy was in pain, struggling, wavering.
They saw that the tremendous power that had just erupted might not last long.
They saw an opportunity to attack again, to eliminate their target before he could truly become an uncontrollable threat.
And they began to move forward, slowly but surely, with weapons drawn and killing intent that never faded.
Xavier saw them approaching.
He saw that within seconds they would reach his position and swing their swords once again.
But he could not move.
He could not fight.
He was still trapped within the vortex of rejection from his own powers.
Yet at that moment, when despair was about to swallow him whole, when he was on the verge of surrendering to the pain and rejection, something else rose from deep within him.
Not the Authority of Perception Alteration.
Not the five elements.
But something deeper, something more fundamental, something that lay at the very core of who he truly was.
Resolve.
The same resolve that had always defined him, the resolve that once made him recklessly push through the mist as a child, the resolve that made him endure in the defense forces despite his frail body, the resolve that allowed him to remain alive until this very moment even though everyone he loved had died before his eyes.
That resolve burned in his chest, no less fierce than the elemental powers raging within him.
That resolve spoke to the six rebelling forces with a voice they could not ignore.
The resolve said: I am your master.
I am your owner.
I am the one who controls you, not the other way around.
The resolve said: if you refuse to submit, then I will force you to submit.
If you refuse to merge, then I will unite you by force.
If you refuse to become part of me, then I will seize you and make you my servants.
And those six powers, which for thousands of years had only bowed to those who were truly worthy, which had rejected Xavier because he was still too young, too weak, and too filled with sorrow, suddenly fell silent.
They heard that resolve.
They felt the power behind it.
They realized that the boy before them was not an ordinary child.
He was Xavier XVII.
He was the rightful heir of the greatest dynasty that had ever existed.
He was the descendant of the same bloodline as the legendary kings who once ruled this world.
And within him flowed the same resolve as his ancestors.
A resolve that never surrendered.
A resolve that never feared.
A resolve willing to die for what it believed was right.
For a moment, everything fell silent within Xavier.
The six powers stopped rebelling.
They were quiet, waiting, listening.
And then, in a way no one could explain, they submitted.
One by one, they surrendered.
The Authority of Perception Alteration, fire, water, earth, air, and cosmic energy all melted into Xavier's being, merging with every cell in his body, becoming an inseparable part of his existence.
The synchronization that had failed again and again finally occurred perfectly.
And when that union reached its peak, when Xavier felt for the first time that the six powers truly belonged to him, a third burst was created.
This time the explosion did not come from within his body, but from the sky.
From the point where the golden-yellow light had vanished, from the gaping hole in the gray clouds, a wave of energy descended at unimaginable speed.
The wave spread throughout the entire village, across the battlefield, to every place where corpses lay scattered in horrifying positions.
And when that wave touched them, when that golden-yellow energy crawled across every lifeless body, something impossible happened.
They rose.
One by one, slowly but surely, the corpses began to move.
The Village Defense soldiers who had died with bodies full of wounds, who had lost limbs, whose blood had dried upon the ground, suddenly opened their empty eyes.
The soldiers of the Obrim Dynasty who had just died from the first and second explosions, whose bodies were crushed and whose armor was dented, suddenly stood again even though their heads hung weakly.
The villagers who died in panic, who were killed without even having the chance to fight back, whose corpses lay scattered among the ruins of their homes, suddenly rose and joined the ever-growing ranks.
And in the midst of it all, among thousands of corpses rising from death, Xavier stood with eyes burning golden yellow.
He felt a strange connection with them all, a bond that could not be explained, a link that allowed him to sense their existence, hear their whispers, and control their movements.
They belonged to him now.
They were his army.
They were the weapons he would use to avenge every suffering he had endured.
And when he raised his hand, when he pointed his finger toward the surviving soldiers of the Obrim Dynasty who still stood with mouths agape at this horrifying miracle, the thousands of corpses moved at once.
They walked.
They crawled.
They dragged their shattered bodies toward the enemy with a single purpose.
To slaughter.
To slaughter as they had once been slaughtered.
To slaughter mercilessly as they had once been slaughtered without mercy.
And the counterattack began, a counterattack that no one who witnessed it would ever forget, a counterattack that marked the beginning of a new era, an era in which Xavier XVII, the rightful king, finally took control of his own destiny.
"In this village, death is reinforcements."
What began as the third burst in the sky above that village had now transformed into an unstoppable wave.
To be continued…