The System Awakens: Rise of the Champion - Chapter 86

Chapter 86: Chapter 86: Catching Up to Past Sins – 1
“Fufu… What a nice plan.”

Just as they were deep in thought about how to carry out their plan, a loud, distorted voice rang through the hall, dripping with intense fury and laced with biting sarcasm.

The temperature in the room suddenly began to rise at an alarming rate.

The seven leaders of the [Lord’s Disciple] faction, Benedetto Marco Giuliani, Stefano Barone, Matteo Bianchi, Antonio Romano, Teresa Lombardi, Elisabetta Ferrara, and Caterina Mancini, felt an overwhelming sense of dread.

The temperature wasn’t the only thing rising; the pressure in the air was also rapidly intensifying.

The Awakeners inside the castle felt it too, as if something far beyond them had invaded their home.

“Who… W-Who is that?” Matteo Bianchi asked grimly, sweat dripping from his skin due to the unbearable heat.

At the same time, he could feel the presence of something monstrous.

They didn’t know whose overwhelmingly powerful presence this was, but some, like Teresa Lombardi, who had once faced a terrifying monster in the ranking battles, could sense a familiar fury within it.

However, something was different.

This presence felt even more massive and overwhelmingly powerful than before.

“Oh God, I beg you, please… tell me it’s not that monster,” Caterina Mancini murmured with an ugly expression, both in emotion and appearance, her heavily made-up face contorted in fear.

“It can’t be… It can’t be him. I judged his presence before, and it was nowhere near this powerful…” she muttered as her face rapidly shifted into one of sheer terror.

Suddenly, everything fell silent as the temperature instantly surged to an alarming level.

Before they could react, something crashed outside the castle, and inside, the air turned scorching hot.

They barely had time to comprehend what was happening before an explosion erupted outside, sending a shockwave through the castle, sweeping away everything in its path.

Intense flames followed, consuming everything indiscriminately.

The structure of the entire castle crumbled as dust and debris filled the air.

[Flame Tempest: Spell Activated]

“Wh-”

Before anyone could defend themselves, everything went black as another explosion rocked the remains of the castle.

A massive fireball, summoned from a colossal magic circle in the sky, descended upon the ruined structure.

Another explosion engulfed the remains in a relentless storm of flames, sweeping outward in all directions.

[Flame Tempest: Spell Activated]

And yet, it wasn’t over.

Another massive fireball, resembling a miniature sun, manifested in the sky and hurled itself down upon what was once a mighty fortress.

BOOM!

Everything burned.

Anything that could be reduced to ash was incinerated.

Anything that could melt was liquefied.

Only then did the relentless assault of flames cease.

Floating above the annihilated castle like a feather was a lone figure.

His entire being pulsed with [Wind Essence], coursing through his skin, bones, blood, and even hair.

Unlike before, when using this power, this time, he contained it perfectly within his body without any energy loss.

[Wind Avatar: Form Transformation Activated]

In his hand, he held a jet-black spear with red accents, as if it had been splattered with blood.

The weapon exuded an ominous aura, shrouding him in an eerie presence, making him appear like a grim reaper.

It was none other than Damian, here to take his revenge on the only obstacle standing in his path to invincibility and infinite power.

[You have slain the level 58 Awakener ‘Thomas Malone.’]

[You have slain the level 82 Awakener…]

[You have slain the level 92 Awakener…]

[You have slain the level 77 Awakener…]

[You have slain the level …] x 145

[Experience Gained.]

[Experience Limit Reached.]

[You have leveled up.] x 14

[You have made the first move against the [Lord’s Disciple] faction.]

[The System has registered [Circle of Ouroboros] faction against the [Lord’s Disciple] faction.]

As this notification appeared before Damian, every single Awakener within the realm of Solarta received the same message, announcing the war between [Circle of Ouroboros] and [Lord’s Disciple] factions.

“He’s really doing it… I clearly underestimated him,” Shiru muttered as she saw the notification in her field of vision.

“He’s powerful. Inside the Tower Realms, the strongest rule. They have the right to do anything… Damian, as long as he holds power, can become the judge, jury, and executioner… It’s up to him who gets to live and who doesn’t,” the Plebeian Vampire said, shaking his head.

Watching Damian display his overwhelming might, he couldn’t help but think of the master who had given him this vampire life.

“Power rules all, huh?” Shiru sighed.

“Yes… Get that into your head. That’s important,” the Plebeian Vampire said, turning his gaze toward another system prompt showing the battle between the two factions happening in real time.

Yes, through the system’s [Streaming Function], every Awakener in the realm of Solarta could watch the battle live, with crystal-clear visuals, zero latency, and an intense zoom-in feature.

As the initiator of the war, Damian had the option to set the [Streaming Function] to private, meaning only members of the two factions, scattered across the realm, could watch.

After all, even if a faction had thousands of members, not all of them would be in the faction’s territory at the time.

Many would be out on system missions, hunting monsters, or engaged in other activities.

However, Damian intentionally set the stream to public.

He wanted to show his power.

He wanted to display his might, the might of someone who could single-handedly overwhelm an entire faction.

Right now, everything Damian wanted was happening exactly as he had envisioned.

As soon as the system announced to the Awakeners of the First Tower Realm that the leader of the [Circle of Ouroboros] faction, the monster who had achieved first place in the power rankings and was the most talked-about figure, Infinity, had waged war on the [Lord’s Disciple] faction, nearly every single Awakener was watching with expressions filled with curiosity, fear, awe, astonishment, admiration, envy, and even infatuation at the sheer display of power Damian was showing.

Every Awakener was either speaking about him or thinking about him.

Damian had become that much of a big shot.

Even though some thought he wouldn’t be able to do anything more ridiculous than fighting the entire power-ranking Awakeners, he had now gone on to wage war against a full-fledged faction alone, making it even more absurd.

“He has gained more attention than anyone has in a long time…” Sir Holloway said, looking at the screen as he noticed the number of people watching the stream along with him.

He then turned his attention back to Damian and noticed that Damian was controlling the [Wind Essence] perfectly, not letting any energy go to waste. No extra energy was leaking from his body.

“This is amazing… Even though I knew he was capable of this, I didn’t think he would be able to do it right away without any training,” Sir Holloway muttered, holding his head in frustration.

“Why? What’s happening?” Shiru asked, noticing Sir Holloway’s puzzled expression.

“Do you remember when we were talking, and I suggested that Damian control his energy to prevent it from leaking wastefully?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s already doing it… There is no waste of power. He is using his energy with maximum efficiency.”

As previously established, Damian’s Elemental Essence Form heavily depended on how much elemental essence he could expend.

The more essence he possessed, the longer he could maintain his forms and the greater the attacks he could unleash.

However, at the same time, the stronger the attack, the greater the energy consumption.

Additionally, a significant amount of elemental essence would normally be released as unused energy in the form of an aura.

But if Damian managed to prevent this energy from leaking entirely, he could save that wasted essence and use it for more attacks or prolong the duration of his Elemental Essence Form.

And that was exactly what Damian was doing right now.

He was using his [Wind Avatar] form, but instead of expending wind essence on flashy, powerful attacks, he was using it solely to make his body weightless and float in the air.

Since he wasn’t consuming wind essence for anything else, he could maintain the form for a longer period.

And because he wasn’t attacking, he could use the form to fly for an even longer duration.

“Is that really important?” Shiru asked, rubbing her head.

She wasn’t very knowledgeable when it came to cultivation or the different types of powers Damian used.

She didn’t even fully understand what Damian was doing now, other than the fact that he was using some sort of overwhelmingly powerful ability.

“Power efficiency is extremely important to cultivators,” Sir Holloway explained.

“With high energy efficiency, a cultivator can fight for extended periods. But achieving great energy efficiency requires immense control over one’s power.”

“And gaining such control is not easy. It takes years of training to master, and even then, it is never truly perfect.”

The main reason for this was that even if a cultivator developed great control over time, they could not maintain it constantly.

To sustain continuous control, one would need their full attention.

However, during a fight, this is impossible because the mind is in a state of constant processing, thinking about offense, techniques, defense, and many other factors.

This makes it extremely difficult for a cultivator to maintain control while also managing everything else in combat.

But Daman had only used this form a few times, and he was already exhibiting a high level of energy control.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was definitely at a level comparable to those in the High Tower Realm.

“To think he could develop such control… He is nothing short of a genius. If the cultivators of the higher realm saw what he was doing, their jaws would drop to the ground,” Sir Holloway remarked as he turned his attention back to the faction war.

Damian looked down at the debris from the sky with an expressionless face, sensing numerous presences disappearing, which meant they had died, while others managed to survive his assault.

“Ghr,” Damian snorted, realizing that the seven strongest presences among them, those damn Vatican bastards, had survived.

“I guess they wouldn’t be able to form a faction if they weren’t at least this strong…” Damian sighed in irritation.

He had poured a significant amount of power behind that [Flame Tempest] spell, yet the faction still had individuals powerful enough to endure it.

“Well, no biggie…”

Damian shrugged as he sensed movement among the debris and detected numerous presences closing in on his location from different directions.