Chương 90: Flow State

Nicholas stared at the place where the corrupted had vanished. Its words still echoed in his mind.

"Like us." What did that mean? The corrupted had said the boy's soul was different. Like theirs. He didn't know much about souls, so coming up with an answer to what the corrupted had said was difficult. Though he did agree with the corrupted. The boy was weird... different. But what did that have to do with them? He turned and watched as Adolin delivered another wave of hundreds of mana constructs. Most of them were spears, and the most used element was ice. Every other element was present as well.

Using all the different elements wasn't that unique, but casting them without a chant was. Mages usually focused on one element, or at most two, so they could eventually learn to cast without chanting. Yet he had never heard the boy chant a single spell, which meant he had either studied spellcasting for a very long time or... possessed a gift. Nicholas wasn't sure if there was a gift capable of helping with spellcasting. Looking at the boy... Adolin, he somehow knew it wasn't a gift.

Still, it was hard for him to look at him as more than a boy. He needed to hurry and help him, but his mind was still focused on the corrupted's words. There wasn't much information about the corrupted, but he knew they came from another world... Was that what the corrupted meant? Or... was everything it said meant to throw him off? To turn him against Adolin? Nicholas went through everything he knew about the corrupted and about Adolin, trying to piece everything together, to find some kind of answer.

Yet he couldn't. He kept coming back to the same conclusion. Either Adolin wasn't from their world, or the corrupted had been trying to mislead him. Nothing else made sense... or he simply didn't have enough information. He took a deep breath. For the moment, it didn't matter, and depending on how everything unfolded, maybe it never would. He was curious to learn the truth, but the truth wasn't important now. Defeating their enemies was.

There was also the issue that Adolin had painted a target on his back by helping them, so Nicholas would need to find a way to compensate him for that, or at the very least provide him with some protection. He shook his head, picked up the two severed arms, and stored them in his inventory. They would serve as proof of the organization's involvement with the corrupted. At the very least, that would help convince the Emperor.

"What are you waiting for?" Adolin shouted. Nicholas looked at the boy and nodded as his hand closed around the handle of the halberd. They needed to capture some of their enemies alive, as Adolin's involvement had ruined one of their plans. The Emperor was supposed to arrive in the middle of the battle, but thanks to the boy, the enemies were already dead... or dying. Nicholas was glad for it. His involvement had saved the lives of his men, and their whole plan had already fallen apart from the very beginning.

From the many sleepers that had caused damage to Nicholas himself being affected. He wasn't sure what would have happened if the boy hadn't woken him from the state he had been in. From the message he had received about the Emperor, he guessed the man would arrive in the next ten to fifteen minutes, and by the looks of it, the battle would be over within the next five. Still, he hoped it would be enough to convince him. Shaking his head, he used a movement skill and took a step forward. …

Adolin blinked to the side, and a moment later a massive cutting tornado appeared where he had been standing. It was an archmage-tier spell. He blinked again, keeping his senses on it. The tornado shredded everything in the garden. Trees were cut into pieces, while the ground itself was carved apart and thrown into the air. The only part of the front garden that had remained unharmed throughout the fight was destroyed. The Wind Archmage had somehow cast the spell mid-chant, just before Adolin could interrupt it.

It caught him by surprise. Before, mages needed time to cast archmage-tier spells, and now this. He was finding the whole system strange. It used to make sense to him; now he had no idea how it worked. Every mage he had met before returning to the estate had needed to chant to cast spells. Then the Count had cast one without chanting. Then came the archmages, who only needed to chant for archmage-tier spells. And now the Wind Archmage had cast an archmage-tier spell in the middle of the chant.

It was getting more and more complicated. There was no time for Adolin to dwell on how spellcasting worked in this world. He blinked away from another spell as the warrior charged toward him, while the mage repositioned in the air. He used the brief moment of respite to check on the butler with his Mana Sense. Nicholas was standing in front of a severed arm, while the corrupted was gone. He focused on the mana residue surrounding it. Teleportation. The corrupted had used teleportation magic to escape the estate.

"Fuck," he cursed under his breath. He needed to study the spells the corrupted had used, to find a way to cure the corruption inside his core, as well as the cores of Lira and Edrin. The warrior was already upon him, so he blinked away again. As soon as he appeared in his next location, he used Mana Control, creating hundreds of spears and sending them all toward the warrior. There were probably other ways he could have fought, but the overwhelming number of constructs seemed to be working for now.

Besides, the butler might wake up and join him soon, so he didn't think changing his fighting style now would be worth it. The Wind Archmage was chanting a little farther away, so he blinked beneath her and used Flight to propel himself toward her. The mage kept her attention on Nicholas, and it took her a moment to notice him. As soon as she did, he cast Sever and Gravity, then unleashed his Killing Intent, focusing everything around her body. Gravity descended upon her, forcing her toward the ground.

Sever struck her shield, while the Killing Intent interrupted her chant. Adolin followed up by creating even more constructs and launching them all at her. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The warrior was charging toward him again, using something similar to Burst Step to close the distance faster, and would reach him in another second or two. Adolin had to decide whether to go all out against the Wind Archmage and ignore the warrior as much as possible.

That might allow him to get rid of her. Before he could even decide, Nicholas appeared in front of the warrior, his halberd descending toward the man. The warrior raised his sword to parry it, but the attack was too strong and simply swatted the blade aside. The halberd shifted slightly from the impact before slamming into the ground. The ground around them shook from the impact. Adolin ignored it and continued bombarding the mage with everything he had.

Mana constructs were his primary attack, while he mixed in a few Sever spells, all while keeping Gravity on her the entire time. The mage hit the ground hard, and a wave of dust billowed from the point of impact. Adolin didn't waste any time and blinked next to her. He usually relied on the spells he'd fought with as a High Mage; they were familiar, and he knew exactly what he could do with them. But that didn't mean he couldn't use new ones. He needed to if he wanted to increase his level and mana.

There was another spell he'd created for Calamity, but he'd never added it to the final version. He raised his staff and cast Thunder, then took three steps back to leave the area that would be affected. A dark cloud formed overhead in moments, and a thick bolt of lightning struck the mage. The air crackled with electricity, and the smell of ozone spread throughout the battlefield. Calamity once had Thunder incorporated into it, but he'd removed it when he improved the spell.

The lightning element consumed too much mana, made the spell less effective, and also made it harder to cast. Because of time constraints back then, he'd simply removed the element from the final version and planned to perfect it in the future. A future that never came. He chuckled as he took a few steps toward the mage and silently swore to do just that with his second chance. He had no idea when he'd find the time, but planning to do it eventually was enough for him for now.

Adolin stopped just above the crater where the Wind Mage lay. She was barely breathing, and there wasn't a trace of mana around her. She was unconscious and badly wounded. He glanced toward the butler, who was in the middle of a fight against the warrior. They collided several times in the few moments he watched. The butler had the upper hand... no, he was playing with the man. Or maybe he was dragging out the fight to... spy on him?

Adolin wasn't sure why he would do that, but just as the thought appeared, the warrior was slammed into the ground, one of his hands severed. A beam of light followed, striking the warrior in the deep crater his fall had created. Nicholas landed inside the crater, and a few moments later climbed out, dragging the warrior behind him like a wounded animal. His other hand was gone as well.

"That's it?" Adolin asked. Nicholas looked as if he were analyzing something.

"The Count should be done any moment now." Adolin nodded and pointed toward the woman.

"What about this one?" Nicholas released the man he was dragging, then grabbed the Wind Archmage by the arm, dragged her over, and dumped her on top of the warrior. The whole fight had ended moments after the butler had made his presence known. Adolin looked at the two unconscious bodies on the ground, then back at the butler.

"What took you so long?"

"I…" Nicholas stopped and looked toward the sky, where the last remaining flare was close to burning out. The sun was already high overhead.

"I'm not sure," he admitted, keeping his eyes fixed on the sky.

"My best guess... I've been affected like the rest of the staff." Adolin studied him, still ignoring the pounding headache.

"How?" he asked. Something didn't add up. Both the Count and the butler were powerful—too powerful—and both of them had been affected. Mind Magic was capable of doing something like that; that wasn't what bothered him. They should have at least felt something happening the moment they were affected, yet neither of them had said anything that suggested they had. Nicholas just shook his head.

"Just thinking about it makes me uncomfortable." Adolin slowly nodded. Well, whatever it was, it was their problem. He didn't plan on getting involved any more than he already had. He took a deep breath as he scanned the estate, trying to see if there was anything else he needed to worry about. There wasn't, so he finally turned his attention to the one thing he'd been ignoring ever since entering the Flow State. The Flow State was another technique taught to him by his mentor.

It put his mind into a state where it focused only on killing. He only used it when he needed absolute control over his mind, when the only thing that mattered was killing his enemies. He had often used it back on the Demon Continent. There, every mistake could have cost him his life... or the lives of his party members. The technique was always flawless, clearing his mind and leaving only what he needed to win the battle. Nothing else. Yet today, his mind had constantly wandered.

From doing his best to save the people around him to random thoughts that should have never crossed his mind in that state. And yet, even now, the technique was still active, and his thoughts continued to drift all over the place.

"Whatever," he muttered as he released his hold on the technique. He would return to the issue when he had some free time. Even after releasing it, nothing changed. As if he'd never actually entered the state. But he knew he had. During the two times he'd fought the first archmage who had ambushed him, he'd been completely cold-blooded.

"What happens now?" Adolin asked. The butler had restrained both enemies with mana-nullifying cuffs and removed something from their mouths. It was probably some kind of device or poison to prevent them from being captured alive.

"We wait for the Emperor," Nicholas said.

"I need to help the Count, but everything else you want to know, I'll answer afterward." Adolin just shrugged and took to the air with Flight. Once he was high above the estate, he looked down at the front gardens and scratched the back of his neck. He hadn't really needed to use Calamity to wreck the place. It was already beyond repair. Almost nothing remained of the gardens, and everything else was in ruins.

The place was filled with craters and scorch marks, while most of the walls had either collapsed or looked ready to fall at any moment. The entire estate was also littered with countless Mana Constructs. Not all of them were his, but the majority were. He focused on them and released them into Pure Mana. There was no reason to leave any of his mana behind. Since the Emperor would be arriving soon, he had no reason to stay. Nothing good would come from meeting the man.

Using Mana Sense, he located every trace of his mana and burned it away. Then he moved through the estate, revisiting every place where he'd fought and erased the residue there as well. Mana residue could be used in multiple ways, from tracking and curses to even teleporting directly to the mage it belonged to. He wanted no part of that. When he was done, he glanced toward the Count, and their battle was over. The Count was on one knee, catching his breath, while the butler was checking on the knights and Eduard.

Adolin flew toward them and landed beside Eduard a short while later. He knew he probably shouldn't approach Eduard while the effects of the Flow State were somehow still lingering, but he couldn't deny that he wanted to. Eduard had multiple wounds all over his body, and three empty potion bottles lay beside him. The wounds were closing slowly. Normally, the more healing potions one drank, the weaker their effects became. Eduard must have consumed too many, reducing their effectiveness.

Instead of the miraculous instant healing they usually provided, he was recovering dozens of times slower. Adolin crouched beside him, touched his hand, and cast a healing spell he hadn't used before. It was one of the few spells he knew that targeted wounds directly instead of healing the entire body. In just a moment, every wound on Eduard's body closed, and he was back to normal. Adolin used Levitate on him and brought Eduard in front of him. The man opened his eyes with a grimace.

Adolin cast Mana Blast, pouring additional mana into it, and brought down his staff on Eduard. The staff struck his chest just as the Mana Blast hit, launching him into one of the few remaining walls. Eduard slammed into it with a pained scream and disappeared into the rubble. Adolin slowly nodded as he watched the Count's and Nicholas's reactions. The bastard had deserved far worse than that. Thankfully, most of the Flow State was already gone.

If it hadn't been, Adolin wasn't sure what Eduard's fate would have been.