Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 7) - Chapter 53 - You Should Be Dead

Xavier stood at the bottom of the steps that lead to The Collector’s broken throne.

Dozens of Denizens were gathered not far from him, their gazes locked on him, all but frozen in time. Palini stood two feet to his right. Much of the man’s armour had been repaired and was clean of blood from the battle, the wounds beneath healed. His greatest wounds—his amputated arms—were only a tenth of the way through regenerating. The man stared warily upward, his right stump moving down, no doubt itching to draw his sheathed sword.

“Hope I’m not interrupting something, but what exactly is your plan for that?” Palini nodded at the Void Being he was staring at.

Xavier cocked his head to one side, wondering just how much time he had. “I’ll tell you in a minute.” He paused, then muttered, “assuming we have that long.”

With a part of his awareness locked onto the Void Being, Xavier pointed the rest of his attention toward the notifications he’d recently received.

There were more than he’d anticipated.

You have enhanced your mind with Soul Energy!

You have gained +25% Intelligence.

You have enhanced your muscles and tendons with Soul Energy!

You have gained +25% Strength.

You have enhanced your nerves, skin, and bones with Soul Energy!

You have gained +25% Toughness.

Your Living Soul has been strengthened by the integration of surplus Soul Energy!

You have gained +40% Spirit.

You have enhanced and expanded your energy channels with Soul Energy!

All cultivation strength and efficiency have been increased by 15%.

You have gained +250 Willpower!

Title Unlocked!

You Should Be Dead: You have suffered from an attack powerful enough to kill you one hundred times over and yet have survived.

How are you alive?

You have received +25% to all stats.

Title Unlocked!

Reversal of Fates: You have suffered from an attack powerful enough to kill you one hundred times over and instead of dying, you thrived and became more powerful.

You are anomalous.

You have received +30% to all stats.

You have defeated the ruler of the Ventorin sector!

You have 1 hour to lay claim to the fallen ruler’s castle.

Laying claim to the fallen ruler’s castle will initiate a castle-wide System notification allowing anyone inside the castle to challenge your claim in single combat. A selection of arenas will be provided. You and the challengers will be teleported by the System to the arena. Challengers cannot be avoided. More than one challenger may apply. You must fight each one after the other with a brief respite for recovery time. Interference in the one-on-one duel will be prevented by the System.

Winning the claim will allow you to control the castle’s defences and resources, but it will not guarantee Denizens inside the castle will obey your commands.

You have 24 hours to lay claim to the fallen ruler’s capital world.

Laying claim to the fallen ruler’s capital world will initiate a world-wide System notification allowing anyone on the world to challenge your claim in single combat. A selection of arenas will be provided. You and the challengers will be teleported by the System to the arena. Challengers cannot be avoided. More than one challenger may apply. You must fight each one after the other with a brief respite for recovery time. Interference in the one-on-one duel will be prevented by the System.

Winning the claim will allow you to control the capital world’s defences and resources, but it will not guarantee citizens of the world will obey your commands.

You have 7 days to lay claim to the fallen ruler’s sector.

Laying claim to the fallen ruler’s sector will initiate a sector-wide System notification allowing anyone in the sector to challenge your claim in single combat. A selection of arenas will be provided. You and the challengers will be teleported by the System to the arena. Challengers cannot be avoided. More than one challenger may apply. You must fight each one after the other with a brief respite for recovery time. Interference in the one-on-one duel will be prevented by the System.

Winning the claim will allow you to control the sector’s defences and resources, but it will not guarantee citizens of the sector will obey your commands.

Note: If you choose to claim the world and win, the castle becomes yours by default. If you choose to claim the sector and win, the world and castle become yours by default.

If you do not lay your claim within the time provided, all claims will be forfeit and each world and their individual bases and territories will be considered fair game, triggering leadership quests for every Denizen on every world, causing large- and small-scale conflict across the galaxy.

Choose wisely.

You have reformed a shattered Spirit Core!

Your Spirit Core is now in the condition it was in directly before it was shattered.

You have reformed a shattered Willpower Core!

Your Willpower Core is now in the condition it was in directly before it was shattered.

You have reformed a shattered Speed Core!

Your Speed Core is now in the condition it was in directly before it was shattered.

You have reformed a shattered Intelligence Core!

Your Intelligence Core is now in the condition it was in directly before it was shattered.

Title Unlocked!

No Longer Broken: You have reformed one or more attribute cores, achieving a feat most in the Greater Universe deem impossible.

You have received +20% enhanced overall cultivation ability for each reformed core.

Congratulations, you have fulfilled all the requirements to advance to C Grade!

If you have not prepared your body, mind, and cores appropriately, your attributes, spells, and skills might be damaged, or the transformation may cause your death.

Do you wish to advance to C Grade?

A System Error has been rectified.

You once again meet the requirements to climb the Tower of Champions.

Your suspension from the Tower of Champions has been lifted.

Prepare for instantaneous teleport—

Error.

You have initiated one of several unique conflicts that prevent instantaneous teleportation back to the Tower of Champions. Until your claim to what is now Gregori The Collector’s former domain has been carried out or forfeited, you will not be returned to the Tower of Champions.

Xavier blinked after reading through all the different notifications.

As he went through them, he had to say he was surprised to see the System recognised his use of Soul Energy to reinforce his body, mind, and soul at all. He cocked his head to the side in thought. For some time now whenever he looked at his status screen, he was quite aware that it didn’t reflect how strong he actually was. It was baffling, but even though the System was able to gain information from the foreign System version that governed another corner of the multiverse where the Reality Energy had come from and recognise his advancement to Tier 2, his individual attributes didn’t show how truly strong he was anymore. Any gains he’d made from the Reality Energy reinforcing him simply hadn’t been reflected in his status.

There was a part of Xavier that had thought the System would do the same thing for the Soul Energy reinforcement.

Soul Energy has always been apart of this System’s knowledge. Perhaps it already had a blueprint for that, but not for the changes Reality Energy makes…

Either way, he was glad to see how much more powerful each of his stats had become. He’d already felt the change and how much stronger he was from taking in the foreign Soul Energy, but he had to say there was something more concrete about such gains when the System actually showed them to him. It made him wonder if he would be able to somehow prompt the System into reflecting the gains he had from his other path to power—the path of the Cultivator that used Reality Energy and had allowed him to advance in a whole different System to Tier 2.

Then, there was the 250 points of Willpower he’d gained. His Willpower hadn’t been increased by any of the modifications he’d made with Soul Energy, at least not according to the notifications; he wasn’t exactly sure where one would need to target to strengthen Willpower. Clearly, he hadn’t needed to target anywhere specific. The simple act of being able to make all this happen must have required a significant enough amount of mental effort to trigger the change. It had been difficult, and he’d needed to have a rock-solid belief that he wasn’t about to die—a belief that Anhelina, the Spirit of Time, had kept trying to talk him out of—but he hadn’t realised it required as much will as it must have.

Enough to make him grow.

Moving onto the titles, Xavier frowned.

The titles’ descriptions felt… Well, like the System spoke to him directly.

You should be dead… How are you alive… You are anomalous…

It wasn’t the first time he’d felt like the System was more aware of him or was personalising a notification, but it had certainly been a while.

That reminded him of that crack of lightning and thunder, and the words they had precipitated that he and the others had seen in the sky above the Roving Seed Base, that day they were talking about the System and had clearly said too much. The System is Watching. He’d seen those same words as a notification what felt like a lifetime ago.

That wasn’t the last time the System spoke to him directly, however. There were other times.

But this time? These notifications felt different. Confused. Almost… annoyed? But why would the System be annoyed at him for becoming more powerful? Wasn’t it trying to create someone strong enough to save the universe?

Maybe I’m reading too much into it. There’s no reason to think its annoyed or even has those kinds of emotions or emotions at all. Besides, it’s still awarding me titles.

The notifications concerning the claiming of Gregori The Collector’s former domain were ones he’d been expecting, as he’d come across them in the research he’d done. The one-on-one fights were, regrettably, to the death. He’d looked for loopholes, ways he could allow whoever challenged him to live, and had found the only way that was possible was if the challenger surrendered—such a surrender had a great cost to the challenger, however, forcing them into a hundred-year exile of wherever they’d challenged the claim to. That, and the fact their surrender could be refused by the challenged, meant it was an unlikely path for whoever he fought to consider.

They would have to trust I wouldn’t simply kill them, and the System doesn’t allow contracts to be signed during the fight. Besides, many would rather die fighting…

Xavier had already decided he would do what was necessary to solidify his rule, but he knew the easiest path to doing so was to kill by reflex instead of providing time for mercy. That wasn’t the type of ruler he wanted to be.

The notification he was most excited to see was the one saying he’d met the requirements to advance to C Grade. Seeing that finally happen made him utterly relieved. Though Xavier had managed to keep faith in himself and his ability to come out of his cores being shattered better for it, he was human—well, dragonkin, human enough—and so he still had his doubts. He’d formed artificial cores to replace what he’d lost and even created artificial cores for the ones he hadn’t yet uncovered. But repairing his cores had proved more difficult than he’d imagined—and those cores had been the one roadblock stopping him from advancing to the C Grade.

I should have been C Grade a long, long time ago. At least I’ve had other advancements since then.

Xavier released a long breath, letting go of even more tension he hadn’t known was there.

As excited as he was about the notification, he knew he couldn’t advance now. It would be wonderful if he were able to advance and use his newfound strength to fight the Void Being hovering above, but the process of advancement would take far, far too long. With the way the Void Being had been flickering in and out of existence—phasing into different planes—there was a good chance it would be able to get a hold of him when it phased back into the mortal realm, which would completely bypass his time dilation field.

He couldn’t be advancing when that happened. And even if Palini had both his arms again, there was no way the man would be able to defend against that Void Being. With how easily the Void Being had cut through the other Denizens in the room, Xavier wasn’t about to risk their lives for a sooner advancement either.

Finally, coming to the last notification, Xavier found it troubling. He’d never expected to be ejected from the Tower of Champions in the first place, and with how much he’d gained from the tower he always hoped he would be able to return—but the Tower of Champions threw a wrench in his plans.

It always threw a wrench in his plans…

And the System had become quite unpredictable when it came to Xavier and the tower, making notifications such as these untrustworthy. Ever since the System had pulled Xavier back to the tower months earlier than it said it would, everything felt more uncertain.

The notification says it won’t send me back to the tower until after I’ve either won the claim or forfeited it, but how do I know it will even hold up its end of that? How do I know it won’t pull me back right now?

Xavier shut his eyes, frustration welling inside him. He didn’t push the frustration away. He just sat with it, letting himself feel it for a moment, then opened his eyes.

Whatever happens, happens. All I have to go on is the information I have. If things change, I’ll change my plans as necessary.

He gripped his soul bound weapon, currently in the form of a hand-and-a-half sword, and glanced at Palini.

Palini raised an eyebrow. “Are you done whatever it was you were doing?”

“I am.” Xavier paused. “I just reformed my shattered cores.”

Palini frowned. “Shattered cores?” He took a step toward Xavier. “Are… are you kidding me? You had shattered cores? And—you reformed them? That’s…”

“Impossible?”

“It’s supposed to be!” Palini sighed. “Then again, every damned thing I’ve seen you do should be impossible!” The man moved his stumps as though to do something, but couldn’t. “Who the hell are you?”

Xavier smiled. “An anomaly. At least, according to the System.”

“An anomaly? What do you me—”

Xavier stumbled back and widened his eyes at the same time as Palini gasped.

The Void Being had materialised less than an inch from Xavier’s face, one of its dark claws extended for his eye. Any closer, and the Void Being would have been inside the time dilation field. Xavier was very, very glad he’d restricted the field so close to him and Palini. The Void Being had a wicked, twisted smile that made them look nothing alike.

How…?

Xavier had kept a part of his attention on the Void Being the entire time, anticipating its next flicker. When it had materialised in front of him, however, the Void Being had still been in the same place it had started! His heart raced. Could there be two, identical Void Beings? How did the other one break through? How did it get strong enough to?

Then the first Void Being disappeared and remained gone, leaving only the one in front of Xavier.

What happened became starkly clear.

There weren’t two. The Void Being had entered a different plane of existence where time didn’t just flow differently, but backward.

“Did… Did it just travel back in time?” Palini asked.

Xavier swallowed, nodded. “Yes.”

“But that’s…”

“Impossible?”

“No more stalling.” Palini eyed him. “Do whatever it is you’re going to do.”

Xavier was already moving, casting several spells. Drones started appearing around him. All the ones he’d sent into that throne room had died. Xavier, now knowing how long he had, created the minimum number he thought he’d need for his plan to go smoothly. A dozen drones appeared around him. Time Pocket Stream was still active, and with the enhancements and titles he’d just gained the spell felt stronger than ever.

The drones instantly got to work. The spell gave him the ability to fast equip the drones as they were summoned, so they already had weapons and armour the instant they appeared—but in each of their right hands they didn’t wield a weapon. Instead, they held a stylus.

Except for the final drone he’d summoned, who didn’t hold anything.

That drone instantly cast Strike Out. This move was a risk, one Xavier hoped would pay off. The Void Being’s mind moved so swiftly it could trigger its phasing even while in a far, far slower time stream than Xavier. But even though its mind moved fast, that didn’t mean it couldn’t be slowed.

Not only that, but it was also clear to Xavier, especially after what Rhaalir had told him about the Void Being’s rapid use of Soul Energy, that every time it phased it lost a huge chunk of its supply of Soul Energy, meaning it wouldn’t be able to phase in and out for long. Such an ability cost it dearly.

Even so, Xavier didn’t want to risk the Void Being getting a hold of him.

The drone’s hands glowed. In the same instant, those hands appeared on the Void Being. This had the very unfortunate effect of placing the Void Being within Xavier’s time dilation field. But despite how swiftly its mind moved, the drone had moved faster—faster than any drone Xavier had summoned in the past, as this one now benefited from his new enhancements. When the drone’s hands touched the Void Being it didn’t move even a millimetre despite coming into the time dilation field. The glowing hands remained touching the Void Being, but the drone’s own hands were no longer glowing, meaning the Strike Out spell had been cancelled out—the time stream the Void Being was now in simply hadn’t caught up.

The Void Being was once more trapped outside the time dilation field. But on top of that, it was now trapped inside a Time Prison.

Time Prison, though a powerful spell, usually didn’t last very long on enemies as strong as the Void Being. It also wasn’t a spell Xavier decided to use often, as it didn’t simply trap the target in a Time Prison, it also made them unable to be attacked as they were no longer in the same phase while the spell was active.

Xavier had the spell in his drone’s line up as a last resort. Had he known what would happen in The Collector’s throne room, he would have used the spell as part of his original plan. He could have locked down all the B Grade guards with it… he simply thought that course of action wouldn’t be necessary.

Live and learn.

“What can I do?” Palini said from beside him. “You must have kept me in the time dilation field for a reason.”

“Witness.”