Free Tier - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 74 - The Plan

Time once more lost all meaning to Xavier.

When he’d worried the Arakashinai Queen would be able to notice what he’d done to its drones even with time moving at the slowest crawl he could manage outside his time dilation field, he’d rushed to her chamber.

That sense of urgency had left him when he’d realised the queen itself had never had a confrontation that wasn’t conducted at a distance with her drones.

Inside the chamber, he did not feel the weight of the queen’s power. He did not feel the B Grade insectoid Denizen attempt to alter his time dilation field. Whether she was aware of what had happened to her drones or not, whether her mind truly could move so fast as to gain that knowledge even in her current state, all his observations told him there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

Xavier’s stylus moved through the air with an exacting precision he never would have been capable of when he’d first arrived on this planet. His skills at drawing runes had gone beyond what he’d ever imagined them being.

As he worked, notifications flashed across his vision. More ranks for his Inscribing spell put into reserve for when he reached C Grade. Even though he didn’t gain those ranks, he could still feel an improvement in his ability. He may not be of the right advancement to receive the rank, but his skill in the spell was better than it had been, even if marginally.

How much better will it be when I do get those ranks?

The section of the Arakashinai Queen’s chamber that didn’t contain her massive bulk was more than large enough for the pattern of runes he was drawing. He hovered in the air, and as he worked, he was all but oblivious to the B Grade’s presence.

This wasn’t the first pattern of runes Xavier had drawn within this chamber. It was the third, and the last one that he would need if he was to succeed in his plan to kill the Arakashinai Queen.

The first spell pattern he’d drawn here had been for Soul Harvest. It hadn’t taken many attempts for him to get that pattern right—less than when he’d learnt to use the Willpower Infusion pattern.

The second had been for Soul Shatter. That had only taken him until his second attempt to perfect.

This third pattern, the final one he would need for his plan, was for Soul Strike. The most powerful spell in his arsenal—at least when it came to producing raw damage.

To Xavier’s surprise and delight, it only took him a single attempt to perfect the spell pattern for Soul Strike. When he completed it, and the pattern glowed, a smile lit up his face. He’d been so lost in the act of drawing each curve and line of the intricate runes that interwove the pattern that he hadn’t even wondered if it would work on his first try.

Not for the first time, he felt incredibly grateful for having gained his Time Alteration spell, and for having encountered Liana soon after. The progress he made when time was all but stopped around him… It was staggering.

He flew to the far end of the chamber. Even there, with his natural vision, it was impossible to take in the large patterns, so he observed them with his Farscope ability instead.

The centre of the queen’s chamber, where he’d drawn the three spell patterns one in front of the next—something that was easily possible as though the surface area of the pattern was quite large, the runes themselves were whisper thin—had been filled with Arak drones when he’d first expanded the time dilation field to cover the space. He’d swiftly disposed of the drones, placing their corpses into his Storage Ring to clear the space.

The only Arak drones that remained within the chamber with the soldier drones, the honour guard at the queen’s side.

The three rune patterns were each a different shape. A circle, a square, and a pentagon. They each glowed, all three of them activated. All he needed to do was initiate them to cast their spells. Three lines of energy stretched from his chest, though the air, connecting him to each of the patterns, allowing him to control them.

He wasn’t ready to initiate the spell patterns yet. For one, he hadn’t actually tested any of them. In his mind, the plan he’d made was sound. That didn’t mean it would work in practice. It also didn’t mean it would work the first time he tried it.

Xavier had managed to gain an incredible amount of control over the Willpower Infusion spell pattern, but he hadn’t done the same thing with these three patterns. He hadn’t initiated them even once.

Still, he was hoping that control would cross over to controlling other patterns.

Xavier released a long breath. He knew there were potential flaws in his plan. For one, if he killed too many of the queen’s soldier drones, he worried what that could mean for the Kingdom of Eldaarn. Killing enough of them might chance turning the tide of the fight back to them, meaning he would achieve the goal of the floor and be sent back to the Staging Room.

But he’d thought about that possibility a great deal since he’d arrived on the Arakashinai home world. He was beginning to think it didn’t hold water. To change the tide of the fight, the defenders back at the castle would need a chance to deactivate one of their main Defender spells—or even both of them—so that they could finally start gaining Mastery Points from their kills.

His intuition told him that the System wouldn’t register a change in the tide of the battle until that became possible. Maybe not even until one of them—perhaps King Elric himself—was able to gain a level.

With time moving at the pace it was, such a thing simply wouldn’t be possible.

There was a second reason he was no longer worried about the floor being cleared prematurely. In all the floors Xavier had cleared, it was incredibly rare for the System to pull him out early. Such a thing only happened on floors that were unique—like when there was combat with other Champions from his universe.

Even then, it rarely happened.

There was usually a timer. Sometimes, it didn’t pull a Champion out for half an hour after the floor was cleared. Other times, it only gave them a mere five seconds before pulling them out.

As long as Xavier had his time dilation field, he was ready for that—though five seconds might be cutting it a little thin.

That logic was what gave him the confidence to do what he did next.

Xavier turned away from the three spell patterns inside the chamber and looked down the tunnel. Though his Farscope ability could stretch far, the tunnel stretched even farther. He couldn’t see the city that lay beyond it. Couldn’t see the millions of drones crawling about over there.

He tilted his head from one side of his shoulders to the other, making a satisfying crack as he prepared himself for his next move. The time dilation field that was wrapped around him and extended to the spell patterns at his back had been active for a long, long time. Xavier honestly wasn’t sure how long it had remained active for. All the experiments he’d performed on the drones, all the spell patterns he’d drawn… That must have taken a while.

Days, weeks. Longer. He couldn’t even guess.

He could, however, feel the strain that had been put onto his Time Alteration spell. As often and as long he’d been using it, he had a sense for these things. He’d used up perhaps three quarters of the spell’s potential power, and what he was about to do next would eat up the power at an incredibly fast rate. He knew he could push past that, if necessary, and keep the field going longer by sheer force of will—if he had the required concentration.

He’d learnt that back on the eightieth floor.

Still, that wasn’t a risk he wanted to take. He hoped that energy remaining would be enough for what he needed to do next.

Xavier expanded the time dilation field outward, watching as it crawled through the tunnel. Once it had moved farther than either his natural eyes or his Farscope ability could perceive he flew back through the tunnel. He quickly emerged into the Arakashinai city that was closest to the queen’s chamber.

This was the biggest Arakashinai city he’d encountered. He hadn’t bothered estimating how many drones were in the city. There were many millions—that was all he really needed to know.

He flew high up, above the tallest skyscraper, his time dilation field continuing to expand. As he’d flown through the tunnel, he’d kept close attention on the three strands of energy that connected him to the spell patterns back in the chamber. He didn’t know what their effective range was. To his surprise, the strands of energy held.

Not that he needed them to. Those weren’t the ones he planned on activating. Not right away, anyhow. Learning to create them had simply been the first part of his plan.

The second part of his plan was testing how far his time dilation field could stretch about the city, and how much toll that would take on him.

A smile curved his lips as he observed his time dilation field. The energy was being eaten up far faster than before, but the rate at which it was being taken was within acceptable parameters for what he wanted to do.

Stretching it this far—far enough to encompass perhaps a million Arak drones within the massive underground city—Xavier estimated the field would last for roughly another five minutes.

More than enough time. If all goes to plan, the fight won’t last near as long as that.

Xavier’s enhanced ears could hear the buzz of thousands upon thousands of Arak drones flying around the city, and the clatter of their non-flier brethren crawling about on the ground and up the walls. Not a single one of the drones within the expanded field looked his way. They weren’t aware of his presence.

He snapped the field back down, making it only cover the area directly around him, and was returned to the peaceful silence he enjoyed so much. Every time he changed the time dilation field, whether it was the size, the shape, or even where the field was, it ate into that energy, that potential. But it only ate a negligible amount these days.

Xavier released a relieved sigh, knowing another part of his plan would work the way he needed it to.

There was a part of his mind that wondered if he could draw a fourth spell pattern—the spell pattern for Time Alteration. Having that pattern in his arsenal would mean he wouldn’t need to worry about the spell reaching its end and having to wait for its cooldown. Creating that pattern had almost been a part of his plan. But it looked as though he wouldn’t need it, and right now, he didn’t want to make things more complicated than they already were.

There were enough moving parts in his plan as it was.

The next thing Xavier did was draw two spell patterns in the air above the Arakashinai city. He felt a flutter of nervousness in his chest before he started to draw the patterns. This was yet another possible failure point for his plan. If this didn’t work, the entire thing would fall apart.

His worries fell away as his stylus moved, and he attained the level of calm concentration needed to complete the task.

When he was done, the spell patterns for Soul Strike and Soul Harvest hung in the air, glowing pleasingly.

The nervousness did not return when he went to initiate the Soul Strike pattern. This would either work or it wouldn’t. If it didn’t work, he would make it work—as he’d made the Willpower Infusion spell work. If he couldn’t, within the time he had… He would simply come up with a different plan.

Xavier initiated the Soul Strike pattern. The runes glowed even more brightly, and there was a tug on the strand of energy connecting him to it. Xavier hadn’t experienced this particular sensation before when activating a spell pattern. The runes within the pattern drew their power from the universe itself.

But this pattern was different.

Soul Strike needed souls to work, and Xavier hadn’t assumed the universe would be the one to provide those souls. Providing power to a spell was one thing, but souls? That wasn’t something the universe could just give—it was a bargain. One the Denizen needed to make.

So, instinctively, he knew what he needed to do.

Xavier drew five hundred souls from his soulkeeping reserve. He wasn’t sure if that would be enough for what he needed, or if it would be too much. He was about to find out.

Assuming I can get this to work…

The souls flowed down the strand of energy connecting him to the Soul Strike pattern of runes, imbuing it was a rich white light that felt alive. That was alive. As the souls entered the pattern, Xavier felt something click within him.

Control… I feel in control.

Xavier pushed his will onto the pattern, the same way that he’d been doing with Willpower Infusion, and was filled with a sense of accomplishment. The ability he’d trained with the other pattern did transfer. Though he wasn’t as familiar with controlling the Soul Strike pattern, he felt how malleable it was. Felt it respond, intuitively, to his will. The level of control he’d exerted on the Willpower Infusion pattern had been intensely strong and precise because he’d needed it for a very specific purpose. That level of control had allowed him to enter an Arak drone’s mind without destroying it.

For this task, Xavier didn’t need such an intense level of control.

Xavier commanded the pattern. Brilliant, pure white bolts of lightning burst from the pattern as though it was causing an electrical storm. The bolts of lightning sprang forward, heading straight down toward the city, but they were stopped short by the edge of his time dilation field.

The young dragonkin raised his chin as he looked through the field. With a thought, the field expanded, encompassing the part of the city he’d targeted with the spell pattern.

The noise of that alien, insectoid city came to life once more as the bolts of lightning continued on their course. The bolts shifted and changed, soul apparitions of dozens of different types of beasts he’d slain on previous floors materialised. The apparitions soared through the sky, lighting the city with their power.

They swept straight through buildings, across streets, and into clusters of Arak drones working or marching about the city. Kill notifications popped up into Xavier’s vision, flashing faster than he could count them.

Xavier crossed his arms as he waited for the spell to reach its end. The apparitions would sweep through enemy after enemy until they depleted. If it took the entire power of a single soul to take out an enemy, then it would only sweep through one and disappear. If a single soul, when using Soul Strike as an area of effect attack, could kill several enemies, it would keep going until it ran out of damage to produce.

These apparitions swept far farther than he’d expected them to. He’d needed to expand the time dilation field even more until they were finally depleted.

Xavier didn’t count the kill notifications. He’d spent enough time interacting with the System that he’d discovered a few shortcuts along the way. With a slight push of will, the notifications were grouped together and counted by his interface.

He blinked. Shook his head. Released a weak chuckle. If Xavier wasn’t hovering in the air right now, he would have sunk to the ground and just sat there for a long while. As it was, he just continued to shake his head.

Xavier’s soulkeeping reserve was based on the different ranks of his spells related to the Reaper line of classes. With all of them at Rank 150, he had the ability to hold 10,470 souls in his reserve.

He’d only infused five hundred of those souls into the attack.

With the kill notifications counted, the number of dead Araks stared him in the face.

21,802 Kill Notifications Counted.