Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage Chapter 816: Defying The Heavens

CH816 Defying The Heavens

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Rumble~!

Just then, another thunderous rumble rolled through the Heavenly Tribulation clouds overhead.

The heavens were preparing to unleash another bolt of tribulation lightning.

This time, however, Alex’s crimson eyes glowed an even deeper shade of red.

An eerie, unsettling smile spread across his face.

Calm Madness!

Rather than evade the incoming strike, Alex made the insane decision to remain mounted atop the doppelganger, using his own body to receive the lightning bolt instead.

The Bloodline Armour—layered over the Plate of Happenstance and empowered by the Limitless Concept—worked frantically to absorb the tribulation lightning while protecting Alex’s body as best it could.

He was undoubtedly in agony...

Excruciating agony.

Yet he endured it through sheer force of will, relentlessly continuing to pummel the doppelganger beneath him.

He quickly lost count of how many tribulation lightning bolts had struck his back.

The only things driving him forward were his indomitable will...

And perhaps his hatred and wrath.

Ignoring everything else, Alex continued attacking through the relentless barrage, steadily consuming the Tribulation Lightning Mana that formed the doppelganger’s body.

Gradually, the doppelganger’s form began to lose its density.

Its body grew fainter and fainter.

Alex never stopped.

He continued intercepting every descending bolt with his own back, preventing the doppelganger from replenishing itself while beating it down in perhaps the most primal and savage manner imaginable.

Finally, the doppelganger’s body flickered on the verge of complete dissolution.

Slick!

Without warning, the wrist blade of the Beta Bracer slid out into place.

"Go to hell!!!"

Alex swung without hesitation.

The blade severed the doppelganger’s head from its body, utterly indifferent to the fact that it bore his own face.

RUMBLE~~!!!!

A deafening peal of thunder reverberated across the entire Frontier March.

Slowly, the dark tribulation clouds receded.

Yet what they revealed was not a bright, clear sky. But, instead, the darkness of the night greeted him.

Alex suddenly felt his consciousness waver.

His body threatened to collapse, but with the last remnants of his will, he forced himself to fall onto his back instead.

He stared up at the crescent moon hanging high above.

There was a lonely elegance to it as it quietly illuminated the night sky.

The tribulation lightning had finally withdrawn— though clearly not of its own accord.

Unlike every previous Heavenly Tribulation Alex had survived, this one left behind no gift of rebirth.

Perhaps allowing the Nest Queen to continue existing was the only concession the heavens were willing to make.

Alex felt his consciousness steadily slipping away.

The Bloodline Armour...

His True Martial Intent...

His Domain Fortune...

His Truth-Seeker Eyes...

His mana...

The Limitless Concept...

Everything faded away.

His body was also horribly mangled.

All the damage that had accumulated throughout the battle—the injuries he had stubbornly ignored—came crashing back all at once.

He was mortally wounded.

However, Alex did not care.

Before his consciousness slipped away, there was one final thing he needed to do.

’Go.’

Alex gave the weak mental command.

The next moment, a single drop of red-gold blood—blood, not flesh—floated into the sky.

Gluttony!

A tremendous suction force suddenly erupted from the crimson-gold droplet.

Mound after mound of flesh from the slaughtered Berserk Beasts scattered across the battlefield was torn free and drawn towards it.

Before long, a cocoon of flesh and blood had formed in the sky.

Soon afterwards, a powerful heartbeat visibly throbbed through the surrounding air.

A weary smile formed on Alex’s lips.

’At least... I did something right today.’

He thought to himself.

’Now I can finally rest.’

Alex was in so much pain that, for the first time, he found himself willing to surrender to it.

Even more so because he did not want to face the fact that he had broken one of his ironclad creeds.

He allowed his eyes to close— expecting it to be for the final time.

SKRREEE!!!

However, just as his eyelids were about to shut completely, a familiar beast cry echoed across the horizon.

Then an equally familiar scent enveloped him.

His vision had become blurred, but he could still tell who had arrived.

"I am... sorry, Udara," Alex said with great difficulty. "The baton... it broke."

Blood trickled from his eyes as he struggled to keep them open.

"I broke... my vow... to you."

"Master... Master... No!"

Udara’s anguished cry rang out.

"Don’t give up!"

"I don’t care about the baton. All I want is you, Alex!"

Deep within the encroaching darkness, a tiny sliver of Alex’s consciousness still remained.

Udara’s cries reached him like a ray of light piercing the darkness.

A thunderous rumble echoed through his mind.

The thought of Udara crying jolted what little consciousness he had left.

’What... what am I doing?!’

The image of his wives receiving news of his death— of leaving them behind after bringing them all the way here...

’How can I give up now?’

The thought of abandoning them simply because he wanted to run away after making one mistake...

’No! I am not that weak!’

He roared inwardly.

Struggling through overwhelming weakness, Alex clawed his way back towards the light.

"Second... Life..."

Udara, who was still crying, suddenly heard his weak voice.

Those two words were all Alex could manage with the little strength he had left.

Fortunately, Udara was his Shadow, and among the people who understood him best.

The gemstone embedded on the back of her fingerless Gloves glowed.

A portal opened before her, and she rushed into the Sanctuary Pocket Dimension.

A moment later, she returned with a vial in hand.

Without hesitation, she poured its contents into Alex’s mouth.

Thump!

A tremendous surge of life force coursed through Alex’s body, stabilising his injuries.

Alex weakly opened his eyes.

"I am sorry," he said with a faint, apologetic smile.

"It doesn’t matter... as long as you are alive."

Udara carefully embraced his battered body.

Just then, a golden light descended from the heavens, enveloping both Alex and the floating mass of flesh and blood.

Alex suddenly realised that he had only now completed the trial of the Heavenly Tribulation—and only now had he earned its rewards.

’Villainous... heavens.’

Alex muttered weakly to himself.

The golden radiance began repairing his ravaged body, but the strain on his mind was simply too great.

His consciousness gradually slipped away once more.

This time, however, Udara remained calm after confirming that he had merely fallen unconscious.

Senu descended before her, lowering herself and offering her back so that Udara could carry Alex away.

However, before they could move him, the golden light surrounding the floating mass of flesh and blood suddenly receded.

The mass wriggled continuously before finally compressing in upon itself, leaving behind a blood-red sphere barely sixty centimetres across.

Space itself shuddered around the sphere.

After all, it had been formed by compressing the flesh of hundreds of thousands of Berserk Beast carcasses of every conceivable size and mass.

Naturally, both Udara’s and Senu’s attention was drawn towards the floating sphere.

As Alex’s Beast Companion, Senu could sense his unmistakable imprint within it.

She instinctively understood that it was somehow connected to him.

As such, neither she nor Udara made a move.

Moments later, the sphere began expanding.

It continued growing until it formed a three-metre-tall silhouette.

The mysterious figure slowly descended with an almost graceful elegance before coming to a kneeling position before Alex’s unconscious body.

Upon a devastated landscape— A battlefield where hundreds of thousands of Berserk Beasts had been annihilated...

where one man had valiantly defied the Heavens themselves...

The Nest Queen was finally born.

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