Zenith Online: Rebirth of the Strongest Player

Chapter 633: Northern Sands (II)



Despite Kieran moving with frightening alacrity, dodging the downpour conjured by the Sentinels of the Northern Sands was difficult. It was a matter of understanding the rhythm of the downpour and having the required raw stats to overcome the speed of the earthbound sand.

Luckily, understanding the rhythm wasn't hard for Kieran, who had an exceptional mind now that he had comfortably crossed the Inhuman Threshold. And when it came to utilization his attributes, he could boast he could eke out close to perfection.

Of course, he wasn't so egotistical to believe that he was truly perfect. Humans were prone to mistakes — such was the curse of humanity. Most progress occurred in the process of making many mistakes.

Even now, Kieran found himself making mistake that fortunately wouldn't cost him dearly. Amid the downpour were many outliers that didn't follow the set rhythm, which led to Kieran being hit by the descending sand pellets.

The weight behind the sand rain was astonishing. A couple hits to his should left Kieran feeling as if his right arm would go limp. However, the Imprints engraved upon his body shone with a soft radiance.

Kieran's brow suddenly shot up. He shot a look at his right hand, flexing it while gauging its condition. Though it couldn't compare to a completely healthy arm, Kieran found he was rapidly recovering his strength.

This was a new development considering how he dealt with pain in the past. With the help of his previous passives, he could suppress pain to keep fighting while paying the price afterward. Now, Kieran could tell that this pain wasn't being dull... but instead it was being remedied.

He felt mightier.

'The Imprint of Might is working overtime.'

The sensation elated Kieran, but it also made him wary. This place was thrumming with ancient golems that most Novices and perhaps some Adepts couldn't handle. The strange properties of the sand put all intruders at a disadvantage and gave the Sentinels the upper hand.

Kieran wasn't confident in the accuracy of his hypothesis, but he felt the sand was growing heavier as it absorbed mana. After all, the Sentinels gave up moving to actively channel, which resulted in a massive sand storm looming overhead.

All around him, dents in the platform was forming. The repeated impacts were slowly wearing away at the integrity of the platform in crucial area. Time had already reared it vile head, terrorizing this underground area, but the Sentinels' actions were furthering the worn state.

Kieran inhaled deeply then bellowed from his chest, projecting his voice everywhere.

"Prioritize advancing while you fight. We need to steer clear of this strange overpass and move deeper inside."

"Roger that," Bastion shouted back, his voice sounding strained. A glimpse in his direction revealed him teaming up with Nemean to suppress another Sentinel.

Not too far away, Altair moved with ghastly precision.

The eerie soundlessness of his spectral movements mixed with the deepened darkness of his mantle disoriented the Sentinel. It struggled to aim at Altair and its movements grew sluggish quickly.

It wasn't a sluggishness brought about by fatigue, but rather one that seemed awfully close to being frozen. Simply thinking about Altair's insidious ability left Kieran with chills. He wasn't fearful of the ability, but he was wary and cautious about it. Until he could confirm the limits of his abilities, Kieran couldn't write off the threat Altair's ability posed to all sides.

Altair continued to sliced and where his bayonets passed, thin discolored marks appeared on the Sentinels. The more Kieran witnessed Altair acted, the more curious he grew about the specifics of his Path.

Returning his attention back to the threat at hand, Kieran lurched with the help of a Grand Stomp, moving near the edge of the overpass at breakneck speed. From his position, he could see the pillars arcing from the walls to support the entire platform from beneath.

Of his party, the majority of the downpour seemed focused on Kieran, but it was hard to tell considering he had little time to stop and examine the situation and micro-manage their actions. Instead, he had to have faith the other members of this journey could handle the task given.

Having faith felt too bizarre to him. The factors he couldn't account for while operation off of faith left Kieran feeling... almost nauseous.

Or maybe that feeling came from else...

Suddenly, Kieran was turning his head to look into the dark. The motes of mystic symbols compacted with profound meaning lit up in his eyes and the surroundings changed subtly. Hundreds of meters of way, he could see additional Sentinels approaching. Their speed was neither face or nor slow, but it produced a sense of urgency in Kieran.

If additional Sentinel joined with the ones they were currently fighting against, the sand storm would only grow worse, perhaps even unmanageable.

'Not... ideal.'

Seconds later, the atmosphere around Kieran changed. The Dread Circlet looming behind him came alive, spinning with terrifying vigor. The energy linked with his weapon and from there, the maw became far more frightening. Perhaps there was an unmentioned synergy between the Dread Circlet and the [Vampiric Hardening] ability of Fiend's Carnage, but the feeling it exuded became clear.

When used in concert, the presence of the Dread Circlet blossomed in the worst way. There was no notification to confirm what Kieran was feeling or suspecting, but Vampiric Hardening felt heightened.

It seemed to gleam with a dark power. The cleaver shape was more pronounced and the jagged edges truly resembled the maw of a voracious beast. Overall, it gave off the feeling of having risen from the depths of hell. More than that, the [Vampiric Hardening] felt like it sought to

devour and destroy.

In that regard, Kieran could only assume it was related to his curse. Carnage was undoubtedly related to death.

Nevertheless, focusing on the link between these abilities wasn't a priority.

"Haul ass," Kieran ordered.

Then, he erupted into action, using his final Grand Stomp to appear in front of the closest Sentinel. The hardened Crimson Ashrune swept through the air, biting into the golem's chest. A dull ache spread through Kieran's arm, shooting up his left side, but he ignored the meager pain to press on with his attack.

The dreadful energy supercharging his attack bore through the Sentinel, extinguishing a decent portion of his Dread Circlet. Seconds later, the luster in the Sentinel's azure gem eye vanished like the spark of life leaving a person's eyes.

Pulling his weapon free with a sudden kick to the golem's chest, Kieran reaped EXP while ignoring the other notifications in the corner of his eye.

Without pausing, he spotted another Sentinel and rushed in its direction. The disappearance of a golem weakened power of the sand storm, lightening the burden on the party for the time being. But the reinforcements were approaching fast.

Something told Kieran that he would have to become used to dealing with sand and low visibility if he was going to pierce deeper into this place.

Maybe it stemmed from a Fiend's attachment and obsession towards blood, but a bizarre emptiness assailed him when he sacrificed it or put too much distance between him and his blood. And that emptiness relayed choppy information.

Touching his heart, Kieran looked at the sand and blood mixing to form a gruesome, unsettling sight. Pulling that back into his body without separating it from the sand would

prove a challenge.

But there was a glimmer of hope in losing that blood. He could feel a...n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

'What is that? A consciousness?'

As his blood seeped into the sand and a yearning was birthed deep in his core, Kieran noticed his blood wanting to go on a rampage and wreak havoc on what attempted to imprison it.

Kieran grinned, revealing a vile expression.

Like him, his blood despised being imprisoned. No, if he was being honest, his blood was even more despicable and obdurate in that regard. For it was mixed with the blood of Argexes,

who before his birth was already shackled.

"A double whammy," Kieran said.

Then, he held up his hand, feeling the Fiend's Carnage thrum with power inside his Realm. A frenetic pulse surged through him, tingling at his fingertips before drawing upon his

"Break," Kieran commanded.

The bloodied sand suspended in the air shuddered but didn't fracture as expected. However, Kieran could sense his blood thrash against a film wreathing the sand.

Something had supreme control over those sands, and Kieran suspected that authority belonged to the Northern Aegis. The Essence Fragment had revealed that much. And the control was surprisingly stronger than the authority he could impose on his blood.