Chapter 235: Soul Combat

With his work done, Axel fell to his knees, now only focusing on resisting the Entity which seemed to have now deemed him as an actual threat now that he had unexpectedly won the fight.

It felt as though an invisible force was trying to enter his body, and all that was stopping it was his rapidly draining mental power.

On the other hand, as the wand forcefully reattached the world tree core, the small piece of wood let out a final struggle, using all the magic to attack Axel and the Wand.

But, too bad, all it could really use was light magic, in which, considering the size difference of the two woods, there was a huge gap between the two.

If such a small chunk of the Original can handle such a terrifying amount of power, then what about the large piece that it was previously a part of?

Any magic that came its way was absorbed cleanly by the hungry wand.

Axel looked at the wand in his hand.

'So, it was like that.'

He felt like he had wasted all of that Mental strength for nothing. Because it was only now that he realized that the Fake World Tree was being controlled by this tree. And no matter how much damage he did to the rest of the body, as long as the core was not completely destroyed, with all the divine magic the Tree had stored up over the years, it could regrow the trees again.

Turns out, but attacking the huge imitation, he had been barking up the wrong tree this whole time.

'But still, you're actually fucking amazing, huh?' He thought, looking at his glowing wand in a new light.

This stick had single-wandedly destroyed the World Tree he had been trying so hard to defeat.

The core of the imitation was just a small chunk. And yet, it was able to grow such a terrifying imitation of the World Tree, able to wield such a vast amount of power. And then, his wand was able to snuff it out so easily as if discipling a child.

Until now, he had just thought it to be yet another wand. But, Axel was only now beginning to comprehend just how powerful this seemingly ordinary wand can be.

Unfortunately, there was only slight acknowledgement from the wand, as it seemed too busy absorbing the abundant Light Energy in the area.

"Seriously?"

Axel was pissed off. When it wanted something, it was all excited and over responsive, even letting him use it to hit Zeta. But now that it has achieved its purpose, is it going to stay like that again? He was only beginning to be happy about having another powerful weapon!

While he was still cursing the wand, it suddenly started to shake, light magic beginning to be sputtered out of it. The absorption stopped, and wood on the wand began to shift on its own. From the link, Axel could feel that it was pretty uncomfortable right now.

'System, what's wrong?'

[Axel, the wand has become unbalanced.]

'Unbalanced? What does that even mean?'

[Your wand is a dual elemental core wand, made from the Light core of cherub and dark core of a Demogorgon. But since the Demogorgon core was too powerful compared to the Light core, it was made with the wood of the world tree, balancing it out and even making it more oriented towards Light magic.

But now, upon absorbing its lost part which has become so powerful in the past years and absorbing all that light magic, the wood of the world tree is becoming active again, regaining its dormant properties. The Demogoron core is no longer enough to balance out the attributes of the wand, thus making it like this.]

Axel gritted his teeth.

'Great… just great.'

If this was the case, then he wouldn't have let the greedy wand get back its lost part at all. He'd have rather destroyed it himself.

'What do I do now? How do I get it to work again?'

[You need to balance the wand again. For that, you need Dark energy powerful enough to balance out the wood of the world tree]

'What the hell? Will I keep playing see-saw like this or ever even get to actually use this thing?'

Axel was annoyed. How is he supposed to find something that could possibly be as powerful at the wood of the World Tree that had almost defeated him just now?

The Demogorgon core was already the most powerful darkness core he could find, and that had actually come from the Netherworld.

"Hm? What?!"

At this moment, Axel heard a familiar voice through his mental link, making almost jump.

"Where am I? You... W-What did you do to me?!"

The voice was coming through his mental link with the wand. And it actually belonged to none other than Zeta, the crazy woman he thought he had just gotten rid of.

"You're still alive?!" Asked Axel, putting up his guard again. He was getting scared at this point. He had killed this woman at least five times. And yet, here she is, alive again.

"Woman, can't you just let me kill you in peace?!" He asked in frustration.

Zeta, on the other hand, seemed to have figured out her situation as she began to despair. "You're the one who trapped me like this, and now you're saying you can't kill me?! Believe me, I'd rather die than face such disgrace!"

Axel frowned. "I trapped you? What do you mean?"

"You don't even know?! My whole life force and genetic sequence was stored in the Core! And now that you've made it part of your wand, I'm also trapped in here!"

"What?! I didn't do it on purpose! Having you in my wand would be the last thing I would want!" What could Axel possibly gain from having Zeta in his wand?

"If you really don't then let me out this instant!" She commanded.

"Let you out?"

Axel looked around. And as expected, it was a graveyard full of dead trees everywhere. And the small amounts that had grown back after the destruction were also rapidly dying with no core to control them.

"Yeah, not a chance," he said curtly.

Is he crazy? If he ever released this woman, the first thing she'll try would be to kill him.

"I swear I will do you no harm! Anything is better than being disgraced like this!" Said Zeta.

"Um, do you think you'd wait after someone murders your entire family?" He asked, repeating the exact same words she had said to him when he had asked for a truce.

This woman couldn't even wait to kill him long enough to first deal with the Entity. And now here she is, trying to convince him that she won't try to harm him.

A 20 year old has a better chance at assassinating a world leader than Axel freeing Zeta.

"You can give up hope of being free. Rather, I'm currently trying to figure out how to kill you," he admitted frankly.

"Kill me? Then do so! But remember! My life is fully connected to the World Tree core! If you kill me, the core dies with me!" Exclaimed Zeta.

"That so?" Axel pursed his lips, thinking. "Even better. At least I won't have to balance this useless wand then."

But at this moment, as if having heard his words, the wand wood tightened around its new part, sending him the same message. If the new part goes, the wand goes with it.

"Fuck this shit!"

Frustrated, Axel put the wand in his storage space, or at least, he tried to. But then he remembered: He had no storage space left.

"How did you even get here in the first place?" He asked the wand. Axel had a lot of questions. How did it get here after the ritual? Did it succeed? How is Daphne?

Too bad, the wand was still unresponsive, already in a semi-sleep state.

Sighing, he put it in the pocket of the conjured clothes he had been wearing.

His previous Atlantian Black Ops body armor was pretty durable, but it couldn't survive the explosion, making him have to conjure these clothes after he had woken up naked. And these too were on their last leg, looking as if they were going to fall off any moment.

"First things first. Nerinthos, how do I reinforce the seal?" He asked. The Trident has helped the previous rulers reinforce the seal multiple times in the past. There's no one better to ask.

"My King, it's right there," replied the Trident, pointing right at the place where the world tree used to be.

"Of course." Muttered Axel, rolling his eyes. Making a shovel out of water, he began digging. Right now, all the mental energy he had regained was being used to fight off the Entity's pressure, making manual digging a better option.

But, while digging, suddenly, Axel's knees buckled as the pressure suddenly increased to an unimaginable level.

'System, what the fuck?!'

The sudden increase was so unnaturally high that Axel knew that something had to have changed. Otherwise, the Entity would have done this before he destroyed its so-called guardian.

[The Organisation has decided to take action. The King has attacked the city with the self defense system. The number of lives lost and the fear spreading among the Atlantians is further weakening the Seal.]

'Seriously?! Right now?!'

Since he was already drained due to the fight and after resisting the full force of Entity's control was so long, now that the Entity's powers had suddenly increased, Axel found it way too difficult to resist. Slowly but surely, he could feel a foreign energy taking over.

A series of compulsive thoughts began entering his mind, subtly trying to seduce him.

At the same time, a searing pain spread over his skin. Axel looked down, only to see familiar blue markings spreading over his arms and legs. Starting from the skin, they were gradually making their way in, forcefully taking control.

"Not happening!"

Of course, Axel wasn't just going to sit back and enjoy the free tattoo session. Trying to take over ME? Looks like you don't know me enough!

A knife made out of ice appeared in his hand.

Slash—

The outer layer of his skin was peeled off, along with the markings before they could go deeper. But Axel knew that it wasn't a long term solution.

He didn't have infinite skin while the Entity could do this all day. He had to think of something else.

'Think… Think.. Think..'

Axel's mind began working furiously, trying to think of a solution on how to resist the Entity. In his mind, information on various options flashed.

And suddenly, it clicked to him. He had completely forgotten about it!

Axel closed his eyes. And when he opened them, an amber aura started to ooze out of the corner of his eyes. That's right. His new bloodline.

'Come on!'

He then let go of the resistance, letting the markings sink in. A searing pain shot up throughout his body, reaching deeper and deeper, until it reached his soul. That was the markings ultimate goal: To connect with the soul.

That's how the Entity gives out power to the members of Kraken. By establishing a link with their souls so that they can draw its power.

But, when Entity tried to establish the connection, something unusual happened.

[Soul Affinity]

[Zen Focus]

It could only come in contact with an extremely firm layer of the soul. The Entity tried to dig deeper, but Axel wouldn't let it. Instead, with the reinforced part of his soul, he latched onto the blue tentacles that had reached him.

The Entity suddenly increased its power, attacking his soul. Axel frowned, a high amount of pain shooting throughout his body, the kind that is felt when your soul is damaged.

But, Axel didn't let up.

[Freakish Tenacity]

His increased pain tolerance, which had caused him to almost lose his mental power due to not feeling pain, now came in handy as he endured the pain.

He tried again, failed again. But, information entered his mind which he rapidly learnt from. Enduring the pain, he tried again.

Soon, [Soul Affinity: 10%]

His control increased, and tried once again, reinforcing his soul further with the new knowledge that popped in. Now he went for a safer approach, targeting individual links while defending against the rest.

He succeeded in taking over one, and magic power flooded his soul, getting converted into his own.

[Soul Affinity: 15]

Meanwhile, his knowledge and control over soul increased. And the more he learnt, the more amazed he was.

Soul can be… quite a terrifying thing. Contrary to what one might expect, soul actually has multiple applications, each more shocking than the other.

Axel began connecting with the rest of the tethers, but not the way the Entity wanted.

As he had learnt, there are different types of soul connections. What the Entity wants is a two-way connection, with the Entity being the dominant part.

Meaning it could supply power whenever it wanted, however much it wanted, and if necessary, even take away HIS power if it wanted.

Instead, what bond that Axel established was a one-way connection, with him being the dominant one. He could take as much power as he wanted from the Entity, but not the other way around. What? He was a thief. What else to expect?

But, how did Axel come with this crazy plan and actually expect it to work? Because, he remembered his father's portrait. That portrait had the blue markings, which, at that time he had thought were just fancy tattoos. But, since the portrait moves, he had seen those blue markings glowing, meaning Tristan Hunt was actually using the Entity's power.

And yet, he was not under the Entity's control. So, Axel put two and two together and decided to take a leap. What choice did he have anyway? If that man can do, then so can Axel.

And with the way things were going, the Entity would have reached his soul sooner or later. He would also lost a few more layers of skins in addition to that.

It's better to then proactively take offense then. Besides, he has been strengthening his soul through Zen focus, so he wasn't afraid of it getting seriously damage from the very first try, after which, he would be able to learn more by increasing his proficiency.

Basically, he was doing real-time training with his soul on the line, something which only he can attempt since anyone else would pass out with just one nick to their souls. Of course it's also because he gets information from the system too through which he can choose the right path.

Thankfully, it was a bit painful at first, meaning a whole lot, but it paid off after a few attempts.

Now that he had succeeded once, he quickly began establishing more connections. The Entity soon found out that it was being scammed. Straining the seal, it sent out more tentacles, also sending out more power through them.

But,

[Soul Affinity: 20]

[You have learnt the Skill: Soul Fortification]

[You have learnt the Skill: Soul Combat]

Axel had already started to fortify his soul, getting ready to take it head on. The Entity is bound by the seal in a way that it can only exert a limited amount of power on an individual. And since that was the case, he was not afraid.

'Bring it!'

While he was fighting the Entity through the soul, his mind was now no longer facing attacks, giving him time to recover his mental power. Meanwhile, an armor formed outside his soul, protecting it from the Entity's influence.

Of course, Axel couldn't afford to keep doing this for too long as the Entity would probably never get tired, only stronger.

Using his wand, he quickly dug through the soul, removing the dead roots in the way to reach the depths. Of course, the magic used for this was borrowed from the Entity itself through the connection.

Soon, he had uncovered a huge magic circle, the size of two tennis courts, looking extremely complicated.

"So, how do I reinforce it?" He asked the Trident in a hurry, since he was still continuously resisting the Entity.

"You need to send about 4 million arks of power through the center. It can be any type of power. Water energy, magic, flames, lightning, anything. The seal will automatically convert the power to reinforce itself."

"Okay… and how long would it take?" He asked, not knowing exactly how much power that was.

"Basically, you should be done in a few days."

"...."

Few days?

Axel paused.

"Fuck you!"

No way he's going to take that long.

Axel sighed. Hopefully, he'll reach there in time.

…

A.N.: Well, we're already #1 this week. Give me powerstones tomorrow, when the Rankings reset.

Next: Battle Of Atlantis I: A Hero's Return

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