Last Ruler Of The Empty Throne-Chapter 68: Jon, Beetles and Spider IV (last)

It was a strange feeling.

The moment he said he wanted to kill the leaders and released his bloodlust, he felt he was finally at full power. Yes, he was at full power when fighting the others, but he couldn’t really explain it this time.

It wasn’t to the point of losing control of himself, and he could tell he wasn’t overexerting himself, yet he was exerting more power.

It felt like the beginning of the fall, when he gained composure and could perform at his best. But now he wasn’t using it; it had been suppressed with his moon trait. And what he was feeling now was similar to when he used ’Composure.’

As he closed his eyes amid the giant ball of web hurling toward him, he thought of only one thing: will. That was the only thing that could let him win against these leaders. He understood the general concept when he became a martial artist, but that was all.

He knew it was powerful, as he had used it before, but he still didn’t fully understand it. His ’Brilliant Mind’ skill now whirred into full use. Even on the verge of being swallowed up, he didn’t think he could truly understand the meaning of will.

But he would explain it as he saw it. He had applied ’Will’ to his spear before, and he was able to pierce with greater power.

It was really effective; now he thought of applying ’Will’ to his skills themselves. The first skill was ’One Strike,’ and that was when the lack of various skills really hit him. He didn’t have a lot of skills that were related to attack at all, and he even had a feeling that combining ’One Strike’ and will wouldn’t give him the desired effect.

The second was ’Moon.’ It was only after leaving his clone to study the skill that he began to use it in different ways; however, he still felt like he wasn’t using it right.

’There must be something else to it. There must have also been a reason the moon came first in the series.’ So, he decided to try something simple: combining ’Will’ and ’Moon.’

Using ’Will’ was essentially forcing his influence with his mind and bringing it to the physical, and ’Moon,’ broad as it was, was also a mind-related skill.

After thinking of it, he immediately applied it.

Then, he opened his eyes, which were now glowing blue, and pointed his finger down at the ball that had already reached his legs. His whole body then began to glow blue, and a thin line of blue immediately connected his body to the moon hanging in the sky.

"Moon Descent: Fall."

Then, in response, another blue light descended from the moon and met the attack.

RUUUUUMMMMM

BOOBOOOBOOOBOOOM

There was no suspense; the light descended on the attack, erased it, and pierced through the spider. The attack then went through the ground and swept away everything in its path, including the beetle’s leader.

"Urghhh..." Jon immediately felt drained, falling back to the ground. The blue light and bloodlust around him had receded. The attack he had just used took up about 500 points of his reserve, and with barely 100 points left, he collapsed into the dust that now covered the entire area.

BOOMM

"Arghhh..." As he fell into the dust and landed, he felt his bones and body shaking. Ironically, the pain he felt now was greater than the one from the leaders’ surprise attack.

He immediately activated ’Regeneration’ and felt even more drained.

"Hah... haa... hahaha... what the hell was that?" But he wasn’t bothered about the pain; it was somewhat expected. And besides, the scale of the attack made the pain worth it—he gained something important from it.

But he couldn’t relax; he had killed the spider’s leader, but wasn’t sure about the beetle. And he also hadn’t forgotten about the others who had been stunned by his murderous intent.

’I should have started with that.’ But he couldn’t be blamed—he didn’t know how to control it yet.

He struggled to get up as the dust cleared. He immediately spread his senses, but perhaps due to low mana, his range had shortened significantly.

Still, it was enough to search for the beetle’s leader. Morphing the spear back to a rod, he started walking toward the area. After scanning with his senses, he realized he didn’t need to be so tense; the beetle leader was half-dead, and the remaining monsters he thought were approaching were still stunned.

Now, seeing it up close, it had lost most of its hard, flame-defensive skin. ’It’s really tough,’ Jon thought, considering the scale of the attack and that it still survived. ’I should have attacked it instead.’

But there was no use regretting, there was still much left to do. With his rod pointed, he stretched out almost lazily and activated ’One Strike.’

[YOU HAVE ABSORBED LEVEL 46 ’COMMANDER RED BEETLE’ REMAINS]

Then, as if waiting for that moment, the system messages continued flickering:

[YOUR MARTIAL...]

[YOU HAVE...]

[YOUR....]

But he didn’t have time to look at them yet. Without relaxing, he moved toward the remaining monsters. Though his steps were sluggish, he still believed he could handle them.

After all, his level had increased, his mana capacity had risen, and it was now refilling, and they were still stunned. He just needed a few moments to catch his breath.

While moving, he began noticing the changes he had undergone. One of them was, ’So this is what will is?’ He now understood more about will and that it went beyond what he could imagine.

Then, looking up briefly, he could see and feel the moon. It even felt like he was holding the moon, but ’I’m too weak to use it.’ It was a complex feeling he had been having lately. ’However, it is nice knowing I have it.’

All his previous connections to ’Moon’ had been mental, but now he had a physical connection. That was the summary of what he couldn’t really explain.

’My level has also increased, but it’s getting harder to level up.’ He recalled that going through the unranked realm was a breeze for him.

Absorbing a lower-level monster’s remains could increase one’s level. But in the first realm, especially at the end where he now stood, it was a bit different. One couldn’t just level up now by killing a similar-level monster, one had to kill about three of them or a higher-level one to level up.

He had thought the first realm would also be a breeze, but there were differences, and he classified them like, ’Levels 25–30 are like beginners; a strong enough unranked could defeat them in some cases,’ he reasoned. Like him, he got a boost with the soldier’s physique and a plus 50 when it evolved. Essentially, it wasn’t normal for him to do what he could, though he didn’t know that yet.

’Then I feel like the first realm really starts from level 30, where they start to feel different. From level 40, they change again.’ He was saying this, not just randomly. He was at level 39 now, so he could feel it. He could now understand why the monsters here could withstand his aura, however...

Snapping him out of his thoughts were the remaining monsters that had come into his view. The monsters were no longer attacking on sight. ’It seemed they still remember the bloodlust.’

His mana was nearly replenished, and since the monsters weren’t attacking, he would just wait. But suddenly,

"Dark Flaming Tornado!" A dark tornado with flames scattered across the area with immense power.

"Huh, Cynthia?" Jon tilted his head as he recognized the voice and technique.

Then, silver flames and brown chains began bursting everywhere.

"Jenny, too..." He wasn’t as surprised after seeing Cynthia, but it was still a little surprising to see them both.

But that wasn’t all.

Rumble...

The dark sky suddenly revealed glowing lights, sending lightning strikes down.

"Laura," he muttered. They hadn’t spoken much, and he honestly didn’t know what she did or liked.

’I really don’t know a lot about my allies.’ Maybe because of the crack inside his being, but he began having these thoughts.

Then, finally,

"Gravity Manipulation x6."

BOOOOM

"Alexa..." At this point, it was almost obvious she would be here. All the girls had already entered the first realm.

The four ladies didn’t say anything to him and started attacking immediately.

"Be careful, they’re way stronger than normal." Though happy to see them, Jon still had to warn them about the dangers. And from the looks of it, he could tell they hadn’t come to save him or anything like that.

They wanted to level up and grow stronger on their own, which he respected, so he decided to help them. If he and his allies had the strength to protect themselves, they could become more of an organization rather than just a group.

"But one step at a time," he thought, watching them fight individually. Cynthia activated the temporary base from her hairpin and rushed at a spider. The spider shot webs in different forms at her, and she used telekinesis and wind to deflect the attacks, though some grazed her.

"Ah..." She stopped to look at the marks left by the webs, but the attacks didn’t cease.

Jenny, meanwhile, was fighting a beetle. She spread fire around and attacked with her sword, but the beetle’s flaming defense didn’t show any burn marks, even when she approached it with a swing.

CLANG

"Huh?" She was surprised; she expected at least a burn mark if she couldn’t get a cut, but nothing happened. The beetle, though, didn’t stop for her and moved to attack.

Laura and Alexa’s situation wasn’t much better. They were each fighting a beetle and a spider together, and while they formed a good combination of gravity and climate manipulation, the beetle and spider also countered with an effective combination of defense and attack.

As Jon had warned, they were finding it difficult to kill even one of the middle-sized monsters, and they numbered 20 monsters.