Chapter 249 (1): Save Me, He’s in My Head

The tsunami swept down with devastating force, the waves crashing down with endless energy and destructive force like a stampede of horses, engulfing everything in its path. Facing the tsunami, the forest rooted in the earth was no different from children’s building blocks. The trees were easily toppled and uprooted.

Green light surged in Wayne’s eyes. Ten meters ahead, green vines burst from the ground, reshaped by his thoughts into triangular barricades. The tsunami crashed heavily against the barricades, thundering toward the sides at high speed with thousands of tons of water.

The triangular barricades twisted, growing to half the height of the waves and splitting vertically down the middle to form two hands. They pulled the tsunami apart like they were opening curtains.

Wayne communicated with nature with a frown, demanding it cut ties with the assassins. It was either him or them.

However, it wasn’t effective.

Nature greedily wanted both, expressing her attachment to both sides in a roundabout way. While Wayne was young, vigorous, and virile like an athlete with immeasurable potential, capable of easily delivering more than what the two assassins could only deliver after exhausting themselves all night, the two assassins were diligent artists and sweet-talkers, who persisted in professing their devotion even when nature ignored them.

In other words, they were simps!

Wayne cursed under his breath. After a brief conversation, he understood nature’s stance. It wasn’t that nature was unwilling to take sides, but that he wasn’t performing well enough. As a beginner, Wayne’s ability to communicate with nature was limited, despite his better talent.

On the other hand, the two assassins had limited talent and couldn’t communicate with nature as deeply as Wayne, but they were experienced. Having maintained their elven state year-round and wandered every part of nature, they had seen a bigger and more extensive world.

Wayne could only communicate with plants at the moment, while the assassins could communicate with not only plants, but also the water elements of rain and the earth elements of the earth dragon.

Though they lacked outstanding talent, they closed the gap through hard work. That was the two assassins’ forte. They had established a tie with nature way before Wayne.

Wayne could replace them, but he had to surpass them in quality and quantity before nature would cut ties with them.

Since he couldn’t win through clever tricks, Wayne had no choice but to take matters into his own hands. He told Veronica to stay and not move before he detonated mana beneath his feet to streak toward Cerci like lightning.

The two assassins didn’t team up immediately, which was quite chivalrous of them. Wayne took silent note and vowed never to make the same rookie mistakes. Everyone had the duty to eliminate evil; there was no room for honor in the real world!

Watching Wayne rush toward him at high speed, Cerci remained calm, his body slowly sinking. With a mocking expression, he conjured the vitality barrier of Gold-ranked mages, waiting for Wayne to crash into it and break his head.

Crack!

The invisible barrier fractured. The moment Wayne’s fist collided with it, the mirror surface of the spatial barrier shattered.

Cerci was so shocked that he couldn’t maintain his composure, thus breaking his connection with nature. As he hastily redialed nature’s number, Wayne was already right before him. The wind and fire gathered around his fist suddenly erupted, unleashing entwining gusts and flames. The resulting fire tornado roared with incredible might.

The elemental attack leveled the obstacles ahead, disappearing into the distant curtain of rain. Within its attack range, white steam rose from the ground, and rain evaporated before it could fall.

Cerci failed to make the call to nature and re-establish a line of communication. He frantically raised another vitality barrier, but it was shattered once more, forcing him to retreat again and again.

What manner of monster is this guy? A great dragon?

It didn’t make sense for brute force to break a Gold-ranked mage’s vitality barrier. It wasn’t impossible since the world was vast, and there had to be powerhouses who defied common sense, but still, the basic principles should apply.

The concrete manifestation of life essence was the mage’s body. Eternal youth, intense desires, speed, strength, and endurance were all forms of such manifestation. The higher a mage’s rank, the stronger their life essence. One would have to be at least Legendary rank to shatter a vitality barrier with a punch. Even a Dragonblood, known for being unmatched in physical battle, would have to be Gold rank to do it.

According to what Cerci knew, however, Wayne was a Silver-ranked mage, with a powerful life essence that made it seem like he was a Dragonblood. But he certainly wasn’t a Gold-ranked mage.

Where did things go wrong?

Cerci couldn’t figure it out. He wondered if he had been too focused on honing his thoughts in his years of training and thus neglected his life essence, which made his Golden Triangle unbalanced and his vitality barrier fragile.

Boom!

Wayne made punch after punch, repeatedly shattering Cerci’s vitality barriers. He was increasingly puzzled by the assassins. The Gold-ranked mage was legitimate, and his ability to communicate with nature surpassed Wayne’s, but he was too lacking in combat experience—heartbreakingly so. Wayne only had to disrupt his pace to make him lose composure, unable to maintain the most basic link with nature.

Didn’t the Pope look down on him too much, sending assassins like this after him?

Good. Keep looking down on me!

Wayne continued to disrupt Cerci’s thoughts with consecutive punches, preventing him from connecting to nature so that he could monopolize nature’s warm embrace. The green in his eyes intensified.

Noticing that, Cerci realized that Wayne was no Dragonblood, and as an ordinary human, his life essence was only incredible because he was invoking nature’s power.

Cerci had never seen something like that before. He quickly contacted Virgil through his thoughts, urging him to make a move already so that they could capture Wayne alive and study him.

Virgil was studying Wayne. The young man was using a skill that their master had not taught, and he had not seen before. It enlightened him to the possibility of further fusion with nature. If he could achieve that stage, perhaps he would break through his bottleneck and advance to Legendary rank.

Virgil tried it with his thoughts. It seemed viable. He saw a slowly opening door and, ignoring Cerci’s call for help, walked straight in. Beyond the door lay a vast, uncharted world.

I’m close!

Getting no help from Virgil, Cerci cursed him for his cunning plan. To secure his position as High Prophet, Virgil planned to not only take Wayne out but also eliminate Cerci along the way.

I won’t let that happen!

Mana tides raged on, fluttering Cerci’s white robe as he activated the defensive divine arts applied to the robe. He summoned the Goddess of Nature to the human world.

In that moment, a divine pressure filled the space between heaven and earth.

Veronica’s shoulders sank. Sensing the oppressive pressure from afar, she knew she couldn’t afford to admire the goddess. White scales emerged on her arms and neck, her pupils contracted to slits, and her body gradually grew taller.

As her form changed, her temperament changed, too. Her pinned-up hair fell to her shoulders, and she matured significantly, turning from a magical girl to a mature sorceress. She approached to help Wayne, but after taking two steps, she stopped with a look of uncertainty.

At her feet, a white mixture of solids and viscous fluids writhed and morphed into fleshy tentacles, wrapping around her ankles to stop her from moving further. Veronica recognized these disgusting things. The scumbag’s original bloodline mimicked the form of an ancient god, and he occasionally turned into tentacles. Though they were hideous, this life form was more advanced than dragons.

Before charging into the fight, Wayne had left behind part of his body to protect her. The intention was good, but the excessive protection grated on Veronica’s nerves. She wasn’t a delicate flower and didn’t care for the greenhouse.

Out of trust for the scumbag’s brain, Veronica stopped, clenching her fists in frustration.

Meanwhile, Wayne faced the Goddess of Nature’s phantom directly in elven state. The green in his eyes bloomed, radiating such pure devotion that the phantom goddess was confused.

Where was the enemy? She saw nothing but an ally!

The divine art ended up creating a useless light show, surprising Cerci. He switched to manual control and mentally manipulated the divine art, pelting Wayne with dense arrays of attacks.

Projectiles of green lights swept over him, stripping vitality and feeding it to nature to maintain balance. While Wayne’s vitality was taken when the green light hit him, though, he was part of the balance with his connection to nature, and the next second, nature returned the vitality he lost to him.

Cerci was dumbfounded by nature’s favoritism toward Wayne. The momentary surprise disrupted the connection he had calmed himself to re-establish.

Wayne was also surprised. Vitality was lost in the process of transmission, and to prevent his lifespan from shortening by three days, he quickly inhaled five days' worth of vitality.

Cerci’s hood fell, revealing his handsome elven features. He was intent on killing Wayne and thus already considered him a dead man. He didn’t care about showing his true face. When the divine art didn’t work, he raised his hands and—

Smack!

Wayne shattered the vitality barrier with one punch, quick as lightning. As Cerci retreated, Wayne’s arm extended like a snake and tightly gripped his hand.

Cerci froze. Wrapping his hand with wind blades, he severed Wayne’s arm with a chop.

“What are you?”

Staring at the severed hand still gripping his wrist, Cerci broke into goose bumps. There was no blood and no signs of life. The severed hand gradually paled and even melted.

It reminded him of the creatures found in the Astral Plane, and everything fit together perfectly. Wayne’s flesh had to have merged with an Astral Beast; he was no longer human in essence.

That was why his life essence defied reason!