Aftermath

The Man abruptly vanished from the scene in front of Ethan's eyes and reappeared behind him like a ghost.

Ethan leapt forward instinctively, avoiding the man's attack.

Along with the stream of blood from his eyes, the Man's eyes began to glow bright red.

Ethan began to notice a flaw in the man's actions until that moment, when he saw the man's smile. Even for a demon, being alive requires him to say something during the battle. But that man only asked Ethan about his choice when he arrived on this floor, as if the man was programmed to do so. And even when he smiles, Ethan can tell it's not the man's own because he can see the man's dry skin.

A face with an evil grin or evil smile will have a wide grin and, typically, downturned brows, indicating evil intent. However, this man lacks the downturned brows and the enduring skin. His only expression was a wide grin that was like a sticker.

So Ethan realized that either this man isn't alive or that he is a toy for this test.

\*\*\*

ETHAN ASHER P.O.V:

He's just a mannequin for my test. However, I'm curious how the council created this doll with so much negative mana.

Now that I know he's not real, I can merrily murder him. Without hesitation.

There was simply no other option.

I wanted to try the Death like power I felt when I overexerted myself in my first test of walking. It made me strong using only physical means.

That's why, looking back, I was able to cut through the tornado created by the Man-Doll.

Tornados were at least at the level of magic that a White Cored mage could conjure up. That also means the man-Doll had the same mana level as a white cored mage.

If anything, I want to use that power again to completely destroy the doll. Who knows if it will be able to recover? After all magic is mysterious.

The Man turned his head and jumped against the wall. He sprang straight towards me from that cracked wall, using it as a support.

I stood calmly and closed my eyes, believing in myself.

Deep inside my mana core, I felt every pore in my body open as a surge of mana began raging in and out of my body as I unleashed the dormant power that I felt during the first test.

The space around me distorted, and the ground beneath my feet began to crack as a result of the mana that surrounded my body.

My vision was drained of colour, and I could only see in grayscale. The only colors I could see were from the numerous particles of mana in the air around me, which shimmered according to their corresponding elements.

As the feeling of insurmountable power overwhelmed me, the surge of mana that had been raging around me was sucked up and compressed into my body.

The sense of superiority over everything in this universe, living or not, nearly drove me insane. Even I had a brush with death for no apparent reason. I gradually stopped suppressing the growing temptation to obliterate everything around me out of sheer enjoyment, thinking every bit of my anger.

"Haaa!!!" I let out a gasp.

The mana in the air seemed to bend to my will, as if I had taken control of nature.

"Gaze of the Gods. Assassin's Wrath… Elemental Devouring!!"

As I blurted out the words that came to mind, the room darkened as if everything had come to a halt. The man, the crumbling walls, and the rocks. Everything came to a halt when I turned around and saw myself standing in rage.

Suddenly, I felt a burning sensation in my non-existent form, as my eyes in that body standing before me changed from their normal black colour to an amethyst-color, and I could see my hair growing longer, flowing down to my shoulder, as the regular black hair changed its colour to a Flaming White with the gleam of nine different colors, swaying from the swirl of energy repeatedly incorporating me.

I attempted to touch that me, but my hands went into the face like I was some kind of spirit. Suddenly,

"Whoosh!"

I saw a blue flame light up in the centre of this ghostly body, and as it faded away quickly, everything returned to normal, and the man began to rush towards me again like lightning.

I didn't think much, and was continued with my actions. I couldn't stop myself from feeling this way after I calmed the voice inside my head that suggested I go on a rampage. It was a feeling of Destruction.

I couldn't stop myself because my body was moving on its own.

A loud crash brought my attention back to the task at hand.

The Man rushing towards me released a large Vortex-like Tornado, full of negative Dark mana, with a pungent smell of Gore and Blood inside. It was similar to the first Meteor created by man.

Even when all this was happening, "You Look Nasty!" I growled, a smirk on my face.

As I leaped, willing wind mana into the soles of my feet, the world moved in slow motion around me. As the storming gale I propelled myself with left a crater larger than the tornado, I quickly cleared the distance between the Vortex and myself.

\*One Step Burst\*

As I effortlessly avoided the Vortex that shot out at me, a surge of black lightning coiled around my body, accompanied by clean blue flames.

When the Vortex came into contact with the black lightning, it instantly disintegrated and withered away, but the Tornado that followed split into pieces.

I breezed through the onslaught, drawing closer to the man, using the tornado shooting at me as a foothold.

I could already feel my body trembling and the urge to vomit blood as a result of this power.

It was time to end this.

"Ignite" I muttered.

My hands ignited and became engulfed in a blazing blue to a colorless flame that seemed to freeze the moisture in the air around it. This was the most potent offensive skill I possessed, but it was also the most difficult to master.

While my Lightning Attribute techniques were geared toward one-on-one combat, I geared my Ice Attribute techniques toward a more widespread form of destruction, just in case the situation arose.

The colorless fire ablaze in my hands grew larger as I absorbed the now-visible specks of water attribute mana particles into my body. I released my final skill with the last of my strength.

\*Absolute Ice\*

The man was quickly encased in ice as the atoms that comprised him as a doll froze in the area where the white fire had spread.

Exploding black lightning around me, deadly coils of dark electricity traced through the frozen tornado and instantly shackled the entire place. Only the mana and the arena remained, with nothing on them.

As I heaved a mouthful of blood, the power faded. As my body began to fall, I couldn't help but notice that this newfound power is truly devastating.

The last thing I heard as my consciousness faded was the distant echo of the Female voice saying something.

***CHAPTER 31***