Xavier hovered in the air above the Dark Mountains, his body thrumming with the power of Soul Energy as it cycled through his different channels, bolstering his power.

  The Body Cultivation spell was still new to him, but now he could sense that with this energy it would be even more powerful than it had been before.

  Thousands upon thousands of infected beasts were streaming toward him. Xavier dodged the long-ranged attacks in the air easily enough. He was far faster than these things. But more and more of the beasts were amassing. He knew he wouldn’t be able to do this for long.

  The twisted, stitched-together body of The Nightmare stared up at him. It didn’t move from the ground, but Xavier could feel its rage. When Xavier had been stuck under that black ooze, he’d felt himself almost give in.

  The demon must have felt that too. It had been about to claim his mind, his body, maybe even his soul.

  Now, it had nothing.

  Xavier knew it wouldn’t remain idle for long.

  “Remember what happens if you flee, Denizen,” the demon said, its voice more powerful than ever.

  Xavier did remember. Adron. Liana’s wife. Part of the reason Xavier had come to face this C Grade enemy in the first place. The man was suffering, stuck in the demon’s body, writhing and moaning in pain beneath the tar-like substance.

  The man would die if Xaiver fled.

  Death might be better than the agony he’s going through.

  But Xavier wasn’t about to flee. In fact, in that moment, even after all he’d just been through, even after what had happened to Volkarin, he was smiling.

  The newfound Soul Energy thrummed through him, making him feel more powerful than ever.

  And something else had happened when he’d embraced that spark within himself—the spark that had helped him finally use his Body Cultivation spell and get out of the mess The Nightmare had trapped him in.

  The final notification in the string of notifications another part of his mind brought to his attention.

  You have gained the spell: Soul Born!

  Xavier read the description of the spell as swiftly as he could.

  Soul Born - Rank 1

  Soul Born is a spell that allows the user to draw upon the energy within their soul. Soul Energy is a finite resource that must be replenished.

  Xavier laughed aloud. This was what he’d just done!

  He’d called upon the power of his very soul, and gained a spell for it! Something told him there would be more to this spell than the description said, just as there was more to Body Cultivation than the description said, but for now it was enough to know that he would be able to repeat what he’d just done again if he needed to.

  God, he felt powerful.

  Now, it was time to exert that power.

  Xavier knew exactly what he needed to do next. Now that The Nightmare was no longer influencing his mind in the same way as it had before—making Xavier attack the body of the demon and ignore infected beasts, and even ignore the fact that he had been close to reaching Level 203—things had become incredibly clear to him.

  He should have done what he was about to do when the demon’s body had turned up. Things would have gone a lot more smoothly.

  Xavier whirled in the air and faced his enemies.

  He cast Soul Block, summoning spirit apparitions to defend him from the attacks coming his way. He wanted to stare down at the battlefield as he did this, and the soul apparitions should keep him safe long enough to do that.

  He cast Soul Strike, infusing the rest of his reserve into the spell—well over four thousand souls.

  He willed the attack to ignore the body of the demon. That way, there would be no danger of him harming Ardon and the other Champions that were trapped within it.

  All he would be harming were the infected beasts.

  As he cast Soul Strike, he sensed something—something new. Now that he had Soul Born…

  His eyes widened.

  He could infuse Soul Energy into his spells!

  Xavier did that very thing on the casting of Soul Strike. He didn’t exactly know how much Soul Energy he possessed. He could feel the reserve somewhere deep within him. He pulled a tenth of the energy out to use it in the spell.

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  Never before had his Soul Strike been this powerful. Not only was his Spirit attribute absolutely massive compared to when he had been E Grade, but the Soul Energy strengthening it made it all the more potent.

  Xavier grinned maniacally as white lightning arced from his scythe-staff—in an instant, before casting the two spells, he had shifted the Lost Bone of a Dead God, his soul bound weapon, from reinforcing his bones back to being a scythe.

  The lightning arced through the sky until it turned into thousands of soul apparitions which rained down upon the enemy army of infected beasts. The soul apparitions soared through the air. Some flew. Some ran. All attacked.

  Their glowing, translucent bodies tore through the infected beasts. They left no physical damage, and the soul damage wasn’t able to hurt the tar-like substance within them.

  But that didn’t matter right now.

  Thousands upon thousands of the infected beasts died. Xavier instantly cast Soul Harvest, replenishing his reserve in full from not only the fallen he’d just slain, but from all the beasts his soul puppets and Volkarin had slain earlier in the fight.

  Killing all of those infected beasts had been enough to bring him to Level 203.

  Congratulations, you have reached Level 203!

  Your health has been regenerated by 80%!

  Your Spirit Energy (D Grade) limit has increased by 300!

  You have received +800 free stat points!

  All your spells have refreshed and are no longer on cooldown!

  Xavier’s grin only became wider. God, he had never felt so powerful before! His Body Cultivation spell still infused every inch of himself with the newfound Soul Energy, and every single one of his spells had reached the end of their cooldowns because he had just levelled up.

  This… This was power. He had thought he’d been powerful before, but he kept reaching new heights. Kept breaking through new barriers.

  Now, it was time for him to destroy the black substance. To kill every inch of The Nightmare. He could feel that it had gathered here. That the black ooze was diminishing around the mountain and all that remained was what was before him now.

  I can do this. I can kill this thing.

  Xavier soared downward, extending his massive black dragon wings in full. Wind whipped past him as he flew toward his enemies. There were still yet more infected beasts down there.

  He cast Soul Strike again, using his entire reserve, aiming every single one of the apparitions against the infected beasts, ensuring there was no way that the attack would hit the main body of the demon and those trapped within it.

  White lightning arced over the battlefield. The Dark Mountains were illuminated in brilliant, glowing light as the soul apparitions of thousands of beasts—beasts that he’d only just killed—came into being. Like a great wave they flowed toward the enemy.

  He was flooded with kill notifications as the majority of the remaining infected beasts met their end. Surveying the battlefield, he was struggling to see if any of them were left alive.

  As far as he could tell, the only beast standing was The Nightmare.

  But the black ooze was everywhere, and that was The Nightmare too.

  At least it can’t attack me like the infected beasts can.

  He didn’t gain enough D Grade Mastery Points to reach the next level. It took killing a hell of a lot more enemies than that for him to gain levels now that he was D Grade.

  Besides, much of those Mastery Points were being funnelled into the Lost Bone of a Dead God. The soul bound weapon had received a few ranks as he’d fought, making his attacks and his attributes more powerful every time it became stronger.

  Xavier also had 800 free attribute points that he could assign to any one of his attributes. That was always a thrilling thing. He still found it absolutely insane just how many free stat points he gained with each level now that he’d chosen the Wayfarer of the Infinite Path class.

  There were many things that Xavier could do in this position. Time seemed to freeze as his mind worked, going through the different options.

  He could further strengthen his Spirit attribute. That would, in turn, make his soul stronger—which would then make his Soul Energy more powerful.

  But it would be foolish to be distracted by his new resource before he even had a grasp on how to use it. For one, he was fully aware that soul damage didn’t actually harm the true enemy that was The Nightmare. If it did, then things would have been very different in this fight.

  No, dumping 800 stat points directly into Spirit wasn’t the way to go. Not this time around, anyway.

  He dismissed Toughness and Intelligence out of hand. Though it was always good to improve those attributes, right now wasn’t the time.

  Strength and Speed. Those were good choices, especially as he needed to use his Body Cultivation spell to destroy the black ooze—that meant melee attacks, and a lot of them. He would need to be fast if he were going to get ahead of this.

  As he thought through the different options, he realised he couldn’t make a decision until he tested this Soul Energy, coupled with Body Cultivation, against his enemy.

  Without accurate information, any decision he made in this moment could be the wrong one. For all he knew, his wisest choice would be dumping all 800 points straight into Willpower—if he had better resisted his enemy’s mental attacks, he wouldn’t be in the position he was in now.

  Then again, I wouldn’t have gained the Soul Born spell, either.

  He knew the best way for him to take a step forward in his strength was to face new challenges. That would always be true.

  Xavier surged forward. He cast Portal, flying through it to appear near the ground. The Dark Mountains was absolutely covered in the black ooze. After he’d killed all of the infected beasts, a thick layer of the stuff was everywhere.

  This is going to take a lot of work.

  Xavier hadn’t used Soul Energy to bolster any of his physical attacks with Body Cultivation before. He still sensed that as soul damage did nothing to the black ooze—as apparently demons didn’t have souls—then chances were Soul Energy wouldn’t actually help him against this bastard.

  But there was something niggling at the back of his mind, telling him that his assumption didn’t make complete sense. If Soul Energy was useless against the black ooze, then why had it dispelled it when he had pooled the energy around his body? It shouldn’t have done a damned thing if it wasn’t effective against The Nightmare.

  That was why he needed to test it right now.

  Xavier slashed downward with his claws at a puddle of the dark stuff.

  Soul Energy infused each of those claws and the moment he slashed, the energy detonated where he impacted. Xavier reared back and hovered in the air, looking down at where he had struck.

  There were long, large gashes cut into the dirt and rock of the mountain, but that wasn’t all…

  His eyes widened—the black ooze… it had been utterly destroyed! And not just at the sight he had impacted, but all around for at least twenty feet.

  A wide smile burst onto Xavier’s face.

  Soul Born… Soul Energy… This is going to be a real game changer.

  Not only had it gotten him out of almost being consumed by The Nightmare, now it was going to allow him to kill this thing.

  The voice of The Nightmare sounded in the chill air of the dark night, sounding far more terrifying than it had before.

  “IF YOU WILL NOT SUCCUMB, THEN YOU SHALL DIE.”

  Xavier felt the gathering of a vast amount of power. The black substance on the ground all around him slowly started to move, then became faster and faster. Until it became a rushing river—no, not a river, more like a whirlpool.

  It was all being sucked directly toward the main body of the demon.

  Accidental Champion!

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