Ascension of the last Celestial

"The elven princess? But why do I have to go there?"

"Haaa, even though we haven’t told the public anything about you as per your request, that doesn’t mean word of you never left the palace," Helias answered. "While only vague mentions left it, it was enough for the high nobles of our kingdom and the Elven Empire, who we share borders with, to get interested."

Helias continued: "So now they want to use the birthday of the princess as an excuse to want you to make an appearance, and we can’t really refuse them because that would lead to mistrust with our closest neighbors. Also, I heard that the elven princess is a shut-in like you, so maybe you can connect on that."

After hearing his explanation, Valerian couldn’t really refuse. They took him in and treated him like family, so going to some princess’s birthday is the least he can do.

"Fine, when are we leaving anyway?"

Hearing Valerian not complain and seemingly agree to the whole thing, Freya’s eyes lit up. "Her birthday party is in three days, and since we have someone with a so powerful space affinity, our gates can reach all the way to the elven palace. So we can leave on the day of the birthday."

Valerian first noticed the strange way the teleportation gates behaved around him when he arrived at the palace. Ever since then, he occasionally went down to the teleportation gates to do some experiments. What he found out is that he can use his affinity to increase the reach of the gates while at the same time reducing the mana cost.

After that, they finished their breakfast in peace and Helias went to do his work as the king, Freya went into the flower garden to plant new flowers that were imported from a different country, and Elara had etiquette classes to attend to. Valerian decided to test out his newly achieved S-Rank and sword. Leaving the dining room with the sword in his dimensional pocket, he went straight to the knights’ training ground.

When he arrived there, the knights weren’t even surprised to see him, since his visits have become a staple around there. Every time he came there, he asked someone of one rank above him for a spar, and every time he won. The knights just couldn’t keep up with his superior physique or his mana control.

This time, instead of asking one of the knights for a spar, he went directly to the captain that was overseeing the training drills the knights were going through. He was a tall man with a powerful physique, wearing the standard knight armor with the rising sun over the heart. What set him apart was the red fur cape that hung from his shoulders as well as the powerful mana waves he was emitting. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, revealing brown hair, black eyes, and a scar running down the right side of his face.

’SS-Rank, perfect,’ Valerian thought and went ahead to challenge the commander.

Once he stood in front of him, the captain dropped to his knee and put his right fist over his heart. Seeing the commander go to his knee, everyone else noticed Valerian and did the same.

"I greet Young Master Valerian," the commander said, and everyone else followed behind him in unison.

Slightly awkward, Valerian raised his hand. "Please, I told you to stop that, it’s weird."

"I understand if it makes you uncomfortable, Young Master, it’s just what we are trained to do."

Letting out a sigh of defeat, Valerian gestured for everyone to come back up. After every knight went to their feet and resumed their training drills, Valerian spoke to the captain. "Captain Ford, I wish to spar with you."

"As you wish, Young Master," Captain Ford answered without even hesitating for a second before answering.

Soon they reached the middle of the training grounds and all the other knights made way for them to spar.

"Who do you think will win?"

"The captain of course! The young master is a monster, but the captain is a war veteran."

"I have to agree, even if the young master climbed the ranks faster than anyone ever recorded, he still doesn’t have real war experience, while the captain has fought for longer than he has been alive."

While everyone was talking and saying their opinion, Valerian and Captain Ford prepared themselves for battle. Valerian pulled out the longsword he had just gotten from his parents, and when the captain saw it, he couldn’t help himself.

"That is a beautiful blade, Young Master, I have never seen something like this."

"Thank you, Captain, I had just gotten it as a gift from my parents."

Captain Ford himself took out a normal sword from his spatial ring. "Are you sure you want to use such a normal sword and not your personal one?"

Hearing the question, Captain Ford let out a bit of mana to gauge Valerian’s rank, and what he felt was pure astonishment. "You broke through. Congratulations on becoming an S-Rank."

All the onlookers couldn’t believe their ears.

"What, he’s already an S-Rank?!"

"So that’s why he wanted to fight the captain."

"What a monster."

The captain himself, after confirming Valerian’s rank, pulled out a different kind of weapon. It was still a longsword, but this one looked like it was made from pure silver, shining in the sunlight. Golden accents decorated the hilt and crossguard. It was razor-sharp, like it could cut through metal without much effort.

Normally, using real swords and especially such a dangerous one would be forbidden for spars, but over the years the knights learned that Valerian’s body wasn’t normal. Injuries that would take any normal person weeks to heal mended in mere minutes. While Valerian has never lost something as big as an arm or leg, the one or other finger was cut off, and even that healed back in an hour. It was completely unhuman.

Both fighters took their stance and were ready to begin their fight. At some invisible sign, they both moved, sprinting at each other with speed that made it impossible for the other knights to see them. Showers of sparks flew through the air, marking the places where they clashed before disappearing again.

They exchanged dozens of blows, then hundreds, both just relying on their mana enhancement, or else the entire palace would be in ruins. But even just the mana enhancement caused the onlookers to be covered in sweat.

"I can’t even see them..."

"I can barely make out where they are."

"Stop lying, you can’t see shit!"

As the crowd continued their meaningless chat, Valerian and the captain exchanged lightning-fast blows. Valerian swung his sword with his right hand at the captain with a diagonal angle. The captain, with his battle instincts forged through hundreds of life-and-death battles, deflected the blow and moved in to deliver an elbow to Valerian’s stomach.

But before the blow could connect, Valerian pushed more mana through his mana channels and twisted away at the last second. He didn’t retreat; he pushed off the ground with his mana-enhanced body and rolled through the air, landing beside the captain. He immediately used the opening to deliver a piercing thrust at the captain’s exposed side.

The captain, not expecting Valerian to dodge with that maneuver, wanted to move his bulky body away, but he realized that with pure mana enhancement he won’t be able to dodge that attack fully. Blue lightning covered his body, and he vanished from the spot, reappearing a few meters away, leaving a burnt line on the training ground.

Captain Ford locked eyes with Valerian. His battle-forged black eyes met Valerian’s cold, purple slitted ones. "You are amazing, Young Master, to think I would be the first one to use my affinity, unbelievable."

Valerian didn’t respond to the praise, seemingly locked in on the fight. ’Scary, it’s like he doesn’t even register what I’m saying. That focus on battle is frightening,’ Ford thought.

The blue lightning covering Captain Ford’s body didn’t die down as he moved with even faster speed this time. As he was about to strike at Valerian, who didn’t even raise his new sword in defense, Valerian’s eyes met his and his body froze.

’What is that? I can’t move.’

What he found so confusing was that his body literally stopped moving, like he’s frozen in time. But one quick glance at the side made him realize that time didn’t freeze. The very idea of motion was removed from his body. Besides his eyes, he couldn’t move a muscle, and even gravity stopped applying to him.

Valerian, using the opportunity brought to him by his unique skill [Law Breaker], swept away the feet of the general. At that exact moment, gravity resumed to work and he crashed down on the ground. He hit the ground so hard that the air was knocked out of his lungs, and the reinforced training ground was riddled with scars and cracks.

Before he could stand back up, the sharp edge of Valerian’s sword appeared over his throat.

"I win."

The entire training ground was silent. No one dared to speak or move. All that moved was Valerian, who pulled away his sword and stored it in his dimensional pocket. After that, he calmly walked away from the training ground before anyone could process what had just happened.