Ascension of the last Celestial

As they moved closer to the entrance of the cave, Valerian turned to Arthur.

"You are taking this, by the way."

Arthur, with a skeptical look, turned to Valerian.

"And why would I do that?"

"Because you know how strong I am, but I have no idea how strong you are."

Arthur exhaled a large breath and, with a defeated look, nodded.

When they reached the entrance of the cave, Valerian was surprised by what he saw. They weren’t in a normal cave; the cave was hundreds of meters high in the air at the side of a mountain.

"How the hell did you find this cave?"

"I didn’t, the system led me here, and because it’s so high up, it’s pretty safe."

Valerian clicked his tongue in frustration.

"Damn overpowered system, it’s wasted on you."

Instead of a comeback, Arthur focused on the monster that let out the roar. Flying over the treetops was a large, dragon-like beast. It had a strong body with two massive leather wings coming from beneath the front legs; these wings had sharp claws in the middle. It had strong back legs and a long tail with spikes on it. It was a deep blue color with white parts throughout the body. Its mean dragon head rested on a long neck, and ice adorned its neck.

"Is that a dragon?" Arthur asked hesitantly.

Valerian looked at him from the side of his head.

"No, that’s not a dragon. It’s a wyvern, a lesser version of dragons."

While explaining the monster, there was an unmistakable pride in Valerian’s voice, as his bloodline made him feel superior to a mere wyvern.

"It’s S-Rank. You should be able to take it. If not, I guess the great Valerian has to save you, my pitiful friend."

Arthur scoffed at the mockery and readied himself to go and fight the beast.

"As if this overgrown lizard could d-"

Arthur was interrupted as he was suddenly falling down the cliff outside the cave.

"Huh?"

As the freefall registered, he turned around mid-air and saw Valerian looking at him with a shit-eating grin as spatial mana was floating around him.

"You bastard!!"

After cursing Valerian, Arthur called upon one of his affinities, and a light updraft of wind came from beneath him, keeping him afloat.

’This piece of shit! He knew I can’t fly yet and still teleported me off the cliff.’

As free flight was only possible when one reached S-Rank, Arthur, who was still at the peak of A+, couldn’t fly yet and had to rely on his wind affinity.

’Let’s see... Status.’

[Status Window]

[Name: Arthur von Pendragon]

[Age: 15]

[Titles: The Reincarnator, Anomaly, System Owner]

[Race: High Human]

[Bloodline: -]

[Physique: -]

[Core: Rank A+]

[Affinities: Wind, Fire, Lightning, Water, Earth]

[Bound: -]

[Attributes]

[Vitality: A+]

[Strength: A]

[Agility: A+]

[Dexterity: A+]

[Intelligence: A]

[Mana: A]

[Charm: S]

[Unique Skill]

[Akashic Records]

[System Shop]

[Quests]

[Skills]

[Inventory]

’Should be doable. Hard, but doable.’

With a thought, the wind that was keeping him floating became faster and turned into a tornado circling around him. Arthur leaned forward and exploded into motion, racing towards the wyvern.

While flying to the beast, he took two daggers from his system inventory. They were a black color with a long blade and red markings along it. Arthur got these for completing a quest given to him by the system, and they had been his main weapon ever since.

As he got closer, he gathered all the wind below his feet and catapulted himself towards the wyvern, blue lightning dancing along the blades.

The wyvern, seeing him, let out a roar as shards made from ice formed around it. With a flap of its wings, the shards flew towards Arthur, who was mid-air after the jump boost from the wind.

Seeing the shards approach, he summoned another gust of wind to move his body to the side without losing his momentum or changing direction. The shards flew past him, missing him entirely.

The wyvern, seeing its attack miss, flapped its strong wings and flew forward, meeting Arthur head-on.

As they got closer to each other, the wyvern opened its maw, and a larger dragon maw formed from ice around its head.

When they were only a few meters away from each other, Arthur suddenly threw his dagger past the dragon, missing its head. But instead of a frustrated face, Arthur had a big grin plastered all over his face.

When the ice jaws of the wyvern were closing in around him, his body suddenly disappeared, and the wyvern bit on air. Before the confusion about the disappearance of its prey could settle in, it felt a sharp pain on its back accompanied by a burning sensation.

On the back of the flying wyvern stood Arthur, with both his daggers rammed into the wyvern’s back and orange-red flames igniting in the wound.

’Thank God I bought that skill.’

The skill Arthur was talking about was [Mark]. It let him teleport to whatever object he previously injected mana into, with the mana consumption scaling with distance. And now he had teleported to the dagger he threw past the wyvern.

As the wyvern began to thrash around, trying to shake off Arthur, who was still infusing his fire mana into the daggers, the air around its body began to drop drastically.

Arthur’s breath became visible as the temperature dropped so far that the fire from his daggers began to flicker.

’Shit!’

Quickly pulling out one of the daggers, Arthur threw it with all his might to the side. Just in time, he activated his skill as an explosion of ice mana erupted from the wyvern.

The wound that was inflicted with the daggers stopped bleeding as ice covered it. The wound didn’t heal; it just closed enough so the bleeding wouldn’t hinder the wyvern in the fight.

As Arthur appeared 20 meters away, he once again summoned a gust of air to keep himself floating.

’Is he really just watching?’

Looking to the side where the cave was located, Arthur spotted Valerian sitting down at the cliff with his feet dangling off the edge, leisurely eating an apple like he had no care in the world.

’Is this guy serious?!’

Before he could lose himself in the laid-back attitude of his new friend, the wyvern once again let out a roar, and 10 shards formed around it. Besides being more than before, these ones were also much bigger, with each shard reaching 3 meters.

Instead of firing them all in a straight line towards Arthur, the wyvern expertly manipulated them to fly in a zigzag pattern, flying towards Arthur from all sides.

Arthur’s expression hardened again as he watched the volley of unpredictable shards approach.

’Fuck, I have to use it.’

Reluctantly, Arthur activated the strongest skill in his arsenal. Taking a deep breath, he muttered:

[Lightning God’s Descent]

The world slowed down. All the incoming shards, the wyvern, and even Valerian seemed like they moved in slow motion.

Arcs of blue lightning crackled around Arthur’s body, and the tips of his midnight-black hair turned into a pale blue.

Looking at the approaching shards, Arthur began to move. A platform made from wind gathered beneath his boot; using it, he catapulted himself toward the wyvern.

His speed was augmented by the skill, making it possible for him to use the shards that previously moved blindingly fast as footholds to move towards the wyvern. Every time he leaped from shard to shard, the previous one exploded from the sheer force of the jump.

For Arthur, a few seconds passed as he was already within striking range of his daggers, but to the outside, less than a second passed, and all they could see was a bolt of blue lightning jumping from shard to shard, leaving behind a shower of broken ice and snow.

With the same speed, the twin daggers covered in a layer of lightning penetrated whatever defense the wyvern had at its head like butter, reaching its brain instantly.

The wyvern didn’t even know what happened. One second the attack was about to reach its prey, and the next, a blinding light hit, and all thought stopped as the light left its eyes.

The body of the ice wyvern began to fall to the ground. Arthur, who was still standing on its head, began to wobble as his vision became unclear. But before he could fall to the ground, space flooded around him, and he landed on the same cliff that led to the cave.

"That was amazing! And that form at the end, so fucking cool!"

Valerian’s loud, excited voice caused a piercing headache to hit him, and he rolled over, covering his ears with his hands.

"Just... shut up."

Valerian looked at Arthur, who was curled up in a ball holding his ears shut, for a second before he moved closer and held his right hand out.

Life mana began to converge within his hand as a green glow began to flow into Arthur’s body.

"I don’t have a life affinity, but I’m good enough at using it."

The head-splitting headache began to weaken and soon turned into a normal, slightly annoying headache.

"Now that you are all better, tell me what that form was!"

Finally being able to think again, Arthur uncurled, sat up, and began to explain the skill he just used to kill the wyvern.