Chapter 395: Battle against a D Rank Fluxmancer! [5]

Since awakening in this world, Leon had fought multiple battles already.

Within just 4 months, he’d fought more battles than most veteran Ascended have fought within decades of their combat careers.

His reckless approach reflected in his growth.

He’d fought in Community G, he’d fought against gangsters on the road on top moving bikes, he’d fought in towns, he’d fought in cities, he’d fought against terrorists on moving maglev trains, he’d fought Ascended of all kind, he survived a Category 3 Beast Tide, he’d fought against D Rank Ascended.

Heck, he already killed a D Rank Ascended!

All of this within just a little more than 4 months.

Leon didn’t like to blow his own horns, but with the caliber of achievements under his belt, it was safe to say that he was one of the deadliest D Rank Ascended in all of Neo-Tokara.

And he was undoubtedly the fastest growing Ascended ever in the history of Neo-Tokara.

In all of these battles that he’d fought, not a single one of them ever pushed him this far nor left him this scarred.

Not one of them managed to push him this close to death, and definitely none of them caused him this much pain.

But there’s always a first time for everything.

In the past few minutes, Leon already endured so much pain that what he suffered in the past 4 months since waking up in that stasis tube felt like beginner level tutorial in comparison.

For the first time, he felt like he was facing a true enemy.

For the first time, he truly felt like death was solace.

This was by far the most insidious and deadliest enemy that he had ever faced in single combat.

This was an enemy that could strip you of all your strengths, an enemy that can pull you down from your comfort zone and exploit your dream in your most vulnerable moment when you’re sleeping.

All that power meant nothing when you’re unconscious, when you’re sleeping, when you’re trapped within the confines of your own dream.

In this one fight against a D Rank Fluxmancer, Leon had been gutted. He’d been decapitated, he’d almost been poisoned. He’d suffered far more than he had ever had to suffer before now, all within a single night.

He suffered and endured what could have driven most men mad.

All for this moment, his counterattack...

Because even in that world of mind-crippling pain Leon never stopped thinking of a way to retaliate.

Survival of the fittest; this was it.

In the end, it all came down once more to his best and most trusted weapon, his brain. After thinking feverishly for multiple minutes where he felt like he was in Hell, he finally deconstructed the secret of the Fluxmancer and his ability.

’Imagination!’

’If I can think it, with enough authority, I can manifest it!’

Stacking 4 Lucian Character Summon Cards of his Quantum Touch ability didn’t suddenly give him the authority of a true D Rank Fluxmancer.

It was not enough.

He didn’t have the authority like the assassin to increase his ADE density to C Rank. Instinctively, Leon knew that this was the reality.

But he didn’t need to increase his ADE to C Rank to win this battle. Even within the confines of D Rank, there were some things that no man should ever face nor even think of surviving head-on.

All he needed was smart imagination.

And so Leon made a wish, and for a brief moment silence followed as time and space seemed to come to a temporary stop.

And then the wish came through.

BZZZZZZT!

Everything happened extremely fast.

The walls of the vague and undefined world of this dream suddenly shattered like cracked glass!

CRACK...!

One moment, the assassin was charging towards him again, ready to deal him another debilitating blow, and the next... reality suddenly folded inward.

The assassin paused in his steps as he felt a dangerous premonition, but it was already too late.

It already started and he was right at its center.

With a look of shock and terror on his face, he stared as the vague silhouette of the city within the dream started dissolving into spiraling geometry and screaming static, buildings stretching infinitely upward before suddenly melting into rivers of destruction!

The sky trembled, then it became a pulsating abyss of shifting symbols and impossible colors, it was almost like the world was coming to an end.

Leon’s wish? Well, it was simple really.

Since he didn’t have the authority to increase his ADE density to C Rank, he simply did something that a victim of his did in his last moments.

Last time, when Dhruv Laden realized that he was about to die, he did his last ’f*ck you!’ move to his enemy and instructed his subordinates to nuke the wasteland where they fought!

Leon wished a nuke to reality with his imagination, and then he unleashed it on the dreamscape.

The assassin’s eyes widened, but it was too late.

Bzzzzzt...!

KABOOOMMMMMMM...!

The shockwave swept through the world like a breeze straight from Hell!

A gigantic crater materialized in the center of the dreamscape, buildings evaporated, while sand burned then melted and turned to glass in the annihilating radiance of the nuclear bomb as it swept through the dreamscape!

As for Leon?

Well, actually he made two wishes. The first wish was for a nuclear bomb. The second wish was for a unique armor that would be able to protect him from the flames and radiation of the bomb.

In reality, no singular armor could protect any Ascended who found himself within the heart of a detonating nuclear bomb.

But this didn’t matter.

Afterall, within the dreamscape, reality is subject to context.

So long you believed it, it is possible. This is how the assassin was able to create a dagger out of nothing, and this is how he was able to manipulate reality even further to push his ADE to C Rank.

As for Leon, as a Mechanist, he could have decided to create his constructs out of nothing, but against this enemy, he realized that it was not going to be enough, and so he took it one step further.

He had firm belief in his ability to be able to construct nuclear bombs in the future. He also believed in his ability to create suits of armor to protect himself from nuclear bombs in the future.

That was all inside a distant future, but within the dreamscape, it didn’t matter.

So long he believed it, then it was reality within the dream!

He wished that future and turned it into now, and then...

The nuclear warhead detonated and the bomb swept through the world like an unstoppable plague, annihilating everything in its wake except Leon who was protected by the armor.

As for the assassin...

At the last moment before he was devoured, his white and gold ADE flared.

Radiation Bending!

BZZZZ!

At the last moment, he managed to react, stopping himself from getting overwhelmed and annihilated by the nuclear bomb with clever radiation bending. Fluxmancers were the only D Rank Ascended in the world with the ability to theoretically survive a nuclear bomb with their ability to bend radiation.

But Leon didn’t stop yet, that was just the initial wish.

Knowing the nature of Radiation Bending, he knew that the assassin was likely going to survive it.

This was why he took it a step further.

The aftereffects of the nuclear bomb were still ravaging through the world when he made his second wish.

Leon wished for a bomb again, but this time, it was a different type of bomb.

Leon wished for a bomb that no technology in Neo-Tokara have been able to create despite technological growth for centuries, he wished for a futuristic bomb that even in this era was still purely science fiction.

He wished for a bomb that could directly obliterate the mind!

DING!

The ChronoSystem lit up with a thread of new notifications.

~----~

[Congratulations! You have created an incomplete B Rank Blueprint: Psionic Bomb!]

...

[Congratulations! You have gained +500 Ascended Essence!]

[You have gained +5000 Data Points!]

...

[You have triggered a Psionic Bomb within the Dreamscape!]

~----~

’Eh?’

That was the last thought Leon had before the world detonated!

KABOOMMMMMMMMMM!