[Lord of Abundance] Chapter 44 — Blue Planet

 

Chapter 44 — Blue Planet

“Life Magic—Blue Planet!”

Kun’s voice rose into a sharp, resonant chant.

Ancient Dragon Tongue.

Moon Elf language.

Aether speech.

And mixed among them, fragments of a language no one on the Eternal Dawn Continent could possibly understand—

Blue Star language.

Incantations were the medium through which mages communicated with the laws of the world.

And this fourth-tier Abundance spell, modeled after the history of life’s birth on Blue Star, required fragments of Blue Star’s language as the medium for its casting.

In truth, no one present could understand what Kun was chanting.

To minimize casting time as much as possible, he first cast the third-tier spell Flesh Sculpting upon himself, altering the structure of his vocal cords.

Compared to the limited range of sounds human vocal cords could produce, there existed on the Eternal Dawn Continent a magical beast known as the Echo-Throated Weng Bird.

Though only a first-tier magical beast, it could imitate nearly every sound in existence—including sounds humans could neither hear nor reproduce.

Some especially gifted Echo-Throated Weng Birds could even mimic the roar of ancient dragons to scare away predators.

To mages, knowledge was power.

But that power did not merely come from the strength of spells themselves.

Knowing how to use magic properly was knowledge, too.

After creating the third-tier Abundance spell Flesh Sculpting, which could freely shape living tissue, Kun had personally dissected numerous magical beasts to study their unique organs.

Among them were the vocal cords of the Echo-Throated Weng Bird.

By restructuring his own vocal cords through magic, Kun could reproduce perfectly authentic pronunciations of Ancient Dragon Tongue, Moon Elf speech, Naga language, and many others.

With magical incantations, the closer the pronunciation came to the original phonetics, the greater the spell’s power.

Which meant that compared to ordinary human mages, Kun’s chants were closer to their primordial forms.

Naturally, the spells he cast were correspondingly stronger.

As for Aether speech—

That was the language of the spirit.

Not something produced through the mouth.

Beyond that, Kun employed an extremely advanced incantation technique—

Overlapping Resonance.

Complex and obscure incantations were compressed into the simplest syllables possible, layers of sounds stacked and crushed together.

Like turning formal script into wild cursive.

To outside listeners, it sounded like an incomprehensible torrent of shrill, rapid chanting—

true magical incantation in its purest form.

For physically fragile mages, every second saved during spellcasting was invaluable.

A spell that normally required four full recitations and at least a minute to complete had been forcibly compressed by Kun into less than five seconds.

This was power.

This—

was true power.

The power possessed only by mages who had grasped the essence of magic itself.

Its name was Wisdom.

Written another way—

Knowledge.

As Kun completed the final syllable of the fourth-tier spell, countless specks of blue light appeared in the air.

This was not power belonging to the Eternal Dawn Continent.

It came from another brilliant world beyond distant time and space.

Everything in existence was connected.

Even two grains of dust possessed a force drawing them together.

Planets were no exception.

No matter how impossibly distant two worlds might be—even separated by unimaginable light-years, even if one planet had perished millions of years ago—

Its starlight could still fall upon another world.

Light was particles.

Light was energy.

Yet energy was not limited to light alone.

Even Kun himself did not fully understand what his spell had truly awakened.

Perhaps it was fragments of power scattered across the Eternal Dawn Continent over billions of years since Blue Star’s birth, traversing incomprehensible distances and time itself.

Or perhaps it was merely a projection of Blue Star from another spacetime.

At first, only tiny blue motes drifted in the air.

Then they gathered together like endless fireflies, forming a vast blue river across the heavens.

Primitive algae.

Arthropods.

Brachiopods.

Worm-like creatures.

Jawless fish.

Countless primordial lifeforms leaped from the river one after another.

Then came rooted plants.

Land vertebrates.

Dinosaurs.

Mammals.

They surged from the waters and returned once more to the flowing river.

Billions of lifeforms struggled and competed within the blue current like a river of time itself.

The magnificent celestial river condensed into stars.

It was as though the entire evolutionary history of a planet had been compressed into one dazzling instant.

Finally—

A flourishing blue-and-white planet radiating nearly eternal brilliance descended violently toward the crystallized skeleton warrior below.

The skeleton warrior had only just split apart the sea of vines around itself with its broken sword when it looked up—

and saw the beautiful blue planet hurtling toward it.

For a brief instant, it seemed to lock eyes with the countless billions of lives born upon that world.

Even a being as powerful as the crystallized skeleton warrior nearly had its spiritual sea crushed beneath that overwhelming torrent of information.

Its divinely bestowed sword slowed for a fraction of a moment.

“Bzzzt—”

Unable to evade in time, the skeleton warrior could only raise its divine sword to block the spell that had triggered its instincts of danger.

But it had completely misjudged Kun’s magic.

Kun’s Abundance spells had never specialized in destruction.

The gorgeous blue planet passed through the broken sword like an illusion, completely ignoring its defense.

Then—

it merged directly into the crystallized skeleton warrior’s body and vanished.

The soul-fire within the skeleton’s eyes flickered uncertainly.

Its body showed no signs of collapse whatsoever.

This wasn’t an offensive spell.

And curse-type magic was notoriously ineffective against undead, especially transcendent undead like itself.

If a curse failed against such beings, the backlash would usually strike the caster instead.

Could this all have been nothing more than a bluffing illusion spell?

…No matter.

Better to destroy this slightly dangerous creature first before taking time to torment the other pathetic insects.

“Mm?”

The crystallized skeleton warrior suddenly raised its charred skeletal arm in confusion.

The undead flames surrounding its body—normally its outermost layer of defense—were burning it instead.

And not merely one arm.

Its entire crystallized body was slowly melting.

Its own undead fire was harming its master.

How was that possible?

Was it because of that strange spell?!

“You filthy native that resembles those elves… what exactly did you do to me?!”

The soul-voice remained harsh and grating, but now lacked its earlier superiority.

Instead, it carried unmistakable panic and rage.

This body—

the strongest body it had painstakingly forged over three thousand years after transforming into undead and soaking within this sea of Ether Liquid—

absolutely could not be lost.

Native?

Kun frowned at the strange term.

Could this creature have come from another continent beyond the Storm Sea?

Otherwise, why would it describe him as a “native”?

How could beings from the same continent refer to each other that way unless one side viewed the other as primitive islanders?

Seeing that Kun had no intention of answering and merely watched it coldly—

like a researcher observing a valuable experimental specimen—

the crystallized skeleton warrior became furious.

“You seek death! I’ll rip out your soul and grind it apart piece by piece! Then we’ll see whether you talk!”

It immediately dispersed the undead flames cloaking its body to prevent further damage to its precious form.

The divine sword in its hand—capable of stripping life from all things—rose once more.

Then suddenly—

Its half-melted crystal body froze in place.

“What’s wrong?”

Kun sneered.

“Weren’t you going to crush my soul?”

“How stupid. Looks like being undead for too long made you lose your brain too.”

“So you finally noticed something’s wrong?”

“Interesting. It seems even the owner of the body remains unaware of certain changes after such physical transformations. Thanks to you, I’ve gathered some excellent experimental data.”

“You bastard… what exactly did you do to me?!”

The soul-fire within the skeleton’s skull trembled violently.

“As long as you remove this curse and swear never to reveal the secrets of this ruin, I can guarantee you’ll leave here alive!”

The crystallized skeleton warrior was now certain it had been afflicted by some horrifying special curse.

Its body showed no visible damage.

Yet its undead flames now burned against it.

That alone would have been manageable.

After all, the undead flames were merely supplementary defense.

Its true protection was the crystal armor formed from condensed magical essence around its skeleton.

But when it tried to raise its divine sword to eliminate the enemy before it—

Its battle aura, tempered over millennia, suddenly spiraled out of control inside its body.

Even the divine sword that had accompanied it for three thousand years radiated faint resistance, as though it wished to abandon its wielder.

Worst of all—

The skeleton warrior sensed malice.

Cold, immense malice.

Utterly undisguised malice.

The source of that malice was the undead flames.

Its battle aura.

Its divine sword.

The earth beneath its feet.

The magical elements in the air.

The entire world itself.

It could feel the icy hatred of the World Mother.

After becoming undead, it had always sensed the world’s disgust toward it.

The disgust directed at immortals clinging greedily to life.

That was why the undead saw no colors beyond black and white.

Why they could feel no warmth.

Why their hearts remained forever empty.

It was the world’s punishment.

Yet even so—

like a hopelessly disappointing child—

no matter how disliked, it was still one of the world’s children.

A small measure of tolerance remained.

But now…

the crystallized skeleton warrior could no longer feel even the slightest trace of mercy.

Only naked hatred.

The entire world wished to erase it as quickly as possible.

As though it had become the greatest aberration within existence—

a calamity absolutely forbidden to exist.

The ultimate enemy of the world itself.

“A curse?”

Kun blinked innocently.

With his angelically handsome face and utterly sincere expression, he said:

“No, no, no—you misunderstand. I’m not the sort of immoral person who curses others.”

“That spell just now was actually a blessing.”

“A… blessing?”

The crystallized skeleton warrior froze.

Not a curse—

but a beneficial enhancement spell?

Then why did it cause the world itself to reject him?!

What kind of insane blessing was this?!

While the skeleton warrior reeled in confusion, Kun secretly manipulated a vine across the ground, quietly carrying the magic crystal containing the Sky Goddess’s divine power toward the undead creature.

To keep its attention fixed on himself, Kun calmly explained:

“The thing is, this blessing doesn’t come from the Eternal Dawn Continent.”

“It’s a blessing from another world called Blue Star.”

“This spell transforms the essence of your life—including your soul—into that of another world.”

“You’re basically someone who forcibly changed bloodline and ancestry, betrayed your roots, then called the neighbor ‘Dad’ right in front of your actual father.”

“Tsk. A bit offensive to look at, honestly.”

“But this absolutely counts as a blessing.”

“A very high-level world-class blessing, in fact.”

The crystallized skeleton warrior stood stunned for a full five seconds.

Then it exploded in furious cursing.

“You call this a blessing?!”

“You f*cking call THIS a blessing?!”

“Even the most vicious curse in existence would be a hundred times kinder than your damned ‘blessing,’ you lunatic!!”

“Remove this disgusting ‘blessing’ immediately or else—!”

Before the enraged skeleton warrior could finish its threat, Kun detonated the divine power crystal beneath its feet without hesitation.

BOOM!

Holy radiance of supreme purity erupted skyward without obstruction.

It pierced through the underground elven ruins, tore through layers of earth, and shot directly into the heavens.

Even from hundreds of kilometers away, one could feel the vast divine might.

The core of the ruins became an endless ocean of light.

Kun reacted instantly, covering everyone with thick vines while tightly shutting his eyes.

Yet he still felt as though he were submerged within a sea of pure brilliance.

Endless white.

Nothing else existed.

Like a tiny boat ready to capsize at any moment, Kun completely lost his sense of direction within the boundless ocean of white as the terrifying power of light flowed through him freely.

Holy hymns echoed in his ears.

A golden gate seemed to open slowly in the heavens.

Flower petals rained down.

Angels sounded trumpets.

It felt as though heaven itself invited him inside.

Yet faintly, buried beneath the sacred music, Kun thought he heard the sounds of slaughter and battle cries.

He ignored the illusions flooding his senses.

These phenomena merely occurred when a single elemental force within the environment reached absurd concentrations.

They were similar to drunken hallucinations.

The visions themselves were not real—

they were simply the mind’s associations while “intoxicated.”

Many so-called divine miracles were no different.

With Kun’s mental strength, he ordinarily shouldn’t have been affected at all.

But his mind was elsewhere.

There was only one thing bothering him.

Why did a goddess possessing such overwhelming radiance call herself the Sky Goddess instead of the Goddess of Light?

Could the authority of Sky truly surpass that of Radiance?

The ancient elves’ Mythic Chronicles did indeed record that Radiance had once been subordinate to Sky.

Yet Kun always felt there was something subtly wrong about that.

“There’s still too little information. No meaningful conclusion can be drawn.”

He stopped dwelling on the issue.

The ocean of light surrounding him was rapidly fading.

Soon, Kun slowly opened his eyes once more.

The entire world had turned pure white.

White vines.

White pedestal.

White stone tablet.

White box.

Even the fearsome crystallized skeleton warrior had been washed completely white beneath the Sky Goddess’s divine power.

Those seemingly gentle rays of light were tyrannically overbearing in truth.

“Divine grace is as boundless as the sea. Divine wrath is as terrible as a prison.”

For the first time, Kun truly understood the meaning behind that proverb so widely spoken across the Eternal Dawn Continent.