Free Tier - Accidental Champion (Book 9) - Chapter 52 – Destructive Energy

Xavier stared at the mass of destructive energy where the Empire of Servitude’s armada had once been. He’d disabled his notifications, but even so he’d been able to feel the levels as they flowed in.

He took a moment to look at the notifications, speeding up his mind and skimming through them.

You have reached Level 401!

…

You have reached Level 405!

…

You have reached Level 410!

Xavier raised an eyebrow.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Gaining levels as a B Grade was supposed to be an agonisingly slow process, something that could take centuries. And yet here he was, gaining ten levels in a fraction of that time.

There were even several titles thrown into the mix, as the moment he’d gained a level he could gain titles again, as he hadn’t hit the limit for how much Refined Celestial Energy he could use for that level.

After discovering he could give himself the same power a title would have offered him, he didn’t find receiving titles all that interesting anymore. They were nothing more than slight shortcuts for something he could do for himself. Honestly, it made him wonder why the System used titles at all. It should teach everyone to use Refined Celestial Energy on themselves.

Wouldn’t that be a better path to power?

Then again, maybe titles served another purpose—coaxing Denizens into pushing themselves harder than they otherwise would have for a chance to gain those titles.

That motivation might have helped him early on, but it wasn’t something he was in need of now.

He skimmed past them, then continued to stare at the mass of destructive energy.

It was all currently trapped outside his time dilation field.

After taking some time to examine the energy with his Immortal Soul lens, he examined Galadsea’s planetary shield. The smile he’d worn when he’d defeated the armada had slipped away. He was sure now that the destructive force of all those ship cores exploding would be enough to not only break through the planetary shield but take out the entire planet.

He’d succeeded at taking out the armada, but he’d created another problem.

A part of him wondered if the destructive force would be enough to take out the S Grade True Dragon. And maybe it would be… but how could he make such a thing happen? And even if he did make that happen, how would he stop the energy from destroying the planet and every innocent who inhabited it?

Using this destructive energy to take out the S Grade True Dragon hadn’t been a part of his initial plan, and honestly it didn’t feel like it would actually work. And if it didn’t work…

I need to stick to my original plan if I’m going to have any chance of killing that thing.

Xavier turned his attention back to the destructive energy, wondering exactly what he was going to do about it. He couldn’t just let it remain there. Yes, his time dilation field was powerful enough that it would be years and years for him before that energy reached the planet, but that didn’t much matter. The instant he left this floor, his field would no longer be active. He couldn’t leave the people of Galadsea to die. He supposed evacuating them was a possible option, but they were an insular people. Where exactly would they go?

No, he wouldn’t think about that option unless it was truly necessary.

At first, he wondered if it would be possible to scatter the energy. But even as he contemplated that he knew doing such a thing would be close to impossible. The amount of energy he would need to scatter would take more Soul Energy than he would be able to replenish in a long, long while.

He could use his drones for such a task, but even that would take a long time, and more drones than he’d summoned since he’d gained the spell in the first place. It was an option, but creating drones inside his time dilation field for the next hundred years wasn’t really something he wished to put on his to-do list. Yes, he’d developed an incredible amount of patience, but that didn’t mean he was going to endure something like that unless he absolutely had to.

As he hovered there, he couldn’t help but wonder what Adranial was up to. How much time had passed for her since he’d come to this floor? Xavier’s time dilation field was more powerful and worked more efficiently than anyone else’s back home, but that didn’t mean a lot of time wouldn’t be passing for Adranial and the others.

Months must have passed, at the least. Maybe even a full year. I’m not going to let too much pass again unless I really have to.

So Xavier hovered there, in the vacuum of space, for a long while as he worked on the problem. Roln materialised before long, hovering not far from him, and the two of them bounced ideas off of one another. The dead Wanderer said if he were still alive nullifying that amount of energy would have been child’s play, but even if he taught Xavier the spell he simply wouldn’t be powerful enough to cast it.

“Wonderful,” Xavier muttered. “Very helpful.”

Roln shrugged, and they kept thinking.

A part of Xavier looked at the energy hungrily. He remembered what the World Destroyer was capable of. It was able to consume energy, even energy like this, and that in turn made it stronger.

What, exactly, was stopping Xavier from doing that? Wasn’t that how the Interdimensional Dragon had grown so strong in the first place, because it was able to devour energy wholesale and convert it for its own use? Having an ability like that would only serve him. Maybe then he could one day become as powerful as the enemy he needed to defeat…

Roln, however, stopped him from going too far down this train of thought.

There was a danger in learning abilities like that. Consuming energy… it made one impossibly hungry for power. It wasn’t an ability that was tolerated in many parts of the multiverse because of the dangers it posed.

Even Wanderers—or, perhaps especially Wanderers—shunned and in some cases hunted those who used such powers.

Xavier balked at the idea of being restricted. At not being able to use any and all possible tools for becoming stronger. He’d told himself, more than once, that there was nothing he wouldn’t do to save his universe, and others in turn.

But he followed that line of thought to its natural conclusion—to Xavier Collins creating a transformation of his own and becoming a True Dragon… because why wouldn’t he use such a power to defeat the greatest enemy that ever was?

The problem was, if he were to do that… then chances were high that he would become the greatest enemy that ever was.

Besides, moral concerns aside, he couldn’t become powerful in the same way that the Interdimensional Dragon became powerful. Not if he wanted to defeat the Interdimensional Dragon. He simply wouldn’t be able to catch up to its level of power like that.

He would need to pursue other methods. Better methods.

Besides, I’m not willing to devour universes in order to reach my goal. That would make me no better than him.

Xavier paused in his thoughts. Him? Since when had he thought of the Interdimensional Dragon as him?

He pushed those thoughts away and returned his focus to the problem in front of him.

More than once, he’d thought about creating a portal. He could simply send that energy somewhere else. It wouldn’t be too hard for him to scout out the nearby star systems and find one that was uninhabited. But it wasn’t that simple. There had been three million Empire of Servitude armada ships, and the explosion had spread out to consume every single one of them. Those ships had taken up a massive amount of space. Each had been as big as a large town—they had to be, to contain that many Denizens—and they hadn’t been directly next to each other.

Three million small towns. The surface area of the explosion was simply too big. He’d need to create a portal almost as large as the barren moon he’d arrived on, and while he was powerful he wasn’t that powerful.

Such a thing was beyond even his abilities.

This reminded him of when Arrack had blown himself up back on his base. Xavier hadn’t been able to do anything to stop that explosion either. The possibility of an evacuation entered his mind again—one would be necessary anyway, if he wasn’t able to deal with the S Grade True Dragon down there. He wouldn’t have to abandon these people, even if it meant he didn’t technically complete the floor.

Using many small portals to portion off the energy wasn’t an option either.

Xavier sighed. When he’d decided to blow up his enemies, encountering this problem afterward hadn’t been what he’d had in mind. He supposed this was a good learning experience for the future.

Maybe I don’t have to fix this on my own…

As long as he remained inside his time dilation field, the explosion wasn’t going anywhere. And there were ways for him to take extra precautions. He made a few of his drones manifest Time Alteration spells and cast them. The C Grade drones were now powerful enough that their time dilation fields could easily contain the explosion’s area. He made their time dilation fields move as slow as possible, effectively trapping the explosion—and the drones—in a sort of time prison.

That’ll have to do for now.

Xavier put the problem in the back of his mind and rotated in the vacuum to face the planet Galadsea. It was about time he spoke to the queen, and informed her of everything that had happened since the last time they’d made contact.

She needed to know what was going on, and he needed her cooperation if the next phase of his plan was going to work. Though before he made his way down to the planet, he started summoning as many drones as he could, farming them for Refined Celestial Energy.

He’d gained a whopping ten levels since he’d reached B Grade. The power difference that each of those levels had given him before using Refined Celestial Energy was absolutely massive. The difference from one level to the next had never been more pronounced as it was now.

And with the ability to use Refined Celestial Energy to reap as much potential out of his body, mind, and soul as he possibly could, he was empowered even more.

When Xavier was finished, it felt as though his skin crackled with energy. He radiated such power, even with his cores veiled. Since reaching B Grade, and spending all that time training, he’d never really stopped to think about just how strong he was now. It had been hard to think of such things when so much of his mind had been occupied with the revelation that he—or, at least, a version of him—was the Interdimensional Dragon.

Even with his strength for compartmentalising his thoughts and emotions that little fact was something that kept springing back into the forefront of his mind. It felt as though it affected everything he did. He was bursting to talk about it, to tell those closest to him, while at the same time being absolutely terrified of that their reactions would be.

He also knew that even if they did react well, he couldn’t actually tell them. The risk was too great. And speaking the fact out loud where the System could hear him… that would not be a good idea. Not by a long shot.

This was something he would need to keep to himself.

At least I have Roln to talk to about it…

Though even the mental construct didn’t have much to say on the matter. The dead Wanderer seemed to want to avoid the subject as much as possible. Xavier supposed he understood that instinct.

Xavier flew down to the planet, once more pushing thoughts of the Interdimensional Dragon out of his mind as he pinpointed the queen’s presence with The All-Seeing Eye and his Immortal Soul lens. He made sure to avoid the side of the planet where the S Grade True Dragon was. The last thing he wanted was to alert it of him being in a time dilation field. He had no idea how fast it was. No idea how it would react.

Hell, he had no idea if it was even where he’d left it…

When Xavier reached the queen, he found her outside her palace, in the massive courtyard she used to address her people. The same courtyard where the first waves from the Empire of Servitude’s armada had landed. Once Xavier had caught up with the waves, he hadn’t needed Queen Aecia or her entourage’s help anymore, and they simply couldn’t make their way around the planet as fast as him.

She stood with a look of worry frozen on her face.

Xavier expanded the time dilation field to her, and her alone, even though her entourage surrounded her.

Queen Aecia blinked, noticing Xavier instantly. “Xavier? I thought you were—” Her eyes widened. “The time dilation field… it’s no longer active around the planet? Oh, what happened?”

Xavier glanced up at the sky, then thought of the S Grade True Dragon.

“I have good news and bad news. Which would you like first?”