Nine could feel the essence coursing through his body, moving quickly and creating chaos as if searching for something within him.
He had just consumed a droplet of divine essence. However, the impact has been devastating so far. It's painful... that was the last thought in Nine's mind when his vision blurred and everything around him turned into a haze. But he dug his nails into his palms to stay conscious, because he knew that the chance Kyle gave him would be his last opportunity to gain a strength he could have never even imagined in his whole life.
Nine didn't even realize when he started to transform into his original form. He hardly ever used his tail because he just preferred having a pair of legs. Also, for some reason, he wasn't as good with it as Seraphine and his other siblings.
At first, the light around his lowered body was faint, but then it shone brightly before the sound of water around him quieted into hushed silence.
As the sun's gentle rays touched the calm water's surface, Nine's legs transformed into a tail, a beautiful shade of brown that seamlessly blended with the water. The tail narrowed to a faint golden shade at the end, but with each passing second, the golden shade deepened until his tail's fins glowed with a radiant golden aura. Crystal-clear flukes appeared around his hips, and the thread inside his eyes encircled his pale golden pupils in a restless manner.
Kyle backed away in mid-air as the water around Nine began to tremble. Suddenly, without any warning, it burst upward, enveloping the latter from all directions.
Kyle blinked and looked at Nine with anticipation and a bit of nervousness.
'Did he enter the Ascendant state?'
Nine closed his eyes, wearing a serene and calm expression. The air around him started humming softly as if sensing that he had entered an ethereal state.
The time he spent in that state was not more than a minute for Kyle, but for Nine himself, it felt like an eternity. Because the moment he entered the Ascendant state, he found himself in front of a towering wall that extended upward, reaching a place he couldn't even see with his eyes.
A wild laughter escaped Nine's lips as a thought emerged in the depths of his mind. He realized he needed to break this wall, this tall towering wall... that seemed to have no end, in order to break free from the constraints of his talent.
It's not like he thought it would be easy. He only had an (S+)-Rank talent, but he wanted to reach a rank that no one on this planet had reached in the past hundreds of years.
Nine clenched his fist and banged it against the wall, but it didn't budge. But he didn't give up. He kept banging the wall again and again, even though his fist went numb. He just couldn't stop because he couldn't fail, especially not now when he had a chance to get stronger.
If he failed, he would never be able to stand up against his so-called mother when she forced him to obey her orders. And he couldn't admit defeat because if he did, Seraphine would make his life difficult just by her presence alone.
Nine punched the wall harder with each thought. And, most importantly, he couldn't admit defeat because he needed to change the future where he saw Alec harming Kyle. He had to be there to make sure those bastards didn't go down the wrong path.
He needed to become stronger because he had to protect his future wife and help all his friends who were in danger.
Nine's knuckles ached, but he did not stop and just started banging the wall with his other hand. After all, he knew that if he did, he would fail and would be kicked out of this space.
Amidst all this, he failed to notice, but the golden threads in his eyes tightly wrapped around his pupils as he banged his fists on the towering wall.
Different from Nine who had no idea what was happening to his body outside the space where he was desperately trying to break the wall, Kyle panicked when he saw blood dripping from his eyes.
It only took a second, and Kyle arrived beside him, opening his tightly shut eyes with his fingers.
"Damn it, what's happening?"
Kyle loudly called out Nine's name. But the man's eyes were completely blank as if he couldn't hear his voice at all. Kyle looked around, he had no idea what to do.
But before he could make Nine swallow every healing potion and treasure he had, the latter gasped and an otherworldly glow appeared around his body. Kyle felt a powerful force around Nine, and he was pushed back in the distance.
He stared at Nine who sucked in a deep breath as if he hadn't breathed for a long time. Kyle blinked when countless little sea creatures in the surrounding circled Nine as if sensing something powerful.
Nine opened his eyes and stared at the sky, breathing unevenly. The golden glow around him didn't scatter in the surroundings. Instead, it entered his body once again, merging within him. His eyes shone brightly with a deep golden glow, and the threads encircling his pupils moved back to their original position. However, they went eerily still, as if they had exhausted their strength. Nine laughed, and a curse slipped out from his mouth.
"Fuck... I almost thought I failed..."
Indeed, he thought he failed when he dropped to his knees in front of the tall wall, completely drained, but then a sudden burst of enlightenment appeared in his mind.
Nine focused his unwavering gaze on the wall in front of him. One particular spot on the surface had caved in because he had concentrated all his efforts there from the beginning.
He raised his fist to strike that exact spot again with the thought, just one more time... but in that very moment, an unknown strength that he never knew he had enveloped his fist, and the power behind his punch increased. Instantly, a loud sound reverberated in his ears, and finally, the place he had been relentlessly pounding cracked.
The towering wall, which stood before him like an impenetrable fortress, trembled as the crack appeared. Nine couldn't help but laugh as he watched the wall crumble down into countless pieces in front of him.
Afterward, he had to crawl just to make his way through the rubble since he had no strength left in his body. But no matter what, he did it..... he broke the unbreakable fortress and gained the strength he never could have achieved.
Nine's wild laughter echoed in all directions, scaring the little creatures encircling him. His tail, which had completely turned golden from the end, was submerged in the water as he slapped his hand on the water around him with a loud shout, causing splashes to fly everywhere.
"I did it!"
