Lyra didn't even know what to say. A spear? She didn't have a spear.

"I…"

Theron looked over and smiled, still crouching atop his Immortal Cave.

"Any weapon is fine, unless you want your junior brother to get beat up."

Lyra wanted to refuse at first, to tell them that there was no point in them fighting. She didn't even understand what sort of ridiculous situation they had gotten themselves into. Was this even something worth battling over?

But when she sensed the killing intent radiating from Kaelen, and felt the wind whizz by her ear, she suddenly realized that the man was already attacking Theron without regard for her opinion in the first place.

Kaelen was upon Theron in a single flash, and the smile on the latter's face had already become a thing of the past. Replaced by a mask of indifference, of unreadable calculation, it made him seem several years older than he should have been.

Kaelen struck out with another palm, this one warped in darkness. Theron took a strong step back, his gaze flashing with realization. But he was still a hint too late, the palm extending longer than it should have and smashing against his chest.

Theron's body curled oddly in the air and Kaelen frowned. He had definitely made contact, but it somehow felt like he hadn't put as much strength into the blow as he should have been capable of.

However, Theron was frowning as well. He felt a flash of annoyance he tempered down, bending his body into an inverted 'U' and then flipping in the air to land on his feet.

There was a flash in the corner of Theron's eyes and he caught something on reflex. He looked down at his palm to find that he was holding a slender blue saber. It was a beautiful little weapon, shimmering as though carved out of a rare blue, polished steel. It almost reminded him of the moon.

But what was more surprising was that it was a Cloud Resonance treasure. How did Lyra have something like this?

It didn't seem like it was her weapon either.

"Lyra?!" Kaelen looked back at their Sect's third-ranked disciple, furious. He could feel the aura of that weapon as well, and judging by his reaction, he had just as many questions.

"You want to kill him!" was Lyra's only response.

"If you think a little Silver Mancer can make use of a treasure like that, you're foolish. If anything, it'll be too heavy and demanding of him. He'll only die faster." Kaelen said coldly, his voice coming out in a low growl as he pulled out a spear.

The spear reflected crimson, a dense fog suddenly erupting from it to obscure even this color.

Chi. Chi. Chi.

Kaelen took a step, accelerating forward.

'The people of this world… why does it feel like they're all Flux Mancers playing Elemental Mancer?'

Theron had noticed this oddity earlier, almost as though all of them felt Spells were secondary and their close combat skills were far more important.

When Theron was fighting Blackmaul, he had also felt that Ilyssia and Serenya, his two teammates, were holding back considerably in their coordination. This wasn't because it was their intention to do so, but instead the result of them launching attacks from a distance.

For Theron, he only used close combat as a method to hone his skills, knowing it was a weakness of Elemental Mancers. But in practice, he knew his greatest strength was medium- to long-distance combat where he could control a landscape and deal with opponents from afar.

Unless every cultivator in this world had the same habits, there was something wrong here.

Theron had spent a lot of time questioning the powerhouses once under Caulderone's control, but there would always be certain open secrets about the world that were impossible to grasp unless you were actually a part of it.

And these were the sort of open secrets that Theron had to be wary of… they were the sorts of things that could end up exposing him one day.

He casually tilted his head to the side, dodging Kaelen's spear blow ahead of time. If Kaelen thought he could use the same elongation trick, he would be sorely mistaken.

Theron flicked his wrist to parry, but his pupils constricted when his blade passed right through the fog.

Kaelen coldly closed in the distance, his eyes flashing with an indifferent murderous intent. He forewent attacking with his spear once more, striking at Theron's dantian with a palm that carried much more power than either of the first two.

A layer of water appeared beneath Theron's foot and he exploded.

[Pressure Burst].

Theron's tap of a foot accelerated him back and out of the range of Kaelen's strike.

'He's a much cleverer fighter than their First Core Disciple had been, though he is weaker.'

Theron had defeated Blackmaul so easily because he had used his Laws. He had yet to use any Laws against Kaelen, but for obvious reasons he couldn't use the same Laws he had back then.

After questioning the experts, he had also figured out that there wasn't any path similar to his own here either… the question was, did he want to reveal his heated path just yet?

'Hm…'

What he certainly couldn't reveal was the unnamed cultivator's inheritance. There were too many similarities to the Demon Corps he had recently learned about.

For the same reason, the Alpha could only be brought out under the more dire of circumstances.

Still… Theron preferred it like this…

If he had one goal right now, it was to grow strong. Having a crutch like the Alpha was a necessity since he could only rely on himself. But in situations like this one…

He might as well give up all thoughts of revenge if he needed anything of the sort against a clown like this.

Theron's eyes followed Kaelen's flowing strikes as he made a decision.

His aura pulsed and an Echo took form.

If there was one thing that Theron was more than accepting of when it came to the addition of a Core to his dantian, it was the additional Echo slots.

His focus had always been control and his foundation. As such, he chose the simplest Echoes, Echoes that most would laugh at, because he was certain that they would allow him to grow.

Everyone wanted fancy Echoes with great power, ones that gave you flight, or some shocking attack power or defense. But he had only wanted one simple thing.

Control.

And for that simple request, he got much more in return.

His Immortal Jellyfish was probably the reason his Meridians were slowly morphing in his body, forming new Water Mancy pathways.

Although this was a problem now because it had already mutated some of the Dark Mancy pathways he needed, it had also ultimately led to the strength of his body. The tradeoff was more than worth it.

And then came his Blue Pufferfish Echo. It was simplicity at its finest, a control of density. It was what had allowed him to take the element so many decried for its poor combat ability and turn it into something every powerhouse on the continent feared by his final day in his homeland.

However, this time, Theron approached things from a different perspective.

His control was being compromised by the unilateral actions of Goddess Sacharro. If he wanted to regain it, the obvious decision would be to find a way to expel his second Core.

But not only did he not have the strength to do such a thing, until he understood enough about cultivation to comprehend how to do something like this without killing himself, it simply wasn't an option.

Theron had no intention of lying down and accepting what fate was being given to him, though. If he wanted to regain full control of his body, the choice to him was obvious.

If his Water Mana Resonance was so good at mimicking other paths, what if he took this to the extreme? What could he do if he had a second Resonance within him, one that was actually of an entirely separate Path?

What if he made his Water Mana consume his Path and become a form of Water Mana that simply didn't exist anywhere else?

This idea had formed in his mind after he heard of the fact there was no region nearby that had anything similar to his Mandates.

It was even further solidified in his mind when he realized one more important thing…

The Galethunders didn't exist.

He was the Galethunders, and what remained of them was him.

A path like this one bloomed from nothing. So he would expand upon it from nothing as well.

Theron's body exploded with a shocking aura, silky strands of dark blue silk extending from his body as his eyes turned into orbs of deep blue.

Exhaling a breath, Theron raised a palm and suddenly slammed it down.

Kaelen frowned as he felt all the Dark Mana in the region churn. Then as though a [Tidal Wave] had fallen from above, a waterfall of flowing Mana crashed into him from above, slamming him face-first into the ground beneath them.

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