I Refused To Be Reincarnated

No, that wasn't true! If he could absorb and digest the magus' knowledge fast enough, he would have a chance of survival.

However, its sheer volume and complexity were overwhelming. Unlike Luna, who possessed incredible computing capabilities, he felt the information crash into his mind like a raging tsunami, threatening to engulf him.

Gritting his teeth to endure the pain, he skipped on the details, focusing on the general knowledge to find the key to his salvation. Icy sweat dripped from his forehead, and his heart almost exploded in horror. However, he found something remotely usable!

Unfortunately, it was way too complex a method and would leave agonising damage because of his lack of proficiency. Yet, it was his only chance.

"Soul Stitching!" He roared, manipulating mana to form rough threads.

With a thought, he commanded them to sew his soul to his body. Gradually, the threads punctured and harmed it, making him feel as if he was on the brink of death.

However, he also sensed his soul resist the magus' merciless traction, offering him a slight respite.

"Are you foolish enough to believe you can fight me using my knowledge?"

He suddenly heard the individual's mocking tone. Simultaneously, the threads snapped one after another while the suction's intensity multiplied, menacing to swallow him in the next few seconds.

His breathing grew chaotic, and the fire burning in his eyes dimmed, extinguished by the magus' overwhelming means.

'It is the end,' he thought, closing his eyes and trying to relax in his last moment.

As his death seemed set in stone, Luna's voice reverberated as she materialised by him and roared.

"NO! Leave him, bastard!"

Her face distorted into a grimace as she mobilised her energy. Animated by rage, her dream-like hand turned corporeal for a second as she swung her fist.

BOOM

Space exploded into millions of glistening shards, and the sound barrier broke. The wind howled and crashed in every direction, shattering towering trees and uplifting the land in a chaotic yet brutal display of power.

However, her expression crumbled. The magus didn't move an inch, his threatening presence looming over them as if the devastation had nothing to do with him. Yet, inside, his entire being shook.

"You are in the ninth tier!" He exclaimed, his eyes enlarging and his smile blossoming. It was here, before him. The thing he had relentlessly searched for.

The way to become a supreme sorcerer!

He pondered, understanding in a second Luna's strengths and weaknesses before speaking again.

"You rely on life force and just awakened mana... Who are you?"

However, Luna didn't bother to answer. She grabbed Prometheus' shoulder, dragging him into her space before cutting the wind towards the world passage. She had to flee. Even she felt that the magus was a monster she'd better avoid before awakening fully because he was absolute at his level. Comparing him to Prometheus would be the same as comparing an elephant to a mammoth. No.

It wouldn't be enough to describe the abyssal chasm separating their powers.

Simultaneously, the magus snapped his finger, making mana solidify into a perfect copy of his hidden frame as he watched the vortex close after Luna traversed it.

"You can't escape," he sneered, mana billowing in a wild dance around his fist before he hurled it to her previous location.

CRACK

The freshly healed space shattered again, reopening the passage before he hurled his copy inside.

****

Inside the vast cave sheltering her pulsing core, Luna lunged out of the vortex and summoned Prometheus to assess his state.

With trembling fingers and biting her lips, she touched his shattered body, tears flowing down her eyes.

There was no way to extend his life anymore. No amount of energy would suffice. He would die. The undeniable truth gripped her heart and suffocated her thoughts as she wailed.

Yet a subtle contact drew her attention before a flood of knowledge assaulted her mind, forcing it to sort everything and forget about her turmoil for a second.

Consumed by grief, she looked at him, her pain doubling. He had made the impossible possible but would pay for it with his life.

"I'll select the most adaptable body for you and create the reincarnation spell! I'll never allow you to die!"

Her determined yells echoed in the silent cave as her terrifying mind began to race at maximum speed, decorticating and analysing every bit of knowledge while deriving them to create the ritual.

CLAP CLAP CLAP

"What a touching scene and what a pleasant world. There is even a tier-eight magic beast digging above us," the magus' copy appeared, clapping his hand in euphoria. Not only would he learn the secret to the supreme sorcerer's rank, but he would also get two powerful slaves to join his ranks.

"Khu Djeser!" He exclaimed, raising his hand, his smile reaching his lips.

Simultaneously, the billions of creatures that had terrorised and ravaged Earth for eleven years all fell to the ground, shrieking in agony. The terror's eyes trembled, darting left and right in the dark tunnels they dug to find the threat. But their attempts were in vain. In the blink of an eye, a stream of ethereal frames left their bodies and phased through the rocks.

Before Luna's enlarging eyes and palling face, the gargantuan stream of souls rushed to the magus' palms before disappearing into the billowing energy hiding his frame.

'He killed them all in a second!'

The realisation thundered in her mind, and her jaws opened in disbelief.

As the stream kept shooting to the magus' palms, she shook her head to fix her thoughts. With so many cores and dead creatures, she could recover massive amounts of energy and hasten her awakening.

Without delay, she controlled the ground to swallow the billions of carcasses, feeling her strength rise by the second. She allocated everything to boost her computing abilities and hasten the ritual's development, praying she would have enough time.

Meanwhile, the magus felt everything she did, his brows knitting into a pensive frown. Then, he gazed at her gigantic pulsing core, a greedy light flashing in his eyes.

"You are not human," he said, drawing theories one after another until his heart drummed in his chest. "Who would have thought? Worlds have cores, too! And they can also awaken after gathering enough life force and mana!"

But his realisation didn't end there, and his eyes trembled after figuring out something. The ninth tier wasn't the limit for worlds! Why? Because Luna was the weakest she could be yet still reached the ninth. After millennia of development, couldn't she transcend the limits and become...

"Exalted!"

His eyes bulged. He had records of that item's rank yet had never read about one reaching it as if his predecessors had consciously hidden them.

But now he understood. His world had a core, and it already surpassed this one ten thousand years ago!

'Did they claim it already?'

He gritted his teeth, his palms trembling and eyes spewing green flames of hatred.

He clenched his fists, a blinding gray light illuminating the cave as he absorbed the last souls before exhaling a dense mist. He'll figure it out after returning. For now, he had another core he could claim.

With slow steps, he approached it, shrugging Luna's desperate screams and threats off.