SSS Awakening: I Can Class Change at will - Chapter 258 Back to the beginning

Chapter 258  Back to the beginning

The mysterious mist was inches away from his body.

Right before it could make contact, Moon activated his lightning element with everything he had remaining, his entire body erupting in powerful blue and white streaks of crackling lightning. The voltage was immense, enough to possibly kill A-Rank awakeners who dared touch him directly.

But the mist didn’t care about lightning.

At the edge of the chamber, the purple fog finally engulfed Moon’s entire body completely.

His eyes became hollow, empty of consciousness.

Simply…Gone.

Yet the lightning continued crackling across his entire being, arcing between his fingers and dancing across his skin as if his body was running on autonomous function while his mind was somewhere else entirely.

The injured three-tailed fox observed the sight from across the chamber, its smirk wide and proud despite its labored breathing and singed fur.

“Fool,” it said with contemptuous satisfaction, beginning to limp slowly toward Moon’s hollow body. “You think that lightning can stop me from killing you? It can’t protect a mind that’s already mine.”

Moon stood perfectly still, hollow eyes fixed in the fox’s direction without seeing anything, his body maintained by muscle memory and survival instinct while his consciousness was completely imprisoned elsewhere, just like the time in the mysterious river.

The fox stopped approximately one meter away, studying its newest catch. Its injuries didn’t matter now, the outcome had been decided.

All three tails rose, pointing directly toward Moon’s head, hovering inches away from the crackling lightning that continued arcing across his very being.

The fox’s right eye suddenly went blank, its attention diving into the illusion it had constructed around Moon’s consciousness, ensuring everything was proceeding correctly.

“You will make a fine pet,” it whispered to no body in particular.

♢♢♢♢

“What is this place?” Moon muttered, staring at the unfamiliar chamber he and his teammates had suddenly appeared in together.

The space was vast and featureless, stone walls stretching upward into darkness, no visible exits anywhere.

“To clear the gate, you must kill the mage that controls lightning,” a disembodied voice announced throughout the chamber, its source impossible to identify, its gender hard to verify.

A frown immediately formed on Moon’s face.

He turned toward his teammates seeking their reaction to the bizarre announcement. And found them staring at him like wolves that had finally cornered their prey.

“Why are you all looking at me like that?!” Moon demanded, his body tensing instinctively. He knew that look very well, and it was concerning.

“Sorry, Moon. But you need to die. We’ve already lost three teammates. We cannot continue risking our collective survival for any individual, not for you, not for anyone.” Grant looked at him, his face full of sadness and grief. Moon’s body erupted in lightning, anger and disbelief coursing through him simultaneously. “Don’t make a decision you will all regret. I’m warning every single one of you. Choose your sides carefully…or die.”

His gaze moved to Kael, who already had fire forming in his hands, crimson flames licking between his fingers.

“You too…?”

“You need to die here. My father is waiting outside. I have responsibilities, obligations, a future that matters. You wouldn’t understand what’s at stake for me.”

Moon’s expression grew cold, “So be it. You’ve all apparently decided to die today.”

His mana surged as he immediately attempted to activate the control runes he’d placed on every teammate through physical contact throughout the operation. The carefully inscribed inscriptions that had been his insurance policy, his hidden trump card against betrayal or manipulation.

Horror washed through his very being as nothing responded.

No matter how he tried to connect to the runes, how many times he attempted to trigger them, they simply didn’t activate.

His teammates continued advancing towards him, weapons raised, spells charging, arrows nocked.

Mara spoke in a cold tone, “Did you think we wouldn’t notice what you were doing? I noticed every rune you placed on our team members through your ‘helpful’ physical contact. We’ve already removed them all.”

Moon’s expression darkened. “How..?”

“Because you are weak,” Nina scoffed dismissively, suddenly dashing forward with explosive speed.

The entire group unleashed their combined barrage simultaneously.

Moon immediately summoned Mirage as his first defensive response. Needing help against six powerful S-Rankers that complimented their strengths very well.

But as if the team had specifically anticipated and prepared for exactly this, the entire barrage of attacks suddenly swerved mid-trajectory, redirecting away from Moon himself and converging on the white horse instead.

“Mirage! No!”

Mirage couldn’t withstand the combined attack of six S-Rankers.

The white horse fell, his powerful body giving out under the Crushing damage, collapsing into Moon’s arms with a sound that broke something inside him.

Moon caught Mirage as he fell, his eyes filling with grief and rage in equal measure, the two emotions warring for dominance as he felt his companion’s life fading against his chest as he tried to cast his healing skills on him.

Unfortunately, the skills didn’t help.

Seeing the light finally leave Mirage’s eyes, Moon’s expression became furious. He channeled everything he had remaining, summoning his most powerful attacks simultaneously.

A Lightning Raiju wolf crackled to life in one hand.

[Ignite] blazed in the other.

Moon released both attacks at full power toward his advancing former teammates.

But they absorbed the strikes with impossible resilience, tanking attacks that should have been deadly to S-rank awakeners, barely breaking stride as they continued their relentless advance.

Thurst!

BOOM!

The attacks of the team killed Moon—

[You have died]

[You have lost 2,000 Lives]

At that exact moment in the real chamber, the fox thrust all three of its tails forward simultaneously.

Although Moon’s crackling lightning was still strong enough to burn and hurt it on contact, the fox endured the pain and drove them home, the purple energy at each tip penetrating Moon’s skull.

The attack broke through the defensive runes, and activated the offensive one. The ten swords immediately attack the fox who already predicted their launching.

The fox gracefully dodged most of the attacks, only being grazed by a few due to their large number. The healing rune didn’t have a chance to activate, Moon was dead before it could heal any wounds.

Oblivious to the real chamber’s events, Moon’s consciousness snapped back into existence within the illusion, his body reappearing just as it would after a normal death.