Chapter 192: Temporary Victory, Seat Re-selection

I am terribly sorry everyone, I had to go to the driving test site for practice today, and since the exam is tomorrow, I can only provide a shorter update today. I am truly sorry, and I will provide you with a long chapter the day after tomorrow, just like yesterday.

The inner potential of a Great Knight is significantly more potent than that of a formal knight. Perhaps due to the bizarre and varied nature of these inner potentials, it is not uncommon for some Great Knights to possess less lethality than their formal counterparts.

However, personally speaking, when a formal knight steps into the realm of a Great Knight, their inner potential undergoes a qualitative, leap-like transformation.

Blake Burn’s inner potential, "Inferno City-Burner," was already a highly lethal, destruction-focused ability during his formal knight stage.

His title, "The Fire Officer," was earned during that period while fighting in the military; whenever the battlefield was blanketed in flames, it meant the Fire Officer was wielding his burning saber, burying his enemies in a boundless sea of fire.

Now, having reached the Great Knight stage, Blake Burn’s "Inferno City-Burner" has undergone a qualitative change alongside his rank. His battle qi is inexhaustible, his flames are inextinguishable, and wherever the fire burns, it is under Blake Burn’s absolute control.

The bloodthirsty smile on his lips grew increasingly fanatical. Feeling the scorching heat around him—heat that could not harm him in the slightest—and hearing the screams of the enemy army drowned out by the surging, roaring flames, the torrent of battle qi flowing through him surged with a sense of exhilaration.

The surrounding conflagration responded to Blake Burn’s joyful and feverish mood. Under the influence of his inner potential, flames bloomed from the void, spreading outward in ever-increasing numbers.

At this moment, a cold, biting wind suddenly blew from the rear of the Seuintan formation, colliding with the all-consuming fire. The temperature at the perimeter of the flames dropped rapidly, the momentum of the blooming fire stalled, and its spread slowed significantly.

"Wizards? Hmph, laughable trash. How could such feeble void energy suppress my flames? A cold wind? Then let it burn along with everything else!"

Blake Burn’s gaze swept toward the source of the cold wind in the distance. A group of figures in black robes approached the battlefield under the protection of soldiers, their outstretched hands glowing with a deep, dark purple light—wizards.

Seuintan’s mage forces were weak, but they possessed more wizards than Alastrel. These wizards offered limited support to the Seuintan army and could not compare to Alastrel’s legion-level spells, but in this situation, could this squad of wizards provide a timely solution?

"Burn!"

The savage grin on his face never faded. Blake pushed his inner potential to the limit; the flames grew fiercer, their light and heat climbing ever higher.

The cold wind, carrying ice crystals within it, found it increasingly difficult to suppress the violent firestorm.

Blake Burn was a violent man. One of the reasons he joined the army was to indulge in the pleasure of slaughter.

Constrained by the kingdom’s laws and his own moral bottom line, he could not enjoy such thrills within the capital. Thus, bathing in the hot blood of his enemies on the battlefield became his best alternative.

His inner potential matched his personality: explosive and scorching. With a singular purpose and extreme power, the very meaning of the "Inferno City-Burner" was to incinerate every enemy standing in Blake Burn’s path.

The icy wind summoned by the wizards ultimately failed. Not only that, but the icy wind itself was ignited...

The ice crystals within the cold wind burned in defiance of all logic; matter that should not have been flammable was forcibly ignited by Blake Burn’s inner potential.

The flames spread backward along the path of the icy wind. This horrifying sight caused the wizards casting the spell to stop in dismay, their faces pale.

Among wizards, mages, and knights, mages possess the most terrifying destructive power; at the same stage, the power of their spells far exceeds that of knights and wizards.

Wizards’ abilities are the most flexible and varied. By using void energy to distort reality, their eerie wizardry can always protect their fragile bodies and toy with their enemies in various situations.

In comparison, knights, whose physiques are far superior to mages and wizards, often seem useless. In the military and among major factions, this is indeed the case; compared to other professions, knights are often treated slightly worse.

However, the inner potential that a knight gains upon reaching the formal knight stage possesses a quality that neither wizards nor mages have: absoluteness.

Various inner potentials—igniting enemies, ignoring defenses, and so on—all share the common trait of having a very high priority.

If a knight’s inner potential is teleportation, then mages and wizards cannot use their own spatial spells to prevent the effect from occurring. The effect of a knight’s inner potential is almost impossible to block.

Therefore, if a knight happens to awaken an inner potential with wide-area lethality, their role on the battlefield transcends that of wizards and mages, reaching a new height.

At this moment, Blake Burn’s inner potential was exactly that. The low temperature created by the wizards’ distortion of reality lost all meaning before the flames created by Blake Burn; it was even counter-intuitively ignited, failing in the collision.

When the wizards abandoned their suppression of the firestorm, there was no longer anyone on the field who could stop him.

The unstoppable flames swallowed the entire Seuintan army. Amidst the sea of fire, only the Fire Officer, with his savage and excited smile, stood tall.

The flickering firelight illuminated the wretched figures of the Seuintan army as they fled in defeat.

...

"Ho, interesting stuff. So this is the Flame of Sorcery."

Wang Yu looked at the green flame burning in the palm of his right hand. It was a small cluster, dancing on his hand, appearing quite stable.

"I can feel the heat, but it doesn't burn me. Marvelous."

He brushed his left hand over the flame, feeling the high temperature radiating from the surface of his skin. Yet, this dark green flame, which was several degrees hotter than ordinary fire, did not burn Wang Yu himself.

"Is it burning my 'stamina,' or rather, my 'life force'? It consumes quickly, but the effect is quite good. As long as my recovery can keep up, it’s essentially an extra means of attack for free."

Wang Yu felt the things disappearing from within his body as the flame burned. It was a complex mixture; he felt that subtle things like blood, fat, and other elements—collectively termed "life force" or "nutrients"—were vanishing along with the dark green flame. It was precisely these things that fueled the Flame of Sorcery.

"Boom!" The dark green flame in his hand suddenly flared upward, its color deepening abruptly. The rising fire touched the ceiling, scorching a pitch-black scar onto the clean surface.

"Damn." Wang Yu let out a strange cry. Relying on his intuition, he reduced the input of life force into the Flame of Sorcery, and the fire gradually diminished until it extinguished.

"Wang Yu, you still have such enthusiasm for new powers." Aivia said with a smile on her lips. She waved her hand, and water flowing from thin air swept over the ceiling where Wang Yu’s Flame of Sorcery had scorched it, wiping away the black marks.

"Hey, it’s all about increasing one's strength, right?" Wang Yu looked at the ceiling, which was as clean as before after Aivia’s cleaning, and breathed a sigh of relief. It was a good thing he only scorched the surface, otherwise, it would have been troublesome.

Just now, Wang Yu had increased the input of life force into the Flame of Sorcery. The increase in fuel caused the fire, born from within his own body, to burn more violently, resulting in higher temperatures, a wider range, and naturally, greater power.

"No wonder Holo let Zig’s sister, Noelle, learn the Flame of Sorcery. The injection of life force can cause the power of this flame to explode. If Zig used the Flame of Sorcery in his dragon form, I can't even imagine how exaggerated that fire would be."

Wang Yu rubbed his chin, muttering to himself.

A faint, hard-to-detect sense of emptiness came from within his body. The sudden flare of the Flame of Sorcery had consumed a portion of the "nutrients" in Wang Yu’s body.

For someone with Wang Yu’s robust physique, this was nothing, but he couldn't sustain it indefinitely.

This also explained why this easy-to-master ability, the Flame of Sorcery, was not widely circulated; it was somewhat of a "chicken rib"—tasteless to keep, but a pity to discard.

Generally speaking, beings capable of bearing the life-force consumption of the Flame of Sorcery usually had better means of output and didn't need this flame.

And beings like mages, whose bodies were relatively fragile, couldn't afford such a drain on their life force. Only powerful beings like dragons, who possessed sufficiently vast life force, could allow this power to unleash truly terrifying potential.

"For now, it's not needed. The flames my body strength can afford don't have as much lethality as my other output methods."

Shaking his head, Wang Yu sighed. The ability of the Flame of Sorcery was currently useless to him.

"Having many skills is never a burden. Maybe one day you'll find a use for it." Aivia said from the side.

"That's true." Wang Yu was open-minded about it.

"Knock, knock..." The door was knocked. Without immediately going to open it or using his ripple-sense to confirm who it was, Wang Yu looked at the girl beside him.

Aivia understood immediately. She closed her eyes slightly, communicating with the magic array in the room to capture the scene outside the door in her mind. Then she nodded, signaling to Wang Yu that the visitor was fine.

Wang Yu’s house on Red Maple Street appeared unremarkable, but in reality, as his residence in the capital, he and Aivia had long since set up numerous hidden magic arrays inside and around the house.

Any intruder, like Hela before, would have to face the attacks of a house full of magic arrays.

With Aivia confirming that the person outside was fine, Wang Yu walked up and opened the door.

Standing outside was a smiling man dressed as a servant. Wang Yu noticed the royal emblem on the left side of his chest. Someone from the royal family?

The servant bowed respectfully and handed Wang Yu something that looked like an invitation. After Wang Yu took it, the man politely provided an explanation and an invitation.

"The re-election for the seats of the Council of Elders will be held in three days. At that time, all nobles with the rank of Viscount or higher in the capital will be invited to attend as participants with voting rights. We ask that you, Lord Wang Yu, please be sure to participate."

Wang Yu took the invitation and glanced at it. The content was no different from what the servant had said. He had almost forgotten about his nominal title of Viscount.

So, I have to participate too?