Chapter 1712: Calamity [1]

The grand scenery around Faldren and Valerie actually wasn't created intentionally.

See, for dragons, creating phenomena wasn't a necessity. They learned how to do it only so they could more efficiently release power in their human forms. When they returned to their original forms, the need to have a medium to release power disappeared.

Humans created great forms for their abilities, copying mythical creatures or even natural beauties in order to execute their abilities properly. It seemed like the most natural thing to do exactly because it was.

Mabna was a mysterious energy, and humans, who didn't have a particular closeness to nature yet had an immense aptitude for adaptation had to find a way for them to exert this energy without melting their brains in the heat of its activation.

To mimic myths and legends meant quantifying that power, making it more easily understandable while never diluting the concepts within.

It was a genius solution to the problem they faced as a species, so much so that even dragons were impressed by their accomplishments.

Still, that was the end of it.

Dragons didn't have the "need" to take such detours. With their natural affinity for the energy and their heritages that gave them all of the information that they could possibly need, they were able to release mana in all its intensity without manifestations.

Sure, to humans, dragons seemed unskilled in precise control because they didn't fight the same way, but that was simply a false assumption made with lacking knowledge.

Where it was needed, precision could be used at any time. However, a true battle of dragons didn't contain anything like that.

To fight with nothing more than the strength of law comprehension, to only acknowledge the person who won as a victor if they fought without tricks and schemes; that was the dragon way.

It was the reason why people like the Ignis Clan, who faithfully adhered to it, were disgusted by the Liqua Clan's mentality and actions.

It was also why the crowds were so captivated by Faldren and Valerie.

The two had done nothing but release wave after wave of energy, but somehow, the environment responded to their presence and changed.

They had only ever attacked each other, yet the manifestations changed and morphed along with their strikes to make their battle visible to anyone who couldn't understand their laws.

That was an entirely natural process, not something they provoked. It was beautiful exactly because nobody and nothing could mimic the feeling that a sight like this gave.

Neither Faldren nor Valerie paid it any mind. They were more focused on each other.

In a battle like this, it was impossible not to gain respect for the enemy.

They were showing each other the greatest truths hidden within their laws, so naturally, they were forced to acknowledge each other

And since their battle had started in full, there was no need for them to hold back anymore.

It was hard to explain to someone who couldn't feel the aura of that battle, but in the simplest terms, it was a fight between "Fate" and "Life."

The Aureat Clan's fate manual didn't have a specific route for their geniuses to follow. Fate was such an elusive element that it presented itself to every individual differently.

A genius had to first understand what Fate was saying to them and what it was willing to give them before they developed a style that worked only for them.

Faldren was a top genius of their clan because he had been granted the ability to "alter" Fate.

He could both take it from people and give it away. It was incredibly rare for people to gain both, and when they did, it was almost impossible for them to actually control both sides properly.

Faldren was able to overcome those struggles. With his power, he could boost his own fate and give himself more luck and opportunities than his peers. In the same breath, he could doom his enemies by severing their fates, leading them to an eventual death.

Faldren was not an absolute god. His power was conditional, and he couldn't just kill anyone regardless of level or ability.

There was a reason why Valerie was still fighting him.

The concepts of fate couldn't be as easily defined as those of proper laws.

That which Faldren was currently using against Valerie was best defined as "the futility of existence."

This was one of the greatest concepts of fate. It deemed that, when fate was a concept that led and controlled all lives, what was the purpose of existence?

If all people were but puppets under the control of this elusive force, then was anything they did truly something they achieved on their own?

Struggle, tragedy, the determination to overcome; did they ever mean anything?

Waves filled with such a concept flowed towards Valerie.

Then, she had to match it with a concept of the same strength.

What had her comprehension come to? At one point, Valerie was actually the worst in comprehension. She reached 4th class, but she was never able to understand what her new position entailed.

Through the heir wars, Valerie learned a lot of things. As she saw people who were supposedly at the same level as her do things that she could have never imagined and realized her inadequacy, she ended up growing at a similar pace to Melania.

The key was her fight against Remelia in the labyrinth. To realize that wood dragons were not just apostles of the forest, but apostles of life as a whole.

The forest was their homeland. It was where their vitality shined the most. But, for a wood dragon to truly reach their full potential, they needed to understand that their lives did not end in the forest.

Valerie started with only understanding what she could achieve with vitality, but it was more than that now.

As she watched such an esoteric concept, created from the heavens' response to the hearts of people through a multitude of already existing concepts, she didn't feel fear.

With sharp eyes that mirrored her determination, she released a wave of power of her own.

Choice.

That was the concept she chose.

Life, in the opinion of someone who wielded fate, was just something to be controlled.

However, for those who truly understood the law, it never adhered to that opinion.

Life was a series of choices. One would see the impact of a choice they made far in the past in their lives decades or centuries later.

Every choice mattered, and if even one choice was made differently, then one's entire life would change.

Could the luck involved in good choices be attributed to fate?

Could the misfortune from bad choices be attributed to fate?

Some people used fate as a way to remove responsibility from themselves. If their actions were the result of some mysterious force, then there was nothing they could've done, right?

No matter what, their life would always be as fate deemed it.

Valerie completely rejected that idea.

Choice was the clearest and most obvious way to show that fate didn't exist.

Fate could not influence the soul. A choice made in the depths of one's heart could destroy anything that fate had planned.

Living beings were born to go against fate, to carve their names into history, and destroy any paths that led them to misfortune.

Even if they didn't succeed, they could always make the choice to keep fighting until it was no longer possible.

No mere concept could form that kind of determination. Only the pure will and choice of a living, sentient being could keep them fighting even when hope and fate were against them.

Maybe fate existed. Maybe it was always trying to control every little part of every little person's life.

However, as long as they willed it, fate could become nothing more than a petty excuse that held no power.

Those two opposing concepts, those two opposing beliefs clashed in the space between Faldren and Valerie.

The beautiful manifestation of light that they created was a sight that audiences would remember for a lifetime.