Endless Evolution: Last Star

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Adam swung his needle, destroying the lightning bolts flying toward him. The electric orbs were no longer a problem for him, their attacks were fast, sure, but predictable and straightforward.

Now, Adam could shatter the electric orbs with his eyes closed if he had to.

But that wasn’t enough.

Some time ago, he had charged the blue sphere to 100%. Now, this sphere contained as much energy as Adam himself at the peak of his powers. Sure, that didn’t mean the sphere possessed the same power as Adam, but the amount of energy was comparable.

After that, Adam was only able to add energy to the sphere once more, bringing it up to about 120%.

The problem was that each time, he needed more and more energy. Whereas before, just one or two electric orbs were enough to get him 20–30%, now even after shattering ten orbs, he couldn’t achieve the same result.

The reason was that most of the energy from these electric orbs was being used to compress the sphere even further, so only a small portion of the original supply remained.

“Damn it!” Adam swung his needle, shattering two more lightning bolts. He didn’t even bother absorbing the electric sparks, as he saw no point in it.

The blue threads shot upward, protecting Adam from the orbs flying toward him.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The orbs continued to attack him, but the blue threads were enough to destroy every single one of them.

At the same time, Silvana’s eyes darted from one orb to another as she silently counted how many he had already shattered.

“245… 246… 247…” Silvana muttered. “It’ll be three hundred soon, but he hasn’t even gotten close to 200% yet.”

Lamor nodded.

“Yeah, that’s the whole problem. That’s exactly why he needs to move on to the crystals. Their attacks are much more dangerous, but they contain many times more energy, especially the crystals closer to the center of the Nova Hail.”

Silvana looked up at the floating crystals. Lamor was right. The largest crystals were at the very center, while those at the edges were small, resembling miniature Midnight Crystals.

“I see. High risk, high reward, isn’t it? But what if Adam, or another Phantom in his place – didn’t want to take the risk?”

Silvana pointed at Adam with a slight nod of her head.

“In his current state, Adam can just stand in one spot, and the blue threads will do all the work for him. In a few hours, he’ll be able to destroy more than a thousand of the electric orbs.”

Lamor shrugged with an ironic smile.

“Sure, it’s a workable method. In fact, if I had to go through the Nova Hail, that’s exactly what I’d do. Though, it would take a long time, a very long time. He’d be lucky to reach 200% by the end of the day at that pace. But I don’t think there’s any point in discussing it.”

Kamora grinned, revealing all her sharp teeth.

“Exactly. Neither I nor Adam, nor anyone else like us, would wait that long. It’ll all be over in a few hours.”

Then, her gaze darkened.

“If he makes me wait any longer than that, his biggest problem won’t be the Nova Hail – it’ll be me!”

Silvana gave a short laugh.

“Hahaha! Something tells me you won’t have to resort to such drastic measures.”

“Hmm? Why?” Kamora raised an eyebrow.

“Because Adam’s patience has already run out. Maybe he can’t hear us right now, but I’m sure he realizes that at this rate, he’ll have to spend days here, or…” She turned to Lamor. “Probably even longer, right?”

Lamor nodded deeply.

“If Adam needs 500% of his energy reserves, and if he keeps getting energy only from the electric orbs, it’ll take him several weeks of tedious work.”

Silvana rolled her eyes.

“Nah, Adam definitely won’t wait that long.”

As if to confirm her words, Adam sprang into action.

He dashed forward, heading straight for the area with the white crystals.

Adam decided to take a risk and leaped over several islands at once. He was confident in his abilities, and for good reason.

Tremble.

The white crystals activated immediately as a hail of energy rays rained down on Adam. He was attacked by small and medium-sized crystals, while the large ones remained inactive, waiting for him to get even closer.

Adam’s eyes flashed as a shimmering flame burst from his needle.

With a sweep of his arm, a broad stream of flame swept before him, colliding with the multitude of energy rays that were meant to strike Adam, but instead, the flame stopped them.

A series of explosions began in front of Adam, and that was exactly what he had been aiming for.

During the time he’d spent here, he’d realized he could capture energy in many situations. The most important thing was to choose the right moment.

“Good, now all I have to do is direct my energy forward, though… I have a better idea!”

His original plan would have worked, since the energy fragments left over from the white rays wouldn’t have had time to escape his energy, but in that case, Adam would have had to expend more energy than he wanted to.

Fortunately, he had a more effective solution to this problem.

Whoooooosh!

The blue threads shot forward, grabbing all the white pieces. Those that tried to escape or stayed out of the way were quickly caught as the blue threads continued their path.

In the end, the blue threads returned to Adam with several white clumps of energy, subdued and ready to be added to the sphere.

“Good job.” Adam nodded with satisfaction before waving his hand.

The sphere hovered before him as the blue threads dropped the white clumps directly onto it.

A bright light burst from the sphere as cracks ran across its surface, but Adam quickly directed his own energy at it, increasing the pressure.

With the next tremor, the sphere became a little smaller, and its blue color shifted closer to azure.

Now, Adam was at 250%, and he was halfway there.