Chapter 228 Communication is the Key for Promotion
No matter how many times Alina told Alex to stop, Alex would never back down right now.
Now that Alex has the chance to reach Grade 7, he will never let go of this opportunity until he got it.
"Today is the last day of the Calamity… If I don"t reach Grade 7 here, then our chance of succeeding in the Main Mission will be lower." Alex thought to himself as he continued on following Alina, observing her slender legs from behind.
With the apparent weakness of the Fourth Calamity, Alex had the hunch that the difficult part will happen once they go the Blue Moon.
Call this his gut instinct, but Alex was almost 80% sure that it is at the Blue Moon where the interesting things will happen.
Since that was most likely the case, then Alex has to gather as much strength that he can right now before he and the others go to the Blue Moon!
With the suppression on this world on Esper Abilities, Alex found it hard to increase his Mental Power.
As such, he can only rely on his Abyss Energy for now to increase his power!
"…."
After a few more minutes of walking, Alex and Alina stopped as they reached their destination.
"…Everyone looks so serious right now." Alina muttered as she stared at the hundreds of thousands of armored Symbolists that are now milling on the open area in front of her. "They must have been dreading and waiting for this day."
"Of course they will feel like that. Even if this is a weak calamity, it is still a calamity." Alex replied as he started to stretch his body. "And since the incoming wave is the last wave, there"s a high chance that many of us will die here."
"…Alex, don"t you dare join the dead later. If you do so, I will force Professor Frances to revive you, no matter what the cost is. You wouldn"t want that now, right?" Alina said to Alex as she gave him a cold look. "Remember, I"m watching you."
"….Yes, I understand." Alex managed to squeak out as he nodded his head rapidly. "I will not die no matter what."
"…."
After Alex said these words, he started to observe the Symbolists, as he tried to ascertain their emotions.
With his emotion sense, Alex could sense that most of the Symbolists right now had emotions of fear, resignation and just pure nervousness.
But even without his emotion sense, Alex could perfectly see their emotions just from the way that they held their weapons.
Around these Symbolists, a mult.i.tude of t.i.tans could be seen, with most of them sporting numerous damaged parts.
During the course of the first 143 waves, most of these t.i.tans were used to tank the damage brought by the waves, which lead to some of these t.i.tans getting destroyed in the process.
The lion t.i.tan that brought Alex to the polis was one of these destroyed t.i.tans, with a ma.s.sive Hydra from the 120th wave as its destroyer.
The remaining t.i.tans that survived this onslaught were all full of damages, but they are still deployed here on the final wave, as a way to ensure the victory of the Symbolists.
With this kind of line-up in front of him, Alex had the hunch that there"s around 70% chance that he and the Symbolists will survive the 144th wave.
Of course that number will change depending on the type of monster that will come out for the final wave.
"From what the history books have said, the final wave only consists of a single monster coming out of the portal." Alex muttered to himself as he cupped his chin. "That single monster usually was extremely strong, and its abilities were always off the charts."
"If the Fourth Calamity follows the same pattern, then a single monster will also come out of the portal." Alex muttered to himself as he nodded his head. "Now, what will happen today will depend on what kind of monster will come out for the final wave."
As Alex muttered these words, his fighting intent began to boil up, as he felt excited and also scared of what will happen later.
"If the monster that will come out for this wave is extremely strong, then there is a high chance that I can reach Grade 7!" Alex thought to himself as he gritted his teeth. "Right now, I only need a very little more push to connect with the Abyss Plane! Just a little more, and I will be at that state already!"
When Alex said that he needed to face danger in order to evolve and reach Grade 7, he was actually just saying the partial truth there.
The real requirement for Alex to evolve his current Monster body and reach Grade 7 was to gain the recognition of the Abyss Plane and receive its blessing!
Only when he receives the Abyss Origin Baptism from the Abyss Plane that Alex can evolve his Abomination Monster Body and reach Grade 7 in the process!
However, for Alex to gain the recognition of the Abyss Plane, he must find a way to connect with it first and present an offering to it.
Only when the Abyss Plane approves of Alex"s offering that he can receive its baptism.
This might all sound simple, but there is one big problem with this method.
And that is that in order for Alex to communicate with the Abyss Plane, he must first place himself in numerous dangerous situations and survive!
Only when he does this that Alex can start communicating with the Abyss Plane and try receiving its blessing.
Alex, being the serious grinder that he is, immediately started to deliberately place himself on dangerous situations during the waves in order to communicate with the Abyss Plane.
But just like what Alina said earlier, Alex had failed on communicating with the Abyss Plan even until now.
"Tsk. Today is already the last day of the waves! If I don"t communicate with the Abyss Plane today, then I will still have to wait until we go the Blue Moon before I can try it again!" Alex muttered to himself with irritation as he shook his head. "I cannot allow that to happen! I… must succeed today!"
With this promise engraved in his mind right now, Alex gave a nod to Alina, who in turn walked towards the ma.s.s of the gathered Symbolists.
There"s only one minute left until the start of the final wave, and Alex will not waste time dawdling around the area.
"Let"s see how today"s monster killing event will fare." Alex muttered to himself as he ignored Alina"s sigh beside him. "I wish we can get loot out of it!"
"Alex this is not a game."
"I know that. I just want to make a witty comment."
"What you said was not witty, its cringy. Please stop doing that."
"…"
************
When Alex and Alina had reached their preferred spot, they stopped there as they prepared their minds and bodies for what was about to happen later.
But before they could even relax, a melodious voice suddenly floated towards them, making Alex look somewhat irritated and resigned, while making Alina looked extremely p.i.s.sed.
"Hey Alex… so you are here. Why did you not tell us about that?" The sound of a wheelchair came squeaking in as the thin and frail body of Astria appeared in front of Alex and Alina.
Behind Astria, the fed-up Queen Mother and the irritated Professor Frances appeared.
From the looks on their faces, it seems like they were unhappy on being forced to follow the wheelchaired Astria.
Alina, who seemed to have the greatest ill intent on Astria, opened her mouth as she started to shoo Astria away.
"What are you doing here blondie? Do you really want a fight to happen?"
"What are you talking about? I"m just here to cheer Alex on." Astria replied as she tilted her head innocently. "Since I am the one who initiated the alliance with him, its only proper for me to cheer him on!"
"Tsk!" Veins started to appear on Alina"s forehead, as if her blood vessels could not contain the irritation that she had for Astria right now.
"Little girl. You should have just stayed at your little lab and continue your tea party there with your imaginary friends." Alina replied scathingly as she sneered at Astria. "Maybe you will be more useful that way."
"…."
Even though there"s no throbbing veins on her forehead, the facemasked Astria seems to be extremely irritated too, which was proven by Alex"s emotion sense.
"Hahaha, why don"t you two calm down right now." Alex said as he scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "There"s no need to fight now, since we are about to face the last wave! Let"s forget all the grudges for now… I a.s.sume you can do that, right?"
"Hmph, you"re lucky I"m in a good mood today." Alina said as she turned her head to the right. "You should thank Alex for my generosity."
"Ufufu, you know, Alex can give me a lot more than just generosity." Astria replied as she started to giggle. "He will just have to show me his desires, and I will be happy to accept it!"
"You little-!"
Seeing that the two was about to start arguing again, Alex let out a sigh as he placed a palm on his forehead.
Alex was not sure why, but after Alina and Astria met each other for the first time, their relations.h.i.+p devolved to that of extreme hate.
Alex was not sure why these two hate each other like this, but he"s pretty certain that Astria"s moves towards Alex was one of the factors for Alina"s anger.
"Sigh…" As Alex thought of this, he realized that he must step in now to break up their argument.
"Hey you two, the final wave is about to star-" But before Alex could fully use his authority to stop the argument, a bloodcurdling sound suddenly rippled towards them.
"Skree!!!""
With his very own eyes, Alex saw a ripple of shockwaves coming out of the portal, with these shockwaves carrying the bloodcurdling sound that he just heard.
Alex immediately felt s.h.i.+vers after hearing this sound, as he instinctively tried to run away.
"Wait, why am I running away?" Alex thought to himself as he stopped himself from moving.
He looked down at his body, and to his shock, he realized that his whole body was trembling in fear right now.
"Why… am I this scared? Is that roar enough to make my body react like this?" Alex thought to himself grimly as he bit lip hard.
Alex then looked around him, and there he saw that most of the Symbolists were also trembling in fear, with some of them even p.i.s.sing on their own garments.
"Alex... the monster this time is no joke. It seems like we have to give our all right now." Alina muttered behind Alex as she and Alex looked at the portal around a kilometer away from them.
There"s still no monster that had emerged from the portal, yet the shockwaves that came out of the portal were already enough to make some of them incapacitated to fight.
If a monster can already do this when it was not yet out of the portal, then what would happen when its real body does come out?
"Rumble…" A few seconds after the fear-inducing roar appeared, the whole surroundings began to tremble as the monster portal visibly shook.
Moments later, and a ma.s.sive body could be seen slithering out of the portal, with its body barely fitting through the portal"s overall surface area.
As this ma.s.sive monster came out, black gas rippled out of its body, which then started to spread towards the Symbolists.
When Alex saw this black gas, his eyes widened to the point that they almost popped out.
"Why, why is that here?" Alex exclaimed to himself as he looked at the black gas in shock. "Is this even possible?"
As the black gas continued on spreading, the Symbolists tried their best to get away from the black gas, as they deemed it too dangerous to get near it.
Alex however, made no attempts to get away from the spreading black gas, as his mind was occupied by questions right now.
"Why is the Abyss Energy here?" Alex thought to himself as he looked at the black gas with confusion on his face. "Don"t tell me… that our final opponent is a monster from the Abyss Plane?"