Ascension of the immortal Asura

Chapter 1075 Seraph of Karmic Judgement

The door to John's training room cracked open as Naelia stepped inside. Her presence was indication enough for John that it was time for his round, and so he stopped his training session and cleaned up, thanking Naelia in the process.

After getting clean, John made his way through the now-familiar hallways towards the arena, arriving there a short time later. The familiar roar of the crowd entered his ears, so loud that it was nearly deafening. As he arrived at the balcony ledge overlooking the arena from several miles up, John noticed Ji'Han soaring through the sky towards his viewing platform, his fight having just finished.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he focused on the youth, who seemed slightly different than before. Whereas Ji'Han from before was like a sheathed sword, one deadly yet contained, he now gave off a more dangerous, more lethal aura. It was as if he was now unsheathed, ready to land a killing blow on anyone at a moment's notice.

"How did Ji'Han's fight go?" John asked Naelia, who shrugged with a pouting frown on her face.

"How would I know? I was with you the whole time, and you refuse to show up early to your fights," she said, clearly disappointed she was not able to catch a glimmer of Ji'Han's battle.

John nodded and patted Naelia's head apologetically, then took to the sky and plummeted towards the arena below. His appearance created a roar of noise from the crowd, which seemed to have more cheering in it than before, at least as far as he could tell.

He landed on the arena, receiving an appreciative nod from the Yang-Dao Sect Elder for not only arriving looking clean and presentable, but also early. John smiled at the elder, then shifted his gaze as he spotted a figure floating through the sky from the other direction, soaring majestically towards the arena.

It was a young woman who appeared to be in her late teens. She had long blonde hair that billowed in the wind behind her, and a beautiful yet cold face. The expression on her face seemed as though she was looking down on all around her, a haughty, judgemental look. Her hair was tied up into a neat bun on her head, which was topped with a regal looking crown of some sorts. The crown was purple with three gems embedded into the front, white, black and multicolored in color.

The multi-colored gem seemed to constantly shift colors, almost like the swirling chaos energy found in the void. She wore a long and beautiful dress of purple with gold trimmings, with long tassels blowing in the wind behind her, making her look both arcane and mesmerizing.

She landed gracefully on the arena, her poise and bearing like that of a queen. She looked at John with an indifferent expression, although her piercing gaze was full of hidden judgment.

'Another Mage Dao Sect opponent?' John couldn't help but wonder, as he seemed to be fighting them much more often than the other sects. From what he knew of the final eight geniuses, there were three from the Sword Dao Sect, three from the Yang Dao Sect, one from the Mage Dao Sect, and him.

His opponent, Ishnai, was considered the strongest Dao Transformation genius of the Mage Dao Sect, a prodigious genius known as the Seraph of Karma. John sent out his divine sense to link with her armband, curiosity reading her information contained within.

Scanning through her scores, he stopped on her most impressive stats; her Soul Talent, Attack Power, and Battle Art scores. All of these were scored at ninety eight, indicating she was a frightfully powerful genius.

The crowd cheered with applause and adulation as Ishnai landed on the arena, the loudest cheers naturally coming from those supporting the Mage Dao Sect.

John studied her for a moment, comparing her to his previous Mage Dao opponent, Chloe.

"Are you going to unleash a channeled Mage Art right from the start?" John asked curiously, although he received no answer. His only reply was a cold glare from Ishnai, who almost seemed to consider John inferior based on her haughty expression.

"Well, I don't care either way," John shrugged nonchalantly, not worried about what she could throw at him. She was the same age as John, and also had a Middle Dao Transformation cultivation. With their cultivations even, the threat she posed to him was minimal. While John didn't like being overly confident like this, he also wanted to find out what battle arts and mage arts existed on this world, and the only way to find out was to let his opponents use them on him.

If he went all out from the start in each battle, he would learn nothing of the battle arts and mage arts of this world, and with his goal of creating his own battle art, he needed to be as knowledgeable about the martial universe as possible.

A few minutes later, after confirming that both fighters were ready, the Yang-Dao Elder finally commenced the fight. The crowd erupted into thunderous cheering as the fight started, their eagerness to see the fight between the number one genius of the Mage Dao Sect and the number one darkhorse nearly overwhelming them.

As he indicated, John did not take action right away. He stood in place, waiting for Ishnai to attack first. As expected, she exploded with a brilliant might right away, her strategy the same as Chloe's. With her aura fully concealed before the fight began, there was no way to prove she had been channeling the art before the fight started, and thus she did not break any rules.

Her aura shot into the sky like a brilliant flame of pure white, almost holy in nature. At the same time, a profound and arcane Qi began to flow from the weapon that had suddenly appeared in her hand, a scepter of some sorts.

The shaft of the scepter was purple with gold trimmings, three feet in length. The head of the scepter was a glowing diamond-like crystal, four inches in diameter. It was held in place by golden fixings extending from the shaft, with colorful gems embedded in the fixings, adding to its profound and grand appearance.

The crystal on the end of the scepter began to glow brightly as Ishnai activated her Mage Art. Her Qi was thick and more potent than anyone he had fought thus far, causing John to nod his head in approval, as she was no doubt a pinnacle genius.

Ishnai waved her scepter above her head, a burst of Qi blasting out, then swirling in the air, slowly but surely shifting shape before John's eyes. In the matter of seconds, the Qi solidified as Ishnai unleashed her Mage Art, drawing gasps of astonishment from the crowd.

"Seraph of Karmic Judgement," Ishnai said, her voice drifting through the arena like it was floating on an invisible wind. Behind her, a giant seraphic-like avatar appeared, one thirty feet tall. The avatar was glowing and white, like it had been carved from the purest of marbles. Large-feathery wings extended to both sides behind its back, blocking the sun above and shrouding Ishnai and John in shadows.

The angel had an ethereal face of pure perfection, as if each and every feature was created by the heavens itself to form the ultimate creation. It wore a long white dress which flowed into mist at the skirt. It held two golden measuring scales, one in each hand. Carved into the side of both scales were two words. One read 'righteousness;, while the other read 'death'. Its eyes, brilliant gold like shining suns, seemed to lock onto John, wanting to pierce through his very existence.

Most eye-catching of all was the third eye on its forehead which was currently closed. The closed eye was surrounded by a circle of complex runes which pulsed with various colors and constantly shifted, making the seraph-like avatar look both holy and arcane.

John couldn't help but gape at the angelic avatar, as it was one of the most beautiful and also most arcane things he had ever seen. As far as battle or mage arts went, it was no doubt the most eye-catching art an opponent had ever used against him.

Ishnai, her eyes closed all this time, finally opened. She looked at John with a distant look, as if she were looking at him through the lens of a thousand different perspectives, each more arcane than the last.

"Every living being is linked with Karma, and Karma is a source of power as potent as the heavens itself. Geniuses are blessed by the heavens, and as a result, their karmic threads are the most numerous, as well as the strongest," Ishnai said, her voice sounding as if a thousand different people spoke at once, their voice resonating together to form something alien sounding. "The Seraph of Karmic Judgement feeds will feed off your karma, empowering me with the karmic threads bound to you."

She then waved her scepter once, the crystal in the middle shining brightly. The blinding brightness faded away, revealing a glowing rune floating within the confines of the crystal.

"The seraph has chosen," Ishnai said. "Your method of judgment: The Karma of Death! You will now be judged by all the lives you have taken, all the death you have created."

Boom!

A chain shot off from the measuring scale with the word death carved into it, reaching John in an instant. It latched onto him, then seemed to squirm all around him, latching onto invisible things he couldn't see but could now feel. His threads of Karma.