The Path Of A True King.
Chapter 48: Zenith

Chapter 48: Zenith

Chapter 87

The wind screamed across the summit, lifting whorls of dust that glimmered like ground-glass in the moonlight.

Tristan lay half-propped against a splintered boulder, breath shallow, eyes glazed but stubbornly open.

Every rise of his chest came with a wet rattle.

Xiniz’s lightning still crawled over the battlefield in ragged filaments, crackling through cracks in the stone like veins of living cobalt.

Elijah stood alone now—one man between a fallen friend and the storm given flesh.

His Burst aura pulsed like a war-drum, and the 10 percent Zenith coursing through him hammered bone against muscle, muscle against skin.

The temporary stat spike sang in his blood, but it was not enough; he felt that truth in every parried punch and every numbing vibration that rolled up his forearms.

Xiniz grinned, teeth catching the lightning like shards of a shattered star.

He twirled his sword in a lazy circle and advanced. Step. Step. Each footfall cracked a new fracture into the mountaintop.

"Running low yet?" he asked.

Elijah answered with motion. He flashed in, Ki-coated fist corkscrewing toward Xiniz’s temple.

Metal intercepted skin with a thunder-clap.

The shockwave ballooned outward, shredding jagged trenches through the ground.

Elijah spun with the recoil, heel whipping upward in a crescent kick.

Xiniz dipped beneath, blade flashing to rake Elijah’s ribs—only for Elijah to meet steel with an elbow fortified by crimson Ki.

Sparks erupted; the edge skidded off, carving a shallow groove across his jacket instead of flesh.

They traded blows too fast for echoes to fully form—a symphony of half-born booms, each note devoured by the next.

One heartbeat found Elijah driving a knee at Xiniz’s sternum; the next saw him reeling from a point-blank bolt of lightning that cracked his guard open and left his left arm numb from shoulder to fingertip.

Warning: Nerve conductivity impaired. Pain suppression threshold at 82 percent.

Elijah gritted his teeth and surged again.

Burst fed him speed; Flash Step laced his footwork with blur.

But Xiniz adapted, matching tempo with manic glee.

He let momentum spin his body, sword fanning arcs of azure that intersected Elijah’s crimson streaks like intertwining comets.

Tristan forced himself upright, vision swimming. "Eli—" His voice broke with a cough that splattered red across the stone.

Xiniz’s eyes flicked past Elijah for a fraction of a second, predatory and cruel.

He lunged, lightning exploding from his calves.

Elijah feinted left, but the swordsman vanished, reappearing beside Tristan—a bolt wearing human skin.

The blade scythed downward.

Elijah appeared between them. His right forearm, Ki-hardened, caught the descending edge.

A scream of metal.

He slid backward on locked legs, boots chewing trenches beside Tristan’s collapsed form.

Blood beaded down his wrist; the skin had split, but the bone had held.

"That the best shield you’ve got?" Xiniz taunted, withdrawing two steps and lofting the sword behind a shoulder. Raw static bled off him in dazzling ribbons. "Let’s test it."

Xiniz thrust both palms skyward.

A pillar of lightning gushed from the clouds above, spearing the summit in a column wider than a house.

The impact vaporized stone, gouging a crater around Elijah and Tristan.

Shockwaves raced, pulverizing ridgelines, sending avalanches cascading into the dark valleys below.

When the flare died, only Elijah still stood—breathing hard, shoulders torn, clothes smoking.

He had wrapped Tristan in his aura, spending precious Ki to shield them both.

His reserves shrieked under the strain.

Ki Level: 53 percent.

Zenith output: 10 percent (capped).

Elijah ignored the system prompts. Retreat meant leaving Tristan to die. "Not an option," he muttered.

Xiniz sauntered forward, swinging his sword once to fling off cooling droplets of molten rock. "You’re out of gas. Nice tricks, but tricks run dry."

Elijah knelt beside Tristan. "Stay down," he whispered.

Tristan managed a crooked smile. "Finish it."

Elijah’s breath trembled. Ten percent... won’t break him.

Every instinct screamed that pushing Zenith further would drain him to a husk—perhaps kill him outright—but there was no path left that didn’t tread through oblivion.

Xiniz raised his blade overhead, lightning sheathing the edge until it gleamed white-hot.

Elijah rose.

His vision tunneled, the world narrowing to the glint of metal and the beat of his own heart.

Three... two... one...

"ZENITH 100%!"

A nova of crimson erupted from within him, blasting the surrounding air into a cyclonic ring that hurled Xiniz back three body-lengths.

[Zenith – 100 percent]

[Warning: Catastrophic Ki Consumption. Critical Organ Strain Imminent].

Time left: 3 seconds

Power—pure and absolute—roared through his veins.

Bones rang like tempered steel; muscles coiled with tectonic force.

Pain ceased, replaced by incandescent clarity.

Elijah moved.

He streaked toward Xiniz, every footfall detonating.

The swordsman barely had time to brace before Elijah’s fist collided with his guard.

Metal screamed, bending inward.

Xiniz shot backward in a blur, smashing through a cliffside spire that disintegrated under the impact.

Elijah was upon him again before rubble finished falling.

He hammered a knee into Xiniz’s midsection, folding him around the strike. Ribs snapped like dry twigs.

Lightning flared wild, uncontrolled.

Xiniz swung with desperation; Elijah slipped inside the arc, forearm crashing into the swordsman’s wrist.

CRACK.

The sword flew high, spinning end-over-end, azure sparks sputtering. Elijah’s left hand snapped up, seizing the hilt mid-air.

Crimson Ki flared along the blade, devouring the lingering electricity, painting its length in sanguine fire.

Xiniz staggered, one arm useless, eyes wide.

He inverted the sword, point down, and drove it through Xiniz’s heart with meteoric force.

The tip punched out his back, embedding a foot deep into bedrock.

A thunderclap boomed as red Ki ruptured outward from the wound, vaporizing the last vestiges of lightning ki.

For one heartbeat, the world was silent.

Xiniz’s lips parted, but no words came—only a final gasp that crackled like a dying spark.

His gaze dulled.

System text shimmered at the edge of Elijah’s vision.

[Mission: Kill Xiniz]

[Gain 15,000 System points, System Upgrade and the Red King’s Sword]

[Zenith Timer: 1...0]

The power cut out.

Elijah sagged, yanking the sword free and letting it clatter across the stone. His knees hit the ground; his vision flickered black at the edges.

Ki Level: 2 percent.

But he was alive—and Xiniz was not.

A ragged voice drifted from behind. "Nice... swing..." Tristan had crawled to the crater’s lip, smiling through the blood.

Elijah turned, managed half a grin.

He collapsed beside Tristan, "Go and help Dean his Ki is disappearing slowly."

Tristan spoke "Like u aren’t the same."