The idea that he selected a life-saving bloodline like this purely for his friends was rather ludicrous, even if it played a rather large part in his thought process for the matter.
He just no longer wanted to so easily throw his life away. While dying for a good cause wasn’t the worst end, how many truly wanted to drop dead without a single moment more to live?
And far too often did he encounter moments where everything hung by a thin thread. This safety net allowed him to make mistakes and lose against those unforgivable foes. Furthermore, it meant his suicidal streak wouldn’t ever be the end of him. Probably for the best, given how often he found himself in near-death situations, and from the way this bloodline worked, it also technically saved him in cases where an assimilation might be able to kill him.
There was also the whole ten minute evolution process itself which came after that decision… But did he really have to go over how much it sucked by now?
…
When Akevorax finally broke out of the wafer shell, he stretched and flapped his wings slightly to see what changes existed physically. The wings of an unknown, sticky substance still worked as usual, scales and innards worked in precisely the same manner, which left just one thing to notice. A small, minute existence within his heart.
Quite literally a seed.
It contained monstrous amounts of energy and mana, easily enough to compare to his current physical body, and shook ever so slightly whenever his gaze passed over it. Unlike so many evolutions in the past though, this one came with an innate ability!
[Rebirth Isolation: The seed may enter an intense hibernation state which allows it to blend in with the surroundings, depending on the mana used. Great runes may be included in any language to further enhance this effect]
This resolved perhaps his only doubt with the bloodline, and now he had to consider the best place to drop this seed…
Akevorax just said sarcastically, “Where else am I actually going to put this?” With a few light beats of his wings, the full size dragon flew from that pit in the battlefield to a point just slightly south-east. Towards a small mountain with a cave near its peak and a cliff right beside that entrance.
Of course, the first place he called home during that frightening time.
Something occupied it in those long years since, some sort of rhinoceros-like beast with spike protrusions in all directions coming from its body. In a way, it looked like a porcupine with these spikes, although the fact they were made of ice intrigued him a bit. The beast tried growling when he first took stance in front of the cave, but quickly whimpered and retreated inwards as the giant he imposed sat there unbothered.
A measly two metre tall rhino compared to a sitting dragon at four metres. His body didn’t even fit in the cave anymore, and Akevorax cast a shrinking spell just to fit within. As he walked inside, his eyes didn’t even bother looking towards the rhino once more, and even passed it whilst it cowered in a corner.
A weaker gold tier beast, impressive by normal standards, but in this mountain range, it didn’t even deserve to possess a mana gatherer tree. Before long, even mithril tiers would lose that right as well…
Once past the rhino, it charged out in fear and dashed far away in hopes it completely avoided him. Whilst not the smartest thing, it gauged his strength well enough and ran instead of fighting.
And it was here that Akevorax found the patch of snow towards the very back of his cave, below which tunnels dug deeper and deeper all the way to a cute underground abode. Rather than dig down, he simply placed the seed right beneath this patch of snow.
Talking about his ‘sight’ was a rather vague topic these days, as Akevorax long since adapted to using a combination of his eyes and various other senses to look around. For example, the growth of his palace directly allowed him to view the internals of his body, something replicable with weak psychic spells. Fabric Weaver granted a sense of space as a fabric of reality, while Pure Mana still granted that mana sense which dropped off in utility overtime.
But regardless, all he had to do was focus on the small seed in his heart and slowly fed mana into it, starting with everything his body contained, then everything drawn in, and finally masses of condensed mana until it actively rejected any more.
He didn’t actually know that the last part was possible, but that didn’t matter.
With a careful gaze, he gently created a nick in his crystal heart and slid that seed out, moving it through his body until it exited from his chest, placing it gently beneath the patch of snow.
The seed itself contained a core of yellow-brown crystal, like the sugar-mana which formed his heart, while a layer of ice cream and then wafer biscuit then topped it off. As far as seeds went, it matched an almond in size, although the shape was more akin to a walnut with wrinkled designs all over the wafer biscuit instead of that identifiable cross-hatch design on his body.
Once it sunk into the snow, he marvelled at the degree of isolation included.
It completely vanished from his mana sight, spatial vision, and even most sight spells. Only his Elder eyes saw through these effects, which further bolstered the requirement for great languages.
Akevorax asked rhetorically, “Maybe I should have included Origin Force?”
He posed the question, but no answer really came, and as that process ended, he took a few moments to look around at the icy covered cave with blue crystals grown on all sides. Compared to his time here as a child, where the crystals barely jutted out from the walls with such weak effects, they grew into magnificent clusters several times the size, in some cases entire walls taken over as the ice cold crystals grew into them. The cave, which previously existed at a freezing cold -20 Celsius, at most times, dropped to at least -100 Celsius.
Many places like this existed across the mountain range, greatly decreasing its overall hospitality to those not acquainted with ice elements.
If it were any wonder why Akevorax put so much time into this place, he felt nostalgic for it all. A time long gone when he just had to live, hunt, and not get embroiled in the power plays of everyone else.
He wouldn’t trade it for the relationships and experiences he got outside of this mountain range, but it was a lie to say he didn’t miss such simple times.
And that’s all it came down to. Now, it was time to raid a library.
* * *
“You little fucking… Just… Go rot in hell! Who does that even!?” Akevorax’s shouts and wails in Draconic echoed through the illustrious halls of the ancient ruins, whilst someone clearly looted everything else of value which he left behind, they didn’t bother with the top floor’s array for some reason.
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Why not?
Akevorax’s screams enlightened the empty ruins as to the situation, “WHY DOES IT BLOCK ORIGIN FORCE?!!”
Not only did it do this, but the barrier itself was formed on the foundation of a supreme tier array. Worst of all, because he destroyed the array controller over at the platform, there wasn’t any way to subtly control the array as he wished.
Which meant that the peak mithril tier dragon had to forcibly break a peak supreme tier array.
So simple, right?
The explanation for Origin Force was nothing special as well. After the invasion of the Kandir giants, those who remained then prepared their arrays to resist that dangerous power, they likely experienced how the Warbornes crushed arrays with ease. Unfortunately, it also meant their arrays counteracted any he used right now…
Thankfully, if this hellish situation could even be called that, he figured out a ‘method’ to break through the array. Or so he claimed with almost no confidence in the method itself.
Akevorax had been here for 3 days now, and every single day he made sure to fly around the mountain range whilst invisible, and chopped off his limbs hundreds of times to leave the sweet treats littered around the place. At first, many beasts were wary of it, but seeing the weaker critters gorge themselves on his sorbet legs or ice cream tail quickly brightened the moods. Countless gold tiers gladly ate the food, some hoarded it, but they even fought over bits where possible.
Sugary snacks so rarely appeared in the wild, but even so, it amazed him when beasts killed one another for a leg.
No one evolved candy traits yet, but he had ample time. Furthermore, while his Elder eyes indeed located that roc hidden on the central mountain, he purposely avoided it and whatever kin arrived in the area.
“So I have to fail the 13th, 21st, 102nd, 331st, 415th, and 812th junctions all at once. Use that opening to attack the fifth and seventh Origin Force redirectors, and then hope I have enough of the stuff to break this stupid thing. At least the idiots who built this thing decided to put it underneath their library instead of above,” Akevorax spoke with a reaffirming voice, his words went over the specific plan of attack he formulated after three days of testing.
After all, just like the barrier which sealed off that platform further in, this array decayed after thousands of years without any management. However, unlike the far weaker and hardly activated array, this one received constant supervision from its self-moderation… Which also recovered certain parts quickly.
If not for a lack of mana, it might actually be in near perfect condition!
Firstly, the method to break through those mana junctions on the ground floor. Akevorax required dark element spells for this, for which he learnt a new Master true spell rather painstakingly. Just 397 words they said, sure he compressed it down to 301 words, but what sort of dragon actually had enough time to say 300 words in a battle. The moment he finished here, Akevorax was going to put time into learning Draconis. These time scales had become ridiculous. As for the spell in question, Darkness Depth Infection, it functioned differently from the previous array breaking spell he used.
Unlike a cancer which spread and grew outwards at rapid rates, this focused on deepening its infection of a point to its very root, becoming an unstoppable anchor which even high tier arrays required excessive work to remove.
Furthermore, it didn’t have to penetrate into an array as a single spell, capable of splitting into 20 smaller parts with lowered strength. He just split them into sixths, and then began his method to break through that other array. For this one, it should be known that the functionality to deal with Origin Force was never built directly into the barrier array itself. Rather they created a new array and deeply connected it into the original… But a connection is not a merger. Both arrays existed separately, and the repair Effects of these arrays greatly prioritised any damage to the original array. The lead up for this should be pretty clear by now.
Akevorax pulled out a scroll the group obtained long ago, courtesy of the demon elves. He hadn’t used any against Lostradus, as Master true spells offered limited usability later on… But mostly because all but two of the offensive spells used fire elements.
Take a guess at how well fire works against an ash dragon infused with flames.
“Rintler’s Charged Destruction Blast, I swear, every Master true spell just has to have the creator’s name. Or most of the non-malicious ones at least,” Akevorax said sarcastically. He added that last statement only because Darkness Depth Infection, obviously, contained no added names.
As far as names went, Rintler was just some wizard, the book didn’t specify a race, so it could’ve been one of many who used the Humanoid Evolution Path.
Now for the spell. It concentrated destruction elements into an isolated, semi-stable ball for a few seconds. Then layered it with a varying layer of ‘inert’ mana, which could pass through matter as well as stop the destruction elements immediately breaking down.
In other words, he sent a targeted bomb right to the array layers he needed to destroy… It would pretty much clear out all the layers in that general area.
And all nearby matter. A small problem though.
Casting the first spell came easily, and once completed, he enhanced it with Origin Force. Six javelins of black metal fired out from his spell with a faint golden spiral running up along the outside of every javelin. All of these easily penetrated through whatever decayed stone formed the floor of this place and stabbed into six very specific junctions of the giant array beneath him. Formed from an unknown metal alloy, it immediately kicked into gear as the six metal tips connected.
Akevorax activated the pocket watch, compressing the next tenth of a second into a hundredth. Neither was that much time, but it gave him the visual feedback required to pour mana into the scroll and watch it burn away as it activated.
Now for the moment of truth, if this failed, he’d have to spend days coming up with an even more convoluted method to break through.
All six javelins collapsed into pools of liquid metal, black with golden squiggles throughout, and seeped into their respective points. Somehow, even though the javelins were several times the size of every junction, their mass of liquid metal condensed into the tiny array point and sat there.
At first, the chrome metal gleamed as usual, filled with mana, but veins of black quickly spread with the entire junction transformed into a crystal.
This repeated six times over, and the instant he saw it happen, an overwhelming burst of power exploded outwards. The full array activated to cleanse the insipid elements, however, a barrelling blast arrived barely milliseconds later. An unintelligent machine could never predict or understand what approached, and without any power reserved to deal with the new attack, the blast lost its coating of inert mana whilst on top of the sixth Origin Energy redirector.
…
A mountain-shaking explosion completely deafened Akevorax. The ruins’ walls shook and crumbled with dust falling. The very ground quaked and just the shockwave of air, pure power which emanated outward, flung up his shrunken form by a few metres!
The spirit didn’t have such a luxury though, as it already detached from Akevorax with a mass of Origin Force in its grasp, pushing it deep into the core of the array's Base and moving it towards nodes and points as directed. The effect was immediate, as the pathways and junctions filled with this annoying power now blocked any movement of mana, and allowed the six Darkness Depth Infections to root themselves even further to a point where even mana within the array started going towards them!
They completely infected their junctions, and with mana to fuel them, split off like a virus to control more junctions.
Who knew how the mountain range reacted to that event, but he hardly cared as his senses started at the blackening junctions, enraptured with his heart pounding. Throat dry as he gulped.
Five seconds answered his worries.
Masses of black metal completely engulfed the underground array, any mana now gathered fed into the spell, which furthered its infection at a slow and steady rate. Akevorax left it to run as he took a look upstairs after all these hours of careful planning.
He named the various types of books as he saw them, mostly uncaring as nothing stood out, saying, “Ledgers, skills, spells, some good originals from legendary alchemists as well… Where’s the really valuable stuff then?” Akevorax perused the book titles as soon as he rushed up to the top floor with the barrier removed.
Some good things did eventually come up though. A few recipe books for things like alchemy, weapon refinement, and scroll creation, with these things it saved an expert months of work theorising a perfect method to refine something. Personally, he picked out books with supreme tier arrays, some of the most valuable things as each of these arrays could level mountains… If you had infinite mana. However, Akevorax took personal interest in the teleportation arrays, like the ones which worked across planets. In the end, none of them even came close to the way his eyes lit up on a small hidden bookshelf, even located on the lowest shelf below a bunch of books about nothing worth reading.
“Forbidden spells?” You didn’t even need to hear his words to see the palpable temptation written on his face.
Particularly because of that one book labelled ‘True Necromancy’.