Akevorax threw out the orb once more, sending it straight into the array and penetrating the reanimated Rebecca’s heart. Not long after, she fell dead once more and he retrieved the parts once more for another attempt. Jaren stood to the side, unphased by the action they’d repeated some tens of times by now. For the past week, they quietly met up for small lengths of time whilst no one else was around, made easier by many of them visiting the library often.
It helped that Korridan and Darak travelled together as well since that pair rarely left the cave compared to anyone else.
“That’s the 36th failure then… Is there really no upgrade the Nexus can offer? Haven’t you figured out any improvements?” Jaren asked a question that he’d posed a few times now, but every time met with the same reply from Akevorax.
The dragon sighed as he replied, “The only way to perfectly restore a Mind is if they transcribed some information about it in advance, but that’s all easier said than done.”
He reset the array for another attempt, the 37th one, but the Rebecca who rose from the ground looked about blankly for several seconds and just waved towards them with a sappy grin…
A failure once more.
He killed it and collected her parts once more. Akevorax purposely avoided her brain as damage to it presented the ability to permanently destroy certain memories. However, the failures really dragged on them, Jaren had hardly been able to stomach the sight of their first few attempts as they were killed without a hint of remorse from the dragon. But was that anything but expected?
Akevorax tunnel-visioned dramatically onto a perfect resurrection. If the ‘result’ displayed even the slightest deviation, then he trashed it and tried once more.
On several occasions now the revived Rebecca clearly recognised them and possessed the thought process to realise what just happened, but simple mistakes in behaviour killed that new Mind just as fast as it’d been born.
The 40th attempt passed soon enough, and at the 45th they called it quits for the day. Also because Akevorax required more bodies for the creation process, the dragon heart within her caused an explosive cost increase even when he used mithril tier bodies. The pair returned separately, Jaren going back first as though nothing happened whilst Akevorax teleported over to a brutal sub-realm covered in thick jungles. This place contained beasts which lurked in the giant bushes and huge birds which swooped down through the canopy like a diving kingfisher.
This jungle also held a special type of wood which exuded a fair amount of wind elements. Akevorax used that description because it simply couldn’t hold up to any of the grade 0 materials he’d ever seen, but he believed it was grade 1 at the very least. Which also made it useful for Korridan and Jaren.
While not originally in their plans, when he came here, it was a piece of cake to wander over and extract some materials for Mala to test.
The tree stood a hundred metres tall, about thrice as high as the regular trees in the jungle, with a trunk like that of a house. While a far cry from a behemoth, the tree made its presence known by the tornado which wrapped around it constantly and the blades of wind wrapped about its canopy in a deadly fashion. When he flew up and inside, the winds penetrated through scale and ice cream with ease, but their relatively small size allowed him to heal the damage faster than it arrived.
With this, Akevorax gathered a handful of leaves, an entire branch, some jars of sap, and the thinner tree roots deeper down. He chose those tree roots as their thinner, hairier ends worked differently from the stabilising roots grown higher up, thus they also presented different medicinal or elemental properties.
With something like a hundred more beast corpses and souls in hand, Akevorax teleported back home and left the materials in a dimensional storage box by Mala’s lab. This was where the group put all interesting but questionably useful materials. A separate box in their living space held the obviously useful items that no one bothered to carry. Outside of these two, everyone just made sure to carry objects related to their advancements, the easiest option for a number of reasons.
Outside of what they got up to in the sub-realm, Jaren spent most of his spare time under Forced Exposure states as he stared at the piece of carved wood. The fact he even entered such a state required a rather intuitive grasp of archery as a whole, not the act of drawing a bow but rather the utilisation of an arrow once fired. Jaren naturally adjusted every shot for these minute factors, so when met with the next level that involved dimensional modification, he entered that state.
The wood itself just indicated some stances of techniques to perform these modifications as well as a natural power to grant ‘sight’ into the higher concept.
If it were any wonder why this was a grade 0 item even now, that came down to the fact that the item purposely created safe Forced Exposure Events. No way in hell he’d have willingly flung it to Jaren if that weren’t the case.
“Can we go to that mountainous sub-realm?” A voice appeared from the side as space tore apart to reveal a tunnel, Raccelline popped out a few moments later as she teleported from somewhere in the Dragonlands.
“Sure. But what for exactly?”
“I need to try fight a master tier,” her casual response drew a pair of squinted eyes. He could barely hold off a weak one… But all those in that sub-realm were pretty damn strong. Some of them even formed a great rune body. Though, he gave in soon enough.
Telling her, “We can, but everyone’s going to go. And wait until I evolve once more. I just need to drink the blood.”
She nodded along and jumped back through the still open tunnel as though the most normal thing in the world.
At her disappearance, Akevorax found a reclusive sub-realm and jumped through the array network straight away. He swallowed blood by the vial with a mixture of tastes and effects compared to the musky or metallic flavour he suffered through in the past.
Some blood burnt to swallow, others flowed down his throat refreshingly. Some coarsely clung to his mouth as though filled with glass, and others aerated in his mouth to coat the entirety in a thin film of blood… Those ones tasted worse by a long shot. Their actual flavours varied immensely: some literally spicy, others sweet but tangy, and a few outright bitter like medicine.
[Assimilated Erupting Implosion dragon! 5 new bloodline directions potentially available]
[Assimilated Sea-raising Geyser dragon! 5 new bloodline directions potentially available]
[Assimilated Solar Extreme Radiance dragon! 5 new bloodline directions potentially available]
…
[Bloodline energy has reached an evolutionary threshold. Prepare for evolutionary measures to begin]
For brevity, Akevorax ended up swallowing about 50 of these bloodlines before the expected prompt came up. And he still had almost 300 more of these master tier bloodlines just hanging around. With some vague calculations, he said beneath a barrier, “Can I evolve two more times… Is there a reason I wouldn’t?”
If he just evolved a couple more times he’d probably just hit master tier and gain basic control over his divinity.
Well, he had more than enough time to think it through as he waited for the evolution to start. For the filters this time, he stated an extreme preference, “Remove all options besides those from the Conquering Juggernaut.”
He refused to believe that he received nothing of worth from 8 options. And that went with the idea that 2 or 3 bloodlines were unreadable due to simulation limits.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
[Evolution imminent. Your possible bloodline pathways are the following:
Outlasting Wall Ice-cream
Worldcrasher Ice-cream
Auric Warforce…
Origin Conquering…
Invasive Domination…
That which cannot beg…
Final Guardian…
Warrior Born in Extremities…
Please make a selection in 5 minutes, or a random pathway will be used]
He didn’t even need to read the descriptions to tell what happened towards the end, saying aloud, “Those three went poorly?”
[Fairly inconclusive. That last option is also the one which contains the highest quantity of great runes too]
That was interesting, but he’d be a fool to risk something with that sort of name. He explicitly wanted to avoid suicidal bloodlines… More reasons to almost kill himself was simply not beneficial to anyone.
As for the eight bloodlines. He got rid of Worldcrasher, Invasive Domination, and ‘That Which Cannot Beg’. It was such a strange name, and with it gone he now had five options to look through. Even if he only kept those last two options in the running because he wanted to see how poetic or vague their descriptions were…
Worldcrasher was a strength-focused bloodline, and if his past experience was anything to go by, that made it instantly worthless. He didn’t even spare it a second glance. Invasive Domination provided massive boosts whenever he entered something else’s territory and fought over it. These ‘invasions’ extended beyond the concept of kings and lords too, as even just stepping into the cave of a wild animal counted.
And then the last one, That Which Cannot Beg, seemed to provide some sort of immunity to suppressive effects and then encouraged a durable willpower which never swayed or bent. In effect, it functioned like how the divinity forced a powerful hatred onto him when nearby Lostradus.
But this bloodline would eventually have him sacrifice himself if survival only came from surrender.
“Now the seriously useful options,” He said as three prompts appeared in his vision at once. A comparative display between the only three he truly considered.
[Outlasting Wall Ice-cream: A wall must withstand threats of all sorts, both natural and artificial, never folding nor tiring. The wall degrades and grows with age; a bad wall loses its identity. To be a wall which stands in front of the essence of time and may remain even in the face of calamities, that which withstands all possible destruction. That is a good wall. Bonus stats delayed until bloodline effect confirmed]
[Auric Warforce Ice-cream: Origin Force is far from the only non-dimensional power in existence, there exists a way to combine some. Warforce is an omnipresent power created merely by the existence of an army, representing the desire for battle and often created alongside fragments of Aura. Warforce is far more offensive than Origin Force though, and as such often loses its edge when used for non-combat purposes. Please ask for more details on this bloodline. Bonus stats delayed until bloodline effect confirmed
[Origin Conquering Ice-cream: Origin Force is an infuriating natural power by all regards. This is because the power is not limited to regular empowerments, nothing stops it from merging with higher powers or concepts in their entirety. This process requires an impetus though, often obtained through great languages. Through this, Domination Force can be created once it connects to a higher dimension. Please find external information for further details. Bonus stats delayed until bloodline effect confirmed]
“Please find… external information? Can’t you just tell me what the bloodline actually does? You spent half of those just explaining what power it’s creating!”
[We don’t exactly know what’s happening. The bloodline should normally grant either modified form of Origin Force, even without any similar bloodlines in the past, but that all went to hell because of you]
On second thought, he didn’t need the information… The Nexus already made it frighteningly clear that unstable Origin Force made all simulations a pain to find consistent results for. However, the fact that these bloodlines specified both types of powers guaranteed that they performed that much at least.
He did have one particular question though. “When you say Domination Force, do you mean the same type used by Primordius ranks… Or just a namesake because you felt like it?”
[The simulations showed that they functioned nearly identically, we just can’t tell if they are literally the same or not]
Akevorax smiled at that, having researched the powers available to those top tier individuals in quite a bit of depth. He absolutely needed such knowledge to create an array capable of killing one, even if only theoretical.
Domination Force wasn’t some ridiculously powerful ability, unfortunately, but it certainly crippled certain foes. This strange magical power allowed a Primordius rank to lock down entire elements as they suppressed the dimension which allowed for their colour of magic, this extreme but brutish method was one of their few tools when it came to suppressing Great Sages.
And it worked flawlessly.
A wizard who specialised in any one colour stood no chance against a Primordius rank for this reason. And it was also why almost all Great Sages put research into three colours at the lowest. He concluded that there was no way any master tier opponent defended against it. Most of them only studied for long enough to train in a single colour, those like Mala were an extreme exception.
The pleasant smile on his face instantly dropped to a frown, and soon into a stressed, scrunched face. It took a few moments for him to understand, but a nagging feeling suddenly came to mind as though he forgot about something of great importance. At the same time, something absolutely approached him and he glanced around to make sure it hadn’t evaded his senses in some way. Even going so far as to activate his Elder eyes and scan the surroundings… But still nothing popped up.
Until he finally said, “Now of all times? Is this another peak master tier then… No, it’s definitely a bit bigger.” Akevorax now came to realise that the sense was the bloodline which hadn’t activated in months now.
Disaster Fated hadn’t picked up on a single threat, but now an extremely distant threat appeared without much warning. Furthermore, it didn’t currently appear to move at all, just a distant and unknown threat which he vaguely sensed but failed to estimate. However, after the past few months, he was entirely confident in killing any such master tier. Whatever came his way, with the whole party there too, he truly had nothing to worry about.
Suppressing the extremely distant storm wasn’t too hard as well, it was like how a person might not care about a murder on the other end of a city. With such a distance, they truly couldn’t show so much concern for a faceless individual.
Back to the evolution at hand.
He’d never heard of Warforce prior to this moment, at least the Nexus offered further information at the drop of a hat.
[Warforce can best be described as an ego-based power. Like a manifested will, it is spontaneously created just by existing, although, Warforce is specially created by a desire for war. When merged with Origin Force it is somewhat limited by this desire as it cannot be utilised for utility spell enhancements, your unstable Origin Force might just collapse the spell in fact. However, the Auric Warforce will not replace the original, just grant a new organ dedicated to its creation]
“Wait, so this effectively just gives me a way to generate Origin Force far faster? Is that true for the others too?” Akevorax more than accepted that the answer to this question decided these two bloodlines to be better than the… 400 or so he’d hidden.
[Yes]
Well, that was pretty anticlimactic. The illusion of choice pretty much crumbled as only two real options remained. He’d be an utter fool to not pick one of them now. But since he narrowed it down, he thought it best to at least have a bit of fun by looking at the further bloodlines.
He took a fair bit of joy seeing the Nexus break.
[Final Guardian Ice-cream: In a defence to last all time, one last guardian lasts till the end. They clean for an empty palace; cook for the barracks long drawn silent; watch for an enemy on the inevitable horizon; and they never surrender their final will. No one knows the last one’s name, instead the faceless guardian carries the names of those gone over countless years. And so, the final guardian cannot be allowed to perish, for their death means the disappearance of countless more. Bonus stats delayed until bloodline effect confirmed]
[Warrior Born in Extremities Ice-cream: This bloodline does something related to enduring harsh elements for extended periods of time as a way to train your body. We couldn’t figure out enough to really see how that works though. Bonus stats delayed until bloodline effect confirmed]
Did that count for a record?
It was outright a bloodline the Nexus couldn’t even create a sparkly poem for this time. And unlike the Auric Insanity evolution, it didn’t have the same excuse of ‘instability’ to explain itself. At the same time, he really had to ask, “What does Final Guardian actually do?”
[We think it’s something to do with your Mind palace. Specifically, using emotional attachments to strengthen the palace against enemies… But that sort of requires the people involved to be dead]
“It would also require an Adept mind palace in that case. I don’t have to think about it any longer, just give me the Domination Force. Like I'd actually need Warforce,” Akevorax rolled his eyes as he curled up into a ball for this next evolution.
What was he meant to say? Bigger concerns already appeared on the horizon…