Suuuuuu
With an exhale of stale breath, Lucifer breathed deeply. The air felt different as it entered his lungs, it was off. It was as if his entire body could sense the change in the air as he slowly opened his eyes. His long black and blonde hair, swayed slightly as he rolled his shoulders and flexed his powerful muscles. His wings spread out and beat gently, responding to his flexure. And as his tail flicked outwards it shattered an earthen pillar. Lucifer released a content deep groan as he felt the new Mana Core change and adapt to his body. The waves of power that it radiated through his body caused him to become very relaxed as he examined himself. With a casual glance towards the expectant Luna, Lucifer only smiled before beginning to walk out of the cave.
Having not moved in weeks, Lucifer felt slight discomfort amidst the contentment he felt. With his Mana Core truly formed and his unplanned advancement into the Squire stage, he had an urge to test his new limits. An urge he planned to satisfy in serpentine blood.
Luna giggled as she felt the distinct change in Lucifer. He became more calm after his Core formation. But through her link, Luna could feel the even more abundant bloodlust and excitement that coursed through him. Finding the clash in dispositions amusing she lept up and entered his shadow as he stood at the cave's entrance.
“So shall we wage a war Luna?” Lucifer spoke as he stepped off the ledge and into the open air.
“With pleasure brother.” Luna chimed adorably, as if the thought of endless slaughter truly made her as delighted as a young child.
“Then let the war begin!” Lucifer roared as his wings burst open, halting his plummeting body. His giant 6’2” wingspan caught the wind and Lucifer soared with large steady wing beats. Mana reverberated through his throat as his roar echoed throughout the part of the Anguis Chain he was currently in.
Soon all snakes and members of the Serpente familia would know of his one-man war against them.
With his draconic eye scanning the craggy mountains for prey as he soared through the air, Lucifer felt truly excited and peaceful. It was at this time Luna spoke out to him.
“So I take it you have formed a Beast Core then?”
“Even better than a Beast Core Luna. I made my Core. A true primarch’s Core.”
“Primarch’s Core? Explain.”
“Hahaha. Why do all Beasts appear weaker than their ancestors or alphas? Surely if they possess the same blood and heritage as their alphas they too should have the same strength.”
Lucifer's question and statement left Luna with no answer. Even she knew that she had little chance of ever surpassing her Ancestor: the Shadow Empress. But the question of why, had never truly occurred to her. She knew that a draconian would never be able to match up to a dragon, but there was never a real reason as to why.
“Lucifer just tell me what you mean.” Luna groaned in irritation that he had out done her with his question.
“Your Sin. Tie it to your Element and you have yourself a true Apex Core, as I call it. Simple right?” Lucifer spoke blandly like the facts held no sense of mystery or sacredness to him.
“You told me that all I had to do was blast my Core with my Elements and it would do the rest. But I have two opposing Elements. So I had to find a way to tie them to me. There came my idea of using my Sins as the link between the Elements and myself.”
“Wait does that mean anyone can create an Apex Core then?” Luna questioned with budding anticipation at the prospect of being able to become like the Shadow Empress, she descended from.
“No clue. But if anyone can they will be able to know if they succeeded. I can feel the power of the Core inside me and it is completely different to the ones of any other being I have faced.” Lucifer continued still as nonchalant as ever.
“Amazing. Truly amazing Lucifer. Now I really want to see you fight the Serpente familia! Go to this location.” Luna exclaimed with giddiness as she dreamed of attempting what Lucifer had told her.
“My bloodline memories show that as a sort of grooming ground for young snakes. It should have plenty of Rank 3-5 Beasts.”
“I take it you withheld this information for good reason?” Lucifer spoke lightly as he made his way to the location Luna had sent him via telepathy.
“Well you are normally hot headed and battle crazy so I chose to only tell you if you formed your Beast Core. Since you made an Apex Core, even better!” Luna cooed trying to placate him with her reasoning as gently as she could. But silence answered her as Lucifer steadily beat his wings and flew to the location of the snake grounds. An hour later as he got within a mile of the location he finally spoke out.
“Luna! You will never withhold information like that again. I am not as immature as you give me credit for. I will decide what is safe for myself. No one else will dictate who I am, what I do, what I say, where I go, or anything else. I am the Dragon Nephilim. The first of my kind and most definitely not the last. So mark my words, if I ever find out that you are manipulating or doing anything like before to me again. I'll make you and your Lupin familia end up like these pathetic snakes!” Lucifer growled out as he tucked his wings in and dived down towards a seemingly barren area of rock. Only as he got close to it a large dull grey snake head shot forward to attack him.
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At the appearance of the snake, Lucifer only snarled as he whipped his giant glaive towards the incoming attack. With an audible cracked, the glaive decimated the snakes skull. Crushing it's bones and flesh in a brutal display of power.
Lucifer spread his wings catching an updraft as he took to the sky again after his lightning fast kill. With his body gradually going higher and higher Lucifer began casting magic. Drawing his Light Element and Mana into his mighty weapon he began to cast [Gold Mail], on the glaive. As the metaphysical golden light formed on the bladed head of the glaive, Lucifer immediately released the glaive and let gravity take the to the ground. With astonishing momentum the handmade golden warhead shot downwards.
Smirking as he watched the 8 foot long golden glaive fall, Lucifer began to cast multiple Dark [Elemental Spears]. Soon 30+ two meter long magical spears floated next to him. With a downward wave of his hand, the spears shot downwards at breakneck speeds.
On ground level, directly below Lucifer. A mass of giant 20 foot and greater length snakes lay draped over each other bathing in the afternoon sun. With only a single snake looking up in lackadaisical drowsiness, Lucifer's incoming artillery like assault came crashing down. With a golden warhead leading a swarm of black bolts, his attacks landed amongst the serpentine sun bathers. With the golden warhead’s initial impact, a huge explosion shook the mountain of the assault. Immediately afterwards the black bolts tore through the billowing smoke clouds and devastated the survivors among the debris of the explosion.
“Witness Luna, the power of primal magic powered by a Yellow Squire. Do you see it? Not a single one of those 47 snakes live. All of them were above the 2nd Rank and not a single one can stop even my most casual of attacks.” Lucifer roared as he dove into the smoke and dust that billowed into the air.
Luna could only glumly suck in a cold breath as she witnessed the might his basic magic wrought.
Landing hard enough to crack the earth beneath, Lucifer gazed at the destruction he created with cold and merciless eyes. But inside, an ever growing lust for blood and violence began to take hold of his mind. As his eyes caught sight of the glaive handle jutting out from a pile of charred corpses and rubble he heard a distinct rumbling sound. With natural instincts taking over, he dropped low and flared his wings out. With claws out and his body ready for flight, attack, retreat and evasion he readied himself in a low and wide fighting stance. His tail swayed slightly as he patiently waited for the rumbling noise to cease.
But the sound only grew louder and eventually the ground too shook with noise. Lucifer had a cold grin plastered on his face as he slowly rose his body and began drawing his sword.
His Nephilim eye caught sight of a new intention faintly showing in the distance much earlier than his dragon eye could make out the shape. The intention appeared to mean caution or a variation of confusion. Lucifer deduced that it was the guardians of the snake grounds coming to see what had happened. So with practiced ease he slipped into the shadows of the newly created terrain and prepared for the incoming prey.
“Come little worms and become my Apex Core’s baptism in blood!” He whispered savagely as his entire body merged into the shadows.
Sure enough something responded to Lucifer's dark desire. A 80 foot long Black Eyed Basalt Cobra! A peak Mid Order 4th Rank snake! With powerful Green Mana Purity and it's own devastatingly strong Earth Element, the Black Eyed Basalt Cobra was truly a side overlord for the Serpente familia. Large 8 inch thick metallic black scales covered the cobra’s body and created it's amazing armour like hide. With a standard cobra’s hooded head and savage demeanor the Black Eyed Basalt plowed through the rocky terrain towards Lucifer's position.
Lucifer stood poised for combat in the shadows. He watched the titanic Beast roar with fury as it saw the devastation he caused. He watched patiently as the snake rampaged and created even more destruction in its blind fury. Not a single change nor movement from the cobra could break his concentration, as he analyzed every single inch of the 80 foot long Beast.
“Two, 3 meter long cuts along the left flank of its stomach. One, 5 square meter patch of slightly pale scales along the underbelly Seems to be the only weak spots.” Lucifer surmised.
“While the fangs appear capable of spitting toxin the tail is also extremely dense. It's whipping straight through the bedrock with its tailwhips.”
With the weaknesses and two most dangerous parts of the cobra identified, Lucifer began his true 'hunt’. He measured his remaining Mana, he took stock of every possible weapon he had to pierce the thick scales of the snake, he even measured and estimated the distance the snake could spit its poison. Finally with every solid factual information he could glean from the rampaging Beast, Lucifer prepared his attack.
Waiting until the Black Eyed Basalt Cobra made its way to within 5 feet of the shadow he hid in, Lucifer slowly gathered his Mana as subtly as possible. As soon as the cobra entered his 5 foot strike zone, he boosted his body with Mana and let a brutal overhead chop come flying onto the unsuspecting cobra. Being a weapon of the fourth rank, Lucifer's blade was made to handle Beasts like the Black Eyed Basalt. And with Lucifer's mighty strength and Mana enhanced body wielding it, the blade became a weapon of mass destruction for the cobra. Lucifers chopped right along one of the two long cuts that scaled the cobra's flank. With slight resistance the blade entered the old wound and tore the regrown scales asunder as it recreated the large wound.
Lucifer felt his Mana Core surge in response to his emotions as he saw blood flow from the Beast. He reminded himself again what his Sins were. Wrath and Pride. The Wrath he felt for the world, the need to tear it all down and destroy. The Pride he felt as a natural born Apex predator, a being born to rule the food chain of Gaies. And right now he was truly enacting on his Sins. He was destroying a time honoured familia. He was demonstrating his dominance and power over the Anguis Chain. He was single handedly waging war against the Serpente familia, and he felt proud of it.
Luna on the other hand shuddered as she stood among the shadows some 2 kilometers away from Lucifer's battle. With a clear line of sight, she watched as he danced and weaved his way around the giant cobra. She saw as he effortlessly dodged sprays of acidic poison, and deliver devastating cuts to the Beast. Only grim terror held her heart. She could scarcely believe it; regardless of how high her expectations of Lucifer were, she would never have foresaw this.
Lucifer toyed with a peak Mid Order Beast of the 4th Rank. Even without his mighty glaive, he still could break through even the hardest of defences. Luna gulped down mouthfuls of saliva constantly as she witnessed his death match with the Black Eyed Basalt Cobra. Even though the sounds of the Beast's pain filled roars attracted other snakes, Lucifer only carried a maniacal grin as he continued to toy with it. Luna could only guess he wanted the Beast to bring more prey for him to slaughter.
Lucifer vastly underestimated his dual Element Apex Core. He laughed at himself as he finally finished off the bleeding and whimpering Black Eyed Basalt. He never could have imagined that the Core itself would have two reserves of Mana inside of it. It appeared that the Apex Core had created both reserves for Light and Dark. So while Lucifer sparingly and expertly used his Mana in one reserve, the other would slowly replenish any lost Mana. Lucifer truly became a killing machine at this discovery and a blood lust addled brain told Lucifer to test his limits to the extreme. And he did. Tormenting the cobra so that it's roars would bring more prey to him without him exerting any excess energy, he began his vicious plan.
After only 30 minutes Lucifer had began a battle royale against over 5 different Serpente familia snakes. A Crimson Blood Viper, Purple Veined Boa, Alpine Constrictor, Shocktailed Serpent and a White Quad-Horned Mamba. Beasts all of the 4th Rank and Mid Order. And of the Fire, Earth, Ice, Lightning and Wind Elements respectively. All of these Beasts were tasked with the guarding of the young serpents Lucifer had massacred and now that the Black Eyed Basalt Cobra was heard fighting and calling for help, they too made an appearance.
Luna never left her spot as she sensed Lucifer's over joyed self in the grand battle. She could only shiver and begin to watch out for any other members of the Serpente familia for Lucifer. She decided only to warn him if they approached his location hoping that would ease his anger towards her.