Dragnoria watched with a smile, not at all afraid of Dreadclaw's sorcery spell. In fact, she anticipated how Gelrahk would surprise them all, just like how he surprised many other enemies that didn't live to tell the tale of their death. Still, she prayed to the God in her mind for protection and aid against the enemy. Nothing tangible happened, as the God's power was beyond the perception of any mortal, cultivator or not.
A shadow moved within the portal, which stretched and elongated until it spat out a menacing, awful-looking dark figure. The outline was draconic, but it was hard to spot due to the fact that it sucked the light around itself, partially darkening the area around it. Her very being revolted against the presence, and she felt an irrational raging urge to kill that thing and protect the light. Her spirit energy, scattered and unable to form techniques as it was, suddenly surged and started to burn like the sun, its more destructive aspects surging to the fore. But this wasn't her fight. She simply had to watch, and her primal rage would be satisfied by the defeat of those creatures. Yes, there were more of them. More shadows danced on the edges of the portal, widening it and letting more dark and obscure creatures through. The System analyzed them at her intent.
"Chthonic Draconian – Corrupted stage.
Chthonic Draconian – Corrupted stage.
Chthonic Draconian – Corrupted stage."
She was taken aback at the unfamiliar term 'Corrupted stage'. She soon got a better idea when the auras of those disgusting entities became clearer and more distinct. They had the power of a high-tier metal to a low-tier gem-realm cultivator. They weren't demons, demons couldn't be seen or perceived by mortals, but they were corrupt entities that came from a plane that had formed from the condensed evil of all sapient creatures. Anything that went there was willing to submit to the dark side for the sake of power. It was fine to use the purified energy that came from outside the plane, but using it from its source was the closest thing to calling directly upon evil forces. The dark beings multiplied faster and faster, as if it became easier for them to come to the physical world the more of them there were already in it, and soon enough, close to a hundred of them were growling and prowling about, looking hungrily at Gelrahk, who roared maniacally and began his dance of war.
Suddenly, chaos reigned, as the overgrown dragon started bucking and heaving like an uncontrollable beast, smashing Chthonians left and right with the force of his movement. The domain of burning ice expanded, engulfing even more of the entities, leaving them burned and frozen. The domain also changed, the icy energy now blazing with sparks of even hotter flame. Clumps of the fiery ice solidified into draconic golems that aided Gelrahk in his destructive quest, while limbs of ice emerged from him and started catching the monsters, crushing them, throwing them at each other and juggling them like toys. The enemies that were hounding him trembled in fear, their attacks ceasing as they froze from shock and terror at the sight of the now-enlarged dragon who was singlehandedly battling against a small army of Chthonic creatures. To add insult to injury, he was actually winning against them. Umbra Deathwing and Dolatoth Doomshield instantly lost their confidence, recognizing the futility of resistance. They couldn't win against such a foe. They didn't know where the creatures came from, but they recognized the malevolence they emitted as something that often came from their leader when he was especially angry. Yet, not even that power was enough to overcome the behemoth that Gelrahk had become.
“Oh, where is that confidence you had earlier, Dolatoth? I thought you were called the Doomshield for a reason!”, Gelrahk's booming voice taunted. Doomshield, who was barricading himself with the army of Chthonians, quivered in fear, as his metaphorical shielding wall was being torn apart. Umbra was frozen, paralyzed like a rabbit looking at a fox and realizing that its life was about to end. There were no perception-clouding shadows streaming out of her to hit Gelrahk any longer, nor any shadowy daggers bent on destroying their massive foe. The dark portal pulsed more violently, and a dozen creatures, darker than their predecessors, jumped out of it, setting Dragnoria’s energy to burning even hotter and raging even more violently.
“Greater Chthonic Draconian – Fallen stage.
Greater Chthonic Draconian – Fallen stage.
Greater Chthonic Draconian – Fallen stage.”
The greater ones were at a higher stage, judging by their auras, which ranged from mid gem to early exotic. Dreadclaw started chanting, and the portal’s malefic power surged. Dragnoria’s heart began to race at the thought of a stronger wave of enemies. The portal dissolved, shattering into many pieces that were turned into more of the Fallen stage Draconians, which hung back for some reason, not participating in the battle. Meanwhile, the shards that used to be at the core of the portal flew back to Dreadclaw, making him smile. Dragnoria didn’t have time to inspect the reason behind that reaction, as she struggled to rain in her bestial nature’s anger while watching Gelrahk continue his rampage.
The spark of consciousness watched the memories of itself passing by. They weren’t of Queltsom with his own identity any longer, they were about the spark itself, as in the memories, Queltsom activated the Supreme Battle Sense and became similar to what the spark now was. In one corner of the battle, Gelrahk Emberfrost’s massive form fought off an army of antithetic presences that were revolting to the spark, even if it had no sense of self or any preferences to speak of. He was defeating them quite handily, careless of the disadvantage in numbers. The spark analyzed the concepts flowing through the battle. There were the usual Dao of Burning Ice and ‘Dao’ of the Raging Heart, though the spark ignored those for various reasons, one of them being incompatibility with the spark’s own sense of resonance. However, there was a lesser concept, not that it meant it was weaker, just less complex and less integrated into Gelrahk’s foundation. It was a profound concept that stimulated the spark’s sense for battle. The spark watched as Gelrahk moved, and the enemies died.
With each second, the flaming blizzard frostburned a number of the dark entities, slowly weakening them and inflicting small amounts of damage. With each ice golem’s strikes, some of them fell, while others were disoriented enough for the icy limbs to bring death upon them. The spark’s thoughts churned. Whatever Gelrahk sought, died. His enemies were… Deathbound!
The spark’s powers churned. Contrary to Queltsom’s beliefs, it wasn’t only Mana that let him use those skills, it was all of his paths combined. Mana was one of the cores of his path, allowing his echoes to surge and mix with it, substituting the need for a planar bridge that would be most suitable for the skill, only with a weaker effect. The Mana it was able to gather started to shape itself, as the spark concentrated on the concept resonating in the battlezone. It reached out to touch the concept with its echo senses, and felt the concept’s echo trailing behind its origin like a shadow. But instead of absorbing that echo, the actual origin changed, solidifying into a shape that moved through the metaphysical space, seeking the spark’s mind, its shadow fluttering behind it. It entered, homing in on the skill that was forming. It settled right in the center of where the Mana gathered, a core within the core of the skill. The two other skills – [Warstorm’s Echo] and [Steel Body] – flared into focus, prompting the new skill to transform yet again in order to align with them. It still retained its homing function, which let any attack Queltsom performed, no matter its kind, seek the enemy out and chase them until it inevitably hit or the energy was exhausted. But a main function was created, the ability to teleport directly to an enemy’s location. The distance was limited by how much Mana could be sacrificed, but it also consumed Soul Stamina, due to being powered by a lesser rune, which was what the concept solidified into when the spark’s mind touched it. Memories of chasing things relentlessly until they were caught mixed into the skill, as these skills were built on references from one’s memories and their subconscious interpretations.
The skill finally solidified, and [Seek the Deathbound] was born. It blazed in the spark’s mind, radiating a power that was qualitatively better than the previous skills. Unlike them, it consisted of three different forces. The echo of the concept rotated in a ring around the skill, emanating the impression of chasing the enemy until they were caught. Then there was the skill structure itself, forged with Mana and powered by it. And finally, the lesser rune floated deep within the center of the skill structure, the foundational force that supported the skill and amplified it. Despite being in an objective state of mind, the spark was content with this new skill. With that concluded, the spark dove into Dragnoria’s mind.
Dragnoria witnessed her soldiers of light demolishing the weak dragons one after another. The Korithians were putting a sizable dent in her army, which made her internally grieve at the loss, but the Lightborn weren’t easily defeated. After the remaining lieutenants found out that they wouldn’t be able to defeat Gelrahk, they joined their kin in their fight against her summons, which further reduced their numbers, but at least half of them managed to escape back to their plane before they were killed. A little energy expenditure didn’t compare to the lives of her soldiers, who helped and supported her. Which was how she found an outlet for her rage against the dark monsters facing Gelrahk, channeling it to quake the earth beneath the enemies she *could* reach, Dreadclaw’s lackies.
She couldn’t assemble her energy into complex techniques, but she could manipulate the external energy around her by resonating with it through her Dao. With the pull from both her mind and her energy-flooded aura, she shifted the external energies around her into a vague destructive formation. It wasn’t meant to be used correctly. The wild explosion that occurred upon the overloading of the formation was what she intended, as the massive amounts of energy she had crammed into the formation exploded, blasting apart a considerable number of the dragons. The presence of her Dao also elevated the strength of her Lightborn soldiers, and they started absorbing even more energy from her to fuel the resonance between commander and army. Multiple techniques collided, both with other opposing techniques and unfortunate dragons and even a Lightborn soldier here and there. She cycled more and more spirit energy into light energy by passing it into the bridge to the Light Plane and back, corroding most of it, but making the rest much stronger. It burned her insides, but she let it out in streams that linked to her followers and strengthened them further. Their Awakened Shields grew sturdier, their attacks grew stronger, and they charged, bulldozing their enemies with might and energy attacks. The Lightborn charged, and the enemy dragons retreated. They were chased and put down one by one, until there were no more of the weaklings. The lieutenants had gathered by Dreadclaw’s side. Dragnoria looked toward the other battle, and Gelrahk was still enjoying his time mowing down the dark entities like frail wheat.
“Enough!”, Dreadclaw screamed. “Dragnoria Luminoth! Today is the day you die! You have caused enough trouble for me! Not only did you undermine my practice of my own rights as a royal apex predator, but you have also killed most of my herd members today! This ends now! Prepare for your doom, you glowing wench!”
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“Oh, I’m flattered by your compliment. Unfortunately for you , Deadclaw, you’re the one who’s about to die. You’ve been hunting down innocent people so you could feed them to your herd. You know the rules and boundaries between the humanoid races and sapient beasts, yet you brazenly and freely break them without care. They are written down as pure Meaning, so don’t give me the excuse of being too stupid to understand them. You are stupid to have ignored them, however. Dragons don’t hunt humans; they hunt monsters and other beasts worthy of facing them. Doing otherwise makes you unworthy of being called a dragon!”, Dragnoria replied. The more she spoke, the more Dreadclaw seethed in fury. She left the fact of his use of sorcery unmentioned. It went without saying that it alone would doom him in all societies, be it dragons, humanoids or other beasts.
“How dare you call me unworthy of being a dragon, when you just roam around coddling prey left and right! I will make you pay for that, you spiritless moron!”, he said, and Dragnoria laughed at his terrible naming sense and inability to understand anything. She could already hear the song of victory in her mind. It almost seemed unreal, but she was winning. The bastard had nothing left for him to do but talk. She was finally going to defeat him once and for all!
She ascended and flew, dismissing her army from the physical world with a thought of gratitude and pride. She prepared her spirit energy. It raged around her body, unable to stabilize enough for technique formation. Yet she persisted, pouring her Dao of the Luminous Mind River into the planar bridge and back into the spirit energy. And that was when the sent of ash assaulted her nose.
“Thanks for falling into my trap!”, the black dragon hissed. He then threw something toward her that was too fast to dodge. It impacted her and a disgusting black ash seeped into every inch of her body. That was when the pain started, a pain deeper than anything she had ever felt. Her energy ignited within her, searing her insides, while screams of rage and despair haunted her mind, and she fell to the ground, convulsing from the evil energy that was destroying her in the most painful way possible. A long, wailing screech came out of her throat. The spark’s consciousness blazed, rapidly shifting to an objective view of the universe.
“Hahahaha! Behold, dear Duchess! This is the Million Wails Ash, a sorcerous material that I gained from sacrificing countless souls to the demons you hate so much! Look at the power they gave me, and look what it’s doing to you! If you lower your eyes to the ground and pledge your entire faction to my service, including yourself, then perhaps I will spare you. I may even vouch for you before the great ones and offer you some of the power I now wield! What do you say?”, he said magnanimously. When the dragoness didn’t reply, he threw more ash at her, making her scream louder. Gelrahk tried to help, but all of the enemies remaining were bogging him down. The remnants of the Corrupted stage Chthonic Draconians, the two dozen Greater Chthonic Draconians, and all of Dreadclaw’s lackies except Evnera Dreadshadow. He roared and thrashed, but they ganged up on him, boxing him in. The greater ones seemed to have the ability to exude a dark force that was weakening Gelrahk and destabilizing his domain. He growled in impotent rage and did all he could, but it was no use.
*It* blazed even hotter, fear and fury filling its depths. It was a spark no longer, more of an ember that was gradually turning into a flame, then a blaze, then an inferno.
“Draaaaaaaaaaaaaags! I’m cooooomiiiiiiing! You bastard will payyyyyyyyyy!”, he screamed, the anger enough to return his identity back to him for a short period of time, before a transformation began to take place. A doorway opened in the sky, its frames lined with interconnecting patterns of gold and black. From the doorway, a golden cloud fell, streaking toward the pile of anger and fear with monstrous speed. Just before it collided with him, a cloud of multi-colored light rose from his body to meet its golden counterpart. They clashed, and the resulting light sank into his body. He grew in size and bulk, What remained of the golden cloud poured over him, solidifying into armor. And from the white cloud that had come from him to begin with, came a solid white dragon’s claw that ended in a blackened-gray tip. A System message appeared, glowing in white rather than the usual System-green color.
“Warning! You are in the presence of the Desolate Emperor!
As you are an ally of the Emperor, you receive the boon [Desolate Shield]
[Desolate Shield]: corrodes and destroys all attacks against you, up to and including the Emperor’s rank, and protects you from the hostile effects of the Emperor’s Presence.”
“What? What’s happening?”, Dragnoria thought in confusion and delirium. The pain was abating. Her energy had been burning her from the inside out after reacting with the ash, but it was calm again. She watched the paradoxical creature that was familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time. He waved his hand in her direction, and a smaller golden portal opened above her head, dripping a golden liquid on her. He spoke to her in a strange voice that lilted oddly when uttering vowels.
“Fear not, oh cultiviator of miine. You’re siafe from the machiniations of this cursed one. He shall piay for his iactions in blood!”, he said. She didn’t have enough energy to respond to his odd words. The pain was gone and that let the exhaustion from facing that ordeal rear its head. The most she could do was watch the spectacle that followed from her prone position. And what a spectacle it was!
“Crovithius Drieadclaw, breaker of the Counsil’s riules, follower of the False Piath, hieretic sorcerer, Vampire of Kin, Weakest of the Weak, Disciple of Dievils, Deceived Tyrant, Pawn of Deceivers, Shame upon your Blood, Scourge upon the Driagons! For using the power of our ienemies against Kin, and practicing the Evil Arts, I hereby sentence you and most of your remaining herd to dieath! As for Evnera Drieadshadow, who was forced to work for you due to your thrieatening of her companion bieast, I hereby declare her to be free to retiurn to her clan or do whatiever she may…”, he said, but was cut off by Dolatoth Doomshield.
“Who in the Hell do you think you are to dare speak to master this way! I will destroy you myself!”
“Try it then!”, the Desolate Emperor uttered. Torrential amounts of spirit energy streamed out of Doomshield, along with his Dao, all of them seeping into his aura-made shield. Then he hurled the shield at him, releasing all that energy in a condensed explosion. It hit, and the shockwave caused a dust cloud to cover the Emperor. When the dust settled, he was unharmed.
“Im… Impossible! How can this be! Why didn’t I sense any energy forming a technique! How could you possibly withstand my strongest attack without even moving your energy! Do you even have a Dao?”, Doomshield whimpered in between questions, his voice a window to his shock and abject horror.
“You’ve tried and fiailed. Now die!”, the Emperor said, and waved his hand. With the sound of stone cracking, the aura shield dissipated, and\
the sorcerer’s follower screamed like the same that had been done to Dragnoria was done to him in turn. The Emperor waved his hand again, and Doomshield burst into flames with an agonized roar, as he was taken out of his misery. The Emperor waved his hand multiple times, and the remaining enemies cried in unison, as Umbra and all the Chthonians shared the same fate, death by golden-gray flames. After a while, the world quieted down for a time, before the Emperor instantly appeared in front of Dreadclaw and began punching him. Every strike was like a cannon shot, flinging the sorcerous dragon in random directions with black blood flowing from his pours, his eyes wide with horror and despair. He knew that he was about to die, everything he had done amounting to nothing. The Desolate Emperor waved his hand, but this time, the flames that licked at Dreadclaw were deliberately slow and weak. They gradually spread, and it looked like the dragon was in pain. Suddenly the flames exploded, engulfing the screaming sorcerer in a rotating vortex of golden-gray fire. Through the sound of roaring flames, everyone could hear him screaming for help, saying something about serving the demons for countless years and deserving to be saved for that. The Emperor’s voice boomed.
“You have deceived and been deceived. Now biurn in the Hell like the devils you worship!”, he said. The flames slowly dimmed, then winked out, leaving the ash that used to be Dreadclaw raining on the ground, lifeless.
“You just had to do it, didn’t you? You just had to commune with the Guardians and borrow some of their power within a region that is not strong enough to handle it!”, a deep, baritone voice reverberated across space. “However, now it’s your time to leave your nest and learn how to fly!”, it added, and the source of it materialized. It was a tall humanoid wearing a cloak that shimmered with miniature images of galaxies and glimmering stars, with a face that radiated multicolored light. Dragnoria stood quickly and faced the creature.
“What? He’s not going anywhere! He’s my ward! You don’t barge in out of nowhere and declare that he’s leaving, just like that! I may not have stable spirit energy anymore, but I *will* fight until death if that’s what it takes to save him from you!”, she said with a growl.
“*Lady* Luminoth.”, he said, stressing the word ‘Lady’, as if it had some significance. It had, but Dragnoria didn’t care. She was angry, and if this stranger didn’t go away, she would let out her anger on him. He continued speaking.
“You raised him as a dragon. And regardless of what you have to say about his physical form, you know best that a true dragon is one who faces danger from the moment they grow old enough to hunt small prey. So back down and grant me System access to this domain before I override it as my capacity as Overseer permits me to.”
“I shall *NOT*!”, she roared, Gelrahk coming to stand beside her, adopting an aggressive stance.
“*Lady* Luminoth”, he said again, insisting on emphasizing the first word. “Calm yourself! His form is unstable. Just look at him, he cannot use a soul manifestation when his body and mind are unequipped to bear the strain of its power! You may not know what I speak of. That is because you do not know, but he does know that *THE DAO IS FALSE*!”, he screamed the last phrase, and everything seemed to shake and distort as if it were unreal. The figure that used to be the Desolate Emperor –no, Queltsom himself– seemed like he was being suffocated by something, which produced that distortion effect as he was straining against it. With a roar of anger, he broke the shackles of the truth she knew her entire life, seeming more real than the world she saw, the Dao she cultivated. All those lies were laid bare before her eyes. The foundations of her cultivation shattered, and her already unstable spirit energy lost the flavor given to it by the Dao and escaped her body, going through the bridge to the plane of light and disappearing into the ethereal beyond. Gelrahk reacted far more violently, screaming and falling to his knees as his Dao-pillar body was stripped of the Daos he integrated so deeply into his foundation. He quickly lost consciousness. The only reason as to why Dragnoria wasn’t sharing his fate was her connection to the light plane.
The Emperor’s face contorted, and he started growling and roaring in absolute indignation, seeming to lose control of himself as he ran back and forth as if looking for an enemy that had just escaped his grasp.
“See? This is what it means to know the real truth. This boy whom you refer to as your ward has just had the source of his rage revealed. You will not fully understand until your mate comes along and explains to you just what you were unknowingly about to do. Now you see why he has to start over. Whether you’ll be able to track him or not, he will be in the Omnis of the Emerald Moon. I’ll send him to the first floor of that place. He’ll be able to discover himself and cultivate the True Path, at least. Seems that both of you also have to start over, especially Gelrahk. Be glad you left the Shadow’s little realm, and work hard to recover and even surpass your former strength. I’ll see you off now, Oh you who saw Truth.”, he said. Dragnoria was so confused, she didn’t even have time to contemplate any of what he told her, before he spoke once again, looking at the raging Emperor.
“By the authority of Overseer Kez Val of the Blazing Dawn Sector, I issue a transport request. Destination: Omnis of the Emerald Moon, first floor, arbitrary coordinates filled with corrupted beasts.”
And with that proclamation, both the Emperor and the Overseer were gone, leaving confusion and despair in their wake.
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