The howling panther opened its jaws wide and released a magical roar directly in my face. The air vibrated as razor-sharp waves of energy radiated outward, threatening to cut everything to pieces.
I squinted my eyes and endured the assault with little difficulty. I mean, sure, the attack from the peak of Spirit Realm was no joke, easily capable of killing many humans of the same Cultivation at once, but that was not enough to even slightly inconvenience me.
[Wait… Howler? I think I killed your younger cousin a few years ago. What a coincidence!] I grinned. [Let’s keep the tradition going, shall we?]
Slowly, very slowly, lightning began to gather on my right hand as I lifted it up and pointed at the beast. The Howler redoubled its efforts, concentrating and amplifying its magic. The destructive sonic beam narrowed into a line, striking directly at my chest, but with little difference.
[Quiet.]
A lightning bolt flashed from my fingers with a sonic boom like it was fired from a cannon, went through the sound attack, straight through the beast, and out into the sky where it struck the clouds, creating a thunderstorm.
The eternally swirling Dreadstone dust there slowly consumed the excess energy, shortly returning the Ashen Wastes to silence.
The Howler collapsed on the ground, blood flowing from the channel the lighting carved through its body. It was dead before it even hit the ground, its core shattered in its entirety, and its enlarged body gradually shrunk back down to its smaller, yet still gargantuan, size.
VLR came by and began trampling the corpse while releasing sounds that almost sounded like celebratory laughter. Just… coming from a pig.
[Alright, you freak. Knock it off, we still need the body.]
I took the corpse and gathered the blood, after which I summoned a doppelganger and began expanding my body. The clone then began carving a Formation onto my back, which took some time, and then covered the carvings with beast blood and activated the ritual.
As usual, the process was painful, but not as much as I remembered. The corpse and blood were deconstructed and absorbed into my body and then merged with the rest of my flesh on a fundamental level.
The more mass that was sacrificed, the better the result was, and so the merger was nearly seamless with the entire Howler being consumed.
I tested out the changes, growing the gill-like structures on my neck, and felt how my vocal cords were amplified and how the Qi there spiraled differently, buffing any sound that came near it.
The structure was not fitting for a human form, but as I changed more into a Draconic shape, with red and black scales and glowing red gills, I found it quite fitting.
Also, when testing out the Arcane Blaze, the pillar of flames became much stronger, amplified by ear-piercing sound waves that constricted it into a more concentrated beam. Adding a bit of Arcane Lightning on top of it, and I had a weapon of truly cataclysmic proportions.
Flames, sound, and lightning. A truly devastating combination.
[Alright! Nice, now I can be a bit more efficient with my magic.]
Having a more concentrated energy beam, apart from its considerable penetrative power, was great since it was much better than simply throwing raw energy at my opponents. That strategy, while great for overwhelming enemy defenses, used way too much Qi. Many Souls’ worth in fact. If I didn’t have a way to replenish my reserves, that strategy would never work. Not to mention, I was throwing away my potential Cultivation resources just to kill. The trade was most of the time not worth it.
An efficient beam was much better.
I heard a pained squeal as the VLR came close, sniffing with his snout, and I saw he was bleeding quite a bit.
[Oh, don’t be such a baby, it’s barely a scratch. Come here…] I placed a hand on his side and fixed him up right away.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
[Alright, let’s go. We’ve got more bloodlines to find.]
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Weeks passed, and the arduous research back at camp was progressing well. In fact, the group was just about to test the results of their research. They just needed to get one final detail in order.
“Lady Thalza.” Thener respectfully addressed the Drow. “I know we were told not to bother you, but we could really use your help this time. The test requires more power than we can produce, and after Master Gerald, who is not currently here, you are the strongest among-”
With a hand gesture from the Drow, the man shut his mouth.
“Pitiful humans… You must be really desperate to be asking for my help.” She lazily opened her eyes, looking down on him despite sitting on the low ground.
Thener smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. “Well, you see...”
Thalza stood up. “You are lucky I am curious about this experiment of yours. It better be worth my time.” She said in a lofty tone.
“Definitely!” Thener said animatedly. “We are on the precipice of greatness. If my calculations are correct, this discovery will be-”
A piercing gaze from the Drow shut him up.
“Right, yes… Ahem, this way, please. Follow me.” He led her to their makeshift research station where the rest were gathered.
Bram, Cala, and Eden were already waiting for them, positioned around some contraption that appeared like a containment unit. It had six curved digits like a hand holding something round, the sharp metal, rune-covered points spaced an equal distance from each other.
There were also five stands around the chest-height structure with clear imprints of hands on them.
“What is this?”
“Just place your hands here, and when I give the signal, push.” Thener said and took his spot beside Thalza, placing his hands on the stand. The other three were already set and waiting.
“Just… push?” The Drow lifted her eyebrow.
“With magic.” Thener added. “The Forge will do the rest. Now, ready?”
Thalza rolled her eyes and placed her hands on the craved stone. A barrier appeared inside the Forge as soon as she did so, and the material there began levitating, pulled to the exact middle of the spherical barrier inside the Forge.
“It took us a long time to even make the Forge. It’s time we test it out.” Thener said all giddy. “I’m excited!”
“Wait… This thing has not been tested yet? Is it even safe?”
“Begin!” Thener shouted, ignoring Thalza’s question. With a push of Qi, the Forge lit up, the runes on the metal around it glowing with power. An entire vat full of Spirit Stones appeared in mid-air and spilled around the Forge as the energy inside them was drained into it.
“What are you doing?! This thing is way too weak to hold that much energy! It’s going to blow!”
“That’s why you need to push!” Thener shouted with laughter as the inside of the Forge began glowing dangerously and the barrier bulged outward. “Come on! Let’s go, everyone! Push!”
The gathered humans pushed on the barrier in unison, preventing the containment barrier from bulging out more on their side, but that just made it even worse for the Drow. The barrier on her side expanded dangerously, and if she let up, the entire forge would blow in her face. And that was a few thousand Spirit Stones worth at least.
“Damn it!” She cursed and really put her power into it, pushing the barrier back into a more stable form. Thener beside her laughed as he expertly controlled his energy output all while manipulating the things happening inside the Forge.
Carefully selected metals and exotic materials were swirling inside there, glowing in a furnace of arcane energies. The exact proportions were still a secret to all but the crazy man himself, and he planned to keep it that way until they succeeded.
“It’s not enough! More power!” He demanded.
Spirit Stones once again appeared from empty air, falling all around the Forge as the spell matrix burned with crazy amounts of Qi.
“More!”
“I… I don’t think we should be pushing it like this.” Calla said, squinting her eyes against the heat radiating from the containment field. It was supposed to protect them from the effects inside the Forge, but apparently, it was not enough. “It’s already looking unstable!”
“Nonsense! It will stabilize itself! Just push harder!”
The group pushed.
“Almost there!”
“Doc, I can’t hold it much longer!” Eden said with a strained voice. The skin on his face was burning up and his clothes were beginning to smolder.
“Don’t give up now! Hold!”
“It’s bubbling!” Bram warned. He gritted his teeth and pushed as hard as he could, yet the containment field was gradually pushing him back. Every second the radiation from the inside became stronger, and he felt his power waning.
They crossed the threshold from the realm of possibly life-threatening, to the realm of mortal danger. If anything went wrong, he doubted he could react fast enough to save himself. He couldn’t even shield himself as even a tiny distraction would spell doom for them.
“You are all insane!” Thalza shouted. She was not terrified of death, after all, everyone had to die someday, but dying due to human stupidity… That was too much! Not to mention, she was struggling. Thener and her were going against three powerful Cultivators, and though it was three against two, she couldn’t afford to show weakness.
She was better than them! Better than all of them. She believed that in the depths of her Soul. And so she pushed, and pushed…
“Shit! Stop! It’s going to blow!”
“No! Don’t panic! This is the crucial step!”
“I can’t hold it anymore!”
“Fuck you, old man! I hate youuu!”
“Aaaaaaaaaah!”
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I was in the middle of a well-deserved rest when the landscape was suddenly illuminated by a flash, and I turned just in time to see a pillar of light touch the sky in the distance. The pillar just went up, and up, and up, until it disappeared behind the swirling gray clouds.
The anomaly came from a familiar direction, which made me frown.
[Damn it, guys… What have you done?]