Kal’s rage brought him into his core space. It was a mess. The void was gone, subsumed by a sea of endless blue mana that reached toward his core. His core itself was breached, altered by his own hand while using Slayer’s Apathy. Crimson fire leaked from his core and into the crimson sphere that orbited his core, Wrath Incarnate.
Wrath Incarnate stood out among the rest, a ball of potent wrath beside spheres of gentle pearlescent will. The intricacies of his newly empowered skill were important but ultimately it was not why he was here. The healer had done her role well. She had healed him only so far that he wouldn’t die.
But soon they would know healing him at all was their mistake. With his mind his own he could repair the rest all he needed was time.
Kal began the weaving of containment spheres for his regeneration. Annoyingly it was these that had shattered while he had empowered The Order’s Army but they could be remade easily enough. First, one to amplify his blood and increase its ability to carry vital energy, and second, one to increase the speed of his heart so it didn’t fail. Despite his anger and need to break free, now was not the time to take a risk that could kill him before he even got started.
There was one more issue though. The last time he had attempted this he had relied on Flesh of Iron to strengthen his veins, arteries, and flesh to contain the raging flow of blood and vital energy but with his mana or wrath in his case sealed he wouldn’t be able to activate. Or at least he didn’t think he would be able to considering Eye’s of the Slayer didn’t work and it had no resource cost.
Health:
2/4870
Stamina:
418/7440
Wrath:
0
With the damage he took last time, if he tried to activate a skill it might kill him. So he would have to try something else. At first, he thought he had grown strong enough to make the attempt without the protection but with his lack of armor, his endurance was actually lower than it had been in The Place Between so that was out of the question.
Kal also just realized that he had been using Soul Forge for several minutes now with no repercussions from the bindings that kept his skills sealed. Was it possible that Soul Forge was too unique for it to count? Or was it because it was on a whole other level of complexity? In any case, he could try and find a way out of the bindings when he was healed and could take the risk.
An idea suddenly came to him as he was beginning to weave a third sphere in the hopes of replicating Flesh of Iron. Did he really have to replicate it? He already had a fully formed skill ready to use if it weren’t for the bindings. If he could remove the linking construct could he simply power the sphere itself manually and get similar effects? Would it bypass his bindings?
Before he recklessly partially broke his own skill, Kal weaved a tiny thread of physical energy from his heart acceleration sphere into his heart. He used the absolute minimum amount of energy required so the effects wouldn’t harm him. The moment it made contact his heartbeat accelerated significantly giving to the point Kal could hear it pounding at the back of his skull and confirming his suspicions. The bindings didn’t detect Soul Forge’s temporary constructs at all, even when they affected his body.
Kal moved his vision to peer inside of Flesh of Iron but didn’t bother inspecting anything other than the linking construct. He had forged the skill himself so he was confident he could disassemble it himself with little risk but he was also fairly certain that the mental load of keeping the skill active manually would be pretty draining. Keeping that in mind Kal went about removing the linking construct from Flesh of Iron and then checked his class description.
Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous]
Something deep within you cries out for blood but through force of will you remain in control. You are a Slayer of Fate, though your power may stem from darker sources you do not lust for the kill but see it as a necessity despite your inner ferocity to break the chains that bind. Wade through your enemies as a bulwark of death, your will unyielding, your might indomitable. The Slayer of Fate is not bound by the archetypes of the lesser classes. Forge your own path through the blood of your enemies and stand apart from all as a paragon of man, your potential as vast as your will. Level benefits: +5 Strength, Endurance, Will, +2 Vitality, +6 Free points.
Anomalous: Your path is of your own making. From this point forward you will no longer be offered a skill selection every 10 levels, instead, you will be offered guidance in the creation of one of three skills that you have witnessed used, have sufficient knowledge of, or are judged to be predisposed to based on previously forged skills. Whether the inquired skill is forged is up to you. Additionally, your self-forged core allows such skills to be forged to a rarity up to the rarity of your Soul Forge skill. The amount of skills possible to incorporate into one’s core is dependent on the quality of your core and the efficiency of the skill created.
Future Class Evolutions: All future evolutions will be directly associated with the quality of the newly forged core and the skill incorporated at that time.
Unbound Will [Spiritbound]
Reaching beyond one’s shell requires will far beyond the capabilities of a tier 1 entity but a Slayer of Fate is bound by no such rules. Forge beyond yourself, Soul Smith. Rend the threads of all, Slayer of Fate.
Skill Capacity: 9/10 => 8/10
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
Skill Guidance Available: 0
Now all he had to do was feed it physical energy manually. Another complexity of soul forging Kal had overlooked about linking constructs was their ability to draw the correct amount of whichever resource was required for the skill. Kal had basically copied the linking construct from Wrathful Regeneration and Wrath Incaranate from the very first skill he had forged. It was very likely a mistake to have such a generalized construct within all of his skills, how could he be sure that they were receiving the optimized amount of wrath or physical energy?
Kal shrugged off the idea for now and began weaving a channel by feel more than anything. He had already taken too long despite his earlier thoughts about caution. Kal inserted the thread and felt his entire body contort as if every fiber of his being had turned to steel. His mind darkened as he felt the weight of maintaining the skill manually clamp down against it. It wasn’t painful in any way but it was definitely different from Flesh of Iron’s usual effect but a quick glance at his status explained everything.
Health:
2/4870
Stamina:
318/7440
Wrath:
0
Health:
2/4870
Stamina:
208/7440
Wrath:
0
Health:
2/4870
Stamina:
118/7440
Wrath:
0
Kal withdrew the channel and his body returned to normal and the pressure on his mind easied. What had happened was yet another example of his lack of understanding about linking constructs. Normally Flesh of Iron cost almost nothing until his body was directly harmed then the stamina would be used to protect on contact but judging by what he had just felt, activating the skill manually bypassed that check and just burned physical energy reinforcing his body immediately.
A savage grin fell across Kal’s face as his last barrier to healing was solved. The bypass didn’t matter at all for what he was about to do. Now he just needed to wait for his stamina to recover and since he had been partially healed of his scars it should do so much faster now.
Kal growled at the painfully slow process in any case and his gaze remained focused on the silver and bronze cell door in front of him regardless of the utter darkness around him. Who did they have? It could be either of them but he doubted his father would have allowed Lillian to be taken alone, “Unless he was dead…”
His peripheral vision writhed once more but Kal just growled again and pictured that sickly looking deadman.
Soon.
----------------------------------------
Hemdal moved up the long spiral staircase and away from the lower dungeons, his eyes focused on the two vials in his hand. Soon he will have all he needs. Soon the vessel would be complete and the true cleansing could begin.
Behind him, his guard gasped and grabbed hold of the wall, his face as white as Gangrial’s ghosts, “Dhirnir save us. What is that thing?!”
Hemdal felt the same aura pulse malevolently throughout the entire tower but he ignored it, “A demon far worse than anything conjured even by Uton’s greatest demonologists. He is bound and weak, fear skills are common among demons,“ Hemdal knew all too well the lies that had just come from his mouth but it wasn’t for the rabble to know the truth.
The guard nodded and straightened himself, “Yes, of course. I am sorry, Lord Prophet.”
Hemdal didn’t reply and turned to continue up the stairs but then something echoed up the multiple stories between them and the lower dungeons that sent chills down his spine. Roars and screams of blood-curdling agony tore through the entire tower and along with it the malevolent and domineering aura was amplified tenfold.
But that wasn’t all. After the first scream, the hundreds of other throats joined it and didn’t stop. The screams of hundreds of prisoners roared through the staircase to an almost deafening degree and even made Hemdal stagger.
The guard looked as if he wanted to push past him and flee but Hemdal's disapproving stare dissuaded him, “Ignore it. It is simply demonic trickery.”
A feminine voice from further up the stairwell spoke up, just above the volume of the screaming, “If it is simple trickery how is he doing it through the Cuffs of Binding?”
It was Lelashian, her expression was as pathetic as the guard’s, “Guard! Get rid of this wretch. She has no purpose here now!” Hemdal snapped, letting the man through.
Lelashian didn’t resist and let herself be escorted out of the tower but Hemdal took a moment to glance back down the stairwell as he prodded at the vials of blood with his mind. The dark blood of the demon surged with strange power nothing like anything he had seen before, even from the demons he himself had conjured and tortured.
The girl’s on the other hand was pathetically average. It had all the properties he would expect of a mage but nothing at all unique or special. It was honestly disappointing, perhaps he should just get rid of her. Her usefulness had run out the moment he tasted the blood of the demon.
----------------------------------------
Jayne shivered in the corner of her cell as her heart pounded in her chest and her body contorted into a fearful groan against her will, “What is happening!”
The people all around her were less than sane but now they all screamed in terror as one. It was as if they all shared the same horrible nightmare and had all awoken at the same time. Jayne could hear the sound of tearing throats and blood sputtering from terrified and maddened mouths but even when their voices stopped working their screams continued as silent, breathless heaves.
Tears streamed down her face but Jayne wouldn’t let herself scream. She could feel it too. Something below them roared and screamed but not in fear or despair but in rage. Something was happening, and if she was still here when it did Jayne knew she was going to die it was a primal emotion but overwhelmed her every thought. The only thing that kept her from screaming too was the runes on the ground.
“Freedom, 4”