“Shut up and let me finish! Anyways, if you have already mastered mind manipulation, it should be easy to merge with my cells. If you’re smart, you’ll have your clones do it simultaneously and take their memories for your own.”
My eyes shot wide open, “You’re a fucking genius, lady! Aerellis, did I ever tell you I love you?”
She rolled her eyes. I bet Hydra’s ass she learnt that from Bianca.
I had to wait an hour or so for her to finish her duties, then I could finally start merging her cells with mine. Once she was ready, I activated 35 Purists, which was the maximum I could reach at my current base mana power of 1,200%. It brought my mana power to 4,700%.
I’d learnt something the last time I over-stacked on Timedial; if my mana power was high enough, I could stack Timedial without the dumb backlash. So, putting the max number of Purists I could allowed me to get away with the max number of times I could stack Timedial, which was thirty-one times. It didn’t totally stop time, but you could basically assume it did for how slow it was moving. According to my spell book, the percentage of slowdown was about 99.9. There must’ve been a reason why the spell didn’t totally stop time. Discovering this was great for me to actually progress my magic further, but it wasn’t suited for combat.
Okay, yes, that was a boring explanation you didn’t need to know about, so I’ll move on to the nature training. Aerellis got comfortable and laid down, and all twenty of my available clones put a hand on her to do their part in merging her cells with mine. I had to summon them over for the Timedial to affect them though. After five days in the slowed reality, I stopped removed Timedial, then removed Purist. As expected, no backlash took place. It felt like cheating somehow. The clones transferred their parts of understanding to me one by one. It was a lot to digest, but man did it open my eyes! It was becoming clear with each magic type, that total mastery of it made someone near indestructible.
By far the most destructive by means of raw power was draconic. One with good mana power and Division achieved could literally flood a small country with water, redesign the landscape with earth, cause the biggest fire, and conjure up hurricanes easily.
Perhaps the scariest type was mind magic, for one could control an entire nation, just like druid Liana controlled the Virai. And if one wanted to rule without the responsibility of ruling, one could simply cast Subservience on a nation’s leaders.
Void and space were much the same, except operating in two different planes, the corporeal plane for space magic, and the ethereal plane for void magic. Void gave immense elusiveness, control over matter, and control over gravity. Flynn would’ve loved it.
Nature on the other hand, gave variety. It wouldn’t be farfetched to claim that, once one mastered nature magic, one could then master all other types of magic by simply merging with the cells of beings that have the desired mana pathways. That meant, if I learnt it from the get-go, I might’ve spent a month or so merging with, let’s say Audax, and master fire manipulation at the end of that month. I could’ve done this with the spirit lords and achieved the same thing. I could’ve gained manipulation mastery of draconic, mind, void, space, and arcane in half a year! Hydra’s glorious ass, what the hell was I even doing all this time?!
But of course, that thinking was flawed. It was like possessing someone’s body. Even though you were physically capable of the feats they achieved, you wouldn’t be able to do so realistically because of experience, compatibility, and other brain stuff that I’m not scientific enough to explain.
For the most part, I fully merged with Aerellis, who has mastered nature manipulation herself, so that meant my own nature manipulation saw a huge increase. To master it, I’d have to find other beings to merge with. Ah, speaking of other beings…
I profusely thanked Aerellis, which she capitalised on by giving me a bunch of seeds to plant. I teleported over to Hyzek and found Madam Jelly and Mister Jelly together. “Sup guys, I never got to talk to you after the whole T’Ghuuz thing.” Speaking of T’Ghuuz, I should do it with Drak’ka after. I’m starting to feel like a total nature magic slut. “But uh, do you mind if I merge your cells with mine?”
“Ah, nature magic?” Leo surmised. “Go ahead, they’d love to,” he said, speaking for them.
“Nice!” So, I repeated the process and my nature manipulation mastery increased yet again, but not as much as it did with a being of an unknown mana pathway like nature. Since I already mastered mind manipulation and Madam Jelly’s mana pathways were acutely suited to mind magic, my nature manipulation wasn’t increased much, but it was increased enough to show me yet another benefit of nature magic – physical transformation.
I was able to summon tentacles, and they came with a bonus. Just like Madam Jelly could transfer thoughts through her tentacles, so could I, through mine. “Ahahahah oh fuck yeah! This shit is fuckin’ cool!” I said all starry-eyed, gazing lovingly at my extra extremities. My excitement was at an all-time high!
Hmm, who next? Drak’ka? Elves? Half-breeds? Oh shit, half-breeds! I finally remembered why I went to Aerellis in the first place. I needed a way to search for life essences with Life Perception by narrowing the search with particular criteria, criteria that would only show me half-breeds. But as I learnt from merging with Aerellis, to gain that ability, I’d have to know what half-breed cells even are. So, I used Riftwalk to go back home.
“Sally!” I called out excitedly, skipping towards her. Biter, Tacari’s mana wolf, was at Sally’s mercy, receiving belly scratches.
“Oh, hey!” She turned around, “Someone named Dawn told me for you to report at the ‘Order’, whatever that is, right now.”
“Hmm?” What could they want? I pondered what was so important that the real me had to attend to it. My clones all had the same decision-making skills and judgment as me, so I didn’t get the urgency. “Alright, well, make yourself at home, I guess.” I was about to Voidport to the Order, but then remembered Saeryn. Hmm, might as well take her with me to meet him. I could teach her how to remove the seal as well. “Hey, come with me.”
“I’m not leaving without Tacari!”
“Are you his mom?!” I palmed my face. Oh well, it’ll be a nice trip for him.
So, Tacari, Sally, and I went to the Order of Mages. “Welcome to the Or–”
I was quickly drowned out by noise. There was a huge crowd surrounding Pyro, Dawn, and a few other rank-five officers. Those officers surrounded Drak’ka, and someone I never thought I’d see again, Zernac the Calamitous. He towered over Drak’ka so it was a bit hard to see her at first. I handed Tacari to Sally and made my way over to the commotion.
“So, what’s this about?” I asked, floating on over to them. Of course, they didn’t hear a word I said. Judging from the overall body language of the crowd and the name-calling, I realised they were distrustful of our demonic allies. I entered a void plane and made my way right beside Drak’ka, appearing silently. In a few seconds, people started noticing me, and in about half a minute, the place was silent.
“So, uh, you guys seem to be having fun!” I joked, but the mood didn’t lighten at all. Maybe they could see just how pissed I was at this foolish act. “Would anyone like to explain what is going on here?” Again, dead silence. I felt like I just caught Aviana doing something she wasn’t supposed to, and she knew damn well that she was in trouble.
“Apollyon’s a demon, and so is she! Why should we trust her?!” one woman shouted out. Others began mimicking her and once again, they hurled themselves into an uproar.
I raised my hand to quiet them down again. “Tell me then, why should you trust the person right beside you? How are you sure that person won’t stab you in the back? In this world and many others, you can never be sure to trust even those closest to you. This is something you know, as I’m sure you’ve all experienced deceitful people. So why are you behaving like children and jumping to conclusions?”
“You’re not our leader! Why should we listen to you?!”
Hydra’s ass, I don’t wanna deal with this right now! “Okay, since we’re being stubborn, let’s just go straight to the endgame. The king and queen of Methelia, and leader of the Order of Mages, as well as the councilmen, would have attended a summit I’m sure you all know of by now. That summit’s purpose was to form a coalition and pool together the strength and resources of multiple worlds.
In order for this to happen, there had to be rules, and one of those rules is the prohibition of violence against members of the coalition. I am the leader of the coalition, and thus, I have the right to punish those who choose to assault other members. If you wish to turn your blade at these individuals, you are turning your blade against Methelia, the Order of Mages, the other worlds’ armies, and myself.”
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A lot of them grumbled, and some even made more arguments, but I didn’t say a word. Eventually, Volt zoomed down and cooled everyone’s heads. They eventually dispersed. This was the second time I saw hostility like that toward someone in the Order, and the first victim was Saeryn.
I brought Sally to a room and had her take a seat in the middle of the room. A clone that I sent out fetched Saeryn for me; fortunately, he wasn’t too busy.
“What’s he doin’?” Pyro questioned. Yeah, they all followed me into the room.
Sally shrugged, “I’m at the point where I don’t question it too much.”
Dawn placed a hand on Sally’s shoulder, “I understand you. I understand you so much!”
Saeryn, per my clone’s request, also took a seat on a comfortable cushion on the ground. Figured I’d have simultaneous merges. “Alright, I’d like you guys to stay quiet for about five or six minutes.” With that, I sat down in front of her and held her hand, then stacked Purist right up, then maximised on Timedial then summoned nineteen clones. Nine helped me merge with Sally, and the other ten worked on Saeryn. After the five time-warped days of merging, which really amounted to fifty days when my other nine clones sent me their memories, I was complete. To everyone else though, it just looked like a bunch of my clones touched the two half-breeds for five minutes.
It wasn’t quite what I expected, but the seals really did make them infertile. The males seem to suffer from impotence. I’ll merge with Saeryn again after I remove all the seals. So then, Sally is fertile now that she’s free of the seals. Interesting…
“Okay, all done,” I told them, giving them the go to stand up. After merging, I was able to produce scales on my skin; they gave me extra durability. “So, Saeryn, bruh, there’s some stuff you should know.”
He raised a brow, “Like?”
I brought out the tendrils which I got from Madam and Mister Jelly, and wrapped a few of them around his wrist to transfer the knowledge of Et Draco that I had. “That’s all the stuff I know, from my perspective.”
He appeared unfettered, then suddenly puked. Yeah, the slaves I saw in chains wasn’t a very pretty sight. I used Renew to calm him down. It seemed those memories I transferred sparked trauma from his past.
“Why the fuck do you have tentacles coming out of you?!” Dawn broke the seriousness in the room. “Actually, don’t tell me. I don’t think I wanna know.”
I smirked, “You could just read my thoughts y’know. Alright, I’ve got everything I need to bring all the half-breeds here. I’ll see yo–”
“Wait!” Saeryn stopped me. “Remove my seals, all of them!”
“All at once?” I put my hand on my hip.
He nodded, determined to see it through. I shrugged and did what he asked of me. He fell over immediately. A mana and health potion stabilised him, but his body still had to get used to the huge amounts of mana flowing through it freely now. “Wait!” he stopped me once more. “What will you do with them?”
I rubbed my chin, “I haven’t finalised anything yet. But the Virai lands to the west could be used once I make it habitable. Once your body is where should be, check Dawn for training, okay?”
He nodded in agreement, still soaking in all the information I just fed him. Finally, it was time to return to Et Draco, but instead of going back to immediately start collecting the half-breeds, I teleported to Audax’s Light Link location. The dragon wasn’t even startled by my sudden appearance.
“Hey, man. Where are the dragons?”
“They’re, home?” Audax answered.
I chuckled, “I guess I didn’t phrase that right. I meant, where on Et Draco are the dragons? I wanna meet with them.”
A boisterous laugher erupted from him, “That would be the epitome of bad ideas, mage. But, if you wish to be greeted by hostility, you may visit them. We reside on the other side of this planet.”
Greeted by hostility, huh? Ugh, I plan to be an ally with them so I’d rather avoid mind manipulation. I should at least go with a gift. “Hey, wanna come get Aurora with me?”
His eyelids finally opened. All he used was his sense of smell and hearing to identify me before. “Hmm, I, am tempted. However, as a respected member of our society, I cannot simply return with my friend alone.”
“I see, then, I’ll just have to wait to see the dragons then. For now, I’m going to clear the half-breeds out of this world, just in case the humans don’t agree on releasing the dragons.”
His eyelids shut once again, “Do as you wish, mage. Our fight is not with these half-breeds.”
I put a hand on his rough and scaly neb; he twitched a little, reopening his eyes. “Humans are not a delicacy, but I will not mind a snack right now.”
“Well, it won’t be nice becoming dragon poop so I’ma stop.” I stretched my arms out, “Alright, time to get down to business. See ya soon, man.”
I Voidported to the House of Kew, and quite rudely pushed all the half-breeds and humans into a void plane, then pulled them toward me, in the foyer. Once they were all here, I placed them back in the corporeal plane. “Greetings, I am not hostile, but I am pressed for time. Matriarch Kew, if there are anyone from your household missing, half-breed and human alike, please immediately pass on what I’m about to say to them.”
As I was speaking, I could somewhat sense the irritation from them. But they grew calmer every passing second after I addressed the matriarch and she simply obliged. “Alright, firstly, I’m taking all the half-breeds in this house to my world. In fact, I’m taking all the half-breeds of Et Draco to my world. It could be a permanent thing depending on their opinions and depending on how the Houses choose to react to the dragon threat.”
I could already hear mumbling, but I continued speaking, so as to not give them too much time to talk over me. “Speaking of dragon threat, please know, that it is a very real threat. Dragons have more than enough magical power to quite literally destroy your land and lives. You would do well to meet their demands. And judging from everyone’s reaction, you didn’t tell anyone about it,” I said to Kew, then sighed.
So they didn’t plan to release the dragons at all. “I warn you now, Kew, because you show kindness to the half-breeds unlike the other Houses or other humans. Others will receive no such warning, as they’ve already gotten one from the dragon. Humans here must be cold-hearted to play with the lives of their children like that over greed,” I shook my head.
“No one’s going anywhere with you!” a half-breed spoke out, and the others all readily agreed. Kew had yet to utter a word.
I rolled my eyes. Yes, yes, but I don’t have time for this. Only got a day and a half left.
“Yes, you are,” the matriarch finally spoke. “What he speaks is the truth, we really were threatened. I won’t try to call a bluff on an actual free and unsealed dragon, I won’t risk your lives over stubbornness and stupidity. Go with him, all of you. If the dragons do not destroy us, then great, you may all return.”
They were all in shock, but I had no time for that. Seeing that Matriarch Kew was the only person I needed to talk to, I proceeded to stack Timedial as much as I could without Purist and without incurring that dreaded backlash, then summoned nineteen clones. With a fine teeth comb, we swept along the entirety of the human continent in Et Draco, kidnapping all half-breeds to safety.
With Life Perception narrowing down all half-breed life essences, then void manipulation pushing them into the ethereal plane, we were able to forcefully pull up all half-breeds in towns, cities, villages and even forests to our location, then use Riftshear to send them to the Virai lands in Methelia.
Considering the size of the continent here, it took me around eighteen hours to gather the near two-hundred thousand half-breeds and send them to Methelia. There were even some that still had slave shackles on, some that needed immediate medical attention, some that were being violated even. Because of this, we took a lot longer, because for those in such compromising states, my clones would have to stop and either heal or cast Invisibility on certain half-breeds. After that, we would have to use the thirty-second spell, Riftshear to teleport them.
After taking three-quarters of a day to deal with it, we continued combing through, looking for half-breeds until the final hour came. Good, that’s everyone. Audax hasn’t moved yet, I still have a little time. I Voidported to Audax once again and caught the dragon stretching. “Wait, wait! Can I use nature magic to copy and merge your cells?”
His head tilted, “I don’t advise that you do. Don’t you know that Emily used Shadow Resurrection on me?”
My eyes almost popped out their sockets. “How the fuck are you still alive then? She’s dead!”
“Hmm,” his wings spread upward, “I do not know, but there is only one logical answer – she spoke to the goddess of life and we were allowed to live on.”
“I see. So then–”
“Enough! Why have you come here?! It is about to start!” The minute he said that, I began to hear the beat of wings; fleets of dragons were encroaching.
“Wait, so, do you have shadow magic from the Shadow Resurrection still?”
“Yes! This is why I said not to merge with me, as you have the direct opposite – light magic.”
“And?”
“There are implications without the proper artefacts, mage.”
“You mean this?” I summoned Emily’s golden staff.
His eyes opened in surprise and he moved back a little, “You have the Staff of Eliora!”
“Of who? No, this is Emily’s staff,” I corrected.
“You fool, that staff was made by the god of space of the previous realm! My realm! The original owner is–” The first dragon of the fleet flew past us, poaching Audax’s attention. “We will speak another time!”
Shit! I got caught up in the conversation! There are still half-breeds being incubated! Damn, I don’t have a choice! I flew upwards, and grabbed hold of a dragon, finding a somewhat comfortable place to stack Purist on, going to the maximum. I then stacked Timedial and began merging cells. Eventually, the dragon began swerving to get me off its back, but I had to hold on. There was still about a half day of flying to get to the first human settlement, which was more than enough time to merge cells.
Once I was finished, I was able to set Life Perception to see only dragons’ life essences. I cast Voidport to get a head start, and began checking around for pregnant dragons that would have a hard time moving. Unfortunately, to do this, I had to settle for only seven stacks of Timedial if I wanted to take off Purist in order to move my body. It meant less time, so I really had to fly fast like I was crazy. Thankfully, I had enough time to move all seventeen pregnant dragons throughout the continent with the help of my clones. I had them go to Methelia as well.
I came back to Et Draco to witness for myself, the downfall of a people. The only humans that made it out were Matriarch Kew, Ruler Vanalq, and the people in their Houses. I couldn’t save everyone, and neither did I care to.
I floated even higher than the dragons who scorched the lands, caused tremors, floods, and hurricane-level winds that severed anything it came into contact with. They placed their attacks in such a way that actual dragons could escape by flying up, but the humans were massacred. It was a huge genocide that reminded me of the Virai. The continent was being razed, and the screams of terror met me despite how high up I flew. Perhaps my biggest regret about this was the children that met an early end because of their elders’ avarice.
The frontline dragons that would eventually become tired would fly to the back, and another set of them would wreak havoc. The humans stood not a sliver of a chance against them. There was no time to react, no time to defend, and hardly any time to regret.
Et Draco’s humans were killed, and I just watched it all without raising a hand.