Maxine was still in alittle pain from her mostly healed burns when she woke up. Fortunately, it was greatly diminshed from yesterday. She could walk on her own without assistance now. However this was mostly due to Maxine visiting Emily on her way home yesterday. Maxine remembered the look of horror on Emily's face when she saw Maxine covered in burns. Maxine never wanted to see that look on Emily's face again. Fortunately, Maxine didn't need to visit Emily again in order to heal the rest of the way.
Maxine quickly got dressed and finally entered the shadow world to interrogate the Four-Tailed Fox. She walked to the spot in the back of the cave where six of her iron stage Shadow Wolves were surrounding it with her shadow clone. The Four-Tailed Fox was still in rough shape, but quite alive as it looked at her in fear.
"You are going to answer my questions," Maxine said to the Four-Tailed Fox using her spiritual sense, "Afterwards, I will let you go, so long as you promise not to attack humans again."
"Why should I believe any of your words you foul human? For all I know you wish to torment me with the hope of surival," the Four-Tailed Fox said in return.
"I already gave you my word. What more do you want?" Maxine said.
"Your word is worthless as are the words of all humans. Human lie and cheat each other. Why would I be fool enough to trust one?" the Four-Tailed Fox said with venom.
"That's true, but you should remember that I could have started this with torture. Instead I started off by asking you to cooperate," Maxine said to the Four-Tailed Fox, "Doesn't that count for something?"
"It does, but it will never be enough for me to trust you. Not after what your kind has done to mine," the Four-Tailed Fox said, "Your kind kill us for fun and don't even eat our flesh to satisfy your hunger. You wear our furs like we are the latest fashion and don't care one wit that you have caused us to suffer. Most humans are vile and cruel creatures that do not deserve to live."
"I would agree with you about certain individuals of my race that don't deserve to live, but we are not all like that," Maxine said, "However that doesn't give you the right to form a large group of essence beasts to slaughter humans to apease your infintile need for vengeance. Did you ever consider that your actions would only make things worse? If you keep this shit up, the rest of humanity will view all essence beasts as vicious creatures that need to be eliminated."
"I am not afraid of those weaklings. Their only merit is in their numbers," the Four-Tailed Fox said, "Only a few individuals like yourself give me a reason to think twice. However I don't understand why you havn't taken your role as their leader."
"My society isn't a strength based one," Maxine told the Four-Tailed Fox.
"Why not make it that way?" the Four-Tailed Fox asked with what she thought was a smile on his face, "It seems you humans have forgotten that force trumps all other authorities. You think the world will bow to you if you have enough followers or wealth, but that is sadly not true. Those that are powerful should be in charge. Afterall, why should a mighty tigress, like yourself, be subservient to those insects?" Maxine couldn't deny what the Four-Tailed Fox was saying had some truth. For an instant, she fantisized about taking over the country, but dismissed it almost immediately after as childish. It would cause a conflict that would weaken humanity as a whole. He is trying to divert my attention from what I really want to ask and at the same time, trying to get me to become a problem for the rest of humanity.
"Enough!" Maxine roared at the Four-Tailed Fox with her spritual sense and it flinched, "Do not try that again."
"You can't blame me for trying," the Four-Tailed Fox.
"No, I can't. You are just looking out for the rest of your kind," Maxine responded, "Now will you answer my questions or not?"
"Very well, ask your questions then, but I let you know right now that if any of your questions could threaten the other essence beasts I won't answer. No matter what you do to me," the Four-Tailed Fox said.
"Good," Maxine said, "How did you make a clone of yourself mid-battle using your tail? I have never seen an ability like that before."
"Oh? That's what you wanted to know?" the Four-Tailed Fox said in surprise and started to chuckle before answering, "It's actually quite simple. I just used my tail as a medium to create a temporary clone and used a special illusion to make myself look like my severed tail. The drawback is that it uses a tremendous ammount of essence to make a clone that quickly. Hence it is the reason why I was so weak when your 'creations' captured me. Although I have to admit those wolf-things you have made are quite lovely creatures. I wish my own mate was half as beautiful as even one of them."
"You think they are beautiful?" Maxine said while feeling astonished.
"Very and all female too," the Four-Tailed Fox said in amusement, "It made my captivity here quite pleasant. I thank you for that." Maxine smiled knowingly.
"Your welcome," Maxine said half-heartedly before she moved on to her next question, "You already told me why essence beasts attack, so I want to know if you think the rest of your brethren would be willing to talk things out peacefully."
"I can try to convince my fox tribe to agree to talk, but I can't guarantee that they will. The most I can do is have them consider it," the Four-Tailed Fox said, "However the ones that really matter are the bears. They rule the essence beasts of this continent and they rule purely by strength alone."
"What would make the bears listen?" Maxine asked.
"Absolute strength," the Four-Tailed Fox said, "Or something akin to those dragons in your myths. I don't imagine the Golden Bear King would listen otherwise."
"Is that something like a Terror Bear?" Maxine asked.
"No, Terror Bears are the bear tribe's foot soldiers, or as you would call it canon fodder," the Four-Tailed Fox said, "The Golden Bear King is half the size of a Terror Bear and has double the durability and strength of a Terror Bear at the same level." That sounds terrifying, but it should still be somewhat weaker than my dragon. I hope.
"I think I can make him listen to me," Maxine answered with a smile.
"Oh? You are dragon? You don't look like one," the Four-Tailed Fox said with an amused tone.
"Not exactly," Maxine said, "It's easier to show you rather than tell you so follow me and watch." She walked outside of the cave while the Four-Tailed Fox trailed behind her. However she stopped it before it could exit as she summoned the bracer portion of the Shadow's Embrace armor. She kicked off her shoes and socks and pulled off her shirt. After putting them in her dimensional pouch, she summoned her dragon from the bracers. As soon as her dragon appeared, she heard a strangled yelp of fear from the Four-Tailed Fox.
Maxine formed her essence armor with a smile on her face and ordered her dragon to fuse with it. She figured she might as well gauge the power of her dragon essence armor while giving the Four-Tailed Fox a good reason to accomodate her.
Unbelieveable strength flooded Maxine's body the moment her dragon's essence core combined with her esssence armor. Immediately a long serpentine tail sprouted out of her back just above her butt. It was only slightly thicker than her arms, but it was easily six feet long with a blade at the end of it. Next a pair of bat-like wings formed on either side of her spine on her upper back that just barely avoided destroying her bra. However the wings had a razor sharp edge on them. Silver-colored heavy scales quickly formed on the rest of her body as vicious looking claws formed on her hands and feet. A strange see-through membrane started to form around her head like a helmet. It looked like a dragon's head with vicious forward facing horns. Finally extremely sharp spines of varying length formed down the center of her back and along her newly formed tail. This transformation took less than a second. However a strange energy in her chest had formed during this process and it was demanding to be released. Maxine quickly tiled her head back to roar. The mouth on her helmet opened at the same as she opened her own mouth as she released a roar to release that pent up energy. The roar sounded like a combination of her own roar and that of a dragon's. A moment after she started roaring, a gout of silver flames erupted fifty feet out of the open jaws of her draconic helmet. It's all felt amazine to Maxine. After she finished roaring, she looked at herself with her spiritual sense. I looked like what happens when a silver dragon and a human have a baby.
Maxine turned to the Four-Tailed Fox. His jaw was hanging open and there was a strong smelling puddle beneith him as he trembled in terror. Wow. I didn't expect him to piss himself. Am I really that scary?
Maxine tested out the strength of her punch by hitting a nearby boulder. However she was surprised by the force of her attack since it was many times what she expected as the rock exploded into a cloud of dust. Oh. My. Fucking. God. I just pulverized a 12 ton boulder in one hit! It would have taken me at least six hits to turn a boulder of that size into gravel, but I don't think I would ever be able to pulverize it into rock dust. Without thinking she used her tail like a whip and heard the sound barrier break at least a dozen times from the pure speed of the attack. Is that even dodgable for anyone in the iron stage? Even if someone blocks it, they are going to loose a limb at the minimum. This overpowered to the extreme. I havn't even checked to see how durable this dragon essence armor is yet, and it still blows away all of my other essence armors. Isn't there some higher power out there meant to balance the living creatures of the universe or something? Because I just got the most unfair trump card of all time. It's too bad that I can't use it though. Using something this overpowered in public is the same as putting a bullseye on my back. There is no way the government would allow me to live without them either watching my every move or trying to find a way to kill me without being discovered. It would probably be a combination of the two. Not to mention it would be a big god damn red flag to all of the essence cultivators roaming around. I don't need that headache on top of what I already have to put up with. I guess this essence armor will have to be my last resort move. I wonder though. Do the alien essence cultivators have bullshit abilities like this as well? If they do, I am just leveling the playing field. She checked on the Four Tailed Fox and saw that it had fainted onto the ground. However even when the Four-Tailed Fox was unconscious, he was still trembling in fear. Wait a second. The Four-Tailed Fox shouldn't be that afraid of the raw power that my dragon essence armor puts out. At most, he should be fearfully shocked. Unless... Could Dragon Fear be a thing? Maxine pushed that out of her mind as she noticed how quickly both her essence core and her dragon's essence core were being drained. It seems I have a time limit while wearing this thing. I am guessing it would drain me completely after five minutes if I have already drained most of my essence before activating it and fight. Triple that if I activate it at full strength and that's assuming I don't use any powerful attacks.
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Maxine shrugged and spread her wings in preparation for flight when Hellen contacted her via spiritual sense, "Maxine, ... turn... it... off... quickly." Hellen had sounded extremely weak as if she were straining to talk to Maxine. Maxine immediately removed her dragon's essence core and returned it to her bracers. "Thank you. That new type of essence armor that you just used can suppress and induce fear in the souls of others in the immediate vicinity. It is why that fox colasped in a puddle of his own urine. I wouldn't have been quite so concerned if it hadn't accelerated the awakening of your bloodline as well," Hellen said with a gradually strengthening tone with her spiritual sense.
"Bloodline? You mean the Kavros bloodline?" Maxine asked and felt the spiritual equivalent of a flinch coming from Hellen, "What are you not telling me?"
"Maxine do you remember when you fought that Tempest Weasel and felt your essence surge throughout your body?" Hellen asked and Maxine nodded her head, "That was the initial awakening of your bloodline. Normally it happens after you reach silver stage, but it was triggered early due to combination of the threat to your life and your anger. I thought you would have enough time to make another breakthrough before the next part of the awakening process began."
"Wait. Wouldn't it be better if I awakened my bloodline sooner?" Maxine asked while basing her question off of a couple eastern fantasy novels that she had read. Bloodlines were always beneficial as far as she knew.
"Maxine, do not base this off of fantasy novels. Any benefit that emerges from your bloodline comes with a cost attached. Sometimes it's as mild as a headache and others are torturous," Hellen reprimanded, "And the earlier any bloodline awakens, the harsher the price that you have to pay is. The price of our bloodline is pain while your body is being restructured. Fortunately it started with your essence pathways and you shouldn't be paralyzed again."
"Wait, what do you mean restructure my body? Will my appearance change?" Maxine asked in a slight panic.
"Possibly," Hellen answered and Maxine detected increasing levels of concern eminating from Hellen, "But that normally doesn't happen unless your bloodline has mutated, which is extremely rare. Your bloodline should only restructure the interior of your body to increase your overall battle power and affinity for the shadow attribute."
"What the hell is my bloodline called and what does it give me?" Maxine asked while dreading the pain that is to come.
"It is called the Shadow Lord bloodline and it is the source of our shadow attribute," Hellen said with alittle sadness, "We don't have the time to go over all of the benefits of our bloodline. You need to brace yourself. Right now."
"What do you mean brace my... ARGH!" Maxine was hit with searing pain as she tried to ask Hellen a question and struggled not to scream. The pain was mind numbing. Fortunately it was still less severe than when she absorbed all of those essence cores to reach iron stage. Maxine gave a series of orders to her shadow as she curled up into a ball on the ground. The first order was to carry her and the Four-Tailed Fox deep into the cave. Afterwards it was to go back to her house and wait for her mother to tell her that Maxine was occupied with training. Next she ordered her Shadow Wolves to keep the Four-Tailed Fox in his corner and away from Maxine.
While Maxine's shadow clone and Shadow Wolves went to fulfill their orders, Maxine could quite literately felt her bones and muscles snap and pop as they restructured themselves. It was an extremely bizzare and disturbing sensation. At least it would be if she wasn't in so much pain.
"I am sorry for not telling you about this sooner. I was silently hoping that this wouldn't happen since not everyone in that has our bloodline experiences this. This pain that you are feeling is actually a test. It is something that our bloodline does to determine if you are worthy of it. For those it deems completely unworthy, it won't even offer them this test," Hellen said helplessly and almost sounded like she was on the verge of tears, "Be strong, my baby girl. It won't shouldn't take more than a day."
Maxine couldn't answer even if she wanted to as the pain wracked her body and made concentrating on her spiritual sense a nearly impossible task. She rolled around on her back after her shadow clone set her on the ground and she realized to her horror that the pain was slowly increasing. She started to sweat profusely after what she thought was half an hour.
Maxine couldn't even open her eyes. However after awhile she vaguely heard a masuline voice say, "So there was a price to that power. Woah, easy ladies. I am haven't left my spot so there is no need to growl at me."
However Maxine couldn't care less about that voice as she struggled to handle the pain coursing through her body. She wan't certain how long she laid on the ground, but her shadow clone contacted her. It only took a thought to see what was going on since her shadow clone initiated the contact. Emily had come to her house. Silky had called her on the phone because she had sensed that Maxine was in immense pain.
"Open up one of those portals and send me to Maxine," Emily demanded. Even while feeling such intense pain, Maxine felt happy that Emily was so concerned about her. However she felt Hellen piggyback through the connection to Maxine's shadow clone.
"Silky has impressive instincts. Somehow she just knew that Emily's divine essence can help you," Hellen said to Maxine via spiritual sense. Maxine struggled to focus her mind enough to order her shadow clone to open up a portal to the shadow world. She managed it to do it after nearly a minute of struggling and Emily went through the shadow portal.
"MAXINE!" Emily shouted in horror as soon as she saw Maxine laying on the ground in pain and rushed to Maxine's side, "What happened? Did your wounds get infected?"
"Maxine's genetic code has mutated and this mutation is causing her body to begin restructuring itself to be more powerful at a cellular level," Hellen answered Emily for Maxine through spiritual sense and had allowed Maxine to listen into the conversation, "Unfortunately her body is restructuring too quickly and it's causing Maxine immense amounts of pain." Maxine was grateful that Hellen explained it, but she doubted that Emily would believe it. She was quite smart afterall and Maxine didn't have the mental focus at the moments to come up with a more believable lie.
"Is there anything I can do to help her?" Emily asked in a half-panicked voice.
"Coat Maxine's entire body with your divine essence. That should help her to some degree," Hellen answered, but for some reason, Maxine sensed some deception from Hellen. Within moment's the pain coursing through Maxine's body lessened considerably.
Maxine felt a tender touch brush some of her hair off of her face and heard Emily say, "Why didn't she have Silky call me sooner?"
"This mutation happened spontaneously. There was no time for Maxine to let Silky know," Hellen answered again for Maxine, "And she wasn't in any condition to use one of her shadow clones to do it either." Just as Maxine was finally adjusting to the reduced level of pain, it surged back up again.
"I thought you said my divine essence would help!" Emily shouted angrily.
"It is. It's hastening the restructuring process," Hellen said, "This way she won't suffer from pain for nearly as long."
"How much are my efforts reducing it by?" Emily asked.
"You are reducing the time in half," Hellen answered.
However Maxine heard them talking, but didn't have the capability to join in the conversation. It took every fiber of her being just to withstand the pain. She could no longer tell if they were talking anymore as she endured. She had lost track of how long she simply laid there. Eventually this torment seemed to be ending as her pain levels began to decrease. When her pain finally vanished, Maxine felt incredibly weary and was struggling to stay conscious due to the mental drain.
"Thank you, Emily," Maxine said as she opened her eyes, "I don't think I could have handled that without you speeding it along." Emily looked pale and like she was about to collapse. Even without using her spiritual sense, Maxine knew that Emily had used up all of her essence. However Emily started smiling brilliantly when she heard Maxine speaking.
"I would do this any time for you," Emily said weakly, "Do you have any idea what triggered this?"
"Yes, but I can't explain right now," Maxine said, "If I don't get us back home, the both of us will be sleeping here for the night." To emphasize her point, Maxine yawned.
"Alright then," Emily said and immediately after sent a message via spiritual sense, "You are going to tell me what's really going on later. I don't believe Hellen's excuse for a second that your genes just 'suddenly' mutated and started a violent change in your body."
Maxine was too tired to argue about it. However she knew that Hellen had intercepted that spiritual sense message that Emily had sent Maxine, yet hadn't tried to explain anything. I guess Hellen is going to leave the explaining to me then. This sucks. I don't want to lie to Emily, but I can't tell her the truth either. At least not for now.
Maxine's consciousness was slipping as Emily went with her through the portal back to Maxine's house. Emily helped Maxine walk to her bed and she felt the softness of her bed on her cheek before she realized it. However before she dozed off to sleep, she felt something soft land on top of her. She was vaguely aware that it was Emily collasping due to exhaustion as sleep finally claimed her.