Aurelian crashed through the undead lines like the Grim Reaper’s tax collector.
His Runesword hewed like a scythe, and he cut down three skeletons before the horde of the dead could properly react. He felt dregs of health flowing into him from his Leeching blade, but they were drops in the ocean of his driven awareness while he fought. The impact on the horde seemed to have stirred it to proper life, and yet still it moved sluggishly, as if the will behind it were hesitant.
The earlier brutality that had driven the undead was gone, and Aurelian could see the quivering threads of green-black power that controlled them almost vibrating in his sight. It was like they were being strummed, or tugged, but in such a way as if the puppet master were reluctant to properly engage.
Every moment of wasted time, however, was another dead skeleton; and Aurelian was not about to dwell on why his enemy was hesitating at a critical moment.
He was beyond things so simple, to his detriment or not.
All he wanted was to enact his own dark justice.
The prismatic orb of contained power that was his Calamity Core spun with the rapidity of a freshly launched beyblade while roaring within the bands of constraining platinum force, and Aurelian felt energy suffusing and flowing through his limbs in what seemed like a flood compared to what came before.
Even his stamina and mana seemed to be regenerating faster, and not simply because of the essenceloaf.
There was something more at play that he was missing, and yet every time he tried to muster up the energy to care, it was smothered by the snarl of the dragon within his soul; the one that demanded payment in death for what had been done to its soul brother.
The one that screamed for ruin, and desolation unseen in millennia.
Aurelian was all too happy to entertain its wishes.
He swept his Runesword in a destructive arc to kill four of the closest undead and cycled his mana decisively, his eyes rising to the threads tied to the skulls of the legions of animated dead.
Aurelian wasn’t sure what he was doing or how, but acting on instinct as much as emotion; he reached out with his left hand, swept his mana up and into a braided sheath he made with his Soulforce, and then shaped the double-layered energy into a replica of a bastard sword.
Then, with Intent as much as raw instinct, he cut through the threads.
A divine chorus of triumph manifested within his mind and soul, and Aurelian momentarily saw double.
In the same moment, his awareness seemed to split in two and for one nauseating second that seemed to span far longer; he was witnessing both what his own eyes beheld, and what another pair of eyes saw.
He could see himself, watching his rampage and staring with rapt attention as his hand moved, as if in slow motion. He could see his armour, his blood-matted silver hair, and the incandescent burn of the runes upon his blade.
More than that, he could feel what the other perspective felt.
What the Necromancer felt, he realised.
And it was fear.
Aurelian’s vision snapped back to normal in the exact moment as the blade of energy fully severed the green-black thread of control, and one of the undead close by collapsed in a heap like a puppet with its strings cut.
At the same time, a horrible and blood-curdling wail of agony, rage, disbelief, and terror scythed across the battlefield like a sonic wave. It froze the blood in his veins, and seemed to freeze the undead in place as well.
The battlefield, for a moment, became utterly still and silent.
Then something both impossibly fast, and incredibly powerful slammed into Aurelian like a battering ram. He was thrown off his feet from the impact and rolled across the marble tiles with a grunt, his blade forgotten and sense knocked clear from his skull.
He groaned at the feeling of what had to be bruises along his body, even through the Adept tier armour he wore, and his eyes lifted to seek whomever—or whatever—had struck him.
A kick to the jaw was his reward for curiosity, and while his senses were scrambled once again by the blow, Aurelian felt himself leave the ground and sail bodily through the air like a ragdoll.
It wasn’t until he crashed back into the marble, with a wheeze of pain strong enough to clear some of the rage fogging his mind, that he realised he had been physically lifted from the ground and thrown.
Aurelian rolled onto his back and looked up in time to see someone appear before him with incredible speed, and then leer down at his prone form with a face that he doubted he would ever be able to scrub from his memory.
Gaunt skin, the texture of parchment and almost bleached white of colour, was stretched over sharp bones that seemed to bulge grotesquely against the flesh pulled taut over them, with an appearance like elastic drawn too tight over a mask. Insane eyes the colour of old, reddish-brown rust stared out from sunken eye sockets. Each was only partially hidden beneath matted, foul-smelling green-black strands of hair foetid enough that Aurelian had to swallow back bile at its mere proximity.
The features of the new arrival were decidedly male in nature, though there was a delicacy to them that might have almost been effete if not for the sheer hideousness of their state.
The creature’s clothes were torn, faded, moth-eaten, and bereft of any semblance of finery they must have once held. His body—for it was indeed some manner of male—was hunched awkwardly, as if he lacked the strength to keep it straight; and several sections of his exposed arms seemed to writhe with gangrenous rot that looked as if it had been there for a very long time.
The creature smelled like a corpse that had baked in the sun for years beyond count, and the utter foulness of the odour almost sent Aurelian into unconsciousness.
“Who are you?” a voice akin to screeching nails demanded in an expulsion of breath layered with decay. “What are you? You are impossible. You should not BE!”
“G—” Aurelian choked off in a cough.
“Hm? HM?”
“Go f—fuck yourself,” he managed to spit out.
“Dangerous. Nasty. Bad.” The creature iterated quickly in the same blood-curdling voice. “Very naughty little freak. Terrible. TERRIBLE! But! But…” the creature leaned in to take a deep, and almost animalistic inhale of his scent. “Powerful. Young! Such potential… Such incandescent Soulforce. I hate it. I HATE IT. Hm! Hm…”
Great. Aurelian thought amid the eye-watering stench and nausea. He’s fucking mental.
The dull throb of Aurelian’s rage had tapered to a low burn while the creature investigated him, and not for lack of passion; but instead because of intrinsic and instinctive caution. Aurelian understood, in some deep and primal way, that blind anger would serve him no purpose against… whatever the creature that stood before him was.
On a whim, he tried using Revelate.
Name: ???
Race: ???
Level: ???
Tier: ???
Health: ???/???
Description: ???
The moment he used the ability and the useless information registered to his mind, the creature’s eyes narrowed and Aurelian’s world abruptly turned black, white, and then refocused.
He tasted blood.
His condition alerts were blinking at him furiously.
His ears rang and his head felt stuffy.
“Bad. Naughty. Very naughty!” a wretched, black-nailed finger wagged before his face. “Analysing someone without their permission? Rude. TOO RUDE!” The last two words were bellowed, and then the creature heaved with effort to control itself.
At some point its right hand had suddenly risen as if to strike again, and then its left hand grabbed its own right wrist, and pulled the hand down jerkily.
Stolen novel; please report.
“No, no, cannot kill. No… the Master would be angry if I… hmm… hm…”
Aurelian felt his jaw clench.
“Yeees… yes… that would be ideal, would it not, handsome friend? Yes! Yeeeeees…”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re ta—Mmfgh!” Aurelian’s acerbic reply was cut short by a hand suddenly holding his jaws open like a vice, and his eyes widened in horror when the creature—the Vasiri, he suspected—lifted its right arm and with a sound like shucking a shellfish, it bit into its own desiccated wrist.
Dragon’s Resolve flared to life, but even working overtime, it was to no avail.
Aurelian started to thrash with panicked strength, and leveraged every iota of Strength he had invested; all while the Vasiri giggled madly at his struggles.
“Writhe little morsel, writhe, writhe, SCREAM FOR ME!”
It shivered abruptly, and its voice dropped instantly to a normal octave.
“Now now, hush little precious one, this will be done soon!”
Its voice took on the same dissonant, off-kilter sing-song he had heard earlier, and Aurelian’s insides clenched in sudden alarm.
“It’s time to taste the glory of Absolum’s gift.” It said gleefully.
Aurelian distractedly noticed the creature seemed to be weeping at the same time.
Then tar-like blood was sloughing down its wrist, and Aurelian let loose a strangled roar of denial and hatred, and even fear, as the globules fell… and landed upon his tongue.
Aurelian’s eyes shot as wide as they’d ever been the moment its essence tainted his palate.
More and more of it filled his mouth, and then the creature snapped his jaws shut, picked him up, and shook him violently.
Aurelian wanted to spit out the repugnant fluid, which tasted more foul than anything he could have ever conceived of. It was like years-old dumpster juice, rotted food, sun-curdled milk, and sewer water all at the same time. The shaking, however, took him by surprise and with his jaws still firmly closed by the Vaisiri’s hand; he felt his traitorous body swallow.
Aurelian’s eyes bulged, and he was dropped to the floor.
Without a word his jaws parted, and he vomited violently onto the floor.
Only bile came forth.
Again and again he threw up, and despite the occasional piece of black sludge, only his own bile surfaced with consistency.
Something was wrong. He could feel it.
Like the onset of a fever or terrible cold, or the symptoms of the illnesses he’d dealt with as a younger man.
Aurelian’s hands tightened against the marble, and he heaved for air while his muscles and nerves spasmed in his body, and he felt his vision distorting and twisting with hallucinogenic effects. In the same moment as the strangeness overcame him, his most pressing System alerts were partially unleashed and roared into him like a deluge.
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Mana Sight (R)!
This skill allows you to see the threads of maā̷̧̻̝̈ạ̵̡̛̯̈́̈́a̸͇͘ͅ/̶͈̋̅͜/̸̯̫̿͛/̴͓́#̴͚͓̈́$̸͎́̕$̴̡̻̝̋̀̽!̴̺͗͘!̵̭͓̐͜
ERROR
SOULFORCE RESONANCE DETECTED: DRAGON KING
SOULFORCE BOND DETECTED: DRAGON KING
BLOODLINE DETECTED: ELYSEAN
HYBRIDISATION EXCEPTION DETECTED
SYSTEM OVERRIDE IN PROGRESS
STANDBY
. . .
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Dragon’s Gaze (E)!
Dragons are the ancient wardens of balance within the Prime Material, and through both cooperation and conflict enforced a relative Harmony between the ten core forces of existence within the Realms. Among their number, the greatest of them possessed a myriad of higher powers; not the least of which was the capacity to see and interact with the very aetheric essence of mana itself. As the bonded rider of a dragon king, you have managed to inherit this ability present only in leviathans and Primes!
Pierce the veil with your monarch’s gaze, Reclaimer!
Dragon’s Gaze is now Level 2!
. . .
Dragon’s Gaze is now Level 12
Congratulations, Dragon’s Gaze has reached Novice Tier!
You have gained Experience!
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
Hidden Conditions Met!
You have managed to pierce the aetheric veil before your First Temper!
Achievement: A Gaze To Pierce Heaven
For successfully achieving a transcendent vision of mana, you have received the following:
Title Upgrade: Aether Sage
Trait: Aetheric Osmosis
Large Experience Gain
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Gravitic Crush (R)!
Gravity is one of the absolute forces across all the Realms, and is one of the most powerful weapons used by practitioners of the Force school of magic. Gravitic manipulation allows a spellcaster to manipulate the fabric of the world to assail their target. By sundering the veil and accessing motes of Force, you have unlocked this first ability and started down the path of Force mastery !
Let space itself heave beneath your ire, Reclaimer!
Gravitic Crush is now Level 2!
. . .
Gravitic Crush is now Level 17!
Congratulations, Gravitic Crush has reached Novice Tier!
You have gained Experience!
Aurelian felt the System energy roaring toward his soul, and yet still it was not done. He opened his mouth and screamed, bellowing with enough raw and horrified pain, disgust, and terror to drown out all other noise in his surroundings.
He could feel cramping in his muscles, acid in his throat, and blood pumping in his veins. That same blood was thickening, corroding, and rotting. He could feel himself decaying every second, and being violated in the most horrific and terrible mana conceivable by the Essence—and truly, it was Essence—even then churning within his body.
Aurelian felt Dragon’s Resolve roaring to keep him sane.
It was barely succeeding.
He could distantly, like a distant roar, hear the Vasiri laugh-weeping madly; and yet he had no attention to spare for the creature. All he knew was the burning in his veins, the poison in his belly, and the certainty that something terrible wrong was occurring within the deepest recesses of his physical self.
And still, still the alerts came unabated.
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Calamity’s Blade (T)!
In ages past, the first Calamity sundered the tethers between Gods and Mortals, and dispatched the dominion held by the denizens of the Highest over their mortal subjects. With the passing of the first Calamity, such feats were thought of only as legends, for none who came after ever truly rose to be her equal. Until now. Take with both hands this sword of Damocles, and unleash your judgement!
Let justice be done, though the Heavens may fall, Reclaimer!
Calamity’s Blade is now Level 2!
. . .
Calamity’s Blade is now Level 6!
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
Hidden Conditions Met!
You have managed to fulfil part of the hopes of your summoning patrons!
Achievement: A New Calamity Rises
For successfully achieving the reclamation of a Transcendent skill, you have received the following:
Title: Defiant
Trait: Godsbane
Large Experience Gain