This chapter was pred by Dragonofsomesort & pwninator, Im unable to enter their profiles and link it to their names so please consider going through a bit of effort and giving them some rep for helping to pr this chapter. :)
here is last Wednesdays regular release, wow i got quite a few chapters out enough so to make it to #2 in the top monthly fictions which is saying something since most new stories tend to bulk upload XD now if you will excuse me i have a work report i need to get done :-TsavKAnz-:
As usual remember my Temp prs are still new so don't blame them, and i am not a professional author if you guys find any errors please post them below so i can fix them asap we are also human and not able to find all errors..
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During Ursa’s mid trajectory flight Avrin swung out Astaroth to counter while rushing towards Giron, both weapons collided with one another causing the ground to tremble and split. From there Giron began to barrage Avrin with carefully located swings and slashes.
Wielding Ursa to him seemed as easy as wielding a short sword, the weapon in his hands seemed as light as ever but powerful enough to potentially kill a dragon if given the chance.
Avrin was not an idiot when it came to this battle, before he had acted he had made sure his divine sense had scanned around several hundred miles to see if any of Abaddon's lackeys were around, and thankfully it seemed he was free to do as he pleased.
He knew Giron was eyeing the skymetal and figured it was quite important if Avrin preferred it over a spatial ring.
Someone on his level of power, once they would eye something it would be difficult to urge them away. Avrin learnt this in his former life, high ranked politicians would often hire assassins to kill each other over a simple treasured artifact or precious jewel, of course such internal strife was kept secret to not show the citizens of how the clock ticked.
Astaroth and Ursa continued to clash against each other, though Avrin was holding back, the reason for this is he had learnt his lesson with Aegis, he didn’t want to damage the sigil weapon.
That was the other half of the reason he wanted to fight Giron, a full sigil weapon would no doubt allow him to greatly benefit, in the end he had to temporarily put up with Giron while he thought of a plan.
Giron narrowed his bestial eyes before he pointed the head of Ursa towards Avrin, “Berserk Wolf!” The weapon seemed to glow a heavy red before the color engulfed Giron causing his body to bulk up with his muscles and veins expanding greatly.
Avrin was careful not to lower his guard, immediately he emitted a powerful phantom pulse to engulf Giron who roared with fury as he dashed towards Avrin with an incredible speed, the ground he was stepping on turned into a small crater that broke apart.
Giron raised Ursa before bringing the axe head down, Avrin knew it would be bad if he was even close to the area the axe hit so he quickly used his void step to reappear 20 meters away.
At that moment Ursa smashed into the ground where Avrin had been standing and a rumble spread out before a wide cleave shot through the ground seemingly hitting an underground spring of water that soon ruptured with geysers blowing up from several directions.
Giron was astounded. “-Who is this person.... how is he capable of equaling me and even be faster than me? -” Giron was confused as he contemplated things, though Avrin had no longer decided to mess about with him.
Nebula mist surged around Avrin’s body as the fibers of his muscles changed. His skin had purple pulsing lines across his body as they surged down to his legs that began to reform, short spikes protruded from them as they seemed to thin out a little and form a small carapace like shell forming around his calf, of course this meant he had augmented his legs for a purpose.
Avrin knelt down before shooting towards Giron like a thunderbolt, his speed significantly faster than before.
Giron’s reddened eyes quickly knew trouble was at hand, he slashed about with Ursa to try and hit Avrin, but with a single void step Avrin appeared with ease behind Giron, the sharpened blade of Astaroth’s scythe head curving around and pressing against his neck.
This was a complete victory for Avrin, though he was a little disappointed. “-Sigil wielders, how dumb are these individuals to solely rely on the strength of their weapon and not properly learn combat techniques...-”
Avrin was somewhat thankful, he had also nearly fallen to temptation and solely focused on using Astaroth, but this meant that if he one day encountered someone who wasn’t that much weaker than him but relied on techniques and strategy then Avrin surely knew it would be his undoing, thus it was wise for him to practice his fighting skills and always do his best to use his abilities in combat, such as the void step or phantom pulse, in this case.
Such an easy win was a bit disappointing, it meant that Avrin wouldn’t have the chance to practice any other skills, but with skymetal on the line and wanting to keep himself hidden it was a fairly minor matter.
“Ha...haha you win friend, I admit defeat, I have never lost in my life, but you stranger have managed to defeat me, a sigil wielder, who at my peak is at the Mythical Level! May I know your name?”
Avrin’s brows twitched a little, this crazy animal was a bit humble when he knew his life was on the line. “Giron correct? If you want to keep your head I recommend you hand Ursa to me...” Giron’s expression flickered as he laughed without a fear of death.
“You want me to hand over to you the weapon that protects my people? And you call me crazy? You have no idea what would happen if Ursa leaves my hands and disappears. If you take Ursa, you are condemning millions of lives on this continent to die!”
Avrin wasn’t all that phased though he wasn’t at all heartless, “You tried to steal something I consider more valuable than a sigil weapon without second thought, and now you are trying to play the good guy and say millions of lives will be at risk if I take that weapon? Who do you think you're fooling. Though let’s say you are correct, what is it to me if millions die or not?”
Avrin’s words clearly carried a careful tone, of course this wasn’t like before, the lives of the people here could be avoided, he assumed Giron was speaking about humanity potentially invading.
He also knew Abbadon and the other sigil wielders would most likely help the beastmen. Trying to play to Avrin’s humanity was an interesting choice on Giron’s behalf.
“You....are you truly willing to condemn those lives because of my own greed? I admit...I was wrong for trying to seek your treasure...though...if you let me go I am willing to compensate you. Truly you seem like a hidden expert, I can’t imagine how someone so powerful managed to exist unless they are an enigma level ability user. But I’m sure you have your secrets...”
Avrin at this moment was on a thin line between making another enemy, if it could be avoided and he could benefit from avoiding it then why wouldn’t he see what Giron had to offer. “I don’t want ore...I don’t want riches.... I don’t want women....and I don’t want land.... what I do want to know is if you have knowledge of the location of any dragons on this continent?”
With Avrin saying what he didn’t want, Giron nervous face had sunk even lower, though he didn’t dare act rashly as Astaroth was carefully pressed against his neck, every time he looked at the weapon and its pulsing vein like features, it made his soul quiver and legs shake, he had a feeling that such a weapon was definitely something he couldn’t comprehend, but he suddenly widened his eyes at Avrin interest to find a dragon.
“Of course! Yes, I know of a dragon’s location. I can personally lead you there if you le-” before Giron could finish speaking Avrin raised his finger and stabbed it carefully into his back, he emitted nebula mist that soon formed into several streams of nebula mist that circulated around his body, this was not done to convert Giron but rather act as something else.
Avrin quickly let Giron go and moved back, Giron howled in a slight pain as he sensed the anomaly within his body. “What...d..did you do to me?!!” Avrin simply glanced at him.
“Just a bit of a measure for myself, if you betray me, the ability placed inside of you will devour your innards before you can expel it with mana, and if you try to expel it with mana as we travel it will still devour you from the inside out, and even if you could expel it quickly it will do more than enough damage for me to finish you off without trouble.
If I somehow find out you contact someone, for instance Abbadon, then I will just kill you. If you lie to me, well I will still kill you, all these situations will lead me to taking your sigil weapon. I’m quite certain both it and a dragon have the same amount of power, so consider yourself lucky I am giving a bit of value to the lives of your people and going for this dragon.
Avrin was not a former general for nothing, this body and his dark matter heart had made it often annoying to control his emotions and mindset, but strategy wise he was still competent, by allowing nebula mist to surge inside Giron, it allowed him the possibility of obtaining the sigil weapon if anything goes wrong, but if he doesn’t kill him and Giron takes him to the location of this dragon then he would still benefit.
Avrin would not give the dragon a chance to fight back, he knew how dangerous they were. He had given Giron a chance mainly because Avrin believed that if humanity saw the beast tribe in a weakened state they would make a move on them, otherwise why would he care. By the time Abbadon and the others intruded many individuals would have already died.
Deep inside though Avrin was hoping for Giron to betray him somehow after taking him to the dragon’s lair, this way he would be able to obtain two large boosts in power. Giron eyed Avrin with a newfound fear.
“Of...course... then I’m sure you don’t want to waste time...all I need to do is escort you to the dragon’s lair correct? And you will let me go?”
Avrin didn’t respond the way Giron had wanted him to and simply replied. “Be quiet and show me already, I am quite impatient in this regard....” Hearing Avrin’s response Giron frowned, his somewhat fur ridden face seemed to have stood on end, as well as his wolf ears twitching somewhat, “Very well.... follow me.”
Giron’s body flickered as he began to travel at a quick speed towards the south, Avrin easily managed to keep up even after de-augmenting his legs and body to revert back. He kept a 10-meter distance as he followed from behind Giron, and always made sure to keep his divine sense out, he didn’t trust this beastman in the least but felt the pros outweighed the cons.
“-How am I going to get out of this one.... I could use the alarm crystal Abbadon gave me, but by then I would have already died and he will have taken my sigil weapon...I can’t even remove that strange mist from inside my body, what is that stuff exactly, is that his enigma ability? What a scary thing...to be able to do this and wield such power...scarier is the feeling that he held back on me...why exactly is he after a dragon anyway? -”
Giron was thinking to himself with conflicted thoughts, in the end he could do nothing but abide to Avrin’s wishes and lead him to the dragon’s lair, Avrin had been following Giron for a half day, at the speed they were both travelling on foot alone they covered a good distance that would have usually taken several days.
Avrin could have gotten the location from Giron and used his divine step to eventually reach it, but this was a matter of trust that he did not have for Giron.
Eventually the two of them had reached a strange canyon within the small southern desert area of the eastern continent. Giron had an annoyed expression as he was here, of course he was not at all dumb, he had a plan, and that was to keep Ursa out the entire time, the reason for this was simple.
Deep within the canyon that seemed to extend on for a good while, a large mound of sand was covering a seemingly immense boulder that brushed up against the canyon's walls, the sand fell off this mound, but soon trembled as a part of the mound flickered before opening to reveal a large slit of an eye.
“Hmmmmm......” A deep ancient voice seemingly echoed causing the canyon to shudder and shake, “Sigil wielder...? Why are you here...?”
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The voice continued on and spoke managing to reach both Giron and Avrin who were nearly two miles away showing just how powerful it seemingly was, Giron snickered inwardly, the reason for keeping Ursa out was to hope that the dragon would detect it and awaken first, he would hope that it would have a better chance at attacking Avrin and possibly killing him.
Avrin felt his body shudder as the voice echoed, Giron looked at him strangely as if unsure on how to reply to the dragon, Avrin frowned as he looked at Ursa in Giron’s hand. “Idiot....put it away....” Avrin’s expression remained somewhat calm before he identified the location of the dragon using his divine sense.
Giron, who by fear of Avrin words quickly put Ursa away, felt something wasn’t right, though the draconic voice resounded again. “Answer me!”
This time the entire canyon seemed to shake, the difference between sigil wielders and dragons was the dragon’s entire body contained as much energy as a full sigil weapon. Dragons also definitely knew how to control it better than a sigil wielder without practice making them deadlier.
Giron watched as Avrin’s body turned to ash and seemingly moment later Avrin appeared in front of the dragon whose eye glanced at Avrin, it then watched as Avrin retrieved Astaroth that he had stored away during the travel, it looked at the weapon seeing how menacing it was and also how Avrin so easily appeared and covered a great distance, one thing came to its mind, and that was trouble!
A fierce, powerful red aura pulsed out which even managed to push Avrin back several meters, it bought the dragon enough time to raise its large body from the sand mound. The dragon itself seemed to look different to Wruen, its skin was more slick and held a reddish hue, its neck had a large lion like mane while its head resembled that of a snake with 4 large horns protruding from its forehead.
It also had many large spikes across its spine, and its length equaled that of the deceased Wruen. The dragon was very careful unlike its deceased brethren, a large amount of mana gathered within its mouth before it quickly fired towards Avrin a red bolt of fire and lightning. Avrin was trembling a little, he remembered when Wruen had nearly bit him to death and his advantage on it before, though this time he had the physical body of a sigil wielder and the strength to exceed one.
Avrin was confident that if he were to go all out now he would be able to handle Abbadon and another full sigil wielder, though he was still cautious and didn’t dare openly put himself out as plans seemingly never always go according to plan.
Avrin didn’t dare underestimate this dragon, his legs had augmented again to allow him great speed. He quickly slashed Astaroth towards the red fire bolt and, with a bit of effort, split it in half. As the two halves crashed into the canyon walls exploding out with enough heat to make the sand form into glass that then cracked.
The dragon raised its body as it gazed at Avrin with caution. “Who are you....” It spoke but Avrin didn’t reply as he dashed towards it using his speed capable of catching even Mythical Level opponents off guard, the dragon roared out sending a shockwave pulsing out before it turned its body, its tail seemingly as slippery as a snake cut across the canyon wall like a hot knife through butter before smashing towards Avrin.
“Stygian Slash!!” Avrin roared out as he slashed Astaroth towards the oncoming tail, a wave of dark matter energy surged out from Astaroth before colliding with the tail that was soon effortlessly cleaved off, the dragon roared out in agony as it charged up another fire bolt and shot it towards the wave of dark matter.
Two forces collided with each other before exploding out and causing the canyon to tremble again, Avrin had taken the chance to dash up the crumbling canyon wall and reach a higher vantage point above the dragon who looked around for Avrin, it was unable to detect him due to him having no mana, so it was left somewhat in the dark.
Avrin gathered a large amount of nebula mist above the dragon forming it into a large cloud, that was until the dragon gazed up and began to gather a large amount of mana, this time the horns on its forehead began to light up, Avrin knew this attack would be dangerous.
“Heaven Bolt!” The dragon’s ancient voice resounded, the sky above seemed to form into a vortex as clouds gathered, suddenly a powerful crack hidden behind the clouds echoed as a red bolt of lightning shot down towards Avrin,
“-Not a Terror Burst? -” Avrin clearly was a bit surprised he had felt this dragon would be like Wruen, but he had to be careful that dragons are the most capable casters on seleria next to the gods, even Abbadon was a step behind.
“Void Screen.” The cloud of dark matter and nebula mist that Avrin had intended for an attack suddenly shifted forming into a large screen like shield above, the red bolt smashed into it causing it to crack and shatter after a while, but it bought Avrin enough time to escape the vicinity of the weakened bolt of lightning that crashed against the canyon wall splitting it in half and causing rubble to explode out.
“You insolent worm, you dare attack me, the great Silis!” The dragon roared out again as it began to gather mana in its body, Avrin though had learnt his lesson, “Stygian Reap!”
Astaroth pulsed with energy as the closed eye on its head twitched a little, Avrin slashed in a full 360-degree circle as his hands flickered, the entirety around him a circular wave of energy shot outwards like a rocket, the attack itself unlike the Stygian Slash was not focused on absorbing energy and growing stronger and larger, this circular reap motion was meant for cutting!
Though with each use Avrin felt Astaroth was seemingly draining quite a bit of dark matter from his body, he didn’t want to prolong the battle, so as the circular attack neared Silis who quickly used the mana he had gathered to activate another spell. “Demon spawn, you emit such a disgusting feeling, see if you can break a defense only surpassed by the gods! Red Space field!”
The area in front of Silis extending out for 5 meters suddenly trembled as the mana he gathered surged out and caused the space to distort before forming into a wide screen shield of red static mana, it seemed strange as the shield reflected a seemingly desolate space.
The moment the Stygian Reap crashed against it, the field trembled as it began to form cracks. Silis looked on with horror. “Impossible!” Quickly he began to gather mana again, but Avrin had already calculated something like this, after all how could a spell by a mere dragon match the strength of a skymetal weapon.
Avrin was capable of using quite a bit more of Astaroth’s strength and only held back enough so it wouldn’t use too much of his dark matter. While the reap was attacking the shield from the front and quickly making progress in destroying it, Avrin snickered before he used a void step to appear on top of Silis’ head where his horns were gathering mana.
“Don’t mind me....” Avrin snickered before Astaroth turned into a flicker, and within moments the horns on Silis’ head were cleanly cut off, the dragon roared out in agony as it quickly twisted around, but the red space field also collapsed.
The Stygian Reap, although weakened, still contained 60% of its full strength, it crashed against the limbs and belly of Silis cleanly cutting off its two front feet and also greatly wounding its stomach.
Avrin who was gripping onto one of the remaining two horns as Silis moved around in a rampage before the Stygian Reap cut its front feet off. “Stygian Slash!” With a final attack he managed to release the attack at point blank range cleanly beheading the roaring Silis.
The large dragon’s body trembled a little before falling limp onto the ground with blood and mana gushing out of the wound, the dragon’s face maintained an agonized shocked expression, Avrin though was ecstatic, the fight against a dragon was much easier than it had been before.
He quickly expanded out nebula mist to act as a shell and net around all of Silis’ limbs including its tail, from there Avrin sat down and began to focus as he started to convert it all. He didn’t want to waste time, even as he felt Giron flee from the range of his divine sense he didn’t bother chasing him.
Giron, who was indeed fleeing in a heavy fear, was sweating bullets. “-H... He so easily defeated a dragon? Impossible...! -” He truly was afraid as he fled not even daring to attempt to remove the nebula mist that Avrin had placed inside of him until he was sure he would be safe.
Avrin remained seated and focused on converting Silis for an entire hour before in front of him was a one meter congealed mass of dark matter that rippled, it then began to shrink, from a meter to 2 feet, to a foot, and then several inches until it reached the form of a small sphere around 2 centimeters in diameter. Avrin carefully glanced at it before smirking, he retrieved the dark matter core from the air and looked at it carefully.
While Avrin placed the core into his mouth he had no idea that currently a very powerful individual was watching him, within the sky hidden behind several layers of magic to hide its presence, a large palace of gold and white was formed, inside this palace Septim was glancing down curiously, he had been careful when Wruen had died and placed magic seals around the locations of all the dragons he had created, when Avrin and Silis engaged in battle he was immediately alerted.
Septim watched as Avrin converted Silis into a lump of dark matter and then into the form of a sort of pill before swallowing it.
Septim had a look of shock and surprise as he wasn’t sure what to think of the situation. He was a little confused, he silently rubbed his beard as he began to think carefully, “- This creature is interesting, he isn’t a sigil wielder, and he so easily killed Silis.
An enigma ability?...No...the weapon he used...-” gazing at Astaroth’s image as Septim replayed the magical recording over and over again, his body began to shiver with fear. He knew the aura Astaroth emitted was something much more powerful than his own.
“-That weapon. No it can’t be, -” Septim then turned his head around to look at a large 1-meter rectangle chunk of ore that was hidden behind a shield of white light, inside that shield was truly a white piece of skymetal with white lines of energy pulsing through it like a stream of water.
“-God Essence can’t be forged anymore...the method to do so has long since been lost within this universe...how has he managed to obtain a weapon forged from god essence? -” Septim was indeed very cautious in how he thought about the situation, though not one ounce of greed appeared in his look, the reason for this is he feared that there were details even he didn’t know of.
“-In any case I should keep an eye on this one, and be sure he doesn’t cause too much trouble...-” Septim uttered before he opened his left palm, a green and white light forming in the shape of a seal, he then dropped the seal into the clear water pond that acted as a mirror for him to watch Avrin.
As the seal entered the pond Avrin who was carefully feeling for his dark space suddenly opened his eyes, he glanced around as he felt everything had gone silent. He looked up and saw the sky tremble as the clouds suddenly split apart, a white light shot down towards him with speed even he was unable to escape from. The seal flew towards him before smashing against his forehead.
“What’s...going on?” Avrin clenched his teeth as the seal caused his body to shudder. It brought no pain and slowly began to form on his forehead as if it were a tattoo branding itself, within moments just as quick as it appeared, everything seemed to regain its calmness, the clouds reverted back to their normal state and Avrin was left on his knees with a pained look, on his forehead was a white assortment of lines in the shape of a mirror.
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This chapter may seem a bit rushed to some of you, but i think the pace and progress is quite realistic, especially given how quick Avrin is progressing now that he has this level of strength, though in the end its on you the readers to decide.
when i start to feel like i haven't properly planned i draft up the plot in a text document which greatly improves srs quality from what i have seen, i'v planned the next 2-3 chapters so expect some progress :D