The humanoid figure stepped into the throne room. It was nearly 3 meters tall, and as it was too dark to see clearly, its glowing, red eyes were a defining feature. Just looking into its eyes, one could feel that it was a primordial existence. It wore majestic robes with gold threading that glowed faintly in the dark, and carried itself with a calm yet grandiose demeanor. Jason looked at its window.

Name:???Level:???

Even the king seemed startled looking at the intruder’s window, seeing three question marks.

“Who are you?”

The intruder looked over to the king with the same expression one would have if looking at an insect, and laughed. “Do not think you have the qualifications to know who I am.” Its voice was deep and foreboding, making everyone shudder, and indicating that it was a male. The king gathered his wits and asked once again, “I am King Creon, the ruler of every human on this continent. If I do not have the qualifications to know your name, then who else would?”

The mysterious figure laughed once again. “You call yourself the ruler of humans as if it is a title to be proud of. Humans are nothing more than insects to my eyes, and an insect requesting to know who I am…. Is truly laughable.” The king turned red with anger, but managed to contain it. “Then why are you here?”

“I felt a powerful spell in this area and wanted to see what it was myself.” His eyes turned to the heroes. “And who would’ve thought I would find something so interesting?”

Suddenly, Jason disappeared, and reappeared with the stranger’s hand around his throat. The stranger turned his wrist, inspecting Jason from different angles. “How strange….I sense something is different about this particular human from those other two, but I can’t seem to figure out what it is. He’s piqued my interest.” The intruder stopped talking and started walking back towards the portal, with Jason in his right hand.

The king started to panick. “GUARDS!”

The paladins started running towards the intruder with their shields raised, but before they even got close, he simply lifted his hand and their heads fell onto the ground. It had happened too quickly for anyone to see, but the intruder fired a blade of wind that tore through the paladins’ shields as if they were paper, and cut their heads off. Those shields were made of pure mithril, one of the strongest materials in the world. To be able to destroy three of those shields simultaneously with a casual wave, was simply unimaginable.

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The king was the first to react. He lifted his sleeve and broke a bead connected to a bracelet he was wearing. He grabbed the other two heroes and they warped away, just as a blade of wind crashed into the wall behind them.

The intruder scanned his surrounding to see if they had teleported somewhere nearby just to hide, but could find no traces of them. He knew if he left them alive those two would become threats in the future, but he wasn’t here to destroy half a kingdom to look for them. Unsatisfied, he walked into the portal and it closed behind him.

The two exited the portal into another room sharply contrasting the one they had just left. The stranger threw Jason on the ground and walked past him, sitting on a throne made of obsidian. Jason tried to get up but found he had been paralyzed.

“You would make a fine subject, with a few….modifications.”

Jason was powerless as he listened to the stranger start an incantation. As he started chanting, symbols wrapped around Jason’s body, much like what had happened before, when he was summoned. The only difference was that these symbols were black, and seemed to drain all the mana from the surroundings. More and more symbols piled onto his body until no part of it could be seen anymore. Jason was encased for hours until the symbols depleted all the mana they had absorbed and broke away from his body. He opened his eyes and saw his vision was much sharper than before. The iris of his eyes were now red, resembling the stranger's eyes. His hair had also grown down to his waist, and become white. He had become taller, reaching almost two meters. Along with his increase in stature, came an increase in muscle. His previously scrawny body had been replaced by a more muscular, lean one. 

The stranger raised one hand.

“You shall now be known as Hydrexyl. Rise, Hydrexl. Rise before your new master, Elaxus, Emperor of the Forlorn!”