Chapter 23: Who is my Master?!
Kim is flying in the middle of space trying to imprint everything in his mind! Although everything seems real, his mana sense detected no living being surrounding him. Except for one, which was not one of the battling monsters. Despite the intense battle happening around him, Kim stayed calm while sitting down cross-legged. He continued to observe every moment.
"The way these monsters are controlling mana is shockingly terrifying. I should take this time to contemplate!"
Kim's eyes shone brightly as he tried to comprehend everything that is happening! While doing that, he even took this chance to learn how mana works. He was not just observing he was studying! An ordinary person would pant frantically and would eventually faint due to their mind being overwhelmed. But Kim seems to be in his comfort zone. He seems to be enjoying the whole scene as if he is watching a movie. The only thing missing was popcorns.
"There's always a fortune in every corner. If I don't take this opportunity to gain enlightenment then my name is not Kim!"
He circulated his breathing and force out his mana sense to analyze everything. The illusionary world seems to be harmless, but it was almost as frightening as being in a mental domain. To Kim who is used to the immense pressure to his mind is having the time of his life.
The battle continues!
With the meteor being crushed down, it left millions of pieces of floating rocks. The jade-scale monster was in shock looking at his powerful attack being crushed to nothing. If it wasn't for the meteor strike standing between them it would be killed several times by now. Or maybe, the black-scale monster was just holding back.
The black-scale monster took this chance, and flap his magnificent wing which spans for hundreds of meter long. That one-flap was enhanced with mana, making it powerful enough to create a massive storm! It blew all the rocks away turning it into a vicious barrage of shrapnel, aiming to pierce through all other monsters like a thousand spear.
Suddenly, a tsunami comes from nowhere to sweep the oncoming shrapnel away. Emerging from inside the sea, an azure-blue scale monster appear. When one looks into it, it feels like looking into an endless sea. It raised both of its arms and caused a tidal wave to appear from both sides of the black-scale monster. Then it clasped both of its arms causing the tidal wave to crash to one another, swallowing the black-scale monster within. The scene looked like the time when Moses crossing the Red River. Except that, the water is rushing in instead of separating!
"That water... is not real water but conjured water. It created the sea using mana from nothing!" Again, Kim's eyes shone with bright light.
Despite the injury, the jade-scale monster decided to make its move. It spans both its wings and made an incantation gesture with its arm. Then floating rocks and asteroids start to gather above the sea and manifested into a 30,000-meter tall golem! The golem gleams with yellow lights and seems to be sentient.
"Earth is from nature. From nature comes life! I've been using earth crudely all this time" Kim continued to mutter to himself while trying to study the event happening before him.
The golem then punched downward toward the crashing waves of sea forcing it to open a giant hole. Within that hole, a giant black-scale monster is standing idly as if it is taking a break. Several meters before the golem punch hit the black-scale monster, the fist suddenly stopped in the mid-air. The golem was in shock and started to stagger a bit. It tried to force its fist through but instead, a cracking sound could be heard as its arm started to crumble down until its shoulder.
The black-scale monster eyes flickered as another monster with thick brown scales and broad wings rushing in like lighting. Its body is surrounded with red scars all over. The monster roared causing all planets and stars to tremble. Even Kim was affected by it. The moment it was closing in for a headbutt, the black-scale monster widened its eyes and grab the monster by its neck.
"Ares, why are you joining him? From all I know, you never had any interest for empty glory"
Ares only gave a cold chuckled and glared intensely at the black-scale monster. It tried to whip its tail to attack, but the black-scale monster spins around and threw Ares to the golem. The tremendous force crumbled the golem to pieces. Ares spat out a mouthful of blood. He was injured but still, showed a strong demeanour.
"I knew you were strong. But I never knew you were this strong. You are right, I don't care about the glory of standing on top. All I want is to fight you!" Ares continues to laugh crazily.
"Fighting me, with others?"
"Well, fighting you alone will surely be an utter defeat for me. Only like this, I can stand on the same level as you. You are the Emperor! And it's not just us!"
Ares spans its wings and roared. Then multiple huge vortexes appear around them. Within them similar being of various looks flying out from the vortexes. Although they emanate a weaker aura when compare to the previous six monsters. Every each one of them could easily crush an Alpha Cerberus with a single strike. And their number... more than a thousand!
"So it wasn't just six of you... everyone is going against me now huh...is this your work Helios?"
The crimson red-scale monster laughed frantically.
"You brought this all up yourself"
"All of you blaming me?!"
The voice seems slow but caused the whole galaxy to tremble. Even some of the monsters coughed up blood.
"I lead you, united you and protected you since the moment I took the reign! And this is how you repay me?! You ungrateful bastards! You only want to take my place"
"Ungrateful? We stand by you in every battlefield. Slaughtered all other beings in the universe. We were there. We were almost there to conquer the universe. Other beings have hunted us for so many years. This is our rise. This is our revenge. How could we suddenly stop and make peace with them? Does it matter if I want to take your place if you going to hold us down? Tell me, Emperor!"
"But some of these beings didn't do anything wrong. They even struggle to stand against their own. They want to live as much as we do"
"No other beings should breath the same air as us. We are dragons!"
The moment Kim heard the word 'dragon', his heart trembled in fear. His mind was in disarray. He couldn't believe that the monsters in front of him now are the mythical creature called dragons. He always heard how powerful dragons are in legend and folk stories. Even in games, he played. Before, he wouldn't believe their existence, but after the calamity, he understood that his knowledge was shallow. far too shallow. These thousands of monsters are probably the mythical creatures that stand above the pinnacle. Every each one of them. And the black-scale monster is their Emperor! He now understood how huge the universe it.
"From today on, I'll be the Emperor! Poseidon, Atlas, attack!"
The jade dragon and azure dragon unleashed their barrage of the earth and sea slamming down the Emperor. Ares shouted and causes the thousands of dragon to go into war. But this war is only against one mighty emperor. The dragon emperor. Helios stood directly in front of the sun which caused his scale to burn brightly. After ten breaths, nine yellowish-red fireballs bigger than the sun appear around him. He roared.
"Nine Heavenly Sun!"
All nine sun crashing down with tremendous force. Each and one of them was shockingly more powerful than the meteor strike. The sun was so big and powerful that some of the dragons were killed. Amidst the battle, only two dragons from the original six stand behind. One is white and covered with elegant scale. It seems to be gloomy. Another one is grey and emanated an archaic aura. Both of them stand by as if they didn't agree with the fight.
The Emperor who was still standing in his place let out a shocking roar with intense violet glow shining from his body.
"Stellar destruction, Cosmic ray!"
Violet light rays shoot out from the Emperor body piercing through thousands of dragons and killed several hundreds of them. The rays fly into the starry sky, and a continuous explosion could be heard from far, causing a tremor to the whole galaxy. Amazingly, Earth was still intact while other planets were on the verge of crumbling. Out of curiosity, Kim found out that Earth is covered with a protective layer of mana. As if it was an egg yolk covered in it its shell.
The battle continued on and on, and Kim didn't waste a single breath to observe everything until one point... when the archaic-looking dragon come forth and move his hand in a gesture. Emperor froze in his place with his pupils widened. He struggled to even speak.
"Chronos.. you..."
"Forgive me, Emperor" Chronos then glanced toward the white dragon.
"Minerva...did you... foresee this?" The white dragon didn't look at the Emperor and glance sideways.
With ancient voice "Hurry, the Emperor is powerful enough to break my domain in seconds..."
Six of the dragons then surrounded the Emperor and fully unleashed their mana. Then six-giant black pillars emerged from above and thrust through the Emperor four limbs, and his two wings. Then chain constructed from mana and imbued with various elements of fire, nature, sea, and others started to bind the Emperor.
"This bind will suppress your mana. Only external mana could break it. Each pillar was imbued with our will. They will form a spirit that will become the guardian of your seal. No one weaker than six of us would be able to break the seal."
The Emperor didn't even care about Helios and glared toward Minerva. Minerva continued her silence as if struggling to find her word. The emperor nodded and only keep his silence. Helios put on a grin and roared.
"Today the Emperor is Helios!"
Other hundreds of surviving dragons left bowed down to Helios including five of them. They then rise, and together with Helios...focused their mana towards the black pillar. The emperor was shoot down toward Earth like a meteor.
Suddenly, Chronos the ancient-looking dragon look into Kim's eyes as if he was able to sense Kim. Kim's body shook entirely due to mana pressure emanating from Chronos. Although not as domineering, it was still powerful enough to cause Kim to gasp for air. Suddenly, everything went dark. And Kim heard a voice in his mind.
"Did you see enough?"
The voice sounded ancient.
"What... was that?"
"No need for you to know now. Eventually, everything will be clear to you. Be prepared as another war is coming."
"War? What do you mean by war? Who are you?"
"I'm an old friend of your master. This is only my will, but I hope that this blessing would be a good fortune for you. I have no control of the guardian, but for someone who is selected as his apprentice, I'm sure you are capable to pass its trial. Go now, and free your master" Kim has many more question but the voice started to fade away.
"Wait! Who is my Master?!"
He shouted times and times again but he couldn't hear any voice. Not even his voice. He felt like all his sense has gone away.
Suddenly, in Kim's mind a voice...
"So, he's not your master?"
"I don't have one"
"I see... well ciao"
"No, wait!"
Then a loud ringing sound gradually becoming louder. A blinding white light flashed through Kim's pupil making him close his eyes. By the time the ringing sound dissipates, so as the white lights. Kim then opened his eyes and blinked several times. The scenery abruptly changed.
Everything is lustrous green and full of fresh air. Even Kim felt his exhaustion from forcing himself to imprint the whole event in his mind to loss gradually. Kim is inside a forest that is brimming with mana.
Despite the refreshing and calm atmosphere, Kim suddenly let out a fuss and stomp his feet to the ground causing cracks to appear.
"Who are you calling my Master you old geezer?!"
A distance away, a monster perching on a tree is looking at Kim's behaviour with a strange expression. It let out an 'eh?' sound with its head slightly tilted.