"What… the… actual… fuck…" Esmond stood back, startled at the horrors before him.
His tamed beasts were covered from head to toe in blood, not a sight of flesh untouched by blood was present.
Esmond could see the grins on the direwolves faces, as well as the squawking falcon and cheery stallion.
Frigus was flailing around while eating his stack of beasts share for nourishment.
Even he wasn't spared the bloodbath and was shining like a crimson ruby dragon, a dreadful beauty that Esmond had to capture with his phone, enamoured by Frigus charming appearance.
.
Looking over at the pile of dead beast corpses, Esmond assumed the dozens of stacks were easily close to 50 plus metres into the air.
"Kak, kak, kak!"
"Neigh…"
"Kak, kak, kak…"
"'Woof!'"
"Roar!"
Esmond just watched without muttering a word as his beasts communicated with one another, congratulating one another on their battle form.
Rath and Ace were instructing the direwolves on how to make an impact within the battles, besides their sneak attacks since their power had grown.
Frigus also added his fair share of comments about what he could see from above, however Rather also had notes for him too since Rath felt Frigus wasn't precise with his attacks.
'I have spawn another set of demons… jeez *sigh*
Should I just go back?
Can't even get a damn kill in of my own with these bastards…'
Annoyed at the lack of freedom he had with them around, Esmond through about flying deeper into the Wicked Grove since it seemed to be vast.
.
"You guys stay here and continue fighting, I am going to head further in…"
Though they felt disappointed to be left behind, the Motley Mascots of Sicarius were excited for some freedom and ability to go nuts without Esmond watching over them.
Esmond opened unlocked a few Stat unit sets to make flying easier while looking for prey to hunt.
Looking around after flying away from the group for 50 or so kilometres, Esmond discovered a mountain range appearing within the distance and decided to speed over, curious about the large output of magic, fluctuating in the area.
Since Esmond had injected the Golden Sentry Serum, he had awakened two sorts of powers.
One that consisted of sun and creation, while the other was focused on destruction and vacuum of the void.
Unlike the character Sentry, Esmond had injected himself within the Spatial Ark Star World which neutralised some of the bad effects and rewrote the abilities to connect with Esmonds body and soul.
The Primordial body also helped the adaptability of the serum and abilities it brought, but it also awakened a major power Esmond never imagined to be dealing with.
His affinity with the Pure Dark Element helped Esmond identify the fluctuation energy had something to do with the Dark Element however it wasn't as purified as his elemental connection.
Wondering what it could be, Esmond sped up his speed while scanning the surrounding space to find some cave or entrance that could lead him deeper into the ground.
.
A small cave entrance which seemed to have caved in on itself was the only option.
Esmond flew towards the cave, smashing it apart with his exceeding amount of strength, Esmond quickly entered the underground cave network.
With no light underground, Esmond thought about activating his armoured suit for some light, however his body adjusted instantly as if it loved the coldness of the dark.
'The other half of my power…
Interesting…' Esmond thought while noticing his body adapting to the emptiness around him.
Heading deeper and deeper into the caves, Esmond felt the Dark Element was increasing much more than he initially expected.
The level of power was far denser and suffocating than Esmonds but the closer he got to the power, the more his body adapted and improved to deal with it.
Noticing the Pure Dark Spark within the Artus Anima Star brightly fluctuating and absorbing the darkness in the surrounding space, Esmond understood whatever was down at the bottom of the caves was definitely terrifying.
Esmond didn't need to wait long before he got his answer…
.
"Hmm? Someone has finally come to pay a visit…?
Huh…? Oh… this is… quite the spectacle… isn't it… Kekekikihehe!!" a bone chilling voice radiated through the halls of the caves, sending cold sweats down Esmonds face, as a deep wave of murderous aura came in his direction.
There wasn't much he could do at this point other than continue unless Esmond wanted to die a quick death, so he fastened his pace navigating the tunnels until Esmond reached a large opening.
It seemed to be the place with the densest Dark Element in the air, so Esmond instructed the highly evolved Rian to start absorbing like madmen.
Improving along with Esmond, the Rian within Esmonds body had advanced to the point they were processing information for Esmond like a supercomputer within his body to help him out at times.
Like the time in the research facility, the Rian were able to transmit all the information about the working process of the laser instruments and functions it was inputting onto the materials rather then Esmond having to inspect closely with his powerful vision.
.
In the far distance of the large open space underground, Esmond noticed a large throne sculpted from bones of various beasts, monsters and humanoid species.
Easily stretching up to 30 or so metres tall and ghastly wide, the bony figure sitting atop of the throne was staring his cold dark eyes at Esmond, trying to examine the soul of the man who didn't cower before his figure.
Not even for a second did Esmond blink in the showdown with the bony skeleton who was draped in dark fabrics that covered most of its figure.
"… An interesting specimen, aren't you?
An affinity with eight elements and half… are frighteningly close to the source of the elements…
Why are you here?"
The skeletons eyes burned brightly like a white dwarf star, with unimaginable pressure befalling Esmond who felt the weight of the world falling on him.
"… Can't I come visit my neighbours for some tea?" Esmond had a cheeky smile on his face.
He'd adjusted to the weight of the pressure within a couple seconds, but the skeleton wasn't giving Esmond the time of the day and increased the weight by tenfold.
.
"Speak the truth… or expect death…"
The skeleton, while speaking slowly, was dead serious about the threat it'd just given.
Esmond was becoming more stronger by the second he stood in the depths of the caves, absorbing the preciousness energy the skeleton long needed for its existence to continue.
"… Can you tell me why there is such a dense Dark Element atmosphere within the air?"
"… Tell me… do you wish to take it?" the skeletons tone was threatening right now.
It'd been within the caves for a longer period of time than Esmonds entire lifetime in its opinion and it wasn't about to let someone take away what was its own.
"…Well… if I can make a copy of it then I think that's better.
I can leave the original with you and take the copy for myself.
How about that?" Esmond didn't see any harm in explaining his abilities to a harmless skeleton which didn't seem like the most sociable person; therefore, Esmond wasn't concerned about others finding out about his abilities.
"RIDICLOUS!!
SUCH SKILLS!!
It's impossible!!" the skeleton screamed at Esmond in reply once he heard the explanation of Esmonds powers.
"… Don't know what to tell you…
Your more than welcome to come have a look if you want…"
Esmond had no clue if it was possible to take people out of Stovi into the space, but he was prepared to try with the skeleton.
.
"Why… would I ever think of following you?
It could be a trap that might lead to my death?"
"Ohh please…
You know how hard it is to find such simple and honest people like you.
Hell, I want to employ you by my side if I can…" Esmond straight up told the truth to the skeleton, complaining about his woes from parts of his previous lives.
The skeleton said nothing the entire time, only listening to Esmond explain the suffering and unending pain each lifetime brought.
.
"…
I thought I was a miserable existence…
But you...
…
Fuck…
What kind of eternal most of grief and suffering are you…?"
"… *Sigh* Tell me about it…" Esmond gulped on some Spirit Scotch made within the space while lying down on some furniture he asked some drones to bring over from the Spatial Ark Star World.
"What about you… Skelly?" Esmond had no clue what to call the skeleton and since his naming sense was horrible, an equally disastrous name came out for the ominous companion Esmond had made.
"… Only a portion of the chaos you experienced, Human…" thankfully the skeleton found no issue with the name and actually liked the friendly name from Esmond.
Skelly had long forgotten his human name, but remembered he served an empire not too far away in his eyes from the caves.
Esmond assumed Skelly was talking about the Trika Empire, so he listened attentively since all information related to the Empire was important.
Nedric had even sent some of the PD-01AG droids to run espionage throughout the world of Stovi and set up safehouses plus created organisations which could provide help to Esmond.
The information coming in was good, but since the organisation hadn't developed long enough, there wasn't the most reliable news coming in.
.
"Long time ago, I served my beautiful Empire with everything I had.
Being a powerful Mage and one that had brought the Empire ahead of its rivals within Magic development.
At one point I was ready to establish an academy for the neighbouring Empires and Kingdoms to create healthy relationships with them and my Empire however the greed of a powerful few, led to me being labelled a traitor…
Even my loved ones weren't spared…"
Esmond could hear the grief in the voice of Skelly was obviously wallowing in the faint memories he had left of the loved ones long gone.
"How did you get here Skelly?"
"…Fighting and surviving my way till I found something that could help me build up my strength… however its now made me reliant on the energy to survive…
Tch…
Can't even get my damn revenge…"
Skelly had enough of his self-exile to the caves, never expecting to be stuck within the caves for over two millenniums.
"What if… I help you get revenge…?
And also help you escape here… would you join me?"
Esmond could tell from what he'd seen around in the open space, there was more than enough knowledge here to teach his people within the space.
While he could leave the task to Carter or the others to search through his memories and record the knowledge from the textbooks I read, it would take quite the time before everything was translated over into the respective languages for everything to be able to read and use.
In the meantime it was easier to have Skelly educate the residents and work with the scientist while also developing it's skills much later on once Esmonds past memories were recorded.