746 [Bonus chapter] The Different Effects Of My Upgraded Class
[Strength effect: You will pay one hundred thousand souls each time to use it. It will add superhuman strength to a part of your body for an entire day. The amount of strength added differs according to the amount of souls sacrificed. The part affected will be randomly selected. You can sacrifice more souls to add another effect to a randomly selected part of your body. You can pay one million souls to get the effect on the part you desire]
[Speed effect: You will pay one hundred thousand souls each time to use it. It will increase your speed greatly, or the speed of items you are using, or the speed of your rides. The effect is randomly generated, and it will last for one day. You can pay one million souls to add the effect to the desired target]
[Healing effect: You will pay one hundred thousand souls each time to use it. It will heal you, the forces around you in certain areas, far away single targets, or far away targets in certain areas. The effect is randomly selected. The amount of healing and its duration will depend upon your sacrifice souls. You can pay one million souls to select one of these effect, or increase the area affected by this effect]
[Resurrection: Pay one hundred million souls directly to gain a free ticket out of death. Can be used anytime, anywhere, and under any circumstances. It will be activated automatically when you die, reviving you again]
[Upgrading the class level to reach level one thousand will open the next stage of the class for you]
Damn fierce! I sucked a cold air of breath while rereading this new class of mine.
Damn! Each time it got evolved, something awesome would be added on. That resurrection ticket thing was out of this world!.
Was there something like this in the universe? Damn! Now I could freely fight brutal monsters and enemies without any fear.
But the price tag of it was really scary! One f*cking million souls! Dammit! I spent all this time just to get over one hundred million!
How long would I need to get such a number again? How many brutal battles I'd get myself into? How much time would pass until I'd secure this ticket?
I felt temptation, great and irresistible temptation to use the souls I got to get this ticket right now.
"Not now," but I hardly controlled myself, "I should get more fallen gods or dragons, or best to pay for the debt I had."
I could only sigh for letting such a precious thing be delayed for later. But that didn't mean other effects were useless.
That magic thing… Damn! I truly lacked something like this! But what would it exactly do? Would it add elemental magic to my attacks? Or would it grant me magic like a real magician?
I had to wait for a real fight to get this tested. As for the strength part, I knew what I should do with it.
"I'll use you baby on my right arm, sacrificing one million souls to let me hold that damn glaive at last!"
I had this long dream of holding that insanely heavy glaive and walking in the battlefield with it. I imagined myself moving fast after activating the speed sacrificial effect, surrounded with a mighty shield made by sacrificing one million souls, and holding my scary glaive with my right arm and using my technique with the left.
Damn! It was so damn cool!
I doubted even those mighty islands with their big shields would stand against my glaive.
And if I could add magic elements to it, it would be awesome! Splashing sparks of fire and electricity, giving anyone a scare!
Sigh! I was now feeling so much impatience than ever to go back right now and resume the fight.
But I just got two things done! There was the last thing remaining for me to do.
That monster, the scary and dark realm monster I forced to take in and seal into my tattoo at the back.
I had to let it out and test how it would react.
But how should I do it? The simplest idea was to just release the monster out using release and as such words like summon and call.
Would this be enough? Enough to control such a beast?
I doubted it!
Such a berserk wouldn't get controlled just by a single sealing technique.
What if the second technique would release it free? What if the first technique only worked to seal it inside my tattoo?
What if it got out and couldn't be returned?
Damn! There were lots of variables to even make a decision about it.
"Think… I need to find a way to summon it and it won't turn on me… A way to forcefully listen to my words…" I kept muttering this to myself before a crazy thought popped up in my mind.
"I… Can absorb the contracts I'm using into the words… Giving the technique indirect power borrowed from the system…" I paused in front of this idea, as I started to seriously consider it.
How could I do it? Using contracts and linking them to my words wasn't an easy thing to do.
My technique could affect things in this world after it got completed, not while just using it. "So… I have to make up many techniques to bring as many contracts as I can… Then I'd integrate these techniques into the words I'm writing, ending up merging all of them together to form my final technique."
So on the surface it would be one technique, but in fact it would be more.
"But… How many?" I stopped in front of such a question while trying to get an answer.
The technique of mine could use eleven words, and so I had up to eleven techniques to use.
"Each word would form a smaller sized ball, meaning its power would be weaker… And I need few to be left for the words of summoning it back to my tattoo just in case…"
I was lost in deep thinking for hours! I didn't feel myself until a message came from Silverlining, informing me of the good news.
747 Ten Billion Coins!!!
[Cheer up! The three sovereigns decided to help you with all the weapons you want regardless of anything else]
[That's great! Send me a price list then and I'll order something big this time]
[They are curious to see how much you will spend this time. But they agreed to join efforts together and form a single list for you. I hope you don't mind it]
It seemed they were slightly afraid of other sovereigns if they knew about this. So they decided to make a single front, standing behind me. [I have no objections to it. Send it over]
[Right away!]
The list that appeared next took my full attention, distracting me from what I was thinking about just now.
The list contained weird names, mostly grenades or weapons used to throw out large sized and very deadly grenades.
Next to each weapon came a simple description of how to use it. I kept reading this long list of hundreds of items, while ignoring the price tag next to it..
They weren't this pricey! Most of them were sold in batches of hundreds for a single silver grade bone of mine.
But I knew the drawback of these weapons; they were all consumables! I realised now why the Toranks didn't open trade freely with anyone using these weapons.
They took a large amount of resources and time, plus lots of talent and great effort to make them. And at the end of the day, once used they would be lost.
It was a double edged weapon indeed. They were cheap but one had to acquire an immense amount of them.
[I want a million of each item in the list] I sent such a big demand from the start, without butting around the bushes.
They were useful, and even some would donate in an area of half a mile radius. Those were considered the most pricey of all, coming in groups of ten for a single silver bone of mine.
But I got tons of these bones. Spending just ten million of them wasn't an issue for me.
I had lots of wars going on back on Earth. After the dust would settle with my victory, I'd go on a wide spree of collecting bones.
Something told me this time, my gains would be like never before! I wasn't just going to collect the bones from tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of dead forces.
I was going to collect bones from many elites! If I was lucky, I might even get myself a few of those royals.
Their bones must be unique, right?
But I knew the task of killing these royals would be the hardest part in controlling the capital. That was why I was doing everything in my power to raise up my strength.
I wanted to increase my odds of killing them.
[One million… Damn! I never expected you to ask for such a big deal! You do know this will cost you slightly over ten, no… perhaps thirty million pieces of silver bones!]
[I can still pay in higher grade bones, right?]
[Oh… That will work as well. Let me return and do more math to know how much of your higher grade bones are needed]
[Ok, when can you deliver?]
[Such a high order? Hmm… It's great I'm in the main world of our race right now. Let me check and return to you]
[Ok]
Well, I got to think about my techniques and how to absorb the contracts before doing anything else.
As he had to do his stuff, I started to navigate through the market, looking for special types of contracts.
"Hmm… A contract that can be used over a large batch of people? That might save me a lot of time when dealing with races, humans, warriors, and others who got controlled by me."
The first special contract I found was this. It came with a high price of one hundred million coins, and could bind one million at one go.
There was another with a one billion price that could bind ten million in one go. I liked it! Not to mention that the contract was a very high grade one.
I instantly bought ten of these contracts, and five of the higher price one. I was in need of such contracts that would free me from the boring task of signing contracts in batches.
The next unique contract I found was a very binding one, even gods couldn't break it easily. I read its description before dropping the idea of purchasing it.
"It requires the full cooperation of the other party, something I can't guarantee in this monster case."
I needed something to be forced over the monster when it would be first summoned. It should be in hazy status, and I had to use the best of this moment to my advantage.
"Bingo!" Just after scrolling through a few pages, I finally found something interesting.
[The infection contract: Earth grade contract. Used only by one owner. Can be repeatedly used by paying a high form of energy as a price. Needs the target to be close by, not in his sane or best condition, best to be drowsy or poisoned. It will infect the soul of the target, forcing him to sign the contract. It's not a loyalty contract, but a safety contract that will have fifty percent probability of success and failure for the target to answer to your orders]
I read through its description and nodded in satisfaction. But when I read its price, I got scared!
"T… Ten billion coins? Damn! That's almost half of what I got so far!" I planned to buy a few of these contracts, letting each one be absorbed in one technique.
But now I could only buy two at most.
"No problem… Let's clean the messy inventory I have first."
If this happened to anyone but me, I was sure he wouldn't get a clue about what to do. But I was different.
748 Starting To Make The Ultimate Summoning Technique
I got tons of things in my inventory with no usage for me at the present moment. I had monster materials, gears, and even scrolls that had no value for me.
Instead of looking at such astronomical prices and crying in regret, I should start selling the tons of things I had and get the money I needed.
If not, then I'd take a risk to go back and clear the inventories of those dead already from the Hectors' elites.
They should have tons of useful things, pricey and cool things for others, useless for me.
But when I started the selling spree, I got the confidence to get enough to buy two or three more of these contracts at least.
The sheer amount of these useless things were really scary! For example I got millions of monster materials, each would be sold for a hundred or few hundred coins at least in the market.
And this was considering the market price of direct sale.
"It's better to place them all in auction," I paused after going on for a few minutes. I got time, and waiting for an hour or so wouldn't be a problem for me..
I had to get that contract in the end. So instead of directly selling these items in one go, I placed them in auction in batches.
This would bring more profit to me, securing the money I'd need for these contracts.
It took almost six hours to clear half of my inventory. During which, I secured enough to buy two of these contracts.
And that wasn't including the last batches that would take an hour to finish!
"Two more hours then, and I'll have enough," I muttered while deciding to continue selling these things.
By the end of the second hour, I got more than enough to buy four more. Some items were sold at triple or even more the initial price the market gave me for the direct sale.
That was daylight theft!
How could the difference be this big?
I sighed while closing my inventory interface and waited for the rest of the auctions to end during the next hour.
I started thinking of the words I'd use for my technique to absorb the power of these contracts.
The contracts I'd buy were going to infect those around me and force them to be neutral to me and with fifty percent possibility of following my orders.
This might pose a problem if I did this using a single contract. But I was going to use more than one, so it wasn't a big issue.
Only if my luck was bad then the order wouldn't get executed.
As to bind this contract with my technique, it was going to be done this way.
I'd use this set of words: Contract, Bind, Link, Attach, Word, Absorb, Execute, Enforce, Infect, Force, and Sign.
These were the best words I thought of. First the Word would be changed by the word I was going to use in my final technique.
So these preparatory techniques would absorb the power of the contracts and link them to the word I was going to use in the final technique.
It didn't matter which word I'd use, as this technique was going to link the contract to it. Then I'd use this word to replace one of the words written in the final technique.
This was the brief description of what I was going to do. As I had an hour left for the auctions to end, I started to first buy five contracts.
I could now buy eight contracts, and with the remaining auctions I could buy one up to two more.
So if I wanted, I could make ten contracts and get linked to ten words. This might look like a great idea.
But what if this trial failed? What should I do then?
That was why I decided to cut the number of contracts into half. I'd go for five words first, before doing anything else.
So now it came down to the selection of words for my final technique.
I already decided to use words like Bind, Summon, Ressumon, Slave, and Obey. These were the core five words I had in mind right now, and I decided to start with them.
I started with Bind first. I took out a contract, signed it, before I placed it in the middle of the space my technique would be formed at.
Then I started to form my first technique.
I did this a couple of times before, so I got experience about what to do.
The first thing to do was to merge my two techniques first, then I used my blood and the thick arms to write and form the first ball.
It was formed nicely and then more balls started to get in shape. They all rose high up in the air, standing motionless in place while forming a circle around the contract.
"Form!" I finally wrote my name to make the technique complete. Once it was done, the balls started to move, merge together, and at this moment I grabbed the contract down on the ground using one of my arms and threw it in the middle of all this.
*Bang!*
A flash of bright silver light appeared when the contract passed into the middle of the forming technique.
It was a good sign. Yet as I waited down below, the technique kept releasing booming sounds and flashing lights, without getting done like before and formed a final ball technique.
"Something… Is missing…" I got this feeling after the passage of an entire half an hour without any sign of this getting done. And all of sudden it hit me.
I used this technique to merge the contract and absorb its power with a word. I wrote the word, but I didn't form it yet!
I had to form the word ball and then these two balls would merge again, forming the final form of this merge.
"Ok, wait for a few minutes then," As I got this inspiration, I started to form another ball using my arms.
749 Why My Glaive?
This time I had to just use a single word and merge my arms with it to form the ball. As eleven arms got absorbed into this ball, the ball was formed.
In the middle of its formation, the other semi-finished ball boomed in such a violent way again, releasing a gush of energy that hit that ball and then stopped it from completing its process.
"You want me to bring you two together?" After ten minutes of watching and without any new thing happening, I got such a feeling.
Without any delay, I moved two thick arms to move the two balls to draw closer from each other.
Before this, anytime I tried to get my arms close to any ball, it would devour the arms without exception.
But right now an exception happened!
The two balls didn't devour my thick arms and followed the will of mine, came closer, before finally merging together.
A brighter flash of red light erupted, before my two arms got devoured, announcing that the two balls had already returned to their initial violent form..
It meant the balls merged, and now the final ball was here.
"Damn! It's damn huge!" The final ball appeared after all the light faded away. It was big, much bigger than the balls that formed it.
Even if the two were merged together, it wouldn't even give size close to it. I got the feeling that the final ball got tripled in size, meaning this was going to be some hellish technique.
As the ball got completed, it started hovering over the ground by one hundred metre, silently waiting in place for other balls to get formed.
"If I used normal balls, this technique might not be stable," looking at the size of this huge ball and the size of the next unfinished ball I just formed made me think about this.
Things must be similar in the technique to give the desired results, and above all be stable.
It would be disastrous if this technique ended up crashing because I messed up building the basic units of it, then I got no one to blame but myself.
"Sigh, I have to sell a bit more then," as I reached this conclusion, I had to make sure I got eleven contracts and not just nine or ten.
I had to go all out this time, and I got one chance just to do it. Failure meant I'd have to wait for a longer time, later time, to retry out again.
In other words… There was no room for failure!
I placed more than enough items for sale and then started to work on the four remaining contracts I had.
I got five balls at the end, each was in a huge size, much bigger than any ball I got before.
Yet each one was smaller than the one before it. "Ok, time to buy the rest then," doing this took more than one hour, and that was enough for most of the auctions to end.
I got enough to purchase seven more contracts, but I only bought six. Getting one or two more wouldn't make any difference in the end.
Then I resumed making my balls, without any moment of pause.
"Done!" I looked in satisfaction towards the eleven balls I got formed, and they were hovering in such quiet and silence in front of me.
I knew it just needed to write down my name and it would get done. But before I'd do it, I felt something was missing.
"This technique will be linked to my tattoo, or form a new one, or what?" I hesitated to write my name and finish it.
I felt there was a missing piece, a crucial missing piece here.
"Hmm… This technique is used to summon the monster…" I started to think over the entire process once more, "I will call it out, and get control over calling it back. So… What's missing here?"
I knew on the surface, it didn't show any missing things. But my hunch kept warning me from fulfilling this technique now.
"Hmm… The only thing missing is the way this technique would link to me… Should I draw a tattoo then or what?"
[Use your glaive!]
Just when I was lost and didn't know what to do, the voice of my saviour rang in my head.
"Glaive? Which glaive?" I got three glaives in my inventory, "and why?"
It was weird! Why would I use a glaive when I should think about drawing a tattoo?
[Tattoo isn't going to do you any good! This monster isn't just a normal thing. You can summon it, but to control it, you'll need to exert might and enforce a threatening weapon over it to follow your orders, especially the hardest one]
"Which is?" I got curious and wanted to know.
[To get back, get back into the darkness and quit that confined space inside your tattoo. Whoever tasted such life, and coming out to this universe will always fight and resist with all its might to not get back!]
"…"
For sure this wasn't something I ever considered before. When I thought about it, it actually made quite a lot of sense actually.
"Ok," even if it was a dark realm monster, one that was sent here to kill me, I still felt little empathy towards it.
It was confined in such a state that it was worth more than death! If I got the chance, I'd try to make a deal with him.
[Don't! Even if he is sealed and bound by your techniques, his ability is scary! Never do a deal with him, or else you will get the short end of the stick]
"O… Ok…" Damn! This monster… It was damn scary indeed!
I just missed this trivial point and overlooked it. Out of my sympathy I thought about making a deal with it. But thanks to Sith, he reminded me of its deadly ability.
Being in such a position where my life would be threatened, then that monster should rot inside my space for eternity.
"Why my glaive then?"
750 Getting A Taste Of The Strength Effect
[Because if he tried to attack you, your glaive will hold him back]
"…"
I now knew which glaive he was speaking about. Out of the three I got, only one would be monstrous enough to hold back such a deadly beast.
Just as I was going to say that I wouldn't be able to hold it out of habit, I recalled the sacrifice ability I gained from upgrading my class.
Now I could add not even enough strength to hold that glaive with one hand, I could also arm myself with a shield of protection and even healing and speed effect.
"How can I use my glaive then?"
[Write down your name, and do what your balls did in the middle of forming the end balls. Insert your glaive in the middle of the forming technique, and stand your ground]
"This looks quite dangerous! Then I'll add a defensive effect as well," I decided to go all out during this process. How much would it cost me? Ten million souls at most?
But in the end I'd raise up my odds in getting this technique done. And if that monster tried to go loose or do anything funny, I'd have more confidence in dealing with it..
I opened my class interface and reread all the details about the new ability of it.
"I want to sacrifice one million souls and add a strength effect to my right arm," I started first with the strength effect, hoping to get a taste of how useful my effects were.
[You will need to pay one million souls to get this done]
[Are you sure?]
"Do it!"
[One million souls are deducted from your souls]
[One million souls are going to get sacrificed and enhance the strength of your right arm]
[The process will start in three… Two… One… Now!]
"Ahhh!"
The moment the countdown reached zero, I felt like fire started on my right arm.
The pain I felt was immense, and the worse part it was sudden. I didn't imagine gaining such power would come with such pain.
Gradually I controlled myself and started to first see what sacrifice really meant.
I was standing in the middle of an empty piece of the ground, surrounded with sand and few plants and trees scattered here and there.
But now I was engulfed in the middle of a big mist of greyish colour. The explanation was clear and simple, this was what the sacrifice meant.
I could see hazy silhouettes of the faces of those souls, flashing fast all around me in such great numbers, with masked faces and opened mouths like they were screaming.
Yet I couldn't hear anything from their wails.
At the same time, my right arm was surrounded with thick and dense layer of grey layer of energy, forming another glove above the rudimentary dark blue glove of mine.
I could see a thick connection between my arm and that greyish ball of wailing souls.
"So the souls are going to be sacrificed in front of me? That's…" I couldn't find the right word to describe what was going on here.
Brutal? Inhumane? I couldn't find the right word, but at the same time I only resigned to this result.
Apocalypse wasn't a merciful place where civilised ways of life would exist. I could only lament on their bad luck for ending up stored inside my class, and hoped that one day I wouldn't face the same fate.
The other remarkable thing about this was the time needed for such a thing to be over. I thought it would be done in a flash, but it took almost one hour to get the greyish ball around me to slowly fade away.
"Phew… That was intense!" I wiped out a few sweat drops over my forehead while looking at my right arm.
It looked the same, with not a speck of greyish energy left over it.
In fact, it looked like nothing of this ever happened.
I tried to close and open my fist to test the mighty strength I got, but felt nothing.
"Time to put it up to test," I had to test what just happened. I didn't have any confidence in myself to hold it, but I summoned it anyway.
*Boom!*
Once it appeared, it fell on the ground and landed heavily with such a loud booming sound. I looked at this monstrous glaive and watched the deep groove it created with its edge.
It was heavy and sharp enough to dig almost a few metres in the ground. I looked at its handle that was just popping outside this groove and sighed.
"Please work," I paid two million souls out for you, and endured such torture all this time for you.
I extended my arm and clenched it firmly over the shaft of it. It felt cold, but once I tried to move it, a weird whistle appeared while it moved in such a beautiful arc in the air.
It looked amazing while being held and tamed in my hand. I looked at it, waved it a few times while feeling zero of the pressure it exerted on me before.
Damn cool! That was the thing I had in mind when I watched the beauty of this baby.
Each time it moved, it created such a whistle, as if it was cutting through the air directly, challenging anything standing in its path even if it was emptiness.
Next time I was trying to smash anything with it, to feel if it would return to its berserk status or would be docile like now.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
During the next half an hour, I kept running, jumping around, hitting anything that I could find even if it was the ground itself.
And with each hit, a massive explosive sound would erupt, and the thing I hit would be smashed to pieces.
It was annihilating anything that stood in its path, even the ground itself! I left behind deep grooves and holes caused by my baby.
751 [Bonus chapter] Such Greedy System
With each hit, I tried to assess the effect and recoil I'd feel. And I got nothing! I felt like I was holding a feather, hitting everything as if it was a fragile slime.
It felt amazing! Holding such a deadly baby in my arm and feeling zero pressure at all.
"I'm looking forward to adding lightning and fire effects to you," I thought before I decided to delay such a show for later.
I wasn't going to fight here anyway. I just needed to activate the other effects and get myself ready to finish that technique and call forth that bastard.
"I want to sacrifice one million souls and add a speed effect to my body," I decided to use my body as the target of the speed effect.
I could add such an effect over myself, my items, or my ride. I didn't use it over my chariot as it wasn't needed right now. This wasn't a big fight between me and an army, but a fight between me and that monster.
I thought about adding a speed effect to my glaive, but refrained from doing so. My glaive was already fast and light at the moment thanks to the strength effect.
Besides, I didn't know what the effect of finalising this technique would be over my glaive..
So I selected to enhance my body, and again I was surrounded with the same ball of greyish energy and the old pain returned.
This time I was ready for it.
"Come," I kept gritting my teeth while the influx of the sacrificed souls was going fiercely towards my body.
I was covered with the same greyish layer that once surrounded my arms, yet this time it was mostly focused over my legs.
At some point, I couldn't stand up right, had to lean over my glaive to stand erect.
It took one hour again to consume the one million souls. And right after that, I felt nothing new about my body or legs.
"Let's test it then," I held my glaive tightly with my right hand, before thinking about running forward.
My speed already was subpar, with no equal in my friends. But when I tried to run, it felt like I was floating on air, not moving but directly flashing.
I looked behind and all I saw was a series of afterimages. That was damn cool! I was moving like the wind, even faster! Might be rivaling light itself!
How cool was this?
"Speed is done, now it's time for defence," I started to activate the defensive shield next, forming a semi-transparent greyish bubble around myself.
It didn't look like much, only surrounding an area of close to a few tens of metres around me.
The weirdest thing was the healing effect. I chose to heal an area around me, ending up covering a distance of tens of miles with a green bubble.
The funniest thing was that my forces fighting all over the place near me were affected in this bubble. I could see lots of green wisps rising high in the air as a sign of too many getting too much healing effect.
[You got enough healing power to remain for one day] the system sent me this message before rapidly changing it after a few minutes. [You got less than ten hours to use healing effect]
Damn fierce! Healing such a large number of people in such a wide stretch was a pain! It exhausted the storage of my healing to change in a few minutes from a day down to a few hours!
That was insane!
Of course it wasn't a surprise for the healing effect to be depleted in less than half an hour.
"Let me check the details again," I didn't like this! If every time I ended up losing the effect of healing then it meant losing one million souls! No, it was two!
"I can increase the area of effect… Can I also decrease it? System, I want to activate the healing again, this time I want to limit the area of healing to be a few tens of metres around me."
[You can pay extra one million souls to have the area decreased to the area you desire]
[Do you want to do it?]
What other options did I have? "Fine, take one million extra souls, greedy system!"
[One million souls are deducted to activate the effect]
[One million souls are deducted to make the area range as desired]
[One million souls are sacrificed for the healing effect]
In just a few seconds I lost three million souls! It was three million souls! I knew I'd take hours to gather up such numbers, and I needed such a deadly war like the one I was having right now.
But being a tycoon had its perks as well. In just half an hour I used the same ability twice and paid even more than the first time without batting an eye!
This time the area of healing was almost close to the border of the defensive shield. And it didn't reach any of the surrounding fighting forces.
[What did you just do? The boys are asking for the same green aura to come again!] And just before I'd do anything else, this message came from Lily.
"Aura? Humph! What do they take my healing effect for?" I laughed in such a powerless way. Did they think it was free cabbage or something?
[Tell them to focus on training, it was an undesired side effect of a technique of mine]
[I knew you were the one behind such a weird phenomenon! I felt refreshed and more energetic like never before!]
[Really?!!] I asked in doubt, [I never felt like this!]
[That's because you aren't stressed out or tired leading the armies here to train!]
[Ok, go and continue the hard work then] this girl… Was she trying to show off in front of me?
As I closed the chat with her, I was ready to start finishing the technique.
Of course there were two effects unused yet, the legendary resurrection one and the elemental magical effect.
I couldn't risk using the resurrection for now. And the magic effect wouldn't help in completing the technique.
752 Did It Fail?
"Let's do it, pal," this glaive stood in my inventory for a long time. I tried more than once to hold it and failed, only ending up using it as a drop of mass destruction and a real killer weapon.
But at last I managed to freely wield it, and use it as my primary weapon from now on.
I looked up the technique. The eleven balls hovered on top of the ground, with their huge bodies and different sizes.
"Come!" I drew my name in the centre of this technique and then the balls started to react fiercely and rotated fast around the world.
"Get inside, get it linked to you, pal!" At this moment, I bent my knees and jumped high in the air, raising up my glaive in such a manner to break heaven itself.
Once the glaive touched the about to merge balls, a change started to happen.
First the techniques merged into a massive ball that hovered midair, with my glaive stuck into its centre.
Despite it being so damn huge, the glaive still had almost half of its shaft outside. I left the handle and fell on the ground, watching what was going on up there..
The massive ball up there was hovering almost one hundred metres off the ground, with sparkling flashes of red, black, and dark blue lights all the time.
Cracks would appear from time to time, flashing like bolts of lightning before vanishing and others would appear next.
The ball itself was rotating slowly, as if it was a beast on the verge of awakening.
And my glaive stood in the middle of all this, making me wait anxiously for the end result.
This wasn't just a simple technique, but was something major that would greatly impact my odds in the future battle.
So I waited down there, watching my glaive and technique hovering over the ground for almost an hour.
"Something is missing," again I had this feeling. The technique took a long time and nothing new happened.
[Use your blood] Again, my mentor appeared, [You have to link everything together. Cover up your glaive with your blood, and keep holding it until this is over]
"Keep holding it…" I looked up before snapping my fingers to bring my chariot here.
I wouldn't settle up hanging over the ground like a silly monkey and watch the world from there.
I jumped over my chariot with a single hit on the ground. I felt such strength and agility before whenever I upgraded my cultivation.
But this effect was temporary, and didn't last for more than a few minutes or mostly an hour.
But this time I got this boost that would last for an entire day, and I planned to enjoy myself during this time.
I held the glaive with my right arm, while with the other I controlled the merged technique of mine to take my blood over to the massive ball and this glaive.
I covered the glaive entirely with blood, even resulting in me getting soaked with it. The blood that came from my right arm wound was now running over part of my face and almost half of my chest.
I didn't care! I wanted this damn technique to be over!
*Rumble!*
Just when my blood touched it, the ball fiercely rotated, and the cracks of lights kept getting more frequent and dense. I felt this rumble coming from the depths of this ball, transmitted to my body through my glaive.
Then it kept rumbling like it got a heart beat or something of its own.
I felt like it was going to explode! "What's wrong? Why is it acting this way?!!" just during the past couple of minutes, it started to gush out lots of wind that fiercely assaulted my chariot.
I had to endure the wind and didn't risk activating the shield of my chariot, fearing that it would lead to a disaster.
[Don't panic! It's normal] Sith's voice was really reassuring. Just by saying this, I felt reassured and calm at once.
But what was happening here was far from being good! The ball kept expanding and shrinking, emitting dazzling bolts of light all around its surface, while the cracks kept expanding and vanishing fast.
And the wind it emitted became fiercer! If not for the big size of my chariot I'd be thrown away.
The ball continued to act berserkly like this until all of sudden I felt like an explosion occurred inside it. I stopped moving my blood over it since it started to act this way.
It already got stirred up by my blood and I didn't want it to end up exploding in my face.
Once that explosion occurred silently inside the ball, it started to finally shrink. I could feel my glaive vibrating fiercely, as if it was getting hammered by something inside.
It took roughly two hours for the ball to start shrinking, and it took another two hours until it ended up imprinted on the edge of my glaive, forming a black blue circle there.
"Is it… finished?" I retracted my glaive and led my chariot on the ground. Once my feet touched the ground again with a simple jump, I started to examine this circle.
"It looks… Like a stain over my precious glaive!" I was surprised to feel absolutely nothing while touching this circle.
It didn't give me any vibe of any kind, like nothing happened just now.
"Did it fail?" This was the first thing that popped into my mind, and just thinking about failing here made my mood worse.
I planned lots of things on using this monster. I planned to use it in the fierce and hard to win battle of the capital.
Without winning this fight, without breaking into the capital of the Hectors, this entire war would be lost.
The more I waited, the stronger my enemies would become. I gained such advantage early on when they were still weak and unprepared.
But starting from the fourth quest, paragons would start to unlock part of their powers. Not to mention the evolution of the quests and the monsters later on.
753 Summoning The Beast!
They were deep and unfathomable. Give such an enemy time and he would become scary.
Hectors weren't the strongest in the entire universe, but they didn't come in third place out of nothing. I knew this was my chance to secure this continent for good and with the least losses.
Failure here would have much more effects than anyone would imagine! All my advantages would be gradually lost, and I'd become on the back foot instead of them.
[Don't feel this way, it's a success!] Just when I felt so down and bitter, the voice of Sith reignited such a feeling in my soul and mind.
"Really? How come I can't even feel its presence then?!!" I wanted to believe him, really wanted to. But the facts were clear.
[It's due to its current status, it's in dormant status]
"Dormant? Is it in slumber or something? Will I wait for a longer time?" I looked at the edge of my glaive and waited for his response in anticipation.
[It's not in slumber, it's just dormant. There is a difference. You can activate it using your blood anytime you want].
"Activate it anytime I want?!!!" I paused, while trying to get what he meant by this, "do you mean this technique… Is it permanent?"
[Bingo! You now have a permanent seal mark on your back and a permanent summoning mark over the edge of your glaive]
"That's great!"
[Don't feel this happy too soon. First you need to test how well this technique is. Also you need to know this, without your glaive you can't summon that beast]
"I won't let my glaive away from my sight for even a second! Don't worry about that!"
[Idiot! I was speaking about your ability to hold it! Did you forget? You need to sacrifice souls to gain enough strength to wield it!]
"…"
Well, this might be a problem for anyone but me. Souls? Paying two millions to get this boost again? It wasn't that bad.
But the time for activating this boost which would take roughly an hour was the sole problem here. I wouldn't be able to take out the glaive and use it directly.
That meant one thing; I had to prepare the strength effect beforehand, before the start of any huge battle.
Or else I'd end up losing the chance to summon this monster.
[Stop daydreaming and thinking about useless stuff. Just drop your blood over your glaive and test how well this technique will work!]
"Ok," I looked around, "but not here for sure."
I was in a void place, but it was near to the training forces at the ocean and the crowded towns and cities at the paths in between the mountains.
"Let me go somewhere else," the closest and best place for me to train would be on another continent.
I instantly flew fast towards there, and took almost five hours to cross this trait.
The islands were densely packed with many humans and races fighting tons of monsters. I had to admit, the ability of these monsters to increase their numbers was something above my way of understanding.
I knew many days passed here, but the size of the monsters here was something scary!
When I passed the water surface and headed again to land, I found an emptiness and calmness there that wasn't in the ocean zone just hundreds of metres away just from the shore.
"That spot looks great," I didn't stop there at the shore and went directly towards one of the deep passes in between the mountainous region.
The place there was spacious enough for me to fight this beast again. It was also away from the shore by a good distance, enough to let the forces training back there not get into the middle of the upcoming heated battle.
I didn't hope for a battle to erupt, but I just was taking into account all the possibilities, starting with the worst of them.
"Come out!" I dropped my blood over that circle, while waiting for what was going to happen next.
Once my blood touched the circle, things changed abruptly! The circle shone in such bright scarlet red light before a thick pillar of thick red fog erupted like a fountain!
If this all didn't emerge my glaive, I'd have retreated back at once. But how could I get away from such a phenomenon?
I tightened my grip over the cold shaft of my glaive, while trying to endure such fierce fog that hit me directly in the face.
I was quite sure if I was looking at this from far, then I'd see a mushroom cloud, so giant to rival those of obsolete now nuclear bombs explosions, very bright red to rival the sky in the dying moments of the sun.
This went on for only a span of a few breaths, but it felt like it took days to finish!
"Well, you really came at me as a great surprise!"
The voice that came from the thick and dense red fog around me was slightly familiar. It was the voice of that bastard.
But… It sounded a little different! And I instantly realised what was wrong when it spoke again.
"I never expected for a human, a mere human, part of such a weak and useless race, to obtain such invaluable treasure! A direct access to the shadow world? Damn fierce and very unusual! I never thought those old and crazy fogies of that damn clan got an interest in one from this universe. And a weakling? That's totally unexpected!!"
It… Got more mature than the last time I met it!
The fog was slowly clearing and fading away into the wind. When I met this bastard before, it had the voice of a kid.
From what I heard about it, and per Isac's words, her race, the Selvators, fed up with such a beast for a long time, released it over many worlds to devour, yet it failed to grow.
754 My Little Turtle
It just grew for five years before its growth was halted. Damn! This bastard's size was already huge from the start! How big would it become then? Enough to cover up this entire continent or the ocean?
"You are now master, I get it, and you deserve to be. But you are weak. Even after gaining such immense power you are still weak. What do you think? I can mentor you on the dark ways of the shadow world. After all, my soul was formed by the purest darkest energy of the entire cosmos. I can teach you great things, show you ways you never imagined to even exist, let you wield power beyond your imagination. What do you say, little master?"
"First I'm not your little master," I wasn't yet able to see further than one hundred metres around me in such thick fog. Even if it was fading away, it was doing this slowly indeed.
"I'm your lord, call me this from now on," I stressed over this point first. Little master my ass! Damn this bastard! Who did he think I was? I'm a weak and useless human kid or what?
"Lord? That doesn't suit you… If you want, I can call you my dark lord then."
"Whatever," I shrugged, "as for your request, I have to drop it."
"Why? Dark lord, I may look like a kid, but I'm fierce! I lived over a hundred years in your world, but took thousands of years in the endless shadow dark world for my soul to get formed. Although I slept for a long time there, my conscience was awakened for a long time as well."
"Thanks, but no.".
"It's an offer you won't meet again. Please, please dark lord, please consider. My memories from that time are still intact and fresh like it just happened yesterday."
"No thanks, I prefer to explore things on my own."
This jerk! He was so desperate to make a deal with me.
"Damn! Why did you… Get smaller?!!!"
At this moment, the fog cleared enough for me to see its body. Before, at the time when I fought a bloody fight with it, this bastard was so massive it made me feel like it was an entire island floating on the ocean!
But now? Now it grew smaller, much smaller than before. Its body wasn't all clear to me, but from the darkness I spotted in the middle of this reddish world, I could tell at first glance that it got smaller.
I never expected that! I thought it would grow bigger or something.
Was maturing meant to shrink in size or what?
"Dark lord, I was young and weak to control my power, so my body had to enlarge to contain it. Right now I've gained lots of benefits from your shadow world, and so I can shrink my body to such an extent. It's not over yet, the more I stay in your shadow world the better I'll be able to control my energy. Can you let me inside again? Please?"
"Weren't you sealed in a lifeless place before?!!!" His words shocked me! This bastard… I felt such empathy and even thought of releasing it to this world to play a little.
"No, dark lord, I was confined inside your shadow world. Staying there is like being in heaven! You got an awesome pure shadow world with such a direct link to the immense and boundless shadow cosmos."
"Shadow cosmos… Ok, I'll get you back once we finish our task here."
"What task? Tell me and I'll do it right away!"
This dude… It was so damn impatient to get back to my shadow world and eat up my dark energy there without paying back!
Instead of feeling empathy, I felt intolerance to such an attitude!
I hated those lazy folks, who got everything ready, spoon-fed with success and power without the need to break a single sweat for it.
No pal, you weren't going back anytime soon, I could promise you that!
"Not right away," I rolled my eyes, shrugging as if this was out of my hand, "there is a big war right now going on. And I'll need your help with it soon."
"When is it soon?" This dude was just as sly as me, "if it takes too long, I can return to your shadow world and evolve there to get stronger."
Nice try, pal! You thought this was going to be a free lunch? No way!
"Tell me, what else can you do other than fighting and spreading death around? Such a mighty monster like you can do more than just killing, right?"
At this moment, I got to see the full picture of its body.
It was still huge, but it shrank by ten folds at least. Its body was towering like a small sized mountain, covered with its small tentacles that brought me trouble before.
But these tentacles got something new. They were shining and ending up with such globular bulging, all in dark red and blue colours, giving me the impression they were like ticking bombs.
"I can train other forces," it said, and at this moment I got to see its face for the first time ever.
Before, at that epic fight between me and it, I didn't get the chance to inspect its face or get a glimpse of it.
"You… Are you a turtle?!!" This was the first thing that came to mind when I saw its short and thick neck, hairless head that was like a turtle.
"I'm not a turtle! I'm a mighty dragon turtle!!"
"Dude, that counts as a turtle as well."
Once it heard that name, it got all pumped up for it.
I didn't know what was wrong with being called a turtle. It was a turtle in shape and in nature.
But it got a point. Unlike turtles, it didn't have any shell surrounding its body. It got covered with a thick layer of skin that looked so damn hard and covered up with these tentacles.
But looking at it from the sky, from my chariot, gave me the impression it replaced the hard shell of turtles with such thick and hardened skin and tentacles.
"I'm not a turtle! I'm a dragon! I will be once I complete my evolution, a mighty dark shadow realm dragon!"
"Ok little turtle," I kept teasing, "from now on I'll call you that."
755 Getting Ready To Start The Epic War
"No, dark lord… Please… I'll do anything for you, do anything in the world, but not get called with this stingy lowly name!"
"Lowly name? Humph! If you want it changed then, go and train my forces here. Show me your worth and you will get rewarded."
"Is it a deal?"
"Scram before I make sure everyone in the entire universe knows about your name, little turtle."
That jerk! He never let down the idea of striking a deal with me. It was a sly monster that would never stop trying to curse me and get me under its mercy.
"Ok dark lord, but please don't say that name again, please," he pleaded and something told me he was faking it.
"Just do well and let's talk about that in another time," I waved my hand before adding, "I'll inform the leading general of your presence and role in training the troops. Just be sure to not mess things up."
"I won't, I promise you my dark lord that I won't," it hurriedly nodded its bald head before suddenly moving towards the direction of the ocean..
This dude… It wasn't moving like normal people! It was smashing directly through mountains, crushing sturdy and huge sized rocks into fine dust without any trouble at all.
I sighed when I saw this. It was something great to have such a behemoth as my ride. Nothing would stand in my way on the ground from now on.
Not to mention it was very brutal when coming to the ocean and water surfaces.
From now on, the aquatic fights wouldn't be this hard on me and my forces.
Just letting my little turtle lead the forces, smash directly towards the enemy and crushing them with its brutal and cruel strength and inhuman skills… That was a scene I'd love to see a lot from now on.
I didn't forget how deadly this dude's attacks were. It used to summon a shower of fiery rocks from the sky, so deadly that it caused trouble for my shield back then.
Also its scary skill to divide the ocean, bring forth the rocks from the depth of the ocean was still fresh in my memory.
Its skills were deadly and scary. Hopefully they got evolved alongside its evolution and gained more skills as well.
As it went away, I sent a message for Lily to be aware of its presence. I didn't want her to get scared when such a behemoth would arrive, mistake it for a mutation in the aquatic monsters and order a full out attack on it.
[Are you sure this is a nice idea? You are saying this is a big behemoth!]
[You'll know when you see it. Also it's useful, so don't take a hostile stand against my little fellow]
[Little! Dammit Hye! I just saw it! It's… No way to be called little!]
[That's my way to call it] I laughed while boarding my chariot and followed it to the ocean.
With things going so smoothly with the little turtle, I had much time to observe what my little dude would do with my forces.
It took me almost half a day to get all my things done. I could move back at any moment and almost an hour would have passed on Earth.
It was the deadline I gave for the jumper. But frankly speaking, it was better to give him more time.
So I decided to wait here for at least ten more hours, examining the performance of my little turtle, check over other forces, and see how the new generals of mine were doing.
Lily listened to my arrangement. She distributed the new generals over enough forces to form a separate army each.
And they were doing great!
When I compared the performance of these generals with my friends, the difference was huge! And when I compared them in between each other, Legend stood on top of all.
This dude was really overbearing! I thought Lily was the most brutal and scary general I met so far. But watching how this dude dealt with his forces, it looked cute in comparison.
He didn't let the forces fight in the same way others did. He arranged his forces in much smaller teams, each composed of ten people, fighting the brutal monsters on their own.
He arranged them into lines, frontline fighting the monsters and more lines behind working to aid the frontline.
From high above, all I saw was a smaller image of a real battle. The arrangement of forces, their movements, the roles they played… All were like it was a real battle.
Yet this also came at the cost of many losses! I sighed when I watched the dead bodies piled on one corner, forming a big hill.
I saw such hills scattering all over the islands his forces controlled. For a second there I wanted to stop him from using such a hellish way to train my forces.
But when I thought about the brutal upcoming all out war they'd face, I decided to let him continue.
At least they wouldn't get startled or scared by how bloody that fight would be.
As I checked over them, I went down stairs and got a nice and peaceful sleep.
I needed this rest, needed it before the start of the next stage of this big war.
I spent almost twelve hours sleeping. It was such a deep and nice sleep, and once I got up I sent a message for Lily to start amassing the forces.
The armies of the generals training here should start to assemble and get ready for battle.
I told her to select five generals for each beast, selecting one group of them to move out now.
She told me that Brian would lead the first batch. This bastard didn't want to volunteer to fight the capital, leaving such a deadly fight for other generals to deal with.
I didn't object to that. After all the ones leading that final battle would be me, the little turtle, the jumper, Lily, and Legend.
756 Come Forth... My Valliant Armies!
I had enough roster to make me feel more reassured than before.
[They are ready] I gave them a few hours before Lily sent this message, informing me about their readiness.
[Great. Let them wait for my portals then]
Before leaving I got a wide tour around, checked over the current status of my forces, especially the little turtle.
This dude just stood on water, forming an extra island in this vast trait.
It stood there, shouting orders at his forces which Lily assigned to him. Well… He wasn't doing things like Legend, but he did something different.
For a reason, it got some sort of effect over the aquatic monsters, turning them all berserk! So its forces were fighting against very angry forces, making me inwardly sigh over how bitter they were.
Well… We were at times of war, and they were training my forces for a big fight. I had nothing to say, but later on might ask them to go slightly easy on the weak boys down below..
Or it would be better to arrange the training procedure and induce a little change. Instead of giving generals my boys to train as separate armies, it would be better to arrange this in a stepwise approach.
To do so, I had Lily to watch over the performance of each general, gather information about their way of training, and arrange them accordingly.
Then my forces would have to pass through this training pyramid, starting from the easiest generals way up to the most brutal ones like Lily, Lead, and the little turtle.
I sent this info for Lily to be aware of, and she agreed on the general idea, postponing the time for discussing it in detail for later time.
"Time to go back," after I did all that, I decided to go back to Earth.
Just as I went through the portal, I heard the scared shouts from the little turtles coming from far. This sly dude was keeping an eye over me and my actions it seemed.
Well, stay there lazy dude. If you didn't perform well in the meantime, I'd prefer to let you stay outside for much longer.
The place I stopped at wasn't that far away from my destination. But the first thing I did when I came here was to inspect the area around, making sure the place was void from any hostile forces.
And it was all clean and silent, making me heave a silent sigh of relief.
[Tell me your updates] I knew I didn't leave them for more than two hours, but for me it was closer to an entire day!
I started to get reports about the current status of the war. The situation back at the big basin I left didn't change much.
The two generals of mine were fighting everywhere with the help of others. I could only sigh when I heard about the insane number of monsters and other races that gushed out from dense portals there.
The entire focus for Hectors was now over that battlefield. It would be nice to have such news, as that meant the other beast places weren't that much defended.
But I knew that once I started the attack on the second beast, this pressure would be relieved greatly.
The Hectors wouldn't sit idle watching me getting over their second beast without trying to stop me with everything they got.
And they'd also realise that I knew about the places of the other beasts and was going to attack them.
"Won't it be better… If I went around and visited the other places before starting the full out assault?"
I left the jumper while he had two beasts yet to discover. But I knew the place of two beasts so far.
So instead of alarming them over one beast, why not go and attack the rest directly?
[I got the place of the third beast, it's two hundred miles to the north from the third one]
And the jumper just sent such great news back to me. I grinned when I heard that, and told him about my idea.
[Such a nice idea coming from such a sly person like you… I like it!]
[Keep looking for the fourth then]
[I believe it's in the capital as you guessed, but I'll look around first. Going there directly right now is risky. I'll leave it until you start the overall attack]
[Cool!]
I had no objection over what he proposed. As he went to look for the last beast, I first saved my location here before going towards the direction of the third beast.
I didn't risk getting closer from the basin area of the second beast, or else I'd risk getting exposed thanks to my eye-catching chariot.
It took me roughly four hours to reach the place of the two beasts. I saved their places and jumped directly back to the first beast location.
[I'm going to start the attack now. Get ready and keep as many forces there busy as possible] I sent this message to the two generals fighting out there for me.
The first stage was the most crucial moment in this stage. I had to force the enemy to not be able to move much force from the first basin to others.
To do so, I had my generals to go all out.
[Get ready, I'm going to start the real war now] I sent this to the jumper, and he just responded by saying he was still looking for the fifth beast.
"Come out now!" I instantly paid the price to open a large number of gates to lead my armies out.
The distance between my place and that second beast location was less than half an hour using my chariot, almost an hour or more by my ground forces.
But it didn't matter.
Once I opened the portals here, I instantly jumped over to the next beast location and did the same for it and the next one.
757 I'm Going To Hit The Capital
I opened the gates of hell over the three basins, and now I had to stand down and watch the show.
I knew I told Lily to send just one group before I left. But as I took a long time here, she would realise things must have changed.
Forces gushed out in large amounts without any hindrance at first. I followed the last batch I summoned and went after them towards the fourth beast's location.
It wasn't any different than the one I fought at before. Tall and towering thick layers of mountains with big passes in between at a distance of tens of miles apart.
But the only difference here would be the absence of such a large number of forces defending this place.
From far away I could see the interior of the basin, while a big beast was at the end of my sight. I could hardly see lots of forces there, but I couldn't tell what they were doing.
Yet I could easily guess what they were doing.
"Listen up," I took my horn out and thought about talking to the generals of the army here, "one army will handle the outer zone, defending the passes. As for the rest, two will scatter to defend any incoming hostile forces, and the last two armies will go directly towards the beast. Once secured, all of you will converge there at once.".
I was too far from them to hear their answers, but in the next hour, I jumped over the other two places and issued the same orders.
Like this, the five armies coming here would be arranged properly in case any hostile enemy appeared.
And just as I reached the second beast location and gave such orders to the generals there, I saw many portals flashing inside the basin, seemingly scattered all over the place.
"They are here," I evilly grinned, while staying back to watch what they would do.
They focused most of their portals near passes. I knew what they aimed for. They wanted to stop my forces from getting inside the basin.
But even with such a large number of portals, against my readily full in number armies, they got nothing to do but to get here and be killed.
This arrangement seemed great on paper, but in reality it was the worst thing they could do.
If I was in their shoes, I'd simply focus my portals in groups, scattering them inside the basin. My top priority should be to secure the most priceless asset I got; the beast far in the front.
But they seemed to be taken by surprise, not prepared for my sudden assault. And as I made sure the three places would be hit at the same time, it seemed they freaked out.
That was good news for me. They could bring as many monsters and weak forces here as much as they'd love. But in the end, they wouldn't be able to do anything major.
Unless they managed to pull part of their elites at the first basin, they wouldn't stand a chance against my forces here.
[I spotted a large number of forces coming together at the direction of the capital] the jumper suddenly sent this message after the passage of six hours.
During this time, I kept jumping in between the basins, and now I was stationed at the fourth and last basin the jumper discovered.
[Are you near the capital!] I was surprised to hear that. Wasn't he supposed to roam the areas around it first before going there?
[I searched everywhere in an area of a couple hundred miles radius with no result. That fifth beast… It's there at the capital. So I went there]
[Ok] it seemed the capital battle would be epic, [Are these forces a lot in numbers?]
[They are, but it seemed they are weaker]
[How so?]
[They came in such a disorganised manner, giving me the impression of being hastily summoned. If they got any fighting experience, or led by a general who has, then they should gather up first and not come at the capital in such disarray]
[I see… Keep watching them and keep me posted]
I closed the chat with him. Such a move was useless anyway. There were two options for these forces; either to get stationed at the capital for defending it while the capital's mighty fighters would be sent all over the basins.
Or they would be sent here.
Tactic wise, it was smarter to let them back at the capital to defend it. Sending the elite forces here would help to stabilise the situation on their side.
But this also came with a bigger risk. If the royals got frightened of my sudden attacks, they might guess my final target; their capital.
So they might just bring more fodders to buy time for them to better arrange their forces. If they did that, then hitting that capital right now was better than later.
The thing to determine this would be what was going to happen during the next hour. I kept my chariot flying over the fourth basin, attentively watching the bloody fights all over the place.
My focus was over the portals. In less than ten minutes, flashes of more portals appeared.
They were here! Either the elites or the fodders, that would be known in the first clashes that would happen next.
Just from the early clashes I knew which of the two possibilities they were.
"Damn fodders!" I rolled my eyes in such a helpless way.
So they decided to give up defending the beasts, and decided to gather their most capable forces back at the capital.
It was… A lame move! One that would only come from cowards, terrified to the bones.
"These royals… Legend has all the right to hate them," I sighed while moving my chariot. [Send me the direction of the capital]
[Are we going to hit it now?]
[I'm on my way to do this]
758 Getting Such A Warm Welcoming Party!
I got the location of the capital from the jumper. It was roughly three hundred miles to the north east from my current place. Such a distance would take roughly five hours from me to cover.
Midway though I stopped, went back to the second Earth world and informed Lily of what was going to happen.
"So we are going to fight in a day, right?"
It was two and half hours on Earth, but for her it would take more than a single day.
"Be prepared, wait for the portals to open," I said before turning my eyes towards the far away little turtle which was running as fast as it could to come towards me.
"And tell that lazy turtle to get ready. If he didn't perform well there, if anyone didn't perform well, I'd punish them greatly for that."
"Got it!"
I said my last words in such a fierce and cold tone. This fight didn't have any room for errors or slacking from anyone.
It wasn't just about putting their armies in an unfavourable situation, but it would risk me losing this entire war..
I was doing just great so far. All I needed to do now was to crush the walls of this capital, and control it in a bolt of lightning attack.
, If they called forth such useless forces then that meant they had other strong forces elsewhere, and needed time to call them here.
I just hoped by the time of my arrival, they wouldn't have arrived.
My best guess? These forces were scattered at other regions of this continent for defence. Or they might be on other continents, and that meant they asked for the help from other royals.
The least option would be calling back the forces stopping my armies in the south.
[Advance!] It was time for my armies stationed idly all this time near my capital to start their move.
I wasn't planning to just win this war using my recently trained forces. As they got their elites, I also got mine.
And this would also prevent any forces back there from leaving to aid the capital.
Just in less than one hour, I started to spot the large troops being called towards the capital. I didn't hesitate to use my technique to start controlling them while advancing, amassing a new army here.
"They are really weak," this became obvious to me by the time needed to control each one. The standard Hector soldier would take me two minutes to control.
The elites would take five minutes. As for these forces here, they only needed one minute at most to get controlled.
"Did they summon the normal people there to die as fodder?!!" I was taken back by this finding. There was no other explanation but this.
These folks… They weren't soldiers, they were common people!
"Don't blame me for throwing you directly in such a hellish fight. It's your cowardly leaders who did this to you, not me," I shrugged while keeping my control over all of them.
Each batch getting under control would infect the others, while I'd enforce them to sign the contracts before relieving my threads from the task of controlling them.
I kept doing this and that wouldn't match my chariot's insane advancement speed. So I had to slow down, taking almost three hours to cover a distance needing only one.
At the last hour, I started my final preparations by using my sacrifice ability.
My last group of enhancements expired during my stay back at the second Earth world. So I had to reactivate them, while adding the magical effect.
And this time I added two magical effects directly, while assigning one randomly as well to test this thing.
"Interesting…" I held my glaive and watched it as its blade and shaft was covered in thick layers of dancing arcs of lightning and deep orange fire.
Lightning and fire… These were the two magical effects I selected. As for the randomly selected one for me, it was earth.
It added much weight to each hit, adding brutal strength for my glaive in addition to its originally insane strength and weight.
I haven't put it to the test yet. But soon I'd do that.
I wasn't that far off the capital. But I didn't waste my time here to activate these effects.
I went back to the second Earth world and spent lots of hours there to get everything ready before returning back.
This was the optimum thing for me to do.
"Attack!"
"Kill him!"
"Shoot him down!"
But once I got out, I found lots of forces fighting the ones I controlled before. These enemies didn't look anything like the weak forces I controlled so far.
They were the elites! The mighty guards of the capital.
And they came in such a big array, enough to form an army of a few hundreds of thousand forces.
They didn't come alone. They brought many weapons, seemingly designed to shoot aerial targets just like my chariot.
*Boom!*
But what was my chariot? It wasn't just your normal aerial chariot.
The attacks that landed fiercely and swiftly over my chariot rumbled all over the place. My sight was blocked by thick layers of different colours of fire that erupted from different explosives.
They came prepared, used such violent explosions to attack me. But what was the end result? After the continuous attack for half an hour, my shield trembled faintly from time to time.
Nothing more!
I didn't stand idle during this time. In fact they just brought such a mighty army for me to capture. I stood silent, doing nothing but taking hits until I finally controlled most of these forces down below.
"Attack!" with a simple word of mine, the entire situation turned upside down just like that! The attacks all ceased at the same time, while the cries of shock, pain, and death filled the entire world.
When I got my vision back, I was surprised to see the initial few hundred thousands turn into millions.
759 Who Is This Turtle Again?!!!
They knew I was the lord of my kingdom, the sole leader of the entire armies attacking theirs.
Taking me down meant ending this entire war in their favour. But they underestimated my threads and technique so much to make me feel humiliated.
The loud cries came from the brutal fights that erupted after I gave my order.
I wasn't fazed by this development. The nearby forces with big guns were now entangled in brutal fights, and so the rear ones were trying to get closer to get better odds in hitting me.
This time I didn't wait for them to come to me.
If they were here for me, then it would be better to draw their attention away from the capital.
"Come," I laughed while slowly flying away, "if you dare," I shouted while flying in the opposite direction of their capital.
Before leaving I made sure to store this place in my staff. My plan was simple. If they were after me, then they'd not stop at anything to get me.
If I tried to run away like this, they would mistake this as a sign of weakness. It was an obvious trap for any cool headed leaders and generals.
But as they were pushed to the back of the wall like this, they fell directly into such a simple trap..
I kept flying for six hours, driving these forces slowly away from the capital. They just ignored any other forces I controlled back there, and went directly towards me.
Their weapons kept hitting me fiercely, and I didn't just stand idle and used my threads to control many of them.
But I didn't give them the order to attack. These forces weren't just big, but they were the best.
Taking them this far doesn't mean anything if they were allowed to return back. So I started building up my army, waiting patiently until we were far enough from the capital.
"Attack!"
Then I used my forces here to turn over their fellows, stopping them from taking a single step back.
"It's time for the big battle then," this was just a warm up. I took out my staff and jumped directly towards the location I saved before coming here.
"Come out!"
The situation there didn't change much. Aside from the big walls of the capital that were now flooded with tons of forces and weapons of war, there was nothing much there to speak about.
They got a group of a couple of hundreds of flying forts and almost a hundred islands there as well.
Thinking they got such a large number of paragons stationed here wasn't right. My best guess was that these islands belonged to the members of the royalties in the capital.
They brought everything they got out, and it was time for me to get my forces out as well!
Once I opened the portals, a large number of my forces gushed out in such enthusiasm and energy that made me frown.
Did they give them a hellish kind of speech before coming here? Or did they get threatened to do their best here?
"Gather up before going there," I held my horn, and shouted this order to all the forces that were running fast towards the capital direction.
Trying to start the fight in such disarray? That would be a great mistake.
They summoned and arranged their forces in such a way to give their forces confidence of winning.
And I planned to crush such fragile confidence using the sheer size of my forces.
Not to mention the biggest weapon of terror I got was my little turtle.
Letting my forces go out there and face the mighty and tall walls alone? They would die for sure! And this would be a wrong step to start this war.
Being ordered like this, they stopped and stayed there motionless for couple of minutes, seemingly in daze, before I gave another order:
"Gather up, gather up to your corresponding army fellows."
As they got this order, they started to finally move.
They got arranged into five armies, each was getting bigger with time passing. It took half an hour for each army to get almost one third of their forces.
Then my little turtle came with Lily.
Both came with large forces following them. The little turtle moved in slow pace, while raising up its thick neck as if it was showing off its forces.
As for Lily, the girl was more practical and conserved than my turtle.
She just hovered inside her chariot, while her forces were getting in place and taking up formation.
From the first glance, I could swear she selected the oldest and best troops she ever trained and gathered them here under her command.
They arranged themselves in such neat and swift fashion that made me inwardly sigh out of admiration.
This force… It could be best described as one of the most elite forces Ii had so far.
"What about my army?"
Just when the armies were getting out, the jumper came from far while shouting like this.
And hearing this dude's words made me roll my eyes.
"I didn't forget about you," I lied. All this time I thought about all my generals and who would lead the armies, but forgot totally about him.
This wasn't my fault! After all, he gave me the impression of being best suited to be a scout than a general.
Which scout would be a capable general?
"Where? Where are my forces?" he asked in such impatience, while moving his eyes around, "are they mine?" he pointed at one army, and I slowly shook my head.
The first army he selected was the elite one trained under Lily. this jerk! It was obvious this army belonged to who. Even a blind could tell!
"Then that one over there?" The next army he selected was my little turtle's army. Did he think of my turtle as part of the army and not its leading general?
Bad choice pal!
"Keep your dirty hands off my boys! They are mine!" before I'd even get the chance to say or do anything, my little turtle answered in such a thundering roaring voice.
This dude… It seemed to have superhuman hearing ability or something to hear the jumper's words from such a distance away.
"Who… Is that big turtle speaking out there?" The jumper pointed in the direction of my little boy, while speaking the unforgivable word.
"Damn you bastard! Don't ever dare to call me this again or else I'll come and chew your body and spit out your nakedness from any flesh bones!"
"Who is this turtle again?!!!" This time the jumper asked in such a fierce way, telling me a big fight would erupt between these two if I didn't do anything fast.
760 [Bonus chapter] Crushing Walls With My Glaive!
"Stop it! You two!" I had to shout, knowing that my little turtle could hear me from such a far distance away.
"He started it first, dark lord!" and that little turtle seemed to have a big identity issue for sure!
"Dark lord?!" The jumper looked at me while his eyes shone in a bizarre way.
"It's a long story."
"Make it short then."
"It is my follower," I shrugged, "and your army isn't there."
"Then where is my army?" The jumper took the bait, dropping the issue of my little turtle for now, "if you don't give me one now, I'll fight one of them over his army! And I'll go for that turtle first!"
"I'm not a turtle!!!" The loud shout that came from my little turtle was so fierce, enough to release a gust of wind all over the place.
"Stop being noisy," I rolled my eyes in the direction of the little turtle, "or do you want to stay here for much longer?".
"N… No, dark lord. Show some mercy, please…" this dude… I was really terrified to not go back inside my shadow world soon.
"Then shut the hell up and go and attend to your forces," I shouted before turning to the jumper, "and you, stop making trouble anywhere you go."
"Give me an army then," he crossed his arms, seemingly amused of getting me pumped up like this.
"Just shut the hell up!" I shouted in such annoyance before taking out my warriors.
An army of two million warriors appeared here. Once that happened, the jumper nodded in satisfaction.
"That's the army I'd like to lead."
, "Where are you going?" I stopped him from jumping back to his chariot.
"To lead it of course, what else?!" he paused, seemingly puzzled by what I just said.
"You aren't going to fight here," I pointed towards the direction of the big ocean, "you and that little turtle of mine will go there and fight."
"Ok, dark lord," the little turtle was the first to respond.
"Why is it allowed for you to call him turtle and I'm not?!!" yet the jumper left out everything and focused only on this point.
"Don't call me a turtle! I'm not a turtle!!"
"See? This is just unfair!" I knew the jumper was doing this on purpose.
"Do you want to get demoted? Deprived from your army?" I said in such a cold and threatening tone.
"I dare you to do it!"
"If you keep wasting my time and creating trouble for my people then I'll do it! I dare you to do it again!" I glared back at him while the two of us kept like this for a long minute.
"Fine," in the end, he resigned to my will, "just wait until I get my own forces. By then I won't answer you!"
"Stupid jumper! Did you forget about the contract binding you to me?" I laughed, and this time the light coming from his eyes looked so dangerous and fierce.
Yet he didn't even open his mouth to say anything. He knew this was true, and he was already within my grasp for eternity.
"What about the rest of us?" Lily drew closer with her chariot. This girl did great arranging her forces in such a neat way, taking a large space from the frontline.
"You will lead the charge," I said, "take down these walls. Ah, you, go there and create lots of holes in these walls, better to bring down large parts of it."
I looked all of sudden at the direction of the little turtle. It seemed to be thinking about objecting to such a role, but eventually it went silent, shook its head, and started moving forward.
"Attack!" I raised my glaive high in the air before giving such order to the entire armies here. "Go back to your posts, and we will meet at the centre."
Lily went back to lead her forces, moving them behind the huge body of my little turtle.
I didn't forget how it moved through mountains like they were made out of glass! Since then, I got an idea about how to bring down the large and mighty walls of the capital with the least losses.
It would go there, simply smash its body at the walls, crushing them into powder like it just did.
Then it would move around and attack another spot, then another. It would keep doing this until the big stretch of walls here would turn into a colossal honeycomb structure!
And I didn't stand idle and watched without helping.
My help came in such a new way that I never tried before.
I simply jumped off my chariot, landed on the ground easily before running fast, so damn fast towards the direction of the walls.
*Boom!*
I raised my glaive high in the air, while the arcs of lightning danced all over its blade and fire sparks started to ignite as wild fireworks.
It seemed my glaive sensed my desire to battle, and responded in such a fierce way.
Once I came closer, I jumped high in the air, got slightly over the top of the towering and thick walls, before landing with my glaive cutting through all the defences there like they were tofu.
*Boom!*
The sound of this hit was so loud and explosive, and it left a large hole behind. The remaining edges of the standing walls on both sides had dancing bolts of lightning and big fiery tongues rising up and eating all the forces on the top.
This hit of mine didn't only collapse a hole of hundreds of metres wide, it also assaulted the surviving forces on both ends of it.
It was… Overbearing!
With just a single hit, I took down part of the walls and killed lots of forces.
"Again!" and I liked it! I didn't stand in my place motionless as I moved fast, creating a long trail of afterimages that received all the incoming angry attacks from high above.
761 Adding Speed To My Chariot
But all they hit was empty air!
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
Coupled with my speed and my sturdy shield, plus the healing bubble that surrounded me, I got nothing to fear.
"Attack the forces, leave those two wrecking balls alone for now!"
Such a thunderous shout came from within the walls, seemingly one of the generals here was smart enough to think about this.
Trying to kill my turtle? That would be harder than reaching the moon!
Trying to kill me? They got to first catch up with my insane speed or stop my deadly glaive.
So trying to kill any of us was a mistake, as it was pointless. They'd better focus on the closely drawing forces, which were going to take advantage of all the gaps created by me and my turtle.
But that dude just underestimated my forces..
They weren't just common troops, they got baptised for long days under the hellish training Lily and others gave.
They received the first wave of attack bravely and pushed the frontline all the way towards the gaps up front.
They lost a lot to reach there, much more to just step a single foot across the gaps, and tons more before they secured areas inside.
Then the battle for the walls started, grinding souls and lives like they were dust dancing in the air.
I could only watch all this killing without even feeling a single speck of guilt or regret.
I started my life while running around, fearing from my shadow, and ended up leading millions of lives and watching them burn with such cold hearts.
Life… Was really hard to understand!
I kept smashing the walls while my little turtle also wreaked havoc on the other side.
We were expanding the holes towards the opposite ends.
"It's enough now," I didn't know if that turtle would hear me or not, "you can go around, turn around the walls and reach the ocean with your forces, then hit the capital there."
. "Sure dark lord, I got tired from hitting the walls without killing anyone!"
That dude… It could hear me from such a far distance. "Tired or bored? Anyway, don't use your abilities until you reach deep inside the gulf, then use them to smash everyone."
"Sure, dark lord, will keep this in mind."
I looked at that colossal dude turning around. It didn't leave without smashing more walls and killing lots of forces in the process.
It seemed it was really restraining itself back then. Well, it had to vent, right?
As I sent it towards the other side of the capital, it was time for the jumper to move out as well.
[It's your turn buddie, don't mess things up]
[Since when have I ever done this?]
[Just don't kill most of your army, ok? These are pricey warriors, not just common troops!]
I rolled my eyes at this dude's shamelessness. He was really something! Did he forget about the armies he smashed and left losing most of their numbers and even got deep psychic trauma after that?
I watched him lead his new army of warriors and followed my little turtle. The two seemed to start a racing competition or something.
It would be better to start a killing contest, to see which one would kill more than the other.
Two were gone, and my forces led by Lily and Legend alongside other generals were doing their best to take over the walls.
The capital stretched for a distance over a hundred and fifty miles. This was a huge distance to cover.
It had towering walls from the north, lining it up and preventing any invasion from that side.
So the forces were all stationed here and south, while the east was covered by the ocean and that huge gulf reaching the central part of this capital.
Two of my fiercest generals were heading to that ocean and gulf, and the rest were fighting brutally over the west and southern walls.
So what should I do then? Of course doing what others wouldn't expect!
They thought the northern region was the safest? Was it secured by these towering mountains? They would have to see my chariot flying on top of these mountains, descending upon them from the rear with a mighty army of mine.
Silverlining didn't just provide races and humans to my second Earth, he also sent another batch of warriors for me.
I got around five million more, and with the few millions left in my inventory, I got ten right now.
It was enough to swarm the rear of this massive place and let these Hectors taste what real fear would feel like.
But my chariot was very outstanding in the middle of all this. Besides, the flying forts and islands would create lots of problems for me, buying precious time for the Hectors to react if they followed me like my shadow.
So I had to first break free from the fight here, retreat as far away as possible.
Of course when I did that, a few forts moved to keep an eye on me. I left them untouched until we crossed a distance of a couple hundred miles.
Then I summoned my dragons and flying monsters, and even joined the fight in person to smash the shields of these forts using my enhanced glaive.
It really felt good, crushing the shields with my glaive and smashing the ground into pieces.
In less than ten minutes, all the forts here were smashed and fell to the ground.
"Come back," I called back to my boys before going with my fastest speed towards the north.
To make sure things wouldn't go out of hand, I went back into my second Earth world, used the sacrifice again to enhance the speed of my chariot.
My baby was fast, much faster than any fort. But those islands, those royals… They were something else.
So I had to spare an hour here, equal to a couple of minutes back at Earth to ensure I got the speed I wanted.
I added this bonus speed to my chariot, leading it to fly in the air while creating a series of afterimages, just like my speed.
762 Invading The Capital
My baby initially had superb speed, so adding this boost made it fly in the world like it was a speck of light.
If they wanted to track me again, they would spend hours to find a trace of my shadow, and they'd eventually fail to do that.
I held the maps drawn by Brian and other generals and kept moving in an arc path, trying my best to avoid any unexpected eyes anywhere here.
Just getting spotted here would let anyone with a brain guess my destination was. So I had to take such a detour, and thanks to my chariot's new speed this didn't take much longer than an hour.
During which I kept checking over the situation of my scattered forces.
The armies I left behind led by Hilary and Isabella were doing just fine. They were doing their best to push their troops to join the rest of us.
The enemies stationed in front of them already dropped their guard a long time ago. So once they landed fiercely on them with everything they got, they managed to crush them in a few hours.
Then they started the long run, with few minutes of rest in between long hours of running.
They were almost five hours away from the first basin. There, the fight got loose as I expected.
Once the attack over the other basins erupted, many forces coming there stopped as they had to go to other basins to help.
And when I came to the capital, not a single troop was sent there anymore.
It meant all the forces were called back to reinforce the capital. Before I left the capital and went on my little ride around, I spotted a large number of ground forces coming from the direction of the central region, heading towards the walls to intercept my forces.
I didn't have any worries over them. After all, they acted as a diversion.
The real attack would come from me and the other two going towards the ocean and the big gulf.
As for the other basins, I got nothing from the generals there. I didn't bother to add them as my friends, as I didn't know if they were going to survive or not.
Besides, their fights weren't that important anymore. They just had to kill the forces around the beasts and then wait there and let their forces hit the beasts.
They wouldn't kill any beast until I'd finished the capital war. Then I'd scatter my entire forces, even my warriors, to go and get their share of this beast bonus.
Even I would gain a taste from them as well.
As for the other two, the jumper told me they were this close from reaching the ocean, only half an hour apart from there.
But there was already a huge army gushing out from the walls, trying to stop them from reaching there.
I told him to let the turtle first smash the walls before going directly to the ocean and start the aquatic battle there.
I knew without my little turtle, the jumper would stand powerless against the great aquatic army at the ocean and the great gulf.
I got towards the mountains, and I had to admit the one who decided to build this capital here was genius!
The mountains were closely intersecting each other, closing any path for any ground forces to penetrate this region.
There was no direct path, or even smooth one for any army to use. And above that, I spotted a few watching posts on the side of distant mountains.
They kept sure to watch this place here. But it was too late for them to send any signal to their leaders.
I just rose so high in the air, pushed forward with my highest speed, and didn't leave these watching posts untouched.
I let out my dragons and scattered them around to destroy these posts while I crossed the mountainous region in just ten minutes.
And as I crossed the last group of peaks, I simply descended from the high clouds. I stopped just a couple of hundred metres off the ground, overseeing what could be considered as a peaceful part of this capital.
This place was a living block of the capital's normal citizens.
"Sigh! I got nothing against you, but I had to control your capital so don't hold it deep against me," I muttered when I saw the shocked faces of many Hectors walking in the streets.
Even in the middle of such a heated war, the places away from it looked this quiet.
"Come forth!" But this was war, and they had to either submit, or resist till their last breaths. "Spread around, kill anyone resisting. Then come towards my chariot once you are done here." I brought out two million warriors and gave them the order to control this region.
Then I flashed towards another point where I summoned one million and asked them to take control of their region.
As such, I kept flashing from a point to another, spreading my forces until I had only one million left.
Seven groups were scattered there, and it seemed the Hectors didn't welcome any of them properly.
Cries of fight and wailing kept echoing from different places. This meant they started to fight back, and they got nothing to blame for their deaths but themselves.
The next spot I headed towards was the back of the frontline forces.
It would feel crazy to just go towards the central region alone. Even with all my warriors here, I had no confidence in taking it over.
The enemy leaders could simply order their forces to retreat, go directly back towards my direction and I'd get surrounded from all sides with my warriors.
Even if the frontline forces I left under Lily and Legend control would come to help, the situation would be hectic and out of control.
Winning or losing would be hanged by a thread all the time. I didn't want such a result for sure, especially if I got another smoother way to do things.