As I stood on the rooftop, I marveled at the dragon known as Oreia and I couldn't help but wonder what a beast like her could be doing here at this point in time. It was like an end-game boss spawning at the beginner town. The king was distraught, the same with all the nobles and the heroes didn't know how they should act. I couldn't possibly blame them. The scenery was too comical to not stifle a laugh.
The knights were all charging towards Oreia, their weapons and armour were all top-grade grade but all that didn't matter in the destructive might of the mighty dragon. Just as I was watching the comical onslaught ensue, something popped into my mind and my lips curled into an evil smirk.
"It seems like this test run would be quite interesting."
Using the chaos in the castle, I was quickly able to slip through the crowd and found my way towards the underground rooms. I knew this place like the back of my hand, so much so that I could proudly say that I knew more about this palace than the royal family.
After taking a few shortcuts and silencing a few disturbing flies here and there, I stood before a huge door adorned with gold and various precious metals and two huge gladiator knights guarding the door. This was a secret room owned by the royal family, where all forms of rarities were kept away from the world.
One of the knights spoke, his voice booming with authority.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" he demanded.
I shrugged, as I walked towards them. One of the knights took a stance, raising his lance as charged towards me, I quickly moved my head to the side, as the lance barely missed me, whistling past my ear.
The knight who had charged me looked shocked, clearly not expecting me to move so quickly. But I wasn't about to let my guard down. The other knight charged at me, this time with a huge battle axe. I dodged to the side once again, this time narrowly avoiding the axe as it cleaved through the air.
As the knights continued to attack, I had no time to mess around. I reached out with my hand, creating a small dark ball.
I hurled the ball towards the knights, and it exploded into a strong shockwave.
The shockwave sent the knights flying, crashing into the wall and knocking them out.
I made my way to their unconscious body, plastered on the wall, and sighed. I point a finger at their bodies and a red energy swells at the tip of my finger. Just as I was about to blast them into oblivion, a thought crossed my mind. Destroying these pests now will only impede my freedom. So instead, I turned the red energy into a light wave of energy that enters them [Oblivion], implanting new memories to override the one that just took place. It might mess them up if care isn't taken but who am I to care?
"If you want to blame someone, blame the oaf for making us meet."
I turned my attention to the golden door, with its blue and red diamond markings. As I reached out to touch the golden door, I felt the pulse of magic radiating from it.
As I tried to open the door, I felt a bit of resistance which made me chuckle [Seal SS+]. While something like this would make others give up, it was nothing when faced with pure power. I place my hand on the door and release a wave of bluish energy which completely shatters the seal and the door to oblivion.
As I walked into the room, I couldn't help but marvel at the sight in front of me. Gold, silver, and other rare ornaments glitter all around me as well as unique weapons, armor, and artefacts. Just what you would expect from a secret treasury.
I surveyed the room as I basked in its glory for a few seconds. The thought of taking a substantial amount of items here crossed my mind but I waved it off for now. I started looking through the weapons, which were arranged according to their strength [Rank: Rare - Legendary]. I stumbled upon one of the legendary swords, Aroth, which was the greatest legacy of the legendary blacksmith, Aroth. As I held it in my hand, I could definitely feel its power. It sure was a legendary weapon in its own right but I set my sight on bigger fish.
I looked through the rows of weapons and artifacts and just at the corner of the room, I could feel a powerful sensation. I quickly approached the place to which the powerful pulse sourced from and on getting there I saw a towering glass case and inside it was not one but four different weapons.
"Seems like this is another change to be accounted for * I chuckle*. That old oaf is really unrelenting to build four of these weapons to correlate with the number of heroes."
These weapons are not your standard weapons, not by a long shot. These weapons are specially crafted top-of-the-end products created for the sole purpose of killing a hero. I could clearly recall the first playthrough where I was faced with the "Hero Killer", though I was able to destroy it, the damage was quite outrageous and since then I made it so that it would never be used on me again.
I could feel the tremendous energy oozing out of the glass case and just as expected it was protected with layers upon layers of thin but powerful barriers but dispelling these puny gimmicks was like child's play to me and so with the way of my hand I dispelled the barriers and as I opened it, a wave rushes out of the case.
There, I beheld the four legendary weapons. From right to left, a spear of gold and silver, a purple Herculean bow with blades sticking out at the edges and black markings around it, a long red and silver scythe, which emitted a dreadful aura, and finally a jagged long sword with a thin obsidian hilt. One look at the sword and I knew that was the one and without delay, I picked up the sword. A warm sensation spread through my body and a screen popped up.
[Weapon analyzing host's soul wavelength] [Analysis complete] [Synchronising wavelengths] [Synchronisation complete] [Ego sword Eupherion has been imprinted on host's soul] [Host can now store Eupherion in his soul and summon it at anything] [ [Eupherion's skills have been imprinted in host's soul] [Eupherion will be able to grow together with the host]
Ego Sword Eupherion Level 1 Skills: Absorb, Reflect, Transformation, Adaptation, Decay, Extend.
As I was mesmerized by the nature of the sword, I heard a rumbling sound coming from somewhere above me. It seemed like Oreia's destruction was getting closer to the castle and I guess it was time to go play with her. While all the other weapons seemed like they'd be hiding some menacing powers, I decided to go tangle with my whining playmate.
I transformed into my half-dragon form {my eyes turned a deep red, and dragon scales began to form all over my body. I felt myself growing taller, and my teeth bore fangs} just to have a warning screen pop.
[Warning!] [Due to host access to excess power at a low level, the time limit has been halved and powers have been further reduced by 50%] [Time left: 13 minutes 43 seconds]
I exited the treasury and using dragon tongue, I brought the door back from particles in the air back to how it was before I arrived. With unprecedented speed, I moved from underground to the top of the castle, and from there I surveyed the scene. I couldn't help but feel a sense of dark amusement. The situation was dire, soldiers were scattered like ants, some dead while others were severely injured and screaming in agony but I couldn't care less. What did impress me was that despite their losses they were still able to deploy barriers to keep the destruction to a minimum and while the several layers of barriers did little when up against a single blast breath from Oreia, it still lessened the damage. Hats off to them for doing a fine job. A few elite soldiers were dressed head to toe with Unique gears which, if I do remember offered them resistance to elemental attacks, just got obliterated by one lightning attack by Oreia. She truly was in a class of her own as demolished the kingdom's forces with relative ease but for some reason {which now I could understand} she looked to be in agony. I decided to cut short my entertainment and get down to testing my abilities. I disappeared from the roof and made my entrance before Oreia.
"Hello, Oreia," I said calmly, as I took a few steps towards her. Oreia roared in response, the roar swirled everything around us. The roar of the dragon was deafening, and the force of her breath sent me flying backward. But I landed on my feet, my cloak billowing behind me as I regained my footing. The dragon's eyes narrowed as she fixed her gaze on me and she hissed, her growl dripping with malice. I knew that Oreia was strong and just the perfect opponent to test how my weakened abilities would fare against a devastating foe.
[Name: Oreia. Level:900
Race: Dragon
Stats:
Speed: SSS, Mana Capacity: SSS, Strength: SS+, Intelligence: SS+, Mana Affinity: SS+, Magic: SS+, Durability: S+, Wisdom: S+, Agility: A+.
Wind Breath: SSS+, Lightning Breath: SSS+, Storm Magic: SSS, Lightning Control: SSS, Storm Control: SSS, Wind Control: SS+, Dragon Eyes: SS+, Aura: SS, Blessing: SS, Elemental Resistance: SS, Dragon Roar: SS, Coercion: S+, Storm Palace: S+, Polymorph: S+, Regeneration: S, Power Nullification: S, Disaster: A, Unity: A+, Dragon Sense: A+, Invincibility: A, Manifestation: A+,... ]
The knights and other citizens all looked in horror as they just witnessed another monstrosity enter their walls, and its energy was unreal. They could instantly tell that no matter what side the monster took, it was going to lead to the destruction of the kingdom, but what could they do? The few who could still move readied their weapons to take their last stand, while some others used any means possible to get as far away as possible from the battle.
Looking at all their faces in despair made for a good laugh, but I couldn't drop my guard against Oreia, or else I might pay a hefty price. She lets out a deafening roar before charging at me at a speed that betrayed its size. I just narrowly escaped its tail whip, which was followed by a blast of lightning from its mouth. The lightning hit home, sending me crashing into a few buildings. Before I could prepare myself, she sent lightning and wind attacks at me, which I defended myself with Eupherion, and to no surprise the attacks were all absorbed.
Using the chance presented, I blasted waves of dark energy at her before using forced teleportation to take her to a different location. We both arrived at a large expanse of green land with nothing for miles on end. This gave me the freedom to move however I please without any obstacles. Oreia didn't waste any time before launching hundreds of bolts of lightning at me but I either dodged or absorbed them. She tries to hit me with her tail but I grab it with both my hands, slam her into the ground, and follow that up with a barrage of attacks. She uses wind to create distance between both of them and take to the skies.
"Where do you think you're going?"
I grab her tail again but this time she sends a stream of lightning hundreds of times more powerful than the previous ones which all hit their mark, making me lose my grip and crash into the ground. Oreia creates a huge ball of lightning and wind and sends it towards me. I counter by unleashing all the power stored in Eupherion causing a huge shockwave as far as the eye could see. I cover my sword with a bluish energy and lunge at her. She launches a series of dark lightning and several wind attacks.
We continued to exchange attacks for quite some time and I had to admit if I did not up my game, I might be in serious trouble. We finally distanced ourselves after being on the receiving end of a crazy amount of energy. She was all bruised and battered as she laid on the ground, trying to gather energy. She seemed to be exhausted at this point but the fire in her eyes hadn't been quelled yet. For me, though I was doing much better than her at the moment, my right hand and part of my body had been burnt to a crisp but they were slowly regenerating. Her attacks had something to do with the slow rate of regen but that didn't matter now.
[Time remaining: 8 minutes]
I gazed upon the helpless creature before me as I smiled evilly. She had seriously impressed me by doing so much damage so I was going to reward her with an easy death. I concentrated a huge amount of red energy in my hand and pointed it in her direction. But just before I could release it, she lets out a vicious scream filled with murderous intent.
"I'LL KILL ANYONE THAT COMES IN BETWEEN ME AND MY CHILDREN!!!"
A bright light covers her entire body as it shrinks down to human size. By the time the light cleared, I beheld the dragon in human form with white scales [Polymorph]. She was quite the beauty and her snow white her only adorned her with more beauty with her eyes closed. This was the first time I had seen her in this state. Was it due to this new playthrough or was it something she decided to hide at all costs in previous engagements? Those didn't matter now because her energy had just skyrocketed, it seemed like I was fighting a new being. Just going off her energy alone, she was about four times stronger than her dragon form, and this spelled quite the trouble.
[Name: Oreia. Level:900
Race: Dragon
Title: Storm Queen Stats:
Speed: SSS+, Mana Capacity: SSS+, Dragon Martial Art: SSS+, Mana Affinity: SSS+, Strength: SSS, Magic: SSS, Intelligence: SS+, Durability: SS+, Agility: SS+, Wisdom SS.
Wind Breath: SSS+, Lightning Breath: SSS+, Storm Magic: SSS, Lightning Control: SSS, Storm Control: SSS, Destruction: SSS, Wind Control: SSS, Dragon Eyes: SS+, Aura: SS+, Blessing: SS+, Adaptation: SS+, Elemental Resistance: SS+, Dragon Roar: SS+, Coercion: SS+, Storm Palace: SS+, Regeneration: SS+, Power Nullification: SS+, Disaster: SS+, Analyse: SS+, Unity: SS+, Dragon Sense: SS+, Invincibility: SS, Manifestation: SS,... ]
Status: Polymorph, Angry, Bloodlust.
She opened her eyes revealing her gold dragon eyes as she stared at him with nothing but pure anger.
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
She appears beside him and lands a clean hit on his jaw sending me flying. She coats her fists in lightning, appears above me, and knocks me into the ground causing a huge crater. Not relenting, she raises her hand, [INDRA] causing the sky to darken, and with the drop of her hand several dragon-shaped bolts of dark lightning knock me deeper into the ground, sending hundreds of millions of volts through me. This has become exponentially more dangerous. Her speed, strength, and power had vastly increased not only that, but the nature of her attacks became more destructive, ignored my defenses and my regeneration also became stunned after each hide, making it almost irrelevant.
She grabs me by the leg while sending lightning through my body, and slams me into the ground repeatedly. She creates hundreds of weapons made from lightning and tries to skewer me but I channel energy into my legs to give myself the extra boost I need to escape her attacks and just by a hair's breadth I did albeit with a few injuries. Things just became more deadly and any wrong move now could cost me my life. I removed the three lightning weapons lodged in my arms as I kept my eyes sharply on her. Covering myself with a balance of divine and dark energy, I resummoned Eupherion. Again, before I could consciously react, she grabbed my face and slammed it into the ground sending a stream of lightning through me but during that split second I used my feet to blast her away from me, using my sword like a rope, I wrap it around her leg to bring her close for a devastating kick but not only did she block my attack, she countered with an elbow (with a wind blade on it) to the chest, a spin and a round kick to the face. She lifts me with her legs and continues her assault on me ending it with a powerful palm to the gut making my eyes roll upwards and my knee give out. With me on the ground, she walks over to me, her eyes locked onto her prey. A single lightning dragon descends from the sky but this time several times more powerful than the last [INDRA] at frightening speeds. A huge blast of dark energy crashes with the attack and cancels it out. I slowly stand up and dust myself, Oreia sensing something was amiss quickly distanced herself from him. His wounds were healing anytime soon and if he wanted to wrap this fight up, he needed to end this pretty soon. So using dragon tongue, I erased all the wounds I had.
"Smart choice Oreia."
Each dose of lightning she injected into my system caused delayed reactions and decisions on my part. Taking advantage of this she was able to fully capitalize on this and create a possible win but unfortunately, she had the wrong opponent. Her chances of winning this fight were as good as zero once I got serious. She lunges at me again but I easily evade her waves of attacks while countering with mine. I pulled her closer to me and shot a huge wave of intense dark flames at point-blank range before blowing off one of her hands with beams of light and divine magic. Oreia creates distance as attempts to regrow her arm. Her body now felt unexpectedly heavy making her unable to move as she got pulverized by me. After her hand had regrown, I ripped both of them off and blasted him away. I transformed my blade into a normal long sword, filled it with spirit magic, and sent a slash at her, which she barely evaded before landing.
She further distanced herself from me and the look in her eyes told me that she finally understood. All her efforts so far have been in vain and there was nothing she could do at this point. I returned Eupherion to where it belonged as I slowly closed the distance between us.
She understood now that everything she'd done till now was meaningless and to her, the only way to put an end to this was to attack him with her full force. She took a deep breath and let the immense energy inside her flow through her body at dreadful speeds.
[Oreia is using her life force to exponentially increase her power.] [Oreia has activated Storm Palace, Spirit Body, and Control Law.] [Oreia's mana and skills have temporarily bypassed their limits.] [All stats and skills of outsiders in the Storm Palace have been reduced by 15%.]
After getting all these notifications, I found myself in a different space and if I had to take a guess, we looked like we were at the eye of a storm. Everything outside a hundred-meter radius was stormy and chaotic. Lightning, rain, storms, all sorts of disasters were happening simultaneously here
Oreia sprang all forms of attacks she could muster, from magic to spirit energy to martial arts but I evaded all her attacks, each one capable of inflicting damage to the soul. The only thing that worried me was the time limit which showed that I had less than four minutes left. It was finally time to end this farce. Coating my hand in light red energy, I started my counter. Unleashing a fury of devastating attacks, it wasn't long until I had completely overwhelmed her, and I didn't stop until she was unable to move.
As she took the full brunt of his attacks, she began to notice something. Each attack made her less powerful. This revelation greatly shocked her but there was nothing he could do about it. He was slowly sapping away at her powers with each attack. This unprecedented skill made it impossible for her to even do a thing and before long she had been stripped of all her powers as she could barely even stand at this point. In her state now, all it took was your average man to spell doom for her but even if she had it all stripped from her eyes she still looked at Alistair with disdain.
I couldn't help it at this point. Just seeing her as helpless as she was had a good feel to it. Even at this point, I could still see that fire in her eyes and who could blame her? She's just a mother looking for her lost child but I didn't really care one bit. I could feel no sort of sympathy when I reasoned her case and rightfully so. To me, she was just a test subject presented for the sole purpose of a tutorial for my newfound powers, and on that note, she did a wonderful job. So good that she deserved a reward. Seeing as she still stood her ground, it seemed that she wasn't letting up as she mumbled something about saving her children and that was when it hit me. All this while she talked about children and not a child. It seemed like another deviation in this playthrough which caused me to burst out laughing.
"How fun is this? Seems like things just keep getting better. Don't worry Oreia."
I looked at her with a villainous smirk on my face.
"I'll be sure to play with your children."
"YOU SCUM!!!"
As she screamed with all her might, I blasted a hole through her stomach and watched as she fell to the ground. I reverted to my original form and ended things by stabbing through her heart with Eupherion.
[You have slain Storm Queen Oreia]
[You have levelled up 1 ---> 254]
[Eupherion has obtained lightning and storm attribute]
[Eupherion has levelled up]
I sighed in relief as I collapsed beside her body. The use of dragon tongue twice coupled with the strain of my dragon form had made me feel sore and tired. Looking at the blue sky, I couldn't help but chuckle. This testing brought quite the results but some questions still lingered so it still needed further testing.
After a few minutes, I took to my feet and decided to go egg hunting but just before that, I put Oreia's body into my spatial dimension.
Using my memories and experiences, I was able to pinpoint where the eggs were kept. I opened up my status window, checking how long I had left to transform.
[1 minute 45 seconds left]
I sprouted out wings and took off as fast as I could to where I supposed the eggs lay. It took about a minute to get to the location, The Kingdom of Goa (the kingdom neighbouring ours). Close to one of the earl's domains, there is an inhabited town filled with strong magical energy making it unsafe for humans. I safely landed in said town and despite the overflowing magic around, I could feel the energy of the dragon eggs like a beacon. I made my way to the beacon and found a weathered building at the top of a hill. I promptly entered the building, going through debris and plant matter till I ended up in front of a wall. My treasure was right behind these walls and that made my lips curl up. I quickly dispelled the barrier and entered what felt like a different space. The place had a warm blue glow and at the center of the dancing golden pasture were three dragon eggs. At first, I was a bit disappointed because I expected there to be four of them but that feeling quickly disappeared as I stared at the eggs, not just one as before but three. I joyfully went over to pick up my three darlings of destruction. Just as I picked them up, I felt someone enter the space. With the three eggs in my hand, I spun around to face the intruder. Before me was a girl with blonde hair and forest green eyes, wearing an adventures fit with a magical bow on her right hand.
[Name: Aredhel Xistrith. Level:749
Race: Elf
Title: Mythical Hunter Stats:
Mana Capacity: SSS+, Mana Affinity: SSS+, Elemental Affinity: SSS, Speed: SSS, Agility: SSS, Magic: SSS, Archery: SS+, Strength: SS, Wisdom S+, Intelligence: S, Durability: S.
Spirit Magic: SSS, Elemental Control: SSS, Dominance: SSS, Wind Magic: SSS, Flame Magic: SSS, Earth Magic: SSS, Water Magic: SSS, Elemental Blessing: SSS, Camouflage: SS, Mirage: SS, Spirit Summoning: SSS, Beast Summoning: SS, Magic Sense: SS, Precognition: SS, Accuracy: SS, Charm: SS, Healing: SS, Enhancements: SS, Analysis: SS, Tamer: SS, Dark Magic: SS, Light Magic: SS, Curses: SS, Nature Control: SS, Illusions: S+, Magic Arrows: S+, Possession: S+, Tracking: S+, Danger Sense: S+, Alchemy: S+, Spatial Storage: S+,...]
Status: Suspicious, Angry.
Weapon: Aerin [Unique]
Her green eyes were fiercely focused on me and what I held in my hands and after a quick appraisal. I absent-mindedly uttered, "What the hell?"
She immediately points her bow at me and finally speaks.
"I don't know how you got here but if you want to die painlessly, I suggest you hand over those eggs."
From the tone of her voice, I guess she was pissed but hearing her offer just pissed me off. She had already decided to take my life without any second thought but she wasn't bluffing. From her demeanor to the gap in our levels, her threat was something she'd be able to carry off with relative ease. I only had a few more seconds left so transformation was a no. In a head-to-head fight, I stand little to no chance of surviving but trickery would only take me so far. This wasn't a fight for me, escaping is first priority. My head was cross-examining different scenarios and to bring me back to reality, she fired a shot past my heading causing blood to drip down my ear.
"That shot was a warning. Take any more time and I will decapitate you."
Seems like talking won't cut it. I'll have to take my chances. I sent the eggs to my spatial dimension making her frown and immediately fire another shot that landed on my shoulder. The pain was searing and a numbing sensation spread through my left arm. That was a poison shot. With a cocky smirk on her face, she fired another shot which landed on my lap before I could even react. This time it felt as though my tight was being burnt up. I looked her in the eye as I ignored the numbing pain.
"You've either got guts or a big fool but either way the result won't change."
She puts her bow away and launches several fireballs at him. He whips out Eupherion and absorbs some of them while the others land around him, engulfing his surroundings in flame. She chuckles as she walks towards him.
"I'll ask you again. Give the eggs to me or die miserably."
With a chuckle, I reply, "Come and get it."
"You have been warned."
She summons two spirit tigers [lv:280] and they run towards their prey. I absorb the flames around me and blast it directly in front of me to block their sight. As they jump through the flames, I blast them away with densely concentrated lightning. A kick from behind sends me flying and before I can piece together what is happening a boulder slams me into the ground followed by a slash of wind, splitting the boulder in half and slashing his chest. She delivers a powerful kick to his chest which sends him flying out of the space and crashing into a weathering wall, which collapses on him. She slowly walks towards him with a wide grin on her face and lands a powerful kick on his jaw, sending him crashing into another wall. She grabs him by the throat and pins him to the wall, her other hand emitting dark sparks.
"You seem to not get your situation. I can turn you into a human shell, I can make each day a living hell for you, I could give you an unending torture or an incurable ailment, I could make you a slave or do things to you so horrible you'd crave death. Or I could painlessly end your life if you give me the eggs. Do it now while I'm asking nicely."
I look her in the eye and smile.
"Before that, I'd like to thank you Xistrith."
She was noticeably shocked when she heard her last name being called and she loosened her grip. Not letting this moment pass by, I release a huge wave of energy that pushes her away.
"If it weren't for your stupidity my plan would have failed. What I'm about to do now is something I was unable to do because of the spatial interference within the dragon's space. I thought you might have noticed my positioning but I guess your cockiness got the better of you. Thanks for being stupid Xistrith."
"HOW DO YOU KNOW ME!!!"
As she charges at him, he disappears. She angrily slams her fist into the wall closest to her as she screams in anger.
"I don't know who you are but I will hunt you. I don't know when but I will find you and when I do, I will kill you."
He lands on his bed and coughs out blood. Luckily, the injuries and poison had been healed up in his dragon form but the drawback of being close to the time limit caused unimaginable pain to course through his body. The worst of it had been averted but he couldn't rest yet.
"Aredhel Xistrith, I'll remember you."