Year 3806, Day 299
I have now consolidated my realm.
With my new understanding, I continued to develop my sword spirit and have now reached seventeen low-level rule runes.
Considering that I need at least a hundred to reach the confirmed level, this seems like very little.
But I haven't really started training yet. I imagine it will take me a few more decades before I can break through again.
Anyway, since my soul has greatly improved, I've been able to connect with fire rules, which suit me best.
On the other hand, in just one year, I've pushed my cultivation to the absolute pinnacle of the Divine Sea Realm.
I believe I now have the necessary comprehension to ascend to the Transcendent Realm, so I'll be isolating myself again to break through once more.
There shouldn't be too many issues this time.
...
ROAAAAR
A massive beast over sixty meters long, covered with thick red scales and long dorsal spikes, roared toward the sky and charged at a speed that starkly contrasted its imposing size.
It used its powerful internal energy to fly and rushed toward a small figure that seemed insignificant compared to it.
The three-star marauder in front of him panicked for a moment as he faced the enormous Rank 4 advanced-stage Simiar.
With a sudden move, he barely managed to dodge the beast's charge at the last second thanks to the thrusters on his powered armor.
However, the beast was far from foolish.
It enveloped its tail in energy and rotated its entire body.
The Minks, who had only recently become a marauder, clearly lacked combat experience against spirit beasts.
He didn't even see the attack coming and took the full brunt of the blow on his back.
Crack
The back of the armor cracked, and several fissures appeared as the Minks was sent flying at high speed while spitting blood. He barely managed to stabilize himself a few hundred meters in the air after a long flight.
But the Simiar wasn't about to let him rest.
"Fuck off!"
Rank 4 spell: Rock Typhoon
Under the beast's control, the winds rose and quickly formed a massive cylindrical vortex, trapping the Minks inside, while enormous rocky spikes continually erupted from the ground.
Once reinforced by the Simiar, each stake was as powerful as a Rank 3 attack, forcing the young marauder to desperately dodge hundreds of spikes.
At the other end of the battlefield, a young thunder wyvern was struggling against the violent assaults of a Minks lieutenant at the pinnacle.
No matter what method he used—lightning, qi projections, or physical attacks—it couldn't even land a blow on the small figure darting around its body.
Its body was covered with wounds, some barely scratches while others were so deep that even the bones were damaged.
Suddenly, the marauder vanished from the wyvern's sight, and as it turned, it saw a long sword dangerously close to its neck.
Clang
A clawed hand, covered in glowing red scales, firmly gripped the weapon.
The monkey felt cold sweat as he realized that, no matter how hard he pulled or pushed, he couldn't free the weapon.
"You can rest now, young one. You fought well," Isabella said calmly. "As for you, how about facing someone your own caliber huh?"
BOOM
He suddenly felt the world spin as he broke the sound barrier, hurtling straight into the claws of two fire wyverns, each twenty or thirty meters larger than the one he had just fought.
Immediately, a pentagram nearly a hundred meters wide materialized in front of the pair, densely covered with various runes and mystical symbols, each focused on a part of the spell.
"Oh shit, I forgot about that!" Isabella thought at the last moment.
ROOOAARRRRR
With a glint of madness in their eyes, the two wyverns continued to pour their beast energy into the spell.
The pentagram became blurry and ethereal under the mother wyvern's rage.
20%, 30%... soon, 99% of the two beasts' beast energy had poured into the spell.
"Damn it, they've completely lost it!" Isabella thought with fear, but there was nothing more she could do to intervene.
Inside their bodies, their beast cores cracked and fissured, unable to sustain the spell, which clearly surpassed their rank.
Rank 5 spell – Blazing Flame pierce
Immediately, the already hot air of the volcanic world reached several hundred degrees, completely distorting the surrounding light.
Under the mana and manipulation of the two beasts, the fire particles in the atmosphere for kilometers around rushed and condensed at the center of the pentagram.
There, a beautiful small sphere grew at a visible rate, covering the entire pentagram, fueled by the ambient air and spiritual energy.
The pentagram then tilted toward the marauder flying toward them, still unaware of what was about to happen.
The scene was long to describe in words, but it all happened in less than a fraction of a second.
Suddenly, the entire sky lit up as a gigantic column of fire shot across the vast, boundless sky.
Although it was only half its original power, a Rank 5 spell was nothing to take lightly.
The massive fire serpent traveled for dozens of kilometers before crashing into the ground.
BOOOOUUUUMMMM
The entire central area of the plane trembled as the enormous explosion ravaged the volcanic lands, causing several nearby volcanoes to erupt.
Flames became rampage and started to ravage the plane, melting every rock within a five-kilometer radius of the impact point.
Nothing remained, while a gigantic crater, two hundred meters deep and nearly a kilometer in diameter, was now standing on the once lay plain.
The enormous red-glowing mushroom cloud reflected in the eyes of the two beasts as they took their last breath, preparing to join their child in the arms of their lord.
However, as their eyes were slowly closing, they both felt a huge surge of energy rise from deep within their bones.
Inside of their own bodies, their bone marrow underwent a sudden transformation, rapidly renewing their blood.
Their internal injuries caused by the rupture of their beast cores were healing one by one: their organs repaired, their arteries reformed, but this didn't address the root cause of the problem—their broken cores.
As Isabella watched the scene from afar, she couldn't help but feel a glimmer of hope for the grieving couple, recalling her own transformation.
Their bodies began to transform at a visible speed. Their wings slowly crept up their backs, and two limbs sprouted from their torsos as their bodies grew.
But yet, instead of increasing, their aura diminished.
In facts, the evolution was being fueled solely by the remnants of their beast cores and was actually accelerating their death, darkening the saint's expression once again.
"My Lord, please, may you grant these two believers a chance of survival. They have already suffer enough by losing their only child, and our clan may grow even stronger." Isabella prayed with all her might, her hands clasped.
However, it seemed to have little effect, as the presence of the two wyverns continued to diminish; even their transformation had halted midway, leaving them with a half-finished, deformed body.
"My Lord, please!"
At that moment, the sky seemed to have suddenly heard her words.
The clouds dispersed as a pillar of light descended swiftly, enveloping the two beasts on the brink of death.
Just as their consciousness was about to fade, the two beasts felt a warm current flow through their entire bodies that quickly converge at their beast cores.
To their great surprise, their cores, almost split in half, began to show signs of recovery.
The fissures were magically healing one by one, and once again, internal energy flowed through their bodies.
The potential of their lineage was reactivated, and the evolution resumed, even faster than before.
With the help of Liam's faith energy, the two beasts completed their evolution in a matter of minutes, growing to nearly 120 meters long with a wingspan of 250 meters.
Their presence had more or less stabilized around the beginner stage of Rank 5.
As the pillar of light disappeared, the two beasts suddenly felt an overwhelming wave of fatigue hit them like never before.
They barely had time to curl up to protect them before the exhaustion, both physical and mental, caught them up and forced them into sleep.
This evolution was clearly different from how the nagas and other species advanced through their bloodlines.
For species like the nagas, it was merely a matter of unlocking genetic locks in their lineage, and once that was done, their genes would undergo a slow sublimation to the next level, which could take years to complete.
However, this was a true spontaneous evolution. Some purists even considered drakes and wyverns as two different races given how different their potential and strength were.
Nevertheless, the process was diametrically opposed: short and intense, lasting only a few days.
During the transformation, wyverns drew directly from the depths of their bloodline, forcing their bodies through a painful process that required them to hibernate for at least a month to recover and synchronize their bodies and minds, making it their most critical period.
Even though the result was much better, the risks were far greater. If a naga failed in its breakthrough, they could usually try again later or at worst, remain stuck at the same realm, while a wyvern would most often die if the evolution failed.
"Good!" Isabella smiled. "They'll be a great addition to our clan."
In fact, most wyvern elders could break through to Rank 5 at any time but were restricted by the world's limit.
However, Rank 5 would be their limit unless they could evolve into drakes.
This would give hope to all the other wyverns and encourage them to break the chains of their lineage.
The only question was how to get them back to Alandal, but since their Lord had helped them break through, he must have already thought of a way to bring them back, right?
As she was lost in thought, she suddenly felt a presence rise fast behind her, quickly going from the beginner stage to the pinnacle of Rank 4 in just a few moments before surpass it, though still below Rank 5, and then vanished as quickly as it came
"NOT UNDER MY SIGHT!" the drake roared as she reverted to her original form.
Her gigantic body, over two hundred meters long with a wingspan of 400 meters, appeared in front of everyone's eyes. With a single beat of her wings,
BOOM
She broke through the sound barrier, sending dust flying for kilometers as she rushed above the sleeping couple.
At that moment, an armored figure was already standing before the female, brandishing a long sword enveloped in mana.
Single Blade Technique, Imperium
But as the blade descended, the figure suddenly pivoted, turning the blade ninety degrees.
CRACK
Isabella's massive claw struck the Minks at supersonic speed, sending him flying one or two kilometers away as his sword and armor cracked.
"HA!"
The Minks' sword and helmet shattered, revealing a monkey with blood-red pupils brimming with murderous intent and madness.
He twisted in the air, and his legs left two long trails in the ground, but before he could continue his attack, he suddenly felt the world go dark.
BOOM
The ground cracked for thousands of meters, leaving a massive web of fractures.
"Interesting, to be able to react against one of my attacks," Isabella said calmly, looking at the unconscious Minks trapped under her claw.
"I would have bet you had left this world after all this time, but who would have thought the vermin was still here?!"
She suddenly raised her head, looking at the nearly one hundred intermediate existences still fighting in the sky.
"Hurry up! There may be more vampires hiding here!"
...
More than twenty kilometers away, an entire section of land began to shake and shift.
In a matter of seconds, the ground had split apart, revealing a massive hole leading deep into the plane.
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
A huge black cloud emerged from the hole, surging upward and pouring into the sky.
...
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
Above the base, the constant exchange of fire between the two sides had never ended and the base clearly had a disadvantage.
Meanwhile, more and more Vikings joined the fight, repeatedly harassing the airships and preventing them from unleashing their full destructive potential.
Still, the Great Army had only lost one airship, while the Minks were down to just six main cannons.
Even so, the airship pilots didn't dare take any risks.
It was only thanks to the airships that they could continuously unleash destructive attacks at the peak of Rank 4 and, after several hours of battle, even they were beginning to tire, with only fifty or sixty percent of their mana or internal energy left.
Unbeknownst to them, a massive black cloud had risen behind the formation and was hurtling toward the airships.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
A high-pitched noise spread with the cloud's advance, but since it contained no spiritual energy, it went unnoticed by the airship radars until it was too late.
BOOM
The cloud suddenly collided with the airship engines.
"Damn it, what now?!"
A Valyr colonel glanced back and froze in shock.
"Full power on the shields, NOW!"
It wasn't a cloud but a swarm of small flying machines, so dense they formed a continuous flow.
But even with his warning, it was too late.
The drones swarmed the engines one after another, triggering the explosive charges contained within them.
One explosion wasn't much for the magic shield, barely reaching Rank 2, but how many drones were there? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?
For a moment, the sky light up as the entire swarm crashed into the airships.
BOOM
On one of the airships, the main engine exploded, quickly causing an overload in the engine and the spirit stones.
"With me!" The three intermediate existences unleashed their spiritual consciousness around the bridge, urgently forming spiritual barriers around the crew.
BOOMMM
The entire airship exploded. The barriers of two of the three pilots quickly shattered, but fortunately, the last one held, allowing the crew to survive by the skin of their teeth.
Cough.
The two other pilots suffered backlash and coughed up blood, but they forced themselves to dive toward the ground as quickly as possible, knowing full well they were easy targets in the air with such a burden.
On the other hand, though the other airships fared better, two of them had also been hit in the engines and were plummeting from the sky, as the pilots tried to slow the descent.
Rankless spell: Mage's Hand
Rankless spell: Barrier
Spiritual energy suddenly stirred, and the two airships ceased their erratic fall and were covered by a massive transparent blue wall.
Ilbert's illusory figure appeared in the air as he calmly brought the airships to the ground.
He had originally planned to observe the situation and let the pilots gain experience, but the losses this time had been too important.
But just as he was about to intervene, he saw the Vikings and fighters that has been harassing the airships for hours suddenly nosedive and fall like flies.
The more than a hundred aircraft began to spin as their engines suddenly cut out, forming long trails in the sky until their deadly crash.
(Rankless spells are spells that can be used by any mage, displaying different power levels depending on rank. While an apprentice can barely lift a table with mana, Ilbert can easily control hundred-thousand-ton magical airships.)