It was almost done. All of the calculations were flawless, and every part of his masterpiece was working without any error. Not like he was expecting any less. Morpheal himself personally took care of every little detail.
Morpheal was standing in front of the Energy Transfer Unit and testing the final stage of the process. The transmission parts were durable enough and their strengthening runes were perfectly aligned. He gathered his notes and stood in front of the giant purple orb. Its light was brighter than ever and was filling the room.
Only one thing was left... Waiting.
He spent too much of his precious time on this project and he was going to use it to gain the maximum outcome. So, he needed to wait for it just a little bit more. The Energy storage was not at its full capacity yet and it would be a waste if he activated it now, because a second use did not look possible within the calculations. He needed to succeed on the first try.
He tidied up his workspace and put away his greasy gloves and apron. He couldn't let those lowly creatures come anywhere near to his masterpiece and he does not want to use any Energy in this sterile room at this stage of the project. It could end up disturbing the overall Energy flow and cause unwanted variables. So, he did everything by hand, slowly but surely.
After that, he left the room to check on the growth reports about his army. But before even reaching the end of the hall he sensed something approaching and took a quick step back.
A giant rock barged right into the middle section he was in. Thankfully, his project was in a room carved inside the volcano so there was no way such an attack to reach that deep. The middle of the section collapsed in front of him, and the upper section followed it little after. Some rubble fell right on him but crumbled as soon as they made contact with his enchanted skin.
Morpheal stood there and tried to remain calm. His whole body was twitching from the irritation, but this was not the time to lose control. Not when he was this close. He enhanced his vision and quickly took a look around to assess the situation. And something caught his attention.
Two figures, standing on a distant hill were in the direction of the attack.
A wave of Energy spread through the patterns on his skin from his core inside his chest with a quick pulse and he jumped at his target. While in the air the patterns on his skin were burning with Energy because of the constant pulses from his core. He quickly analyzed his opponents.
Two humans, a male and a female. The female had a strong but primitive Energy, she was only enhancing her body with it. The male had a messy look and was not emitting any formidable Energy. His body was not a fighter's either so he must have been a master of Energy manipulation to hide his Energy from him to this extent. He was not having any trouble in this environment, so he had at least the same amount of Energy as the female. He needed to be wary of him.
He landed right in front of them. The female immediately took a defensive stance, which meant she knew Morpheal was stronger than her. But the male was unfazed. His body was relaxed and full of openings, but his eyes were filled with excitement. That arrogant low-life was probably thinking he found his match and was excited for a contentious battle. He probably was not sure what kind of advanced species he was up against...
"Wow, I wasn't expecting to see a Marw Demon here." The human male was talking a variation of common human languages. Humans were a common species, so Morpheal knew most of their languages. "I thought you guys were extinct."
Extinct? How dare he? His kin were caught in sly schemes and were exiled due to their dangerous powers. To think this lowly human was not only arrogant but also ignorant to this extent. Every muscle in Morpheal's body was twitching with anger but he calmed himself down. This was no time to act rashly. He was going to interrogate them first to learn their intentions. He opened his mouth to talk...
"What is a Marw Demon?" The female asked.
"They are a Demon kind that specialized in using runes and patterns to strengthen their Energy. Look, can you see the patterns on his skin? They are enchanting and enhancing their bodies with those. After generations of tuning with that technique, they evolved and became a different kind that they even born with those patterns now. And the more they use and master this technique, the more that patterns crowd and get complicated."
"Oh, that is interesting. This one must be quite strong then. Even looking at him gives me chills. Do you think he is behind all of this?"
Were they having a casual conversation right in front of him? They should have been trembling in fear, yet the male was giving a lecture about his kind in this situation. His anger rose and his core started pulsing fiercely. His patterned skin was glowing more and more every second.
"Yeah, it all makes more sense now. I did sense the demonic Energy from those creatures before, and they are masters of organic manipulation so it's not a surprise the culprit is one of them."
"ENOUGH!"
A pulse spread from Morpheal. It clashed with the two and caused the female to slide backward. She raised her guard just in time to minimize the impact, but she was still affected. But the male was still unfazed, only his strange clothing flew around from the impact.
"State your business here. Now!" His cold and demanding voice filled the area around them.
"I am just a simple Traveler, and this is my apprentice. We were just passing by and noticed your... farm." His eyes turned towards the field filled with various creatures. "Your... products were such good training dummies for my apprentice. We just wanted to meet the one who created them."
"Enough with your lies. I don't care who you are. You attacked my products and attempted to destroy my castle. Did one of the Helion's send you to mess with me?"
"It's not a lie though. No one sent us. But we couldn't just stand by and watch while those foul beasts were roaming freely and attacking everything they saw. They are quite dangerous you know. If some of them strayed, they could cause a small kingdom to ruin."
Morpheal knew he was still not telling the whole truth but that was not important. His playful eyes were opposing his relaxed state. He was trying to taunt him with his arrogant behavior for sure. He was a human but there was still a possibility of him being one of the High Families assassins if not Helian's.
"You messed with my work and almost caused my workplace to fall into ruin. I will not gonna let you disturb my plans any longer."
Morpheal attacked without any notice. The female had got herself together and was standing next to the male, ready to fight. She was definitely the weaker one of them, so Morpheal attacked her first to get rid of one of the variables. He sent a wave of Energy with a swing of his hand, filled with the intent of breaking every bone in her body.
But it never connected. The male dissolved it with his own swing of hand. As Morpheal predicted, he was a master of Energy manipulation. No normal Energy user could disperse someone else's Energy with such ease. He also knew his kind, so he was probably familiar with Marw Demon's Energy manifestation. On the other hand, he was a human. Humans had so many different manifestations of Energy, so Morpheal had no idea what kind of power he was up against. He needed to keep his distance and analyze the opponent's powers first.
This was going to be harder than he predicted.
***
"You stay back Elise; he is not your match."
The Demon kept on attacking with Energy, but the Traveler put her inside a barrier and pushed her to the side with it to keep her from any harm. The Demon was on another level. The area attack it made earlier almost caught her by surprise. She blocked it barely by reinforcing herself with Energy, but she still slid backward and took some of the damage. It was far worse than any other attack she had taken before. If she had not used Energy, she could have passed out from it. She needed to take her time to recover.
Now, she was standing on the side and watching their fight inside an Energy bubble. The Demon's patterns were glowing purple like crazy and he was attacking nonstop. Some were splashing at Elise, but the barrier was holding.
"Don't just stand there, analyze his Energy. He is a strong opponent you should learn from. Watch how he manipulates the Energy and changes it into various attributes." The Traveler was still trying to give her a lecture.
She focused on the fight. Some Energy patterns were forming around the Demon, like they were leaking out of its own patterns and various types of attacks were coming out of each one. Condensed Energy spheres for diversion, impossible-to-dodge lightning strikes, bending light beams to catch him off guard, and unseen force attacks to make him lose balance.
Elise was watching with an open mouth. How could someone use this many different attacks at the same time? But the Traveler was dodging or redirecting each and every attack with perfection. The area around him was shattering, exploding, and crumbling under the continuous attacks, but he was standing with all his might. But the most shocking thing was, Elise, could not feel any Energy coming from him.
"How dare you look down on me, human!"
The Demon was not happy about the fact that the Traveler was not giving his all and only defending himself. It punched the ground and caused glowing cracks to form on it. When he pulled his hand back the ground rose with him. A giant rock bigger than the one the Traveler threw back then was formed from the ground and flew with the Demon on top. It kicked the glowing rock with its two legs and sent it right towards the Traveler.
He kept standing where he was and waited for it with a hand reaching towards it. The giant rock crumbled and exploded as soon as it touched his hand. The tiny pieces flew around and some of them even hit Elise's barrier. The Demon was still in the air, looking down on the Traveler. With its sturdy horns and glowing purple skin, it looked terrifying under the dark clouded sky.
"Come on! Don't play around. You are from the proud Marw Demon race, right? Show me the real thing."
The real thing? What were all of those powerful attacks then? Was it just testing the Traveler? Elise was waiting for what was to come with a visible excitement on her face.
"You have a great defense." The Demon slowly descended to the ground. "Let's see how long you can keep up with this."
Elise was watching closely, and she noticed it had changed how its Energy was distributed in his body. Its Energy was slower now so she could see the constant pulses starting from its chest and traveling through its body. It was slower but more powerful. The Demon's body was already muscular, but its muscles got bigger and bigger with every pulse. Like it was pumping Energy into them constantly to make them bigger. It was different from how Elise was strengthening her body. It was modifying its body.
The Traveler had also noticed that. The stripes that made his clothing started to fall off one by one. At the same time, his body grew at least a head size, and his chest became wider but there was still no sign of Energy coming from him. The stripes of his clothing were hanging from his waist now and showing his muscular chest. Elise had always seen him with his weak old man appearance. She was excited to see his true powers finally.
The Demon charged at him at an incredible speed and the Traveler took him head on. Their clash made an impact that shattered the ground under them and severed the dense clouds in the sky. Elise had no idea what she was watching anymore. This was not a fight but a natural disaster, the whole realm was shattering from it. Every punch the Demon threw formed wind currents around them and damaged the terrain even more. But those punches were never connected to their target.
The Traveler was dodging its every attack just barely or redirecting them with slight movements. He never made any unnecessary movements, always just enough to do what was needed, and never attacked or did anything offensive just like what he did with the range attacks. Every move was perfect.
Elise tried not to get lost in the moment and remembered the Traveler's words. She needed to analyze and learn. That made her realize why he was just defending. He was trying to teach her, even in a situation like that. She couldn't see most of their movements, but she did what she could and took what she could.
It all happened in moments and the Demon was a clever one. In those moments it understood that the Traveler had got the upper hand. It retreated but the Traveler had something else in his mind. He threw a slow but strong punch like he wanted the Demon to see it, at the space in front of him that made the air burst towards the Demon. It raised its arms and attempted to block it but that didn't save it. It was not expecting any attacks after that much defensive move and was caught off guard.
It flew backward from the impact and bounced off the ground a couple of times. Its clothes were ripped apart and it had burn marks all over its body, caused by the air pressure. But of course, that was not enough to finish him, and Elise also thought that this was not the Traveler's intention either. The Demon got up and looked at him fiercely.
"What are you? No mere human can reach this level of power."
"Oh, now you are interested in who I am, I see. But I already told you." In contrast to his opponent, he was perfectly fine except for some dust on his body. "I'm just a simple traveler."
"This is not over!" The Demon jumped in the air and flew towards its ruined castle.
The Traveler only watched behind it as he shrunk back to his previous state. The stripes of cloth that were hanging around his waist started to slide upwards and wrapped his body again. He looked at Elise and the barrier around her disappeared. She couldn't even say anything for a moment and stood where she was. The ground around her barrier bubble had been damaged heavily and that already rough terrain had gotten rougher.
"Did you learn anything?" The Traveler was coming towards her with a smile on his face.
"Yeah, I will never pick a fight with you."
The Traveler laughed at her remark and slapped her back caressingly. She tensed up after what she saw earlier but this slap was not like the punch he threw before. She looked at the castle the Demon had flown into.
"It was using its Energy so efficiently and it all seemed his own inner Energy. Yet it had so much of it gathered in its chest and distributed from there with constant pulses."
"Good observation. That was the Higher Demon's most advanced method of distributing Energy. They form an Energy core in their chest and the pulses they send generate more explosive power over a short time. And that one as a Marw Demon enhanced it even more with the patterns on his skin. But it burns out too fast though, that is a downside. It is hard to master but that one used it really well for a long time."
Elise almost lost herself in all that knowledge and how she could utilize it with her Energy. There were so many possibilities coming through her mind and who knows how many more there were she couldn't even think of. Well... she had someone on her side who could know. The Traveler's knowledge far exceeded her expectations.
"I understand you took it easy on... him because of me but why did you let him go?"
"I took it easy? He made me dodge, didn't he? I couldn't take his attacks without using Energy myself. I was not thinking of killing him anyway so there was no point in using Energy and he looked like he had an ace up his sleeve so..." He finished his sentence with a shrug. "Come, let's have a look at what he got."
He grabbed Elise from her shoulder and took a step. The area around them changed in an instant. They were in a stone hall that had a giant hole in the half of it and a decorated wooden door with two wings was in front of them.
They were in the castle.
***
How? How could a mere human be this strong?
These questions had no importance anymore. He, the great Morpheal, had been humiliated by a mere human. He did everything he could, but it was not enough. His opponent's powers were beyond understanding. He didn't even feel a single sign of Energy from that man in that whole fight.
Morpheal retreated as soon as he noticed that fact and was caught off guard by that last attack. It didn't even connect but it was enough to damage his enchanted skin. There was only one way he could think of to challenge that man. That's why he rushed to his workplace.
He needed to initiate the transfer process now. It would not be at full potential, but it was close enough. He quickly activated the machine as soon as he got into the room. All calculations and adjustments had been made already so it was ready to work at any time.
Morpheal went and stood in front of the Energy transfer unit and connected it to his core through his chest. The machine was designed to transfer the stored Energy to him. Starting slowly and increasing rapidly in the safest way possible to change and adapt his body to the Energy. He manipulated and upgraded his patterns and core specifically to this process since he began this project.
The Energy he gathered inside the orb started rushing inside his core. It was only the beginning, but it was still too much Energy. Morpheal could feel his core overflowing with it. He focused on condensing the access Energy and moving that Energy inside his body to smoothen the effects. He used a little of it to heal his wounds.
The door opened while the Energy kept pouring inside him. They were there, those two pesky humans.
"You are late! There is nothing you can do. My core expanded tenfold already; I can feel it. And it will keep expanding even more. Soon, those despicable Demon Lords and their lowly servants will be no match to me. Soon... I will be strong enough to challenge the Gods!"
They stood there for a moment and assessed the situation. Good, the longer they wasted time the more power he would get.
"So, this is what all of this is about. You created an army and manipulated a realm portal to draw Energy from it to make yourself stronger." The male walked closer to the contraption and the female followed him from behind. "You want to start another Interracial Demon War."
"That doesn't sound good." The female was already in fear because of the scene in front of her. Who wouldn't be? Even Morpheal himself wouldn't know what to do in the presence of such power. Even the male had a different expression now. He had an arrogant look before but now he seemed to understand the seriousness of the situation they were in.
"Eight realms were destroyed, and three of them were major ones. Gods perished. Trillions died."
"S-Shouldn't we do something about it? He seems to get stronger every second. I don't think I can withstand it any longer." She was sweating under the intense Energy pressure coming from Morpheal.
"I was thinking of letting him go if he was a harmless researcher trying to gain more power. I respect the chase for power. But the situation has changed. Don't worry, I'll stop it. He is getting more and more unstable as the Energy accumulates. Looks like he can manage it at this point. Not if I interfere though."
He took a step and Morpheal felt something he shouldn't have been. The area should have been filled with his own Energy, but something else appeared out of nowhere. An Energy that was so dense, it almost felt like solid. There was so much of it, it felt limitless. It was wildly powerful but calm and pure. The stripes of cloth the human male wore slowly slid down and hung from his waist. His body grew the size it was when they were fighting before.
He pushed back the pressure Morpheal caused as he slowly approached him. That man was immovable, but Morpheal was not unstoppable yet. Even with all of the Energy pouring inside of him, he felt inferior. Maybe he could have had a chance if he used all of the stored Energy, but the current amount was not enough.
Morpheal used everything inside and modified his body even more. Maybe he could stall some time to gain more power. His movements were limited due to the connection with the orb, but he still could defend himself. He got ready to fight.
The human male stopped right in front of him. Morpheal attacked as soon as he got in the melee range. But his attack didn't connect, because he was not there anymore. Morpheal felt something warm inside his chest and looked down for it. The man's left hand had pierced his enchanted skin and over strengthened his body and was inside his chest. Morpheal didn't even see the attack.
His hand grabbed his core inside and started pouring his own Energy. The condensed lump of Energy inside his chest lost its balance and shattered under the immense Energy pressure. Morpheal screamed in pain as he desperately tried to get his core under control, but the Energy kept pouring in from both sides and he couldn't manage it.
Morpheal lost consciousness as his body burned inside out from the Energy overdose. The last thing he saw was the colorful but cold eyes of his opponent, reflecting the giant Energy orb he himself created.
***
Elise opened her eyes slowly. The last thing she saw was the Traveler as he took a step towards the Demon. After that, her view darkened. She found herself lying on a hill when she woke up. The Traveler was standing next to her. Elise immediately noticed the injury on his left hand. It was almost reaching his elbow and looking like his skin partially melted but it was visibly recovering. What could have happened to damage him to this extent?
He was looking at something far away. Elise also looked there before asking anything. The volcano they recently were at could be seen in the distance. They were so far away from it. She opened her mouth to ask her questions, but the volcano started to glow fiercely and put her words into her mouth.
The volcano and the ground around it cracked and inflated. Before she even understood what was happening the whole mountain exploded with great force. They were far away but the impact reached them in no time. She tried to guard herself, but it was unnecessary. The Traveler had already formed a shield around them.
After that impact, rubble started to fall from the sky. A giant hole had formed in the middle of the clouds on top of the explosion area and had revealed the dark sky with glowing colorful light waves swirling around. It could be a sight to behold if there were not a rain of giant rocks coming down from it.
"What happened?" Elise asked.
The Traveler had a dark and thoughtful expression on his face, but it disappeared when he turned towards her.
"Come, let's go back. I'll explain on the way back." He gave her a hand to help her to stand up.
"Go back? To where?" She asked but she also knew there was only one way back. And she was not looking forward to it.
"Your home of course. I think you have some unfinished business there."
He started walking towards where they came from but turned back at her like he remembered something.
"Oh, by the way, you passed the test! Congratulations! You are my official disciple now. Let's work hard together from now on." He turned back and kept walking. The injury on his left forearm was healed already. "Don't fall behind!"
Elise looked at his back for a moment. Was that it? She turned her head back to look at the scene behind her. The ground was not there anymore, only some pieces of rock floating on the glowing pink liquid and some rubble was still falling from the sky. There was no sign of the purple creatures that once filled the area.
Was all of this really a test?
***
A couple of shadows were standing on a floating rock inside a pink glowing lake. What could have happened here? They started to look for clues. An explosion had happened here, it was obvious. The Energy left behind from it was all over the place. They quickly searched the area, but the leftovers of the explosion were suppressing the other traces.
After some time, they got a message from the others, they had found a trace. They immediately appeared right next to them and looked at what they found. Other shadows had also come to the site.
It was just a circular area on the ground. The outside of it was heavily damaged but the ground inside it was unscathed. It was the leftovers of a barrier, most likely. But the most important thing was the faint trace of Energy coming from the inside and the border of the area.
Two different Energy signatures. The one on the inside was obvious, but the other was faint like someone purposely erased it.
The traces of their prey.