Zephyr's eyes became dark black, and it seemed that no light could ever enter or exit them. Zephyr, or Veldris, now emitted a black aura, letting the Abyssal's energy flow all over his body rather than Zephyr's method of suppressing the energy. Veldris put his right hand on the flat of the blade.
"What do you think you're doing, threatening me?" Veldris said in a voice deeper than what Zephyr usually sounded like.
The warrior lifted his blade, sheathing the sword back into its scabbard. The four remaining black-scaled creatures kneeled and bowed their head.
"It seems that you have succeeded, my lord," the warrior in front of him said.
"Yes, now show me what you've done in the past twenty years while I was locked away in a book."
The warrior nodded his head, leading him to the door on the other side of the cave, carefully walking in between the mana traps while the mage repaired one of the traps.
Tendrils appeared from Veldris's sliced-off arm, reattached it, and healed it with abyssal energy.
"Dammit, Veldris, I should've never trusted you to begin with!" Zephyr exclaimed deep in the crevices of Veldris's mind. Zephyr was trapped in a cage, with black goo sticking to his feet, clearly being Veldris's domain.
Well, you knew that from the start, you just had no choice this time around. Just watch comfortably as I take over the world.
"Comfortably?" Zephyr scoffed. "If you think this is comfortable, I don't know where you have been living."
Veldris ignored him, walking into an opening that split into two pathways.
"We've created an entire underground system to prepare for our invasion of Umbraxis. Caverns that split up for miles and miles on end. Houses that many families live in comfortably, restaurants, training grounds, and a research facility."
"A research facility?"
"Yes, we've gathered loads of Abyssal goo to research the limits of your power, my lord."
"Take me there."
The warrior nodded to the mage.
"Our mage and researcher, Nyvara, will gladly take you there."
Veldris walked through the halls of the cavern, watching kids wrestle near their houses, smelled food he was familiar with from the Abyss, and warriors' training on the field. Eventually, he made it to a laboratory made of mud bricks, smelling a pungent aroma coming from the inside.
"We're here," Nyvara said.
Nyvara opened the door for Veldris. Veldris walked in, seeing the pool of black goo to his left, strange tools that Nyvara most likely used for research, and three bodies tied up in the corner. One was weeping, begging to be released. Veldris winced at the cruelty, Nyvara noticing his discomfort.
"Don't worry, they're criminals that are now my test subjects for my research."
"So... what did this research accomplish?"
"We're now able to use two types of energy, and I called it shadow qi. We're now able to circulate qi and mana in our bodies, and we've biologically engineered our bodies to be able to copy martial arts forms at first glance. We've been assigning special agents to smuggle in mana potions from Mystharow to here to build our mana capabilities."
Interesting, they've progressed much farther than I thought from the last time I saw them.
"Alright, enough of that, I need to get my powers back."
"Of course, my lord, just submerge yourself in the Abyssal's goo. But of course, we wouldn't want you to lose control, so please drink this concoction I made to slow down the absorption rate," Nyvara said, smiling.
Ok, so they aren't betraying me. I was afraid they might try to overdose me on goo and control me.
Veldris picked up the cup and began to drink when Zephyr started yelling at him, "Wait, you don't even know what is in there!"
Just relax, they are completely loyal to me.
Veldris took off his clothes and laid face up, completely submerging his body. In a heartbeat, a mountain of pressure started compressing his veins, causing him to cough up the black goo.
"Nyvara! Just how potent is this goo?!" Veldris exclaimed, struggling to speak.
Nyvara smiled, leaning closely to Veldris's face, whispering, "As potent as can be."
Dammit, I can't even stay awake, is it that concoction that's making me sleepy?
Nyvara backed away from Veldris, grabbing some of her tools. "Don't worry, just relax; you'll soon be ours, my lord."
Zephyr shook his head, "Veldris, you idiot."
Before Veldris even knew it, he had passed out.
...
Veldris woke up, unable to see anything. All he did was sense people around him and one other thing: blood. One kilometer away from him, a child who fell, bleeding, a fresh being for sustenance. Veldris was now an entire beast with dark black scales, vibrating at the smell of ripped flesh and his razor-sharp teeth. The only feature that stayed the same was his face.
"Veldris, get a hold of yourself, suppress the energy!" Zephyr exclaimed, afraid that he would lose the chance to reclaim his body.
But Veldris couldn't hear him; he was locked in on one thing - flesh and blood. He darted out of the lab, straight in the direction of the child, when he got trapped in a bubble of water.
"My lord, looks like you're awake," Nyvara said, smiling.
The smell of blood went away, and Veldris sort of returned to his senses.
"Ny-va-ra? What d-did y-you do t-to me? I th-thought y-you were l-loyal to m-me."
"Haha, after you disappeared, we found someone greater to follow. A divine being that would lead us to salvation. A being stronger than the original God of this world, and that trespasser of a Goddess." Nyvara spread her arms open. "Once we conquer most of Umbraxis, we will give him a warm welcome. Into Novaquil, a planet reborn, into something much better than what it once was. Like a snake shedding its skin, we'll get rid of everything old in this world, replacing it with new prosperity and opportunities. So join us, Veldris and the world will be ours to rule."
"N-no, I'm the m-most p-powerful b-being on this p-planet. I w-won't l-let you c-control me."
Nyvara sighed, her face turning serious, "So be it. If you don't want to cooperate, then you'll be used now, like a dog. Keep in mind I gave you a chance. I'm going to send you to the surface, and you're going to kill everybody, every last person in the basin for us." She paused, then continued, smiling, "Good luck."
Before Veldris knew it, he was out of the caves and onto the grassy terrain.