“So, you are that guy?” a deep, guttural voice echoed through the lair as David stepped inside.

  His gaze flicked from one abomination to the next, narrowing to tiny slits. The abominations didn’t block his path as he descended into the depths of the lair. They stepped aside, lowered their heads, and shuddered as they looked up to see a smaller version of Electra swirl around David. The Mythical Electra was still exhausted from months of tiresome work and chose to take it easy. That, however, didn’t mean she stayed hidden in the Beast Core.

  She was having the time of her life, releasing tiny lightning currents woven with Vitae, scaring the bipedal and four-legged abominations around them.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” David said, his gaze drifting to a massive hall where a being unlike the other abominations was seated. It was a humanoid figure, five meters tall, with a snake-like tail resembling William’s, but with heads that couldn’t have been more different. The figure was bulky, with its six arms crossed, and it stared at him through its three heads: a goat, a dragon, and a lion.

  “Are you a Chimera?” David asked before the abomination could say something.

  “Is that what the natives call us here? It doesn’t have a bad ring to it, so you may call us that.” The Chimera nodded thoughtfully. “As you may have noticed, we look different. Every single member of our race looks different, as we take on the traits of other beasts. We consume our enemies and use their greatest strengths to modify our bodies. If not for that, we would have gone extinct long ago.”

  “Why are you telling me that?”

  There was no reason to go into detail. He didn’t really care about their backstory; however, the Chimera Ascendant seemed to consider it crucial.

  “To form a connection with your allies, you need to let them know where your strength comes from. The strong not only have the responsibility to protect their people; they must also share their wisdom so their subjects can learn to protect themselves in times of need,” the Chimera Ascendant said. “As a sign of trust, my people share wisdom with those we want to ally with.”

  David studied the Ascendant for a while. In the meantime, Electra swirled through the air, her eyes lingering on the Chimeras behind. They did not move to attack, nor did they show any signs of hostility. Compared to the first time they encountered Electra, they bowed their heads and showed…submission?

  “You wish us to become allies?” He was sure he hadn’t heard the Chimera right, but the Ascendant nodded.

  “That is the plan. My people recognize the power of those under your charge. We have witnessed their strength, and as their liege, we honor you for fostering such might.”

  “What if I am weaker than them?” David asked, but the three heads of the Chimera Ascendant turned to him, deadly serious.

  “You are not. The Sacred Beast is yours to command. We can sense the power surging through its body—your power.”

  He was unsure what to make of the Chimera Ascendant, but he knew for a fact that the Chimeras hadn’t attacked Orhain and its people since their third encounter with Electra. She tore through them, killed them by the dozens, including a pair of Champions, yet they looked upon her like zealots staring at their gods.

  They revered power. That much was fairly obvious. But that didn’t explain why David should bother allying with them.

  “Are you stronger than the other Ascendants?” he asked.

  The Chimeras bordered the western edge of his territory and were connected to Voidlings along their northern border.

  “No, we are not. Not currently. Our strongest are still consuming the Sworn and Champions of those we’ve killed.” That was still somewhat repellent, but David nodded.

  “Can you consume Voidlings? Maelstroms? Can you harness the power of the End?”

  The Chimera Ascendant’s faces contorted. “No, we can’t. We tried. Our strongest succumbed to the power of the End. We are highly susceptible to their power…and that of your mighty subjects.”

  David raised an eyebrow and conjured a blob of Vitae Nihilum in his palm. “You cannot absorb this?”

  The Ascendant backed away, eyes widening in terror.

  “Electra is a whole different topic, but my other Champion couldn’t control Vitae either. Not only that, I had to merge Vitae with Might as I infused it into her. Even then, I had to keep healing her until the essence of her very being accepted Vitae as an amiable energy.” Maja’s body was constantly modified by the presence of Vitae, empowered to make her stronger.

  “I don’t need you as allies. I need power,” David said. “I devour Nihilum and make it mine. If you wish to fight the End, you either need to find a way to deal with Voidlings—be it by consumption of their corpses or through other means—or you consume parts of me.”

  The Chimera’s eyes widened, and it took David quite a bit of effort to silence Electra’s voice ringing in his ears.

  “My entire body is filled with lifeforce and Vitae Nihilum. If—and only if—one of yours can consume and adapt to it, you should be able to devour Voidlings.”

  They looked scared, and rightfully so.

  “If you manage, you will be respected by everyone for your strength. You will be stronger than all those who flee when Voidres emerge out of nowhere. You and your people will be hailed as heroes,” David declared. “In exchange for my sacrifice, however, you will have to submit to me. An alliance will be formed, but I will be at the head, and you will heed my call.”

  His demand was far-fetched and likely to be dismissed, but he voiced it anyway. If they didn’t like it, they could always reject his offer. He did not like giving others parts of his body for consumption either. The thought made him shudder, but it was worth a try anyway. If they could be like him…that would be amazing.

  As long as they do not take what’s mine, I will be fine.

  ***

  The Chimeras submitted to David way too easily, and he was certain it had little to do with his prowess. They had never seen him fight, yet they treated him like he was a powerhouse among gods, when, in reality, he hadn’t ascended to godhood just yet. But since the Chimeras had fought against Electra and his subjects, they behaved around him.

  Even better, one of the Chimeras, a willing subject, was given one of his fingers. It contained a trace of unaltered Vitae, which the Chimera consumed, only to die. To be precise, the willing subject was pushed to the brink of death, forcing David to use his healing abilities on him for hours. Then, when his body wouldn’t adjust to Vitae Nihilum, David had to send a string of Vitae into the Chimera to remove the unaltered essence, which was still trying to change him.

  Apparently, not even Chimeras could handle raw Vitae. Thus, they tried again, using a mixture of Vitae and Might. That, as it turned out, created a Low Sworn. David knew something like that could happen if he infused too much Might into the target, but he’d barely infused one-fourth of the Might the Unitas siblings had required to become Low Sworn to turn the Chimera into one as well.

  The mixture of Vitae Nihilum and Might tore through the subject, yet it didn’t kill him as a few more hours of healing elapsed.

  “I wasn’t planning on turning you into my Sworn,” David grunted, ruffling through his hair.

  He half expected the Chimera Ascendant to pounce at him and attack, but…neither the Ascendant nor his people seemed to mind.

  “Power is all that matters,” the Ascendant said dismissively. “We will bring him to the border to test his prowess, and if it works, we will be at your behest.”

  That didn’t sound too bad, especially if it cost him less Might to transform them into his Sworn than usual.

  “Wait a second.” David raised a finger and used Passage to teleport to the border of his territory. His gaze swept across the wastelands bordering his territory, and he found what he was looking for fairly easily. Pure Blood surged into his lower body, and the ground beneath him cracked open as he kicked the dry soil.

  David bolted toward his target with a speed that surprised even him. He expected his physical strength to be high given his Promethean Constitution, Body empowered to its limit with [Reinforce], and pure Blood surging through his legs, but he did not expect to move this fast.

  The Sapling had no chance. It didn’t even notice him until he crashed into the unfortunate creature. His hand shot forward, fingers coiling around the creature’s neck, before he used Passage again. A small portion of his Might reserves were used up to bring the Sapling with him, but the Arcana did not fail him, and he reappeared in the Chimeras’ lair.

  Arcana, Passage, leveled up

  25 → 26

  The Chimeras roared furiously, their bodies bulging and convulsing as they shifted, ready to launch attacks at the Void Sapling, but David was faster. He lifted the Void Sapling in the air and smashed it firmly into the ground while releasing a small cube of Domain of Vitae into the surroundings, draining the nothingness and Nihilum oozing from the Sapling.

  He pinned it to the ground, intertwined Vitae with [Archaic Shackles], and released the Sapling.

  “Try it,” David ordered the Sworn Champion calmly, while the other Chimeras stared blankly at him. Even the Ascendant stared at him with all three heads, eyes widened in surprise.

  “You are stronger than you look,” the Ascendant said, which earned him a raised eyebrow from David.

  “And how strong do I look to you?”

  “Very.”

  David chuckled at that and turned back to the Sworn Chimera, whose claws tore through the weakened Void Sapling. [Archaic Shackles] dispersed when the Sapling died, and the Sworn Chimera tore the Voidling apart. It stuffed chunks of the Voidling’s body into its gaping maw and devoured a good portion of its body without hesitation.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  David respected the Sworn Chimera’s eagerness, and he was positively surprised when everything worked out initially. However, the Chimera devoured too much, its body bulged and threatened to fall apart, forcing David to intervene. Vitae surged out of him in masses. It swamped the Sworn Chimera, engulfed it, and devoured most of the Voidling it had consumed earlier.

  He didn’t say a word as Vitae retracted. Instead, he watched the Chimera in silence as it digested the tiny portion he’d left behind.

  “It works,” David noted. “As long as your kind consumes small portions of Voidlings only, you will be fine. Adapting to Vitae and Nihilum is possible.” He turned to the Chimeras. “You can grow even more powerful.”

  ***

  The Chimeras submitted to him. All of them did, including the Ascendant, which was rewarded with a System notification as the mixture of Might and Vitae settled in the Chimera Ascendant.

  [You have successfully forced an Ascendant into submission. The Ascendant’s territory has been claimed and transferred into your possession. All bonds formed by the Ascendant will henceforth be shared with you.

  As their liege, you will always be in full control of the territory, but you may split your territory up, allowing the gods and Ascendants subsidiary to you to govern your land.

  Remark: A small portion of Might produced in the territory governed by other Ascendants will be funneled into their growth!]

  The System provided him with enough interesting information to change his plans. He still transformed all Chimeras into Low Sworn, using a considerable amount of Might and Vitae. Then again, there were only 1,957 Chimeras in total. The number was lower than expected, although that changed entirely when all of them became his Sworn. First of all, every Chimera provided him with an enormous amount of Might for being Sworn. Second, they were powerful from the get-go—now more than ever.

  “I want you to talk to the other Ascendants. Have one hundred Sworn Chimeras roam the territory borders to hunt a few Saplings and take the rest with you to talk,” David ordered the Chimera Ascendant. Electra’s form swirling around him expanded, and she burst out of the lair in her regular size, roaring at the top of her lungs. “Take her with you and convince them to join our mission. You do not have to force them into submission, but we need to combine our strength to fight the End.”

  “As you command, Master.” The Ascendant bowed deeply, a trace of Vitae flickering in the goat’s eyes.

  David ignored the Master part and used Passage to teleport back to the Wastelands, where he had kidnapped the Void Sapling earlier. He discovered a few dozen Voidlings in the distance but didn’t attack right away. He closed his eyes, focused on his insides, and ushered Words of Power.

  The word rolled freely from his lips. His Source swelled, and the dark letter engraved on it shimmered to life, glowing gloomily.

  David released an enormous amount of Vitae through his feet. He forced it into the ground and triggered Dominion, unleashing the Domain of Vitae. Eerie darkness seeped into the ground and spread rapidly, devouring nothingness and more.

  Barely a second passed before a notification popped up. Then came a second.

  [+0.01 Vitae Nihilum]

  [+0.02 Vitae Nihilum]

  More notifications popped up, but David pushed them to the corner of his sight. The surroundings were being cleansed by the Domain of Vitae, and the Voidlings in the vicinity seemed to notice something was wrong. However, David did not pay too much attention to them. They could wait for another second or two as the Words of Power rolling from his tongue shifted.

  The gloomy light shrouding his Source was replaced by brilliance. Raw life flooded David, and a sudden sense of happiness overwhelmed him as the Pillar of Life materialized around him. The pillar burst high into the sky, dispersing the dark clouds, and spread its abundance of life into the surroundings.

  “That should be enough,” David mused, reaching for the planetary bond with the Earthen Union. It didn’t change much, but every minuscule improvement was worth something, and it did improve as tiny portions of wastelands were devoured and filled with life.

  It did not take long for the first Voidlings to reach him, snarling at him. However, they never reached him. David stared at the Saplings and shook his head as geysers of all-consuming darkness burst from the ground, swallowing them whole.

  [+0.01 Vitae Nihilum]

  [+0.01 Vitae Nihilum]

  [+0.01 Vitae Nihilum]

  …

  While the Saplings were devoured, the Void Fragments survived. Vitae seeped into their bodies, consuming their Void Barrier at a blinding speed, but they were still alive when the geysers dispersed. David studied the Fragments for a moment and released a quick series of lightning bolts. [Origin Lightning] worked wonders now that pure Blood was stronger than ever. The pristine-white bolts pierced through the Fragments, shattering their Maelstroms, killing them near-instantly.

  More Voidlings arrived in the distance, hundreds of them, but David remained unmoving. He forced more Vitae Nihilum into the ground and watched Dominion as a massive maw filled with jagged teeth of Vitae tore through the ground, devouring close to a hundred Saplings in one bite. Modifying his Intent at will was a little tricky. It strained his Source, but it was no longer the same Source it had been several months ago.

  He was a 3-Star Ascendant and survived the consumption of the Primordial Fountain Serum. If his Source endured the strains of a few minor changes to an Intent, how was he ever supposed to wield the Ancient Law of Unbinding?

  The maw of Vitae he’d conjured on a whim devoured the first batch of Voidlings and descended into the wastelands once more. However, it was far from over. The Domain of Vitae expanded rapidly as the amount of Vitae at the Intent’s disposal increased, and the massive maw resurfaced to swallow a second batch of victims. Dozens of notifications popped up in the corner of David’s eyes, yet he focused on the Voidlings’ reaction.

  They stared at the massive maw, their swift steps slowed, and…they turned around to flee.

  “That’s new.” He mused, eyes trained on the strongest Void Fragments as even they spun around on their claws to make a run for it.

  David smiled, manifested the massive claymore, Serpent Fang, in his hands, and propelled forward. He empowered himself and his abilities with [Herald’s Blessing] and cast [Phantom Rush]. [Origin Lightning] swirled around Serpent Fang, and dark electricity currents joined shortly.

  He closed the distance to the fleeing creatures and arrived beside the strongest Voidlings with a smile. Serpent Fang carved through the air in a beautiful arc and severed through Void Barrier and the Fragment’s tough body without slowing. David pushed forward, swung Serpent Fang once more, and cleaved through a second enemy even before the first Fragment could collapse to the ground, split in half.

  David blocked several desperate attacks with crimson barriers materializing around him, and he leaped into the air, reaching out for [Origin Lightning] as well as the power resting in Electra’s Beast Core. He fused Electra’s lightning with [Origin Lightning], his clothes fluttering in the air, and unleashed destruction upon his fleeing enemies.

  Pristine bolts mingled with eerily dark currents, tearing through the Void Barriers of the creatures most beings feared.

  However, David was not satisfied with the deaths occurring all around him. The Domain of Vitae wreaked havoc and reinforced his power, but that was all. Where was the struggle? Where were the Voidres?

  As if waiting for the very moment, mighty roars resounded in the air of nothingness, and he turned to the distant clouds of eternal darkness.

  “Come at me!”

  ***

  “If you’re leading us into a trap, know that we will tear you apart.” One of the three Ascendants following closely behind Electra and the Chimera Ascendant growled deeply, his hands lingering on the handle of his greatsword.

  “Master wants you to see this,” the Chimera repeated in unison with the Sworn Chimeras.

  The Ascendant glanced warily at the other Chimeras, eyes narrowed to tiny slits.

  “I don’t think we stand a chance.” A blue-skinned Ascendant reluctantly admitted, her voice no more than a whisper, “The Sacred Beast and those abominations could have killed us one by one, yet they didn’t.”

  “That doesn’t explain why they brought us to the wastelands.” A burly, dark-skinned man with four arms, two of which wielded massive warhammers, turned to the others. “In the first place, who is this ‘Master’ he’s talking about? That brain-muddled abomination has a master? Since when?”

  The dark-skinned Ascendant studied the others, their expressions resembling his.

  “Since the Sacred Beast is with them, the master they’re talking about is the human, the native one, levitating in the air above the human Sanctuary.” The blue female shrugged, her eyes lingering on a massive beacon of light—no, of life.

  “What in the myriad realms is that!?” She gasped, feeling the abundance of life as it pressed against her skin as they moved closer. Geysers of utter darkness burst from the ground, devouring what appeared to be the corpses of Void Fragments, turning their attention momentarily to the deeper parts of the wastelands.

  “Something about the wastelands feels different.”

  “It appears the Master is cleansing the wastelands,” the Chimera Ascendant said pridefully.

  Albeit confused, the Ascendants followed the Sacred Beast and the Chimera. There was not much they could do now that they were already in the wastelands. Even if they were still back in their territories, it would have been difficult to deal with the Chimeras now that they allied with the human Sanctuary. Now that they wielded the same power the Sacred Beast controlled, they were stronger—unpredictable.

  Soon after they entered the deeper parts of the wastelands, they heard the familiar roars of the monstrosities that nearly killed them over and over again in the last few months. Their roars reverberated in their ears, and they backed up.

  The Chimera Ascendant looked at them in disgust but turned back to the direction of the roars.

  “Watch and decide your fate.”

  The words barely left the Chimera’s mouth when a maw equipped with rows upon rows of jagged teeth emerged in the distance. It snapped shut and a sickening crunch resounded. Space distorted around them and the weakened Weave flared up as three massive figures, four-legged and shrouded in the all-consuming darkness of the End, emerged no more than 200 meters from their current location.

  The Ascendants flinched, unsheathed their weapons, and prepared for battle, whereas Electra and the Chimeras remained motionless.

  A human materialized above one of the Voidre, his eyes emitting a vibrant crimson. A massive blade cleaved through the air and impacted heavily, tearing through the Voidre’s Void Barrier. Lightning currents, pristine-white and dark-violet, zapped across the Voidre’s armor. It rippled through the creature’s defense, just as a blade of condensed blood whipped forward.

  The human and his blade disappeared moments before the blade of blood impacted, cleanly piercing through the damaged Void Barrier. The Voidre roared in pain, only to stiffen as an explosion erupted. Thunderous noises echoed through the wastelands, and the Voidre’s body bulged and expanded. More deafening roars resounded, but a geyser of utter darkness swallowed them all. The geyser unraveled before their eyes, yet they barely noticed it when it had already engulfed the Voidre.

  As suddenly as the geyser appeared, it vanished just as quickly, leaving miserable leftovers of a once-powerful creature behind. The Voidre’s limbs had been consumed by what appeared to be an even darker substance than the all-consuming darkness of their Void Barrier. It ripped their defense into shreds, dismantled the Void Barrier by consumption, and continued to feast upon the creature. More geysers emerged at the exact same spot, and each eruption devoured more of the Voidre than the last.

  “What in the…” The blue Ascendant stared at the scene unfolding right before her, her eyes locked onto the Voidre…or what was left of it.

  The other Ascendants watched the same scene at first; however, their attention quickly moved toward the human and the massive blade he held.

  “He hasn’t even used Might yet,” the dark Ascendant muttered, his steely hair standing upright as the oversized claymore expanded.

  Words of Power reached the Ascendants, yet they failed to understand the words. They were foreign to them, yet there was no doubt about it; they were powerful. Each word leaving the human’s lips was stronger than their mightiest Intent. The Weave trembled in anticipation as he ushered more Words of Power, while simultaneously erupting hundreds of shields, crimson and coated in a thin dark layer, which seemed strong enough to block the Voidre as they moved…away from the human.

  The shields were not there for the human’s protection. They had been conjured to block the Voidre from fleeing. That was not even the worst about it. The worst was that it actually worked.

  Despair filled the creatures that were only known for inflicting despair, and they charged the human in a last-ditch effort. It was to no avail. They attacked too late. Way too late.

  The Words of Power ceased and the human swung his sword, releasing a silverish-gray blade of energy that tore through Void Barrier, flesh, bones, nothingness, and nearly the very essence of the Weave as well.

  The Ascendants stared unmovingly at the pair of Voidre as the crescent-shaped blade tore through them. They didn’t move as the Voidre’s upper bodies slid to the ground, and they remained deadly still as the ground opened up to devour them either.

  The Ascendants did not look at each other, but the exact same realization flashed through their minds; if they didn’t surrender to the human, they would die – no exceptions..

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