“These Spearman are doing better than I thought,” Christopher said. “I never imagined that they could hold the line against the Windhowlers for so long.” “Indeed, better than we expected,” Simon said. “Perhaps we give them less credit than they deserve. They are giving our swordsman more than enough time to prepare.” However, they still did not last very long. The Windhowlers had a much more resilient body than the humans. While human dropped after few severe wounds. Or even died. The Windhowlers kept on attacking even after receiving massive wounds. Once too many of the human died or dropped helplessly, they could no longer hold the line. They were swallowed up in minutes. The wind howlers howled in what seemed like triumph. However, before the monsters could stop, the line of two hundred swordsman who belonged to the first and tenth elder crashed into them. The swordsman was heavily armoured and carried massive swords that could cleave the wind howlers in half. More than a hundre
Christopher did not stop laughing for a few more minutes. Why would he? He had worked so hard. He had sacrificed so much. And finally, all his sacrifices were giving him fruit. Today, he would reach the body transition realm. A realm thought mere myth by most of his people. Well, it was his own fault for them not knowing. He had suppressed anything to do with that realm and above to stop the rumours from spreading. He did not want his people to leave in search of more power. Christopher needed them as his own pawns.His reaching the body transition realm was only the beginning. He had much, much more to do. Now that he would reach the body transition realm, his life span would extend by about fifty years, and he could finally see his ambition coming to fruition. He looked at the distant stars in the sky.‘I will never. Let anyone come my way? I will reach the stars.’Shaking his head, Christopher came out of his thoughts. His wounds were almost completely healed by now. All thanks to
Over Fifteen Years Ago. Planet: Roden [One Hour Before Destruction.] Erin had done something today. Something daring, something dangerous. She had stolen an elementary-level fire core from some dangerous people. They had wanted to rob her, she could see it in their eyes. And they did manage to steal a few Silver coins, and a few of her other belongings. And she had given them the taste of their own medicine. The problem was the fire core she had stolen from them was far-far more valuable than what they had stolen from her. It was a conduit for fire law that allowed mages like her to create and control fire to an extent. Erin scurried throughout her room, rummaging through her belongings. There wasn’t much, they weren’t exactly well off. She and her two-year-old brother—almost three—lived in a small wooden hut with a thatched roof. First, she pocketed the most precious of her possessions. An advanced-level wind core—her parents had left with her before going on a hunting mission.
“What do I do now?” Erin asked. She did not know what to do. She did not have anything left to live for. Besides, she was going to die, anyway. The extinction beam was coming for them. The black vortex in the sky was growing ever denser, ever larger. “There is nothing we can do. We can only wait for our inevitable death,” Rina said. “And since we are going to die, anyway. I might as well tell you my real name. Rina is the name of someone, a person I once could not save with all my power. My name is Victoria Hughes.” “You see, the name Hughes carries great weight in the world beyond. I cannot risk for them to learn my name. But as you can see, we are going to die. So it does not matter. We now have less than a minute.” “It was nice knowing you, Victoria.” “Was it?” The vampire woman said. “It was because of me that you did not even get to spend the last of your moment with your brother.” “Yes. However, at least I can die knowing that my brother is alive somewhere in the world beyo
How can someone collect so many cores? Granted, it was all collected by a massive organisation from what she could tell. Still, there were so many of them. Were there so many beasts in the world in the first place? And even if there were, why weren’t they extinct yet? She had seen many beasts in the forest back home. And if these organisations had killed so many of the beasts, why were there still so many alive? It did not make sense to Erin. “With this, we will create our own army,” Solarus said. “And we won’t even have a problem with supplies.” “You may be right, Solarus—but even with all this, we won’t have any ascenders in our ranks. At least, not many of them. You, of all people, should know how difficult it is to ascend.” “Yes, but there are still some unorthodox methods to ascend. So we will have a few ascenders given time.” “But not even ten percentage of people will survive such methods. How many will die?” “I will not force them, Victoria. You don’t have to be afraid. Ho
It has been two weeks since I arrived in this world, this universe. The universe itself is called the nexus by my master, and by the local people, apparently. I am not surprised by the name. This universe exists at the very centre of all creation. It was the first world, or rather universe, that came to life—among all the universes that exist now and will exist in the future. I have been living in hiding in this world. In a separate dimension. This world has many powerful beings, apparently, more powerful than I. It was something I had not expected.In my home world, I was the strongest in existence. No one could even come close to my power aside from my master, who is far stronger. However, I am the weakest in this world, the weakest among the ascenders, at least. I do not know the true meaning of ascenders. However, I will figure it out soon enough. I have already sent the man my master tasked to come along with me to explore the world outside and gather as much information as he cou
[Part 2: The Trainee]***Edwin sighed dejectedly.It had almost been half an hour since they left the Aether tribe’s camp. And the two women, Chris and Rina, who were walking right behind him—did not stop bickering. And bicker they did, about the stupidest of things. If this kept on, Edwin thought he would literally bleed from his ears. Who cares if you had one pimple or ten on your face? The pimples and freckles did not stop you from going about your life to enjoy it. People like his father did.‘Stupid women,’ Edwin thought, letting out another sigh that was more of a groan than anything else.Right now, the two women were discussing who had trimmed their nails better to make them look more regal and immaculate. Edwin almost vomited. They had only three days to prepare, and the women were talking about nails.Really, nails!Not Too long after Rina separated from the group explaining that she had to sell her core exchanging business before leaving for the Aether tribe, much to Edwin
Edwin’s sword rose and fell, decapitating a monster that looked like a cross between a lion and an eagle. The beast had a massive beak instead of a muzzle, and wings protruded from its back. Near him, Jimmy slumped into a tree trunk, painting. Chris was already defiling the monster to harvest the Beast Core. This was their thirteenth kill of the day. Even with all the preparation the three of them had done, it surprised Edwin how many monsters the three of them killed in a single day. If someone had told him that they could kill so many monsters in a single day, he would have laughed at the silly joke. “That went better than I expected,” Chris said. Edwin nodded in agreement. Chris sat next to Jimmy after harvesting the core. ‘Now, we have enough blood cores to help him advance.’ Edwin didn’t know if Jimmy advancing by a single realm could help him, but it was the only option they had. He knew learning to fight for a couple of months won’t be enough for Jimmy if he truly wanted t
Jimmy listened to the elder, who taught them the properties of various metals. “This is Firesteel, this is Watersteel, this is Bloodsteel…” The elder got out seven metals and introduced them to the class. These were the best conductor of said Law and amplified their effect. The elder produced another seven metals and explained about each of them; Firebane, Spiritbane and Earthbane and so on. These were poor conductors of corresponding Laws—almost an insulator. These metals either diminished or nullified the effect of the corresponding Law. Jimmy learned much in his Blacksmith class. The identities of unique metals, their source, their properties—and how and what to forge with them. How to make an object of power? It was a simple process, impossible as it was to believe. First, forge a required item, take a beast core, and after that reach out with spiritual sense to the item through the core and push the power of the core to the item—the spiritual sense was the medium to such tran
Rina repeatedly tapped the table with her index finger. This was getting on her nerves. The man no older than her, who sat opposite her, inspected the inscription on the dagger she had carved, turning it round and round in his hands. Rina scoffed. As if he knew anything about the scripts. Scripting was The Most technical art of Drogen. “You have excellent calligraphy,” the man said.Rina snorted. “A fish that can’t swim is worthless.” “Point. Shall we test your handiwork? I hope they are as powerful as they are beautiful.”The scripter woman nodded. Finally! She would earn her keep and be rid of the man soon.The runes in the dagger glowed golden. The man flicked his wrist and the dagger cut through the air and struck the wall. There was little sound. Golden lines of runes flickered across the room. The dagger quivered for a second and dropped.Her pride swelled like a balloon. She had done a better job than she had believed. “To think the dagger activated the protection formation
“Why are you doing this to yourself?” Edwin asked on their way to class. “You had to visit a healer three times this week. Please tell me what is happening with you, maybe I can help.” “I am fine,” Chris said. A wave of nausea struck her. The world must hate her. Why did it have to happen now when she had just told Edwin she was fine? If the man hadn’t caught her, she would probably be bleeding from her nose right now.“Chris, can you stand by yourself?” The man looked ready to princess-carry her if need be–that she would not allow.Chris pushed herself out of Edwin’s arms and jumped up and down to show she was perfectly fine, thank you very much. She was, and anyone who said otherwise be damned. “See, I am fine.”“You weren’t, just a second ago. I think it best to go see a healer.”Chris caressed Edwin’s hand. She did her best to make her voice as soothing as possible. What she was about to say Edwin wouldn’t like. “You needn't worry about what’s happening to me. You know how we were
Only when Chris was well away from Linden and the arena did the consequences of what she had done dawn on her. What was she thinking dunking him in the water? If Linden had taken what she had done as offence and not as a joke, she would be howling in pain for who knew how long. Perhaps forever. She must have been mad. Why did she always let the anger get the best of her? She had to learn to control it better. ‘What’s done is done,’ she told herself firmly. ‘There is no point in fretting over it.’ Aside from her horrible mistake with Linden that could have ended up with her head on a pike, her days went smoothly—with only one sour note. It was, of course, Rina. Chris asked herself a thousandth time why she was sharing a room with her. The woman had no decency at all. None. Two nights a week, sometimes three nights, the woman brought a man to spend the night with. The partners she brought were sometimes young, sometimes old. The woman changed her partners like men changed their cloth
Linden stopped laughing, gave her a lopsided glance, and struck. Chris brought her sword before it to intercept the attack. At the last second, Linden twisted his sword, and it landed on her wrist. She almost lost her grip on her sword. Still, she powered through the pain and kept her hold of it. Chris was just glad she hadn’t yelped in pain and had just winced. That would be beyond embarrassing. They exchanged dozens of blows, and with each blow, her anger spiked up a notch. Linden had thwacked her left and right—blows that would bruise. Yet, for the life of her, she couldn’t land a single hit. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t. Why should she be bruised and in pain, while the other man was grinning like a fool? She knew he wasn’t using vital technique or any form of Drogen. That would have left behind a residue that she would have undoubtedly seen, being a collector as she was. So, what was it he was doing? There had to be something. He can’t really see the future, can he? No, that w
Chris watched as the heir strode towards them. The bare-chested man walked like any heir should, back straight, one hand resting on his sword hilt as if he were assuming a sword stance. He could have made any girl’s neck turn in his direction and made their heart flutter. Not hers. Her heart fluttered for someone else. Someone next to her, no less regal than the heir himself, standing there, hand poised on his sword hilt, ready to draw at a moment’s notice. The man she suspected to be Linden’s bodyguard. Tim, was it? He could do with an earful. Holding a sword at her throat like that. When her eyes shifted back to the bodyguard, her mouth went dry. Sweat glistened along his abs. She gulped. Her knees wanted to buckle. She wanted… ‘Heavens above, what am I thinking?’ She wanted to get into good graces with the heir. Not canoodle with his bodyguard. She wouldn’t mind doing it, though. It could be warming. Gods, she had always prided herself on having great control over her thoughts.
[PRESENT TIME] Chris Scoured through the sect library searching for information on collectors. She had hoped to find some record to understand her powers. Useless, there was nothing she didn’t already know. All that knowledge in here and they were all deadwood to her. Unless she broke into the restricted section of the library, there was nothing new she could learn. That meant she would have to learn everything by experiment. The thought of experimenting with her powers sent a shiver down her spine. Playing with something she didn’t understand didn’t sound healthy to her. All her classes went well, better than well actually. She was one of the best in her class—aside from a few mishaps like that one time when she had turned into a giant; it was one of the most embarrassing things that had ever happened to her. What surprised her most as she navigated through her powers was the fact that her abilities were incredibly similar to that of a Dweller and, at the same time, quite differen
Chris stood next to her brother as she watched him paint on a massive canvas. The strange amalgamation of colours slowly began to gain cohesion and shape. Slowly, the paintings began to gain more shapes and details. She saw villagers washing clothes in the rivers. Children playing near them. Why couldn’t her life be so peaceful as well? Why couldn’t she be as happy as that? Children playing in the river. This was the first time her brother’s paintings had made her feel more pain than soothing her.However, she did not blame her brother for her mood. She knew something like this could happen. She had been lucky that it hadn’t happened before. And her brother had never drawn a painting with people before.When her brother finished his art. She asked him a question. “What will you call this painting, brother? I always like it when you name your paintings. It is the most enjoyable part of all this.”“I will call this one A Vain Dream.”“Why do you want to name something so beautiful? Somet
Five Years Ago. It had been about five years since her mother died. Killed was more accurate. A band of people made from Dwellers and Vampires had killed her mother. And even after five years, Chris still wept herself to sleep. She had abandoned her in her time of need. They punished the murderers of her mother for their actions. They were flogged and tortured publicly before being killed. And yet Chris still could not feel at peace for the death of her mother—like everyone told her to do. Even though they had already received their punishment. Even though they were already dead, she still hated them for taking her mother away from her. How could they do such a thing? How could they have no regard for human life? That question always haunted her. Their death wasn’t enough. Someone else deserved punishment—it was her.A part of Chris wanted to forget about her mother. So that she did not have to hurt, so that she did not have to cry so much, so that her father would not have changed