“You’re the Lord of the Southern Ice Mountains, the Awakened who removed the Chaos Essence that took root in Xiltra, aren’t you?” Michael asked Taros after spending a few minutes in a stalemate situation with Tac Lec and Taros.
He actually wanted to leave now that he collected most corpses, but his curiosity held him back.
Michael wanted to know if Taros’ strength was mostly based on his unsealed Divine Beast bloodline, or if his Soultrait was the reason he was so strong.
There was something odd about Taros, and Michael wanted to unravel the mystery.
“You don’t look like a Lord of the Zentika Empire, so how do you know that Chaos Essence took root in Xiltra?” Taros asked with a strong dialect of the origin language.
He didn’t seem to be used to speaking in the origin language often, given that his voice was hoarse and he seemed unfamiliar with the pronunciation of the words he used.
“This guy over there is a Lord in the Untamed Jungle, and he destroyed part of the Untamed Jungle using Chaos Pills to kill some of Lord Targes’ Paladins. The Paladins, who survived the initial attack, unknowingly brought the Chaos Essence inside Xiltra. You know the rest,” Tac Lec answered on behalf of Michael.
Interestingly enough, Tac Lec didn’t seem to feel like fighting anymore. The Zantur was still vigilant of surprise attacks, but he didn’t conjure new elemental combinations to bombard Taros with them.
A smile filled with satisfaction had blossomed on his face. Tac Lec was clearly satisfied with the death of the dozen Lords and their subordinates.
‘It seems like the Lords’ deaths will reward him with quite some benefits,’ Michael thought, his eyes moving to Tac Lec.
Michael was quite surprised when he heard what Tac Lec said. He didn’t expect Tac Lec to know what he had done to defeat the 13 Paladins.
Unfortunately, that also meant the Zentika Empire was well aware of what he was capable of, and how much pain and suffering his actions had caused to them while he was still a lower Tiered Lord.
“I researched Chaos Essence quite a bit when I heard about the destruction a Tier-1 Lord caused in the Untamed Jungle’s outer area. You did quite well with the Chaos Pills, though it was definitely dangerous,” Tac Lec answered Michael’s doubts while his head flicked to Taros.
Taros’ war axes disappeared inside his War Rune, and his body deflated back to his original size. Once his body regained its original size, Taros’ arms and legs began to shake.
“Fuck this shit. I’ve been using my Divine Beast bloodline way too much to defeat these scums,” He cursed, pointing at Tac Lec, who coughed up blood as well.
The bright shimmer on his silver skin dimmed down following Taros’ words. Tac Lec had been using his Unique Racial Ability much longer than he intended to. The arrival of the dozen Lords had stirred quite a trouble for the trio.
He stopped using his Unique Racial ability and sighed deeply. A few healing potions appeared in his hand with a flick of his wrist, and he gulped them down at once.
“Don’t even think about attacking. I can burn my blood to exceed my limit. You don’t want to face me when I’m at my lowest. Desperate beasts are the fiercest, after all!” Taros threatened seeing that Michael was the only one with his Soultraits activated, and his Artifacts tightly gripped.
“Don’t worry. I made enough gains by killing these Lords. You are probably more useful to me alive, either way,” Michael said, trying to sound nonchalant.
However, he was also getting tired slowly.
Extracting the lifeforce and origin energy of other existences might help him to momentarily alleviate any pain and the lack of origin energy. But unfortunately, the lifeforce and origin energy was not his. It belonged to someone else and had to be annexed and altered properly under normal circumstances.
Michael couldn’t spend much time focusing on the annexation and alteration process mid-battle. Thus, he absorbed the lifeforce and origin energy just to use it up the next moment.
The constant usage and absorption of energy and lifeforce that was not even his was quite draining. The exhaustion was slowly piling up and struck him once the adrenaline coursing through his body lessened – which was immediately after the battle ended.
Michael felt a little dizzy. He terminated the usage of all of his Soultraits and sighed heavily. A few glass vials appeared in his hands as well, and he swallowed the viscous liquid inside without complaints.
By the time he finished the potions, Tiara and Masked Saber had reached him.
They had been vigilant of Tac Lec and Taros, ready to move around the battlefield and strike them from the back. But since Michael chose to avoid fighting the two Lords, they thought that it was better to move next to Michael.
At least, they could protect Michael better by standing close to him.
After seeing Masked Saber and Tiara from the Silverfang Tigerfolk, Taros changed his stance.
He had been busy tearing apart a few Lords, Awakened, and Summons, and didn’t even notice that Michael brought his subordinates to the Lord Rift.
“So you’re the Lord in the Untamed Jungle. Seems like our future goals are the same then. There is no need to waste our time with useless talk. We’ll see each other in the future, whether it will be as opponents or allies,” Taros said, looking at Tac Lec and Michael before he turned around.
He walked off and began marching toward the upper area of the mountain range without another backward glance.
Michael was quite impressed with Taros’ confidence. He was not sure if he could walk off like that knowing that two potential enemies were staring at him from behind.
Taros was not scared of getting stabbed in the back, but why?
“You’re trying to annex the Zentika Empire, aren’t you?” Michael asked Tac Lec when he realized what Taros’ words meant, “Why?”
𝒏𝒐𝗏ℯ𝓵𝐍𝗲xt.𝗇𝓔t
Tac Lec’s attention moved from Taros to Michael. He stared straight into Michael’s eyes, but didn’t say a word.
A whole minute of awkward silence passed but Tac Lec didn’t say anything. He simply turned around at one point and left.
“Just say that you don’t want to tell me. No need to act mysterious like that,” Michael grumbled.
He was curious about Tac Lec’s reasoning and past, but he wouldn’t bother the Zantur with questions. There was no need.
If Tac Lec desired to annex the Zentika Empire from within, why would Michael have anything against that? It played straight into his cards!
Left alone with no more enemies, or observing eyes, Michael turned to Masked Saber and Tiara to inspect their injuries. Michael took a look at Masked Saber’s right arm and channeled some of his origin energy into Masked Saber.
Creating an attack like the highly compressed energy blade was far from simple. Masked Saber overdrafted the origin energy inside his body to create it, causing a state of energy overcharge. Energy pills and potions may help Masked Saber a little but Masked Saber wasn’t able to control the origin energy inside his body right now.
He required Michael’s help to circulate the origin energy through his body and annex the energy slowly to alleviate the state of energy overcharge.
Michael spent more than half an hour tending to Masked Saber’s condition even though the commotion caused by the big battle was likely to attract monsters and other Lords. He didn’t care if someone would come to find them. Treating Masked Saber was his highest priority.
Nonetheless, it was great that nobody attacked them until Masked Saber felt a little better.
They chose to leave quickly after collecting the corpses Taros left behind. Taros had been more interested in the mountain range than the corpses and the potential loot he could obtain from them.
Michael was the exact opposite. He may not be able to Extract the SoulStar Fragments and Soultrait Symbols of the Lords and Awakened he didn’t kill, but he could still extract a large number of Summoning Scrolls, the Artifacts bound to their War Rune, and the loot they collected inside the Lord Rift.
Michael would never leave those treasure troves behind.
Once the battlefield had been plundered, Michael and the others left. They decided to take a short break inside a small cave a few kilometers away from the mountain range where Tiara and Masked Saber stood on guard for potential dangers while Michael took a good look at the fortune they earned.
Michael first retrieved the corpses of all Summons, the Awakened, and Lords that had been killed by Taros. He wouldn’t get any SoulStar Fragments and Soultraits from them, so he wanted to extract them quickly.
Michael’s golden streams of Extraction emerged from his palms, they moved in the air as if they were alive and shot toward the corpses.
After advancing Extraction to a 6-Star Soultrait it was much easier and faster to extract corpses. Michael plundered the corpses within a few minutes, resulting in a vast fortune of Superior Tier-2 Monster corpses followed by all kinds of other rare treasures that could be easily found in the Lord Rift.
The Lords and Awakened killed by Taros had even been able to find some rare saplings and seeds – which Michael could plant to create a highly enriching ecosystem for rare trees and plants.
Michael dissected the monster corpses while extracting the additional Summoning Scrolls and other loot he could extract via Extraction.
Following that, Michael organized everything. He then retrieved the remaining corpses with a bright gleam in his eyes.
He didn’t know what awaited him but he was quite excited.
However, before Michael could start extracting the remaining corpses, he noticed that something was wrong with his body.
His body felt eerily warm and his heart was palpating wildly.
Barely a few seconds passed before he began to vomit blood.
‘What is happening?’
A throbbing headache crept up his brain, and he felt like he was going to suffocate.
Suddenly, everything around Michael turned pitch-black, except for a huge white pillar that manifested in front of him.
‘Huh? Isn’t that…’ Michael stared at the pillar of light, slowly realizing what was going on.
He had inadvertently entered his consciousness, the deepest part of his being, where the pillar of light – the heart of his War Rune – was located.
Eight Soultrait Symbols were revolving around the pillar of light. They seemed in disarray and moving unstably.
Only the Symbol of Extraction seemed stable and were exuding a golden light to form a glowing sphere of light.
Michael squinted his eyes while looking at the golden sphere of light.
‘What is going on here? And why do I have eight Soultrait Symbols? I should only have seven Soultraits!!’
Even if Michael wanted to understand the situation, the appearance of a new Soultrait, and the creation of the sphere of light confused him quite a lot. And then there was the fact that his Soultraits seemed to be in disarray, all of a sudden.
Michael didn’t even do anything special, yet everything inside his consciousness seemed to have changed.
“Extraction, Eagle Eyes, Enhancement, Spirit Whip, Taming, Soul Grimoire, Mind Reader, … and Glacicle?” Michael murmured trying to figure out what was going on.
“Glacicle…isn’t that the Soultrait of the Zantur? Didn’t I store it inside the War Rune’s storage space? Why did it fuse with me?!”
Michael had no idea how that happened, but Glacicle seemed to have fused with his War Rune. It was a Soultrait with zero stars. The outlines of the first star could be seen dimly, but they were extremely weak.
‘I didn’t obtain any information from Glacicle’s description and effects because it’s not even a full-fledged Soultrait after I extracted it. Did the War Rune accidentally absorb the Soultrait instead of storing it because it’s not even a complete Soultrait yet?’ Michael was not sure if his theory made sense, but he didn’t know what else it could have been that drove the outcome.
However, one thing was for sure; fusing with Glacicle was the only thing that changed compared to before – and it was most likely the reason for his suffering.
Fusing with Glacicle – his 8th Soultrait – caused a drastic reaction that affected his entire being.
If Michael didn’t want to end up in an even worse state than he was, he had to find a solution – quickly.
Otherwise…