Rise Of The Infinite Sovereign

Chapter 326: Birth of a Top notch cultivation land

The sudden increase in the length of his claws threw me off, and he used that to throw Skyfall out of my grasp.

I mended my blood in a longsword and stabbed in through his mouth.

When I advanced to Mythic rank, Skyfall and I synchronized on a fundamental level.

Wielding him felt as natural as using another limb.

I sent it towards Alvarach’s skull, to deal the killing blow.

He was in position to attack my right side, so he’d either dodge or create distance, both would favour me.

But I was wrong.

He readily sacrificed his horns instead, using them to sway the blade off course, and had one cut off in the process, with the other heavily chipped into.

That mattered not.

With my gamble failing, I was in a vulnerable position with my right side defenseless.

Sure enough, Alvarach didn’t miss such a change.

I sought to shift my body sideways, but he was faster.

He rammed all five claws right into my heart, breaking at least two ribs while in the process and pierced out of my back.

*Blergh!

I let out a mouth full of blood, as my vision began to darken.

’Have I lost?’ It came to me.

Then I remembered mothers face and her oh-so-lovely smile.

Adrenaline shot up my veins.

’No!’ My mind scrambled. ’If I lose here, mom won’t be able to smile like that again’

I couldn’t give up. I’d come too far to fail.

I felt tremendous strain as I forcefully brought myself back to the present.

Veins snaked all over my body as I moved.

With his claws in my heart, Alvarach’s left side was now equally defenseless.

’This is it!’ My mind screamed at me.

With his nails in my chest, it’d be rare to get another chance like this.

Like clockwork, the legendary swords that I ransack-*ahem* took for safe keeping came to mind.

I instinctively willed out one of them from my space ring.

The situation was too tense for me to even have thoughts of whether it would work or not.

I simply pushed my right hand to the limit, and swung for his neck.

As I neared, the legendary doubled edged sword of black and yellow appeared in my grasp.

My hand didn’t stop moving.

*Sha!

I watched wide eyed as Alvarach’s head was lobbed off in all its glory.

I had moved with desperation hoping it would work, but I couldn’t help but be shocked when it actually happened.

I stood in place, blinking at the headless neck with blood flowing out of it.

’Ack!’

I spat out another wave of blood, which brought me back to reality as battle fatigue hit me with full force.

Exhaustion encapsulated my entire being, I couldn’t stand for much longer.

With the little energy I had left, I cut off Alvarach’s left arm.

Surprisingly, I didn’t notice before, but my mana flowed through this new blade smoothly.

’Ack!’

Again, I puke blood and stagger.

Kneading the sword into the ground, I fell to my knees before slumping to the floor like a piece of paper.

Sitting on the dirt, I tried to control my breathing, but even that was too hard.

I could feel myself slipping into an unknown darkness, with my hearing isolated, I didn’t notice Alvarach’s body had fallen until it kicked up quite a bit of dust.

I willed out healing potions from my space ring, and gobbled them up all at once.

The effect was unsurprisingly lackluster.

The best healing potions in current day Orion were only useful for Grandmasters.

Moreover, the change in mana state played an enormous role.

Thanks to it, the potions did the equivalent of a scratch.

No amount of such potions would fix my heart, so I promptly gave up.

Ah, so this was how I was going to die.

I released the Skyfall sword in my palm and carefully seated myself on the ground, resting on my hands as I awaited death.

Out of curiosity, I turned in the direction of Alvarach’s head.

It was less than five feet from me.

As expected of a Mythical demon, its life force was stubborn.

Even without a body, it turned and turned squirming like a worm.

I could read the madness and unwillingness on his face, as if frowning would reverse time.

In these moments, I felt very good about myself, and so I decided to rile up the bastard one last time.

Making sure his eyes were on me, I carefully spoke.

"I won"

Not that I didn’t want to say more, but my body didn’t allow for it.

A wide smile etched itself on my lips, realizing the gravity of my feats.

I became a Mythic rank in nine days and defeated Alvarach-a well established Mythical demon.

A small chuckle escaped my mouth.

I had long surpassed my highest expectations.

Now, I wondered if it was too much to ask to live on after performing such feats.

I would call on Zydrax, but after responding when I was chasing Alvarach, he hadn’t responded to anything I said.

I also can’t feel anything happening with my mana, so I don’t know what’s happening.

I don’t think I’m powerful enough to worry about him, but his silence had me rattled.

Especially now.

It would’ve been nice to talk to him before I kicked the bucket.

I sighed.

Shifting my focus, my gaze pervaded the surroundings.

In the wake of our battle were entire areas scorched and levelled.

In short words, landscapes enough to house three cities had been ruined.

’Meh’

Everyone was already dead, so no harm was done.

’Ack!’

My breathing suddenly got exponentially harder.

Honestly, I’m surprised I’m still alive.

Just then, someone lands not far from me.

A familiar figure.

"Ezra!"

Frederick reached me, looking at the destruction wrought upon the surroundings before grabbing my frail body with a pained face.

They must’ve vanquished all the other demons.

In any case, Alvarach only brought them to keep the Grandmasters busy.

Frederick raised my head up and poured healing potions into my mouth, and I was too weak to dissuade him.

After the fifth healing potion, I shook my head, as he also realized that it wasn’t working.

I simply smiled at him, when I saw a figure standing behind him.

One of the demon worshippers, but she was blinded in metal.

I gave Frederick a questioning gaze.

Rubbing his hair he replied awkwardly. "She’s my Sister"

My eyebrows shot up.

Wow.

That had to be a damning family reunion.

At the same time I was happy for him.

He’d talked about his sister a lot, though I didn’t know how things came to be like this, their reunion was a good thing.

I nodded to him with a smile and forced out a few words.

"Take *cough* care"

Spitting out another round of blood, Frederick made a pillar out of the earth behind me and placed me to use it as a backrest.

The darkness threatened to encroach me.

I guess it was time to go.

Just then...

[Not on my watch]

Zydrax’s voice resounded in my head.

[Lend me your body]

I hadn’t spoken with him since, so what was he suddenly saying when I was about to die???

Anyways, I conceded.

’Sure’

Ooom!

Immediately my body erupted with a golden light as my control of it faded into the background while still being conscious of everything that was happening.

___________

Frederick hastily backed up and couldn’t tell what was going on with Ezra.

The boy who looked like he was at death’s doorstep moments ago was now glowing.

But with all the crazies he pulled on a daily basis, Frederrick decided to simply watch.

He entered the barrier fully expecting death, yet he had survived and the demons had been killed.

That was a partial victory.

All that remained to turn this into a complete victory was for his liege to live on.

So he hoped fervently in heart for his liege to turn back the situation once more.

As Zydrax took control, Ezra’s body glowed golden, momentarily blinding Frederick.

The glow receded, and now, only Ezra’s eyes, hair and the runes on his body maintained the glow.

(Imagine Aang in Avatar state)

Stretching his palm, Fredrick watched as Alvarach’s body shook and black energy erupted.

Frederick felt instinctively repulsed looking at it.

The energy seemed...alive somehow.

Without warning, Ezra sucked it into his body through his palm.

Ezra saw the negative mana wrap around his pierced heart.

After that, Ezra pulled out Alvarach’s wrist embedded in his heart, and flung it away.

Then, he took off the ground, gently, towards the second site of battle, where the corpses of hundreds of demons lay.

The Grandmasters and peak masters that survived the battle looked at Ezra’s figure, each with a multitude of emotions.

Zydrax didn’t even glance at them before stretching out his palm, a magic circle erupted from it, glowing dark red as it swirled slowly.

Soon after, all the corpses on the battlefield shook, demons and humans alike as a black energy flowed out of them towards the magic circle, gathering at one point.

Once that was done, Ezra flew towards the circle of descent.

Landing softly, he crouches and places his palm on the unstable formation.

"How inefficient" Zydrax muttered, his tone was far different from Ezra’s.

"Hmm!"

He poured out mana and had it intertwine with the formation.

Then, he utilized Ezra’s blood affinity to draw blood from the corpses strewn around.

With his expertise, it was too easy to wipe away Alvarach’s ownership-especially since he was dead-and replace him as the formations master.

Slowly, he adjusted it utilizing both blood and mana to make it far bigger and at least three times better.

Last but not least, he used the dark energy he gathered to change its functions.

Moreover, gaining control of the circle of descent indirectly gave him control of the barrier.

"This..." Zydrax muttered as new ideas came to mind. "That could work"

Utilizing another section of the dark energy, he adjusted the barrier.

More appropriately, he reversed its effects.

Rather a haven to demons, he would turn into a top notch cultivation land.

’Top notch cultivation land..’

That brought even more ideas to mind as Zydrax smiled.

Still, he had to make haste.

With control of the barrier, he got rid of the suppression effect, alleviating the peak masters greatly.

Next, he removed Alvarach’s restriction on artifacts, allowing them usage of their space rings again.

Ezra’s space ring was an ancient item made with better hands, very different from those made in Orion of today.

So Alvarach’s restriction didn’t affect it.

Anyways, the remaining troops drank healing potions to recover and gave to many of those severely injured, saving their lives.

With the circle of descent successfully reset, he rose to the sky, touching the barrier uppermost part as he embedded a magic circle within it using another portion of the gathered dark energy.

The barrier changed from red to ocean blue, gaining resplendence as those who stared at it would feel a calmness washing open them.

Then, the magic circle expanded, its deep blue lines slithered through every corner of the barrier, reaching into the ground before settling.

After which it faded into the background like smoke.

"Huu" Zydrax breathed out at the completion, activating it.

Looking from high above the barrier, one would see a large change in weather as a point of singularity seemed to form at the barrier’s location.

Looking from outside the barrier, one would see hundreds of mana speckles in the atmosphere pulled towards it, landing on the barrier like snowflakes.

Mana gushed into Quartez, looking like snowflakes

It made for a breathtaking sight.

Then someone took notice.

"Hey, my mana recovery has sped up!"

Others soon noticed it as well.

"Its true, and I feel lighter now"

They stared at Ezra with newfound respect, feeling droves of mana continuously gush into the barrier.

Moreover, even though they were absorbing it at alarming speeds-since they their mana had almost been exhausted from all the fighting-the mana wasn’t reducing, but increasing instead!

"Wow, it’s still speeding up"

"How is this even possible?"

Each person, Grandmaster or not, found themselves humbled at the sight.

As for its effects on the surroundings? Eh...fishes will die from mana exhaustion since Quartez is near the sea.

It would be better for all those living in proximity to simply move to other places except they have no plans to cultivate, because the barrier would make sure nearby places were perpetually exhausted of mana.

Moreover, Zydrax wasn’t nearly done.

Zydrax directed a large portion of the absorbed mana to his control and had it coalesce.

Then, he shot it through the uppermost point of the barrier-which was also its center-as a concentrated as possible, making it look like a pole.

It shot up continuously, piercing the clouds in no time.

Then, he had it expand into a cylindrical frame, albeit transparent.

The cylinder started absorbing mana from the atmosphere at a pace even faster than the barrier below.

If the mana from below had mana come together looking like snowflakes, this looked like rain drops.

Absorbed, the mana drops were sent down, reaching the barrier in less than five minutes.

The barrier absorbed this new influx of mana and brightened.

"Huu" Zydrax took a deep breath and focused.

Spreading the absorbed mana equally over the barrier, he had the cylindrical beam expand over encompass the whole barrier.

Which meant the cylindrical beam widened to the size of the whole of Quartez!

Others didn’t think so far, but since the Quartiz-citizens of Quartez-had practically been wiped out, and the demons had been repelled, the land belonged to no one at this point in time.

Doing this, Ezra had indirectly taken ownership of the Quartez.

The barrier was originally of Mythic rank, but with Zydrax’s modification, it rose even higher.

Owning control of the barrier essentially made it his domain.

Not that Zydrax has any of such thoughts at the moment.

The piece of land was too small to be of any importance in his eyes.

Only the lowest dregs would fawn over winning such things.

With his experiences, the entire planet itself was too mediocre.

This was but a fact.

He’d disdained most beings on the planet.

Ezra managed to pique his interest, but even then, was it not for the situation forcing his hand, Zydrax would’ve never attached himself to such a person.

In any case, what was done was done.

Thankfully, the boy was of potential.

With his expertise combined, the question was now how far would he be able to tread?

Zydrax found that to be the most interesting question of his in a long while.