Chapter 676: Unexpected results (part 4)
"Looks like those guys really hated you, those are a lot of chains even when compared to the ones that Lyn had", said Daimon as he saw the chains that came out of Badr’s legs, back and of course each of his six arms, to then approach him and start grabbing the chains with his hands that were cladded in the silver light, making them dispel one by one.
"Ahem, it’s not a competition, but I had less than a fourth part of the chains that were originally piercing my body left when you found me you know", said Lyndis, which made it sound as if she was indeed trying to compete.
It had a positive effect though, allowing Badr to distract himself from the pain of the open wounds that the chains disappearing, were leaving on his body.
"I see that miss Lyndis didn’t let the countless years of imprisonment affect her at all, as I would expect from an acquittance of miss Ophelia", said the six-armed nethereal as he blocked the wounds with patches made out of an interestingly familiar feeling, dark red colored energy, that is of course nether.
"Dark red nether with a tone that is similar to dried blood, is your nethereal inheritance from...", Daimon didn’t have the chance to finish his sentence before Badr got up.
"From the Balax family, no, but I understand why you would think that, my father was from another of the top three families from the Violence faction, the Zallios family to be more accurate and though he was from a secondary branch, he was a noble who had the potential to reach the King rank, that’s also why that Byron bastard didn’t dare to use his nether to seal me, he was afraid I could forcefully devour it to weaken the seal", he said as he stretched his body.
"I see, that explains why that nether does look slightly similar to Byron’s, same affiliation and potential, though it radiates a completely different aura than his", said Daimon.
"Yeah, the Zallios family is what you could call a "mediator" within the Violence faction, thanks to a certain innate ability which allows them to produce way more nether with fewer conflict, they are not as war-driven as the other families, so they are instead in charge of public order within the nethereal kingdom".
"Still let alone this nether, but even Byron’s is nothing much, you should have seen my father, it took eight demi-king ranks to defeat him even though he was just at the peak of the Prince rank and he killed four and gravely wounded two more, allowing my mother to kill them, it was the most glorious battle I had... wait a second, how do you know how does that guy’s nether looks and the sensation it gives of?", the six armed nethereal who was in the middle of praising his parents suddenly stopped as he Daimon’s previous words were processed by his brain.
"It’s a long story, let’s get out of this place first, the light of the red sun should help you purge the nether of those two a bit faster", said Lyn.
"That’s fine too, it’s been a really long time since I stretched my legs, just give me a second...", with those words, Badr’s body was covered in dark red energy for a moment, then his originally six arms diminished in number until he only had two.
It wasn’t like Lyn’s technique, because the nethereal’s aura didn’t change, apparently this was focused in recovery because the wounds on his body which were patched up with layers of nether could be seen narrowing.
"There it is, that annoying recovery which frustrated a lot of us back at the war", said Lyn which made Badr bitterly smile.
"Those three won’t recognize my aura since now I’m more of a nethereal than a member of the six-armed sentry race, still, having less arms in the open will prevent any accidents", he said.
The group returned from where Daimon and the others had arrived, along the way they got to see something interesting, the miniature red sun which was illuminating the cave turned into red particles that then floated out of the tunnel on the roof, the moment Badr crossed the passage that led to the cave.
"Looks like even though the Megalodon general can’t communicate, nor look at what is happening within the Blood Prison realm since a long time ago, he still set up quite a few things to mess with those three and gather intel one way or another", said Lyn to which Badr nodded in response.
"That miniature sun was probably created to both help me get rid of the nether of those two and to work as an alarm set up to disappear when I finally managed to free myself, so now Sr. Aaron should know that I’m back into the picture", concluded the nethereal, only for Daimon to add.
"That’s not all, the miniature son dispelled right at the perfect time to cover the disappearance of those guy’s nether", how did Daimon know that, easy, the rune shark just finished chewing on the remains of the chains that were sealing Badr.
So, for the Lords, it will likely be a case in which their power clashed against the one of the Megalodon general, whose name apparently was Aaron by the way.
’That shark old man probably learned a lesson after Ereth’s betrayal and made a lot of preparations... it will be a problem, the very moment he realizes I’m a system user’, thought Daimon to then say.
"Let’s get out of this place, we’ll move without stopping for a couple of hours until a good place to take a rest appears, then it will be lunch time, Lyn, guide us to the direction of one of the highest ranked among the traitors on the Northern Sea’s side".
An idea that immediately gained the support of the little tiger girl, as well as Arianna and Badr who hasn’t had a meal in though different still too long periods of time for their liking, as for Lyn she was more than happy to beat the hell out of a traitor.
Once the group climbed their way out of the underground cave, they were welcomed by the red sun which looked a bit brighter than before and while they set off led by Lyn, a different scene was developing in a completely different place.
...
Unlike the empty space where only chains existed where the Lords were sealed, this place had a variety of "objects" that could be seen all over the place.
Namely giant chains going through some areas with countless spheres of chains hanging from them, all the previous floating in an endless black void.
But while the scenery was indeed interesting, the scene developing high into the sky of this place was even more amazing.
A black solid looking shark of humongous proportions was in the middle of clashing against three though smaller in comparison, still large figures, a giant skeleton, a young man’s figure with a handsome face and lastly a completely red blood humanoid figure with armor.
And amidst their clash, the figures of two of them blinked, the handsome man and the giant skeleton to be more accurate, resulting in the balance of power tilting in favor of the giant black shark, who didn’t miss the chance to push ahead, using its giant teeth to bite through not only those two but even the red armored figure.
"You shark bastard, just wait until we find you!", managed to say the armored red figure before it cracked and exploded, turning into countless pieces of red fragments that were absorbed by the giant chains, further increasing their size.
"Crack!", though the giant chains gained size, which stopped the small trembles coming from the spheres of chains that hanged from them, a few cracks appeared on them once they had absorbed those fragments.
The giant shark made a few turns to then enter into a portal that appeared for it, disappearing from the void space to then appear in a large hall with a single thing at its center, a throne made out of metal chains and locks to be more accurate.
Landing right where the tall figure of a man in his fifties with short black hair and a beard, whose eyes were closed was, to then be absorbed back into his body.
"Now that was unexpected, it was my turn to lose terrain against those three idiots but they lost their focus out of nowhere, the number of people that could cause such an effect is quite limited, it wasn’t that violent girl, she caused their absence in the battlefield of yesterday, so that leaves...", just as the man with black hair was about to conclude his sentence, a current of red particles appeared through a portal and was absorbed into his body.
As a result, his previously tired face relaxed a bit, and he even opened his eyes, to show that he had... vertical yellow lines in his blue irises, similar to what happened when Daimon used the "Ruler of the Sea".
"Just in time, I had my reserves about the "big guy" from back then, but those two vouched for him, I guess it was a good idea to split a bit of the energy from the seal to help him keep their influence at bay, still how come there was this much energy left, did he advance while being sealed?", wondered the black haired man to then shook his head.
’No, even if he was gifted with talent, it wouldn’t have been possible for him to advance while in that state... unless he is one of "them", but I know that’s not the case, so probably that violent little dolphin was involved in this, oh well, the situation can’t be reversed at this point but gaining time to prepare for when the seal breaks is more than enough’, thought the man as he closed his eyes again, but this time with a slight smile as he imagined what was happening at the place where the Lords were sealed.
Speaking of which, at a space which was completely surrounded by chains, where three large spheres of chains were being restrained, loud voices could be heard echoing through the chain walls.
"Aghhhh!", the first was a pained scream.
"Bleergh!", while the second one was the sound of someone vomiting blood, considering there is no way he had eaten anything in hundreds of thousands of years.
But there was a third one, an angered one, not devoid of pain but the anger was way more noticeable.
"What the hell are you two bastards doing, losing focus in the middle of today’s lineage clash!".
Naturally those three voices belonged to the Lords, Aslan, Reed and Byron in that exact order.
"It wasn’t my fault, I suddenly felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach!", exclaimed Reed whose voice sounded as if he had a runny nose.
"It was freaking worse for me, I felt as if my damn body was on fire for a moment there, but more importantly why were you completely fine", added Aslan who had managed to calm down by using some of the nether he had managed to build through the years.
Which caused Reed to feel jealousy, if only he had some nether, he could have fixed the nose bleeding he was suffering right now.
"Because whoever did this, specifically targeted you two, either that shark bastard or the woman who escaped yesterday, she probably undid the seal of your subordinates and killed them", said Byron to which Reed retorted.
"Wait a second, wasn’t there a guy that only Aslan and myself sealed back then, you know that slave that killed one of your seconds in command after that fool Agrak lost control of the slave seal back then, it could have been him escaping...", before Reed could finish Byron directly rejected his theory.
"No, I would have for sure felt the aura of the damn six-armed sentry race coming from the Blood Prison realm, I specifically made sure to remember it since though it was a disgrace to the Violent faction, that guy’s father was still a potential King rank from a family on equal standing with mine", he said.
"Still, let’s change the orders given to the corroded blood specters, so that they actively look and hunt for anyone with more than two arms", added Aslan, that was approved by Byron.
"Fine, that guy was only allowed to live because as a mixed blood, he can’t have access to the strongest abilities or techniques from either of his lineages, what a shame he betrayed us, his nethereal bloodline was going to be stripped away and used to create death soldiers by the Belliel and the one from the six armed sentry was going to be used by us to cover our loses from his capture, after the mission, but now we’ll have to kill him on sight".
"Anyway, prepare yourselves, I want to release a few of the strong ones among our "collection" of hunting dogs tonight", concluded Byron.
...
And now we are back with Daimon and the others who after running for more than an hour had arrived at what was the last place that could be used to rest before reaching the destination set up by Lyn, a rock formation created by a sole bone which protruded from the ground, after it, there was only flat land ahead for many kilometers.
"We’ll rest here", said Daimon as he jumped to the top of the rock formation to then place a blanket on the ground, for everyone to sit on it.
"I have to ask, what kind of lineage is that, correct me if I’m wrong, but you purified the corroding effect of nether earlier and you also have spatial abilities, not to mention that to awaken an ability of that sort within this place you would have needed to kill at least some peak Arch ranked blood specters?", asked Badr, to which Daimon shook his head as he waved his hand taking out a whole bunch of warm dishes from the inventory.
"It’s a spatial treasure that can ignore restrictions, as for the other part, yeah the silver light can purify the corroding effect of nether, but that’s not an ability but just an aspect of it, I haven’t obtained my ability yet", said Daimon, making Badr be in awe for a second.
"Well, I toast for that treasure, it’s been so long since I had food", said the now two armed nethereal as he drank a cup of water after eating a sandwich in two bites, Badr is taller than a normal human after all, he is taller than Erin even, surpassing the two-meter mark by quite a bit.
That being said, compared to his size and appearance, it was hard to see him as threatening when he did things like handing the last sandwich of the tray to the little tiger girl while smiling to her, luckily there was enough food in the inventory for another round of everything in the table, for more than six months, so everyone had their fill of everything.
"I now know why sister Arianna told me that any problem would be solved if we reunited with big brother Daimon", said Dana as she leaned against Arianna’s right arm, making the latter chuckle.
"The idea wasn’t for him to help you fill your stomach, but I guess this counts as keeping you safe, on the other hand, why aren’t you calling him masked big brother like befo...", Arianna was interrupted by Daimon before she could finish calling him by that weird nickname she had invented for him.
"Ahem, let’s focus on catching up in other important things, like what is that giant red wolf, you are a lightning affinity mage just like Dana after all", said Daimon, which made Arianna giggle.
A vibrant red colored energy covered her body for a second, before it faded away, leaving behind an interesting change on Arianna’s body, as in her hair, wolf ears and tail, had changed from its original light brown color, to a red one.
Not the orange-red color one would see in fire affinity mages, but a slightly similar one to the crimson-colored eyes of the Nelapsi girl, Reyne, that being said it wasn’t caused by blood affinity like in her case.
On the other hand, Arianna was indeed radiating a strong aura of vitality, which was enough to surprise Lyndis.
"A mage without blood affinity that has the capacity to increase their vitality enough to manifest an external change not related to affinity like that, it might have been understandable if she transformed, but this... what the hell kind of werewolf are you?", mumbled the sky-blue haired girl.
"You should see our master, this might be an original application developed by me after I passed my own challenge, but the base was a technique taught by her after all", said Arianna as she shrugged before her hair, ears and tail returned to their original color.
"You are using electricity to boost the vitality produced by your body", said Daimon, taking Arianna by surprise.
"Incredible as usual "senior brother", yeah, it’s hard to explain but I kept thinking about an old story that master told me before, when she was training to use her variant affinity and accidentally lost her capacity to feel fear for a few minutes after losing the balance of her two affinities and having the result explode not to far from her head".
"I still don’t really understand how it works, but I know that if I send a current of electricity in a very specific way, I can boost myself, of course I wasn’t going to use this technique in an uncontrolled environment after obtaining it, but here I obtained a safe version of it through the ability that was given to me", said the werewolf girl.
Daimon was speechless for a second, he is not a neurobiologist, but there is no need to be an expert to know that the brain communicates with electrical signs, and this junior sister of his apparently obtained the ability to control some of that.
Which in theory has an insane number of possible applications, imagine being able to order the release of adrenaline at will, or to cause an increase in a certain hormone to reinforce the very base of any physical technique, your muscles, bio-boosting at its finest.
Of course, as amazing as that might sound, it’s not something to mess with and though Arianna and probably everyone in the world of magic lacks the knowledge about such subjects, she instinctively knew she shouldn’t take this recently awakened ability lightly, which is why she didn’t think it twice before deciding not to use it, without Aura’s supervision.
"So unlike Dana’s element-focused manifestation, mine is basically a mass of vitality in the shape of a wolf, kind of similar to a battle avatar, amazing right!", she excitedly said, it’s obvious that she was proud of her progress and her pretty face brightened even more when Daimon added.
"Not to mention that you are now an eight-star ranked mage, I’m happy for your advance, but it seems like you are forgetting that Aura is going to create a hellish training for your new level, for sure".
The first part of Daimon’s sentence made Arianna smile, but the second part changed that happiness into a bitter victory, as she was reminded of her traumatic experiences under Aura’s tutelage.
’Ughhh, I had forgotten about it!’, she exclaimed to her insides, while Arianna was seriously considering hiding some of her progress to her master, the now two armed nethereal Badr couldn’t help but say.
"Since I first clashed with miss Arianna, I knew that she wasn’t your average person, but if her level is a standard for your galaxy, then I would like to request for a demi-King rank to come and crush those three bastards", to which Lyn cleared her throat to then say.
"Ahem, according to our masked friend, they don’t have let alone King ranks, but even Star Lords in their place of origin, so watch what you say unless you want to get zapped by regulation lightning, old man".
"Huh?", Badr was momentarily at a loss, he couldn’t imagine a place where someone from the young generation was as talented as Arianna and yet they weren’t a part of a Stellar Kingdom.
"Well, I guess Stellar ranks are fine too, those three should be at most Star Lords if they escape from their seal, so a few dozen of peak ones in average would be enough to turn them into dust while in the Blood Prison realm", said the nethereal.