The Strongest Spellblade-Chapter 202 – Interlude 26

Legend Xanatos
“Hmmm. Someone is causing trouble. Things have shifted. They have shifted greatly,” I casually said while letting the currents of Mana blow past me. “What do you think?”
The male elf tried to scream, but I had already removed his vocal cords and tongue. I had the information I wanted from him. The war mech had been lost in the dungeon. A shame, it would have made for a useful weapon in so many ways.
“How rude, not answering me. Well let me vent my frustration some more. I have to thank you for that,” I said kindly as the elf kept trying to free himself by trashing about. So weak willed. But it probably didn’t help that I had stripped him of his Pain Resistance and the ability to pass out.
It was always more enjoyable harvesting body parts when the subject was awake. It also ensured their freshness. “You elves really have the best hearts. After that cursed Institute started making trouble no one wanted to really dig into the biology of Mana and the soul. Quite interesting. I could talk for hours,” I said as I carefully began disconnecting the elves heart from his body.
The trick with such a procedure was to ensure that the Mana flow remained steady even after it was removed. The elf had enough potions flowing through his body, he wouldn’t die. Dark Healing wasn’t my favorite set of skills, but it had such wonderful applications.
Right now I had issues with my body that needed fixing. The heart was the key. It didn’t just pump blood around, but it acted as one of the key anchors between the body and soul. The brain was another such organ. But the heart was unique in that it provided the primary interaction point, fueling the body with Mana.
I had remotely observed the battle the self-proclaimed Eldarin Emperor had participated in against the Great Ocean Empire. They had interesting skills, but the skill of that man was far more intriguing.
Even now, I shuddered at its sheer power. A tier 6 social skill that could instantly kill someone. Well maybe not instantly, but when you were dealing with legends, anything that killed in under a minute was fast enough to be considered instant.
If I had been there in person I could have dissected the skill instantly. But that would have been too risky in my weakened state. I was trying to reform and get back on track. That was why I ignored the subtle lure of whatever had emerged into the world.
Probably some ancient weapon if my divinations were correct. Those were always fun, but I wasn’t ready to tangle with the Seraphim. There were some individuals and groups I knew had to be avoided at all costs.
The Seraphim were one of them. Those bastards liked to stop anything truly fun. The volcano had been the most I had been willing to push things. If I made a massive breach into the dungeon, they would intervene.
In fact that is how one of the past leaders of the Dark Cabal met their end. Some stupidly large ritual meant to suck up all the dungeon’s Mana. Thankfully a member of the Dark Cabal had recorded that nonsense and had hidden that information in the Dark Library.
I gritted my teeth at that stupid Dark Library. Still hiding away, it would regret that once I found it. Unfortunately, divination skills were truly hit or miss, mostly miss. That was another reason why I didn’t go bothering looking for the newly emerged ancient weapon. It was too far away.
“There we go. Doesn’t your heart look amazing?” I asked the elf. He tried to scream as his heart beat in front of his face. The entire time his Mana didn’t fluctuate in the slightest. The runes carved into his flesh were doing their job quite nicely.
“Now, let me put it in this homunculus. I am going to draw your potential and stats into this body now. I can only imagine the pain you are about to experience. That is why I left your eyes free to move. I have read that if someone is in enough pain and they can’t do anything, their eyes have a chance of exploding.”
I patted a bloody hand on the elf’s cheek. “Consider it a contribution to my knowledge. Perhaps I can make it a skill. An exploding eye skill linked to suffering. Oooh, I feel myself getting all excited. Now let’s get to connecting this heart and reprocessing your soul.”
A shame that so many people didn’t appreciate my contributions towards advancing the field of understanding. Exploding eyes from sheer pain was definitely something I would check out.
I needed to take whatever joy I could after my recent setbacks. At least my soul was still being fueled by that curse skill I had put on Justin. I couldn’t sense my curse skill for a bit and thought he had removed it, but it reappeared.
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A unique area of the dungeon or a monster that had interfered. An Abnormal most likely. Those were always annoying and troublesome. He would have been a good investment if his mother hadn’t been so upset. It was just some experience, and she got all hot and bothered. At least she was dead and gone.
But there was no main level experience. That was annoying. Well nothing I could do about that now. If I saw him again I would teach him a lesson. Killing him, not yet, the skill experience that was coming in was being put to good use. That was the best part of the skill, allowing me to decide which skill to improve.
Demon Mandaeism
I had been laying in wait at the abandoned settlement. The other demons had moved on, but I was hopeful that someone would return. Possibly Lazarus, that demon liked to hide up in these mountains at the End of the World.
But he hadn’t shown up and he was missing on all my divinations. He had been injured before the attack and hidden away. I had paid him a visit, but he had been quite upset. I would have been upset as well if I had been hurt by a lesser being.
Looking at the snow and ice covered settlement, I let out a frosty breath. It was time to move on. The next attack on the Wolf Clan would be soon. Foolish to kill all the beastkin, but it had been voted on and decided.
We occasionally lost a demon over the centuries, while the beastkin remained weak, but were recovering. In time they would be able to push us back and kill us all. None of us wanted to go into the depths again.
That depths were both a lure and a curse. The sweet embrace of its Mana like a warm comforting blanket, but it was all a lie. A lie that every demon understood. To remain in the depths was to succumb to that lie.
The wind shifted. There was something in the air. A trace of Mana that stirred something within me. I turned my head and looked towards the mountains and the White Waste hidden behind them.
Something was out there. Something incredibly important. A source of Mana that strong either meant the depths were acting up or a powerful demon had emerged. Or something else had come onto the surface of this world.
Leaping off my perch over the ruins of the settlement, I landed in the snow. The force of the impact blew the snow away. My body easily fixed itself from the minor damage of that leap. I set off on a steady jog to whatever was out there.
I would be careful and cautious. The risk of a more powerful being was not to be taken lightly. If there was something like that I would retreat without question. But if it was something I could take for myself, well I enjoy the Mana that wasn’t of the depths.
The other demons wouldn’t be far behind either. They might even postpone the attack on the Wolf Clan for this matter. Or they might not. Our small group was quite argumentative and there was no clear leader.
If one of us was weak, we wouldn’t hesitate to kill and consume them. But if anyone struck first, they would be dragged down by everyone else. Or even their target. Mutually assured destruction kept peace between us demons.
We were an argumentative bunch always looking to one up one another.
A shame that a demon society beyond small tribal bands was impossible. I carried a range of weapons and gear, I had taken from the beastkin over the years. Tools and equipment were incredibly useful.
While the other demons might scoff at such things, preferring to depend on their skills, I knew weapons were a force multiplier. My greatest treasures were the wand and spatial pouch I had managed to acquire. These were items no other demon knew about.
A wand was a surprisingly useful tool if one’s enemy wasn’t ready for it. I knew I would be able to kill another demon if I was forced to fight them. But I had always held off. Once the beastkin were killed off then we would fight, since there would be nothing left.
I had also taking to questioning beastkin about their knowledge. I knew there were other lands. More prosperous lands. The Eldarins, elves, and dwarves all came to mind. Staying here in this wasteland was asking for death. I would find a way to leave no matter what.
Let the other demons fight each other over scraps. I would learn and grow. Knowledge was power, was what I lived by. The other demons believed that power was power. That was true, but it limited their thinking and skills.
Leaving them behind and then trying to blend in with these other beings, that the beastkin thought us demons looked like, was the best option. Unfortunately, I really didn’t want to go into the depths.
But it was probably necessary. Or I could try crossing the open water. I felt a primal fear at that. Looking up at the cloudy sky, there was also an ingrained fear of the sun. Every demon I had asked didn’t know why this was, just that it was a fear present in all monsters.
I had tested myself in the ocean water and for brief moments when there was no cloud cover and the sun shown down. I felt an immense sense of danger and fear, but nothing had happened.
Whatever was making me afraid wasn’t taking action. That curiosity which had served me well my entire life would serve me well in finding whatever had created this interesting smell of Mana in the air.
Fear was something to take into account, but I would not be controlled by it or by my lesser instincts. I was a thinking being, not some rabid monster. The other demons seemed to forget that at times. Only thinking of killing and consuming other beings.
It would have been better to kill the strong beastkin and replace them as their leaders. But the other demons didn’t like that idea of creating renewable prey. They just wanted to kill and consume everything, not thinking further than what they could see.
The sky was darkening, and the cold was getting worse. I thankfully had Cold Immunity that was at a high level. Unfortunately, I hadn’t consumed a beastkin with Cold Absorption like Lazarus had. That skill was too useful, but it was also incredibly rare as a tier 5 skill. Lazarus never told me how he got it, but most demons didn’t like sharing anything, in case it gave another one of us some kind of advantage.