Chapter 93 - Metamorphosis
[Congratulations! You have completed the quest!]
[You have levelled up!]
[You have levelled up!]
[You have levelled up!]
[You have levelled up!]
[You have levelled up!]
[You're now level 85]
[You have 50 Available stat points]
'Wake up you buffoon!' A hoarse voice spoke in my head.
Whose voice was this?
'It's me: The Mighty True Dragon of Flames, Voadhailis.' The voice echoed in my head again.
I slowly opened my eyes and got up from the cold ground. I felt as light as a feather, my meridians had been remodelled and there were a bigger number of them. It allowed more mana to pass around my body, which enhanced my physique.
'So the bonding process was successful?' I asked.
'Well no sh*t sherlock! I'm talking to you through a mind link.' Voadhailis retorted sarcastically.
'How do you even know who Sherlock is?'
'I looked through your memories, while you were gone. Truly traumatic. Your life I mean. You had it worse than me. Sorry partner.'
Was this really the true dragon I knew? Where did that arrogant attitude go? I thought he'd have tried to take my body over several times by now. Did looking through my memories change him?
'How come I didn't see your memories?' I was curious. I stretched my newly enhanced body and flexed my hands.
'Because I haven't let you. You were in a dream-like state due to the system's protection. During the assimilation process, your mind was weak so I decided to check out your memories.'
'Wait you know about the system?' I was a bit surprised.
'I looked through your memories you dimwit. Anyways, you were out for a good 3 days. Your imperfect half demon body was enhanced due to the dragon blood. You can take on demon soldiers without using mana now.
'It also turns out I have some special quirks too but I'll let you see them later. For the meantime, run! 50 hostiles are incoming. While you were out, a war broke out between the elven and demon army and some demons are coming this way.'
I began running, my feet felt as nimble as ever. It was the same feeling I had as when I first got my newly improved demon body from Kayden.
I ricocheted off the branches of the trees, moving at a super human speed.
'I think they've spotted you. They're tailing you.'
I stretched out my sixth sense and could feel their faint presences. There was one extremely strong demon among them.
'What can you tell me about the demons? I need as much info as possible.' I said, speaking telepathically with Voadhailis.
'Firstly, there are different ranks of demons. This is the most important. The five ranks, in descending order are: king, duke, marquis, baron and soldier. As usual, demon kings are the strongest and Lucifer used to be one before he was banished.
'To scale power levels, you know how weak soldiers already are. They're above average humans in terms of strength and speed but they can't use magic.
'Barons and Marquis rank demons and above can use magic and they specialise in a specific element like Human mages. The powers of Barons and Marquis rank demons are equivalent to low A rank and B rank mages.
'Demons are superior to Humans so they don't have branched elements like the weaklings - humans.' Voadhailis explained.
'You'll have to cut the explanation short.' I said hastily as I dodged some light arrows.
'Hey! I'm not done explaining!'
'Shush. I'm busy right now.' I retorted.
I conjured exploding flame balls in my palms and hurled them at the approaching demons, following me.
The flame balls were condensed balls of mana that detonated when in contact. It caused a chain reaction with the neighbouring flame mana particles in the atmosphere and continued exploding until all the mana dissipated.
BOOM! BOOM!
They exploded causing a mass of orange flames to dwindle half of their numbers.
I leapt down to a clear field and waited for them to arrive.
"We'll kill you! Damned Elf!" One of them roared as his group finally arrived. There seemed to be around 30ish of them still alive. The other soldiers died.
"Wait! That's the damned demon everyone keeps calling Lucifer." One of them pointed at me, referring to my right eye.
"Enough! All forces attack him!" The strongest one roared, charging first.
This guy was different to the young demon I beat before. Seikuken was already activated but even without it I could read all of the demon's attack patterns.
Left straight. Right kick… I predicted all of his movements and evaded them successfully.
"What the-" He silently cursed and the others joined in. They stabbed with their spears but I weaved around and broke their necks twisting them 180 degrees one by one.
"I'll kill you!!" The strong one roared as he punched my double guard. I flew backwards but kept my footing.
Brown fur started to form on his skin and his red eyes turned yellow. He grew a furry tail and his legs had become beast-like. Was this the famous beast transformation of beast element mages?
His dramatic speed increase caught me off guard as he punched my sternum. I flew backwards like a pebble taking down several trees with me.
[You have suffered 700 damage]
Only 700 damage?! Damn.
'Yeah your body has evolved even further. You haven't checked your stats but some of them are over 200 due to the metamorphosis.' Voadhailis explained.
I got up and dusted myself off but another kick whistled through the air. I dodged successfully, throwing a counter uppercut to the large 3 meter demon beast's stomach. The demon's body arched like it was in pain.
I continued with a barrage of punches, which sent the large demon tumbling to the floor. Blood dripped from its mouth and large visible bruises formed around where I had punched him.
'Indra's Spear.'
I cut into the demon's chest and ripped out his heart.
[You have earned 10,000 Exp for killing a Baron demon!]
The remaining demons gasped in shock, wide eyed. Their leader was wiped out in mere minutes. What would happen to them?
I blitzed the remaining demons leaving a pile of dead bodies behind me.
'Nice job. Now get out of there. Your body still hasn't fully recovered. We'll talk on the way,' Voadhailis said.
I nodded mentally before running through the dense forest. I had to head for the safe zone somehow. Malia, Jace, Naz, Allefin, were they all fine? I hadn't seen them in 4 days.
'As I was saying, Dukes and Demon Kings are extremely dangerous. They could be compared to high A rank and S rank mages. You should be aware of the darkness candidate the most. I believe he would be the biggest threat to you.' Voadhailis continued explaining.
'And why's that? Because he knows Necromancy?'
'Well yes. Think about this. Imagine instead of you, that shadow candidate found my corpse and made me one of his minions by raising me from the dead. Do you think you could win against him then? Do you think you could take me down and him at the same time?
'Don't underestimate necromancy by comparing him to that measly fake dark mage you fought back in the forest. This shadow candidate will have an army and a powerful one at that.' Voadhailis warned.
'And how do you know this?' I asked.
'Well, every Shadow Monarch that existed knew necromancy. It's the dark art of the darkness element. That's also why it's one of the most powerful elements.
'Lightning being the strongest element is a myth. The darkness element as well as the Fire element trail behind it respectfully in terms of power. Those 3 are the most dangerous elements.
'I've also never met any individuals like you. Quad Elementalist. That's extremely rare, worthy of being my bond.' he praised.
'Thanks. So how do you think we can beat this guy then? We know he's a demon and he'll have an army of undead but there should be a weakness to his magic.' I replied.
'Yes, necromancy has weaknesses. The caster can only have one attempt at resurrecting a dead beast or individual. If the dead beast's will is stronger than the caster then it will fail. So in the previous scenario, it would most likely not work. He wouldn't be able to resurrect me.
'Second, having the undead out will constantly drain mana so he won't always have his undead to protect him.
'Third, the constant regeneration of his shadow soldiers will eat away at his mana. Tied in with the mana consumption of keeping them out, the mana consumption of necromancy is extremely high.
'He'll most likely have his strongest undead soldiers out to fight other candidates, so if we keep killing them we'll basically be cutting down his mana much more rapidly.' Voadhailis finished his explanation.
'I've got a question for you. How come you're being so nice to me. You were threatening to kill me before, back when I revived you. Why the sudden change?'
'Believe me I tried several times to take over your damned body. That system of yours is invincible. It almost started to eat me away so I backed down, grabbed some popcorn and started watching your memories.
'I've seen everything you went through as a young James Lance all the way till your death, even your new life. I've seen it all.'
After a long run, I had finally made it to the buildings. Most houses were charred black and others were broken fully. I took out my eye patch and put it on just in case, covering my demon eye.
"You there! Identify yourself!" A stern voice echoed and a group of elves wearing black masks appeared out of thin air. They must have disguised themselves.
"I mean no harm. I'm a human, I couldn't get to the safe zone in time so I hid in the magic forest. I ran out of food so I was forced to come back in search of help." I lied, trying to put up my most worried voice.
"The safe zone has been destroyed."
My eyes widened at the elf's words.
"What do you mean? But my friends are there!" I approached the elf in front of me, grabbing him by the collar. The other elves pointed their spears at me to threaten me.
"Please calm down young man. There have been reports of survivors; Most of the inhabitants of the safe zone have evacuated to the other side." He answered. I let go of his collar backing up a bit.
"Can you take me to the safe zone? I need to find my friends." I said, looking down.
"We'll take you there but we'll have to restrain you just in case."
"That's fine." I sighed.
An elf swivelled round and tied my hands together with anti - mana handcuffs. My power was dampened by 20% but I still had my super strength. I could break out if I wanted to later on.
For now I had to play along and look for my friends.
Please be safe everyone...