Weeks later, back on Taprisha…
Near the Molten Core of Taprisha, a certain unique Anomaly was currently standing up, a huge smile on his face.
"That went well." Dorian smiled with pleasure as he came to, feeling the results of his meditation keenly. He clenched his fists, his body shivering with energy as he called to mind his energy levels.
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Dorian - Soul Status
Soul Stage: Lord Class (Pseudo-King)
Health: Perfect
Energy: 620,055/628,291
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"A max of around 630,000 Points of Energy, huh?" He nodded as he saw the figure, knowing it was inherently correct.
"Not bad." It was far from bad. It was insanely strong for a Lord Class being.
Time had passed by Dorian while he was in the midst of meditation, at a pace that felt both fast and slow. He had been immersed fully, the mysteries of the world, the unique Laws of the Universe, all dancing in his consciousness.
In this place, he successfully broke into the Middle Stage of comprehension for the Laws of Lust, Envy, and Greed. As a result, the strength of his soul jumped. It was especially so for the Law of Greed. That Law alone had provided the lion's share of the increase in strength to his soul. It made sense, given that Greed was the Law basically tailored to enhance the power of one's Soul.
As Dorian fully came to, he glanced around where he was.
The Molten Core was doing just fine and no one came to disturb him. His key moment of comprehension in a secret place went perfectly fine, no one stumbled upon him and attacked, nor did any of his enemies use this moment to land a surprise blow.
It was nothing like some of the book's he'd read back on Earth claimed something like this would be like.
"Ah well." He shrugged, feeling half disappointed. If someone had come to attack, he would've been fully prepared. Still, this was real life, not everything came as he wished.
With that last fleeting thought, Dorian maintained his Ifrit form as he began to climb out of the hole that led to the Molten Core.
He hopped from wall to wall, using the draft of sweltering heat to boost his jumps as he quickly scaled up. In no time at all, he managed to reach the top of the entrance area, his Ifrit form not the slightest bit bothered by the life-crushingly hot air.
As he left, his heart built with excitement. He was ready to continue his journey. Meditation was fun and never boring, but some things simply were more interesting.
He emerged to a world of darkness.
"Oh, it's night." He blinked.
It took him a second to realize that. For some reason, he'd assumed it would be daylight when he left.
He jogged several dozens meters away from the entrance, leaving behind the ungodly heat. When he got far enough away to feel safe, he then transformed, returning to his Sun Eagle form.
"Caw!" He let out a quiet shout as he then jumped high into the air, leaving behind a small trail of fire that lit up the night. His eyes flashed with light as he turned in a specific direction, his Jade Memory letting him know exactly where to go.
'I'm all done here… time to head to Blizzaria.'
WHOOSH
The only thing left after Dorian flew off was the fading line of fire his Sun Eagle form gave off, fizzling out like a meteor flying through the sky, disappearing to places unknown…
.. .. .. .. .. ..
Several hours passed.
Dorian's journey across Taprisha flew by in what felt like an instant. His Sun Eagle's form made insane progress and it took only a relatively short period to reach Potor City.
He opted not to return to the city. He felt a great deal of nostalgia by being there, the memories of his earlier times returning to him, but he also knew the past was the past. He couldn't get stuck up on it just because he had the opportunity to. It was far more important that he continued making progress.
The budding sense of urgency he felt only seemed to be growing stronger, day by day.
Once he arrived, he flew directly up the World Bridge, skipping over the protective wall that blocked it off without issue.
He then directly blitzed through the World Bridge. He saw several bands of hunters and gatherers moving about their business, and even a group of warriors that seemed to be headed for Blizzaria, in search of treasure.
A few hours into his journey, his mouth twitched as he passed over one rather familiar zone.
By this point, daylight had returned to the World Bridge and it was early morning. The cycle of day and night on the World Bridges operated similar to how it did on planets, despite their relatively small circumference, a magical process that was dictated by the Laws of the Universe.
He passed over the place where his and Yukeli's mind had clashed, long ago.
Instead of flying on his way, Dorian dived down and landed. A frown appeared on his face as he shifted to his Human form, his clothes magically appearing on him.
He had landed in a small clearing, in the middle of a large forest. From his memory, this was the spot where he killed several hunters that had been torturing and celebrating their torture of an innocent deer.
He had originally planned to let them off, but when he eavesdropped and heard how they would continue their actions, Dorian had lost it.
He had killed them for that.
'Yukeli's memories had clashed with my own, tainting my judgement.' His frown widened as he stopped in front of one particular tree, looking at it.
This was the exact tree he remembered standing behind when eavesdropping on those four hunters from dozens of meters distant.
"Would I have killed them under my own, sane mind?" Dorian spoke to himself, blinking several times as he thought it over.
"…I don't know." It was a sticky situation.
"All intelligent life has value. Killing someone is a big decision." He sighed as he rubbed his forehead.
He wasn't a vegetarian that would shy away from killing other beasts or creatures for sustenance or energy. However, he also would try to avoid killing fully sentient beings, unless they had committed a vile crime.
"I should have faked poisoning them, and threatened to come back and check on it years later, or something of that nature." It took him only a few seconds of clear thinking to come up with a solution.
"If I used my Abilities, I could've convincingly faked it, even at the time. Killing them…" He shook his head,
"That was excessive." As he reached this conclusion, he felt a weight rise up from his heart.
It was Yukeli's influence that twisted his mind and caused him to kill those men. The Dorian he knew he was would've made another solution work, he was absolutely confident of that.
He bowed silently for a few seconds, in the general direction of where those men had died. He couldn't change his actions now. Undoing death was something that was extremely difficult to do even when fully prepared to reform a body, with someone that had just died.
He didn't even think it would be possible for him to restore 4 people back to life, even if he had their souls and viable bodies to help reform right now. Bringing back Will and Probus had been difficult enough.
With these doubts in his mind settled, Dorian left the forest clearing, returning to his Sun Eagle form as he went back to his journey. His eyes flashed clearly, not a hint of self-doubt present.
He blazed across the rest of the World Bridge, making great progress.
And, some amount of time later…
A calm, but cold breeze brushed past Dorian's face as he looked out from the World Bridge, his Human eyes gleaming with energy.
"I'm back."
A frozen world spread out around him. The world where the dead walked.
Blizzaria.
The World Bridge provided a type of magical protection until one got very close to the ground of Blizzaria. As a result, Dorian could see the storming winds and thundering lightning that plagued the planet strike and whip all around the World Bridge, all while remaining safe near the top of it.
He began to jog down the World Bridge. As he ran, his eyes scanned the dangerous environment, keeping tabs on everything.
The closer he got to the end of the World Bridge, the more and more he felt the wind and weather of Blizzaria start to affect him.
He ignored that as he ran, picking up speed as he charged forward.
He crossed the distance down in seconds, his body blurring due to his great speed. In no time at all, he had almost reached the end.
"The last time I was here, I was weak. I lacked the strength to stand up for myself. I even had to rely on Yukeli's memories and consciousness at one point, and was almost fatally wounded by a certain fox." As he spoke aloud, his eyes twinkled.
"Transform."
WHOOSH
His Human body vanished, instantly replaced with a scaled, armored Demonic figure that gave off a sense of control and balance.
Dorian leapt forward several dozen meters, jumping high into the air…
And landed just before the end of the World Bridge, where the weather of Taprisha was almost fully unleashed.
Instantly, a flurry of chaotic winds smashed against him, the deadly weather of the surface trying to overwhelm him. The air whiplashed all around him, blistering cold ice crashing into his scales, freezing rain and wind knocking into his back.
'You are currently caught within a Distorted Field Storm. Recommendation: Leave the Distorted Field.' Ausra sent him a notification that he promptly put aside.
"But I am weak no longer." Dorian completely ignored the weather, not bothered in the slightest as he jumped forward several more times. Soon he completely escaped the bounds of the World Bridge and was left with the brunt of the harsh weather.
Still, he was unaffected. The worst he felt was the buffeting of the wind, something he could easily ignore. His passive Body of Balance Ability that his Balance Demon form had instantly rejected any internal changes in temperature, keeping him perfectly fine. He was able to perfectly maintain his sense of balance, moving with clarity.
As he fully realized how far he had come, how much stronger and more capable he was now, he couldn't help but grin cheekily.
He jogged forward through the dangerous weather, following the trail his memories had left behind.
"Now then…" His eyes gleamed as he looked at what was in front of him after he finished jogging.
A huge statue of a dragon lay before him. He could only see part of it, its enormous mouth, its domineering eyes, and a portion of its shoulders, while the rest of it was obscured from even his vision by the constant flurry of ice and snow. The open mouth alone was huge, stretching up nearly a thousand meters in height, set into a widespread, rocky stone floor and, unsurprisingly, covered in ice.
The entire statue appeared to be buried almost entirely in the ground, sunken into a type of depression, shielding the bottom part of it from the brunt of the weather above.
It was the same stone carving he'd seen when he'd first entered Blizzaria.
He nodded as he remembered this was the entrance to the Western Cave System in this area. Blizzaria was split up into multiple Cave Systems, each of them full of shambling undead.
This particular statue was called the 'Dragon's Mouth.'
"Let's get to it." He waltzed inside.
The insides of the Cave System were identical to his memories. The stone ceiling was roughly four to five hundred meters above his head, with a few long stalactites hanging from it. The walls were dark brown, coated with clear or light blue ice, and a large number of glowing crystals.
"Pourmaline Rock Crystals, right?" He smiled as Ausra confirmed it. They were a special type of rock that glowed with light, giving the Cave System a certain level of visibility.
"And this all is the Great Road to Icicar." He nodded again, staring down the cavern. It continued on seemingly endlessly, the end of it disappearing from sight into the distance, forming a sort of road. It was more than 100 meters wide, covered in patches of ice and stone.
"I need to find a Desiccated being with a King Class Soul Spell Matrix. I know there used to be a Grakon King down at Icicar… That one-armed Giant should be shambling somewhere in this Cave System too." As he talked over his plans out loud, Dorian rapidly moved forward.
Only a few minutes passed before it happened.
A large, 3 meter tall minotaur appeared in Dorian's vision, coming from a side-passageway onto the main roar to Icicar.
The creature was covered in black metal plates that seemed to resemble scales, bearing an appearance very similar to Earth's Minotaurs, with the head of a bull, a humanoid set of arms and chest, and hooved legs like that of a horse. A deathly aura hung around it as its head stared at Dorian.
It wielded a massive, ancient looking greatsword on its back, a weapon that was easily as tall as Dorian in his Human form.
For a split second, the two beings stared at each other.
Right after that, the undead Grakon let out a roar…
"GRAAWWRRRRR!"
…and then rapidly began to expand, its body swelling to stand 9 meters tall, becoming a towering monstrosity.
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Species: Grakon (Desiccated)
Class - Lord Class (Early)
Maximum Energy Level: 29,127
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The powerful being's greatsword expanded with it, growing to be huge as it charged at Dorian. He recalled that each sword was a special magical Artifact that could expand in size when a Grakon Expanded.
The large being reached Dorian in a split second, roaring out loud as it swung its massive greatsword down with abandon, a blow filled with all of its fury and anger.
A blow that Dorian casually ducked to the side of, dodging the Grakon's huge sword swing with a single step.
BOOM
The sword collided with the cave floor, cracking the stone and shattering a thin layer of ice that covered the ground.
As that occurred, Dorian almost slowly punched out with his right hand, his Balance Demon form making a clawed fist.
BOOM
The Grakon's body instantly exploded.
Shards of bone and debris scattered out as it was killed, what was left of it collapsed to the floor in front of Dorian. Its magical Artifact weapon was obliterated before Dorian could snag it, metal shrapnel pelting the air as it flew through it. The deathly aura that had swarmed over the Grakon vanished into nothingness.
"Absorb."
Dorian absorbed the Soul Spell Matrix of the dead creature from habit, taking in its energy with a casual wave of his hand.
"To think you all used to give me so much trouble." He muttered as he stared at the scattered remains of the now-permanently dead Grakon.
The undead Grakons lived a torturous existence, from what he knew. For every one he killed, there were billions more to replace that one, spawned into existence by the strange curse that seemed to hold Blizzaria together.
"Rest in peace." He muttered as he stared at its dead body, his eyes blazing with energy.
"If I get a chance, I'll see if I can alter the curse that forced you all to live such a cursed existence here." He spoke the words aloud as he turned his head back to the front.
They were directed not only at the Grakon he had just killed, but at a large group of 12 patrolling Grakons that had just appeared, one and all snorting and growling as they spotted Dorian. Their bodies rapidly expanded to 9, 10, or 11 meters of height, towering brutes that thundered forward, bringing their huge greatswords to bear.
"But for now…" Dorian stepped forward,
"Allow me to welcome you into eternal sleep."
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