The Arcane Emperor

Chapter 187: Swift Vengeance

Zan-Har looked at the writhing High Elf with interest as he studied the changes occuring. He occasionally pushed back against some of them, using a mixture of Soul and Illusion magic, not wanting it to finish so soon. To study a Mage turning Draconic… how could he give up observing such a legendary matter without the utmost care? One he desired even if he’d never attempted it on himself. That was a road where the Zan had long since learned only death lay. Until today, Zan-Har’s own thoughts mirrored that.

If only the changes in that [Archon]’s Soul hadn’t prevented tracking magic being used based on what he learned of the Mage’s Soul. Tracking a Soul based only on your knowledge of it took quite an accurate representation. A Soul that now likely differed far from what Zan-Har knew.

And any blood tracking methods were useless unless it came from the body itself, no matter how great a fake was made. All he had was the location of a plane he suspected was a decoy based on what he learned. Far be it for him to empty his own personal treasury just to head to the wrong place. For all the power of their teleportation, having to sacrifice things of magical value was something no one ever got used to.

Zan-Har’s eyes widened as he felt death come for him. It was only with the strength of his Soul that he managed to notice it. Time warped around him as he slowed it down, giving him just enough of it to teleport away.

Both his new experiment and much of the area of where he had been vanished in a darkness beyond any he’d ever seen. Yet before he could even understand what had occured, the source of that attack was long gone.

“Live in fear of your coming death,” a distorted feminine voice echoed out, the source of which having already disappeared.

Cold sweat dripped down Zan-Har’s wrinkleless face. He always stayed in a state of accelerated mind and a localized time magic. To teleport and attack him with lethal force before he could strike back… Not even a Descended Divinity could ambush him like this. They had tried before after all.

He snarled and stared at the missing experiment. The area seemed to be frozen in time as gravity took a few seconds to function and cause some debris to fall in the spherical hole cut from the ground. The crime of trying to murder him was far lesser than what had been destroyed! The damage was too wide… He had never been the goal at all! The blue in his eyes covered the whites, and his pupils turned slitted. An illusion of a vertical third eye flickered on his forehead. It was only when he calmed down a bit did he look once more like a well-aged High Elf.

Talvara sighed as she looked at Aurora’s body. That quick usage would delay the transformation for several more months, by Rainer’s time. Sticking close to the Abyssal Planes, she could borrow the altered time. Her aim had never been the Chancellor in the first place. As much as she wanted to kill him for what he tried to do to Rainer, she doubted her success in doing so unless she descended with her true self.

Given the damage she already sustained, that would be as good as seeking death. The moment her true presence touched the material world at least five Descended Divinities would follow instantly. Time had a different meaning in their realm. The price on her ‘head’ was simply too high for anything else to happen.

Not to mention a mortal, especially a Mage, didn’t live as long as this man by luck alone. Who knew if wiping out his body would be enough? However, her rage demanded a price be paid. Taking what he seemed to treasure so dearly would have to do. For now.

In fact, from what she understood, Rainer was quite lucky she didn’t notice his crisis earlier. Lest she act needlessly and cause the man she… cared for’s... doom. What a great use of this rotted Soul mage Rainer had made.

Humph, he’s an expert at making ‘great use’ of his enemies.

Talvara thought with some slight bitterness, having been an enemy of his at some point. Though she was ever thankful for the decision she eventually made and changes it had brought about for her.

Speaking of changes… the strange change in the old man’s eyes and Rainer’s would have to be observed. She thought it just a consequence of Rainer’s change when seen in him alone, but seeing it in this old Elf she knew better. There was nothing visibly Draconic about the High Elf’s Soul like Rainer’s. The odds that he knew of what happened to him were unlikely.

She also didn’t wish to warn Rainer too early of it. Even this master of Soul didn’t seem to sense that the Soul Dragon was somehow in him, telling Rainer would only alert that presence to be more careful or perhaps search for mutual destruction depending on its intelligence. It clearly lacked some given it had tried to kill Rainer, rather than possess its host properly. Unless the distortion of his body was only a priming and would be fixed later. This would have to be handled with care.

Nothing would take Rainer from her.

Talvara frowned at the thought. Where had that come from? The last few years of Talvara’s life had caused her to experience emotions she never had. She was surprised by her own anger towards this High Elf as well. Deciding not to over think the workings of her own mind, she returned to the task of perfecting her only loyal follower.

Rainer’s eyes slowly opened as he took in the scene in front of him. Strands of Luna’s silver hair covered his face where it was buried. Normally, that position would be uncomfortable, but the texture of her hair made it no different than silk. Likely better. A few minutes of thought on turning Luna’s hair into a blanket, by growing more of it with healing magic, passed as he suddenly froze.

A realization struck him. He hadn’t entered [Sleep Learning]... when he had fully intended to. In a blind panic, he inspected his Soul. There were no differences and a glance at the lynch point of his Soul, the very space he did not enter, showed no signs of issue. In fact, he wasn’t sure why he felt this, or rather how, but the space seemed to be even more… perfect than usual.

He gently shook Luna awake so that she could send him back to sleep. His shaking grew ever more forceful as a variety of excuses and complaints subconsciously exited her mouth.

“Do whatever you want to Luna. Luna agrees,” she finally mumbled out before going completely back to sleep. Kara was elsewhere, having likely woken up far earlier without the pressure of being inside [Sleep Learning], or it would be no surprise the Wolfkin would awaken from this.

Rainer just deeply sighed and decided to try to go back to sleep on his own. It surprisingly took only a few minutes before a white expanse appeared before him. Easily entering [Sleep Learning] this time, Rainer took a quick guess at the issue. When had he ever been so tired since becoming something far from an ordinary Human? Perhaps only his first real trip to the Abyssal Planes and when he was chased by thousands of Devils did he ever reach such exhaustion.

He awoke moments later, realizing he probably had a large group of annoyed people who went to sleep solely to enter the space. After all, Art was a great example of someone who fully used his power and changed body to his advantage. Prior to [Sleep Learning], the old man would rarely sleep for days if not weeks and even then for the shortest period possible.

With Alvra more dangerous than ever, Rainer opted to check on all those he could. There were no significant changes, though a view he had gotten when he looked at Fai’Etah interested him deeply. Just what was she doing? Were she more humanoid in form, he might have felt some guilt looking in for so long, but as it was he was just confused. She was alone… bathing in a a low floating cloud of silver gas?

Rainer shook his head and left the bed. Luna, clearly more awake than she let on, shrunk and flew into his jacket as he put it on. He couldn’t bring himself to be annoyed, even if he felt he should be, and just greeted her.

“Good morning,” he said.

He just got a muffled mhm in return.

Next to his bedroom in the Enchanter’s Guild was a simple stone room dedicated for rituals. The stone itself, was anything but simple. It absorbed the blood leftover from the rituals after a few days. Eventually, the stone could be taken out and used in a variety of magical rituals.

Rainer prepared the Avatar ritual as always, though his growing skill meant he no longer needed to use Mana Crystals as the Mana-Well alone was enough to power the ritual. The biggest reason why he had needed Mana Crystals for it was to maintain an evenness of power; a limitation of the ritual rather than a flaw with the well itself.

The ritual went as normal except when Rainer went to split his Soul, he suddenly keeled over in pain and the ritual shattered. Were there any actual Mana Crystals used, the room itself may have been destroyed.

Rainer let out low breaths as he recovered, sitting on the floor while looking inwards. His attempt to shatter his Soul… had failed completely. He momentarily realized that the current him was weirdly not strong enough to damage his own Soul. It was like a warrior who only leveled Constitution and nothing else. There would come a point where pinching himself, no matter how hard he tried, wouldn’t hurt. A man unable to know if he was dreaming or not because his pinches never hurt.

The problem itself was easy to solve. A use of [Soul Presence] or leveling of [Soul Manipulation] was enough. But using [Soul Presence] to enhance [Soul Manipulation] during a volatile magic like blood rituals wasn’t something to be done for the first time outside of [Sleep Learning]. It seemed his dumping off of random duties to Avatars would have to wait.

Still exhausted from the night before, Rainer sent out a few messages to the [Soul Mark]s and decided to go back to sleep again. Both Art and Frederick had more than enough sleeping spells for anyone who wanted to join him.

Appearing in [Sleep Learning], Rainer went through a few practice sessions of making an Avatar. As it turned out, the easiest method was to lower the fundamental strength of his Soul with the after effects of [Soul Consolidation]. It could be healed up later, so it was hardly an issue for the Avatar to have a temporarily weakened Soul. He paused in thought.

Now that he was no longer doing potentially dangerous tests with his Soul, he started bringing people in, beginning with something he had been curious about ever since he thought of the idea of becoming more Draconic.

“Delilah,” Rainer greeted the [Ice Wolf Queen] with a cheesy grin, temporarily bolstering his Soul with [Soul Consolidation] and an unsheathing of the [Soul Sheath].

She glanced at him for a few moments before slightly bowing her head and preparing to go elsewhere. She had been helping Gunthar learn to control the Ice related abilities he had gotten from the partial Soul of the last Dungeon boss in the 2nd Stage.

Rainer frowned, wondering if the Dragon part of him was just too small. Why wasn’t she bothered by his presence as much as she was bothered by Tiamat’s? Even back when the little thing had been plenty Wyvern, the Wolf hated to stay around her, given the natural sense of subservience.

“I can imagine what you were going for, you evil man,” Delilah said as she looked at him, “but why would I be bothered by the sense of majesty I feel in front of you? How is that different than normal?” she barked out a laugh.

He had pulled in Gunthar with her, given their joint efforts. The Undead regarded him for a moment before patting Delilah on the back.

“It is his way of showing love.”

“I see. Thank you for this joke, [Archon]. I too enjoy your company.”

Rainer rubbed his head with a slight blush. Of course she wouldn’t care if someone actually far stronger than her made her feel threatened or inferior. That was normal. Especially for someone with the honed instincts of a monster. It was when a small child far weaker than her did it that was so annoying.

He brought in Locklar and his grandfathers next. Now that he thought of it, perhaps he should make sure the space was truly unaffected before he brought in any more. He called back Gunthar to him as well, momentarily kicking Delilah out after a quick explanation.

The stunned silence of Locklar after the old man looked at him gave Rainer the feeling of smugness he expected to feel from Delilah's reaction. At least he had that.