It was time to review his progress towards Law and concepts. Zyrus told Franken to give an overview to Zirnitra while he sat aside in contemplation. With a thought of his a familiar hologram was hovering in front of him.
It was a reverse tree that grew from pitch-black darkness. While most of its body remained hazy, thirteen branches were distinct, each representing one of the 13 Curses of Void. There was no change to its appearance despite Zyrus having made some good progress. Thankfully, there was something that told him how much he had improved.
Current Comprehension
- Concept of Erasure: 39.06%
- Concept of Gravity: 29.4%
- Concept of Collapse: 27.98%
- Concept of Nothingness: 25.31%
It was the summary he acquired after touching the leaves that represented the concepts. All of them had increased by more than 15%. Just the fact that he had fully comprehended a quarter of each concept was a great achievement.
This wasn’t the only thing he had accomplished either. Apart from comprehending the concept he needed to know more about the general knowledge and how to apply what he had learned. The knowledge base given by the cube was the perfect aid for that.
- An Introduction to Concepts: 85%
- An Introduction to Laws: 63%
- A Practical Guide on ‘Source of Existence’: 42.9%
- Example and Application of Laws: 17.3%
- Magic attributes and how to use them! : 75%
- Abyss Compendium: 31%
Zyrus was almost done with the first two. By the time he created his third curse he was sure that example and application of laws would also shoot up by tens of percentages.
He still didn’t know how to get more knowledge from the cube. For the time being, his best guess was that something new would appear after he reached 100% in one or more of the current topics. That being said, the cube wasn’t his only source of knowledge.
Earth’s civilization had developed its own perspective on how the universe worked. Even after getting sucked into the sanctuary and spending a thousand years there, Zyrus hadn’t forgotten what he learned as a child. The next concept and curse he was about to create were prime examples of that.
‘Looks like there’s nothing more I could do for the time being.’
Zyrus stretched his limbs and walked to Franken and Zirnitra who were in deep conversation. The trio met their eyes, and they knew now was the time to fight.
“Am I to hide as per the plan?” Franken asked while tapping his hooves on the blazing scroll fragment.
Zyrus nodded in acknowledgment and headed out with the drakes and Zirnitra. Unlike before though, he was no longer hiding with the cube’s power. It didn’t even take a full second for the glemorax king to note his presence.
“What hiding? I was just preparing for our battle,” Zyrus felt like the name of those stakes was different from what he remembered, but now wasn’t the time to think about that.
It wasn’t like the glemorax chief was unaware of the cube’s mysteries. Today wasn’t the first time they had lost all tracks of Zyrus. After each disappearance he would return as a whole new being.
Nonetheless, even that increment in his strength was within the glemorax’s predictions.
“Summon,”
*Shatter*
It was just that he had underestimated the sanctuary’s effects. The blessing of order was much more significant than a simple level-up.
Hundreds of thousands of ophidian warriors and amargs walked out from the portals. Or to be more accurate, they jumped down from the portals.
“You won’t mind if I take them, right?” Zyrus sneered as he pointed at the golden stakes. He had opened the summoning portals right above these so-called realm anchors.
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*Roooooar*
“Take them.”
The drakes obeyed his commands and went all out in offense. The falling amargs didn’t hold anything back and ejected their spikes at the flying aliens.
The glemorax chief was immobilized under Zirnitra’s abyssal breath. Rather than revealing their skills one by one, Zyrus’s plan was to go all out from the start.
This gave them a perfect chance to deal a fatal blow.
[Shackles of Nihility]
Gigantic chains broke out from the mountain ranges below. Zyrus’s powers were enhanced to a great degree since earth was a dying world. Coupled with the title’s buff he was reaching the upper limits of what this planet could handle.
The black chains and purple shackles were pure manifestations of the laws of void. This was the power that solely belonged to him and him alone.
*Crack*
The hovering stakes were pierced by the shackles that erased everything in existence. No matter what their purpose was, Zyrus believed it was better to neutralize any unknown factors.
“Retreat,”
In the same moment that Zyrus collected those miniature suns into his warehouse, a flood of red light enveloped the entire sky.
His troops which were unable to retreat were killed in that instant. Even the fading portals were forced open under the dim red light. Many drakes who had yet to show their full potential lost their lives just like that.
“The feeling’s mutual, let’s fight one-on-one then,” Zyrus replied fearlessly and waved his hands at the ground. Space itself seemed to reverse as more portals reappeared on the ground. After reading Oroszlan’s journals, he had grasped the summoning arts to a whole new level. At least on earth, he could summon his troops anywhere within his perception range.
One must remember, that his perception range stretched hundreds of miles under the effects of ‘The last Apostle’.
The glemorax chief frowned as he looked at the hundreds of portals. It would be impossible to predict the enemy’s movements when they could advance and retreat anytime.
“Precisely so.” Zyrus flew towards the glemorax chief on Zirnitra’s back. While it was a one-on-one fight, neither side mentioned anything about the wyvern.
The glemorax chief would be more than happy to fight against Zyrus who was unable to fly. But if he allowed the black wyvern to descend on the battlefield below, the entire glemorax army would be wiped out within an hour.
Zirnitra was just that strong.
*Fwoooom*
The crimson light descended upon Zyrus, and he too retaliated with the vortex of blue mana. The two’s powers made them akin to gods on this dying world.
The entire sky was turned into a millstone that ground down the crimson flows of energy. The five meter tall glemorax chief was unperturbed by the scene. The eyes on his wing lit up one by one, reinforcing the already dreadful attack.
Zyrus almost fell down from the sky as Zirnitra was pushed away all under the red light. If not for his hardened scales the wyvern would’ve met a gory end right this instance.
“Focus on defense.”
“I am ashamed by my weakness.”
“On the contrary, only you can withstand this attack.”
Zyrus wasn’t saying empty words. The red light didn’t possess any miraculous abilities. What it pursued were the extremes of speed and sharpness.
And more times than not, such simple attacks were the hardest to fend off.
“You’re not the only one who can use the power of laws,” Zyrus roared as he forcefully withstood the attack. He held his hands high as if he was praying to the heavens. The sky itself trembled under the pressure of his mana and willpower, pushing away the crimson sunlight that was pouring from the space.
The glemorax chief charged over with a ferocious grin. Although he was much smaller than Zirnitra, just the winds produced by his wings were enough to shake the flying wyvern.
*Shwoom*
The chief thrust his arms forward like a spear. At the same time, red beams of energy seeped out from his numerous eyes and converged in the same direction. Just like Zyrus, he too was going all out. Both sides had enough of tricks and strategies, and now, the victor would be the one who held the most power.
“I admit that I’m weaker than you, but you’re looking down on me too much,” It was Zirnitra who replied instead of Zyrus. He understood that his master was unable to retaliate at this moment.
Instead of feeling burdened by the glemorax chief’s attack, the black wyvern was feeling proud of Zyrus’s trust in his abilities.
A hundred feet long lance formed in front of the glemorax chief. His words were true. If it was a true black dragon in front of him, then both he and the lord behind him could only flee. But be it the black wyvern or the one who rode him, both of them just possessed a trace of the dragon's bloodline.
*Crackkkle*
The millstone of clouds formed by Zyrus was turning against him at this moment. Instead of holding back the red lights, they were being used as a grindstone to sharpen the enemy’s spear.
Thunderbolts rumbled in the sky wrecked by the cataclysmic battle. They too were drawn into the red spear.
Zirnitra stared at that red spear that seemed to penetrate the reality itself. The outcome of this battle depended on whether he could block this attack or not.
“I may be inferior to a true dragon, but still, a dragon isn’t needed to hold off a bug like you,” Zirnitra roared with his wings spread wide. White halos of light surged atop his horns, forming ivory shields in front of his stretched claws.
This seemingly holy and divine power was the polar opposite of the abyssal mana that flowed through his heart.
Still, it didn’t look contrasting in the eyes of beholders. Like a lotus blooming atop a filthy pond, Zirnitra’s authority as a guardian manifested above the battle-torn sky.