480 The hero is back!
One month later:
POV Vesuvius:
Vesuvius unleashed a roar, his jaws parting to reveal a maelstrom of golden flames igniting within. The fierce glow in his eyes, intensified by his light-absorbing armor, cut through the surrounding darkness like twin suns.
Ding!
//
You have assimilated 2500 golden coins into your domain and soul!
+1 to DIV
//
Ding!
//
Your divinity reached 100, and you can now ignite your mark of Genesis.
//
'No, it is not yet time to become a dragon, not until I get my power over space.'
Amidst a stellar nebula, tens of thousands of golden coins spiraled upwards, each coin becoming an extension of his very essence.
Ding!
//
Your blessing, [Divine Beast], evolved into the [Greater Divine Beast].
Condition: Reach DIV 100 or more while being a magical beast.
Description: A great divine beast with divine energy overflowing through its body. It is just on the border of becoming something greater.
Effects: +10 DIV; +0.5X DIV stat multiplier; You can redeem three random pieces of knowledge; Magical beasts will listen to your commands
//
The dragon stood up, and the ground shook below his feet, the entire cave shaking beneath him.
'The easy part is done. Now is the time to grab space affinity, and if I am lucky, also time affinity.'
Golden light flashed and burst as reality warped around him, transforming into the fiery hell of his star, its heat sending jolts of pleasure through his armor into his scales.
In the heart of this inferno floated a fiery dragon egg, basking in the relentless heat and pressure.
'Affinities of dragon eggs are not random.' As far as Vesuvius knows, two aspects influenced it.
First, the soul's affinity and personality typically endowed a dragon with its parent's powers. However, if the dragon transformed from an already existing being, the outcome would be less predictable.
Second, the egg's development environment played a crucial role. In an ocean, a dragon might emerge with water-based abilities; in an active volcano, it could become a volcanic variant.
Yet, these factors paled in comparison to the system's unpredictable influence. Vesuvius embraced this uncertainty as he was ready to experiment, recognizing that stronger offspring meant a more formidable race to help him.
'My soul harbors an affinity for stars and fire, and considering the environment and my minion's traits, there's a strong likelihood of a high-tier, fire-based evolution.'
Vesuvius sighed sadly, hating how unfair the reality was, as he already saw the little elf becoming some high-tier multielement variant of a dragon straight after hatching.
'I wish there was some powerful dragon at the beginning that could give me the jumpstart.'
He cast a final, contemplative glance at the egg before his colossal form magnified to his full size, stretching and swelling as he manifested above his star, leaving the blazing stellar chaos behind.
'Baptism of elements...for time only, there would be the well of time, but I primarily want space, not just time.' Vesuvius could try randomly searching dungeons, hoping for a minuscule chance of finding what he was looking for, but he knew there was a better option.
'Only one cosmic event intertwines time and space so vividly,' he mused, eyes locked on the star-speckled void. 'A black hole, where the fabric of space and time bends and intensifies.'
Normally, he wouldn't be willing to approach something as dangerous and would have rather searched for a less efficient but safer alternative, but after his last evolution, which gave him access to gravity affinity, he felt safe to try it.
'But where to find such a phenomenon?' Several methods presented themselves, from deploying his alien minions to extensive searching. Yet, an immediate solution shone brightly, almost teasingly, within his view.
His gaze intensified upon spotting a distant satellite shimmering near the sun. 'A civilization capable of such technological feats must possess the knowledge of the nearest black hole.'
With a majestic unfurling of his vast stellar nebula wings, he created gravitational ripples that danced across the fiery star below. His body then surged with incredible velocity, the cosmos morphing into an indistinct blur, as he dove headfirst into a newly formed portal.
'Time to pay them a visit and ask for directions.'
Meanwhile, in Lorenia:
POV Hero Player:
Astride his white horse, a player surveyed the ruins before him, draped in a long blue cape that cascaded over his gleaming silver armor.
His eyes, filled with somberness, fixed upon the great wall, now a shadow of its former glory. A vast fissure had shattered its impenetrable black stone, scarring it with remnants of angelic fury.
The breach had created an unintended bridge of rubble and debris over the gaping ravine, with magma boiling below and its orange glow perpetrating through the darkness brought by the thick storm clouds and clouds of ash swirling in the air.
He stared in sadness at the craters and burn marks littering the ground, knowing that each symbolized a lost life for his soldier: 'So many deaths just for the first line of defense.'
His grief steadily morphed into a fierce resolve for vengeance. 'The dragon's lieutenant escaped; justice demands his capture.'
The very thought of the dark knight stirred a deep repugnance in him, an embodiment of all he opposed.
A sudden, thunderous crack snapped his attention to the horizon, where lightning slashed the sky in violent arcs.
'The Lord of Lightning...' Though unseen, its formidable presence was palpable, a draconic guardian of the borderland—the second and even greater obstacle in his path.
Tightening his grip on his sword, he spurred his horse into a swift gallop, his cape billowing in his wake. Once defeated by the malevolent dragon, he returned, transformed beyond mere mortality.
Raising his blade, it came alive with dancing streams of water, glimmering with divine energy.
'I have returned the second time, and this time I have a god behind my back, as I am his champion.' He finally had the power to match his heroic ideas, and he was going to use them.
He was the only one who could—the most powerful core of angelic forces locked in a deadly struggle with their demonic counterparts.
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