Return of the Mythic Bloodline

Chapter 527: Taranis vs Orion II

"Initialising Host’s request..."

While Taranis continued cutting through the black serpents of flame, somewhere deep within him, a burning energy exploded. The sensation was unlike anything he had felt before, a heat that originated from the very core of his being, spreading outward like a star being born. A miniature sun like circle began glowing at his chest, pulsing with intense radiance. From this sun, three pairs of parallel white lines spread towards his arms and the torso below, tracing pathways of searing light across his skin like rivers of molten silver. His white shirt burned away from the sheer radiation of the energy, disintegrating into ash

The two lines upon reaching the joints of his elbows and knees, formed a white ring before reaching his palms where they materialised into two glowing white discs. The discs hummed with power, vibrating against his skin like second hearts. His long black hair rose upward, turning white like ghost, his iris forming the similar colour with comet like tails fluttering outward from them, leaving trails of light in their wake. The air around him shimmered with heat, the very atmosphere turned heavy from his presence.

Behind his head, a large disc illuminated with blinding white energy materialised, spinning with low hissing sound.

"Extreme Yang Transformation Activated!"

1. All Yang skills are temporarily increased by two levels.

2. The Host’s understanding of Yang is significantly increased.

3. The Host’s physical capabilities had undergone a temporary explosive evolution, greatly enhancing physical stats and regeneration.

4. All Yin-type abilities below the Host’s level are partially suppressed.

The black energy from Taranis’s katana vanished, it’s blade now a complete white like the disc behind him, radiating a soft glow.

Taranis shifted his gaze at his own form, scanning his transformation with analytical eyes.

"Hmm. It’s completely different from the Extreme Yin Transformation," Taranis murmured, clenching his fists, feeling the power surging through his veins. "The voices of death are still there but this feeling of the strength running through my veins is surely overwhelming."

"No matter how you change your form, you can never surpass me!" Orion roared as the dozens of black flames reached dangerously closer to Taranis.

They struck him square on the chest, the impact sending him rolling and hitting through the ground like a skipping stone across a pond. The world became a blur of sky and earth as he tumbled, his body carving a trench through the garden’s soil before he finally stopped after clashing into the boundary wall of the Victorial Memorial, his body burying beneath the debris. Dust and rubble exploded outward.

"Hahaha, now die, you arrogant human," Orion laughed, his voice echoing as he unleashed the tentacles onto the debris where Taranis had fallen. The continuous strikes erupted dust and smoke from the place, turning the cement into ashes with every strike of the dark flame.

When the attacks finally stopped, a small crater was formed at the place, its edges blackened and smoking. Taranis lay flat at its centre, his body carrying deep wounds that burned with dark energy while blood seeped out from them, a stark contrast against his glowing white body.

Orion’s eyes narrowed at Taranis from the distance as he observed something bizarre happening. The man who should have been writhing in agony, whose body should have been consumed by the death flames, was instead absurdly calm.

Taranis slowly raised his hand, facepalming himself, his teeth below his hand gleamed with a wide smile that carried both amusement and nostalgic regret. "I wish I had this power in the Second Ultimate War."

His body, even though straight from his knee, rose upward as if someone pushed him to his feet from his back. The blood vanished from his body, turning into vapours that rose like morning mist, the black flame from his wounds extinguished.

In the very same moment, his wounds closed, the skin and muscles regenerating themselves at a speed that even far surpassed that of high trolls. The flesh knitted together, the scorched marks fading until his skin was unblemished, as pristine as before the battle had begun.

"H-how did you extinguish the flames of death?" Orion demanded, completely bewildered. From what he knew, death was the ultimate power, an absolute force that could not be challenged. Except for immortals who had transcended death, no one should be capable of overpowering it.

"What you possess is only a fragment of death, something that is not even yours to begin with," Taranis said, his tone turning serious, his white eyes locking onto Orion. "Do you think you can defeat a god with borrowed power?"

"How presumptuous!" Orion barked as the pages of his grimoire fluttered again, whipping through texts with frantic speed. Once they stopped, the dark letters in it glowed with abyssal energy.

His body exploded with a pillar of dark energy as if he was summoning every last bit of his soulforce into this attack. He clasped his hands together, moving the hundred of black magic circles behind him into the centre where they bound together forming one large circle.

From this circle, first emerged eight large tentacles each one the size of the building of Victoria Memorial behind Orion. The tentacles struck the ground, each strike leaving deep craters and turning the land into broken pieces of countless debris. The earth shook with each impact, the garden reduced to a wasteland. Followed by the limbs appeared a massive dark hole of concentric rings of razor-sharp teeth lining the inside, each circular row smaller than the last, spiraling deeper into the abyss.

"SCREECHHHH!!!!"

A terrifying inhuman roar tore through the battlefield, sending debris of dirt flying backward.

"Interesting..." Taranis whispered, excitement surging through his chest. Although he could tell that Orion was only at the same level as Celestia, this monster that he had summoned was far more powerful.

As soon as his towering oval head with two stretched vertical slits of dark eyes emerged from the magical circle, the leviathan revealing its complete form, Taranis announced, pointing his sword at it, his voice carrying the confidence of someone who had faced far worse, "Thank you for the gift, Orion. I will gladly take this dog as my pet."

"Your arrogance knows no bounds, puny human!" Orion muttered as it commanded the leviathan to attack Taranis.

It’s heavy tentacles jutted forward, coming at Taranis with a force of a meteor behind it. The ground beneath them cracked from the sheer pressure of the approaching strikes. Now that he was in Extreme Yang form, the Void Step had been temporarily disabled, his usual teleportation cut off.

Yet instead of trying to dodge or block the incoming strike, Taranis grabbed the katana with both hands and bolted straight towards it, the smile of excitement never leaving his face.

His blade stabbed through the tentacle as he continued bolting on it with an incredible speed, splattering dark blood on the ground at his wake. The leviathan’s blood hissed and steamed where it touched the ground.

The creature screeched in pain as the yang energy from Taranis’s sword burned the flames of darkness itself from its body, the black fire sputtering and dying where the blade had cut. It launched its other tentacles at Taranis, but he jumped at the last moment, letting it strike its own limb while arriving at the one that had just attacked him.

He stabbed the blade through the skin and began his run across the creature’s body again. The absorption of its blood and the curse of bleeding left by the ability of Shinku No Sabi, along with Taranis’s yang energy, was proving absolutely fatal for the creature.

To protect itself, the leviathan descended its all remaining limbs at Taranis like a net of massive horizontal pillars, making sure Taranis would not be able to avoid it. The

And that was what proven to be its most fatal mistake.

Taranis threw his sword back to the inventory, his fist clenching as he bent his arm back, veins bulging across his forearm, pulsing with white hot energy. The miniature sun at his chest flared brightly, channeling its power into his arm.

"Galactic Punch: Version: Blazing Yang Fist!"

His whole arm turned a blinding light of white as the energy from the miniature sun at his chest traveled to his arm.

Boom!

A cataclysmic explosion occurred the moment his fist struck the incoming tentacles of the leviathan. The impact sent a shockwave rippling outward, shattering the ground for hundreds of metres. The white stone walls of the historic building behind them blasted into pieces, completely vanishing the once beautiful structure into nothingness. Dust and debris rained down like ash from a volcanic eruption.

As the light vanished, the darkness of night claiming the surrounding again, Orion’s eyes widened, his legs buckling. He barely kept himself from falling on his back.

"Th-this man... H-he cannot be human," Orion murmured, his voice hollow with disbelief.

Before him, the terrifying monster of the abyss was writhing in pain as all six of its tentacles that it had launched at Taranis were torn to oblivion. Nothing of them was left. What remained was the river of black blood flowing out from its torn body from where the limbs used to grow, pooling across the ruined ground like a dark lake. Only two of its tentacles remained, but they were also completely limp due to the deep wounds and the continuous bleeding.

On top of one such limb, Taranis stood with a wide smile, his white hair fluttering in the aftermath of the explosion. The arm which he had used to attack the leviathan was missing, torn apart from his shoulder, yet he did not seem bothered by it.