Evil

Lord of the Skies!

It was basically an accelerated course, jumping from some line between anger, denial and grief directly to acceptance.

"Whatever," I cleared my throat and slapped my cheeks lightly, invigorating myself,"I've got better things to worry about than than that fucker." I pulled the necklace from my neck forcibly, crushing it beneath my fingers, alleviating a burden from my shoulders and lending a sense of catharsis to me as I summoned a book to my hand.

The book levitated beside me with the aid of mana. A guide on ranking up.

From the corpses of those five, I had gathered quite a few rare items, some for ranking up. Storage rings, or spatial rings as they were called were rare but available in this world. The only difference was their capacity was limited while mine wasn't and while theirs could withstand a few attacks, mine was indestructible. I had needed constantly to keep the amplification anklet before some moves to risk breakage but my ring was fine.

Within those rings, several items, inclusive of mana stones and catalysts could be found. Including the ambrosial crystal as a gift from Julius' father, I now had quite a few other crystals.

Flame crystal, glacial crystal, luciferous crystal, abyssal crystal to name a few. Basically the rudimentary elements were covered. But one thing caught my eye—An item in the leader's possession, the gluttony crystal. According to his notes, it was an ancient crystal holding archaic magic. Unfortunately, he had found it only after rank 2 and couldn't use it so he kept it for successors. Unfortunately for him, I had killed him. Finders keepers.

About a hundred forty-five crystals rotated around me as mana stones rapidly appeared in my hands and dissipated into my pores. Ranking up with materials from six powerhouses, it was luxurious. The crystals slowly turning into a viscous mixture of varied colour which sluggishly entered my veins, a sense of rapture hitting me as serotonin and dopamine started flooding my bloodstream. I'd lost count of how many mana stones were used. Twenty thousand? Thirty? Forty? Who knew?

It mattered little to me seeing as the stones weren't even mine in the first place. I absorbed like a madwoman, not stopping as my mana capacity dramatically increased, my senses growing fine tuned before—

"Grr—" I shot out with a merciless punch, the demon exploding into red haze.

A foreign force entered my body but I quickly slit my throat, ending my life alongside its.

199 lives remaining.

Then, familiar voices called out.

...Loves you...Don't forget...

Get away from me you loser...

You cannot kill him...

I have to admit. I faltered a little at the last one but steeling my heart, I sneered at the attempt to pull at my heartstrings and crack me,"You think I got this far in life being pathetic?" Remaining headstrong and stubborn, bulldozing my way through the fight and putting it to a swift end. Immediately, I stamped my foot down, creating a large crater.

Filling it with blood, I took off my clothes and dived in, the blood from all the beasts I had killed alongside the ones in the magisters' possessions was just enough to fill the crater to three quarts full.

Just as the blood had been absorbed by my body, the inquirer's voice sounded.

[Congratulations to Artemis for unlocking the next power: Towering Fortress!]

I had no time to waste. I wanted to awaken a bloodline, more specifically, Tarkyol's. I concentrated. The description for this part was truly vague. Julius said the method differed from person to person.