This chapter was pred by Dragonofsomesort & pwninator, Im unable to enter their profiles and link it to their names so please consider going through a bit of effort and giving them some rep for helping to pr this chapter. :)

Yo here is wednesdays regular release.

So i realize i forgot to tell you guys something, a pr brought it to my attention, the location of the sponsor queue for sr is located on my story's front page, under the synopsis http://royalroadl.com/fiction/807 all you need to do is scroll down and you will see it, unfortunately this is the easiest way i can add it to let you guys all see it, hopefully in one of the sites future updates there might be a change.

i'm also considering a Q/A thread this post will include a poll so i can see if my readers would like one or not.

other then those not much else for me to say but to hopefully enjoy the chapter ^^

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Avrin felt his body twitch as the brand fully formed, a white marking with lines that formed the sketching of a mirror upon Avrin’s forehead. Immediately nebula mist surged to the location as it began to devour and absorb it, but it seemed that the brand itself was reforming quicker than the nebula mist could devour it. It also seemed that every time he attempted to remove the brand, it would absorb mana from the surroundings.

With a frown Avrin clenched his teeth as he glanced up into the sky, he had a suspicion of who exactly may have branded him with this but he wasn’t sure. Avrin’s body was tense as the dark matter core formed from Silis was currently flowing around his dark space, like an ocean current in a violent storm the dark matter was unstable and would need a bit of time before it would calm down.

Avrin’s divine sense was already expanded, and immediately a grim look appeared on his face, “Giron, and Abbadon?!!” Clenching his fists Avrin was irritated, he would definitely have taken advantage but he realized that every time he absorbed a core on a high level it would leave him in an unstable state for a while.

“-Abbadon will have no reason to hold back, once I absorb this core what will I have to fear from him or any of the other sigil wielders anymore? Taking the time to wait and hide until now definitely saved me many irritating battles-” While thinking this, Avrin’s body turned to purple ash before he vanished, with no intention of facing Abbadon or Giron until he was stabilized.

With no need to hold his speed back he needed 3 divine steps in his current unstable state before reaching the cave the Kirin was in, a look of confusion appeared on its eyes as it glanced up at Avrin. “Muaster?”

Avrin reached down, placing his hand over the Kirin’s mane before he use his divine step to turn them both to ash and flee far north west. This time it had taken him 30 uses of this ability to reach a satisfying location.

With the Kirin also being transported with him, his teleportation required more focus and caution, he didn’t dare rush it, but in the current case he had managed to avoid Abbadon and Giron.

Avrin and the Kirin were currently in a cave system that had no real entrance, Avrin had teleported straight through and made his way down. Currently they were a mile underground which was considerably deep, the air was nearly nonexistent and it was quite cold for anyone but them.

Avrin walked over before taking a meditative position, he glanced over at the Kirin. “We have just under two years to train. In this time, unless it is significantly important, do not bother me. Do not wander off too far either.”

The Kirin glanced at Avrin with awe, its look seemed to be wondering why it at first felt an attachment to such a seemingly rude individual. “Owk...” the Kirin muttered before it gave a slight huff and walked off to a corner to begin its own training.

With time passing on quite smoothly, Avrin’s dark space had settled down very quickly when he focused on meditation. On the second day his divine sense had doubled in size, and was capable of a monstrous range spanning just over 40% of the planet.

Within his inner workings one could see shining dots of light that made up every inch of his body, these glowing dots were shining a heavy glow of purple, these dots were type 5 particles. Avrin had completely converted it all to type 5 particles, and had already begun to baptize them all.

He was 70% done with this new stage and he had decided to name these several stages, from 1 to 5 would be the infant stage, from 6 to 10 would be the beginner stage. Of course the beginner stage would obviously take longer, as for what was after that, with Avrin’s improvement, the book within his inner workings allowed him access to that information.

He gave it a simple name, the Dark Stage, and then paid no more attention to it for the moment. Within the 2 years that have passed, on Avrin’s second year when he had achieved 100% type 5 particles, he didn’t hesitate to remove the seals from the skymetal. The moment he did it lashed out towards him, though he was much stronger now and easily overpowered it.

He then tried his best to will his dark matter heart to react towards the Skymetal, and a vortex like torrent appeared on his chest before the skymetal was absorbed with a shrieking resistance. Currently Avrin was unable to see the depths of his dark space, he could only feel that it was like a river that grew slowly, and deep in the section was a pitch black darkness with only a faint light.

The skymetal chunk that had attacked him before it was absorbed had purple streams of energy running across it and pulsing as if it were alive. Within this pitch black darkness Avrin could faintly see a familiar purple glow that was slowly being tampered with by a strange energy he couldn’t currently comprehend, so he left it all to his dark space hoping it would form something useful.

During the course of occasionally expanding his divine sense Avrin also, within the first year, discovered the presence of many angels scouting around the continent of the east, even Abbadon as well as Giron seemed to scout around, this made Avrin’s expression irritated.

When he had killed the dragon he had been branded, his thought was maybe it was something to keep an eye on him. Avrin decided for now, until he was sure, he wouldn’t cause trouble and be greedy for sigils, he would bide his time.

The brand itself was strange, it would occasionally give him the feeling as if he were being watched, as if someone was watching through the seal itself. A very eerie feeling, he truly wanted to find this individual and beat them to a pulp for this stalker act.

Other than this Avrin spent most of his time assisting the baptizing of his type 5 particles to the first stage beginner particles. It was quite simple, particles would be thrown into his dark space and under the control of him, or the firstly baptized c particles, they would absorb the currently thick dark matter sludge into themselves before being placed back and given time to absorb it all.

There was no real difference in size but the glow of the particles was heavier and purer than a type 5 particle as if the particle itself was developing a sort of aura. Avrin also occasionally checked his dark space to check on the skymetal.

Disappointment always followed as he never felt any increase in strength, he felt maybe when it was done it would give the increase but he didn’t know when this would be the case, it looked the same as ever, as if it were missing something.

In his current state Avrin gave a sigh of relief as he stood up, this was because with his current state of power Abbadon had now lost the chance to put up a fight with him. No doubt if Avrin explained it to Abbadon, the latter would be furious and annoyed at his inability to locate Avrin. Avrin felt other than the gods and probably Orochi, he felt no one on the planet would be able to threaten him.

The feeling was very strange for him, he had considered sigil wielders powerful existences that made him nervous at first, but within a handful of years his progress was like him leaping over a mountain in one go.

It made him shiver slightly, he remembered god saying he has great potential to become a god as well, although he believed him at first, the belief in this fact was now set in stone now that he had seen his own progress. By playing his cards right he had advanced incredibly well, though he didn’t plan to stop yet, he felt he still had limitless things to accomplish before he could achieve his full potential.

Glancing at the Kirin who quickly jumped in surprise after it saw Avrin, it quickly spoke out. “Master you are finished?!” Avrin blinked as he could see the Kirin had also matured within two years. It used to stand 2 feet tall and was half a meter long but after 2 years it now stood 4 feet tall and is over a meter and a half long.

Its mane was thicker and also had several tufts of thick white hair around its hooves, its tail was a large mess of jagged hair, and it now had a pulsing black horn that stretched 3 inches from its forehead. The two streaks of purple from its shoulders down to its backside were now thicker and also seemed to faintly pulse dark matter.

Seeing this Avrin nodded in approval, this creature surely had good strength. Just by feeling its progress he was satisfied, he could detect that in its chest a small vortex pulsed slightly, this feeling was obviously a dark space. He was shocked as it was much weaker than his own, but it was to be as expected.

“You have progressed well, though...” Avrin listened to the creature, its voice was soft and childish. The issue was he was unable to determine something. “Are you male or female?” He awkwardly spoke, the Kirin glanced at him a little confused at his words.

“Male or female? what does master mean?” Avrin’s right eyebrow twitched as he didn’t want to pursue the matter, it didn’t matter what it was as long as it served him and wasn’t useless. “Nothing, I will be heading away for a while, I want you to continue training here. If I do not return within a year, then you know where to go to find your brethren.”

The Kirin gave a sort of shriek like neigh as it seemed saddened. “Master...! Don’t go...take me with you! I will be bored here!” Anyone would truly want to hug this adorable creature and never leave its side, but Avrin was not one who cared about hugging or adorable creatures, logic was of far more use.

“It will be incredibly dangerous. Continue to train and become stronger, and I will consider taking you with me on dangerous tasks such as this more often. Remember, do not leave this cave unless I do not return within a year!”

With that said his divine sense had already expanded out to its maximum capacity, if one could see it with the naked eye and was in space, they would see a transparent tidal wave of purple energy engulf nearly half of seleria before stopping.

With a thought Avrin divine stepped away before the Kirin could reply, reappearing above the western ocean far past the central continent. He divine stepped again before reaching the western demon continent Zephiron, named after the demon god. Avrin just felt the god himself seemed arrogant to have a whole continent named after him but he soon ignored it.

He focused his divine sense around the western continent allowing him to better focus the faint particles of dark matter to gain more minute details of things. It was like an abundance of activity, as if Avrin was watching millions of ants from a human’s point of view, he could see what he wanted to see, and identify nearly everything, the stronger the individual the more Avrin could notice them.

Within the center of the demon continent Avrin could sense a large barrier that stretched in a dome shape the size of a palace. Avrin’s divine sense could penetrate inside of the barrier but it was still quite strong so he couldn’t feel everything inside.

Avrin then felt a powerful energy at the early legendary level, he felt this would be his best chance at finding Azrael so he divine stepped again and effortlessly traversed a fair distance.

His location was under a city that was abundant with activity and trade, of course everyone within this city were demons! Deep underground, at least 30 meters in depth, a large system of tunnels was filled with armor clad individuals or people wearing robes while reading some strange tome.

These were all demons and none of which was weaker than an early stage expert showing that the demon’s strength was clearly abundant.

“Father...2 years have passed do you think Avrin will come?” A soft yet strong tone sounded out, this was Lilia who gave a happy yet curious look towards a large individual clad in red and black armor who was currently gazing over a map of the western continent.

This man was Azrael who had been freed by Avrin, he looked much healthier and had seemed to bring together as many followers as he could to prepare for something. “We can only hope. He is an integral person to help me.”

Within moments a voice sounded out behind him. “Integral am I?” This was Avrin who had divine stepped behind Azrael several feet away, this caused Azrael to jump in surprise as he dashed away, his heart was beating heavily as he looked at Avrin. “-I... I couldn’t detect him? -” he thought to himself.

“Avrin!” Lilia shouted out, by now Azrael had revealed to her that Herth wasn’t his real name and most likely a disguise and that his name was Avrin. Lilia rushed over and bowed in respect towards Avrin, any more and it would look like a kowtow.

“Lilia? Get up…” He spoke, he truly didn’t like being bowed to, it was quite weird for him. Lilia nodded and looked up at him. “Truly, thank you Avrin, for bringing about a miracle of justice and freeing my father!”

Avrin wasn’t sure how to respond so he simply nodded, at this point Azrael walked over with a look of surprise and smiled as he spoke. “You managed to find your way easily I see. Amazing I didn’t even feel you enter. Truly strange methods you have, though you are an enigma ability user so I’m sure it is normal for you.”

Hearing this Avrin spoke. “My methods allow me to travel quite well and keep myself safe from enemies. Though in this case finding you wasn’t that hard, though you don’t seem to have recovered? Your strength is at the early stage of the legendary level?”

Azrael blinked again in surprise. “You can feel that? Amazing...indeed right now I am at the early stage of the legendary level and I am purposely holding myself back. I am 90% recovered from the situation before, being trapped for hundreds of years does that to you, at my peak I am an early stage mythical being!” He said proudly with a sort of prideful look.

Avrin also seemed surprised, if he had a sigil weapon then no doubt he would be incredibly powerful, enough to match Abbadon. “Avrin it is good you are here, I have been making plans for your arrival but firstly, this is yours.”

Azrael walked over closer to Avrin, but at this point the brand on his forehead lit up, this made Azrael quickly widen his eyes as he dashed back and unsheathed a long sword, with his actions Avrin also kicked back and looked over at Azrael in surprise, Lilia who was confused also jumped back in reflex.

“A… Avrin what is the meaning of this!” Azrael roared out as he looked at the brand on Avrin’s forehead. Avrin blinked in confusion before noticing the brand was active. “This mark on my forehead? Why what’s wrong? A beam of light shot from the sky branded it into me....and I can’t remove it...what is it?” Seeing that Azrael seemed to know of it, Avrin wouldn’t miss this opportunity to also know what it is.

Azrael seemed conflicted as he looked at Avrin, he was currently sweating bullets as he could feel the brand activate. He spoke with nervousness as he looked at Avrin’s expression. “T... that is a mirror mark.... placed by a god.... I am not sure which god it is...but when it activates it means one of the gods are watching you....”

Avrin’s face paled a little as he clenched his fists, he could only sigh. “They can hear me to correct?” Azrael nodded as he glanced over at Avrin, “Since it looks like you didn’t know...I can’t blame you for this.... you must have done something to rouse one of their interests, what exactly did you do before you were branded?”

Avrin gave a soft smile as he looked at Azrael, a slight intent of power and pressure rose up in his expression, despite him being in his human form with the cloak's hood over his head his face was still somewhat revealed, one could see the expression he gave was quite powerful.

This look made Azrael quiver with nervousness, Avrin who was much more powerful than a sigil wielder was a nearly unmatched existence on seleria after many cards being played right.

“I... will pass.... but I must say you have gotten incredibly stronger than before...or maybe you were always this strong?” Azrael couldn’t help but ask, the last time he had seen Avrin, although he couldn’t feel his presence, it wasn’t at the point where he didn’t know he was there, but the Avrin currently was more so unfathomable then before, his presence even made Azrael nervous.

“I’ve spent the two years training and honing my abilities, though I’ll consider your words a compliment, in the meantime” Avrin suddenly cleared his throat as a look of longing appeared on his face, even Azrael noticed this.

“Oh yes! I believe this is now yours.” Azrael raised his right hand to reveal that he had a spatial ring of his own located on his index finger, he pulled out a small glowing sphere about a foot long and within was a fist sized chunk of ore with black veins of streaming energy across it.

Avrin’s expression was strange, he glanced over at it with a frown. “That skymetal...it’s quite small...but it looks familiar. Azrael, to be honest with you, I fought Leo Zircus and defeated him as well as stole his spatial ring tha-...”

Avrin was about to continue before Azrael quickly spoke out, he expressed shock not at fighting Leo but rather the spatial ring. “THE RING! Avrin!! Please tell me you have it...!! Where is it?” Avrin was taken aback as he looked at Azrael in shock.

“The ring… It got destroyed in a conflict between me and the sigil wielder Giron.” Again Azrael showed no shock in Avrin’s battle rather his legs seem to tremble as he sighed, he looked at Avrin carefully seeing he didn’t seem to be lying. “You fought Leo Zircus, that bastard, and even Giron and still live… Incredible....”

He glanced at Avrin and gave a slight chuckle. “The truth is Avrin, the ring Leo Zircus has was not for him but rather mine... The ring I have now is a spare one that I keep on hand.

The skymetal within that ring he had was also mine, when I found the skymetal it was fragmented and somehow repairing itself, before it could though I absorbed the main chunk with my main ring and the second smaller chunk which is this with my second ring to keep on hand just in case.”

Avrin had to commend Azrael, he sure was cautious and in the end it was a good thing he had two spatial rings, but to obtain two of them he truly was powerful. “Ahh what a shame. That ring contained valuable items...though what’s done is done.”

Azrael could only sigh in regret before the chunk of skymetal hidden behind the spherical barrier floated towards Avrin who happily took it in before placing it within the enchanted sack he held. He then glanced at Azrael and spoke. “Is there any way to remove this brand?” His question was quite straightforward and also something Azrael was thinking about.

“Regarding this Avrin, there are two possible methods. One is to have a god remove it...which is unlikely. The other is I’m quite sure that the sigil weapon Void which contains the only few god ranked spells given to us mortals, may contain a dispel powerful enough to remove it. Though I am not certain as I have never held the weapon.”

Avrin could tell Azrael contained fairly good knowledge of Void, if he didn’t know better he may believe that Azrael once possessed it at one point. “I can see why the god branded you Avrin, you engaged in combat with two sigil wielders, truly an interesting turn of events especially since you yourself are not a sigil wielder. Though for this, “Azrael saw that the marking on Avrin’s forehead dimmed and deactivated. When this happened he quickly spoke.

“Avrin, I won’t be able to allow you to help me regarding Orochi… If the god that branded you is Septim and he finds out I plan to free Orochi, then things will be bad for me...the risk in freeing him is something I am willing to take. “

Azrael seemed serious regarding this but Avrin though for a moment before replying, “Does it make a difference, once Orochi is released Septim will discover you either way, and stop him?” Avrin curiously asked.

Azrael snickered before shaking his head. “The gods have an ancient law in place after Orochi was sealed, that is they are no longer allowed to interfere with the worldly matters, regardless of anything that happens. If Orochi is to be freed, I can only hope Septim curses his luck and leaves it as it is.”

Avrin frowned a little as he rubbed his forehead. “Worldly matters, nonsense.... this brand then of mine truly is unwarranted.” Avrin sighed before looking suspiciously at Azrael. “Though I’m curious, you were locked away for so long, how do you know all this?”

Azrael snickered a little before replying. “Branding an individual is considered viewing, though… Zephiron is a bit of a risk taker....” Azrael raised his right arm and lowered the sleeve after removing the plating to reveal that under his arm a black brand that was previously invisible began to form. Being the first of my kind the god Zephiron branded me as well.

This is called a Vocal Brand. Although it doesn’t allow Zephiron to see what is going on. Every 100 years it will have secretly gathered enough mana under the noses of the gods to let him give me some advice. The risk I take and my actions are all on the advice he gave me when I was sealed...I do not doubt that his words are not truth.”

Avrin glanced curiously before the brand quickly vanished just as quick as it appeared, no doubt Azrael took a very very huge risk to show it to Avrin who was branded by a god even if Azrael explained it for a few seconds, it showed just how thankful and trusting he was now to Avrin.

“Very well, that is fine, judging by your explanation then Septim can still interfere as long as you are within Orochi prison?” Avrin assumed this was the case, and Azrael who kept his eye on Avrin’s brand whenever he spoke nodded.

“Indeed. Once Orochi is freed and leaves the area not even Septim due to the laws in place will be allowed to interfere. Zephiron had also given me a chant to a god rank spell that is enough to free Orochi, of course in the process the mana usage will render Void useless for the next 10 minutes.

Entering the prison shouldn’t be too hard since Void also has a god ranked concealment spell that Zephiron notified me about. Unfortunately, if I knew of your issue beforehand I would have inquired about a god ranked dispel...”

Avrin was a little lost in thought. He was thinking not of freeing Orochi or helping Azrael, but why Zephiron is putting in plan so many things, Avrin had a gut feeling that this wasn’t something good. He had obtained his skymetal and only had to help Azrael retrieve Void, after that it would have nothing to do with him anymore and he would go to the north to train with his people.

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