Volume 4: Magical Plane

The Shadow World

--- Elena ---

Darkness engulfed the world around me when I opened my eyes. I was sitting in the middle of nothingness where neither sky nor ground could be found. It was complete silence. A bit further away from me, I soon felt a presence appear who was none other than Dred. Neither of us had physical bodies in this realm of shadows.

Combinations of black and red threads reached out of my body and moved towards the presences that kept appearing in my realm which belonged to my blood servants and their blood servants. When the thickest thread connected with Dred, I came to be able to sense his servants as well. Although my contract with Dred was a contract of equals, our contracts with our blood servants were split to superior and servants.

I was able to feel the locations and presences of my blood servants much stronger than ever before. It felt as if I was the main part of a hive who was able to control everyone other than Dred. Focusing on one of the dark scars, I moved my consciousness towards her. It was Liz, Urnoth’s and Sareg’s sister.

As my shady form engulfed hers, I could see the world through her eyes and feel her emotions.

“Master?! What is this?” she raised her voice in surprise.

“It seems to be a new ability. Can you move?” I asked.

“I can’t.”

“That’s interesting because I can move your body as I want,” I replied as I waved her hand. Using cosmological constant, I recreated her body and made a few steps in the nothingness to test it.

“I can feel my body move, but I can’t move it myself,” she said.

“It seems like I can override the control over your body if I want to. This could be very useful in the future if we have information to share or if you’re unsure of something,” I voiced my thoughts and then withdrew from her body.

“Can you still hear me?” I tried to contact her through our master-servant contract.

“Yes!”

“Great, this will make things simpler,” I remarked. People had to understand their own souls to some degree, learn the law of space to be able to teleport, and comprehend every basic element. That was the moment one would reach the six hundredth level. This strange place was the realm of my soul, but I could say our souls since the dark scars, my friends and my lover were present as well.

There existed in the world something called Soul Bond which did what its name said. But it wasn’t like our blood contract since if either of the bonded people died, all would follow. My shadow bond with Dred was basically the same just a bit looser. And the true difference was that I could bond my shadow with anyone as long as they had my blood and it didn’t have to be equals’ contract like with Dred.

I could command everyone to suicide if I wanted, though I wouldn’t do something like that. I felt even the pawns the dark scars took in on their own accord and responsibility. After making a few tests, I realised this realm had an even more terrible use which was that I could kill off anyone beneath my rank with just a thought. Not even killing Audrey would take more than a thought.

Although I didn’t intend to do anything of the sort to either of my servants, I understood its usages. But the truth was that it was pointless. My servants didn’t feel pain if they didn’t want to, so torturing would never make them talk. They couldn’t and wouldn’t betray me either, so the only usage of this option was to entertain me in some way. The problem was that I wouldn’t be entertained by my friends’ death…

Putting that aside, this shadow realm where my soul and my servants’ souls were gathered seemed to be a pretty useful place. Just the ability to communicate with either of them ignoring the distance between us was amazing and there was the ability to take control of their bodies as well. Thanks to learning Khax’s spell, it was quite easy to explore my soul and thanks to Jake’s knowledge about the void, understanding space wasn’t a big deal either.

At these times, it came in handy that we all learned different things and had the ability to share our knowledge. Once we had the knowledge, it didn’t take much to unfold and understand it either. As I reached the six hundredth level, a new specialisation appeared.

Lv

Class: ShadowMoor (Exclusive, Legendary)

Devourer

Stealth

Demonology

600

Mana Devouring: This specialisation lets your parasites and bacteria to directly feed off of mana and destruct them. You can either devour a person’s mana or the mana in the world. The effectiveness will increase along with Devour.

Absolute Presence: This specialisation lets you to completely hide your presence from all sorts of spells and senses by turning you into mana cells and masking your soul with the power of the Abyss.

Devil God: This gives you the ability to turn into a Devil God, another legendary being and inherit all their racial traits, skills, and spells while in that form.

“Uh, Dred? Any ideas?”

“How should I know? All three would be great but imagine the Absolute Presence. It’d make it possible for me to not get noticed until I actually hit my target, just how overpowered is that? With all my initial boosts, it’d be the best option for me, so I think I’ll go with that, after all,” while answering, he also made up his mind.

And here you were saying ‘how should I know’, you hypocrite!

“As for you” - he stopped for a moment before continuing - “Mana Devouring would be very useful since you’d be able to tire out our opponents and with no energy, they have no chance to win against us. But Devil God could be used in schemes and we could also control the demon race as a devil god. It’d be definitely a good choice as well.”

“You do realise that you aren’t making it any easier,” I grumbled. Leaving the shadow world, I opened my eyes and saw the river crossing Novia Deros in front of me. If I had the ability to transform into a Devil God, I could control demons like Jotun even without killing and reviving them. I’d be like Padinyss for the dragons, not to mention that they surely have powerful racial skills and traits.

Seeing that Dred opened his eyes as well, I asked, “Wouldn’t you reconsider your decision?”

“I could but… think about it. I could one-shot most people on the spot and even if our opponent was a legendary being, I could cause a lethal or at least, a serious wound,” he sighed.

All of these options had their uses, but I still felt that specialising in something so selfish would be wrong. We weren’t lacking in destructive power and I was sure that Audrey had good things as well, though I had yet to see her options.

“You know what? Let’s see what the others have got and decided only after,” I said.

“I agree with that!” Audrey shouted as she walked closer to us, followed by the others. “As your supporter from the back, I was sure that I’d have to focus on my attack power while Jake would mostly cover me. Cor was there for you guys and it’s not like you’re weak when it comes to defense either. That being the case, I’ve already selected my specialisation.”

“Same here,” Jake said.

“Me too,” Cor also nodded.

“Well, then show me what you’ve got so we could pick accordingly,” I turned around and said. Three tables appeared in front of me, each with a name.

Name: Audrey Frost

Specialisation: Mystic

Dark Flow: This spell lets you break a hole in space at any location. The matter beyond space can engulf and destruct anyone instantly, even the caster. This spell doesn’t have mastery, but the more mana you use, the bigger the hole will be.

Name: Jake Hughes

Specialisation: Void Master

Voidwalker: With the help of this specialisation, you can blink short ranges even if space is locked with a cooldown of twenty seconds. If space lock isn’t active you can use blink without stop and the range is going to increase significantly.

Name: Cor

Specialisation: Shell

Cover: This is an improved version of Shell which lets you cast it on numerous targets, up to one hundred. This shell is going to raise physical and magical resistance by twenty percent while active.

All of these were amazing, though Cor’s twenty percent of additional resistance sounded ridiculous. No wonder the kobolds couldn’t even damage him and although our resistance wouldn’t be as high as his even with shell, it’d definitely help us in the future.

Jake had the possibility to go back and forth and help where he was needed with his current specialisation while Audrey selected one of the most destructive spells. Space lock was a commonly used spell in battles which made it unable for you or your opponent to teleport. After understanding the most common law of space, all of us learned it as well. If she finally focused on Secrets of Time and learned time magic, she could become a very dangerous foe, even if faced with us. Well, not counting our shadow bond, of course.

“Well, with that much destructive force, I don’t feel the need to pick Absolute Presence. We could use the Devil God for numerous things, so I’m going to pick that, for the greater good,” Dred said as he finished reading their picks.

“Alright, then I’ll go for Mana Devouring,” I nodded my head.

“Happy now? You won,” he laughed.

“Yep! I’m happy with this. It would have made you much stronger, but most of the time we aren’t fighting against small groups or a single person. And if all five of us can get together, I’m sure that neither of the legendary creatures would be able to put up a fight against us. Especially if you can control other demons to help us. Then there would be the undead following Cor, and you could also summon demons. Oh, and let’s not forget about Ekrok and the hive. I can fuck up many minds at the same time,” I winked at him.

“Alright,” Dred stood up and transformed into a Devil God all of a sudden. He looked similar compared to Padinyss’s humanoid form. He too had layered scales covering his body, but his tail was hairy and the green parts between the scales were red. His eyes also changed to red and his claws grew longer and ten horns grew out of his forehead, forming a fancy crown above his head.

“Oh, I’m partly a vampire as well, it seems,” he muttered while looking at his own body.

“Why do you think so?”

“Because I can feel it. Drinking blood would heal me for sure, but I don’t have anything against sunlight. Well, it’d be stupid if a legendary creature had such weaknesses,” he made a smug face. I realised only at that time that he also grew taller and reached a height of three meters. But despite his height, his agility didn’t decrease.

“Cor, could you cast Cover on Dred?” I asked.

Nodding his head, he put his hand on Dred’s shoulder and a thick shell formed around his body, covering him from head to toe. Clenching my fists, with the strength to crush even a mountain, I punched Dred in the stomach. A loud bang reverberated in the area as my fist hit the shell and made it crack. But Dred was standing there as if nothing happened. I was sure that a weapon could still damage him, but it likely wouldn’t do much on the first hit and if Cor fixed it, he could take on many attacks without taking any damage.

And seeing his robust body built up from thick muscles, bones, scales, and the other unimportant stuff, I was sure that he had a lot of power at his disposal. He had short and black hair, a handsome face and his eyes could be either green or red, depending on what he wanted.

“Let’s see, a Demon God has two racial skills, the first being Madness which increases my physical strength and wisdom by ten percent, and the second being Sacrifice which means that I burn my divine blood to raise all my stats by another twenty percent. This lasts as long as I don’t run out of blood and die. Unless I cancel it, of course,” Dred explained his new abilities.

Other than that, he surely had the usual stuff like my Dragon’s Claws, Dragon’s Wings and the usual stuff, all named after parts of his body. After asking it, he confirmed my thoughts. The only interesting one was Devil’s Eye which would damage his target’s soul over time. We had all sorts of periodic attacks while Audrey and Jake went straight for the kills with their abilities. I was pretty satisfied with the composition of our team.

“Oh, but this isn’t my true form,” Dred remarked. I wasn’t surprised since even I knew that every legendary creature other than us had three forms, the first being human form, the second a battle form which was humanoid, and the third being their true form. Dred was still in his battle form.

As he finished talking, his humanoid face turned into something like an undead’s, though he had some skin left on his face. His hair burnt down to the base and his head caught on fire, along with his wrists and ankles. It was a rather strange sight.

The tip of his tail took up the shape of a trident and the fur disappeared from his tail as well, leaving behind a hard, leathery touch to it. A shell similar to Cor’s covered his whole body, raising his resistances significantly. I compared his stats with mine and had to realise that theoretically, he was stronger than me in every aspect due to his boosts. And he didn’t even use Sacrifice, though Madness was active passively. After hiding hive mind and fiddling around a bit with my table, I took a final look at it.

Name: Elena Syracia

Race: Progenitor Shadow (Legendary)

Level: 600

EXP: 0 / 8 400 000

Class: ShadowMoor (Exclusive)

Specialization: Devourer

(1) Health: 547 165 / 547 165

Mana: Cosmological Constant

Titles: The Only One; Pathfinder; Blood Drinker, Bane of Minds, Legend

(1)Strength: 108 100

(1)Vitality: 109 433

(1)Agility: 107 389

Will: 100

(1)Intelligence: 105 208

(1)Wisdom: 110 000

Elemental Magic:

Common Elements (Mastered)

Cosmological Constant (Mastered)

Eon (Mastered)

Drip Element (Mastered)

Void Lv. 37 (1%);

Resistances:

(1)Magical: 110 000 (+22 000) (20%)

(1)Physical: 54 050 (+10 810) (20%)

Passive:

(1) Stamina: 574 165

(1) Precision: 536 945

Skills/Spells:

Mana Control (Mastered)

Stealth (Mastered)

Necromancy (Mastered)

Gravity Lv. 97(95%)

Dragon Skills

Space Lock

Soul Container

Racial Skills:

Devour Lv. 98 (50%) (+Active Skill)

Passive Skills:

Ambush (Mastered)

Demon (Mastered)

Shadow Bacteria (Mastered)

Allegiance Lv.100 (5% Bonus)

Symbiosis (Mastered)

Whenever I thought about how the (1) meant that the stat should be multiplied by ten thousand to get the real value, I understood that it was important. It’d be a bother to check my stats if there were many zeros in the end. From the six hundredth level onwards, we’d have to train enough to get our current strength for every ten levels, meaning that at the seven hundredth level, we’d be ten times as powerful as right now.

This made the difference in levels quite a bother since if we became careless and attacked someone ten levels higher than us, we’d likely have a hard time or we’d lose outright. The only good points were that we had devour, we had a team, and we could work together to bring down even the most powerful foes. Still, I understood that it was for the best if we were careful and revealing our true race to anyone wouldn’t do any good either. I’ve got my new ‘Legend’ title for killing a legendary creature and it decreased Legendary creatures’ disdain of the lower races by ten percent. It sounded stupid, but many of the legendary creatures despised the other races, so it could be useful if I had to negotiate with some of them.

Thinking about my plans for the future, I turned towards my servants, “Guys, listen to me for a moment.” Hearing me raise my voice, everyone turned silent and stopped chatting about their new abilities and whatnot. “As you’ve probably noticed, it took much more time to reach the six hundredth level due to it having many requirements. You must all understand that the difference even a single level could make from here on out is simply insane. Although we can deal with much stronger opponents, as a group, while alone, you should never engage in a battle against someone who’s stronger than you.”

“On a different note, this planet was sealed, there was no way for the talented people to advance past the threshold, making it impossible for this planet to produce real opponents for us. We had our fair share of troubles, but thanks to this last one and half a year, I’m pretty sure we’ve got a lot of experience as to how to infiltrate places and gather information without our opponents’ notice. Since we’re likely to meet much stronger foes, even at the level of Padinyss from now on, I advise you to be cautious and never, I repeat never reveal anything about your races. The longer it takes for normal races to find out about our existence, the better it is for us.”

“Once we’re found out, a shit storm would definitely fall, so try to avoid being found out by all means. Now that we have the ability to fly, teleport, or even travel in space, we’re going to leave this planet behind and wander off to a different world. I know that most of you have grown up here, so if you have any attachments or desires you wish to fulfil here, then please come forward and let me know. I’ll give you all a month as a limit, so make sure to finish everything you wanted at that time.”

“Since some of the pawns haven’t reached the six hundredth level yet, in this month, we’re also going to help them to get to that level and then we’re going to leave. Thanks to my heightened senses, I could sense a new world which is going to be our next destination.”

Seeing that they were all standing in silence, I said, “About your wishes, if you have any, you don’t have to share with me what it is if you don’t want to, just tell me if you have any.”

Silence.

“Do you really not have any wishes or something to do here? You grew up here…” I raised my brows, but all of them shook their heads.

“Master, I’m pretty sure that we killed everyone we had a grudge against and the people we took a liking to have had become our friends and your pawns. We also learned all kinds of professions and trained them to the best of our abilities and knowledge, so I don’t think either of us has anything to do here,” Sareg stepped forward and said.

“If that’s how you feel. Then let’s get everyone to the six hundredth level and then leave this place!” I shouted in a good mood and the others followed in tow. It took only four days to make everyone get to our level. Before leaving, I took back the memories of every person I kept alive with necromancy since quite a lot of people piled up over the year. But I had no use for them anymore. It was their punishment, but at least, I didn’t devour those people and destroyed their souls.

If I killed somebody, they’d reincarnate and start over from scratch, but if I devoured someone, their souls would be lost for all eternity. I came to know this only recently which just showed that I still had one or two things to learn about devour. Did I feel sorry for all the souls I devoured?

I never did. I was no human, after all.