I was given a spacious room the likes I’ve never seen before. Everything that was needed was there for me to use. This treatment was a thousand times better than the last twenty years I had just spent in the deeper levels of the subterranean world. If Elias did not think that I was harmless thanks to the seal he thought was restraining me, I would not be treated in such a way. I would probably be spending these days in another dark cell.

I could move in every area of the estate without ever leaving it as per his order. That order did not count for much as my part of the seal was already destroyed by the violet smoke. The only reason I stayed here was to learn a little bit more about this place. I wanted to know who was the strongest and how strong he was compared to me. My escape also relied on finding the source of the blood used to concoct the elixir.

I had been waiting to hear from Elias but he had disappeared after taking a blood sample from me. Having nothing to do and nowhere to go, I decided to start my experiments with the violet smoke.

The violet smoke used to automatically heal me. Overtime, I understood that it had its own mind. I tried to communicate with it in the short year I was its host, I grew closer to it day by day. It was bordering a symbiotic relationship. Everything it did, I understood. It eventually became as easy to use as my own body.

The blood that was being injected into me until I reached the third mutation was filled to the brim with magic. Through the violet smoke, I could imagine that a single injection contained one millionth of a single drop of its source. It was still poison. What fascinated me was the being that this blood belonged to. The demon had dismissed it as worthless, but the fact that his own power or whatever this violet smoke was could make it submit and even repair any damage caused by it proved to me that he indeed had the right to say such a thing.

I was in front of my mirror and had conjured called the violet smoke on top of my palm. The smoke was nowhere to be seen in the reflection. I willed it to appear and it did. The moving tattoo however remained only visible in my mind.

Over the last year, as I grew to understand its properties, other than the simple healing, I devised a plan to only completely focus on the healing factor to heal almost instantly. As I grew in strength, it was almost unnoticeable, but I healed very slowly. I wanted to take care of that problem before it became a pain later on. It could only be so because I was not knowledgeable enough about how far I could take its usefulness.

In my discoveries, I realized that there was no need to return the violet smoke back inside the tattoo. I felt that the tattoo was only there to store it. What I wanted was to have the violet smoke fuse with every cell of my body the same way that strange blood I was injected with did. Perhaps the following mutations will be even smoother to survive.

Fusing with the violet smoke demanded a huge quantity of it. I had believed that the demon had left an endless amount of it until I was faced with the reality that three quarters of the violet smoke had fused with every fiber of my body. The last quarter was useless to me now as it remained stored inside the moving tattoo.

Unfortunately, a slight problem had occurred with the whole process. My whole body had turned violet. I became aware of it as I was fusing with the smoke. What was I thinking? I tried to will the smoke to disappear, but I ended up being the one turning invisible, leaving the clothes on me behind.

The entire fusion happened painlessly. Becoming one with the violet smoke meant becoming the violet smoke itself. I had become something else entirely. Not long after, I felt that the tattoo’s movement had become restless. I saw it burrow itself into my heart and fused with it. I could still feel that my connection with it was still the same. The remaining quarter of violet smoke traveled into my bloodstream for a while before returning to the heart and the cycle repeated itself again and again.

I felt no improvement to the physical strength I had gained before the fusion, just that my body had gained some new properties. Turning invisible was the best alternative to walking around with violet skin.

A stage three mutant could not fly like magicians could. They could only walk on air for a short distance and repeat the same thing again to mimic flight. I, however, found that I could will my entire body to flawlessly fly around. I even waged that magicians could not fly as well as I could.

I had become my body rather than using it as a tool like before. I was also aware of everything around me without seeing with my eyes and my thoughts were faster and fluid. As the violet smoke had its own mind previously, I was now one with it. It made me smarter without really being so. I could know things that I never had any contact with before.

The fusion also gave me the ability to turn into smoke and return to my previous appearance as I wished. Passing through objects like walls and the like as well as hardening my body to a nigh indestructible armor was as easy as just thinking it.

Other than that, the remaining quarter of the violet smoke, inside of the tattoo that now fluttered on my heart, showed signs of increasing. Turns out this body could help make more by absorbing mana from the surroundings. I will need even more if I am to create an unbreakable weapon for myself. In the meantime, I had enough remaining to create suitable clothes.

“I guess I should get used to violet soon.” I said to myself. Having clothes that could turn invisible at the same time as I, was useful as I would probably make enemies from now on. I still did not know if there were entities closer in strength to the demon outside that would trouble me in the future. As far as humans are concerned, there was nothing to fear yet. I hope. I no longer looked human anymore. Staying out of sight would come in handy.

I crafted suitable clothes for myself with the remaining violet smoke.

My plan of snooping around had ended the moment I started playing around with this unknown power. I had to quickly leave before trouble arose.

After putting on the violet cloak, I turned myself invisible and left the estate without a sound by walking through the walls.

First, I decided to take a stroll out of this underground hell. I flew up, reached the ceiling and disappeared through the fake sky of Drake city. Going through the thick mud took me fifteen minutes. I found myself inside a closed place bustling with magicians flying here and there. It was a place smaller than Drake city and without a gigantic fake sun on top of it, only many bright lights suspended all over the place. I was still invisible and formless. Everybody hurried and passed through me in a fast-paced manner. I kept going up and found that theses worlds kept getting smaller and smaller. Twelve worlds in total. After the twelfth, I reached the outside world. It was then that I realized that those twelve worlds were only twelve layers of the tower that was constructed above the underground world.

I turned solid and felt the breeze on my face for the first time. It was a feeling I would never forget. The air was the freshest I had ever breathed. The endless night sky looked even more mysterious with all those shining stars. I was glad that my first moment of freedom would be at night. It really was a sight to behold.

As I was going to turn visible and fly away, a violent wind suddenly appeared from behind me. I turned around and saw that two magicians were levitating ten meters away from me. One was in his thirties the other was in his twenties, if not my age. I was not surprised nor afraid. They were looking around the tower’s rooftop and surroundings for something. I assumed it was me.

“Sir, maybe it was a mistake. There is no way a spy could have the means to infiltrate us with all our precautions.” Surprisingly it was the oldest in his thirties who showed respect to the young one.

“Lucius, I personally caged every floor with light magic to act as guard. A badge is needed to clear everyone who has business on every floor. Today something or someone without a badge went from Drake city to this rooftop. It is impossible. The only ones allowed on the twelfth floor can be counted on one hand and they were all accounted for. I’ve been in this tower for more than a thousand years already and this is the first time something caught my attention.” The young man who surprisingly sounded old and proclaimed himself to be a thousand years old started reeking a dark aura ready to smite any intruder.

“Mister Sulu, I think we should put more protection on the last floor if possible.” Lucius said.

The last floor it was. It must there that they keep that blood. Since they can’t see me, I had nothing to worry about. They did not even know that the intruder was right in front of them.

“I’ll have to cause more trouble then. We’ll reacquaint ourselves on the last floor.” I smilingly thought.

I immediately returned into the tower and dove down at high speed towards the last possible floor of the subterranean world.

“It just happened again. The object just went through that very place. It is impossible. How could it escape my notice? Even a necromancer’s soul cannot go through these light magic walls no matter how strong it is.” Jonas Sulu said.

“How far is he now?” The panicked Lucius Wolfe asked.

“He is already on the fourth floor.” He said before flying off the rooftop and flying as fast as he could towards the ground. He arrived at the entrance of the tower and flew in.

“He should be here.” He said to himself. He had arrived before Alwyn.

Alwyn was surprised to see that familiar face looking around when he arrived. Every magician was on high alert and the other Lucius was already at the entrance. He ignored everything and prepared to dive to Drake city.

He had the edge as he did not have to go through specific entrances. He flew as fast as he could toward the last floor of the subterranean world.

Jonas Sulu was filled with madness as he could not understand what kind of entity could go through his defenses as if they were nothing. He was thinking that one of those organizations on the continent had found a way inside the tower. But none had the kind of power that could disregard him unless they were prepared for mutual destruction. The other continents had never viewed this Nether continent at the same level as them, but the emergence of these rank three mutants must have woken them up. Maybe they were after the possible potential of the elixir of his organization.

“This thing is probably headed for the last level. Nothing else is of value in this subterranean world. I will be waiting for it there. I refuse to believe it will not show itself in front of me.” He thought. He immediately arrived at a barren corner of Drake city and a sliver seal left his right hand. A bottomless hole opened on the ground and he flew inside. The same hole later appeared under the other on every floor. Seconds later, Lucius Wolfe, four other Grand magicians and dozens of armored Shadow guards followed suit and flew into the pit. Later, an endless stream of Grand magicians and Shadow guards kept pouring into the pit. Alwyn who was oblivious to everything, was already at the seventh level.

When he reached the ninth floor, he found a scarlet lake in the middle of it. That lake was the only source of light. On a corner of the shore, there were magicians who kept pouring a transparent Elixir inside huge containers in the lake before using magic to harvest the red liquid on that side.

“They even have to dilute the blood before it is harvested. They are even afraid of getting near the harvested blood.” Alwyn thought.

“I cannot believe that someone came here and left a huge lake of his own blood and left alive. Maybe there is a corpse down there. I can see that the blood is more concentrated the further down you go. I just don’t know how far that is.” He was trying to know if he could survive to see what the corpse below looked like. That person’s blood still had this much power even dead. He wanted to know whether he looked human or not. More importantly whether he could stay human himself after the last possible mutation despite his violet body.

“Huh?” a strange undulation made Alwyn regain his senses. On another part of the shore, something felt unnatural. He enhanced his vision and saw the young man, Jonas Sulu, hidden behind a light screen that made him and his subordinates invisible.

“He is even looking exactly here. This whole place must be under the influence of his spells. He cannot see me though. Well, I’ll be entering the lake soon and he will see me whether I am invisible or not.” Alwyn thought. He made up his mind. He returned to his normal features and hardened his body in preparation for the absorption of blood. He hid under his cloak and became visible again.

When he became visible, only a violet cloak was seen. He was planning on using the hardening effect of his violet smoke that made up his clothes and body to filter through the blood that was slowly absorbed until he reaches the corpse’s location at the bottom. The power that the bloody lake contained was not to be underestimated.

Jonas Sulu and Lucius Wolfe were preparing to launch an attack when the intruder appeared. As the violet cloaked man appeared out of nowhere, they were the first to engage him. They were on Alwyn’s side at almost the same moment he appeared.

Alwyn could only see two blurry shadows walking on air in spectacular bursts of powerful steps before each appearing behind him and in front of him. With such a speed, he had no other choice than to face them directly. These two used both levitation and airwalk to move around. It was like teleportation to a normal person.

The young Jonas Sulu appeared confident in his physical strength as he did the same as Lucius. They both instantly conjured spiked gauntlets and punched with all their strength at Alwyn from the front and the back.

“Given the speed and strength they have, they are way above the third mutation. The sixth? Or seventh? They expect their fists to meet after my body is nothing but particles. With the amount of strength they are using, they are even afraid of hurting themselves as those gloves are more for their protection rather than killing me.” As he was made of the violet smoke he could feel the consequences of the two fists colliding with his body if he had not undergone the fusion beforehand. They would keep pounding him and it would be a pain to even get close to the lake.

They have been keeping the extent of their shared work a secret and had reached a level known only to them both after two hundred years of working together. Even if the other continent became hostile to the Nether continent, they were ready to reveal themselves. As long as there was more money that could be made, with the Headless Dragon, they were happy with just that. Taking over the continent was just a waste of time.

“Sigh… I have no choice.”

Jonas and Lucius heard the sigh and the rest of the words were silenced by the huge Boom that ensued.

Both fists connected. The air around was almost snuffed out. They were both encircled by violet smoke and each was as confused as the other. Normally, nothing would be left of the enemy. Gradually, the violet smoke fell towards the middle of the lake. None of them knew of a kind of magic that could recreate a body from smoke.

Alwyn counted on their ignorance to quietly make his way towards the middle of the lake. A few centimeters above the lake, his body reappeared in a violet cloak. He immediately hardened his body as hard as he could and punched the surface of the lake to cover his escape before the other two caught up with him. They would never dare come close to the concentrated blood.

Jonas and Lucius watched as the violet cloaked man appeared again not far away from them. Their assumption of a sure kill move was shattered by this new arrival. Only an Elemental magician who had completely fused with an element could survive it. Half-elementals and below could not survive it as they relied on a body to live. They were both Grand magicians and being able to kill a Half-elemental with just their physical strength was their trump card against the other continents.

What would an Elemental magician be doing on the Nether continent? The number of Elemental level magicians was scarce compared to the hundreds of thousands of Grand magicians in the world. On the seven continents only a mere two thousand were in the public eye. There was no known element that was represented by violet smoke. What element was that?

When they saw a violet arm punch slowly towards the surface of the lake and created a gigantic circular wave of bloody water, they stopped their advance and retreated. All they could see was a violet silhouette being engulfed by the blood.