Rosa Strong was leading the army. After her clash with the fourth Netherwyrm prime god, Sebastian Lin, she understood that the bloodline had evolved somehow. In the past, she could stand her ground against Sebastian for a longer time. Her prime element of metal was perfectly suited for her in close combat. It was one of the few elements that could give a significant physical enhancement to a god, but compared to a bloodline that could not practice magic and only focused on pure physical strength such as the Netherwyrm bloodline it was considerably lacking. Still it was the magician in her that could find ways to better use her prime metal element to its fullest. When all was said and done, she had miserably lost before the gods of the Association could come to reinforce her. If it was not Sebastian’s ego being in the way, he could have killed her instead of leaving her half dead.

In her madness, she called for every god in the known universe that had ever had any dealings with the Galactic Association she belonged to and the forces she had under her to give chase. She had publicized the return of the Netherwyrm bloodline and every interested party had come.

They had no idea that the Netherwyrm was a bloodline weapon with its own will. All they lusted after was the idea of being a part of the bloodline themselves. But what they did not know was that they had to gain its approval. The will inside the bloodline only passed down its power to its bloodline members. Those who stole it could never reach the god level. Even the normal bloodline allowed for one Prime God to be born the rest would just be gods. Everyone lived forever until they were killed.

They had speculated that they stood a better chance of reaching the True Elemental level as well as the Cosmic level given enough time. If they gained the ability to fuse mana with their bodies like the bloodline easily did, it would not be long before they found a way to fuse with the soul as well, with their eternal lifespan. Everything looked easy on the surface.

They tried to acquire the bloodline but the Netherwyrm bloodline members preferred to fight to the death. Four times they almost eradicated the bloodline only to see it reappear even stronger than before. The rivers of blood they collected turned to be useless as nobody could fuse with enough mana to become a god. Even their path to magic was cut off forcing them to die early. The bloodline had cursed those that had not been born into it. Despite all the setbacks it never stopped them to try and find new ways to acquire it until Sebastian was supposedly beheaded and brought back in order to further study him. They faced yet another wall. They then abandoned the pursuit to that unrealizable dream of theirs.

With the reappearance of Sebastian inside of their own headquarters, it woke them up to a reality that they could not believe. Was that bloodline impossible to eradicate? With Sebastian’s revelations and the appearance of a new Netherwyrm prime god, fear struck them. If the bloodline was alive and planned to evolve and give birth to more Prime gods, they could not dare imagine the eternal long hatred that it had to endure. One evolved Netherwyrm Prime god like Sebastian was enough for them to take the matter seriously after seeing how he easily beat Rosa, but one more was another nightmare as there was only a dozen Prime gods on their side. The gods were just cannon fodder.

On their way towards the bloodline another five inheritors had sprung up out of nowhere. They could see the damned young man from before sending endless amount of mana towards his planet. They could only helplessly watch before picking up their speed. They could feel that the next fight would be a bitter one. They counted on the inexperience of the newly born Prime gods. Only the cunning Sebastian whom they were chasing was the only one worth their attention. They only prayed to arrive before other prime gods were born, but it stopped as fast as it happened. Including Sebastian there were seven enemies. It was an even fight, but they had to eradicate the bloodline for good.

They were in the middle of chasing Sebastian when the space between them rippled and a black violet young man with violet hair and glowing violet eyes appeared.

Sebastian sensed something weird behind him. He stopped and looked behind him. All he saw was a skinny man with violet hair who was completely black violet and was clad with just simple clothing. He looked like a frail human. He could not understand why he sensed a kind of familiarity between him and the new arrival. When the black violet man turned towards him and both exchanged glances, there was a striking resemblance with the new kid in his bloodline.

“ What is going on here?” he asked himself.

Even weirder, a second youth emerged from a dark violet element that came out of him and stood on his side before they started chatting and quarreling as if they were lifelong friends.

The army’s side was even more out of words. Something was up and they did not know if it had anything to do with Sebastian and his bloodline, but from the same clueless expression they saw on him, they were relieved. They were going to kill the human in front of them and be on their way, but when a second one that looked like his twin appeared , they were only surprised for a moment before going with the initial plan.

Alwyn had just teleported for the first time and it felt so natural that he thought he was the one doing it himself instead of the ring.

When he arrived, he was having a hard time adjusting his eyes as he tried to zoom in the direction of his next victims.

“ It is natural. You have never really fought or used all your abilities. The strength that your body stole from the Netherwyrm bloodline and the mana that you absorbed, cannot be hidden, but you other abilities are still blocked by your human memories. Gods take millions of years growing in strength and know how to use their abilities accordingly.” The twin Devinn explained as he appeared outside.

“The winged gray guy over there looks like a Netherwyrm bloodline member.” Alwyn briefly looked at Sebastian and said.

“ He is. He must be on his way to see the birth of his God. Poor soul, even him was played by that bloodline. He probably doesn’t know what is going to happen when he gets there. He is in for a surprise. Unless he knows what is going to happen.” Devinn mysteriously said.

“What are you talking about? What god? Why do you always feel the need to sound so mysterious?.” Alwyn was growing mad by the second.

“Well I thought you knew. The gauntlet teleported many things to the headless corpse from everywhere in the universe while it was releasing mana in your hands. Mostly body parts, blood and a huge quantity of mana crystals. I suspect that it has been preparing for a long time to revive itself, but the cost will be too high if you ask my opinion.” Devinn said.

“Damn it, Devinn. How strong will it be when it revives? ” Alwyn wanted to punch this devious devil in the face for keeping such a crucial information from him. He had stolen somebody’s bloodline and used it as food to get even stronger. The seal his ancestor broke only gave him a True elemental body and soul, but the physical strength came from using the Netherwyrm bloodline and he upgraded it to another bloodline at the True elemental level. He did not want to add another enemy to his list, now that they were planning to run away.

Devinn laughed before he said:” Your ancestor is in for it as well. If it succeeds, it will become a Cosmic God and your ancestor will have to show himself to capture it. While he is occupied by it is the moment when I cut him off from your bloodline and we will be long gone. ”

“ You’ve been planning this all this time. Why does he need to capture it?” Alwyn asked.

“ Because all the universes under the seven human Cosmic gods are exclusively inhabited by humans. If a foreign lifeform infiltrates the human alliance they will be hunted down, especially if they are that strong. If they are Cosmic gods, with their true immortality, they will be sealed in the underworld and sucked dry of their mana forever to create cosmic pools. Cosmic Gods have infinite mana.” Devinn said.

“Poor Netherwyrm god.” Alwyn sympathized.

“Even I do not know if it will be captured. We will watch the fight for a while before we bounce.” Devinn said and then turned toward the army of gods that was dangerously approaching and said: “There are no True elementals in that pathetic army. They were doomed the moment they decided to start a war against an unknown bloodline. At least they will be of use to us than being handed over to that mad Netherwyrm god. It has been lying in wait all this time for these morons to come eradicate it for one last time. I can tell they’ve been fighting for a long time. When we kill these gods, the Netherwyrm God will be drowning in madness as we will have taken away its vengeance. It will take it all on your ancestor. Non-human’s berserk states are quite viscous. My plan is too perfect… Hahaha” Devinn was lost in his maniacal laughter for a while as the clueless army was coming closer.

Alwyn was happy he was not an enemy of this diabolical twin of his.

“Alwyn how about we take our time and use them as target practice for a while. You need to be able to use your powers efficiently in the future. Just listen to my voice.” Devinn said before fusing back into Alwyn.

Alwyn sighed but felt anticipation about knowing his limits.

“ First, try to do short teleportation and evade every attack. As a True elemental, you bypass every protocol by letting the mana flow through your soul and body. It makes you the spell itself, the element itself. There is no cast time you just have to feel it and your body and soul will do the rest. Remember, you are space itself, it bends to your will.” Devinn suggested.

“ Sigh.. who is the real target here?” Alwyn said before reluctantly flying towards the woman that led the army.

Rosa saw the youth heading towards her and she took no chances. Her body immediately turned to metal. She planned to instantly kill this kid, lest she wastes her precious time.

The youth seemed to be unaware that his impending doom was near as he steadily advanced. She reinforced her right fist and prepared to punch. They youth remained unresponsive. She took even more speed and finally punched. As her fist was about to make contact with the youth, she found that she had punched the void. The youth had appeared several kilometers behind her, almost nearing the army.

Fear finally struck her. Only those on the level above her can use elements at will. She had tried to kill a True elemental. During the cast time a shadow of the element and a ripple corresponding to it had to be seen. Even the element of space could not escape such a rule. If she was a True Elemental of metal, she would not be able to keep her human appearance but the current appearance she had. Once the soul completely fuses with the element, the choice of returning to a human appearance will be gone. True elementals are all humanoids who look like the elements they fused with forever.

If a True elemental had fused with more elements the colors will just be mixed together.

She had taken the youth to be another of the rare lifeforms that were hiding out here and met them by accident but it seemed that he had fused with more than one element including the element of space. The element of space was an invisible one. True elementals of space were invisible forever and below that level they could choose to turn invisible at will. Most masters of space would never choose to lose such a trump card as they were already the strongest and rarest. Even if you controlled more elements, the unpredictability of the element of space would leave you begging for your life. Yet this kid was dumb enough to look for more useless power.

Rosa knew that as a Prime god, she stood no chance and did not even bother to alert the rest of the army, she fled for her life.

The other Prime gods were still replaying the previous scene in their minds before they understood as well. They started fleeing as fast as they could. Each took a different direction. The millions of gods in the background were left behind to fend for themselves. They were still trying to understand what was happening but were no fools. A few ran away, followed by the rest.

“Alright. They are making a break for it. What a bunch of cowards. If they knew that they were about to fight a Cosmic God back at your home planet, I wonder how fast they would run.” Devinn said.

“What do we do now?” Alwyn asked.

“Your second task is to create a space prison and find a way to keep them trapped inside. If you understand what I mean, do it.” Devinn explained no longer. He wanted Alwyn to use his own ideas. His space element was his but did not know how to use it.

“ Alright.” Alwyn said. He already had an idea in mind.

He stayed immobile and closed his eyes. He felt the void around him and tried to commune with the void around him. He felt every fleeing god from every direction. He went past them for millions of kilometers to give himself enough space to maneuver. He made a mental copy of the space he saw and locked it inside his head. He had created an invisible prison in the form of a sphere. If a fleeing god reached the boundary, he would know and immediately teleport them back in the middle of the gigantic sphere of space. In the meantime, he could play with them before they reached the boundary.

He teleported himself toward the furthest god. The woman who fled first. He appeared before her ready to land a punch. His goal was to see if he could regulate the amount of strength he used without killing them. He planned to start with the strongest who could support themselves for a bit longer.

His punch landed. He had used what he felt was a light punch. Rosa had kept her elemental body on all this time, but ended falling back from the punch. She was rendered a cripple. A sensation that no god could understand. The punch did not even land on her, it was the distorted space caused by the punch that almost killed her.

“ This is still too much. I need to tone it down a bit.” Alwyn thought.

“You just used the most difficult way. You could have just chosen to make a real prison by hardening the sphere. Your mana pool is still full. This idea of yours is going to cost you, but I like it.” Devinn said in his head. He then added: “ Do not worry about killing them and have fun. When they are about to die I will immediately teleport them inside the ring for refinement.”

Alwyn was at his third furthest Prime god. Landing a led kick. He found it easy to use space. It was as easy as walking on even ground. Hardening it under his feet by using magic or just his own physical strength, or both, was natural. He still needed to fight them all without killing them, but mishaps happened during his attempt at using less physical strength and a few gods ended up in the ring before they died and all the mana they had inside their bodies was sucked dry until nothing was left. Their fused elements became seeds spells.

His control over his body was starting to show signs of improvement. As for his magic, every poor soul that reached the boundary was being returned at their starting point. Sometimes, some would escape only to find themselves given special treatment as he appeared before them and punched them back in.

Before long, he knew exactly what kind of strength was needed to bring gods to the verge of death. Of the sixteen Prime gods, only five were left, he planned to leave them for last for his final attack. As for the million plus gods they were impossible to finish in a short time.

Using teleportation as well as physical strength, he was wondering if there was a possible fusion.

Devinn who shared the same thoughts as him said:” You have been doing it without knowing it all this time. Are you so blind that you cannot see that you’ve only been punching space all this time. And you are holding back. Every time you land an attack or move with your body without magic, you create a ripple in space with just your body. It has nothing to do with mana, it is just natural. When you use your full strength, you will understand. For now use your mind to watch how your body moves.” Devinn said.

Alwyn concentrated on his body at the same time keeping an eye at the boundary.

He separated the void and the body in his mind to see how they reacted to each other.

To move his body he could levitate, walk by solidifying space with his bodily strength alone or walk by solidifying the space before him with his magic. He chose to just use his strength to move around and only use magic to teleport the gods back inside the sphere.

As he walked he found himself forced to use more strength to move faster and faster. In a case like that, every ripple he created was deadly. It was like a pebble thrown inside water but worse.

As he solidified space with body, he realized that he was doing the same as magic at no cost at all, otherwise his magic will cost him mana if he wants to will space to do his bidding. He would also need to continuously supply mana or charge the space under his will with a determined amount of mana until any task he wants to do is over and space returns to its empty form.

Causing destruction or bending space with speed and strength costs nothing but his bodily strength that will never run out.

“ Good thinking, but you are not alone. You are just one of the few humans who stole a bloodline weapon from the foreign lifeforms. At your level, they can punch black holes out of space. Normal Gods can bend space as well, it is just that they need mana to complel their elements to do so. If you use all your strength here, you will kill them all without using any mana. The Netherwyrm god that is about to be reborn will have physical strength at the Cosmic level. This universe might disappear if your ancestor does not invite his friends over for help. That is If he cares about this place.” Devinn said. He thought for a while before he said:” Theoriticaly with your strength alone you can fight your ancestor, but since he has unlimited mana, he will overpower you and negate every ripple of space you can ever create. When I say fight, it is because you will be like a kid fighting an adult, you already have a chance at moving in front of him with that bodily strength of yours. Nobody else below Cosmic level can move before him, if he does not wish it. You will able to scratch him, but you will never be able to do anything else. Which is why we have to run.” Devinn said.

“I can control my strength for now. How about we finish it? Let’s go see that new Cosmic God.” Alwyn suggested.

“Alright.” Devinn said before the ring shone in a black violet hue and all the gods were sucked in.

“You do not need to render them weak before you refine them?” Alwyn curiously asked.

“ Of course not, I take their souls first, they have no protection against that. Only a True elemental’s soul could prove to be problematic.” Devinn said.

“What do we do about that poor little fellow over there?” Alwyn asked pointing at Sebastian who surprisingly had not tried to run but had stayed behind.

“Let’s bring him back with us, he is the last ingredient. Everything starts when he reaches the headless corpse.” Devinn said.

“ Goddamnit, Devinn…”Alwyn fumed as he found once again that some crucial detail had been left out.

“ I wanted to spare you the details because I know you will head back and kill the Netherwyrm embryo before it is revived.”Devinn said and waited a while before adding : “ When a bloodline weapon’s will is driven to a corner, it will want to revive itself. You and the other six are just fertilizer and the rest of the humans on the planet who were turned into gods will become hostages to ensure its getaway. During the revival, one of the fertilizers will inherit the will of the first Netherwyrm bloodline Primogenitor. The one to inherit the will might be Sebastian because he has a high affinity with the bloodline even if was born human and he knows it. The more variant powers were created, the stronger he would’ve been. I manipulated the bloodline to stop at five variant Prime gods to give your ancestor a fighting chance while we run away. In that powerless state, it is all I could do and it took too much of my strength to achieve that. I counted on you using the mana inside the gauntlet to power me up and bring me out so I could share a few words with you, but it coincided with your ancestor getting involved before my predictions. Now he knows about my existence and the Netherwyrm god’s revival and he is preparing for it as we speak.”Devinn narrated.

“ Why doesn’t ‘he just kill it before it revives itself.” Alwyn asked.

“ Because a Cosmic god that can supply mana forever is just the only ingredient for creating a cosmic pool. The ring you have on you is a good imitation of a cosmic pool. When they capture a Cosmic god, they seal him in a pocket dimension. It is then given to their trusted men as a tool to keep their territories(universes) protected as well as keeping an eye on the prisonners locked in the underworld. You would have been given the one we are going to steal. It is most likely other foreign lifeforms that were captured and sealed. As far as I know, Cosmic gods cannot be killed and that is their downfall. A space element Cosmic god is always at the helm of every alliance. It has always been that way since they are the only ones that can seal other Cosmic gods and cannot be sealed. Not mentioning that they can create universes on their own given enough time. The mana in this universe is being supplied by a cosmic pool as well. In short, Cosmic gods use their counterparts for their profit.” Devinn said.

Sebastian was watching from afar and had concluded that something had gone awry with the original plan. He had pieced it together after a while, when he got a better look at Alwyn when he was ‘fighting’ with his enemies.

The gauntlet had escaped the bloodline’s reach and now there was one less fertilizer. He did not know how a simple kid had managed to free himself from the bloodline’s will and even reach another level so fast. It was impossible for him to understand.

He was thinking that he was about to be the second fertilizer out of the final plan. As he thought he was about to be killed by the youth that was suddenly looking at him after spacing out for a while, the youth looked at his ring , space rippled around Sebastian and he found himself inside a subterranean world before a spell diagram that he knew too well. In the middle of the spell formation was a headless winged corpse that turned into mana and blood when he arrived followed by the five other winged humans and lastly him. Countless crates of crystallized mana and many pocket dimensions filled to the brim with mana and blood appeared. With the bloody mush in the center and the endless amount of pure mana around it, it was a sight to behold.

Alwyn and Devinn were standing side by side in the void watching the spell diagram activate itself.

“ Why do you think my ancestor will try and keep these mutated humans safe? They are no longer human.” Alwyn asked.

“They value humans over the foreigners that they hate and hate us. We cannot live side by side it is impossible. Some tried and it never worked out. We always end up trying to steal each other’s powers and that is the root of every alliance out there. As long as you are born human it is fine. Bloodline weapons always find themselves on our side of the fence and many humans have stolen them. They just purge the remnant will inside of them and they let them live as humans. “ Devinn said.

“Do you really think Sebastian will be the one to inherit the will?” Alwin asked. He found it hard to let Jonas and Lucius be used in such a way, but he had made up his mind not to interfere anymore. He was lucky enough not to be a part of it.

Devinn who knew what he was thinking said:“ Jonas inherited the strongest soul of them all, he might have a chance. Lucius was the first to be chosen. That alone could give him a fighting chance. He was a Grand magician of who had an affinity with the light element. The white fire that he inherited was something, even I do not know what it does. As for Sebastian he is the one that the will inside the bloodline kept around all this time. I suspect he was the main choice and his affinity with the bloodline is the best of them all.”

“ Do you know the end product? What is it going to look like?” Alwyn asked.

“ Do you remember the black fire you had inherited from it?” Devinn mysteriously responded with another question.

“ It does not answer my question but what is your angle?” At this point, Alwyn was rolling his eyes.

“Well that fire could eat through anything, even mana and souls. That is why I wanted to eat the bloodline. It was to acquire that particular ability. It is why even your own bloodline is powerless against it, otherwise instead of looking black violet, you would have become one with space and be invisible for the rest of your remaining life. No one else can ever be like me. I can be considered as an evolved living element as well. The element that eats all and lives. If you were a fertilizer, in there right now, you would have been the last one standing but you were never meant to be as there was a chance you would rebel and eat the will inside it. You would have the power to eat its will if you became annoyed with it. The bloodline weapon cannot allow that to happen. With your unyielding personality and the deadly power the bloodline gave you, it hoped you would find a way to avoid being a fertilizer. Maybe it wanted to keep you as a powerful underling. As for the appearance, I’ve rewritten the bloodline per your memories and recycled the useless stuff into more energy. The color is not a problem as all True elementals look weird. You just lost your invisibility for more power. It is stupid and good at the same time…”Devinn said.

“ It means that the winner chooses what he looks like then.” Said Alwyn whose eyes were still glued to the now dimming pillar of light.