On the dirt path as a group of six all of a sudden, the five adventurers practically had to drag their new member along as she endlessly complained about the hours of nonstop walking. This continued on for almost two weeks now, every day the exact same and they never used horses or carriages for some reason!

“There’s no point for horses anyway, the five of us can run faster than most thoroughbreds. And have you ever tried to raise a magical beast? Stop slowing down your sprite as well, it needs a lot more training to recover!” The gentle, beautiful wizard quickly revealed her true colours after a week of this, in Anna’s eyes she was worse than the three men. A seductive monster with insatiable appetites in more than one way, if anything, it was either Korridan or Darak who supported her mentally.

“But my feet hurt! And we’ve been walking for two weeks straight! What are we travelling so far for?” Her complaints met blank faces, but the five of them amply laughed when she referred to two weeks of travel as a ‘long journey’.

They routinely travelled for entire months depending on where the winds and gossip took them, sometimes wandering aimlessly until a lucrative opportunity came up.

“Well, you can finally see our goal from here. See that mountain?” Korridan spoke with a strong smile, and he pointed towards the lone mountain up ahead. While not that tall, its craggy surface and jagged peak made it a rather inhospitable place for humans. Climbing it wouldn’t be easy either, fortunately, with a wizard in their group Anna didn’t have to fear falling.

She asked, unconvinced, “What’s so special about it?”

“That’s a residence of a mithril tier wind elemental, and this one is also a king. Given their intelligence, they’re generally happy to aid weaker contractors like yourself. But there are some warnings to give, and you absolutely cannot forget these. Mala, please explain them,” Korridan’s descending tone warned her of the seriousness well enough, and she just repeatedly nodded like a scared child.

Besides them, the robed wizard shared a similarly blank face and said, “There are a few rules, like how you must speak and posturing, but we’ll go over them later. The only truly important rule is simple. Under no circumstance do you lie. It will notice if you tell one, and if you do will force you away.”

Anna nodded intently, the small mote of green light floated about her hand in a reassuring manner. With its mild glow she asked, “What’s important about this elemental as well?”

“It’s the only one we’re qualified to meet with our power, and they’re strong enough to heal your contracted spirit. Also, they’re the only one less than a month away on foot,” Mala’s gentler reasoning made perfect sense, although she still questioned why the group refused to use horses so much.

They didn’t have to use magical beasts, and their walking speed couldn’t even match a horse’s canter. Unfortunately, Annabelle forgot a simple fact of weight. Namely that all warriors amassed a huge amount as the deposited mana within their body quickly grew.

Korridan weighed several times a normal man, and while a mule might barely carry him, it was more likely he broke that poor thing’s back after hours of riding.Regardless, the six of them got on rather well as they showed this impeccable village girl a new world with boundless sights, and while she sometimes complained about the food, or distance, or casual promiscuity which unnerved her… Those things stopped being an issue in due time. Not that she jumped to join in with that last one.

Though, her complaints oddly grew anytime she complained about aching legs or feet. Probably because Darak threw healing spells on her, and ignored her onset sulking with a childish smirk.

While hard and a test of her ability in every manner, she adored the time spent and never felt more alive or free.

* * *

Some hours after the outrageous events in the stitched realm, Icy finally awakened with a throbbing headache and pain in his chest. The others, excluding Adret who left to deal with god knows what, sat in the roomy cave with a selection of furniture laid out. For the most part, they just created bed frames from stone which Mala filled with a gelatinous alchemical substance as a mattress.

On the outside though, all those other young dragons left the trial as well and told the story as they saw it. Many of them exaggerated everything, while those who actually saw and comprehended the situation kept quiet. In the end, no one figured out who sent Lostradus that day, nor which supreme tier dragon saved him.

All the elders denied the action, but none actually gave an alibi as they secluded themselves on that day… Mostly because they already sent dozens of dragons to confront Icy.

He raspily spoke with heavy breaths, “What happened after the fight?”

The five companions encouraged him to rest more, but the blank spots in his memories created a cause for concern. At first, he assumed it was tiredness, a common impact on any injured being’s Mind, but he now confirmed that the memories blurred for an unknown reason.

“You pretty much couldn’t even walk. Mala supported your weight and we found a larger, empty cave on the outskirts. You really weren’t yourself for most of that fight,” Korridan answered him with audible concern, and while his face showed another matter occured, the man suppressed his words.

Darak weighed in with his gentler voice, “You’re alright, physically… But I don’t even know where to start on your Mind and Soul. Thankfully, they stabilised on their own after you slept for a while.”

A quick description revealed that those two core components of his existence entered some sort of repetitive thought process, much like a failed array which allowed for looped logic. However, driven by curiosity and desire, it only forcibly drew on as much power as possible to comprehend what he saw. This process rarely came lightly, and in most cases resulted in a comatose state unless forcibly suppressed.

“Is that why my memories are like this?” His question came out loud, but really only posed it towards Mala and the Nexus, one answered far faster than the other though.

[The divinity activated its trauma response. To put it less kindly, your memories were forcibly sealed to stop a forced exposure event]

“Forced exposure… Right, I saw the colours, but I can’t remember them now. It feels nice not remembering,” Icy’s words hardly sounded strange given that Mala already decrypted his gibberish from a while back.

While they all knew he referred to spell colours, a fundamental part of magic as it described elements and their relationships to one another. No explanation as to why or how these colours appear was ever given at low levels… Because it often did more harm than good to do so. And just hope that nothing ever forced your mind to see the true nature of these colours.

Many things in the universe caused a forced exposure event if a weakling saw their real forms.

“Do you remember any of the conclusions you made about them?” Mala posed a question of her own, interested to know the divinity’s degree of protection. Purely blocking the direct sight often worked, but many times just the written descriptions drew one closer towards those repetitive thought processes.

“Something about the colours not being colours. Does anyone know where Lostradus is? And if he died?” Icy changed the topic, hoping it stopped any clues from coming up.

“No one knows. And we can’t trace it,” Jaren answered his question instantly, frustrated since the situation guaranteed an enemy appeared who wouldn’t stop until either side died.

For now, he placed a few of the grey crystals in his mouth and swallowed. They collapsed into a fine powder upon touching his stomach, then completely vanished as his body digested them in seconds. Not the weakest bloodline, but hardly extremely powerful.

[Consumed Godbreaker ash dragon bloodline! Assimilation progress 1%]

Quite a bit more progress than he hoped for.

Hearts always stored an incredible density of a creature’s bloodline, but at these levels he at most obtained an increase of 20 - 25%. Even if from a dragon, which directly implied it contained so much more, the broken half of a heart allowed him to jump up to 40% on its own! A single dragon heart almost fully completed a Legendary rank bloodline!

But at the same time, the divinity within him frothed at this absorption. It sensed the opposing power, but quietened once his body gathered and sealed the bloodline. This assimilation was going to be hellish on his body… He already guessed that his divinity forced itself onto him once more and fought against the Godbreaker within.

[Just stop already. You can tell this is impossible. There has never been a successful case of two opposing concepts merging]

Icy ignored the warning and criticised the Nexus, “Didn’t you say the same about my soul? And my existence? Or the very fact I’m still alive after I evolve into assimilated bloodlines?”

Everyone else heard these words, and only really cared to see where this all went.

[There is a difference between being too weak to withstand a thing and trying to accomplish something impossible given its very nature]

“Then explain it? What’s so impossible about it? Is it about the colours?”

[No. Higher concepts play no part here, you are simply trying to combine two things which are direct opposites of one another. There is no second outcome]

“Why is it impossible though? You directly claimed that there was a whole unknown branch of alchemy, which every node of the Nexus failed at! And also, of all the times you could’ve been concerned, why now?” It went silent, unable to give a real response either. Of course, a lack of real communication for periods of centuries often meant Nexus nodes attached themselves quickly onto select users.

But never to the point of arguing in their best interests.

[Because a stupid death on an unlikely chance is worthless. You do not need to create the impossible to help us achieve our goals. Let alone oppose natural laws, you lack the power to suppress either divinity or Divinus-wrecking flames]

Well that explained its concern... He just over thought about it too much, the Nexus naturally didn’t want a potential chance washed down the drain.

But it made a fair point as well. Unless he suppressed both sides, completely, the battle which ensued between them killed him without a doubt. Then, if he suppressed them with Origin Force, against all odds, the two opposing sides simply could not merge!

Imagine if the merger of matter and antimatter resulted in a new compound unseen. Of course, you couldn’t, it was utter nonsense! But if that was the case, why would the Nexus react so fervently about the matter?

He didn’t know. But it locked away a bit of information that it clearly wanted to stay hidden.

“Forget about it for now then. What’s my Authority at?” He asked impatiently, still frustrated over the whole ordeal. A new box appeared with information which finally changed his mood.

[Authority: 8.97 points]

He was so close to the next level!

With an idea to increase it that tiny amount, he asked expectantly, “How much will I get for a Legendary rank bloodline?”

[Between 0.001 - 0.05 points, depending on information that we gained]

Like a balloon, he deflated into a floppy mess. The Nexus stated such a high end, but obviously, that value reserved itself for rare and valuable bloodlines amongst a rank. The Godbreaker aspect from Lostradus obviously counted, but he wanted to survive the assimilation if possible.

Icy’s expression caught the eyes of everyone, especially since the sudden argument came to a similarly rapid end. However, a glint in his eyes remained, some words he stated whilst in that incarnation stuck in his head.

“Try not to get noticed,” Jaren commented, almost reading his thoughts from sight alone. They all guessed it though, he made the intention more than clear and stood surrounded by master tier dragons.

And this initiated a rather strange stay for a while. Firstly, Icy had to target lone, idle dragons who paid no attention to their surroundings. Many at master tier preserved watchful methods even while asleep, these ones he obviously avoided, but many just sat within their Mind palaces and gave no mind to the outside world.

Furthermore, only some of the caves outside the central mountain possessed arrays. This made it easy for his Elder eyes to penetrate inside and check on the dragon’s state. If a barrier or observational spell protected them, he moved on to the next cave. Additionally, he hid himself within a veil for some basic protection, a master tier could see through it with ease, in person that is. And while Icy performed these initial scouting procedures, he held off completion for the dragonstone trial.

The trial technically contained an aspect which attacked souls, and his completely undefended one quaked from a single smack, let alone a stampede or catapult aimed straight for it.

After three days, where he roughly knew the dragons safe to harvest from and those not to, he spent a little while thinking if he should actually continue with this plan. On one hand, he frankly endorsed the idea of these blood bag dragons, simply because he needed bloodline and the extraction literally could not kill them. On the other hand, it was sort of wrong to just secretly stab a needle into something and extract their blood.

He accepted both sides, but their eyes decided on this matter. At first just how all those dragons in the central mountain stared down at him.

Those eyes came back. The sneers, contempt, rolling, and disgust in worse cases. Some dragons truly hated him merely for walking past, dragons he never once met, talked to, or even saw to the best of his knowledge! Yet the hate and disgust rivalled Lostradus whose emotions entirely formed as a result of their opposing powers.

He brushed it off at first, but days of it wore down that tranquil face. And as he considered the nature of their thoughts, it made even less sense.

There was no reason. At least, no reason which made sense. An unstable bloodline, his mishap body, a random dragon given the dragonstone… But none of these actually amounted to much. The dragons here hated him simply because he was.

So now, five days since the incident in the stitched realm, Icy began his rounds of collection.

In a single afternoon, 50 master tier dragons, on the weaker end, lost a considerable fraction of their blood. But not a single one noticed how or why, in fact, many of them never even realised it happened! The dart itself suppressed all pain, and whatever mechanism it used for extraction and refinement produced such weak fluctuations that only cornem tiers noticed it at a close range.

So, Icy continued remorselessly.

Day by day, the sources of blood grew. From a small family of cattle, he selected enough dragons to create a giant herd which even the largest farms failed to upkeep.

Unfortunately, blood takes time to recover. Especially when the lively red substance alone meant nothing, it slowly replaced the lost bloodline over time in a separate biological process. This also explained why it never worked to just string up an opponent and collect their blood alongside constant restoratives. Otherwise, he’d have a way to easily guarantee any bloodline of his choice with a single day of bloodletting. Fortunately, dragons restore pretty quickly, especially at these levels.

Every two days marked the start of another collection for the roughly 130 dragons selected as his sources.

A lively and arrogant blood farm, in a hideous fashion, his methodology was actually rather similar to some vampire clans! They freely allowed humans and magical beasts to develop safely within their lands, and quietly at night harvest blood as necessary. The inhabitants none the wiser, with vampires given a constant supply of fresh, magical blood for all their needs. Best of all, the entire situation ensured the survival of their food source. A relatively positive parasitic relationship in the end, but technically everyone won at least.

In this case, Icy just vented his annoyances against these prejudiced dragons by stealing their blood.

Rumours popped up after a few days though. As the situation affected so many dragons, some inevitably confirmed the situation with stronger dragons but no one found out how or why they suddenly lost blood.

One day was all it took for stories to appear. In this regard, the dragons here were no worse than bored maids who gossipped at first chance. One could hear any number of conspiracies if they listened in to conversations between dragons as they flew by one another or rested in the open air as opposed to stuffy caves.

“I heard a blood ghost is wandering by,” one might start off with. Another saying, “I heard it’s a blood dragon who gone deranged, clearly near-supreme tier if no one can find them.” Just because another heard an even more ridiculous statement, someone else might say, “The elders are saying they can’t find the source, but that’s ridiculous! I bet it’s one of them who needs blood!”

And with every semi-plausible reason, they also thought up an excuse that justified it. One might guess why exactly any of the elders required the blood of master tier dragons?

Well, besides the fact that it was a pain to collect blood from cornem or supreme tiers, as they easily noticed such attempts in comparison, the sheer numbers of master tiers meant that none ever risked the chances of exhaustion. When it came to why they needed it, the arguments fell flat. The best answer suggested that they created a strange technique which asked for a ridiculous amount of blood essence, most easily made by refining masses of blood.

Most dragons defaulted to the ghostly answer. Especially certain interdimensional ghosts which hid between dimensional gaps at will, somewhere even supreme tiers struggled to search. Icy refused to believe the elders hadn’t noticed his actions so far, but their silence actually meant acceptance in this case.

Maybe he judged them a bit fast in the end… Or they really cared about neutrality to a sickening degree. Either way, no one stopped as the rounds continued, and the rumours worsened with hilarity. At some point, a few dragons purposely spread obvious lies just for a laugh. Pleasantly enough, these dragons rarely looked to Icy with spite or disgust in their eyes too.

In the end, 5 collections, or 10 days, passed before he collected just a vial of blood. This method required way more than just a couple weeks to work… And without much of an excuse to hold off the trial, Icy gave in and finally left to the stitched dream realm once more.

He might not be able to assimilate the dragons in time, but he remembered a very useful tree from last time.

And this was the 20th day since he took its sap, more than enough time for a recovery. A perfect opportunity!