Before the constant swarm of fighting could begin, Akevorax and a native cornem tier agreed to cut off the top of a mountain and use it as an appropriate battlefield. While some master tier abilities could do this, he didn’t have any of those, thankfully, the Dark Sun creature simply created a long line of black flames which sliced through rock like butter. In about three minutes, the area was cleared and defects removed.

The destructive capabilities once anything reached these tiers always left a sour taste in the mouths of others. He already experienced the ridiculous power when an eternal single-handedly destroyed a fully formed sub-realm, not even some half-finished type.

It didn’t take long for a few mithril tiers to charge up the mountain, relatively weak ones at that, and Adret left fractures in their mental spaces before throwing each down the mountain. After enough mediocre creatures failed, it drew the interest of stronger types relatively quickly. Far more intelligent ones too.

These weren’t always beasts either, humanoid types also existed throughout the realm, but such mountainous regions weren’t suited for bipedal species. Mammals and lizards often came most often, the former due to dexterity and the latter out of sheer numbers.

Moving on from the array of species they came across. What even made Dark Sun creatures a threat?

Besides their inherent malicious behaviour, constant antagonism, selfishness, and greed, every last one of them developed a love of fear. And how they inflicted that fear usually came about in a single method, but that alone didn’t really matter. Sadistic, psychotic killers usually appeared in most places, a ‘cult’ of them hardly mattered much. It was their consumption which made them a threat, not only in ideological terms, but magically too, just as the black flames he saw not too long ago.

Literally called the Dark Sun’s Flame, the fire was an upgraded form only available around the 4th evolution of their bloodline. Most creatures who reached this number of evolutions generally reached mithril tier, but the ability drained so much mana that few ever used it over the precursor, Dark Sun’s Light.

The ‘Light’, much like the Flame, centred around absorption. Unfortunately, if it just absorbed light or heat, no one would have spared a look at these gatherings.

The Dark Sun consumed hope. A conceptual power which quickly exiled the civilisation-ruining power on sight.

Where black light shone, fields of crops wilted as life emptied and disease festered; the heat and sight of fire dimmed until coldness took the world once more; no child may be born with a living breath; and the very power in one’s hand faded to nothing.

The Dark Sun’s Light existed for weak beasts to exercise tyrannical control on the weak who made up a large majority of most civilisations. Meanwhile, its Flame consumed and destroyed enemies. Unlike the Light which drew away heat, the Flame incinerated substance to ash with incredible heat of a star. Just the weak Flame released by some mithril tiers equaled the temperature at the Dark Sun’s surface.

Therefore, it was rather clear why he never left Adret alone. He didn’t pay too much attention to these early battles though, for now she just built up her value in the eyes of the natives here. That didn’t suddenly give him free time to pluck interesting materials or test out arrays.

It actually took a full 8 hours for something with reasonable power to arrive, the unknown slim feline leapt at her immediately with claws bared. On its groomed tail rested a small wisp of black flame as well, halfway through the dash forward, it already coated all four paws in identical wisps too. Akevorax saw all of this through his mana sense though, a further sign of low quality as the beast never learnt to hide such simple actions.

Akevorax faced the cat who ran around Adret and dodged a series of psychic blasts with ease, only to roll his eyes, shaking his head in disapproval. Just to see how the other side responded, he said in Beasten, “It’s really inexperienced, hiding the Flame within its body but not blocking any fluctuations.”

The master tier opposite ignored his words though, either uninterested or in agreement. The same was likely true for any watching cornem tiers, not that any appeared after that first one cut off this mountain’s top.

Looking at the beast opposite though, something like a gryphon but with a set of peacock tail feathers. They matched the gryphon’s rather neutral light brown feathers, if not for the obvious black flames along the wingtips, it might have passed as a non-elemental creature. The sight of these fires did remind him of something, only because he considered extracting a bit for Mala’s research. Such passive flames required very little mana to sustain but couldn’t leave their body… Did that still apply to his methods?

Alternatively, he could just take their bloodlines! It was impossible to gather enough essence in 3 days without killing some, but why did he need to fully assimilate anything?

The best use for these sorts of bloodlines was just filling the deep pit of bloodline energy his evolutions required!

No one noticed as the small crystal dart escaped his soul and jabbed into the gryphon opposite. Those watching closely focused on himself or Adret, there was no one bothering with the little tuft of blue crystal stuck in its side. A full chamber quickly filled up and he now came across a slight problem, how to transfer the contents discreetly.

Teleporting it into vials or tubes only worked until something noticed the spatial fluctuations, maybe it’d be best to forcibly transfer–

The dragon sighed and spoke to himself, “Who actually cares?” He took out an empty vial without much care and moved the fluid over, it drew attention but no one even bothered to ask questions.

…Not until he repeated it twice more and the gryphon opposite noticed a slight weakness in their limbs. It suddenly formed in an impossible manner. None of the stronger ones here mentioned any sort of poison or ability, and while he recalled the strange bloody substance Akevorax repeatedly stored away, his body didn’t have blood regardless. He assumed that the dragon randomly gathered blood elsewhere for personal reasons.

As the pieces clicked together, anger immediately appeared in the beast’s eyes and he weakly flapped both wings aggressively. At the same time saying, “How have you been leeching my strength!?”

This drew the eyes of those further away too, not to mention both currently fighting. Adret already finished with that feline without a single moment airborne, and now some sort of scaled bat went up against her. She gave him a scornful glare, already exposed to these antics in the Dragonlands. It was the others who took it less positively.

Two more master tiers rushed up the mountain with incredible haste, each step launching them upwards like his own wingbeats. Without hesitation, both took an aggressive stance, a pair of hairless dogs, interestingly enough. The situation’s tension failed to shift very far with Akevorax unresponsive to the change in numbers.

Ignoring the two dogs, he said to the gryphon, “I’m collecting blood essence. If you’re so upset, then let someone else take over, blame yourself for being too weak.” Akevorax didn’t spare him another look.

The behaviour alone triggered him, and without much thought he wrathfully squawked, “Where do you think you are? Go on, kill them both!” Both dogs remained in place, ready to fight but ignoring his words. No one here with power was stupid in any way, the gryphon obviously feared backlash for launching the first attack and tried to use those new arrivals to deal with them. However, who said he held any authority over these dogs?

Only after a short stalemate did everyone realise that Akevorax not only ignored them completely, but he transferred another dose of essence to a separate vial.

“We do hope you’re prepared to pay for that, or we may have to requisition the material elsewhere.” The new voice, a stable authoritative individual, sounded out from the air nearby… This was not one of the cornem tiers he noticed.

Hiding the surprise, he replied playfully, “And what material did you have in mind? I can’t claim to be so rich.”

A few laughs came out, all from creatures he already noticed under less impressive invisibility, not a single voice made an effort to sound kind. Likewise, he didn’t even hide the dart this time as it jammed into the back of the other dog in full view of all others, it didn’t even realise until others stared directly at it. Funnily enough, that earned a more sincere round of laughter from the invisible creatures. He added it to the second vial of essence, not even half-filling a container.

He’d really been spoiled by the bodies of dragons, to think just this little bit of essence weakened their crystal bodies. They’d probably enter a coma if he took three shots like the gryphon.

“You wish for our blood, so you must leave a substance of your own. Sufficiently,” the unknown voice heavily enunciated with a sharpened tone. They were prepared to cut him apart if necessary…

His genuine disbelief at their desire for his body even led him to ask, “You do realise my body is made of ice cream?”

“Yes. Do you take me for a fool?”

“Of course not, I was merely… Surprised. Most look down on my body,” he spoke slowly in dreadful realisation. Carefully picking his words to ensure they didn’t think twice about the status of his ‘flesh’.

The stupidity and regret he’d suffer if this deal fell through!

Returning his calm demeanour, Akevorax added a slight clause for his own safety, “I’ll hand over what you ask for before we leave. It’s just a question of how much?”

“Given your species’ talents, a fair trade would be all your limbs. Who knows how many more will endure this weakness while you stay? They’re even at risk in these states,” the voice revealed its exact desires without shame. As though it wasn’t enough, it even feigned a lick of sympathy for those harvested creatures, something only a child could fall for.

“All four isn’t a cheap price, but it is within reason. It does feel a bit insufficient for just this much though… How about the tier 7 creatures join in too?”

“You think that thing would work on us? Does a dragon not know the difference…”

The voice trailed off as a third vial now gained a new sort of blood essence, but it also realised that he hadn’t been joking. Some secretive messages transferred between those who stood in the air around them, but in the end no one could identify the essence’s origin in such a short time. Silence fell on the mountaintop for a short while as everyone expressed disgruntled opinions, the dragon completely overstepped its bounds through this, but at the same time his point rang clear.

None of this was his problem, they had to blame themselves for being too weak. Once the voice released a hearty laugh, truly amused by the situation, it replied, “Feel free to take what you can, If you can even find us.”

The discussions ended with both sides pleased by their choices. All too happy to hand over what the other wanted as some secrets remained hidden. They finally returned to the main reason for this meeting, one which they ignored far too long. The current fight already ended. A coiled snake with green jade scales took the gryphon’s spot not long after as standing tired out their legs. The scales did nothing to stop his dart’s penetration.

Just like the hours so far, only creatures well below Adret came to battle. At this point, the slowly rising power showed how they were testing her, sending in sacrificial pawns as a means to wear her down and dig out abilities. Everything here knew about the crown, but her exact bloodline and abilities remained unknown.

Furthermore, she was a dragon. A grounded beast accomplished nothing if she flew and struck down with ranged attacks.

The swathe of mediocre beasts failed to draw out her lunar powers, all of them easily fell to her draconic body, or lacked firepower to damage her. Given that the silver scales naturally blocked all things related to the Dark Sun, in what world were the middling wisps of flame enough?

It’s hard to blame anything for losing to a dragon. In the first place, Adret's baseline power was towards the top end of mithril tier. Furthermore, they only lasted so long in these battles because this realm enhanced their abilities whilst suppressing hers, but only to an extent. A normal creature rarely stood any chance of killing older dragons. Also… This applied to Akevorax more than anything, but she reacted extremely well in battle even with so little practical experience.

She even reacted extremely calmly against that behemoth soul form. Blocking, evasion, offence, situational awareness, and a generally level-headed thought process, all her actions exuded confidence. He muttered to himself, “Just how much were you trained in those few years?”