Chapter 1427: Argents

Northern did not know whether to be pleased with the strange turn of events.

’Who would’ve thought that the sixth prince would happen to fall into my hands in such a manner?’

He had gone through all that trouble with Pyrrhus.

’The poor guy’s probably making his way to the Empire right now...’

Northern shook his head, feeling a bit of sympathy for the young man. Despite the many despicable things he did, he still felt slight compassion for him. Northern considered this to maybe be his flaw.

After all, he considered himself a much more crude and terrifying person, and Pyrrhus was a poor fellow who was so unlucky he had to fall prey to Northern’s own plans, making things way easier for him.

’Enough of these thoughts.’

Northern stared down thoughtfully. At the center of the main chamber, rising from the tiled floor, was a circular platform surrounded by six curved arms that connected to the six walls.

Each arm was built to be a conduit that drew volcanic heat from the caldera. The conduits drew volcanic essence from the caldera. Their surfaces were also made with insulating materials such as several unique carapaces of monsters, and especially crystal ores.

Right now, the lines of swords stretching were arranged on the gigantic hands.

He grabbed one and inspected it with his keen azure eyes.

The sword itself was slender without looking delicate, its blade almost tapering to a needle-fine point. It had a silvery-white glow, as if it was emitting a cold light from within. Its cross guard fanned outwards in angular, swept-back wings of refined silver.

The tip of each wing looked sharp enough to draw blood on its own, and embedded where they met at the center of the sword was a crimson gemstone.

This little stone was cut from Rethium, capable of fueling the sword with a ruthless killing intent. Of course, it could only be sharpened once its wielder was treacherous enough to plunge their mind into the hideous darkness of slaughter.

Fortunately, though, Northern was not unreasonable and also managed to add an effect that allowed the sword to sap a little bit of the bloodstains on it to heal minor injuries on its wielder.

This was the mass production he had been working on. While he felt inclined to arm a legion of a hundred clones with weapons like this, they were merely useless for someone of his caliber to use.

’Honestly, I’m better off just creating a hundred supreme shadows.’

Of course, such a reckless endeavor would dare to test the limits of his bottomless sea of essence. So, Northern simply scoffed at the thought of it.

He placed his hand beneath his jaw and thought deeply.

’Maybe I just really need to understand what I lack before I can create befitting armor for myself.’

It was a bit sad and ironic. The skills he had always wished for were right here in his hands; for now, the highest rank of item he could create was Ancient-rank. However, it was not enough of a companion for him.

Because he had simply become too vast, with an unending repertoire of skills to choose from when dealing with his targets.

Yet, Northern craved something; he craved some kind of weapon. Especially since he knew that some wars would come where, even as he is now, he wouldn’t be enough.

He sighed, casting the swords one more warming look.

"Well, I’m not rushing. I can just take my time, researching and refining my skills, and the growth of the talent too. Right now, I should put half of my focus on gaining more fragments."

After experimenting with the North of the Mountain, Northern was slowly releasing the vast army of echoes in his soul onto the world. They were challenging the catastrophic, devilish terrors of the deep grove.

But he was yet to find a single Apex, though.

However, this place was filled with horrendous Behemoths, some with even mischievous abilities. But there was nothing too grand that Thoraxis and Lord couldn’t take care of.

He sighed and summoned the runes that reflected the identity of his soul.

[PROFILE]

[USER: Rian Artemis Reimgard]

[TRUE NAME: Unwritten]

[SOUL RANK: Evanescent (Paragon)]

[ESSENCE: 89.642%]

[TALENT FRAGMENTS: 68,912/800,000]

Northern painfully glared at the runes.

He was filled with so much envy and anguish.

’You bastard, you had it way easier...’

He missed the old him, the days when he had to worry about five thousand talent fragments.

Having released his Army of Echoes into the world, with several Belials and Behemoths populating them, he was filled with a far more dreadful power than he had ever had.

Unfortunately, the distance it took to evolve his soul had also stretched endlessly.

Looking at such an amount of accumulated talent fragments and realizing that he was nowhere close to even half of his evolution made him bitter with envy towards his former self.

’I should calm down. It’s barely been a month since I became a Paragon, there’s no reason to rush.’

Even though he said that to himself, he still couldn’t feel it. The only thing he felt right now was the urge to become a Transcendent. If he were one to be delusional, he would have loved to achieve it before meeting his father.

But he was a very pragmatic person. Besides, he was already terrifying enough as it was. Even though the thought of how much stronger he could get excited him, he still knew that this current version of him should be enough to deal with the Emperor.

After all, there was no way he’d be stronger than Kryos. And Northern had slaughtered the corrupted Origin with his own two hands.

He smiled only for a second, then observed the fine rows of cold metals, gleaming with a silvery radiance, as if intentionally shining to catch the eyes of someone... anyone.

Northern was slightly reluctant to release this bunch of Lordly Swords to the soldiers of Ryugan. They were very weak people.

However, he did have an idea what to do.

He smiled, and another one of his clones was already heading towards a towering building with white walls, standing on the southern edge of the mountain.