Chapter 176: Death of a sorcerer.

Chapter 175: Death of a Sorcerer

An ocean of flames spread through the citadel like a tsunami. The heat and the ferocity of the explosion consumed everything in sight, as if a nuclear bomb had been dropped in the middle of the dream realm.

Revel had turned into elemental darkness and escaped to the skies before the explosion could reach her thanks to her Transcendant speed.

Looking down at the devastation, she scowled internally.

’That crazy bastard...’

She knew that Albedo was not a human and so expecting logical and sane actions from him was not only unrealistic but also foolish. However, she had not expected him to blow the entire place like this.

Feeling slightly disturbed by the scene, Revel wondered if Hugo, who looked nearly identical to albedo for some unknown reason, was like this, as well.

’Surely he wouldn’t explode himself to kill his enemies... Right?’

***

As the sea of fire slowly died out, the state of the keep was revealed down below.

There was a giant crater in the ground, and most of the tower had collapsed, leaving only the gateway standing...

At the core of the Crater, Hex’s body could be seen, broken, bloodied and cut in half.

The right half of his body was completely gone, leaving him with only with one arm and one leg.

Still, the sorcerer had life in him and so, he attempted to crawl out of the Crater and escape to somewhere else.

Beside him, a small green seed could be seen, laying on the ashen floor. The seed opened up and revealed the roots hidden inside.

The roots grew in size, before fusing together and expanding to form back Albedo’s body, who was still transformed into Swampfire.

He had wasted a great deal of soul essence using this trick of his, and so he could not afford to change forms again, nor could he do anything insane like the earlier explosion.

And he would not need to, for the battle was already over.

He walked towards Hex, who was crawling on the ground pathetically.

"You really should’ve picked a better hiding spot, old man. Better yet, you should’ve crawled to the depths of the underworld and buried yourself there."

Albedo stepped on Hex’s remaining arm, pressing against it forcefully, making hex’s body recoil from pain.

The old sorcerer could not even speak by now. His will had been depleted and he no longer had any essence left within his dark soul.

Albedo glanced at the great beast, who had been a brilliant man once, a long time ago.

He was not one who would get sentimental over humans drowning in corruption, however even he had felt a little sorry for Hex.

"What a shame... Such a brilliant mind, all gone and for what? Just because you wanted to go embrace the call of the void..."

With Hex’s innate talent for sorcery and his intelligence, he could’ve become supreme by now, and perhaps, he would’ve had what it took to become a god one day.

This was what irritated Albedo the most about humans. They were so beautiful, so brilliant and yet they still chose to throw away their lives seeking things far bigger then them, without any concern for the future...

They deserved none of the blessings they had received.

Albedo’s hand set on fire, and then he gently placed it on Hex’s head.

The fire spread through his body one final time, eating him alive like a mad beast.

And then, Hex was no more.

[You have slain a great beast: Son of Profanity.]

’So that was his true name... A fitting one I suppose.’

Albedo extracted the supreme soul shard from hex’s body.

’This should be useful for upgrading my stabilizer...’

Albedo then went to scale the Crater and leave it, but he noticed that there was something trapped underground by rocks and dirt, shinning slightly.

Albedo dug it out and was surprised to discover that Hex’s book and staff remained intact after his death.

’Artifacts...’

Ancient artifacts were far less valuable than memories, but they had their benefits.

The staff was capable of channeling and transforming soul essence into mana. It also seemed to increase Hex’s sorcery.

As for the book, it seemed to be various spells and runic arrays that Hex had created through the years. Of course, Albedo would not be able to use them himself as he was not a shaper, nor did he have the ability of transforming runic sorcery into magical runes that could be used offensively.

However, he could gain much knowledge if he simply uses the sorcery inside in its purest form which was that of written sorcery.

He summoned a storage memory and threw them inside, then he scaled the Crater and quickly emerged from it.

Lightslayer flew down and released her Transcendent form after seeing that it was safe.

"Is it done?"

Albedo nodded.

"The old man is dead. Now when is your mother going to claim the citadel?"

"It’s not like you left much for me to claim, did you now?"

Ki Song’s puppet seemed to have appeared from nowhere, but that was mostly due to the fact that she sneaked up on them, not because she teleported.

Looking at the ruined tower, Albedo shrugged.

"The gateway is still intact so it should still increase your authority."

"That is true, but I had hoped to make it into a proper citadel, but ah well, we can’t always get what we wish for." She sighed and turned to Revel. "My dear, go over to the gateway and claim the citadel for me."

Revel raised an eyebrow.

"You are not planning on stationing me here, are you?"

"Of course not. It’ll be just temporary until a new saint emerges and takes it off your hands."

Revel decided not to protest and moved towards the gateway to claim the citadel and add it to her mother’s domain.

In the meantime, Albedo and Ki Song moved towards the dark tower to explore its remains.

Looking at Revel, Albedo suddenly felt bewildered.

"I had almost forgotten about how you supreme humans operate."

Ki Song gave him a glance.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"Domains, citadels, subjects... All of that is foreign to noble beasts of the supreme rank."

Sovereigns expanded their domains by increasing the number of their subjects, however during the age of the nightmare spell, they had received a new way to accumulate power.

The citadels, which increased their powers by a lot...

This was especially helpful to sovereigns with territorial domains, like Ki Song.

"I suppose that is true, but noble creatures also have ways of increasing their powers within their own individual rank, like rising in class for example."

Of course, a supreme creature would experience difficulty forming more cores and developing new abilities but at least they had the option, unlike humans who either needed to expand their domain or rise in rank to gain more power.

"But then again, not all supremes are copies of each other. There were sovereigns in the past that had strange domains. Some had objects as their subjects, others’ domains encompassed only themselves and no one else. After all, a domain was an extension of the aspect and all aspects were unique and different from each other."

Albedo listened to her words carefully. He already knew about all of this but gaining the perspective of a human sovereign—If Ki Song could even be called a human by now—would give him a better understanding.

’Aspects... How fascinating.’

Walking over the ruined tower, Albedo and Ki Song passed the mutilated corpse of the great beast. Albedo made sure to take that supreme shard, as well.

Ki song had lon saturated her soul core, so she did not care much about that.

Albedo noticed runes inscribed on the broken walls, and so he allowed his hands to open into roots.

His roots grabbed each piece of the wall, and quickly stuck them together, forming the whole picture.

On the walls, there was a unique variation of runic language, one that Albedo had recognized very well...

It was the language used by the priests of beast goddess. One that only people from the beast realm knew about.

Looking at the sovereign besides him, albedo noticed that she too, knew of this language.

’She must’ve interacted with the priests of beast goddess from the ancient past in one of her nightmares...’

It was the only explaination to how she knew that language.

The runes on the walls said:

[In my loneliness, I’ve searched for a deity to worship, like I once did, a long time ago... But how can I find faith when the gods are dead?]

[No gods have walked the dream realm since the mad spirits of Mictlan. The children of heart and storms could not give births to new gods and if they did, they were too weak to survive... But perhaps the children of shadow had managed to produce a god of their own. Their realm has been consumed at this point but surely some had survived the end. After all, the children of shadows could not be defeated by death...]

[I have crossed the hollow mountains and descended into the depths of the underworld seeking to reach the shadow realm... I saw the beauty of Nether’s city, and there, I saw it. An unholy titan, restrained and trapped by a creature of the abyss. I could not help but prostrate myself to it.]

[A seed of corruption has sprouted in my soul the moment I gazed upon the unholy one. I can’t journey to the shadow realm. I must go back.]

[I returned to the hollow mountains and stumbled across a unique citadel called the black tower. Taking out the abominations there was difficult but I emerged victorious in the end. This is the current date.]

[Today I swore to harness the powers of corruption without losing my mind, just like my reaserch have always promised.]

[I created the runic array responsible for keeping me sane... First the mind. I opened my own skull and inscribed the runes on my brain. The wounds did not take long to heal thanks to my Transcendent body. I also inscribed the runes on my spirit, which was harder than the first part.]

[I prepared the sacrificial sorcery needed for the ritual...]

[The crimson chains that have been wrapped around the seed of corruption finally weakened and the darkness of corruption spread through my body and soul.]

[One human girl from the heart tribe and one newly born nightmare creature. Their blood flowed through my mind and spirit, augmenting the runic array and activating it.]

[I have transformed into a corrupted beast... My soul is drowning in corruption, my blood has turned inky black and my shadow feels repulsed by me but in the end, it embraced the blessing of corruption.]

[One hundred years have passed since I became corrupted. The dream realm has changed and the heart realm has finally been consumed by its dark sister. The children of heart were no more.]

[I became a great beast today. Every month, I sacrifice nightmare creatures to keep myself sane. I made sure to cultivate nightmare creatures and allow them to breed so that the influx of sacrifices keeps going at a steady pace.]

[The dark tower citadel has changed places thanks due to its special trait. The region surrounding me now is a frozen wasteland, filled with nothing except ice and death. There is an unholy one there, as well. But most importantly, there is a unique cursed one laying dormant.]

[The slumbering god is a cursed devil. Its origin is unknown to me but it makes me wonder... Can I harness its power to become a god myself? Would I have to unmake my spirit and sanity to become cursed?]

[I begun worshipping the god of ice, and despite its slumber, I can feel that the old deity is pleased with my devotion.]

[The children of storm have arrived in the dream realm. The waters of the storm sea surrounded the world turning it into a vast ocean. I chose to remain out of their sights, and so the dark tower shielded me from their wrath.]

[How long has it been? Thousands of years or merely hundreds? No matter... The children of storm are nowhere to be seen. It is as if they had all gone somewhere, far away from the dream realm.]

[The children of war have finally arrived in the dream realm...The sacrifices will not be needed anymore and soon enough I shall become a god myself.]

Albedo and Ki Song read the runes with grim expressions...

"To think he lived through the fall of multiple realms..."

No matter how impressive that feat was... it was still disgusting and revolting.

Hex had sacrificed people and embraced the path of corruption, becoming a corrupted demigod and yet,he had retained his sanity through his sorcery...

’Sanity?’

How could anyone who claimed to be sane worship dark deities and put themselves through eons of corruption?

Hex had been a madman, who not only sacrificed nightmare creatures but also humans to keep his mind sane... But in the end, that did not matter, as the sorcerer had decided to pursue the dark path of apotheosis and become a cursed god...

But alas, he had failed to do that and now, he was dead.

Ki Song stared at the runes for a long moment...

The dark sacrifices had been horrendous, yes, but she had seen far worse cruelty in her nightmares and so this did not surprise her.

What did surprise her, however, was the knowledge that hex had accumulated through the years.

She knew that there were cursed creatures in the underworld but she did not know that there was an unholy one being present there...

Moreover, there is also an unholy one in the frozen wasteland.

’Damnation....’

Despite everything she had told to herself... She could not protect humanity as a mere supreme, even if her domain encompassed the entirety of humanity.

’Apotheosis might be the only path forward for me...’

It was either that, or she would die. Either to the daek gods of the dream realm, or to the future champions of humanity who sought to overthrow her and become gods themselves.

She had contemplated the idea for so long, thinking deeply about how becoming a god would change her.

Ki song was afraid that she would loose her humanity, what little she had left of it...

Her love for her daughters, for her subjects and for humanity itself... All of it would be changed.

In truth, she had always known that there was many unholy ones within the dream realm, but now that she knew about the existence of another... She was uncertain of what to do.

Uncertainty was not something that a supreme should ever fail, but alas what could she do?

Just then, Revel successfully claimed the citadel and added it to Ki Song’s domain.

Her authority spread through a portion of the hollow mountains and the frozen wasteland, making it so everything that died within the boundaries of her authority would become a part of her domain...

She could also feel the Creatures of nothing moving silently in the fog... But within the frozen wasteland, she felt something else.

It was not the power of the unholy one, no... But instead it was something far less insidious but still powerful in its own right.

An authority encompassing cold and ice.

She had known about this cursed one, of course. After all, Ki Song explored the frozen wasteland from time to time and made sure to protect her domain from whatever abomination escaped into her borders.

She had slain cursed ones before, but she had never sought them out of her own choice.

And now, that very same deity had woken up, alerted by the death of its only acolyte.

A cursed devil had woken up from its slumber, and it was heading towards Ravenheart to devour her kingdom.