17 Divine Mutation.

As Talos went unconscious, his Adaptive Evolution Trait began to draw out the Divine Energies flowing from the crack in the seal in his soul. Finally having access to a steady source of Divine Energy was perfect so after undergoing a gigantic Bloodline fusion, he was undergoing another one right after. 

At the moment his bloodline was unstable as the Hellblade Glavenus bloodline was more dominant than the Sky Dragon one. After they had been fused, his trait had been busy in his body stabilizing it which caused his base bloodline to begin to overtake the new one. 

This was fine, but the resulting power caused a microfracture in the seal in his soul which caused his trait to go into overdrive. Using that fracture, his trait used the stream of Divine Energy and used it in the most important organs. 

Namely his Dragon Heart, lungs, Beast Core, Bone Marrow, and his lightning control glands. There was not enough yet to cause a full mutation, so only the most important organs were treated this time.

When Scrat finally reached Talos', he ran over worried for his friend. The first thing he noticed was that Talos did not look very different. The overall shape of his head became a little more pointed and his horns got bigger. 

The wings also were much smaller, but they looked bulkier for some reason. Talos' tail got longer while his tail blade stayed much the same. His front arms which were already quite large got longer, but not enough to become fully quadrupedal. 

However, when it came to size that was a different story as Talos seemed to have gotten bigger slightly. 

"I expected more." 

Scrat ran over and placed a hand on Talos' face, but quickly pulled it back in pain. 

"OW! HOT!"

He looked at his little paw hand and saw it was burned. He licked the wound a little and it quickly healed back to normal. The vast vitality held in his body as a result of all the World Tree Sap made him hard to kill. 

"That's not normal." 

He backed up, wondering if Talos needed some time to wake up. To wait he ran up a rock formation that survived the battle between Talos and Aevrore. He curled up and simply pulled out a small flute made from the World Tree. 

He took a deep breath and began to play a toon to pass the time. As for Talos, his outer body was not undergoing any changes. More and more Divine Energy, Mana, and Ki flowed into his body from his soul which were used up by his trait. 

As Scrat said, it would take quite a while for him to wake up as the seal on his soul was trying to repair itself against his Adaptive Evolution which was trying to open it up. This was causing pressure on his soul which knocked him out. 

Until the process stabilized, Talos would remain in an evolutionary state which was a good thing. His new bloodline needed time to stabilize and this was a good time to allow the process to continue. 

---

Meanwhile, back in the Divine Realm, Talos' uncle, the man who taught him the Sword Dao was in the middle of a ritual. With him, Neasena watched as Zhao Feng kneeled in a large formation. 

He held his unsheathed sword on his lap with his eyes closed. Neasena voiced her concerns as while Feng was not in danger, the world was. 

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" 

"I am not my twin son my magical expertise is nowhere near his, but I am no fool. Taking over the body of a dime-a-dozen Mortal god shall be as simple as breathing for me. And I won't be descending with my full being, only a small shard of my consciousness." 

Neasena nodded still in her mourning clothes. 

"I will help you. You are one of the few allies my boy has."

Feng nodded. 

"You will be in charge of empowering this Formation with your Divinity. I will control it to form a link to that world. I will do the rest." 

"Got it. And who are you taking over?" 

"Susanoo. I will be able to warp his body and use his weak divinity to form a subpar vessel. I am quite mighty." 

Neasena looked toward the alter where what remained of Zhao Fang's sword rested. She walked over to the alter and picked up the handle and broken blade. Seeing that made Feng squint his eyes. 

"What are you doing?" 

"Give it to Talos. He can fuse this with his blade. If anyone deserves it, it is him." 

Feng nodded. 

"Fine. He would not refuse, but I am not happy about this." 

Neasena was unbothered. 

"I am sure. Are you ready?" 

He nodded. 

"Ready."

She handed him what remained of her lover's sword. Once she got it she backed away and extended her hand. Drawing on her Divinity, she began to empower the array Feng had created. 

Zhao Feng closed his eyes and began to send his own Divine Ki into the formation which began to open a rift down into that particular lower world. From what Zhao Feng had been able to gather 'DxD' seemed to be popular with those repulsive gods of Reincarnation. 

Gods who took mortal lives as nothing but shows and sent them to 'fantasy' words. They were looked down upon and killing one was quite rewarding as they had some powers of their own. As for this particular world, it was full of lust as harems were seemingly the desired outcome. 

However, his nephew Talos was a good boy. He would not become a lustful deviant like that, right? As he thought this a rift began to open over the world. Zhao Feng stayed kneeling and from his forehead, a small orb of light emerged. 

This was a tiny shard of his soul, consciousness, and his Divine KI. It would do him no harm so he created a good one. He sent the shard through the rift and turned off the array. 

"There we go." 

He focused on his secondary consciousness which appeared directly in front of Susanoo himself. The god actually looked quite similar to Zhao Feng all things considered. A handsome face, and long black hair, but he was smaller than Zhao Feng. 

(Image here)

But that was fine as there was nothing a bit of cultivation could not fix. The Japanese god barely had a chance to react before Zhao Feng's soul shard entered his head. Instantly, the stronger soul of Feng began to overtake Susanoo. 

The god tried to scream, but he was not even given that chance before his entire being was taken over. It was not even a challenge for Feng who sat up and instantly kneeled. While he now controlled the soul and body, there was still much work to be done. 

He began to draw in on Susanoo's Divine Energy and the Mana in the air and began to cultivate. He had done this so many millennia ago that the Mortal Realm Cultivation Realms seemed too easy for him. 

He managed to speed through the 3 initial realms of Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, and Core Formation using his own experience to do so. Of course, these were the foundation-establishing realms and the easiest. 

From here, it would take him probably a month or two to finish the Mortal Realms and get a good foundation with the new body. He did not plan to meet Talos any time soon as his nephew still had his solo journey to finish. 

He was here just to arrive when Talos truly needed his advice. When that was, he would appear. 

---

Before long 5 days passed with Talos not waking up. At that time, the seal on his soul fully closed, but it was weaker than ever. Still, in that time, his trait had managed to achieve its goal. 

Under the effect of higher Divine Energies, it had managed to speed up the stabilization of Talos' bloodline. His Beast Core had been infused with more Divine Ki and his new Dragon Heart and Lungs were working at full efficiency. 

Even his Fire and Lightning control glands had been enhanced which led to the current situation. Scrat was still perched on his rock, but he was knocked out cold as he held a small acorn-shaped flask. 

The last 5 days had been boring so he had just relaxed and waited for Talos to wake up. Which led to him pulling out some spirits he had brewed for fun. This one ended up knocking him unconscious. 

As he enjoyed his booze-filled dreams Talos took a deep breath and opened his eyes. 

'What happened?' 

Talos lifted his head and pushed himself off the ground with his front arms. When he did so, he noticed that they were bigger and more muscular. He already had big arms, but now they seemed stronger. 

That would come in handy and even the upgrades to his claws had made his pride go through the roof. Before this, his claws had already been mighty blades to channel his mastery of the sword, but they were even better now. 

He could feel how every time he took a breath, the mana was broken down by his lungs to fuel his growth. With every beat of his heart, he could feel his blood be energized causing him to feel jittery. 

But one of the better changes came to his elemental affinities, all this time he could only use Lightning, Fire, Earth, and Metal, but he finally got access to wind magic. What kind of combinations could he use with it?

When he rose to his feet, he extended his wings which were smaller than before, but much stronger. He flapped them a few times to test them out and he quickly rose into the air with just a few. 

These wings were carrying its titanic bulk of over 2,000 tons with no issue. He was like a small child at had the natural ability to fly. He quickly landed and on instinct fully retracted them into his body. 

"Where did they go?" 

They were there, but they also were completely gone. On a thought they popped back out and with another they vanished. Talos playing around with his new body caused Scrat to wake up with a mighty hangover. 

"SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU MIDGETS!"

Talos looked up and saw Scrat holding his head. 

"You talking about dwarves?" 

Scrat squinted his eyes and saw that Talos was awake again. 

"Oh, you awake." 

Scrat lept down and landed on Talos' head. 

"Sorry about that, kind of hung over and I thought you were dwarves." 

"No problem. How long was I out?" 

"5 days. How's it feel to get stronger and be part dragon." 

"Quite mystical I will have to say. Just the way I see the world has changed with these new eyes. I can sense the world in ways I could not do before and the power I feel flowing through me. Whatever you did, I thank you." 

Scrat shook his head. 

"That that Sky Dragon and yourself for being that stronger. He might not have been a Dragon King, but he was still a mighty dragon and you killed him in an honor duel. Color me impressed." 

Talos laughed a little as he extended his wings again and with a mighty flap took off into the air. 

"Alright, where to my fluffy friend?" 

"Same way we were going before. With your new ability to fly, we will be able to make quick progress. I can now lead you to Metal Deposits, Spirit Amplifiers, Herbs, Mana Veins, and even Rare monsters for you to battle. 

You and I are on our way to making quick wealth my scaly friend." 

That seemed to bring mutual joy to both of them. Scart for his love of treasure, and Talos' instinctive drive to collect and refine ore for his tail blade. Meanwhile, in Asgard, Odin was growing impatient with his hunters. 

Ratatoskr remained on the run with his ring and necklace of Freya. And yet his Valkyries had yet to find a single trace of the traitorous squirrel. Odin was very annoyed as his very pride had been spat on by someone he considered a friend.