The Storm Belt.

As Talos traveled through the Savanah, Scrat would lecture him on the political association of the Biblical Factions. They were called as such because the main god of the faction was literally called the God of the Bible. 

He tilted his head a bit as he was questioning something.

"So, this God was essentially one of the most powerful beings in this world. If he could steal from every other faction to create his Sacred Gears. So, where is he?"

Scrat nodded.

"Strong is an understatement. He was essentially fearless as he was confident in his own power. Too bad it got him killed."

Talos angled his head to get a look at Scat.

"He died?"

"Yes. It is a well-kept secret, BUT, who do those Angels think I am? I am smarter than all of them."

"I believe you. If they are so caught up on something as worthless as rules put in place by their dead creator, they are no better than slaves."

"Righto Talos."

After walking a few more miles, Scrat scattered to the bridge of Talos' nose where he began to sniff the air.

"Stop."

Talos did as the squirrel said as Scrat looked down into his eye.

"Do you hear and feel that?"

Talos got quiet as he began to hear the distant sound of thunder and wind. It was quite even for his monstrous senses. Not only that, the mana in the atmosphere was much higher than the plain.

"Denser mana and distant lightning strikes and wind."

Scrat nodded with a happy jump in his step.

"The Storm Belt is near."

Hearing that, Talos leaned forward and got on 4 legs. Noticing what he was going to do, Scrat grabbed one of his back spikes as Talos began to gallop forward. As expected, he was fast, unnaturally fast as he was a blur of motion.

Scrat feeling the wind on his fluffy face relaxed and took a deep breath.

"Ah, that windy electrified air. It's been over 500 years since I smelled it."

Talos kept his top speed for over 100 miles before he slowed down to a stop. He rose to his back legs as he looked out at the environment he found himself in.

"Welcome to the Storm Belt Talos. The first Forbidden Region. Even the devils of the Old Satan Faction would never imagine to enter here."

As far as he could see, the sky was blotted out by massive thunderclouds. Gigantic tornados raged at every corner, lightning struck the ground with such ferocity it was like it was a bloodthirsty being.

"You going to be ok in this place Scrat?"

Scrat nodded.

"I will be fine. My species struggles to use attack magic, but we are masters at hiding and defense. It's why we are so hard to catch. Now remember, this place seems uninhabited, but the monsters here adapted to this place.

Meaning they will not be easy to defeat."

Talos grinned as his tail blade began to slice from side to side.

"I would not have it any other way."

"Well then, let's go."

Talos began to make his way into the Storm Belt avoiding the many tornados. As for the lightning bolts, they seemed to zone in on him so his back spikes were struck first. Scrat who was near them was prepared and had used a defensive barrier around himself.

"That was close. I forgot you were covered in metal."

Talos felt the pure Lightning Energy flow through his spikes and into his body. His spikes drained the energy in the lightning before nurturing him with it.

"I forgot to mention Scrat, MY elemental specialization is in lightning magic. However, for my racial advantages, I have a powerful fire and earth magic affinity. Are there any special treasures that come to mind with that?"

Scrat thought about it as lightning continued to strike at Talos' back spikes every couple of seconds.

"Ah, I have just the thing, Spirit Amplifiers. They are not very well known to almost any faction as they are only found here in the Forbidden Regions. Odin and I collected several which he shared around his son's and his Valkalrye squad.

However, after he became more 'peaceful' and old, he never came back to collect anymore. They grant special traits to your elements and 50,000 years ago, deep in the Storm Belt, we found one Spirit Amplifier in a Lightning and Wind duel vein. 

All of them are semi-sentient, but this one developed a powerful identity and power that even Odin struggled to defeat.

Of course, this was before Odin had acquired Gungnir, but he retreated. It has been a long time so by now it would be long gone. However, the place it was at was a special Lightning and Wind Mana Vein. This vein was beyond pure as the essence it produced was of such purity it even became solid."

Talos tilted his head.

"You said that you have not smelled the storm belt in over 500 years and then you say that 50,000 years ago you and Odin were here?"

Scrat nodded with a grin. 

"Yeah. If you are wondering how I am still alive, it's simply because Odin had fed me Idun appeals keeping me youthful. Not to mention I had a way to get sap from the world tree. I am much older than you think."

That made Talos extra curious.

"Then explain to me this, how old is mankind?"

Scrat smiled as he said something surprising.

"Modern humans have been around for the exact amount of time as human scientists have found. The real origin of mankind traces back to God and his first two beings. Adam and Eve.

From them, the first true humans came to be before they went extinct in the many wars that the pantheons fought. Meaning, that the modern human race only has traces of the original humans."

Talos found that weird.

"Odd."

Scrat agreed.

"It's even weirder when you realize I was there to see it all. I have been around since the World Tree sprouted to produce the Norse realms."

"What about the World Tree? Where is it?"

"In a Subrealm on earth. The World Tree produced the 9 Norse realms."

Talos sighed.

"Seems I have a lot to learn."

Scrat nodded.

"Cheer up, knowledge is fun."

Suddenly, Scrat's ears perked up as he heard a familiar sound.

"Keep an eye out. A Tempest Vulture is near."

Talos stood as tall as he could as he looked out at the terrain. There were very few plants as the constant tornados and lightning ripped up the ground every moment.

Instead, it looked to be full of giant canyons of ripped-out ground. As Talos got quiet, he began to listen attentively looking for the source.

He began to grind his tail blade across the hard rock causing it to build up heat rapidly. Scrat gazed at the massive burning tail blade with curiosity. At his age, he loved learning new things and Talos was beyond intriguing.

'So his Tail Blade rapidly produces heat with just a few strikes. Deadly weapon.'

Suddenly in the distance, a distinctive bird call echoed through the canyons.

Scrat jumped off Talos and hid himself while he fought. Talos preferred it that way as he moved a lot in battle.

He stepped forward and on pure instinct lept to the left. The place he had been standing at was struck with a giant wind spear. He opened his jaws as gathered mana in his throat. Fire, Lightning, and earth mana boiled as the elements fed off each other.

He took a deep breath before he released his charged-up attack. Purple thundering magma blasted into the air in a sharp stream which collided with a massive green thunderbolt. Both attacks seemed even for a few moments before he overtook the other.

After winning the exchange, his Lightning magma struck something big and angry.

Three echoing screams of pain resounded in his ears. He took a deep breath of air before bellowing a roar of challenge. He was here and he was here to stay. High in the sky three cries of equal volume echoed back against his roar.

'Show yourself.'

After a few moments, a Giant Tempest vulture showed itself. Calling it huge was an understatement as it was at least 50 meters long. It had three different color heads, one green, one red, and one blue. They were hairless, but it's body had a mix of all those colors. It supported its flight on three pairs of wings, but seeing it made him grin.

On its left side, purple sparking magma was quickly hardening and burning bringing constant pain. Talos squinted his eyes as he growled.

'What are you going to do you parasitic carrion feeder?'

The vulture's three heads all flared at him with pure hate. They opened their beaked mouths and blasted their magic at him. Green lightning, fire, and wind magic fused together as they raged toward him. Together they formed a giant tornado sparkling and burning at once.

As the tornado raged toward him, he tensed his tail as his Sword Intent surged all around him cutting massive slashes into the rock. Scrat felt as if Talos had suddenly become several times stronger than before.

'What is he doing?'

'My blade is a part of me, I am one with the sword, I am a sword.' 

In an almost slow way, Talos turned around and swung his tail blade diagonally. The vulture increased the power it used in its attack unbothered. It could not see the deadly attack coming his way.

Talos' Sword Swing had carried the full might of his Sword intent. He had surpassed his old self as he had tapped into his Sword Will. His slash split the air, and the tornado was like a hot sword through butter. But when it hit the Vulture, it cut through its flesh and bone with ease. Talos turned to gaze at the vulture which froze for a moment.

On pure instinct from a long life, it had dodged to the right. At the last possible second, it had used its mana to reinforce its body. Even with all that, the sword attack had slashed nearly a quarter of the way through his body.

A massive downpour of blood fell from the vulture causing it to screech in agony as it fell into a canyon. He would have to find it later to devour it, but now he was victorious. Talos took a deep breath and roared at his full volume. His roar of victory echoed through the canyons letting the monsters here know he was here to stay.

When he stopped roaring, Scrat ran out of hiding.

"What was that? How did that attack work? It was not wind magic, just a sword swing. What happened?"

Talos turned to the squirrel with an air of pride.

"That was Sword Intent. My personal sword magic."

Scrat paused as he thought about it.

"Sword intent? How does it work? In my life, I have never seen anything like that."

Scrat climbed up Talos' leg to rest on his neck.

"Simply put, Sword Intent is my mastery of the sword and my intention to slash my foe to increase the power of my swings. But this was me tapping into my Sword Will. That is a totally different beast that I am learning as I go."

Scrat was curious about something now.

"So do all your race have this or just you?"

"Just me as far as I am aware. Now, to find that bird."

Scrat nodded.

"It's Beast Core is a triple-elemented one. I can teach you how to absorb them."

Talos wondered how different that was from his method.

"Alright then, let's find it."

With that, Talos began to look for the Vulture that attacked him. Meanwhile, Scrat began to lecture him on the use of Beast Cores.