Chapter 18 | Arc I

(Ashborn's POV)

Someone was controlling this Vulcan doll. Vulcan was not an intellectual creature that could know what to do in situations where he can't avoid the attack.

He will continue to use just brute force even when he clearly sees that the opponent is stronger than him. To say it easier Vulcan was just deadly stupid.

"Come forth." I said and my whole army started coming out from the shadow.

This isn't my style, but it would be better if I will end this quickly. My shadows can take his attention.

Vulcan flinched at such development.

'That confirms that it's not a doll.' I noticed how Vulcan flinched and visible fear could be seen in his eyes.

"My soldiers, charge!" I commanded with a shout and everyone run towards Vulcan.

Vulcan seemed to be lost. First, my ants from my army tried to bite him and slow him down. Beru managed to make a big cut across Vulcan's stomach.

But obviously, it started healing, way faster than those dolls on previous floors.

Vulcan started swinging his club and hitting my soldiers. He can continue doing this for some time, my soldiers are also regenerating and it's better than his regeneration.

"Beru, try to cut his sight." I told Beru who immediately flew towards Vulcan's head.

Vulcan noticed this and tried to avoid Beru, but the ant was fast enough to grab on its face, and then by digging his claws in its face reach eyes.

Vulcan tried to remove Beru from his face, the optimal option for him would be to swing his club at his face. But Vulcan didn't and tried to grab Beru with his big palm.

Unfortunately for Vulcan, Beru reached its eyes way before he could grab ant.

"*KEUKH*! TAKE THIS!" Beru screeched and swung his claw towards Vulcan's eyeball.

After Vulcan lost sight in one of his two eyes, he swung his club towards his face. This was perfect timing for me to finish him off.

I accelerated and run towards Vulcan and when I was near him I jumped above his head. When I was high in the air, Vulcan looked up at me.

[Ruler's Authority]

I used Ruler's Authority on my hand and when I was falling down and approaching Vulcan's head.

I punched towards Vulcan and a chaotic gust of wind followed my action.

My eyes widened when I saw that Vulcan wasn't here. I looked around and saw Vulcan in the far distance from me.

'Did it teleport? No there isn't a disruption in surrounding mana...' Before I could finish my thoughts Vulcan disappeared from his place.

I turned around knowing that Vulcan would be there, and he was there swing his club on me. With my hand reinforced with Ruler's Authority, I caught it.

Vulcan then threw a kick towards me with his big leg.

[Ruler's Authority]

I reinforced my second hand and caught Vulcan's kick.

"Beru!"

"Yes, my liege!" Beru flew towards Vulcan's head once again.

'Why isn't he using his ability?' I wondered why didn't teleport or stop time to evade attack?

It also didn't use the previous time when Beru damaged his eye.

"LOWLY CREATURE HOW DARE YOU USE YOUR DIRTY LEGS TO KICK MY LIEGE!" Beru shouted and started to swing his claws back and forth.

Cuts started to appear on Vulcan's body. When I let go of Vulcan and got ready to punch him it once again disappeared from its place.

'Now he used it. so it can't use it when I'm touching him.'I realized why It couldn't use this ability, that was because I had contact with it.

Unlike normal teleportation or time stop. This creature forced himself out of dimension, in other words, out of time and space.

This Vulcan didn't have mana, didn't have a real body, and wasn't actually alive. It could be easily forced out of dimension, and one controlling Vulcan has something that can influence time and space.

Why couldn't it be forced out of dimension when I or Beru made contact with it? Because I have an enormous amount of mana and Beru is connected to me it didn't have power enough to take us with him.

'I just have to take him under my authority.'

I just have to get closer to reach with telekinesis. I quickly disappeared from my position and got near Vulcan who again disappeared.

'He realized that I already know its flaw.'

"My liege, let me catch this lowly creature for you." I nodded at Beru who immediately took off flew towards Vulcan.

Vulcan started disappearing and appearing far from my place. It was trying not to get near me, it wasn't an attack but only running away. (He was playing tags with Beru.)

And when Beru got somewhere near Vulcan, I used something that Vulcan didn't see yet.

[Shadow Exchange]

I switched with Beru and appeared near Vulcan who widened his eyes in realization. Not wasting any time I took him under my authority.

[Ruler's Authority]

Vulcan was forced to freeze in place. My mana was concentrated around Vulcan not letting him move at all. I applied more mana to smash Vulcan with a face in the ground.

It was trying to at least do something, small twitches in his body didn't help him.

"It's futile, you are not able to escape my authority."

I jumped on its head while holding my hand over it and using Ruler's Authority.

"You shall come out." I said to someone who was controlling Vulcan.

I waited for some response but received nothing. I took out one of the swords that I managed to store in my shadow.

I swung it at Vulcan's neck and without any problems head was separated from the body.

"Why making all of this when you already know that you will lose?" I provoked him to come out and at least tell me something.

"Greetings, a great one." Said some voice and my surroundings quickly changed.

I was now surrounded with only white color. The only things with different colors were my soldiers.

"So you finally decided to show yourself." I said and a purple-colored crystal appeared in front of me.

"I'm sure great one already spotted me on the first floor." It responded with a sarcastic voice.

"If you knew why doing all of this?" I asked.

"This was only for greeting."

"Calling me a great one and then lying. You are a brave one." I'm sure it had meaning behind it, like a test.

"This was only insurance."

I grabbed this crystal with my hand and used Ruler's Authority to ensure myself it won't get away from me.

"Tell me everything." Those words should be enough for him to realize why I'm here.

"Long time ago, we ancient mages found golden glowing fragments. those glowing fragments had power that we always wanted to have. They could control time and space, life and death. This is only the part that we managed to grasp.

But later we found out that, these fragments brought past of the different world. A different world where we saw what these powers can truly do. We got scared to experience the same fate as that world where cities and countries were on fire.

We started researching, developing a way to create a safe place for other inhabitants to live here safely.

But unfortunately for us, these fragments were here for already for a long time before we found them. Power in those fragments started leaking out giving its properties to elements that we now call Aether.

And then Asuras or Higher beings of this world showed up. In their eyes, we were a threat and they wanted to have a hand on our ways of controlling Aether.

We managed to hide fragments in four Relictombs, this is one of them. Asuras planned genocide of our whole race.

And the creation of these Relictombs that Asuras can't enter is to hide fragments from Asuras.

We predicted that someone will come from that 'Past' and take these fragments and not let get them into the wrong hands. We believed in this and sacrificed ourselves to protect them from Asuras." Crystal shortly explained.

Everything that this voice told me, Rulers would be angry at their mistakes. They wanted to save races from disappearing, but in the end, their work was done by others.

"I was previously known as Ruler, it would be rude of me not to thank you." I genuinely thanked this crystal.

"This is only one fragment. Three others are in three Relictombs that we built." As crystal said this, a Golden shining fragment appeared next to him and floated in my direction.

I gently took it and observed it for a while.

"You deserve to rest, maybe even more than me." I said and finally tightened my grip on Crystal until it broke.

"Now what to do with this?" I asked myself and looked at the fragment.

It was previously part of the Cup... Why doesn't it just fulfill its real mission and serve me as a cup? It can be poured by my mana. It could probably be used as a vessel of my mana.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Deformation of Fragment is slow. From it, I should form the core and inject it inside with my mana. Then it will start absorption of ambient mana.

Rotten apple in a basket full of apples will spread rot.

This is a simple function of this vessel, my mana will turn ambient mana in mine. This may be a vulgar way to describe the process, but I'm not a person who cares about this.

'What to do with this Relictomb?' This was already a question that I have to ponder.

I don't really care about these ascenders... Either way, I will still keep it. Maybe I would transform it later in my castle later.

But right now I'll continue bending this Fragment into the core.

'Recreating black heart, but this time on my own? This one fragment won't be enough, but this is already progress.'

From this fragment, I could only make a thin layer that can store my mana and absorb some, but it would have a big limit, unlike black heart. Too much mana in it and it will break, only one layer isn't enough.

When a small golden orb was formed, I made it enter the right side are of the chest. I injected a small orb with my mana and its color quickly started changing from gold to black.

'It is sucking out my mana, and in this Relictomb there isn't much mana that it can absorb.'

[Shadow Exchange]

I sunk in my shadow and switched with one of the servants that I left outside of Relictombs. Immediately Black Orb that was in my body started sucking surrounding mana at a fast pace.

The amount of mana that was sucking in the orb was high that it even started scratching my still undeveloped body.

But soon process came to end. Black Orb started emitting mana outside, light purple mana started to burn on the black orb forming the shape of a heart.

I started to feel stronger. Mana from Black Orb, no it would be right to call it Black Heart, started emitting in colossal proportions.

I stopped Black Heart from absorbing more surrounding mana because it might break before it could even do me good.

"My liege, I must congratulate you for acquiring such power." Beru also became stronger, I was already giving my soldiers my colossal amount of mana to make them stronger.

Beru's large mana pool got even bigger, his colors are also becoming darker. His mana color changed because of mana density.

"There one thing that I want to try."

I started to concentrate my mana on my palm. I tried to give it a shape, I then started to pour more mana into it till it started to form a sword.

'My shadows are still absorbing more of my mana. I need to wait until they fully absorb it.'

Right now, I had the amount of mana enough to create things such as basic equipment.

"There are two Black Hearts in the universe." This does bring a smile to my face.

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Did anyone expect that? Well maybe.

But! Black Heart is still incomplete, it still needs an upgrade. It can absorb ambient mana and transform it into Ashborn's. It can't store too much. (For example, it won't be enough to have an army of 100k shadows.)

Also did someone like how I changed canon? Is it still confusing?

Thanks for reading.

Cya.