Useless royalty

"The test has ended. Please rest for a few hours. The fourth test will begin soon," An emotionless voice resounded throughout the field.

The test had ended as soon as Darius had taken the worm's life. They were then teleported from the test site to what seemed like a resting room with luxurious chairs and refreshments. It even had boxes packed with medicine that allowed one to heal themselves. Darius was unfamiliar with how to use these, but thankfully, Lara was quick to help.

She felt disgraced that she had been so useless in the previous exam, so the least she could do was help the seemingly lost Darius.

Indomitable's effects had long since subsided since the moment the worm had been slain. Under Lara's instructions, Darius went for medicines that rejuvenated his stamina. Indomitable was known for taking quite a toll on the body. In fact, Lara was amazed that Darius could still stand, only appearing slightly fatigued. As time went on, Darius was becoming less and less human in her eyes.

Each of the boxes was filled with vials containing colourful liquids. The liquid Darius aimed for was sky blue, emanating an odd blue light. Darius opened the vial and sniffed its contents. It had quite a refreshing smell, one that helped him relax. Confident that it was not poison, Darius drank the contents in one gulp. A soothing wave of calm spread over his entire body. Indeed, he was tired, but he was not as tired as Lara believed. He was more distraught than tired.

Darius lazily sat down on a sofa while allowing the medicine to take effect. He thought about the recent events that had occurred to him.

The elder had told Darius an interesting piece of information the night before, information he hadn't trusted until now.

Indomitable had different effects on different people. The commonly shared traits were bloodlust and mental clarity, freeing one from negative feelings such as fear and so on, but the degree of change depended on one's personality.

Darius was a coward and quite shameless; he put his life above all else and avoided confrontation as much as possible. He would only enter a fight if he was one hundred per cent confident in winning. The elder had stated that this same trait would remain even in his Indomitable state. He would still have the desire to battle, but his caution would be in part retained, preventing him from becoming recklessly crazy.

Take Lara, for example. She was a battle maniac with a fiery temper. If she had an Indomitable ability, she would have constantly been in a battle craze, having little to no regard for her safety.

Most Spiritknights had a warrior's disposition. They had an innate desire for feats of strength and victory. This would result in almost every person who possessed the Indomitable ability to be an Asura on the battlefield, risking their lives to rain death. Darius, however, had no such disposition. The combination of his cowardice and cautious personality coupled with his strong desire to live prevented him from going over the edge.

At first, Darius had thought that the elder was buttering him up to get him to use Indomitable more often, so he had hesitated, but after his experience with the worm, he felt more sure of the old man's conjecture.

When Imperishable had activated, Darius had retained a clear state of mind, driven by cognitive reasoning. The only difference between him and his normal self was that his cowardice had been replaced with a desire to battle.

Normal Darius' default thought pattern was 'run at the sight of danger' whereas Indomitable Darius' train of thought was 'eliminate the danger with as little risk and effort as possible.'

Recalling the previous incident when he had been in the Indomitable state, Darius felt this to be true; thus, he decided to test his conjecture. He calmed himself and gripped his hammer as he activated Imperishable. Bloodlust took over his body as an overbearing wave of calm surged through his mind. He took stock of his surroundings and immediately simply concluded to… do nothing.

Indeed, his final thought was to do absolutely nothing. At least for now, there was no enemy to battle. To prepare for his next battle, it was best to recuperate and shut down Imperishable.

Overdraw tired the body while Imperishable tired the mind. Thus, after a few seconds of activating Indomitable, Darius shut it down. When he came to, he was gobsmacked. He was surprised that he had not done anything crazy. He had even feared that he would have attacked Lara who was seated nearby due to his desire for battle, yet he had quickly surmised that she was of no threat to him, or at least the other 'him' had.

'So, it is just like the old man said!'

Darius was elated by his discovery. This meant that his chances of survival were actually better than he had thought. Not to mention that Imperishable behaved quite differently when he was out of battle as there was far less of a blood rush and instead more of a soothing feeling, Indomitable's bloodlust did not mean a loss of rationality. Anger had different ways of expressing itself, and Darius was the type to silently bear anger. When he became truly furious, he became even more coldly rational.

'It seems that Indomitable determined that I had no active threats nearby, so there was no need to enter a state of battle. Amusing, truly amusing.'

While Darius was playing around with his ability, Lara sat quietly, observing him. She watched his eyes become bloodshot and his body ooze killing intent, but it was only for a few moments. After scanning around the room, Darius returned to normal.

Lara was not sure what he was doing, but she was glad that he had not lost his mind. Lady Farah was known for entering a frenzy the moment her Indomitable skill activated. It activated randomly like epileptic seizures toward the latter years of her life. Rumour had it that she had to move around with a special limiting seal on her at all times.

Although it was not known exactly what happened when she deactivated it, historians assumed that it was likely for her to attack random people who were close by, especially those that were seen as threats. This behaviour was akin to how a spirit chose its opponent, so it was debated quite often by scholars.

Lara frowned for a moment when a disturbing thought entered her mind.

Does he not see me as a threat? Not at all?'