Chapter 53: Storm of Awakening

Chapter 53: Storm of Awakening

Darius sat cross-legged next to the newly dug pit, arcs of blue lightning crawling across his body. His tattoo on his forehead glowed faintly under his skin. 

 Darius's lightning mana surged, aligning with his triple-burner meridian, boosting his comprehension and perceptions to frighteningly inhuman levels.

'The Solar Tyrant's Fist, Blessings of the Zephyr, Echoing Thunder Palm, Ethereal Steps, Frost Breath of the Serpent, Mystic Water Mirror, and the Terra Pulse—I've dabbled with, or mastered each one of their original versions. Yet, the Illusionary Realm Matrix poses a different challenge. Leveraging all my accumulated experience in converting these techniques is crucial, even just to scratch the surface.'

 Darius reflected on his martial techniques, pondering, 'If I can find a common link between all my successes, perhaps I can identify a core interaction between qi and mana. Pinning down this constant could let me replicate techniques more effectively, potentially bypassing the need to start from scratch each time.'

 Darius set his goals and took the gamble. Even with his perceptive time slowed by his heightened mental pace, he remained uncertain of when the beast would hatch. Opting to devise a system for adapting Penglai's techniques rather than tackling the formations conversion directly, he aimed to accelerate the process, hoping to streamline the conversion of the ancient technique.

'The Solar Tyrant's Fist and Ethereal Steps were distinct; I originally honed each to its pinnacle and wielded them as naturally as breathing. Failing to adapt these techniques would be unworthy of my name.'

His hair bristled, each surge of mana cycling through his triple-burner meridian. 'Next, I tackled the Mystic Water Mirror; it took several days to convert. Originally, this was the Black Tortoise Sect's-Tortoise Shell Mirroring Skill, based on understanding the Sect's prized Universal Shell Mirror. The key to advancing, laid in manipulating the interplay of light and shadow across the mirror's surface. By applying those same principles, I was barely able to adapt the technique to utilize the reflective properties of ice and water.'

'The Terra Pulse was straightforward to adapt. The original technique was inspired by the Sovereign Beast Kui, known for triggering massive earthquakes. By shifting the focus to the movement of tectonic plates and earth mana, the technique not only became stronger but also easier to cultivate than I recall.'

Within Darius, all twelve major meridians hummed with chaotic lightning mana. To him, falling leaves appeared almost stationary, drifting as slowly as tree sap.

'The Echoing Thunder Palm and the Blessings of the Zephyr also focused on ethereal concepts originally. The challenge was in grounding these in physical concepts, aligning each with a corresponding element, similar to the adaptations of my other techniques.'

 Darius's brow furrowed suddenly. 'It's still not enough! Each technique I've adapted had a clear element to anchor on—it was about pinpointing the right structure and method. But the Matrix transforms illusion into reality. Developing a system grounded in tangible concepts offers little when grappling with divine feats.'

Shadows from the trees, nearly frozen yet inching slowly, draped over Darius and the pit. The scant movement did little to conceal the frustration etched across his face. Around him, his blue lightning aura crackled intensely, mirroring his growing impatience.

Then, after sweat steadily began to appear on his brow, the shadows of frustration gradually lifted from his features. His eyes opened slightly, a faint trace of calm returning. He watched as his blue lightning mana arced briefly from his body before dissipating into the surrounding air. Quietly, almost to himself, he muttered, "Blue. The constant is blue."

----

Three years prior, the Spine of Arkor loomed large under a heavy sky. Darius, then only thirteen, had just concluded a year of intense closed-door cultivation with Haku, having recently emerged into the rugged wilderness. 

With the recent loss of his parents still shadowing his heart, he embarked on a journey to unravel convergence sites that might hold the key to overcoming his bottleneck. Beneath their feet, hidden leylines pulsed through the earth, a complex network visible only through Darius's Arcane Gaze, guiding them silently across the vast mountain range.

Darius looked on, his expression serious, dark circles under his eyes stark against his messy black hair. The strain of their journey only served to make the bright azure of his eyes more pronounced. Across from him, Haku, in his normal ember-fox form, displayed a vivid contrast in energy.

 The fox's gaze darted about, his nose twitching as it worked overtime to pick up the myriad scents of the mountainous terrain around them.

"How long do you think it will take to find the site?" Haku asked, his enthusiasm clumsily disguised.

Noticing the awkward shift in his companion's mood, Darius rolled his eyes and replied in a dry tone, "At least a week."

Over the past year, Darius had poured through countless tomes within the third room of the Vault, his extensive reading conveniently paying off. He discovered, nestled within the pages of a dusty old volume, that the Spine of Arkor harbored a convergence site of the leylines.

Haku's tail flicked excitedly. 'A week! And there's no guarantee what we're looking for will even be there.' Unable to contain his enthusiasm, he leaped into the air, darting from branch to branch among the towering trees.

"Are you getting enjoyment out of this?" Darius materialized next to Haku on a high branch as they advanced through the forest.

Nearly missing his next leap, Haku shot back, "Don't be like that, big brother. You know I can't stand the beast-farm. No matter how many times you say to make it my home, it just doesn't compare to the real outdoors. It's been a whole year since I last smelled the forest."

 Feeling a twinge of guilt, Darius silently acknowledged Haku's innate wildness. His bond with nature was something the artificial farm could never replicate. "Just try to keep it subtle," he finally relented with a tease. "Besides, you'll still need to return there occasionally for cultivation. And we've barely scratched the surface of our studies on elemental properties. We're not even close to finishing the lectures I've prepared for you."

A shiver shot through the fox's spine. "Big brother," he whined, "can't you just let me enjoy this?"

Darius and Haku continued their journey, a few days of peaceful travel. On the third day, under the cloak of night, Darius abruptly silenced Haku's jesting with a sharp, "Quiet!" Halting on a wide branch high in an ancient tree.

For a moment, Haku looked taken aback, he then sensed the shift in Darius's mood and ceased his movement. Now alert, he sent his thoughts to Darius, 'What is it?'

 'Use your Ghost-Fire form and stay hidden, there's a group of auras over the next rise.'

On a tree across from Darius, the ember-fox was positioned upwind from where Darius directed his gaze, Haku caught no scent but trusted Darius's superior perception. He promptly shifted into near invisibility, leaving only a faint blue flame in the shape of a fox in Darius's vision.

 'Follow me, and don't act without my instruction.' Darius switched to his wind mana, his movements becoming as light as air, drifting through the trees like a whispering breeze toward the group.

 Observing Darius's barely contained killing intent, Haku thought, 'This won't end well.' With his brow furrowed in concern, he quickly followed, his form nearly invisible yet tense.

 The pair had not gone far when the wind shifted at the crest of the rise. Haku's senses suddenly flooded with the various auras ahead. In his unique perception, scents materialized visually, revealing the glowing auras of five humans in the distance. Between them, three figures, initially blurred, sharpened into view as they drew closer, revealing themselves as members of the Dwarven Race Haku had only heard about.

His gaze locked onto the group, noting two male dwarves and, to his extreme surprise, one female. Haku's astonishment bubbled into a thought that he swiftly transmitted to Darius, 'That's a female dwarf! Aren't they forbidden from coming to the surface?'

'You're right. Since the great war, the Dwarven Race retreated underground; before the war even started, female dwarves were already rare due to their low birth rates. The presence of a dwarf female above ground, especially enslaved, is shocking. If the underground dwarven nation knew, they would be in an uproar.'

As the group came into view, now visible to his natural sight beyond just their auras, Darius's eyes narrowed, his tone grave, 'they're insane.'

Feeling a surge of admiration, Haku sent his thoughts to Darius, 'how can you tell?'

Sighing and shaking his head, 'not literally. Stop sniffing and look—focus on their foreheads.'

 Haku blinked, his eyes glowing faintly blue in his ghostly form, as he slowly scanned the scene before him. 'Why did they do that to them?' 

'It's a slave rune.'

When Haku's gaze swept over the group, he first noticed the knights, their auras a blend of elemental energies: two burned with fiery intensity, another rippled with the calm flow of water, one stood firm as the earth, and the last whirled like the wind. Each aura signified their tier—three second tier and two third.

Turning his attention to the two male dwarves, he noted their typical robust bodies: barely covered by rags, they were short, thickly muscled, with large, expressive features framed by bushy beards. True to the nature of Gaia's dwarves, their innate connection to the earth element was evident, each filled with a unique aura that hinted at their special affinity for a particular metal or mineral. 

One dwarf's skin bore the luster of iron, giving him a dark, gritty, solid presence, while the other shimmered slightly with the gleam of zinc, his skin light, his features sharp.

Finally, Haku focused on the female dwarf. Contrary to the stout, burly men, she appeared perfectly human in proportion but was considerably shorter, barely reaching a meter and a half. Scantily covered in rags, her fiery red hair, tangled and unkempt, cascaded over broad, muscular shoulders. Despite her evident strength, there was a delicate balance to her developed body, marred by cuts and bruises that told tales of harsh treatment. Most striking, however, on her pale white skin, was the cruel mark that marred her and her companions' foreheads: a rune, freshly carved and bleeding, its bright red glow pulsing.

Darius's voice carried a hint of disdain, "This rune inflicts control through excruciating pain, targeting the mind and soul directly to quash even the hint of rebellion. Such a mark is typically reserved for slaves who have strongly resisted or attempted escape—it's rare to see it used on the newly enslaved. The sight of these runes is distasteful even among humans, so slaves are generally subdued more gradually, trained... slowly."

 Darius's chilling words stoked a fire in Haku's chest, 'should we save them?'

Darius hesitated, his expression betraying nothing as he responded, 'no. This is not an uncommon sight. We cannot intervene and save every slave we encounter. Moreover, saving someone means assuming responsibility for them—a burden we cannot carry.'

 Haku's confusion was evident as he observed his brother. Being a beast, and one who had been with Darius since his earliest days, he could always sense when Darius was lying.

'Let's just shadow them for now; we might learn some useful information about the area from their chatter.' With that, Darius silently leaped to a tree closer to the group of knights and dwarves.

 Haku matched Darius's movements, bounding to the same tree as they commenced their covert surveillance.

Below them, torches flickered to life, casting long, claw-like shadows across the forest floor. The babble of voices sharpened into distinct conversations as the group spread out beneath them.

"Damn that pompous mage! I don't care if he throws a tantrum!"

"You say that now, but when he sees your handiwork, your pay might be the least of your worries."

"Three times! Three damn times, we've had to fetch this tiny bitch!"

"We get it, you've said it enough! But you should have at least waited till we got back, we might have convinced him it was necessary."

"He won't give two beast shits about the other two, but this one's his prize. You better hope he doesn't attack you on the spot." 

"I'll tear out his slippery little tongue before he can utter a fucking spell. I'd rather deal with him that have the entire Spine of Arkor flooded with blood-mad dwarves!"

As the group passed directly under Darius and Haku, mere meters from their concealed position in the trees, Haku posed a question to Darius, 'What's their dispute about?'

'It seems this female dwarf has tried to escape before. Employing the rune is a practical measure from their viewpoint; her successful escape would cause serious consequences for those responsible.'

'Makes sense, so what's the issue?'

'In terms you'd grasp, her master considers her his...mate, though she likely has no choice in the matter. Scarring a woman's face is heavily frowned upon among most races.'

'Ahh, I see, but that seems like a trivial reason to be upset; she can still bear children with scars. Is this why you think they're insane? Do humans value surface beauty that much?' Haku raised an eyebrow, his earlier sense of respect diminishing slightly.

'No, you nitwit, well, yes, that's part of their argument. But consider this: it's one thing for a female dwarf to be enslaved—it's quite another for her to be enslaved and marked with that rune. I'd bet that the dwarves would rage, and skirmishes would occur if they knew of her enslavement. But once they see she's marked with that rune, their fear of the towers will evaporate, and full-scale war will erupt.'

A slow, creeping shiver crawled up Haku's spine as he grasped the gravity of the situation, 'You're right, we shouldn't get involved in this.'

'I've seen and heard enough. Let's leave this mess before it gets complicated,' Darius muttered, preparing to leap to the next tree. But just then, a particular exchange below snagged his attention.

"You better hope she doesn't struggle with the rune bein pregnant, that fool spent alot of time and crystals buying slaves and breeding her. Dwarf slaves aren't cheap, rare little cunts, aren't cha?"

"Disgusting long-limbed, stoneblind curs!" The iron dwarf spat venom, his outburst abruptly halted by a scream of agony as his slave rune blazed. Blood trickled down his face, yet through clenched teeth, he roared, "My child will not be born a slave!"

"Kahn!" Racing to the side of the now kneeling dwarf, the female collapsed beside him, her bound hands pressing against his chest. Her gaze burned with defiance as she glared at the knight, her own rune igniting in response to her rising fury.

Advancing with an aura crackling with flames, the knight's laughter reverberated through the woods. "Ah, now it makes sense! This one's got fire in her. Barely winces at the rune's sting, unlike this foul-mouthed clod."

 The knight rested his hand on the dwarf named Kahn's forehead. "Let me ease your pain," he said with mock sympathy.

A red light began to glow from the knight's gauntlet, the sound of sizzling mixing with Kahn's agonized screams as the metal heated to a glaring red.

'Darius, let's leave this place, I don't want to watch this... Darius?' Turning from the gruesome scene, Haku realized he was suddenly alone.

Whipping his gaze back to the group, shock etched across his features as he saw Darius, now positioned ominously behind the tier two fire knight.