Chapter 831 - Truly, a royal gift

The Leviathan dodges the beam by going underwater, and the surface of the lake instantly turns calm.

My vessel, manifested behind me, grows in size as I expand [Eclipse] to entirely encompass the beam of mana that I now hold frozen in the air. The vessel, now three times as tall as me and consisting of only an upper body, buries its hands inside the beam. Using the mana contained within, it manifests a sword and pulls it free. Five colored this time. A dark blue blade with wisps of purple and light blue, and a golden and white core.

I ignore all the fish attacking me as Mapthaniel takes control of the vessel and swings at the enormous fish, cleanly cutting through each of them.

Mana attacks aimed at me pulse out and weaken, wildly crashing against me and my vessel as a storm of dust-like particles of mana. Meanwhile, I stare down at my feet, tracking the Leviathan’s enormous mana signature.

There are just a few seconds during which I will be able to handle the entire output of the heart, even with most of the strain moved onto the vessel, so I better make the best out of it.

A pulse of my mana expands over a several mile area and then bounces back to me, informing me of the position of every one of the boys and all the fish. It is something I share with Mapthaniel. Then, the entire frozen beam of mana breaks apart and combines with the mana I have redistributed from the heart. All of it, like a torrential wave, crashes against the lake and pierces into it, expanding and attacking the Leviathan that swims there, gathering more and more mana.

Another of my arrays is prepared, and so while swinging the sword, my vessel frees one of its arms, reaching into the air and drawing an inscription with glowing mana at the tip of the finger. Continuously, I expand [Weave] wider, growing it in size as my domain devours what remains of the Leviathan’s presence on the surface.

[Weave - lvl 16 > Weave - lvl 17]

[Weave - lvl 17 > Weave - lvl 18]

The Leviathan’s and my mana clash against each other again at the same time as the vessel finishes drawing and pokes a woven array. It activates just once, flashing, expanding, and influencing just a single wavelength of mana. The one the Leviathan was using to teleport.

The vessel stays on the surface as I push myself underwater with a blast of kinetic energy that sends a geyser of water exploding. All the mana I sent there and that I possess redistributes, turning back to golden thermal energy. The powerfully beating heart in my chest generates more of it, and I instantly evaporate a wide bubble of water, turning it into an empty space with me floating in the middle.

Another attack shoots at the charging Leviathan, bouncing off its armored head. Even unable to teleport anymore, it flies as if it swims, and dozens more arms appear around it, these ones made of mana. They clash against the golden flames, which I turn into the shape of arms as well.

The surface of the lake explodes again as my vessel dives in, and Mapthaniel hands the control back to me as it moves behind my back. My output instantly increases, and the strain of the amount I was handling without the vessel lessens to a great extent. The waterless bubble triples in size, as does the number of golden flaming arms. They begin to tear apart the mana arms, burning them, and the heat continues to rise, with some of the scales on the Leviathan cracking under the output of the Champion grade thermal heart.

Blood drips from my finger, elongating and getting coated in a flickering mana as well as golden and white light as I combine it with [Empyrean Lance].

Another pre-prepared array triggers, sending a pulse of [Eclipse] that drains the colors from the air and, for a split second, pushes away the monster’s [Mana Domain]. In quick succession, I use [Redistribution] to turn all the flames back to mana and then use that mana to power [Eclipse] once again, turning the place entirely black and white.

Within this near colorless place, a lance speckled with my blood roars ahead with an explosion of kinetic energy that, because of the sheer amount injected with, escapes my control, throwing me to the side and eating a good chunk of my shoulder.

Neither me nor the Leviathan is able to track the brilliant lance. Just for a moment, there is a light, and then it is gone. A hypersonic boom ripples multiple times in a row, breaking my eardrums and pushing away the water as well as evaporating it. Then follows the sound of a violent, low frequency thump that feels like a punch.

The maelstrom that is the Leviathan's body comes to a halt as a hole appears through the exact middle of its head, where the armored scales are thickest. All of its mana escapes control as its body begins to twitch and human arms spasm. The fish opens its mouth in a soundless scream as it twists and coils onto itself.

It stops moving for a second. Then its enormous heart beats again. The head closes its eyes, and something else takes over. Just the impulses and instincts of the body.

Where the mana control previously carried a rough beauty and skill, it now becomes merely crude. The pulsating heart beats louder and stronger, each pulse sending much more mana through than before, damaging the body and seeping into the area. But that is it, just a huge amount of mana roughly handled. Gone is the beauty.

The seal over my Ignition falls back into place, and its wild thumping against the inside of my chest weakens as I take the mana that remains from it and move it to the crown over my head, which calms down as well. My vessel disappears as well, leaving just me and the mindless body that throws itself about like a living nuclear plant generating mana.

Regalia surrounds me and grows in size to face the airplane sized monster that I grab. [Eclipse] stops the mana radiation from reaching me, and my eyes break it into tiny particles that I take over and feed to my crown.

We are thrown through the water at high speed, with the Leviathan not even biting, just smashing its head against me while its hands twitch as if in spasms to tear my armor apart. I form a sword in one of Regalia's hands and cut into its head.

My senses break through the natural barrier, and I find a second, smaller brain. Twisting and throwing the body to the side, I reach it, bury Regalia's hand where it is, and destroy it as well.

[You have defeated Leviathan Fish - lvl 461]

[Lvl 419 > Lvl 420]

[Lvl 420 > Lvl 421]

[Lvl 421 > Lvl 422]

[Lvl 422 > Lvl 423]

Finally, the body slows down, not moving anymore.

For a while, I stay there, breaking apart and taking all the mana I can get and feeding it to my crown.

When I'm finished, I convert a burst of mana into kinetic energy to launch myself back toward the surface, hauling the body and head with me. I break through the water to land on the calm lake, walking across the surface as I pull the remains behind me.

Regalia shrinks before disappearing entirely, to be stored as an array by one of my subminds as I look around. There is still some fighting going on, but it mostly seems to be over, with the boys mostly competing over who can get more of the fish. Though some will likely not be usable at all with the amount of damage they caused.

Out of curiosity, I drop a few more droplets of my blood onto the surface, but this time I get no reaction. It seems there are no more fish available, but looking at how many of them lie around, I won't complain.

When the last one dies, Morwag, Weslin, Savant, and Brich all move closer. They show hints of the fight we went through, but all are without any serious wounds and are more than combat ready.

"You should tell your guide not to move out yet," Savant says, still holding the Sword of Aeons in his hand with the white wing behind his back. The orange light from his domain continues to flicker about as I track his gaze against the body of the Leviathan Fish.

That huge body begins to twitch, and Savant charges with both kinetic energy and mana. He stabs the sword to the side, but it is already too late as the side of the Leviathan explodes into gore. Scales fly away, and blood and organs are gouged out as something fast escapes, landing against Morwag, who lifts his arm as it bites into his forearm.

It is a lynthari with two tails and a body and face entirely covered in tattoos. Looking at the color of the skin and the look it gives, I immediately identify the lynthari as a lurker.

[Reanimated Corpse - lvl ???]

Morwag flings his arm, and the lynthari flies to the side, moving like an animal and ducking under Weslin’s attack.

A lurker that the Leviathan must have eaten. Now that the fish is dead, the lurker's heart beats out, generating mana once again without the enormous mana pool of a Leviathan Fish suppressing it.

As Savant attacks it again, the lurker teleports away and then once again. Every time he takes a step to move, the air in front of him wavers as if the space changes, and it teleports. In a way that is similar to Ruby’s. And the more mana the lurker gathers, the farther and faster it teleports and the stronger it becomes.

But it doesn't run away yet. It teleports through my disruption and avoids Morwag’s charge only to crash into the Leviathan’s body, piercing through to the other side. When it appears there, the lynthari holds the core, the most valuable part of the fish.

The thought of observing the way the lynthari teleports escapes my mind as all my effort goes into disruption. This time, I succeed, and the teleport cancels halfway. Savant tracks the exit somehow, already waiting there with a sword he swings at the lurker.

The lynthari bites into the blade, and the core it holds glows, sending a pulse of torrential mana that pours out an enormous amount. Savant tries to attack, but the lynthari steps back, almost pulling the sword out of Savant's hand.

I react slowly as I observe with fascination how the lurker takes control over the mana generated by the core and its own body. I observe the wavelengths, finding an easy way that I could choke it out. It is a fascinating way of handling mana, yet weak somehow. The kind that dies off easily, in contrast to a greater mana pool. That is likely why it ended in the belly of the Leviathan for who knows how many years.

The lynthari uses teleportation powered by the entirety of the mana he gathered, and I track the way it does that.

"Duncan will take care of the fish," I say to the others as I connect to the remains of the teleport. I send more mana through to keep it open, widen it, and prepare to follow through as I turn to the rest. "I want to see where it wants to run away. Are you coming?"

Weslin shakes his head and stops by my side with less excitement than Morwag. Even Savant and Brich lower their natural barriers.

Then I teleport us through, tracking the lynthari. The distance is much longer than I would have expected, with a few stops along the way as the lurker had to pause to gather more mana. However, I have no such need and power it from my reserves only, the environment around us shifting and shifting. It weaves through ambient mana and sometimes passes through what feel like invisible mana rivers and many arrays not set by the locals or attendees.

The ways the lynthari skillfully uses the environment to teleport such great distances are new and fascinating to me, so I’m learning as much as I can.

At a point, I begin to estimate the direction we head and the lengths of the teleports, and my heartbeat speeds up. Looking at the others, I am not the only one.

When we finally stop, there is the darkness of a cave and a soft male voice that speaks.

"Aahhhhhh, so you have finally returned from your mission. Just how many decades has it been? I thought I had lost you, you, one of my favorite puppets." The voice stops before speaking again. Now, the way it reflects sounds like it speaks in our direction. "And you even brought a guest. A gift. Oh yes. They can come, but they can not leave. Puppets. Great puppets. Very impressive ones. Shining even more than you used to during your life. And there is something else as well. Truly, a royal gift."

My thermal cube manifests and spins, lifting up into the air and generating more and more of a gentle orange golden light. It fills not a cave, but what seems like the inside of an enormous body, with huge organs hanging all around that I can't even recognize. Flesh and bones and a wet, fleshy, unmoving surface we stand on.

And the lynthari stands next to the dark figure. It has wide open, unblinking eyes that are entirely red, whites, pupils, all of it. And the entire figure is black. It has the proportions of a shriveled human body, but I can't pick up more details. It is just entirely black.

[Dhampir Lord - lvl ????]

The figure shows no mouth, but I can feel the smile in its voice as the red eyes turn to Brich. "Truly a most welcome surprise. My master’s sword, his fragment, his bond, his power manifested."

Before any of us can move, the figure stands next to Brich. The lumoran can’t even react before his body is flung to the side in an explosion of blood, pieces of armor, and failed automatic defenses. And at the place where Brich stood, the Dhampir Lord stands, holding Calvorn, which begins to chuckle as the blade splits out to reveal teeth and a long tongue.