Burning Blood, Burning Soul

Nyx examined the skill window and let out a soft, amused laugh.

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“Stop teasing me,” I grumbled.

“A minute? Twenty seconds would be more than enough.”

Losing just forty percent of your blood was enough to trigger fatal exsanguination. Why did I know that so precisely? Because I had died more times than I cared to count while relying on Super Regeneration during my climbs up the Tower. It was a good thing I had only died inside the Tower. Thanks to those repeated deaths, I had grown quite accustomed to controlling my blood loss even when sustaining injuries.

“The Burning Soldiers keep that skill active at all times.”

An immortal army raised from ashes. The fiercer the flames cloaking their bodies, the stronger the Burning Soldiers became. It was a skill with terrible synergy for a living person like me. I could admit that much.

“I told you before—there is no such thing as a useless essence.”

Finally. I was just one step away from achieving Divine Blood.

Burning Blood served to burn away the impurities created when overlapping multiple essences. It was only possible because they all shared the common property of ‘blood.’ The last piece I needed was the essence of a holy relic, but…

“No can do. That one stays right here.”

I tapped the side of my head with my right hand. The power of Polar Night was versatile and useful in any situation. My proficiency was still a little lacking for it to serve as a main technique, and I needed to use Dark Shadow Soul-Chasing Sword to bring out its full power, but I couldn’t afford to remove an ability with so much room left for growth.

I had also refrained from adding Zeus’s essence to my Divine Blood for a different reason. It would have turned the attribute of my Divine Blood into lightning.

“You really do get me. Goddess.”

Divine Blood was a capstone essence on the same level as True Dragon Armor. Once I completed it and incorporated the resulting bodily transformation, I would be able to completely shake off the System’s restraints. The tech tree for shoving a spear through the Old Gods was finally within reach.

Uhehehe!

The Captain’s essence at least fell within acceptable parameters. It was a straightforward reinforcement spell specialized for fire attributes. The only downside was that you had to deploy additional formulas onto an already completed spell, but that wasn’t much of a restriction for me since I possessed Multi Spell.

“Yeah. If it hadn’t been, I would’ve had to hunt for more skull-marked ones and scour the area.”

“Whoa. You really do know everything.”

Nyx snorted at my admiration.

“If I’m lucky, the Myriad Commander. Anything beyond that would be too much.”

“The more skeletons there are, the more dangerous it gets.”

Seeing is believing. She would understand the moment she fought them herself. Without further explanation, I increased my speed. Since a battalion-sized force was roaming around, there probably weren’t any larger enemy groups nearby.

“Krrrrrk.”

“Krrk.”

It didn’t take long before we encountered more Burning Soldiers. Only one skull mark. I didn’t even need to descend to the ground; I simply used Thunder Wings to turn them all into dust, then devoured the corpses with Darkness Domination.

At this point it felt like I was using a vacuum cleaner to convert their race.

That’s a harsh comparison. That place was agonizing to breathe in unless you had heat resistance, fire resistance, or an affinity for the element. She was criticizing it without even having seen the true nature of the Burning Soldiers.

“Don’t raise flags like that.”

I glanced over my shoulder and muttered. That was when it happened.

Sudden crimson flames engulfed me. By the time my sixth sense activated, the inferno was already at my throat. I collided with the fire while wrapped in True Dragon Armor and explosive demonic energy.

Soldiers materialized alongside roaring flames. Three skull marks floated above their heads.

“Just unlucky.”

“No, I mean it. I really am unlucky.”

The enormous volcanic energy flowing through the ley lines was the source of the Burning Soldiers’ power.

“When that energy is released, at least a hundred of them pop out at once.”

“I was flying, so I didn’t notice.”

The land of fire was saturated with abundant flame mana. Even my Primordial Dragon Heart couldn’t detect the ley line flow hidden beneath that overwhelming energy. Detection was only a secondary option, not its main function.

Tsk.

“Talk about bad luck. Of all things, I get caught by a Myriad Commander-class entity.”

Roiling flames. They were the fire emitted by the Burning Soldiers linked to the Myriad Commander at the center. The situation was no different from being surrounded by three-star fire magic created through mere linkage. This was exactly why I hadn’t wanted to encounter a Myriad Commander.

I raised my output with Thunder God and scattered lightning across the ground. Each bundle of electricity that struck the earth carried enough force to reshape the terrain. They punched holes through the scarlet barrier and blasted through the heads and torsos of the soldiers standing on the ground.

When the lightning swept across the surface, some of the weapons in the soldiers’ hands vanished and massive shields appeared in their place.

The flames clashed with my lightning and held their ground without yielding an inch. They couldn’t nullify all the damage, so some of the current that leaked through still pierced the soldiers, but compared to the power that had wiped out an entire battalion it was nothing but a scratch.

A battalion ranged from one hundred to a thousand. No matter how many Burning Soldiers there were, they had all been reduced to powder by the lightning I’d scattered carelessly.

However.

That previous attack, even though I had used Thunder God, had only managed to kill about two hundred of them.

“The more of them there are, the stronger they become.”

At battalion scale each individual was roughly Gold-rank. At division scale their power rose to around Platinum. They lacked unique abilities or skills, so they were only half-complete, but when their numbers reached the tens of thousands, who cared if they were missing a few skills?

“Their roles diversify too.”

Spearmen, shieldbearers, archers, siege weapons, and more. The more their numbers grew, the more varied their armaments became. From what I could see, there were at least thirty thousand. That should be enough for them to use every type of weapon.

“They aren’t even corpses, so I can’t turn them into undead.”

I was also bound by the Myriad Commander’s restraint and couldn’t escape. The only way out was to slaughter every last one of them.

“Krrrrrk.”

At the Myriad Commander’s mutter, some of the soldiers nocked arrows. I said “some,” but the actual number was in the thousands.

The moment they released the fiery strings, flame arrows dyed the sky.

I wrapped explosive demonic energy around Dragon’s Wings and covered my entire body with the membrane. It was weaker than internal energy or aura, but its versatility was unmatched. When I strengthened it further with the Giant Divine Dragon’s Factor, the wings stood firm even against the downpour of arrows.

“I’m fine. I deflected th—ack?”

Pain exploded through my wings as if they were about to be torn off. My body plummeted toward the ground. Some of the fire arrows that refused to be erased by the demonic energy stretched out like ropes, connecting all the way to the earth. The Burning Soldiers grabbed those lines and yanked with all their strength.

Roughly counting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the ones clinging to me, there were at least a hundred. So they wanted a contest of strength?

I even used Monstrous Strength, whose efficiency had been raised by muscle engraving. I pulled on the arrows embedded in my wings.

Crack!

Muscles harder than steel repeatedly contracted and relaxed, squeezing out immense power.

“Hrrraaaah!”

With a shout I wrenched my arms upward. The Burning Soldiers were dragged along and lifted into the air. I slammed them down with all my might. Bones shattered with a sickening crunch as arms and legs broke.

“Krrrrrrk.”

This time it was siege weapons. Multiple rocket launchers—or rather, something resembling the traditional Korean fire cart—spewed countless flames from their muzzles. This place was already overflowing with fire energy.

“Ugh, this is getting annoying as hell.”

They were spamming unavoidable attacks in succession? I could escape with Shrink, but I held it in reserve.

“They’re an army.”

I had plenty of overwhelming force, but the Burning Soldiers organized into a myriad unit had many strategic options. Right now we had to trade blows and endure stubbornly.

“No. If I use that, even a graze will be fatal.”

The penalty of reducing every stat except the chosen one to 1 for one minute was far too dangerous on the land of fire. Even with True Dragon Armor active, if variables like the ones from earlier appeared, I wouldn’t be able to respond.

Hmm. This had become troublesome.

I weakened the power of the Thorns Missiles fired from range, then used the aura blade wrapped around my tail to individually swat down every attack that reached me.

This wasn’t going to work.

“I’ll have to change my approach.”

A dragonkin transformation that lowered the stat increase but dramatically extended the duration. Even so, raising all my stats by nearly half was no small boost.

I dove straight down, throwing a punch.

Using the ability I had gained from devouring the ogre’s essence, I devastated the entire area. A crater dozens of meters wide formed at the point of impact, and the shockwave from the punch spread even farther, grinding the Burning Soldiers who had been standing in tight formation into oblivion.

This still wasn’t enough. Lexy was a primordial species and had grown beyond her original rank thanks to my influence, but she didn’t have the power to fight tens of thousands of Burning Soldiers head-on. Therefore, I interfered with the summoning process using Black Wisdom.

The core of Void Projection was manifesting the essences I had devoured. Couldn’t I overlay a portion of them the same way Void Mirror temporarily transformed me into the form of a devoured essence?

The mechanisms of the two skills were completely different, so it should have been impossible. But now that my understanding had been elevated by Black Wisdom, I could do it.

Clatter!

Jet-black scales enveloped Lexy’s entire body.

“Kaooo?”

“A gift. Use it well.”

“Kao! Kaooooo!”

Even the flames strengthened by the effect of tens of thousands of gathered Burning Soldiers couldn’t harm the True Dragon Armor. I couldn’t guarantee it would block every additional attack at a hundred percent, but freeing her from the flames that gnawed away at vitality and stamina made using Black Wisdom worthwhile.

Blazing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠boulders flew in parabolic arcs. They weren’t rocks. They were masses of flame compressed to the limit with fire element. If aimed over a wide area, their firepower could incinerate an entire city. That much heat was being poured down solely to kill me.

“Krrrrk.”

The Burning Soldiers also advanced with spears in hand, ignoring whether the flaming masses fell or not.

“Goddess.”

Nyx manifested on Lexy’s back and enveloped the surroundings in Polar Night.

It was a good decision to inscribe the Archlich Lord’s essence through fragmentation. My head was spinning at full speed. On the land of fire where cold spells lost power, I deployed two at once to balance their strength.

I detonated it among the flaming boulders falling from above.