Serum

“I feel something…”

As she walked down the street, a young woman spoke hesitantly, as if doubting her own words. 

She was a mystical beauty, her body shrouded by a layer of foggy distortion. It was difficult to concentrate on her. 

But that facade only lasted a few moments before disappearing, her figure returning to normal. This time, she looked a bit more average, not particularly standing out compared to everyone around her. It was only her eyes that remained as mystical as originally. They were large and vibrant, her left eye flashing with gold and her right eye flashing with a bright blue.

And the man next to her, having heard her words, gasped in dramatic concern. The large hat on his head swayed with his sudden movement, the singular massive feather sticking straight out its top fluttering. The rest of his clothing also flowed with his limbs, robes with colorful layers that made it seem like he was trying to make a fool of himself.

“Oh my, was it the cuisine from lunch? I knew there was something off about it.”

“No no, the lunch was fine. It’s a more… spiritual feeling. Like a storm is coming.”

“Ah! I see. We must start bringing umbrellas then. If there’s anybody’s intuition I had to bet my life on, it wouldn’t be yours, but yours would indeed be a close second!”

“...I suppose I’m grateful?”

The girl chuckled weirdly at the man’s odd remark. Then, she sighed as she glanced once more at the distant horizon. 

It was difficult to see, blocked by trees of untold proportion, but her gaze seemed to see through it anyway. 

Beyond the limits of her sight, she could sense a dark force approaching. It was like the incarnation of a bad omen was making its way into the peaceful Otherworld. 

But oddly enough, with that omen was also the beacon of salvation. Two extremes that she couldn’t seem to wrap her head around. How could both annihilation and hope come in a pair?

Then again, her feelings were vague in the first place. If not because she absolutely trusted her senses in regard to these matters, she would have disregarded it as some odd thought. Maybe she would have concluded that it really was just a sketchy lunch that was punishing her for taking a chance on some new food.

Shaking her head, she focused back on observing the people around her. Unlike a while ago, she could no longer see the normal liveliness of a prosperous city, but a heavy shroud over everyone’s faces, the lines of soldiers marching by not doing anything to help. 

But then, the man who was walking with her suddenly stopped, his face falling as the space around him unfolded. 

“Rycce.”

“Yes?”

“It’s them.”

“Oh…”

She let out a small sorrowful nod of understanding. 

At the same time, four people appeared from between the nearby buildings. They were clad in average clothes, but their auras were anything but. 

Another 8 people appeared on the rooftops nearby moments after. The threat they posed to the duo rapidly grew. 

While this happened, the girl, Rycce, lifted her arms. From them, white feathers bloomed, her body transforming. 

Her hair turned into a plume of lush white feathers, her fingers elongating slightly before her nails sprouted into sharp steely talons. Her pupils also dilated, every sight around her body, even the sights beyond her field of view, were captured like a high-powered camera. 

“Oh Deliha! Why must you bring such pain to my heart! To think that I left, and you would keep coming back…”

“Shut up! You think I want to be here?!”

With the man’s words, a woman emerged from the folds of space. Her face was twisted as she brandished a knife that hung from a chain. 

“And my name isn’t Deliha!”

“The sweet woman I once loved was named Deliha, but you’re right, she is no longer here. Now, all that stands before me is a poisonous vixen! You will not be able to steal my heart again!”

“Huhu, I’m going to have fun killing you…”

Deliha laughed as if in hysteria, maddened by the man’s antics. 

Around her, darkness grew as thorny vines sprouted from the ground, ready to latch onto someone and bleed them to death. 

On the contrary, the man seemed totally relaxed, the darkness around him far more faint. However, Deliha knew that he wasn’t someone to be trifled with. 

Despite the missing arm, he was a force of nature horribly in tune with Darkness. Everything about him screamed incompetence and irregularity. To Deliha, who was tutored by a real master in the dark arts, he was a complete joke. 

And so it made her hate him all the more since he could triumph over her with his mere magic. The only thing that gave her confidence was her Rank. 

But she wasn’t here for that joke of a man. 

Instead, her gaze fell on the girl as she took a quick glance. 

Rycce, contrary to her momentary sorrow at the start of the battle, was now slightly excited. Her heart began to race as her eyes widened even further, adrenaline pumping through her veins as if expectant of what was to come. She almost trembled in uncontained glee, her smile giving a hint of it. 

“How sad, but how fun. This is almost poetic. I quite enjoy following you, Garel.”

“Likewise, Rycce. The target on your back gives me the chance to take revenge for my long lost prodigious student! At least I know he’s safe, because not even this poisonous vixen could chain him down! Isn’t that right, Deliha, you snake!”

“My name isn’t Deliha! And I gutted him, just like I’m going to gut you!”

*BOOM*

Darkness exploded as Deliha shot forward. 

Her target, Garel, only smiled though. There was a small glint in his eye as he raised his hand. 

And then, it was like space locked. Deliha felt herself slow tremendously. The hairs on her neck tingled as her pupils constricted. 

“Advanced again? Fuck!”

“No no, just a new spell I discovered.”

Garel smiled as Deliha struggled. The combination of her strong body and dark magic allowed her to slip free, but she was instantly pressured.

And to the side, Rycce rose to the sky with a bound. Her arms spread, an illusory pair of white wings blooming from them. 

At the same time, the air around them stirred. However, all the nearby citizens didn’t even seem to notice the battle. 

Deliha looked around, feeling the odd mana permeate the atmosphere. When she looked at Rycce, she could only see unfathomable power. It was like she was the most powerful being on the planet, an existence that could match a Dragon. 

But she was far from that. If not for Garel, she would have been captured long ago. 

Deliha ignored those feelings of suppression that welled up in her soul, continuing her battle as the rest of her team jumped on Rycce. 

But just before they could make contact with her, Rycce divided into hundreds of forms. 

Shockwaves of air exploded as several white figures dashed into the depths of the city around them. Other clones stayed and fought, blasts of air magic slamming into the bodies of the lesser asuras. 

At first glance, each spell seemed to contain the power of a hurricane. But when it actually made contact with their bodies, it only felt like a kick to the chest. It wasn’t enough to hurt them, let alone kill them. 

“Ignore her attacks! Hurry up and capture her!”

Deliha screamed while dodging a lethal spike of acidic darkness. It stabbed right by her throat, the killing intent almost palpable. 

But Garel still had on a smile. He was enjoying the fight, not looking like he wanted to kill her. 

Of course, nobody so in tune with Darkness would be so light hearted. Even someone like Garel would contain a vast thirst for death. It was just that he seemed to only desire it for her. Otherwise, someone might mistake him for a pure hearted light mage. 

Deliha shuddered a bit as she felt the power behind each of his attacks. He didn’t even take so much as a single step, standing in place as space warped around him, diverting all of her attacks. 

They were supposed to be at the same level, yet he was completely suppressing her. Deliha knew that he was going all out, but she was also going all out to defend herself. 

“You should already know, snake.”

Garel suddenly spoke. By now, Rycce had disappeared. It was just that Deliha couldn’t worry about that. 

More than that, Garel’s rarely serious words seemed to stab right at her heart. 

“You are not my target. I’m not so foolish to blame you for being turned into what you are. Instead, I blame the one behind it all. Someday, whether Dirk is dead or not, I will have Asura’s head. For so much as attempting to hurt that child, to twist him into a weapon with no will of his own, I will herald unthinkable annihilation upon his existence. Unfortunately, you are merely a stepping stone to that end. I consider you insignificant in the face of my goal. For that and your circumstances which slave you, I apologize. But that will not stay my hand.”

“Shit!”

Deliha cursed as he finished, the feeling of death appearing to her back. 

Her muscles exploded with more power than they could handle, twisting her body and forcing blood to burst from her nose and mouth. 

Then, an invisible blade appeared. It tore through her side, cutting down her abdomen until it narrowly avoided her spine. 

The trail it left created a void in space, one that didn’t disappear. It seemed to slice through their dimension, the severance causing a suction force to appear. 

That force ruptured several of Deliha’s organs, almost causing her to outright pass out. 

But with her willpower forged through the hell of Asura’s mentorship, she gritted through it and activated a device. 

The device caused her figure to flicker before disappearing. The fissure in space disturbed it, but couldn’t stop it. 

Just like that, she was gone. Garel watched that and let out a long breath, his face pale from overexertion and the feather atop his hat trembling. 

But after finishing, he merely adjusted his collar before walking off into the city. 

“A good trial run. I should begin teaching this to her. But alas, nothing but her brother will be able to stave the hatred in her heart. Goodness, my wonderful student. Where might you possibly be? We could use the grace of your presence soon.”

……

…

“Oh no.”

“What?”

Dirk suddenly looked up, his face marred with a frown. 

Pandora looked at him curiously. They were both studying their magic in their room. 

Dirk trembled just slightly.

“We should turn around.”

“Huh? What’s up with you?”

“The Otherworld contains a great danger.”

“What? No way! How could that be?!”

Pandora gasped in horror, her chest recoiling in shock. The sight caused Dirk to barely hold back a chuckle. 

But the dark feeling he just got was still vivid. It faded after a few moments, but it still made him uneasy. 

“I just had a feeling. And I wouldn’t necessarily call it danger. Just a bad omen.”

“Well, we’re going in blind. I can’t give you enough knowledge to reassure you, but I at least know that we’ll be prepared to react.”

“...Sure.”

Dirk just nodded. The feeling he got wasn’t caused by the deep waters they were throwing themselves into. He couldn’t pinpoint it, but he was pretty sure what that feeling was caused by. 

There was only one person who could make him feel so uneasy. 

Dirk shook his head and sighed. Despite what he had prepared himself to face, this trip might actually be more than he bargained for. 

With that, he went back to experimenting. 

Dirk stood in the center of the large suite. Around him, his Domain exerted its influence. Despite it being perfect and an already massive boost to his strength, it wasn’t as powerful as it could be. Perfection didn’t mean it couldn’t be upgraded. Dirk could see the ways it could be improved, but those improvements would need to be worked on over a long period of time.. 

After his advancement, Dirk’s magic, although becoming a far stronger tool, was still primarily supplementary to his physical abilities. His control over Aura and the damage he could cause with it was simply better. It was sharper, faster, and more explosive. But now, his Domain and magic techniques were an irreplaceable part of his combat style no less important than his Aura. 

For one, his mobility was boosted several levels. 

Before, Dirk could take about 4 Void Steps, as he called them. When utilizing all four, four images of him would appear, all of them technically real. He used this move on Viola during their battle, and the confusion he caused had resulted in his win. 

But now, that number was instantly increased. 

Just with a casual test, Dirk was able to take 11 steps. Each one was harder than the last, and each step brought about more spatial distortion. 

After all, Dirk needed to overlap several points in space with his location. After overlapping them all, he would appear at all of them, and he could choose which one to step out from, completing the Walk. 

This meant that, if he used it correctly, he couldn’t be touched. Combined with his inhuman combat instincts, there was nobody he couldn’t outmaneuver. 

Unless, of course, they could interfere with his Steps. 

3 dimensional space was infinitely complex, which meant that there were an infinite amount of avenues to take that would bring you from one point to another. Neither Void Walking nor Dirk’s mutated version of it had the weakness of being easily intercepted and disrupted. It was simply too difficult to lock in on the folding of space and the creation of pathways. 

But if you simply solidified all of the space in the vicinity, then your opponent wouldn’t be able to warp it and carry out the Void Steps. They would need to overcome the strength of the solidification, and that required brute force. 

Of course, the prerequisite for doing so was being a dark mage. Otherwise you were helpless. But that was no excuse to not fix flaws and create counter-tactics. 

Dirk noticed that this was his weakness. If he encountered a strong enemy, the most important thing to do would be to escape, and his most powerful tool for mobility was Void Walking. If he lost that, then he would be in deep trouble. 

There was a need to prevent that from happening. Thankfully, he quickly figured out a way. 

He didn’t develop a new spell or alter his original Void Walking. Instead, he simply decided to rely on something only he had: Source Mana. 

His Dark Source Mana was his and his alone. His Domain utilized this property to drive out all Dark Mana, making him invincible against Dark Mages below and around his power level by simply expelling all their mana. They couldn’t so much as conjure a spell without his oppressive interference bearing down on all sides. 

But in the case where even his Domain could be overwhelmed, he would need to focus his Source Mana and use it to break through any form of spatial lockdowns, allowing him to escape. 

Of course, this was easier said than done. What he devised was still only theory. He would need to practice it for a while and actually create a technique. Until then, he could only avoid battles with strong dark mages. 

Besides that though, the second thing he focused most on was his Aura. 

Dirk’s control over Aura had so far progressed out of sheer force of will. While he was granted the ability to flow Aura by his blood destruction, sharpening it into a weapon he could use took his own ability. 

It had only grown stronger over time. He slowly developed it his own way, not utilizing any techniques and only taking in the teachings that his mother passed down. Yet, even then she didn’t have the ability to wholly guide him. 

Dirk didn’t even practice weapon techniques. To any trained swordsman, he was an amateur and an embarrassment who didn’t deserve to wield a weapon like the Sword of Dissonance. 

But on the other hand, Dirk believed that those people who focused on honing their technique were too rigid in their application. 

He believed in versatility. He needed to be able to adapt to any situation that arose. He should be able to exert his full power no matter what weapon was in his hands. To rely on a single weapon, a single sword, was asking to die. That kind of dependence was unacceptable, and Dirk kept no shortage of weapons stashed away in his pocket ring. 

Even if he didn’t have a weapon, he had his magic. If he couldn’t use his magic, he would use his fists. If he lost those, he would use his legs. He would stop at nothing short of biting someone’s throat out if it meant he would survive. 

That sort of survival instinct was what preserved his life as a supersoldier, and the versatility made him the best at what he did. 

So Dirk didn’t train with just the Sword of Dissonance. While it was currently the most powerful weapon he had, and the sword was also his preferred weapon, he also trained with others like the spear, axe, bow, knives, and several variations of them. He even trained with a staff, just in case he was stuck in the forest with nothing but a stick. 

To many, what he was doing was nothing short of idiotic. By spreading himself out like that, he would never be able to become great at anything, remaining mediocre at everything. Only by honing your skill with one weapon would you be able to bring its power to the pinnacle. 

But perhaps a few would be able to glimpse the kind of path he was treading. After all, his logic wasn’t flawed. Versatility was the best trait to have. It was just that this kind of world of extreme power levels didn’t often allow that kind of path. 

And they also knew it wouldn’t be easy. In comparison, bringing a single weapon to the pinnacle was far easier than what Dirk was doing. 

And thankfully for him, one of those wise people happened to be nearby. 

While training, Dirk suddenly heard a voice in his mind. Without any change in his expression, he left the room, Pandora too focused on her magic to notice, or care. 

And he arrived in a dedicated training facility aboard the Sky King, finding a single man dressed in the garb of the Shadow Troop, yet his identity being further above it than anyone could imagine. 

Dirk greeted him. 

“Spear King.”