Tamer of Cosmic Beasts

<Carnage Prison>

Akash's eyes were closed as he was recalling the method of practicing the Tyrannical Body of the Gods. Stage 1 was called the Mortal Body. It required the practitioner's body to be refined by fire continuously for 1 year. Akash opened his eyes.

"This will hurt me a bit."

Akash was no longer afraid of pain after going through those blood transfusion evolutions. He was able to bear every sort of physical and mental torture, but there was one thing that made Akash worry. That was that he would have to restart the process of the whole stage if he died during the body refinement process within 1 year, even if it's just one second before completion. After 1 year, his body would break through to the first stage and his cosmic powers would rise as well.

Akash's breakthrough method was very different from other tamers if he mastered 1/3rd of the skill. He would automatically break through from the 1st Moon to the 2nd Moon of the realm. And if he could master 2/3rds of it, he would achieve the 3rd Moon. Finally, when he would completely master the skill given to him, he would break through to a new realm. Currently, refining his body into stage 2 would advance him from the 1st Moon to the 2nd in the 1st Star realm.

Akash remembered the Volcanic Mountain in the dukedom of Golden Panther. Then, he informed everyone before moving there. He prohibited everyone but Golden Panther from following him as he was the appointed duke of the area.

Both king and his loyal duke crossed the forest carefully as Akash still wondered about the strange beast he witnessed before. They climbed up one mountain before descending down to climb another one until Akash looked at his companion and nodded, the latter did the same before Akash leapt. The Sage Scholar then reached the area of a cave, where the body of purple-striped scorpion was.

Out of curiosity, Akash peeked inside the cave, but nothing was there anymore. After Razi Tea threw away the boulder that blocked the entrance, another beast likely found and ate the body of the scorpion.

Akash didn't have the time nor any reason to weep over the scorpion's death, so he continued to scale upwards without any unnecessary delays Now, he was finally feeling the heat as his body was sweating profusely.

Regardless, soon enough he reached the area where some fire beasts were resting, absorbing the free-flowing energy from the Fire Law, naturally created by the volcano. Akash understood that this height was their limit. These beasts couldn't climb any further, yet his destination was still far away as he looked above to the peak.

Akash squinted his eyes to see a dragon or a fire dragon, to be more precise. It was resting at the very top of the mouth of the mountain. He licked his dry and battered lips and gulped, feeling his dry throat as well. He soon successfully reached the top and his skin had become red because of the heat. His clothes started to burn as well, when the dragon felt his presence and looked at him. He then stood up, showcasing his 94-meter height along with the rest of his black body, covered with yellowish spots throughout. Then, he spoke.

"You fool, what are you doing here? Get back down or you'll be turned into fried meat in mere seconds."

Paying no heed, Akash continued to stare at the dragon.

"I know very well what I'm doing, so I'd appreciate you keeping your mouth shut."

"You have quite a big mouth for a 1st Star tamer. I have been cultivating here for centuries. Nobody has dared to disturb me except you, you deserve to be pun..."

The dragon was about to say something but stopped as a strange fear soon formed in his eyes. He then immediately apologized.

"Apologies for my rude behaviour, I've kept myself isolated for so long that I forgot basic manners. Do whatever you with here, I'll make sure nobody disturbs you."

Akash couldn't understand the dragon's sudden change in demeanor, so he quickly opened his profile.

[Specie: Lava Dragon (Beast)

Realm: 3rd Moon, Star Prince

Bloodline: Star Emperor nobility rank

Learnt Laws: Wind Law, Earth Law, Poison Law

Inborn Laws: Fire Law (Awakened), Martial Law (Awakened)]

This was the 2nd strongest beast Akash had seen in this prison, next to that representative female owl. Afterwards, Akash stood on the bank of the volcano as he asked the System

.

"Is this amount of heat good enough?"

*beep*

[No, The King has to go down into the volcano. This heat is hardly even half of the required amount.]

Hearing this, he sighed, clenched his fist and jumped on a boulder 10 meters above lava, orange in colour. The smoldering heat changed the surroundings the deeper he went, charring the rocks around him. The dragon flinched as he saw Akash going down there nonchalantly, so he yelled.

"Wait, no! It's dangerous down there!"

Soon, Akash was lost in the volcano, the searing waves of heat blurred his vision. The dragon couldn't see Akash clearly, but he could still feel his presence.

"He is still alive. My instincts were right, he really does seem to have a pure dragon bloodline in him. Even stronger than mine..."

He murmured.

~PSSSHHHH~

The moment Akash stepped on the boulder, both of his feet melted and he let out a loud and painful cry. The dragon jerked again before looking below out of curiosity. Akash died on the spot.

*beep*

He revived himself, but the scorching torridity killed him again.

<2 weeks later>

Akash had died and revived continuously with no end. There was some progress though as he was able to stay alive for half an hour now. His body was starting to absorb the heat slowly, he was getting slight progress. Nevertheless, he was still unhappy as Abran was in danger while he was slowly training here.

As the King, he had to be powerful as well. He didn't want to just bind them as slaves with the power of the System. He wanted to be the type of ruler whose followers always looked up to him as a role model and in this world, only power could achieve that.

Then, amid glossy fire, Akash thought of an idea and quickly asked the System.

"System, can I practice in my evolved form? Would it still count then?

*beep*

[The King can practice in any form he wants as long as he doesn't use the System's healing or revival. Everything else is allowed.]

Getting the confirmation, he immediately transformed. His skin turned into milky-white dragon-like scales while retaining his human-like toned muscles, growing taller in the process. His blue eyes turned elliptical and his hair began to resemble needles as pitch-black claws grew out of his nails. Akash didn't bring forth Ancestor Sparrow's wings though as they used up too much cosmic powers.

He felt that the heat was no longer as damaging, his skin was still burning and popping but it was endurable now. Akash gritted his teeth to withstand the pain and took out a glass bottle from his inventory before quickly gulping down the liquid inside, to avoid its evaporation or the glass tube from bursting due to the heat.

The glass tube carried the blood drops of Mystic Unicorn, so he drank it as per the skill's method. Out of the 3 materials, the 1st one that needed to be taken was the unicorn's blood. It had the best healing abilities. Additionally, one of the many qualities of Mystic Unicorn's blood was its painkilling effect. It decreased the pain to a certain extent and Akash felt the difference. Even though his skin was showing signs of burning, the pain was slightly lessened.

He hurried and took out a box that had the seeds of undead trees before wolfing them down quickly. The seeds turned the cells of the eater into undead cells, preventing any virus or disease from harming them and now, he was experiencing that very effect.

The last and the deadliest part of the process was the venom of the Purple-Striped Scorpion. Akash drank the 2 drops he squeezed out from the dead scorpion. Two holes were immediately visible on Akash's tongue, showing how potent the venom was.

It burned him and like a virus, it soon spread throughout his entire body, targeting each cell. Then slowly and gradually, he felt the burning on his tongue spread everywhere the venom went. This type of ubiquitous and chronic pain would drive any normal person to madness. Thankfully, Akash was by now used to that brand of suffering, so he was managed to hold on.

The seeds of the undead trees that Akash took were solely used to prevent the cells from getting infected. Now, Akash could refine his outer body and inner organs within the blazing heat.

~4 months later~

Akash was still inside the volcano with his eyes were closed, now getting used to the heat. Soon, he felt something and opened his eyes. He was witnessing a strange occurrence in front as the fire turned into very thin threads and wiggled around. Akash was clearly able to see those strings and their movements as the flames were moving around and towards him. The thread of flame coming towards him was like the rest of them, irregular and chaotic. Akash grabbed the fire thread and moved it, changing the entire course of the flame. His eyes widened as he realized he was now controlling them and that could only mean one thing...

*beep*

[The King has successfully awakened his inborn Fire Law.]