R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 48 (Patreon)

R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 48 (Next chapter on Mar 21)

In a place far from the Sanctum, cold, dreary waves of rain pelted down, showering hundreds of jagged mountains with freezing bolts of water. These mountains carried with them a sense of dread that seemed to welcome with the grey atmosphere of the storm above.

In the midst of these mountains was a Dragon.

“Hasin… soroth… talsumna…” A Skeletal Dragon’s voice rasped out into the air, drawing on the Mana within its body to cast a Spell. Cool, blue light began to flutter around its head, lighting up the deep, dark recesses that made up its eyes.

If Micheal had been present he would have instantly recognized the creature. It was none other than the Draconic Lich that haunted the Dragon Mountains and had attacked him when he crossed through the Tansol Pass.

The monstrous creature stood 8 meters tall, with a body that was longer than 15 meters. It had two massive, boney wings that ended with hooked spikes. Two long, pointed horns adorned its reptilian head and hundreds of jagged teeth jutted up from its mouth.

“Harraghh.” The Skeletal Dragon shivered for a moment before abruptly transforming, blue light covered it in a flash.

A moment later, the figure of a small, Skeletal Lich emerged.

“That Toren bastard… that Human rat…” The Draconic Lich Hrasthfur muttered to itself, its words tinged with anger.

“He may have hidden inside a Human body… but I know a Toren when I smell one.”

The Lich clenched its fists as it thought back to an incident from many weeks ago.

After Hrasthfur caught the scent of a Toren, the Lich had immediately flown into a rage and did its best to hunt it down, to no avail. The scent it smelled had been so faint that the Lich lost track of it after only a few hours, allowing it to escape.

Hrasthfur had thought he’d lost his chance entirely at finding a Toren… but to his utmost surprise, when he had been in the midst of a rampage to take out his anger… he caught the scent of the same Toren.

This time, however… the scent was a hundred times stronger.

Hrasthfur had abandoned everything he was doing to rush North towards the Toren he felt, finding it in only half an hour.

“What did that human call himself? Prime? And that mishappen Toren…” It sent Hrasthfur into a rage just thinking about it.

“Those fools were clearly trying to kill each other! Why the hell would they team up as soon as I arrived?!”

His ramblings and whines came off immature, but the Draconic Lich had good reason to complain.

It was the fault of the Torens in the first place that he was trapped here in the Dragon Mountains, in his undead form, both unable to leave and unable to die.

“Haa…” The Lich’s eyes glowed as it shook its head.

“Hasin… soroth… talsumna…” It muttered, casting the same Spell it cast every day, over and over.

Light glowed out from the Lich’s eyes… but this time, something had changed.

That light wasn’t blue… it was red.

The Draconic Lich froze for several seconds, its body not daring to move. The quiet patter of rain was the only thing that could be heard for several seconds, a tense silence forming.

A split second later, the Lich abruptly transformed back into its Draconic form, raising its skeletal wings high to the sky.

“Yes.”

The Undead Dragon trembled, its mighty bone wings shaking.

“YES!”

The mountain peak the Draconic Lich was perched upon shook, bolts of red energy blasting out into the air.

“YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES!”

The Draconic Lich lurched backward, its neck shivering as it laughed out loud.

“YOUR CHAINS ON ME HAVE BROKEN, SION!”

The Dragon’s voice echoed in the air, waves of energy causing the falling rain to distort and twist.

“TOREN.” The Draconic Lich rasped, its red eyes filled with madness.

“I.”

“SEE.”

“YOU.”

.. .. .. .. .. ..

After securing the Crown of the Angel King in his Spatial Ring, Micheal took a moment to look around the Greater Hall of the Soul King’s Treasury.

“Two more…” Micheal muttered, his eyes alight.

He began to walk through the aisles between pillars, going from Artifact to Artifact.

‘Hmm… I don’t see any individual Miracle Gems up here… those are probably in the Lesser Hall.’ He frowned for a moment.

“Isn’t there supposed to be some sort of magic box that has half-a-dozen Miracle Gems up here?” Micheal spoke to himself, his mind jumping backwards as he recalled distant memories, reports of the rewards people had obtained here in the Greater Hall.

“If I recall, I think the report said it was a gold-”

Michea cut himself off as, for no apparent reason, he shivered, a cold, unsettling sensation running down the back of his neck.

“What?” He muttered after a couple of seconds, frowning.

The sensation he had just felt was something he hadn’t felt in almost half a year… roughly since the time before he died and came back to the past.

‘My intuition just flared.’ Micheal’s eyes widened slightly.

If there was one particular talent Micheal possessed that was superior to most others, it would have to be his supernaturally powerful intuition.

‘Has my Soul grown enough that I can start drawing on my intuition again?’ He thought, his eyes lighting up.

If so, this was excellent news.

Micheal’s talent for his intuition was something that he hadn’t realized he’d possessed until his final few years in the first timeline.

It was because of this talent that he, someone who started late and wasn’t extraordinarily gifted in other ways, was capable of surviving to join Humanity’s Last Army. Strength of will alone could not solve every problem, especially here in the 7 Layers.

‘But why now?’ What he just felt now wasn’t his normal sense of intuition, things that applied to what he could observe around him.

It was the unsettling, supernatural sensation that… something… was happening.

A feeling that was hard to pinpoint, but powerful in effect.

“...I’m too slow?” Micheal muttered, shaking his head slightly.

Whenever he got these feelings in his first life, the warnings they gave were always hopelessly vague and never specific. It was merely a ‘feeling.’

But, every time he got these feelings, there was one thing he couldn’t ignore.

His intuition was never wrong.

“But why now?” Micheal repeated himself, checking his stats.

His Soul stat was 61, which, while far short of his Soul stat before he died, was still extraordinarily strong for a Human on the Second Layer.

“No… what if it’s not that my senses have grown strong enough…” Micheal murmured, his eyes darkening.

‘Always assume the worst.’

“What if its because something bad enough to trigger even my weakened Soul’s intuition is taking place?”

As soon as he had this thought, Micheal narrowed his eyes, his thoughts racing.

‘Am I just being paranoid? Well…’ He paused.

‘Paranoia is what kept me alive for so long.’

“Just in case…” Micheal nodded to himself.

As he nodded his eyes fell upon a small, golden box tucked away on a pedestal in the corner. Inside that box, several large, purple gemstones rested, nestled together tightly.

“There you are!” He recognized the appearance of Miracle Gems instantly, the ones in the box identical to the Miracle Gem he’d obtained from Yvvtal’s Inheritence.

Miracle Gems could magically modify the genetic and physical makeup of a being’s body, allowing normal humans like Sophia and Shin to gain powerful Physiques. It was one of the few ways a human could raise the natural potential of their body, and a vitally important part of his plans for the future.

“Excellent.” Micheal picked the box up without hesitation, grabbing it with his right hand and storing it in his Spatial Ring. As he did so, another of the glowing lines on his hand vanished, leaving only one line left.

“Alright.” He said, glancing from side to side at the many pedestals before him.

The Aritfacts in here could not be compared to the ones he’d obtained from Yvvtal’s Inheritence. Each item on any one of these pedestals contained miraculous powers, Artifacts that represented the secret wealth some of the strongest beings on the planet, accumulated over hundreds of years.

‘I had planned on taking my time and studying all the Artifacts in here before I made my final choice…’ Micheal thought, frowning again.

“It’s just a feeling but…”

‘It never hurts to be safe.’

“Let’s speed things along.”

.