Heir Of Chaos

Chapter 37: Pseudo-Ascended

The myriapod shook off the droplets of silver liquid dripping from its body then turned its small eyes to them.

It kept its eyes on them yet didn’t hiss or move.

Dale though, didn’t dare move. Perhaps the beast was blind or couldn’t see anything that reminded him — either one, he wouldn’t risk it.

The centipede suddenly snapped at its own body. Breaking through its own exoskeleton and feeding on the tender flesh beneath.

Black blood oozed out yet the beast didn’t stop brutalizing itself.

Once it lost an excessive amount of blood and up to half of its original body had been eaten, it weakly crawled back into the pool.

They were in the clear. There had been no attack but for some reason, Dale felt like the moment he tried to run, they would all die.

The surface of the pool broke again and the centipede stepped out healed and as good as new.

It wasn’t a surprise though.

The Theory of Mysticism class had made mention of two crucial facts about the Awakening pools — they only gave one ability and they healed.

The former only occurred during a first-time entrance while the second occurred as many times as one entered.

So, it seemed the beast had figured it out and was using the miraculous property of the pool to heal itself.

’But why?’

A frightening speculation popped into Dale’s mind. As far as the beast was concerned, it was the only Ascended material in the vicinity.

It needed not only to eat but to grow stronger, so why not kill two birds with one stone? Eat itself — an Ascended beast — then heal its body with the pool.

That way, it won’t expend any of its own energy and can, albeit indirectly, consume the energy within the pool to trigger an evolution.

Dale wasn’t stupid. Surely, even if the beast were blind it would have sensed them. It hadn’t attacked yet which was more troublesome.

Behind him, he could hear Trevor speak, "Is it self-cannibalizing?"

Unfortunately, that was indeed the case.

How many cycles of self-cannibalization had it gone through? How close was it to an evolution to whatever was beyond the Ascended rank?

Dale himself had no reason to believe in the existence of a rank above Ascended but still, he couldn’t be too careful.

Nonetheless, even if there wasn’t a rank above that, a beast at the very peak of what it meant to be Ascended was bound to slay them with ease.

’That damned bird!!’ It seemed that even its death throes had been part of a sinister ploy to kill them.

And for the bird to have teleported them there, it must have known the exact location of the centipede.

That meant that it had encountered and survived it... or alternatively just flown over it.

’Even if it survived doesn’t guarantee that we will. Unlike it, we can’t turn into an intangible mass of shadows.’

The centipede ripped its segments open and sucked on the tender flesh before barely managing to make it to the pool.

It stepped out again, as good as new and still not breaking eye contact with them almost as though it was expecting them to make a move. freewebnoveℓ.com

Unexpectedly, it was Trevor who stepped forward.

His Dormant ability skill was well known to be verbal commands.

The Awakened ability skill was quite different, really, it allowed him to assign adjectives to himself.

It wasn’t half as difficult to reach that level as people often thought. A standard case would be a rather simple sentence such as: ’She has a broken arm.’

In that sentence, ’broken’ serves as an adjective while being a verb. His commands were verbs so he could use them as adjectives.

The moment he realized that, he broke through the bottleneck holding all Dormant ability users and became an Awakened.

Now, he was about to do something similar.

Opening his mouth, he dismissed all other commands he had given the beasts to lull them to sleep, even sacrificing the ’safe’ adjective he put on himself.

He then muttered a single adjective to himself. "Ascended."

Dale’s eyes widened and the world seemed to slow down as though celebrating the birth of a new being.

’Did he just make himself an Ascended?!’ Surely Dale had misheard yet all signs were pointing towards the opposite.

The centipede stopped focusing on them and turned its attention to Trevor.

Gales of wind surged through the clearing and the skies darkened.

Trevor opened his mouth and the world seemed to slightly bend as he spoke a command to the centipede. "Die."

The segments of the beast seemed to get slightly discolored and its exoskeleton turned a little ashen.

Next, he assigned himself three adjectives: enduring, invincible, victorious.

His mouth opened for the last time but this time was different. There was no adjective or command spoken.

"Ephemeral." The epithet rolled off his tongue and the presence of the centipede seemed to diminish further but it still wasn’t extinguished.

The AIDE whispered in Trevor’s ears then once it got to the past mentioning his rank, it began to stammer.

[Welcome Trevor Ross to your AIDE]

[Ability Rank: Awak— Ascen—ed (Evolvable)]

[Ability Skills]

[Sovereign’s Tongue]

[Blessings of the King]

It continued like this until it finally settled on a single rank — a new skill following it.

[Ability Rank: Pseudo-Ascended]

[Title Bestower(Active): You are a King who can reward his subjects with titles of power or names of mockery. Choose wisely.]

[Bestow epithets to whomever you see fit.]

Trevor ignored the details of his new skill alongside the prefix attached to his new rank.

He wasn’t deluded as to expect his forceful power to permanently raise his rank but it was still a bit of a disappointment.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t as though his plan revolved around him being a true Ascended.

The centipede charged forward, twisting its body and snapping its mandibles.

After minutes of clear indifference, it seemed disturbed by Trevor’s newly displayed strength.