Free Web NovelChapter 115: Gate guardian
Chapter 116: Gate Guardian
The Gate seemed to expand in size, becoming bigger and far more imposing.
The sudden increase in size did not seem to be because the Seed’s rank had increased—no, it was because of something way worse.
The Gate Guardian was bigger than the Gate, thus, the Gate expanded to allow it passage.
The dark wings of the terrifying beast were the first thing that be seen, followed by its horned draconic head.
The dragon was completely dark, with scales so black that they looked like they were forged from true darkness. Each of its mighty wings dwarfed the tallest building in NQSC, and at its full size, the dragon itself dwarfed skyscrapers.
Its eyes were glowing crimson as they locked onto the three beings in front of it.
There was an Ascended Titan in the shape of a human, holding many bizarre things in its soul and various shapes. That thing—it was not a being. It was an object in the form of a being, neither belonging to corruption nor ascension... For the first time since its corruption, the ancient being felt confusion to what that thing was.
There was an agent of death as well, with a broken soul. Hundreds of screams could be felt from the depths of her soul, which had consumed thousands of creatures.
Then, there was the Transcendent being, standing calmly in the distance. That being was of equal rank as the dragon, sharing similar powers to it.
Nightmare Creatures did not perceive ranks the way humans did, however they did recognize the difference when it came to the hierarchy of powers of different beings.
The dragon did not like having its authority challenged, and so, it automatically attacked the most powerful being it saw.
Cor looked at the gargantuan dragon with calm eyes, standing strong with his arms behind his back, completely covered in the blood of its minions.
The dragon was a terrifying being—a Corrupted Tyrant with vast and dreadful powers. However, Cor himself was a terrifying being as well.
He was a Transcendent who had conquered the First Nightmare, becoming a Sleeper, survived the Winter Solstice, becoming an Awakened, conquered the Second Nightmare and became a Master, then finally, conquered the Third and became one of the few Saints of humanity, who numbered only in the dozens.
He had seen far more terrifying existences than this dragon, and so naturally he was not afraid. But that did not mean he was not wary of its powers, as Cor was not powerful enough to dismiss this being entirely.
’no matter how terrifying it is, it must die today’
Cor summoned his twin hammers, each engraved with the symbol of a raven, and watched as the dragon exploded forward, flying towards him at a terrifying speed.
The old Saint circulated his soul essence through his body, augmenting himself beyond his limits. His body felt like it was on fire, as power rolled through Cor’s muscles.
At the same time, his mind was also enhanced by his essence, making him think faster, perceive things better, and enhance all of his mental attributes.
Cor’s Memories were simple, yet complex. The old Saint had gotten his twin hammers after battling a nasty Corrupted abomination with lightning abilities—naturally, the Memories inherited that lightning enchantment, making them much more powerful then regular weapons.
His earrings, on the other hand, possessed an augmentation enchantment that effected his body and soul, making him even more tenebrous.
Wake of Ruin launched forward like a missile, easily reaching beyond subsonic speed as he leaped towards the dragon.
He got closer to the dragon, appearing right in front of its mouth ready to slam the hammers into its face, and then, Cor suddenly dismissed his hammers and became a horde of crows, assuming his Transcendent transformation and passing through the Tyrant as each crow drifted into a different direction.
The crows reassembled quickly on the back of the dragon, forming into Cor, then two hammers manifested in his arms once again as he swung them directly at the creature’s head, hammering its head over and over with hundreds of blows in mere moments, causing electricity to spread through its body.
That was a neat little trick he had developed as a part of his battle art. Cor was proficient at aerial battles, but he could not allow his human form to grow weak, so he had created this trick of switching between his human form and Transcendant form to gain incredible results.
The dragon roared in pain, then it soared towards the skies, flying higher and higher it desperately tried to remove the hateful creature on its back.
And eventually it did, as dark spikes of darkness manifested on its scales, stabbing into the Transcendent warrior and making him retreat in pain.
Cor assumed his Transcendent form once again, as the dragon turned around and clashed with him, exchanging thunderous blows in the sky.
’True darkness... How terrifying...’
Dragons were a rare breed of Nightmare Creatures in the dream realm, but they did exist and humanity knew about them. Numerous reports had documented their behaviors, origins and abilities, even if the reports were fragmented and incomplete most of the time.
For example, Jest and Warden of Valor had encountered a dragon during the early days of the Nightmare Spell and managed to kill it.
Furthermore, there were Saints who had draconic transformations who could offer valuable insight on the nature of dragons, such as the now deceased Saint Cormac.
Dragons were known to possess elemental affinities to fire, ice, water, air, and earth. Some had affinities to more esoteric elements such as light and poison, but there has never been a dragon with an affinity to true darkness.
True darkness was as rare as shadow affinity, after all, with only Saint Revel of Song being knowledgeable about it.
’How troublesome...’
The dragon was not a Titan, so it could not influence the world like they do, but the true darkness it possessed was currently clouding Cor’s Transcendent senses and blinding him.
Its darkness also seemed to reach the soul, as Cor felt a sudden creepiness find its way through his soul.
Each of his crows delivered devastating strikes, flying at high speed and slamming their sharp beaks into the abomination in a clockwork rotation.
At the same time, four of his crows were placed in different positions—one above, one below, one to the left, and one to the right—forming an octahedron shape.
Each crow would occasionally dive in, deliver a sharp attack, and then another crow would replace it, making sure the four positions were always safe and making it so injured crows could retreat to safety instead of being destroyed.
This was done for a few reasons: mainly to have full sight of the abomination from all directions, making cor able to study its behaviors through his Transcendant mind, and to keep at least three crows safe at the same time while the other crows were engaged in direct combat.
It was one of the many tactics involved in Saint Cor’s Transcendent battle art, making it extremely useful against Titans.
This creature, however... Was a stubborn one. Its powers were simply too much, as it seemed to never run out of soul essence, constantly unleashing projectiles of true darkness.
Cor was dodging most of them, but more than a few had managed to hit his crows, damaging and killing several of them. His Transcendent transformation was no different from his real body—the more he was damaged, the closer he came to the cold embrace of death.
He could survive with only one crow remaining, but he wouldn’t be able to assume his human form then, not until he was healed and able to generate more crows.
His Transcendent form was extremely hard to kill, requiring the extermination of every single one of the myriad crows, but that also meant causing major repercussions for Saint Cor if the swarm suffered heavy losses. The government Saint excelled in battles against many Nightmare Creatures or potent adversaries who did not possess a lot of physical defense. However, he was currently fighting a single abomination and one that possessed incredible defense.
The dragon roared, unleashing flames of true darkness from its maw, attempting to swallow the crows, and it did succeed, damaging a few of them.
Its claws cut into Cor, killing more of him as the battle went on.
But even then, Cor was nowhere near defeat. After all, there were thousands of his crows and only one dragon. The abomination would have to kill all of them at once to destroy him.
The sharp attacks he had left on its scales were not healing—not at all. The dragon was also in a dire state. Its head was still reeling from the assault Cor had delivered to it, and thousands of cuts adorned its midnight scales. Each attack had been empowered by Cor’s Dormant Ability, bringing disaster to the dragon’s entire being.
Both beings found themselves at a locked stalemate, with neither of them being able to kill the other.
The dragon could not destroy the thousands of crows that made up Saint Cor, and wake of ruin could not fully overwhelm it just yet.
The dragon did not possess human intelligence, instead it possessed a perverted mind—one capable of thoughts and strategy. That was a boon it had received thanks to its class, making it far more dangerous than most creatures of its rank.
This old one—the flock of crows—was an annoyance. A being that refused to die no matter how many of them the dragon consumed.
It would devour it sooner or later, and when it did, the agent of death, and that harrowing object, would be consumed by the dragon as well.
——————
Hugo watched in awe as the battle between the Saint and the Corrupted Tyrant stretched on for minutes, almost half an hour by now.
He had seen much more terrifying and grandiose battles in his life—in fact, he had participated in some—but that did not mean this battle was any less grand.
Each strike exchanged by the two terrifying beings sent shockwaves through the sky. They were both moving at faster than subsonic speed, something that was impossible for anyone of lesser ranks.
Hugo was an exception perhaps, but that did not mean he was at their level—at least not yet.
Soul Reaper was beside him on the icy plains, sitting on an ice cube and watching the battle with a grim expression.
Not far away, the batch of Awakened and Masters sent by the government and the great clans were nearing the ice plains.
’Fools. Now they decided to show up?’
Hugo felt angry—angry with the great clans for not sending their Saints already.
Wake of Ruin was not going to last for long, as the dragon destroyed much of the crows at fast speed...
"Has the old man ever killed a Corrupted Tyrant?" Hugo asked, wondering if wake of ruin would make it.
Jet looked at him with a calm expression, then nodded.
"Yes, but he didn’t done it alone. Corrupted Tyrants are usually battled with a handful of Masters, or a few Saints. Same goes for Terrors."
Hugo raised an eyebrow. "What about Corrupted Titans?"
Jet chuckled at his words, finding them laughable.
"The strategy for fighting a Corrupted Titan is very simple, actually. You just need to turn around and run away as far as you can and never look back. Even if you get all the Saints of humanity in one place, they still wouldn’t be able to kill a single Corrupted Titan." fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
Titans were a mystical existence, and the Corrupted rank... It was the rank where the powers of Nightmare Creatures underwent a massive transformation in their power, becoming much more potent and powerful.
Naturally, the same went for noble creature, but in their case that was Transcendance. Hugo could not imagine the type of power he would possses as a Transcendent Titan.
’I could technically become a Transcendent Titan right now, if I find the third DNA room and challenge one of its pseudo trials...’
Of course, just because he could didn’t mean he should.
He would most definitely die, as there was no way in hell he was going to beat a corrupted being above the Tyrant class. fгeewebnovёl.com
But seeing the powers of Transcendence in front of him... It made Hugo hungry for that power, and that rank as a whole.
"It’s enticing, isn’t it?" Jet suddenly said.
"What is?" He asked, confused by her words.
"The power Cor possesses, the power all saints possses. I know that look in your eyes, naturally because I too have it. The crave for Transcendence is something all Masters have in their hearts, some more than others."
What she said was true. More than that, more then a handful of Masters would get the chance to become Saints, making Transcendence the most coveted rank in all of existence.
Unlike the Supreme, Sacred, and Divine ranks, Transcendence was actually achievable and within the scope of human imagination, if one worked really hard to conquer the third nightmare. That made every Awakened on the path of ascension crave it above all else, especially due to the fact that everyone in the world could see what saints were capable of.
Hugo hoped he would be one of those exceptional few who achieved Transcendence and that hope was not directed at the distant future, but at the near one
"Perhaps," he said, getting up and stretching.
"What are you doing?" Jet asked, this time she was the one confused.
They were both wounded and nearly exhausted, so, the best thing they could do was leave and allow Cor to handle the Tyrant. But of course, Hugo had other plans.
"I’m going to do a little something called stealing the kill."
His Omnitrix flashed blue, and Hugo’s eyes turned completely azure.
