Free Web NovelChapter 251: 251. Advancement to the 5th Circle (1)
The morning was almost over and the massacre in Driftin was pretty much completed.
Thousands upon thousands of disembodied souls filled the destroyed city. Dead bodies lay all around, which monsters shared amongst themselves.
However, some intelligent beasts were busy with something else at the moment. If one looked from above, they would be able to see a massive geometrical diagram being drawn on the city grounds.
Using the blood of the dead people, goblins, lizardmen, orcs, imps, etc. helped their master draw the advancement ritual array.
The stolen altar was kept in the middle, its previous runes replaced by new ones. A completely naked demon stood on the altar. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
A young woman hugged him from behind. Her soft palms touched all over his body, painting him red with her own blood. It was a bizarre scene.
"Enough." Jake tapped Yvvone’s hand, making her stop.
The dragon girl’s eyes fluttered as she distanced herself from him. She had lost a lot of precious lifeblood and looked extremely pale at the moment. Half of her tail was also missing.
"You’ve done good, Yvonne." Jake said, retrieving the life gourd from his inventory.
At present, less than ten droplets of life elixir remain in it. Originally, this was to be used by the elven princess. But since she could be cured by other means, there was no need to use such a treasure.
With Yvonne, Jake could use a regeneration skill to regrow her tail. However, the lifeblood that she lost required a lot of energy to recover.
A true dragon’s blood was extremely valuable. If too much of it was lost, the dragon could even become permanently weaker. Yvonne had sacrificed a lot this time.
One drop of life elixir was adequate for her. Yvonne was still very young as a dragon, so another drop could turn her into a baby instead.
After the dragon girl consumed the life elixir, her tail instantly regrew and her healthy complexion returned. Jake also noticed some changes in her body proportions.
"Thank you, master." Yvonne stepped below the altar. She could sense a tremendous draconic power laying dormant within Jake.
Even as a true dragon, it still made her shudder. Previously, she only felt subservient toward Jake and had always questioned this feeling.
How can such a weak demon become her master? The only reason Yvonne didn’t revolt was because the seed of corruption would always break such thoughts.
Jake was aware of the situation with the dragon girl. She was someone at the peak of the fifth circle, and he’d gotten extremely lucky when corrupting her.
That’s why Jake was careful when ordering her around and never went overboard.
’To truly eliminate her doubts, I must reach the 5th Circle. Or else, she will eventually reverse the corruption, making me her servant.’
Jake remembered the first time he read the description of the [Corruption] skill. Although it evolved into [Degeneration Halo], the side effects remained the same.
After Yvonne flew away, Jake retrieved nine chaotic mana crystals from his inventory. Placing them on the edges in a circular fashion, he sent orders to the nearby monsters.
They quickly brought the young girls he’d captured from the villages en route to Driftin. These were the nine innocent souls required for the bloodline awakening ritual.
The Devil Rune array was already etched onto the altar. As for the rest of the array that the monsters were drawing, it was related to his advancement.
After taking out the bone dagger and the scale armor which he got from Marquis Jones, Jake grabbed Yvonne’s dragon tail. It was thick, scaly and had a crimson sheen to it.
With this, he had fulfilled the condition of having dragon bones, scales and flesh for the ritual. After placing these three items on specific parts of the array, he tied the unconscious girls near each mana crystal before closing his eyes.
"Krsvuin entieste lo prrdesan..." The chant this time was even more difficult to pronounce.
It seemed to be in a language which predated even Ancient Demontongue. If not for the system’s help, Jake would’ve probably spent an hour learning just one verse.
As he began chanting, the runes etched on the altar glowed dark red. However, there were also hints of gold in that red color.
At the same time, the chaotic mana crystals, which were known to be extremely volatile, began to softly disperse mana.
The innocent souls were covered with that mana and rose into the air. As Jake’s chant became louder and louder, the dragon parts on the altar melted.
The bone dagger became a white liquid, the scale armor turned into a black powder and the flesh became a red paste.
All of those combined and slowly converged on Jake’s body which was smeared with dragon blood. The moment this happened, he felt an otherworldly pain, as if his every tissue was being destroyed and regrown continuously.
It made him unable to chant anymore and a thundering scream... or rather a roar escaped through his mouth.
The roar of a true dragon.
This roar attracted hundreds of thousands of souls floating all over the city. At the same time, the nine human girls suddenly opened their eyes, their bodies covered with indescribable runes.
As the souls began to circle around the altar, chaotic mana pillars shot from the body of each girl. By now, they’d already lost all consciousness.
The dark mana pillars reached hundreds of meters high into the sky, forming the base for an ethereal magic circle up above.
Jake, who was at the center of this, felt the pain subside and began chanting the last verse of the advancement ritual spell.
With every strange sound he made, the souls disintegrated. Their raw energy was then continuously refined in the huge array, which fueled the demon in the middle.
When Jake finally finished chanting, the disembodied souls were all gone. For a moment, there was absolute silence in the ruined city.
But then a dark red halo spread from him, sending shockwaves which destroyed buildings all around him.
Next, a black dot appeared on Jake’s forehead, enlarging into numerous marks which spread all over his naked body.
These marks were there when he advanced to the 4th Circle and they’d once again surfaced. But this time, the dark marks were being filled with crimson and gold letters which glowed brightly.
"Ancient Draconic Language?" Yvonne narrowed her eyes as she observed from above.
She had only been taught its basics by her parents. In her clan, perhaps only the Elder Dragons of the Seventh Circle could understand Ancient Draconic.
"I can’t believe master’s bloodline is so pure..." The dragon girl muttered. She noticed an aspect of demonism within the draconic power in him.
Obviously, Jake’s new bloodline wasn’t completely draconic. It came from an evil demodragon.
Right now, as the new marks settled within him, a change happened to his soul. Also, Jake’s mana core grew more than ten times before condensing into an egg-like shape.
Thick demonic mana then spread from it, nourishing his body.
The bloodline energy of the demodragon was reddish-yellow and it instantly began to transform his features. Jake was on the verge of completely advancing.
However, the Black Devil bloodline suddenly clashed with the new bloodline that was awakened.
"Tch." Jake clicked his tongue, even though he’d been expecting this to happen.
