Chapter 610: Lethal Traps

So far, Lostwreck had been less of a nightmare than a mausoleum, and Omilaena had to admit that she was a little disappointed.

Their initial explorations had been extremely hesitant, concerned that they might be completely outclassed by remnants of the Whispering Death. So far the dangers they had encountered, including monsters and unstable sections, had been reasonably dangerous: Omilaena guessed that anyone with less than 1000 Power would die on Lostwreck. But they were past that point, and they needed to aim even higher.

Since the illness didn't seem to be in evidence, they had started to move faster. They soon discovered an overrun kingdom that had once been filled with cultivators. While the disease had been hard on them and drained many of their resources, there were still some intact vaults and other resources, so Zin Nim remained there, exploring in between cultivation sessions.

She was the only one who had uncovered anything unique: a special case that contained seven cultivation pills of different colors, though one was missing. Normally Omilaena might have wanted to experiment with those, but she could leave that to Zin Nim.

It was easy for her - Omilaena was looking for something much more nebulous. She'd run across sources of chakra, yes, even valuable ones, but they were just one more tool in her kit, nothing that would change the game. Nothing that would allow her to finally finish her Physique transformation and unlock the sort of power she needed against their enemies.

Currently she was digging through a building that had been some sort of smithy, which was notable mainly because it used chakra and was half-buried. She had discovered some metals to absorb with Lethal Artisan, but they were all incremental improvements, nothing truly impressive.

Beneath a mass of bones, which were easily tossed aside, Omilaena found a sealed trapdoor to a basement. The seal was a pretty potent one, so this might actually contain an untouched vault. After raising all her protections again, she heaved on the doors, tearing the basement open to see what was underneath.

And death wafted up to her.

All of Omilaena's instincts took her away from the subtle puff of air, and her chakra cloth blocked part of the impact, but they weren't quite enough. She could feel something, latching on to her body and soul. There was a burning in her blood, different from anything she'd felt so far, and she didn't have time to waste.

Omilaena reacted immediately, concentrating fully on the Prana Jewels. Even they alone wouldn't have been enough - she had to combine their link to her soul with her Azure Core, forcing out the poison within her body, draining it into the jewels. That let her breathe again, but the jewels began to heat up until they were painful against her skin, like they could burn through her.

She staggered backward, tearing off every piece of jewelry and wrapping them in her chakra-laden cloth. The Prana Jewels were glowing almost violently, barely able to contain the power that she had drained from herself...

And she had a bigger problem: the burning of her skin hadn't stopped.

Her animal instincts told her to scratch at herself, as if she could tear away the skin that was becoming agonizing. Intellectually her instinct was to pull back, analyzing it - there was a layer of chakra on her body, like dust that couldn't be shaken off.

Deeper than that, another instinct made her leap into the air and begin rushing back to Zin Nim. Even as she vaulted from ruin to ruin, she wondered if she was making a mistake: was the disease or whatever component of it remained contagious? No, thinking that way meant giving up, and she couldn't do that. The burning became agony that wracked her mind, but she forced herself onward anyway.

At last she smashed through a wall into a chamber that contained familiar qi. Zin Nim sat calmly reading a scroll.

"Fire, now!" Omilaena demanded. "Burn off my clothes!"

"This is hardly the time t-" Zin Nim's eyes widened as she sensed some shadow of what had happened. Instantly she whirled, drawing up her Coldfire Corona and sending it flooding over Omilaena.

Even though the flames hurt, they burned less than the foreign chakra that had been burrowing into her skin. When it was done, Omilaena dropped to one knee, her body smoking... yet she felt better. She could think again, and she realized that the major remaining threat was the Prana Jewels.

"This too," she said, dropping the bundle.

Zin Nim incinerated the cloth and any lingering chakra, which left only the Jewels, still blazing with light. Now that she had gathered herself, Omilaena began generating metal, building a box in the air around the Prana Jewels until she couldn't see a hint of the glow - she still felt the intensity of the poison in her soul, however. Once she was holding a shielded box, they could breathe again.

"Just what happened?" Zin Nim demanded.

"Well, about that..." Omilaena explained about her encounter and Zin Nim delved into new levels of scowling throughout the brief story.

"Do you think you unleashed the Whispering Death again?"

"No, I think it was just a remnant of the damage. Remember, the Whispering Death wasn't some impossible illness, probably just a phased disease that came from the outside. It's highly dangerous, but not unstoppable."

"We should be cautious anyway." Zin Nim glanced in the direction she had come and Omilaena nodded, since it didn't hurt to have her scour the location.

That left her alone, carrying the box she had just created. Within, there was a poison of incredible intensity, potentially exactly what Omilaena needed. But holding it now, she wasn't sure she could even keep it contained, much less use it.

.

..

.

The sun shone off the crimson ocean, which moved in steady waves. There were no leviathans or great beasts disturbing the waters today, and the depths remained still, so in many parts of the ocean there was only a peace to be enjoyed by no one.

A sacred whale's corpse drifted through one of those peaceful places, delicious meat for many of the monsters, but as yet untouched. It had died recently, its blood still joining the red of the currents. A few smaller fish smelled it but kept their distance, fearing greater monsters that might be attracted.

Far overhead, a massive golden dragon soared on warm winds, going minutes in between flapping its leathery wings. When it smelled the dead whale, it turned a very slow arc, examining the peaceful waves in no particular hurry. Nothing lurked deep beneath them, and those fish that had dared were scared off by the growing shadow of a dragon sweeping down.

At last the dragon spiraled downward, landing atop the great beast, preparing to eat an unexpected and welcome meal. And as its jaws opened, the whale's flesh erupted.

Kai burst from his hiding place within, claws extending to slash the dragon's head. It pulled back with surprising speed, but Kai had also been preparing two Manticore's Stings, which shot out through the dragon's wings. Both struck, tearing through the thin leather and destroying its ability to escape.

But the elder golden dragon showed no signs of wanting to escape: it lashed out with its great tail, intending to swipe Kai off the whale's corpse. He raised one claw and caught the blow, which forced him to take a step but couldn't knock him away. Kai grinned, even as the dragon roared and lunged to bite him with jaws as large as his torso.

When it slammed down, Kai caught the upper and lower jaws, preventing them from snapping closed. The dragon tried to crush him, then realized in alarm that Kai was actually physically stronger than it was. Of course, he knew what would come next: fire welled up within the dragon and exploded around Kai at point blank range.

"One of you already tried that!" Kai roared from within the flames. "It didn't kill me then, it can't kill me now!"

He breathed back, Baleful Breath overwhelming the golden flames as it surged directly into the dragon's maw, roiling down its throat. The beast panicked, trying to pull away, but Kai's grip on its jaws was as strong as its attempt to bite him. So long as they remained locked like this, Kai was cooking it from the inside out.

Such a powerful beast refused to die easily, throwing its entire body against him. Kai definitely felt the impact of its scaled chest, and he lost his grip... but his claws instead tore into that chest. Instead of trying to cut through the scales, he just got a good grip, then pushed the dragon down, off the edge of the whale's corpse and into the water.

At the surface the dragon struggled mightily, realizing what would happen if it was driven below. But it was too late: Kai assaulted it from above, knocking it under the water before he pursued. Once they went underneath, his combination of Sahagin's Soul and Greatshark's Presence was overwhelming.

Soon enough Kai burst out of the water with a belly full of golden dragon. Even though he had no time to waste, he was almost disappointed that it hadn't lasted longer. Whatever powers made the golden dragons hate him, he tasted that hate until the very end, but it had been consumed and now he controlled that power.

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Golden Dragon Essence - I (alpha)

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And it was quite the power. He could easily have used the dragon's essence for fire breath or flight skills, but he thought that his abilities for those were superior. What he wanted most was strength - no, not just strength, a deeper sort of power. The dragon was physically strong, of course, but it also radiated might on a spiritual level, so intense that it could even grant abilities to humans by contact.

Years ago, the golden dragons had spurned him, but now he had consumed their power. He needed to draw on that potency and make it his own.

Flush with success, Kai wanted to either begin working with his essences or keep hunting. The Blood Current was flowing temptingly close, no doubt with other monsters worthy of eating. But he wasn't doing this just for his own power, which meant he needed to be smart about what he did next. As soon as he thought about it in those terms, his decision was fairly obvious, so Kai forced himself to begin flying south.

Adding in travel time, he would have been away from Deadwaste for a full month, and anything could have happened in that time. Once he finished, his strength was closer to the invaders - it might not be enough to take on all five, but the situation might have changed. If he wandered off pursuing his own power when he could have done something, he would never forgive himself, so he would check in with Deadwaste before he decided on his next training, if necessary.

That didn't mean he wasn't going to develop his new power. As he flew, Kai discovered that the dragon's essence could be used to add potency to nearly anything, improving stamina or even speed as he flew. He could capture the majority of that, if he just found the right combination. This needed to be an exceptional power that could carry him through the battle to come.

But every component of monstrous essence needed to be built up first, if he wanted to develop this into a true ability. Before he could return to Deadwaste, he needed to return to his earliest strengths.