novelraw Chapter 585 - 584 - Power of a Weaver
Chapter 585 - 584 - Power of a Weaver
Lind down an elixir before the enemy could set themselves up. He may have let it look easy but his harmony was the fuel for Protean. It was not so simple to keep it going, especially as it had become very greedy for Qi lately.
He knew it had broken through but he was in uncharted territory with his spirit weapon. It was also a bit temperamental at being left alone for so long. Yet in the serious battle there was no resistance or sign of the usual antics.
Clearly, it knew when to be silly and when to be serious.
Lind saw that there were still 8 Sun Tier commanders and they brought their Soulless with them. If it was before, he would stand no chance.
He had barely liberated 10 Soulless before he passed out. He had no time to really digest that experience but there were a few things he grasped.
The Soulless had a weakness he could exploit.
"Kill him!" The commanders shouted their orders to the controllers of the Soulless but Lind simply closed his eyes before a wave of emerald Qi flew across the battlefield. It did no harm to anyone and even had them feel invigorated which gave many pause.
Why would their enemy empower them?
The controllers of the Soulless blanched as they realized nothing was happening. Their connection was fine but no orders were going through.
"Mimicking a Fiend technique is despicable enough, but not even grasping the basis of the concept leaves your precious end result flawed." Lind's cold voice echoed across the broken battleground. The remaining 200 thousand soldiers froze as they looked at the gray cloaked men and women not far from them.
If those creatures were turned against them like the others 10 they had already faced, it would be a massacre despite the numerical advantage. Soulless had no fear nor pain to stop them. The level of devastation they could slap them with was terrifying to consider.
"What nonsense are you speaking about? Fiends are long dead! Do not speak like you have fought them!" Lind sneered as one of the older Sun Tiers seemed to try and invigorate his forces once more but the Soulless remained frozen as all could see their controllers panicking.
"Thralls are true domination. An idiot willingly lets a Fiend treat them like a Qi stone. The recipient can no longer cultivate but their life span increases dramatically so long as they consume other cultivators." A shiver went through all as they grasped the horrifying description.
Who would ever agree to that?
"Lies! Such a thing is an abomination and would never work!" The same bald man screamed but Lind tossed a jadestone into the air. It glittered before a massive projection appeared.
Without meaning to, Lind had stopped the battle as all watched the horrifying battles he had recorded against Fiends and their thralls. All watched as humans, demons, and aether children either withered suddenly or a nearly dead Fiend recovered as a group of chained cultivators screamed in pain.
The Raptors blotted out the sky as cultivators were engraved in ways that were all too familiar to those living under Soulmancers.
"I suspect your brand on the dantian is also a derivation of Fiend techniques but one I am not familiar with. Afterall, Qi is more useful than a soul but they are inextricably tied. Only weavers need soul power directly, Fiends do not." Lind's confident voice made all believe him.
The humans wavered once more when the sky changed.
"ENOUGH! You have interfered far too much and your fantasies do not change the fact the Fiends are gone! Their threat may linger in your pathetic realm but not here!" Lind looked to the Soulmancer and saw a withered and pale skinned man walk forward.
A weaving blazed with Qi but Lind recognized it. He scowled as the remaining soldiers suddenly began to twitch and scream as a construct was forming in the sky of a giant beast.
It looked like a western style dragon but unlike any dragon he had met in visions or in reality, he felt revulsion.
A manifestation was a unique ability weaving excelled compared to formations. A formation could mimic a shape but not its true power. Weaving could do shape and power both! It made an attack or defense far more terrifying but there was a steep price.
To make that weaving would require the sacrifice of the beast in question. What the Soulmancer had done was make an amalgamation from the souls of the dead soldiers. The Soulless did not move and were not harmed which made the Sun Tiers narrow their eyes.
"PLEASE! GREAT LORD, SAVE US!" The bald Sun Tier was stumbling as he begged for his life but Lind could only sigh as they did not understand.
"As I said, the basis of the thralls was missed in the Soulless. The Soulless have their souls safely anchored in an artifact. All I have to do to stop them is refine the artifact soul anchor." The Soulmancer actually stared in awe at Lind.
Instead of reversing the whole formation or breaking the connection, Lind used his power as a weaver to isolate the souls! Because they were not in their bodies, it was hardly difficult to do it since an artifact already suppressed them.
"Instructive, I will use that as well!" A viscous black wave of Qi swept over the controllers but rather than the tug of war the Soulmancer expected, Lind only sneered. It was not solely his power as a weaver protecting the Soulless.
An emerald spark flared on each artifact, even one on the Soulmancer, and tiny dragons appeared that shattered the black wave like glass!
The faux dragon roared and Lind looked up to feel the Sun Tier aura coming from the amalgam creature.
"HA! You should have let them go and fled. You will die to my power!" The remaining army was collapsed but barely alive, yet saw the black bone dragon falling down to them! They were still going to die!
The Sun Tiers fled but were much slower due to being injured as well.
"About that, your weaving might have the ability to work faster at the cost of souls but mine is much higher quality!" A ring of bright white light flared and then covered the battlefield. Lind then shocked all as he flew up into the air to meet the dragon.
Emerald scales grew across his skin as he grew to 7 meters long but the people of the Two Rivers could tell he was running on fumes. Despite what elixirs could do, they still took time to truly recover a cultivator.
The higher quality dantian, the longer time it took. Lind was clearly pushing himself past his limits and Protean flew next to him as proof he was not confident to succeed on his own.
The emerald blade expanded to something closer to useful for Lind's current size. He based it off an old mounted weapon but it was essentially a giant blunt sword that could cause massive damage.
It was perfect for an enemy made of bones!
His claws grasped Protean gently before firming up his grasp. It was designed for human hands but he saw it was growing as time passed for his other form. He fused new ores but only when he felt Protean could accept them.
Lind roared at the massive bone dragon as its eye cavities glowed with dim blue flames. He could feel the wailing of souls fused into it by weaving. Unlike the woman he fought before, there was no obvious opening which made him worried but he put it aside as there was a simpler weakness.
It only looked like a dragon and also only looked like bone. It was only a construct and he could work with that.
Sigils blazed and the white glow below transformed into a cage! The massive emerald blade caused an arc as it swiftly sang through the air before smashing into the wings of the dragon.
The expectation of shattering was denied as instead the wings became smoke! The Soulmancer was shocked! What had just happened?!
Lind sneered as he used his full strength to slash more of the back spine which also dispersed into smoke as the construct kept trying to hit him. Its massive size worked against it as it was only a mimic, not the real thing.
A real dragon could utilize its flexibility far better to ensnare a foe in its jaws or claws even if the size difference was great. Further, as more bones vanished into smoke, the white cage grew brighter before the Soulmancer understood what just happened.
The army soldiers below suddenly felt better but did not understand why. The Sun Tiers were outside the cage but could only barely move after what was done to them. The Soulless were simple statues at that point but unharmed.
All stared in awe as the tiny emerald dragon completely dispersed the black bone dragon.
"Word of advice, using souls as a shortcut seems powerful but it is hollow. Further, you really should not try to mimic my race with nightmares. The real thing is far more powerful and if you go against a Divine Dragon, they will be able to subdue your creation for the false thing it is." The sinuous emerald dragon stared down at them all and they understood.
"I-Impossible! You can't be a Divine Dragon!" The Soulmancer wanted to deny it but it was the only thing that made his defeat make sense. A dragon was a nightmare for humans even as a story. He has used a common thread to create the dragon with a weaving.
It had worked but when faced with the real thing and a divine one, a faux dragon may as well have been a chew toy! The rules of Heaven and Earth applied to souls more than anything and that was the basis of the power of a weaver.
"What you think is possible is not my concern, what you should be more concerned about is what happened to your arms." Many blinked and missed as 2 pale slim arms went flying as Protean reappeared suddenly by Lind with blood trailing down its massive blade.
The Soulmancer roared in anger but then slowed and stopped in horror. He looked at his injuries as he saw sigils blazing where there should be none.
"I figured a taste of your own medicine was in order. The cage is not a cage but a reverse brand. All the brands you imposed on the people fuel it and seem to have helped them recover their souls a bit. Only 1 person is in trouble inside it." The reptilian emerald eyes were cold as the Soulmancer felt all his power pulled from him.
All the souls he had stored away or any energy that was not his own was being ripped away! It was simply evaporating out of his injuries!
"S-stop! Please stop! I will die! I can't die! I am supposed…to…live–" The black cloak collapsed as the Soulmancer became a pile of bones that then collapsed into ashes.
"The war is over! Cease fighting or face my wrath!" Lind roared as the white cage vanished and all were left stunned at his majestic image in the sky. The remaining soldiers dropped their weapons and wept.
The Sun Tiers tried to escape but Orbas and the others did not give them the chance to recover. They were ripped apart into meals and Lind said nothing. He had already given them a chance.
He slowly floated back to the wall where Sheena caught him and carried him off. It had been a very long day.