novelraw Chapter 247: The Power Of The Ashen Nephilim
Chapter 247: The Power Of The Ashen Nephilim
-----
Ding!
[Congratulations, you have successfully evolved into the [Ashen Nephilim – Rank 6: Initial Stage]!]
[Your Draconic Essence has increased by +200000.]
[Your Vitality has increased by +170000.]
[Your Strength has increased by +17000.]
[Your Dexterity has increased by +17000.]
[Your Magic has increased by +17000.]
[The Skill: [Fragile Shell: Level 9] has Leveled Up to Level 10!]
[The Skill: [Ice Dragon/Heaven Dragon Bloodline: Level 6] has Leveled Up to Level 7!]
[The Skill: [Grandson of the Dragon King: Level 6] has Leveled Up to Level 7!]
[The Skill: [Fragile Illusion: Level 6] has Leveled Up to Level 7!]
[The Skill: [Dragon Claw: Level 7] has Leveled Up to Level 8!]
[The Skill: [Nightmarish Roar: Level 6] has Leveled Up to Level 7!]
[The Skill: [Cinderheart Pulse: Level 6] has Leveled Up to Level 7!]
[The Skill: [White Breath: Level 6] has Leveled Up to Level 7!]
[The Skill: [Dust of Purification: Level 5] has Leveled Up to Level 6!]
[The Skill: [Eye of the White Void: Level 5] has Leveled Up to Level 6!]
[The Skill: [Soul Wyrm Division: Level 5] has Leveled Up to Level 6!]
[The Skill: [Inverse Pandora: Level 5] has Leveled Up to Level 6!]
[The Skill: [Celestial Box: Level 3] has Leveled Up to Level 4!]
[The Skill: [Soul Sealing: Level 3] has Leveled Up to Level 4!]
[The Skill: [Seven Great Evils: Level 1] has Leveled Up to Level 2!]
[You learned the Skill [Ashen Soul Body Transformation: Level 1]: Channel the true power of the Ashen Nephilim, becoming ashes themselves. Your Soul and Body become a single mass of Ashes composed of the holiest and most cleansing of celestial lights. Your existence now cleanses the world as you walk the lonely path between Heaven and Purgatory. Consumes Draconic Energy constantly. Makes you immune to any kind of physical damage. Any other damage is reduced by 80%. In this Ashen Form, your Agility, Movement Speed, Attack Power and Magic Power increases by 300% and you can do anything a completely ashen body could do.]
Louis watched his growth with calm eyes. His skills had leveled up once more, and his stats had increased considerably.
Above all, he now possessed a new Skill, one that felt truly vital, the core ability of his new dragon species: Ashen Soul Body Transformation.
Feeling a surge of pride in his growth, he examined his Dragon Status:
[Young Adult Divine Dragon – Level 100/200]
[True Name]: [None]
[Current Form]: [Ashen Nephilim – Rank 6: Initial Stage]
[Draconic Essence]: [419.310]
[Vitality]: [383.980]
[Strength]: [380.480]
[Dexterity]: [380.475]
[Magic]: [382.695]
[Evolution Threshold]: [0%]
[Skills]:
[Fragile Shell: Level 10]: Your Eggshell is very fragile and may easily shatter. Increases Movement Speed and Reflexes by 100% in exchange for Defense.
[Ice Dragon/Heaven Dragon Bloodline: Level 7]: You possess a double dragon bloodline, capable of having a wide array of learnable skills and evolution paths.
[Grandson of the Dragon King: Level 7]: You're the Dragon King's grandson. Finally awakening your dragon self, you receive his natural blessing. Increases EXP earned by 170% and Skill Level Proficiency earned by 270%.
[Fragile Illusion: Level 7]: When your health drops to zero, your body can shatter into ash and reform once per day, leaving behind a decoy illusion.
[Dragon Claw: Level 8]: The most basic attack skill that any dragon, small or big, learns at some point. Deals damage based on Strength stat and can allow the claws to grow longer and sharper when activated alongside Draconic Energy.
[Nightmarish Roar: Level 7]: A horrifying cry that forces foes to endure nightmares and become confused and enraged, unable to think straight. Can cause debuffs if used for prolonged periods of time.
[Cinderheart Pulse: Level 7]: By channeling Draconic Energy, periodically releases waves of flames and ashes that burn foes within range and heals self.
[White Breath: Level 7]: Channel the purest whiteness within the bright void of light to strike foes with a powerful beam-like attack produced from your jaws. Incredibly fast and capable of piercing defenses the more Draconic Energy is used.
[Dust of Purification: Level 6]: Channel Holy White Light and Ashes together to create a rain of purifying dust over a designated area. The dust has the ability to heal over time and cure the targets from most status effects, while also offering temporary protection against a wide range of elements such as Curse, Death, Phantom, Ghost, Darkness, and more. The more Draconic Energy is used, the greater the range and effects.
[Eye of the White Void: Level 6]: A Skill unique to the White Dust Wyrm. By activating it, a golden-white eye opens within their chest, capable of seeing through all things within a certain range, granting them complete control of their surroundings and information about it. Additionally, it can see through foes own intention, souls, and at higher levels even read their minds to an extent. It is also capable of amplifying Holy Light, Ashes, Life, and Psychic Elements and Power, granting the "White Void Element" to Psionic Talents.
[Soul Wyrm Division: Level 6]: The Unique Skill of the White Dust Wyrm. By dividing your soul, you can summon Soul Wyrms, which can join you in battle and wield your magic and skills for you. Each divided Soul Wyrm carries 10% (+35% Bonus) of your stats, which you lose while they're summoned. You can share your mind with them and control them remotely. There's no limit to how many you can summon, but they grow progressively stronger as the Skill Level increases and the more Draconic Energy you possess.
[Inverse Pandora: Level 6]: Unleash the power of the mythical and never seen before White Pandora, the power to reverse all elements to their opposite force. Turn light into darkness, healing into destruction, hope into despair, ashes into flames, fire into ice, and much more. The power of Inverse Pandora enhances the reversed target based on Skill Level and Draconic Energy reserves.
[Celestial Box: Level 4]: The unique power of the White Pandora. By channeling Draconic Energy, you can summon a celestial golden box that brings forth random blessings, stat boosts, and beneficial effects for you and your allies. The higher the level and the more Draconic Energy used, the more and better the benefits.
[Soul Sealing: Level 4]: The Unique Power of the White Pandora. Seals or imprisons souls, spirits, fragments of essence, or even pieces of an enemy's will/consciousness inside a metaphysical "box" or container. Prevents resurrection, soul escape, or regeneration. May slowly drain or corrupt the sealed target over time. High control/utility skill for capturing powerful foes or containing dangerous essences.
[Seven Great Evils: Level 2]: One of the key abilities that defines the Pandora Dragon. Unleash the evil within your Heart and Soul, cracking open to reveal Seven Great Evils that shape into Demonic Dragon-like Spirits embodying seven deadly sins: greed, wrath, envy, sloth, pride, lust, and gluttony. Unleash them upon your opponents, causing damage, weakening them, slowly devouring their souls and cursing them. Each of the Seven Great Evils will grow alongside the Dragon, meaning the stronger the dragon the stronger these beings will become. To maintain their summon, Draconic Energy in large quantities is required.
[Ashen Soul Body Transformation: Level 1]: Channel the true power of the Ashen Nephilim, becoming ashes themselves. Your Soul and Body become a single mass of Ashes composed of the holiest and most cleansing of celestial lights. Your existence now cleanses the world as you walk the lonely path between Heaven and Purgatory. Consumes Draconic Energy constantly. Makes you immune to any kind of physical damage. Any other damage is reduced by 80%. In this Ashen Form, your Agility, Movement Speed, Attack Power and Magic Power increases by 300% and you can do anything a completely ashen body could do.
"Incredible... with this, I truly feel like I have become a divine dragon," Louis said, smiling with deep pride. "Though it still says I am a young dragon... Ah, it can't be helped. I am indeed young at the end of the day."
Mirai reached his side and saw his system status. She felt awed by how strong Louis had grown. His stats were now hundreds of times what they once were when he was a little dragon, meaning he had become hundreds of times stronger.
At this point, his dragon form seemed to be slowly becoming stronger than his human form as well. Perhaps it was getting closer to surpassing it, or so Louis felt.
"Have you been leveling in my absence, Mirai?" Louis asked, but then his many eyes shifted toward all the spirits and demons. "Wait, what are those?!"
"Heheh! They're my new friends!" Mirai said. "Chaos Spirits and Demons! I can summon them at will now!"
"Ahh!" Louis quickly recalled one of Mirai's end-game abilities: she could summon powerful Chaos Spirits or Demons, but they were usually named and very strong. These little guys, however, resembled octopuses and imps, nothing truly intimidating about them. "I see. They must be related to your Spiral, right?"
"Kinda!" she nodded. "But also it's related to my Soul... my Spiral is just a byproduct of that, I think!"
"Huh, that's very interesting," Louis nodded, rubbing his chin.
"Also, congrats on your evolution! Woooow!" Mirai would have clapped if she had hands. "You're so big now! Like... you tower over the tallest trees now! How big are you?!"
"Twice as big as before... I most likely surpass thirty meters of length now..." Louis said, analyzing his body, which had become slender and specialized for hunting and moving incredibly fast. "I can also do this."
POOF!
Louis exploded into dust, flying around like a tornado of bright ashes and surprising Mirai. His Ashen body expanded several times, becoming a gigantic living natural disaster that even created a storm in the skies, rays of light flying everywhere.
"W-Woah! You're a natural disaster now!"
"Kind of."
Louis returned to his physical form and descended.
"I am still figuring everything I can do with it but... yes, it's interesting."
Mirai nodded happily.
"I've been leveling and I'm close to Level 100... my evolution threshold has been stuck at 90 for a while now," she sighed.
"Have you been hunting strong enemies or weak ones?" Louis asked, narrowing his eyes.
"E-Eheh... I mean, without you I am not confident about taking on Rank 5s... so I just limit myself to weaker ones for now," she sighed. "I haven't advanced into the next layer either... sorry."
"No... it's fine. I shouldn't have judged you. You did well surviving on your own," Louis nodded, patting her head. Mirai responded by cutely nuzzling against his hand. "Anyway, I suppose it's about time we move on. Let's go to the last layer... and once we finish that, the summit where... that presence! Has it become stronger?!"
"Eh?"
Mirai hadn't realized it at all. She wasn't attuned to this entity, but Louis was. The power of the remnant had grown ever since then, even though most of its vessels, the monsters, had been hunted and killed systematically.
Louis could feel it: the entire Spiritual Realm Dungeon was expanding and growing stronger, beginning to attempt to expand into his own Fantasy Heart.
Likely, the Venerable Remnant's end game was to possess Louis and obtain a new body.
"I suppose the monsters were just meant to stop us then," Louis realized. "No matter. Let's advance. I will lure all the monsters here."
"You can?" Mirai wondered.
"Well, of course I can!" Louis sneered, showing his sharp fangs.
Once they were in the middle of the forest, Louis opened his sharp jaws and then...
"RAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
He unleashed a mighty, provoking roar packed with Draconic Energy and nothing else.
He suppressed his power completely, making it seem he was weaker too.
And at that moment...
RUMBLE!
Several large figures started rushing toward him, accompanied by hundreds of smaller ones.
"Eeeeeh?!"
Mirai panicked as she saw the armies of monsters coming one after another!
"L-Louis, what did you do?!" Mirai asked in disbelief, her jaws wide open.
"What else?! We're going to kill as many as we can as quickly as possible!" Louis smiled viciously, his Draconic Energy Aura exploding into a pillar of endless light. "Come at me!"
Five Elemental Bears.
Alpha Martial Mantises.
Giant Mountain Eagles.
Giant Mountain Spear Dragonflies.
Colossal Mountain Turtles.
Giant Mountain Martial Ants.
And many more beasts they had fought, and many more that they had never seen before, rushed at them, attacking from every angle.
Louis's Aura surged, becoming immense in power and height.
As they attacked, he released all his power at once.
"Ashen Soul Body Transformation!"
First, he expanded his body into a natural disaster, becoming a gigantic catastrophic tornado of ashes and light, lifting any creature close to him and crushing them, decimating them into pieces. Even when they turned into their golden forms they exploded into fragments.
"Dust of Corruption!"
"Cursed Box!"
Then, he conjured his two greatest debuffing skills, conjuring horrors from a giant black chest and also dust that corrupted and devoured everything, weakening hundreds of monsters and making them sick, dropping them to the floor.
"Soul Wyrm Division!"
"Seven Great Evils!"
Afterward, as the bigger monsters pressed on, Louis divided his soul into five different clones and then summoned Seven Great Evils on top of that.
Each of the Evils resembled an ethereal, infernal dragon representing their sin, which was fascinating for Mirai to witness.
Greed resembled a giant golden dragon that stole the strength of his foes.
Wrath looked like a burning, muscular dragon that smashed foes with his giant fists.
Envy manifested as a spectral dragon made of black flames and shadows, which copied the monsters' abilities.
Sloth was a lazy green-colored dragon made of poisonous slime, spreading poison everywhere and weakening and slowing down foes.
Pride emerged as a giant, lion-headed dragon roaring mightily, smashing everything. The more it killed, the larger it became.
Lust surged as a beautiful female dragon of pink and purple color, slender and spreading pink pheromones that made all monsters attack one another in confusion.
And lastly, Gluttony manifested as the largest of the specters, a giant, toad-like dragon that began to syphon everything into its jaws, swallowing as many things as it could.
"Cinderheart Pulse!"
"Frostheart Pulse!"
His giant tornado-like body continued by unleashing intervals between Cinderheart Pulse and Frostheart Pulse, burning and freezing his foes constantly, spreading fire and ice endlessly until even the toughest golden monsters began to grow brittle.
"Dragon Claws!"
"Void Maws!"
Which he followed by using Dragon Claws and Void Maws in intervals, switching between one another (as he couldn't use both at the same time) with his giant ashen, light body. It manifested not just six claws like the limits of his body, but dozens of massive dragon claws descended and tore everything to shreds, while massive dragon jaws emerged, as if Louis had endless claws and jaws to tear apart everything.
"White Breath!"
"Black Breath!"
At the same time, his spinning, ashen body constantly fired dozens of white and black laser beams everywhere, unleashing countless explosions around his surroundings, decimating foes and covering them with holes!
"Soul Sealing!"
"Soul Liberation!"
"Eye of the Black Abyss!"
While this happened, he also used Soul Sealing to seal all monster souls he got from killing them and then liberated them again, creating armies of soul spirits that helped him. Meanwhile, he used his Eye of the Black Abyss to unleash giant black holes upon his foes, black abyss consuming everything through his evolved psionic abilities.
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
Mirai and her spirits and demons stared in disbelief, their mouths wide open!
So far, there was absolutely nothing that could stand against Louis within this mountain after his evolution.
Even when Rank 5 Peak Stage Martial beasts arrived, Louis simply tore them to shreds with his claws or covered them with hundreds of holes from his lasers.
Mirai decided to help regardless after she came to her senses, realizing that even with this onslaught, there were still a few blind spots Louis was missing.
She targeted them, unleashing armies of snake-shaped chaos spirits and demons and swarming any foe that dared to get close to him.
Like this, they continued slaughtering monsters for a whole day until the sun dropped into the horizon.
Their slaughter was so brutal that the expansion of the Spiritual Realm Dungeon stopped altogether for the rest of the day!
After an entire day of fighting and killing literally everything in the mountain, Louis and Mirai decided to rest before reaching the peak.
Louis had gone from Level 100 to Level 140 in one single day due to the amount of creatures he killed. After he let Mirai absorb enough corpses to reach 100% evolution threshold, he absorbed the rest, bringing his own to 60%.
It was an incredible and complete massacre, and one that made him feel real progress this time.
All of his skills had leveled up as well, and he had gained two new Skills to boot.
[You learned the Skill: [Celestial Light Wielder: Level 1]: As an Ashen Nephilim, you can manifest Celestial Light of the brightest and highest quality, capable of easily cutting through most matter. You can wield it, manifest it, extend it, and transform it based on your mastery with it, skill level, draconic energy, and your total stats as a dragon. Powerful and incredibly fast, capable of both quick defense-penetrating offense and barrier-like defense, an Ultimate Element.]
[You learned the Skill: [Shattered Hope: Level 1]: As an Ashen Nephilim, your existence provokes Hope to shatter into countless pieces... for your enemies. Your presence will slowly eat away at your enemies' psyche. Their own self-esteem and determination will waver as they fight against you, and their very sense of purpose may start to shatter as you deal damage to them, provoking a rapid decrease in their stats, while also making it difficult for them to continue battling. If used for longer than the foe can take, the foe may experience nightmares, several status conditions, and lose abilities temporarily.]
Both were incredible new Skills that left Louis rather perplexed and very interested. Shattered Hope seemed very connected to his Villain Core Ability as well, and it was perfect for him when he battled stronger foes. Meanwhile, Celestial Light Wielder was simple and to the point, granting him an incredible affinity and ability to control the highest and strongest magic light.
And with Inverse Pandora, what sort of Skills could these be reversed into? Louis was already almost drooling at the thought...
However, for the time being, Mirai finally decided to evolve.
"I may take a week... would you wait for me even though it's a dire situation?" she wondered.
"Yeah, don't worry," Louis nodded. "I think I can do something special for you as well."
Louis conjured a dimensional bubble using the spatial essence of this Realm, conjuring it around her and him.
"W-What is this?" Mirai was surprised by what Louis had just done.
"This is a pocket realm," Louis explained. "I will accelerate the time inside, so it doesn't take longer than a day outside. Do your best."
"Oh! Sure!" she nodded. "Hmmm, can you help me choose the evolution option though? Pretty please?"
"Okay, tell me what you got," Louis nodded.
Mirai explained to Louis that she obtained three evolution options this time, and they all sounded rather interesting.
And they were:
Demiurge, a "final evolution" that she said seemed very strong, specializing in physical combat and space warping abilities. Capable of partially overwriting a foe's fate.
Beelzebub, an evolution with a "small evolution option" message. It seemed almost as strong as Demiurge in some cases. This specialized in the summoning of legions of demonic and chaotic beings resembling flies and their manipulation, spreading famine and pestilence, and weakening and destroying foes with overwhelming curses and magic.
Naamah, an evolution with a "medium evolution options" message. It seemed like a balanced evolution that balanced both her Chaos and her Demonic aspect, becoming a demonic chaos demigoddess. Her form would return to become humanoid, although it seemed to be like a Naga, with a long snake tail and snake-like features remaining upon evolution. There wasn't any more information than this however, just like Ashen Nephilim. This was a first-time species never recorded by the system before.
The options were complicated. The Demiurge seemed incredible with its fate-rewriting abilities, but he was sure they were limited and not completely overpowered as it wouldn't have any balance that way... however, it would stop her growth altogether, and it said they were always male, so Mirai rejected it outright, saying she didn't want to be a man when transformed into a demonic being.
Beelzebub was interesting but she said she was tired with being a monster, and being a giant fly wasn't in her list of wishes, so she rejected it as well... at this point, Louis just told her to become a Naamah and she agreed happily.
"Why did you even ask me to help you if you were going to choose Naamah anyway?" Louis rolled his eyes, as Mirai giggled nervously.
"Heheh, s-sorry..." she said. "Anyway, I'll evolve right now."
Louis nodded, as he saw Mirai turning into a giant black cocoon.
Using the pocket dimension, Louis accelerated its time as much as he could, which was x7 within such a small dimension.
After waiting for a day as he practiced his abilities...
FLUOSH!
The realm began to tremble and then, to his shock...
Crack, crack...!
CRASH!
BOOOM!
It exploded into countless fragments. The pressure Mirai exuded far surpassed even a small dimension.
From the shadows emerged Mirai anew, now evolved into a Naamah, a powerful Chaotic Demon Demigoddess. Her aura surged majestically.
She had indeed transformed into someone incredible now!
Although she kept her long snake tail instead of having legs, her upper torso was similar to her human appearance, but with pale purple skin.
She had four arms and large bat-like wings on her back.
She also had long red and black hair, and six horns: two black, two red, and two gold.
Aside from her sharp crimson eyes, she had a third, vertical eye in her forehead, gleaming with yellow color.
Her upper body was covered with jewels and tattoos and looked slender and beautiful.
However, despite her humanoid appearance, she was gigantic, easily reaching twenty meters of height.
"Mirai...! You've evolved!"
"How do I look? Am I pretty now?"
"You are... but regardless of what you would've chosen, I would've found you pretty anyway."
"Aw, really?"
Mirai smiled, kissing Louis on the chin.
"I've got some new abilities now..." she said. "Looks like I can do this..."
"Hm?!"
Louis's eyes widened as Mirai raised her hands and a giant infernal portal opened above. Hundreds of demons surged out of nowhere, flying into all directions.
"Gate to Hell! Do you like it?!"
"...?! I-I am speechless."
"And this?"
Another portal opened, now on the floor, a black void leading into an eternal abyss.
From there, gigantic, tentacled horrors surged and crawled out. Their eyes were all red and bright.
"...!"
"Gate to the Abyss! How's that?"
"You can do such a thing already..." Louis was left almost speechless. It seemed that Mirai's summoner abilities had improved drastically, and that wasn't even all of it. "Can you summon powerful demons or chaos spirits, like, a singular one?"
"I think I can. That's called Demonic Chaos Champion Summon," she said. "I don't have that skill yet."
"I see..." Louis nodded. "Alright, let's eat first and then... let's not waste any more time."
"Ok!"
Mirai and Louis quickly ate what he had hunted using their Spirals, and once full of energy, they both climbed to the mountain peak.
They could fly, but in just one day, more monsters had propagated.
And this time they weren't the natural beasts that had been corrupted either.
"GROOOHHHHH!"
"ELIMINATE!"
"ELIMINATE ALL INTRUDERS!"
"GROOOHHH!"
They were giant, humanoid golems made of immortalized gold! Each one of them was a tough Rank 5 foe.
Perhaps in the past they would have struggled a lot...
But not anymore.
Louis and Mirai unleashed their armies of summoned creatures. Well, mostly Mirai, but Louis divided Wyrm Souls and his Seven Great Evils spread destruction as well.
The golems began falling one after another after being swarmed, but more surged from a giant golden temple that now was visible from the distance.
"Let's keep going!"
Louis and Mirai rushed and fought using their bodies instead of relying on just magic or skills anymore.
By using Shattered Hope and Celestial Light Wielder, Louis broke through hundreds of giant Gold Golems, tearing them to shreds, leveling, and absorbing them to improve his evolution threshold even more.
Mirai did the same, summoning her Chaos Spirit Sword and tearing through the golems by his side. They couldn't leave any behind, so they massacred absolutely all of them, moving forward only when they made sure they were all dead.
Louis summoned spears of light and swords of light, using his swordsmanship and Spearmanship arts with them to incredible results.
Mirai herself was also learning to even further combine her original techniques and skills with those she had been gaining.
Although it was impossible to do it before, the more they evolved, the more % of their original power they could use.
In their first forms, it was barely 1%, but as they evolved, this improved to 10%, then 20%, then 30%, and now, they were at 50%!
With their combined power, they were already far stronger than even their original dragon forms!
RUMBLE!
The entire mountain trembled, as the presence forming within the golden palace above the summit of the mountain trembled.
Its sharp eyes narrowed as the two figures that had been destroying and eating its soldiers this entire time approached.
It was unable to comprehend how they were even doing such a thing to begin with, but they were managing to evolve and grow even stronger as they did.
The worst part was that even though they kept eating its gold, it was impossible for the entity to control them.
All other monsters in the mountain that ate its gold to grow stronger and satiate their hunger became under its control.
But they? It was impossible.
The entity had attempted to take over the giant white dragon, however, tempting it with a new path to power, to become its slave in the process.
But the dragon rejected such offer, choosing its own path instead, even if it could be weaker.
And now...
After half a day of destroying all of the soldiers it spent its entire time creating to conquer this realm and possess the owner of this Fantasy Heart...
They came knocking at its doors.
"We're here..."
"Yeah...!"
Louis and Mirai gasped for air, admiring the giant golden palace before them. It was beautifully Chinese-styled and ancient in appearance, and yet it hadn't even existed before they got here.
After slaughtering almost a thousand golden golems, their levels had skyrocketed immensely.
Louis was already Level 200!
And his Evolution Threshold... 100%
He himself could hardly believe it. The bastard managing this temple was so desperate they sent one thousand monsters to him.
All Rank 5 monsters at that, and all bags of EXP!
Naturally, Mirai as well... had reached max level 200, and Evolution Threshold at 100%.
Both were at odds about what to do. Evolving would take way too long, perhaps, and they didn't have that time anymore.
Whatever was inside this temple had to be dealt with right now.
Or as soon as possible...
However, could they really do it?
Could they really take care of it even at their current power levels?
-----