Chapter 88: Guardian of Sorcery
Before their evolution the amargs were nearly 30 feet long. A rhinoceros-like midsection with a long neck and tail which were 10 feet long. Their most remarkable trait was the reddish-white spikes that jutted out from their spines.
Now, however, none of these previous traits remained on the abyssal drakes. Their size didn’t change by much, but the amargs' bulky legs and thin necks were replaced by taut muscles. Pitch-black scales replaced their tough hide, and in place of the spikes were razor-sharp blades of red mana.
‘It looks like the edge of a spear or a sword. Maybe it’s influenced by my skills as well,’
Zyrus was pleasantly surprised by the results. Further analysis had to be done after observing them in battle, but still, he was sure that they were much stronger than before.
“Rise, I look forward to your performance,”
“We won’t disappoint you,”
Zyrus nodded at the confident wyvern and continued,
“Did you awaken any memories or inheritance?”
“…I’m not too sure about that. Still, I can feel something different in my mind,”
“I see,”
Zyrus wasn’t disappointed at his answer. Even without any innate skills the wyvern in front of him was as strong as Camazotz.
He had wings that spanned across 50 feet. And although they were connected to his arms just like a bat, the sturdiness of his wings was incomparable to Camazotz.
The Wyverns were born to be predators in the skies above.
What caught Zyrus's eyes were the claws and pair of curved horns on the wyvern's head. Unlike the pitch-black scales they were white like cotton. Even Zyrus wasn’t sure about where such contrasting traits came from.
‘Well, I’ll know in the battle anyway,’
He reined in his curiosity and started thinking about a name. Giving the wyvern a name was the fastest way to increase his strength.
No one except Zyrus knew how strong Elsid was at this moment. He had intentionally concealed the abyssal knight’s intelligence and skills in order to catch his enemies off guard.
Just in terms of strength alone, Elsid could easily wipe out half of Zyrus’s current fleet.
“Are you going to give him a name?”
“Indeed,”
Franken observed the wyvern with a thoughtful gaze. From its posture, it looked like an elder was looking at a newborn child.
While it looked comical with their size difference, it wasn’t surprising as even Zyrus himself was much younger than Franken.
“He has some traits of a ‘Guardian’,”
“I thought so as well,” Zyrus replied as he looked at the wyverns’ white horns and claws. A name immediately popped up in his head at this conjuncture.
A Black dragon who was known as the patron and guardian of sorcery. He couldn't think of a more fitting name.
“From this day forth, you shall be known as Zirnitra”
A black pillar of light manifested in the next instance. It used Zyrus’s source of origin as an anvil and his bloodline as a hammer. The wyverns’, or rather, Zirnitra’s evolution was complete with this last step.
[You have given a name to your summon!]
[Izena: Your true name defines your existence. Names have the power to awaken sentience in everything in existence, and to name something you need to understand their nature.]
[You have the authority to name your summons and give them a new seed of existence]
[The name given by you will define their future potential and growth direction]
[Note: You can only name one summon per rank]
[Note: Based on the summoned being’s role, their name will affect others of the same rank or beyond]
[Current ranks of the summon: 1,2]
Rank 1: Elsid
Rank 2: Zirnitra
“Great, now we’re all set for the next battle,” Zyrus declared in a satisfied tone and closed the cube’s screen.
“Am I to hide as per the plan?” Franked asked while tapping his hooves on the blazing scroll fragment.
Zyrus nodded in acknowledgment and headed out with the drakes and Zirnitra. Unlike before though, he was no longer hiding with the cube’s power.
“What hiding? I was just preparing for our battle,” Zyrus replied to the glemorax chief. He felt like the name of those stakes was different than he remembered, but he was more concerned about the flow of time.
And indeed, his probing worked.
It wasn’t like the glemorax chief was unaware of the cube’s mysteries. Today wasn’t the first time they had lost all tracks of Zyrus. After each disappearance, he would return as a whole new being.
Nonetheless, even that increment in his strength was within the glemorax’s predictions.
“Summon,”
*Shatter*
It was just that had underestimated the sanctuary’s effects. The blessing of order was much more significant than a simple level-up.
Hundreds of thousands of ophidian warriors and amargs walked out from the portal. Or to be more accurate, they jumped down from the portals.
“You won’t mind if I take them, right?” Zyrus sneered as he pointed at the golden stakes. He had opened the summoning portals right above these so-called realm anchors.
*Roooooar*
“Take them,”
The drakes obeyed his commands and went all out in offense. The falling amargs didn’t hold anything back and ejected their spikes at the flying aliens.
The glemorax chief was immobilized under Zirnitra’s abyssal breath. It was a perfect chance to deal him a fatal blow. But Zyrus didn’t attack the enemy head who was caught off guard.
[Shackles of Nihility]
Gigantic chains broke out from the mountain ranges below. Zyrus didn’t have to hide his powers of origin on Earth. This wasn’t the curse of nothingness which was executed with the cube’s powers.
The black chains and purple shackles were pure manifestations of the laws of void. This was the power that solely belonged to him and him alone.
*Crack*
The hovering stakes were pierced by the shackles that erased everything in existence.
“Retreat,”
In the same moment that Zyrus collected those miniature suns into his warehouse, a flood of red light enveloped the entire sky.
His troops which were unable to retreat were killed in that instant. Even the fading portals were forced open under the dim red light.
“The feeling’s mutual, Let’s fight one on one then,” Zyrus replied fearlessly and waved his hands at the ground.
It was as if the time had reversed as the portals reappeared on the ground. After reading Oroszlan’s journals he had grasped the summoning arts to a whole new level. At least on earth, he could summon his troops anywhere within his perception range.
One must remember, that his perception range stretched hundreds of miles under the effects of ‘The last Apostle’.
The glemorax chief frowned as he looked at the hundreds of portals. It would be impossible to predict the enemy’s movements when they could advance and retreat anytime.
“Precisely so.” Zyrus flew towards the glemorax chief on Zirnitra’s back. While it was a one-on-one fight, neither side mentioned anything about the wyvern.
It wasn’t due to the glemorax chief’s honor. He would be more then happy to fight against Zyrus who was unable to fly.
But if he allowed the black wyvern to descend on the battlefield below, the entire glemorax army would be wiped out within an hour.
Zirnitra was just that strong.
The crimson light attacked Zyrus, and he too retaliated with the vortex of blue mana. They were akin to gods on this dying world.
The entire sky was turned into a milestone that grinded down the crimson flows of energy.
The five meter tall glemorax chief was unperturbed by the scene. The eyes on his wing lit up one by one.
Zyrus almost stumbled down from the sky as Zirnitra was trembling all over under the red light.
“Focus on defense,”
“I am ashamed by my weakness, My lord,”
“On the contrary, only you can withstand this attack,”
Zyrus wasn’t saying empty words. The red light didn’t posses any miraculous abilities. It pursued the extremes of speed and sharpness.
And more times than not, such simple attacks were the hardest to fend off.
“You’re not the only one who can attack,” Zyrus roared as he forcefully withstood the attack.
His hands were held high as if he was praying to the heavens. The sky itself trembled and even the crimson sunlight was pushed back from the atmosphere.
The glemorax chief charged over with a ferocious grin. Although he was much smaller than Zirnitra, just the winds produced by his wings were enough to shake the flying wyvern.
He thrust his arms forward like a spear. At the same time, red beams of energy seeped out from his numerous eyes and converged on the same direction.
“I admit that I’m weaker than you, but you’re looking down on me too much,” It was Zirnitra who replied instead of Zyrus. He understood that his master was unable to retaliate at this moment.
And instead of feeling burdened by the glemorax chief’s attack, the black wyvern was feeling proud by Zyrus’s trust in his abilities.
A hundred feet long lance formed n front of the glemorax chief. His words were true. If it was a true black dragoon in front of him, then he could only retreat.
But be it the black wyvern or the one who rode him, both of them just possessed a trace of the dragon's bloodline.
*Crackkkle*
The milestone of clouds formed by Zyrus was turning against him at this moment. Instead of holding back the red lights, it was being used as a grindstone to sharpen the enemy’s spear.
Thunderbolts rumbled in the sky that was wrecked by the cataclysmic battle. But they too were drawn into the red spear.
Zirnitra stared at that red spear that seemed to penetrate the heavens itself. The outcome of this battle depended on whether he could block this attack or not.
“I may be inferior to a true dragon, but still, a dragon isn’t needed to hold off a bug like you,”
Zirnitra roared with his winds spread wide. White halos of light surged atop his horns, and holy shields formed in front of his stretched claws.
This seemingly holy and divine power was the polar opposite of the abyssal mana that flowed through his heat.
Nonetheless, it didn’t look contrasting in the eyes of others. Like a lotus blooming atop a filthy pond, his authority as a guardian was unfolding at this instance.
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