Divine Mage

by L Travern

  But even better, she had an instinctual fear of allowing his entire consciousness into her body. She knew her willpower had to be stronger than his, no matter how much of a genius he was, but she would rather not risk it. But if only a tiny part came, no matter how strong, she would be able to shut it down if needed.

  "Decide quickly!" He yelled again.

  There was no way she would be able to set a formation she had never studied before, so she had no choice but to accept his proposal.

  "Fine," she said.

  * * *

  Matthew had to do his best not to laugh out loud. That was it, her fate was sealed!

  At the pursuit, he had coaxed the Young Red Dragon into following them by promising it that he could make it breakthrough to an Overlord and protect it for one year afterward. As much as the first part of the deal was nice, it was the second part that sealed it.

  Overlord Beasts were hunted as soon as someone heard of them. Be it for their taste, the quality of the materials their bodies became, or even because of the potential danger they represented if they ever became Saint Beasts, no Overlord Beast was ever left alone, with formations set all over the world to detect them.

  However, if it had one year of guaranteed safety, it could stabilize his recent breakthrough in power, and thus become able to protecting itself even if a Saint came in-person to kill it. It was a dragon, after all, and from the Overlord level onwards, the suppression of the world started weakening.

  But he had proven to it that he had great means by surviving its assault as a Champion, that he was too weak to lie – after all, he couldn't survive another such attack, and if the dragon even suspected him of lying, he would die –, and by showing his knowledge on how to make a dragon increase its level, he had proven that he had knowledge no one else in the world had.

  He had been somewhat lucky that even in such a bad situation, the enemy that showed itself was a dragon. Dragons were beings blessed by the universe and no matter how much the Immortals ruling the planet might change humans and other races, it could do very little to dragons. Therefore, all he knew about dragons from his past life, coupled with his knowledge on mana, allowed him to easily understand how to make the dragon level up.

  The hardest part had actually been talking to it using a thread of soul mana without being noticed by Shadow One. Now, that was true, overwhelming luck. It also showed how desperate Shadow One was feeling about getting to the safety of the White Sea, enough that she had been holding the garden all the time without putting it in a safer place, from which Matthew wouldn't have had any means of contacting the outside world.

  Now, he only had to draw four huge formations.

  The first one, was the Supreme Sacrificial-Blood Collecting Formation, to forcibly take blood from the dragon. It had to be forcibly taken, for it had to be filled with negative emotions of betrayal and anger when it happened.

  The second one was the Supreme Earth Poisoning Formation, which had to turn the White Sea area where they stood into a place that instead of being beneficial to Shadow One, would poison her from the inside – thus the need for forcibly taken blood.

  The third one was the Supreme Golem Core Removal Formation, which would take the core from Shadow One. Yes, she was a golem!

  And the fourth one was the Supreme Spacetime Sealing Formation, which would seal all the area and prevent anyone from leaving or entering it unless an Immortal personally came, or a couple of Saints united to forcibly destroy it. Since the Fire Continent supposedly only had the Fire Emperor at Saint-level, that was almost impossible to happen in a year.

  Three formations based on betrayal would fuel the fourth, spacetime sealing one! He couldn't have lied to the dragon, after all, and had to deliver what he promised. He had only omitted the fact that the process would be painful to it.

  However, he couldn't do it in a way that the dragon would believe it was only a spacetime sealing formation, and Shadow One would believe it to be 'merely' a Dragon Slaying Formation.

  There was only one solution: spicing things up.

  He sent a sliver of his consciousness into Shadow One. It was a tiny part, but it had knowledge on how to set the four formations, how to link them together, how to use spells as a golem, and how to fight somewhat effectively.

  Dividing his mind like that was a painful but quick process. As soon as his consciousness entered her body, she scanned it in all way possible, and finding no evil intentions within it, allowed it to take control of her.

  As soon as that happened, he sent a message to the dragon.

  "She's a golem!" He sent mentally. "She'll try to use the abundant earth energy in the White Sea to defy you!"

  As expected, the dragon roared in fury and attacked.

  * * *

  Matthew-Two was just a confused being. It knew what it knew, its purpose in existing, how to do many things, but its mind was lacking. He felt small, weak, vulnerable.

  But the body it found itself controlling... It was nothing but weak!

  Shadow One – Matthew-Two now knew what the golem's name was – was a work of art. It was an Ascender Golem created by putting an inscribed monster core into a human corpse, which was no small feat. The body itself had become scarred and ugly, almost useless, and only an Immortal would be able to heal it without affecting the synchronicity between the body and the core. But the state of the body didn't matter for a golem; the face was okay, allowing it to pass as a human, and everything else could be covered by the great it was wearing. Matthew-Two even suspected it to be a Lower Relic!

  The core had also lost little power when transferred into the body, becoming an Ascender from its original Overlord level. He felt his original consciousness would have a way to bring the golem's original power back to effectively kill the dragon above them, but for some reason, that knowledge had not been given to him. It seemed it was better for his original consciousness that the golem not become too powerful, and Matthew-Two could indeed feel some hostility from the golem towards him.

  He willed it and the golem's arm moved. He opened and closed its hand. He also controlled its armor through its soul binding, opening and closing the helmet at will. Lastly, he pulled some mana from its core and cast a simple Light spell. It was weird, for the golem had no soul upon which to draw the spell signature, but he had. It was like using two different souls to do a task.

  And then, before he could do anything else, the huge dragon on the skies roared.

  It wasn't just a roar, but an attack filled with spatial mana, soul mana, and flaws. He had all the information his main consciousness had about the dragon since it had expected to fight it.

  Before, as a Champion, no matter how good his perception, analyzing an incoming attack from a Quasi-Overlord had been beyond him. Now, as an Ascender, seeing how unrefined the attack from the just-leveled Overlord dragon was, was way too easy.

  In fact, the attack was so bad, he had five different ways of dealing with it, three of which he could've done as a Champion instead of almost killing himself by blinking away from existence.

  He pulled mana from the core and created a simple spell with it.

  Myriad Arts – Spellcasting – Double Elements: Space, Soul – Supreme Drill!

  An invisible drill made of space and soul mana distorted light in front of him and drilled a weak spot in the incoming roar attack. Due to the difference of power, there was still some impact, which he felt in both his soul and in the core, but nothing he couldn't ignore. Just like that, the roaring attack dissipated into nothingness.

  He had no time to lose. Before the dragon could react, he willed the armor to open the area around his wrists and used a simple spell to open a cut on both of them. Then, another spell started using the blood to draw a huge circle of blood on the White Sea, while a third spell kept creating new blood in the golem's body.

  "What are you doing?!" A female voice, supposedly the golem's, said in his mind.

  "Drawing a formation," he explained nonchalantly.


  "Why are you doing this with my blood?!" She demanded, and he felt his control over the golem's body decrease.

  "Stop resisting!" He yelled in his mind. "You're a golem, and have a great affinity with the earth element. We're in the White Sea, a place covered by salt, where earth mana is abundant. There's nothing better to act as an inscribing material than a golem's blood! It'll allow the formation to absorb a lot more energy without energetic conflict!"

  Before she could reply, the dragon seemed to realize something had gone wrong with his attack, since Shadow One hadn't dropped dead nor showed any other reaction to it but to use a simple spell.

  It became even more enraged, and its claws came crashing at her.

  "Damn!" Matthew complained. "Stop slowing my job! Now I have to dodge the attack and prevent it from damaging what I already inscribed!" Struggling full control of the golem back from Shadow One – she didn't resist –, he cast another spell.

  Myriad Arts – Spellcasting – Single Element: Earth – Supreme Gigantic Hand!

  Just as he had said, earth mana was way too abundant in the area. Controlling it required more willpower, but less mana from the mage, which was perfect for him.

  The space-strengthened salt raised from the ground and created a huge white hand that interlaced with the dragon claw. The impact of a claw from a being of a thousand legs long meeting a solid hand of the same size created a mighty shockwave.

  Chapter 44 - Formation, Activate!

  Chapter 44 - Formation, Activate!

  Myriad Arts – Spellcasting – Double Elements: Earth, Space – Supreme Earth Dome!

  A small dome made of space-strengthened salt rose from around him to protect him. As soon as the shockwave hit it, he got rid of it, only to find himself in an area being showered by salt.

  Myriad Arts – Spellcasting – Single Element: Wind – Supreme Breeze!

  A strong wind was born from him and blew all the salt in a thousand legs radius from him, in a perfect circle. Not losing any time, he resumed his formation drawing while taking to the air.

  He couldn't make it easier for the dragon. It would have to decide if it wanted to attack him or his formation!

  He flew fast, soon finding himself at eye level from the dragon. It was looking confused at the enormous hand of salt holding it, as if not believing his newfound mighty of a Mature Red Dragon could be so 'easily' stopped.

  * * *

  Shadow One was feeling as dumbfounded as the dragon, but for another reason.

  She had thought that in the White Sea, her affinity with the earth element would've allowed her to completely crush Matthew. But now, seeing his knowledge about the earth element, and his affinity with it, made her realize how wrong she had been.

  It hadn't been a coincidence that he had suggested they come here, to the White Sea. And it had been right after the Valdian Family's undercover agent had told the boy how he had no privacy, that only golems could be trusted for such line of work.

  Had the boy knew since then? Had it all been a plot to make her feel overconfident, and thus follow her here?

  That gave her a foreboding sensation. All she wanted to do was flee away from there as soon as possible!

  But just as she was about to destroy his consciousness, throw the spatial treasure away from her, and flee at full speed, she realized with pure terror that he had already laid the formation down!

  How? Just how?! Everything, from the roar to his flying to the dragon, and now the conclusion of the immense drawing of blood on the ground, had taken less than a minute? She would've never believed a perfect formation could be drawn so quickly, but he seemed confident in it.

  For he was already activating it.

  And he was using her own mana to fuel it.

  The formation, a red circle filled with arcane symbols, on a white background, resembled a work of art. When he infused mana into it, the blood lit in bright red, and sheer power came from it.

  She took control of her core back from him, but it was too late.

  * * *

  Matthew-Two willed the Supreme Sacrificial-Blood Collecting Formation to activate, and it obeyed. Salt flew to the skies in such a fast speed it created small sonic booms. It formed into a huge white sword just above the dragon, and then, it fell on the beast.

  Its red scales were hard and protected him well enough. Any spell from Matthew-Two wouldn't have been able to pierce the scales, but formations were different. They could draw from the energy in the place, and the blade was made of space-infused salt, which drew extra power from the earth element in the White Sea.

  Extra power and extra energy. Matthew-Two had used a lot of mana to activate the formation – over half of the remaining mana in the golem –, but the end result was much greater. As the scales resisted the initial contact, salt kept going over the dragon, and the blade seemed to keep trying to pierce through them.

  He felt as Shadow One removed his control from her body and core, but it was already too late. The formation had been activated and it was now fueling itself on the earth energy on the place. It would take a few days for it to consume the energy in the area and stop; until them, it would keep trying to take blood from any dragon that entered the area!

  She then did the next best thing she could: she tried to destroy the formation. But when he felt her pulling mana from her core, he stood against her.

  He could feel her shock when her core failed to obey her; when she realized her willpower was nothing in front of his. Oh, he would end up dying in a war of attrition, he was just a tiny part of his original consciousness, after all. However, he could hold for a few minutes against her, and that was all he needed.

  From the beginning, he had been willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good of his original consciousness!

  He hoped it wouldn't be necessary, but just as he had almost died to survive the first roar attack, he saw nothing wrong in damaging his soul to guarantee he kept alive! Damage could be healed, but once he died, it would be all over.

  While he struggled against Shadow One, a few moments after the activation of the formation, the blade finally pierced the dragon scales. It yelled in pain, fury, and regret. Its feeling of betrayal was almost palpable as it realized it had been played, and that was just what Matthew needed.

  * * *

  Matthew willed himself out of the garden as soon as Matthew-Two started struggling against Shadow One. He was still bloodied; he had been focusing on healing, but not on cleaning.

  Without losing any time, he used a spell to pull the blood from the dragon, and another to create two flying formations around Shadow One!

  The formations were like spell signatures, a bunch of arcane symbols in a spherical pattern around Shadow One. First, he activated the Supreme Earth Poisoning Formation.

  Shadow One yelled in pain.

  Her golem body had such great affinity with earth element that it had been automatically getting mana from the White Sea from the moment she arrived. When he poisoned that connection, the shock of receiving poisoned mana would've been enough to kill weak-willed Eminences!

  She didn't die, but that moment of shock and the poisoning of her core was enough weakening for him to activate the second formation he had drawn around her.

  Supreme Golem Core Removal Formation, activate!

  There was no way for her to defend herself. The core was pulled from the middle of her body, teleported away, and appeared right outside the two formations around her body.

  Matthew used a spell to cut his own hand and created the fourth and final formation.

  The dragon was still roaring in pain, trying to resist the huge sword that hadn't stopped attacking it. Everything had happened too fast for it to react, especially since it had just leveled up and hadn't gotten used to its new power and size yet!

  Matthew drew the fourth formation, which fit perfectly into the first one, transforming it from the Supreme Sacrificial-Blood Collecting Formation into the Supreme Sacrificial-Blood Col
lecting Formation the Supreme Spacetime Sealing Formation.

  Then, he forcibly pulled mana from the golem core to activate it.

  And the dragon disappeared.

  The blade of salt became formless, the salt falling harmless on the ground. The blood and the formations were gone, too. Only Matthew remained, flying, holding Shadow One's core in one hand, and using a spell to hold her body flying, too.

  Now, he only had to check if she had indeed bad intentions towards him, and what the hell the Immortal Crusade actually was.

  Myriad Arts – Spellcasting – Single Element: Soul – Legendary Memory Search!

  Without a body, the core might have a consciousness, but it was defenseless in front of him. He read everything he wanted from Shadow One's memory, and what he saw made him realize one thing: he had to flee as fast as possible!

  For the moment Shadow One's core had been removed from her body, her maker, Queen Overlord Bloodvine, the Warden of the West of the Immortal Crusade, had felt it. And she was coming for him!

  As much as he wanted to experiment with the core, it would be used to track him. So, after recovering his consciousness from it, he dropped the core, and it disappeared into the Supreme Spacetime Sealing Formation that it was fueling. Next, he willed Shadow One's body into the garden and started flying full speed ahead towards the White Sea City.

  There lay the portal to the Flying Continent, and it was his only chance of escape!

  * * *

  The Queen was reading some documents when she felt that Shadow One, her beloved first creation, had been defeated.