Chương 567: Chapter 535: The Cost of Ambition

Pain was just an imagination of the brain. At least that was what Thalion told himself before he activated a whole bunch of skills at once. As darkness erupted from him, Thalion's vision began to swim and his knees buckled. Good thing his new body wasn't really under gravity's control anymore, which saved him from collapsing onto the ground. Most of his pathways had been destroyed, and the remaining ones were heavily damaged.

Using skills felt like driving magma through them, but aside from that and the occasional shivering of his limbs from the pain, the rage pushed everything else away. The sudden outburst greatly surprised the elves. Even though it was far from what Thalion could normally unleash, it was enough for him to get hold of one of them. Even in his current state, the elven body offered little resistance and Thalion ripped it apart in a single motion. In fact, he was surprised by how smooth it had been.

Normally, ligaments or bones resisted for at least a moment, but Thalion hadn't felt anything of the sort. To him it felt more like tearing a piece of paper in half. Since he was still in a life-and-death battle, Thalion couldn't remain in that position for long. He dashed backward to evade a sword slash meant to save the unfortunate victim. While retreating, he noticed how the elf's soul was instantly sucked into the elemental.

Before, when the amulet had still existed, there had always been a slow and gentle pull on nearby souls. Now it looked more like they were dragged away within half a second without the slightest chance of resistance. Apparently, Devour Soul was rather useless when he could simply kill the enemy outright. Now Thalion was at least partially able to keep up with the elves.

Unfortunately, his vision was still swimming and he regularly lost control over his limbs, which wasn't exactly ideal during an intense battle where his life was on the line. He was still hit multiple times, but now the other side was beginning to suffer casualties. With his initial outburst, Thalion had used multiple shadows to grab the nearest elves, but that hadn't worked particularly well. Instead, he resorted to Shadow Step to either evade attacks or close the distance.

The elves had real trouble dealing meaningful damage to him, even though he was hit frequently. Thalion, on the other hand, was absolutely deadly. The moment he got close to an elf, it usually resulted in horrifying wounds or another corpse. Still, even though the elves were slowly dying, Thalion wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer.

Using so much power was, in fact, dealing more damage to him than the elves ever could, even if the official status screen and his Essence bar insisted that everything should be perfectly fine. In that regard, Thalion truly felt that the architect of the system could have done a better job. There had been quite a few issues so far. Then again, the system existed to slaughter everyone inside it, so getting the finer details right probably wasn't its highest priority.

Speaking of priorities, Thalion needed to reach the communication circle in the center of the plaza, and quickly. His detour had only been a slight one, and now that he was using as much power as possible, he needed to get there before he became unable to move altogether. With him being almost as fast as the elves, he still had a real chance. His vision swam and his ears rang, but with the help of his title he avoided the worst attacks as he blasted across rooftops and partially through buildings with Soulshape.

The elves were now struggling to keep him contained for two reasons. The first was his speed. The second was his lethality. If an elf made even a slight mistake or came too close, Thalion would kill them in an instant. Just as Thalion shot through a wall and emerged at the main plaza, he noticed that the elves had become even more aggressive. Buildings behind him exploded apart as they unleashed some of their strongest skills. The ones he hated the most were the archers.

Those stupid elves were ridiculously good shots and Thalion had an extremely difficult time avoiding them. One Shadow Step brought him right before the communication circle after narrowly avoiding a sword strike. Then he spotted an elf hovering above the formation with a staff in one hand. A moment later, a bolt of lightning slammed into the communication circle and completely tore it apart. The blast threw Thalion backward. Only slightly thanks to his new body, but the result remained the same.

Sending a message to the gods was no longer possible. With his body slowly shutting down, this wasn't looking good. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. There honestly wasn't much more he could do. His pathways and even parts of his soul were so badly damaged that he could barely function. A few more minutes and he would be finished. The only thing left was killing as many elves as possible before his body gave out.

He was struck in the back and thrown forward, where a massive axe slammed directly into his chest and hurled him onto his back. Thalion anchored one end of the weapon into the ground and dragged himself along it because his legs chose that exact moment to give out. Sadly, an elf with white hair grabbed his foot and yanked him backward. The elf's fist slammed into Thalion's head. Like most of the previous attacks, the punch lacked real impact.

The elf didn't stop there and grabbed Thalion by the throat before raining down punch after punch. At this point, Thalion was already halfway unconscious and barely registered the blows. Still, he managed to fumble one of his claws upward, only for it to be jerked aside before another barrage of punches followed. Just as his vision was beginning to disappear completely, the elf was suddenly hit by something moving so fast it might as well have been a racing car.

A moment later, a man with stone skin appeared before Thalion's face. It took him a second to realize it was Jakob.

"Jo, what happened to you and why are you so weak?" Jakob asked.

"I mean, sure, the elves are okay fighters, but someone like you should be able to handle them." Currently, Thalion wasn't really in the mood for explanations. Instead, he focused on breathing normally again and calming himself before his condition worsened further.

"Hugh, that bad, huh?" Jakob scratched the back of his head.

"Well, then let me be the first to inform you that your best buddies are back to save the day. Hmm, night would probably be more accurate..." Jakob continued after Thalion failed to answer.

"In fact, I have to say that it feels pretty good returning the favor for saving Annie and me from those blue ropes back in the tutorial. That had been on my mind for quite a long time, you know." While Jakob kept talking, the battle around them continued. Thalion only saw a few flickering explosions at the edge of his vision and honestly wished Jakob would stop talking. Right now, Thalion was hanging by a thread, and this constant stream of words was the last thing he needed.

"Did you see how I hit that elf? It's all thanks to the training program the gods put us through. I had both a stone elemental god and a stone martial artist god training me. Now it all makes much more sense why the Chosen are so strong and why everyone wants the attention of a god. They just know everything and are such good teachers.

"Back in the tutorial, with only those scrolls, I always had trouble understanding what I was supposed to do. Especially body tempering. That stuff completely confused me. With the gods, though, it was smooth sailing. Just look at my skin and muscles. Killing a few big monsters to reach E grade will be super easy.

"Did you see Kargul? Man, that lucky bastard got a head start. Totally unfair in my opinion..." Jakob went on and on while Thalion's vision slowly faded into darkness from pure exhaustion. Yet the last words he heard weren't exactly comforting.

"The gods are starting to get worried and asked how fast you normally level. I told them..." <-- Thalion had no idea how much time had passed, but when he woke up again, he was still lying in the middle of the plaza. That probably hadn't left a particularly good impression. He still felt horrible, and the constant pain remained, though it had become somewhat muffled. The sun hung high in the sky, but Thalion's passive aura had recovered enough that most of the light disappeared before it could even touch him.

"Finally, you're awake." A worried Maike stepped into his field of view.

"It really didn't leave a good impression when Ricarda returned and found you lying in the middle of the plaza. We tried carrying you back, but your body felt so weird that we were afraid we'd damage something, so we just let you sleep it off out here." Immediately, Thalion's mind started racing again.

"What happened? How long was I out?" he managed to ask. His voice sounded nothing like the terrifying creature from the depths of the void he normally projected. Maike, on the other hand, seemed more than happy to explain.

"You were out for six days. Got us really worried, you know. Even the gods asked multiple times if you had woken up yet.

"As for what happened afterward, we killed most of the elves. The others were captured and brought through the portal where Nyssa is currently dealing with them.

"I heard her say something about how torturing mortals feels almost like a waste because they die of old age after only a few thousand years." Maike visibly shuddered.

"Seriously, that goddess freaks me out. Even her avatars, while completely concealing their auras, feel so far beyond us that it's absurd." She paused for a moment before continuing.

"Anyway, after two days Ricarda and the other elves returned. The teleportation circle has been conquered and they brought a bunch of craftsmen to connect it to the network linking the two bases.

"They also probably want to build a portal to the godly domain there since that base is going to become our capital in the future. Right now, it should only be a matter of days before it goes live." Maike thought for a second.

"Yeah, I think that's everything." She crossed her arms and looked down at him.

"Now your turn. What exactly happened to you?" With his current headache, it was still difficult for Thalion to follow everything Maike was saying, but so far the progress they had made seemed pretty good. The only thing that wasn't looking good was his own situation. He still felt as weak as a baby, and his pathways were still torn apart in many places.

"To sum it up, I did a little experiment and it kind of failed."

"Aha.

'Kind of failed' is the understatement of the year." Maike gave him a deadpan look.

"That's like saying Kaldrek handles alcohol well."

"Its now almost five months until the third system event. You should have gained levels, but instead it looks like you crippled yourself." With that assessment she wasn't wrong. Still, Thalion had needed to take the risk. The heights he was aiming for couldn't be reached without taking risks. Besides, this wouldn't be the end of it. He still needed to finish his armor, which would cost a great deal of blood, especially when it came to corrupting the two crystals. With a grunt, Thalion pushed himself to his feet.

That also felt very odd. Nothing seemed to be pressing down on him anymore. He could simply move however he pleased. Normally, people walked or ran because it was the most efficient way to get from one place to another. Now Thalion had the feeling that he could just as easily move using his arms and would probably be just as fast.

"Thanks for the save. I need to recover now."

"Get well quickly, but before that you should probably have a talk with the gods. Maybe they have an idea how you can heal faster. On top of that, there have been some developments in Integrated Space, but it's probably best if they tell you personally." Maike quickly added before disappearing with a movement skill he had never seen her use before. At least his friends had all become stronger. Thalion slowly made his way back to the mansion, which had been fully repaired while he had been unconscious.

His armor pieces were doing very well inside the blood pond and had already absorbed a respectable amount of power from the two crystals. The moment Thalion stepped onto the communication circle below, projections of Nyssa and Solan immediately appeared before him. The gods must have been genuinely worried, which made Thalion wonder what exactly had happened in Integrated Space. Hopefully something that made his position even more valuable.

"Finally. What did you do to yourself?" Solan asked while carefully studying him. The gods could probably only see the projection and not inspect him directly.

"I fused this form with my amulet," Thalion answered, even though that wasn't entirely accurate. The amulet was gone now, replaced by the dark pyramid suspended inside the elemental's core.

"You tried to do that already? After only a week?" Nyssa exclaimed. She looked as though she had suddenly revised her opinion of his intelligence downward.

"This isn't good," Solan said in a serious tone.

"The show is in five months and he can't arrive there still being E grade. It would only give the other gods leverage, especially with what is currently happening throughout the multiverse." That immediately caught Thalion's attention. What exactly was going on in Integrated Space that made two of the strongest gods he knew sound this worried?