Chaos' Heir Chapter 954: Runes

Chapter 954: Runes

Khan sat cross-legged at the top of the hill. The battle had ruined its smooth surface, adding cracks, digging holes, and covering it with maimed corpses and gory puddles. The pack was no more, but Khan's night was still long.

A purple-red light disrupted the dark environment. A bright, intricate rune hovered before Khan's chest, siphoning mana into his body. His flesh greedily accepted that energy, storing it under his skin to prepare it for the following absorption.

After the toxic pool completed Khan's physical transformation, he only had his attunement with mana to address. Bringing that stat to one hundred points would finalize the process, turning him into an official evolved warrior.

Increasing the attunement with mana had never been a big problem for Khan. The [Blood Vortex] had always made his growth extraordinary, fueling his fame and more than compensating for his inability to rely on infusions.

However, Khan's body had already achieved the evolution, so strengthening it required far more energy. He had improved on the [Blood Vortex]'s design, but the technique appeared unable to scratch his new limits. His flesh resembled a bottomless pit, accepting all the energy he gathered without showing signs of satisfaction.

On the one hand, that trend was promising. Being able to store so much energy spoke for the power of Khan's body. He could only imagine how strong he would become after reaching one hundred points. Chances were Khan would outcla.s.s the evolved warriors who had relied on the extreme induction as soon as he completed his attunement.

On the other, the process was bound to be extremely slow. Khan's superior training technique wouldn't stop his peers from surpa.s.sing his attunement level. That stat didn't speak for his actual power, but humans still relied on it to evaluate warriors. The new hurdle risked affecting his fame and welcoming new challengers to his rule.

Sadly, it was too late to do anything about it. Moreover, the solution didn't change. Khan would simply have to rely on an overwhelming show of force the second someone tried to defy him. He would have to make an example out of that enemy to deter future challenges and reinforce his fame.

'Blood always is the solution,' Khan internally cursed while focusing on welcoming that natural energy. The process could be faster, but the rune hovering before his chest wasn't the sole item in need of mana.

Eight additional runes encircled Khan, hovering farther away from him. Their lines differed from the symbol before his chest, but their power was far greater and kept rising. Their structure grew unstable as more mana poured into their fabric, but they held for now.

The hill was one of Senerth's best locations, so the pack that had previously occupied it was one of the planet's strongest. Even the Thilku would confirm that Khan had already proven his superiority, so they wouldn't complain about those unorthodox methods.

Moreover, Khan had grown bored of killing hordes of monsters with his kicks and slashes. The process was no different than squashing ants, and he had even run out of tests to complete. Khan only wanted to get the conquest done now, so he didn't mind relying on his best attack.

The damaged hill and the gory marsh acted as the perfect bait. The area reeked of available food, so nearby monsters didn't take long to catch its scent and converge in its location. The ground started to tremble as a numerous pack appeared on the dark horizon, and a sigh escaped Khan's mouth when he calculated its route.

'It would have been too perfect,' Khan cursed. 'Whatever.'

The pack grew bigger in Khan's vision as it closed the distance with the hill. A tide of fur covered the ground on Khan's right, planning to overwhelm the mineral. The terrifying scene could make anyone abandon their position, but Khan only mentally complained about the monsters' arrangements.

Only two of the three runes pointed in the pack's relative direction could hit it. Moreover, neither would aim at the tide's center, forcing Khan to waste two of the prepared spells.

Khan let the pack reach the hill's base before throwing a punch toward the chosen runes. His gesture released a wave of mana that triggered something inside those unstable lines, activating their functions.

The lines achieved a deeper fusion before losing their relatively orderly structure. All the acc.u.mulated mana burst out of two runes, turning them into ma.s.sive waves of energy that submerged the entire pack.

A few monsters had just started climbing the hill when everything disappeared. A blinding radiance deprived them of their vision, and their fellow specimens shared that predicament. A small purple-red star had lit up in the area, and the damaged hill reflected its color, enhancing its brilliance.

The blinding scenery only lasted for a few seconds. Darkness soon descended on the area again, leaving Khan's training technique and the remaining six runes as sole sources of light. As for the pack, even experts would struggle to confirm its past existence.

Two ma.s.sive grooves had opened on the hill's side, stretching through the terrain past its base. The emission of that raw, violent energy had destroyed everything on its path. Occasional hair, charred bones, and fuming pieces of insides lingered in those holes, but nothing breathed down there.

The only survivor stood at the very edge of the grooves. The monster had been in the back of the pack and had turned after sensing the impending danger. Yet, its reaction had been too slow, and the spell had almost eaten half its body.

The creature had lost two legs and its left side, leaving its damaged organs in the open. It had crashed on the ground, and a painful cry tried to escape its mouth, but to no avail. Its lungs didn't work anymore, and its breathing soon stopped. After that, the pack was no more.

'If only I could summon so much energy at will,' Khan thought. 'It's a pity this spell requires so long to set up.'

That was Khan's best attack in terms of raw power. Even a Thilku as strong as Izraz, the soldier on the military planet, had failed to defend against it, and Khan's evolution had only improved it. It stood to reason that the pack had no hope of surviving it, but its shortcomings were apparent. Khan probably wouldn't have the chance to use that spell against someone like

Bruno.

'I should be able to move it around freely if I stabilize its structure,' Khan considered. 'I guess I found something to do in these two weeks.'