Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 399: Rise of the Bloodslaves

Detonations echoed every time the fighters hit each other. Aris and Rakati had a hard time fighting three elites. The only reason they were still in it was that their opening attack had been powerful enough to injure one of the three fighters. The curse Aris and Rakati carried was much weaker than Thalion’s, but together with the injury it was enough to put one fighter out of the battle, giving Aris and Rakati a fighting chance.Not far from the five fighters trying to rip each other’s guts out, it looked like hell. Dark red flames burned like a curtain in the air. From the center of it all, a terrifying aura of hunger radiated outward. The crimson Eidolon floated in that center like the devil himself, his eyes glowing like embers. Behind him, a fiery red portal opened as he activated Phalanx of the Blooded Templar.

The female tried to create as much distance as possible, but it was too late. She had wasted too much time putting out the flames burning along her side. Now she tried to get away from Thalion to buy herself more time to dodge his next attack. Her aura fluctuated as she split her focus between keeping an eye on Thalion and pushing the curse out of her blood.

The portal behind Thalion widened, and multiple wicked lances made of blood shot toward the fleeing female. Her eyes widened when she realized how much power was packed into a single lance. Even with her strength, she couldn’t simply block one without a moment to channel power into her skills and there were several lances coming.

One hit her wing and tore the entire thing off. She conjured a wind-shield that surrounded her like a bubble, but the first lance shattered it like brittle glass without slowing down. She was struck three more times, but none of the lances managed to injure her severely. She only received shallow cuts and flesh wounds that didn’t impact her much—though they added more curse and more of Thalion’s dark red bloodline flames.

When the attack ended and the portal closed behind Thalion, the female was still very much alive and in full control, the curse still far from taking over. It was hard to gauge her facial expression with the beak and all, but by how her eyes squinted, one might think she had been chewing on a lemon for quite a while.

Thalion anticipated an emotional outburst—maybe some rant about how he dared attack her—but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, she began waving her staff as her aura surged to new heights, easily suppressing Thalion’s whenever they clashed. Thalion heard her mumble something, but the words were carried away by the violent winds erupting around her.

Suddenly, Thalion felt pressure on his soul as his mental defenses were ripped apart. Until now, he had only relied on the hardened skin of his soul-body, which had worked well against mental attacks. But this one was too powerful and passed through his soul without the slightest resistance. The world began to spin, and he felt calm, free, uncaring.

Massive wind-arrows forming above him?

What could possibly happen?

Thalion quickly shook his head and let his soulcore push some sense back into his soul-body, sending out cleansing waves that forced out the hostile energies. Yet he failed to regain control fast enough. A massive arrow made of condensed wind—over five meters long—was already halfway to him.

Thalion tried to use Mistform, but he was too slow.

The arrow pierced through his chest and exploded, destroying the Crimson Eidolon completely. It also carried a mental component that shot straight into Thalion’s soul like lightning through a metal rod. The mental power flooded his soul again, nearly knocking him out, and it took him a few seconds to focus and reform the Crimson Eidolon. There were still a few motes left of the Eidolon, still connected to him—luckily—otherwise he would have needed to summon it anew and fly over, which would have cost precious time.

These mental components in everything the female did were a massive problem. As the Crimson Eidolon, he had no protection at all. He had first believed the mental energies broke his defenses before entering his soul-body, but that wasn’t the case—they entered directly through the connection between him and the Eidolon. The mental component was far more effective than Thalion had expected, and he absolutely needed to avoid taking hits.

When his vision reformed, he saw a massive hulking shape made of pure wind standing right before him. It looked somewhat like an ogre, over ten meters tall, wielding a colossal club that it swung down toward him.

He immediately activated Mistform, shooting to the side to evade the club—but this was not the only attack coming for him.

Multiple archers made of wind stood beside the female and began launching their arrows. Her eyes were glowing pure white now as she waved her staff, motioning for the massive ogre to turn toward Thalion. Thalion was in a pretty bad spot. With all the pressure and incoming attacks, it was nearly impossible to launch an effective counterattack. Instead, he accelerated more and more, relying entirely on speed to dodge.

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The female still couldn’t defeat the curse in her blood. She managed to delay the inevitable, but nothing more. In her mind, killing Thalion would also destroy the curse, which was why she went fully on the offensive, constantly summoning ghostly wind-warriors that fired skills or swung spectral weapons at him.

Everything she used radiated mental pressure, which meant Thalion absolutely did not want to get hit under any circumstances. Those mental attacks wouldn’t only destroy the Crimson Eidolon — they would damage his soul. And he had already swallowed a certain crystal as Tidecaller Serpent that was twisting his soul as well.

Even though he couldn’t muster a counterattack under the onslaught, he activated Sacrament of the Blooded Templar while trying to stay as close to the female as possible. The farther the distance, the weaker Sacrament became. Thalion had no hopes of draining her, but the pressure should at least make it harder for her to constantly attack him fight the curse. There were limits, and eventually she would need to choose her priorities.

It became clear she put everything into offense.

For Thalion, that was perfect. Even though she was terrifyingly powerful, he was good at dodging, and with the early hits he had managed to land, the curse wouldn’t take long to finish the job. He still found it strange that she could fly without problems despite having only one wing left, but it didn’t seem to hinder her at all.

Her skills varied widely — summons, arrows, shockwaves, everything mixed together. As the Crimson Eidolon, Thalion couldn’t use the unique Sanguis Impera abilities like vines or thorns. Instead, both of them poured everything into Sacrament of the Blooded Templar.

Minutes passed. Thalion had a few setbacks — the Crimson Eidolon was destroyed several times — but overall the female’s situation was much worse. The curse was on the brink of taking control, while Thalion hadn’t taken any real damage. Parts of his soul-body were fractured, and they would take hours to repair, but compared to her…

Red mist began leaking from her wounds, and one of her eyes slowly turned crimson. She had already consumed two potions, but they did little against the curse and only delayed it slightly. As the curse seized control, her attacks grew more desperate, making them easier to dodge while Thalion kept applying pressure with Sacrament of the blooded Templar.

“Ahhh! What are you doing to me?!” she screamed in a high-pitched voice, unable to endure the pain. With her high position in the sect, she had likely never been pushed this far, always taking easy missions with plenty of backup. Considering how obsessed they all were with their honor crap, her lack of real combat experience was still surprising.

As her summons began falling apart, Thalion dove closer and opened his mouth as if to answer — but instead activated Banshee’s Screech. The sudden attack shocked her so much that she lost control of all her summons and was thrown backward by the shockwave. Thalion immediately flew after her.

Pain ravaged Thalion’s soul as he passed through the dense aura surrounding her, but he pushed through and plunged the bloodclaws deep into her chest, delivering another dose of the curse. That finally broke her. She screamed and released a violent shockwave that completely annihilated the Crimson Eidolon.

The backlash was so massive that Thalion needed a few minutes in the skyship to regain his bearings. His soul would take longer to recover, but besides the mana he had spent, he was still in full fighting condition. The Crimson Eidolon simply wasn’t a good matchup against someone with so many mental skills.

By now the curse should have taken over, but Thalion wanted to see it with his own eyes.

A second later, Eagly shot out of the cargo bay and flew toward the fighters in the distance. Thalion’s assumption was correct. The female twitched in the air, unable to do anything as the transformation overcame her. Her eyes, aura, feathers, even her strange staff — everything changed.

With Eagly’s high perception, Thalion observed the entire battlefield clearly. Rakati and Aris were holding on. Aris had lost a wing and an arm, but they had managed to kill one of their attackers. Rakati was in slightly better condition, with only a few missing scales and a broken claw.

Their problem was simple: they were running out of blood.

This was the huge weakness of blood cultivators. All that raw strength came at a price, and they burned through their resources quickly. Without an opportunity to restore their blood, they were in real trouble.

On the positive side, they had inflicted their opponent with a good dose of the curse. It was undoubtedly a weaker version, but that didn’t mean it didn’t have an effect. With all the open wounds, a large amount of the curse must have entered their system. Red mist was already rising from their wounds as they struggled to focus on the fight.

All in all, it looked like he would get a few more followers—depending on whether the army would intervene.

Thalion activated Tempest Glide, his speed increasing considerably as the wind howled around him while he shot toward the two fighters. He had no intention of fighting as Eagly, but the form was perfect for closing the distance quickly. Since the two enemies were already close to transforming, he didn’t want to injure their bodies; instead, he wanted to apply more curse to speed up the process.

The fighters were so focused on their battle that they didn’t even notice Thalion coming. He fired a Bloodthorn into their chests from above. At that point, they had no chance of fighting back, and Rakati and Aris were intelligent enough not to kill them. Instead, they moved toward the already-dead enemy and began their feast.

Now Thalion had three blood slaves in total—assuming they survived the upcoming clash with the army.

While his blood slaves slowly finished their transformations, Thalion watched the army, who stared back at him in visible confusion. Normally, a duel did not end with the defeated side joining the victor. This seemed to be a real conundrum for the soldiers. Especially considering that one of the fighters currently turning was the sect leader’s brother.

“Aris! Rakati! Go and get your fill. Make sure no one on our side dies. I’ll go looting!” Thalion commanded before activating Mistform and shooting toward one of the buildings, flying in a wide arc around the army that had taken position before the floating rock.

It was looting time.

After that, he would head to a safe zone, repair his soul, and check all the good stuff he had gathered.