After ending the life of the Bone Lord, Arthur kept moving forward, looking for blood. The army of dark creatures that were returning to the dark lands was still near, so he quickly caught up with them.

They trembled in fear when they looked back, gazing at him, who looked like a demon from the underworld.

“H-He won against the skeleton? How is that possible? We can’t outrun him too!”

It never crossed their minds that Arthur would win that fight, so for that reason, they weren’t worried about quickly returning to the dark lands, but now? A monster with a power beyond their comprehension was right behind them.

“Everyone, assemble and fight him!” One of the generals said.

Their best beat was to team up and try to win against Arthur, who might have gotten hurt after fighting with the Bone Lord. However, even though they knew it was their best bet, the creatures scattered, running to all sides, praying that they would somehow leave that place alive.

Arthur’s only thought was to kill them, so he chased them down like a beast following prey within the forest. No matter what direction they chose or how fast they went, Arthur would find them and tear them apart in the end.

The dark race army was not the same after receiving the tier 7 spells from Arthur. Their number was way lower, making it easier for him to finish them.

It did not matter if it was an ordinary soldier or a trained general; they all died with a single slash of Arthur’s sword. After each kill, the madness inside his head increased, turning him into a fierce beast with only one goal: to kill.

He ran towards the forest, looking for ordinary beasts to kill. Some peacefully drank water from a river when a sword cut them in half.

Arthur did not know, but his direction was the same as where the dark lands were. The more he went in that direction, the less greenish the vegetation was, turning into a hollowed state.

There were still plants blooming with life, but the amount was way lower, and even the area looked darker as if the sun did not shine.

A mist permeated the air, making the atmosphere creepier. Arthur could not care less about that, as he kept moving forward, killing any beast or dark race creature he could find, until eventually passing out inside a dark cave.

~~~~

“It’s been three days; where is he?” Wisa said.

They had returned to Slyvian when Arthur told them to, and with the imminent danger of the Bone Lord, they speed up, reaching it in only three days.

Everyone thought Arthur or the Bone Lord would show up on their way back to find them, but no one did.

That raised a question about what had happened in that fight. Merethyl had that same question, so she sent Siora, Folen, and Laeroth to find out more about the situation, as they were tracking and stealth missions specialists.

Wisa and Jane wanted to go with them, but they knew Arthur would not be happy if they got themselves into trouble for him, so they decided to remain inside Slyvian, taking care of their students.

~~~~

Arthur woke up inside that cave without understanding a single thing about what had happened. The first hour involved him recovering his strengths and slowly returning all the memories.

He remembered all the words the Bone Lord said, as well as everything that happened.

The mysterious black sword was just beside him. Arthur quickly put it back inside his magical pouch, afraid of touching it again.

“At least this saved my life.”

It seemed that there were countless realms, and the dragons were from one of these higher realms. Arthur guessed these were different yet similar worlds where stronger beings lived.

What brought the most questions to him was why the dragons fled from this realm. Why would they go there in the first place? And why let their king die in the hands of these mysterious beings called ‘gods’?

Arthur wanted to find the Sky City to learn more about it, but now that he was a mere speck of dust in the vast universe, he wondered if that place would genuinely give the answers he looked for.

Another question he had was regarding Nefion’s power. The Bone Lord also spoke highly of the dragons; the legends about them stated they were powerful, yet Nefion did not look that strong.

“Did they seal his strength? That would make sense as to why he can’t leave this realm. Or maybe he did not leave to stay here and rescue his brother?” Arthur thought.

The Bone Lord had given him more information about the realms, yet that did not bring answers but more questions.

“I guess I will find out more when I get strong enough.”

Arthur checked his status and saw they weren’t at their peak, presumably a side effect of using all that power to win against the demigod.

Name: Arthur Willians

Draconic Name: Placidusax, the Eater of Worlds

Rank: ???

Level: 58

Health: 8000

/8000

Mana: 15000

/15000

Attributes:

Strength: 106 (212)

Agility: 69 (139)

Vigor: 67 (134)

Wisdom: 118 (236)

Charm: 71 (143)

Free points: 0

No information stated how long the backlash would last, but Arthur hoped it wasn’t forever.

Another change that happened was with his devouring skill. It evolved after eating that tier 8 spell from the bone lord, and now the effects were somewhat different.

He could devour any spells beyond tier 5 without any cooldown, but if the attack was higher than that, the skill had a cooldown before it could be used again.

That made the skill weaker at that point, but now Arthur would absorb the mana from the spell, directly increasing his attributes permanently.

Before, the bonuses were only temporary, which did not prove that efficient for him to use.

“I can learn whatever spell I devour now, and if I devour a creature, I have the chance of getting one of its unique abilities. This is incredible, but the cooldown is rather long….”

The cooldown of the devour skill increased drastically, which meant he would not be able to keep consuming and quickly increase his strength.

Another drawback of the skill was that when he reached a certain threshold of power, the weaker creatures or spells he devoured would not grant him any benefits.

It was both a drawback and a good thing. That gave Arthur even more motivation to seek fights against stronger foes and keep improving, not staying stagnated at the same level of power. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why the dragons reached the top.

The first thing he did was to scan his surroundings, and Arthur saw nothing. He knew the place he was in was a cave within the dark lands, which meant danger was lurking everywhere, and now that he had temporarily lost some of his power, he had to be careful.

“Should I disguise myself and go deeper inside the dark lands to finally wipe them?”

One of the creatures that belonged to the dark races were the dark elves, and seeing how Arthur could already disguise himself as an elf; then a dark elf could not be that hard.

Using his spell, Myriad of Faces, Arthur changed his hair to black, his eyes to red, and his skin to a darker tone. He did not change much of his facial features, as no one that saw him in Drakonia lived to tell the tale.

The clothes he had on him were all ragged after the fight, so the first thing he had to do was to find a city where the dark races mingled together and get new ones.

Now, what direction should he go for? Arthur did not have the necessary knowledge about the landscape of the dark lands. Few people did, and that would make his journey a lot harder.

Arthur only knew the rough direction of where the principal city of the dark lands was, but even that was not 100% guaranteed. The only option he saw was to find some dark elves or other creatures around the area and befriend them, to travel along maybe and learn more about that place.

“Let’s eat something here and think about the rest later.”

When he was still in his mad state, Arthur killed the beasts who lived inside the cave he was currently in, so at least he woke up with food right next to him.

He quickly made a campfire and cooked the parts of the bear-like creature that lived inside that cave, and while he was enjoying his meal, someone walked inside his newly acquired cave.

“We can spend the night here, in this cave. Rumor has that something killed an entire army not that far from here, so it is not a good time to wander around during the nighttime.”

A group of three dark elves walked inside the cave, not knowing that the person behind that massacre was just in front of them.