Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 393: The Spoils of Blood and Fire

Rakati twitched in Thalion’s steel-like grip as his entire body transformed. In his case, the change was far more intense than Aris’. His scales shifted from green to a pale black, crimson lines spreading across them like cracks in shattered stone. New fangs grew in his maw—longer, thicker, and far more predatory than the needle-like teeth he had before. His claws underwent the same change, lengthening and hardening into vicious, serrated weapons.His eyes glowed like fiery embers, and red mist began rising from his mouth. Unlike Aris, however, nothing seeped from his skin—likely because the scales were far sturdier than feathers and allowed no passage. Or perhaps Aris’ previous white-aura skill had twisted into something blood-related, causing the difference.

Rakati was already thrashing his head around, mumbling about blood, but no longer attempted to bite Thalion. For Thalion, that was the perfect sign: the transformation was complete. Time to release his little monster and let him find his place in life.

With a brief burst of Mistform, Thalion reappeared roughly a hundred meters above. Rakati now free, immediately launched himself toward the army. When it came to aggression, the curse definitely deserved a solid ten out of ten.

Thalion watched his two corrupted elites tear into the ranks below. They were still E-grade, and although they had lost many of their skills, they more than compensated with raw strength and brutality. Rakati’s feet glowed faintly red as he kicked off the air, catapulting himself into clusters of fighters. Aris left a streak of crimson mist behind him as he streaked toward the skyship.

Aris had already slaughtered half the army and was now regaining enough clarity to think. Unlike before—when he had simply ignored arrows and spells—he was beginning to dodge, weave, and strike with intent instead of blind rage.

Both Aris and Rakati wielded versions of Thalion’s blood claws. Weaker, yes—but both were deep into E-grade, and it showed.

No warrior could withstand their blows. Even those who attempted to block with weapons found them sliced apart or swatted aside with ease.

On that note… when exactly did E-grade end? Level 80 up to 128 or 131 already covered nearly fifty levels. It couldn’t be much longer, right?

A flicker of panic spread through Thalion’s chest.

If D-grade began at level 150, the others might even reach it That depended on how long the treasure hunt lasted, of course, but the beasts and hunters grew stronger with every stage. Experience gains would only increase.

If ten more stages were filled with life—unlike the ocean—Thalion was certain the top of the leaderboard would hit 150 easily.

His talk with Eric had made one thing painfully clear: the Chosen wouldn’t hesitate to evolve. The only reason none of them had evolved in the tutorial was because doing it there granted massive bonuses—likely enough to reach a class above Mythic.

The level difference was already insane. Even hunters ranked in the treasure hunt—like Aris and Rakati—were capable of overpowering Thalion, and that was considering his monstrous bloodline even in human form.

Right now he was simply missing raw power.

He still had many advantages—the curse, his bloodline, a divine skill, and a terrifying arsenal of forms—but in the end he was only level 80. So far he had kept up just fine, but depending on how long the treasure hunt continued, he would eventually face real problems, especially against the leaderboard’s top contenders.

After this stage, only elites would remain anyway.

He would check the leaderboard later in the safe zone. For now he needed to assist Aris and Rakati, clean up the army, and start looting before the timer ran out. He wanted as many antidotes as possible. Since he had used his own antidote not long ago, he estimated roughly thirty hours before he needed to reach a safe zone—assuming this stage followed the same rules as the others.

One activation of Mistform sent Thalion right into the center of the battlefield, where he followed with a powerful mana wave. Anyone who didn’t react fast enough was blasted aside.

His mana wave was no longer the familiar blue shockwave he once used—it had turned a dark, blood-red, with flickering bloodline flames dancing across its surface. The entire wave resembled the energy of his blood claws and the crimson eidolon.

Which meant it was far more potent—and inflicted every struck enemy with the Curse of the Blooded Templar.

The difference between applying the curse to “normal” fighters and to elites like Rakati and Aris became painfully obvious. Ordinary soldiers immediately lost control—screaming, twitching violently, and collapsing as the curse tore through their bodies.

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There was also a stark contrast between birdfolk and lizardfolk. The lizard people had far greater resistance; they could still fight even after being burned by Thalion’s bloodline flames. For the birdfolk it was instant game over. Some managed to fly a few hundred meters before collapsing, but none lasted long. Soon they joined the first group—writhing helplessly as the curse overtook them.

This brought a strange sense of relief to Thalion. In the early tutorial stages he had never truly witnessed the full potency of the curse. Most of his victories came from sheer strength—one clean hit killed his enemies outright, making the curse irrelevant. But against like this, the curse was easily his strongest weapon.

Despite the army's generosity—handing him two elite fighters to corrupt—he was also able to wipe out anyone touched by his bloodline flames. Even those with strong resistance, like the lizardfolk, were weakened significantly.

If any of the Chosen had brought their elites, a single hit from his flames probably wouldn’t have been enough… but those fights were far in the future. Until then, Thalion had time to curse a few more elites.

Whether he could bring Rakati and Aris into the next stage was uncertain. If he could, he might even form a small party. But that depended entirely on whether they would follow him. The weaker cursed fighters were obedient and helpful—elites might not behave the same way.

All around Thalion, the army scattered in panic, chased by their own corrupted elites. Aris had already butchered everyone on the skyship and was now draining them one by one—likely because the blood aboard had higher quality. Rakati, on the other hand, had calmed somewhat. He no longer charged blindly; instead he began using different skills, such as a red mana wave and a roar that caused confusion, a minor shockwave, and blasted red mist into the faces of anyone in front of him.

Thalion stood at the center of the chaos and unleashed a fiery vortex of bloodline flames, spinning it outward to engulf as many fighters as possible. His flames didn’t bother Aris or Rakati much, though everyone else suffered severely from the curse they carried into their systems.

That wasn’t to say the elites were fine. They were immune to the curse and inherited a strong fire resistance from Thalion, but even so, Aris struggled in the flames—some of his feathers began to catch fire. Not a real problem thanks to his improved self-healing, but it taught Thalion something important: if Aris or Rakati became heavily injured or low on blood, they might devolve into mindless beasts attacking the nearest blood source. If Thalion ever wanted a small army, he’d have to keep them fed, or they might wander off on their own.

The firestorm raged around Thalion for a few more seconds before he let it fade. Most enemies were already fleeing, and Thalion didn’t want to burn Aris further. He would leave the rest to his two monsters; they’d catch the stragglers and drink their fill.

Right now, he wanted to check something else.

The skyship before him was still in nearly perfect condition and would serve excellently as his new command center. In theory, he could bring it into the next stage if he stored it in the safe zone.

With a heavy thud, Thalion landed on the blood-stained planks. A single use of Sacrament of the Blooded Templar pulled all spilled blood—including what remained inside corpses—straight into him. As he walked toward the mounted weapons on deck, vines shot out from his back, collecting bodies and equipment and storing them in his spatial amulet, which, like his ring back in the tutorial, seemed to have no limit.

When he placed the items inside his amulet and checked his points, he came to the conclusion that they had been worth five hundred leaderboard points. Thalion didn’t even want to imagine the wealth that had been lost to the poisonous swamps below during the fight.

At least he still had the skyship. Aside from a few shattered planks and a large tear in one sail, it was in excellent shape.

There were two massive wands mounted on the skyship—one on each side—looking somewhat like wooden laser cannons. They sat at the same height as the mainmast. The ship itself had four masts with an absurd number of sails, some even connected between the masts in a tangled web of fabric. Thalion quickly lost all motivation to understand the full design. He had a rough idea of how to steer the ship, and that was more than enough.

What interesting were the runic circles carved around the wooden cannons. They were clearly used for charging: you infused the circle with mana, which then fed into the wand, allowing it to fire. There were probably some conditions or limitations attached to it.

Still, one question nagged him.

Why not simply build magic circles that drew mana from the air to continuously charge the cannons? He and Lucan had used such circles countless times already. Heck, Zyra even knew how to stick one on a carpet back in stage three of the tutorial. These people definitely knew how to construct basic magic circles.

Maybe it had something to do with the wand’s design—perhaps it needed to discharge stored mana immediately, or lost stability if overcharged.

As Thalion moved along the deck, he spotted several carved magic circles in the planks, confirming part of his theory.

Aside from the wands and the runes, there was one more feature that caught his interest.

The cargo hold.

Following the only staircase down, he entered the Laderaum, where spatial manipulation was clearly at work. The space was far larger than it should have been. It was a bit disappointing that it was completely empty—though with his spatial amulet, he hardly needed extra storage.

Still, one thought wouldn’t leave him:

It would allow Rakati and Aris to maintain control much longer in case blood became scarce.

After confirming there was nothing else worth examining, Thalion returned to the deck. The army of bird- and lizardfolk was gone. From his vantage point he saw Rakati and Aris catching up to the last fleeing soldiers. A good number had likely escaped alive, but Thalion didn’t care enough to chase every single one. There were more important things to handle now.

Rakati and Aris should have consumed more than enough blood. If an army this large wasn’t sufficient to clear their minds, then nothing would be. Thalion had a long list of questions for them.

How many antidotes had they collected?

Where were the supplies stored?

How many elite fighters were still alive?

Could they attack the higher cities in the sky?

And most importantly. How many stages were left, and what awaited in the next one?

Thalion locked eyes on the two elites and spoke a single word, pouring as much mana into it as he could.

“RETURN!”