Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 389: A Confused Thalion

The blue circle lit up, and all of a sudden a single figure stood in midair.It was one of the birdfolk, but this one looked different.

He had wide white feathers and the head of an eagle. His shoulders were broad, and instead of one pair of wings, he had two. His weapon choice also stood out—blades strapped to his belt and a staff in one hand.

Aviari – Level 134

Well, now Thalion knew where the wind was blowing from. Level 134 was quite the benchmark—the highest level he had encountered so far.

A wide aura blasted out from the white Aviari. At first Thalion thought it was a skill, but it seemed to simply be the man’s incredibly dense personal aura. It might be some sort of passive skill or something like Thalion’s own fear aura from the Elemental.

Maybe this fellow had swallowed a treasure… or even had a wind elemental inside his body.

Either way, Thalion now understood why the army believed this birdman strong enough to defeat him in direct combat.

The staff looked more like something a mage would use rather than a melee fighter.

This would only be good news if the man used wind spells—those would harmlessly bounce off Eagly’s feathers. But with those blue jetstreams the other mages had fired, Thalion wasn’t so sure. He hoped it wasn’t that kind of wind.

The white Aviari hovered above the fading teleportation circle for a moment, likely listening to a telepathic message only he could hear. Then his eyes locked onto Thalion’s form within the storm, and with a powerful beat of all four wings he shot toward him.

The white one had no problem tracking Thalion inside the raging storm and flew straight at him—adjusting smoothly every time Thalion flew a wide arc or dodged a spell.

The other fighters had already backed away to avoid being electrocuted by the lightning falling from the sky. When the newcomer arrived, they even stopped shooting arrows and spells at Thalion and instead bowed to the white eagle-man, who stopped right before Thalion’s domain.

Thalion used the moment to charge up a lightning beam. For the other birdfolk it would have been overkill, but for fellow it should have been perfect.

Still, what happened next was something Thalion had expected.

One of the grey-feathered birdfolk flew over to the newcomer and bowed deeply, which looked absurd while hovering in midair.

“Honored Aris. We are elated to see you here and proud to present you a foe that should be worth hunting.”

“Hm. I hope you are right. So far the trialtakers I have hunted were weak and pathetic to say the least. What class does this one have?”

The white eagle’s voice was arrogant—borderline bored.

Thalion’s mind filled with question marks.

He had assumed the beasts here were created specifically for each stage, since everything got destroyed after. And how could this guy hunt other trialtakers?

Sure, he was strong, but diving into the green mist definitely wasn’t something this birdman would enjoy.

“I think a shapeshifter is very likely. It could also be a special bloodline. Before it turned into the eagle, it was in the shape of a Venomthorn Wyvern. A weak variant, I must admit,” the grey bird said obediently.

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Thalion nearly exploded with rage. That “weak” wyvern had almost killed him. Sure, his own form had been F-grade—but that didn’t mean it was weak.

“Right… At least it is the first shapeshifter. This eagle form also doesn’t look promising. This shapeshifter might even be a bit stupid. Paying one thousand five hundred years to enter this trial as peak F-grade is the worst choice. What is he even trying to accomplish? He can’t even gain experience this way. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better method to waste a lifetime,” the white eagle-man responded, annoyed.

Thalion was so shocked he forgot he had been charging his lightning beam. His beak opened in disbelief... and the lightning beam fired straight upward into the empty sky, hurting absolutely no one.

“See? It can’t even control its skills. Are you sure I shouldn’t go back and send one of the younglings? This is beneath me,” the white eagle said dryly.

Wow. Stop there for a moment. How do you folk know about the system event?” Thalion shouted at the two eagles while deactivating his domain skills so they could talk without the constant howling of wind drowning everything out. It wasn’t like he needed the domain right now anyway—he was the only one inside it.

“Ahhh, well, since I’m already here, it probably doesn’t hurt to make a bit of small talk before killing you. At least that’s something new.”

The white birdman’s feathers shook in disgust as he added, “Just promise me you won’t beg for mercy later. It’s always so annoying.”

Then he launched into a ridiculous mock performance. “Oh no, please don’t kill me! Ah, ah, this hurts sooo much.”

“Ah… sure…” Thalion replied, uncertain what was even happening.

The army had already retreated, leaving only him and the two birdfolk floating in the sky.

“Well then, ask your question. Or do you expect me to tell you about my private life?” the white one chuckled mockingly.

Thalion didn’t let the bird’s attitude distract him. His thoughts were already somewhere entirely different.

This was likely a high-ranking member of their race—. Nothing else made sense.

If Thalion could turn this one into a blood thrall, he might be able to order him to bring all those antidotes—

He mentally slapped himself and refocused.

“I actually have quite a few questions,” Thalion said. “How are you here? Why do you know about the system event? Have other trialtakers attacked you? How many antidotes are you protecting? Also—don’t you know you will all die by the end of this stage?”

He tried very hard not to sound excited when asking about the antidotes… but he failed miserably.

“Ohhh, so many questions…” the white eagle sighed. “To make it short—our planet was going to be destroyed by an exploding sun. Ragul the Immortal Hunter gave us a second chance. We are hunters like him, so he granted us one final wish and sent us here to paradise.”

Thalion thought, baffled.

“We hunt trialtakers and beasts in the swamp to gather antidotes. As long as we kill enough trialtakers or collect enough antidotes, we prove ourselves as hunters and won’t be destroyed by the zone. It’s just some weird time spell that doesn’t affect us. Depending on our contribution at the end, we will be sent into the new universe as a reward.”

The white eagle explained all of this while sounding like he was moments away from dying of boredom.

Thalion’s mind raced.

They had a way to traverse the poisonous mist. The “zone of nothingness” being a time spell didn’t help him at all—it was still a wall that would kill him. No need to overthink it.

But there were more questions.

“Do you only hunt in this stage? Or do you appear in other stages too?” Thalion asked.

“There are three versions of this stage,” the white eagle answered. “One is a forest, one is pure sky, and then there’s this swamp version we occupy. Since you’re here, this is—of course—purely hypothetical, because you will die here. Even your escape token can’t help you against me.”

Arrogant, bored, and smug.

Typical.

But interesting. Very interesting.

It meant there were alternate versions of stages for different trials. Maybe… could this birdman actually know the coming stages?

“Do you know what the next stages are?” Thalion asked, unable to restrain the hunger in his voice. This encounter might be his jackpot—the cheat code needed to win the whole trial.

“Yeah, I actually know most of them,” the white bird replied casually. “Ragul the Immortal Hunter was so nice to let us choose first, and we wanted to impress him. So we picked the earliest stage possible so we could hunt as many trialtakers as we could and bring the most honor to Ragul.”

While talking, the bird slammed his fist against his chest in proud devotion.