Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 374: More Points

The Crimson Eidolon shot up into the sky without anyone noticing. The area Thalion had teleported to was, despite the palace nearby, completely devoid of life. From his vantage point, Thalion could see an elven and a human group fighting over one of the palaces. There were no coats of arms or any signs that they belonged to a Chosen — which was good. Thalion really didn’t want to encounter another Chosen until he was ready. At the moment, he simply wasn’t strong enough. He needed to grow as much as possible with every single stage.It almost felt like time had already run out.

Thalion turned his gaze toward the other palace and saw two groups of orcs fighting each other. The decision was easy. He would go and kill the elves and the humans first before visiting the orcs. Once both palaces were cleared, he could begin looting. He also didn’t know how much time he had left until the day ended. Better to get moving.

Thalion shot toward the elven group with anger and newfound conviction. This system event was all or nothing. That had always been the case, but he hadn’t realized how vast the gap in power between him and the Chosen truly was.

The elves didn’t see him coming. Thalion stopped his dive behind and about ten meters above them, his claws elongating. He had already activated Claw of the Blooded Templar, and when the power within them reached a crescendo, he swung forward — unleashing ten deadly arcs toward the elven backline. The ground was torn apart, and so were the elves.

“What?! Quick, behind us!” shouted the leader, who was locked in combat with a human at the front, pointing directly at Thalion.

It was a bit over the top since now everyone knew he was there. Not that it helped much — Thalion dove underground, disappearing in an instant. He had memorized the positions of the elves and could feel their blood, allowing him to pinpoint their locations. They, on the other hand, seemed unable to sense him below the surface. The red thread connecting him to his real body should also be hidden within the mountain. From their vantage point, spotting the Crimson Eidolon or his true body would be impossible.

Thalion, however, could now feel the curse taking hold in the elves who had survived his opening strike. Claw of the Blooded Templar was a massive power-up. It couldn’t replace his sword, even if the slash ability was just as strong, the sword had channeled power through its crystal and offered much greater utility, especially in blocking spells.

Thalion still remembered how he had fought Sylas after the betrayal and how he had dominated the mage by blocking his spells while refreshing his own resources. Ah, the good old days. What he wouldn’t give if his only enemies now were Kael, Kai, and Sylas. He would even fight all three at once without a weapon, not that he had one anymore.

Thalion waited until the healers revealed themselves, tending to the cursed survivors. Small groups formed, likely spreading out in different directions, waiting for him to reappear and reappear he did.

Thalion erupted from the ground right behind the largest group, unleashing a screech that killed most elves in one go. Next, he fired two jet streams of flame at another elven group and one human. The two sides seemed to have temporarily joined forces to fight him, which was fine. He could deal with them together.

The twin streams of fire widened but didn’t lose any strength. The dark flames, empowered by his bloodline, were no joke. Only one elven mage made the mistake of trying to block them with a mana shield. A few humans were hit by the flames, while most of the elven group was burned to ash.

Eight elves remained, plus six who were still infected by the curse.

At the moment, Thalion didn’t make much use of the curse — a massive undead horde wouldn’t help him right now, and the enemy might even find a way to counter it. That would only make things worse. No, until a huge army of blood thralls was truly worth it, he would rather consume them. He needed to refill his blood reserves anyway.

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Most of those left held melee weapons and seemed unwilling to abandon the palace. A wide arc of mana slashed through the Crimson Eidolon, cutting it in half. Of course, that meant very little to Thalion. He quickly reformed and stretched out both hands toward the last fighters, activating Sacrament of the Blooded Templar.

It was very similar to Blood Harvest and he still felt the resistance of his targets as he overpowered them to drain their blood. But with Sacrament of the Blooded Templar, that resistance felt like a minor inconvenience.

Draining all the remaining fighters and killing them still took a toll on Thalion and the Sanguis Impera, and two elves with long blue hair even managed to resist enough that only a faint bloody mist rose from their skin along with a few drops from their eyes, noses, and ears.

Their faces were twisted as if they were in great pain. Still, they managed to swing, holding their weapons high and glaring at Thalion with a victorious expression, which was a grave mistake. The moment their eyes met his, he struck both with a crimson gaze. Moments later, all were dead, their items stored neatly in his spatial amulet. Funnily enough, he could store items or bodies he touched, with the Crimson Eidolon.

There was also one thing he hadn’t used before, which turned out to be very useful. Through the link between him and the Eidolon, he could transfer all the blood directly to his real body and to the Sanguis Impera, which stored it.d

With all items and blood claimed, Thalion shot in a straight line toward the palace occupied by the orcs. The two orc parties had already finished fighting, with only a few survivors left. Thalion finished them off instantly with a few swipes of his new claws, taking all their belongings and blood.

So far, so good. Now he just needed to claim the palace treasury.

It was perfect. Two palaces to loot was more than anyone could ask for. Thalion streaked toward the palace the orcs had held, a trail of red light following him. The sky was already dimming, meaning night wasn’t far off, so he had to hurry.

<--

“What kind of map design is that?” R-87 complained loudly. “I can’t believe the system took one thousand five hundred years to reopen, and this is what we get? Just a mix of mountains and grassland? Oh, but wait. There are palaces on top of them! I would’ve been bored after the tenth time repeating that, and you made an entire stage like this!”

“Shut your mouth, elemental! I just didn’t waste much time on the early stages where all the weaklings were running around,” Ratgul shouted back, his ears twitching violently, a clear sign of anger.

“Aha! So you didn’t waste much time on the first three stages, huh? Then how many are there in total? Is this already halfway through the treasure hunt, or what?” R-87 retorted sharply.

“R-87 is right,” Lyrian added, raising an eyebrow. “So far, this trial isn’t really special. There are still plenty of weak ones left and I don’t see much effort in your design to get rid of them —aside from that extra reward for killing other trial takers.”

Ratgul looked at the two gods with visible bewilderment, as if they’d suddenly joined forces against him.

“Well, to answer all your questions,” he began, trying to sound patient, “the trial hasn’t even truly begun yet. This was just the introduction. A way to introduce different variables. You know how it is. Every new generation gets dumber.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” R-87 said, nodding. “Remember that woman who died during my system event because she tried to pull open the door when I wrote PUSH on it in big red letters?”

That earned a quick burst of laughter from the other gods. R-87 always took it personally when trial takers didn’t understand his designs — which, of course, made Ratgul and Lyrian laugh even harder.

“Oh! Or do you remember, in the twentieth era,” Lyrian said between laughs, “when I gave the command to run and not fight, and one of the survivors turned around shouting, ‘Run, I’ll hold them off!’ — only to be killed in under a second by the hunter?”

Lyrian roared with laughter.

“Okay, okay, can we all focus on the important things — which, at the moment, is my trial?” Ratgul interjected, holding up his hands. “Because what I was about to say is that the real elimination phase begins in the next stage. From there, the difficulty will spike massively. So why don’t you show a bit more trust in good old Ratgul?” he announced proudly.

“Hmm,” R-87 mused, “well, I might forgive the blandness, if you tell us what the next stage will be. And please, don’t say jungle. I’m done seeing that much organic matter.” He huffed, crossing his arms. There was a reason he preferred spending most of his time in space among asteroids.

“Good! So the next stage will be similar to this one,” Ratgul said with a sly smile, “except for one key difference — there won’t be any ground at all.”

“Seriously?” R-87 groaned. “Do you really want me to ask again? Let me guess — there’s probably air, right?”

“No, in fact not,” Ratgul announced proudly, grinning from ear to ear. “In the next stage, there will be no air at all.”