Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 449: The Slaughter Shall Begin

"Farming the weak humans here is a waste of our time. What a cowardly strategy." Arelion complained, the star on his head glowing with annoyance. Arelion was an elf, and the one his comment targeted was Kaelir, the Chosen of Pyrael. Like the humans, orcs, and vampires, the elves had also grouped up. They were by far the largest group of Chosen in this trial. A few were even from different planets, but they would meet each other after they finished constructing the planetary teleportation circle, which would allow them to travel between worlds. Their patrons had also sent elves with the knowledge to build those circles. They just needed strong enough crystals to fuel the process, which would be difficult in E grade. Good that the end of E grade was in sight."Yet you didn’t say anything against it. This isn’t the best way to earn points, but this way we can find Thalion the fastest. He is still in F grade. The chances of him entering the city should be almost impossible. He likely just sits this stage out to get better rewards. Doesn’t your patron want to be involved in the capture of this human who has attracted this much attention?" Kaelir snorted, not willing to back down against that stupid elven Chosen.

"Why don’t we just enter the city, stop the Scarlet Continuum, kill the king, and then go find Thalion while killing a few Chosen on the way? We are by far the biggest group. Like I said, this is the strategy of a coward, not a warrior at heart," Arelion arrogantly explained.

"I agree with Kaelir," Lyraeth added. "The longer this stage goes on, the higher the chances that someone else is going to kill Thalion. He is still high on the leaderboard. Even higher than some in this very group of Chosen. We first find the human and then enter the city. Let the others gather the leaderboard points so we can swoop in and take them like fruit ready for plucking. They don’t have a way of spending the points either, and the stage is far too small to hide from us."

"Fine. But if we don’t find him soon, I will go for the city instead. Also, why are you so sure that he isn’t already inside? Look at his leaderboard points. He is shooting upward quite fast," Arelion hissed.

This made the fifteen elven Chosen all open the leaderboard, only to notice that the human had just made fourteen million leaderboard points while they had been speaking. While this information sank in, a massive explosion of bright light erupted inside the city.

"Okay. Let’s enter the city and search there," Kaelir said through gritted teeth. For an elf to give in to another’s suggestion after being humiliated by such vile comments was the worst, but Kaelir wanted Thalion. This time, the human wouldn’t be able to run.

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After sacrificing many of their citizens, Zyrvath had been relatively peaceful. The citizens had given up fighting back and instead ran, hid in their homes, or tried to flee through the city. Those citizens were far from a threat, which was why the guards were rather relaxed.

This all changed when Eric openly began fighting the guards. This open battle resulted in most trialtakers entering the city as well, unwilling to let Eric and his group take all the points.

Thalion, in the meantime, had no idea what was going on as alarm after alarm erupted in the laboratory. This was perfect for him, though, as far more of the Scarlet Guards left while he hid behind one of the juicers, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. With his blood sense, he knew exactly where every single one of them was moving. It seemed that the juicer filled with blood also obscured him from their blood sense, or maybe they simply weren’t as trained as he was. Another theory was that his own was so good because of the Sanguis Impera.

Nonetheless, he waited patiently for thirty seconds, which was all it took until most of the people in the laboratory—or more accurately, the sacrificing chamber—left to fight the invaders. The arachne with the human upper body and the red mask complained that the sacrifices needed to continue as fast as possible. Thalion would have liked more time to gain more knowledge of the place, but when the Chosen were on a rampage, he couldn’t just sit by.

The moment the three remaining figures weren’t looking in his direction and moved to activate one of the juicers, Thalion launched three thick vines from his body. Thorns grew all over them, with a particularly nasty spike at each tip. The attack came out of nowhere for the E grades. The vines pierced their backs and continued to grow from there. They tried to get rid of them by grabbing the vines or releasing red mana waves. Nothing helped as the Sanguis Impera consumed each one, leaving behind dried-up husks as corpses.

Thalion took the red mask and a few of the rings and ornaments of the dryder and added them to his uniform while placing the mask over his face. This should make it far easier when he ventured down. The husks were thrown into one of the empty juicers.

There was a tunnel leading deeper into the dark earth where Thalion hoped to find more of the high-ranked enemies as he moved downward. The air grew denser with blood as he ventured through the tunnels, while the Sanguis Impera fully indulged in the sensation every time Thalion breathed in the tainted air.

While moving through the tunnels, Thalion checked his kill notification to see how many leaderboard points he had gained for the three kills. The two Scarlet Wardens, of course, gave two million leaderboard points each, and the dryder with the red mask turned out to be a Sanguine Prelate, which rewarded him with five million leaderboard points.

He was still far from the top spot, and the leaders were also rapidly gaining points. In fact, even though Thalion had climbed a few places and was now in position twenty-three, the distance to the top had grown even greater. Eric was truly in a killing mood, judging by how many leaderboard points the man was earning. Every ten seconds, another two million points were added.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Where did he even find so many guards in one place? Thalion wondered.

The next chamber he entered was truly a laboratory. There were many stone slabs—beds? Thalion wasn’t entirely sure. They were all made of stone, and on them lay warriors who would soon become Scarlet Guards. It seemed they just needed a final push to awaken. There were a few wires attached to their bodies, leading to empty sockets—likely meant for blood crystals. In this chamber alone, there had to be at least fifty Scarlet Guards.

Interesting that they hadn’t been woken up already. Should I infect them with my curse and create my own army, or kill them to gain a few points? Thalion thought. They were strong, and his curse would likely make them even better. But would it be enough in a fight against Chosen? Likely not. There could also be issues with control. So far, everyone had followed him at the start, but none of them had already been blood users from the beginning.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be up there fighting the invaders?" A sharp female voice shook Thalion out of his thoughts. He hadn’t felt anything approaching, but now, all of a sudden, it was there. A strong enemy burning like a small sun in his blood sense.

Turning to the side, he spotted a female dryder staring directly at him.

"And why are you wearing my brother’s mask?" she added, her voice pure venom, growing louder with every word.

Her aura pushed outward, almost like a physical wave hitting him. She was far from a simple dryder. Her aura filled the room as bloody mist began to rise from her body. It was clear that talking his way out wouldn’t work, so he fired a bloodthorn from the Sanguis Impera at the dryder in a split-second reaction.

The dryder’s eyes widened as she tried to bend it out of the way via blood manipulation, but it didn’t work. Her whole body turned to red mist, reforming two meters to the side, dodging the bloodthorn that glanced off the wall behind her.

Now it was her turn to counterattack. The mist roared toward Thalion like a tidal wave, only to disappear upon making contact with him. For normal blood manipulators, absorbing blood was dangerous since some poisoned it or altered it to deal more damage. All of that was leveled out when the Sanguis Impera came into play. It simply consumed everything, no matter the blood, and no E-grade blood could hurt it in any way.

Thalion could see the confusion on the dryder’s face as he stepped out of the attack without even a scratch.

Not giving her a chance to adapt, Saranya appeared in his right hand, and he dashed forward. The dryder had already proven too fast to be hit by his blood attacks, which would likely result in her running away and informing the others once she realized she couldn’t win. Thalion wanted to block the tunnel she had entered through while the one he had come from was slowly being sealed by a curtain of red vines.

The dryder didn’t seem afraid of close combat. Blood formed armor around her skin, covered in sharp spikes. The ends of her spider legs grew larger barbs, and her hands turned into long claws made of hardened blood.

Both combatants rushed at each other, Thalion swinging Saranya horizontally at the midsection of the dryder. She was far better in close combat than he wanted to admit. From her perspective, it had all been a feint. She had never intended to clash directly. Instead, her body turned to mist once more, reforming to Thalion’s right side.

That put her out of harm’s way while Thalion now stood wide open, Saranya cutting through empty air in the wrong direction.

Something that deeply offended the already irritated spirit who hadn’t enjoyed her time in the spatial amulet either.

"How dare you miss by such a distance? First you put me back in that space, and now this. Will my mind ever recover from this abuse? We are going to go through all the forms one by one. You will practice them for as long as I want—which, judging by your current performance, will be years. I mean, the dryder is over there and you swing this way."

Thalion ignored the spirit and instead unleashed a strong mana wave to stop the dryder’s attack. Yet his mana wave wasn’t strong enough. In the tutorial, he had given the wind elf a run for her money, but against an E grade, it lacked raw power. Her claws tore through the wave, going for his side.

Thalion turned into red mist, reforming before the last available exit.

Seeing this, the aura of the dryder violently expanded as red mist rose from her body, forming a domain around her. Thalion did the exact same, but instead of red mist, his domain skill Crimson Jungle spread outward.

It was what the Sanguis Impera had been waiting for.

Vines shot out from Thalion, spreading across the ground. Wicked flowers bloomed, and relatively small but twisted trees formed around him. The ceiling of the laboratory was over twenty meters high, allowing the Crimson Jungle to expand freely.

The dryder stretched out one of her claws again, and Thalion felt a strong pull on his blood that made him stumble forward before regaining control. But that was all she achieved. Her frown deepened as the vines shot at her with rapid speed.

The vines didn’t only target the dryder—they also connected to the patch of vines sealing the exit. On the way, they devoured every Scarlet Warden in the chamber, resulting in a flood of leaderboard points. It seemed they had merely been in a comatose state.

Maybe I can upgrade them with one of the crystals to get more leaderboard points for the kill? Thalion thought, his mind racing. There had to be more of these chambers, and he needed to find them quickly before anyone else did.

The dryder now tried her luck with multiple blood skills—from shockwaves and spears to entire rivers meant to crush Thalion. Her arsenal was simply the wrong one. The shockwave destroyed large parts of the Crimson Jungle, but everything else was absorbed without doing any damage.

She did her best to evade the increasingly growing jungle, but at some point a vine managed to catch her, and soon after, her life ended. She was also one of the Sanguine Prelates, which rewarded him with five million leaderboard points.

In the last stage, Thalion had suffered greatly, stuck on the island and unable to progress. Now the tables had turned. He was at seventy million and a few leaderboard points, which meant he had almost doubled his total in this stage alone. And this was just one room filled with Scarlet Wardens.

What would happen if he found another chamber and managed to upgrade them with the red crystals? They could be a good source of leaderboard points and were the perfect subjects for his curse. The best part was that if he truly empowered a few, they could effectively remove massive amounts of leaderboard points from circulation.

If Thalion created five blood slaves at the rank of Sanguine Prelate, each would still be worth five million leaderboard points on death—that wouldn’t change. But every other Sanguine Prelate they killed would simply be gone. Their bounty wouldn’t stack like with trial takers. When trial takers killed each other, they gained all the leaderboard points the other side had accumulated, plus a small bonus for the kill itself.

With blood slaves, Thalion should be able to reduce the total pool of leaderboard points available in this stage.

And he wasn’t the only one gaining massive amounts of points. Eric was already sitting at over one hundred forty million points.

We will see how long you stay in that position.

Thalion grinned, retracting the Crimson Jungle. He was ready to move out and find more of these chambers.