Chương 1004

The white system text that was saturated with energy when this skill was upgraded to Celestial Grade in the Green Zone is completely saturated with a new aura. The new [Primordial Grade] tag appears with a black and red metallic glow, flooding into the [Absorption] skill right beside it. The aura pulses outward, and every single skill below it is forcefully upgraded, obtaining the [Primordial Grade] tag and glowing with the same violent yet serene light.

It pours into all of the system stats, buffs, and every single field of text that appears in my mind. It becomes less of an external interface that I summon in my mind, and more a part of me. It feels like the interface itself is growing and morphing to become far more versatile, and I even begin to feel the emptiness open up in certain areas I haven't before. It is strange, like there are empty slots where skills should be.

When I focus in on these dark empty holes in the system, I feel soul ties connecting me to ancient planets on the edges of the Lower Realm with races I've never seen before holding skills that I've never encountered. It is like the system has always had placeholders ready for every single existing skill, but it's always been so rigid and out of my control. Now I can vaguely see the imprints of skills I do not even have.

My attention quickly turns away from these holes, and back toward the skills that I can actually use. There is not only Advanced Primordial Aura flowing through them, my Glyph Imprints begin reacting with every skill I think about too. The mere thought of activating a skill starts to summon millions of patterns in my mind of glyph arrays that can be used alongside them. The poorly constructed defensive arrays to block the aura pouring down on us now are quite funny to me.

I use three newly upgraded Primordial Grade skills, crystal creation, body hardening, and total defense, to summon a single new array that is hundreds of times stronger than the thousands combined above us. Metallic red and black crystalline structures pour out from my palms and expand to create a spinning disk that pushes upward and eliminates all of the harmful aura in the air.

There is a pillar of pristine, untainted atmosphere under it, and the glowing forms of a fiery half-demon and glowing white-blue angel stand back to back underneath it. The edges of this array spew dense waves of energy, and they rip through the thick air that consumes this central domain. My aura slams against the central domain's walls hundreds of quadrillions of kilometers away, and the cracks spread much faster.

This moment of rest, not having to summon countless glyphs to save our lives—gives Maria the moment necessary to upgrade her own ice summoning skill to Primordial Grade, and allow her system to turn into a sparkling white, blue, and rainbow glow deep in her mind.

The final film that held her Glyph Imprints back has finally evaporated, and her endless soul energy core that was being suppressed can finally spread out its potential into the enormous pool of emptiness that just released millions of new glyphs up to the surface of her soul. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. She swings her blade upward, releasing a euphoric slash, riding the wave of new power flowing into her.

A streak of icy Advanced Primordial Aura phases right through the defensive array I created. Our auras are so in sync, neither of them can harm the other. It is a simple task to move right through the solid structure without affecting it at all. On the other side, a clashing demon and dragon still try to kill each other in the sky. Ember's smile grows so wide, it looks unnatural in this hybrid form.

"You have waited too long to kill me. Toying with your prey is what did you in." He glances down at the red array glowing below them. He is not only talking about the fact that the two humans below can now withstand the aura in the air, but because a seal on his soul was just loosened too. His gaze moves around the edges of the central domain, looking for potential weak points in the cracks.

"What nonsense are you speaking? Do you actually still believe you can survive this—" Marcellus stops speaking, as the sensation of danger tingles in his cores. His eyes widen as he tries to sense what part of Ember's will is attacking him right now, but all of his readings come up blank. The only thing he can do is rely solely on his instincts and lean back, away from the collision they're about to have. It doesn't make any sense, how could this crippled celestial grade dragon endanger him now...?

A white and blue flash of light pierces through his aura, so thin and sleek, it is unnoticeable until it is right in front of his face. Marcellus cries out in agony as one of his horns is hit, half of it sliced clean off by a blade he could not even see coming. He has to channel all of his chaotic aura into the wound to stop it from spreading, and his anger grows as the only thing he can hear is Ember's laughs.

"That was Resin from the Origin Worlds... there's no way she became that strong in just mere moments... No, was she hiding her power before?" He flies backward, away from Ember, and looks down to the center of the tree. Marcellus sees two humans he easily captured with little to no force before this battle, now both wielding Advanced Primordial Aura that is growing with maturity even as he lays eyes on them. At the rate it's growing, in just a few seconds, they will be even more powerful than him.

A loud crack echoes through the domain, as the ice blade did not stop, and collided directly with the center of the dome-like ceiling.

"This is madness! This cannot be possible! You cannot force me to use that form!" he yells, and flies toward Ember filled with rage. Chaotic blue and orange aura leaks out of his broken horn, but it slowly heals and grows back. In fact, the aura around him is starting to become even hotter and stronger the closer he gets to Ember, like it is filled with desperation. Yet, just as he's about to collide with him again, another twinge of danger forces him to change course.

This time he does not hesitate, and lets his instincts rule him to not make another mistake. The chaotic demon dodges out of the way, and Maria's next ice blade collides with the domain wall once more, creating another web of cracks in its side. This one catches Ember's attention enough for him to fly toward it, like he is retreating from battle. Yet, his eyes do not show any signs of wanting to run away. He is searching for something else, but I cannot tell what or why.

"I entertained him while you unleashed your new power. Now you do the same for me," echoes in my mind through our telepathy link once our eyes meet. Marcellus looks back down at us in anger at the same time, and he stops chasing Ember through the skies. For the first time, I see through the aura around him that made his actual body invisible to my eyes before, and see the True Form of the Imperial Family Head for the first time.

His chaotic eyes peer back into me, but my gaze moves upward to look at the floating system tag reading [Lv. 3, 261, 885] between his horns.