Dorian took a deep breath, taking in the earthy scent of the cave.

The insides of the cavern were, as written down, huge. The stone ceiling was roughly four to five hundred meters above his head, with a few long stalactites hanging from it. The walls were a dark brown, coated with clear or light blue ice, and a large number of glowing crystals.

–

Pourmaline Rock Crystal

A common crystal formation supported by the laws of the universe. These crystals output a large amount of light by absorbing minute amounts of energy in their surroundings. They are most commonly found in caves or underground areas.

–

Ausra had listed what they were in the vast stores of data imprinted on Dorian's Soul Spell Matrix.

Before him was a long, carved stone road, mostly worn away by the passage of time. He saw a few side passages pop up on his right and left, smaller caves of varying sizes. Some of them opening up hundreds of meters high, others just a few dozen meters.

Directly in front of him, the massive passage continued, unabated. The mostly worn away road was around two hundred meters wide, while the huge cavern itself must've been at least a thousand meters wide. Large rock formations, stalagmites, and various chunks of crystals and ice decorated the areas to the side of the large road, in random patterns.

This was the Great Road to Icicar. As long as he moved straight down it, he'd reach the ruins of the city in around 30 miles.

Dorian smiled. He flexed his arms in front of him, feeling a certain level of latent strength.

For some reason, he felt fantastic. His control of his body and physical form seemed to have grown to new heights. Even better, as he perceived the world around him, he felt like he'd grown much more in tune to everything. His senses had grown much stronger, and his perception of time seemed to have increased to some degree.

'Maybe I'm really just settling into this new form, huh?' He'd only been in his Ifrit form for around a week or so. If it kept up like this, however, he had no problems at all staying in this form for a while.

As he was smiling about this, his newfound senses warned him of a creature charging at him from behind. Though the being was moving extremely quickly, Dorian caught the quick thud of its feet on the ground behind him.

Without even turning around, Dorian leapt up into the air, doing a backflip. As he sailed through, his body turned, twisting to look at the enemy rushing at him.

A massive, black-scaled minotaur crashed down directly where Dorian had been standing, its muscular arms slamming into the stone floor as it forced itself to halt. It held a long, black greatsword in its right hand.

Contrary to Dorian's expectations, the stone floor remained almost completely undamaged despite the considerable impact, a few small cracks spreading out. It seemed to be made of some powerfully durable material or enchanted in some manner.

–

Species: Grakon (Desiccated)

Class – Lord Class (Early)

Maximum Energy Level: 28,330

–

'Oh, a Grakon.' He noted, his eyes cool, unsurprised.

"Ausra? What does the 'Desiccated' tag mean?" He had a pretty good idea already, but figured it was wise to check.

'The Grakon before you is no longer considered a living creature. Its soul has been forcibly splintered, and it is a remnant of its former self, with less than half its living strength. Its physical form is therefore in a desiccated, weakened state. It is unable to borrow energy from the Laws of the Universe, or use magic.' Ausra replied.

The conversation took only an instant, but in that instant the huge scaled minotaur turned around, its body shivering as it roared.

"GRRRRRRR!"

Its voice was guttural and deep, primal.

The creature's body shivered for a second time, and, abruptly, it expanded, growing from its height of 3 meters to be roughly three times as tall, at 9 meters. Its scales, muscles, bones, everything on it grew with it.

Dorian's eyes shined when he saw this.

The 'Expand' Ability in action, the Ability only the Grakon Race held.

He absolutely needed to snag that.

"Worry not, Grakon, I will let your broken soul find rest."

–

Species: Grakon (Desiccated) (Expanded Form)

Class – Lord Class (Middle)

Maximum Energy Level: 54,330

–

The Grakon lunged forward, this time raising its great blade above its head. The sword, Dorian noted, had grown in size with the Grakon, despite not being part of its body.

As he watched it bring its blade towards him, Dorian felt as if his mind had accelerated. Every single movement the beast made was laid out before him, almost in slow motion.

Once again, Dorian marveled at the changes. He felt powerful, the world around him in perfect clarity, as if he had just woken up from a slow, sluggish nightmare. The difference between now and just a few days ago was stark to him.

Dorian sidestepped the heavy greatsword, his eyes tracking it.

In terms of physique, the Grakon before him undoubtedly outmatched his Ifrit body. His passive Great Strength Ability boosted his strength by a decent amount, around 10% to 20%, but that would hardly be enough to face this creature head on.

BOOM

A few small chips of stone shot into the air as the heavy blade slammed into it. The tremendous amount of force was barely enough to crack the abnormally tough stone ground.

As the shockwaves of the attack settled, an idea came to Dorian that felt perfectly natural.

Dorian activated his Flame Claws Ability, but also simultaneously activated his Emerald Flames Ability.

Before this, Dorian had stuck to using one Ability at a time, for the most part. He'd found it very difficult to concentrate beyond activating one Ability, even with his increased mental power. While activating the Abilities was something that came natural, it still required focus.

His increased concentration and control, now, however, made it feel laughably easy.

WHOOSH

Brilliant, emerald green flames swarmed up Dorian's hands and arms, perfectly mixing with his Flame Claws Ability. These green flames laced his hands, and formed claw-like shapes coming about an inch or so off them (2.5 cm).

Dorian sprinted forward, kicking off the sword of the Grakon as he did so. His body sailed through the air, landing on one of the bulging biceps of the more or less undead creature.

Dorian's right hand plunged into the left shoulder of the Grakon, his Emerald Claw, as he decided to name it, melting through the outer scales of the creature.

While his flames managed to pierce through the tough, outer defense of the Grakon, it had taken a second. The defensive prowess of the creature was no joke, and even his Dragonfire couldn't instantly melt through it.

"GRAAWWRRRRR!"

The minotaur slammed its head towards Dorian, its horns slicing through the air towards his chest.

Dorian made a slashing motion with his hand, his Emerald Claw sending out a cutting wave of flame, into the shoulder of the Grakon. As he did so, instead of dodging backward, away from the horns of the beast, he jumped forward.

THUD

The left arm of the undead Grakon fell to the floor, severed cleanly through by Dorian's Emerald Claw. At the same time, the hulking head of the scaled minotaur slammed into where Dorian had been standing just a moment ago.

The piercing, black horns of the creature missed Dorian's body as he sailed through the air by a hair's breadth, his exact control a thing of beauty.

For a single moment, Dorian was perched right above the head of the Grakon.

His eyes flashed.

He instantly cast a spell. One he had been struggling with, the Earth Class Flame Sword that he had yet to fully cast successfully.

The spell came forth before Dorian, and instead of casting it like he normally would, using energy from his Soul Spell Matrix to form the symbols of magic he'd memorized that the spell used, he made a change.

He manipulated the energy of his Emerald Flames, and used that as a substitute, forming the spell through it. Something he would have never thought of before, or even known was possible. Dorian mentally willed it to work, enforcing the power of his soul.

The air seemed to shiver slightly.

Almost immediately, a glowing, emerald sword of fire appeared in Dorian's hands, one that was far stronger than the Earth Class Spell would normally be able to create. A sword made of pure dragonfire.

A sword that Dorian plunged into the skull of the Grakon.

Dorian flipped over in the air and landed smoothly, his body skittering across the stone floor as he came to a rest. He let go of the Emerald Flames that were still coating his arms and hands, feeling the comfortable heat fade.

THUD

Before him, the body of the huge, hulking Grakon shrank inward, returning to its normal 3 meter height, as it collapsed, falling to the ground where it lay still.

Defeated in an instant.

Dorian smiled.

A second later, his eyes opened wide as he looked at his hands in shock, feeling as if he had just woken up from a brief haze.

"…what?" He muttered.

"Did I just do that?"

He had just destroyed a creature that was more than twice as strong as him, and far bigger, with ease. Almost as if he was playing with it. He barely used any energy at all.

His moves, his attacks, everything came naturally to him, purely by instinct.

He thought about the tips and tricks that Helena had tried to teach him about combat. His actions then not only perfectly matched the advice he'd received, but even seemed to exceed it, moving with a level of strength and grace that could not be matched just by talent.

"What the hell?" He muttered again. He smiled after a moment. This wasn't a negative development at all, in the grand scheme of things.

"Ausra, has anything unusual happened to my mind or soul?" He asked aloud, his eyes cool as he began to walk forward, looking at the corpse of the dead Grakon.

'…Not that I can detect, no.' Ausra replied.

Dorian smiled, feeling relieved. It seemed this really just was some type of latent power or instinct that came with his transformations.

If he could fully master it, and gain awareness of this somehow innate sense of combat, it could prove truly useful.

He stopped next to the now dead undead, bowing slightly.

"I hope you find peace in the next." Its existence as an undead was a torturous one, according to the research he had done before coming.

He crouched down, tapping on its shoulder slightly.

The creature hadn't spilled any blood. According to Ausra, a beast in a desiccated state had no blood at all.

"Ausra, is there anything I can absorb here?" He queried.

'Scanning… Yes. The remnants of the Grakon's Soul Spell Matrix still exist. However, due to its desiccated status, you can only absorb a portion of this. This Grakon was a Mid Lord Class beast in its prime.' She replied, her voice ringing quietly in his head.

"Do it." He returned immediately. It was weakened from Mid Lord to Early Lord Class, and unable to use magic, but was still a powerful fighter. According to the research Dorian had done, there should be far stronger Grakons here.

This was only one of the weaker, outer ones. The deeper he got into the cave system, near the heart of their fallen civilization, the stronger foes he would encounter.

'Absorbing.'

–

Ifrit – Growth Stage: (4/4) Elder Ifrit –

Growth Progress – 10,281/0 –

–

Dorian blinked as he looked at his Growth Stage, and, more importantly, the energy added to it. He grinned, pleased.

These undead Grakons were virtually walking energy points, just begging to be absorbed. If he could take out enough of them, he could go on an Evolving spree, maxing out several forms.

"What about the Bloodline of the beast?" He was able to absorb the Bloodlines of creatures through their Soul Spell Matrix, as well as through their blood itself.

'It is in a degraded state. If you absorb more versions of a Grakon Soul Spell Matrix, I may be able to piece back together a full replica, and recreate the Bloodline and its various Abilities.' Ausra returned.

"Ah. Just like the Myyr Dragon. Got it" His Myyr Dragon form had been in a degraded state when he first obtained the bloodline. He'd needed to hunt down several Red Salamanders to find traces of the bloodline, working to recreate it.

thud

Dorian looked up, a noise catching his attention.

In the distance, the figures of two more scaled minotaurs appeared, both of them more or less looking identical to the Grakon he had just killed. They must've heard the noise his fight with the first one had caused.

–

Species: Grakon (Desiccated)

Class – Lord Class (Early)

Maximum Energy Level: 23,630

–

Species: Grakon (Desiccated)

Class – Lord Class (Early)

Maximum Energy Level: 29,130

–

Dorian stood all the way up, stretching his arms, a smile still on his face. Brilliant emerald flames began to coat his arms once more.

He waved at the approaching Grakons, motioning them forward,

"Come to papa, my dear energy points."

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

A small, dainty figure gasped in air, her chest heaving as she ducked over the ruins of a building, throwing herself forward. Her body blurred as she moved extremely quickly, her humanoid form agile.

In a scant second, she had passed through the ruins of three large, collapsed stone buildings, and hid inside a fourth.

She was covered in small gashes, drips of blood leaking from them. Slowly, warm light covered these wounds, a gradual healing process starting.

"I made it." The girl gasped, rubbing the small, tufted fox ears on her head. She took several deep breaths, wiping a sheen of sweat off her forehead.

She moved over to the edge of the building she was hiding in. She was standing on a faded, upper floor, built entirely out of stone. The roof of the building had partially collapsed, leaving it exposed to the elements of the underground cavern.

She peeked out the exposed gap, smiling dimly.

A massive, widespread city spread out around her. Tens of thousands of ruined or collapsed buildings, covered in the glowing crystals that were found everywhere in the cave. Several giant stalagmites and stalactites could be seen, sticking up from the ground of the city, or drooping down from the ceiling, far above. Several buildings were built or carved into these stone edifices, weathering the time far better than their counterparts.

At the exact center of this city, a cool, moving stream of what appeared to be liquid ice could be seen, falling from the ceiling towards the ground. This liquid ice waterfall, a mystic, magical creation, stretched two hundred meters wide, and continued falling into a large stone pit, streaming off to areas unknown.

The Lightsworn Fox smiled, the humanoid form she was currently using shivering.

She had reached her first safe haven, where she would have some respite from her pursuers.

Even they would have to tread carefully here.

For, one of the Kings of the fallen Grakon Race ruled this failed city.

The ruins of the city of Icicar.

.

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