[Well, well, excellent.
Half a month has passed and we've reached one million readers. I guess you really like this fic, even if just a little. That encourages me quite a bit to keep writing more chapters. Anyway, here's a chapter from the beginning of volume 5. I think this volume will be as long as, or maybe even longer than, volume four.
I don't know yet, since I'm working on volume two of my other fic and I only have a few chapters done.
Enough chit-chat, start reading. Some things will be explained here.]
—××—
[Awakening Latent Powers]
Uriel smiled as he waited for the spell to finish announcing his new status as a transcendent titan. His aspect abilities were related to darkness.
His dormant ability could make his body intangible and malleable. His awakened ability was manifesting darkness and making it tangible. And his ascended ability was the evolution of his awakened ability. In other words, he could shape darkness to create constructs, using his other two abilities to do so.
Having used this for so long, it had become an innate nature, something he did without even paying attention to maintaining the form.
Uriel felt his essence, which had become much denser and more polished, as well as much more intricate than before when he was still a master.
[Awakened Aspect Ability]
[Aspect ability acquired]
[...Aspect Ability Name: Domination]
Uriel blinked, bewildered upon hearing that. He had obtained a domain — one of darkness.
The implications of this were simply enormous. However, the spell was not finished.
[Your Dark Flame Attribute has evolved]
[You have obtained a new Attribute: Prince of the Void]
[Your transcendence is complete.]
Uriel's eyes opened wide.
Quickly, he invoked his runes; he needed information about the changes.
Uriel observed the runes, which read:
Name: Uriel
True Name: Lord of Darkness
Rank: Transcendent
Class: Titan
Darkness Cores: [7/7]
Dark Fragments: [7000/7000]
Uriel blinked at this. He had recovered all his Dark Fragments after the explosion that killed tens of hundreds of great monsters.
Attributes: [Darkness] [Prince of the Void] [Extra Shell] [Dream Spawn] [Fated] [Marble Court]
Uriel noticed that where Dark Flame used to be, now stood Prince of the Void, though he still didn't understand what that attribute did.
Uriel looked at the attribute, reading its description.
[Prince of the Void] Attribute Description: "The void recognizes you as its heir. As the heir of the void, corruption has no effect on you."
'Wait a moment! What the hell!?' Uriel thought, bewildered by this.
He now knew he was a void creature after his epiphany. But what did it mean that he was the prince of the void? And what did that have to do with anything? Additionally, there was the fact that he could not be corrupted by knowledge of the unknown.
"I don't understand anything anymore." Honestly, Uriel no longer knew what to think. Even Shade was bewildered.
Looking at it for a few moments, he shook his transcendent form and then laid his eyes on his transcendent ability.
Aspect Ability: [Domination]
Ability Description: [Darkness obeys you. The existent dissolves, and the nonexistent answers your will.]
What does that mean?
Uriel thought, confused by the description of his transcendent ability.
The details were vague and revealed nothing, so he would have to experiment until he knew what his new powers were.
Uriel concentrated for a moment and then felt his entire being reunite, returning him to his human form — a much more compact one.
Creating two black wings on his back, he remained in the air, flapping them occasionally.
He looked at his arms. His skin was smooth and soft without any wounds or burns. It was perfect skin without imperfections. He felt light — much lighter than ever in his life.
Sighing, Uriel invoked his supreme memory and, without thinking much, created a small wooden boat, a sailboat that landed with a splash in the water.
Sitting down, he took out from his dark storage some ink and special brushes for creating enchantments.
Writing ancient runes, a ghostly wind surrounded the small boat. Using an improvised sail made of dark fabric, he used the true name of the wind, causing the boat to lift and advance toward where he believed the past lay on the great river.
Uriel felt the wind on his face. Although his plans had not turned out as he would have liked, he would have to start over and create more plans.
He didn't know much about Ariel's Tomb beyond the nightmare. There were three places he remembered on the great river.
Twilight — the floating city built by the Serpent King Daeron and his people. Fallen Grace — built by the Sibyls before the desecration. And finally, the town of Weave.
Among these three locations, the best option would be to go to Weave, then to Fallen Grace, and speak with the last Sibyl.
He also needed to deal with Aletheia of the Nine, who was infected with corruption thousands of years ago, and find a way out of Uriel's Tomb without entering the heart of the estuary and encountering the guardian of the tomb of... Oblivion? Yes, the demon of oblivion created by Ariel.
Since he was a void creature, he was sure that once he set foot in that place, that thing would attack him instantly, and at minimum it had to be a sacred-class beast or at least a divine-class one.
While analyzing this, Uriel looked at his runes.
Dark Creatures: [Dark Knight] [Gunlaug] [Soul Devourer] [Illusory Butterfly] [Iroh] [Skadi] [Nyx]
Memories: [Eclipse Claws]....
Uriel looked at the long list of memories he had obtained, most of which he used to feed Dark Hair and Soul, who were close to becoming supreme-rank creatures.
Using the memories he obtained that he wouldn't use, he gave them to Soul and the Dark Knight, leaving him with fewer than twenty memories.
Uriel yawned slightly as the boat continued moving at a constant speed toward the past.
Below, he could feel nightmare creatures swimming in the great river — some were fallen, others were corrupted, and the occasional high-rank creature.
When he got bored, he watched the recovery of Gunlaug and the winter beast, who had suffered severe damage from the fall through the breach.
As for Shade, he was deeply asleep and would take at least several days to wake up, meaning Uriel was alone with his thoughts.
Feeling somewhat sleepy, Uriel created two enchantments on the wooden boat, which was a supreme memory.
The first enchantment was one that hid presence, and the second enchantment enhanced the first while someone was inside the boat. Since they were separate enchantments, they didn't affect the memory's own enchantments.
Stretching out on the wood, he closed his eyes, listening to the sound of the wind in the sail.
Finally, Uriel closed his eyes and began to sleep. Tomorrow would be a new day.
...
When Uriel woke up, he sat up in the boat, which was still flowing smoothly, following the current of the great river toward what he supposed was the past.
He really didn't understand many things about the great river — like the past and future intermingled, and time flowing differently from the rest of existence.
Frowning, he decided to stop thinking about it. It was too early, and thinking too much would only give him a headache.
Uriel took out from his dark storage a jar full of hot coffee, along with a cup, poured himself some, and began drinking calmly.
"It really was a good idea to buy supplies for years," he thought with a slight, satisfied smile.
Taking another sip of coffee, he took out some fresh bread and began eating calmly.
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the river of time for a few seconds until he felt it.
Something gigantic was moving in his direction. Without hesitation, Uriel manifested two wings black as night, rising toward the sky just in time as what appeared to be an enormous caiman turtle emerged from the depths, sending his small boat flying.