Chapter 10: The Odachi of the Eclipse and the Falcon's Harvest
Time seemed to have stopped completely in the Mist Valley.
In the center of the shattered plaza, Samael Morningstar, with his new Void Dragon Physique radiating an overwhelming heat and preternatural lethality, held the melted fragments of General Silas's sword. With a gesture of boredom, he dropped the molten metal onto the stone floor, where it hissed and smoked.
Ignoring the terrified screams of the Valois soldiers and the astonished gaze of his own clan, Samael's mind connected directly to his Soul Vault.
—System. Open the Heaven Grade (Superior) Treasure Chest —he commanded.
[Processing request...]
[Opening Heaven Grade (Superior) Treasure Chest...]
The physical world reacted immediately to the summoning of objects that defied the balance of the Lower World. A pillar of crimson light, so dense it seemed made of crystallized blood, erupted from Samael's chest. The beam shot upward, piercing the gray clouds of the siege and dyeing the morning sky with an apocalyptic red.
General Silas, despite his Origin Realm cultivation, had to take several steps back and cover his eyes with his gauntlet, blinded by the divine intensity of the aura.
The System began to list the loot in Samael's mind with a victorious chime:
[Congratulations, Host! You have obtained the following artifacts:]
Main Weapon: "Odachi of the Ravenous Eclipse" (Superior Heaven Grade).Description: A two-meter-long Great Katana. Blade forged with black meteorite steel and a vivid crimson edge. Active Skill ("Shattered Moon Slash"): Unleashes a concentrated wave of Qi capable of ignoring and cutting through defensive formations of equal or lower grade. Passive Skill ("Bloodlust"): For every enemy killed, the blade heats up and absorbs vitality, increasing the weapon's cutting power by +1% (Maximum stack: 50%). Resets upon sheathing. Defense: "Inner Armor of Shadow Silk" (Mid Heaven Grade).Effect: A light tunic that nullifies 30% of direct physical damage and passively absorbs Fire and Lightning elemental attacks. Clan Resource: "Beast King's War Banner" (High Earth Grade).Effect: Morale artifact. When planted on a battlefield, it creates a Minor Domain that eliminates fatigue, purifies fear, and increases the physical strength of all marked allies by 20%. Consumable: 10x Origin Recovery Pills (Superior Earth Grade).
Samael extended his right hand, and from the pillar of crimson light, the weapon emerged.
It was majestic and terrifying in equal measure. The hilt was wrapped in black dragon skin scales, and its long curved blade seemed to absorb the light around it, creating an aura of a constant eclipse.
The instant Samael's fingers closed around the hilt, the sword came alive. Being a Superior Heaven Grade weapon, it possessed an echo of consciousness—a bloodthirsty and arrogant spirit that refused to be wielded by a weakling. The Odachi vibrated violently and attempted to dig invisible tendrils into Samael's hand to devour his Qi and his blood, testing him.
Samael did not back down. His eyes flashed with that lethal vertical golden slit.
A mere tool tries to devour me? Samael thought, letting the will of his Primordial Blood flow into the weapon.
A tyrannical pressure, the silent roar of a void dragon, clashed against the sword's spirit. The Odachi whined—a sharp metallic sound that echoed through the valley—and its resistance shattered instantly. The weapon submitted, purring in Samael's hand with absolute submission and a starving bloodlust. The weight of the weapon, which would have crushed the arms of a normal human, felt like a feather to his new draconic musculature.
—Perfect —Samael whispered.
Deep down, however, he felt a very slight twinge in his meridians. It was the price of such violence and a forced leap in power. His Dragon Physique was only at Stage 1 and incomplete; there was still a limit to his endurance.
Silas, sensing the mortal danger emanating from that black sword and the creature wielding it, lost his temper.
—KILL HIM! HE'S JUST A NAKED MAN! FIRE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE! —the General roared, retreating toward the center of his troops.
The fifty elite Valois warriors, conditioned by years of military discipline, obeyed. They unleashed a hellstorm of simultaneous attacks: dozens of heavy arrows loaded with wind Qi, blasts of fire, ice spears, and sword slashes tore through the air, aimed directly at Samael's chest.
Samael evaluated the rain of death in a nanosecond.
He didn't try to block. He didn't retreat. He simply... vanished.
[Technique Updated: Shadow Step (Evolved).]
[Dragon Physique Effect:] Allows fusion with ambient shadows and entering a state of spatial intangibility for 0.5 seconds.
The Valois attacks struck empty air, kicking up a useless cloud of dust.
Before the soldiers could acquire a new target, the shadows cast by their own feet elongated unnaturally. Samael reappeared right in the epicenter of the enemy formation, the Odachi of the Ravenous Eclipse already unsheathed in a perfect arc.
—Sword Art: Black Horizon.
It was a clean horizontal slash, executed without any apparent effort. The Odachi unleashed a gigantic crescent of absolute Void. The black energy wave cut through the air silently.
The reinforced steel armors split as if they were dry leaves. The Qi shields popped like soap bubbles. Twelve elite soldiers of the Valois family, warriors at the peak of the Qi Sea Realm, fell to the ground cleanly bisected, their torsos sliding off their legs before their brains could even register the pain signal.
The blade of the Odachi glowed with an intense, sickly red.
[Passive Activated: Bloodlust (+12% Cutting Power).]
The weapon vibrated with pleasure in Samael's hands, urging him to kill more.
The remaining soldiers stopped dead in their tracks, the most primal terror freezing the Qi in their meridians. The weapons trembled in their hands.
In the distance, hidden behind the melted rocks of the cave, the disciples of the Morningstar Clan watched the massacre with a mix of absolute awe and profound fear.
—Is that... really the same Samael who tended the clan archives a few months ago? —whispered a young disciple, swallowing hard as he watched the blood raining over the courtyard.
—I don't know —Elder Torian replied, gripping his own spear with trembling hands—. But if that being were our enemy, the entire valley would already be a graveyard.
—He's... he's a monster... —muttered one of the Valois captains, dropping his sword and backing away step by step.
Samael heard the whisper thanks to his new Spiritual Sense. He walked slowly toward the survivors, dragging the tip of the Odachi across the stone floor, leaving a trail of crimson sparks.
—I am not a monster —Samael said, his deep voice echoing off the valley walls—. I am the consequence of your actions. I am the punishment.
General Silas, watching his elite troop being slaughtered like livestock, realized that fighting on the ground was suicide. He unleashed 100% of his cultivation base in the Origin Realm (Stage 1).
As an Origin expert, Silas could borrow the authority of Heaven. A massive illusory armor in the shape of a white ice falcon enveloped him completely.
—I AM A GENERAL OF THE ORIGIN REALM! —Silas roared, his eyes bloodshot, rising into the air, defying gravity through true flight—. A vulgar Qi Sea or Transcendent practitioner cannot touch me if the sky belongs to me!
Upon rising fifty meters into the air, Silas channeled his power to alter the local climate of the valley. The sky darkened suddenly, temperatures plummeted below zero, and storm clouds formed around him.
—Origin Technique: Rain of Steel Feathers!
Thousands of ice icicles, sharp as swords and heavy as lead, began to rain down on Samael's position, threatening to impale anyone within a hundred-meter radius.
Samael looked up at the floating General. A ruthless smile curved his lips.
—Do you think that just because you float a few meters, the sky belongs to you? —Samael murmured.
Samael flexed his draconic legs. The muscles in his thighs tensed until they nearly tore his new skin. The ground beneath his feet simply ceased to exist, sinking into a three-meter-deep crater.
BOOOOOM!
Samael launched upward like a ballistic missile, breaking the sound barrier in a sonic boom that ruptured the eardrums of the nearest soldiers. He didn't need to fly; his sheer kinetic force propelled him upward, completely ignoring the rain of ice that shattered against his bare skin without leaving a single scratch.
He appeared directly in front of the horrified General Silas's face, fifty meters high in the freezing air.
Samael raised the massive Odachi above his head. The weapon's aura merged with his own killing intent.
—Shattered Moon Slash.
Samael brought the slash down. The active skill of the Heaven Grade weapon erupted. A blade of pure crimson energy, ten meters long and shaped like a crescent moon, fell upon Silas.
The local climate technique was cleaved in half. The sky seemed to tear open. The energy crashed against Silas's massive Ice Falcon armor.
CRACK!
The Origin armor, which should have withstood an army's siege, exploded into millions of shards of light. The crimson energy blade continued its course, pulverizing both of Silas's arms up to the shoulders.
The impact of the blow nullified Silas's flight, sending him plummeting toward the earth like a flaming meteor. Before the General could fall freely, Samael descended faster, caught Silas by the neck with his left claw, and used the military man's massive body as a human shield to cushion his own landing.
BOOOOOOM!
Both crashed into the exact center of the Mist Valley, creating a shockwave of dirt and rock that knocked down the last standing Valois soldiers.
It took several seconds for the dust to settle.
Samael stood in the center of the smoking crater, breathing steadily, but feeling a dull ache in his newly forged meridians. The battle had been fast and one-sided, but forcing a Stage 1 body to perform ballistic jumps and channel Heaven Grade weapons had a cumulative cost.
Beneath his bare feet, the fearsome General Silas was an unrecognizable ruin. He was missing his arms, his legs were crushed, and he coughed up black blood onto Samael's boots.
—Impossible... —Silas gasped, tears of pain and humiliation slipping down his silver beard—. I am... the Origin Realm... I am the sky... How can a damn Transcendent... do... this...?
—Your cultivation base is weak and pathetic —Samael said, his voice ice-cold and devoid of compassion—. It is obvious you consumed too many cheap pills and sacrificed your purity to reach the Origin Realm quickly. Compared to the perfect foundation I have forged, you are just a large child playing with powers you do not understand.
Samael looked over his shoulder. Kael was standing, wounded but firm, leaning on his sword. The disciples and Elders watched from a distance, paralyzed, looking at him with a mix of devout respect and primal fear.
The System in Samael's mind blinked with a message in golden letters.
["Blood Fusion" Function Available.]
[Dying target in Origin Realm detected. Do you wish to extract the Talent Root before the soul dissipates?]
—Yes —Samael commanded in his mind.
Samael raised his right hand and, without the slightest hesitation, plunged his sharp draconic claws directly into Silas's shattered chest, tearing through flesh until he touched his spiritual core.
General Silas let out a shriek so horrifying that birds miles away took flight.
It wasn't just a physical attack; it was a mystic and profane pillaging. Through the contact, the System began to siphon the very essence of Silas's being. The robust General began to age at a grotesque rate. In a matter of three seconds, his skin wrinkled like parchment, his hair fell out, and his body was reduced to a desiccated mummy.
[Analyzing Core... Extraction Successful.]
[Item Created: Wind Talent Essence (High Earth Grade).]
Samael withdrew his hand. Between his fingers floated a pulsing sphere of emerald green light, spinning and emitting the soft sound of a hurricane trapped in glass. At his feet, what remained of General Silas's body crumbled into grayish ash that the wind quickly erased.
The clan disciples stifled cries of horror. Some looked away, nauseated by the brutality of the magic they had just witnessed.
—Is this what we are now? —murmured one of the oldest Elders, crossing himself—. Snatching the destiny of the dead with our bare hands?
Lilith, a few steps away, maintained a grave, stony silence. Her heart beat with military pride seeing her enemies destroyed, but a spark of genuine fear ignited in her soul. Samael... what price will you pay for walking this dark path? Will you be alright after all this?
The valley fell into a reverential silence. The survivors looked at their Patriarch with renewed, fanatical faith, but also with the trembling respect reserved for destructive deities.
Samael flicked the blood from the Odachi's blade with a sharp snap of his wrist and sheathed it on his back.
His overwhelming, murderous aura dissipated like mist in the sun, replaced by an absolute, regal calm. He made his way through the craters, heading directly toward the cave entrance.
There stood Seraphina.
Unlike the rest of the clan, who subconsciously shrank back watching him approach with his torso bathed in enemy blood and his eyes still radiating an inhuman glow, Seraphina did not retreat a single millimeter. She held her head high. Her hands trembled slightly, but not from fear of him; it was out of immense relief knowing her Sovereign was safe.
Samael stopped in front of her.
—You're late —Seraphina said, her voice soft, a hint of a relieved smile on her lips.
Samael stared at her, the intensity of his violet eyes softening for the first time in seven days.
—A true Patriarch is never late, My Lady —Samael replied, his voice deep and raspy—. He arrives at the exact moment his enemies deserve to die.
Samael opened his left hand and gently passed her one of the Earth Grade Origin Recovery Pills. His fingers brushed Seraphina's skin, a silent promise that the storm he brought would never hurt her.
Then, Samael walked past and looked up at the sky, where the massive Iron Falcon continued to float inertly, its lesser crew trembling in panic on the deck.
—Kael! —Samael called out, without turning around.
—Yes, Patriarch! —Kael straightened up, ignoring the stabbing pain in his broken ribs.
Samael turned and tossed him the emerald green sphere of light. Kael caught the Wind Talent Essence clumsily.
—That ship belongs to us now. Take the uninjured disciples, board the ship, and cleanse it of any Valois scum still breathing —Samael ordered—. Repair the deck damage. And that sphere... use it. Eat it. I want you to rebuild your foundations with it. I want you at your absolute best and ready for total war in exactly three days.
Kael looked at the glowing sphere in his hands, feeling the latent power of the stolen talent, and nodded with fierce devotion.
Samael wasn't finished. From his spatial ring, he extracted the last loot from the Celestial Chest: a massive black iron mast topped with an indestructible crimson cloth flag. The Beast King's War Banner.
Samael flexed his knees and jumped, landing directly on the bow deck of the massive floating ship. With a roar of effort, he slammed the magical banner deep into the ship's ironwood.
A dull pulse of golden and red energy expanded from the flag in a two-kilometer radius.
The instant the Banner's Domain touched the members of the Morningstar Legion, a miracle occurred. The exhaustion of seven sleepless days vanished. The fear and terror that paralyzed them was purified, replaced by an unbreakable courage. Their muscles tensed, feeling 20% stronger and faster.
Samael, standing at the bow of his new warship with his cape blowing in the wind and the banner waving behind him, looked down at Elders Marcus, Livia, and Lilith.
—We have survived the first assault of the siege. We have gained a heavy assault ship, celestial weapons, and invaluable resources —Samael declared, his voice projecting across the mountain—. But do not be naive. Duke Alaric Valois will hear of this humiliation before nightfall. And when he does, he won't send a simple General like a lapdog. He will come himself, with the bulk of his army, or he will bring his Half-Saint Ancestor.
The north wind blew over the valley, suddenly freezing, bringing with it a foreboding chill to the spines of those present. Through his newborn Spiritual Sense, Samael felt, for the tiniest fraction of a second, a distant, colossal, and dark presence lurking on the very edges of his destiny. The true war was only just beginning.
—What are your orders, Patriarch? —asked Grand Elder Lilith, stepping forward, her voice firm as steel, ready to follow him to hell itself.
Samael looked up at the dark northern horizon, his dragon eyes burning with the promise of an impending calamity.
—We no longer hide like prey beneath a dome of mist —Samael decreed, crossing his arms over his chest—. If the Valois and their allies want a war to exterminate us, then we will bring annihilation to them first. Prepare the ship and assimilate your new weapons. We set sail tonight. We are going to visit the Valois allies in the North before they can even think about coming to visit us.
And on the horizon, like an inescapable omen of the death the Morningstars brought with them, an even greater shadow began to form among the bloodied clouds.