Chapter 270 A New Evolution
A view of a burning city entered my gaze. Collapsed houses, burning corpses, screaming children searching for their parents, the soldiers trying their best to evacuate the people, but dying nonetheless, men going mad from the absolute carnage that engulfed their probably once peaceful lives.
It was a view I could describe as utter hopelessness.
But even through all of this, there were two beings that stood out greatly.
One was a tall, large warrior in golden armour. Wings of bright orange fire on their back, silky golden hair possessing so much lustre you couldn’t be blamed for thinking it was actual gold and vermillion red eyes that burned with hatred and outright righteous fury. They wielded a spear in one hand.
This spear possessed a silver shaft with inscriptions made of the Elecryean tongue that I couldn’t really make out without the agent. Its blade was sharp, pointed and gave off the feeling that staring for too long would pierce my vision and render me blind.
This spear, that ignited into white flames was pointed at a dragon. This dragon was at least two hundred metres in length and fifty in width. It possessed grey scales with a certain silver shine to them. A white mane on the back of its head all the way to its wagging tail. Six ivory horns protruded from its head and its abnormally golden cat-like eyes glared at the warrior that looked like nothing more than an ant before it.
“I warned you, Vermillion.”
Vermillion, he called her. A name that for obvious reasons I couldn’t get out of my mind. This person in golden armour that looked to be about 3 metres tall was the one to lay the egg from which I emerged. My mother, so to say.
“You chose to bother me even after I told you to stay away from me or my realm. This is the price you pay.”
He said, gesturing to the entire scene unfolding around them. I got a wider view after that. The chaos spread further than I thought. It went as far as about two Japans combined, all being assaulted by dragons heartlessly. An empire had been razed to the ground at the whim of this dragon.
But, for some reason, I felt nothing but hatred as I stared at the dragon. The putrid scent of burning flesh entered my nose, the heat of the fire turned my ears red and the sounds of the people… my people, screaming in fear and agony entered my ears, filling me up with enough hatred that I thought I could overwhelm the world with it.
My grasp on the spear of white flames tightened as I glared at the dragon god.
I twisted my body, then shot the spear with all the might I could muster. Tonight, the dragon god would regret ever incurring my wrath. Tonight, I would complete the task I was given when an egg was presented to me five centuries ago. Tonight, I would kill the Dragon God Fafnir.
…
In a moment, all that vanished as my eyes opened up and I saw the view of cherry blossoms falling down. My head was on something soft with a very sweet fragrance. I let out a sigh once I realised where I was.
“Jesus. I thought I was going to die fighting that thing. Thanks for the save.”
I thanked the system master then closed my eyes.
“You’re welcome, daughter.”
“Daughter?”
At the mention of a very weird title, my eyes opened up cautiously. Slowly, I tried to bring the system master into view, but what I landed on was a shadow. This shadow had red eyes and a red smiley expression as it looked at me.
I wasn’t sure what exactly to do and my brain was stumped as I looked at it, but in the next second, my body jumped off the weird being’s lap.
“Gaah! D-don’t come close!”
I retreated as far as I could and waved my wings in front of her, trying as hard as possible to be intimidating.
“I’m a trained martial artist and I’ve killed dragons before. These wings are lethal weapons, so be careful.”
“Is that so? How cute.”
But she laughed at me like an adult watching a child say stupid child-like things. Somehow, that made me feel stupid and like a child.
“Isn’t this the system master’s domain?”
I asked while looking around. A wide field of grass, one cherry blossom tree and a sweet fragrance in the air. The total opposite of my room back on Earth.
“System master? You mean Alpha?”
“Yeah. That’s the one.”
“I don’t know who that is.”
She told a very horrible lie. You’d expect a god should at least know how to lie and manipulate people into doing their bidding.
“But I’m here. What is it you need?”
She tapped to her side, welcoming me to sit next to her, them, it? I chose to stay away from them as much as possible, while keeping a close eye in case of any movement.
“No need to be so suspicious. I am your patron goddess after all.”
Patron Goddess? The one who gave me my sacred? Well, that was unexpected. But then again, I knew I would have to meet her sooner or later. Hopefully never, but we don’t always get what we want, now do we?
“What the hell are you doing here?”
A new voice entered. My younger sister stood behind Zatana, glaring at her with the system master’s eyes. Zatana looked at her and her smiley face turned into a frowny face.
“Ugh, can’t you just give me this one thing?”
“I give you a lot of things, like not kicking you out.”
From the sound of things, they were quite friendly with each other.
“As if.”
“Don’t you have a realm to be ruling? A civil war could start at any moment. Stop bothering me and go attend to your business.”
“Stay out of that business.”
“Then stay out of mine. Now shoo. I’m about to work.”
After shooing Zatana away, the goddess disappeared without so much as another word. Once that was done, the system master created a table before us and sat down then gestured for me to do the same.
I sat across her and faced her, but I didn’t like it. The fact that she was using my sister’s face and body was sort of infuriating, but if I complained, she’d just use someone else’s body. I knew she could read my mind, but she was openly ignoring this issue I had, so it was better to not bring it up.
“Congratulations, you’re in your third evolution phase. I honestly expected you to have died in that fight just now, but you’re lucky for your skillset.”
She praised my efforts against Mine, but her voice lacked any sort of enthusiasm. If anything, she looked somewhat stressed out. I decided to also not bring this up.
“Now, choose your next evolution.”
As she said this, a bunch of sheets appeared on the table, spread out so I could see them easily. All of them were evolutionary options that had been prepared for me, so I decided to look through carefully.
There were four options on the table, each listed with a name, basic description and a list of pros and cons.
Name: Chaos Dweller Twilit Garuda
Description: Garuda are angelic or demonic beasts depending on which sort of domain they reside. The Chaos Dweller Garuda are of the demonic faction that sleep in the Void in which all Chaos stems from. This particular breed of Chaos Dweller has a high affinity for Twilight Magic and can be found at the edges of the Twilight Realm.
Pros: Excellent physical stats
Excellent Magic Control
Chaos Magic Control
Cons: Extremely weak to Holy and Divine attacks
Intense Aggressive Personality shift
‘Intense Aggressive personality shift, huh? Like a berserker? I guess I wouldn’t want to be losing my mind for the tiniest things.’
I looked to the next one.
Name: Realm Guardian Rainbow Ziz
Description: A bird so large, it’s said to be the very sky itself. The Guardian Rainbow Ziz is said to be the protector of whichever world it settles on and there can never be more than one in that world. In truth, there are multiple of them spread apart and they are rarely ever seen coming down to interfere with mortal issues.
Pros: Divine Energy Control
Sky Dominion
Large enough for most physical attacks to be rendered harmless
Cons: Too Large to face most enemies
Poor or No magic control
‘This option is blatantly the worst option here. The system master isn’t even trying to hide it. And I don’t like the idea of being so conspicuous.’
Name: Illusive Twilight Harpy Demon Queen
Description: A one of a kind harpy!
Pros: High affinity to illusion magic
Excellent Aerial Battle Skills
Excellent speed
Very stealthy
High Mana Pool
High Stamina
Cons: Absurd addiction to shiny objects
Low physical strength and defense
‘Not bad, but I don’t want to end up addicted to gold and stuff.’
Name: Fallen Crystal Shadow Anqa Demon King
Description: Not much is known as this would be the first of its kind.
Pros: Decent physical stats
High Mana Pool
High Affinity with Summons and Familiars
Crystal Magic Affinity
Divine Energy Control
Cons: No obvious cons
‘Oh? No obvious cons? That’s a first.’
Name: Arcane Demonic Twilight Phoenix King
Description: Not much is known about this, except it’s some sort of Phoenix.
Pros: Decent physical stats
Immortality through rebirth
High Mana Pool
Chaos Energy Manipulation
Divine Energy Manipulation
Cons: Rebirth time depends on certain factors
The final option looked like a direct evolution from an Arcane Demonic Twilight Shadow Bird. It was a king to boot.
‘Wow, both Divine and Chaos energy manipulation? Isn’t that too much? But the rebirth time factor is a bit of a let-down.’
After I looked at all of these, I noticed something odd.
“There are less evolutions than before.”
I pointed out while looking at them.
“That’s your problem here? You should be happy there’s more than two when you practically invented a new species.”
She said with a mocking tone. I looked back on what happened, trying to remember.
“Oi, when I chose my evolution the last time, I got a message saying that I got a fusion of two different evolutions instead. Isn’t that your fault?”
“I do not recollect that.”
She lied right to my face. Since I couldn’t prove that, I decided to focus on the evolutions once more. The only options to consider were honestly the third and fourth ones.
But before then, I needed to get some more information on what exactly Chaos energy and Divine energy were.