《Emperor of War》 A Terrible Transmigration stab! squelch stab! squelch Alista screamed at the sudden pain he had felt. He saw four ominous figures that stood over him in the dark, unable to make out their features. He closes his eyes hoping for the group to walk away ... After a couple of seconds, he opened his eyes hoping it was a dream, it was not! "Agh!" this was the worst pain he had ever felt! Alista once more screams in pain at the swords still wrenched inside of his guts he began to recount that he was laying in his bed drifting off the sleep when he suddenly woke up in this dark place. Slowly but surely his senses began to return. First his hearing, second his taste, third his smell, fourth his touch and finally his sight. as his smell came back a pungent and repulsive smell had entered his nose. it smelled like decomposing corpses, when his touch and his sight had came back he felt the area rumbling as if it was about to collapse, he had to get out of here! He moaned and groaned as tried to get up, but fell over, nearly pushing the swords out of him causing immense pain! he got up once again causing immense pain, but he managed to stay on his feet! "how did I even end up here?!" he nearly falls over again but catches himself with the wall continuing to walk slowly but needing to lean on it. He stopped when he overheard people ahead of him talking and leaned against the wall. "The job is done. We have to leave before we get caught in the collapse." The others around him nod their heads and begin to head in the direction a breeze came from, this means they''re heading towards the exit!Stolen novel; please report. Once the group of individuals headed out Alista followed them to the exit. "these people must be the ones I saw before I blacked out! I want to question them but I''m too injured, nor do I know where I am; moreover, these guys have weapons... I don''t have a chance against either one of them." After a couple of minutes of following the group through the collapsing building, Alista sees the exit but the group still hasn''t left the area... "These guys still haven''t left..." Alista groaned in pain once more from the swords still impaled through him.* "Fuck! I have to find some bandages quickly before I bleed out." The group finally began to walk out into the heavy rain and Alista resisted the urge to celebrate, mostly because of the swords, also because of them knowing he was alive, and coming back to finish the job. After the group was far enough away from the building. Alista walked in the other direction finally getting out of the building and away from the group. Alista smiled slightly and once again questioned what happened "I need to find somewhere to get these swords out and stop the bleeding" Alista saw a closed bar and started to make his way towards it, the rain beat against him and the wounds pulsated. The swords somehow manage to keep some of the blood inside, but now his guts feel like they''re about to fall out so he clutched the wounds Alista broke into the bar... Slam! he began to rummage through every cupboard to find the things he needed. He seemed to lose all hope in this building until he saw a cabinet on the wall with glass allowing him to see the bandages and alcohol, it''s exactly what he needed! "Yes! thank you to whoever owns this building!" Alista sat down on a bar-stool, took his shirt off and slowly took the swords out Clank! Alista nearly yelled in pain but there''s also a bit of relief "just one more..." Alista took the other sword out... Clank! Alista quickly grabbed the alcohol and rubbed it onto the wounds then took the bandages and wrapped it all the way around his stomach area. Alista rubbed his eyes as a sudden burst of drowsiness hit him "I need to find somewhere to sleep... This has already been the worst day of my life" Alista grabbed his shirt and began to explore the building, discovering a back door that led into a shed that went to an alleyway behind the bar illuminated by a light-post. this is where he will sleep tonight to not be found by others "tomorrow I''ll spend time exploring this place, I really have no idea what the hell this place is! haha! this place is gonna suck..." Painful Morning At 6:30 in the morning... *Alista leaned up and groaned in pain* *He lifted his shirt and checked out the wounds* "Should be about a month or two before I''m healed" *He got up and groaned in pain* *tick! tick!* *He looked down and noticed something had fallen out of his pocket so he leaned down to pick it up* "Its an ID? so this world does have things like this despite being so... Victorian" *He checked out the ID and saw someone who goes by "Manu Zod" and sees an address* "3192 Savant St? I''ll start by going to this address." *He walked out to the somewhat empty street* "assuming most people are either sleeping, at work or getting ready for work. I have to get to the address before it gets busy." *He walked to street after street with no luck while it became busier and busier, making it harder to traverse the city until he finally saw savant and slowly made his way to it* *He turned down the street and noticed that it was exceptionally longer than any other street but expectantly less busier* "now I need to find 3192" *he walked down the street until he found the place he needed* *he went up to the door and twisted the knob to see if it was locked but it wasn''t "how insane or dangerous does one have to be to not lock their doors? this doesn''t feel right" * he walked into the building and searched the place room by room hoping to find some answers until he opens a door to a office and sees an entire wall filled with war medals, pictures and books* "whoever Manu is has got to be important... and dangerous" *He said as he got chills up his spine just thinking what would happen to him* *He closed the door behind him and saw a mirror on the desk, He walked up to the desk and looked at himself in the mirror seeing his face for the first time* "I don''t look a day over 20? why do I have Manu''s ID then? I''m clearly not Manu!" *began to search through it finding documents, money, and ammunition but no firearm*Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. "all this ammunition and yet no gun? he must have it in a safe somewhere or its on his person. that seems most likely" *Bang!* *Alista ran towards a window and saw a part of the roof branching out so he climbed through the window and on the roof leaning against it as he heard multiple people talking just across the house* "Manu we are searching for your ID! we will find it soon I can assure you of that!" *"Manu is here? with others? fuck! and they''re searching for his ID?!"* *a 40 year old man with black hair and wrinkled facial features enters the room and sit at the desk, placing a gun and a sword on it before he leaned back and rubbed his temples* "Manu is stressed.. makes sense, I''d be stressed if I lost my ID too" *He says with a bit of a chuckle* *Manu slightly bangs on his desk* "government ID''s are so complicated to get..." *Alista''s eyes had widened a bit and reached for Manu''s ID and began to search his ID attempting to confirm it was in fact a government ID* *he flipped the ID over and saw in big bold letters "Property of Zamor Government"* "he really is part of the government, not former, but currently!" *he had felt that this situation just got much worse and wondered why the person who''s body he''s inhabiting even had the ID in the first place, what is the relation between the original owner and the government?!* *suddenly, Manu got up and walked out of the room so Alista had taken this opportunity to grab the gun and the sword then hopped out the window and into an alleyway behind Manu''s house* "I''ll definitely need to use these in the future" *He hid the weapon underneath his clothes and then walked off into the street to ensure he could get away from Manu''s house as he didn''t want to see or hear what Manu would be like when angry... Especially because he''s someone working for the government* "I''ll need to figure out if I''m wanted or not... if I am that would be bad, and give me more obstacles then I''m currently able to deal with." *He began to go through his pockets in an attempt to find out the identity of his vessel* "this guy should''ve had an ID or something to confirm his identity at least!" *He felt that something plastic had touched his hand in one of the pockets and took the object out* *He looked at the object and saw the vessel''s face and his name beside it "Urizen Smith..." so that''s his name seems like I''ll have to use this" *Alista had felt somewhat relieved but at the same time even more cautious considering he might actually be wanted by the government sooner or later* *"I''ll run to a library to see if they have something ill be able to get at least some understanding of the world" ... After a couple hours of searching *He had finally found a library and was at the entrance of the tall, imposing library* "so this is the library? I''ll definitely be able to find something helpful if it''s this large" *Alista walks through the entrance of the library and is immediately greeted with the smell of old books and wonderfully scented candles.* "smells like heaven in here... considering the rest of the city that is..." *the horrendous smell of where he woke up and the alleyways had flickered in his mind causing him to shiver and nearly vomit in his mouth* *"never again will I be in an alleyway"* *He walks through the library until he finds the history section and began to scan through the bookshelves* "history of Zamor? that''s actually what I was looking for!" *Alista walked through the library, found an empty seat and began to turn the pages* sanctum acceptance ... an hour later "so this world has gods? if there are gods there are sanctums but I don''t really want to get involved with sanctums. I had a terrible history with them in my previous life anyways" *He had decided to check out the sanctum of combat to see if it was worth him investing time into it.* ... *he arrived at the extremely mechanical and loud church of combat and it was nearly as he expected, the sounds of grunts, swords clashing, and the sounds of people marching* *"very militaristic... am I sure this is a sanctum?"* *He walked to the door that lead into the lobby of the church and walked up to the back of line of people to the front desk, at the front he saw a middle aged brown haired woman at the front desk talking to the others* "If I join the military of this country, that would be very beneficial for me... I could get some money, and learn more about this world instead of just about this country. Yeah I think I''ll do that that seems to be a good option. All I have to do is master the art of combat, stay alive, or I could master combat and flee from the battlefield. I don''t need to die for a country I don''t even know" *He opened the doors of the sanctum, and saw a desk clerk and a long line in front of him* ... After a couple of minutes *finally Alista was able to talk to the clerk* "Hello, my name is Urizen Smith and I''m here to join the sanctum" *The clerk smiles at him* "sure thing! just give me a form of identification, and I''ll get it all sorted out for you. Then you go behind that wall and be debriefed!" *He handed her his ID and waited for her to finish filling out the paperwork a* "here you go! you might want to get there quick because I think they''re just now starting! and once you get done with debriefing you''d want to be extremely observant since you never know what could happen" *she handed him the paperwork and his ID back and sends him off to the back* "I''ll be sure to look out for anything coming at me" *he said that with a bit of a laugh but secretly he was extremely nervous of what could happen* *Alista walked behind the clerk and saw a door that said "Debriefing," and opened the door to reveal a square shaped auditorium, and a group of formally dressed people at the front standing above everyone else*Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. *One of the guys stepped up* "Hello everyone you all are here to learn the art of combat whether it be joining the military or defending yourself. You all are here for the sole reason of learning the combat skills you need to succeed in whatever you do. Now you might be wondering how combat skills will help you succeed in whatever you do let me tell you this we don''t just train you in melee combat and ranged combat!* *the people behind the speaker rolled up a board and began to draw unrecognizable symbols and words.* *"what? what more could there be to combat in a world like this?"* "There are these ''Gates'' and it''s not the gates we walk through. We are talking about ''Gates'' that lead you to power far beyond what any normal human can call feasible and is just a fairy tale or a dream they have! they are under no circumstance allowed to know about the ''Gates'' and you wont find any information about them" *"so that''s why I didn''t hear about these ''Gates''... I want to know more about them, and if Manu has one. Especially that group from the collapsing building"* "These ''Gates'' are based upon real concepts that we interact with in our everyday lives. you can achieve, or get these ''Gates'' by collecting the ingredients needed to get them, by killing and eating something or someone that has these ''Gates'' or by training your body to achieve these ''Gates'' which is the safest option but also the slowest. Now keep in mind we will not help you get these ''Gates''. These ''Gates'' are split into two categories, Offensive ''Gates'', and support ''Gates'' but some can be classified as both." *The speaker took a long deep breath before he began to talk* "Say you want the Blood ''Gate'' the only way to get the blood ''Gate'' is by killing and eating a vampire or by consuming an abnormal or toxic amount of blood then you have a low chance of actually unlocking the ''Gate''. now take the Stone ''Gate'' one of the ways to get that is by consuming a Golem or getting the core of one, the former isn''t fun which I would not recommend doing! but the latter is something that''s actually pretty fun and you get to live!" *The people behind the speaker began to wipe the board down and drew another weird symbol* "You can combine any ''Gate'' with another. Say you wanted to take the stone ''Gate'' and the blood ''Gate''! you would get the Blood Stone ''Gate'' which you can''t simply kill a Blood Golem, mostly because they don''t exist! and partly to get it you have to manually get both ''Gates'' and combine them! in which that isn''t easy either but I''ll let y''all figure that out!" *The speaker snapped his fingers and a strong gust of wind shot out to open a large curtain unveiling a large gate* "Everyone head that way to where you''ll be staying and where the training grounds are" *The speaker then motioned for everyone to get up and go through the gate* *Everyone in the room got up and walked through the gate revealing a large field with craters all over it and people already fighting ... After about 40 minutes of walking Alista arrives at a massive brick building that looked like a college dorm building "It''s almost nightfall... time really does go by fast when you''re doing things... now how would I go about achieving a weapon creation ''Gate'' that would be very useful for killing that group" *Alista then walked into the building and saw another clerk in front of him but this time there''s no line* *the clerk saw him and said* "give me your paperwork and I''ll tell you what room you''re in." *He handed the clerk his paperwork and the clerk handed him a key with the numbers 8-1 on it and he walked away from the clerk to a staircase while cursing in his head "rude bitch"* *after a couple of seconds he arrived at his room and unlocked the door then walked into the room* *"Pretty generic room but I guess that''s to be expected"* *He placed The sword and gun down onto a desk and looked at the setting sun over the sanctum, the many factories and houses further in the distance* "such a beautiful view... too bad it''s tainted by all the buildings." *He sighed and took off his shirt to check on his wounds* "still good... I made decent progress today but tomorrow I''m definitely gonna need to start melee training and fire-arm training" *Alista climbed into bed and began to fall asleep Birth Of The Anathema At exactly 2:34 AM A brilliant rainbow light shines through Alista''s window He leans up from his bed and drowsily looks at the light "What is that light" He got up out of bed and looked out his window when he saw an object covered in the same light heading towards him at an impossible speed He tried to move out of the way, but the rainbow object was faster. It crashed into him and smashed him through his door, and into the hallway Illuminating the entire hallway in a rainbow light He leaned up and saw the object shrinking into his body, causing his entire body to turn rainbow and starting to violently convulse. A semi-big man walked out of his dorm and began to check out what happened until he saw Alista and rushed over to check on him "I''ll tell the clerk! maybe she could alert the sanctum and get the instructors over here!" the man rushed off and ran downstairs. ... Couple minutes later A group of people rushed up the stairs and surrounded Alista''s still rainbow and convulsing body "hurry up! we have to get him to the courtyard, then we can see what''s going on" he along with four other people picked Alista up and started to take him to the main sanctum. as they got to the middle of the courtyard they placed Alista down and more groups of people rushed out from the sanctum "psychics! give us a check up on him!" the psychics all surrounded Alista and attempted to get into his mind "W-we can''t get into his mind! theirs something blocking us from accessing his mind" suddenly, cracks in reality opened up "Demons?! invading right now?!" Pure red, sword wielding demons ran through the portals and attacked all the ''Enkidians'' "Everyone defend!" All the Enkidians began to unsheathe their weapons and surrounded the psychics The Demons charged directly towards Alista and brushed aside everyone else "Their targets aren''t us?" The Enkidians began to banish the Demons using the powers of their ''Gates'' Suddenly, Alista''s body stopped convulsing but still glowed rainbow until the rainbow glow began to merge into his body, soul, and psyche All of the psychics began to scream, as if they saw God and burn up in flames leaving only ashes Alista leaned up, his eyes filled with pure white power, a brilliant light above his head like a halo glowed like a billion suns. With a simple wave of his hand, bolts of thunder all struck the Demons instantly vaporizing them and leaving a large crater in their wake! and with another wave of his hand all cracks in reality instantly seal up! After all of this is over he returned to normal and passed out. one of the Enkidians with black hair walked over to Alista with a surprised but almost scared look on his face "What kind of power was that..." Another one of the Enkidians, with a ginger hair color walks to him "The Annuliums are here, they''ve come to see what the commotion was. Bring him with us, they''re gonna want to see for themselves who or what caused all this..."Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. They picked him up and brought him into the main part of the building where the Annuliums were Once they entered the room they saw two people, one of them with a prominent nose, beard and a slightly wrinkled face. The other a grey haired, slim faced individual "who is this and what is the point of bringing him here" the Annulium with the wrinkled face said with an annoyed tone One of the Enkidians spoke up "he demonstrated some... unimaginable power and we suspect the Demons invaded specially for him. He was convulsing and asleep for almost all of the incursion but when he did awaken, he defeated every demon at the same time and closed the rips. He is too dangerous to be kept here" The Annuliums glanced at each other before turning back to the Enkidians "I see. we''ll take him, but what do you think we''ll do with him?" The black haired Enkidian spoke up "kill him or train him, we don''t know but we just need him out of this sanctum he is far too dangerous for us to keep here" The grey haired Annulium spoke up "then our business here should be done" The wrinkly Annulium "it seems so" They opened a portal to a carriage outside and dragged Alista through it then threw him in the floor The wrinkled Annulium spoke to the carriage driver "we''ll be going to the royal palace" "Yes my lord''s" The carriage driver motioned for the horses to move ... At 5:49 AM They arrive at the royal palace, its massive gate towered over everything The Annuliums grabbed Alista by the back of the neck and dragged him into the palace "we have to test and see what ''Gates'' you have and what magnitude they are" They stopped in front of a large gate and looked up at the large beautiful gate "open the gate we have a present for the king" The gate opened revealing what seemed to be a mountain of stairs and another gate at the end They stepped through the gate and started to climb up the stairs ... After a couple minutes of them walking up the stairs "when you get in there I would advise you to not look at the king. you''ll likely die" they arrived at another gate that opened as they reached the final step and headed into the long dark hardwood throne room The beautiful grey haired blue eyed king sat on a large white throne covered in blue gems throne at the end in a white-blueish full body armor with sapphires lining a large cape The Annuliums pushed Alista down in a kneeling position then kneel themselves "My lord we found someone interesting. We suspect he could be of great use, given enough training" The king got up from his throne, walked over to Alista and helped him stand up "M-my lord he could die if he looks at you!" The two Annuliums look up and screamed out in worry before seeing Urizen face the King unharmed "W-what?" "I had a feeling you''d be able to survive." The king looked at Alista with a bit of reverence and a gentle smile on his face "My name is Uro, what is yours?" "My name is Urizen" Alista looked at Uro with a bit of fearfulness but also a slight hint of relaxation "its just that look of his... he isn''t how I expected the king of Zamor to be like, I''d thought he''d be more tyrannical based on how the Annuliums described him" Uro looks at the Annuliums at signals for them to leave, so the Annuliums get up and walk out of the throne room "lets see what ''Gates'' you have" Uro led Alista to a table and motioned for him to sit on it "just lay down and relax. you will be cold at first but that''s only due to my ''Gate'' everything else will be fine" Alista hesitantly lied down and Uro placed his hand over Alista''s heart Uro began to speak in an incoherent language as Alista''s chest turned almost an icy cold ... After a couple more seconds of doing this Uro moves his hand away from Alista and sighed "you have five ''Gates'' but they seem to be the Annulium level" Uro conjured an icy vision in his hands and sat next to Alista showing him the vision "you have five ''Gates'', the Time ''Gate'' which you cant stop time or anything like that yet but you can see further into the future or possibly even the past, the Transmutation ''Gate'' which means you can altar your form, the space ''Gate'', the weather ''Gate'', and the Mind ''Gate''. Remember all of these ''Gates'' are at the Annulium level so their all immensely powerful, I want you to know that if people were to find out about this you would likely be hunted by people hoping to get stronger or by people who want to enslave you... but I doubt they would be able to actually beat you, unless a deity gets involved then I''m afraid there is not much you could do other than run Uro paused for a second "now that your ''Gates'' are taken care of, I''m seriously debating on whether or not to train you myself because as far as I know you would brutally slaughter almost every Anhram. Now then any questions or concerns?" Alista touched his chin before and moved his head side to side Uro smiled softly at him before he got up "oh and by the way. I commissioned a sword that adapts to the wielders hand size and strength, it should be ready for you in a couple of days" He walked out of the room and left Alista there alone to his thoughts "why is Uro so nice? those two Annuliums had made him seem so tyrannical like he was gonna kill me with a simple glance or if I so much as breathed in the wrong way?" The Anhram ... After a couple of minutes Alista got off of the table and walked into the halls "what was that thing that smashed into me at the sanctum?" Alista walked to the left and saw Uro talking to a servant He turned around and walked to the other way down the long hard dark wood hallway, passing by candles, lights, servants and knights. Alista stopped walking for a second and looked out a window. He saw half the city completely covered in snow and ice, but the other half the exact opposite, sunny and green "how is this possible?" A vision flashed through his mind of when Uro scanned for his ''Gates'' and he felt his chest turn cold. Could Uro''s ''Gate'' be the ice or snow ''Gate''? That would explain his looks and why my chest was so cold! Alista continued as he walked through the halls until Uro walked around a corner and saw Alista "There you are! Come with me I want you to meet the Anhram''s." Uro grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him along "Uro why are you so... Lively? most people underneath you all say your so tyrannical, why are you so nice?" He laughed at Alista before he spoke "Those people simply don''t understand how boring being alone really is! I mean you''re also extremely interesting, no one is randomly strong like you are, and I get to see what all the ''Gates'' you have look like in action. I haven''t seen any of your ''Gates'' in action. Except the Mind ''Gate'', but the last time I saw someone like that was so long ago I barely remember it! and it could be nice having someone like you around." How old is he? and why is he so young looking! Uro continued to talk to him while walking through the Palace ... A couple minutes later of walking they arrived at a door Alista saw a guard standing by the door "Open it" Uro commanded to the guard. The guard walked two steps to the door, and opened it, revealing an icy field with glaciers, snow, and frozen trees They walked through the door, and the temperature dropped immensely as if they entered the arctic itself. "Fuck its so cold!" Alista''s teeth began to chatter, his body shivered, his skin turned as white as snow, and his breath visible. "you''re gonna have to deal with the cold for now. I don''t exactly have any winter clothes for you. So you''re going to have to get used to it!" He laughed and walked out the door shutting it behind him leaving Alista to himself in the field. "What is the point of bringing me here if you''re just going to leave!" Alista felt the crackle of electricity above him and barely dodged to the side as a man with 12 wings made of electricity, an average face, blue eyes, and light blue hair smashed into the ground nearly killing him. "surprised you dodged that, reflexes are at the minimum though" The ice below Alista cracked and lava shot out like a volcano, which burned his hand and a part of his sleeve. He felt the lava as it burned his skin causing the worst pain he had ever felt. The air around him condensed becoming as sharp as a swords edge cutting his clothes and his skin as he groaned in pain "he really needs to learn how to use the ''Gates'' he has" A humanoid with black skin, red eyes, a bald head, and a masculine face landed next to the winged man. A young woman with long white hair, grey eyes, and eight wings made of wind around her.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Alista''s wounds healed up rapidly causing him to check his body as if a miracle happened The electric winged human spoke up surprised at what he saw "all those attacks and you still healed up that fast... I can see why the king wanted all three of us to train you" The others looked at Alista with surprise as well before returning to their neutral look. "we''re going to start training you, I don''t like wasting time." he walked over to an armor rack and threw him a sword as he walked back over Alista picks the sword up and inspects it seeing a symbol on the hilt of what seems to be a flame, his power leaked into the sword which caused the blade to light on fire "lets begin." within an instant all three of the Anhrams dashed towards Alista. To his surprise, psychic waves pulsed from his mind and acted as a barrier, reflecting the Anhrams, and forced them on their knees. The woman coughed up blood and made a tornado in her hands before she threw it to the middle of the field. It began to enlarge as it covered the entire field and the Anhram with electric hair caused lightning to circulate through the field, striking the ground, and build up charge. Alista remembered Uro mentioning the weather ''Gate''. "The weather ''Gate'' should be able to either destroy this tornado, and possibly his lightning" He snapped his fingers, and the tornado began to weaken significantly almost to the point of completely disappearing, the lightning, however, did not weaken and struck Alista, causing no damage to him! "how did that not do any damage to me?!". The Anhram with the red eyes stomped the ground it shook and ruptured as lava spewed out of the ground. He perfectly controlled it to form a ball above Alista, He looked up and intended to try to use the Mind ''Gate'' to move it away from him but he still had yet to master it! when visions of the near future flashed in his mind of the ball exploding Suddenly, he hears a loud, booming voice in his head. "We have no need for chants or symbols! you think of something to happen and it will happen!" he listened to the mysterious voice and thought of a dense wind barrier around him. The wind around him converged around his body and formed a barrier that completely blew away the ball of lava. The voice talked in his mind again "Uro lied to you... the ''Gates'' of your level are drastically stronger than just things like seeing into the future! think of an attack and It will happen!" Alista thought of a storm and the air around him converged into a storm. Energy swirled around in the storm till it formed an ever-changing ball of energy. then it locked on to one of the Anhrams and a beam of energy shot down like an orbital strike. Severely injuring the Anhram. then the ball started to form again and locked on to another An icy aura began to encompass the field as a silhouette of a being with bright blue eyes appeared and a large dense wall formed, splitting the entire place in half and destroying the storm The Anhrams rushed over to the injured Anhram and began to carry him off as Uro appeared before Alista and took the flaming sword out of his hands and threw it into the wall "Seems I''ve underestimated you, that is enough for today. Tomorrow you''ll be with me instead, the Anhrams are simply too weak to be with you" Uro spoke in a different tone than usual as if he was disappointed or even irritated The ice wall melted rapidly as they walked towards the door "Uro did you lie to me about the powers of my ''Gates''." Uro looked at him as if he was contemplating something "Yes. you simply have too many powers as of right now, that was seen when you nearly killed Fulgrum. Wait did they introduce themselves?" Alista shook his head no and Uro simply sighed "the one with the electric looking hair is Fulgrum, the one with the red eyes is Bjorn and the girl is Ivo. don''t worry about Fulgrum though he''ll be fine a simple attack like that wont kill an Annulium. to kill an Annulium they would have to be severely exhausted from fighting and killing hundreds of opponents" Uro opened the door and walked through the halls with Alista at his side "Just know that with me you''ll be learning how to use every weapon and things like strategy. Everything that includes ''Gates'' and upgrading them you will do by yourself, plus I''ll be attempting to kill you!" Alista''s eyes widened. "how can he be so lenient about killing someone!" he thought in his head astonished about what Uro said before the mysterious voice spoke up. "he will not be able to kill us, I will make sure we survive even if I blow this whole castle to nothingness!" ... couple minutes later at 9:32 PM They stopped at a door and Uro opened it revealing a bed, a lamp, a wardrobe, and a sword "Ah they must be the sword I commissioned for you! the blacksmith told me it''d be done in a couple of days, I guess he had some kind of help with it" He turned towards Alista "this is where you''ll be sleeping I''ll come and get you in a couple hours then we''ll start your training" Alista nodded and Uro left the room He got on the bed and wiped his eyes "is everyday from now on going to fly by?! it feels like it''s only been a couple of hours!" He layed down on the bed and fell asleep ... A Dream In the middle of the night Alista slowly opened his eyes and saw a large black and gold throne He rubbed his eyes and saw the rainbow object standing over him The rainbow objects shape began to shift into that of Alista''s as it spoke to him "Alista, get up" His eyes widened as he heard his name and stood up almost instantly "How do you know my name?!" The rainbow Alista spoke up, his voice shook him to his core "I know everything about you, I observed all of your memories. You are a loser. You weren''t going to do anything of worth in your world, you would''ve rotted away in that bed until you died. I am giving you a future worthwhile, one that is worth living for. All you have to do is help me and I will help you" he felt insulted by those words but he knew they weren''t wrong. "What do you need help with then" The rainbow Alista approached him "I want to help humanity, there are beings so evil they wouldn''t hesitate to wipe humanity off the face of the universe. there are hundreds of such beings, I want you to kill all of them and wipe their souls out so they cant come back." He touched his chin and thought for a second. "what if they''re already here?" "What if they''re already here? what then?" ''He'' looked at Alista "Precisely 18 of them already are, we could see if we could enlist the help of the existing ''Good'' Gods but I''d rather not. You need to gather the materials and meet the conditions needed to do the apotheosis ritual. Establish a nation, and set off into space. That is when I will be able to help you far beyond what I am currently able to, all you need is this sanctum we are currently in." ''He'' waved his hand and revealed more of the sanctum. Alista looked around his surroundings seeing murals, dozens of statues that make the tallest mountains look small, the very cosmos themselves beyond large arched windows along with large black and gold cannons. He looked back at ''Him'' "So where is this place?" he looked at the arched windows and saw the curvature of a barren, desert world ''He'' spoke up "it is in the solar system. but not at your current planet as you can see. That doesn''t matter though. All you need to do is make it into space and it will begin to meet you. You need to find a way to get into space but with the current technology I''m not sure that is possible... you can either wait for technology to advance enough or I can begin to move it now at the cost of exposing it to the world and risking the Gods stealing it from us" Alista remembered the space ''Gate'' "Could I see the space ''Gate'' to get the sanctum?" ''He'' looked at Alista "No. the space ''Gate'' is what you''ll use for accessing space but traveling through it is impossible He looked down in disappointment before responding to ''His'' question "I''ll find a way to get into space" energy began to circulate around ''his'' hand "it is almost morning. you will wake up and begin your training with Uro all you need is mastery with the sword, but others are optional. don''t worry about weapons or armor the sanctum has it all" ''He'' waved his hand and Alista woke up in the bed sweating knock... knock... knock... He leaned up and went to open the door. Alista opened the door and Uro was standing there about to knock againStolen story; please report. "Get your sword and lets go." He nodded before walking over to the sword and grabbed it. he sheathed it around his waist as he walked out of the room and with Uro to the field After a couple minutes of walking he and Uro arrived at the field "take out your sword and get into your stance, we''ll start from there, then we''ll start training" Visions flashed into Alista''s mind of someone with black armor, fighting another with white armor and felt it engrave itself to his mind He instinctively felt his body take the same stance as the one in black Uro''s eyes flashed with surprise before brushing it off "Good. now try to defend against this" Uro threw an ice spear and Alista cut it in half "now use those ''Gates'' of yours to defend against this" Tons of ice spears appeared around Alista and he used the mind ''Gate'' to increase his thought speed All of the ice spears flew towards him as he parried every single spear. "Now that''s impressive! he has so much potential for someone who hasn''t touched a sword in his life... hes gotta hiding something!" Uro dashed towards Alista and slashed at him with his sword, He parried Uro''s attack and retaliated with his own, nearly cutting Uro but he parried last second and began to emit an icy aura slowly freezing Alista''s body, he used the Transmutation ''Gate'' to altar his body to break out of the ice "Thats something I haven''t seen before..." He switched his strategy and conjured a blizzard blinding Alista! Alista once again altered his body and made the adjustments needed to see once again, he began to distort the space between him and Uro making them come face to face and then tilted him on his side as he slashed down at his stomach area. "such a good use of his ''Gates''!" Alista conjured a tornado and swept up all of the ice and snow as he adjusted his body to be that of a giants. Increasing his power but lowering his speed and stopped Uro''s time than began to thrust his sword towards him hitting him several times in the process. Uro broke through his stopped time and was met with injuries all over his body, as he instantly appeared in front of Alista with his sword at his throat before breaking out into a laugh. "ha! that''s enough for today! man that was fun!" Uro laughed and dematerialized his sword Alista returned his body to his normal size and then sheathed his sword. "He has to have some kind of mental illness! No one can just switch emotions like this?!" They walked out of the field and then Uro spoke "I have a mission for you, I want you along with the Anhrams to search for a frost dragon. When y''all find the frost dragon I want you to carve out its heart. It will be rather big but if you do what you did back there? it will be easy for you!" Alista nodded and then spoke up "I''ll do it as long as you tell me what you need the heart for" Uro simply conjured an ethereal image of a large ice sword "It''s been one of my many dreams to have the powers of a frost dragon. Their abilities are vastly different, and work in a different way than normal ice ''Gate'' powers. furthermore, their version of the ice ''Gate'' also has a different name. Instead of Ice it''s called Frostborn. Every species has different names for ''Gates'' and some even have ability variations, like the dragons have more primal variations that are vastly stronger than all the other variations, but lack the control. It''ll be just like fighting me but more... primal and a tiny bit weaker, I have no doubt y''all will be able to win." Alista remembered the cannons from his ''Dream'' and wanted to ask ''Him'' if he could use them "I''ll do it." Uro gently smiled at him "if you''re worried you wont get anything in return just know, you could use this to get more experience. You can even take a nice trophy for yourself like a nail, tooth, or even the whole wing! I wouldn''t recommend that though the wings are insanely large." Uro paused before thinking and then spoke again "You don''t have to do this but if you aren''t going to change your mind you''ll be setting off at the crack of dawn tomorrow. The Anhrams will be waiting for you at the top of the castle, that''s where you''ll be setting off from, it''s much faster than walking and it should take about a day to get to the mountains." Uro patted Alista on the back "I''ll see you in about a week... or a month" He walked off leaving Alista alone in the palace hallways. "now I can ask ''Him'' if I could use those cannons... how do I access that sanctum? I''ll just try to think of accessing it and seeing if it works like that" He walked to his room and lied down on the bed thinking about accessing the sanctum to no avail so he decided to walk around his room for a little bit "This isn''t working... I''ll ju-" He fell over and felt his mind relax as he awoke in the sanctum with ''Him'' standing over him Alista stood up awkwardly and tried to recover like nothing happened "what do you want" ''He'' responded with a somewhat amused voice Alista pointed towards the cannons outside the windows "can I use those? or would it be too risky" ''He'' looked over at the cannons and back at him "Yes, you can use those cannons the projectiles make no noise or emit any distortion in the spirit world so they''re perfectly fine. I''ll warn you that using these is like using a nuke" Alista pondered over that fact and almost hesitated to actually use them, as it could''ve destroyed the dragon completely "could a dragon survive it?" ''He'' thought to himself "It''s a gamble... but it''s about 50/50 depending on the dragon, but most could survive it" Alista felt somewhat relieved by that but still a bit nervous Moloc He ended the dream there and returned to the real world Alista felt his head pulsate and then remembered he face planted into the ground. "Damn that hurt!" He got up and saw that it was still daytime out. "I guess I''ll explore the castle and find out what he meant by going to the top." He opened the door and walked out into the halls trying to find a staircase. After a couple minutes of walking he found a staircase with a purple carpet, candles and golden handrails. "It''s a bit soothing..." he walked up the staircase and reached the end of it as he walked out of the staircase and to a window. He heard the sounds of steam and rotating gears above him and looked up. He saw a long slab of rock rotating to face the arctic mountains in the distance. "what is that?" he looked at the end of the hallway where another staircase was and rushed over. "That has to be just another floor above this one" He ran up the staircase and saw the top of the entire castle rotating. He looked down and saw large gears slowly coming to a halt until they stopped moving completely. A door appeared across a gap from him, he jumped across the gap and opened the door. Beyond the door there was the long slab of rock. He looked towards the end and saw the end of the rock tilting up as Uro walked up from behind him "Urizen! didn''t I say that you should rest?" He looked at Alista with a smile on his face and then back at the rock with railroads aligning themselves on it "How does this work? there is no one here except us." He asked this with curiosity tinged in his voice since he knew machinery needed people to use it. This completely defied what he knew "For machinery we use souls. These are souls who are dedicated to specifically operating machinery. of course these souls used to be human but they died and still wanted to serve so this is what we use their souls for!" Bang! A steel ship slams down on the railroads causing Alista to jump a bit while Uro simply laughed at him. "Don''t worry everyone jumps when they hear that, it''s not everyday you get to see something like this." He walked forward and opened the steel door of the ship "Urizen come here you have to see this" Alista walked over and walked into the ship. He was met with a freezing cold once he fully stepped in he saw four chairs at the front and buttons lining the walls. He looked behind him and saw cabinets of supplies, coats, blankets, and weapons lining the walls. "wow. there is everything one would need here." "This is what y''all will be using to get to the mountains, once I give the machine soul the signal you''ll be launched into the sky and sent crashing into the snow. Don''t worry, this was made to crash so you''ll be fine. When you get to the mountains you''ll be in a different country and very close to the city of Moloc" They stepped out of the ship, and out of the room. Uro shut the door behind him and walked down the stairs behind Alista "Now go and rest, you''ll be traveling at daybreak." They walked through the hallway in silence and were about to break off from each other when Uro spoke up "I''ll be there to wake you up." Alista nodded and then walked away going to his room He opened the door and laid the sword beside his bed. "Just thinking about flying in that ship is starting to creep me out... But maybe I could use that to launch myself into space. I need that sanctum here.. Wait what is it even called?" He realized that he didn''t even know what the sanctum was actually called so it started to weird him out and made it his goal to ask it when he falls asleepLove what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. He awoke in the sanctum and saw ''Him'' "Whoever you are or what your name is could you tell me the name of the sanctum" ''He'' looked at Alista and blinked slowly as if he was trying to remember it "It''s called The Anathemian Sanctum" Alista''s eyes widened at the name and he quickly recovered. "The Anathemian Sanctum?" He looked out at the large floor to ceiling arch windows and at the stars beyond the curvature of the barren desert world. "But why The Anathemian Sanctum? doesn''t that mean this is basically a place of hatred?" "Why is it called The Anathemian Sanctum?" ''He'' looked at Alista and his face suddenly turned tense "Because the evil gods wish to wipe out humanity while I wish to save humanity and eradicate them. We are essentially the devil to the evil gods" ''He'' conjured a vision showing a humanoid in black and gold armor fighting dozens of other beings. "this is the day I lost my physical body. The gods had ambushed me and killed my physical body. All of my ''Gates'' were stolen from me except the ones you currently have; however, since then, someone new has risen to the status of God in those ''Gates'' or else you would have instantly taken the position. Defeat the ones in control ''Gates'' and you will automatically be promoted to God even if there was another contender." ''He'' spoke with clear hatred for the gods he looked at the vision and his eyes widened. "Just how many ''Gates'' did ''he'' have?" "The plan right now is for you to get into space and acquire the sanctum. The moment you enter the sanctum is when it will awaken and you can begin searching for the gods" ''He'' looked at Alista and then out into space "What about the good gods? can we get their help?" ''He'' simply nodded "Yes. You can get their help but you cannot trust them" "Can I recruit others? like an army or something like that?" ''He'' nodded and waved his hand sending Alista out of the dream "well that was rude" Alista got off his bed and felt overwhelmingly tired He climbed back into bed and went to sleep ... in the Arctic mountains at the city of Moloc "Get me another drink" The bartender slid a glass of beer over to him "That''s your seventh drink tonight Asterion. This is the last one then your leaving" Asterion shrugged off the bartenders warning and drank the beer as he put down coins and walked out into the snowy town He sat along the wall and rubbed his forehead. "this place is so boring when nothing is going on" suddenly, screams echo from deeper in the alleyway. "Probably another basic crime." Asterion got up and walked deeper into the hallway. he saw something unusual on the walls. "claw marks? The only things that can cause claw marks this big are monsters!" He ran down the alleyway until, he saw a monstrous looking humanoid with 12 large red eyes, large bat-like wings and a skeletal exoskeleton. He looked beneath the monster and saw a young woman He took out a large bronze spear and threw it into the monster sending it into a wall as he picked the woman up "Go home, I''ll handle this and don''t go out past curfew again!" The woman nodded and ran away as he turned back to the recovering monster "I wonder how you got past the border? or are you an Enkidian who lost his will? Either way it doesn''t matter" The monster ripped the spear out of its chest, threw it to the side and charged at Asterion. He dodged the monsters charge and picked up his spear. "not that fast." he slashed through the exoskeleton like butter, taking an arm off and slashing the shin. It screeched in pain and started to flap its wings attempting to fly away. Asterion jumped up onto its back, impaled it through its head and ripped its wings off. It crashed back into the ground and laid there motionless. Groups of people walked out of their homes and saw Asterion standing over the monsters corpse. "I gotta report this." He walked away and dragged the corpse with him. After a couple minutes of dragging it he arrived at a tall building covered in snow and ice. He opened the door and walked into a large lit up room with people eating at tables and a young man with black hair and defined facial features cleaning a glass He approached the young man and threw the monsters corpse onto a table. "Either the guards let a monster pass or one of the Enkidians went mad." The man sighed and looked at the corpse "It seems to be the latter, monsters like this can''t be found in the mountains. I''ll make everyone do an evaluation tomorrow. Now get out of here" Asterion walked out of the building and through the streets until he arrived at a medium sized brick house Departure Asterion took out his keys and opened the door He walked through the halls, sat on the couch, and began to relax ... With Alista, 30 minutes before departure Uro walked through the door to his room and imbued his hand with ice "Time to wake up Urizen" He touched Alista with his icy hand He shot up and faced Uro "Let''s go Urizen. Everyone is ready to go but you." Uro pulled Alista off of the bed and helped him up. "Uro you bitch!" "get your sword and load up into the shuttle." He walked out of the room leaving Alista to his things. He got up, picked up his sword and walked out of the room "Uro you absolute asshole!" Alista wiped off his leg where there were mini snowflakes. "How cold was that?! with a single touch he instantly froze the air!" He started to imagine just how strong Uro would be at his strongest and if the dragon could do the same After a couple minutes, Alista got to the top of the palace where the Anhrams were waiting Fulcrum saw him and opened the door for everyone. Alista and the Anhrams loaded up into the shuttle, put on the woolly clothes, then sat at the front Uro stepped into the shuttle, in his voice there was a tone of excitement and anticipation "y''all got 30 seconds till y''all depart, this is the best part of the entire trip! for me at least..." He laughed, stepped out of the shuttle and closed the door as it locked tightly Fulcrum looked at Alista. "He''s always excited about this part... just try to remain calm" Bang! the sound came from the back of the shuttle and Alista faced the back wall. "What was that?!" Suddenly, the shuttle blasted off, jerking everyone in it back, and made it hard to handle the immense speed ... With Asterion, 18 hours later He got up off of the couch, went to the bathroom, washed his face and left the house He walked through the snow, eventually, going to a bar, and walked up to the bounty board. "Ice dragon Odin with a 200 thousand alumni bounty? who the hell could defeat him? They''re practically asking to die!" He looked towards another bounty with someone with shoulder length black hair, and masculine facial features. "3000 alumni? that seems to be the easiest one." He took the poster off of the board, walked out of the bar and towards the wall After a couple minutes of walking, he arrived at the tall snow covered wall, walked through the gate, and into the snowy forest He took out the poster. "Urizen Smith with a bounty of 3000 alumni, last seen traveling to Maldook from The castle of Zamor? then I''ll eventually encounter him if I go in this direction." He put the poster away and tapped his chest. Once he tapped his chest a black roman-like armor set slowly covered his entire body and a single long sword appeared in holstered on his back He felt the air vibrate and looked towards the source of the vibration. "Distorters..." He faced the distorters and took out the sword. The Distorters got in range so he hacked and slashed at them, even going as far as to crush their organs with his foot and behead the ones he already slayed. After he killed all the Distorters, he walked away from the scene and into a large snowy field where he felt the ground violently shake. He looked up into the sky and saw tons of snow blanketing the skyEnsure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. After the snow cleared he saw a silver pod and went up to it. "where did this come from?" The pod door opened and Asterion hid behind an extremely large rock as a white haired woman and a bald, black male with red eyes stepped out of the pod He looked at both of them and sensed that they were drastically stronger than them but he sensed two other people in the pod that have yet to step out Once the other two stepped out he saw someone with shoulder length black hair, masculine facial features and an even larger power than the other three. "Is that?" he took out the bounty poster of Urizen Smith and looked out. "That''s Urizen?! He has way too low of a bounty for his strength!" With Alista, when he stepped out of the pod "I hate this thing" He looked out into the distance and felt someone hiding behind the rock "There''s someone hiding behind that rock." The Anhrams looked at Alista and then looked at the rock "Why would someone be all the way out here?" Fulcrum pushed Alista forward. "Go check out who it is" He looked at Fulcrum and sighed He looked a couple seconds into the future and saw that the person hiding behind the rock would attack him. Alista stopped time and appeared next to the stranger. "So who are you?" Asterion tried to slash his neck but was suddenly stopped then pushed back a couple feet. "You''re not even an Annulium, what did you expect?" He tried to slash Alista again but psychic waves pulsated from his body as a result, he was almost knocked out He grabbed Asterion by his collar bone and dragged him to the others Ivo saw them nearly laughed He let go of the strangers collar and Bjorn crouched beside him "Who are you and what are you doing all the way out here" Asterion looked at them still a bit disorientated but still able to get some words out. "My name is Asterion, I-I was hunting for monsters" They looked at him sighed "Then you lost your way and forgot how to get back to Maldook" He nodded while Alista looked into the future, when he looked into the future, he saw Asterion fighting beside him and leading armies. He helped him up and spoke up with annoyance "Take us too Maldook, I know your lying and you know exactly how to get back" Asterion nodded and led them to Maldook After hours of walking, they arrived at Maldook and He took them to his house "Do you know where the ice dragon is" Ivo asked him and he nodded "I know his area but not where he is... He has been terrorizing the inhabitants of the mountains for years. What do you want with him?" "We''re hunting him." Fulcrum quickly said and his eyes widened "Your hunting Odin?! have you lost your mind!" Bjorn grabbed his shoulder "We were ordered by the king of Zamor to get the dragon''s heart, we will kill this dragon and get the heart" His eyes widened and felt an idea sparking in his mind. "If I help them I could get the bounty for Odin!" Alista read his mind and decided to keep quiet, not wanting to change the future. "I''m going to have to ask ''Him'' if I can bring others into the sanctum." Suddenly, a loud voice echoes throughout his mind. "Yes. you can bring others to the sanctum. The only condition is that you must make them swear secrecy and let them know that if they were to break it then they would be completely annihilated. The soul, body, mind, consciousness maybe even memory." "I don''t think we''d want to stay here for long so tomorrow we''ll fight the dragon. Uro is probably itching his arms just thinking about the things he could make using the heart." they nodded, Alista left the room, went into a private area, entered the dream world, and went to the sanctum "So how would I go about making someone access the sanctum and swear to secrecy" "first, you have to establish a connection between them and the sanctum, secondly, you have to swear them to secrecy, then they will be able to access it like you do" He thought to himself and was actually surprised at how simple the process is "I will tell you this. After you get done with this then you must break off from Uro, fake your death in the midst of battle and disappear." ''He looked at him with a stern expression and then looked at the statues "Why? why do I have to do that" ''He'' looked back at him "Because I''m growing impatient with your slow progress, and I might have an idea about how to get you into space. I might know where the god of the mind is, he will be the first one you take the title of godhood away from." His eyes widened. "Already? How would I get into space?" "Use the dragon. In the battle the dragon will want to escape, you and Asterion will hop onto its back, fly with it until it gets to space where the sanctum will rake you in and instantly shoot the cannons at the dragon. Uro will get what he wants and I will get what I want. Regarding the Mind God, he''s easy to find since he resides in the minds of every living being which should''ve been obvious." "So I access the mind world, find him, and fight him for the position of mind God" ''He'' Nodded "It will be easy for you, especially since you have almost all of his powers but weaker but also because of the amount of ''Gates'' you have compared to him" Alista exited the dream, exited the room and went over to Asterion Ice Dragon "Asterion. How close are you to being an Annulium?" He thought for a second. "I don''t know? There are not many of them in this country and I don''t know of a way to check." Alista''s eyes widened. "Would you like to check?" He looked at him and nodded "Just lay down somewhere" He laid across the table and Alista held his hand to his heart A hot but also cold force projected out of his hands covering his entire chest in a weird sensation for what felt like hours. "You''re on the verge of being an Annulium. You should join us in the fight against Odin, you''ll be able to advance after we kill him, you''ll be able to get that bounty!" Asterion leaned up, then touched the skin where his heart is. "What was that? I was already planning on joining them for the bounty. however, since I''m about to become an Annulium that''s another reason to fight with them." "I''ll fight with y''all, as long as I get the bounty and I''m able to advance, i''ll fight." Alista smiled and patted him on the back "Good, do you know what time it is?" Asterion looked at the clock "It''s 8:52 PM" Alista wondered what they did here to pass time "what do the natives of the mountains do here anyway?" Asterion thought for a minute "We mostly just hunt Distorters, drink, harvest wood, and watch for Odin" "Distorters? what are those?" "What are Distorters?" His eyes widened. "How does he not know what Distorters are? Could they only be exclusive to this nation?" He realized that distorters might truly only belong to Alumbia, although he still explained it to him" "Distorters are the major enemy of Alumbia. The going theory is that they aren''t native to this reality since reality seems to distort around them. Hence the name ''Distorter''. They travel in packs to make up for their lack of physical strength. The only way to realistically ''kill'' them is to destroy all their organs before they can regenerate. Brain, Heart, etc." "I wonder if Zamor, has a distorter equivalent?" Alista turned to Fulcrum "Does Zamor have something similar to distorters" He asked fulcrum "Zamor''s Version of ''Distorters'' are Kaiju-like sea serpents. They are very destructive and very powerful. The biggest one I''ve seen was around ten miles long." Fulcrums expression turned solemn and looked like he didn''t have good memories of it "So they''re kinda similar to the sand worms from dune..." The full scope of that serpent entered Alista''s mind and the possible devastation caused "How much did it destroy and how many lives were lost" Fulcrum sat down on a small wooden chair "It destroyed almost every coastal city, an uncountable number of lives were lost. The only reason it was stopped is because Uro froze it, along with nearly the entire sea" Alista''s and Asterion''s eyes widened in astonishment. "Uro really did that? So when we''re fighting he was going easy on me?!" "Since y''all seem to be done with this I''d say it''s time to get to sleep." Fulcrum stretched out and got comfortable in the chair "I''m going to sleep as well." Alista laid down on the couch and went to sleep 12 hours later, halfway to Odin "So how are we going to find this dragon!" Ivo scoped out the mountains and turned to Asterion "He''s almost as big as a mountain so it wont be hard to find him. you''ll know he''s in the area when you can barely see"Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Bjorn wiped his face and spoke out angrily "This fucking snow wont stop getting in my eyes!" Asterion drew a symbol on his chest and a bronze helmet appeared "This will help a little bit" He gave it to Bjorn, Bjorn put the helmet on and silently celebrated. In the meantime, Alista had a barrier of wind circling around him, causing the snow to bounce off the barrier "This is taking too long" Alista said as an intense wave of wind similar to a hurricane ripped through the snow. as a result, the entire mountain was clear of snow revealing the frozen grass that was hidden beneath it Everyone looked at Alista until one of them spoke up "Why didn''t you do that before!" Fulcrum annoyingly said at him "I''m conserving my energy, I don''t want to waste all of it before the fight" Fulcrum still felt annoyed but he couldn''t refute his words Suddenly the mountain shook as a white dragon with ice covering it leaned its head over the mountain. "Fuck..." Asterion said as he tapped his chest and a bronze armor surrounded him. Alista stopped time and grew in size to be like a giant. "If I can get everyone up there before time resumes then we could catch him by surprise!" Alista scooped everyone up, ran to the top of the mountain, and placed everyone down as time resumed Once time resumed the dragon blasted their previous area and froze everything in that direction. "Damn..." Fulcrum couldn''t find any words to describe what had just happened all he knew is that they would''ve died Bjorn, however, smashed his hammer into the ground causing the side of the mountain to erupt with lava scorching the bottom of Odin and manipulated the lava to chain down Odin Alista grabbed Asterion and jumped on top of Odin "Inflict as much damage as you can!" Fulcrum shot lightning through the dragons neck, while Ivo caused a massive tornado around the dragon, Odin turned towards Bjorn and opened its mouth charging its icy breath. Time seemed to slow down as Alista jumped to its head, punched its mouth shut and then stabbed his sword all the way through his mouth Odin clawed at its nose but Alista already jumped back to its head and started punching the dragons head. "Go up in the air already you stupid dragon!" Fulcrum charged another lightning bolt, and imbued it into Ivos tornado. This made the tornado strike Odin across his entire body! The dragon slashed its claws at Bjorn and managed to take off his left arm, Ivo rushed over to Bjorn and pulled him up to the peak of the mountain while the others held back the dragon. Fulcrum saw this and started to merge with the Lightning circulating around the tornado. Once he and the lightning were merged, a powerful lightning bolt hits Odin, the dragon tried to escape it but was punched directly to the ground by Alista Asterion stabbed his sword into the dragons scales, the sword glowed a bright purple then blew up nearly taking off the dragons leg causing it to scream in pain and flap its wings stirring up a blizzard until nothing but the ice and snow can be seen. Alista stopped time, ran over to Asterion, and after a couple seconds time resumed "Hang on tight!" They both grabbed onto the dragons rough scales and felt it lift off into the sky, Ivo, Bjorn, and Fulcrum all saw this, and tried to chase but couldn''t keep up "It''s too fast!" Fulcrum said, he looked at Bjorn and rushed over. Bjorn clutched the stump where his arm used to be, then cauterized it while he screamed in pain "Where''s Urizen and Asterion!" Ivo landed next to them and helped Bjorn "They''ll show up, Urizen could survive but Asterion I don''t know. however, we''ve got out of here!" Ivo picked Bjorn up, and flew down the mountain with Fulcrum With Asterion and Alista They felt their oxygen leave their body when an unfamiliar, booming, and evil voice entered Alista''s mind "What does it feel like? does it feel cold, lonely, and barren?" Alista gritted his teeth. "Pipe down" He grew to be 15 feet in size, clutched Asterion, and leapt off the dragon. "Hold on tight" He clutched Alista and looked past him into deep space,here a metal, Gothic, and Continent sized building floated in the distance slowly getting closer and closer Alista saw a black spear zip past him, the spear stabbed through Odin, and blew up like an atomic bomb. As a result, the dragon died and fell towards the ground just as they were about to turn to ice for what felt like hours. A sudden, warm sensation entered their body, completely rejuvenating them. "Finally... the sanctum is here." The Continent sized sanctum shot a beam at them and pulled them in On the ground, with the Anhrams The air suddenly shook as ice flew everywhere causing them to almost drop out of the sky "Guys It''s Odin, look at him..." Bjorn spoke with a scared tone as if he saw something truly nightmarish The Anhrams looked at Odin and saw something truly horrific "What could have done that..?" They looked to the sky where a large fireball was "Ivo take Bjorn, i''ll get the heart" Fulcrum flew down to the dragons corpse and looked for the heart She watched him fly down there and quickly flew to Maldook. "Odin was missing most of his body! what could possibly do that to a dragon of his caliber?!" the sight of its horrific and desecrated corpse engraved itself into her mind With Fulcrum, still digging in the dragons corpse "There it is!" He saw the heart of Odin, cut everything around it, and tried to move it "How am I going to move this? If Urizen was here he could''ve just carried it easily" He thought of an idea and waited for Ivo to get there After about 40 minutes of waiting Ivo finally arrived "Ah! Ivo can you use your wind powers to move the heart?" "Yeah? What can''t do it yourself?" She sounded like she was about to laugh but still picked up the heart with her strong wind powers My powers are built around offense! yours are utility based so give me a break!" Fulcrum sounded annoyed with Alista and Asterion, Inside the sanctum They slowly got up, wiped the ice off and walked down the long, wide, and metallic hall with a red carpet going through it "Where are we? Do you know?" Asterion walked behind Alista sticking rather close "A little bit, it shouldn''t be long though" He walked through the hall until he stopped at a large door "Should be just beyond this door..." Alista pushed the door open, and walked into the dark room that seemed to be immensely large Mind World The room lit up, it revealed the black and golden throne, the murals, statues, and the large floor to roof arched windows "It looks a lot better than it did in the dream, that''s for sure" A rainbow presence entered their sight "How is it Alista? is the sanctum how you expected" The rainbow presence appeared next to them causing Asterion to quickly look at it "I might as well introduce myself to you at least." He walked beside Alista, his form shaping into a rainbow version of him. "I am his benefactor, I help him, he helps me" Asterion felt overwhelmed but recovered rather quick and looked at Alista "Why is he calling you Alista, isn''t your name Urizen?" "That''s about half-right. The original owner of this body''s name is Urizen, however, I am Alista Allviack. I am not from this world." His eyes widened "You''re not from this world? What about you?" He looked towards the ''Him'' "I am from this world, but I died a long time ago" Asterion rubbed his temples and looked at Alista "Why did you bring me here" ''He'' walked away from them and stared out into space "I brought you here because I want you to join us. Our mission is to protect humanity" "Now what makes you so sure I wont refuse?" "You won''t, if you do refuse then you will likely be hunted by the gods, good and evil. You have witnessed this sanctum, now you will leave and die, or you will stay and join us. Furthermore, I will help you become a god." Alista spoke with certainty he would join them He pondered his words and knew how advantageous this would be. "I''ll join y''all." "What do we do now?" ''He'' appeared behind Asterion "You just have to swear to keep this a secret then we''ll start planning out what to do" A knife and chalice flew from the wall, the knife landed in Asterion''s hands, and ''He'' then held the chalice up to him "Cut your hand and let the blood drip into this cup, all I need is three drops" He hesitantly cut his hand and let the blood drain into the cup. After this was done, ''He'' walked over to the throne and poured it onto the seat. The throne glowed gold for a couple seconds then turned back to normal. Asterion felt something touch his soul, after a couple seconds it gradually disappeared Alista slapped Asterion on his back. "Great! Now we can start planning where to begin" ''He'' summoned an octagonal golden table with engravings on it They examined the table, the table having the sanctum in the middle, and paths leading to all different areas of the galaxy. however, some of them led to different dimensions "The Mind World, The Astral world, The Underworld, and the Dreamworld." Asterion rubbed his hand across the edges of the table. The cold golden steel turned his hand cold Alista looked at ''Him''. "Are we still going to the Mind world?" ''He'' nodded. "Getting the divine throne of the Mind ''Gate'' is our top priority, using that ''Gate'' we could build our army and begin to unify humanity. So yes we''re still going to the Mind world" he nodded "So how will we get to the Mind world? do we tap on its engraving or is there a special process" ''He'' looked at the engraving of the Mind worldLove what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. "its the former." ''He'' tapped on the engraving of the Mind world. Once he tapped on it, the engraved lines of the table started to turn a glowing grey, this color reached beyond the table and made a door underneath one of the large statues "Go, I''ll be with you soon" Asterion walked into the gate while Alista talked with ''Him'' "How would we find the Mind God" "He will come to you, a presence on your magnitude is nearly equivalent to a gods. He will get curious and want to investigate it" Alista nodded and turned to the gate "Don''t go yet, I have something for you" Alista turned to ''Him'' as ''He'' materialized a white, gold, and black armor set, along with two swords, one ripping through the air with red flames, the other ripping through the air with blue flames "This will nullify all powers except yours in a given area. its a nullification aura" Alista put on the armor and felt some divinity fill his body. Grabbed the swords and felt their flames scorch his skin, but after a couple minutes, the flames healed his skin and no longer burned him Alista walked into the gate, his eyes slowly adjusting to the empty Mind world. Once his eyes adjusted he saw Asterion waiting for him "Have you tried your new abilities yet" Alista spoke to him as he walked past him, Asterion followed him "What?" Alista turned his head towards him "You advanced to Annulium. Don''t tell me you didn''t know?" Asterion shook his head "I... didn''t know" Alista sighed "You can test them in the upcoming battle." Suddenly, thoughts and peoples eyesight began to materialize "This world is chaotic. I wonder how the Mind God deals with it and what he does" He nodded at Asterion''s statement "You''re right about that, This world is chaotic. If I were the Mind God I would''ve gone insane" Alista peeked into the sight of an individual, when he did this he saw a galactic battle, where cannon fire, rail guns, and people were shooting each other in the halls of the ships. Alista paid close attention to this battle, he saw one of the ships shot giant claws into the other. "Oh?" He then saw flying objects flying in between the large ships. "Are those mechs?" he raised his eyebrow "Space warfare..." Asterion looked into the sight with him. They both paid close attention to this battle, Asterion felt excited at this sight while Alista memorized the ships and weapons they used in this battle, plans already cooking up in his head. "What am I doing? It''s only been about a month since I woke up in this body, I used to be so cautious and scared of everything" ''He'' spoke up in Alista''s mind. "It''s because of me, I integrated parts of myself into you. You will no longer be scared of anything, you will plan everything out." He was surprised for a second, then turned away from the sight "lets go." They continued to walk through the Mind World until they arrived at a bottomless hole in the ground. "What is this?" Suddenly, they were both pushed into the hole from behind, Alista used the transmutation ''Gate'' to grow large wings, caught Asterion and flew back up. Once they landed back on the ground they looked at what pushed them. They saw a translucent entity with glowing white eyes staring back at them "Who are you." Alista said to the entity, once the entity spoke they felt their vision cloud slightly "I am the one y''all are searching for" Asterion looked at the entity "So your the Mind God" "Yes, I appreciate y''all speaking with respect unlike that rainbow bitch" They both chuckled at that since they knew who the Mind God was taking about "So, what do y''all want" Alista quickly replied to him "We''ve come here to take your position of God of the Mind ''Gate''." The Mind God looked at them and slightly laughed "Is that so? ... in Zamor, with the Anhrams and Uro, in the throne room "My Lord, the heart is here but Urizen disappeared. We suspect that he died falling from the ice dragon in flight" Fulcrum said, not bothered to mention Asterion Uro walked over to the windows overlooking the city, a wave of sadness washed over him. "You were too powerful to simply die from a fall." "Send out a message for everyone to investigate this. I know he cant die from a fall like that, its simply unbelievable" The Anhrams nodded and walked out of the throne room Uro walked out after a couple minutes and walked to the heart of Odin "You will serve me well" Uro stuck his hand into the heart, after a couple seconds of digging, pulled out an icy glowing orb. He then walked to his room, placed it on an anvil and conjured a hammer Bang! Uro kept shaping the orb, after a couple more hours of hitting it. Uro pulled out the newly shaped orb, its form now looked like a sword with a wide tip. A draconic voice spoke through the sword and an silver colored eye appeared on the blade ''Where am I?" Uro brought the sword closer to his face "Well now this is a new experience." Uro had an idea and thought about Alista "Tell me what happened just a couple seconds before you died" The blades eye blinked slowly as if trying to remember what happened "I got hit with something, it was painful and torturous" The eye looked up at Uro "Was there anyone there with you? did you have someone with long black hair with you?" The blade blinked again "There were two people with me and he was one of them" Uro cracked at smile at this answer and was about to reply but the blade spoke again "Right before it all went blade, I saw a dark and terrible object in the distance. All I felt from it was hatred, but there was also a certain elegance to it. It felt unreal" Uro''s eyes flickered in recognition. "There''s no way... the only thing that can match that description is the Anathemian sanctum... I thought it was destroyed or lost to time."