Sovereign of the Karmic System

The six disciples of the blood sect looked at Daniel’s companions as if they were looking at a bunch of idiots. They were fully aware of the degree of power emanated by their bodies, and what this kind of powers should cause in the minds of weaker cultivators, and yet, there was no fear in their eyes, only the sort of alertness one would feel right at the beginning of a violent encounter.

In their minds, only ignorance could be to blame for this unreasonable confidence.

"This is ridiculous. I will take care of them, then look for the legacy on every speck of dust on this planet." Said the muscular man before starting to float closer to the group, and the planet they were protecting. His left arm was completely covered by a skin rash, which was all that was left of the thousands of blood blisters caused by the attack of one of his companions.

The more elegant of the group adjusted his glasses over his nose, and with a smile, said, "Are you sure you want to go alone? They did kill the lord, even if limited to using a fragment of his power."

The muscular mad ignored the words of the man with glasses, and instead, he kept approaching Daniel’s friends. As he got halfway through, the oppressing feeling his body gave out doubled, and from in between the atoms of the skin of his fingers came out a thin layer of blood that covered his hands up to the elbow. At the same time, a second stream of blood formed two large hammers, which he held in both hands.

"It will only take a second." He said before letting out a chilling laugh.

As soon as the muscular cultivator arrived at about thirty meters of distance, the few scales that marked Xargy’s face increased in number, until only a few moments later, his entire body was covered in them. These scales were different than the usual ones, and not only were about an inch thick, but were also made out of a rubbery form of material. Underneath these scales, his muscles turned into a similar material, elastic and resistant beyond measure.

This ability was one of the inheritable powers of the draconic race, a power which made the body of the dragon close to impossible to break through blunt impact.

Xargy then floated ahead and in front of the muscular cultivator, who looked at him with interest, before raising the hammer he was holding in his right hand, and moving it down in a quick downwards motion. The space around curved, following the motion of the hammer, and crashed against Xargy’s head in an attempt to swat him like a mosquito.

However, instead of posing any form of resistance against the attack, Xargy used the elastic nature of the fibers of his body to inhale, turning himself into a scaled balloon just in time for the hammer to hit.

The powerful strike hit the bloated humanoid dragon with enough power to flatten a planet, forcing every bit of smoke contained in his lungs out like a geyser of steam that covered the surroundings. His body, rocked by the impact and yet seemingly undamaged, flew away like a meteor.

The grey smoke made it impossible to see one’s surroundings. Only noises and flashes of light could be seen through the smoke, showing that once they had separated the muscular man from his companion’s sight, the entire group of Daniel’s friends had attacked.

To initiate the attack was Aeron, who used his mental tricks to distract the muscular cultivator long enough for the others to strike. Jerigh and Sewah followed right after, and used their sword intent and boosted power to injure the cultivator. The same did Xargy, who tried to recover from the impact of the previous attack before turning himself back into a small version of his draconic form, and rip the body of the muscular cultivator into shreds with his teeth and claws.

While the three of them tried to hurt him physically, Nova and Edmund collaborated so that they could open an interdimensional portal right around his throat, hoping that when they would close it, they could decapitate him, killing him once and for all.

Aeron’s mental attacks and the appearance of an interdimensional portal were enough to distract the cultivator who, after seeing the portal, immediately realized why their lord had randomly left the sanctuary he had lived in for the past tens of thousands of years, just to come to this dimension.

After having seen the importance of the discovery, the muscular blood cultivator remained quiet, and focused on defending his body against these cultivators. To him, the power to freely move in between dimensions was much more important than the last path of blood cultivation, which he was more than willing to abandon in exchange for Edmund’s power.

Unable to find out to whom exactly this power belonged, the muscular cultivator focused on defence, receiving one attack after the other, until finally, right as the smoke was about to disappear, he let out a powerful warcry that sent Daniel’s friends flying back, and shaking their consciousness into a confused and threatened state.

The warcry took a heavy toll on the minds of the group, who covered their ears due to the pain. Similarly, the shockwave forced the smoke to dissipate, leaving the now injured muscular cultivator in plain sight.

The muscular cultivator slowly turned to look back at his peers, and with a slightly embarrassed smile, he said, "You can go on ahead, I want to take my time making these insects suf-ugh" Before he could finish speaking, however, hundreds of projectiles, a large spear, a palm, a whip and numerous bloody threads landed on his body and pierced him, wrapped around his body, and destroyed his organs. He was only able to look at his five companions with hate, before losing consciousness.

"I cannot bear to be placed in the same category as someone that lets some maggots of an inferior dimension injure him.." Said the man who had thrown the blood spear, with an expression filled with disdain. A sentiment that was shared by the faces of the others as well.

Despite their calm behaviour, and relative reasonable words, the real reason why they had attacked the muscular man was to take him out of the race for the inheritance, which would be easier with one less person to compete against. However, once they had defeated him, another problem arose.

The group looked at the badly injured body of their former companion, and in each other’s eyes, they could see the interest in his power. If only they could absorb him and turn him into power, the one who would get a hold of his power would become the strongest. Strong enough to kill the rest before going for the inheritance by himself.

The man in glasses was the first to move, inching towards the body, and the member of Daniel’s group with an expression devoid of any ill intention. "Where are you going?" asked the woman dressed in skimpy clothes.

"To kill the little flies, of course. You can skin each other for the remains of this fool.. I don’t mind. That is not why I am here for." Responded the man with glasses without stopping.

The moment in which a blood cultivator would try to devour a source of power, at least for another blood cultivator, was the moment in which the opponent would be the most vulnerable, and therefore, an opportunity to strike. So instead of helping, they decided to observe in silence.

When the cultivator with glasses passed by the body, instead of stopping, he flew past it, only bothering to send a thread of blood to decapitate the weakened muscular cultivator, and finish him once and for all. He then kept moving towards Jerigh and the others, who looked at him with expressions filled with alertness.

To Daniel’s friends, there was a clear difference between the muscular cultivator, and this man. It was clear that their age had not affected the nature of their characters, and that while the muscular cultivator was the direct and rash kind of individual, this man was calculative and focused. This was confirmed by the next attack, which left no chance for the survival of most of them.

From his back, almost as if folded into a thin layer of blood, unfurled eight massive legs made out of blood essence, similar to those of a spider. Each covered by hooks and spikes which nobody would dare to come near to. Then, without saying a single word, he turned into a flash of red, and disappeared. When he reappeared, he was standing in the middle of the group of Daniel’s friends. Before any of them could say anything, the spider legs were sent towards them with the intention of taking them out right away.

The first one to react was Aeron, who used his mental power to move his companions out of harm’s way. After his actions, Xargy, who had been teleported only a few centimeters away from certain death, turned himself into a full fledged dragon, and with his mastodonic mouth, bit off one of the large legs.

The man with glasses looked at Xargy with what appeared like a derisory smile. His blood essence was amongst the most corrosive, made explicitly to increase the sharpness of his usual attacks.. So when Xargy bit off the leg, he expected his mouth to begin to corrode right away and turn into power for himself, but before that could happen, his blood essence was erased.

Distracted, the man with glasses did not notice the flash of light that came from his left side, and that pierced his lower abdomen.

Pure embarrassment filled the man with glasses, who turned to look at his companion as if in fear that they would attack him while in a moment of distraction. Nevertheless, this bit of damage he had taken did not decrease his dangerousness in the least, and his remaining power was still enough to deter any sudden attacks.

Once sure that his companions were not going to try anything, he turned around, locking his blood red eyes onto Daniel’s friends, who had, for the first time since hundreds of thousands of years, made him lose his patience. His sadistic and calculative nature kicked in, and at a moment’s notice, he put all of his attention into what appeared to be the weakest link.

The eight bloody legs all moved towards Edmund at the speed of lightning, and for a moment, it appeared that they would hit, but right before they could tear his body apart, unable to hide anymore, a shadow shot out of Xargy’s mouth, and with the speed of light, formed a barrier of darkness in front of him.

This dark barrier took the shape of a wolf’s mouth, which allowed the eight legs to move into his two sets of sharp teeth.

Finally able to see what had erased his power, the cultivator with glasses tried to force his legs to rotate and turn into a drill that could kill this entity of darkness, but his connection to his power was cut abruptly by Jerigh, Sewah, and Xargy, who used their strengths to cut severe it.

When left without a connection to their owner, the massive demonic wolf devoured the detached legs, which despite their corrosive power, could do nothing against the absorption of pure darkness.

Now, the cultivator with glasses was in danger.

He had lost another chunk of his power, which this time, comprise a fifth of the power he was allowed to have when visiting the dimension. He was now floating in between two groups of enemies. One that was extremely hard to kill, and one that was one step away from joining in.

Once again, he turned to look at his companions, but this time, just like he had expected, it did not appear that they would keep observing in silence. They had already inched ahead, as well as began to concentrate their blood essence to send their attacks.

As the most calculative and calm member of the six, this situation did not make him panic, and instead, he began to analyze his situation. Close to him was the body of one of his companions, which he could try to absorb to restore his power.. He could also retreat, giving up on the legacy, or try to fight back.

In his mind one of these choices made the most sense, but before he could act on it, he, along with the rest of his living companions, turned to look at the planet in unison, attracted by the extremely powerful red light which only they could see.

On the planet, the entrance to the door to the dream state had opened.