Chapter 72: The Dry Swamps

Chapter 72 -072: The Dry Swamps

The essence of magic, mana, and cores was tied directly to the soul and not the physical body.

That was why Mikael could use celestial essence despite not having a celestial body, and why the Vampire Progenitor had slowly begun regaining her true powers.

Then again, for Mikael to inhabit a new body, such a body must be able to bear the sheer amount of divinity Mikael carried, or it would be eroded as soon as Mikael entered it. In the worst case, it could kill him. Albeit, most of his celestial essence had been stripped away during his sealing, leaving just enough to keep his soul alive! Meaning that all the celestial essence Mikael had used since he came into the mortal world was essentially him using up parts of his soul—a slow suicide!

Anyways, that was why it took a bit of time for him to slowly build a body with some resistance.

He simply inputted a tiny piece of divinity into a human as part of his survival plan, just in case he wasn’t outrightly destroyed. At least, that was how he remembered it. And so, the human who received this power, through Leviathan, had Adrian as one of his descendants, and the only one who could bear the burden of Mikael’s soul, although he still faced the risk of wasting away too!

+ +

+

+

+

+

+

The disorientation that hit Mikael as soon as he woke up lasted only for so long, and he soon found his way to the tavern from days before, after doing what mortals called ‘freshening up’.

That included first visiting the bathhouse, rubbing some kind of paste on your teeth and tongue, using this ‘soap’ to wash your body, and finally rinsing the body.

He had always found this ritual strange since he arrived. But the humans had a saying: when in Romania, do as the Romanians do. Not to mention, it left him feeling cool and refreshed. And so he had done so since then.

When he got there, the first thing he did was pay for yesterday’s meal. He had completely forgotten he had to pay to eat, due to his thoughts concerning his usage of celestial essence and the backlash and attention it would bring to him. Somehow, a small pouch of coins had been left at a corner of the tower where he called home. Over the course of days passing, no one came to claim it, so he did.

Having thought very long about it, Mikael finally decided to cut himself away entirely from the celestial energy and anchor his being, which was divine in nature, to another source of power. That was the only way he could go about achieving his true goal, which stuck clearly to the back of his mind: Transcendence!

And since he became aware of his existence, and as much as he could remember in this mortal frame, the only other divine source that existed outside Aurora’s in this reality was the Old Gods’ Domain, the place that led to Ragnarok’s creation. Which meant he had to anchor his powers to that place. Or to Ragnarok!

Yes! The scythe’s material literally came from that place, and was fused only with his blood and flames. That should mean that it was also somehow outside the scope of Aurora-type essence.

The question, though, was how to even achieve cutting himself off in the first place. And then how to anchor himself into the new source. But Mikael decided to head out first, hoping some inspiration would hit him as he journeyed. He headed over to the bar.

“Is there any forest, or desert in the region?”

The woman stared at him. Clearly, the lad was not used to saying ‘please’. And she couldn’t fully blame him.

That night, under the light of mere candles and dimly lit mana crystals, nobody could fully see just how ‘noble-looking’ the young man was.

White hair that threatened to put even the color of snow out of business. A face that would put many top beauties to shame, and a lean, tall frame that most knights his age would kill to have!

His clothes, which were not too good for him, put him clearly out of place in a place for rough-looking adventurers with scarred faces and dusty clothes. Mikael was draped in simple black from neck to toe, with a black scarf completing the touch.

The contrast of pale white skin and the black clothing also somehow increased his appeal.

The woman sighed before she replied.

“There’s one, some wilderness, just a couple a miles east from here. I gotta warn ye, tho, that place be crawling with them Ravagers. I’m talking them A-class ones that’ll make a mincemeat of ya if ya not careful enough.”

Since he was mostly absent-minded when he came here, he didn’t pay much attention to the surrounding terrain.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Also, how do you send these things you call ‘letters’? I’m not capable of doing it myself.”

“Where you finna send ’em, lad?”

“House Limnor.”

The woman felt her suspicions confirmed. ‘He was truly of noble birth!’ And from one of them Great Families nonetheless! Then again, there was only one family in the world with silver-white hair, as much as the commoners knew, and they were a Great Family too. Maybe an affair?

“Is it someth’ng urgent? You were heading out, so if it ain’t urgent, go on and we’ll talk when you return. Or you finna write ’em down and I’ll help you send it later in t’day,” she offered him a piece of paper, which he took.

His business was none of hers, so it would be best to not poke her nose into it.

“Very well. Then I’ll be off.” He replied after he was done writing. And with that, he turned out of the tavern and into the city.

When he got to the gates of the city, the guards informed him that the location he intended to get to was called the Dry Swamps. Just like the woman at the tavern, they also warned him of the dangers of that place, as it was teeming with wild vegetation and wild Ravagers. They told him that it was easy to become part of the food chain if he did not take care.

Not that Mikael cared about those parts of the stories.

The only things he believed could effectively bring danger to his life were mortals, not some mere beast that ate raw meat and still ran about chasing mates.

As per usual, he had set off with nothing but the clothes on him and with no single visible weapon!

The guards had tried to convince him otherwise, but he simply thought them nuisances and knocked them out, and so he set out.

Since his celestial essence was already running critically low, with just about enough to summon Ragnarok once, Mikael dared not speed across the couple of miles, which was actually over seven miles! Coupled with the fact that if he used the celestial essence, his actions would be immediately noticed by Heaven.

For some reason, Mikael had noticed that the only time they had been able to spot him was when he used celestial essence. Because that was the only time they could see him! 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Whether it was a prank on him or an aid, he decided to make use of it!

And so, having walked, without any form of relief, from the morning hours till the last hours of dusk, the Dry Swamps was finally in view, its quite massive trees clawing deep into the skies!

Something about it reminded him of Greenwood Forest. Had it only been a few weeks, or was it months, since then…

And now, here he was, about to do the very opposite of what he had done back there.

Fate was truly a funny thing.

Catch y’all tomorrow.

Remember to leave us reviews, and subscribe too!