Chapter 20: The Titan Godslayer Canon: Star-Swallowing Form

Nathan had chosen the Ennead Crucible before because he felt the legacy from that peerless Titan was the mightier. But now he'd run into Sebastian—a man ruthless to the bone with zero scruples—and he needed to level up his strength fast if he wanted to keep his head on his shoulders.

The Ten-Color Bloomvine had swallowed nearly all of those "meteors," making his black-light vitae a hundred times thicker and richer than the Mystic-Gold vitae. Even if the Titan Godslayer Canon couldn't match the Ennead Crucible, its Art progress would surely come many times faster—much better suited to his need for a rapid power boost.

Nathan sank his mind into his inner crucible. As an inborn bloodline legacy, the Titan Godslayer Canon came to him quickly, soon down cold. Its approach ran on different rails than the Ennead Crucible: the Ennead Crucible started with the twelve ordinal bloodways, while the Titan Godslayer Canon began with the eight wandering bloodways—step one being to open the legendary twin axial bloodways and establish the vitae's Inner Circuit.

With a little guidance, the matchlessly rich black-light vitae surged out of his inner crucible, flowing up the reverse track along his spine, meeting almost no obstruction as it burst through the nape node and the crown node, then turned to descend on its course, passing the spot between his brows...

But the instant the black-light vitae touched the Mystic-Gold iron thread hidden between his brows, something changed, fast!

The Mystic-Gold iron thread let out a soundless roar, like some ancient primordial beast silent for a thousand years suddenly waking up. The black-light vitae slipped out of his control entirely—like a bloodborn serpent seized in an invisible giant's grip—slithering faster and faster as a whole fat length of it got swallowed straight down by the Mystic-Gold iron thread.

Nathan gasped inwardly: "Crap!"

He hadn't expected the Mystic-Gold iron thread to be this tyrannical. But the Titan Godslayer Canon required opening the twin axial bloodways first, and the node between his brows was impossible to route around. All he could do was grit his teeth, fire the black-light vitae up, and feed it over in an endless stream.

He thought savagely: "Let's see how much you can eat! If you really swallow all my black-light vitae, I'll just go right back to practicing the Ennead Crucible."

The Mystic-Gold iron thread between his brows was like a bottomless pit: however much black-light vitae Nathan pumped in, that's how much it swallowed, seemingly without limit. Nathan went all-in too—disregarding the losses entirely, throwing the floodgates open and letting the thread gorge itself.

No telling how much time passed. Better than seventy percent of the black-light vitae had been devoured; the black-light heart-seed in his inner crucible had gone feeble and faint, looking ready to crumble at any moment. Then the Mystic-Gold iron thread suddenly changed—still gulping down black-light vitae nonstop, it also began spitting out wisps and threads of black light.

This black light carried countless tiny golden flecks, like a lush river of stars in the night sky. Compared with the original's here-and-gone flickering, it had a whole different kind of splendor.

The newborn black-light vitae shone out from the brow, dropped into the heart-node, and finally returned to the inner crucible once more.

Nourished on the black-light vitae the Mystic-Gold iron thread had breathed out, the black-light heart-seed in his inner crucible seemed to have swallowed some mighty tonic—its energy violently rebounded, none of that deathbed frailty left. The black-light vitae it now pumped out was like towering waves, layer upon layer without end, shooting straight up through to his brow.

With that, the black-light vitae had finally opened the Inner Circuit—and Nathan's Art of the Titan Godslayer Canon could count as having peeked through the doorway!

While Nathan was running the Titan Godslayer Canon and opening his Inner Circuit, the Comet-Gem Mantis Sebastian had planted in his chest suddenly came alive, starting itself up and popping out that circular emerald screen!

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"Anomalous fluctuation detected in host bond-power rating. Activating life-protection system. Scanning host body!"

"Scan result: no anomalies!"

"Host bond-power rating showing abnormal growth. Requesting external network connection... external network connection failed..."

The circular emerald screen displayed the host Nathan's original bond-power rating: five hundred eighteen.

The Mystic-Gold iron thread's devouring of the black-light vitae had sent the rating into free fall, all the way down to one hundred seventy-five. But once the black-light vitae ran the twin axial bloodways through, the number bottomed out and bounced—rocketing past twelve hundred, still oscillating in small swings, still climbing!

Even so, the Comet-Gem Mantis could never detect any change in the Mystic-Gold vitae, and never showed the slightest response to the Mystic-Gold heart-seed either.

Nathan had no idea the Comet-Gem Mantis was scanning his data—or trying to transmit it out.

After the Mystic-Gold iron thread's transformation, practicing the Titan Godslayer Canon felt gloriously unblocked to Nathan, even faster going than he'd anticipated. With the Inner Circuit opened, he moved on to assault the girdle bloodway. The girdle bloodway cinches the waist and has the fewest nodes of all twenty bloodways—the Eight Wandering plus the Twelve Ordinal—so one light turn of the black-light vitae opened it straight through. With the girdle bloodway opened, the black-light vitae flowed on into the surge bloodway, which likewise fell in one stroke, and then came the four brace bloodways, one after another!

The Comet-Gem Mantis's scans caught the host's bond-power rating surging right along—with all eight wandering bloodways opened, it blew through the twenty-seven-hundred mark in one go!

Nathan was too buried in his Art to notice the Comet-Gem Mantis starting itself up. By the time he came out of it, the circular emerald screen had long since hidden itself away, and the war-beast acted as though nothing unusual had ever happened.

And by this point, Nathan's attention had been completely hijacked by something else!

With all eight wandering bloodways opened in one go, the black-light heart-seed in his lower belly underwent a strange change: among the black runes bobbing in the black light there was now one more formula, named—the Star-Swallowing Form!

The Star-Swallowing Form of the Titan Godslayer Canon!

...

After school, Nathan arrived at Elderrow with a definite case of the nerves. He had no idea what kind of special training Sebastian had in store for him.

Last night, cramming at the last minute, Nathan had made huge strides practicing the Titan Godslayer Canon and even picked up a Star-Swallowing Form—only, before he could train it, the sky had already gone bright. He figured this little boost wasn't nearly enough to take on the Order of the Deathless heir, so he behaved himself very well and didn't do anything irrational.

Even now, Nathan still had no idea his bond-power rating had more than quintupled!

When Sebastian saw Nathan, he didn't waste words—just pointed at a big circle he'd built from a pile of stones in front of the stone wall and said, "Get in there!"

Nathan asked, puzzled, "What kind of special training is this?"

Sebastian said with a smile, "You'll find out soon enough!"

He traced a strange sigil and murmured a cantrip.

Nathan's back went cold on the spot. He twisted around to look and his hair stood on end: a pitch-black gaping hole had cracked open in the stone wall behind him, howling with a chill, sunless wind. He was just about to ask Sebastian what the heck was going on when a bloodborn covered head to toe in red fur came crawling out of it, growling low.

This red-furred thing was half man, half beast—like a blood-gorged ghoul. Over ten feet tall, with a maw full of fangs and hide like an ancient tree's bark, ferocious and horrifying, as evil-looking as evil-looking gets!