Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 452: More Chaos

While the battle inside the city intensified, something happened that none of the trialtakers noticed. The zone of nothingness was slowly creeping closer and closer. At the moment, it didn’t change much, but in a few more hours it would reach the outer walls of the city, and it was uncertain when it would stop.There was also another change in the area. Besides the red aura and the stench of blood in the air intensifying with every minute, a translucent barrier was lowering down from above. In every stage before, you were able to fly up for as long as you wanted. In this stage, that was no longer possible. At the moment, you could only go up for a bit more than two kilometers, and that was slowly shrinking with the rest. Escaping from a fight at the end of the stage would be impossible.

All trialtakers were inside the city, yet most who observed the fight between elves and humans decided to leave them be and go for the Scarlet Wardens. In fact, they tried to go for anything that breathed, hoping that killing the fodder before it was sacrificed might weaken the Scarlet Continuum and reward them with a few points.

What none of them noticed was that the blood of the dead sometimes wasn’t dripping down but slowly, drop by drop, moved in the direction of small dark holes on the side of the street.

For the city and the Scarlet Guards, things were looking horrible. From their perspective, hundreds of fighters with incredible power had appeared to kill them. So far, none of them had a chance to face them properly. Additionally, a certain blood curse spread like a plague inside and around the ziggurat.

Ryath was living the life of someone standing under the influence of Thalion’s blood curse. Normally, creatures who were changed fought the effect and at some point reached a state where they could think freely again. For Ryath, this wasn’t even worth a thought. He was stronger than ever, and this was just a higher form of existence. With every drop of blood he took, he became stronger and stronger.

His hands had transformed into claws, his teeth were long and sharp, and his skin had turned dark red, with constant red mist rising from his mouth and skin. Due to the blood stench in the air, he was in a constant feeding frenzy, which had led to the curse spreading to hundreds already. A few of the trialtakers had encountered them, but for those, they were just a stronger variant.

There was one faction—or should I say race—that faced a lot more problems regarding the curse. It were, of course, the vampires. So far, the stage had been a blast for them, and they were fattening up for the final conflict. The more blood a vampire had, the stronger it would become. The soldiers in the city were unable to harm them with their blood skills, which led to the vampires seeing this stage as their banquet and chance to defeat the other races.

Yet when they encountered the cursed soldiers, that changed quite a bit. The curse wasn’t that dangerous to them, and they quickly got it out of their system, but it took two Scarlet Wardens’ worth of blood to accomplish that. The real problem was that they couldn’t feast on the blood anymore and even had to make sure they didn’t get too close. Otherwise, instead of gaining blood, they would lose it.

The next struggle was that those infected guards were super aggressive and especially good at discovering the vampires. It was like they had their own blood vision and immediately noticed the vampires who were filled with blood. This infection was also spreading far too fast for the vampires’ liking.

The worst part was yet to come. Those infected killed Scarlet Wardens and Sanguine Prelates at an alarming rate. Normally, it would make their job easier, but the problem was that they couldn’t get the leaderboard points anymore.

The leaderboard was the next thing that was going completely wild. All the other stages had just been about survival. In this stage, there were already multiple people with over two hundred million points, and the first position had over five hundred million. The last stage was a true slaughterfest.

Multiple Chosen started to clash on the surface, which led many to investigate the ziggurat or the network of tunnels underground, only to find more infected. Thalion had done a very good job spreading his curse. Putting one drop of his blood into the blood pool on the second level had caused a massive chain reaction.

What he didn’t know was that for many, this was a boon and not a curse. They were already blood cultivators, and the curse just amplified absolutely everything while also granting them new skills. When the first and only Crimson Regent was infected and let the blood curse take over, he told everyone of the marvel, not knowing that the others wouldn’t be in control like himself.

This led to an untold bloodbath and to the death of almost anyone worth leaderboard points on the second and first level, with those infected by the curse being the only ones remaining and rushing upward to the surface.

Oblivious to it all, Thalion began to move to the third level, still unsure whether he should infect the blood pool on this stage too.

Currently, something else was on his mind while he walked to the next ascension chamber, this time filled with soon-to-be Crimson Regents. There was no timer for when the stage would end. So far, there had always been a timer until you had accomplished some goal. Such a timer was completely missing in this stage, which gave Thalion room for thought. He slowly began to worry that the whole stage would be nuked once the Scarlet Continuum was activated.

Thalion began to relax more when he noticed that it gave the extra reward for killing the king afterward. This revelation calmed his mind and allowed him to fully focus on bringing the boon to the third level.

The chambers here were far more majestic, and the tunnels weren’t narrow but wide and over eight meters high. Normally, you wouldn’t expect something like that when you were walking a few hundred meters underground. Since here all who awakened were Crimson Regents, Thalion did some experiments with the first one by infecting him with the curse.

There was one difference between those on the first and second level compared to the third. Before, it had always been humans he had awakened, but this time there were a few dryders in the mix. The half-human, half-spider variants that were very adept in the use of blood skills. Just to make sure that the dryder wouldn’t be a threat to him, Thalion only gave the fellow a very tiny amount of blood, which shouldn’t last for too long.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Awakening one this time took two crystals, which was no problem since he still had over six hundred. First came the curse, and then Thalion awakened the dryder to be sure that the curse had taken over. Those were far stronger variants, which would be a good test of what the curse was able to accomplish.

“Ahh, what happened to me?” the dryder muttered when his eyes shot open. The next moment, the whole cluster of spider legs rolled to the side until he stood upright. The man really wasn’t looking good, holding his head with one hand. When he opened his eyes, they were glowing like red embers, and he stretched out his hand toward the neighboring dryder, draining it of the little blood in it, which also killed it.

“Why was I awakened? Is it time?” the dryder asked Thalion in a commanding voice while observing his hands, adding more curiously, “Did you do this to me? I… It feels amazing. So much power and aggression…”

Thalion stood there, trying to hide the shock on his face. There wasn’t any compulsion, and the dryder before him was strong.

“Sure it is the new program, but we are facing big attacks. I gotta need to awaken the others as quick as possible,” Thalion said, bowing his head to the taller dryder.

“Hmm, then continue, soldier. What is this hunger? I better get to the fountain. Can’t you give me more blood?” the dryder asked with purpose and belief in his voice.

This wasn’t going like Thalion had imagined. The Crimson Regent had absolutely no problem with his curse. Just feeling thirsty wasn’t what Thalion had expected.

Should I kill it or try to use it? Thalion contemplated. He needed the leaderboard points, but there likely wasn’t enough time to kill all the ones in the ascension chamber. No, he needed a way to eliminate the others.

“Sure, I have a task for you anyway. Go to the fountain and drink as much blood as you like. Afterward, you share the gift with the others. It is our secret weapon against the invaders. They used secret methods to infiltrate the kingdom. By giving out the gift, we can discern who is on our side,” Thalion said, hoping that this made-up lie would stick long enough, hoping that the Crimson Regent had such a high standing that it could have wide effects.

“Of course, I will immediately begin. No enemies shall survive, and with these new powers we will crush them in no time.” With that proclamation, he turned into red mist and shot out of the chamber.

Now Thalion should be able to come and go as he pleased, plus everyone who couldn’t be awakened would likely be killed. Not because they were seen as outsiders, but because they were a free feast and didn’t have any red crystals to wake them up in the first place.

Hoping for the best, Thalion woke up everyone in this chamber and the next. This alone blasted his leaderboard points over six hundred million.

In Thalion’s opinion, this stage was great.

Going back to the big gathering chamber, he spotted multiple humans and dryders, all infected by the curse, excitedly talking. There was a buzzing, and multiple Crimson Regents were joining them from the lower level. There were also the scars of battles on the ground, reinforced by a bunch of empty husks lying around. Those were likely the ones who had ended up as fodder for some reason.

Thalion waited in the shadows until they all released a war cry and hurried upwards. This was quite the point infusion for the rest of the trial, but hopefully it would give him enough time to check out the fourth and fifth level. Since there wasn’t anyone left to stop him, Thalion moved on without struggle. Whatever was in the deeper levels should be worth more than the third anyway.

The trialtakers who managed to come down here could kill a few in the ascension chamber, but they didn’t have the red crystals that turned them into Crimson Regents, which meant that they got far fewer leaderboard points—and that was only the case when they weren’t already killed by those infected by the curse.

The fourth level was even bigger than the third. Compared to the third, it was completely empty. Thalion rushed through the large corridors. What he found was a massive library and a few more laboratories with questionable machines inside. In the library, he used Crimson Garden to put all the books into his spatial ring. Hopefully he would have some time to read through them at the end of the trial.

There were a few more chambers that looked like training rooms, but Thalion had absolutely no interest in them. He could feel his danger level slowly rising and rising, which unsettled him. Something powerful was coming down here, and it was actually searching for him—otherwise he wouldn’t get that sense of danger.

This pushed Thalion to venture deeper, entering the fifth level. Nothing much changed besides the fact that the fifth level was even bigger than the fourth. It was also empty, with everyone gone, and Thalion immediately rushed down the corridors.

There was also another problem Thalion noticed. There were no stairs going down to the sixth stage. This was troublesome because that meant that one of those endless corridors would lead to the king’s chamber. On the positive side, he didn’t need to go there right now anyway. The king would be too strong, and he wanted to get all the goodies first.

The other thing that became clearer was that whoever was searching for him was getting closer and closer. Whatever was about to arrive, Thalion wanted to take a look at the extra good stuff they should have lying around here.

Here on level five, not everyone had left. The stage was simply far too big, but the Crimson Regents must also have been down here, with everyone having Thalion’s curse and a lot of empty husks on the ground.

The biggest problem of this level was the size. The chamber was gigantic, with the ceiling easily a hundred meters above the ground. Stairways led to multiple rooms and corridors. The whole thing was like a labyrinth. Good that in this stage the universe seemed to have decided to balance the scales for what it had done to him in the past stages.

Thalion basically wandered into the first corridor and found the armory. Not only the armory, but also a robe with runes on it that sparked more desire than ten liters of enchanted blood for the Sanguis Impera—and you all know how that plant is.

The robe was dark red with the occasional rune on it, but just by how it flowed there while being worn by the puppet, Thalion knew that he needed it. This was something incredibly valuable, good-looking, powerful piece of clothing.

The only downside for Thalion was that a Crimson Regent was the shopkeeper. Those folk you normally didn’t want to cross at full power. Yet this one had the curse and was already sweating in her position. Thalion could feel the Regent’s desire to feed and the constant killing intent and barely contained rage leaking off her. That this all came from a woman who barely reached his shoulder made it even more confusing.

“Hi, they sent me as a replacement so you can go up and feed on the invaders,” Thalion said in a casual tone while walking closer. He hoped to just send her upward because a fight against such powerful foes was never that easy. It seemed that due to his strong curse, she wasn’t seeing him as food at all.

“Oh, perfect… no… yes, this is perfect. Then I will be off… god, am I the lucky one… no, you are the lucky… lucky… lucky…” She talked to herself in a way that took all of Thalion’s self-control not to show how perplexed he was. This woman had gone completely insane.

Breathing out in relief when she retreated around the corner, Thalion rushed into the shop. It must have been the marvel of any blood cultivator. Sadly, he couldn’t waste any time with the threat getting closer and closer.

The feeling the title currently gave him was like when you place an empty glass under the faucet, close your eyes, and try to make out when it is full. By how the title screamed, the glass should already be overflowing.