Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 367: Kaelir Chosen of Pyrael

In the fight against the orcs, Thalion had still held back his aura quite a bit, mostly because he hadn’t thought of unleashing it fully. He had been too focused on the combat itself to notice. Otherwise, he had fought almost perfectly — if you ignored that he hadn’t released his aura, which was practically equal to a mental skill.Now his aura surged outward like a dark wave. The shadows around him grew deeper, and the light nearby began to fade. This was palace to plunder, and those elves wouldn’t stop him.

Before more of them could make any smug comments, Thalion shot forward, darkness dripping from every pore. Once again, he used his tendrils to catapult himself ahead — his new favorite move. In the middle of his flight toward one of the elves, Thalion launched four more tendrils to the right, abruptly turning in that direction as he exhaled Umbral Miasma straight into their faces.

The elves were a bit too slow to react, and the first one was hit before the wind mages began using their skills to blow the miasma away. Wind seemed very effective against his dark mist, Thalion noted while landing on the wall to the right.

The elves were all exceptional fighters and gave him no chance to breathe or prepare another attack. Arrows were already flying toward his position while one healer tended to those struck by the miasma. Thalion used his tendrils again, propelling himself forward and dodging the incoming arrows that tore the wall behind him to pieces. Those power shots were dangerous — a single hit could be fatal.

Good thing he had no intention of being hit in the first place. Still, his crippled Eclipsari form was reaching its limits. The elves were truly the strongest faction, and their coordination made killing one of them incredibly difficult. Every time Thalion engaged a target, it simply retreated while others attacked from the sides. It was getting increasingly frustrating.

They probably assumed he would tire out eventually, or that his mana would run dry. Too bad for them — Thalion was perfectly fine on both fronts. At the moment, he was even enjoying himself, using his tendrils to slingshot around while firing spikes of darkness at his enemies or slicing them with shadow-infused attacks.

The elves refused to let him come close without risking heavy damage, so Thalion kept his distance, fighting almost entirely with shadow control and the ranged reach of his Shadow Claw.

One by one, the elves began to fall in this drawn-out battle. The first to die was the healer, whom Thalion surprised with a few spikes emerging from her own shadow. It was a trick he hadn’t used in this fight yet, and the others didn’t realize what had happened at first. The healer had stood at the back line, and they only noticed her death when no healing came after Thalion engulfed them again in Umbral Miasma.

He moved like a phantom through the darkness. The elves tried to dispel the miasma but failed — most of their wind mages were badly injured, with spikes still lodged in their bodies. This gave Thalion another opening to close the distance and pick off the remaining elves in completely fair one-on-one fights, where he swiftly killed each with a single strike of his claw.

The fifteen remaining elves died relatively quickly, though not without inflicting some damage. Thalion had several holes in his body, and his chitin armor was cracked in many places — but it was already healing fast. Still, he switched back to his human form for better recovery and to feed more blood to the Sanguis Impera.

After finishing his feast on the elves and noticing that he could store items in his spatial amulet through the vines of the Sanguis Impera, he moved toward the palace. If this palace held as many treasures as the last one, he might climb into the top one hundred.

The top hundred were all powerhouses, and there were so many Chosen in this trial — easily over thirty. At the moment, Thalion didn’t care much. It was still the early stages. He would check the leaderboard later and memorize their names when it became important.

For now, he needed to clear this palace and grow stronger for the end of this system event.

Yet before Thalion could enter the palace, he felt a powerful aura approaching. It was like a blazing sun rising behind him. He spun around just in time to see a fiery streak shooting in his direction — faster than even his Mistform.

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Twenty meters above him, the streak stopped and reshaped itself into an elf with flame-red hair. In each hand appeared a burning crimson staff, ending in a molten red crystal that shimmered like living fire. He was bare-chested, and glowing runes in the shape of flames covered his entire body.

The elf’s presence alone radiated immense power — far beyond anything Thalion had encountered so far.

"So, you are Thalion. How lucky that I’m the one who found you first. Only level eighty, huh? This will be easy."

The elf spoke in the typical arrogant tone, but this time the arrogance was justified.

Thalion identified him — Level 105, ranked 115th on the leaderboard.

"Hmm, so Kaelir, Chosen of Pyrael. I have met Eric, the Chosen of Solarion, and he is a lot stronger," Thalion said in an icy tone, the sword of the blooded templar already in his hand.

He needed to play for time because one thing irritated him. Why were the flames not turning dark red and applying his curse? Normally this Chosen should have been the perfect matchup for him. He was immune to fire and Thalion’s own fire would have delivered a good dose of the curse.

Yet the elf’s flaming hair remained completely unaffected, and his movement skill had shown no sign of disruption even though it clearly sat within range of Thalion’s divine passive. That was mind-boggling. What could be stronger than the effect of an ability with divine rarity? It had to be a bloodline, right? Thalion had no idea what could surpass a divine rarity skill — unless it was a bloodline or perhaps a bloodline skill.

To test if his fire was still the same, Thalion summoned a small fireball in his left hand and it burned with the dark red flames of ruin. So only the elf’s flames were unaffected. What would happen if those flames struck him? Normally he should be immune, but the power the elf radiated was like a sun; Thalion could feel the heat even across the distance between them.

Thalion never doubted himself, and he still had his escape token if things went wrong. Still, as things stood he had no clear plan for how to kill this opponent. He wasn’t even sure whether his bloodline skill would work, since the elf used fire. The elf was likely fire-immune — his body tempering must be very advanced. So would attacking with flame even be wise? Maybe he should switch to Eagly. On the other hand, the elf was very fast with his fiery streak, so Eagly might not be safe either.

The last option was the crippled Eclipsari, but then he could not fly. Yes, he could solidify shadows under his feet, but that wouldn’t be fast enough to catch this Chosen. Even if the elf looked a bit spoiled, there was no doubt he knew how to fight. With those tools he was likely a ranged specialist, but that did not mean he was incapable of melee. Thalion could use the palace to swing around it like a spider with the crippled Eclipsari — that might actually work should he be forced to swap forms.

Before he could conclude how to begin the fight, the elf spoke again. "Eric won’t be a problem. The humans are scattered and you don’t have enough Chosen to save you. The new world will be conquered in the name of the elven gods. At first we searched everywhere for you, but since I found you here, we can move on and start conquering the planet."

This was even more worrying than Thalion had first thought. He had already noticed many elven-sounding names on the leaderboard with the Chosen tag, while far fewer humans carried that mark. That brief observation could have been coincidence, but with the elf confirming it things did not look good for his fellow humans. A war loomed on the horizon after this system event, and Thalion would be surprised if the vampires or orcs didn’t have similar designs. The time after the event could be far more dangerous than the event itself. Thalion needed plans and much more strength if he wanted to tip the scales in a war among those heavyweights.

Good that he had a Chosen standing right in front of him to test his strength. Maybe he was closer to their level than he thought and only needed a short step. "Why do you think I’d tell you which god blessed me? The time of the elves is over, and you’ll see that soon enough," Thalion said with a sinister edge. He hoped to bait the elf into revealing more. For that reason he kept his aura concealed for now. This would be very interesting.

"Oh, that’s not up to you. When skin and flesh are burned down to the bone, you will tell me everything about your patron. Whatever your god plans, you will reveal it," the elf sneered, poison in his voice.

"You know what all you elves share? You’re arrogant without the power to back it up. I already know you’re trying to trap me. Do you really think my patron wouldn’t know what the elven gods are plotting? You will walk right into our snare, and humans like Eric will serve as the perfect distraction. Don’t worry — you won’t live long enough to share your secrets, and in this trial you can’t communicate with your god." Thalion delivered the last words with as much sinister intent as he could muster, feeling his full aura swell together with the Sanguis Impera.

He had no high hopes of winning, but one thing was clear: he would not die here, no matter how powerful this Chosen proved. Hopefully his last words would bewilder the elves and buy him precious time to grow stronger.

"Oh, you can’t scare me. I will show you true power," the Chosen roared, unleashing his full aura, which dwarfed Thalion’s.