Surprisingly, Corven was handling himself quite well against the chaos hounds this time.
He used his gladius to cut through the heads of the first two charging hounds, killing them instantly. He ducked and rolled out of the way of the next one, only to slash the throat of a fourth hound before going back to the third and stabbing its heart.
And the best part? Corven wasn't even exhausted. In fact, he felt invigorated. He didn't feel like he was losing energy; if anything, he felt like he was gradually gaining energy. The darkness around him was empowering him.
'The darkness…,' he realized, as he slashed through the throat of yet another hound, making his fifth kill. 'It makes me stronger.'
This realization caused a whole host of questions to pop up in Corven's head. If he was stronger in dark environments, does that mean he becomes weaker in lighted environments? Or does he just get weaker easily, in stamina and energy, in said environments? Corven wondered this and decidedly leaned more towards the latter. He could walk perfectly in light spaces so it's not like he was a vampire, but he just didn't get the feeling of getting stronger that he did in darker areas and at night that he walked in while walking in the light. He also felt very much human in the light, as if he were vulnerable, while in this darkness he felt quite powerful every second that passed. Corven wondered the specifications of this hax ability, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
As he came to this realization, he'd already killed five more hounds, and had just tucked and rolled from the 11th. He managed to kill three more before turning around and deflecting a clawed jab to his throat with his blade. He caught the beast before squeezing its neck with such strength that it died of asphyxiation on its own blood, making fourteen kills.
By the time he killed off the last chaos hound, he still felt like he could go on for even more days at a time. His blood was pumped, and arenaline flowed through his body like an electric shock. He was ready for anything.
"Very good!" the Voice said, sounding slightly impressed. "I hope you took the reprieve you got seriously. Now, the second stage shall commence!"
'What repireve?' Corven thought, brow twitching.
The same one as before returned, and this time, a giant Chaos Sphinx appeared, though it was slightly bigger than one Corven had fought. It paced back and forth, eyes never leaving Corven. It eyed Corven like pre.
Then it immediately attacked.
Before Corven could properly prepare, it leaped, taking to the sky — or void, whatever this place was. It circled Corven overhead, letting out growls and screeches like a predator, before diving down at Corven, it;s razor sharp teeth biting into his flesh as it once again became airborne, taking Corven along with it.
Corven struggled in its vice-like grip, as it ascended, higher and higher. He tried not looking down, but he still managed to catch glimpses of the ground below: 15, 16, 17 feet drop should he actually manage to free himself — And rising. It would most probably be a fatal fall, if he managed to jump from the creature's grip.
Corven struggled inside its airborne grip. He eventually managed to rip himself free, at the cost of a greater shoulder wound that had already begun healing upon breakage. Thanks to the surrounding darkness, Corven's healing was also greater than normal.
Sadly, the fall was 20 feet in the air. And though it had not killed him upon impact, it had put a bit more pressure to his lower thighs as he had landed on his feet, shattering his through bone like paper to scissors. He fell to his knees, gasping in pain and horror, as he looked at the odd anger his thigh bone was sticking out from. It would've been enough to make Corven pass out if he weren't used to being injured.
Groaning in extraordinary pain, Corven popped his thigh back into place, the pain like a volcanic eruption within his body. He then watched as his shoulder began stitching itself back together, healing nearly instantaneously. He then quickly rolled over, just as the creature dived from overhead, narrowly missing Corven. Corven narrowly dodged razor sharp teeth to his back and head.
He then quickly gathered what little strength he could find within himself and leaped at the creature, stabbing and embedding his sword into its spine. It crash landed on the wet, black ground of the void, dead after he twisted the blade, threw its heart clockwise, pulled out and stabbed it again two more times. It was dead before it even reached the ground.
Sadky, as he made impact with the ground, his sword was shattered in half by the strain of the impact, and Corven's shoulder wound reburst opened, causing extreme pain to spread within him, as he groaned, clutching his shoulder. It took everything he had to win the one, but he did it.
"Great job! Splendid!" the voice returned, sounding quite smug. "And now, it is time for the third and final stage! Begin!"
No wind came around this time. No monsters appeared. No, instead, the dead bodies surrounding Corven of the destroyed monsters he had already killed turned into the shadows by themselves — smokey and alive. The chaos hounds, hell, even the chaos sphinx was resurrected and empowered by the shadows themselves. They all fixed their predatory white, flaming pupils on Corven; he was their new meal.
"Oh, hell no!" Corven shouted.
He had no sword, no shield, and he was tired, despite being surrounded by darkness. His injuries were healing slower and his stamina was depleted. Not only this, but these shadow creatures were likely empowered, as well, by the surrounding darkness, so this was going to be an uneven more difficult fight than he would have liked.
"This isn't fair!" He screamed pissed, as began running away, but was pounced on by a chaos hound, tackling him. He could only watch, helplessly, as the hound and sphinx, now all shadows, charged and leaped at him, "Fuck me!"
Corven was bitten, scratched and practically mauled to death's door. The hounds took turn biting into anywhere they could before the sphinx flew in and bit at his already wounded shoulder as it took off, taking him with it. It flew bout 15 feet into the air, before dropping Corven into the waiting hounds below.
The impact was nauseating, but the hounds biting at his flesh was worse. He couldn't get a break, and the pain was tremendous. He was honestly ready to pass out, give himself over to the the collective unconscious when he heard a woman's voice.
At first, he thought his delirious, nearly dead mind was playing with hi,. But, them, he heard it again, clearer this time.
"You are the triachal bridge that connects the Endless Night, the Boundless Darkness and the Shadowy Abyss," the voice said, and, somehow, Corven knew who it was. It was the Night Mother, Nyx. "This is your domain — the darkness, the night, the shadow — It is your birthright. Rise up and lay claim to it. You'd allow yourself to lose to your own subservients? Be the Monarch you were born to be — Be the Primordial Monarch of Darkness, Night & Shadow! Take your power!"
And, something clicked inside Corven — He had a feeling he knew who his father was, though he hadn't been told. Darkness and shadow, huh? That was his father's domain. Only one god came to mind when thinking of it, too. Erebos, Corven realized, was his father. The primordial god of darkness and shadow.
Instantly, as if in response to his realization, a wave of darkness energy radiated from Corven — and connected him to his attacking shadows, like a web, before, with a snap of his fingers, they were all forcibly mushed together, and turned into a giant spherical mass of darkness.
But Corven wasn't done.
Using all of his willpower, Corven brought his hands together like he was praying, and the ball of darkness began to condense, condense and condense, until it was the size of a bead. Then, with one gulp, Corven swallowed it.
Instantly, he was completely healed and reenergized, as the voice from before spoke. "Well, well, well, that was excellent," it said. "The Great Darkness will be proud to see this achievement."
"Where's my reward I was was promised?" Corven had ad it with this annoying, faceless entity's voice. It was getting old, at that moment.
"Very well, here is you reward," the voice admitted, with a heavy sigh.
Instantly, purple, blue, black and pale white energy rushed through Corven's body, and with its absorption, four new powers appeared inside his consciousness: Absorb, Taint, Perceive and Adapt.
"This is…," Corven was flabbergasted.
The information of each other entered Corven's mind at the same time he absorbed them. 'Absorb,' allowed him to absorb the abilities and/or physiological traits from anyone he sinks his fangs into or taste the blood of in any way, shape or form. He was surprised to learn this, as he didn't know he had fangs, but he didn't spend too much time thinking this over. 'Taint' allowed him to taint and corrupt objects and living tissue with darkness, effectively transforming their baseline element to darkness, so long as the target isn't too much more powerful than him, to which, if they are, then it will fail or possibly taint only a small percentage of itself in darkness. Any element tainted by his darkness would be able to be controlled by him. 'Perceive' gave him superior senses and instincts than most demigods and legacy cultivators. And 'Adapt' gave him the ability to adapt to any situation physiologically if exposed to it long enough.
"There's more!" the voice said, sounding excited.
Slowly descending like an ominous black star, was the most baddest sword Corven's ever seen. As it entered his hands, he couldn't have been more eager to name it.
It had a purple-blue-black blade with a black hilt, with purple diamonds and blue designs etched into the hilt. The purple diamond directly at the bottom of the hilt was glowing a faint blue and purple light inside it, and the sword itself had a shadow black aura. It was a gladius blade, 30 inches long, and when Corven held it, it felt so balanced and light – It was perfect.
"I'll call you Darkstar," Corven said to the blade, and felt an instant connection with it. He had soul bonded with the sword.
'Because my cultivation is so low I can't use any of its active skills and many of its passive skills are also inaccessible to me as I am now. Maybe when I achieve at least Chaotic Rank I'll be able to utilize some of its abilities. At most, currently, I am only granted a minor percentage of its power boost via passive effect,' Corven thought, deep in concentration as he focused on the blade in his hands. 'Thankfully, against most beings I'm liable to face, that should be enough…At least, until I get into the higher echelons of power in this world, anyways.'
"And, final three rewards," the voice said, returning Corven to the present.
Slowly, a glowing golden white paper scroll descended before turning into gold and white mist and entering Corven's body. Instantly, its wisdom ingrained itself in Corven's mind.
It was a part of a set of Celestial-ranked swordsmanship battle art, but, as it was completely incomplete, it was only at the legendary tier. If brought together, these sets could merge and turn into a Peak-Celestial grade sword art! It boosted the learning speed and bodily response in categories such as speed, agility, flexibility, reaction speed and overall movement fluidity while wielding a sword. The arte itself was dubbed the "Sword Arte of The Celestial Blade of Night, First Form - Nightly Movement". As it was currently in fragments across realms, what Corven had was a currently Peak Legendary rank sword arte.
[A/N: The tiers of weapons, cultivation and Arts are as followed:
[Poor, Average, High and Special] make up the Awakened Stages. [Legacy, Demigod, Chaotic] make up the Ascendant Stages.[Legendary, Cosmic, Celestial, Faux God] make up the Transcendent Stages.[Lesser God, Medial God and Higher God] make up the Lower Echelon Gods Stages[Apex God, Divine Lord and Divine King] make up the Progenitor, Monarch, Primordial are all in tiers of their own.
And Primordials are on a tier by themselves as well as Monarchs and Progenitors, as is the same for cultivation. Also, each rank has four subphases, differentiating them: Low-level, Mid-level, High-level and Peak, i.e: low-level special tiers.]
That said, the next reward was a purple and blue crystal of darkness and shadow that merged with Corven's body, it's information entering Corven consciousness upon merging: A Shadow Space Shard, which held an isolated area of the Shadow Realm inside that was separated from the Shadow Realm before the Sealing. It was its own smaller realm that'll grow with Corven as he did. He can enter this space anytime and store things inside it.
Eventually, one day, he may even be able to merge it back with the Shadow Realm!
The last object was a small tennis-sized sphere as black as obsidian with a slightly purple hue glow to it. Upon touching it, the info it sent into Corven's mind was so shocking, it made him grasp.
It was one of the three ingredients needed to unseal the Shadow Realm — It was a fully charged battery core of the Shadow Realm.