Chapter 867 Worrying Signs
One after another, Rudra paid a personal visit to all the monarch's and successfully expanded his arsenal of seeds by taking control of the space seed and life seed.
At this point although Rudra himself did not realise it, he had actually reached the tipping point.
For a normal monarch, who had little to no control over their desires and were greatly driven by emotion, handling a single seed was a difficult task.
For Rudra, handling three was not impossible because he possessed a mental fortitude unlike any other, however, five was the absolute maximum that he could handle but still stay sane.
He had become a walking, talking, treasure bank who was constantly being pumped of destructive and negative thoughts by the seeds as his base nature underwent subtle changes under the strong influence of the seeds.
Odin, observing these changes had tried to warn Rudra to give up some of the power he had accumulated, however, Rudra who was still not quite convinced of Odin's absolute loyalty, dismissed his genuine proposal fearing it to be a ploy.
On one hand, Rudra accumulated power that would make even a celestial tremble in fear even though he was only tier8, however, on the other hand that power came at a great cost.
With his behaviour towards family still being acceptable, Odin could not raise the appropriate red flags even if he was concerned, as all he could do was watch and hope that the Supreme Lord of the universe did not ruin his lifetime worth of efforts at the absolute finish line.
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( Max's POV )
As Max opened his eyes he felt like he had the weirdest nightmare of himself fighting against a tier8 monarch.
' Where am I? ' he wondered as his entire body ached as if it had been beaten black and blue.
His muscles and joints which had not seen any movement for months felt slightly painful but extremely sweet to stretch for the first time in months, as he felt better than having an orgasm just by moving around and restoring his body's mobility.
[ Check Stats ] Max ordered as a system screen displayed his stats for him.
[ Level - 1420 ]
Max stared at the level aspect of his system screen and felt his heart jump out of his chest!
He could have sworn, his level was 1101 the last time he had checked it out, but he had suddenly gained 319 levels?
' What happened? Grandpa Drax what's going on? ' Max questioned being completely stunned about his current condition as shockingly no reply came from his personal A.I.
' Grandpa Drax? '
' Grandpa? '
Max kept calling Drax out, however, the A.I. just would not respond as Max tried to activate the power of the Agni-Astra which refused to mobilise as well.
Max clutched his head and began wondering what the heck was going on, as memories of his fight against Bavuma filled his brain.
' Oh yes, I defeated Bavuma and absorbed his soul. Before I slipped into coma, grandpa Drax told me that my body was going to go into coma from trying to handle all this energy and that Drax himself might need anywhere between 3-5 years to undergo a full system update.
Although Drax seemed unsure at the moment, he hinted at the possibility that the Shamanic Agni-Astra which was a tier9 weapon at the moment might evolve into a first genuine tier10 artefact which was not a seed.
[ Your Soul-mate Mira is calling for your help. Will you accept? ]
[ Yes ]
[ No ]
Surprisingly, the moment Max woke up, it was Mira who was urgently asking for help as she had used [ Soul Summon ] to call on Max for aid.
Max looked around the room, as he heard footsteps of Asiva approaching for which he waited a few seconds.
Once Asiva entered the room and her eyes dilated in joy seeing Max wake up, Max nodded his head and smiled back as he said " I'll be right back " before accepting Mira's summons.
To the absolute dismay of Asiva, after three months of being in a coma, the moment that Max actually woke up was the time where herself and Anna exchanged shifts and he was left unattended for just five minutes.
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[ Draconia, The new Dragon Capital ]
Max was mentally prepared to jump into a war when he received Mira's summons, however, to his surprise he was teleported to Mira's garden of all places as an angry looking black dragon stared down on him in her complete dragon form.
[ Dragon's Breath ]
Instead of a greeting, or a hug of joy, Mira blasted Max with a dragon's breath knowing full well that he was immune to fire damage as she vented her fury on him in the most harmless way possible.
Naturally, to an onlooker who had no idea of Max's immunity it would not look the case, as to them it might look as the dragon princess trying to end an individual's life by burning his ashes.
" Yes I've missed you too? " Max said with a hoarse voice as he looked genuinely happy to see Mira and even happier to not see her being in imminent danger.
As Mira transformed from her dragon form to her human form, for a moment Max could absolutely not recognise her as she looked completely different from even the last time he had seen her.
The last time that he had seen her, there had been many changes to her appearance and dressing sense as she looked more like a ' lady ' than a young girl which helped Max look at her in a different light.
However, if she looked like a young woman the previous time, she looked like a youthful mature woman this time around as anyone glancing at her would not be able to distinguish her physical appearance from the dragon queen Rhea.
Her get-up was fierce, her expression was stern and her posture had grace.
She looked like a true noble lady who had an air of majesty and magnanimity around herself and Max was mesmerised by her aura.
Although she looked beautiful the previous time that he saw her, at that time she looked like a kind kindergarten teacher that had a warm vibe, however, her current appearance was like the teacher that one would have a fantasy with in college.
It was an almost drastic change considering that Max had seen her just a year ago, however, he did not realise that he himself was the reason behind her sudden change.
" Why are you looking at me like that? " Max questioned as Mira continued to look at him in anger making him feel uncomfortable as if he had committed some crime.
Eventually she let out a deep sigh as she went upto Max and gave him a warm hug which Max reciprocated in kind giving her one back as well.
" Stupid, stupid, stupid Max! What stupid fight did you pick up to become this powerful this fast?
Tier7 individuals don't just gain 300 levels in a single day, I almost ended up dying from the sudden power increase and you went into a coma " Mira said as she began sobbing right there on Max's shoulders much to the surprise of the vampire as he had no words of consolation to offer.
At times Max forgot that Mira and his soul were actually connected and that she experienced the same sort of growth that he did.
In a way, the EXP from killing Bavuma did not just fuel his own growth, but that of Mira as well!
If it weren't for Mira, maybe Max would have reached the level cap for tier7 at 1500 and even hit maximisation, however, he wasn't complaining a single bit as he did not mind sharing with Mira at all.
" I know you want to become powerful, I know you want to become the vampire king, but we have time to achieve all that…. Please don't do stupid shit that risks your life to gain power? We can wait a few decades to gain it the normal way " Mira pleaded as Max felt moved by her genuine concern for him.
In the entire universe, there were only a handful of individuals who loved Max as purely and as intensely as Mira did and it was one of the things that Max cherished the most.
Their bond had been complex with Mira loving him as a partner and Max not seeing her that way, however, Max finally felt that they had moved past that point and had reached a phase where they could enjoy each other's warmth without concern.
" If it isn't Lord Max who graces us with his presence " suddenly a voice said as Max and Mira parted from their emotional hug as Mira hurriedly wiped her tears and said " Mom, you are intruding "
From a distance, a woman who looked like the twin of Mira except for the hair which did not have Mira's streaks of blonde walked towards Max with the same intense scolding expression in her eyes.
' What's with these dragon women and their domineering nature? ' Max wondered as he politely put on a fake smile and greeted his aunt Rhea.
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/// A/N - Find Max's updated stat panel attached underneath ///