Nightmare Form
What Leylin saw in his reflection did not put him at ease. He instead grew even more grim, “Is this an evolution of the truesoul?”
He touched his forehead, and all of a sudden he felt an intense pain that caused him to close his eyes. The next time he opened them, he found a red streak at the middle of it.
*Whoosh!* Water droplets dispersed to reveal Leylin’s serious expression.
“The physique to absorb the energy from nightmares... from a bloodline?” Leylin rubbed at his forehead, now at a loss...
......
“A.I. Chip, check my bloodline!”
All sorts of scanning runes were activated within the wizard tower, and scanning light immediately gathered upon Leylin’s body. He was back on Faulen Island.
He’d met up with Isabel for a bit at Pirates’ Cove. He’d decided on the next path for the Scarlet Tigers, and was then at ease to solve his own issues.
He’d already given control of the tower to the A.I. Chip. He was using its power to check the abnormalities on his body.
[Beep! Mission established. Scanning... Host’s blood is 99.99999% pure-blooded human.]
“So nothing can be found? Use the atomic microscope, and level 2 antimatter observation. Continue scan.” Leylin sounded grim.
[Beep! Obtained host’s blood. Magnifying specimen...]
The A.I. Chip immediately showed a screen with Leylin’s blood sample. 100,000x, 1,000,000x... The image was magnified ten million times.
Leylin had to reach the smallest unit of his previous world, the limits of the sub-atomic level, to find the problem.
“This...” Leylin’s eyes widened. He saw a few strange black dots amongst wandering photons.
“Lock on to that. Enlarge it!” The black dot moved extremely quickly, but at the end, it was still successfully caught by the A.I. Chip. Slowly, the appearance of the dark shadow appeared in front of Leylin. This was a hexagonal structure with strange patterns on it.
The patterns were rather complicated, in the shape of dark red flowers that gradually evolved into a scaly giant with three eyes. The bloody third eye at the middle seemed to have a will of its own as it stared at Leylin indifferently.
*Thud! Thud! Thud!* Leylin took several steps backwards, the surprise on his face more evident.
“As expected... my body was implanted with a portion of the Nightmare Absorbing Body’s bloodline abilities at the third level...” With his main body imbued with the power nearly equal to a rank 7 Warlock, Leylin was definitely no stranger to bloodline power.
“I just wanted some information. What are you giving me bloodline strength for?” Leylin now felt himself growing dizzy. It was like a beggar asking for some humble pie being given a mountain of gold.
What kind of physique was this Nightmare Absorbing Body? It was one of the most powerful bloodline abilities, something that allowed the Nightmare King to immediately start a massacre the moment he activated it. With the origin force of Dreamscape, he’d shot up to become a peak Magus of the ancient world in one go!
Leylin was very vigilant of such good luck.
‘It’s too impractical. There has to be something off about a strange event like this. Even if Distorted Shadow was giving me benefits in exchange for making use of me, this is a little too much!’
Leylin was never afraid to expect the worst of his enemies. These sudden benefits implied a huge danger was to come!
‘But... I never thought this Nightmare Absorbing Body wasn’t a physical thing. It can even affect the truesoul, including my main soul in the Magus World...’ As an outstanding bloodline Warlock, Leylin knew that sort of bloodline ability would fuse inseparably with his soul. It would also radiate into his main body in the Magus World through strange channels.
‘The power of Dreamscape can bypass the crystal sphere? Just a temporary energy transmission path alone would be terrifying... I must definitely grasp this strength!’ The ability of dreamforce to pass through two large worlds caused determination to rise in Leylin’s heart.
‘I’m going to take the bait and toss the hook back. How’s that?’ Leylin stroked his chin, a slight smile appearing on his lips. Even Distorted Shadow could not guess that he had the A.I. Chip, and could find any issues.
This would be the greatest misstep in the plan Distorted Shadow had in store for him! Of course, he might have been thinking too much. All this could be a opportunity for him, but he had always liked to be prepared for the worst.
‘A.I. Chip! Begin task: study this bloodline force!’ Leylin looked ruthless. Even if this would interfere with his analysis of the Weave, he would not find it a pity!
......
Months passed in the blink of an eye.
Leylin was sitting cross-legged within the wizard tower, the doors and windows tightly closed as isolation runes flickered inside. If an outsider saw him as he was now, they would be scared stupid or treat him like a monster.
Leylin was now nearly a giant at almost three metres tall. His body had red scales and strange patterns on it, his face so sinister that it could drive children to tears. There was a slight crack on his forehead, shining blood red.
Formless power was attracted to this lustre, transforming into a dark red fog as it seeped into Leylin’s skin and became something more powerful.
“This strength is...” Leylin’s mind followed the path of the undulations and found the source, followed by scenes:
–The old butler Leon looked proud in Port Venus, “Our young master Leylin is...”
–In Pirate’s Cove, an old pirate was teaching a few new pirates a lesson, “When you come out here, foresight is the most important. There’s someone more frightening than the Scarlet Witch in our crew...”
There were even more, though they were all scenes within the north and Dambrath Kingdom. The large batch of devil worshippers that Leylin had gathered as Kukulkan were now transmitting an unending amount of fear.
‘This isn’t faith, but some emotional force one level lower than faith... What’s going on? Why can I take this power in now?’ One could only absorb faith after becoming legendary, much less this sort of low-level emotional force.
However, Leylin soon found that he could easily absorb this emotional force in nightmare form, boosting his strength.
“Could it be that...” Leylin muttered to himself, closing the third eye between his brows. The numerous scenes disappeared, and the channel for emotional force closed.
“As expected... The power of the Nightmare Absorbing Body can take in all emotional forces aimed at me. The effectiveness and rate of conversion is even better than gods, and most importantly... I’m not even half a god yet...” At this moment, Leylin realised the terror of this ancient physique.
‘A.I. Chip, has anything been found?’
[Beep! Statistical model of host’s bloodline force has been established, running with no abnormalities. Found no remnant spiritual brands.] The A.I. Chip answered loyally.
“There’s still no problem? There’s nothing left in my bloodline? Is this a real gift?” Leylin shook his head, dispelling the nightmare form. He shrunk once more, returning to his original appearance.
With the A.I. Chip’s help, his grasp of bloodline force far exceeded the expectations of everyone else. Now, he could basically switch between the two forms smoothly.
“The Nightmare Absorbing Body is a special physique from Dreamscape. Seems like I’ll have to head over to that world a few times in the future...” Leylin muttered to himself, “In addition, with the rate the physique absorbs emotional force, I might be able to raise my arcanist ranking very soon...”
At this moment, the tower genie’s clear voice interrupted his thoughts, “Master! Gold Priest Xena has come to pay a visit!”
“Xena? Get her to wait for me at the drawing room!” Leylin shook his head, draping a white bathrobe around himself.
“But my form after the second transformation might lead to some associations. It’s best to use it as little as possible in the World of Gods...” A moment later, Leylin had tidied everything up and met the priestess of the Goddess of Wealth in the drawing room.
“Wizard Leylin truly is great at making me wait. It’s already been two years since the last time...” Xena glared at him, looking annoyed.
“Ahaha... my apologies! I’ve been immersed in an experiment. Anyway, hasn’t Master Ernest continued the trade of the devil and demon detectors?” Leylin laughed and then changed the topic, “May I know what you’re here for today?”
“You’re in great trouble!” Xena took a deep breath and spoke cautiously.
“Oh! Have the people from the God of Murder’s church made their move?” Leylin got it right in one go, since there were few large organisations he had offended.
“Yes! One of their legendaries, Cadaver Collector Soros, has completed his experiments and is about to come to the outer seas...” No matter where it was, a legendary was a big shot. Xena was worried that this genius wizard would not be able to pass this hurdle.
“But... from how he’s been acting, we know he’s inclined towards attacking devils and demons. Our church has dealt with him, and the intel we got is proof of that. Unfortunately, we don’t know what he’ll do...”
Actually, Xena did not think well of Leylin’s future. After all, that person was a legendary! There wasn’t even a half-step legendary in the outer seas, so a true legendary would be able to suppress everything.
The existence of a legendary was an important standard for the prime material plane to judge the size of an organisation!