Chapter 20: Mana Void.
"A Suitable Feast."
The mana entity had taken over Vincent.
The Dragon was the first to attack. It extended its limbs and created a blue flame on its claws. It was well aware of the threat that the entity possessed.
The entity gathered enough mana and created a shield out of it.
"Pointless."
The dragon banged its claws to the shield, but it didn't manage to pass through it. The flame on its claws extinguished the moment it came in contact with the shield.
It tried to take its arm back. The mana used for the shield had covered its claws, trapping it in place.
"Weak."
The entity created a long sword with mana in his other hand and sliced the arm off.
The Dragon shrieked in pain. It stumbled behind and fell to the ground.
The entity took the dismembered arm from inside the shield. It inspected it for a few seconds and absorbed it in one go. The only thing left of the giant arm were the claws.
The dragon gathered all the mana it could muster. Mana slowly started to enter its scales, merging with it in the process.
The entity created another sword. It was going for the kill.
"Roar!"
The scales started to shine brightly. The dragon managed to get back up and prepared to take its attack head-on.
The swords collided with the scales. The entity was expecting the swords to pass through easily, but the scales do not budge.
Two more hits, but nothing changed. On the other hand, the dragon started to heal its wound. Its arm couldn't be recovered, but its wings were healing rapidly.
The entity increased the volume of the attacks and increased the mana consumption.
But it changed nothing.
The wings were about to heal, and the dragon was almost ready to escape.
"You will not escape!"
The two swords vanished, and it compressed all the mana in its surroundings.
The ground cracked. The trees withered. Even its mana got sucked out, and the mana armor around the entity disappeared. Vincent was visible, and his violet eyes glowed fiercely.
All that mana, contained in a single sphere. The Dragon's wings completely healed, and it took a giant leap to escape the situation.
The entity raised the sphere upwards.
<<Mana Void>>
Mid-air, the mana sucked the dragon back towards the sphere. It flapped its wings as hard as it could, but the suction from the sphere had completely sucked out all the air around it.
It was like an all-consuming void. The dragon was out of mana, so it couldn't use sound to propel itself away. Slowly, the scales started to rip apart from its body. Then, the flesh got absorbed in the sphere. The sphere continued to suck everything, even the bones. All of its flesh, scales, and body infused with mana. With every single cell, the sphere grew bigger.
Soon, nothing remained. The entity took the sphere in one hand and said,
"I need more Mana to take over."
It placed the sphere on the slave mark and absorbed all of it.
The entity disappeared, and Vincent collapsed to the ground.
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"Pope Benedict."
Rasputin looked at the pope's ragged clothes and said,
"It looks like they haven't treated you too kindly."
His towering stature approached Benedict, who had bruises all over his body.
"Unfortunately for you, it is only going to get worse."
He created a mark on his hand.
<<Ignition>>
He branded Benedict's arm. The Pope was about to be interrogated in the royal court.
"Tell me what your name is."
"Benedict Francis."
"Now tell us a lie about yourself."
"I am a woman."
The brand on his arm acted up, and his entire body experienced immense pain. He held on.
"Very well. Now tell me, are you a heretic?"
Benedict confidently responded with,
"No."
The brand didn't act up. He wasn't lying.
"Excuse me, Gaius. What was the crime he was accused of again?"
Gaius was going through immense pressure. The pope was innocent.
"Association with a man that possessed an ancient slave seal."
"What about the man?"
"He was found dead."
"May I see that seal?"
"Sure."
Gaius looked at Nero, who handed Rasputin the seal.
He looked at Benedict and asked,
"Have you seen this seal before?"
"Yes."
The brand did not act up.
"Did you give the person who possessed this seal the orders to use it?"
Benedict looked at Gaius and said,
"Yes."
The court frowned. He just admitted to committing the crime!
But as he said yes, his brand acted up. He was lying.
Rasputin turned towards Gaius and said,
"He is innocent."
Everybody looked at Gaius, who had lost a lot of faces.
He was the one that had asked to meet a representative from the church to discuss the previous attack on him. He was also ready to negotiate the terms and hand Benedict his authority back. But this even had taken a completely different tangent.
"Gaius, can I see the person who implicated the Pope?"
"There will be no need for that. I-"
"It was my mistake that I asked. Gaius, as a representative for the church, I demand to see the person that implicated the Pope."
"It was me."
Gaius was the one who had blamed it on the pope. His daughter had only brought the Slave seal to his notice, so she wasn't involved.
"Did you find this Slave seal with the dead heretic?"
Rasputin cornered Gaius even further.
"My daughter did."
"Bring her here."
Rasputin looked at one of the guards, and he left to bring the princess.
A few minutes later,
"Father, I have arrived."
The princess looked at Gaius, and then her eyes went towards Rasputin.
"Princess Minerva."
He created the mark and said,
"I have some questions for you."
Weekly Power Status
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