章 39: Contact

- God Realm -

Everything was peaceful within the realm of gods as Granny could be seen standing next to a throne within a dark room. Upon the throne was an old man with his eyes closed. His beard reached the floor as four horns protruded from his head. Not a single wrinkle was seen on his face as he opened his eyes full of seriousness, revealing two gold gems, like black holes absorbing the light surrounding them. A satisfied smile left his face while his next words destroyed the serious atmosphere,

"That's it. That's the way I will look at the little snake when I first see him."

A hearty laughter left his mouth as Granny seemed to ignore what the man was saying. Feeling the silence behind him, he turned around only to see Granny standing still with her eyes closed.

"Hey, oi, wake up."

'Why does she always fall asleep in the weirdest places.'

"He, honey, babes…"

This went for a long time until he garnered some sort of reaction. Slowly, but surely, Granny came out of her trance as she instinctively swung her stick,

*Whack*

Granny opened her eyes only to see her husband side profile with a long red line stretching across his cheeks. Shaking her head, she was about to say something until she whipped her head downstairs. The old man was also the same as he looked in the same direction.

"It seems the little snake will be encountering his future enemies earlier than expected."

Granny sighed as she continued looking,

"Well he had to encounter them at some point."

The old man continued looking as he narrowed his eyes,

"Where's his weapons?"

"They seem to still be at the clan,"

"What?!"

"Well, who's idea was it to strengthen it with the god of war's blood…"

"But…"

"Haven't we already made him suffer enough… noooooooo… you just had to go and extract the blood out of that bull…This isn't the first time you have done this, first the horse now this…"

"But…"

It seemed that the grievances carried inside Granny were not small at all. This went for another while, as they completely forgot about the important topic.

"Wait!"

A loud voice left the old man as he gave the timeout signal, making a 'T' with his two hands.

"What?!"

Granny looked really offended for some reason as she whacked the old man again,

"Up yours too. Where did you learn such vulgar hand signals?"

"No, honey, time out."

Granny seemed to realise what he meant as she held back her walking stick. Looking at the mess in front of her that now had a red line in descending in the middle of his face.

"It seems that the weapon is done alongside the armour."

This resulted in a raised eyebrow from Granny as she also looked down.

"Yeah, but how will it get to where Amadeus is?"

"Don't worry about that. I'm awesome, I'll think of something. 'Now, how shall I make it flashy.'"

The last part was said in his mind as a thoughtful expression masked his face.

"As for the weapon and armour getting there, they're his, they will be with him when he needs them most."

The old man had everything ready just before Amadeus and co reached the door.

- Orbis -

Back in front of the door, the scream had shaken their very souls. No matter who they were, one would always fear the unknown. The ones who didn't fear it were either the mad or the insane, and the ones who faced it were either fools or ones with courage.

However, Amadeus didn't know why but looking at the door, he felt a sensation in his heart. Something telling him to let loose, something telling him to enter and rip everything inside apart. The group were standing behind Amadeus but if the saw him they would be surprised seeing the glow in Amadeus' eyes. A hint of red veins had appeared at the edges of him eyes while his canines shone with a dangerous light amid his crazy smile.

Apart from that, he noticed the presence of Solaris and Luna inside.

Seeing Amadeus not moving, Arrow picked her hand up and touched his shoulder allowing him to retain that feeling of madness. Looking back, he saw Arrow look at him with a touch of concern to which he just replied with a smile, garnering the same response. The other two looked at their interaction and started to wonder when the elf and dragon got that close.

Amadeus pushed aside Arrow's hand and opened the door. It was also when another scream was heard causing the group to flinch as Amadeus took the lead. He was the fastest among the three and could scout ahead. What entered their view was a large open area with countless pillars propping up the ceiling. Each pillar was around extremely big and total of ten metres were between each of them. In the middle was a hut, with a couple large goblins guarding the entrance.

The rest of the area was filled with collapsed rocks as the four got closer going from cover to cover. Arrow never left Amadeus' side as a sort of protective instinct came over her whenever she looked at Amadeus. When they were closer to the hut, they got a proper look at it.

These goblins were not the same as what they encountered, they had dark green skin that could be mistaken for black and a height of about two metres. The stood there with crossed arms and vigilant looks. Seeing the light coming from the hut, it seemed that the source of whatever they were facing, and the screams was that hut. As if to confirm their thoughts, another scream was heard alongside an explosion.

"Damn, another failed product…hmm…it seems the pests got here earlier than expected."

A gruff voice was heard while a being clad in a dark cloak stepped outside looking at the direction Amadeus and the rest were in. Seeing that they were spotted the group came out while Amadeus attracted the being's attention. The being also attracted the latter's attention due to all the alarm bells ringing within himself. The three-metre-tall monstrosity seemed to be extremely dangerous while the desire to kill him was countering his desire to run.

The two kept looking at each other while goblins came out one by one.

The cloaked man looked at Amadeus,

"What a pleasant surprise-"

The man's speech was cut short seeing Amadeus lunge at him. The other three got the same message, they would take care of the goblins while Amadeus would take care of the cloaked individual. Amadeus went for a simple yet effective punch with his right hand, which was blocked by the man's arm. What appeared though was an armoured hand from beneath the cloak. Instantly pain registered within Amadeus' mind as he unsheathed his wakizashi and swung it at the arm, hoping to cut it off.

Amadeus knew that his enemy was stronger than his, so he never thought to end it with a vital hit. Also, it wasn't just strength that he was lacking, it was also experience. Him having a life or death battle was rare, especially one where the outcome was unpredictable. One could tell by the way the being carried himself he was a battle-hardened warrior. The confidence shown in his moves and the slight scars on the armour all pointed in that direction.

Plus, with his reach, he couldn't hope to ever reach that far as he felt a pushing force from the hand. The being however was unperturbed and Amadeus felt a slight feeling of elation when the blade made contact. However, that feeling was short lived, like a falling star, his elation shattered like fragile glass as the blade stopped midway as another hand appeared grasping the handle. Slowly, the man's grasped tightened and the sound of bones creaking were heard before they started cracking.

While this was happening, Arrow was letting loose her arrows targeting the weak points of the Goblins. The Goblins were different from the precious ones, the skin was harder and shone in a sort of metallic shine. Arrows couldn't take care of that and she didn't want to infuse them with magic. The fighting here had attracted the attention of all the other goblins, and they were slowly making their way over.

Samuel was using his shield to block their assault and would look for the right chance to attack, peeking his head out from above his shield. Jack was on a full-on assault, only dodging attacks while looking for any opportunity to strike. The teamwork the three had was impeccable.

Amadeus knew this so he wasn't worried, so he put all his concentration to the enemy opposite him. Feeling the pain, Amadeus supressed a scream and grit his teeth as he sent the sun's energy to his hands. The being felt the heat and let Amadeus allowing him to kick the man in front, launching himself backwards. Getting into stance, he concentrated at the being who took of his cloak. What appeared a pure black armour with a helmet that had six slits. Only the upper half of the being's face was covered while a cruel smile filled with yellow teeth was plastered on the being's face. What was more astonishing was that those six slits all had red eyes looking through them while the skin of that man was an ash grey.

The armour he was wearing was slick and black and didn't have a shine as if it was absorbing it.

"Now it's better."

Getting into stance, he pulled out a Bastard sword and held it near his head, pointing it at Amadeus.

Amadeus also lowered his centre of gravity as scales appeared on his off hand. This was the first time Amadeus had done this and he only did to try it out, luckily it succeeded. Seeing the golden scales, the grin on the being grew wider as a laugh left his mouth,

"Hahahahaha, I have indeed hit the jackpot today. Killing you will give me a huge bounty, however, not before I look at every nook and cranny of a real dragon's body."

The eyes of the being got possessive as they started glowing slightly. Amadeus didn't reply but his manic started to slowly came back to him. His eyes started glowing while a trail was left whenever he moved. As the two moved, Amadeus left one gold and one silver trail while the being left six red ones. The two met in the middle where a goblin happened to be. The being's bastard sword was two metres long and bought with a presence with it indicating its heavy weight. The sword reached the goblin first, annihilating its head, while Amadeus didn't dare meet it head on. Jumping up slightly, he dodged the sword and swung his blade at the being's neck. A bit of blood from the goblin touched his cheeks giving him a cruel look with the addition of his stoic face.

The being finished his swing midway and blocked Amadeus' strike only to let loose a punch. The way he handled the sword was like it was weightless. Amadeus barely dodged the punch while the being elbowed him with the hand holding the sword. Amadeus got hit on the stomach and was thrown back with force, smashing to one of the collapsed rocks. Getting up, he came out of the smashed rock only to see the being rushing at him.

He could feel that his ribs had cracked a bit, but they were slowly being healed by his regeneration powers. Spitting out some blood, he saw the blood evaporate into nothingness. It wasn't that the result of anything that was occurring right now, but it was the result of Amadeus getting more accustomed to his powers. The more of his power he could control the more his body changed. Now the heat was contained within his body and with the support of it allowed the blood to also be able to handle the heat and not evaporate. However, once the blood left his body, it lost its support and was quickly overpowered by the heat.

Amadeus waited for a bit and waited for the being get closer. Looking at the way he was belting it towards him reminded him of a bull back in his first world and when they saw red. They would only focus on that, disregarding anything that came in their way. Seeing his the being ready to swing he pressed his feet down a bit and sunk the ground where the being happened to step next with magic. Due to the sudden loss of balance, Amadeus didn't attack with his blade but rather made two icicles above him. As soon as the two icicles appeared mist covered them while the whole hall's temperature descended.

The three over there started shivering while some of the goblins had frost covering their skin. This was one of the reasons why Amadeus didn't want to use his main powers, they had a massive influence onto the surroundings. Although he was able to control its spread and not allow it to spread to the outside world, the aftereffects of that element existing was still there. Back at the forge, there was some sort of barrier affecting the influence of said atmosphere which allowed him to train all he wants.

However, Amadeus knew that without them, he didn't know how long he could last but it was definitely a short time.

Amadeus created two, one for the head and for his chest and immediately flicked is fingers, sending the two icicles whistling towards the being. The facial expression changed as he turned his head slightly only for the icicle to pass his face freezing that half, while he couldn't evade the one aiming at the torso went directly in. That was when Amadeus retracted his control and the cold started spreading on his chest.

Amadeus felt slightly happy but remained vigilant, he never knew what his enemy could cook up next. To conclude Amadeus was right, he barely saw it but while Amadeus slowly stepped back, the being slashed with his sword causing the tip of his sword to scrape Amadeus's inner armour, surprisingly cutting through it, and drawing blood. Amadeus his chest and felt his regeneration kick in while the being slowly got up.

"You have surprisingly good reflexes..."

Indeed, if Amadeus hadn't jumped back at the last second, more damage could have been done.

"...dragons do live up to their name, especially one so young."

The being got up and hit the icicle from the back and pushed it straight through his body.

"Your ice is different, its slowly encroaching ever part of body. It seemed I have underestimated you."

"I will now come at full force-"

Amadeus was having none of it and more icicles appeared above him.