Not even 5 minutes after he started looking at the World Tree, Arthur started flying toward it. He just couldn't hold back his urges. Something about it was drawing him near it.

Just for precaution, Arthur possessed a Griffin made of bones. It was a weak race of Griffin but it nevertheless was one. With a body of a lion and a head of Eagle, all made of bones, Arthur flew toward the tree and activated [Eyes of The Noble Sea].

[Eyes of The Noble Sea]: Lets the user see any kind of energy. Range and intensity depend on the intelligence stats of the user.

Cost: 500 Mana per second.

The lifeless eye sockets of the beast flashed with a blue light, dazzling and eye-catching. All around him, he could see blue lines of Mana in everything, be it the grass, plants or even air itself.

When his eyes shifted to the towering World Tree, he was surprised to see a cluster of Mana condensed in it and around it. It was so dense that Arthur front view was covered in blue. The Mana seemed to be spinning like a whirlpool and some it would disperse to the surroundings, merging with the ground.

It's the first time he saw such a high density of any Energy, even in the Underworld, when he possessed that wolf, none of the Gods had such high reserve of Nether Energy. This was beyond his imagination.

Seeing the beautiful yet worrying sight in front of him, Arthur's confidence wavered. Too many strange things happened all around Astria but this surpassed them all. He knew that the World Tree was giving life to the Itas Continent but the sheer quantity of Mana really made him feel a bit fearful.

The thing is, he was once attacked by it, so if it's sentient and decided to go all out, no matter how resistant he was, he can't defend against an attack containing that much Energy, not even a God could.

A thick Dark Barrier was created around him, and to be safer, he circulated the Dark-Star Body Strengthening-technique which created an extra defensive layer around his bare bones. The bones already turned jet black and illusory black claws appeared on the ancient shattered claws of the Grifin. With an appearance that would scare anyone, black flames burning around the edges of his face and his two eyes still pulsating with a blue light, Arthur continued advancing.

When Arthur reached the exact place he was attacked on last time, his cautiousness rose and 'The Dark Anguish Technique' began circulating, making the black flames more intense and increasing the ominous aura that was being emanated from him.

5 meters... 10 meters...

He passed the place where he was attacked last time but his speed was very slow and it didn't seem he was going to accelerate. Slowly but surely, the distance between him and World Tree was decreasing. A few minutes later, Arthur was still as tense as before if not more.

His senses were on high alert and as he was advancing, his eyes caught a small fluctuation of Mana, without even thinking about the cause [Fasther Than Death] was executed and he teleported a hundred meters back.

His eyes were gazing at the place he was previously at but nothing happened, instead, he felt a pushing force coming right at him so he teleported once again, backing away further yet the pushing force appeared to be way faster than his teleportation.

The Griffin emitted a loud noise, making the air turbulent and spat an incredibly big flame ball. The Dark Red Flameball was twice the size of the Beast and in less than a second, the invisible pushing force and his attack clashed with each other.

In terms of size, the flame ball that Arthur spat was not the biggest but he consumed 10% of his Mana and that is certainly not a meager amount. Ancient Flames normally doesn't consume Mana but if the user wishes it, he can sacrifice his Mana to make it a bit stronger.

'Whoooooooooooosh' 'Baaaaaaaang'

As expected of the destructive Ancient Flames, it created a loud explosion once it crashed into the invisible force. Arthur could see that this force was like a wave, it was not dangerous and it only meant to push him further back. What's even more surprising is that his attack only managed to reduce the force by half before it vanished.

The damage done by his Ancient Flames was not enough but it's not like he'll just sit there and watch, with his Dark Barrier still up and the force being a dozen of meters away from him. Arthur opened his mouth again and started condensing a small Void Orb.

If destruction is not the solution, then being eaten by the Void is! A small, harmless-looking violet orb condensed inside the Griffin's mouths before it was spat at the incoming wave.

The second he spat the Orb, Arthur teleported some distance to the left and simultaneously activated the orb's power.

The Void Orb exploded at Arthur's command, transforming into countless creepy mouths. On the outside, it seemed they were eating the air but if one had eyes similar to Arthur's, they would be able to see the mouths devouring not only the air but the dispersed Mana around it.

Endless devouring, they were small in size but the expected clash didn't happen as the force was being devoured by the small mouths, which made them a bit bigger and more effective at devouring.

Arthur grinned, proud of the new skill he invented but it wasn't permanent and there is a limit to how much they could eat. Fortunately, the force almost disappeared and by the time the mouths were called back by Arthur, the pushing force was extinguished.

With a sigh, Arthur turned to look at the World Tree, which was as silent as ever. He knew it wasn't over, it was merely one attack but it took some effort to stop it.

Just as he was going to continue advancing, his eyes and sense caught several similar forces coming from all direction, as if wanting to crush him.

The forces were two times stronger than the first one, which made Arthur shiver unconsciously. The Griffin screeched and Its wings, which were just bones suddenly became two wide flaming wings.

'Merge Fire with Darkness, Darkness with Void!'

Arthur has never been able to merge attribute except in the Heavenly Arrow and even in that, he can't choose whatever he wants. Unlike Lucy, who managed to merge two opposed attributes, he was only successful in fusing the Darkness and Void which later became the Eclipse Magic.

It wasn't strong which is why Arthur never used it but it nevertheless was a fusion of the two, it's a pity he didn't know its true function.

Two dark red flaming wings with a span of 5 meters each, a special body made of unknown dark Energy that covered it whole. Last but not least, a 15-inch purple horn, which was the most crucial thing in all the body.

The tip of the horn was like a mini black hole, absorbing the Mana around and taking it to an endless void.

'Let's see who's better!'

The pushing forces arrived and Arthur acted, his two wings flapped and created two enormous flaming waves to both sides. As for the front, the longhorn vibrated making the air slightly twist and twisting with it the force, bending it and making it completely vanish in just a second.

Arthur was going all out now and it was not the time to hold back since it's this dangerous. He was not fast enough to block the one to the back but since the beginning, he was willing to take the full brunt.

'Crack... crack!'

The Dark Barrier held for a while but at the price of pushing Arthur a bit to the front. The Barrier shattered only after three seconds, which was more than enough time for Arthur to forcefully bend it and extinguish it with his horn.

Arthur couldn't even take a second to breathe before 10 more force waves came at him, stronger and faster.

'Hahahhaha, more! More! BRING IT ALL!!'

With a high-screech, the Griffin dived right toward the waves with its wings creating destructive flame waves and the horn in between, vibrating and twisting the air.

Explosions and clashes happened all around the area. People at the Elven Village could feel the air fluctuation and sudden energy waves in the air, it was all remnants yet it was still dangerous.

'Whoooosh'

The ground was burned to ashes by the ancient flames and the flaming wings were only getting stronger. It got the point where Arthur just attacked randomly and it would still strike an incoming force wave. Countless waves were trying to push him away from the World Tree but he was still advancing.

Amidst the raging flame tornado, boulder-sized Fireballs, and a twisting air, here he was screeching and flying toward the World Tree.

'Almost there!'

He could see a thick trunk that had a diameter of more than a mile, it was too big to see all of it. In some point in the middle of the battle, the force waves lessened bit by bit until there were only one or two at a time.