Edward and the darkness entered a tug-of-war, each relentlessly trying to devour the other. Edward struggled at first, but the more he fought back, the more he familiarized himself with this new technique. His small aura tendrils were piercing through the darkness, tearing it apart and absorbing its energy. Contrary to a usual fight where he first had to defeat the monster to get its blood essence, he was receiving a small but continuous flow of energy from the darkness as he was absorbing part of it.

Edward stood in place as his attention was fully focused on the tendrils he was controlling. His whole body was covered by thousands of them as he retaliated against the darkness attempting to eat him. He discovered that it was easier to control this technique if he gave instructions to packs of tendrils rather than managing them individually. This didn’t prevent him from having a headache as he had rarely multitasked to such a level.

The further he sent his tendrils the more loss they suffered as the tendrils grew longer and it took him longer to convey orders. So, Edward maintained the tendrils close to him as they swiped through the darkness flowing back to him every time he destroyed part of it. He soon had the advantage as the darkness didn’t have any strategy, only attempting to eat anything it came in contact with. On the contrary, Edward was able to optimize the usage of his tendrils, controlling them as if they were an army. One detachment fought back frontally while another flanked the darkness which was unable to retaliate and found itself reduced to its fundamental components, its energy feeding Edward.

Additionally, Edward reiterated his trick of manifesting larger blades spinning around him from time to time. It was unable to destroy the darkness but it was weakening it, making it less responsive and an ideal prey for Edward’s army of tendrils.

The darkness behaved like a fluid and as Edward decimated more and more of it, its level within the cavern started to decrease. He took out a long breath as it was now clear that he was out of immediate danger and had the situation under control.

With the darkness level having decreased by a third, Edward’s aura was free to probe the surroundings, and his teleportation was available again. He could leave if he wanted to. However, he was close to the next rank, and his hunger for more blood essence was blaring inside his mind. The closer he came to the breakthrough the more intense his hunger became. It was now so strong that he had trouble keeping a sane mind. All he wanted to do right now was to gulp the darkness to the last drop. He took a step forward, his tendrils pulsating with hunger as they ravenously ate at the surrounding darkness.

Edward currently was in a small cavern, with a tunnel leading to a vast opened space. A current of darkness was flowing from the tunnel to replenish the one that had been devoured by him. He took one step after the other, hunger flashing inside his eyes.

As he crossed through the tunnel to reach the opened space, the darkness grew turbulent, waves forming on its surface. The waves grew taller as they attempted to swallow Edward. He wasn’t fazed even one bit, he had been englobed fully in darkness when he first teleported here and it had failed to consume him. Attempting to drown him wouldn’t achieve anything now.

As the darkness actively resisted him and counterattacked, a manic laugh escaped Edward’s lips and he summoned a volley of aura grenades above the darkness. He let them explode, aura blades flying everywhere and cutting apart the darkness in smaller parts that were easier to absorb.

After that each time that the darkness tried to gather together, Edward blasted it with a grenade. After a few minutes, the darkness could do nothing more than produce dying throes as it was eaten up by Edward. Before long nothing was left, the cavern returning to its natural black, nothing more than an absence of light.

This was the final push Edward needed to break through the next rank. All the blood essence he had consumed coalesced and fed his aura, his internal fire turning into a raging inferno. His senses expanded, and he struggled to process the influx of information as he now had a complete view of the mountain he was in and even beyond. He could even see a small part of Zakrens that was yet ten kilometers away.

This wasn’t the only change as his body was filled to the brim with power, his physical body having been enhanced once more. Being alone in total darkness wasn’t the best way to accustom oneself to new powers and Edward teleported upward to quickly leave the mountain. One teleportation was all that it took, he had teleported a full five kilometers in one go, farther than what his aura could reach before. He stood befuddled above the mountain peak, high into the air with his senses covering the mountain range as if he were a god.

“Rèng khwāmrĕw”, he tested his acceleration. Rather than him accelerating it seemed more like a time stop as everything froze around him. This is insane. He manifested a sword with his aura, the blade was denser than anything he could have achieved before. I feel unstoppable. He summoned fifty clones around him all at once, his mental prowess barely strained by having to manage so many tasks at once. My mental capacities have been improved as well. At this level of power who can even stop me? I would be a nightmare to deal with. He chuckled drily. Nightmare, this rank is appropriately named.

This was not all. His domain had also expanded dramatically, now englobing a hundred-meter sphere around him. More importantly, his control over it had increased as well. Feeling new possibilities Edward attempted to teleport one of his clones and it actually worked. Ecstatic he then made his clone use his acceleration, as long as they stayed within his domain his clones could now utilize his powers. Edward laughed uproariously. “This is ridiculous, the power-up is out of this world. Ramping up my effort to reach this point was worth it. Nephelin wouldn’t stand a chance to me now.”

And I should have unlocked a new power as well. Edward’s mad desire for more blood essence had disappeared now that he had achieved his breakthrough but it still felt a hunger within him that asked to be unleashed. He tapped into this power and darkness poured out of him, filling up his whole domain and continuing to expand until Edward stopped it, not wanting it to cover up the whole sky. Edward could perceive everything happening inside the darkness as if it were a part of him, and he could feel it attempt to devour everything around it. His laughter redoubled in intensity. “I have acquired its power, as well,” he said out loud, recalling the darkness inside his body.

His gaze turned toward the horizon. Now I only have to deal with the Andherians. Ignis and Adotinus wait for me, I’m coming.

Edward didn’t lose any time and teleported in Pescara’s direction. The Andherians had already opened the dimensional passage before he had confronted that darkness, and in a fight at this level every minute counted, Edward was already late. However, with his breakthrough his teleportation range had been increased roughly five times, meaning he was now five times faster. His teleportation was equivalent to him moving at an average of seven times the speed of sound. He crossed the distance separating him from the capital faster than a comet. He didn’t pay any attention to the landscape changing in real-time as he was entirely focused on the fight waiting ahead.

In ten minutes had reached Pescara, his fight with the darkness had lasted longer than his trip through more than a thousand kilometers of land.

There was no sign of Pescara, only a vast cloud of dense mist was visible, even bigger than when Nephelin had invaded the capital. We are back to the beginning. Hopefully, this time the fight should be easier. But to think a single individual is responsible for this and to achieve such a result in only half an hour. This is not reassuring. I hope Ignis and Adotinus are ok. I lost contact with them when my clone got destroyed. I don’t know if they chose to escape or fight back. But if it’s the latter they obviously are in a difficult position.

Edward didn’t hesitate and dived straight into the mist. The size of the mist would have paused before, but this was nothing compared to the reach of the sandstorm from Nagh Kuldohr‘s desert.

Given his position, he knew he was the only person in this entire world able to deal with this threat. The earlier he dealt with it, the less casualties there would be. He also still hoped for Ignis and Adotinus to be alive. They are at the Patriarch stage. Even Nephelin wasn’t able to straightforwardly kill them. They had the time to settle runes and traps to improve their chances as well. Surely, they couldn’t have fallen in a mere half an hour.

Contrary to last time Edward’s senses weren’t as impeded within the mist. Even being surrounded by the haze his domain was unaffected, no matter what he could perceive what was happening in a one-hundred-meter sphere around him. It was close to nothing compared to the ten kilometers his aura could monitor, but this was better than nothing and already big enough to avoid being ambushed by monsters. Unless they are invisible to my aura of course…This seems to happen more and more lately. Edward advanced fast but watched his surroundings with caution, not entirely relying on his aura. However, his sight was limited to only thirty meters which wasn’t ideal.

Apart from the mist blocking his vision the first thing he noticed was the absence of any sign of life or even remnants of human activities. The mist had a heavy stiffness. Not a sound could be heard and although Pescara had been nothing more than a ruin when he had left, right now Edward couldn’t see even a single stone left over.

He frowned and slowed down his pace. What happened here? There should be traces of a fight, but there is simply nothing as if I was in a devastated wasteland rather than a fallen city. He noticed a tug on his aura as the mist attempted to eat at his armor. Edward refrained from laughing. Seriously? An all-eating mist. It seems my detour in those caverns was more than worth it. Let’s see who can devour the other. However, for now, Edward chose not to retaliate, hiding his abilities to better surprise his enemies. As he advanced, he realized that there was a slight slope as the soil itself had been eaten away. The mist had eaten everything not leaving a single stone or blade of grass behind, all that was left of Pescara was a crater.