Rank 4 (Not Edited)

Two great armies were preparing for their thin battle. No one was willing to give in, and both sides would rather give themselves up to oblivion, but they would not raise a white flag. The brown army began its onslaught. They didn't rush their movements, and were only constant.

Their onslaught was flawless, there were no mistakes to exploit. The green army, not knowing how to deal with this, ended up having to retreat several times, but soon they thought of a new strategy.

The brown army continued their steady and faultless advances, and their flag, which had an immortal mountain in all its glory and majesty, fluttered in the air even without any sight.

The green army struggled to keep their defense lines from falling, but their flag, which was a great tree that had survived the passing of countless ages, still fluttered arrogantly high.

The brown army advanced, and the green army retreated, but just as the brown army was about to reorganize its troops and resume its advance, the green army attacked again, once more gaining the ground it had lost.

Like a landslide, full of destruction and absolute power, the brown army advanced.

Like a bamboo that bends and doesn't break, the green army retreated and advanced again and again.

This stalemate continued for a long time, but soon, the balance was broken. The brown army lost its momentum, its soldiers already out of energy and attack power. The green army, having conserved their energy and soldiers by retreating and advancing, were still full of energy and soon advanced to destroy their enemies.

Opening my eyes, I saw the worried face of Hellen, who was gently caressing my face. I wanted to flash her a smile, but instead I showed her my sharp fangs. Hellen was a little surprised, but soon smiled sweetly.

"That's a nice smile you have there" she said jokingly.

Jorge put his hand to his mouth and laughed, and just for an instant, I could have sworn I heard Lu Bao Shi's laughter in my mind.

I know that was embarrassing, okay? But remember that I am a giant black snake and stronger than all of you!

Hiding my shame while thinking of various swear words and curses, I looked at where the pile of Earth element magic cores were, and noticed that only one core was left. My magic core after consuming so many others was already saturated with spiritual energy, as just one more drop would make my core explode.

This was the most basic sign that your magic core was ready to move forward, it only needed a small push of energy, and you would break through the realm. Unlike cultivators, magical beasts don't have to study and meditate on a law in order to advance. Magical beasts are like the living embodiment of some element, as in my case, the Plant element.

As I get older, live and experience various things and increase my realm, my knowledge and understanding of my element grows by leaps and bounds, so that even if I don't meditate once in my life, I can have the same knowledge about laws as any immortal who has spent his life in seclusion.

Hellen also noticed that I was close to a breakthrough. She took the scepter from her storage ring, and channeled her spiritual energy. After a while, two trees sprouted from the ground, and grew to the size of 20 feet (6.1 m). Although my body was over 30 feet tall, it wasn't that tall, so the trees served to camouflage my body from whoever came flying into our location.

Looking me in the eye after putting away her scepter, Hellen asked:

"Are you ready?"

I nodded once in response. Hellen took the last magic core and brought it to me. Opening my mouth, I swallowed the core and, as if made of sugar coming into contact with water, the magic core melted and became pure energy and ran wildly through every inch of my body.

There was a reason Hellen asked me if I was ready. To take that final step to Rank 4 would require more spiritual energy than I had accumulated in my entire life up to this point. It was like knowing that with only a few miles to go you could reach another country, but this last step was separated by a cliff several hundred feet high, and at the bottom of the cliff was a stormy sea filled with terrifying sea creatures.

To get over that cliff, we stole the magic core of a Rank 5 magical beast. The spiritual energy of such a creature seemed to want to corrode my whole body. If all the other Earth Element magic cores were like unstoppable armies flying the flag of an immortal mountain, the army of this magic core would fly the flag of a massive meteor hitting a planet and decimating all life.

Like a world-shattering earthquake, the foreign spiritual energy coursed through my entire body unstoppable and destroyed everything in its path. My organs were on their last gasp as I endured the damage, my spiritual energy fought relentlessly to overcome the spiritual energy I absorbed.

No longer able to bear the pain I felt, I raised my head to the heavens and roared. My roar echoed and was lost in the sounds of the battle taking place a few miles away. My consciousness was clouded, and I failed to notice that my roar attracted winged magical beasts that fed on dying magical beasts.

Hellen got into battle position, and began to use vampire magic. She took out her scepter from the storage ring and a gourd made of silver. From inside the gourd, thick blood emerged and floated beside her.

The dozens of liters of blood moved as if they had a life of their own. Hellen's eyes turned red and the blood, that floated shapelessly, transformed and shaped itself into dozens of spears of all sizes. The spears soon had shape and strength, the blood coagulated and was no longer in its liquid form. As Hellen's eyes began to glow red, all the spears in unison shot into the sky.

Jorge was not far behind. As the winged creatures descended, Jorge turned his small hands into blades, and with abnormal speed, danced a macabre dance of death and carnage. Wherever Jorge passed, blood splattered into the air and a life was taken.

All the blood that was spilled entered Hellen's control, and new spears were formed and flew once again in search of new targets. Lu Bao Shi didn't leave my mind, his wings glowing faintly, channeling his power and attention into trying to help me.

The foreign spiritual energy was still wreaking havoc in my body. My spiritual energy was fighting with all its might. Inside my core, with each passing second, new spiritual energy was coming out and fighting against the invaders.

Despite all the mess that was going on inside my body, from the outside, it just seemed that I was asleep, with a few tremors now and then in my body. That itch I felt in the back of my brain was getting stronger, but I couldn't make it stop.

Lu Bao Shi was helping me as much as possible, directing my spiritual energy inside my body to where it was most needed, but it wasn't being enough. To this day, I don't know how Lu Bao Shi can direct my spiritual energy without causing me spiritual energy poisoning.

In the same way that consuming too many magic cores can kill you, the same thing applies if someone injects spiritual energy into your body. Although many share the same element, each creature has a different energy signature, and when the body doesn't identify an energy signature, it thinks it's an invader and fights it.

It was then that something strange happened. That itch in the back of my head became a voice. The voice was ethereal, as if it had weathered and watched the passages of every age this world has ever seen.

"Why do you resist my call, serpent? This energy you have consumed will consume you. Let me help you, and in return, I wish only to continue to exist."

I didn't know who it was, nor did I wish to continue listening to his bullshit. The pain gradually increased, and my organs were already beginning to fail. I roared in pain once again, as I could no longer stand to feel my body crumble without anything I could do about it.

It was at this moment that I felt a message of the connection I had with Lu Bao Shi. Lu Bao Shi's message was simple:

"Trust the voice that spoke to you, or your body will not endure."

Receiving confirmation from someone I trusted, I could just push my doubts to a corner of my brain, and tried to talk to the voice that talked to me before. After a while, I understood that all I had to do was give some of my spiritual energy.

With more effort that I thought it would take, I managed to send a small thread of spiritual energy to the voice. However, before the thread of spiritual energy could reach the other party, it dissipated into the wind.

"Not that energy! Butterfly, what have you done! You eroded the snake's spiritual energy, just to get more food? How cowardly can you be?!" The voice sounded angry.

I felt from my connection that Lu Bao Shi was discussing something with the voice. I didn't quite understand what the voice meant by eroding my spiritual energy, and I couldn't even think rationally at that moment. It's not because I am used to the pain that it has become more bearable.

After some time, I finally got some enlightenment and a way to get rid of this suffering.

"Snake, listen carefully. Observe your magic core."

Just as the voice commanded, I observed my magic core. The once peaceful place was now in chaos. Brown spiritual energy was eating away at everything it touched, and trying to destroy my core. My spiritual energy fought bravely, but it was scarcer and thinner. There was no way my spiritual energy could win.

"You may have already noticed the dots of another color in your core. Focus on the colors that are not green. That is your second element. Focus on it and use your spiritual energy, and after that, send me some of that spiritual energy." The voice sounded once again.

I did what the voice said, trying my best to focus on those different colored spots. I don't know how much time passed and how many times I failed, but in the end, I succeeded. An almost translucent thread of spiritual energy shot out from my core. It ignored all the warfare going on in my body, and floated slightly away from me.

The voice sounded joyful this time, and said some words that I didn't understand, but also didn't care about. I sent out several warnings that my body would soon no longer react, and the voice soon helped me. Just like Lu Bao Shi, the voice, like a general, the voice guided the soldiers out of my magic core.

From my core, small amounts of spiritual energy came out, but it was not green like before, but black. It was black that would suck out any ray of light, but there were still purple dots all over the spiritual energy.

With renowned strength, my body began to produce spiritual energy in an overwhelming way. My blood vessels dilated until they could no longer, the channels where spiritual energy passed through ruptured, and spiritual energy flowed uncontrollably in my body. From the outside, my body emanated a green aura, and at regular intervals, a purple color mixed with the green.

At some point, the arrogant spiritual energy lost out to mine and was absorbed. A surge of spiritual energy assaulted me, and all the internal injuries I had suffered were healing at a rapid pace. My scales were falling off, and my body felt like it was being torn apart and my bones were being chewed up.

My body was growing rapidly and stopped only when it reached 60 feet (18.29 m) in length. My spiritual power became denser, and its amount doubled in size! My scales grew once again and shone with a metallic coldness. My three horns looked like deadly weapons made for slaughter.

Moving my body a little, I felt lighter, even though I had grown in size. The excitement of breaking through a realm hit me, and I soon forgot all the pain and suffering required for that result.

ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

My roar caught the attention of all the winged beasts that were trying to attack Hellen and Jorge.

Nothing better than to test my new prowess and find out about my new element with live targets.

...

..

.

How about we make things interesting? If you can get this book to 20 power stones, I will post a bonus chapter for you. If we reach 30 power stones, there will be 2 bonus chapters. Surprise me and beat that goal!

Do you wish to have advance chapters and other stories written by me? Visit my pa treon! pa treon.com/DearDukkha

Chapters in pa treon: 10

A chapter every day, before nightfall.

If you want to interact with me, follow me on twitter! @SanDukkha