Devourer’s Blessing

As Veil's body made contact with the dark-blue flame, she screamed in great pain as she tried rolling down to get rid of the flame.

"You cannot kill this flame, human. Resist the pain until you absorb it and you shall gain a far stronger power than you currently own. I bid you farewell!" Lauerveck advised the human as he flapped his wings and disappeared.

Draconic Skill: Spatial Transfer!

As Veil watched the Dragon depart, she is slowly calming down as she steeled her mind to ignore the pain and absorb the flames spread all over her.

"…"

Badump!

The flames in her limbs have been absorbed as it gradually calm down.

Badump!

The calm she feels inside her mind is something she never felt before.

She feels as if she is submerged in a great ocean as cold slowly permeates her body.

Badump!

Her heart pounds even loudly, as she absorbs every bit of the perpetual flames that were previously devouring her whole body.

Badump!

The piercing cold and the burning heat alternates as she transmits the sensation throughout her nerves.

"…!"

She opened her eyes and opened one of her hands.

Spark!

She was able to light up a dark-blue flame on her hand. Success!

Feeling revitalized from her new powers, the pain of alternating hot and cold energy dissipated.

Her brain activity is increased as the calmness in her soul made her able to perceive energies more accurately and sharply.

Before, she just perceived different mana and energies as chaotic and juggled.

'With this, I can track down that Varun.' Veil muttered as she clenched her fist.

She is now wielding the power of Lauerveck's signature flame: The Eternal Flames of the Devourer.

The greatest Dragons in the world and in their own realm were all assigned their own flames.

However, they could only be assigned their own flames by the Dragon God if they achieve great things for the cause of the Dragons.

Lauerveck is one of the 12 Draconic pillars leading the Dragons.

He is titled as the Devourer, in which he was assigned the Eternal Flames: dark-blue flames that can persist for eternity.

Only the strongest individuals with unbending will can ever resist these flames as not even time weakens it.

Those who receive the blessings and earn the recognition of Dragons have been regarded as Heroes in the past.

As the Ancient War reshaped the whole world, these Heroes are said to have perished for the greater good as they are the ones who banished the evil forces that once resided with humans in this world.

After creating the Middle Realm, an invisible divide separating the evil forces from humans and animals, all the Heroes disappeared into the void.

Now, as a Dragon-blessed individual, Veil gained a massive power-up with the eternal flames.

She toughened her mind as she tried experimenting with her eternal flames.

She envisions her shadows wrapping the dark-blue flames within the circuits of her soul.

As she does so, she gained more control of the eternal flames, switching yet again between freezing and burning pain, her body feels like cracking any moment.

However, after fully merging the darkness of his shadows with the flames within her mind, she instantly felt the changes.

Her world perception improved again, to be more precise, she can sense the mana and different energies surrounding the environment with different colors.

This is one of the information she learned from Silvia, who is a magician adept in magic arrays.

Silvia once told her that being able to 'sense' mana is the key to enhancing one's skills and battle prowess.

'It seems that I gained a massive knowledge from Silvia' Veil muttered to herself as she looks up in the slowly-darkening sky.

Different types of mana exist, namely the four elements: fire, earth, wind and water

By being able to sense the different mana types, she would be able to utilize her shadowflame abilities even further.

The sun is setting, the calm of the forest returned.

All the chaotic energies that were produced during the battles have slowly dissipated after the Dragon left.

The sprites of the forest also retained their glows for the upcoming night.

Veil then woke up Lozzaro who soundly slept far away from the battlefield.

"Are you alright? Can you use your magic to transport us to the city?" Veil asked.

"Yes, I pretty much recovered my mana as I slept, sorry for earlier."

He then created a gate connected into Marlov for their triumphant return.

Skill: Spatial Projection!

Vuwooooom!

[...]

As a familiar miniature gate appeared near the entrance to the city, a slight commotion occurred.

"Hey hey! Commander Lozzaro is back!"

One of the Adventurers in the watchtower shouted.

"It is real, he is truly back!

The Adventurers under Lozzaro's party excitedly welcomed their party leader, only to find out the look on him.

Wounds fill Lozzaro's limbs and his robe is in tatters.

"…" Silence filled the once hyped up gate.

"Do not worry about me you guys. We could not slay the Dragon as per the urgent quest, but we did repel the spirit manifestation of the Gaia Lord!" Lozzaro informed everybody.

Veil nodded quietly, the two then reported into the Adventurer association of the developments.

While Veil is talking to one of the administrators, quiet gasps suddenly entered her ears.

As she turns around to check, even the administrator she is conversing with stared behind her with great shock.

Charlos, the grand elder of the association, was seen arriving inside the hall.

As the grand elder, he is one of the most significant figures within the whole country as his word between Adventurer associations is absolute.

Charlos, whispering to one of his personal guards could also be seen studying the atmosphere.

The guard whispered back to Charlos' ear, seemingly to report what is happening.

After the guard bowed, Charlos then called for an emergency meeting with the commanders and party leaders of the Adventurer teams in Marlov.

Veil, who is about to turn to leave, was suddenly called by Charlos.

"You there, young lady. Stay with us in the meeting, we surely must not leave out the Hero, am I right?" Charlos caressed his beard as he called for Veil.

He made sure to emphasize the word 'Hero'.

"Mhm. I understand, but I am no Hero." Veil replied.

"Hahaha! It seems that youngsters these days do not like titles like that. Hmm hmm very well." Charlos laughed as he proceeded to the meeting room.

As the meeting commences, Lozzaro reported the events that transpired inside the forest until he was knocked out.

"That is all I could remember before I got sent into the dreamland by the Gaia Lord.

Veil here will continue the intel for us." Lozzaro explained as he transferred the attention onto Veil.

Nod.

"It seems that there was no need for us to subjugate the Dragon, as he was only awoken by the evil energy the moment Varun channeled his spirit manifestation in our world."

"After confirming that the Varun who invaded our country is only a channeled energy, the Dragon then later tasked me for invading the Middle Realm back." Veil explained.

As soon as Veil finished her words, gasps filled the meeting room.

"Hmm, I understand. Did you perhaps ask the Dragon what his name is? Or did he give you some kind of… blessing?" Charlos faked a cough and gave Veil a probing look, as if he already knows something.

"Mhm, sure. He gave me his flame called the Eternal Flames of the Devourer." Veil truthfully explained.

"!?"

Charlos gave her a surprised look.

His eyes visibly showing great shock and reverence.

"Ohoo, it seems that one of the Draconic pillars really did get awoken by these developments."

"Draconic pillars?" Veil gave a confused look.

"Hmm. It is natural that you youngsters are unaware of the Draconic pillars. They are the 12 strongest Dragons who have their own signature flames."

"Lauerveck, the Dragon who blessed you is titled the Devourer. His flames last for eternity; I would not even start to imagine what could have happened if you were not there to entertain him." Charlos explained with a heavy sigh.

Everyone, including Veil, gulped down their dry saliva after listening Charlos' story.

"It seems that you are our country's hope, young lady. You are blessed by the Devourer to destroy the Gaias." Charlos gave Veil a hopeful look.

"I will try my best, elder Charlos. I shall learn more about the Middle Realm, thank you for your time, see you again everyone." Veil bowed slightly before leaving.

The emergency meeting then ended after dividing new tasks for the Adventurers.

The smaller parties are to scout for potential gate locations around the borders of Marlov.

Two great forests are the key road to enter the city, so the smaller Adventurer parties are divided across the two forests.

For the bigger Adventurer teams, they merged their team into a full-force Adventurer alliance as the main force of Marlov.

Their assigned commander, Lozzaro, then tasked some members with certain familiarity to magic arrays to bolster the city's defenses for future attacks.

Some of their members also split into parties to hunt down for more magic crystals found in monster remains with hopes of upgrading the power core of their city.

By upgrading the power core, the mana that can be distributed throughout the magic circuits used by the whole city will be improved, and most importantly, the gates will be sturdier.

There are bigger monsters that drop mana crystals that can be used to reinforce the supply for power core, thus, eventually upgrading it with mana crystals.

A city's prosperity and reputation is not just based off of its size and population, one of the most important aspects for a city is its defensive capabilities.

In other larger countries, the competition between cities is fierce for the reason that the city magistrate with the strongest capabilities can be temporarily assigned the whole continent for management.

An Archangel was said to personally facilitate the management rights procedure for the chosen magistrate.

In such a way, the chosen magistrate could earn a fraction of resources in every city in the continent.

This will in turn break the tight competition as the chosen magistrate will surely dominate the succeeding competitions during his temporary time managing the continent.

[...]

With everyone dividing their own tasks and setting off on their own missions, Veil set off for the great library of Qua'ar near the border of Marlov.

She was personally tasked by elder Charlos to meet the assigned librarian also known as Azazel.

She is one of the Pentagram, the 5 highest Archangels residing in the world of humans!