Chapter 267: Cracks on the surface

"This place is seriously way too weird…" Aiden sighed, as they found themselves at the end of yet another soulless hall. These empty floors kept repeating, without any sign of stopping. The only difference, the only sign that neither he nor the broad figure next to them that carried a still unconscious silver-haired prince was the fact that the paintings were different on every floor. 

They mostly depicted strange, horned, thick, dark, ebon-skinned figures with scarlet-colored eyes, but every now and then they showed a scene of some great and bloody battle, or just a charred, barren, hellish landscape.

The figures, the scenes, the lands they showcased, weren't familiar to either of them. Even for Roas, who was under their influence couldn't recall anything. It wasn't that he forgot, it was like that after Aiden managed to free them, his memories of these beings were just gone. Erased.

They have been crossing floors after floors for almost an hour with no end in sight. Their already limited time was creeping towards the dawn ever closer to Aiden's steadily increasing annoyance. 

Reaching yet another staircase, that looked exactly the same as all the others they crossed in the last hour, something finally snapped in him. All the pent-up emotions, the anger, the rage, the sorrow, the helplessness were no longer containable inside him. It began to boil, reaching the critical point.

In the depths of his soul, somewhere in the deepest, darkest place, a seed of energy, with the size reaching momentous sizes, began to tremble with excitement, as if it had its own consciousness. The thin crack on the barrier that kept him locked away, that appeared when Aiden first lost control due to his rage in the Pocket World widened slightly. Several spiderweb lines began to travel across the transparent surface, reaching ever closer to releasing this… ancient power from its eternal hold. 

As if connected to it, some distance away, a milky white ball of energy, a spiritual entity suddenly quivered. Turning towards the direction of the sealed space, the being spoke in a familiar, feminine, mature voice.

"This is bad… He is losing control over his emotions way too quickly, and I'm still too weak to help him…" The entity raised its gaze, looking upwards to the limitless void above. It sighed, its tone was full of worry and trepidation. "Aiden…"

Worried about the potential consequences, the ball flashed, and in the next moment, it vanished from its spot...

Aiden finally had enough. All this stupid farce has been going for far too long. He stopped in front of the first step, clenching his fists. The air began to buzz with excitement around his body, his long locks floated from their resting position, floating in the air. 

The air around him continued to whirl and churn around his body, a miniature hurricane of energy was in the midst of forming, surrounding, protecting the tall, lean dark green figure. A golden light began to shine from his eye sockets with increasing intensity from an initial faint glow to a glorious luster.

The transformation continued after the seals from his [Draconic Heritage] innate was released one after another. The anger, the wrath kept providing fuel to his ability. From his back, a pair of leathery golden-scaled wings sprung out giving an interesting contrast to his dark green saturated skin color. Along with the wings, a tail began to grow at a rapid pace, with similar characteristics. His arms also changed, similar, golden scales grew from under his skin, covering his entire lower-half of his arms. At the end of his fingers, thick, dark claws warned everyone to steer clever away.

The swirling, tempestuous invisible energy exploded with an incredibly loud thunderous bluster, shattering most of the close-by pictures and even some of the doors along with their frames. The explosion was powerful, its sound rang through several floors reaching much higher than otherwise possible, even destroying, shattering some of the windows where the doors were also torn out.

To his great surprise, Roas was completely unaffected by all this. He could feel the impossible amount of energy that just continued growing inside his young master until reaching the boiling point. By reflex, he raised his free left hand and covered his face with his strong, thick arm, ready to grit his teeth to withstand the pain that would follow up the tearing of the entirety of his forelimb.

But the pain never came, his appendage did not receive any tearing, searing, or any sort of damage, not even on the surface level. 

Surprised, he first carefully checked his limb, incredulous of the fact that he was somehow, miraculously spared, before his eyes slowly turned to take the first look up on his seething young master's true form.

The figure that was in front of him, was marvelous. Majestic even. A being that was neither goblin, nor orc, nor any sort of humanoid creature he has ever laid eyes on. It was beautiful. The pair of huge leathery, scaled wings that rested at his back was shining with a similar golden hue that was reminiscent of the young master. A thick, long golden reptilian-looking tail rested on the floor, motionlessly.

As he kept scanning the figure, a low, thunderous growling sound came from the being. While its tone was now much lower than what he was used to, inside his mind and through the magical connection they shared as master and servant, Roas knew it was the young master speaking.

"[Orc] Roas." 

Hearing his name being mentioned, Roas went on his knee and lowered his gaze respectfully on the ground.

"[Orc] Yes, my lord! How can this lowly one be of service?"

Instead of answering, Aiden turned his gaze upwards, looking at the butter-colored ceiling. His face twisted into a frowning grimace. Releasing his voice, a thunderous roar swept across the building. 

"[Orc] PATHETIC WORMS! SUCH PETTY TRICKS WILL NOT WORK ON ME! EITHER YOU TURN IT OFF, OR I WILL TURN YOUR HOLLOWED GROUNDS INTO DUST!" 

His voice, boosted by his power, caused further destruction on several floors above, reaching the highest parts of the building.

A few moments later, Roas saw a pair of huge scarlet eyes appearing in front of his young master. He immediately threw the human's unconscious body on the ground and began circulating his own mana, guiding some of his dark magic towards his arms, ready to throw even his life towards the danger and protect the young master. 

The eye kept looking at Aiden for several seconds. After his maddened cry, the building returned to complete, utter silence. 

However, suddenly from the depths below, the sound of laughter, a loud guffaw reached them. Somehow, they both knew it came from the being that's eyes materialized in the air. There was no hostile intent carried with it, something that surprised Roas greatly, while Aiden kept up the frown on his face, matching the gaze of the floating pair of eyes.

Soon, as the laughter died down, a low-pitched, cold voice came, carrying a similarly powerful momentum with it that Aiden just showcased.

"I love it, finally someone interesting appeared!" Even though both of them were clear that the voice did not speak any of the languages they were familiar with, they could still clearly understand his words without issue. 

Suddenly, a dark red spark zapped through the outer walls of the building, from below. It was only for a moment, but Aiden could feel the incredible power it carried.

Before they could think about anything, the voice continued.

"Go boy, I want to see the limits of your power as you take your well-deserved revenge upon those 'Worms' you mentioned! Don't worry, I will not interfere, however after you are done. Come down. I will be eagerly waiting to meet you, descendant of the Ancient Ones."

With that, both the eye and voice vanished without a trace. Still, they both felt a change. Whatever trick held them back, was no longer in effect. The path towards the top was finally available to them.

However, Aiden couldn't relax. When the voice mentioned the 'Ancient Ones', Aiden's entire soul trembled. Just what was this being? Was he referring to his Draconic Heritage, or maybe saw through him entirely?

'This…' He cursed inwardly. He underestimated the powers behind this 'Horde'. They weren't as simple as they looked. Aiden was expecting some challenges, but the power this being just displayed far surpassed his expectations.

He was still too immature. He still needed to learn, he needed more time to grow. 

Still, at the very least, one thing that the voice did manage was to shake the boy and clear his clouded mind from all the storming emotions inside him. He began to calm down, and with that, both his aura receded, and his body returned to his default, Primal Goblin Dragonlord state.

"[Orc] Come Roas, we can't waste more time…" He spoke to the still stunned, shaken battle-ready servant behind him.

Heaving a heavy sigh, he looked at the staircase once again, which now held a different vibe than before, and took that first step forward.