Chapter 328 Erebus Past  

'This is a familiar feeling, and so is the place,' Alex thought as he regained his vision and found himself in a beautiful meadow adorned with vibrant flowers, their fragrance wafting through the air, accompanied by the melodious chirping of birds.

A short distance away, he spotted two familiar figures, one of them being the otherworldly beauty Lady Chaos, and standing behind her was Lady Luculia.

"Erebus, What is Darkness," Lady Chaos asked, her voice being as soothing to the ears as her beauty to the eyes.

"Mother, it is, of course, the absence of light that creates darkness," Erebus replied respectfully.

'Well, this is some new information,' Alex thought, hearing Erebus refer to the lady known as the Queen of Titans as "mother."

"You are not wrong, but it is just a small aspect of darkness, and if truly you define it, then darkness is a form of cosmic law that does not emit, absorb, or interact with any form of energy, including light,"

"Darkness is a primordial law, being one of the first to come into creation, and it is also responsible for giving form to the first matter."

"Darkness is the canvas upon which the cosmos is created, and in its absence, the universe would lack the contrast and balance necessary for the existence of light, matter, and life."

"Erebus, now tell me, what did you gather from my statements?" Lady Chaos asked, a slight smile gracing her lips, her eyes filled with anticipation.

'A Cosmic Canvas. I've never seen darkness as such,' Alex thought as he tried to see what he could learn from the wise words he just heard. "The darkness is the base of everything and the source of most of the things in one way or another, and this also explains why the law of darkness represents various aspects of reality."

"Mother, but I already know about this information," Erebus said, his voice sounding a bit hesitant, like knowing what the answer he was going to receive was.

"Do You?"

"I remember clearly telling you that you need to master complex skills, and I was so happy and proud seeing my little sweetie creating four new spells in just two months,"

"But It also made me wonder why you have not advanced to the fourth Rank even after such progress, and guess what I learned after questioning Luculia,"

"I discovered that my little sweetie was using the 'Memory Echoes' feature of the training chamber to learn new skills in mere days and spending all the remaining time with his darling," Lady Chaos said with a smile on her face, but by now all Alex was seeing was the green grass and his feet.

"Erebus, I don't mind if you spend a few years as a mortal and cherish your time with your lover, but you must be honest with me and not deceive me with your falsehoods," Lady Chaos said, her tone gentle yet firm.

'What I can get from this conversation is that Erebus needed to create his own skills without any help for him to advance to the fourth Rank,'

'However, the question is how complex the spells need to be for him to gain the recognition of the law and advance to the fourth Rank,' Alex thought as darkness cloaked his eyes.

Alex was no stranger to the concept of evolving existing skills by improving them or creating entirely new skills, and in both cases, he was very familiar with the difficulty, as he had experienced these challenges in his past life.

So, for him, who had been stuck at the peak of the third Rank, these were the only accessible ways to add new cards to his arsenal and become stronger, and he understood that if combining skills was challenging, creating new skills from scratch was akin to walking on a mountain of unsheathed swords.

'Now, what is he up to,' Alex thought as he regained his vision and saw tens of individuals belonging to various races, each of them wearing rags of clothing and their eyes carrying the emotion of confusion and fear.

"You are all criminals, worst of worst, who should be put to death, and today is the day I will do it," Erebus declared, his words sending shivers down the spines of each and every one of twenty or so individuals. "Brother, I'm uncertain of how we ended up in this desolate land or who this weak boy is, but I refuse to meet my end without a struggle, especially at the hands of this mere Mortal," A barbarian said, as his already muscular body swelled in size, and his light red turned a darker shade of red.

"If I don't execute this properly, I will not meet with Nyx for a whole month," Erebus whispered, tightening his hold on his staff.

Erebus tapped his staff on the ground and murmured, "Abyssal Chains," and instantly, twenty intricate magic circles expanded on the ground beneath each of the individuals, and chains of darkness lashed out, ensnaring them.

Erebus then commanded, "Reaper Leeches," and a complex and massive magic circle materialized on the ground, rapidly covering the area.

As the magic completed, it pulsed with mana before it vanished, and instantly, Ethereal leeches, ghostly and dark, materialized on the back of each person.

Alex watched as those spectral creatures moved their faceless circular mouths through the fabric without making physical contact and attached themselves to their victims' flesh.

Instantly, all of them started to scream in horror, like being in extreme agony, while the small leeches started to swell in size.

The leeches drained their vitality and mana, causing them to visibly lose weight, and after fifty seconds, the leeches had swelled to nearly two feet in size while the captives had become skinny.

Erebus raised his staff and slammed it on the ground as he murmured, 'Abyssal Lightning Storm,'

A magic circle, much more complex than before, started to manifest on the ground while the leeches burst apart in the grand explosion, breaking away the dark chains holding the individuals and sending them flying face-first into the ground.

The magic circle fully materialized moments before the leeches exploded like mini bombs and made the twenty men turn bloody, and before they could get back to their feet, the surrounding mana vibrated with a silent hum as the magic circle pulsed with life, like acknowledging the request.

Darkness started to manifest out of tin air while the dark clouds rumbling with roars of lightning started to manifest, and moments later, the darkness was revolving without an ouch of wind, creating a gravitational pull toward Erebus as the center while the clouds above were raining down dark lightning like rain.

Alex, for a moment, thought he was seeing a fifth-rank skill, but knowing he was experiencing memories of Erebus before his fourth-rank promotion made him deny that possibility, but that only fueled his shock.

The chaotic lightning storm lasted for thirty seconds, but that was enough to end the lives of every individual caught inside of it.

As the darkness and lightning dissipated, Alex heard a lightning bolt ring through his mind before he heard Erebus burst into laughter.

As Alex's vision turned dark once again, he realized that the thunderclap he heard was just the creation of Lady Luculia, but Erebus should have truly heard it as it signaled that the worldly law had recognized him to be worthy enough to wield them.