Chapter 6: Meeting Brightblade again
Seeing the mansion again after all this time brought joy to his heart. No one was there but it was maintained clean so he knew Brightblade was visiting the place often. He went downstairs into his old training space and knew it was time to remove the seal from the Imperium oath. While in the shadow realm he had studied the seal for years and while first, the task seemed borderline impossible he could now see the minute imperfections in the seal.
He knew that if the oath disk was made by the original creator of the seal he would have no chance of breaking the seal, at least not for a very long time but as things stood his insights into severing together with his Destruction essence and his knowledge of the seal would make the task achievable in days. He activated the Sage's bloodline and started his task, he slowly isolated the seal with the insight on severing, and through that sounds simple the sheer amount of tendrils from the seal made the task daunting.
But Arran was no longer the same guy and his control had risen exponentially in the time spent training in the shadow realm. Two days later this first step was achieved and all he had to do now was use his Destruction essence to eradicate the seal.
To his surprise, this step was almost effortless and this spoke volumes to how powerful the Destruction essence was because any other essence would not be able to achieve this with such ease. Finally, he was free from his oath and could tell Brightblade all he experienced in the Imperium. He decided to wait for Brightblade to come to the mansion and went outside to train while waiting. But first, he would have a proper meal and he took out some digger meat and slowly roasted it over the fire.
He then remembers about the pill recipe he bought from old Baki and decided it was time to master it. Though the pills still had a great effect on him it would be much more effective for Brightblade and Snowcloud, not to mention the life-saving grace it had on healing grievous wounds. Two weeks passed and he had almost mastered the recipe with the help of the Sage's bloodline and turned most of the digger meat in his void ring into two hundred pills.
Though closer to the pills from old Baki in the amount of essence contained than the ones from Archon Roshan, Arran was extremely happy with the results. It was now time to bond his shadow armor to himself and feed it some of the essence crystals he had gained in his expeditions into the Desolation. He had saved them for this purpose plus by running the essence through his body he could also increase his control over his essence and Realms. Normally one could not hold more than one shadow item because they would devour each other but he was a special case because his sword was the one that chose the armor for Arran. Though he could feel the unhappiness of the shadow sword when he was feeding the armor the essence crystals it didn't try to rebel and every now and then Arran also fed it a crystal.
With each day he could feel the bond between himself and the shadow armor increase and it brought joy to him. A week later his shadow sword alerted him to someone approaching the mansion but Arran was happy because he could feel it was Brightblade. A few minutes later she also sensed a familiar person near the mansion and knew it could only be Arran. She was ecstatic to see him because she knew the dangers he would face or at least she thought she did. She had planned for Arran to travel into the Imperium as a commoner and slowly learn their secrets but had no idea of the really he would face.
After a heartfelt moment greeting each other, they started talking and Arran told her all he knew about the Imperium and the Blightspawn and even the Shadow realm. The more he talked Brightblade's expression became one of disbelief for the immensity of the challenges ahead but knew Arran was speaking the truth. It all made sense but was no less horrifying. He gave her the forms he recovered from the ancient battlefield and to this Brightblade showed a warm smile and after he explained about their potential and how the insights could build upon each other to bring the very nature of reality to heel, her face was aghast.
He told her all he knew about the bloodlines of the Darian gods and how they died pushing the Blightspawn back and what he knew about enlightenment. He told her about the shadow blades and even gifted her a sword. At this point, she wanted to check his progress and challenged him to a sparring match. He knew how strong Brightblade was before he left for the Imperium but now he could defeat her even without using his insights.
His body alone was powerful enough to suppress her even when she enhanced herself with magic, and when Arran started using his insights she would lose in seconds if he didn't hold back. Her face was gloomy when she realized that gap between them, and knew few in the shadow flame society could rival him now. Especially with his incredible resistance to magic brought by his Master bloodline and the shadow sword.
Then she started telling Arran about the situation in the shadow flame society. While a few scuffles arose here and there things were mostly peaceful but they knew it was the calm before the storm. They were training the recruits for war and while progress was made she now knew they were vastly unprepared for what lied ahead. He then asked about Snowcloud and was happy to hear she was ok and training with the Matriarch.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
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