Awakening My Sovereign Authority

Chapter 4

Julian lowered his hand. He was breathing heavily, staring at the giant corpse. He had just killed an Alpha Abyssal Wolf. A terrifying monster that normally took a full team of five elite fighters to bring down. And he had done it with a single thought. He had done it without a weapon. 

"I..." Julian whispered into the silence. "I weaponized it."

The rest of the wolf pack stood completely still. They stared at their dead leader, then they stared at the broken, bloody human sitting on the ground. 

Julian slowly turned his head and looked directly at the pack. His eyes glowed with a faint, dangerous golden light. 

He didn't need to say a word. The air around him felt too heavy. It felt like standing next to a sleeping dragon. 

The wolves tucked their tails between their legs. One by one, they turned and ran as fast as they could back into the dark shadows of the canyon, whining in terror. 

They were gone. 

Julian was safe. But the danger was not completely over. 

The Fatigue Transfer had removed the terrible pain and exhaustion that belonged to Dominic. Julian’s burn was fading, and his ribs were slowly moving back into place. However, Julian was still incredibly weak. His own personal energy was gone. If he stayed out in the freezing cold night of the valley, he would die of exposure before morning. 

He needed to heal himself completely. He needed life force. 

He looked down at the dead Alpha Wolf. The beast was dead, but its body was still warm. In this world, every magical creature held a large amount of raw life energy inside their blood for a few minutes after death. 

"Let's see what else I can do," Julian muttered. 

He placed his hand flat against the thick fur of the dead wolf. He focused his mind on his new core. Sovereign’s Authority. If he could transfer damage out, he should be able to transfer life force in. 

"Give me your strength," Julian commanded the dead beast. "Vitality Siphon!"

The black and gold chain appeared again, but this time it was very short. It connected Julian’s palm to the wolf’s chest. 

Immediately, Julian felt a rush of pure, warm energy flow up his arm. It felt like drinking hot soup on a freezing winter day. His skin started to fix itself. The bruises on his legs disappeared. He took a deep breath, and for the first time in hours, there was no pain in his chest. 

"It's working," Julian laughed, a wild, disbelieving sound. "It's actually working!"

But Julian had made a mistake. 

He was entirely new to this power. He did not know how to control the flow. He was pulling the energy too fast, too hard. The Alpha Wolf’s life force was wild and chaotic, filled with the dark magic of Demon's Maw Valley. Mixing that dark magic with Julian’s new, golden Sovereign mana caused a dangerous reaction. 

The air around Julian began to hum loudly. Sparks of purple and gold lightning cracked across the rocks. 

"Wait, stop," Julian said, trying to pull his hand away. 

But his hand was stuck to the wolf. The energy was flowing into him like a raging river, overflowing his senses. 

The ground beneath him started to shake violently. 

Demon's Maw Valley was an unstable place. The magical pressure between Julian’s new power and the dark energy of the environment was too much for reality to handle. It sounded like a massive window breaking right next to his ear. 

Julian looked down. Directly beneath his legs, the solid stone ground was tearing open. But it was not just a hole in the dirt. It was a hole in space itself. A spatial rift. 

A bright, blinding blue light shot up from the crack. The rift quickly grew wider, expanding from a small line to a massive circle of glowing energy. 

Julian finally managed to rip his hand away from the dead wolf, but it was too late. 

The ground beneath him disappeared entirely. 

"No, no, NO!" Julian yelled, grabbing blindly at the edge of the rocks. 

His fingers slipped. 

Gravity pulled him down. Julian fell backward, tumbling directly into the glowing blue rift. 

The cold wind of the valley was instantly replaced by a rush of ancient, heavy air. The light was blinding. Julian felt like he was falling down a bottomless well. He spun through the air, screaming as the spatial rift sealed itself shut above him, plunging him into a brand new kind of darkness. 

He was falling fast. Far below him, breaking through the clouds of dust and magic, he saw something impossible. 

It was a city. 

But it was not Heavenfall City. It was ancient. Massive pillars made of white marble were broken in half. Statues the size of mountains lay crumbled on the ground. A strange, pale light glowed from the ruins. 

Julian had read about this place in the old history books at the academy. It was a place no human was supposed to enter. It was a place where gods had died thousands of years ago. 

He was falling straight into the forgotten depths of the Ruined God Capital. And the ground was coming up very, very fast.