Rise Of The Mage King

Chapter 5

The purple stars in the void suddenly flashed bright, blinding violet. The thousands of whispering voices merged into one single, terrifying roar that shook the very fabric of the dark.

"THEN LET THE FEAST BEGIN."

Pain hit Drogo like a falling mountain.

It was worse than the Mana Slag. It was worse than broken bones. He threw his head back and screamed. A thick, dark energy rushed into his chest, right where Vargus had pumped the poison. The entity was not just touching him; it was pushing itself inside his body, weaving into his blood, his muscles, and his mind.

In Drogo's mind, a strange, glowing text began to appear. It was not written on paper. It looked like words carved out of purple fire, burning directly into his brain.

[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION STARTING...]

[CONNECTING TO HOST: DROGO PAYNE...]

Drogo thrashed in the void. He felt his veins tearing open and stitching themselves back together. He felt the toxic Mana Slag that was killing him suddenly freeze, and then... it was eaten. The entity inside him devoured the noble's poison in one bite, using it as fuel to wake up.

[HOST ATTRIBUTE 'NULL' DETECTED.]

[ANALYZING NULL PHYSIOLOGY...]

[RESULT: ZERO MAGIC CORE. ZERO MANA LIMIT.]

[CONVERSION COMPLETE: INFINITE CAPACITY UNLOCKED.]

The whispering voices returned, but now they were inside his head. They sounded satisfied. ‘Yes. So much room. So much space to grow.’

Drogo was breathing fast. The pain was fading, replaced by a feeling he had never felt before in his entire life. He felt strong. He felt heavy with power. For eighteen years, he had been weak, sick, and tired. Now, a cold, dark energy flowed through him like a roaring river.

More purple words burned across his vision.

[THE ABYSSAL ARCHIVE IS AWAKE.]

[LEGACY UNLOCKED: THE GOD OF ENTROPY.]

[CURRENT STATUS: CORPSE-WALKER.]

[WARNING: Host body suffered fatal impact and magic poisoning. Original life functions have ceased. Dark magic is currently repairing and operating host body. You are dead, but you will not sleep.]

Drogo stared at the words. “I am dead?” he thought. But he could feel his hands. He could feel his heart beating. No, his heart was not beating like a normal human heart. It was pulsing slowly, pumping thick, cold power instead of normal blood. He was a Corpse-Walker. A dead thing kept alive by pure, dark will. It did not matter. Dead or alive, he had a job to do.

The purple fire in his mind shifted again, bringing up new information.

[NEW ABILITY ACQUIRED: MANA DEVOUR (RANK: S)]

[Description: You do not borrow magic from the world. You steal it. By making physical contact, you can consume the magic of any living being, spell, or magical object. Consumed magic increases your permanent power. You are the endless void. Eat to grow.]

[NEW ABILITY ACQUIRED: ENTROPY FLAME (RANK: S)]

[Description: The power of the forgotten gods. You can summon a dark flame that does not burn wood or flesh. It burns magic. It rots energy. It ages matter. Anything touched by this flame will crumble to dust.]

The words faded away into the back of his mind, waiting for him to call them again.

The void of nothingness suddenly began to crack. Drogo felt gravity return. He felt the cold air. He was falling again, but only for a second.

Smash.

Drogo’s eyes snapped open.

He was lying on his back. The absolute darkness was gone. He could see. He could see perfectly in the dark.

He was at the bottom of the Chasm of Forgotten Gods. The ground beneath him was not dirt; it was a mountain of bones, rusted armor, and broken magical weapons. The smell of rot and old death was everywhere. Thick, gray mist swirled around him, but it did not block his new eyes. He could see the jagged, sharp rocks of the pit walls.

Drogo sat up slowly. He heard a wet crunching sound. He looked down. His broken ribs were snapping back into place, knitting together with dark purple light. The pain was completely gone.

He held up his hands.

Before, his veins had been black and ugly, filled with Lord Vargus’s toxic magic waste. Now, the black veins were still there, branching up his arms and disappearing under his dirty shirt. But they were no longer a sign of sickness. They were glowing with a very faint, deep violet light. They pulsed softly, like rivers of dark energy.

He was no longer a sponge for their garbage. He was a weapon.

Drogo stood up. He was barefoot, wearing only the rags of a slum boy, but he stood tall. He looked around the massive, endless pit. There were giant shapes moving deep in the mist—monsters born from the magical garbage thrown down here over hundreds of years. Spiders the size of horses, snakes made of rusted metal and dark energy.

One of the monsters, a large hound with three eyes and a body made of rotting shadows, stepped out of the mist. It looked at Drogo and growled, showing long, sharp teeth. It smelled fresh meat. It leaped at him.

Drogo did not run. He did not even flinch.

He raised his right hand. He didn't know how to cast a spell. He didn't need to. He just remembered the words burned into his mind.

[Mana Devour]

As the shadow hound crashed into him, Drogo caught it by the throat. His glowing black veins flared bright violet.

The hound stopped mid-air. It tried to howl, but no sound came out. The dark magic making up its body began to rush into Drogo's hand like water going down a drain. Drogo felt a rush of cold, sweet energy enter his body. It tasted like cold water after a week in the desert. It felt amazing.

In less than three seconds, the giant shadow hound turned into dry, gray dust. The dust fell through Drogo’s fingers and blew away in the wind.

A small purple prompt appeared in the corner of his eye.

[Lesser Shadow Magic Devoured. Strength +1.]

Drogo looked at the dust on the ground. A slow, dark smile spread across his face. It was not a nice smile. It was the smile of a predator that had just realized it was at the top of the food chain.

He turned his back on the rest of the monsters in the mist. They were small meals. He had a much bigger meal waiting for him far above.

Drogo walked over to the towering, vertical cliff of the Chasm. The wall went straight up into the mist, hundreds of miles high. No human could climb it. No normal mage could fly out of it. It was a prison designed to hold gods.

Drogo reached out and dug his fingers into the solid stone wall. The stone cracked and turned slightly to dust under the power of his touch, creating a perfect handhold. He pulled himself up. Then he dug his other hand in.

He did not feel tired. He did not feel weak. He felt the endless hunger of the Abyssal Archive beating inside his chest.

Lord Vargus thought he had thrown away a piece of useless trash. The nobles of Solara thought they were safe in their beautiful palaces, drinking wine and playing with lives. They thought their power made them untouchable.

Drogo looked up into the impossible height of the dark cliff. His glowing violet eyes cut through the mist like knives.

"I am coming," Drogo whispered to the stone.

He began the long climb up. The Good Commoner was dead. The God-Slayer had awakened, and he was very, very hungry.