Bloodlines Online

After bombing the inside of the tree he sat there waiting for the notification of all of the kills.

The damage over time was killing the swarm in the tree but he did not think the clouds of shadowfire would last much longer.

’These ants have a ton of damage resistance but I can bypass it with some of my spells, I should mainly focus on killing the queen to see the reaction of the hive.’

When he tried to harm the queen he heard an odd sound coming from the tree itself which resembled that of squealing metal on metal.

He focused his spells on the root system to ensure the tree was well harmed and damage would spread further to reach the queen but then he saw the searms of ants growing larger.

That was when he saw that the ground where the tunnels had once been were now teeming with these ants.

The reaction of the swarm surprised him and he wondered if the ant queen had somhow alerted them to her plight.

Along the edge and walls of the crater he saw large ants with powerful heads while down near the openings of the tunnels he saw what appeared to be workers show up to clean the mess.

The ants began to work together to shovel large amountsof dirt and stone away from their tunnels while others seemed to be sculpting the dirt into something.

The more he watched the more he saw that they seemed to be bringing more dirt from the depth of the swamp as they refilled the land to protect their nest.

The ants were surprisingly efficient in their ability to build.

He watched them build the ground back up by a few inches in seconds so he began to slaughter them all over again.

If he could find a nest with higher level ants then he would have an excellent source of not only experience and stats but also spell levels.

His frenzy bomb alone was ready to reach the next grade and he was nearly fifty levels above these ants.

He eventually chose to just nuke the ants again to try to kill the queen and leave.

When the frenzy star exploded in the pit it made all of their work go to waste but few survived to see it.

He picked them off with his frenzy wing spell before he went to the tree again.

Inside of the tree he saw that the guards had used their bodies to create a barrier against the shadowfire as protection for the queen.

He was impressed but he had recovered enough mana to create another start before coming down.

He threw the volatile mana construct into the hollow before stepping away in case an ant survived and ended up being blow into him.

When he saw nothing fall out after the detonation he checked once again and saw a large figure with a misshapen body writhing in the tree.

’Well the ant queen will be dead soon.’

The queen had strange claws on her legs that she flailed around, these claws struck the tree and created that shriek he had heard before so he threw a few more frenzy bombs inside while bombarding her with the frenzy wing spell.

This would probably be enough to kill her so he flew away before the swarm could get back to him.

The entire time he was doing this the shadowfire raged through the swamp and he didn’t know if the notifications he got were for the queen or for the creatures of the swamp.

Eventually he assumed the queen was dead when he saw the ants swarming worse than they ever had before, he let a few bombs fall to start consuming them and he left to find another clearing with hopefully stronger ants.

~

Astra had just watched the male slaughter the ants with raw power, something she had thought wasn’t worth it due to the defenses of the ants.

”He doesn’t even use the beam technique, he uses BOMBS!”

”Astra give it a rest, clearly he is doing something that others haven’t tried yet, that or he has a passive damage penetration skill.”

”No, clearly it’s the element he has... luck, all he has is luck!”

”You cannot deny that he uses it well and even if it were luck how would he have managed to get a merged element with fire?”

This response made her shut up but she still seethed.

A male having the element of shadows was a complete waste in her eyes.

The queen was the prime example of power with the shadow element, so powerful that she had lived for over a thousand years and only became the queen recently.

The way she had defended their ciry with nothing but her signature spell proved that the shadow element was the supreme element in her eyes so a male having the element was practically blasphemy.

’Why did the world have to give

him

the grand element? Give it to another female devil that would put it to proper use!’

No matter how skilled he was in his magic she would never get over the fact that he was a male, her whole life she had watched how male infernals wasted their potential.

Her own father had been born with the lightning element but he never even achieved a legendary rank spell.

He had never even gotten to the archmage level.

The thing she despised most was that she had inherited her mother’s natural poison affinity rather than the powerful lightning element.

Her flames had merged to create a poisonous plasma that propagated in the body the way flame spread across wood.

All of her siblings had somehow gotten her fathers element however and even her brother was born as a triple element!

’Wasted potential, I have to work my tail off to match the luck others have and just because they get something through random chance they can make my efforts look like nothing!’

”Astra I know that look in your eye, relax before you do something stupid.”

Ametra gripped Astra by the shoulders and began to force her to shit down on a stone.

”Jahlee is just trying to calm you down, just because the guy has a rare affinity doesn’t mean he was naturally able to grow stronger. He entered our world outside of our city remember?”

Astra nodded but her anger was clouding her judgement to much to allow her to connect the dots.

”That means he may have started in a region controlled by the church right?”

The moment this thought entered her mind she sucked in a breath with a sharp hiss.

”Exactly, even if the region was not controlled by them it still means they would have found him and tried to hunt him down.”

”So he would have had to be powerful to defend himself...”

”Yes! That’s what you have to remember when you speak to him. He would have been hunted by the church while we developed over the years in safety.”

She looked at Ametra with a mix of apprehension and disgust.

”Yeah... he wouldn’t have had people feeding him experience or teaching him the spells they inherited...”

”Exactly.”

”Fine I will respect his growth but he will still end up like all males with potential, wasting away as a husband with all of that potential going to his children at random.”

”Is it really so bad to let such potential shape the future of our people? He will find a coven and they will potentially birth many shadow mages that will propel the infernal kingdom into the top position of the world! ”

Asta smiled softly and nodded at her fellow coven member’s words.

”I suppose as long as he passes his skills on to his children he has not wasted his potential, you are correct.”

She agreed but deep inside that seed of anger simmered.

The trio watched him fly through the sky to another part of the dungeon until he was out of sight.

”The swamp has been cleared out. We should find the lake.”

The three stood to leave while their ally flew around destroying everything.

~

Lucretia was walking through the halls of her home with a look of longing, she had not wanted to leave her room all day but duty calls.

She entered the council room and kept a regal look of neutrality on her face until she sat down at the head of the table.

”Report.”

”You sure you are able to handle this meeting Lucretia? You don’t want to go back to your room and keep riding your hand until you pass out?”

A tall devil smirked at her from down the table and this earned a look of shock from the rest of the council and the nobles.

Lucretia turned to this woman slowly.

”Justicia Wrathborn... mind your tongue before I cut it out.”

”Oh but we all know that’s why you took so long. Tell me, was the male good? I’m sure you did not wait until the male was shown to be worthy of the status of king like you are meant to so what was it like to taste the young fruit?”

It went so silent that a one could have heard a pin drop.

Lucretia slowly stood up with a blank look on her face but every single devil there could feel the mana in her body surging.

”Why do they always do this?”

Soon a hand slammed on the table.

”Both of you STOP IT! This meeting is about the celestials declaring war on the church, we must decide if we will help the otherworlders or not.”

”Bah of course we will. They may not be our siblings in mind but in body they are and they are trying to destroy those bastards so win win.”

The noble woman quit her antagonizing while Lucretia returned to her seat.

”We must figure out how far our aid will go... we have been isolating ourselves from the other kingdoms so who knows how the people will react to intrusion from otherworlders and having tasks done by them to prepare for war.”

”I believe we should give our full support... I have isolated our people for to long.”

Lucretia had her hands clasped in thought as she stared down at the table.