Soren looked at the towering, red-scaled beast, feeling the heat radiating off its body.
He suppressed the inner child within him that was ecstatic about the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ride a dragon, though his inner turmoil still raged beneath the surface.
“Mount up,” the Empress instructed, gesturing toward the dragon’s broad, armored back.
“Ignus will drop you off in Droc in approximately a day or two.
The commander there has already been notified of your arrival.”
Soren glanced between the dragon, the Empress, and his former squadmates.
“Just me?” he asked, pointing a finger at his own chest.
“None of you are coming?”
“We have to handle the active crisis here,” Rivor replied, shaking his head.
“We don’t have the luxury of crossing Vulcanis by dragon.”
“I have duties in the capital addressing the assassination of my father,” Meridia added, her sharp eyes locking onto Soren.
“You will use the flight to polish your Awakened abilities.
I know you haven’t had the time to properly learn what they are.”
Meric gave Soren a supportive nod and squeezed his shoulder firmly before pulling his warm, healing hand away.
“Take care of yourself, Soren.
Don’t die.”
Soren took a deep breath, steeling himself, and nodded, appreciating the sentiment.
He approached the massive red dragon, feeling those intelligent emerald eyes tracking his every move.
Finding a foothold on the dragon’s scales, he hauled himself up onto Ignus’s back and found a comfortable, stable place to sit.
With a final glance down at the Empress, Soren gave a stiff nod.
“I’m ready.”
Ignus let out an earth-shattering roar that rattled Soren’s bones before throwing its massive wings wide and violently pushing off the ground.
The air slammed into Soren like a physical wall as the shattered streets of Genesity plummeted away.
The wind whipped furiously against his skin, threatening to hurl him off Ignus as the legendary dragon sliced through the skies and into the clouds.
Just when he felt like he was going to slip off and fall to his death, the violent winds disappeared.
Breathing heavily, Soren looked around and saw a translucent barrier around him, preventing the strong winds from blowing him away.
Below, he saw the land flashing by him through the breaks in the clouds as he continually ascended higher.
Within moments, the world was swallowed by a blanket of white.
He was completely alone, suspended thousands of feet in the sky on the back of a legendary creature.
As the adrenaline wore off, Soren settled down.
With a day or two of flight ahead of him, he finally had the peace and quiet needed to experiment with his newly awakened abilities
Soren knew that becoming an Awakened tempered one’s body, allowing them to shed their mortal limits.
Awakening enhances every part of a person, from their mind to their fingertips, but there is a more profound change when someone awakens: they unlock entropy—the essence of the Orders of Ascension.
He closed his eyes and reached deep within himself, feeling the pool of entropy that sat within his core.
Soren had occasionally heard stories about how Ascenders manipulated their entropy and what they used it for, but now that he had the ability to manipulate entropy himself, he found it completely different from how others described it.
It was a warm, structured flow that felt relaxing to manipulate.
When he willed the entropy to spread from his core to every part of his body, he found his strength and vitality greatly increased while his cuts and burns healed faster.
By all means, he didn’t become as strong as a Force-pathway Awakened or heal as fast as a Divine Life-pathway Awakened, but his body, soul, and mind were all enhanced.
When he tried to figure out what his entropy could do and what pathway he was following, he found that he couldn’t really manipulate the entropy to do anything beyond enhancing his body.
He opened his eyes and looked at his hands in confusion before he remembered he had an invaluable tool—the Dream Sword.
Soren unsheathed the Dream Sword and set it gently on the dragon’s back, using the entropy he had to manipulate its size to a giant broadsword.
At least he could use entropy to manipulate the Abyssal Items he possessed.
He willed the mirror-like silver blade to show information about him, and the reflection warped violently until it displayed text.
Titles: [Champion of Order]
Rank: [Awakened]
Pathway: [Order]
Abilities: [Neutral Domain], [Simple Domain]
Order of Transcendence: [0/1000]
Soulbound: [Dream Sword]
Soren stared at the black boxes at the end of his name, feeling a flicker of hope appear in his chest.
He never really knew his last name, assuming he had never received one.
Yet the text on the Dream Sword revealed otherwise.
He tried to guess what it could mean but soon gave up, unable to decipher it.
He moved down and looked at his titles before an eerie chill went down his spine.
“It begins, Champion of Order.”
Soren remembered the Abyssal Titan calling him the ‘Champion of Order’ and Shindo praying to the Champion of Order in order to grant him strength.
Soren grimaced, but berated his own hesitation.
In a world that wanted him dead, he couldn’t afford to be picky about where his strength came from.
Power was power and he needed any edge he could to achieve more strength.
He willed the Dream Sword to show him more information on the [Champion of Order] title.
Title: [Champion of Order]
Description: [You are the Child of the Fourth Order.
You are the sole follower of the path of Order and have disavowed the path of Chaos.
You can consume Nonexistence without discretion and use syntropy.]
Soren sucked in a sharp breath.
Usually, Ascenders were forced out to seek specific Nonexistence Essence aligned strictly with their chosen pathway, gambling their lives to find Abyssals that matched their needs.
But with this title, he could absorb any Nonexistence Essence and use it to climb the Orders of Ascension.
That was a game-changing title—one that gave Soren an unbelievably sharp edge.
Of course, he’d have to verify whether it was true, but after recalling how he consumed the Nonexistence Essences at the end of the Order Break, he began to believe it was.
Then his eyes locked onto the final word.
Syntropy.
Soren closed his eyes, focusing back on the comforting, structured warmth in his veins.
Ascenders always described entropy as chaotic and cold.
But his energy was different.
It wasn’t entropy as all—it was syntropy that flowed with order and warmth.
He let it flood his body, embracing the calming warmth before moving on.
The title called him the ‘Child of the Fourth Order’ which he had no idea what that meant or how to decipher it.
He pushed it to the back of his mind and moved to his pathway.
Soren saw that the Dream Sword stated he was following the [Order] pathway.
That wasn’t one of the pathways he knew about, but a completely new one.
He knew that there were some pathways that were banned according to the laws of Vulcanis, such as the Demonic pathway, but he had never heard of the Order pathway.
Yet something nagged at him.
He quickly checked his title and sucked in a sharp breath.
It stated that he was the sole follower of the path of Order.
If he was to assume that literally, then that would mean he was the only person who had the Order pathway.
He felt his heart racing at the revelation, looking down at the Order Essence stone that rested on his chest.
It was, without a doubt, one of the main reasons he became the Champion of Order.
He couldn’t find another reason for how he was ascending the Order pathway when he was the ‘rightful heir of the Order Essence,’ as the Abyssal Titan had said.
Soren was filled with even more questions than he had started with, and his head began to throb.
He sighed, shelving it for later once again. The source of this chapter is g.com.
He wasn’t equipped to start solving these mysteries.
He shoved the annoyance aside and willed the Dream Sword to show him the descriptions of his abilities, his anticipation building.
Ability: [Neutral Domain (Passive)]
Description: [You naturally generate an invisible domain around yourself.
You are able to detect anything that enters your domain and generate Domain Energy proportional to the value of the detected target]
Ability: [Simple Domain]
Description: [You can establish a domain around you using Domain Energy.
While within its boundaries, your capabilities are enhanced, and any domains you create are strengthened]
Soren analyzed the text carefully.
At first glance, they seemed far less flashy than Rivor’s destructive lightning or Meric’s versatile utility, but that was merely at the surface.
The Neutral Domain allowed him to sense anyone or anything that got near him.
He recalled the arrow in the Undercity, its speed likely empowered by the strength of an Awakened.
With the Neutral Domain, he was able to dodge and deflect its deadly trajectory.
Its main purpose, however, was the fact that it generated a second source of energy alongside syntropy.
Soren could feel the syntropy naturally replenishing itself within his core, but when he focused deep within himself, he felt another, more alien warmth that filled his soul.
When he closed his eyes and focused on the alien warmth within his soul, he could feel it replenishing itself.
When he focused on the source, he felt the Domain Energy flooding into his soul from Ignus—the legendary beast he was riding.
Soren’s eyes snapped open as the realization struck him.
It was somewhat similar to the surge of power he felt after the Abyssal Titan unleashed its devastating spatial attack.
However, he found that the steady flow was much weaker than the violent surge that had filled his capacity instantly.
That meant Domain Energy required the presence of powerful beings—allies or enemies alike.
Around normals, the intake wouldn’t even be noticeable, but near Ascenders or Abyssal horrors, his secondary reserves would overflow.
Soren’s mind whirred as he formulated plans on how to capitalize on the Domain Energy.
Obviously, he would have to either recharge his reserves from his teammates or engage in constant battle and use it sparingly.
In both scenarios, he’d have to be around Ascenders or Abyssals.
Soren grimaced at the limitations of his ability.
It would be amazing if he could naturally generate Domain Energy passively, but it seemed that he would only generate it if he was around Ascenders.
On the plus side, he wouldn’t need to be sparing about whether he should use syntropy for enhancing his body or using his abilities.
He sighed before moving on to the ability below it: the Simple Domain.
It seemed easy enough.
He would use the Neutral Domain to generate Domain Energy and then use the Simple Domain to strengthen himself—possibly compounding his strength if he used syntropy and Domain Energy together.
Soren was annoyed at how underwhelming his abilities were, given he was the Champion of Order, before he froze, recalling his desperate clash with Scrappy in the Undercity.
He had blindly used the alien warmth in his chest that triggered a blinding white light that had been expelled from his body and created a flat circle of white light around him.
Within that circle, the world itself slowed to a crawl and he felt his power spike to terrifying heights.
He could have easily killed Scrappy right then and there, but he decided to spare his life.
That must have been the Simple Domain!
He had used all the Domain Energy he had stored up and expelled it all at once, and it was more than enough to nearly freeze time with a single application.
Soren felt his capacity and realized it wasn’t nearly as full as when he had used it on Scrappy, but if he managed to use it sparingly while charging it up, then he could have an invaluable trump card.
Soren felt a wide smile stretching across his face as his heart began to beat in anticipation.
Although he had originally thought his abilities to be somewhat useless, he could become a deity for a few moments if he used them correctly.
He didn’t even need to use it in explosive bursts.
If he used it in conjunction with his syntropy, then anyone who entered his domain would be in for a surprise.
Leaning back against the dragon’s warm scales, Soren closed his eyes and began channeling the surging energies, eager to familiarize himself with his abilities long before they hit the northern border.