Adrean alucard's Arc

Chapter 20 of 28

Adrean walked the gray plain toward the spire. The dead dragon lay behind him. Lucifer watched from somewhere above. The city drew closer with each step, its runes glowing brighter now. Adrean stopped when a faint pulse touched his chest. He had felt this pulse only once before, when the throne first called him. His hand rose to it on its own. A panel of light opened in the air. His system had followed him here, past the sealed door, past every god's reach. A rewards tab blinked at the top. Adrean tapped it. One line stood out from the rest. His throne, far away in the bone castle, had sent him a gift for claiming the land beyond the door. He accepted it. Light gathered in his open hand and hardened into a sword. The blade ran red with sealed blood energy. Silver runes climbed its length. A gold gem burned in the crossguard, and mana threaded through the metal like living fire. Adrean turned it once. The weight felt made for him. He had built his strength through beatings and fists, never a weapon. Now his own throne had given him one that matched his blood. Below the sword's line sat a pile of leftover reward points. Adrean read the choices. He could store them. He could spend them on stored knowledge or new abilities. Instead he chose the option he trusted most. He poured every point into his body. The change hit at once. His bones thickened. His muscles pulled tight and grew dense. His skin turned harder than the dragon's scales he had just cracked. He dropped to one knee under the weight of it, then stood. He drove the new sword into the ground. Stone split around the blade like water. Adrean flexed his free hand. Forty years of Megalom's training had made him strong. This made him more. No god's gift, no stolen power. Only his throne and his own flesh. He pulled the sword free and swung it through a dead tree. The trunk fell in two clean halves. He looked past the trees. Far off, a shape rose above the city's edge. A vast tree, taller than the spire, its trunk laced with veins of glowing red. Green light coiled through its roots. The people of this land had built their whole city around it. Whatever power fed them, it grew from that tree. Adrean understood then what he must win. Not just the people. The root of their strength. He rested the blade on his shoulder and started walking again. His body was harder now, his weapon forged from his own crown. But the tree pulled at him with power he did not know, and the city's people had never seen his face. He would need more than muscle to make them kneel.