Path To Godhood Begins With Marrying Wife And Gaining SSS Rank Skill

The explosion settled and the dust began to thin. Ethan pulled his greatsword free from what remained of Volcanus’ skull, the blade scraping against cracked bone as he withdrew it.

He stood there for a moment looking down at the collapsed body of the ancient dragon, breathing steadily, and then turned around.

His eyes landed on the woman with the purple hair and the staff and his instincts fired immediately. Not the dull background awareness he carried into most situations but something sharper and more insistent, the kind that had kept him alive through things that should have killed him.

She was dangerous.

Whatever she was, standing there looking perfectly composed in the middle of a battlefield that had just had a mountain destroyed in it, she was not someone he wanted to treat carelessly.

He made a decision quickly. He set aside his guard just enough to leave room for conversation and rolled his shoulder once as he approached her, his expression settling into something weary but alert.

“Lady, you didn’t help me out of pity, right,” he said. It wasn’t really a question. “And this is just a clone of your true self yet it’s so terrifying, so I wonder who you are.”

A look of genuine shock crossed her face as she looked at him more carefully.

White hair.

The kind of face that belonged to someone in their fifties. And yet standing in front of her he felt less like a man of his age and more like someone who had simply decided that age was a suggestion. She found herself recalibrating quietly. He was like a little kid standing in front of her in terms of years lived and yet the strength radiating off him was anything but small.

Terrifying.

This was absolutely terrifying. Mythic Age at fifty. It wasn’t that there were none who had reached it, there were, but even most of them could not have seen through what she had done. Yet he had.

“You can see through it,” she said.

“Hmm,” Ethan nodded.

“How?” she asked, the shock still sitting plainly on her face.

“I am a mage too and I can see through your mana signature. It lacked the vital warmth of a human body,” he said simply.

“You are a mage too.”

The double shock almost made her question the world for a moment. Out of politeness she had not scanned him when they first met but now she found herself doing exactly that, her eyes moving over him with the focused attention of someone who had seen a great many things and was now seeing something that did not fit neatly into any of them.

“Are youngsters nowadays so strong or are we just too old?” she murmured.

SWISHH!

She moved, flying toward him and circling around him slowly, her staff held at her side and her gaze sharp and analytical.

“Draconic Bloodline. Blessing of the Goddess of Light. There is another blessing I cannot identify because it feels so foreign, as if it does not belong to this world at all,” she said as she moved around him.

Ethan felt his heart skip a beat and swallowed quietly. Just who the hell is she?

He could feel the sweat forming over his forehead.

“Ah, what a fine specimen,” she said, her eyes glowing faintly with interest.

Ethan jumped back a step immediately. “I am human, not a specimen. You cannot dissect me,” he said, already preparing quietly to activate every escape option available to him.

Is she one of those crazy ones from the Mage Tower? Fucking hell.

Seeing his reaction, something rare crossed the woman’s face. A small and genuine smile that clearly unfamiliar, as if the muscles required for it had not been used in some time.

“Hahahah,” she laughed softly and then seemed to catch herself. “It has been a long time since I smiled. Do not worry. I do not have that habit. I am just truly fascinated by you. It is not an everyday scene when I take interest in someone.”

Ethan kept his expression neutral but did not move back toward her. “What happened to those you took interest in?”

“Dead,” she said.

His body went still.

“Ah, I did not kill them,” she added quickly, waving her hand to clear the misunderstanding.

“You see, our journey is quite long and during those times we are bound to meet someone special. Alas, they were not as good as they showed themselves to be.” She sighed and a faint trace of melancholy passed through her expression before it settled back into composure.

“Cough,” Ethan cleared his throat. “Lady, I think we should jump to the main point.”

She nodded and straightened slightly. “I was searching for a dragon around the world and on getting the signals I rushed here and helped. I need the dragon heart for research.”

Ethan’s expression shifted and turned a little ugly hearing that but he kept himself in check. It was a loss on one hand but it was also an opportunity to form a connection with someone like her and that was not something he could dismiss carelessly.

“Truthfully I only need the dragon crystal and the dragon soul  residing in it, and also a bit of blood for forging. You can have the rest,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow. “You know, forging?”

Ethan nodded. There was no need to hide it. The more he demonstrated, the better his position in any negotiation they were about to have.

The woman smiled and nodded slowly. “Good. You are clever.”

She extended her hand and several magic circles bloomed outward from her palm in layered formations, stacked and rotating with a complexity that Ethan studied carefully and still could not fully decipher. Whatever she was casting, it was well beyond the level of most things he had encountered.

Then from the direction of Volcanus’ corpse, a draconic roar erupted without warning.

It came from somewhere deeper than the body, raw and furious and disoriented, the kind of sound something makes when it realizes it has lost everything it was. The soul of the ancient dragon tore free from the cooling corpse and rose into the air above it, massive and writhing, its shape still carrying the outline of the dragon it had been even as it twisted and reached in every direction looking for escape.

The magic circles responded instantly. Chains of pure white energy exploded outward from the formations and shot through the air with precise and violent speed.