I Can Copy And Evolve Talents

Chapter 1396  Aelon, The Speed Absolute

During the past few days after Northern decided to summon Caladhel, the Forge had been completed, and with it came the ambition heʼd been nursing since the planeʼs formation. He wanted to turn his Soul Forge into a proper domain of destruction that was simultaneously one of absolute peace. Hell and heaven bred in the same plane, and that plane was going to be his soul.

After the Forge, the next project was the Frozen Garrison. He had named it that because it was going to sit in the heart of the Glacial Mountain, a region of utter cold. Not that the cold mattered to his echoes. They were unaffected by severe weather conditions, just as he was.

The reason heʼd chosen the Glacial Mountain was simple: it was far bigger than the Volcano and connected directly to the Dark Plains, that expansive, seemingly endless extension of dark stone and grey skies. This was also the gate where he had first called upon Bairan.

The Red Mountain already had its purpose. The Volcanic Mountain, which he decided to rename Heartland, was going to serve as the center of the Plane, with the Glacial Mountain extending to its north. On the southern edges, the terrain transitioned into the Dark Plains.

In between the Heartland and the Red Mountain sat a lake that contained the outrageous flood Raven had once used to destroy an entire city. Northern at first did not know what to do with that water, so he dug around the Heartland, allowing the water to define it as the center by separating it into an island of its own. More echoes were still working to dig deeper and wider, giving the water the leeway to spread and multiply.

As for the Garrison, Northern began to invest strength in some of the Echoes. Recursive Generation created several evolution paths for the variants of every Echo that Infinite Iteration produced. But what Northern could also do was use Advanced Fusion to fuse two Echo variants together. At level one, he was limited to two at a time.

He decided to fuse all the variants of Caladhel that had been formed so far into one single entity, in order to appoint him the Commander of the humanoid forces among the echoes.

The Elves he slaughtered in Arcadia, the humans he killed in the Dark Continent, the White Walkers he cut through. All of them were being commanded by Caladhel, who wasnʼt so much Caladhel anymore and had become an enigmatic element of speed instead.

Aelon, the Speed Absolute.

Echoes worked in a different way than humans did. They couldnʼt retain their abilities and talents because they were merely echoes of what once was. But Endless, of course, broke that boundary by giving them the capability to evolve. Northernʼs ability to study the form of something before killing it also helped in that regard, because even though they became mere echoes, his inherent understanding of their true form imparted their mechanization and filled them.

This could not be said for most of the creatures that were slain before Northern became a Daemon. For those, Endless caused them to continuously evolve until that initial spark was now a mighty flame. And it was further amplified when Northern fused them all together.

This is what he had decided to achieve with Caladhel: making him Aelon, the Speed Absolute. It wasnʼt a far cry to say that the Echo had become a Sovereign of speed itself.

That same creature now crouched upon a tree, staring down at the people who dared to slaughter monsters within its area of jurisdiction.

Aelon had been assigned an important mission of watching over some riffraff, after all.

They stopped and looked up at the tree, tense with caution.

”Oii… oii…. It looks like Colak wasnʼt lying after all.”

The barbarian stared upward with a pale expression, his eyes barely containing the horror and despair he was feeling from gazing at that being. If this was the creature that attacked Colak, the man had not been lying. He was not under any mind hex. He had been saying the truth as it was.

The barbarian tried to move his hand to his sword, but his fingers were shaking. As a man who had built his entire battle prowess on instincts, every primal fiber in his body was telling him not to even dare.

But it was different for Adelaide and the young lady beside him.

They had unsheathed their swords… but that was it.

The creature was standing before them. The barbarian had no idea when it had moved, even though his eyes had been on it the entire time. It was simply too fast for him to catch.

Not just that… Both Adelaide and the lady were standing… headless.

And he didnʼt even know when this had happened. Blood sprayed from their necks as if something had slapped their heads clean off with a force that surpassed that of heavenly storms.

And here he was, standing before that thing. That thing that may have very well been the one responsible.

His body trembled and his legs weakened, driving him to the ground.

The creature looked at him with a grey, empty gaze. Its grey hair flowed back instead of spiking upward now. It didnʼt wear much for armor, just a light black leather breastplate that was sleeveless, revealing lean muscles and ivory skin.

If there was anything remarkable about a barbarian, it was their survival instincts.

”O dear, o dear, great one, please look away from this oneʼs foolishness. And grant me mercy, I will serve you with all my life and make sure you never regret making me your servant. Please, great one, spare my life.”

Aelon stared down at the man, tilting his head left and right with no words, as if wondering what to do.

Then at the same time he seemed to get an idea.

He grabbed the barbarian by the collar and pulled him deeper into the forest.