Dorian took a deep breath, cold air cascading around him as he opened his eyes. A wave of energy flashed out from his body, various Demonic Laws wavering in the air as he blinked.
He was currently sitting next to the Traveling Ice Waterfall back on Blizzaria. Its frigid, crashing ice continued its ever-present, brutal descent, ignoring the powerful Demonic being sitting right next to it.
After he sent off his letters, he finished all other miscellaneous things he needed to do and began his journey immediately. It had taken only a short period of time to cross the World Bridge to Blizzaria and reach this location. His speed had grown to such a monstrous degree, it was hard, even for Dorian, to truly appreciate.
Before he left altogether, however, he decided to meditate one last time at Blizzaria’s World Phenomena. He had already used Taprisha’s World Phenomena as much as he could with his Demonic Laws. All he had left with those was to break through and reach Completion.
His remaining Demonic Laws could use a little tempering, to ensure they were as complete as possible. Each one had finally reached the limit of 99%, just a step away from Completion.
That last step, however, was proving extremely difficult to cross.
Anomalies were gifted beings. Designed with the incredible knowledge of Ausra, the Wise Lady, and the boosted power and soul of Yukeli, it was not remiss to say there was no creature in all of the 30,000 Worlds better than an Anomaly when it came to Law sensing capacity or comprehension speed.
After all… that was their entire, created purpose. Yukeli’s goal for them was to gather knowledge, experience, information, any and everything he might be able to use to help him achieve his plans, as quickly as possible.
He would settle for nothing less than the best of the best, especially given his capacity as a literal Godking after he Ascended.
However… even with all of that said, stepping into Completion, the first step into King Class, was not something simple.
Throughout all existence, the number of Lord Class experts numbered in at least the hundreds of millions. The 30,000 Worlds were huge, with countless trillions of beings dotting reality. The sheer number of Lord Class experts wasn’t huge in comparison to the scale of reality, but there were still an extremely sizable number of them.
King Class experts, however, numbered in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million or two at the absolute most. Dorian wasn’t certain on these numbers, but felt like they should be roughly accurate.
Just looking at the data, it could be seen how extremely difficult it was to take the final step and reach Completion for any Law, even if one was carefully guided by a powerful expert or an esoteric Inheritance.
It wasn’t just a matter of studying and focus, but also one that required other factors. Experience, luck, or perhaps a combination of both.
Beyond Lord Class, King Class was simply a matter of accumulation and the strength of one’s Soul Spell Matrix, soul, and willpower. Dorian’s soul was already extremely powerful and had little need to adapt to handling a very large amount of energy. His strength of will went without saying. As a result, his Soul Spell Matrix instantly shot to the Peak of King Class basically as soon as he broke through.
And as for those that took a step further and reached Pseudo-Angelic, the total number did not exceed a few hundred. This final step, too, was absurdly difficult.
All of this accounted for one of the main reasons why he was traveling to the Greater World of Monta, and the Main Academy of the Free School of Thunder.
The Main Academy of the Free School of Thunder was a place full of archaic and modern knowledge. It was considered one of the absolute best places to train at when training in any type of Law and was renowned for its enormous knowledge stores.
Even more than that, however, was the fact that the Free School of Thunder had recently announced that they were having a temporary open enrollment session in which anyone that passed certain requirements could make free use of their facilities.
Hand in hand with that announcement was a second statement, declaring that a huge store of knowledge had been discovered and had been added to their research facilities, open for all Students of Law, as enrollees were called, to use.
Something like this was unprecedented, even for them. The Main Academy had a strict enrollment process and pursued background checks on anyone trying to enter it. For them to simply let anyone in, assuming they could pass a few easy requirements, at least in Dorian’s eyes, was extremely generous.
However, he had gotten this information verified thanks to the Aurelius Family, and knew it was all true for sure. He vaguely suspected that Kaladin had a hand in this, but he couldn’t know for sure. He had decided he would go look for the Thunder Saint when he visited.
The timing of all of this practically screamed it was a response to Yukeli in Dorian’s opinion. It felt like it was too little and too late for most people, but at least he could still make use of it. It was pretty likely the information he needed on his Demonic Laws could be found here.
He also had a second reason he wanted to visit the Free School of Thunder’s Main Academy.
And it also had to do with his Laws.
From history, he knew that Yukeli had already faced down a legendary warrior that used the Demonic Laws before: the Demon Emperor, a ruler of an entire race and the strongest Demon in existence. Dorian’s mastery was slowly inching its way to that same pedigree, but he held no illusions as to his battle prowess.
He was going to need more than just the Demonic Laws, and the Origin Law of Original Sin, if he wanted to take on Yukeli.
And that was where his Virtuous Laws came in.
–
Virtuous Laws
–
Law of Valor: 29%
Law of Charity: 21%
Law of Mercy: 27%
Law of Chastity: 15%
–
Currently, he hadn’t mastered all of the Virtuous Laws, but instead only comprehended part of four of them. His focus had been almost entirely on his Demonic Laws, but he had slightly managed to raise the comprehension of some of his Virtuous Laws.
He was certain there were seven Virtuous Laws, and also certain that there must be an Origin Law he could comprehend that would form from the merging of all seven Virtuous Laws.
He had never heard of any great warrior that had mastered all seven Virtuous Laws. Thus, if he mastered all seven, that would likely place him as the first Virtuous Master in the entire 30,000 Worlds.
A master of the Demonic Laws and a master of the Virtuous Laws… a Virtuous Master and a Demonic Master…
What power would he hold if he could master both sets of Laws at the same time? If he mastered two separate Origin Laws? If he merged not only all of his Demonic Laws but also all of his Virtuous Laws together?
Dorian had no idea. But he felt like the combination was bound to be something incredible.
And if he wanted to take on Yukeli… he would need something incredible.
He exhaled one last time and then slowly stood up. He stretched out his arms and legs, flexing his hands as he warmed up slightly.
He then turned his focus past the Traveling Ice Waterfall, to a large, inset stone doorway located nearby. His eyes zeroed in on it as he began to walk around the huge waterfall, making his way to it.
It was the entrance to the Ice Keep.
He crossed over to the doorway in a few moments, picking up the pace as he broke out into a jog. For Dorian, a jog was equivalent to an extreme sprint for most people. His perspective on speed had gradually shifted the more powerful he became.
The doorway was as he remembered it. There was a massive, complicated-looking array of symbols on the front, a type of magical and resistant lock that warded off unwanted guests.
Arial had gotten past this lock by using her innate Ability as a Lightsworn Fox, the Touching Light Ability, to melt through it.
Dorian casually held out his right hand.
A split second later, a brilliant blade made out of molten light appeared, causing a wave of steam to push out in the air as it reacted with the frozen air of Blizzaria. Dorian brought the weapon up close to the array, studying its effects.
Just by having it near the array, he could see flashes of energy reacting as some of the symbols lit up.
After a second, he pushed the sword up against the array and placed it on top of it.
Immediately, a burnt smell wafted out as the array reacted and began to melt, crackles of energy wracking the air.
Dorian began to increase the pressure from the Touching Light sword, forcing it to bore into the array in a matter of seconds. The ground beneath him cracked slightly as he placed an enormous amount of strength into the simple movement.
In just a single second more, the array trembled and then fell apart, a screeching sound splitting the air as the various symbols collapsed. The entire construct was split in twain a millisecond later, the door blasting apart to reveal the insides of the Ice Keep.
Dorian snorted slightly as he saw this, deactivating his Touching Light Ability.
It had taken Arial far more time to open this same array in what felt like so long ago. Dorian’s use of his Touching Light Ability, however, was naturally stronger, as was his physical prowess. The array had barely been able to restrain the current him, even when he was using only a fraction of his power.
He walked past the shattered remains of the entrance without a second glance, his eyes cool as he moved into the Ice Keep.
He found himself in a brightly lit entryway, glancing at sets of glowing white torches that were giving off a magical white flame, coating a set of iced-over stone walls in a bright luster. The floor beneath him was made of fine, carved stone, and set with ornate patterns of Grakons doing various everyday actions, like walking, eating, sparring.
Everything here was identical to his memories.
It seemed even the self-destruction of this entire area had been nothing much to repair for Blizzaria’s odd, cursed lands. He could vividly recall the concentrated power that had destroyed this area, forcing him to make a fast, dangerous escape.
Dorian continued to walk forward, moving quickly.
After walking past the entryway, he moved into a larger, more resplendent hall. Hundreds of tables and chairs were spread out in this hall, some type of great feast room. The cold ice that covered everything gave this room an eerie appearance. All of the chairs and tables were oversized, made for creatures much larger than them.
As he moved through it, he paused slightly.
Before, when he’d passed through this room with Arial, he hadn’t seen or noticed anything special.
Now, however, his eyes narrowed as he looked at a table that was set at the very center of the room.
This table didn’t look very different than any of the other ones. The only things that set it apart were the fact that it was situated at the exact center of the feast hall and that, unlike most of the other tables, there was only a single chair frozen next to this one.
Dorian walked up to this table and looked down at it and its singular chair, a small smile appearing on his face.
“Interesting.”
