Grand Adventures of the Witch King

First Realm; Bridging stage!

Slowly but surely the darkness began to fade, giving light to a new day full of hope, life, and many possibilities. The daytime creatures had already started to stir during the early hours of dawn within the forest, while the plants seemed livelier as they shook in the morning breeze as they were touched by the first light of the day. It painted a splendid day with clear blue skies and majestic nature all abound.

It would seem so to many that just want to marvel at the beauty of nature and fresh morning, however, should they turn their sights on the landscape that was the location of the Tambe village their first thoughts would be those of fear, shock, and blood-freezing awe.

For at this moment, under the clear and bright sun there was nothing but a large stretch of land that was completely white, this was ash, but if one stared at the center they would see various sized pure white skeletons all littered on the ground, but if one moved to the center they would see hundreds of them, all laid flat on the ground all facing in one direction, a large man-sized egg glowing green and with swirling gold lights, representing a strange sight that gave one the chills as it just sat there in the middle of a field of bones and ash.

Not even a single bird dared to fly over this place at this moment, perhaps not in a long while. This egg, without a doubt, would be seen as the perpetrator of this event no matter how one looked at it. 

Crack!

The sound of something breaking echoed across this dead and desolate place, making the birds sitting on the trees far at the edge of the ash field get startled and fly away instantly as if their instincts warned them that they shouldn’t be close at this moment, for something very strange and not of this world was about to emerge.

And for good reason too, for the egg was cracking and the cracks started getting bigger and bigger spreading all across its surface. And with a loud crash a large, fair, and smooth hand struck out from within it!

It then swiped upwards, breaking the entire egg as it gave out sounds of glass breaking. And then all the shells flew up as if blown by an upward by an unseen force. They obscured the being that was born, no, reborn.

But this was not for long as he was finally revealed, shoulder-length, thick snow-white hair as if to mock the ashen grounds that laid beneath his feet. A pair of slender white sword-like brows, a high forehead and smooth thin pink lips yet a square and manly chin and jaws, supple jade smooth fair skin that made even beauties burn with envy. The delicate eyelashes on his eyelids trembled for a second before they open to reveal a pair of icy blue irises that had the deepest darkness one had ever seen in those pupils, yet if one looked deep enough and not get lost or sucked in this darkness they would see an emerald light flicker now and then.   

He had a handsome face that would capture the hearts of young maidens and earn great attention from older ones, that was not all that he had to show for, as now his body stood about 6’4’’. Broad shoulders, thick chest, and a sculpted torso littered with aesthetically ripped muscles such as a rigid 6-pack that could grate rocks into power, there no need to describe his manhood for it was almost like a third leg itself. He was extremely well built and athletic, yet with a delicate handsome face.

 “The ritual was smashing success, even better than what I had expected. This world is making me look forward to it more and more at what it has to offer.” A smirked graced the reborn Ezekiel, his new voice younger, soothing, and seemed to contain a hint of charm in it.

“Finally after all these months I have at last stepped into the first realm of my technique that I created using the other three after centuries of tweaking and experimenting if am right this would let me stand even further than before.” He muttered as he closed his eyes for a few seconds.

He then opened them as he gave out a helpless sigh and a wry smile on his handsome face, “And as expected this realm is very troublesome no matter the path is taken, too many restrictions are placed on me until I can move to the next one. If I was in a city or somewhere peaceful I wouldn’t have been bothered. But being in a freaking forest full of danger at every corner is not the best place to be in at this stage!”

This realm, which he dubbed the Aedificium realm, Latin for building and structure as this was a special realm to his all his power and progress in the future where his power was built and constructed, something he learned in the later stages of his past life.

The reason he called it troublesome was that while this cultivation technique was very powerful, even broken was that it didn’t draw power from the surroundings, nor from his body, yet, to power for his spells, charms, and abilities. No, that power that enabled him to stand above many even when so weak come from another dimension so far away, perhaps he even created one into existence, or it was a place he couldn’t even catch a glimpse of, whatever it was, it was the place his powers lay or got created. He wasn’t sure as he never got to touch the limits back then.

So this first realm was divided into two stages; Body Morphing stage and then the Bridge Laying stage, the first was obvious, to create a body that was suitable for the practicing and using of the arts in his tome, once that body was made which he just completed, it would start the second, which was to it create a sort of invisible breach in the fabric of space and time as well as other dimensions, to reach that dimension or plane of existence he mentioned, so it either created a new dimension or connect him to a very powerful, extremely high dimension to draw his power from, hence the name Bridge Laying.

The bridges created were different, with the normal path that was very weak, he had a bridge with the equivalent of a footpath, while the Holy, Demonic, and Normal path that required human blood was supposed to be an equivalent of a single lane road.

When he realized this difference when he had advanced far into the technique, saying that he was livid beyond measure is an understate but starting over meant destroying everything he had worked hard for especially when he stood at the peak that time. So he did his best to compensate for all that as well as work many years on the current technique he is using.

This body is the best, he could feel the powerful life essence and soul essence being used to create the bridge very slowly and carefully as if it was a delicate art under a very hidden and concealed level that even gods themselves could see nor touch as it was working on a way higher plane or dimension.

And the size of the bridge that was being made was huge, the size of an airport runway!

Though that is good, it was troublesome, as it would take longer as well as in a word ‘silent’, meaning it couldn’t even be detected by both gods and mortals of any kind that he was undergoing this process, for his safety.

In his past life, it took a month just to settle that footpath, from his estimations this one would take 3 months at most! Meaning he couldn’t touch the essence within his being and use it for anything that required him to draw power from within him, this meant his powerful techniques and arts were on hold until this ‘construction’ was done.

He thinking about this he paused for a moment but continued with a look of resignation. “Tsk! Oh well, am thankful for Ulo’s battle techniques as those would help me survive for now. Not all of them too as many draw from his essence as well, just the ones that use the energy from the air I guess.”

Shaking his head to clear those thoughts, he brought his hands together as if holding an invisible object, but with his fingertips touching each other, thumb on the other thumb, index on the index, and began to chant, immediately emerald green flames lit upon his wrists and snaked around arms towards his body.

Covering his entire body with green fire and within moments the fire died down, showing the now garbed Ezekiel in a beautiful long-sleeved grey robe that had dark green flame patterns it came with the same colored long pants and boots, the robe had a hood that could cover his head and even be lowered so much to cover and hide his face.

Even if this realm was useless at the moment in terms of combat abilities, it had a few survival and defensive abilities, the first being his Robe.  

This Robe was present in each stage, the only thing that would change as he advanced to another would be the color, style, added abilities, and strengthened previous ones. For color, each stage he advances into would have a different colored flame, that was even stronger such as the next one which would be enchanting scarlet flames.

As for style, this stage had only two, this robe form and one that removes the robe leaving him in a sleeveless shirt and pants with his boots on.

Lame? Yes, but that sleeveless shirt form had the same abilities as when he was robed such as; cold and hot temperature resistance, enhanced defenses from both physical and magical attacks, stealth, and lastly storage.

After all, this realm was not meant for combat only growth, but at this time and place it was annoying and troublesome, reason, why it was deadly, was that he was an ancient soul that had tricks up his sleeves.

“Luckily due to experience, I know tricks and loopholes that can aid me.” He said as he looked at the destroyed village that was nothing but ash without a change in expression.

His eyes indifferent as they looked stared at this view of death and desolation, for what he had seen and done before was worse than this, not to mention what he will do in the years to come will make this scene pale in comparison.

This was his path, in the years to come people will love him as well as hate him beyond measure, and he will see it to the end no matter what.

However, at the moment it was time to think of an important matter.

“Now, which path to take? From Ulo’s memories, his secret hideout is a few miles north, which is that way.” He pointed towards a path that had two distinctive Timbe trees with a small trail between them.

“I need to get there and acquire a few weapons and rations for my journey that he hid according to memory, as it is suicide to go against the creatures in this forest barehanded, well it would be possible in the future.” He shrugged with a smile, having gotten the direction to his destination Ezekiel began to walk, leaving footprints in the thick ash, yet for a strange reason, there was no sound, only a bit of dust being kicked up with each step.

It was a distance of 2.5 km from his position to the end of the ash field where he would enter the forest, so it took some time, the time Ezekiel used to make plans for his future.

One has to know that as a practitioner of the arts of witchcraft and magic, he had to create potions and concoctions of many varieties, to help him on his path, he can’t always rely on his magic as proven by the current situation.

But he discovered a problem, a big very problem and that was that he didn’t recognize any of the plants as well as animals from the memories he had gotten!

Sure he had three months to discover a few useful ones but that was not enough not even close, as the ecosystem here was very different meaning that he couldn’t create anything that involved potions. Talismans and artifacts on the other hand were simple to create as they didn’t require any herbs even if they did, they were very few.

This can’t do at all. He needed to find a place that had all the current studies on plants and animals in detail, such as an academy or school of some sort. From his memories, he learned that this place was very backward, not even the villagers who had traveled far and wide had ever discovered more civilized places other than similarly advanced villages.  

All he needed was just the types, functions, and uses of plants recorded, with those he would be able to experiment on his own and recreate the potions and concoctions that he needs according to the formulas he has.  

With such thoughts in mind, Ezekiel stepped on a patch of green grass after a long while, making him lift his head and stare at the canopy of green and large trees as well as the deep foliage that hid all manner of dangers from both fauna and flora.

He released a gentle chuckle as his eyes shone a green light and his entire robe shimmered for a moment, then his figure and presence got faint and as he walked in Ezekiel seemed to suddenly disappear, merging in the environment of the forest.

The forest suddenly got quiet for a moment as if paying respects to a new predator that had joined them, as well as a moment of silence to the fallen and those that will fall at its hands.

Just then a gentle breeze flew from within the forest towards the ash field, along the path it also erased all the footprints Ezekiel left behind and reached the skeleton remains, it brushed against the skeletons and they all silently crumble like dust.

Leaving nothing but a large patch of ash that had become a forbidden ground that not even the foulest creature would dare step on, as there was no longer any life within the grounds.