Chapter 40: Using An Authority

Cassian remembered the future.

​Three years from now, a single name would shake countless civilizations.

​The Origin Formula.

​At the time, countless Lords believed Carrion was simply hoarding seemingly worthless resources, waiting for their market value to rise.

​The truth was far different.

​She hadn’t been investing. She had been experimenting.

​Every pile of materials. Every strange purchase. Every resource nobody else wanted, all of it had been consumed in endless rounds of brutal trial and error.

​And in the end, she succeeded.

​The Origin Formula was special because it granted power directly to the Lord.

Normally, a Lord’s strength was tied entirely to their summons. If those summons were destroyed, crippled, or killed, the Lord’s combat power plummeted accordingly.

​The only exception was creating a personal skill. But that was far easier said than done; most Lords spent centuries attempting to create even a single skill, and many died long before succeeding.

​The Origin Formula bypassed that bottleneck entirely. It granted strength that belonged to the Lord alone, power that could not be stripped away simply because a summon fell in battle.

​Of course, other formulas were capable of achieving similar results; the Origin Formula wasn’t the first. But it was widely acknowledged as the absolute best.

​Its effects were stable. Its growth potential was immense. And most importantly...

​It had fundamentally rewritten the fate of the Lord who consumed it.

​Cassian’s eyes narrowed.

​He had no intention of stealing Carrion’s opportunity. Doing so would be foolish. The future Carrion was valuable precisely because she remained alive to continue her research.

​Instead, he intended to do something far more profitable: build a relationship, strengthen the connection, and become someone she trusted before the rest of the cosmos recognized her worth.

​That way, when the Origin Formula finally shook the Astral Dominion three years from now, he would be standing close enough to reap the benefits alongside its creator.

​With that thought settled, Cassian pushed the matter to the back of his mind.

​There was nothing more to do for now. The seeds had been planted, and the harvest could wait.

​His summons still required time to heal, so Cassian turned and headed toward the Cemetery.

​Rows of weather-worn tombstones stretched before him as deathly mist drifted lazily through the air. Finding an empty grave beside Nyxara’s, Cassian sat down.

​The Champion remained fast asleep while the Cemetery accelerated her recovery. Seeing that she wasn’t awake yet, another thought crossed his mind.

​Since he had time to spare... Why not test her Authority?

​Cassian closed his eyes and reached inward toward his Lord Seed.

​The moment he activated the connection—

​A torrent of mana surged outward.

​His eyes snapped open. "What the hell?"

​The sheer volume of consumed mana was ridiculous. Even with Infinite Mana, he could still sense the staggering scale of the expenditure.

​It was like opening a floodgate. An endless river poured from his Lord Seed directly into the Authority.

​The phenomenon lasted only a moment before Cassian forcibly severed the connection.

​A strange expression crossed his face. "So that’s how it is."

​After a quick moment of consideration, he arrived at the answer. It wasn’t that the Authority was inefficient, it was him.

​His control over it was practically nonexistent.

Trying to use an Authority without understanding it was like swinging a heavy sword without knowing where the blade was pointing; the raw force was there, but most of the energy was wasted.

​Cassian rubbed his chin. "It seems I’ll have to properly learn how her Authority works."

​And there was only one suitable teacher available: Nyxara.

​Living Darkness belonged to her, after all. No one understood its intricacies better.

​Unfortunately, his Champion was currently unconscious, which meant he would have to keep experimenting on his own.

​Cassian closed his eyes once more.

​With no teacher, no manual, and only instinct to guide him—

​He resumed his practice.

....

The Mothkin flew through the night sky at tremendous speed, her dark violet wings cutting silently through the cold air.

​Below her stretched the dead lands of the Kragmar Dominion.

​The twin moons hanging overhead bathed the wasteland in pale silver and crimson light, illuminating jagged rock formations, blackened forests, and countless patches of barren earth.

​Her glowing violet eyes continuously scanned the terrain beneath her.

​Soon, she spotted something.

​A massive Orc Totem Pillar stood embedded deep into the ground.

The structure was over twenty feet tall, fashioned from gigantic beast bones, cracked skulls, and rough black stone.

Crimson markings covered its surface, while dozens of severed monster heads hung from rusted chains beneath its crown.

​It was a territorial marker, a brutal declaration to all intruders.

​This was the entrance to the Kragmar Dominion.

​The Mothkin’s eyes narrowed. Without hesitation, she folded her wings and dove sharply toward the ground.

​The wind roared around her frame before she activated one of her core abilities.

​[Shadow Wing]

​Dark, ethereal mist immediately spread across her dark wings, rendering her flight completely silent.

The fluctuations of death energy surrounding her body weakened to a faint whisper, and her very presence seemed to dissolve into the night.

​From above, she became nothing more than an inconspicuous shadow drifting through the darkness.

​Moments later, she crossed the territorial boundary.

​At that exact moment, the miniature Giant Bone Worm resting upon her shoulder established its telepathic link.

​’My scattered bodies have entered the territory,’ the child-like voice echoed directly in her mind.

​The Mothkin continued flying smoothly through the gloom. "Report."

​The Bone Worm quickly responded. ’The territory is enormous. Current estimates suggest it is larger than Lord’s Hollow, the Umbralwood, and the Bonefang Wastes combined.’

​The Mothkin’s expression remained calm, though her gaze sharpened. The sheer size of the region alone revealed why this area had remained unconquered.

Even locating high-value targets would prove a daunting task.

​She transmitted another mental directive. "Begin mapping the terrain. Prioritize anything unusual: military encampments, resource nodes, population centers, powerful lifeforms, and defensive structures."

​The Bone Worm immediately acknowledged the order. ’Understood.’

​Across the vast expanse of the Kragmar Dominion, countless miniature Bone Worms hidden beneath the soil received the command.

They immediately dispersed, spreading outward in every direction.

​Some burrowed deeper into subterranean caverns, others moved toward dense concentrations of death energy, and several surged toward distant, looming structures visible on the horizon.

​The reconnaissance network began expanding at a rapid pace.

​Meanwhile, the Mothkin pressed forward on her own trajectory. "I will proceed toward the center of the territory."

​’I will relay all discoveries as they surface,’ the Bone Worm replied.

​The telepathic connection quieted into a low rumble.

​The Mothkin descended lower into the canyons, the effects of [Shadow Wing] cloaking her existence as she glided seamlessly through the gloom.

​Soon, clear signs of violent civilization began appearing below: massive footprints stamped into the mud, crushed monster corpses drained of meat, and crude watchtowers fashioned from heavy bone and timber.

​Then, her violet eyes locked onto the silhouettes moving below.

​Orcs.