The Desolate Mountains (The Divine Elements Book 2) Read online

  THE DESOLATE MOUNTAINS

  Copyright © by Daman

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be produced in any form by any electronical or mechanical means including photocopying, recording or information storage and retrieval without permission in writing from the author.

  Other Books

  Book 1 – The Blood Legacy

  For any issues regarding the book, contact at:

  [email protected]

  Patreon: www.patreon.com/daman

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 – Five Years Later

  Chapter 2 – The Hunt

  Chapter 3 – A Warrior’s Heart

  Chapter 4 – A Nightmare

  Chapter 5 – White and Grey

  Chapter 6 – Rise of the Beasts

  Chapter 7 – The Bloodline of a Beast

  Chapter 8 – The Will of a Student

  Chapter 9 – A Decision Made

  Chapter 10 – Departure

  Chapter 11 – Revelation

  Chapter 12 – A New Territory

  Chapter 13 – The First Strike

  Chapter 14 – The Cry Of A Beast

  Chapter 15 – The White Room

  Chapter 16 – Ezkael

  Chapter 17 – The First Shape-Shift

  Chapter 18 – Conflict

  Chapter 19 – It’s Unsightly

  Chapter 20 – Visitors

  Chapter 21 – Remembering The Past

  Chapter 22 – The Howl Of A Child

  Chapter 23 – Hope for the Future

  Chapter 24 – The Piercing Eyes

  Chapter 25 – Companion

  Chapter 26 – Intruder

  Chapter 27 – Entering the Beast City

  Chapter 28 – The Beginning of a Change

  Chapter 29 – The Life of a Destitute

  Chapter 30 – The Little Birdy

  Chapter 31 – The Opponent

  Chapter 32 – Lightning in the Sky

  Chapter 33 – Plans in Motion

  Chapter 34 – Will of Lightning

  Chapter 35 – Disappointment

  Chapter 36 – Lightning vs Lightning

  Chapter 37 – Flow of Lightning

  Chapter 38 – Rebran

  Chapter 39 – Misfortune from Birth

  Chapter 40 – The Third

  Chapter 41 – News of War

  Chapter 42 – The Puppeteer

  Chapter 43 – Under The Moonlight

  Chapter 44 – Vengeance

  Chapter 45 – Turmoil Within The City

  Chapter 46 – Chains of Lightning

  Chapter 47 – The Search

  Chapter 48 – Arrival

  Chapter 49 – A New Brother

  Chapter 50 – The Two Forces

  Chapter 51 – Tragedy Befalls

  Chapter 52 – The Start of the End

  Chapter 53 – The Forgotten House

  Chapter 54 – Epilogue

  Chapter 1 – Five Years Later

  A shrill cry of an avian beast resonated within the mountain range, as a ferocious bird in the sky searched for its prey.

  Under the clear blue sky, a tall youth valiantly stood on top of a small cliff, as a gentle breeze grazed his body.

  His dark black hair swayed with the wind, while his bronze skin glistened with sweat, and his whipcord muscles rippled under the sunlight.

  Completely bare-chested, the youth only wore a pair of shorts made from fur.

  “Puff… puff… can I take a break, Teacher?”

  Calron rasped, as his thick muscles twitched with exhaustion.

  Five years had passed since he had entered the Desolate Mountains, and Calron had gone through many physical changes.

  He was several feet taller than before, and currently stood taller than most grown men. An angled face and a sharp jawline had replaced his previous childish features, not to mention the thick muscles covering his body.

  Bursting with an unrestrained energy, Calron now exuded a primal aura akin to that of a beast.

  His body was much more developed than a normal thirteen year old, and this was all due to the intense physical training that the Voice had forced him to undergo once they had entered the Desolate Mountains.

  Over the past five years, Calron had long ago reached the peak of the Spiritual stage, but since then, his Teacher had prevented him from cultivating his essence any further, and made him solely train his body.

  Calron had persistently asked the Voice for the reason for not cultivating anymore, but he only received half-hearted replies from the Voice.

  Knowing that there was a reason his Teacher had forbade him from cultivating his essence, Calron could only dejectedly follow his Teacher’s commands.

  So, for the past three years, Calron had been only training his body!

  His training had included lifting heavy rocks and carrying them across large distances with no rest, or sometimes swimming in water with weights tied to his back. Other times, the Voice would tell Calron to simply run up and down the mountain, and continue the cycle until his legs would collapse.

  The first few months of this torturous training had been a nightmare for Calron, but as his body grew accustomed to the strenuous physical activity, the training started to become easier and easier, until Calron no longer collapsed mid-training.

  However, recently, there was different routine that his Teacher had started to implement. It forced Calron to train his battle instincts like reaction speed, deflecting and dodging attacks, or simply surviving an enemy encounter.

  The new training was to bare-handedly fight the low ranked magical beasts.

  On normal occasions, Calron could easily defeat any magical beast within the Spiritual stage, but his Teacher had commanded him to just use his physical strength to fight them, without the aid of his lightning or the Blood Legacy.

  Unlike humans, magical beasts were born with extremely tough bodies and rather than cultivating their essence, most beasts relied on training their physical bodies.

  It had been quite humiliating for Calron when he had to run away from a measly fifth ranked beast.

  The large cat-like beast was much more agile than Calron when he was not using the Blood Mist Step, and his skin was unable to resist the sharpness of the large cat’s claws.

  Calron had miserably slept that night with pitiful scratches all over his body, while the Voice continued to unceasingly laugh at the boy for being defeated by a large cat.

  “You can rest now, Calron.”

  The Voice calmly stated, as a dark cloud of smoke suddenly coalesced next to Calron.

  The smoke soon materialized into a vague humanoid shape and quietly stood next to the youth.

  After Calron had advanced to the seventh rank, the Voice had revealed its human form to him for the first time. Although the Voice could not remain outside for a long period of time, as Calron’s strength increased, the duration of this time increased as well.

  “Five years… a long time has passed since then. Do you miss them?”

  The Voice quietly asked while observing the scenery of the range of mountains below them.

  Calron slowly sat down at the edge of the cliff, as he longingly gazed at the horizon with a forlorn expression on his face.

  “I miss both of them… I know Fatty has gotten a lot stronger, but I just can’t seem to sense Master’s presence anymore… ”

  Calron whispered as he tightly clenched his right fist.

  Elias’s bridge in the Blood Legacy’s source pool was already damaged before when he had lost the ability to cultivate, and with such great distance separating them, Calron had no idea about his Master’s sit
uation.

  “Kid, how far have you come along in controlling the Azure Lightning?”

  The Voice tried changing the topic, as it knew that whenever the boy reminisced about his Master, he would be depressed for several days.

  “Oh! I think I managed to freely will it to come outside of my body for an entire minute!”

  Calron exclaimed in an excited voice as he turned towards his Teacher.

  Once Calron had reached the peak of the Spiritual stage, the Voice had suggested for him to try bringing out the Azure Lightning and learn to control its power.

  Initially, Calron could only draw it out for a few seconds until a sharp pain would shoot across his body. However, recently, Calron had reached a stage where he could manifest the power of the Azure Lightning for an entire minute!

  *crackle*

  A faint tendril of blue lightning burst above Calron’s palm, as it flashed across his fingertips.

  An immense pressure could be felt just from that small bolt of lightning! After several seconds, veins started to pop on Calron’s hand, and drops of sweat coalesced on his forehead.

  “Dammit!”

  Calron abruptly yelled, when he started to feel the strain of controlling the Azure Lightning.

  With a loud crackling sound, the blue lightning abruptly dispersed into the air.

  “That is still pretty impressive, kid! I’m sure once you reach the Vajra stage, you will be able use more of its power.”

  The Voice stated as it tried to smile with its smoky face.

  Calron suddenly laughed out loud when the saw the expression on the Voice’s face.

  Although the Voice had the rough shape of a human, his ‘body’ was completely made out of a mysterious dark smoke, so his smile just appeared as a floppy toothless grin.

  “Tch, shut up, you brat!”

  His Teacher sulkily shouted, as he returned back inside Calron’s body. This was not the first time Calron had fun of his appearance.

  Chuckling at his Teacher’s behavior, Calron slowly stood up from the cliff’s edge and gave one last glance at the mountains below, before turning around and walking away.

  For the past five years, he had solely remained in the outer area of the Desolate Mountains, as the Voice had told him that he could only enter the inner mountain range after reaching the Vajra stage.

  Even if Calron continued to cultivate now, he still would not be able to break into the Vajra stage, as a monstrous amount of essence was required for that process! With the limitations on Calron’s lightning element, it was almost impossible to gather that much lightning essence from the environment.

  It was only due to the Thunder-Bird technique that Calron had even been able to reach the peak of the Spiritual stage this quickly.

  However, Calron had a feeling that the Voice knew a method for him to break into the Vajra stage.

  “Sigh… I’ll just have to wait until Teacher reveals the secret to me.”

  Calron muttered to himself, as he walked towards his current cave.

  Since him and his Teacher moved around so much, Calron had gotten very good at detecting inhabited caves, and the recent one that they found was slightly larger than usual.

  The Voice had also taught him a technique that created an invisible barrier at the entrance of the cave, to prevent any beast under the eighth rank of the Spiritual stage to enter it.

  After Calron reached the entrance of his cave, he suddenly released his essence and a thin sheet of light flickered before the cave’s entrance. When Calron’s essence touched the barrier, it immediately dissolved into thin air.

  Rushing into the cave, Calron soon came out into the open, with a large skinned bird under his arm.

  Gently setting it on a nearby flat slab of rock, Calron slowly took a few steps back.

  *crackle*

  Golden lightning abruptly erupted around Calron’s hand, as he slowly directed the lightning towards the skinned bird.

  The Voice had taught him this little trick several years ago, and Calron had soon become extremely adept at cooking meat with lightning.

  Although, there had been several instances where he had burnt the meat to a crisp, it had stopped occurring after a few months of practice.

  The best thing about cooking with lightning was that Calron did not have to spend hours searching for dry wood, or carry an extensive collection of cooking utensils with him.

  Within a few seconds, the aromatic smell of a roasted bird started to permeate the air and Calron slowly withdrew the lightning back into him.

  However, just as Calron was about to grab the delicious bird, a shadow suddenly approached behind him.

  Chapter 2 – The Hunt

  *Grrrr*

  A low growl suddenly sounded out behind him, and after hearing it, Calron immediately rushed to grab the roasted bird.

  It appeared as if Calron already knew who this unknown beast was.

  A fierce and terrifying battle was currently taking place between man and beast.

  Droplets of sweat formed on Calron’s forehead, as he desperately tried to force back the persistent creature. With a furious expression etched onto his face, Calron angrily glared at the monster fighting him.

  Under that intense scrutiny, the ferocious beast showed no signs of backing down and returned an equally fierce glare towards Calron.

  It was clear that neither the boy nor the beast wanted to admit defeat!

  “You damn monkey! Let go of my bird!”

  Calron heatedly yelled, as he tugged the right leg of the roasted bird.

  “Gagaga!”

  A small baby monkey was on the opposite side of Calron, as it tightly gripped the wing of the roasted bird!

  The tiny monkey was a common magical beast of the forest known as the Golden-Bellied Ape. A fully grown ape of that species had a coat of bright yellow fur and a protruded golden colored belly. Adult apes would only reach around two feet tall in their lifetime, so they were a relatively small-sized beast.

  Although they were not overly strong, they were still part of the magical beasts and thus had an astonishing amount of physical strength.

  This baby monkey had been pestering Calron for weeks since he had started living in the new cave, as it had once seen that the human boy cook some delicious meat.

  A few weeks back, it had come up to Calron with its large cute eyes staring at him, as it pitifully pleaded the boy for some food.

  Feeling bad for the baby monkey, Calron had generously given it a slice of the cooked boar that he had cooked back then. However, the little monkey had quickly gobbled it up, and turned its misty eyes once again towards the boy, as if requesting for more of that delicious meat.

  Thinking that the baby monkey had probably been starving for days, Calron had gingerly handed it an entire leg of the cooked boar.

  The little monkey had cheerfully grabbed the leg, and immediately darted away while excitedly yelling into the surroundings.

  “Gagaga!”

  Seeing that the baby monkey was so happy, Calron had sat down and enjoyed his own meal.

  However, the little yellow monkey had returned the very next morning, boldly and struck out its hand, as if asking for more food from the human stranger.

  Still groggy from sleep, Calron absentmindedly handed it a belly-cut of last night’s boar, but the little monkey rapidly shook its furry head while it gave a disdainful look at the cut of meat.

  After a brief second, it excitedly pointed towards the last leg piece, as a trail of thin drool started to seep from the corner of its mouth.

  “You little punk! That’s mine! Just eat this!”

  Calron stated in an irritated voice, as he pushed the belly-cut meat in front of the baby monkey’s eyes.

  Seeing that the large human was not giving it what it wanted, the baby monkey angrily stomped its tiny feet and suddenly rushed to snatch the last leg piece.

  “Dammit!”

  Realizing that his meal was about to be stolen, Calron had immedia
tely activated the Blood Mist Step, while he grabbed the leg piece, and reappeared a few meters away.

  “GAGA!”

  The little monkey furiously screamed and glared at Calron, as if accusing him of cheating.

  Feeling slightly ashamed of using the Blood Legacy to prevent a baby monkey from stealing his food, Calron softly sighed and dejectedly handed the leg piece over to the little monkey.

  Seeing the human relinquish the prize, the little monkey cheerfully jumped up and down, as it quickly took the piece of meat and scurried away from Calron’s location.

  After that incident, Calron had resigned himself to this unfortunate fate, and tried his best to prevent the little monkey from stealing his food again.

  Calron did not mind sharing his food with the small beast, but it always seemed to insist on receiving the best cuts of everything, and refused to settle for anything less. If Calron refused its request, then it would simply try to steal it.