Khan had completed skipped the commoner rank to get to the soldier rank, according to Nezha it wasn"t completely unheard of, but it was somewhat rare. That particular jump in ranks was attributed to the fact that the demon code Khan had invested was from a very powerful demon, Nezha even expected Khan to have at least gained a few more levels within the soldier rank rather than stopping at one, but the more powerful and rare the spirit, the more resources needed for it"s evolution.But then again the fact that Khan had gotten stronger wasn"t a bad thing, and he had also gotten new skills, that would go a long way in increasing his fighting prowess and by extension Alex"s own abilities. The first and only skill Khan had been born with was (Wind coat) the skill was now level three, while the others were just level 1, within the world of the mantle everything about Khan and even Nezha and Ébié was presented in the form data.
According to Nezha the world of spirits wasn"t just supernatural in it"s existence, it also had a system, a sort of world law that helped governed the growth and advancements of spirits. The energy of the spirit world or Dimensions was not stable, it was erratic and without proper control, it could spread and change things in more ways than one. This system, that seemed more and more like a user interface for some compute program or whatever, made sure that there was balance with the spirits and the world they lived in. It was akin to a dam, it restricted the flow of energy, making sure only what is needed and required is used, or else most spirits would lose their minds from the sheer amount of their own power and abilities, or drown countless worlds in death and chaos.
(Wind Coat: Level 3): A racial skill of the Kamaitachi that lets it switch between an incorporeal wind form and physical one. In this form it"s invisible like the wind, and it"s movement speed is greatly increased. It also has vary degrees of control over the wind element in this form.
(Cursed Bite: Level 1): A Kamaitachi leaves behind a bleeding curses with each bite, a.s.suming the bite doesn"t kill you, the curse itself if it"s not taken care of in time will drain you dry of every blood in your body. (Hidden effect: this skill is no capable of infecting any demonic beasts or animal bitten with a doors that would bring it under the control of the Kamaitachi. This is a hidden effect of the demonic brood wolf. At level 1 the spirit can only control 2 creatures of equal strength and 1 creature of greater strength, and four creatures of lesser strength.
(Perception: Level 1): Brood demons have special biological antennas that help them send and receive signals, said antennas increase the perception of the creature. At level one become completely conscious if every change with a three meter radius, physical or energy wise.
(Demonic Wind: Level 1) a corrosive entrapment skill, that over time rots away the flesh of whoever is caught within it"s radius. It will take a lot to defend against this skill as it is capable of even corroding energy and the skills used with it. At level 1 skill has a radius of 5 meters and a duration of ten seconds.
Khan"s ability meant that he was fully in charge of a battlefield, basically he gave support and was the general in charge of it, and with his increased intelligence and recently gained ability to talk, there"s no telling what sort of damage he could cause to their enemies should the now find themselves in a fight. It was totally and completely amazing, though it did feel a bit weird now that Khan could talk, but none the less it was also a good thing.
"If you state any harder at me, you"ll burn holes through my scales." Khan said, forcing Alex to role his eyes. He sounded like a teenager, but with his tone of voice and prior behaviors, it"s obvious Khan was still a mischievous little weasel.
"Lets get out of here first, we need to know what"s going on." Alex said to Khan as the now wolf sized Kamaitachi nodded back at him.
The world within the mantle faded and Alex opened his eyes, but what he saw shocked him to his very core. There were hundreds of golden armored guards in the room he had previously woken up in, said room was also in shambles as the walls were cracked and there was a feeling of corrosion on the air. Alex"s grandfather was there, along with the emperor, and his guards, if Alex didn"t know better, it looked like a fight had taken place in here while he was pa.s.sed out.
"Ummm what happened?" Alex asked, but he got his answer real fast.
"Silence you demon! We felt your evil energy allover this room a few minutes ago! Do you think you deny it or hide it any longer!" One of the golden armored men with flowing l.u.s.trous black hair said as he glared at Alex. However the moment he finished speaking, a wisp of blackish red wine drilled it"s way out of Alex"s chest and rapidly coalesced into the form of Khan.
"You have some nerve you pathetic little flesh bag, (Grrrrrrrrrr) you think my master is someone you an accuse of being a demon! Where"s your proof! Do you want to see what a real demon looks like!"
Alex felt his heart stop, Khan was not as powerful as the man who was talking, after all the man himself seemed to be in the heaven realm, so it would be quite impossible for Alex to even leave a scratch on the man should they fight...however it seems the same could not be said about Khan. He was a spirit, just because he had a physical form that could be seen, it doesn"t necessarily means he was physical being, and Alex remembered how they had killed the demon commander, a being multiple levels stronger than they were, all it would take was one mistake and Khan could probably kill a cultivator in the heaven realm. But then again this was just speculation, a real fight won"t exactly go that way.
"What are you?" The man asked as he took a step back, because quite frankly, Khan looked quite scary now.
"Wouldn"t you like to know, hey old man! Why"d you allow them hara.s.s your grandson like this?" The guard was being unreasonable, and so was Khan, heck you could say Khan was being even more unreasonable than the guard as they both started a yelling match while everyone else watched on.
At some point Alex got off the bed and went to the emperor where he now gave a deep bow in greeting before given his grandfather a hug much to the old man"s surprise. Alex was grateful, if his grandfather had not been so overprotective as to send the secret guards after them, Alex could not even begin to fathom how very different their time in Macau would have been.
"Feng"er what"s going on? Alarms allover the forbidden city were ringing, there was an explosion of demonic energy from your room, and then there"s this creature! Have you fallen into a demonic path." Alex raised an eyebrow at that, and that"s when everything seemed to click. The process of Khan emerging from his coc.o.o.n had released a blast of energy within the world of the mantle, Alex had no idea that it was powerful enough to escape into the real world.
"My apologies grandfather, Imperial father in law. While it is definitely possible for me to acquire demonic skills, I have not done so. However the creature you see in front of you is Khan, my binder spirit. During our fight in Macau he came in contact with some demonic cores, they helped him evolve into the form he"s in now, given him control over a few demonic skills and changing his form. He also talks now apparently and is a lot smarter too."
"That"s Khan? I have to admit this is pretty much unexpected. I believe you and I have to sit down and discuss more fully the full extent of your legacy and see what else it can do or achieve." His grandfather said.
"Indeed, we have heard much of this small creature of yours that has been a great help in your battles, it is truly fascinating. While we"ve heard of and seen the evolution of a myriad of creatures, mostly demonic and magical beasts, this is the first we"ve seen or heard of a spirit, there"s not much information about them within the empire"s archives, we too would like to have a sit down with you and understand more about them, and about you powers."
Alex couldn"t help but sneer in his mind, he didn"t anyone else to tell him that the full scope of his abilities as a spirit king was to be kept a secret. Against this Emperor that seem kind but was incredibly shrewd, Alex had to keep a few cards hidden, and even then he needed to get more cards under his control. His priority right now, apart from training would be to find a way to complete both the fire mask and blood mask, and then maybe find the right conditions to summon another mask spirit or bond with another spirit just like Khan. But before all of that, he still had a game to play.
"Of course your Majesty, it would be my honor." Alex replied with a small bow, as he kept his eyes to the ground.
"Very well then, you are our royal son in law, and you"ve been through a lot. Take the time to rest before the Banquet in ten days, I"ll reward you and your friends and your clan properly for the time and Intel you bought for us, the loss of lives and the city itself is regrettable, but we"ve discovered that the man received belongs to the Communion of true sons, this was another attempt on their path to undermine to control and power of our empire. We"ll make sure they pay for what they"ve done, all of them. Zifeng! Stop arguing with the Spirit it"s beneath a man of your status, now come! We have much to discuss." The emperor called out to guard arguing with Khan, as he turned to leave, with the guy scurrying after the emperor his face red from embarra.s.sment.
Khan came to stand besides both grandfather and grandson before calling out to the guard called Zifeng, his voice loud enough that more than half the forbidden city heard him.
"Yeah Zifeng you better run! You coward!"
Zhang Sanfeng quickly closed the doors to Alex"s destroyed room before Khan would say something else that could get them killed. Also Alex had to rethink his stance, Khan was not like any teenager, he was like a 12 year old! Alex rubbed his hands on his forehead, ignoring the smile on his grandfather"s face. He couldn"t help but lament in his mind, he really missed the days when this b.l.o.o.d.y Kamaitachi didn"t speak, but they were gone now, forever.