Ascension of the last Celestial

Valerian was falling.

After nearly completely exhausting his mana with the final spell against the goblin chief, Valerian didn’t even have enough mana to fly, so he was falling to the ground, fast.

While it wouldn’t kill him since Valerian wasn’t sure there was something that could kill this new body, it would sure as hell hurt and put him into an unconscious state until his mana recharged enough.

As the [Child of Mana] he had an insane recovery speed, but even with this ridiculous speed it could still leave him unconscious for a few hours, and in a place like the Voidwoods even a few minutes could mean death.

Throughout the fall Valerian’s regeneration already kicked in, refilling his new body that was eating up the mana like a starving beast, but even with Valerian’s insane regeneration speed he knew he wouldn’t be able to regain enough for a teleport.

As the ground was nearing, Valerian focused all his pitiful mana in an attempt to just cushion the fall enough so that he wouldn’t get injured too much and it wouldn’t knock him out for too long.

His fall began to slow down, taking away most of the speed, but Valerian still hit the ground hard—so hard it threw up a large cloud of dust. But this last attempt at slowing down the fall sucked the last traces of mana from his system, and the world turned black as Valerian lost consciousness.

...

Valerian didn’t know how much time had passed as he came back to his senses, but the good news was that no monster came and ate him. But that’s where the good news ended.

Because the first thing Valerian felt before he even opened his eyes was that his wrists and ankles had been tied by something, and even with his new physique he couldn’t break them.

The next thing that touched his senses was smell. It smelled like meat, like someone was trying to cook some kind of meat but managed to burn it.

As Valerian opened his eyes, he noticed that he was inside a cave. The cave was dark, and the only source of light was a campfire in the middle of this cave. The dancing flames cast shadows on the walls and ceiling. One of these shadows caught Valerian’s attention because it was the shadow of a human.

’Someone found me?’

Valerian was glad that at least someone other than a hungry beast found him, but that relief went away as pure fury set in at the thought that someone dared to tie him up.

’Who the fuck does he think he is to imprison me?!’

’Wait, why am I so angry?’

It was weird. Sure, anyone would be angry that they were tied up, but for Valerian it was something else, he could feel it. Something deep inside him made him feel this way, made him feel so angry, so prideful.

’Is it my bloodline? Did it give me an ego?’

His bloodline was the combination of two of the strongest races in the universe, so it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to assume that they could influence his emotions and make him more prideful.

But these thoughts had to wait because the person sitting at the campfire noticed that Valerian was awake and turned around.

The appearance of the person surprised Valerian since he looked to be around the same age.

The boy had pitch-black hair that had a shine to it and fell to his shoulders, piercing crimson eyes, and a face that could be considered above average, but still couldn’t hold a candle to Valerian. Yet, strangely, the face of the boy had a weird attraction to it, making people look twice at him. The boy was around the same height as Valerian, standing at roughly 1.80 meters, and he had a lean build.

He wore tight-fitting combat clothes that strangely didn’t have a single bit of dirt or a scratch on them. He also wasn’t carrying any weapon, and there were also no weapons in the cave.

When the boy’s crimson eyes met Valerian’s slitted, galaxy-purple ones, the boy’s eyes widened a little bit before returning back to normal.

At this point, Valerian realized something else: he was still naked. After the goblin chief completely destroyed the armor he created with twilight, he didn’t bother to create a new one, and after that, he didn’t have the mana to waste on something as unimportant as clothes.

So now Valerian lay there in this cave, bound by his wrists and ankles, completely naked under the gaze of this strange boy.

Valerian didn’t feel embarrassed or anything. He had a body that would make anyone jealous, not just of the strength or form, but it also looked like it was carved by the gods of beauty and war themselves. Not a single thing was out of proportion... well, one thing was, but the size of that thing only made him more proud of his body.

The stranger’s gaze went over his body, inspecting him, and Valerian could feel his eyes pause for a second near his crotch.

"You done staring, pervert?"

Hearing Valerian talk to him, the strange boy snapped out of his thoughts, but hearing Valerian call him a pervert caused him to stiffen.

With an exasperated and panicked expression, the boy started to speak.

"What do you mean, pervert! You are the one that was lying naked in the forest! Why is it so big anyway!"

Hearing the boy complain, Valerian let out a sigh.

"It doesn’t matter. Who are you, and why the fuck did you tie me up?"

He was able to suppress the fury he felt before somewhat, but it still leaked into his voice.

The boy, now also back on the serious topic, lost his panicked expression and snapped his fingers. The mana answered and a small pillar of stone came out of the ground, and he sat on it, putting one leg over the other.

"The better question is, who are you? You look like you are my age, but the destruction in the field I found you in wasn’t something a 15-year-old can do, and you don’t seem to be human with them."

He pointed to the top of his head, obviously talking about the horns that, after acquiring his physique, adorned his head like a crown.

Valerian knew he couldn’t fight right now. He was bound by unnaturally durable rope and he had almost no mana. His body woke him up once he had just enough to maintain consciousness because his new body didn’t need anything but mana, it constantly took mana to exist. Normally Valerian’s passive regeneration was more than enough to keep it up, but after reaching 0%, his body shut down until he had about 5% so he could stay awake.

So the only option he could see was to cooperate with the boy.

"My name is Valerian von Astrea, and no, I am not human. Now, you."

Hearing Valerian say his name, the boy had a strange reaction and somewhat tried to act surprised. Unfortunately, he was a terrible actor, which led to a sharp realization filling Valerian’s brain.

’He knew my name before I said it. Does he have a unique skill similar to Arken’s? That’s not good.’

If he indeed had a unique skill that could look at another person’s status like Helias’s advisor Arken, then that could be problematic for Valerian, since his race just appeared as question marks.

"My name is Arthur von Pendragon. Now onto the next question: what are you doing in the Voidwoods, and what were you fighting to leave behind such a battlefield? It looked like an army fought, with all the blood."

’Arthur, huh. Now, how much should I tell him?’

Caught between the option of lying and telling Arthur he fought some monster army, or telling the truth and somehow explaining that all this blood and gore was his, Valerian had to make a decision.

’I just hope my judgment of character isn’t for the gutter.’

"I was fighting a cave goblin chief. We took the battle outside after the cave collapsed."

Nodding at the answer as if he knew that Valerian wasn’t lying, he asked further,

"If you fought the chief, whose blood stained the entire meadow?"

Now, the moment of truth. Valerian didn’t want to reveal that he could regenerate so much, so he had to come up with some excuse.

"It was of the army of cave goblins that decided to fight with their leader."

At his lie, Arthur’s brows furrowed and he looked at Valerian with cold eyes.

"If you lie one more time, I will kill you right here."

’How did he know? I thought I was good at lying.’

Seeing as there was no other option, Valerian had to reveal the truth.

"It was my blood. I have a very strong regeneration."

There was surprise in the boy’s face, but like he knew instinctively that Valerian wasn’t lying this time, he moved on.

"Okay, one last question and then I will free you. Do you have any intention of harming me in any shape or form?"

It was a strange question. Of course, Valerian had some intention to make him pay for tying him up, but it was not more than maybe a punch in the face. Since Arthur saved him, he was also thankful to him.

Valerian shrugged his shoulders and answered.

"Sure, I think I will punch you once, but after that, we’re good."

That response caused Arthur to have a blank face, but like before, he seemed to know that Valerian was telling the truth and stood up with a sigh.

"A punch I can take, but I won’t just let you hit me, you know."

Arthur moved closer and grabbed the rope that was tied around Valerian’s wrists and ankles. He didn’t cut them or put them into a spatial ring, but they disappeared into nothingness.

Rubbing his now free wrists, Valerian looked up at Arthur.

"You... you saw my status, right?"

Hearing that question, Arthur stopped moving and a pressure began to build up in the cave. It pressed down on Valerian’s weakened shoulders like the weight of a castle.

But even subjected to such pressure that would make anyone else fall to their knees, the same pride from earlier flooded in and he refused to move down.

Valerian met Arthur’s crimson gaze evenly as the air shifted nervously at what was happening next.