Somewhere in Monstad,t they were two figures standing there staring in shock at now subdued dragon, one was a young man with long golden hair tied in a ponytail; he also had golden eyes, the other was a strange, floating creature that looked similar to a fairy,she was quite tiny with long fluffy white hair,her eyes were quite unique too, with dark purple iris and white star like pupils.
The little fairy-like creature turned towards the young man and asked in awe.
"Aether!, did you see that?, It was so cool!,he subdued that dragon like it was nothing!."
Aether, who was still in shock turned towards the little fairy and answered in deadpan look .
"Of course I did, I was right beside you when it happened you know"
Aether turned to look towards the figure floating in the sky with a serious expression.
"He may know where my sister is, people with power usually have quite a lot of connections" thought Aether.
But just as Aether was about to shout towards the man to get his attention, the man disappeared, leaving the sleeping dragon right outside the city.
Back to Eldrins Group.
Eldrin, who was about to speak, suddenly felt a strange feeling along with soul-tearing agony, although on the outside he appeared relatively calm, Erskine and the ancient could see Eldrin's body slightly shaking and twitching, almost as if he was feeling some kind of discomfort, which frankly was quite a huge understatement.
"What?! What's the cause of this soul-tearing pain? Did that child Sebastian do something?,that mischievous brat could have warned me at least!" thought Eldrin as he barely held it together.
The Ancient ones Eyes widened, she could sense some kind of evil energy along with magic power flowing to Eldrin's body, transforming it.
Erskine could not understand what was going on with Eldrin, and asked in concern.
"Are you alright Eldrin?! Perhaps you may need some rest"
Eldrin could not speak at all due to the agony, his face even started to show signs of pain.
"His apparently undergoing some kind of transformation, fascinating!" answered the ancient one in Eldrin's stead with barely constrained fascination, not at all worried about him,after all, Eldrin is essentially immortal, as long as his soul is not destroyed he will survive, that's what happened back when he sacrificed his life, they destroyed his body but not his soul, and so, he regenerated.
After a few more minutes of agonizing pain, a dark aura surrounded Eldrin.
"Magic power!?"he has obtained magic power!" almost shouted the ancient one astounded.
But Eldrin suddenly spoke with barely contained excitement.
"It's more accurate to say that I have obtained the capability to use dark magic, quite the handy power i must say"
The Ancient One was on guard when she heard that, and asked seriously.
"Any side effects Eldrin?, Dark magic is not a thing you should use or have; it is dangerous and highly corruptive."
Eldrin turned to look at her with a deadpan look and said.
"That would be true if I were a normal being,however, have you forgotten?,I am quite literally a being of darkness; mere black magic cannot possibly corrupt me."
The Ancient slapped her forehead in realization, what she said was the equivalent of saying that a demonic being should fear being corrupted by demonic energy.
Poor Erskine couldn't understand what the hell was going on at all,Eldrin, out of nowhere obtained Black magic like it was a random Tuesday.
"Anyways, I believe it's time we bring our troops here to build a hidden base, this world has many wonders that will be quite useful to mankind"
Erskine thought for a while and nodded in approval while saying.
"Thought it may not have been the original plan, it's still a good opportunity for us, perhaps we can also help this world develop a bit, they will be valuable allies to humanity."
After a few hours, somewhere underground, there were many futuristic construction machines controlled by AI, seemingly building a base.
loud footsteps echoed; their source was more than two thousand Astartes, probably there to guard the base from threats unknown.
In a forest near Liyue, a young man of small stature stood watching the beautiful moonlight,he had medium-length spiky black hair with teal or dark green undertones,his eyes were a beautiful mix of golden yellow and amber with sharp avian-like pupils,he was none other than Xiao, one of the remaining five Yakshas.
An unfamiliar voice interrupted the peaceful silence.
"What a beautiful moonlight, even after all these years i never got bored of it, and the darkness of the night that reveals the stars is the cherry on the top"
Xiao was startled, yet the first thing he did was to grab his spear, clearly ready for battle.
"No need to be alarmed, though I must admit, I got quite the bad habit of startling other people, apologies" said Eldrin with a slight bow.
But Xiao was not exactly the talkative one and said simply.
"What do you want?"
"To take something from you, something that has been causing suffering to you for centuries, and also something that will inevitably cause your death, your karmic debt" answered Eldrin.
Xiao looked at him like he was some kind of fool and answered.
"I don't know how you know that, but purging karmic debt is impossible."
"Everything is deemed impossible until there is someone who does it, now come forth." said Eldrin while gesturing for Xiao to come closer.
But Xiao clearly did not trust the man at all; his vigilance only grew.
Eldrin then smiled gently and raised his hand, and a dark mist suddenly flowed out of Xiao, making him drop to his knees.
After a few minutes, the karmic debt was completely purged from Xiao, now in Eldrin's hands.
Xiao was shocked to his core; he did not feel pain anymore! His karmic debt was gone, he felt as if an immense burden was lifted off his shoulders,He couldn't remember the last time he felt like this, was it decades or centuries?
Eldrin brought Xiao out of his thoughts.
"Take this, it should temporarily cure Morax's erosion for a couple of centuries. "said Eldrin as he handed Xiao an Evolution serum and continued
"Tomorrow same time, bring anyone you know that has karmic debt, I will take theirs too''
Xiao looked at the strange vial that was handed to him by Eldrin, and then looked up only to see that the man had disappeared.
Xiao was completely speechless, he always knew his fate, that the karmic debt would one day eventually kill him,but due to that man, he had escaped that fate.