BUILDING MY OWN EMPIRE - My Journey from Nothing to Overwhelming Power-Chapter 78 – Dual Summoning
The sisters’ gazes turned toward each other. They were startled by the noble act Soman had just done.
"Why did he save us?" the younger one whispered, her voice so faint that only her sister could hear it. The older one simply shook her head.
How could she possibly know?
Only moments ago he had been staring at them with cold brutality, threatening them if any of them moved.
And now...
Now he was carrying them to a safe place, away from the daggers of a master who was supposed to be their ally.
But...
The older sister quickly calmed down.
Unlike her younger sibling, she was older, more mature. Years of experience had given her a certain instinct.
And that instinct told her something was wrong.
"Those daggers..." she leaned closer to her sister and whispered, "they weren’t random. He was trying to push us away. Maybe the agreement between the three sects has collapsed... or perhaps..."
She paused for a moment.
Then added quietly,
"Or perhaps... there is a hidden betrayal."
"What?!"
"Lower your voice, you idiot."
Ahead of them stood Soman.
He extended his hand and pulled the dagger out of his leg.
Then he produced a small transparent vial from thin air.
Inside it rested a thick yellow liquid, heavy like oil.
Soman dropped a few drops onto the wound.
The bleeding stopped almost instantly.
He hadn’t healed the injury.
But he had stopped the bleeding.
The girls believed they were far beyond his hearing range.
Each of them could barely hear the other’s whisper.
But Soman was not relying on his ears.
Earlier, he had already planted his insects on their bodies.
Every whisper that escaped their lips reached him with perfect clarity.
"So that’s how it is..." he murmured inwardly.
"A three-sect alliance to overthrow the domain... this is serious."
"Six teleportation gates... judging by what happened here, there must be many masters of the first and second rank."
"And possibly several third-rank masters as well."
He turned toward the master.
"You seem strong... perhaps third rank, if I had to guess."
"Yes," the man replied calmly as he descended to the ground.
His gaze shifted toward the two sisters.
"What a disgrace. You’ve been pampered so much that you became useless against a mere subordinate. Death would be better than wasting the sect’s resources on weaklings like you."
The girls did not answer.
A heavy silence fell upon them.
Soman only needed one glance to understand how much fear had taken hold of them.
The master’s eyes returned to him.
He examined Soman from head to toe.
Then he laughed.
"Surrender. Perhaps I’ll grant you a quick death."
His white robe, threaded with golden lines, was wide and flowing.
Yet the body beneath the robe appeared surprisingly normal.
Not weak.
Not fat.
Just ordinary.
But when he suddenly moved his arm...
A violent wave of wind struck the robe and flung it backward.
Revealing that the master’s physique truly did not match the size of the robe at all.
Small daggers began to appear.
Dozens of them.
They floated into the air.
Their numbers kept increasing.
And when the wind finally stopped...
No fewer than a thousand daggers surrounded the master.
"You don’t look ready to surrender," the master snorted.
"Your eyes say otherwise."
"Then..."
"Let’s end this quickly."
Soman did not reply.
He simply raised his right hand.
Suddenly his fingers turned red.
Dark blood gathered around them and began dripping downward.
It reached the ground quickly.
The soil absorbed it.
Then...
The blood emerged again.
From the earth.
The entire process lasted only a few brief moments.
But the third-rank master did not give Soman the time he needed.
The air split open suddenly.
From the sky above, hundreds of daggers surged downward all at once.
They gleamed under the light like swarms of lethal silver.
Their trajectories twisted and crossed one another in chaotic patterns that were impossible to predict.
They were not merely falling daggers.
They moved like a furious swarm of bees.
Each blade shifted direction mid-air.
Suddenly veering away...
Then rushing back toward the same target.
Every single dagger carried terrifying speed and deadly sharpness.
Below them...
Soman stood still.
He did not move.
And in the next moment...
The daggers arrived.
They rained down upon his position all at once.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The earth exploded beneath the barrage.
Blades struck rock and soil alike.
Stones shattered.
A dense cloud of dust rose into the air.
Soman disappeared entirely within the storm of debris.
The third-rank master stood there watching silently.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
He expected to see a pierced body.
Or at least hear a scream of pain.
But nothing like that happened.
Several moments passed.
The dust cloud slowly began to fade.
Visibility gradually returned.
And then...
The master’s eyes widened slightly.
In front of him...
Stood a massive shell.
A gigantic rounded carapace.
Its surface was rough and uneven.
Its thick layers resembled an ancient stone armor.
The shell stood firmly in the earth like an old boulder.
Every dagger that had descended moments ago...
Was either embedded around it or scattered at its edges.
Slowly...
A head emerged from within the shell.
An ancient turtle.
Its skin was thick.
Its old eyes gleamed with a calm, slow light.
As if it did not care about the storm that had struck it moments ago.
The shell protecting it...
Was terrifyingly durable.
The third-rank master stared for a moment.
Then he raised his hand again.
This time his motion was sharper.
Above him...
Another hundred knives appeared.
They surged forward.
Piercing the air at deadly speed as they descended toward Soman.
But the turtle did not move.
It remained perfectly still.
Only the shell faced the attack.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The knives slammed into the solid surface.
Some blades shattered.
Others deflected away.
Then they all fell to the ground.
None of them managed to penetrate the shell.
They could not even scratch it deeply.
Those knives were simply no match for that shell.
Behind the massive natural shield...
Soman stood breathing slowly.
His eyes watched the sky carefully.
One of those daggers had already struck him earlier.
A small wound.
But enough to make him understand the danger.
Escaping the swarm was risky.
The daggers’ trajectories were unpredictable.
And their numbers were enormous.
But facing the attack...
With a summon specialized in defense...
Offered the highest chance of survival.
That was why—
He summoned the turtle.
An ancient defensive creature.
Slow in movement.
But possessing a shell capable of withstanding blows far greater than most armors.
And he had done it quickly.
Without hesitation.
Without wasting even a moment.
If he had delayed even slightly...
His body would likely be covered in daggers by now instead of standing behind this silent stone shield.
The third-rank master stared at him with eyes full of contempt.
Hundreds of knives floated around him in the air.
They rotated slowly like flocks of predatory birds awaiting a signal.
His lips curved into a condescending smile.
"Will you only defend yourself?"
His words slid toward Soman slowly, dripping with mockery.
Then he raised his hand.
In a single instant—
A larger number of knives launched forward.
They shot out like a metallic storm, slicing through the air at tremendous speed and rushing straight toward Soman.
But...
Before they could reach him...
Something else happened.
Suddenly...
A massive shadow appeared behind the master.
The shadow expanded rapidly across the ground.
As if something enormous had emerged from nothingness.
The master turned slightly.
His eyes narrowed.
Behind him...
Stood a giant wolf.
A massive body nearly three meters long.
Muscles tight as though carved from stone.
And from its forehead rose a long spiraling horn that resembled a white spear.
The master muttered in mild surprise.
"A calamity beast...?"
But the surprise did not make him retreat.
At the exact moment the knives rushed toward Soman...
The master moved.
His body sliding forward to face the beast directly.
As for the wolf...
It stopped.
Slowly raised its head toward the sky.
The long horn upon its forehead began trembling.
Then...
A tremendous sound erupted.
A deep vibration like a mountain cracking apart.
Blue sparks began dancing around the horn.
Lightning and thunder gathered around it.
Threads of electricity coiled like glowing serpents.
Circling the horn.
Growing stronger with every passing moment.
Then—
The wolf howled.
A long howl that shook the entire domain.
And in the next instant—
A massive bolt of lightning exploded from the horn.
It shot forward like a spear of blue light.
Accompanied by the violent roar of thunder.
Heading directly toward the third-rank master.
But...
On the other side—
Soman had already stepped back slightly.
The turtle’s massive shell had already blocked the first wave of knives.
He stood behind it watching the events unfold.
His eyes widened slightly.
The lightning that surged toward the master...
Suddenly changed direction.
It bent.
Then rose upward.
The master smiled.
No—
He laughed.
"So... lightning."
Above him...
Thousands of floating knives trembled.
Then...
They began absorbing the lightning.
The electric threads released by the wolf were pulled toward them.
As if the blades were hungry metal magnets.
Each knife devoured part of the charge.
Electricity gathered around them.
Below...
The wolf howled again.
This time the howl was fiercer.
The horn trembled with even greater force.
Then an even larger bolt of lightning erupted.
Stronger.
Denser.
But the result was the same.
The charge was absorbed again.
The floating knives consumed it.
And they began glowing with a savage blue light.
Soman’s teeth clenched tightly.
"So he can absorb lightning... damn it."
The words escaped between his teeth in anger.
The master laughed loudly.
A laugh filled with mockery.
"You’ve given me a gift, fool... hahahaha."
Then—
He moved his hand.
In a single instant two massive waves of knives surged forward.
The first headed toward Soman.
The second toward the wolf.
But this time...
They were not ordinary knives.
Each blade was wrapped in lightning.
Blue currents swirled around them.
Increasing their speed.
Increasing their power.
Making them far more dangerous.
Soman’s eyes widened.
"This is bad!"
He shouted.
Then—
The strike arrived.
The wave exploded above him.
A violent impact shook the earth.
Lightning and blades slammed into the turtle’s shell simultaneously.
Elsewhere—
The wolf moved with tremendous speed.
It leapt.
Twisted.
Dodged many of the knives.
But their numbers were overwhelming.
Several blades pierced its body.
Striking its shoulders and sides.
Yet...
It did not appear greatly affected.
After all—
It was a calamity wolf.
Its skin was thick and durable.
More importantly...
It possessed lightning affinity as well.
So its resistance against these electrified knives was naturally high.
Its attributes were almost perfectly suited to counter that type of attack.
Unlike Soman.
On the other side—
The turtle suddenly screamed.
A deep cry of pain erupted from the ancient creature.
The knives themselves could not pierce its shell.
But...
All the lightning they carried...
Exploded upon it.
Hundreds of lightning strikes slammed into the stone armor.
The giant body trembled violently.
Then—
It collapsed to the ground.
The shell remained intact...
But the creature inside had suffered a devastating injury.
