The Primeval Era-Chapter 131: Divergence I

It was ridiculous that someone could have two bodies.

Well, not that ridiculous.

Among the Legends of Anansi, there was a mention of Anansi-Kin, trickster spirits, children of Anansi that roamed the Threshold Lands in the ages before the Three Pillars rose to power. These beings could split their essence into perfect copies of themselves, each clone carrying a fragment of the original’s consciousness.

They used this ability to be in multiple places at once, to conduct schemes across vast distances, to confuse enemies who thought they had cornered prey only to discover they had caught nothing but shadow.

The Anansi-Kin had faded from the Lands of Stone long ago, hunted to extinction by those who feared their deceptions. But their legend remained in the stories Shamans told around fires, warnings about beings that could be many while appearing to be one.

Damian had become something similar.

Two bodies. One mind. Both completely his.

The humanoid form floating before his leonine chest felt even stronger than what his base form would have been before he transformed.

This wasn’t merely a copy of his old body. This was something refined. Something elevated. The flesh had been forged from materials drawn from his transformed state, saturated with Mana from rivers that still poured into his massive form. The bones were denser. The muscles were more responsive. The blood that pumped through those veins carried power that his original human shape could never have contained.

He had upgraded himself while splitting himself.

Why had he been able to do this? Why did he feel no strain while keeping the massive form of two Land and Sky Physiques active simultaneously? Why did his soul not ache from the dissonance that Serala had described as inevitable?

He didn’t know.

But he could attribute all of it to the Primordial Tongue.

That letter and now inscription on his heart had changed the fundamental rules of his cultivation. It had allowed him to develop Doctrines. It had let him replicate Land and Sky Physiques. It had permitted him to cultivate externally, to extend his essence into mountains and walls and now into a second body.

The Primordial Tongue didn’t care about what was supposed to be impossible.

It only cared about what could be made real through will and power and the absolute refusal to accept limitation!

After he acclimated to the sensation of dual existence, Damian looked at Masamuk and Serala through both pairs of eyes.

"Alright, let’s-"

"Brother, hold the hell up please."

Masamuk’s obsidian body surged forward, positioning himself directly between Damian’s two forms with an intensity that brooked no dismissal. His crimson eyes blazed with light that had nothing to do with combat and everything to do with desperate curiosity.

"You cannot just casually move on from this."

The slime’s deep voice trembled with something approaching religious fervor.

"Can you teach me how to do this? I want two bodies too. I want to be with Tiaret while also being anywhere else I need to be. I want to attend boring Beast Lord councils while simultaneously doing literally anything more interesting. I want-"

His eyes were shining brilliantly, stellar blue points dancing within his obsidian form as possibilities cascaded through his mind.

Damian looked at him with both pairs of eyes.

The lion face regarded the slime with patient amusement.

"I’ll teach you later."

His human voice emerged while his leonine form remained silent.

"For now, there is still the matter of the demon."

His human body held the medallion in his hands as he looked to Serala.

The crimson crystal felt wrong against his skin, corruption contained within a shell that his flames couldn’t breach. It pulsed with faint light that seemed almost like a heartbeat, as if something still lived within its faceted depths.

"This demon emerged from an Imperator of the Dominion of Crimson Stone."

His voice carried weight that made both Serala and Masamuk focus entirely on his words.

"A Seed of some kind was planted within Vienna, waiting for her death to bloom into that creature. The question we must ask ourselves is whether she was unique, or whether other Imperators carry similar Seeds."

He let that implication settle.

"If the Murderous Saint has compromised his entire leadership with demonic corruption, then every Imperator in the Dominion becomes a potential catastrophe waiting to happen. Kill one in battle, and a Kishi Demon or something worse might emerge from the corpse. The very act of victory becomes a new defeat."

His golden-winged pupils fixed on the medallion.

"We need to let others know. The Covenant. The Obsidian Throne. Anyone who might face the forces of the Dominion needs to understand what they’re truly fighting against."

Serala jumped in with vibrant eyes.

"The regions toward my home will be filled with those still looking for me."

Her wing-shaped pupils flickered with calculation.

"Imperator Luddya and the corrupted families of the Covenant are between us and the Hallowed Voice. If we tried to approach directly, we would face opposition at every turn. But if we could scout the paths first, find routes that avoid the worst of the danger, perhaps I could slip through."

She paused.

"That would take time we may not have. The easiest forces to reach..."

She turned to Masamuk.

"The Noble Beasts were some of the foremost fighters against demons in the ancient wars. Your kind pushed them back beyond the River of The World when humans alone couldn’t accomplish it. If anyone would understand the severity of what we’ve discovered, if anyone could mobilize quickly against a demonic threat..."

Her voice carried logic that couldn’t be denied.

"It would be the Beast Lords of the Sacred Mountains."

...!

Damian’s eyes flashed sharply at such words.

He turned to Masamuk, both his leonine gaze and his human stare fixing on the Slime of Chaos with intensity that demanded attention.

"Can you pass the word to Tiaret for her to make this serious news to the Noble Simba Lineage?"

Tiaret was royalty among the Noble Beasts. Her voice carried weight that Masamuk’s alone might not. If she spoke of demonic incursion to her father and the other leaders of her kind, they would listen.

After a moment, Masamuk nodded seriously.

His usual levity had faded, replaced by something harder and more focused. The Slime of Chaos understood what was at stake!

Demons were not enemies to be taken lightly. They were existential threats that had nearly destroyed everything in ages past.

Damian finalized things.

"We’ll separate for now. You go to Mount Vorrath to tell them how a demon emerged from an Imperator of the Dominion of Crimson Stone. Serala and I will return to the Purple Stone Tribe."

...!