The Primeval Era-Chapter 141: Crimson! I

Far from the night sky where blue flaming clouds had appeared and vibrant rain began to cascade onto the Lands of Stone, an unknown number of miles away past forests and rivers, something else stirred in the darkness.

This was the region where Damian and a certain slime and a Holy Daughter had appeared and fought against an Imperator who then turned into a demon. The crystallized terrain and scorched earth still bore witness to that battle, scars upon the landscape that would take generations to fade. But the region was no longer empty.

A massive flying beast cut through the night sky above the devastation, a Pteranodon.

It stretched one mile from the tip of its elongated beak to the end of its leathery tail, a creature belonging to ages when beasts ruled the Lands of Stone without challenge. Its wings spread impossibly wide, membranes of thick hide stretched between bone structures that creaked with every powerful stroke. The head was narrow and sharp, a crest of bone extending backward from its skull like a blade designed to slice through wind and enemy alike.

Crimson runes wrapped around its entire body like living tattoos, pulsing with faint glows of Mana that painted its hide in patterns of ancient and terrible significance. The markings ran along its neck and down its spine, curled around its wings, traced the contours of its legs and the wicked claws at their ends. Every rune spoke of binding and control, of a creature once wild now yoked to purposes it had never chosen.

Its eyes held a tired and despotic light filled with hatred that had accumulated across years of servitude. They shone crimson like everything else about this beast, but occasionally they flickered with something deeper. A consciousness trying to rise. A will attempting to break free from the chains carved into its very flesh.

It never succeeded.

On top of this massive beast, terrifying auras announced the presence of human life forms whose power pressed against the air itself. Many of them were adorned in crimson armaments, metal and Mana woven together into armor that gleamed with contained destruction. The auras around them boiled with energy concentrated to levels that ordinary Warriors could never achieve. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

There were at least a dozen such beings, all of them at Vessel Completion or above.

Most stood in a loose circle near the center of the beast’s back, their postures suggesting alertness. But only a single being sat, occupying an area where a throne had been fashioned directly from the creature’s spine. Bone and scale and hardened hide had been shaped into a seat fit for someone who expected to rule wherever he went.

The entity upon that throne opened his eyes.

His pupils were literal nine-pointed stars radiating a profound multicolored luster that seemed to contain entire stars within their depths. They were not human eyes. They were something else entirely, windows into power accumulated across lifetimes of cultivation and conquest. When those eyes moved, they carried the certainty of someone who had never been denied anything he truly wanted.

He was not adorned in radiant crimson armaments shining with power like the Imperators surrounding him. He wore only a simple crimson robe, fabric that seemed almost modest compared to the elaborate armor of his subordinates. But that simplicity was its own statement. He did not need protection. He did not need to display his strength through external trappings.

His muscular physique could be seen and felt beneath those robes, power compressed into flesh that seemed barely able to contain it. Tan skin covered muscles that moved like coiled serpents when he shifted, and across that skin were invisible inscriptions and rune markings that made his entire body feel like an explosive work of wonder waiting to detonate. He was eerily beautiful in the way that predators were beautiful, features too perfect and too sharp to belong to anything that had ever been ordinary.

When he opened his mouth to speak, one could see extremely pristine white teeth and particularly sharp canines.

"How exactly did this happen?"

His voice was heavy and thick, pressing against the ears of everyone present like a physical force. The Imperators fell supremely silent, none daring to breathe too loudly in the presence of that voice.

"Multiple of you were nearby. It should have taken less than an hour for one of you to arrive here."

Those star-filled eyes moved across the assembled Vessel Completion Warriors.

"And even then, why was someone with a Seed allowed to be the one patrolling the peripheries?"

The Imperators looked at each other, none wanting to be the first to answer. Finally, one of them stepped forward, a man whose armor bore markings of rank that set him slightly above his peers.

"We suspect a passing Noble Beast made a move, Sir Alex."

His voice came out steady despite the pressure emanating from the throne.

"Imperator Nayanna communicated with the birds and beasts nearby and confirmed that a massive winged creature shining gold and blue had risen and left from here."

A female Imperator nearby shook her head, crimson hair catching the faint light from the runes covering the beast beneath them.

"It could also be someone like us with a particularly powerful Land and Sky Physique. They transformed to take on that form."

The first Imperator shook his head in response.

"They would have transformed back if that were the case. The birds and beasts reported that the creature arrived in that form and left in that form. It came with it."

A heavy silence fell across the gathering as the implications settled. A Noble Beast that had somehow killed a Vessel Completion Imperator and destroyed the demon seed within her corpse.

All those present turned their heads back toward the entity adorned in that simple crimson robe, whose eyes shone like literal stars containing universes.

The crimson-haired female Imperator spoke again, her voice cautious and careful.

"Sir Alex, is there any response from... them?"

Them.

She said the word as if it might bite her tongue for speaking it. The ones she was referring to were none other than those they had made deals with. Those from beyond the River of The World. Those whose hunger extended to flesh and souls alike.

Demons.

Sir Alex looked toward her with extremely cold eyes, and the pressure he radiated intensified until several of the Imperators took involuntary steps backward. The air grew thick with Mana concentrated to suffocating levels.

"The 71st Duke Dantalion and the 39th Duke Malphas have been deployed."

...!