•••

In a mysterious realm, minted with the scent of blood, an annual ceremony was about to begin, if this ceremony were to be discovered it would send shockwaves throughout the universe, a dome-like structure floated in the air at the centre of the realm.

The dome-like structure was made entirely out of glass, and along the glass, projections of the outside world were placed upon, allowing for the inhabitants outside to watch the world around them. A gaggle of more than a hundred giggling women mingled about making merry with each other, all the girls were drinking exceptional wine like water; they all had one thing in common, that was the asura-like aura they emanated.

All the women had empire-toppling beauty, although compared to Astrallis’ family most of these girls were a level lower in looks.

“So, you’re saying Senior-Sister Jasmine’s son managed to reach the summit of their Primordial Mountain?” A girl with white hair exclaimed excitedly towards a black-haired girl next to her.

“Yes, you know how us girls like to gossip. She informed us within a week of him doing it, who wouldn’t want to show-off such a startling son,” The black-haired girl replied.

“She already had three talented daughters, now she has such a son? How did she even manage to birth a son, you know how difficult it is for us Maidens of Felicity to birth males,”

“I wasn’t actually able to find out how, but she also said that it came at a great cost. But, it makes sense for her children to have such magnificent talent. They are the offspring of Religion Master Felicity. I wish Senior-Sister Jasmine were here, it’s been years since I’ve last seen her in person, we generally only have one chance to see each other every five years, and that is during our Felicity-Inheritance Festival,” The black-haired girl shook her head in disappointment.

“Even though it is the quinquennial Felicity-Inheritance Festival, there are more girls here than usual,” Another blonde-haired maiden said next to them.

The white-haired girl turned to her and said, “Well, that is a given. I’ve heard that innumerable geniuses, throughout the universe, have been born within the last decade. It seems there will be a heaven-shaking event in our universe in the future. Even though we are in seclusion, we are still one of the top organisations in existence, it makes sense for a plethora of talents to be born of our Blood Felicity Religion.”

At the centre of the large hall, a table of around twenty women with unfathomable auras sat laughing gaily. These twenty women were the elders of the Religion.

“Sister Bai, I heard Religion Master will be returning soon, within the next thousand years or so?” A blue-haired woman with scales on the centre of her forehead asked an elf next to her.

“That is the case Sister Starvis. Religion Master went to the Astral God’s realm, and using favour she healed herself in the Primeval Blood Pool at the summit of the realms Primordial Mountain.” Sister Bai, a white-haired elf woman, responded.

“That’s great news, she injured herself heavily to create multiple teleportation arrays, for all us sisters of the Religion, to allow us to escape to all corners of the universe. At the same time, she formed this secret realm for the Religion, for both merry-making and to quinquennially run the Felicity-Inheritance Festival,” Sister Starvis replied in relief.

“The fact that she could do all of that, and only receive injuries is a testament to her deep powers,” A sister added.

“Quiet down.” A deep, but still feminine, voice rang throughout the hall.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

All the females within the hall became quiet and turned towards the speak of the deep voice.

A well-built demi-human, of feline-origins, stood at the forefront of the hall, “Sisters, young and old, today we gather for our quinquennial Felicity-Inheritance Festival, but unlike the past Festivals, this one has seen an overwhelming number of geniuses compared to last. At the last Festival, we had twelve girls take part, with Junior-Sister Amelia taking first place.”

At the mention of her name, a girl close to the age of seventeen bowed towards everyone. If Astrallis were here, he’d be surprised to find that this girl was his sister Amelia Ether; he’d been even more gobsmacked by the aura of Asura that she emitted, which was so much stronger than the other girls her age. The gentle and kind-loving sister of his past was nowhere to be seen.

“Today, I am glad to announce that we will have twenty sisters take part. These twenty girls will be split up into teams of four according to their respective denominations; the team leaders will be child Bai, child Melania, child Nekora and lastly our Saintess of the Ichor.”

“We expect great things from all of you during this trial. This mysterious realm has been specially designed by Religion Master to invoke the growth of your Sanguinary Felicity Tree. All the participants in today’s trial have had an embryonic form of the Sanguinary Felicity Tree imprinted within their souls; it will immediately begin to sprout upon your arrival in the secret realm. Currently there will be no such effect for you in this hall, as it has been designed specifically for spectators in mind.”

Back at the elder’s table, the elders were an in-depth discussion about the Saintess of the Ichor.

“I’m sure Religion Master will be ecstatic when she finds out that we found a carrier of God’s blood.”

“Child Enyo is a gift towards the revitalisation of our Blood Felicity Religion, with her heavenly bloodline, I’m sure she will lead the religion to new heights in the future. She’ll definitely find a pool of archaic blood within the trial.”

“Meow, I must say sea-plant, this Enyo girl seems to be a good match for our Astrallis?” A voice spread throughout the ears of the elders.

“Ow! Okay, I concede. You’re not a sea-plant.”

The Elders around the table all jumped up, auras raging, after hearing a deep male voice, “Who's there?”

A dignified and regal voice soon spread throughout the hall, “Placate your worries, my dear Sisters.”

Soon a beautiful blonde-haired woman, with a height of six feet five, appeared above all of them.

She stayed there suspended-in-animation, the mystical runes on her ivory bodysuit moved around in an arcane fashion, her piercing red eyes penetrating the minds of all in the hall.

“Religion-Master!” A startled cry came from the great feline demi-human.

Soon everyone in the hall bowed in unison while saying, “The Blood Felicity Religion greets Religion Master.”

Silence pervaded the space around the hall, everyone felt cold sweat form on their backs at the same time they trembled in excitement. Spiritual sense soon inspected the bodies of all the females in the hall, the Religion Master did this as a sign of respect towards the Religion Members, as she could have done this quickly without them knowing.

“Excellent, what superb improvement, as well as a large array of members under the age of thirty with such shocking talents.”

She turned towards her sisters, the elders.

“Sisters, it has been many millennia since we last saw each other. I hope you all have coped well. Colour me impressed, you’ve created such a magnificent team of fresh-blood.”

The tall feline demi-human moved towards the Religion Master, “Religion Master, we’ve attempted to do all we could to at least make up a part of the sacrifice you made for our Religion all those years ago.”

“Enough of that Vice-Religion Master, I’m all healed now. So, tell me. Who is this Enyo?” Grandmother Anemone moved on to what she really was interested in.

“Yeah, who's this Enyo who sounds like a match for Astrallis?” An emerald kitten, with a white horn, jumped onto the table.

Bataar soon realised that he’d made a wrong decision, over a hundred pairs of blood-red eyes turned to look at him, a growing desire eating away at their insanity, two words soon exited the mouths of all females present, “So, cute.”

•••

Over an hour ago, Astrallis landed in a cavern full of beautiful stalactites and stalagmites; these earthly protrusions came in a myriad of colours, giving the cavern a feeling of paradise while at the same time emitting an intense heat. But Astrallis, at the moment of landing, felt a sudden change overcome his being, he immediately moved towards the centre of the aesthetic cave. At the centre of the cave lay a large pond filled with blue and red blood, the stalagmites on the ground boiled the blood to an insane temperature.

Astrallis stared at his body in fear and awe as it entered the blood pond, against his will.

•••