Calm. That was what we felt. Our souls resonated, and become as one. We drew our bowstrings together, filled with power and experience from a bygone age, and waited. Laws of reality trembled, and the roar of a dragon resounded. The composition of all things scattered about in front of my eyes, and from it, I added the concept of death and annihilation to my arrow tip.
I looked at Ciel, and the terror of a primaeval creature could be felt from her, making all beings submit to her strength. The flames of creation could be heard from her arrow tip, threatening to collapse unto itself, which would bring about a colossal explosion in its wake.
The beast, maddened with rage, could not feel the breeze of death that it was facing. It continued its clamour and dashed closer to our location.
The knights, finally awoken from their stupor, tried with all their might to take back the beast's attention, afraid that something dreadful would befall the beloved family of their knight captain.
Still. The beast paid them no heed. It has only one thing in its mind; to tear apart the creature that damaged its eyes. It was only when it thought the distance was close enough to crush those small bugs, that it finally realized the doom in front of it. Death, annihilation, destruction, explosion. It tried to run away, but its momentum brought it forward, towards eternal damnation.
Both of us released at the same time, our target the same, the beast in front of us. My arrow flew rigidly, uncaring about anything and everything. It delivered death, as simple as that. Her arrow flew eruptively, it burnt all to nothingness. They met in front of the beast, one striking its brain, the other its heart. The beast died the moment my arrow landed, and its effects continued, killing out the flames of creation that threatened to spill forth after it turned the beast into ashes, before its effects finally died due to its own nature as the end of all.
As the beast fell and thumped down into ashes, we felt something crack and crumbled. A wall within that impedes the progress of our path, a bottleneck.
I had received the first of my believers, the knights we just saved, allowing me to progress my divinity from a mortal into a Local Deity. Finally opening up the world of laws and order to me.
In truth, a Local Deity wouldn't be able to use a high concept such as death or annihilation. They could mostly use and rely on the physical laws of reality, and only on a small scale at that, such as gifting rain within their area of influence, or creating water and food out of nothing when they're far away from their believers. However, Laincelot had progressed through this path long ago. Once a Local Deity, to a Regional Deity, Continental Deity, Conceptual Ruler, and from the First to the Ninth Aspect of Vertex Zenith, just close to becoming The One. Meaning, that I had understood and was capable of using high concepts, one that you would normally attain when you're a conceptual ruler, in such a low rank as a Local Deity.
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Ciel too had managed to break her bottleneck, finally becoming a fledgling after consuming the soul of the Wendigo, though I don't know of what kind. She would now be able to control her transformations better, and once she managed to become a juvenile, she would gain the ability to fully transform. Finally, when she gained her true form, she would be an unstoppable force of nature.
“Did you feel anything funny after your breakthrough?” I asked concernedly.
"A little bit. I don't think I'm a dragon anymore in this life. Remember the thing I gained from our awakening?" she asked giddily.
"A piece of The Primordial, how could I forget such a thing!" I slapped my hand to my forehead.
"A seal that affects our memories."
"So you're on your way to become The Primordial now? No more evolution after gaining your true form?"
"Yes and no. I will become The Primordial, its new generation. Also, I don't need to evolve into a higher stage of being, but it would take a long time to progress."
"Cool, my fiancee is the new generation of one of the Four Guardians," I raised my thumbs up while smiling smugly.
"My fiancee is also on his way to become the new generation of The One," she did the same gesture.
Both of us laughed at how absurd we sounded, before being interrupted by the knights running towards our spot, anxious about our survival. We waved at them from up above, and give them our thumbs up.
The knights looked relieved when they saw us, Ornz and Smogh in particular. They came towards us before Ornz started lecturing us with a chiding tone.
"Good grief, kid. You need to know this old man nearly had a heart attack when that beast went running towards you."
"It's all calculated sir. No need to worry about us," I smiled.
"Well, I won't say anything else since that shot saved us some trouble, but please know the knight captain will be very sad if the both of you got hurt somehow."
I nodded. For the last few weeks, my elder sister, Sarah Carter, had doted on us. Be it the restaurants she chose or the easy work she gave us. It's a no-brainer that she loved us dearly. However, it is because of that, that we wanted to give something back to her.
"Thank you for your reminder, sir. I will certainly invite my elder sister to have some fun later; after this whole debacle had already finished."
He nodded before going back to the other knights, asking for the one who activated the 'Mirror Realm'.
A small crack in our point of view, and we’re back in the world of men. People came and go, from stall to stall. There are lovers flirting around, a grandfather who was escorting his granddaughter to have some fun, and even the hotel staff lady who helped us find Dracul could be seen, bringing her twin sons along the festival. Having seen all that, my heart steadily beats with the determination to protect this age of peace.