For thousands of years, we of the Crimson Blood fought to protect our legacy.
We burn the unworthy that dare to peek beyond their ken.
We wage a secret war on the ignorant who stretch their hand to the sky only to damn us all by their stupidity.
We protect the sacrifice that was given and shield the gate never meant to be opened.
We purge the world of the filth lurking all around us, exiled and misunderstood, yet never wavering.
We are of the Crimson Blood and in spite being rejected as above so below, we shall stand strong forever.
Crimson Blood Patriarch, Tokugawa Akame
A dried up, smouldering finger turned the page of a book that was almost falling apart, a memento he carried with him to remind himself of the importance of their mission. A Historic record of the past that had been almost forgotten.
But not by him.
When the wall fell, many of his brothers abandoned their oath and ran for safety, but he stayed true to his lineage. That, meant to be guarded forever would suffer no desecration, not on his watch.
He would continue to guard the gates, to keep the hell that lurked in the deepest dungeons of Jitori at bay. There were many that yearned to meddle with powers beyond their understanding just to further their selfish plans. He stretched his body that looked like a smouldering ruin, but was in fact perfectly healthy, its unusual visage caused by his unique origin. His only feature that looked ordinary was his gray hair.
"Intruders." He focused his amber eyes at a file of monsters that was clearly seeking to cross a river and continue in a fairly obvious direction.
* * * *
"Why does it look like a map for kids? Bei Lin is better not trying to fool me, or I will personally castrate him." Karl Gulden thought while looking at the map in front of him, focused on a particular location that piqued his interest. He had been staring at the map for as much time as it takes for three and a half incense sticks to burn, which is a darn long, but had still an unspecified uneasy feeling about the venture in front of him. "No, not me personally, but my minions will!"
"Your Majesty Black Emperor, a memo from the sect master." A person with half her head covered in green hair interrupted Karl's leisure time near the ruin. There was already grass growing again and Karl had come to enjoy the bit of greenery that interrupted his nearly perpetual stay under the ground. He could have looked through the eyes of his minions, but to see the scenery in person was still incomparable.
"Read." Karl wrote a single word in the air, not wanting to bother himself with ordering the bulky Void Knight to unroll the tiny bit of paper with the memo. He had already tried it once and became a laughing stock of all his trusted servants.
Correction, servants. He still did not trust them much.
"Of course." The girl coughed lightly and began to read.
"I, Water Dragon Lehaim, invite the Black Emperor for a glass of pineapple juice at noon. Please change the date to any date that suit you in case The Esteemed Black Emperor is not available."
Karl wanted to roll up his eyes when he heard the message. He did not understand why all Lehaim wanted to do was to drink tea with him. His first response had been that it is customary to drink something else in his empire and there he was, the annoying Lehaim had even managed to get pineapple that Karl had not seen anywhere in the forest. He was seriously running out of excuses.
"Write Lehaim that my presence is needed in a revolting region of my empire, but I will send an emissary in my stead." Karl wrote with Void and stood up, he decided to embark on the expedition earlier than planned. "Call everyone, I have an announcement to make."
He commanded and Mei Gon disappeared to execute his command while writing the last letters down.
Karl wanted to leave before he was involved too deeply in the political struggle of Jinsheng's expansion. Lehaim had his Earth Elementals to play with, making him ignore Karl's base insignificant presence and Karl did not plan to involve himself any further.
Honestly, he had little enthusiasm for the mission, but it was the most sensible thing he could think of. It reminded him of his life on Earh, living one day after another almost like a machine, flowing through the dullness of an ordinary employee, doing what he had to do to move towards another day.
"Let's just get on with it." He looked around and then looked up towards the summer Sun.
"Damn Sun shining, flowers stinking and blooming with their annoying colors. Everything with a hole into a butt running around as if trying to make up for the winter. So annoying." Karl complained for himself, realizing that the lush greenery had not improved his mood at all, he should have stayed underground.
Was it perhaps his dungeony side, being annoyed by the clear sky?
He decided to follow Mei Gon instead of staying outside and strangely, his mood improved a little the moment he stepped into the insides of his dungeon.
"This is strange, is it just my imagination?" He shortly met a party that was moving up along the spiral access tunnel and decided to hold the debate in the middle of it, receiving surprised glances from his subordinates.
"Good . .. . night. " He wrote, he had almost written morning, but he corrected himself in time. He was not a liar and mornings were never good, he had no idea who had invented the stupid greeting.
"Good morning, such a stupidity, glorifying the annoying Sun and pestering work." He ranted in his mind before writing another line.
"Good night, Lard Gulden!" Rovan said without hesitation, saving everyone else who were just staring at Karl, unable to react right away.
"I am in need of volunteers for our scouting mission." Karl continued before the situation degraded further and became even more awkward. "Naturally, the first scouting party will consist of mostly my minions, there is no need to risk lives."
"It will be an honor, Your Majesty." Rovan immediately reacted with the others remaining silent.
"So lazy!" Karl thought, his subordinates had apparently inherited some of his qualities. "It is commendable, but I need more than just one."
"It will come with benefits." Karl wrote, trying to entice more participants. "As long as it is in my power."
The next second, Karl heard a male voice requesting something he had not expected.
"Food and whores." The eyes of everyone looked in the direction of the person veiled in multiple layers of clothes.
"Hasuf seem to be our second participant." Karl wrote, not caring much for the condition. He had quite some coin and could surely provide the requested service.
"I will go, the tunnels are too bleak." Surprisingly, Mei Gon was next and the last volunteer and Karl decided not to push further, as three people seemed to be enough.
"Alright, we will set out in a few days." He concluded his meeting and began calculating in his head how large of a force they should be mobilizing for the mission.
The target's name was Edo, a city that was supposedly destroyed, but there might be a lot to gain by exploring it. Karl had to go in person, as he would be unable to construct dungeon Buildings otherwise. At the same time, Karl had an itch to finally discover what was with the names of the new world. So far, it looked like he had been far from the only transmigrator in here, although he had not met anyone else like him directly.
How else to explain all the strange naming? There had to be more to it, but thinking about it more, no one would be running around shouting that he had been reincarnated.
Edo was a distance away and Karl intended to bring a considerable force with him. He calculated that he could bring twelve Void Knights, forty Warped Flesh, sixteen Void Horrors, ten Skeleton Warriors, twenty Zombies and thirty two Goblins. He added the last two types just for utility reasons and it all should cost him half thousand mana to keep standing, half of his total capacity.
He needed two hundred and fifty mana upkeep for his Earh Elementals. One of them was the gate-keeper operating the entrance to his private dungeon and four were busy facilitating his good relationship with the Water Dragon Sect that was still building their extensive fortifications. Lehaim behaved like he intended to build a dwarven kingdom in place of the wilderness, but Karl did not care as long as it meant protection for his base and people.
Karl was left with seven hundred and fifty mana of upkeep for his expedition forces, he wanted to exhaust all of it, because there was no reason not to. He planned to leave only Void Knights at the Orlov base, because weak monsters would die off gradually if he was away for a longer period of time.
With heavy heart he decided to leave ten Void Knights at his base, costing him two hundred out of his one thousand precious mana upkeep. Fewer than that and the security of the base and the operations of his business would have been heavily compromised.
The leftover five hundred mana was used for the expedition force.
"I have no patience to use the last fifty." He grumbled when he realized that the time it took him to summon an expensive unit turned into forever when his mana started replenishing at a slow rate.
Karl Gulden left for his private dungeon to summon all the units he needed with hope that the ten Skeleton Warriors he had never really tested in combat would not turn out to be completely useless.
* * * *
"As you can see, Immortal Wu Zayed, the Twinstar Fortress is large enough to house many more men in the future. The road has been widened to double its width and fortified garrisons and watch towers had been build not only along the main road, but even at the former border of the Orlov region. Currently there is a wall being build connecting the outer ring of towers. My vision is to turn it into a new city wall in the years to come." A tall man with blue hair and beard explained while walking on the said road towards a towering fortress in the distance he had just mentioned.
"All solid stone, naturally." He smiled at the man walking next to him that seemed a little startled by the situation.
"Well done, Water Dragon Lehaim, I see that we have underestimated your resourcefulness." The man nodded his head while his long black hair went along with the gentle morning breeze. "Perhaps, you could lend your capable hands in the matter of repairing the old city wall."
"I am a public servant, it all depends on the current priority." Lehaim claimed while spreading his hands, trying to present himself as an altruist.
"Would you be so kind and provide me with a contact on those responsible for the construction?" The Immortal tried to sneak in a question, but Lehaim would have none of it and his expression turned sad.
"Sadly, the cultivators behind the construction had been targeted by gangs and other criminal elements in the past and refuse to act in the open. I fear that they might leave the city for good if I tried and forced their hand." Lehaim sighed while shaking his head.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
"Truly unfortunate. Let's hope that the security will improve in the future." The Immortal mirrored Lehaim's expression and the Water Dragon Sect leader nodded in agreement.
"I will try my best, as I did with the construction work."
Immortal Wu Zayed sighed again, probably weighing his options, but stayed silent until the pair reached the wall, a numerous escort staying at a reasonable distance away from them at all times.
"I must admit, you have left me breathless, my friend. I will return back to the city and tell everyone of your extraordinary abilities. Soon, your territory will be the first that will enter the enclosure phase. I cannot wait to see this part of the city reclaimed from the clutches of the demon-infested forest."
"I share your hopes, Sir." The two top ranked cultivators greeted each other with clasped hand and Lehaim watched The Immortal leave along with his part of the bodyguards that followed him closely.
"Sadly, my words are less of a lie than I would like." Lehaim grumbled under his breath. He had been trying to secretly investigate the true identity of his benefactor, but he kept hiding behind ridiculous titles and obviously fake identities. He could not antagonize his sudden helper and did not dare to act from the position of force. This all led to a limited contact.
His eyes wandered to the top of the Twinstar Fortress where two siblings stood on the wall. He had managed to keep them in his sect with the prospect of getting at least some information out of them, but his subordinates had not been successful in that matter yet.
Lehaim's gloomy mood thawed like ice when his eyes wandered down to look at the fortress itself. Its walls had been constructed in the shape of two starts, a fact that had naturally given the fortress its name, the Twinstar Fortress. In it, Lehaim's eyes continued to search until he had found some of the most stunning members of his sect that were not particularly far on their path of cultivation, but had other qualities.
"Let's try a bit of honey on our two birds and see how it goes." Lehaim whispered under his breath and stepped through the gate of his brand new fortress.
"Sect Master, there is another one!" He was stopped the moment he had entered the large courtyard that had multiple carts moving back and forth with goods and material. Lehaim's eyes focused on a dried up corpse that was propped up against the stone wall.
"Was it enchanting again?" He studied the corpse in the distance only to find out that the corpse had more legs that it was supposed to and all of them were not that of a human. "One casualty?"
"Two animals and two people had to be eradicated after a failed attempt." His confidant in a strikingly similar clothes as everyone else answered with a clear unease in his face.
"This cannot stand, halt all attempts for a few days and get more information about other sects' progress." Lehaim ordered to stop more casualties produced by their continued attempts to craft enchantments. The standard process was less safe than before, especially after the incident with the Cult of Mezzaiel and Lehaim feared that a different technology of enchanting would have to be found.
There were rumors that the Cult ceased its existence thanks to extensive experiments on rabbits.
"Animals seem to be off limits, we will find a different way." He said, still in a good mood due to the just finished inspection, an important test that the Water Dragon Sect passed with flying colors. With his roaring success, it was time to expand the sects strained foundation and cultivation resources.
He stopped and looked into the wilderness from the high wall of the fortress only to turn around and look inside of the sect that currently dwelled inside the fortress.
Lehaim stared forth with displeasure when he realized how monotonous the life of disciples became. The cultivation was both a search inside oneself and in the outside world, dull environment proved to be a dull inspiration. He needed to ensure rich environment with plenty of variability if he wanted his disciples to find their path forward.
"There is much to do, I should carefully squeeze The Pineapple Juice Emperor as well, he is obviously bullshitting me." Lehaim stroked his blue beard planning what to do next, his eyes sparkling with azure light.
* * * *
"This is so cool! I could travel to the end of the world with these guys!" Rovan praised while clapping on the shoulder of one of Karls minions. The Warped Flesh had his shoulder almost higher then Rovan's head and was carrying all his bags with provisions.
The file of twelve Void Knights, forty Warped Flesh, sixteen Void Horrors, ten Skeleton Warriors, twenty Zombies and thirty two Goblins marched in the direction of Edo with the more vulnerable units in the middle and the toughest at the periphery. They were all in a single file except for eight Void Horrors who were scouting in a ring around them for dangers.
"Still, I would prefer to walk during the day." He said tentatively and looked at one of the Void Knights that had a black stone fastened to its forehead.
Karl looked back at Rovan, but ignored his complaints.
He decided to move at night, because his minions could scout ahead with exceptional stealth. The glow of their claws and eyes could be reduced, making Void Horrors hard to see at night, especially for enemies who were not expecting their presence and did not know what to look for. Using his strategic genius, Karl ordered all Void Horrors to move with one eye closed, effectively turning them into purple fireflies for all people who were not expecting an encounter with the shadowy monsters.
"You have turned lazy and fat in the base." The girl traveling with them snorted in Rovan's direction and he smiled at her without finding the right words to respond. In a few seconds, his smile froze and turned sour before he looked away, still without knowing how to respond.
Unusual for the pretentious chatterbox Rovan, his unease of moving at night among undead was beyond obvious.
Karl wondered how close the two were, but it was clear that it was not the best of relationships. He could not join the discussion much even if he wanted, as his purple writing would be a security risk for their group. All the Void light had been dimmed to the minimum by his order and he did not intent to act against his own orders.
The first days of the journey were uneventful, until they reached the river that needed to be crossed in order to get to Edo. It was the same river that flowed next to Jinsheng down the stream. He had even considered traveling by a boat on their way back, but that was far into the future. However, he would rather fight a land beast than some water monster even though the water route would be definitely faster.
"Should we swim?" Rovan asked while gazing into the dark water, not intending to be the first one to go in. There was a while of silence, before a voice interrupted it, coming from the multilayered outfit that was hiding Hasuf inside.
"Lord, where are the whores?" He looked at the leading Void Knight for a second and then his head swiveled towards Mei Gon, his eyes kept staring at her brazenly without any intention of looking away.
"What?! Chill creep. The river can cool you down." She pointed at the river in front of them and both looked at it briefly.
"No." He answered.
"We will go along the stream for a time, there has to be a crossing sooner or later." Karl decided to respond while ignoring the inconvenient topic, it would not be much of a detour, because he had not expected them to find a crossing immediately. The delay had been included in his plans. However. the moment they made a few steps along the stream, a word was uttered into the darkness.
"Scam." Hasuf said and Karl had an impulse to order a Void Knight to throw him into the river as far away as the minion was able.
"Payments after completion." Karl wrote when he realized the dubious member of his squad would probably not let the matter slide.
Fortunately, that was the end of it and they could enjoy the night sounds of the forest without any more squabbles.
They continued along the bank, the reflection of glowing runes of the minions' drawn swords dancing on water surface next to their feet. Moving on, the forest on both of their sides started to elevate into hills, the river they have been following passing in between. Karl looked at one of the hills to the right and noticed that the top of the hill had many trees burned into black stumps He could see it only because some of them were still glowing, the cause of their destruction left embers that whispered their message of doom into the night.
The cause Karl would very much like to avoid.
He looked left and right and ordered the file of their troops to increase their marching speed. The pace was unsustainable for the teenagers moving along with him, but that was not an issue at the moment.
Despite their attempts, a mournful wail penetrated the eerily silent night forest, its loudness uncomfortable.
"What is that?!" Rovan, who had already been on edge tumbled and nearly fell into the river. His moment of clumsiness was followed by a second wail that seemed much closer to them and they knew that they had been spotted.
"Silence." Karl commanded immediately and with a thought ordered his minions to spread out to prevent their ranks from being decimated by area attacks. At the same time, he steered the closest Void Horror in the direction of the sound and pushed his presence into its form, observing the sudden threat first hand.
His view immediately shifted and he no longer saw the river bank, but instead, a blur of flames intertwined into whirling hair of green and purple color mixed in a similar patter to Mei Gon. It belonged to a cultivator in a purple robe that was locked in a fierce fight with a flaming entity that moved too fast and all Karl could see through the blur of flames and hot air was a roughly humanoid figure.
First hand, Karl could see the fierce fight escalate until the fire user clearly lost patience with its adversary and an inferno of flames exploded outward from him, sending the opponent half-flying, half-tumbling in Karl's direction. Yet, the flames did not stop after the eruption of fire and the surroundings of the fiery entity continued burning with extraordinary heat.
Thanks to the sudden big move that paused the struggle, Karl could finally see the humanoid entity clearly, standing in the midst of the shimmering air that was radiating incredible levels of heat, burning the forest all around the gnarled figure.
Surprisingly, it did not seem to be a monster, but a human that had patches of his skin glowing as it kept burning and the places that were just smoldering reminded Karl of burned bark. He was most likely looking at a demonic cultivator that had chosen a radical way to gain power, yet was not incompetent enough to blast himself into pieces right away.
He stopped looking at the dangerous persona and his eyes shifted to the area around him.
"Domain?! We need to get away from them." Karl made a quick guess and ordered immediate retreat while commanding a few Void Knights to fire volleys in the direction of the two struggling cultivators as cover. Soon, Void projectiles began flying through the forest, shattering bark and wood, filling the night with the ominous glow of Void.
* * * *
Artoan Vita conjured a blast of wind mixed with what looked like tiny petals of sakura blossom directed at the creature in front of him, but the gnarly monster simply blasted his attack away with a simple gesture that commanded a wall of flames burning many meters above his head.
From all the possible hell spawn, he had to encounter the one that was proficient with fire. It was usually not good news, as intense fire tended to easily neutralize poison, a significant portion of his power.
Unexpectedly, the fire wielding cultivator burst out with flames on a whole different level than before and sent Artoan flying in the direction of the river.
"Damn!" He cursed his idea to try and follow the strange procession that had to have some connection to the mysterious trader from outside of the city. He could still feel the smouldering rage deep inside him, after his efforts to shed light on the case had been neutralized by the leader of the Water Dragon Sect. And the fearless hero he used to worship, Yen Gon, proved impotent to do anything meaningful.
Instead of trying to hide from them like before, he decided to chase after the minions of the forest demon in hope to distract the persistent enemy that proved much more formidable than he had anticipated. Artoan quickly pushed a red leaf of an expensive healing herb into his mouth and rushed away from the fire cultivator that reminded him of a humanoid pile of smouldering ash. He ran through the trees like a rabbit, swiftly nearing the armored knights he would prefer as opponents, as he had run out of tricks he could play. He had to admit that his bag of tricks he used in fights with ordinary opponents was all empty.
He could not even react when he saw the sudden flood of violet swordlight that headed in his direction. He turned his head a second before the Void sealed his fate and saw a rising tide of fire that was coming from the other side, ready to answer the Void's challenge.
The fiery reflection in his eyes kept enlarging until he was swallowed by both tides.
* * * *
An armored boot smashed through the the soft moss, supporting the immense weight that lumbered through the vegetation with unusual speed, Karl in person, or rather in stone bouncing two meters above the ravaged vegetation, urging his minions to move at their fastest pace.
As the result, one of the goblins had been trampled to death.
Not that he cared, because at the moment, there was a huge fiery tornado raging behind their heels. It was probably the last stand of the cultivator that had been using wind, an unfortunate man that had to be fighting for his very life with all recklessness at his disposal.
However, Karl guessed that based on the ratio of fire and wind in the mix, he was not the one winning.
his minions had long stopped shooting behind them and they all focused on running alongside the river with the three teenagers being carried by the Void Knights, as they were unable to keep up the breakneck pace.
Karl himself had a hard time to keep his wits about him due to the uncomfortable speed.
They kept moving for hours before he allowed his servants to stop and the teenagers were placed back on their wobbly feet. No one was in the mood to talk and he decided to give them a moment to recuperate.
"This is bad, only a single silly demonic cultivator and we are on our toes. Have I underestimated the dangers of the mission?" Karl thought, doubting his previous enthusiasm for the adventure. His companions seemed to be of a similar mindset and no one talked for a while, until they reluctantly set out to continue along the river bank. Their pace was moderate, almost reminding Karl of a funeral procession.
Karl continued to lead the group next to the river, thinking about the encounter.
"Cool down, creep!" Suddenly there was a shout and a splash heard from behind his back and he immediately ordered his minion to turn. He saw that Hasuf was no longer walking in the line behind him, but was swimming near the shore instead, the layers of his clothes soaking with water. It made his movements difficult, but he could obviously swim and would not be drowning anytime soon.
"Bitch!" He had even energy left to shout and everyone just stopped and waited for him to climb back onto the riverbank.
"Creep! Keep your hands for yourself!" Mei Gon, who was doubtlessly the cause of Hasuf going for a swim promptly shouted back. Karl guessed that Hasuf had decided to defuse his tension using particular parts of Mei Gon's body and she did not share his enthusiasm.
The shouting and splashing continued from both sides until there appeared an unnatural bulge on the black water surface of the river, reminding everyone that they should have been silent. It moved fast in the direction of Hasuf that started desperately flailing his arms and legs, unable to move even a few meters before the suspicious shape in the water reached him.
"Help!" Hasuf shouted desperately before he disappeared under the water, clearly pulled under by a considerable external force.
Karl wanted to do something, but realized that the Void Knights would immediately sink like a stone and he doubted that his other minions were able to swim, except Goblins. He prepared himself to sacrifice a few before he understood that it was useless to even try, Goblins were physically too weak to deal with the big water monster, whatever it was.
Unconsciously, all three of them stepped a few meters away from the river and both Rovan and Mei Gon looked at Karl with questioning looks.
"Stay away from the water." He stated the obvious and continued in their walk, followed by his small army as if nothing had happened. Yet, the unexpected death of one of the expedition's members lay heavily on each one of them.
Karl started to think that the expedition was a mistake, but it was too late to turn back with the demonic fire cultivator behind them. They had made it most of the way and the path back was as tricky as the path ahead. They seemed to have only one choice, one direction left, forward.