A predator. What is a predator?
An animal that naturally preys on others. A person or a group that ruthlessly exploits others.
In other words, they are one that preys, destroys and devour.
Azief was tempered by blood and war. In Earth Two he painted the world red with the blood of his enemies.
In the other Earth he was stuck in, that was even more so. He lives by predation. He devours. He destroys. He prey.
And as such he himself becomes one of the deadliest predators. And what happens when a predator is provoked?
They hunt!
If that person who recognized his aura thinks he would only wait, than that person clearly doesn’t know the personality of Azief.
And that person certainly doesn’t know what kind of person he has just provoked. He provoked a sleeping beast.
Why wait for an enemy to come knocking? He will visit first.
The moment he felt the killing intent in that consciousness, Azief has already decided to pull this person by the roots.
As he was thinking this, his figures separating the clouds can be seen from the ground.
He passes the Great Red Mountain. It was a towering mountain reaching the clouds, red as blood.
The reason why it is red is because of the composition of the soil which makes the land red and the mountain red.
Thick deep forest could be seen on the foot of the mountain range that houses innumerable dangerous monsters.
Now that most of the mutated sapiens was eaten by the slowly evolving monsters, the threats to humanity is monsters.
The mountain range of the Great Red Mountain divides the line between the Plains and the other Regions.
He speed up his speed as his trail dissipates the clouds and pierce sounds.
The moment he passes the mountain range, he could see a pillar of fire sometimes formed from the ground to the sky.
The Fire region.
He could see a gigantic volcano in the middle of hundreds of other small volcanoes. The heat that permeates from the ground reaches the sky.
He already takes hours from the Plains regions to the Fire Region and he was not even close to the Ice Region.
As he passes by the fire region, he could see some settlements, houses made of black stones.
He saw a horde of fiery red monsters made their nest nearby the volcanoes. He sees some people coming out of some caves hunting the monsters.
The longer he passes the region, the more he sees. He also saw one peculiarity in the fire region.
A huge lake, clear as the sky.
For some reason, Azief could feel that there is an ancient energy swirling in that lake but Azief did not stop to check the lake….because his senses is telling him that there is something guarding the lake.
He keep flying and then two hours later, he sees it.
In the far distance he could a towering mountain that reached the clouds, full of snows and dare he say it?
A White Dragon on top of that mountain, closing its eyes. Azief was startled but he was cautious.
He knows dragons.
At least in that other world, there are dragons. As long as you don’t bother them, they will not bother you.
Dragon itself is a primordial force.
In them, the power of the element reside. Even Azief with his level, could not slay a dragon.
He is confident he can outrun a dragon but fighting them? Even fighting them to a standstill is not something Azief could do with his current strength.
But the sight of that dragon in the distance did not deter Azief one bit.
After all, Azief did not come to the other regions to slay a dragon, instead he wanted to see the other Seed Forming user and kill that person.
His experience has taught him to be decisive..
Because Azief could feel killing intent from that person when that person scanned him.
Azief has once seen the Ice Region when he was in flight but never before he as seen it this close.
It is white. Disturbingly white. Like the whiteness of nothingness. That is how Azief feels. A white expanse that never ends.
Harsh snow falls without stopping, ruthlessly beating the soil, an eternal place of winter and cold
And the cold could even seeps into his Essence Tree, making him shiver in cold. The snow itself was magic. The cold is magic. The winds and the environment are magic.
Whatever happened in that white explosion, it truly changed the composition of Earth atmosphere.
Azief could feel it. Magic. All kinds of it. The dark ones. The light. Chaotic magic.
All kinds of laws of magic melded perfectly without any imbalance, like a perfect formula of a unified magic equation.
As Azief flies deeper into the Ice Region, he could feel the cold which is almost impossible considering his Undying Body stage.
The hail snows becomes harsher like an unrelenting storms that won’t stop coming at you, and then he arrived.
He arrived at the White Mountain and he slowly floated down and his foot touches the cold hard soil, and he smiles.
His smile was full of malevolent intention and he clenches his hand into a fist and his knuckles crack and the air ripple.
Red black mist swirls around him, aura of death spreading in a hundred meter radius, melting the snow beneath his feet
Then he looks into the distance and his smile becomes wider. He activated his essence as he tries to replenish his aura after using one of the Forbidden Words.
Using the Forbidden Words, a spell of the Ancients, a spell from the Eternal Rings is taxing. Powerful, imposing……but a price has to be pay when using such magic.
Then he slowly walks as his footsteps marked in the deep snow, was erased by the hail. He slowly walks to a cave hidden in the snow
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IN A CAVE ON THE ICE REGION
‘Hah’ the woman released her breathe.
Around her was lump of black blood in the hard soil of the cave. The woman was sitting in a cross legged position and her face was full of colors.
The woman smiles in satisfaction. Then she said to herself
‘I know I wouldn’t die that easily.’ She was smiling in satisfaction and her smile was full of confidence. She has managed to pass the critical part of her recovery.
Then her face suddenly fell and her gaze immediately look at the entrance of her cave.
Sasha who was just finished recuperating suddenly felt the disturbance of energy and then she quickly got up.
‘Seed Forming’ she said exasperatedly.
Then before she could even think anything, or plan anything she could hear it. To others, they might not hear it but she could hear the footsteps in the snow.
It is not because the footsteps emitted sound but with each steps, Sasha could hear reverberation of essence at it was like the sound of peal of thunder beside her ears.
To her, the sound of the reverberation seems like a twenty foot giant is outside her cave, slowly walking to her.
Her heart thumps and her eyes narrowed.
The closer the energy comes towards her cave, the paler her face becomes. Because she could truly feel it now.
The Seed Forming User coming to her right now, might not have any seeds in their body, but that person essence is almost five times stronger than her.
Alarms finally ringing in her mind.
‘A Seed Forming High realm’ she finally realized as she gasped in shock. She did not think anyone have managed to reach that realm this fast.
She quickly prepares herself. And then as she was just about to break out from her cave, a cold voice stops her.
‘Leaving so soon?’
In front of the cave, a man with black attire and a black hood disguising his face is standing in front of the cave entrance like an uncrossable wall.
Aura swirls around him, Immortal Presence fill the cave, pressuring her to kneel. It was a suppression of a higher being.
Even his voice was like a decree from Heaven, almost forcing her mind to obey.
If not for her strong will and her Essence continuously pushing the man’s aura, she would have collapsed right there and then.
Then she musters her essence in her body and look at the man, scanning him from head to toe.
Sasha then only bitterly smiles as she reply.
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‘It seems I attract quite the character. Bad luck. I never knew there is other Seed Forming user in the world other than me.’
The man didn’t say anything only look at her face like he was seeing an old friend. The man then shakes his head and sighed.
Then his cold voice echoes again inside the cave.
‘Why did you scan me? Though I admit I was impressed. Your divine consciousness is very powerful.’ He said in a complimenting manner.
‘I thought that I could snatch your seed but it seems you do not yet form any Seed’ She said truthfully.
Which surprise Azief and he almost got flustered by the surprising candid behavior of Sasha
But he quickly regains his calm.
‘The same could be said for you. Not only that. You also did not refine your body the slightest. That is a mistake’ he said it in a matter of fact as his eyes could be seen scanning her.
Sash only smiles bitterly.
The man in front of her must be a powerful expert since he could easily deduce her current strength without any hassles.
‘Yes’ she replies.
‘But I have pressing matter at the time. I have no choice to increase my level and ignoring the Body Refinement process though why I am explaining this to you is quite weird. ‘
Sasha said as she tries to look at the face hidden under that hood.
The man did not respond.
‘Even if I’m not in Seed Forming Stage, I could easily trample you with my Energy Disperse Stage strength. ‘He suddenly said like informing her of their difference in level of power
‘Eternal Spring Body refinement stage?’
Sasha was hard at work trying to think of the level of Body refinement stage that the man in front of him possess but she discovered that the feeling that the man gives him is even more oppressing than the feeling Katarina gives her.
Like a Celestial Soldier coming to execute her, like a wall that couldn’t be broken, like a force that could not be stopped.
That’s the feeling she got from the man.
‘Anyway, what is your purpose coming here?’ she ask.
‘I want to se-‘ when suddenly Sasha throws something at Azief and Azief was caught unprepared, but he managed to fling the thing that Sasha throws to the right side and green explosion imploded inside the small cave leaving a huge hole in the area surrounding the caves.
The snowy mountains shake and trigger a gigantic avalanche from the top of the mountain.
Mini shakes beginning to happen. The beast on top of the mountains quickly found ways to hide themselves from the disaster that will be occurring.
Some burrow under the snows, some flies to the sky, others teleported like the Warping Marsupial, while others activated their defensive capabilities.
As the raging green fires consume the snow, a golden chariot decorated with a phoenix design emerges from the green sea of flames and shot out to the clouds.
‘HAHAHAHA! Serves you right! Trying to kill me! You think it will be that easy!!!’
It was Sasha riding the carriages while laughing like a madwoman as she look at the gigantic explosion that is happening underneath him, while speeding away from the site.
But her hands were trembling. Even as she was laughing, her forehead is full of sweats. It was false bravado.
The chariot was an artifact and was shining like the sun.
Nine crows flew beside the chariot, the crows were also golden and heat emanated from this crows as it flew away in the speed of sound.
It was being pulled by four flying horses which are made of fires.
They were not Fire Horses. Fire Horses eats water and has flames in their hooves but this horses that pulled her chariots were made of fire.
Sasha was trembling and she was clearly distraught as she guided her chariot to get out as fast as possible from the Ice Regions.
Her hands were singed by fire and her essence was being consumed by the chariot.
This is her last resort but she acted decisively. And she already has a plan. She knows she can’t defeat that hooded man but she knows his weakness.
She look back at the crumbling cave that was being consumed by the green flame and when she saw what is happening down there, she smiles bitterly.
Like she expected, the man survives her surprise attack as she whip the horse to go faster.
A while later, a man can be seen flying to the clouds, his black attire was swirling with black mist, like a blob of darkness, his eyes was full of boundless fury as he began chasing the golden chariot.
Azief was now angry.
He did not think that this Sasha is very ruthless and very decisive.
The reason why Azief did not immediately kill the Seed Forming user was because he was shocked when he first sees the woman face.
It resembles so much of the Sasha Makarov of Earth Two. No, to be more honest, she is Sasha Makarov.
Only that this Sasha is the Sasha of Earth Prime and not Sasha of Earth Two. His relationship between him and the Sasha of Earth Two is complicated.
They are an item….when they are not trying to outwit each other.
Sasha in Earth Two was a famous Duchess but also she moonlight as one of the most famous thief while Azief always foils her plans.
So, he was caught unprepared when she thrown the Green Sea Flames Reagents. Sina has some of the stocks on her labs so Azief knows its effects and what it is.
It is one of the dangerous reagents that could turns ice into a green sea of flames capable of immediately incinerating a battalion of Orb Condensing Low Realm users.
But for Azief who possess Undying Body, the flames were merely an itch in his body and did not even injure him in the slightest.
The only thing that reagents manage to do is delay him for a few seconds.
And now as he saw Sasha is flying away in that chariot, Azief began to pursue her.
Black streak could be seen flying through the clouds chasing a golden chariot as blinding as the sun
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IN THE BOTTOM OF THE MOUNTAIN
Under the snowy large mountains of the Ice Region, the Revolutionary Army makes their base there.
Hundreds of tents were made by thick fur of beasts that roams the Mountain lines up on the foot of the mountain to protect the soldiers and civilians from the biting cold of the region
Some lives in ice-like structure resembling that of an igloo.
But there is also some that built houses made of wood though only certain people with prestige and strength lives in the wooden house since wood is hard to find in the Ice Region.
There is a house made of wood that sits atop a hill in the foot of the mountain.
The house is large and surrounding the house was hundreds of tents all have hearth fire in the tent.
The tent itself was large and interconnects with each other that could fit hundreds of men under the tent tarp.
The tent tarp is made from an elastic skin of a beast and was protected with the fur of White Giant Bear.
With the hearth fire in the middle of the area, the men do not suffer from the cold. These men were soldiers.
They were organized and disciplined. And they all will lay down their lives for the person who lives on the wooden house atop the hill.
The wooden house has the flag of the French Empire waving proudly on the top of its roof.
In the wooden house atop the hill, lies one of the pillars of Revolutionary Army, Jean the former Emperor of France.
Jean, who was sleeping soundly with Paulette beside him in his embrace after a session of sex, was suddenly startled when he felt that his senses alerted him.
He got up and Paulette also wakes up after noticing the urgency in the way Jean was behaving.
‘What happen?’ Paulette immediately asks as she dresses herself quickly following Jean who is walking around in circle inside the house.
Jena did not know what but he creased his eyebrows and replies
‘Nothing good, I think.’ He quickly summons his generals and they immediately were called to their post as Jean could not shake off the feeling that some disaster is about to befallen the base.
Meanwhile, in a large palace made entirely of ice, Katarina who was in her Ice Room was the first one to notice that there is something happening.
She already absorbs some of the elemental energy in the mountain giving her some insight and feelings when something happens to the White Mountain
When she extends her consciousness outside of the Revolutionary Army quarters, what she saw was something she never expected.
She saw a man in black attire was flying in the air chasing a golden chariot. The other thing that shocked her is the person riding that chariot.
It is Sasha Makarov.
Before, no matter how Katarina employ her consciousness to search for her, she could not find Sasha.
Maybe, Sasha has a way to avoid detection.
But then she finally realizes the problem. The black attire man was also a Seed Forming user and not only that, he also seems to be stronger.
Katarina just saw in her consciousness, how the Green flames did not hurt him even a scratch.
When two expert fights, especially expert like this that packed such a destructive power there would be unintended consequences
And Katarina finally sees what unintended consequence that was. That explosion rocked the top of the mountain which is filled with snows.
She could see a fast flowing avalanche is coming down from the top of the mountain and based on its trajectory it will bear down on the Revolutionary army new headquarters.
At this time, Katarina quickly retract her consciousness and got up from her Ice Bed and immediately went out of her room.
Her forehead was already sweating with nervousness and her hands were trembling. Seeing that gigantic avalanche, how could she not be shaken?
Then when she reaches the balcony of her palace, she yelled.
‘Emergency protocol. Avalanche is coming. All available personnel must gather in front of the palace. For the residents, remain calms. The situation will be easily contained.’
Katarina who is watching all the personnel of Revolutionary army are gathering in front of the palace knows she needs to show something to maintain the morale.
‘I, Katarina and Jean, will first stop the initials wave of the avalanche. My Brother Boris will organize the other prevention measures.’
Her words are louds and reached everyone in the compound.
Katarina finished saying this jump from the balcony and then she waved her palm and trail of ice materializes out of the falling snows, creating a surfer trail in midair, making her seems like wave rider riding the trail of ice as she was going to the direction of one of the influential personnel of Revolutionary Army, Jean
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In one of the hills overlooking the mountain range of the ice region, a man can be seen staring at a distance.
The man was bandaged from top to bottom. The bandages are red in color and coiling red mist surrounded the man.
There is a sword stored in a sheath on his left hip. The sword resembles a katana but a little bit longer than a katana by a few meters.
His face was bandaged but it could not hide the maliciousness in his gaze. Like there is an irreconcilable hate towards something.
A consuming vengeance.
The man itself stood proud and full of dignity. 6’5 feet tall, he was a tall man. But the smell of him would repel most people.
‘Narleod, you okay?’ A man beside him was asking the bandaged man. The man beside him was a few meters short of Narleod.
Childish looking face and smooth skin. Almost like a man child.
‘Warp. You think this plan will work?’ Narleod ask, his voice was gravelly and hoarse, hard to listen to.
Warp look at the distance and said
‘The signal has been lit. The base of Revolutionary army is compromised. This is our chance to steal one of the Hyper drives. If we manage to install it to our battleship, then our battleship is no longer just a battleship. It will become a Battlestar.’
‘Budiman. Hmmm. You trust him?’
Warp shakes his head.
‘I trust that he knows what’s best for him.’
There is a smile forming in Narleod stiff face.
‘And…..I might even get the chance to incite Boris to declare war with Raymond.’
Warp on the other hand disagrees as he grabs a hold of Narleod shoulders and looks him in the eyes.
‘It will not work. Raymond and Boris are not idiots. They already suspected there is a mole in their midst. The Dark Speedster reports to the higher ups that there is a traitor amongst the upper echelon of both of the Organization’
Narleod snorted
‘When will I get my revenge then? Do I have to resort to this petty scheme just to take his life!’ Narleod yelled as he pushes away Warp hands and turns around in dissatisfaction
‘Patience, my brother. Now is not the time. There are too many variables at play.’ Narleod turns back and look at Warp and then he just grumbles as he walks down from the snowy hill.
Warp just sigh.
Vengeance almost blinded Narleod to the most profitable route. Even though, today the operation can be done, for some reason Warp did not feel right.
Warp knows that Will knows that Warp is a part of Narleod people.
A year ago, the Dark Speedsters would have risk his life to relay the news to the World Government.
But after he returns from his journey, Will seems different. Like a new man. Better and improved.
He is faster than before, and his lightning seems to change colors when he runs.
Warp didn’t understand why Will didn’t tell Shogun Hirate of his affiliation. Will did not ask for gold or position in the League of Freedom so Warp is at a stump.
He doesn’t know what to do with Will. He can’t just kill the most important messenger of the World Government without raising some alarms or suspicions about his identity.
For some reason, as Warp walk down the hills, he feels that there is someone else pulling all the strings.
And as he jumps over the ledge, Warp feels…….manipulated. And when he landed, he knows he needs to know if he ever going to let his mind have peace.
And in the snow he walked forward before teleporting with the bandaged man walking the path of vengeance.
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