Red froze, enraptured by the otherwordly sight in the night sky. Suddenly, a cacophony of howling and roaring rose up through the forest from every conceivable direction - a discordant and chaotic assortment of noises that indicated the distress every being living in these trees was going under. Even the snake in his shoulders, so quiet until now, was shifting around and hissing in nervousness as it stared at the Moon in the night sky.
The lunar being was still moving in a chaotic frenzy, but its movement started to slow down all of a sudden. The trails of light in the sky all disappeared at once, and the intense crimson light covering the celestial body started to dim. It completely disappeared once the being stopped moving, the Moon returning to its original dark state.
The howls and noises of the forest also died down, as the snake in the shoulder lied down once more. Even then, there was an almost palpable feeling of dread and discord in the air, a reminder that what had just happened was very real.
Red didn’t avert his eyes from the Moon, staring at the being that now laid completely still, something it only did on Full Moons. He then made a startling discovery.
‘The gaze is gone.’
He couldn’t feel its pressure on him any longer. Yet, the youth couldn’t bring himself to feel relief at this.
“Red! What have you done?!” Aurelia repeated her question, this time with more alarm.
Red shook his head, still in a daze. “I didn’t…”
She cut him off. “Do you have any idea what you have done?!”
He didn’t pay her any mind, entering his meditative state once again. His expanded awareness reached towards the crimson mist in his body.
“What happened?” he asked, his nervousness coming through his tone.
There was no response from the being. Red repeated the same questions a few times, still receiving no answer from the mist.
He had no choice but to give up and exit his meditative state. He looked around with some alarm, looking for someone.
‘He’s still there.’
Domeron hadn’t moved from behind the tree he said he would remain at. He kept his word, even if it must have been hard to contain his curiosity, even after hearing Red’s grunts of agony.
The youth got up and ran towards that spot. Domeron was standing there, looking at the sky with a perplexed expression. He didn’t even seem to notice Red’s approach.
He tried to get the swordsman’s attention by shaking his shoulder. “Domeron! Are you alright?!”
“Huh?” Domeron looked at him with a confused expression and nodded. “Yes, I’m fine, but… You saw it too, didn’t you?”
Red frowned and nodded.
The swordsman seemed relieved at this. “Then I’m not going insane… Wait, that’s actually even worse! Do you know what that means, kid?!”
The youth nodded again. How could he not know?
Even most peasants knew that the Blood Moon was an omen of terrifying proportions. It was sung of in tales to make children scared and spoken of as a harbinger for the end of everything, and there was a good reason for that too.
The Blood Moon was the phenomenon that preceded a demonic invasion into the world.
“We need to hurry back to town.” Domeron said with a severe expression. “Before something bad happens.”
Red was compelled to agree.
The two of them started to run back towards town, the silence heavy between them. The severity of what they saw wasn’t lost on any of them, and they suddenly felt like every other concern was minor compared to what they just saw.
Even the youth couldn’t pay attention to the aftereffects of the painful battle that had been fought in his head, fighting through the discomfort and pain.
Aurelia’s dismayed voice reached his ears. “I can’t believe this… What kind of accursed existence are you? Is your entire purpose to bring calamity into the world?”
Red frowned and reached his hand into his pouch before extending his awareness towards it.
“I didn’t do anything.” he said.
“Of course you didn’t do anything!” Aurelia snapped back at him, this time on his mind. “It was that damn thing in your body, wasn’t it?! What kind of demonic being have you let inside of your body?!”
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Not even the youth knew that, unfortunately. The demonic presence inside of his body was a topic that Aurelia had never breached before, very likely out of fear and caution. However, her words made it clear that it wasn’t something that had escaped her notice and now it seemed she wasn’t worried about keeping her mouth shut any longer.
“Tell me what happened and don’t leave any details out!” Aurelia prompted him.
Red did as she asked. He described himself asking for help from the crimson mist, and what happened to the trails of light in the sky and the being on the Moon. When he got to this last topic, though, Aurelia immediately cut him off.
“That’s all I need to know!”
“Do you know what happened then?” Red asked.
She scoffed. “How would I know?! That thing quite clearly infected the Moon with demonic energy and caused this phenomenon to happen, but I can’t claim to understand how it came to happen or even want to know about it.”
The youth already had his own ideas on the topic, but he knew now was not the time to discuss them.
“Does this mean there will be another demonic invasion?” he asked.
“I don’t know…” Aurelia said in an uncertain tone. “This is different from everything I know.”
Red was confused. “What do you mean by that?”
She snorted in anger. “Do you even know what a Blood Moon is and how it is connected to demons?”
The youth hesitated. “… I only know the basics.”
Specific knowledge about the ancient times of demonic invasions was rare to find. However, there was one phenomenon that was engraved in every history book, and that was the Blood Moon that preceded the beginning of a demonic invasion in their world.
From what Red understood, after this omen appeared, it meant a passage to the Infernal Realm would be opened, and hordes of demons would pour out into their realm to raise hell. Back when this first happened, humanity was barely a few hundred years removed from conquering the world from the ancestral monster, and the first few cultivation sects had barely been established.
This alone almost wiped the human race from the face of the world and was the first time they were exposed to demons and demonic corruption as a concept. They eventually managed to fight this invasion off at a terrible loss to life and close said passage, but that wasn’t the end of their woes. Over the next millennia, demonic worshipping and devilish sects would spread all over the world and two more similar invasions would happen, both preceded by a Blood Moon.
It was a dark period in human history, of bloodshed and endless war, and one where barely any specific information was available. It is said that this period only came to an end because of the rise of a Saint that managed to expunge the demonic influence pervading the continent, and since then no more demonic invasions happened, at least as far as Red knew. Coincidentally, there were no more Blood Moons recorded since then.
“The Blood Moon isn’t caused by any demonic influence, it is a natural phenomenon.” Aurelia said.
“Natural?” Red was at a loss. “What is natural about it?”
She continued. “Look, the reason why the Blood Moon is an omen is because it is a reflection of the infernal influence seeping into our realm. It means that the barrier separating our world and the Infernal Realm is at its weakest, hence why it precedes the establishment of an opening between both worlds.”
“If it’s natural, why have there been no occurrences since the last demonic invasion?”
If the record books were any indication, there had been at least a couple millennia since the end of these wars, and yet there were no more recorded occurrences of this phenomenon.
Aurelia scoffed. “The Blood Moon does not happen at set intervals. Many cultivators have theorized it is a phenomenon related to the position of the stars in the sky and the alignment of certain celestial bodies, but that is besides the point… It has happened at least 7 other times since the last demonic invasion.”
Red was perplexed. “But the demonic invasions-”
“Would have happened if there wasn’t a dedicated effort of the sects to stop them from happening.” Aurelia cut him off. “Over the years, this has always been a major priority for them, so as soon as the Blood Moon happens, they will always be quick to move and located the possible position of the convergence between our realms to seal it. They have even found a few ways to predict when this event could likely happen and prepare beforehand.”
“Why are these occurrences not recorded, then?”
“Because the sects don’t want them to be and suppress the information at all costs.” the woman said as if the matter was obvious. “There are already plenty of demon worshippers still remaining in the world, so how much worse would it be if they knew there was always a chance to bring their idols into being in our realm? This kind of information is best left off of history books for the good of everyone.”
Red was silent for a while. “… If that’s the case, why do you still sound so concerned?”
Although the woman still spoke with her confident voice, the youth could still detect a hint of nervousness that pervaded every word she spoke.
“I already explained it to you!” Aurelia sounded angry. “The Blood Moon is a natural event! Natural! I have never seen or heard of anything that is capable of artificially inducing this kind of thing on its own!”
Red was starting to realize the problem.
Aurelia continued. “No one really knows for sure what the root cause of this event is, so it’s impossible to tell if what you did here will forcefully create a converge between our world and the Infernal Realm. Worst-case scenario, the sects could be taken completely off guard and we get a new demonic invasion on our hands, and even in the best scenario that there is no such invasion, the Blood Moon alone will be enough to prompt demonic worshippers and devilish cultivators into action as it always did in the past to create slaughter and chaos all over the world…” She paused, letting her words simmer for a while. “Do you understand now why I am concerned?”
It was already all too clear to Red. Even if the situation was potentially not as bad as he was expecting at first, it could still lead to chaos all over the world.
‘All of this to save me.’
If Red was left with such a choice in his hand, he didn’t know if he would have been able to sacrifice who knows how many lives to save his own, no matter how selfish he was. Yet the crimson mist in his body made this decision without hesitation, all to save one person, whom it claimed was its only hope.
Did it know what it was doing?
Did it know the disaster it could potentially cause when it made that decision?
Did it care?
At the end of the day, Red didn’t know whether to feel relieved that his life was saved or to feel dismayed at the potential cost of his salvation.