“WHAT?!” Adhrit unsheathed his sword and tried to strike the centaur, but before he could reach him, Aizen caught the sword’s blade.
“Young Master, please calm down..” Aizen spoke but his words and tone did not match. Adhrit turned his head away in anger while sheathing his sword.
Aizen stepped towards the centaur and stood right in front of him;
“I…I apol…”
[HUM!]
Aizen’s aura erupted out of his body and pushed the centaur on his four knees;
“UGH!!” The centaur groaned in pain;
Aizen got closer to the centaur, his glowing red eyes directly stared at him with coldness that froze the centaur’s spine;
“You centaurs….betrayed the kingdom’s trust…what do you think will happen?” Aizen said without blinking, his red eyes pierced through the centaur’s soul.
“I..I apologize..shadow master, but..I’m not lying..” The centaur closed his eyes and pulled his head away from Aizen;
“Who…is that god you speak off?” Aizen asked again,
“I..I don’t kno…”
[WOOSH!]
Aizen’s energy raged even further, the twelve men and Adhrit were forced to step back. Arav watched them with utmost interest, while Yaksh blankly stared at them;
“I…really don..”
“You might be able to lie right now,...but, are you sure….that after I find the truth, that god of yours….can protect your tribe….from me?”
Aizen’s words sent chills down the centaur’s spine,
“He…is a demon..’’ The centaur said in a low voice;
[FWOOSH!]
Aizen’s energy disappeared, he stepped away from the centaur and turned towards Arav;
“Young master Arav, your knowledge about demons can aid us here..” Azien said while pointing his hand towards the centaur.
“Elaborate further…” Arav calmly asked, the centaur slowly opened his eyes with his forehead still covered in sweat;
“I..I don’t know much…but four days ago, our tribesmen suddenly died, we found their bodies in a terrible condition. We could not fathom the cause of the method of their death, then he appeared. He showed us a way of reviving the dead members, and even revived one…but…but he said his magic requires human children’s sacrifice…” The centaur lowered his head, Arav quickly noticed tears falling on the ground below the centaur.
“Why were you outside of the domain?”
The centaur lifted his head and gazed at Arav with his teary eyes;
“We…were looking for more…to sacrifice…”
Adhrit could not bare to hear any longer, he unsheathed his sword and leaped towards the centaur;
“STOP” Arav’s voice vibrated, tremors appeared in the air originating from his mouth. Adhrit’s eyes widened and his body instantly lost all of his strength,
“You will not move until told to do so..” Arav said in a cold tone while his sharp eyes froze Adhrit to his core,
Aizen and the twelve shadows were baffled, they have never seen such a technique in their entire life. Aizen’s curiosity almost made him ask, but he suppressed his urge and held the questions for later.
“Do you know anything else?”
“..No…” The centaur replied with even lower voice;
“Take him to the kingdom, his majesty will decide his fate.” Aizen said and one of the shadow’s instantly disappeared along with the centaur.
“Are you aware of the way we can enter this place?” Aizen asked while turning towards Arav;
“Hmm…no, but a way can be found…..” Arav half heartedly responded and appeared to be in deep thought;
“Why would demons want human children?..” Arav said without directing the question to anyone,
“Didn’t the centaur say that they are required as sacrifice?” Adhrit, who was frozen until now, somehow mustered up the courage to speak;
“The demon certainly used his ability to influence the centaurs, when I fought against him first he acted like a mindless beast. But after,…the lady..treated him, he was completely different..” Aizen said while moving his gaze towards Ambu for a split second,
“You all might want to give me a bit of space…” Arav said while stepping a small distance away from them. Ambu’s eyes widened as she instantly realized Arav’s intention while the rest of the three were left confused;
‘I wanted to avoid this…’
[HUM!]
A small amount of yellow energy formed a small blade around Arav’s index finger, he opened his other palm and created a cut;
[DRIP…DRIP…DRIP]
Blood began falling rapidly on the ground;
“Haaah…FORMATION”
Arav’s voice vibrated again, but this time a huge amount of air was displaced.
[DRIP!]
The sound of a liquid drop falling echoed in the area, and soon the blood on the ground began floating in the air. The three watched in amazement as within moments, the blood began forming a human shape.
[FWOOSH!]
“HEHEHE….After so long….you have finally summoned me…” A voice of a man speaking resounded, and soon a man wearing all black clothes with red eyes and long black hair appeared out of the energy.
“I greet you my lo…master..” The man bowed down and said with respect,
“Ratri, I need you to…...” Arav said as he lowered his hand while his wound instantly healed;
The man licked his lips and smiled while lifting his head;
“I am at your service my lord...but you know..”
[WOOSH!]
Ratri disappeared and reappeared right in front of Aizen;
“I was gone for so long, how about I take a breather?” He smiled while staring at Aizen;
“We are short on time..” Aizen said with a cold voice;
“Ho?...Which one’s speaking right now?” Ratri tilted his head and placed his hand on his chin, Aizen’s eyes flinched, he opened his mouth to speak;
“Don’t tell me…I don’t care..”
[WOOSH!]
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Ratri spoke and disappeared again, he appeared right in front of Ambu;
“Greetings, old companion…not so fancy seeing you again..I wasn’t aware master will summon the weeping beauty before me.” Ratri said while his eyes turned white,
Ambu grit her teeth and barely managed to suppress the urge to slap him;
[WOOSH!]
He appeared in front of Yaksh,
“Hmm…Passion, envy, anger…You have quite the amalgamation of emotions..”
“If you are done with your blabbering…” Arav attempted to speak again;
[WOOSH!]
Ratri appeared in front of Arav;
“As usual, the brightest face of the bunch…” Ratri stretched his hand towards his left;
[SWIP!...WOOO!]
He slashed with his hand and opened a crack in space, intense dark energy began leaking out of the crack while making the air heavier around them.
“At your service….master..” Ratri bowed down while stretching his hand towards the opened crack in space;
Arav forwarded towards the crack;
“JUST…one important thing…expect a little trouble with your passive abilities..” Ratri spoke, but suddenly his feet began turning into a red mass of energy.
“Uhh…It seems my time is up…[SNIFF!...SNIFF!]...I will miss you a lot..” Ratri with a sad expression, looked at Ambu and turned his eyes white. She became furious and clenched her fists;
“Was there not another way to do this?” Ambu asked in an annoyed tone while she began turning into water and disappeared into nothing.
“WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?!” Adhrit asked in a concerned tone, but did not get an answer from any of them.
“So the centaur was talking about…this…” Yaksh said while moving his bow forward;
“If the demon managed to control an entire tribe, expect a great struggle..” Arav said while the four entered the crack;
The moment they stepped inside, a cold wind blew past them. The crack they had entered through disappeared, leaving no way outside. The place appeared exactly the same as the forest, but when they turned back they saw an endless black wall showing the first end of the dimension. The trees, the ground, the leaves on the trees, they were all completely black in color and devoid of life. Utter silence ruled over the place, with only the sound of occasional wind entering their ears. Dense fog filled a major portion of the area, making it impossible to see further than a few meters.
[HUM!]
Aizen’s sword got surrounded in dark red energy;
[SLASH] [WOOO!]
He slashed with his sword releasing a powerful gust of energy that instantly cleared the fog.
Hundreds of centaurs were lying dead on the ground, the stream of their corpses began not much distance away from them. Adhrit’s eyes widened, while his heart was filled with disgust and anger, he turned his head away from the corpses;
Arav stepped forward and sat near a corpse, the skin of the dead centaur had turned completely pale while sticking on his bones. His eyes were still open wide with tongue sticking out of his mouth.
‘He died without realizing it.’
[SWOO!!]
Arav quickly turned his abdomen and moved himself back, as a spear with incredible speed was launched at him, the spear went past him and tore a tree apart in half;
[TTAK…TTAK..TTAK!]
Around fifty centaurs jumped out of the bushes and surrounded the four in all directions. Arav slowly stood up while his gaze scanned all of them, their skin was pale with veins bulging in with black color. Their eyes were completely red while filled with bloodlust;
[TTAK…TTAK!]
Someone slowly approached from their front. Upon looking, it turned out to be a centaur with a larger build than the rest. His eyes angrily stared at Arav while the strength of his grip created a dent in the spear he held;
“You puny humans….how dare you spoil this sacred place with your filthy steps..” The centaur said while raising his spear.
[SWOO!]
He threw the spear towards Arav with great speed;
[SHING!!]
Before the spear could reach him, with a flash of red light it got cut perfectly in two parts and each half went past him from both sides.
Aizen with his sword raised forward stood in front of Arav, his sword still surrounded with the same dark red energy that previously parted the fog.
“It seems you are not in the mindset of talking…” Aizen said while his eyes began glowing red;
“Hmph!..One does not speak with a vermin, but simply crushes it under his feet.” The centaur raised his hand;
“HRAAAAAA!!!” All of the centaurs other than him rushed towards the four with their spears pointing forward;
[HUM!] [WOOSH!]
Adhrit unsheathed his sword with silver energy appearing out of him, while Yaksh nocked three arrows at once with intense green energy surrounding him.
“I..will take you”
[SWOO!]
Aizen rapidly moved over the centaurs and directly attacked who appeared to be their leader;
[SLASH!]
Aizen slashed his sword,
[THUD!]
The centaur jumped away from him;
[BOOM!]
The powerful energy released from Aizen’s sword went cutting through several trees and finally crashed into the huge black wall with an explosion.
“YOU DARE!!! HRAAAAARGH!!!” Dense dark energy radiated out of the centaur leader with his veins bulging even more and muscle mass increasing significantly.
Meanwhile,
Five centaurs rushed at Yaksh, he nocked an arrow and jumped above the ground;
[SWOO!] [BOOM!]
The arrow blew apart one of the centaur’s chest who was not in the straight line as other’s. As soon as the centaurs turned their eyes away back from the falling centaur and towards Yaksh, he was not in the air;
[SWWOO!] [BOOM…]
An arrow was shot at the centaur from their left, before they could react, the arrow blew apart their heads one by one.
Adhrit was surrounded by four centaurs, they all jumped at him at one;
[SLASH!] [BOOM!]
Silver energy engulfed the four of them, and before they could realize two of the centaurs found their limbs were torn apart and fell on the ground.
The two remaining ones jumped at Adhrit;
[SLASH!] [SPLURT!]
Adhrit cut one of the centaur’s body in half, but wasn’t fast enough to kill the other one;
The last remaining centaur thrusted his spear towards Adhrit, he stopped it with his sword;
“URGH!..” The strength of the centaur made Adhrit tremble while he began losing his ground;
“Huh?!” The centaur’s eyes widened in confusion, as he saw Yaksh slowly descending in front of him while being upside down, soon Yaksh’s arrow surrounded in green energy, nocked on the bow appeared in front of him, inches away from his face;
[BOOM!]
The centaur’s head exploded.
-
Four of the centaurs intensified their dark aura and jumped at Arav;
[HUM!]
Yellow energy surrounded Arav,
[SMACK…SMACK…SPLURT!]
Arav swiftly moved between them while punching them in the chest, blowing apart their upper body in the process.
[CRASH!]
The centaur leader managed to land a hit on Aizen and sent him crashing in the wall, he jumped at him with great speed;
[BOOM!]
The centaur hit nothing but the black wall, he angrily turned to his back;
Aizen stood there with his sword pointed at the ground in his right hand, while his eyes glowed red behind the dust;
“YOU!!...” The centaur leader attempted to move;
[WOO!]
“You…are slow..” The centaur’s eyes widened, as he heard Aizen whisper in his left ear with Aizen’s left hand placed on the centaur’s left shoulder;
“Wh.What are yo..” Before he could speak;
[SLASH!]
“UHH!!!!!” The centaur screamed in agony, while he fell down;
Aizen stood right in front of him, with the centaur’s four legs and hands cut off and lying beside Aizen.
“Now tell me…centaur chief…who is the one puny here?” Aizen said as he sat in front of the centaur chief and stared directly in his eyes.
“Where are the children?” Aizen whispered while he stabbed his sword in the ground and rested his hands on its hilt;
“Hahaha…did you…did you really think…they are alive?” The centaur somehow managed to laugh even with his pain filled voice;
[BOOM!]
A huge explosion happened, both the centaur and Aizen turned back and found dozens of centaurs dead on the ground with their flesh blown out of their body. When they looked up, Arav was floating right above the explosion with both of his palms opened and stretched towards the ground.
[TCHIIK!]
Arav’s yellow energy disappeared while he descended beside Aizen, soon both Yaksh and Adhrit arrived as well.
“I will ask you again…where are the chil….” Before Aizen could speak, the centaur’s body began expanding with dark energy raging out of him;
[HUM!] [BOOM!]
A huge explosion of dark energy occured, both Yaksh and Adhrit closed their eyes. But upon opening them, they found themselves surrounded in a yellow energy sphere.
“You should ask that question….to someone more qualified..” Yaksh and Adhrit turned back and found Aizen and Arav already looking in the same direction.
“Welcome….to my paradise..”
[Chapter 25: END]