Under the watchful eyes of the royal guards and the still shocked trio who were still being protected, the Lord released the hawk from his hands and it immediately fell to the ground and began coughing.
Recovering from its neck being gripped with such power shouldn’t have taken much for the powerful rank 8 hawk, after all, there was no real injury applied by the grip, yet the hawk needed more than a few moments to gather itself. Even in its younger days a weak rank 1 beast with no intelligence, it had never experienced such fear. What caused it to be so unsightly while laying on the ground was the lingering effects of directly feeling its very own blood reeling in fear beyond reason.
Of course, it no longer carried any thoughts of bringing harm to being in front of it, nor did it want to run. After processing everything that happened from the initial suppression of its bloodline a few minutes ago, to being thoroughly bested in both speed and strength and most importantly the feeling of its blood and everything within its body and soul telling it to bow down, it now knew its only option at this point was subservience. Cause there should only be one being capable of suppressing it to that extent.
The Shadow Lord.
Bloodlines are something that holds great power. This is not referring to the simple passing on of genes from parent to child, but rather the very power and abilities that came with that bloodline would be passed along in full, depending on the purity. The ability to make use of said bloodline and all its powers was of course very different for each descendant, but it was of course much better to be born with some strength than without, regardless of how strong the bloodline was and how strong the purity, because might will always make right. But nothing is free in this world, something like gaining immense power simply by being born to a particular being, or even stealing the bloodline from someone else, has its negatives as well.
One of which is being completely susceptible to the wishes of the direct ruler of a bloodline. There is hardly any known way to escape this susceptibility other than to kill and take the ruling bloodline for yourself, something that would usually be extremely hard to accomplish. For if your bloodline made you strong, wouldn’t the bloodline capable of ruling it make the being that holds it strong as well?
Such is the situation the hawk had found itself in. It was sure the being in front of it was the ruler of the shadow bloodline. Based on the words it heard and the impossible-to-fake experience it had regarding its blood, it was sure of it.
After a few moments to recollect itself the hawk finally looked up at the being that stood before it. Then it spoke again, only this time in a much more subservient tone of voice.
“I humbly apologize for my previous actions and behavior, and would like to ask for forgiveness my Lord.”
“Hahaha good! It seems you know when to bow your head! I hate complicated things so consider yourself forgiven but should this happen again…”
The Lord unleashed his aura once more but this time the area within 500 miles of them was immediately shrouded in absolute darkness in only a second. The only form of light in the sea of darkness was the moon-like pupils of the Lord staring coldly down at the hawk.
“….death will become something you pray for but never receive.”
The hawk, along with any beast still lingering in the area immediately felt like death was their only chance at escape at this point. Although the hawk felt the brunt of it.
Stolen story; please report.
But as quickly as the shroud of darkness arrived, it was just as quick at disappearing.
“Alright I’m sure you understand clearly enough, so let's move on to something more interesting. Firstly change into your original form.” The Lord spoke with such a cheerful and adventurous tone of voice that one wouldn’t be able to guess that this is the same person who had just invoked absolute dread in every beast within a 500-mile radius from him.
The hawk quickly did as told, not even questioning how the lord had guessed that its current size wasn’t its original one, and reverted to its original form. Very quickly the hawk grew to the towering height of 13 feet, with its beautiful feathers and powerful presence in full display under the few rays of sunlight that broke through the canopy of trees above it. A majestic figure, befitting of a being at Rank 8.
Once the transformation was over the hawk then lowered its head, showing its stance clearly despite the fact it was quite literally looking down on the Lord at this current moment.
“Good! Do you have a name?”
“Yes my Lord, the name of my species is Shadow Hawk so I named myself Shawk once I gained true intelligence many years ago.”
“Shawk huh..well I’m gonna have a little task for you Shawk, but before I get to that, it’s about time you three answer some questions of mine.” Said the Lord as he turned to face Laiya, Rykos, and Jace.
Of course, the Royal Guards moved from surrounding them without needing to be told to do so. With two standing slightly behind the Lord, flanking him on the left and the right and the remaining three simply standing a short distance away in a triangle-like formation with the Lord as the center.
It would be hard to believe these are beings who had yet to be alive for even an hour. Acting with fast and efficient movements without the need for any over complicated communication, or even practice. It would be easy to assume that everything down to the finest possible detail was ingrained into their very souls about the act of guarding one’s Lord.
Though if one actually got the opportunity to read through the Umbra’s most secret and oldest books, they would know the previous assumption was on point as ever. Though they would also be able to directly ask these questions to the Royal Guards themselves, actually getting a response would be a whole different matter.
Now on to Laiya and her team as they stood mere feet from their presumed Lord.
It took a couple more moments for the three of them to register the man before them had directed his words to them. Even the usually calm Laiya had to take multiple breaths to ease her mind, though that barely made it any better.
Now that all three of them were somewhat calm, all three did the exact same thing, they kneeled. Although a myriad of thoughts were darting around their minds, only one was truly more glaring.
Their Lord had been born! After thousands of years of waiting he was finally here. Though the moment could’ve been better if not for the fact that the Lord was naked.
Completely naked, with every part of his being on full display for all the world to see.
Of course, the trio noticed, and even the usually calm Laiya was particularly flustered. Naturally, the Lord noticed their behavior and quickly put two and two together before smiling wryly.. He had only just come into this world and due to that, there were many things he didn’t have knowledge of, but thankfully shame and basic social norms were included in the knowledge he was born with.
‘Ahh what type of Lord has his body on full display after only being alive for mere minutes..’
As quickly as that thought passed through his mind, was as quickly as a shroud of darkness formed around him from the waist down, covering up things that shouldn't be seen.
After covering himself and taking a quick glance around to make sure his Royal Guards were also properly covered, he spoke again to the trio, simply pretending he wasn’t just naked in front of them.
Indeed the type of shamelessness befitting the sole Ruler of an entire race.
“Ahem..You all can stand.”
They quickly stood at attention, finding it far easier to stay focused now that there were no more.. distractions.
The Lord then continued speaking, though this time his tone carried a bit more seriousness than before.
“Based on what I know, this temple that I was born in should be within Umbra territory, not a forest controlled by beasts. So why is it that you three are the only Umbra I can sense for miles?”