Chapter 1 - The Birth
Rainbow Island, Southwest of the Sun Empire, Multicolor Leaf Forest outskirts.
It was called Multicolor Leaf Forest because every tree in the forest possessed leaves of different colors. Altogether, these colorful leaves created a fantastic sight to behold.
Although it possessed such a scenic view, the forest was little frequented due to its various dangers concealed within. However, some people dared to approach it from time to time - whether it was to take advantage of its resources or save time by following the path that skirted it closely, instead of going around by using a longer road.
On a cloudy day in autumn, while a cold wind was carrying away the leaves that had fallen from the trees, creating a rainbow of leaves and dust, a convoy of merchants was following the path just outside the forest's outer boundary.
The convoy consisted of one dozen or so people divided into four wagons. Each wagon contained various types of goods to be sold as soon as they arrived at Leaf City. It was the nearest city in the vicinity and took its name from the forest. At the head of one of these wagons, two male merchants were cheerfully talking.
"You have to admit this time we have amassed a nice amount of goods, haven't we? As soon as we arrive in the city and sell this stuff, we will no longer worry about money for a while," commented the man who had the reins of the horses pulling the wagon.
The man had blond hair and a healthy pink complexion. He was wearing a purple vest with golden patterns - it was a distinctive vest, generally used by merchants. His light eyes, together with a round face, conveyed a feeling of cheerfulness and vivacity.
"Yes, we can't complain at all. Fortunately, we were able to complete everything on time, and we shouldn't be too far from our destination too." The companion answered in a relieved voice.
Unlike the first man, the second one had black hair with dark brown eyes. Although he was wearing the same vest, he conveyed tiredness and worry because of the dark circles and the stern expression on his face.
"Right, your wife... At the thought of all that money, I forgot for a moment that your wife is pregnant. I understand that you have to work to support the family, but wouldn't it have been better if you all had stayed in some city, Old Jian?!" The first merchant who acted as the wagon's driver asked.
The man named Qin Jian looked at his colleague with a dejected expression and answered as he sighed.
"And where Shang? We are itinerant merchants, and we must constantly move to do business. Furthermore, we have no close relatives, and I don't trust leaving her alone in a place where I don't know anyone. So I prefer to keep her with me; at least I know she is safe."
Shang noticed his friend's mood and promptly tried to cheer Qin Jian saying, "All right, all right... Well, luckily, your wife has spirit power and has had no problems so far. I can't imagine what we would have done if she had given birth outdoors. I mean, I'm still young; I don't want to have to deal with brats for a while longer." Shang concluded this last sentence with a loud laugh before returning to focus on the path, hoping to have brightened up his partner.
Meanwhile, a young woman with brown skin and long brown hair was sitting with the goods inside the carriage driven by the two men. Her light eyes, which contrasted with her skin, were looking at her big belly that contained the little life form still not born who was living inside her.
'We almost there now, my little one. Soon we will be in the city where you can come out. Then we're going to live with Dad. Hold on just a little bit.' She said while stroking kindly her belly. The child inside then produced a little sound as if he was listening and wanted to respond to his mother.
The woman's name was Farah, the wife of the merchant Qin Jian.
In the past, she was a slave who Qin Jian bought to help him with his work since she could read and knew arithmetic. Later, she was released by Qin Jian, but she decided to stay with him, and they ended up falling in love and got married.
Despite her delicate state, she decided to follow her husband on a journey not to be separated from him at this critical moment and allowing him to complete his business as they needed money for their incoming son.
They were a young couple waiting for their first child and eager to start a quiet life together and settle down somewhere. But, unfortunately, fate isn't always benevolent and often leads to misfortunes that change a person's life and sometimes the whole world for good or bad.
*
As the sun was setting, while the convoy began to get ready for the night, twenty men dressed in black clothes watched the merchants in the distance, glancing at the wagons like hungry wolves waiting for their prey.
"Boss, what do you say? It seems feasible. It will soon become dark; it is perfect for a surprise attack. Let us do it." One of the men in black asked his team leader, who was next to him.
"I also think the same. We've been quite unlucky lately, but this looks like a succulent convoy. With this, we shouldn't worry about money for a while. I hope the goods inside are of good quality so we can have a better profit. Get in position first, and then wait for my signal. Remember, don't fuck this job. Kill them all immediately without wasting time playing fucking stupid games." The chief said in an authoritative voice while watching the merchants. The latter had finally finished their operations for the night and were preparing to dine.
An hour later, when the sun had already set completely to make room for the evening, the bandit chief gestured with his hand to his closest man to move. The latter communicated the gesture to the rest of the group that had scattered around. Shortly afterward, the sound of twenty or so bows shooting arrows reverberated in the air, interrupting the calm that dwelt in that place while a rain of arrows rained down on the site where the merchants had gathered.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The sound alerted the merchants, who realized too late the danger. But, unfortunately, they were forced to endure the rain of arrows without time to find a place where shelter themselves.
"Arrows!? ENEMY ATTACK!!"
"Shit, Bandits?!"
As they pulled out their weapons, a slight aura arose from the merchant's bodies while they tried to endure the arrows. However, not everyone was so fast, and a couple of men fell to the ground while spraying blood.
After the barrage of arrows, the bandits arrived with their swords raised, starting a fight against the merchants.
Although they were people devoted to business, the merchants had all been trained to defend themselves and began to fight back. However, with the numerical disparity and more exceptional skill of the bandits with the sword, they soon began to fall one by one on the ground where their comrades laid lifeless.
Among them, Qin Jian was fighting with three people simultaneously, demonstrating great skill with the sword, while his wife was behind him with her hands outstretched on her belly to protect their child.
"Farah, listen to me carefully. I will open a gap, and I want you to ride a horse and get out of here."
"No, how can you ask me this!? How can I abandon you here!?"
"Listen to me! There is no time. Don't mind me. Think of our son. You have to look after him, do you understand? Please, do as I told you, and don't argue."
As he said this, a tear fell from Qin Jian's eyes. He was sad at the thought of dying and being separated from his family. But he knew that, in this situation, it was the only way to give hope of salvation for his wife and son.
While Farah burst into tears as well, Qin Jian made a large movement with his sword, momentarily pushing away the three bandits and ran towards the nearest horse, and with a sword blow, he cut the ropes that bound the horse to the wagon.
"RIDE NOW!" He said while positioning himself in front of the horse to prevent the bandits from obstructing the maneuver.
Farah, covered in tears, still executed her husband's order, striving to remain clear-headed to protect their child. Finally, she managed to get on the horse with enormous effort and started riding away from that nightmare.
While urging the horse to accelerate as much it could, she turned around to look at the man she loved, only to witness him being pierced on several sides by the other bandits who had already killed almost all the remaining merchants.
"Jian, NOOO!!! AHH!!!" Farah screamed as she sobbed heavily and began to breathe with difficulty due to the painful and heartbreaking experience. But she had only time to distance herself a bit from that place when a spear flew through the air and stuck in her shoulder, making her fall from the running horse.
Because of her agitated state and the sudden blow, she was taken aback, but she managed to wrap her lap with a light aura to protect her son while she fell from the horse.
Slumped to the ground, almost totally without strength, the woman slowly opened her eyes to see a man with an unpleasant appearance approaching her.
"Let's see what we have here."
With a kick on her shoulder, the bandit leader turned her around so he could see her face.
"A beautiful woman, no doubt about it. But we don't have time to waste with you. I also doubt you could be sold as a slave with that belly of yours. If you hadn't been pregnant, I could have thought of it. Forget it; I will settle for the load."
Meanwhile, one of his men reached him to inform him of the situation. "Boss, we killed everybody. Unfortunately, the merchants killed little Fei; some of them weren't so bad in combat. But the load inside is nice. You should see what stuff we managed to obtain. We'll be rich for a while."
The chief, content with the loot, replied. "Don't care about Fei; he was just garbage. Better this way, one less with whom share the spoil. Load the goods all on one wagon if you can, and stack the bodies in the remaining empty wagons. Then we will set fire to everything, and we will leave."
After saying that, he signaled his man to go while he returned to focus on the woman motionless on the ground.
"Well, fortunately, the load is pretty full. My men are now loading the goods. All that is left is to set fire to everything and eliminate any traces that can lead to us. To thank you for the precious gift, I will eliminate you immediately without making you feel pain." While he was saying this, the chief drew his sword and leaned towards the woman.
Farah, who had regained a bit of strength, cried inside herself.
'Why is this happening? Why? Jian, where are you? Help our son. Please. No matter who. at least my baby...'
These were her thoughts while the cold metallic blade penetrated her throat, ending her life.
Meanwhile, near the wagons where the other bandits were arranging the goods, a black shape with strange features suddenly appeared. Silently, it approached one of the men, and with a quick movement, it cut him in two halves that fell to the ground. Then it headed for the nearest bandit.
Soon, the other bandits realized that something was wrong. But they were only able to make a short scream before they were all killed in the same way. The scream alarmed the leader who had just killed the woman and was about to return to his men.
Shortly after that, the black shadow emerged from the darkness where the wagons were. Thanks to the moonlight that illuminated the thing that had killed his men, the bandit's leader could see the culprit's real appearance.
It was a giant spider measuring 1 meter in size; its eight purple-red eyes watched the bandit as it gave off a strong murderous aura.
The bandit leader, petrified by fear, could only murmur: "Spirit Beast..." before the spider, with incredible speed, appeared before him and, with a single stroke of its leg, cut the bandit in two alongside his sword.
Once it dealt with the chief bandit, the spider turned to the woman. Its purple eyes looked at those already lifeless of the woman, and then they descended towards her belly.
It seemed to be aware that, although there was a corpse in front of it, there was something alive inside. It approached the woman with quick movements, and two of its legs landed on the woman's belly.
Even though it had cut the various bandits in half before, with those same legs, when its legs touched the belly, they didn't penetrate the stomach. Instead, they remained suspended a few millimeters from the skin while a slight aura covered the tips of its legs.
Those tips then cut the belly following a vertical line along the stomach by cutting just a few centimeters of skin without going over. Its actions were different from a beast with a terrifying appearance that would scare anyone who saw it.
After a couple of minutes of cutting, the creature stopped. Then, increasing the aura on the tips of its legs, it began to open the two halves, now divided, of skin, while two other legs slipped inside the woman's body.
With its legs inside, it began to pull something out of the woman's stomach. Soon, a newborn baby appeared from the woman's belly while he was covered in blood and amniotic fluid. His umbilical cord kept him joined to his mother while he was held between the beast's legs, appearing unharmed, though.
The spider moved the baby in front of it with a gentle movement and began to beat his small back softly. Then, the slight aura shifted to the child's body, and, slowly, the liquid inside the little one came out, causing him to cry as a consequence while he woke up.
At this noise, the spider did a slight tremor, but then it recomposed itself. It then cut the umbilical cord and tore off a part of the mother's clothes with which it wrapped the newborn baby.
At this point, the spider first looked at the child who had stopped crying when wrapped in his mother's piece of cloth. Then, after looking at the woman already lifeless on the ground, the spider turned towards the forest and quickly entered it.
On its back, illuminated by the moonlight, two eggs could be seen covered with silvery silks and fastened tightly. One was pitch black with golden patterns, while the other had a dark purple color with silvery patterns, the same purple color as the spider carrying them.
That day, unbeknownst to anyone, had occurred an event that no one would have thought possible. And that event was the beginning of the changes that would affect the entire world.