Scarlet

The orb of Red Plague is so massive that – since we’re right up close – I can’t see anything other than it. It’s like I’m on a planet. Which I guess I am floating right above a planet. Just that it’s one made of Red Plague.

Although it looks more like a small sun than a planet. What with the Red Plague occasionally jumping out and then back into the massive orb of liquid.

Except that there aren’t really any gasses around it.

I admire the thing for a few seconds while slowly backing away. Seeing as the planet is slowly moving towards me even now.

And after admiring it long enough, I stop moving away and swipe my right arm through the air while declaring, “I order you to stop.”

The planet of Red Plague freezes in an instant. But I can tell that it’s trying to struggle against my command.

Since I’m not the true owner of this Red Plague yet. It’s trying to merge with me, sure. But it’s not me just yet.

I have to absorb and devour it, or it has to absorb and devour me first.

“Tar,” I state without elaborating, and the new Fae King immediately takes his cue and enters the void.

It’ll be dangerous here after all.

Now that Tar is out of the way of any danger, I float forwards before placing my hand up to the orb of glowing blood. Only to blink in surprise when I notice something moments before my hand is about to make contact with it.

Tar, can you still hear me?

“Yes,” he responds, his voice resonating in my head despite not being here.

I sense something… strange. In the orb.

He doesn’t say anything for a few seconds before answering, “Do you know what it is?”

I frown and shake my head.

No, I don’t.

“Then be careful,” Tar says, leaving it off like that without saying anything else.

Since when am I not… I don’t think I’m going to finish that thought.

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I hear chuckling in my head before I reach out the rest of the way and touch the orb. Immediately making the Red Plague within it begin rushing into my body as the glowing red veins return to their full brightness and I feel my head jerking back to stare upwards.

At the same time, light shines straight out of my eyes and I somehow feel the strange symbols throbbing in them. Sending a pulse through my body and into the hand that’s currently draining the Red Plague.

A painful yet also exhilarating feeling washes over every inch of my body as the Red Plague rushes into me. But as more of it rushes into me, and I devour every last bit of what does, I begin to realize that it’s growing more and more resistant with every bit that comes into me.

Eventually the sheer thickness of it at the center of the planet begins to wane, and I realize there really is something inside of the Red Plague planet.

Something vaguely familiar to me.

I manage to lower my head again now, no longer overwhelmed by the influx of pure power or the flood of System Messages telling me I’m leveling up. And after just a little bit longer spent absorbing the planet, right as I’m about three quarters of the way through the process and hit level 2500, the planet breaks away from me. Making me blink in surprise.

But what surprises me more is the sensation of something coming out of the Red Plague planet.

My eyes narrow at the large shadow rising to the surface.

“Holy shit…” Tar mutters, and I can’t help but nod my head in agreement when the creature breaks out of the surface.

The creature is several hundred meters in length, with black scales glowing with an eerie crimson light from beneath them. Kind of like my veins. And the light reminds me a lot of the Red Plague.

More importantly though, I sense Red Plague filling the creature’s body. Just like my own.

The thin has a massive tail spanning about twice the length of its body, with four legs, and a relatively long neck leading to its draconic visage. With two eerie crimson eyes that remind me of my own staring at me with anger and hatred clear in its gaze.

Then, after a few seconds of staring, the dragon lets out a loud roar that shakes all of the planets and stars nearby the two of us.

I narrow my gaze slightly at the dragon while floating in space a few dozen meters in front of it. But when our eyes meet, I can’t help but feel a faint smirk stretching across my face.

Out of nowhere, former-King Oberon and Titania appear nearby with shocked looks on their faces. Clearly not expecting this turn of events.

And I can’t help but smile at that sight.

Because it means this wasn’t within their predictions.

It’s new. Not foreseen.

And I just feel happy knowing something real is about to happen. Something not predicted and laid out in front of me.

I spread both of my hands out while floating upwards a little bit, my jacket and hair billowing behind me in the process due to the aura being let off by the dragon and my own upward movement.

What I see in this dragon’s eyes. It’s not unintelligent. The thing looks like it’s smart. It knows exactly what it’s doing.

And despite the fact that it’s clearly got Red Plague flowing through its own body, its eyes show that it isn’t 100% Red Plague like I am. Because there aren’t any symbols in its eyes unlike mine.

Add that to the inherent superiority I feel when I look at the creature, and the fact that this thing looks like it’s not Class V but almost Class VI, and this battle is going to be interesting.

Very, very interesting.

I transform into my massive wolf form and howl at the same time as the dragon roars once more.

Then we charge at each other, clashing claw to claw and sending a shockwave out that destroys the uninhabited planets nearest to us.