章 427: One Slumbers, One Wanders
Ramsa was hovering in the vastness of space, far away from Earth, when she saw a purple flash in the distance swell into a colossal star of obsidian, immolated in soul flames. In that instant, a spark of awe appeared in her eyes.
Somehow, even with its dim and peaceful presence, the star seemed even grander than the sun she represented. The sun was an arbiter of life, but this black star was an arbiter of creation. She could barely believe the heights that her child had reached, but the more she looked at it, the more she thought it fit him.
It was like her mind was automatically associating two shapes that complemented each other. She had never witnessed anything of that sort on a living being before.
She smiled and clasped her hands. "I indeed saw your signal…" She whispered and her wings were unfurled. Her golden wings shone under the sunlight and began to grow bigger. If one looked from the right distance, her six wings would be perfectly encased in a circle formed by the sun.
Solar Energy pooled around her terribly fast, and even the sun itself seemed to respond to her call as its light blinked faintly. Though, Ramsa actually wondered if her Domain was simply answering her command… or if it was bowing down to the Great Star in front of them.
* * *
Soma spread his arms whilst floating far above the Moon and Earth. He smiled at the emergence of the Obsidian Star and glanced at Ramsa's location where he could see the metaphorical orange flames mixing with the white radiance of raw solar energy.
"Aah… I must deliver as well," he muttered to himself and both his eyes and hair began to glow; a light blue hue radiating from their silver color. On cue, the moon began to tremble and the smaller versions scattered nearby also tilted.
Lunar energy erupted from Soma as sweat flowed down his face. As Rakna had once been told, a Full Moon is akin to a spell cast on the world. Normally, it occurs following the laws of nature, but when forced to do so, the cost must be paid like any other magic.
Soon enough, one of the smaller moons under his control completed its spin and the first Full Moon was active. Instantly, two surges of lunar energy occurred: one in Soma himself, and the other right below the giant Obsidian Star.
The Moon God chuckled as two more moons were spun into place. "I hope you're happy…"
* * *
"There we go," Rakna grinned as his body began to expand, his attributes tripling as the first of the full moons' glow reached him. His tails grew longer as they sucked in lunar energy and at about the same time, a giant but harmless beam of sunlight swallowed the Earth.
The Obsidian Star's flames eagerly started absorbing it while Rakna's wings grew larger, hoarding the solar energy and promptly accelerating all rates of regeneration; especially his soul power.
"Now, everything's ready," the werewolf looked up at his Manifestation. His summoned wolves all rejoined around him without needing to be ordered to and before the demons could raid him, he manipulated the lunisolar energy to ignite his aura-augmented soul power.
"Burn," he spoke and in the blink of an eye, the Obsidian Star became dazzling. Rakna poured every ounce of lunar and solar energy he could from his wings and tails into it.
❮ ◈ ❯
Lunisolar Dominion has leveled up!
Lunisolar Dominion has leveled up!
…
Wisdom of The Soul has leveled up!
❮ ◈ ❯
Soma and Ramsa's power continued to flow in, with more Full Moons peaking every second, and in no time at all, the Obsidian Star turned into a white sun half-encased in silver crystals.
"{…you are incorrigible,}" Fray muttered as he stood inside his library while the entire Soul Realm quaked from literally being squeezed dry; the Soul Sea was receding, the stars oscillating, and the flower petals aflame.
The Stellar Sage's Aura made sure to maintain the potency of the Soul Power by overworking the other Internal Powers, including large amounts of mana. And the Sunshine of The Ten Suns kept replenishing his reserves in a loop.
"Incorrigible?" Rakna snickered. "Believe me, the old man would be proud of me."
"{I… do not think that is necessarily a good thing.}"
"Agreed," the werewolf smirked and Voyaging Star showed signs of not being able to handle the toll any further. "That's about my limit…" He muttered and glanced somewhere, his arm currently pointing at the white sun trembling and crumbling from the inside. "Come on, 'dad'…"
As soon as he said that, the final and largest moon finally reached the peak of its cycle. Rakna felt the further increase in lunar energy and the star began to crackle like firewood.
"Perfect," he laughed and grabbed Sonata, using it as a catalyst. He aimed the blade above him and grasped it with both hands. His spell fluctuated and he chuckled before putting strength into his arms.
Very slowly, he began to swing forward and the white sun moved with his weapon. The crackling became louder and louder, with arcs of flames licking the demonic energy in the air and sometimes making demons combust spontaneously.
"[Unity Craft,]" Rakna breathed out, grayish smoke coming out of his mouth; the byproduct of his soul power combusting itself. "[Cantira Cūriya, Vimōcaṉa Naṭcattiram.]"
With one swing, the werewolf shattered the dimensions in front of him as if paving a path, and the white sun distended as it descended toward the Earth at a frightening pace. It wasn't as fast as any of Rakna's regular attacks, but it wasn't slow either.
The half-awakened Fiend inside the planet sensed the danger and thousands of demons, corrupted or created, rushed into the Lunisolar Star's path but nothing could stop it. Creatures strong enough to be level 800 were instantly incinerated when confronted with their absolution.
The Blaze of Absolution purified nearly the entirety of the army before it even hit the planet, where it promptly exploded and inflamed the contaminated atmosphere. The Earth momentarily became a giant ball of white-silver fire with purple ashes rising at the top like clouds.
Then, as if done preparing, all of it exploded at once. Rakna crossed his arms in front of him as the shockwave coursed through his body and purified the rest of the demons still untouched.
He could already feel the invisible miasma around the planet shrinking, but before it was out of range, a strand of shiver-inducing energy collided with his flames and traced it back to him.
▅▃▃▅▅▃▃▃▅▃▃▂▂▂▃▃▂▂▂!
The werewolf shuddered as a strange, and honestly terrifying sound echoed in his mind. It felt like some kind of roar, but also as if someone was trying to shout something at him in either rage… or hilarity. It was also strangely fleeting, quickly becoming nothing more than a whisper. A minute later, when Rakna finally uncrossed his arms, he watched the lunisolar flames extinguishing themselves after deeming their purpose over.
He ignored the many kill notifications chiming in his head in favor of frowning at the Earth. Crystal Sight scanned the planet, verifying the subjugation of the artificial demons, like the Reverie Eaters, as well as the purification of all the inhabitants. There wasn't even a trace of the corruption force that had been distorting nature just a few moments ago.
"…that was too easy," the werewolf muttered skeptically. "That noise… or voice; if the Fiend was on the verge of death, would that really be the only thing it does?"
"{While I would love for it to be that simple… the System hasn't confirmed anything. We can safely assume that it's not over,}" Fray commented. "{As a matter of fact… do you see that?}"
The fabulist didn't need to designate anything for Rakna to know what he was referring to. On a part of the planet where his flames were being extinguished at a slower rate, there was a single spot that didn't seem to be wavering in the slightest.
It was a small mountain where every single bit of vegetation was red like blood and dripping with an oddly ominous green liquid. The lunisolar flames were failing to do anything as they attempted to burn it all, but they also didn't seem to be giving out any time soon.
"A stalemate," Rakna commented and glanced over his shoulder as he felt both Soma and Ramsa stop what they were doing. He eventually lost the powerup of the Full Moon and since there was no imminent danger, he dismissed his Tenth Tail.
Meanwhile, he mentally summoned his Valkals and had them write runes from the Reverse Side to shield and collect all the half-dead demons he had left drifting in space. He glanced at his status to muse over the level increases and soon after, both Gods who had assisted him arrived quietly.
"I'd say it was a resounding success," Soma remarked smilingly, though he was obviously gazing at the corrupted mountain with watchful eyes.
"…at least, this gives the demons time to evacuate Earth," Ramsa added calmly. "But considering the degree of corruption, they must have had many casualties."
"There's a lot that was safely purified," Rakna provided. "I think that strong willpower can resist it to some extent. The demons seem to average that to a decently high degree. And, obviously, those with more life force take longer to get taken over fully."
"Estimate?"
"32%. That's the percentage of people they lost," the werewolf stated and Soma winced.
"Quite a lot," he sighed. "They have always had higher population than us but turning into demons lowered their birth rate a lot. The number of years it will take to make up for this loss…"
Rakna huffed as he sensed several portals form on the surface of the Earth after he had gotten rid of the 'miasma' blocking all communication. It seemed Lilith and the other commanders had been quick to notice it.
"More importantly, what are we going to do with that?" The werewolf inquired, shouldering Sonata with a pop of his neck, not even bothering to clarify what he was talking about since there was no way to mistake it. "If my Lunisolar Star couldn't purify that thing, it doesn't bode well."
Soma hummed. "We could try a Ritual. With all three of us combining our forces, we could try and erode its defenses bit by bit."
"…" Ramsa remained silent, her eyes locked onto the scarlet land.
On the other hand, Rakna snickered. "Yeah, right. How much do you believe in those words?"
The Moon God smiled helplessly. "Not much."
"Frankly, I considered actually blowing up the planet and not just purifying it," the werewolf added with a scowl. "But then I realized, I might just be prematurely opening the 'cage' of something… To be exact, my instincts told me not to."
Soma's expression twitched. "If it's your instinct speaking, it's not good…"
"Nope."
"…the worst has yet to come."
Rakna snorted in amusement at that and then quietly waved his hand, calling all the purple ashes left behind by his flames to his hand. When he was about to absorb them back, he stiffened when a crackle echoed in his mind once again.
'Outer… Puppet…' He reiterated the first words, which he had already heard the last time. The new ones came afterward, 'Dreamer… Family… Lost… Sleep…' There was one last word, but the moment he tried to listen to it, a headache assailed him and he reflexively clenched his head.
"Rakna?!" Ramsa's worried voice sounded as he noticed the blood trickling down his nose.
"That… wasn't the Fiend," the werewolf muttered to himself with a frown.
* * *
At the same time, unbeknownst to Rakna, an unknown creature stirred from within a 'bottomless pit'. In a place without matter or even any form of light, a hazy shape shifted, and dozens of eyes of different sizes, colors, and patterns opened with a snap.
They looked back and forth in all directions until settling on a certain artificial dimension, one that appeared as a small orb of energy in a sea of millions more. Each of them was tinier than even the smallest of the thing's eyes.
After a short moment, the hidden creature closed its eyes once again.
* * *
"…something changed…" A feminine voice whispered inside the emptiness of Meuro. Glowing eyes full of geometrical intricacies fluttered and their owner stopped hugging herself, turning her head toward a place that didn't even exist on a physical level.
"The Dreamer… moved?" She muttered, more curious than anything else. And as her perception dug deeper into the matter, she paused.
"…cousin?"
The Téras Empress… began to wander.
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