Chapter 14 – This is my home

…

On another location, Jigen along with his group treaded onward a winding valley. They gritted their teeth and stuck their feet on the ground lest the strong winds caught them.

On the left and right of the valley, two black mountains sandwiched their path. Rocks formation formed on the surface of the mountains. The rocks were black and dry. This gave it a withered look. Knocking on the wall, it was actually durable.

Faint face-formation created made it creepy. The winding noise of air sounded like ghost weeping.

“Nina, are you sure there is a flag here?” Jigen asked the only girl in the group.

“Hm. Based on the clues we have found, the chances of a flag hidden must be, first, in a location with a trap that is very difficult. Second, the flags must be apart in certain distance because it will make it harder in journeying around this whole realm.” The girl, Nina explained.

Jigen nodded. The girl continued. “We found the other flag but because of the difficulty of the trap there we cannot get it. Fortunately, using that as marker, we can extrapolate the distance and location of other flags.”

Jigen stared at her who was only around his age. He knew that she came from a small family whose expertise was astronomy. But it looked like they were also proficient on mapping certain killing grounds.

Killing grounds were places where more or less only half could survive. Having maps would a boon in those kinds of expedition.

Using the girl’s knowledge in mapping, they could remain unscathed and dodged most of the traps. Only animals’ ambushes where they need to cope more. In fact, they were better than others because they didn’t sustain several injuries.

More importantly, they determined the whole geography of the Illusory Realm.

It had five location: the winding valley, the dense forest, a large clearing, a mountain range and a dried-up lake.

It was only a short time, but the girl showed an exceptional eyesight and knowledge that shocked Jigen.

The trio struggled to tread in this valley. They persevered one foot at a time. Even the weakest, Mimosa gritted his teeth and endured the bubbling tears in his eyes. He thought to himself, he could not be a burden. Though a while later, he collapsed and gasped. The other two stopped and helped him in feet. Jigen stared at the guy, speechless.

Mimosa was from a renowned Dult family. The Dult family was a military family. They produced military elites–generals and tacticians spread across the land. They were fierce and few were there contemporary.

However, though they were a genius in terms of military and war, they were quite idiotic on emotional levels. So, people also called them a clan of dolts.

In pleasant words, they were single-minded. Because of that, every generation they produced were not average. They were steadfast and persistent.

Even the First Deity, the Deity War-King was born from them!

That War-King was incomparably savage. His conquest across lands became legends of the Dult Family. He conquered lands upon lands and reclaim most of the lands which later became the current boundary of Human Territory. Then he transcended through blood and steel.

In later years, the clan produced many geniuses and elites. And they scattered across the land as vanguard or mind of armies.

That was why an anomaly was stinging in their eyes. And that was Mimosa.

He had a weak pulse before birth and was born with a frail body. Thus, her mother gave his name before passing because of difficulty of birth. He grew to be the most pitiful in the family.

The boy was casted aside, so he played by himself, with his lone thin shadow visible in the dark. Strangers’ presence pushed him away and the fierceness of his family scared him. With a strict father and no mother to take care of him, he trembled in silence.

Because of this, Mimosa was subject to scolding which only made him formed a psychological barrier.

Mimosa, seeing his teammates helped him, he suppressed his tears. He stood up yet kept on stumbling, but he used every inch of his power to stable his footing. The boy was silent as a rock.

He followed behind Jigen and Nina closely. Jigen could only shake his head while Nina sighed. They didn’t know what Mimosa experienced, but they heard the rumors that the latter live quite a hard life.

The trio continued walking. Midway, they stopped to rest. They brought out the little water they have and pieces of jerky. But before they could dig in, they heard a sound of friction and fierce wind zooming towards them.

Their pupils contracted. They saw a hand dangling in between of a mouth. It was a human hand!

And the owner of the mouth was the gorilla-looking animal.

The scent of humans attracted it in the other direction, so it went there. Though Sarah and co were safe, it meant doom for another. And it looked like additional victims were in sight.

While Jigen and co were staring at the monster, in the actual world an explosion sounded from the distance.

Boom! Windows flapped open and their vision became obscured with dust. The sound of the impact travelled across the county.

...

Before the explosion came, in a place beside a simple pond which was currently decorated in an amazing number of flowers, a simple wedding was occurring.

The groom was neat and handsome in his white suit, while the bride was beautiful in her long white gown. They looked gorgeous standing on the white stage. The foods and arrangement were also simple. But the joy and love from the wedded couple permeated even in the distance. The wedding, although simple, it became joyous after many people arrived.

The groom was famous, so there were many who attended his wedding. He was the heroic youth of current generations!

He is called The Meteor of the Three Prodigies.

The Meteor was renowned throughout the land because of his talent and also his exploits. Although there was no war happening, there still some skirmishes happened between Humanity and other races. He was always the first to rush and take vanguard. Blasted towards the hordes of enemies like a meteor and bathed in their blood.

The man performed many acts of heroism and helped the poor. He always had the sunny smile and loud voice, and became the brother figure of many. But, in the battlefield, he was a life-reaping god. Their enemies feared him and tried to kill him many times. Alas, his destiny was large and instead helped him grow to his current fame. Many loved him and happy for him that he was now having a new step on life.

“Thank you everyone for coming to my happiest day in life.”

“I happy to share with you our love–mine and my wife’s love.” Meteor let out an ivory smile.

His wife also smiling. Her voice was soothing. “I hope you enjoy the food. Please, be at home everyone.”

“Congratulations.”

“Even the heaven was blessing them. There is no rain, and the sky is blue and warm.”

Their love story was not simple at all. The bride was ordinary, aside from her looks. She came from an ordinary family and had an ordinary talent.

Fate conspired and their lives intersected. They travelled together with bands of brothers and sisters. They survived amongst dangerous situations and couldn’t help but to fall with each other.

One day, the woman vanished. The authorities joined hands to find her, but in vain. Only the Meteor didn’t stop in searching until he arrived to the lands of their enemies. He fought and stormed through an important camp. Hundreds of Masters appeared. Even ten Grandmasters were alarmed and fought with him in a shocking battle. Storm of fists and a river of blood submerged the world.

The Meteor was severely battered but still laid waste in his wake. In his arms was the female, sleeping in his arms. The demons stared at him blankly until only his back faded in the distance.

The woman suffered a lot. There were many wounds on her body, but she didn’t let out a cry. She was tenacious because she believed he would come.

And it really happened.

Both of their eyes shone when they saw each other again. And instead of crying, the girl laughed without an ounce of darkness in her. She was ordinary, but she was just as heroic as him.

And right now was the culmination of their love and fate. Truly a love story that could be sang through ages. Their hearts were one and peaceful. Interlocking their hands as they stood in the aisle. Their parents, relatives, friends and countymen were looking at them, blessing them with best wishes. It was a beautiful scene.

“Happiness…” Their hearts were full. Stomachs fluttered and rainbows radiated on their eyes.

But... Boom!

An explosion interrupted the wedding. It alarmed all the people. The groom saw what happened. He stood in his tracks. But he gritted his teeth and rushed like wind, unstopped even with his wife shouting his name.

The bride knew her husband's personality. He had the heart to protect. He was the heroic youth. She would not stop him because she knew it was inevitable, but she wanted him to take care of himself.

Just for her sake and for the sake of precious life inside her belly.

...

The explosion affected the East Section the most.

On the scene of explosion, an enormous ball of smoke shrouded the location. Houses toppled and people groveled on the ground.

A huge silhouette appeared within the smoke.

Without even seeing its face, everyone was already shuddering from fear.

Whoosh! A gigantic claw tore through the clouds of smoke. Three horrifying snouts appeared with hideous fangs protruded like a long spear.

As the smoke clearing, three dog-like heads emerged. Saliva spilled from its mouth. It had three pairs of cat-like eyes glinted in red light. Its body was so massive with three times the size of a house!

Its black-red fur lusted with a scaly texture. Eerily dense black flames started to burn outside its body. There were even howls of grief and pleas sounded inside the fire.

Roar! Its roar split the sky and thundered all creation. Wind blew erratically. Friction sounds occurred. It was furious, as if its wrath would sunder the heavens.

It glanced around with its vertical slit pupil, looking for the perpetrator who abducted it. But the only thing it saw were the people of a contest; the host, the playing children, and the audience who stood in their tracks. All of their faces shocked and white. Thus, its anger went towards them.

A simple swing of its claws dismembered one body to pieces. The gory flesh splintered on the scene like fireworks. A few drops of it splat on an unsuspecting kid’s head, slowly dripping to his chin.

The kid trembled, the ball in his hand dropped as the feeling of dread washed him until the demonic eyes of the creature stared at him.

“Eek-.” He soiled his pants while a gigantic shadow casted above him.

Splat. A sizzling sound occurred as ghastly flames burned the corpse into ashes.

The sound was like a thunderbolt. The people woke up from their shock. They stared at the enormous feet grinding its sole against the ground. Below it was the blood of the child who was just enjoying himself a while ago.

Then a domino effect appeared.

But unlike normal occurrences where the response of people was to escape, scampering like blind chickens. The people of Mortal Lands were not cowards.

Instead, they bolted towards the Beast with indignant fervor!

Ordinary people, parents, old or those with abilities, all of them charged. Their eyes reddened and their lungs lumped on their throats. They rushed towards the gigantic monster without caring about their lives.

They threw everything they could hold; others use their fists and feet, and while others use spells to bombard the Beast. It was a magnificent sight.

However, the Beast was in a different league. Their attacks only did minimal damage. In a minute, corpses piled up. The gruesome scene played on the children’s stomach. They retched and others fainted.

But. No one faltered. No one stepped back, leaving the dumbfounded children, who were running right now.

They didn’t understand why the older people were doing this. They could only move their legs while looking back from time to time.

The children may not understand this behavior. But to the people, it was too natural as breathing. They continued to throw their lives as if moths attracted to flame.

Every slash claimed lives. Every fire burned anything to cinders. Each wail shocked their cores!

Minutes passed, but the piled bodies were already a small mountain. But they gritted their bloodied teeth, lifted their injured bodies, only looking forward.

They clung on hope, to buy time until the others or the military arrive!

At first, the Beast was enjoying dismembering the ants before him. It was its first time to go out. The Beast was always in the jungle, and the prey it always had was the pesky trembling animals that were no fun. It thrilled that its prey this time was fighting back.

However, as time passed, it becoming shocked.

“My father is right. You humans are crazy!” The beast finally spoke. It was feeling their actions as small wounds piled. Right now, it was panicking and wanted to run.

Alas, the people ganged up on him, trying to catch his ankles even just for a brief moment.

Alone, they were not equal to the Beast. But with numbers, they inflicted it with injuries.

“Damn, let go of me!” The Beast suddenly felt something and roared.

However, it’s too late. A loud voice sounded in everyone’s ear. The view zoomed to the sky.

In every corner, every living being who was rushing to the scene, looked up towards the sky; they saw someone up there.

It was a man wearing a white suit. He appeared heroic and handsome. He floated in the air and appeared strange in the current setting. But rage had painted his beautiful face.

“For you cretins, my motherland is weak, something easy to exploit!”

“You tainted her and yet, you are still not satisfied and keep repeating it.”

“We already earned our peace, yet you are still wanted to destroy it.”

“I WANT YOU TO DISAPPEAR.”

“THIS IS MY HOME!”

“DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH IT!

Then the man descended like a meteor!

Bang.

His fist connected to the Beast’s large body. A shock wave lifted everybody else. But the Beast endured more than that. Despite heavier body, it flew and destroyed a house in result.

However, Meteor was unsatisfied. His fist blurred. His punches were like a storm of rocks. He kept pummeling the Beast until it cried in pain.

Earlier, even though it was feeling everyone’s attack, its pain was lesser. But this time it knew it was in a predicament.

The ghastly black flames on Beast’s body flickered and licked Meteor. It charred his skin as sizzling noise sounded.

Though, Meteor didn’t seem to see it as he roundhouse one of its jaw!

The other heads retaliated and snapped their mouth towards him. Meteor’s shoulder was grazed, but his momentum still unceasing.

“Stop.” The three-headed creature roared, but Meteor side-stepped and kicked it on the chin. The fire burning in his heart couldn’t care less what the creature wanted to say.

Seeing such disregard, the Beast got angrier and rammed its enormous body to Meteor. Its speed was fast, making Meteor surprised.

Bang. Meteor flew with blood leaking on his mouth. The Beast saw its attack was effective and continued. Meteor stabilized his body and likewise threw his body towards the Beast.

It created a shock wave as the two opposite objects heavily met in air. It was like two meteors colliding.

Strong! The Beast was feeling flustered while Meteor’s eyes solely focused on it.

Meteor already inferred what was happening. This dog didn’t plan this attack, but someone else.

But he couldn’t look away while this Beast slaughtered his countymen hopelessly.

Observant people could also infer what was happening. Their faces darkened as they thought about the last race aside from Beast Race. The latter was a pacifist and followed the rules of the jungle. They won’t start a war without proper justification.

The two fought and collided. It was like a fight between two bulls. The difference was their sizes, and the fight was larger in scale. Unfortunately to the Beast, other people were already crowding around them.

An old lady dealt a sneak attack right after the Beast and Meteor separated.

The Beast’s eyes were on fire, but it couldn’t divide its attention because Meteor was coming again. It roared and jumped over Meteor. The moment it landed, the Beast sprung, darting to escape.

However, another man blocked its way and bashed it with a pipe. The Beast gnashed its teeth and braced for impact while its two other heads wanted to counter.

Peng. The three-headed creature felt its skull numbed, but he crushed the man between its fangs.

But Meteor’s fist was already right under its chin. One of its head bent weirdly.

Meteor didn’t stop and released a flurry of attacks while both of them were airborne.

In normal days, both of them have equal level. But the Beast had sustained injuries earlier. It didn’t know if it was the crazy humankind or that despicable race who abducted him. But he knew that he was going to die if he didn’t escape.

“You are Meteor, right? I know it’s your wedding today. You think I’ll go here to court death?” The Beast whimpered and guard itself. He looked at the ramrod figure before him. “One of the Three Prodigies. Normally, I can’t beat any of them, but they can’t hope to beat me either.” His scary eyes flashed and glimpsed at the crazy humans on the sidelines.

He was furious, but he couldn’t do anything to them anymore. “I need to escape! There are three others who can kill me here!”

“You think you can escape?” Meteor read its intention.

The Beast shuddered. Its opponent’s figure became lightning fast and grabbed one of its limbs.

Meteor lifted the creature with little effort before throwing it to the ground.

Bang!

The ground cracked. The Beast felt the hardness of the floor and spurted a mouthful of blood.

“Damn human! Just you wait! My father will avenge me.” The Beast felt despair. He couldn’t keep up with Meteor anymore. His mind was willing, but his body wasn’t listening.

He wanted to dish a last struggle. He stood limping and its mouth locked towards Meteor. “You wanted me to die?!!” The ghastly flames in its body converged. Everyone felt energy erupted on him. The Beast concentrated all of its power in the body into its mouth.

Like a beam of light, it shot towards Meteor with outstanding speed!

Meteor’s eyes contracted, all the hair on his body stood. He felt death coming to him. “Oh, no!” A woman on the sidelines shouted.

Meteor bellowed as he willed the World’s Energy inside his body and poured all of his strength into his fist.

A meteor-like fist emerged and punched towards the incoming beam of light.

Boom!

An incomparably loud explosion sounded, making the onlookers clutched their ears and hurriedly ducked.

It was epic to behold in the distance, but dangerous when nearby.

Even the pavement cracked into dust. It didn’t matter how advance the technology used, all of it was nothing before the clash between Powers.

A large ball of smoke shrouded the vicinity before clearing. The people looked at each other before hurrying to look for the aftermath. Worry painted their faces.

It destroyed all the houses in the perimeter. The paved roads were nothing more.

At the center, the Beast was lying on the ground. His three pairs of eyes constricted into needles. Its mouth agape while blood frothed and dripped into the ground. He was in bloody state.

But he didn’t have time to check himself because of the sight before him.

In front of him, Meteor was clutching his neck. A thin red line drawn on it.

He, Meteor, also looked incredulous. He was dismayed to die, not because of its opponent. But because of one sudden slash during the smoke.

“Demons…” In his last moments, Meteor looked unwilling. He loved his motherland. And wanted to protect it until he died.

He did. But when he remembered his wife and the soon-to-be born child, a deep regret consumed him as he closed his eyes.

“Me-Meteor… H-he.” A woman quivered and closed her mouth. Everyone denied what appeared in their vision. But their hearts knew that it was real.

“Oh! I’ll be damned.” That was the thought Prince Osirius had. He quickly stood up. Even though he still didn’t understand the whole scenario, he knew that it was a trap for both Human Race and Beast Race. He wasn’t trying to escape for his life, but to survive just enough to tell his father what happened.

However, he hadn’t gone far yet when his fur shuddered. His soul sluggish and knew what it meant. He looked to see the military arrived in droves.

“Clear the area. Everyone please evacuates.”

“Sir, look!”

When the military saw the sight before them, especially the body laid in the center, their eyes reddened.

Meteor was comrade to them more than anyone. He was the most dependable, excluding their Brigadier General and Major General.

Leading the army was a tall man. His hands hid behind his back, but his eyes flashed daggers towards the Beast. He bellowed at his back. It sounded like a gong; it was a fierce voice, but laced with it was a trace of sadness.

Like a machine, the military steadied their formation.

All of their fiery eyes lit up. Then, a blinding light shone from their body. Each of the light connected. Looking closely, the lights were composed of runes.

Clinking and clunking of gears sounded before the light transformed into a gigantic spear that shot through the beast, skewering it like barbeque!

It was too fast that there was no time for Osirius to react. Blood and flesh scattered like fireworks.

Roar. This was a fatal wound, Osirius thought. His body shuddered non-stop. The flame in his body extinguished.

“Father, please…” Praying while trying to stand up. Osirius crawled his way out, but he saw light converging again on his peripheral vision. He could feel their anger pouring in this shot. He would die if he took it.

“No, no, no.” The Beast yelped towards the sky. He seemed waiting for something, but the sky was still normal despite everything. Thus, he trembled as the spear of death approaching.

Pshk. In the last moment, he could see a visage of enormous frame. But soon life was erased from his eyes. “My life is not comparable to my clan. I don’t want to be a sinner. Please, Father, I beg you… to investigate.” That was the last thought he would have.

ROAR!

A deafening roar bombarded their ears. They shook in their boots as they stared on the giant before them.

“What did you do to my child?!!”

……