SOML – Chapter 29: South Venerable Desert Eater

 Chapter 29 – South Venerable Desert Eater

***Long Chapter Ahead***

…

“It’s my turn.” A round man with a smiley face and yellow jasper crown on his head patted his chair. “My Sun Kingdom would love to trade our produce. Hehehe, you all know my kingdom always have surplus.”

Desert Eater immediately turned towards him. “King Rafferty, on the behalf of my region, I propose to trade.”

His voice reverberated and suppressed anyone who wanted to speak. Others also relented; they knew how itchy the guy was. Even they didn’t want this opportunity to pass.

“It seems your highness, the Great Chieftain, is pretty serious to trade.” King Rafferty laughed.

Arturo’s eyes narrowed. This old man wanted to downplay his father’s intention by leveling their status. King and chieftain were Royalties, after all.

Though Desert Eater didn’t mind. He continued smiling and spoke. “I want to exchange oil for food. In addition, we have many men and I can apply them for labor.”

“I have business for you, Supreme Venerable. What do you think?” The king of Miracles’ eyes twinkled. In Sarah’s eyes, he resembled a child finding a new toy.

The king of the Sun Kingdom laughed. Yet his tone got filled with derision, “King Milagro, it wasn’t respectful to butt in mid conversations, no?”

“Don’t worry, your Highness. It is up to the capabilities of the trader.” King Milagro verbalized.

King Rafferty’s face became placid. “Oh. Actually, I’m wondering why a person who is not even a Venerable is present. It would be alright if your general, who is a bona fide Venerable, is the one to attend.”

The king of Miracles’ expression faded, “It’s because I’m qualified.”

“Aba. Show us what makes you qualified. Everyone, let’s see what King Milagro have for us. Shall we?”

Everyone’s face became interested.

King Milagro beamed, feeling their gazes. After their curiosity reached the peak, he then swung his sleeves. From there, an orb shot and landed on King Rafferty’s palm. The latter’s eyes flickered.

Everyone also poured their senses into the orb. Their eyes gleamed right after their inspection.

“Devil’s Doll!” A man with a stunned expression pointed.

“They actually managed creating a Devil’s Doll!” Almost everyone made a ruckus.

Another man smiled. “It seems my human race will prevail on the next war.”

King Rafferty laughed. “Congratulations, your Majesty. This is comparable to three Devil’s Dolls in my kingdom.”

King Milagro thanked him. But anybody with a head knew the opposite was boasting their arsenal. As if saying even though the latter finally had a Devil’s Doll, they still weren’t equal.

Arturo wasn’t pleased. These guys didn’t place Desert Eater with regards.

In fact, most of them thought low of the South Region. Arturo knew they only wanted to take advantage of them. The only reason they became tempted to do business with them.

Although they feared Desert Eater’s strength, it didn’t mean they don’t have means to hit him.

“Everyone.” Desert Eater bowed, unaffected by others’ thinking. “Food is scarce in my homeland. And our land is vast, separating each tribe from great distances. But we have many men. And they have sons, daughters and wives to feed. Hence, the more you have business, the better for us. Believe me, we have nothing but labour force.”

Many nodded and expressed their selves. In mere moments, binding contracts appeared and then signed by Desert Eater. He did it without hesitation. His son looked at each detail and grimaced. Although hidden, there were many unfair clauses.

Arturo couldn’t help but stare at his father’s back. He was smiling and strong, yet people took advantage of him because they considered him a pushover.

Feeling his gaze, Desert Eater looked at his back. He smiled. “What’s wrong, Son?”

His son lowered his head and whispered. “We are also a royalty. Someone considered up above many people. As a royalty, we should keep a certain level of etiquette. By being too accommodating, people will see us a pushover.”

South Venerable Desert Eater grinned. He patted his son on the shoulder. “Etiquette won’t feed our people. If becoming pushover is the cost for our people to eat three times a day, then it’s a small price to pay.” His golden hair waved and his entire face brightened like a sun.

His voice wasn’t loud, but everyone was humanity’s cream of the crop. They basically heard their conversation.

Different expressions appeared on everybody’s faces and their thoughts unknown.

Most South Region Venerables remained composed. They looked at their leader with confidence. Only a handful became ashamed or furious.

“Sorry for that, Everyone. We will definitely carry out our side of bargain.” Desert Eater laughed and then sat like a thug. He seemed pretty satisfied.

After that, many exchanges happened. Sarah scrutinized each move they made. And she didn’t forget to poke fun of the king beside her.

“My ancestor, can we watch without bothering each other?” A vein popped on King Milagro’s smiling face.

“Don’t worry, Grandpa Sis. Hey, look at that! Why his face is ugly?”

Sarah smiled and then pointed at a man with fuzzy hairs on his arms. The latter looked like a gorilla, and the girl appeared shocked by his appearance.

King Milagro craned his neck. He gulped as he observed the face. The hairy man felt his gaze and stared back. Hearing the gulping sound, the man scoffed.

“What you looking at?” He didn’t have reservations because he was a vagrant. The man knew how bad his face was, so he interpreted King Milagro’s action as offending.

The former immediately showed an innocent smile before returning to listen. He appeared concentrating on the discussion.

However, he whispered while gnashing his teeth. “Bitch, if you don’t stop, you’ll regret it.”

Hearing his words, Sarah became happy and hummed a little tune.

“Next is the event that transpired just recently. None happened on other counties and regions except for County of Hopes and Dreams.” Ntse Ghand stated.

Everyone listened. Even Sarah shut her mum.

“A group of demons and assisted by one clan in the Beast Race, the Centipede Clan, had infiltrated the said county.”

“Also, one incarnation suspected to be Transcendent, identity unknown and one clone of a Transcendent, Lord of Upheaval, Demon Emperor Ytthra has emerged.”

“Sir Cloud Rider defeated the unknown incarnation while Demon Emperor Ytthra escaped. His location still unknown to this day.”

“Their vanguard, Grimo of the seventh seat, from Amon Clan, thirty-three years old, was now being manned. Although his tracks disappeared for a while, we expect to discover him once again in a few hours. His powers came from Evil Arts. It might be a powerful Evil though because of how tricky he is.”

“But from Sir Cloud Rider’s report, it was a teenager called Senior Clown that planned the attack.”

“He is a Heart Demon. And we all know how dangerous these individuals are.” A few Venerables’ face darkened.

Heart Demons, the new generation lacked understanding of these individuals.

But the older generation always felt apprehensive about them.

“Their plan comprising a series of actions.”

“First, infiltrating the county by several means like using traitors, kidnapping and killing.”

“And they used an invention: a skin almost like Transformation Arts.”

“Next, they abducted a cub from Cerberus Clan, which prompted Cerberus Emperor Cain to appear.”

“Then subjugated the cannons in the opportune moment, created a gaping hole in the wall and built a transportation formation to trap the army with a horde of demons.”

“And sadly, killing the Meteor.”

Hearing this, a deafening hoo-ha permeated in the room. Disbelief written on their faces.

Ntse Ghand became serious. He inhaled before uttering his next words. “Moreover, a disciple of the last Transcendent Deity of Hopes and Dreams, Von Ruler was used by the demons. Possibly, those Evils. We suspected they have planted this move many years ago. The inference we got is they would use it against Deity of Hopes and Dreams. But they weren’t able to use it in the end.”

People’s mind raced. Several likely scenarios appeared. They thought about many things happened in the past, especially the past war.

“So, they could only use it now, which our investigations think made a deadlier impact.”

“They wanted to kill Sarah and other seeds and also create a suitable sacrifice to summon an Evil.”

A few Venerables peered at the sole girl inside the room. Ntse Ghand continued.

“Though, there’s another problem.”

“We believed, they succeeded in their secret plan several years ago… The plan to transform humans into demon—the Demonization Program.”

One Venerable gulped. He seemed to think of something and became frightened in his seat.

“This is the first occurrence and may not be the last. If I stretch it further, this issue is much dangerous than any events in the history, as it might shatter humanity’s foundation.”

“That child, Ayill’s appearance is already evidence.”

“Not to be blunt, but the people accepted him.”

“If one day, humans acknowledged the demonized humans, then demons assimilation to humanity is at hand.”

“In conclusion, this incident is the greatest attack after more than a century of peace. We can say that it’s a blatant provocation from the Demons. And also, the most controversial.” Demon-face Ntse Ghand's face became placid, as if he didn’t know he’d thrown a bomb right through everybody’s heart and mind.

No one interrupted while the Humanity’s Brain was explaining. Many Venerables lowered their heads. They traced their beards or brows, or scratched their cheeks, and a few even crossed their arms to contemplate.

King Rafferty stood up from his seat. His beer belly bounced, but no one laughed. He fixed his crown before speaking what was in his head. “They attacked County of Hopes and Dreams because its weakest in terms of Venerables.”

Many people nodded. It was upsetting, but Sarah agreed to him. Before, the county had two Venerables. And people recognized them as one of the strongest. But the first one transcended yet unfortunate to pass away. While the other one was her grandfather.

“This helps us realized demons are really far from their heyday.” King Rafferty seemed to sigh, but everyone knew all of them grew happy. And who knows, maybe they have dealings with demons too.

But understanding and knowing were completely different matter.

The first unneeded to be said. But the latter needed evidence.

“The Centipede Clan’s member, is he dead?” White Wall spoke. Multiple eyes flickered, which Ntse Ghand nodded.

“I see. Should I guess, that cub of Cain was also dead?” White Wall was sure of it. “So, we both offended two clans of Beast Race.”

A Venerable spoke. “We don’t know that. Those two clans are sure cahoots with the demons. So they are one to offend us, not the other way around.”

A few disagreed.

But more people were skeptical and pushed Cerberus Clan as a potential enemy.

“We won’t know, Everyone. After all, Beast Race once ruled the Mortal Lands. So, it wasn’t far-fetched to think they want to diminish our momentum.”

“I concur. It may be accidental. But we cannot exclude the possibility of it being intentional.”

“As for the walls and cannons, these are one of the trump cards of County of Hopes and Dreams. The walls are extraordinary and only a few can destroy it. As for the cannons, heh, looks like even the great Pendragon Clan had black sheep.”

Everyone stared at the Pendragons. They jeered, inwardly clutching their stomachs because the arrogant Pendragon had a like this. Though, all of them became disappointed seeing their calmness.

“How did they used Von Ruler?”

Ntse Ghand picked up a paper. “Through Illusory Realm. Right now, investigations are still ongoing. We believed it’s very crucial. Demons might be weak now. But we all know their allies; the Evils are really strong.”

Everyone shuddered. In fact, a few of them were eager to help, especially the vagrants.

A Venerable with a dark face spoke. “We have to pay attention to that Clown. We all know how tricky a Heart Demon. The Mortal Lands suppressed demons. Because of that, anyone who jumped out of that suppression is nothing but a miracle.”

“Killing him is a priority. Kill at first sight.”

“I concur.” “I also concur.”

“We don’t have a problem with that.”

Mountain Feral Ghian interjected. “Speaking of geniuses. So, the only geniuses of the last generation is The Dragon James from the branch family of the Pendragon Clan and The Marauder from the main family of Dult Clan.” After speaking, he peeked at Sarah.

Everyone nodded. They immediately recalled that Pendragon Clan was truly monstrous to produce many geniuses.

Sarah knew it was false invincibility. In the history of her clan, Venerables emerged in two digits, yet no one transcended!

Feeling their eyes, the girl now determined first-hand how isolated her clan was. She imagined once her grandfather tried to transcend, all other races would surround him while humans looked with cold eyes.

She gnashed her teeth and made face towards Ghian. Her hand raised upwards and four of her fingers crumpled down, leaving one finger pointing to the heavens!

Ghian became furious and his eyes shot flames. But before he could reply, Ntse Ghand continued the discussion.

“Yes. That’s why we will also declare another group, the new generation of geniuses.”

“We will call them—The Ten Talents.”

“Sir Pure Man divined everyone on this list.” Demon-face bowed towards Pure Man. The latter nodded, assuring them of its accuracy.

“Number one, once again keeping the title of The Dragon, Sarah Pendragon.” Ghian stumbled. King Rafferty blinked. King Milagro’s face became strange. But the Pendragons, Ryan and Old Man, became happy. Only a few joined them in happiness. It was Venerable Jade Hands sitting in the corner and Pure Man who smiled at the girl.

“Second, The God, identity unknown.”

Many thoughts appeared on their minds. But their face unchanging.

Though Sarah noticed their wiggling butts. Recruiting such a genius would be a significant investment to them, so she scoffed.

The Meteor represented an anomaly, and they didn’t want that to happen again.

“Third, The Moon, unknown.”

“Fourth, The Timekeeper, unknown.”

“Fifth, The Painter, Pintar, a descendent of Celestial Sword God.” Almost everyone inhaled.

There were many paths of Transcendent. And Celestial was one of the unique path.

“Sixth, The Berserker, Arturo Batzorig, son of South Venerable Desert Eater.” Hearing this, Desert Eater puffed his chest.

This was a different happiness from the business transactions earlier. His smile filled with pride as he looked at his son.

“Seventh, The Gourmet, unknown.”

“Eighth, The Fisherman, unknown.”

“Ninth, The Book keeper. Hmmm, Sir Flame Extinguisher know him.” Ntse Ghand nodded at one of the Six Elders. It was an old man wearing a cold disposition. Everyone was used to his aloofness and didn’t react impolite. One side of his lips curved, though.

“Tenth, The Butterfly, unknown.”

Actually, everyone knew that their identity wasn’t unknown.

It was just a way of Pure Man to protect them.

As for those identified, they had powerful backgrounds. So he didn’t bother to hide them.

Anyway, everyone believed in their capabilities to find these mysterious people.

“…”

Chattering stopped gradually, creating another strange silence. None wanted to speak. All of them were observing each other. Everyone knew who disrupt the silence would bore the criticism.

Yet a lackadaisical voice dared!

“Not going to talk about Demonization Program? Or waiting for someone to remind you?” Cloud Rider tossed a grape to his mouth.

Cloud Rider stood up, sauntering from the podium towards the seats. His detached eyes scanned each person. “When talking about interest, all of you are pretty fast. None of you wanted to be the last.”

He craned his neck and looked at Desert Eater with a sneer. “Hard to be the good guy, huh? You are still doing foolish, old man.”

Desert Eater didn’t feel offended and only smiled. He patted the fuming son of his.

The handsome Venerable then pointed at Ghian.

“Hey. You are pretty impressive earlier. Why you are not talking now?”

Although the latter was furious, he looked shameless enough to play deaf. Ghian cleaned his ears, not minding Cloud Rider’s stare.

Cloud Rider squinted. “Wow. So shameless. Mind if I call you Mountain Earplug instead?”

One old man almost choked with his saliva.

“What about you, Monarch?” Cloud Rider grinned. “Not going to talk about the Necroaurora?”

This made everyone panicked. You fool, they thought. Why would he disturb that frightening existence?

Sure enough, the silent, frozen figure had movements. Flakes of ice fell as the armor quivered. Everyone held their breath. Even a few became pale. There was no overpowering aura emitted yet, but they already frightened by this single movement.

“Err, Sir Cloud Rider, let the Monarch rest…” A man with a frightened expression hurried to speak.

But he got cut short when a voice sounded.

“Everyone.”

It reverberated across their hearts. Sarah felt her heart was going to be crushed. Even the large room couldn’t contain it, seeing the columns and walls trembling.

It was only one word, but almost everyone lowered their heads.

“The Calm Era will be broken. And for that, heroes shall rise.”

“If I’m not mistaken… not only Necroaurora will appear but also others.”

“Like the passages to the Enderian Journey.” Frozen Immortal enunciated.

They gulped. Killing grounds existed as many as stars in the sky. Each had a standard of danger. Others were as easy as eating pie. While a few were skull tingling danger!

But only the Eight Killing Grounds were synonyms to calamity!

Each of these eights was a world. And anyone of them was not lesser to the land they lived!

Frozen Immortal stared at Pure Man. Blinding bright lights shone through the seams of his helmet. His freezing words sounded.

“Tell me their names.”

It was a calm voice, too calm for comfort. Sarah heard the gulping sound beside her. She peeked, seeing King Milagro breaking a sweat. He wasn’t a Venerable after all, she thought. She faced the front, waiting for what would Pure Man do.

But she became disappointed. Pure Man remained his smile. “I’m sorry, Berg.”

Frozen Immortal continued staring at him. An oppressive aura appeared. A vast amount of wind waved through the room. All the carpets got shredded to smithereens. The door flapped open, and the ceiling became frozen.

Everyone experienced various blows. Ghian groaned and his beard trembled. King Milagro drank the blood in his throat threatening to come out. Ryan hurried to shield Sarah but tumbled instead in his own chair. King Rafferty crossed his arms and counted in his head. His face darkening at each passing second.

Yet, even with all these happening, Pure Man remained smiling. And his location grew unaffected. As if any force would never influence his position.

“HAHAHA!”

Cloud Rider suddenly laughed, destroying the suffocating atmosphere. He hugged the shoulder of one Venerable. “The brothel ain’t bad, right, Old Pal Space Slicer?”

Multiples eyes enlarged and their mouth gaped. They ogled at the youth who wore an ugly expression.

Space Slider cursed in his mind. This fucking bastard started it and triggered the Monarch! And he got the nerve to start another!

He was the only one closed to Cloud Rider’s age aside from Jade Hands, so Cloud Rider usually bothered him. And right now, his reputation was being smirched to soothe the atmosphere. How could he live now?

“Cloud Rider…” Space Slicer’s words passed through his gritted teeth. But soon he became a deflated balloon, seeing his so-called friend’s encouraging eyes.

“We only talk for a while...”

“Wow, that’s love.” Cloud Rider whistled. “You don’t care for rules, eh? Not bad!”

Million alpacas galloped through everyone’s head. They all knew people in this industry couldn’t love. And all their services ranged only to dancing, singing or performing arts. Thus, saying it love would be pure debacle.

Even then, people still didn’t look kindly of this work. They were Venerables, respected by many. Even if one had dirty laundry, it was only in the house.

Space Slicer shuddered, seeing through their thoughts. Hundreds of fuck you’s appeared on his mind, but he was smiling towards everyone. Though with each passing second, his face became uglier, thus he could only bite the bullet.

“It is hard to resist her charm, so… we speak through the night.” He chuckled, but his face was bitter as a bitter gourd.

Beside him, Cloud Rider clapped many times. “Pal, teach me how to be you!” His face seemed asking for beating.

Space Slicer almost cursed out loud.

Everyone didn’t know what to think. They felt happy that the Monarch returned to his earlier still motion. But they were also furious because Cloud Rider started it all!

All of them had love and hate relationship with Cloud Rider. He was cocky, shameless, and a bully. Towards serious things, they could rely on him. But they would meet by his antics with anything less than serious.

“Cough.” White Wall took everyone’s attention.

“Seeing that Sir Cloud Rider started the talk about Demonization Program, I’ll go second.”

Almost everyone cursed in their minds. If only he started, then they won’t get injured and frightened to death, they thought.

“This is a very controversial and terrifying topic. Sir Demon Subduer, can you relay us who is the victim.”

“Ayill Clarence, ten years old. Mother, Ayisha Clarence. Father, Humber Clarence. Sister, Ayizalea Clarence. All of them deceased.” Ntse Ghand read the report.

“He appeared during the incident in County of Hopes and Dreams. Said in the report, he was taking a strange powder, a drug, that can regrow limbs and strengthen the mind.”

“However, his demonization only occurred when the strange powder and an Evil’s seed contacted.”

“But a witness said that the demon Grimo’s reaction was unexpected. He didn’t know that this will happen.”

“Either it’s nothing but an accident, or kept in wraps from Grimo.”

“Though, they still succeeded. So this will be a problem in the foreseeable future.”

Everyone’s thoughts turned aligned with him. They could also infer the result. But this was too controversial. Thus, no one wanted to become the prime instigator.

Thus, they needed a sacrificial sheep. A Venerable elbowed Space Slicer. “Do it. Only you can speak now. I will cheer you in the sidelines.”

Space Slicer teared up whilst looking at the ceiling. He thought how did everything go wrong. Seeing that there was really no one, he gritted his teeth and stood.

“We shall kill them!” His voice became loud better performance.

“They transformed and already no different from demons, so why bother?!”

A few nodded, agreeing with him. Though, others frowned. White Wall gestured. “But they are once a human. Don’t you feel imprisoning will do?”

The sacrificial sheep cursed in his mind once again. This damn old man was playing the kind-hearted card! Only a fool would believe you to be this kind!

But he couldn’t back out now. “What’s the point? Demons are our hated enemy! Eventually, we will purge them anyway. Isn’t that the point of this conference?’

“Everyone. We should hold hands and be firm with our ideals!”

“Don’t you regard the prosperity of our race?

“Don’t you remember our fates when we were in those bastards’ hands?

“Feel the souls of our fallen comrades!”

“At this moment, we shall take the most effective move. And that is to kill every one of them!” His shrill cry echoed across the room.

Space Slicer felt good. He was actually feeling proud now by his impassioned speech and acting. The very first time he felt important. In normal days, he wasn’t the strongest and not even important, like Ntse Ghand. Just a normal Venerable.

But right now, he was the one taking a charge. Moreover… he could use this chance to deal with Jade Hands!

Space Slicer kept glancing at her. A malicious intent swirled in those pairs of eyes.

“Yeah, we do that!” Others erased their pretense and agreed.

“We are with you, Venerable Space Slicer.”

King Rafferty laughed and chimed. “That’s right. We shall get revenge for our fallen brothers in County of Hopes and Dreams.”

King Milagro rolled his eyes inwardly. Chuckling outside, “Your Majesty, it’s my duty to protect my citizen. Just relax, I will make a good show for everyone.”

“Ah. I forgot; you have Devil’s Doll now! No wonder you are confident.” The king of the Suns Kingdom patted his belly. King Milagro faked his smile. He knew how troublesome this case was, but if he succeeded, his power would rise another step. King Milagro licked his lips, thinking about it.

“I see…” Several heads nodded. “If you need help, Your Highness, we will wholeheartedly help.” This would be a good fortune to show their powers and gain profits.

Jade Hands felt disgusted. These people did not differ from the demons they despised. History had proven how humans beat each other during peace. In fact, they could be more despicable under the clothes of righteousness.

Suddenly, her skin tingled. She hurried to move her head to see Space Slicer’s hateful gaze, which he immediately hid.

Dugen. Dugen. Her heart pounded as her thoughts raced to a terrifying notion. No… no! Not that person! She screamed in her mind as her beautiful face flushed.

“Moreover, we should kill those who take the wrong path, right, everyone?”

“All the Reverse Path need to be annihilated… what do you think?

All the people followed his gaze. Space Slicer cackled. He remained a gentleman but everyone sense his thorny words.

“By the way, where is Green Palm Tree?”

Jade Hands’ heart contracted. “What are you talking about? What about it? He is still recuperating that’s why he is not here.” Jade Hands maintained her calm face. But a few saw her trembling legs.

“Oh. Because I heard something…”

“Hey!”

Everyone knitted their brows. It was too rude to interrupt someone mid speaking. They searched for the sound and discovered the little girl standing with fiery eyes.

“Hey. That’s right, I’m talking to you.”

“Can I ask you a question, History’s Strongest Cheap-face?” Sarah smiled. But no matter where they looked, it was devilish. In addition, everyone turned shock by her audacity.

…

Chapter 28 | Chapter 30