Chronicles of the Red Sovereign

I entered the doors rather skeptical. One thing I found out during my stay in Avalon Isles was that to never take everything as it is and trust your instincts. All the time. It’s usually right.

Now I wasn’t feeling any danger once I stepped inside the door, no, I just found it a little, strange. Especially with the man glowing gold in the middle of the room. In my experience, those that are glowing were neither good nor bad, but it’s not a bad idea to walk on eggshells around them.

I never really met the man in my godhood days. I was told he had always liked his peace, watching over whoever and whatever it is he usually watched over. He liked company once in a while but he did not want anyone disturbing him whenever he had his closed-door training.

-I shouldn’t have agreed to this.

But I was already there and the door opened on its own accord, which meant Buddha was welcoming me and was not disturbing his meditation.

-Or he’s inviting you inside to obliterate you.

I shook my head at such thought and approached the glowing man who was sitting cross legged in the center of the cavern.

“Mr. Buddha sir? I was sent here by some people from your pantheon and asked me to wake you up.” I said. I chose to say those exact words so I wouldn’t be the only one blamed for disturbing his peace.

I waited for a response, but nothing came. A minute passed, then two, until half an hour passed and I still got no reply.

“Mr. Buddha?”

-How can anybody be that still for a long period of time? Has he been in that position for a hundred years? Doesn’t he get bored? Does he get cramps?

I watched as the unmoving man did not make a single move (pun intended). If that was me, I’d probably be going nuts already.

I was used to being silent and observant of what was happening around me. I wouldn’t intervene in something unless I was directly involved. But despite that, my mind was always racing with lots and lots of stuff inside it. And since I was a warrior, I was used to moving around all the time. The maximum time I was unable to move around would be about an hour max.

I tried to get his attention but I still got no response. I wondered what was keeping him from waking up and moving to either as me what I wanted or shoo me out of the cavern.

Since I received no reply, I opted to look around. The cavern was quite bare. It had no furniture or any source of entertainment that would otherwise ‘entertain’ whoever was inside. A small hole was in the ceiling to serve as indication whether it was night or day and the entire place was lit up with torches blazing in orange flames.

I suddenly noticed a mat at one of the corners of the cavern. It looked a lot like the one Mr. Buddha was sitting on.

-At least I found something I can sit on.

I placed the mat three meters away from the glowing man and sat crossed legged like him.

An idea suddenly popped up inside my head.

I was trying to learn meditation from Xiwangmu and her people due to the similarities of their cultivation to my mystic arts. Instead of teaching me, they sent me to get Buddha for reasons they never really told me. So I thought;

-What if they’re showing me an example of how to meditate? And the best example is Mr. Buddha here?

I started copying his form; back straight, legs folded, hands resting on his thighs palms up and eyes closed. I took a deep breath using my nose and exhaled using my mouth. I then cleared my mind, focused on sensing what was around me without using my skill to detect what was around me. I was more focused on detecting the energy around me which suddenly became denser probably due to the presence of the glowing man.

I felt rather at ease and at peace as I entered into a meditative state. In my opinion, Buddha was a great teacher despite not saying anything at all.

I spent quite some time inside Buddha’s cavern and I probably wouldn’t have stopped until Xiwangmu herself did not come to check what happened to me. After that experience, I became more attuned in controlling both my internal and external energies, using them like it was second nature unlike before where I had to concentrate on them. External energy was still quite a challenge to control since I was not the one who generated them but nonetheless, it had become easier. I had also figured out many ways to apply my energy manipulating skill on many techniques other than converting them to elements and using them to enhance my body in a fight.

Sad to say, that despite my almost three month stay with Mr. Buddha, I never saw the glowing man awake.

***

Fast forward to nine months later, Hermes brought me to an island below Avalon Isles. It was called the Island of the Giants but the locals called it ‘insula uriasilor’. Hermes told me it was Romanian (which I had no idea what it was) and that the first residents of the island were giants from their world. Throughout time, those giants died out and mortals from their universe occupied the island and started calling it ‘insula uriasilor’.

“But let’s call it the Island of the Giants for the sake of our tongues, shall we?” he suggested in which I immediately agreed.

The island, though it was called that, was quite big. I wouldn’t be surprised if it had its own small island nation, just cut off from the rest of Afasia. I personally had never heard of such a place. It was located northeast of the Central Continent and because of that, its northern part was always cold and was always snowing.

“It’s my favorite hangout place! Throughout the years, not just people from our world come here but also those from Afasia. We’re not sure why but most of the times those people just come here to settle down. OF course, the current residents are both good and bad. And with proper knowledge, you can avoid the shady ones.”

“And what are we doing here, exactly?” I asked the mischievous as we landed near the edge of some forest. Vyfal, whom I was riding to descend from Avalon Isles, transformed to her usual fox guise and shrunk to the regular size of one.

<”I’m going to go hunting! See you later!”> was what she said after transforming.

I waved a hand to say bye and she was gone. She was probably really excited at the prospect of being back on the mortal realm after quite some time.

“I want to check on the residents. These past few years the village near the sea has been occupied by pirates. Some half-human children of my people reside here so I check on them once in a while you know.”

“And I suppose this is one of your regular check-ups?” Hermes nodded and we made our way to the nearest village.

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A/N:

Sorry for the late update. I know my update schedules had been irregular lately, but I'll try to rectify that soon. Enjoy reading!