LIGHTNOVELONLINE 43: The Reaping
The next moment Kai found himself in a scorching desert, surrounded by endless red sand. He, along with he assumed 3000 others, stood upon a rustic pillar of rock that jutted hundreds of feet high out of the sand. They were covered by a translucent dome of aura.
Nearby he saw two similar rock pillars; the first was even larger than the one he stood upon, with tens of thousands of individuals from various species densely packed together. There was no aura dome that he could make out covering this large group, and wind sliced and sand pelted them.
The last pillar of rock was much smaller, and just three individuals stood upon it. His hair stood on end, and his breath became shallow as he took in the three majestic beings. Despite the aura dome’s protection, their mere presence suffocated him.
His every instinct screamed that their existence was so far above him that even worshipping them would be his honour. He barely restrained himself at the last second, squeezing every drop of his Ironblood Will to remain partially standing. It was an instinctive reaction, and something that almost everyone else failed to do. Deep in his soul, something resisted this feeling of obedience and demanded freedom. Kai clenched his fists till his knuckles went white.
The first to step forward was a radiant Vanarian, his resplendent golden fur and sun-metal braided beard glistened in the sun like some sort of monkey-god king, Kai thought.
“Welcome, we are the triumvirate for this integration, and overseers of your seven trials. I am Monarch Helios, scion for the order of Dawnbreakers.”
Kai’s jaw dropped when he recognised the next individual to step forward. A Shadar with stardusted skin and elf-like appearance. “I am Monarch Altair Sol, scion for the order of Primordials.”
What is Altair doing here? What’s the order of primordials?
Kai turned his head reluctantly towards the final person to speak. A pearlescent Lizardfolk with snow white scales stood with authority at the centre of the triumvirate. “I am Monarch Vess, scion for the order of the Infinite Void.” She paused and finished with a grin, “…the current age.”
Vess gestured with both arms. “You are the top 3000 of Earth. That is to say, dirt under our feet. Yet, here you stand. Eligible to become chosen disciples.” She flicked dirt from a scaled finger. “And perhaps someone of worth in future.”
She pointed with disinterest at the pillar with tens of thousands of people. “You failures are barely worthy of being called food.” Kai watched with interest as Altair’s body turned pitch black and his eyes shone like suns. Then the earth rumbled and quaked, the red sand far below erupted as a colossal Elder Magma Wyrm the size of a skyscraper burrowed out, and coiled around and around the stone pillar, to tower above it.
Thousands screamed, some even leapt off the edge, others chose to fight. All were devoured by a pulsating gullet of teeth, saliva, and brimstone as the entire top-half of the stone pillar slid down the Magma Wyrm’s throat in a storm of dust and sand. The elder Wyrm then plunged back into the sand and the world shook again.
The primal creature then slithered over to Kai’s stone pillar and wound its massive body around it. His heart thumped in his chest as he looked up to see the Elder primal blot out the sun, and he could smell burnt flesh as fiery saliva dropped from its maw to sizzle against the protective dome that it failed to swallow whole.
Kura growled, hiding behind Kai while wrapping her two snow-white tails around his legs.
Kai’s eyes blazed gold as he mentally patted her, don’t worry, it should not be able to reach us, by being in the top 3000 we have protection during the reaping… he hoped, while inspecting the wyrm.
Elder Primal; Magma Wyrm, Level ???
Titles: The Ceaseless Hunger, Serpent of Ruin, Vengeance of Astarot’s Offspring […]
Grade: C-Sage (Mid)
Details: Elder Magma Wyrms can grow to the size of small cities and generate enough heat to dehydrate fertile land into deserts.
Kai was pleasantly surprised to see additional information, and suspected it was due to his recently upgraded senses plus his Primal Eyes trait. He could now see the top three of its terrifying titles and its grade. Kai noted that the primal was an Elder in terms of age and a grade C-Sage in terms of power, yet the triumvirate had introduced themselves as Monarchs. Kai shivered, Is Monarch higher or lower?
Vess sighed. “Seems we have a greedy one this integration.” She grasped the air like the internal wires of a machine and yanked. Kai’s senses went haywire, he simply saw white, then prismatic lines outlined the world like a blueprint. Reality froze. Sound froze. The endless desert became a frozen tundra that refracted a thousand colours. The primal turned into ice, then shattered like a mountain of glass, exploding into a million jagged prisms.
Kai gulped, awestruck at the power of what had to be at least B-grade, and truly thankful for the protective dome around him. How the hell am I supposed to defeat a Monarch ever, never mind in the final trial? She was probably thousands of years old.
From what he’d learnt from Algrom and the Rakin Elder, each of the grand orders had a limit of three chosen disciples per integration, and if one of them survived till the seventh trial, that orders’ scions could descend to Earth, which given their overwhelming power, would guarantee their dominion of Earth and the extermination of any competition.
Despite being faced with such an overwhelming display of power, his heart thumped with excitement. He had to get strong enough to slay a Monarch – compared to him, she may as well have been a god. A more reliable plan however would be to defeat all the grand order disciples before the final trial started, then Vess could not enter Earth.
He had already slain Saurkar, so that left eight out of nine. He didn't particularly trust any of the orders at this point. And was full of questions regarding Altairs Sol. The problem was the world was massive and he would need to find a way to identify and hunt them down over the trials.
Vess continued dryly, like nothing particularly interesting had happened, “Part of your reward for completing the first trial, is that you may be approached by any order and be sponsored.”
Kai looked around. He was not really interested in hearing her prattle on about disciples, but he kept one ear at attention in case she said something important. He was interested in seeing if he recognised anyone in the top 3000 around him; they all gazed at Vess, hanging on her every word like gospel.
He was amazed to see so many different types of species from other worlds: Ents, Jellyfish people, but mostly Lizardfolk and Vanarians, and together they vastly outnumbered the humans he spotted. Many hid their appearance with hoods and cloaks, yet some plated warriors stood brazenly with colossal swords resting on their backs.
His eyes stopped dead and his heart lurched into his stomach when he recognised Herod. The man who had murdered his parents and avoided jail was less than 40 feet from him. Kai’s lips tightened; he’d recognise that grizzled beard and yellow eyes anywhere.
Kai saw red, his nostrils flared. Part of him wanted to keep a low profile, another part of him knew he had to establish a reputation, but the biggest part of him wanted justice, perhaps revenge. Not knowing if he’d get an opportunity to meet Herod again, he threw caution to the wind. After all, it wasn’t the people inside the dome he was worried about.
The ground splintered beneath him as Kai soared into the air, stardust aura rippled over his body as he maximised his weight and plummeted towards the murdering bastard like a furious meteor. Through Bloodfury, streams of blood billowed from his ruptured meridian pores as his blood-coated-palm flowed towards Herod.
“You took them from me!” Kai roared.
Herod’s eyes widened as Kai screamed towards him, Waterfall smash; increase!
Herod swiped the air, his brown robes ruffling in the wind as he formed a solid shield of sand and aura at the last second. Kai’s palm slammed down into Herod’s makeshift sand bulwark with such force that it exploded and crumbled; furthermore the weight of the impact was so great that it crushed Herod to his knees. Kai heard the sound of the older man’s ankles snapping as the rock beneath Herod concaved inwards.
Kai grit his teeth as he stared into Herod’s still-alive eyes, the bastard had the audacity to grin back at him while clutching his broken arm. “That all you got, squirt?” Herod said, spitting out some blood, his eyes flicked behind Kai.
Kai gripped the warm crimson beads around his neck. “I have no mercy for you, only judgement.” He pivoted on his heel and thrust his palm towards Herod with overwhelming force, Water Slap; increase. Herod flung out golden sand that Kai’s palm sunk into like mud with a squelch. Which reduced most of the force of his strike to his dismay, this sand was good at shock absorption he realised.
Then let’s try something new.
Kai stalked towards Herod as his aura exploded like a blazing sun while blood floated like rivers from his pores, and in his zeal he extracted almost half of his blood and stumbled, woozy.
Kai became a vortex of blood and aura as he pulled everyone towards him; the few who had souls strong enough to resist stumbled, while the rest were uprooted from the ground and flung towards him.
A look of concern flashed across Herod’s face as he created a spherical shield of golden sand to encase his entire body this time.
Kai’s forehead creased in concentration while he focused on Bloodfury. All his lost blood swirled and cocooned him like a ruby crystal, then he made his blood heavy, a feral grin spread across his dry lips.
Shatter.
A series of concussive booms shook the air and the ground rumbled as he exploded like a ruby meteorite. Blood shards eviscerated everyone nearby, even disembowelling the rock beneath him.
He swiped the dust from his vision to see the ground littered with dozens of dead lacerated bodies, primarily the people that had been within his aura sphere radius.
Kai gaped at the scene of carnage, it was likely that everyone who had reached this point considered themselves pretty strong and thought they’d be unscathed, but even Kai underestimated how powerful his attuned blood and a fine quality trait would be.
I need more protocosmic evolution fruits.
Fruit. Fruit! Kura growled as she devoured the bodies in a puff of white light, causing his observers’ glares to intensify. However not everyone was watching, other fights had started to break out across the giant pillar of rock as people reaped chaos to gain vital aura or a better ranking, or perhaps had their own feuds to settle.
Kai glared daggers at Herod; he could see parts of the man through his crumbling golden sand, blood dripped from the ruby shards that pierced Herod’s body, but the tough old bastard lived. Kai noted with satisfaction that his Water Pierces Rock trait had done its work though; enough damage had bypassed the shield to injure him. Kai watched Herod cough up blood then wipe his grisly mouth. “Little shit, my turn to get serious!”
Herod raised his good arm and golden bandages snaked out from his robes; they darted out and wrapped around Kai’s arm faster than a striking cobra. Feeling woozy from so much blood loss did not help his reaction time either. Kai tried to tug free but Herod closed his fist and the golden bandages constricted with such force that his arm sliced off and thumped into the dirt.
Kai roared and grit his teeth, then focused on the wave of aura flooding into his soul thanks to his Vortex Heart trait, further boosted by Bloodfury. He felt his soul strengthen and almost laughed despite his immense pain and grim situation… so much aura, and if I can survive then I can just grow that back, right?
He was about to charge Herod, when he was assaulted from several sides at once by multiple people trying to take him down.
In the ensuing dervish, his Hotplates flared each time he was struck, turning patches of his skin into charcoal scales while his Vortex Heart inhaled his opponents’ aura through his ruptured pores, nullifying most of the damage while restoring his own aura, his soul planet spinning rapidly as it worked overtime.
He was about to push everyone back with Gravity Wave and unleash Foxfire to give him some breathing room when he and everyone else found themselves completely unable to move. The restraining effect was orders of magnitudes higher than the overwhelming aura the triumvirate exuded. Kai’s eyes widened as he realised it was the system itself determining the reaping had gone far enough.
2500 Victors remain.
Relocating to Earth U74E000645
10…
Vess glided over to Kai, but remained outside the system’s protective dome, her eye flicked to a cracked obsidian ring on her finger. “So you’re the grain of dirt who killed my little Saurkar?” Her eyes thinned dangerously, then she smiled. Kai suddenly felt like he was trapped beneath a frozen ocean, his lungs burning without oxygen.
It was her, she was responsible for somehow disabling the hidden native and unsponsored bonuses, he was almost sure of it. He wanted to slap her perfect face.
“Would you like to become my champion?” Vess said.
Kai was staring up through ice at a goddess; he had the urge to drown and kneel, to say yes. His jaw tensed as something deep within him resisted, he would become someone worth following, he would not follow broken orders.
“No,” Kai ground out, sweat pouring down his face.
“I won’t let you set a single foot on Earth!” You could hear a pin drop. The silence absolute. Everyone in the dome held their breath at his blasphemous response.
Vess raised a scaled eyebrow as she tapped the dome and the world outside literally shook. “The system won’t let me kill you where you stand, but…” Vess turned her head towards Herod, whispered something and smiled.
3…
Kai felt a knot in the pit of his stomach. “We will be watching,” Vess said.
1…
Watching? Kai wondered.