In the skies above Espar Kingdom, a crimson flash cut through the wind as it headed deep in the forest. An armored figure red as blood, with a pair of huge, blood red wings and a large red bag.
"What is that? There is a battle happening." On the way, his eyes shone within the armor as he smelled the enchanting and strong smell of blood coming from the northeast.
'Scan the area, tell me what is happening.' Like an instinct, an invisible force scanned through the forest before it detected thousands of life forms concentrated in that direction within 3000m away.
"Should I... No! Liam comes first." Despite being curious to why so many beasts would gather there, Thor reminded himself of Liam's condition.
He only stayed there a few more seconds before heading back to the empty Darkmoon tribe, or at least it should be empty, but since they moved away, leaving such a village several beasts have already taken possession of the place.
Those beasts were all 1 and 2 star beasts, and they weren't wolf type beasts either. Maybe some beasts that fled from another region all the way to this one.
At the 1-star, there were not many beasts that possessed intelligence and after what he learned that beasts weren't just monster waiting to be killed made him less bloodthirsty against beasts.
"Well, I should let them follow with their lives." Having powers comparable to a king, Thor headed to the cave without leaving any trace.
Céline was still in the same position as when he left. Once you put on an immortal armor, you lose all the needs of a ordinary person, no hunger, no sleep, no pain, no reproduction...
All of this is just the price to pay for immortality. As Thor, he was curious to who was the mastermind behind these mysterious armors, being able to gain such change from mortal to immortal just by just putting on an armor is something not seen even in that other world.
The part of him that remains as Roderick still feels a bit conflicted about the time he spent unconscious. At this exact second he was still wondering if he's considered to be in his fifties or not.
"Hey miss, I'm back." The cave didn't change and Liam was still laying down on the bed he took from the Darkmoon Village before he left.
"Oh! Rick, nice timing. Your friend doesn't have much time left." Seeing he was back, she immediately grabbed his hand and pulled him.
Roderick was standing by the bedside and he could see how bad Liam state was. His face had a tinge of purple and both his arms were covered in black lines that spread across his body like an infection.
"Oh no, he must be having a reaction to the beast's arms implanted in him." Pressing his palms together, Roderick closed his eyes and then a bloody line burst from both his hands and slowly floated towards the bed.
These lines slowly merged into Liam's body, making his complexion turn for the better. For what seemed like an eternity, Roderick kept infusing his blood onto Liam to the point his red skin was already a lot pale. If it continued his elemental art will not hold long enough to save Liam.
"Céline! I need help, my blood is not enough. You need to find a source of blood for me, quickly or my art stop and Liam will die!" Hearing his desperate cries, Céline burst out from the entrance of the cave and headed deep in the forest before returning with a few wolves that were in the village surroundings, probability to see the strength of the beasts that are living there in order to prepare their attack.
She brought a total of five wolves into the cave, all which were tied in bright silver chains. She picked one of them and brought close to Rick's mouth. It was neither too far or too close, just the right distance for Roderick to press his sharp teeth on that wolf's neck and suck his blood.
Just like that, he kept infusing the vitality of his blood into Liam, but what he didn't notice was the light in his eyes as one of his three innate abilities started to activate.
The entire treatment took a few hours and Liam didn't woke up even after two days, and yet all the lines on his body as well as the countless hidden injuries were fully healed.
At the moment, Roderick and Céline were chatting by the fireplace when that small gem on his choker began to give off some light that pulsed gently, in resonance with his body.
"Oh shit, I must go." Roderick stood up and changed into his wolf form. "There is something happened to Espar City. If my friend wakes up while I'm away, just tell him to wait that Roderick is going to see him."
Leaving these words, he vanished into thin air. For some reason when arrived in the capital, he noticed a large concentration of beasts, those beasts didn't come from the kingdom.
There was a least a few hundred of them in the sky, which scarred him out of his wits, only Elemental/Beast kings and elemental masters of the wind element can fly, and with how many of them and their violent areas around them he didn't think they were just wind-element beasts.
"Brother Nomad! You are here just in time." Roderick nearly jumped when he felt a paw pat him in the back.
"Brother Wolf King, how was your vacation?" Seeing the Wolf King, Roderick greeted him.
"Really good, the kids loved it. Next time we're going to pass the end of the year on the Sapphire Plaza in Kogh Toruhm, they have a marvelous beef steak over there." The Wolf King seemed really excited when speaking about the beef steak to the point his saliva was dripping on the floor when he remembered something. Cough, cough... Sorry, I got too much excited. As you may have noticed there is a huge crowd gathering in the sky right?"
"Two days ago, an army of the Crimson Sun Empire, one of the Flame God's three big forces were seen in the border days before the Frazzar Fortress closer to the Wolf tribe's territory was completely wiped out, seven Kings and one Saint under our Lord God were killed. Our Lord Earthen God is really furious about it, and is marching to the Crimson Sun Empire as we speak. We, as part of his army are also being summoned to follow him. In the best of cases it will end just as a simple discussion followed by a few explosions here and there, but nothing we can't handle."