"Blood Domain! Blood Creation Art!" Encompassing the whole area in his blood, Roderick summoned two huge swords that soared to the two the sky before bursting into a countless little droplet, each drop incomparably sharp.
Whoosh! Whooosh!
Dian moved from one shadow to the other, trying to avoid the droplets, yet, his clothes were filled with cuts made by this bloody rain, and its stains suddenly burst into a mass of crimson flames that nearly consumed the shadows before Dian could escape through it.
"Not bad, this art of yours has a huge area of effect, perfect against a high amount of enemies." Dian sighed with admiration, seeing how much Roderick had grown over this period of one week. In terms of pure control of his blood, there is almost nothing that he can't create from simple objects like a sword with a piece of clothing or a complex structure like a building.
After training for a few days, his domain of blood also transformed into something much more useful, covering a portion of space with his blood, anyone who steps on his domain would have their blood and vitality slowly absorbed by Roderick who could use it to replenish the blood he wasted to unleash his domain.
The beast kings who came here to watch the training had all left, and only one week later did some of them return with the news that the two beast gods had just returned and wanted to meet him.
"Okay, I'll be going." Unleashing a pair of crimson wings, Roderick soared into the sky and left a bright red trail behind him.
Soon, Roderick could see the silhouettes of ten objects in the distance, these skinny, round towers that together formed an almost perfectly squared barrier around a pale white stone castle facing the sea.
Other than him, he couldn't feel the presence of any creature outside the castle. When he landed on its entrance, the door opens by itself revealing a majestic garden built within the castle.
Even at the time he was training with Dian, he had long since prepared for this moment. From what he noticed other than the low-rank beasts, those of higher ranking didn't seem to hold much hatred towards humans like he expected.
In fact, some even held some respect and admiration towards those who ruled over the world for thousands of years. From his chats with the wolf king and the others, he found out that to them, humans weren't much different than beasts.
They shared the same basic structure as some of the Beast species, they had the same needs, and despite not all human beings were worthy of respect, they race as a whole really was what the beasts would consider the apex predator.
Just like a powerful beast in a desolate location would come to dominate everything in its area, it only made sense that with the power of the human race they would do the same. The only different was something most beasts didn't know that was greed and ambition.
Having achieved what they had, humanity didn't stop and because of some of the leading figures of humanity who could keep a check on their own ambition, it wasn't kidding that in the end the most lives that humanity has taken was from humans themselves. Because of their greed, they sucked everything they could from the planet until it nearly reaching extinction.
"So you finally arrived."
Laying on the ground was two gigantic beasts, and despite being thousands of times bigger than him, Roderick knew this size was still much smaller than what he saw at the archipelago that day.
The second he stepped forward, Roderick felt a burning sensation inside him. This sensation grew hotter and hotter until a bright crimson gemstone appeared on the surface of his chest.
His face was dripping with sweat as he couldn't understand what was happening, or at least until his eyes moved upwards and saw the two beasts which revealed similar gemstones on their forehead and torso, one red and one yellow.
....
On the December 30 of the year 4444, Within the crimson spaceship, several thousand people gathered. Those were all dressed in a military attire as they sharpened their blades and checked the ammunition storages.
Right at the highest floor of the ship, a dozen men and women sat around a round table.
If Roderick was here, he would surely recognize the various familiar faces. Nerys, Gaius, Artemis, Cassius, the other leading figures of the guardians and other organizations within Eden.
Seeing everyone was there in the room, Artemis swept the table with her gaze before asking. "Nerys, how are our forces prepared?"
"Not much better than before." Nerys had a slightly depressed face as she reported. "Those who are still loyal to Sky has been suppressing us on all fronts. Our weapons are not enough for all our soldiers, and the production is proceeding exceedingly slower than expected. However, the beast kingdoms under the Beast God of Earth sent us a whole twenty boxes filled with supplies and three large-scale airships, with it I can say we would be ready in a few hours."
"What about you Cassius?"
"The wind-element masters, we deployed in the ocean had found clues about what are they doing. Yesterday they got their hands on a photo taken at the center of Eden." Saying this, Cassius pressed something and projected a huge image over the table.
The city of Eden with its many sectors that had existed in their memory was gone and replaced by a massive stone altar filled with strange runic patterns and tubes filled with fluids of different colors.
The previous supreme commander of Eden's military, Commander Sylus, an old woman in her late sixties had a grim look on her face. "That bastard must be planning something big. This altar is no less than two thousand square meters. And who's that thing in the middle?"
Following her gaze, Artemis and the other could see a faint and small shape in the middle of the altar, but because of the distance the picture wasn't clear enough and only a slightly humanoid-shaped figure.