Blood, that was all he could see everywhere all around him from the moment he became aware of his existence, a sea of blood.
His young and helpless body of a one year old child just seemed to keep sinking deeper and deeper into this seemingly endless sea of blood but he showed no struggle, no panic and absolutely zero curiosity.
All he had was nothing but an empty look in those purple eyes of his that seemed to have the very stars engraved onto them, and like this time would pass, decades? Centuries? Millennium? Eons? He had no idea, he could not even verify if time itself existed in this place.
He was just like a lifeless doll and the only thing he could do was to just keep sinking deeper and deeper into this seemingly infinite abyss of blood, after an unknown period of time had passed the boy heard it. A single word that was whispered into his mind;
«Sephtis»
There was no repeat after the first, the voice was gone but the word remained in the boys undeveloped and vegetable like mind, but for some reason those dead eyes of his seemed to have a become just a tiny bit clearer.
An unknown period of time had passed and another word had been whispered into his mind, but unlike the first this time it whispered two.
«Dark» «Cold»
And so it would carry on like this, random words would keep being whispered into his mind from time to time the deeper he sunk into the abyss and the more of them that appeared the clearer his eyes got but that wasn't all. Unlike the past where the boy's mind only kept the words but without ever being able to think about them, repeat them or understand them it was a bit different now.
The boy had gained instinct, he was not sentient yet as his will had not been born but for now he had instinct. More time had passed and once again the boy had something infiltrate his mind just as it had happened many times before.
But this time it was different, it wasn't just words being whispered into his mind but actual imagery. And even more different from the other times was the fact that the images weren't just one or two but hundreds, thousands, millions and much more being inscribed into his mind and each accompanied by an uncountable number of words.
They both kept on rushing on into his mind for what seemed like forever until it suddenly stopped, the boy blinked. For the first time he had blinked and just like that the spark of will had been born in his body, it was tiny and small, perhaps even lesser than what a fully formed infant in the womb possessed but it was there.
More time passed and little by little the worlds of information stuck in his mind began organising themselves and bit by bit the gift of understanding was also gifted unto the boy's mind but it was all automatic, he couldn't formulate any thoughts yet and neither was his imagination present.
All that was there at the moment was just the fact that he subconsciously knew the things in his mind the more they organised themselves but that was it, he had no real thoughts at all.
And then that blessed day arrived, the day desire was born. Still looking up straight ahead at the red the had clouded his vision for the longest time he blinked and raised an arm up almost like he was reaching for something, memories flashed in his mind.
Memories of something blue and vast and full of so many white floating things that come in many shapes in sizes, that thing referred to as the Sky and the bright yellow ball of light that shines down on the world.
He....wanted it....he wanted.....all.....all of it.....everything.
'Out'
He had formed his first actual thought born out of his desire, he clenched his small fists and out of nowhere he had finally stopped sinking, he was stuck in place.
'I....want....out'
And almost as if the sea of blood was reacting to his desire it began trembling violently all around him, the boy felt the blood rush at his body in a way it had never done before.
He had only been submerged in it all this time but now it had turned violent, it wrapped around his entire body like a cocoon and drilled into almost every part of him. The boys mouth parted and like a moth to the flame the sea of blood rushed down his throat and it kept on going for minutes, hours and for who knows how long.
But the more it drained into him the lesser it's volume became and the higher he rose towards the surface, his body felt hot, like lava was was crawling through each and every atom of his existence.
Reddish veins visibly popped up from his head down to the sole of his feet, they pulsed time and time again with energy and each second that passed a large wave of red energy was released from his body. The blood around him reached a boiling point and then...it exploded.
His hands burst out to the surface and moments later his whole body also, the boy crawled to his knees as he felt the sensation of solid ground for the first time. His head was raised high but his eyes were closed and upon the moment of him opening them the first thing he was greeted with was a red sky with a big red blood moon and thirteen pillars of golden light shooting up into the sky.
The sky and earth trembled as the world trumpets were sound, his heart made a loud thump in his chest as he finally took note of the environment around him. A field dyed red in the blood of hundreds of thousands of bodies clad in heavy armour, a good portion in robes along with multiple thousands of dead creatures.
The boy stared at the scene for a few good seconds, his eyes held an almost intimate feel to them. Something was tugging at him, it was faint but he could feel it, perhaps if he tried a little he could hold onto it and fully grasp what it was.
But he was drawn out of his trance by the sound of a thundering explosion, smoke was rising all around and some fairly far distance away there was a blazing pillar of fire and larva shooting up in multiple places and then moving around in some weird manner, huge craters and great divides in the earth. remnants of what seemed to have been caused by a great flood, a huge portion of the environment all around him was frozen and a lot of bodies were either ice statues, crushed in ice or nailed down on giant ice spikes.
Even now he could still hear and feel that there was still an ongoing battle far away and the shockwaves were reaching all the the way to him but not disturbing nor hurting him. Instead of desiring to get away from such an unstable place the boy grew curious as he felt something familiar coming from that direction, this was a battlefield and he knew that but as he had not the slightest sense of danger he felt nothing by the sight in front of him nor the ongoing heavy battle far away to the east of him.
He put his hands down to aid himself at his first attempt to stand on is own two feet and almost fell to the ground but caught himself, his legs were trembling a bit but he tried again and this time he succeeded but his legs were trembling heavily now. Swaying forward and back and to the side as he tried taking a step, spreading his hands out instinctively to balance himself.
At this moment the earth trembled and split apart some meters away from him as a mighty strong shockwave hit the boy which split his body open and sent him back a few hundred meters away and landing hard on his back, at the site of battle a heavy bolt of purple lightning shot down with an unrivalled ferocity.
Magma shot out of the earth and splashed all around, the boy watched in slight awe as he felt the hot viscous liquid fall down on him and at the moment it touched him his body was instantly ablaze, more lava seeped up from the earth and crawled over to him, embracing him entirely in it's path onwards.
A most surprising of events was the fact that until this very moment there had been no screams nor irrational movements from the boy engulfed in larva, instead some moments later he had gotten up and began crawling out of the lava like it was nothing even though his skin had been burned down to the bone which was the only part of him unaffected by the larva.
There was a strange energy emanating from his bones and it gave it an almost indestructible feel, the larva slid down his bones and for every part of him that was no longer in contact with the larva his body regenerated at a very fast rate with his hands, knees and legs being the only parts left as it was still submerged in lava. The moment he was able to get out of it his body regenerated and the boy looked serenely calm at the ordeal he just went through.
He looked towards the direction of the battle once more, with a loud thump in his heart a thin and near transparent filed of reddish energy enveloped his entire body but it faded away it in seconds. The boy noticed that the sounds of battle had stopped but his curiosity still remained, he tried getting up on his feet once again and found he could do so much easier than before.
Even able to take two steps forward before swaying a little though he was able to get a hold of himself very quickly and continued onwards, sometimes crawling over some random bodies when the way was too cramped and his body was too small to attempt stepping over them.
Unknown to the boy at some point he had begun levitating off the ground, it didn't take long for him to find out and for him to be awed by this new phenomenon happening to him. He spread his hands out like wings as he glided through the skies, though the boy felt himself not to be in control of it he cared not for it after realising it was still taking him towards his original destination.
Unbeknownst to the boy whom was still quite green when concerning a lot of things, the speeds he was moving at in the eyes of someone taking note of visual visage would seem most abnormal. In fact when taking into account everything about his existence it would shake the mental fortitude of even the oldest monsters on the planet.
No one year old, even if be of a beast born with a divine bloodline would even be able to move nor survive the strong spiritual pressure that was washing over this entire battlefield in waves due to the unknown powerful individuals who were battling it out some moments ago. Although the pressure was very controlled, it was still not something a child like he should have been able to ignore so easily.
Though it was very noticeably much lesser as the battle was over now and all that remained were wisps of it but to the boy's ignorant mind he had felt nothing of the sort, instead mistaking the mountainous pressure as nothing but the cool breeze.
It took no less than the quarter of a minute for the boy to have crossed a close to 5 mile distance and be gently placed down a hundred meters away from his destination, the boy looked around for a moment wondering why he had been placed here but his thoughts did not linger for long as he continued onwards.
Before him was a chasm tens of meters wide and deep enough to the point he could not feel the bottom, spanning miles on both ends also was the original divide that had reached his former location and the still molten hot larva. The boy could feel the power of the being he was sensing close by and could already see the figure of whom it was along with the army of thousands riding on beasts and forming a partial encirclement.
The other one whom he was sensing was laid down on the ground and seemed to be in a horrible state, his steps got faster and it was only when he got within 20 meters that the woman squatting beside the mangled body of her opponent turned around almost immediately when she sensed something had triggered her barrier and got up, the beasts were also alerted the moment their senses registered the boy but the soldiers held a confused look on their faces.
They rubbed their eyes to make sure none were seeing things, it was like both their eyes and mind were registering that there was something before then but at the same time denying and erasing it's imagery from their memories. They panicked and gripped their swords as they readied themselves in a defensive stance, a cold chill ran down their spine in the face of this weird phenomenon.
This coupled with the fact that of those golden pillars of light that had shot into the skies some minutes ago, their nerves were anything but calm now due to what that meant not just for them but to the entire world itself and an existence like that thing that stood before them was NOT something they needed right now.
The boy had stopped his approach and tilted his head a bit looking at the people before him, tho he had no sense of danger it still felt a bit out of place how they looked at him.
"W-what is that thing!" Exclaimed a soldier with pure fear in his voice.
"It's like it has no presence at all, how is that even possible".
"That is not just simple mana suppression nor invisibility spell, not even the advanced ones can trick barriers and high level sensors like myself for anything past a second. But that thing....."
The one who spoke this time was an above average middle-aged man clad in black armour, his tone visibly less saturated by fear compared to the others but still slightly shook, but this much was to be expected of a second in command.
"My god, is–is it one of his? Has it begun already, oh god no".
This statement served as the breaking point for the soldiers nerves as fear and terror got the free reign over their minds, the beasts became unsettled following the rowdiness and palpable fear they were feeling from the soldiers.
"SILENCE!" A suffocating amount of pressure washed over the area which did it's just job in silencing the group, the second in command was silent for a few seconds, his grip on his sword tightening unconsciously. No one but he and his much too perceptive leader knew what he had attempted there just a moment ago, he sighed.
"I have lived for a 156 years and had the unfortunate experience of knowing what a monster from that beings army looks and feels like".
"So I can say with clarity that what stands before us is not of his army, but I cannot say what it is yet unless we capture it and study it".
This served to ease their nerves a little which was good news in any case, he turned his gaze to their leader who had been quiet all the while and staring with a focused gaze at the boy before them.
"Your orders General" he requested.
Their leader was a most beautiful woman blessed with a bewitching body, she had wavy dark auburn hair that rest just below her shoulder blades in length and crimson red eyes, standing at a height of 6'2 with heels and was the only one dressed not in armour but a luxurious black chic long sleeved sexy v-neck dress with a thigh high leg slit and exuded nothing but elegance.
She gave no answer to his request and just continued staring at the boy with an undecipherable gaze for an extended period of time, then she stepped stepped forward which alerted her soldiers.
"General?" The second in command was confused for a moment as were the others but the moment she stepped out of the encirclement they panicked.
"Wait, no!" He grabbed onto her hand by reflex and instantly felt a shiver run down his spine, he released his grip almost immediately by instinct and took a bow deep bow.
"Do forgive my impudence, but please understand that I cannot allow you approach that thing without care".
"At least not until we have confirmed it poses no threat to you".
"This is the protocol declared by the Emperor in regards to the important pillars of this Empire ".
He still kept his head down lest he show the visual effects of how much dread he had in his heart right now, though he used the words ‹cannot allow› absolutely none of them could stop her if she decided to ignore his words and if by some unfortunate stroke of luck something bad ends up happening to her then he would have to answer to the Emperor which was a most terrifying thought.
And luckily for him his master was kind enough to take this into consideration and heed his words, she made no attempt to approach like before but neither did she take a step back. This was already more than enough for both he and all soldiers present, he heaved a mental sigh and turned his gaze to the unknown thing before him.
It was a difficult thing keeping his mind in check lest his memories get rewritten but he could manage just enough, though he could not tell how his master was faring but it surely had to be much better than he was.
"At the ready" he ordered, the soldiers flared up a small amount of mana and placed a hand on their swords ready to strike at a moment's notice.
He took a step forward forward and continued onwards, his body was also coated in mana and his hands were at the ready for a quick draw. The moment he got within a meter of the boy he halted his steps and looked down at the thing standing before him which gazed back at him with those big and bright starry purple eyes that exuded nothing but pure innocent curiosity.
"What is your name" he questioned.
Seconds passed and he got no reply from the boy who was still looking at him with that innocent and curious eyes of his.
"Can you understand me?".
He got no reply to this also, or so he thought but the boy suddenly gave a soft nod which gave him a small feeling of elation in his heart as the possibility he could get somewhere was open now.
But just to confirm if wasn't a fluke he made sure to ask again "are you sure you can understand me" and he received a soft nod again.
"Alright then, how many fingers am I holding out" he held out his thumb, index and middle fingers but got no response from the boy after a few seconds had passed.
He curled his fingers back and heaved a sigh already knowing he would be getting nowhere with this so the only choice he had left was the direct method, either by forcefully probing it's mind or by initiating an attempt to capture it.
Considering the delicate situation they find themselves in at the moment these two extremes were the best of choices he could afford;
"Seems you'll have to come with us for the time being until we figure what you are".
He clasped his hands together and a two meter wide Magic circle was summoned before him, the boy's eyes lit up in real awe looking at the interesting thing before him. Aaron saw the look in the boy's eyes and nearly hesitated for a second but closed his eyes for a moment and calmed himself before commencing with his act.
"Stop".
He unclasped his hands almost immediately and reached for his sword, his hands were visibly trembling and his breathing uneven. He turned his gaze back to his master and saw the cold look in her eyes, it sent real shivers down his spine and he could not understand why she would directing some killing intent towards him.
"General?" He called out with visible confusion in his voice.
She walked past Aaron who wanted to stop her again but was too frozen in place to move, the aura of death was hanging around him right now and he could not understand why or what he had done to invoke such a fate upon himself.
The boy also walked forward towards her and panic could be seen on everyone's faces, she crouched down before him and stared straight into his eyes. Though she had crouched down he was still not at eye level with her and this came as no surprise considering he had the body of a one year old.
She placed a gentle hand on his cheek and the boy showed her nothing but the brightest smile after, her gaze moved to the side at the little ball of light resting on his shoulders, she knew the rest of her soldiers and Aaron could not see it else he would not have attempted something so idiotic and suicidal.
It seems the boy also could not see it yet else he would have noticed the little fairy's attempt at getting his attention, meanwhile Aaron's heart was almost jumping out of his throat in worry for his general.
She was too close, far too close to whatever that thing was "g-general, p-please step away from that thing, we have no idea what it-
"Boy".
"What?"
"He's a boy, not an it".
Aaron was quiet after and she gently picked the boy up in her arms then walked back into the encirclement, she also did the one of the most rarest thing ever. She smiled, they had never seen their general show a smile to anyone ever outside of her nieces and sometimes her sister but here she was smiling at a random thing they had found in the battlefield.
"We shall be returning now, ready yourselves".
The Knights stood at attention and then dispersed to begin collecting the spoils they could salvage and also recollect the bodies of their fallen comrades, as this was a 'take no prisoners' battle there were no slaves to be gotten from this war except for the opponent's general of which their leader had defeated else none of them could have possibly stood against that monster.
In the meanwhile she had brought her attention back to her mangled opponent laying flat on the ground along with the boy who also looked at the body with interest, she watched his behaviour with a curious gaze. He did nothing but poke the body with his hands and climb atop it but she carried him off the moment he did so.
Though she had crippled her opponent beyond what most recovery potions could heal it was still not wise to underestimate him, no matter what he was still a general and who knows what desperate card he could still have left.
So if he tried anything she could seal him at a moment's notice but if the boy is that close he could become an unnecessary casualty, but then again there was the little fairy that has attached itself to the boy for a reason she knew not.
He was not awakened and neither did it seem to be the result of a contract, but for a fairy to attach itself so early on onto a person is quite unheard of. The amount of people who had fairies as partners either via extreme affinity with nature or by contract were a most rarest of beings and she knew what a being who had an extreme affinity with nature felt like, the boy gave nothing close to it and this had nothing to do with the fact he was unawakened.
But this definitely did confirm one thing, this child would prove to be far more special than she had already imagined. It didn't take too long for her subordinates to finish their task of reclaiming both their fallen comrades and spoils, now it was time for their return to home.
Six mages got themselves ready as they brought out all the necessary materials, six mid-grade blue mana stones the size of boulders were summoned individually from their rings and placed in a particular fashion. In the midst of the preparations Aaron had walked over to his master's side and gave a small polite bow.
"General, would it be right to leave straight for home now without confirming the situation with the other forces".
His gaze unconsciously went down to the boy in her arms while waiting for her reply, the little thing was looking at the gigantic mana stones with a hungry look in his eyes and reached his small little hands out in a manner as if to grab it.
Something quite surprising happened as a small piece of the mana stone was cut out and flew towards the boy's hands but before he could grab onto it his master had caught and confiscated it, her gaze moved to the side and it was quite an intense look she had, almost like she was reprimanding something but he could not see what so it just made for a strange sight all-round.
The little thing in her arms began grabbing onto his master's hands to retrieve what she had taken from him, it's face tried to frown but the results it produced was something completely opposite to it's intention as it just looked extremely cute as hell much to Aaron's admission.
His master smiled at the little thing once again and began gently rubbing it's cheeks which seemed to cheer the little monster, Aaron entered a small daze at the beautiful scene before him, especially at how a smile on his master's face completes her so well.
But before he could fall any deeper he forcefully pulled himself out and regained his composure, just then his master turned her gaze towards him.
"Unless given an order by the Emperor or her Majesty, the wars of others are not a concern of mine".
"My battle is done for now and the prize has been claimed so we shall be returning".
"The kingdom must be in a state of panic right now following the event that just occurred and so our presence is needed more than ever".
Aaron gave a bow "as you wish" then he left for his mount and wait for the mages to complete their preparations. She summoned a rope from the pocket space in her right hand and telepathically wrapped it around her opponent's neck with the end being firmly gripped in her hands, then she placed the boy atop her ride and mounted the Bicorn soon after.
The boy was also quite fascinated by the mount, especially it's horns and he tried to reach for them but his hands were too short and fearing another repeat of the situation moments before she gave him a little push just enough for him to touch it lest her poor Bicorn gets it's horn ripped out of it's head by the young and naive fairy.
The beautiful stallion breathed out smoke through it's nostrils and grunted, the Mages finally completed their preparations at this moment and all six flared up their mana at full force and silently chanted a spell in unison.
The six mana stones lit up and a gargantuan blue portal opened up in it's midst, it spanned a width of at least 40 meters and space was visibly being bent around it but luckily the mages stabilised the distortion making it safe for the army to approach.
They gave a knowing nod at the general who got the message and saddled her beast to move forward, the soldiers also followed suit and saddled their horses to get in formation. The mages were flying right above the army and would be the last ones to go through, she walked through the portal which brought her right at the two watchtowers stationed 10 meters away from the wall encircling the kingdom's main palace and it's most valuable cities.
As the area around was nothing but acres of pure grasslands there were no obstructions for her remaining soldiers to follow through, the horns sounded notifying the kingdom and it's majesty of the army's return.
The gates were opened and the army rode right in through, the gates which by itself were also a portal designed to recognise certain signatures of specific beings and take them to a predetermined location inside the walls.
For the army it took them right to a gargantuous round and flat platform with a magic circle inscribed on it, the view around it was of the beautiful and bustling kingdom full of many magnificent creatures that walked side by side with a lot of it's inhabitants.
The sight no matter how many times that they had seen it would forever be a beauty to behold though it was just the outskirts, the main palace itself though it was hundreds of thousands of miles away still stood out the greatest from everything else in the entire kingdom.
The holy and imposing aura it carried was breathtaking, due to a special spell that had been casted the Kingdom gave it the special effect that it so long as it's citizens were on it's grounds the palace would never be invisible to them even if they were to become blind.
All they needed to do was will it and it shall be shown to them even from behind walls, this was made to serve as a sort of representation that and promise that her Majesty is always with them and for them so long as they too are with her and for her always.
Citizens gathered around to come greet and praise the army on it's return, most especially their general on another successful war won thereby extending her perfect and unmatched streak of wins with no losses. The magic circle was activated and instantly the army was teleported away to the underground city beneath the palace of which only the general, the Emperor, her Majesty and her court knew about.
Though it may be called a city it was nothing of the sorts, it would be more accurate if one referred to it as the barracks or camp except with a slightly more homely feel and incredibly spacey.
Though the army had been transported to this place, the general herself along with the boy, her opponent still being dragged shamefully by the rope and her second in command were taken directly to the throne room itself
They both got down on one knee with a hand across their chest and took a bow before the one seated on the throne before
"Long live your Majesty".
EnD.