Let sleeping dogs lie.
That is an age-old adage that has withstood the test of time. Everyone who has heard it knows how wise the words were… or rather, how tragic they were.
The person who came up with such a proverb was either someone who paid a great price to learn such a valuable lesson or someone related to a person who did exactly the opposite of the its words.
And at this moment, the army of monsters could only wish that it was actually just a dog that they had awoken. But reality was just as cruel as it always had been.
It opened its eyes for the first time in ages, revealing seven pairs of glowing orbs that stared at the sky. Its gaze locked onto the burning world of Earth. And although it was difficult to tell, each of its seven serpentine heads held a different expression.
The first was calm. The second frowned deeply. The third was giddy with excitement. The fourth stuck out its tongue impatiently. The fifth sighed in relief. The sixth looked incredibly happy that it seemed almost mad. And the seventh looked at Earth with droopy eyes before yawning. Finally, the second head snapped.
"Echidna, control yourself! We've indulged you for hundreds of thousands of years already! Now is no longer the time to be sleeping!"
"If you want to work so much, then why don't you take care of these pests instead of shouting at me. That's why Master made Adishesha the leader instead of you."
"What did you say to me?!"
"Tiamat, calm yourself. Vent your anger on these pests instead. But you are also correct. Echidna, we have slumbered long enough. We will have to move soon."
The second head, Tiamat, glared at the first head who spoke to her with a voice that could not fully conceal its arrogance. She had long hated how her brother, Adishesha, liked to act reasonable and calm when he was the one to have inherited the arrogance of their master the most.
But at the same time, she knew how powerful and intelligent Adishesha was making him the perfect choice to lead them.
In the end, she turned her attention to the army of monsters who have all frozen in fear beneath the pressure of the seven siblings' combined auras. Her fury blazed as she saw many natives of this world, Sumeru, among the numbers of the invaders from Pandemonium.
This was clear treason, not only to the seven serpent siblings, but to the Anchor of Sumeru itself, the Primal Nest. Tiamat hissed in disgust as her silver eyes shone a bright grey which enveloped the entire army of invaders and rebels. And when the light died down, all that was left were stone statues. She turned to Adishesha with a grave expression.
"We need to root them out before we go to Master's side. Or else the little one will never be safe."
"Indeed. In any case, Master is undertaking his first tribulation. We will not be able to reach him for now. Jormungandr, find them."
The third head called Jormungandr slithered forward. Although the seven were all connected to one body, Jormungandr was still the longest and largest among them all. He inspected the statues of the primals who were native to Sumeru, closely observing them with cold and sharp eyes.
They were mostly beasts of all kinds, monstrous yet majestic in form as they showed none of the hideous nature of their mortal enemies. And although people of Earth would easily mistake them for monsters, they were actually much closer to being prehistoric beasts.
On the other hand, the invaders from Pandemonium were actual monsters. Monsters were animals that mutated due to mana and were usually found in dungeons. But that was only the case for worlds like Earth which had humans as its predominant species.
For Pandemonium, monsters were the rulers and they developed in a similar direction as humans of Earth and Terra or the tribes of Sanctuary or the demons of the Seven Hells. So unlike the primals of Sumeru who still followed the law of the jungle even after emerging into the Great War, the monsters of Pandemonium were actually quite civilised hence their long brutal feud with Sumeru.
Sumeru was generally considered a neutral world much like Earth as it sided with no other world. But unlike Earth, this was mostly because they did not care much, if at all, for the Great War. And they had the power to actually maintain their neutrality as well.
After all, the wars within Sumeru were more important to the primals than the wars against other worlds with the exception of Pandemonium. And when Sumeru's natives were at war with each other, no one wanted to interfere.
For one, their brutal and vicious territorial nature would have torn all outside interference regardless if it was aid or not. Their pride as apex predators would not allow anyone to undermine their sacred ritual battles.
And while Pandemonium saw Sumeru as primitive and barbaric, the primals saw the monsters as abominations that should never have existed. Their hideous appearance was the very proof of the mistake that is their existence.
And so, whenever Pandemonium invades Sumeru, the primals would always put a stop to their infighting to slaughter the monsters. The invading monsters would not even get a chance to get deep into Sumeru as they were constantly assaulted from all directions in an unfamiliar and undeveloped terrain.
And almost always, the invasion would be stopped before they even reached anywhere near Primordial Peak, the very heart of Sumeru where it was said a path to the Primal Nest lay hidden.
This was the reason why the very fact that the invading army had reached halfway up the mountain was a grave matter. The seven serpent siblings knew immediately that some primals had betrayed Sumeru. No, they have betrayed the Primal Nest.
Tiamat was obviously infuriated, but it was not only her.
The twins, Fuxi and Nuwa, both loved their master so much that even this matter which could only still be loosely connected to him made them livid.
Echidna, despite her laziness, also wanted to return to their master and this problem was only keeping her away from her much needed rest that distracts her from the separation.
Apophis was perhaps the one who had to rein in his urges for so long the most, but now that he had proper justification, he wanted nothing more than to devour all of these enemies before they could pose a threat to their master.
Jormungandr wanted to show that he did not lose out to Adishesha at all so he had every intention of wiping out all the traitors of Sumeru and presenting the corpses to their master. Perhaps then their master will praise him and make him the new leader.
Meanwhile Adishesha coldly gazed at the summit of Primordial Peak before muttering quietly.
"I sincerely hope you are worth all our efforts. You should be grateful that we found you. So when the time comes, you must show your value to the Master or else…"
The sharp glint in his golden serpentine eyes was like a blade that ran through the distance between him and the thing that nestled at the peak of the mountain.
It was an egg, incredibly small by primal standards. At most, it was just about the size of a human child.
Which was why, even though it was Adishesha himself who decided on the seven of them settling down on Sumeru to protect this egg and deliver it to their master in their coming reunion, he could not help but doubt just how valuable the egg truly was.
However, he still thought it was worth a try. After all, the seven siblings were merely being lent the authority of a True Avatar while the real True Avatar still peacefully lay asleep without a care in the world within that small egg even after hundreds of thousands of years.
However, little did the seven siblings know that the moment they had woken up upon sensing their master's power, the egg itself was stirred.
On its surface, dull red ancient runes slowly appeared as though they were written in blood long ago. They pulsed every now and again with a power so ancient that hardly anyone even knew how to sense it anymore.
It was like encountering a completely new scent that one could just not understand to the point that their own mind just ignores it completely.
The pulsing red runes seemed to be waiting patiently for something else to happen. It had waited a long time already. And now that it had been stirred awake, it was getting more and more impatient. One could only imagine what would come of it once it finally came upon the perfect time.
Would it finally hatch? What creature would crawl out of its shell? And just how powerful was it for it to even be regarded as the True Avatar of the Primal Nest before it was even born?