The first thing that Caelum and Erta realised was that the Heart of the Realm had been compromised. That was the only possible explanation for why the Primordial Spirit Boundary was in such a deplorable state.
Its laws were running amok, slowly unraveling and destroying everything within it. But even then, it should not have been able to weaken their authority as the Masters of the Primordial Spirit Boundary.
The only thing that could cause both was if the Heart of the Realm had been damaged. It would not be a shock, however, considering that only a fragment of it was left as well.
But before they could think more on it, they had to deal with their current predicament. They were now surrounded by warriors with unique appearances.
They all resembled humans, but they had animal features on their bodies. Some looked like primates while others looked like reptiles. Others still looked like birds with feathered wings on their backs and sharp eyes.
There were many different variations of them that it almost felt like a zoo, if you ignore the fact that they were all humanoid.
Caelum and Erta did not focus on that detail as something else caught their attention. Each and every one of these people had Divinity within them.
Most were at the level of a Natural God which are considered to be among the lowest rungs of divine beings or Ascendants. While there were some that had a slight bit more.
There was an obvious difference here that was quickly noticeable, however. Those with lesser Divinities were mostly grouped together wearing colourful tribal armours. They had the most number and had regrouped in the time that Caelum and Erta were not paying attention.
The ones with greater Divinities, however, were less in number but also formed another group wearing black and gold tribal armours. They were the ones who looked especially hostile toward the two new entrants.
Understanding the delicate balance of the situation, Caelum tried to placate them. But that was much easier said than done considering they were in a battlefield.
"We mean you no harm. My name is Caelum Grace and this is my wife, Erta Ki'ana. We would like to speak to your leaders."
The larger group only observed the two of them with great suspicion, but did not move. Instead, they waited to see what would happen next as though there was only one way things would end. And indeed, they were correct. The other group with black and gold armours suddenly roared and howled at Caelum and Erta, charging toward them with the ferocity of wild beasts.
Claws, talons and horns swiped through the air with the swiftness of a gale, barely missing their targets.
Caelum and Erta weaved through the enemy attacks calmly and patiently. Their movements were fluid and graceful, flowing along naturally with their surroundings. It was easy to tell that they were above this level of battle, but they really did not want to hurt anyone without understanding the situation.
They saw that the larger group was not moving the whole time even as the attacking group was growing more and more frustrated and furious. Not once had their attacks landed and that was even when some of the bird-like warriors among them had opted to strike from above.
Before long, some of the other battling groups nearby noticed the strange scene. Some continued their battles, while others moved to reinforce their comrades, well mostly the black and gold armoured warriors.
And among those who came to reinforce them was a particularly powerful one. He was one of the leaders present in this battlefield. And seeing that his warriors were not able to land a single hit on the intruders, he was naturally annoyed.
It would reflect badly on him if this continued since this area of the battlefield was under his purview. And so he dashed toward them, his body changing with every step.
Caelum felt the sudden surge of a familiar Divinity coming from behind them. It was familiar, but also strangely wrong. It was a disorderly mess as though it did not fit well with something. He could not quite understand what it meant until he turned around and saw the charging enemy.
It was a creature with the upper body of a man and the lower body of a stallion. It was supposed to be a centaur, but there was something out of place. On the centaur's head was a pair of ram horns that curved mightily by the side of his head, glinting with a similar daunting glow as his raised axe.
The moment Caelum saw this, his scarlet eye flared with lividity. His aura erupted, washing over the entire battlefield, drowning them all in an ominous silence that felt so thick and viscous that movements have practically slowed down to a crawl. Erta was surprised by his sudden anger and turned to look, only for her to react in a similar way.
"Cal, I'll leave that wretched thing to you. I'll put the children to sleep in the meantime."
With those words, Erta stopped evading. A talon that was about to strike her head from above was stopped in its tracks by two fingers holding it tightly in place.
Her eyes shone with brilliant light as two more bodies of her appeared to her sides, their feathered wings unfurling to reveal different colours each. Erta's first body had silvery white wings. The body to her left had golden wings. And the body to her right had scarlet wings.
These were not clones, but rather manifestations of Erta's divine lights.
She is the Nine Lights Heavenly Empress. Light is her, and she is light.
The moment her other two bodies appeared, the level of Divinity she was exuding soared so high that everyone near her were instantly paralysed in fear.
She moved quickly, rushing around the battlefield in blinding streaks of light. Her aim was not just to stop the ones attacking them, but rather to put a stop to all the battles in the long stretch of the battlefield. Even though they were already halted by Caelum's outburst, she did not want them causing any more trouble.
Her first victims were naturally the ones attacking them. Her first body was left to deal with it, dragging the bird-like warrior down to the ground, smashing them on their allies. She spun around in a swift yet graceful motion, her gaze barely even glancing at the enemies as she scanned the area around them. All the while, a flash of silvery light from an ethereal blade cut through the paralysed enemies.
Curiously, the attack did not leave even a single trace of a wound, but what it did was absolutely terrifying. She had temporarily cut off the connection between their souls and their bodies, leaving them only with a single strand that allowed them to survive, but left them completely without control over their bodies.
Her other two bodies were doing something similar, either putting them through a mild judgment or a realistic illusion.
All this while, however, the charging centaur turned pale. He was shocked at the terrifying density of killing intent directed toward him by those two intruders, and then one of them unleashed a level of Divinity that he could not hope to reach in his lifetime.
How was it possible when he had already acquired a legacy? This simply should not be possible. He should be among the most powerful beings in the Primordial Spirit Boundary. And indeed he was. If he were to face Natural Gods, he would be able to trample them to death even if he was outnumbered three to one. Unfortunately for him, he had chosen the wrong targets this time.
However, his shock was not over yet as a thundering voice resonated with the very air, ringing loudly across the entire battlefield as the surroundings practically quaked at his every word.
[You dare defile his Source, you wretched mongrel! Sagittarius does not deserve this humiliation! You shall die for this sacrilege!]
Caelum's wings erupted from his back as his scarlet eye shone ominously. He shot into the sky amidst the gazes of all the warriors in the battlefield, or at least those that could still see amidst Erta's onslaught.
His Wing of Immolation took centre stage this time as it burst out with dark crimson flames that dyed the sky red. In his mind, he could hear a constant ticking that he had not heard in a long while. It had returned, and it seemed even worse than before.
His mind seemed to blank out with every tick. And with every other tick, it dredged up a well of fury hidden deep within him. It clouded his blank mind with a crimson haze that seemed both chaotic and sharp, wild and focused. If there was one word he would describe it as, it was primal.
Every tick made Caelum subconsciously think of something he had seen in a dream once before when he fainted. And slowly, the dark crimson flames swam in the air as they formed into a certain shape. It was a circle, or rather, a wheel about twice the size of his own body. It emanated an intense gravitational force directed toward the centaur alone, preventing him from moving as the wheel slowly descended, bearing its full weight down upon him.
The centaur was now truly feeling death for the first time. This man was even more powerful than that woman. How did such beings even manage to enter the Primordial Spirit Boundary with all the restrictions in place?
The Primordial Spirit Boundary was home to Beasts. But these two did not seem like Beasts, or at least the natives could not tell. They only knew that they smelled like outsiders, intruders who had trespassed into their home.
And when the centaur reached such a thought, its eyes blazed with fury, understanding that these two were among those who have been making a mess of the Primordial Spirit Boundary for a long time. They were enemies...
[You are unworthy of that Source!]
Or at least, that was what the centaur thought until he and everyone else in the battlefield witnessed something so utterly impossible.
An orange glow seemed to blink into existence from the horizon. And an instant later, a surging tide of orange flames washed over the skies, melding with the scarlet glow.
These orange flames were among the worst things to have ever happened to the Primordial Spirit Boundary. They were called the Flames of Disdain. Wherever the flames go, they leave nothing but utter destruction. Now that it was here, they were all destined to die.
But then, the orange flames did not scorch them to death. Instead, it flowed following the direction of the spinning wheel of Karmic Flames. This increased the pressure and power bearing down on the centaur, but honestly, it was unnecessary.
The wheel of flames turned and turned, its full weight grinding him down to ash and dust. And still it turned and turned until there was nothing left of him. And yet, the wheel still turned. Every turn came with a tick that resounded in Caelum's mind. It was getting harder for him to focus, at least until the wheel stopped with one last resounding tick.
The wheel disappeared, dispersing the Flames of Disdain back to the world. But in Caelum's mind, the ticking continued. It was different this time. Every tick flushed out the crimson haze, replacing it with a biting cold that seemed to either burn or freeze anything unnecessary from his mind. He had reached an unprecedented calm and focus, like a machine whose only objective was to observe.
Caelum looked at where the centaur had vanished. He died so easily that there was never even a need to doubt what could have happened. But the appearance of the Flames of Disdain was truly a shock to everyone, especially the fact that the intruder wielded it like it was his own flames.
Caelum descended while analysing what had just happened. Even he did not know where the orange flames came from, but he felt something familiar about it. He would find out what it was later, but for now, he would take care of something else.
He landed right where the centaur had perished. Nothing about him was left except for a tiny spark of light. It was weak and had clearly been damaged, but at least it was still there. This was the Source of someone from Caelum and Erta's past.
This was the Source of Sagittarius, the Clairvoyant Divine Centaur.