Wrath...
In truth, Caelum had expected this to some extent. It was impossible not to see the coincidence of him having Gluttony and then gaining Lust at some point. He felt that it was only a matter of time before others like them started appearing as well, but Wrath was particularly on top of that list.
He did wonder why he had never obtained it after his rampage during the Black Immolation. He felt that it was likely the most fitting time he obtained this aspect, but he did not. At least, not in the way he was thinking and expecting.
The words that Ciel used to inform him of the addition of this new aspect was quite different. She used to say, 'You have obtained a new aspect.' But that was not what she said this time. She used some particular words that might shed some light as to why Wrath only appeared now.
[You have awakened a dormant aspect: Wrath]
From that alone, it was easy to tell what was different. Just like Gluttony, Wrath was something that Caelum did not need to obtain. It was already a part of him from the very beginning. He just needed to awaken it. The problem came with the awakening of Wrath itself.
It was too powerful and uncontrollable much like its name suggested, but that was only a surface level issue. The true root of the problem was that Caelum could feel that it was awakened unnaturally. He was partially correct in thinking that he should have gained Wrath during his Black Immolation, but what actually happened was that its awakening had been sped up.
If left alone, it would have awakened naturally as Caelum experienced anger. One could argue that it was exactly the case this time, but there was a glaring difference. Although Caelum did rampage during the Black Immolation, he did not actually lose control of himself. His mind was clear and focused on memories of his past, piecing them together and gaining more things to resent.
His emotions were in the palm of his hand and he chose only one of them to grasp—rage. But this time, he did not get to choose at all. It started with a constant ticking. The memory of it was still branded onto his mind, but he could not seem to remember the exact cadence and pace with which it resounded in his head.
It was from that ticking that everything seemed to blur in his mind. He was filled with a crimson haze that urged him to vent. It took control of his emotions and body without him even realising, making him unleash the Karmic Flames and even invoking the Flames of Disdain.
The Flames of Disdain...
It struck him like a bolt of lightning, sudden and unexpected. He should not have known that name. He initially did not know it, but somewhere along the way, he had found himself referring to it in such a way in his thoughts.
There was something powerful about that accursed flame, powerful and wrong. He did not know what it was yet, but he could tell that the appearance of the Flames of Disdain was not a mere coincidence. And he had been thoroughly affected by it in some way. He felt that the unnatural awakening of Wrath might have something to do with the Flames of Disdain, but with practically no other information about it besides its name, he could not delve into this further.
His slowly weakening body settled as Erta held him up, easing whatever strain he was under with her Light of Virtue and Light of True Soul. Whatever that corruption was, it did not seem to be actively burrowing and encroaching into him. It seemed more content to flow with his three volatile aspects instead which made it easier for Erta to help him.
Caelum's gaze shifted as he locked onto the two corpses by his feet. They were well and truly dead, no doubt about that. So he raised an arm, tapping onto what little authority he had as the Master of the Primordial Spirit Boundary. And soon, two singularities of light appeared from the corpses.
These were another two Sources that were even more damaged than the first one he had retrieved. One of them was the Source of the Divine Griffon while the other could no longer be identified. It was practically crumbling bit by tiny bit even as he held it up. It had reached a point of no return.
Caelum and Erta watched as it eventually crumbled to dust, blown away by a passing wind. The pain in their hearts was painted on their faces as they wept silently in mourning. To them, these Sources were not just parts of the existences of people they once knew. These Sources were those people, and they were their family.
The Primordial Spirit Boundary was more like a sanctuary for Divine Beasts who were meant to protect Existence from all kinds of problems. These Divine Beasts fought together with Caelum and Erta in a war that could have opened up Existence to every possible outside threat. They sacrificed their lives and their home in order to prevent that.
But now, one of their own had well and truly fallen. Never again would there be another like it. What was worse was that they could not even identify who it was as it was too damaged to tell.
All around them, wisps of orange flames began manifesting one after another. The embers crackled with a fierce power that resembled the roar of a maddened dragon. The battlefield that had returned to silence after the sudden anti-climactic end to the battles was suddenly plunged into chaos once more.
The Flames of Disdain had appeared for the second time in the same place in such a short period of time. Such a thing has never happened before. With how huge the Primordial Spirit Boundary was, the Flames of Disdain would have been circling the whole Realm, wreaking havoc for thousands of years before returning to a place it had already once devastated.
By that time, the place would have already recovered to some extent before being unceremoniously snuffed out once more. It had never taken just minutes for it to return. And this time, it seemed even fiercer like a rumbling volcano just waiting to erupt.
Erta was the first to notice their appearance as she sensed something practically tear through her Light of Virtue and Light of True Soul. She looked at Caelum only to find the orange embers beginning to swirl around him as some others sank down into his body.
"Caelum, get a hold of yourself!"
Erta spoke in an urgent and anxious tone as she felt the orange embers growing more and more numerous all around them, flooding toward Caelum with his ever-rising fury. Her voice snapped him out of his livid daze as he looked around his body.
The Flames of Disdain were sinking into him completely and utterly unhindered. Every single ember seemed to fill him with something, an ancient and primal thing that he found impossible to control. It was tugging at his Wrath as though seeking nourishment. But just as it was being nourished by his Wrath, its growing presence alone was stimulating an unbound and unbridled fury within him.
He was losing control. Even with Erta now using all three of her divine lights, she could not block the orange embers from reaching him. And if she tried to block them with her body, she felt as though her entire being would be scorched to death.
These were the Flames of Disdain. This was the Curse of Disdain that ravages the final vestige of the Primordial Spirit Boundary. No one knew how it started. They only knew that it came after the Primordial Spirit Boundary was shattered by the last war led by the Stellar Dragon Emperor.
And as the natives that were still in the battlefield watched, a deafening primal roar filled with Divinity and absolute Wrath echoed out. The entire Primordial Spirit Boundary quaked furiously with it as the very lands themselves cracked and shifted. The waters churned chaotically, becoming a surging tidal wave on one side and a ravenous whirlpool on another.
And at the root of it all, Caelum's head rose to the sky as his bestial voice continued resounding across the entire Forbidden Realm with a guttural and maddenning intensity.
It took Erta using all her divine lights to protect herself and prevent her from being pushed back by the sudden eruption of wild and untamed power coming from Caelum. She could not understand what was happening to him, but she was more worried about this being an effect of the orange embers that were still sinking into his body until now.
She continued calling out to him both with her voice and through the Life Covenant, but it was like he could not hear her. He was not blocking their connection. It was just that there was something that completely overwhelmed him, drowning out her voice from his ears. And just as she was about to use her divine lights through their connection, Caelum's roar abruptly stopped.
Erta saw him staring at the sky blankly, his scarlet eye leaking a bloody tear. But what shocked her more was his eye itself. It was not just scarlet. There was a vertical slit in place of the usual circular pupil.
Then the eye snapped, staring at her with an almost empty gaze. To Erta, however, it was terrifying. She shivered as though she was in the presence of an apex predator stalking her patiently. And then, the eye closed. Caelum fainted once more.