The Primeval Era

Damian looked at Alex with imperious eyes!

This being actually thought that right now, he would get to truly express his power. He had been watching the battle, measuring and gauging, calculating what Damian could do based on what he had already displayed. The lightning from the clouds. The earth that swallowed enemies whole. The devastating beams of concentrated Mana.

Sir Alex believed he understood the threat before him.

He was wrong!

This entire time, Damian had continued to monitor all the flows of Mana surrounding him. He felt the dense white droplets that had turned into rivers of white Mana within his human body, refined essence cycling through channels that had been saturated throughout the night. He sensed the power he could control throughout the Cradle of First Flames, every blade of grass and grain of soil responding to his will. He perceived the clouds above still generating pure Mana at rates that exceeded anything natural.

And he felt his other body.

As he considered all of it, he knew that his Doctrines were gloriously working against the common and normal cultivation of Warriors. The circles meant nothing when you could extend your existence across twenty miles of sky. The traditional progression became irrelevant when your blood painted an entire paradise into existence.

He had only forged two Doctrines so far.

But what he could do with them, even Alex did not understand.

Because as this being looked about ready to unleash whatever power he held, as stellar light gathered around his form with intensity suggesting imminent violence, as those nine-pointed star pupils blazed with killing intent...

Damian simply waved his hand.

And behind him, a massive Noble Simba appeared.

BOOM!

The beast descended from the mountain where it had been resting, landing on the blood-soaked earth with force that shook the entire garden. Its form was colossal, a leonine shape stretching dozens of meters in every direction. Golden fur covered muscles that could shatter stone with casual movements, each strand seeming to glow with inner radiance. Nine tails swept behind it in slow arcs, each one thick as ancient trees, each one crackling with Mana that made the air itself tremble.

The mane was fire given form.

Blue and gold flames danced among golden fur, illuminating the beast’s features in light that belonged to dawn rather than midday. The flames moved with purpose, with intent, with the controlled fury of someone who had every right to rage but chose precision over chaos!

Oh!

Above its massive head, a crown spun.

The Crown of Kingship manifested in full glory, a construct of pure Mana declaring sovereignty over everything it surveyed. The crown’s light pulsed in rhythm with the beast’s heartbeat, recognition from the Lands and Skies themselves that this being was meant to rule.

And the eyes.

Those eyes were cold and callous, gold and blue irises that looked like radiant wings had been carved into them. They held the same burning intensity as the human body standing before Sir Alex. They carried the same frozen rage, the same imperial bearing, the same absolute certainty that vengeance would be delivered regardless of what obstacles stood in its path!

Rivers of blue Mana circulated around the beast form, visible currents of power flowing across its surface like water across stone. The density was terrifying, concentration exceeding anything the battlefield had witnessed thus far. This wasn’t a creature operating at normal capacity.

This was something that had been cultivating all night and was ready to unleash everything it had accumulated!

Sir Alex looked at this massive creature with an ashen expression.

His teeth ground together as his mind raced to process what he was seeing. The stellar light around his form flickered for just a moment, composure cracking under the weight of surprise.

"So this is the reason for your power?"

His voice emerged strained, searching for explanation.

"You went and sold yourself to the Noble Beasts?"

A sneer crossed his features, contempt returning as he found a framework that made sense.

"Hmph, you don’t-"

"Shut up."

HUUUM!

The voice boomed out across the garden, but it came not from Damian’s human body.

It came from the beast.

The same voice...the same cold fury wrapped in measured words. But deeper now, resonant with the power of a form that dwarfed everything human. The sound pressed against Sir Alex’s stellar shield, against his ears, against his very soul.

Sir Alex’s eyes opened wide with shock.

Those star-filled pupils darted between the human body standing before him and the massive beast looming behind it. Back and forth. Human to beast. Beast to human. His mind struggled to reconcile what his senses were reporting, to find some explanation that didn’t shatter everything he understood!

Two bodies.

One voice.

One being!

The tails of Damian’s beast form danced with wild Mana, nine appendages moving in patterns that seemed to write destruction into the air itself.

"The Lands of Stone are without honor."

His beast voice rumbled across the devastation, each word carrying weight that made the ground tremble.

"So I will sometimes choose to be honorable and sometimes not."

The massive head lowered, golden-blue eyes fixing on Sir Alex with intensity that could crack stone.

"Today, I assure you that I will not have an ounce of honor while I peel your skin from your body."

Sir Alex’s stellar shield brightened instinctively.

"The goal is to get you to talk."

One massive paw shifted forward, claws longer than swords pressing into sacred earth.

"But I beg of you not to start talking too quickly."

The beast’s lips pulled back, revealing teeth that could crush boulders.

"Give me the chance to violate any dignity or honor you may have. Give me the chance to break every bone within your body. Give me the chance to burn and boil your blood while you can still feel."

The nine tails spread wide, each one crackling with power that made the air scream.

"Please. Do not talk too quickly."

Those wing-shaped pupils blazed with blue-gold fire.

"For I wish to understand how it is to live as a beast and demon like you. I wish for you to experience a semblance of what many experienced that night."

The Crown of Kingship above his head pulsed with light that declared absolute authority.

"Are you ready?"

...!

Sir Alex took a step backward.

His expression had shifted from shock to something deeper, something that might have been fear! Those star-filled eyes moved between the human body and the beast form, calculating odds that were changing by the second.

A Half-Step Eighth Circle Warrior with a partially mastered Third Tier Physique.

Against whatever this was.

Against a being who could inhabit two bodies simultaneously, who had massacred an army designed for Sacred Mountains, who controlled an entire paradise with casual gestures.

The calculation completed.

BOOM!

Sir Alex exploded upward, stellar light propelling him toward the sky with speed that blurred his form. He was fucking running!

And man, any sane bejng would run!

The being who had laughed about scattering Emperor Vakochev’s ashes was fleeing from the Emperor’s son.

But Damian’s beast form was already here.

And where his beast form stood, golden clouds had gathered above.

The sky opened.

Terrifying golden thunder descended in a pillar of judgment that made everything before seem like gentle rain. The bolt was as thick as the Ancient Pillars scattered throughout the garden, concentrated destruction falling from skies with force that would have annihilated lesser beings.

It struck Sir Alex’s ascending form.

The stellar shield held, but barely. The impact drove him downward, trajectory reversed by power he hadn’t expected. His body crashed toward the earth that had already begun to open, soil parting to receive him like a mouth hungry for prey.

The ground swallowed Sir Alex.

And Damian followed.

Both bodies moved simultaneously. His human form walked toward the opening in the earth with measured steps. His beast form leaped forward, massive body diving into darkness without hesitation. They descended together, predator and prey, into depths where no one would witness what came next.

Damian did not want any of the beauty of this garden to be tainted by what he was about to do.

Because he was about to get very, very bloody.