A scenario of death was what covered this gigantic space, an extraordinarily vast scenario, as if it were a universe apart.
The sky was crimson, while the earth was black. The trees covering the horizon were of violet-hued wood, almost bordering on blue, while the grass was sky-blue and an intense azure.
This was the Mystic Realm of the Solar Divine Palace, although in ancient times it received another name, a name unknown to those born in this era, long after the fall and rise of the new star illuminating the sky above the mortal realm:
The Palace of the Solar Demon.
The ruler of this palace received the title of Demonic Empress, Mother of the Ten Dawns, while the meaning of this title, beyond the name, had already disappeared.
In this strange landscape where the ancient Demonic Empress had fallen, life had been born again from the remains of what would have been her servants and even her own flesh and soul.
The Sidhe are born from the remnants of the will of living beings, in addition to the very distortion of spiritual energy and the souls of living beings; they are not reincarnations, but rather new life born from the ashes of the previous one, just as the corpse of a tree feeds sprouts of weeds.
The True Spirits were even greater existences in that aspect, while the Sidhe were closest to beasts or animals.
The True Spirits had true consciousness and spirituality, in addition to a complete soul. And in this fallen realm, a considerable number of Sidhe had been born, which made it the perfect place to train the new generation of Wardens.
But it also had another objective: to control the True Spirits born from this realm. Some were hostile and preferred a life of isolation, while others were friendly and interacted with the Feys from the outside in deals that finally ended in a Geas.
But not all were like that. There were True Spirits with ambition beyond this paradisiacal realm that had been built on the ruins of a past civilization.
The earth seemed to tremble slightly at the advance of a ferocious cavalry. Leading this march were dozens of humanoid figures riding beasts that were not at all human.
Unlike what Alana had told, really the realm of the Solar Divine Palace was not a small pocket realm of a few tens of kilometers; it was larger than even the entire Isle of Dawn, although it did not reach the gigantic size of a continent of more than a million kilometers.
The place that was under the jurisdiction of the Shadow Branch Sect was barely an isolated sector of this realm, and was constantly watched by the forces of the Solar Fleet.
This fleet was led by the Great Corsair King, Tahurasio Matatyr, who was at the service of the Hegemony as Admiral of the East Ocean of the continent and acting under the exclusive direction of the Hegemon.
But in the violent times that reigned, there was no longer a Hegemon who could hold the leash of the ambitious Corsair King. Who, without anyone who could watch him on this continent far from the sight of the Hegemons, could now extend his true ambition beyond the realm.
The cavalries, if creatures of such aspect could be considered as such, rode enormous creatures of at least more than five meters in height. They were similar to a horse, but with a much more muscular and coarse body; reddish scales covered their body, while their head, similar to that of a deer, was covered with a long antler of red bone. Their back and neck were covered with a vast black mane, similar to that of an ox, ending in a serpentine tail.
These terrifying creatures were Kirin Sidhe, of ferocious rank, surpassing in physical strength any mortal beast or ordinary warrior.
It was an elite cavalry that only very few existences within this realm would dare to challenge.
Men, if creatures of such appearance could be considered as such, rode those beasts. Each of them was a True Spirit, but just as in the army and in life, hierarchy existed, and it was no different for them.
They were humanoid-looking creatures and their faces were covered with a red steel mask imitating the face of what seemed to be a furious demon with large fangs. They wore black plate armor, covered in the shoulder sections by bone plates with a sinister shine.
These True Spirits received the name of the race of the Furies. It is said that they descend from the blood spilled from the legendary confrontation between the Immortals and the Pleiades, and they were the mounted soldiers at the service of their Corsair Lord.
And now they were hunting.
"Great Astrologer Zhao, where do your designs send us?" asked the head of the hunt to a mysterious person.
Unlike the rest of his men, he wore a long black tunic decorated by an astrological map showing the twelve zodiacal sectors, and on his head he wore a triangular hood decorated by a golden sun and a silver moon superimposed.
He was a Black Astrologer, the equivalent of the profession of alchemy among the True Spirits.
"She is close. Soon we will surround her, be prepared," he said while observing a compass moving irregularly in his palm.
His voice, dragged like a snake, caused shivers even for the captain of the riders, but the respect he felt towards that figure was even greater than any qualms he might have.
"Yes, Great Astrologer Zhao." Giving a signal with his hand that made the rest of the troop retreat to the surroundings, he roared in a deep voice: "Advance and prepare your weapons! Remember: do not kill."
...
Blood flowed on the ground leaving a crimson trail, unlike the ordinary blue trail that the blood of a Fey would leave. But the person who was fleeing was not a Fey.
The steps were marked on the earth as if they were trying to devour the small figure trying to flee and live above all else.
At this point, the figure was stained with earth and ash, which floated in the air as if it were gray snow, covering the face of the little fugitive with dust.
Suddenly, the heavy sound of the cavalry resonated in the distance, being detected by her, diverting again while trying to be as stealthy as possible.
But with each diversion came a new signal from her pursuers. Blood at this point was practically the only taste she could distinguish, apart from the taste of earth she had in her mouth.
Then, a colossal figure, which could almost compete with the wide trees of these ash forests, stood in front of her carrying a shield and a spear.
He looked at her in silence, and without saying anything about it, an invisible pressure flooded the girl's body when suddenly a sinister voice emerged behind her:
"Surround her and do not let her escape."
Trembling while looking around, she tried to turn around, do something, but it was already too late. She had already been surrounded.
"Stop, do not kill her. She is more valuable than all your lives together," growled a dry and hissing voice.
The figure wrapped in a tunic floated in the air followed by a trail of will-o'-the-wisp as he advanced towards his prey.
A girl.
She seemed to be less than ten years old, measuring barely one meter twenty in height, being insignificant compared to the giant warriors pursuing her.
The girl had pure yellow hair, as if they were curls of gold, and despite the ash covering her face, she could not hide the vivacity and tenderness in her childish features. But the most curious and strange thing about her appearance were probably the two fox ears protruding from her hair, in addition to the orange fox tail moving constantly behind her.
Astrologer Zhao seemed certainly excited while observing the girl with a smile and raising his hand, which at this point was revealed as an almost skeletal hand.
"Come on, girl, come here. My lord wants you as if you were his daughter. Why don't you come with us?"
Despite not being able to see the gaze, the girl could detect the powerful greed behind the Black Astrologer's words.
The girl did not respond, but simply waved her tail and suddenly shot a jet of whitish flames with gold in the direction of the man. This small jet of flames was insignificant compared to the enormous stature of the astrologer, who already exceeded three meters in height.
Raising his palm in a slow and deliberate movement, he twisted his fingers as if drawing in the air, when suddenly a symbol materialized in the air as if it were a star map.
"Star Seal: Devourer."
The girl's expression changed to horror while trying to escape, but one of the riders moved. The light blow with the spear shaft was enough to throw her to the ground and almost break her bones. While trembling with pain, she saw with horror the object that had emerged in the astrologer's hand.
It was a book stamped with platinum and gold symbols, plus other precious gems, but bound in obsidian. This book, covered in unknown symbols, was so mystical that even the True Spirits following the Black Astrologer trembled at the appearance of this object.
After all, each of them knew the power of that book and what they used it for.
It was a Liber.
The Liber were the absolute mark of power of an Astrologer. They were treasures of great power that only a few could use, and their abilities were the antithesis for spiritual existences like True Spirits, because the Liber, unlike the Geas that served for pacts, were used for summoning seals.
The Liber was the only treasure that had the power to enslave a True Spirit completely.
But just as there were types of Astrologers (like the black or yellow ones), there were types of books of power: being the weakest the Codex, then the Grimoires, and finally the Liber. This penultimate one was in the possession of the Black Astrologer Zhao.
Unlike other astrologers, the black ones were badly known for not only enslaving or forcing seals on True Spirits, but even refining their corpses and souls to increase the power of the True Spirit, turning them into so-called Necromortis or even Abominations.
"Girl, surrender before I get tired," growled Astrologer Zhao behind his hood with a sinister tone. "Do not tell me you prefer death to eternity at my service. For an astrologer life or death is insignificant, and as long as you serve me, you will live an eternity by my side."
The girl trembled with apparent fear while her figure shrank in her rags, when suddenly the tail behind her seemed to have lit up like a small beacon of light. Her red tail split in two and, as if that were a qualitative change, suddenly the small figure of one meter seemed to have matured until reaching almost one meter eighty in height. While her figure remained quite childish, now she was no longer an infant, but rather an adolescent.
And suddenly, looking directly towards the Black Astrologer observing her with greed, a new wisdom that seconds before was not there awakened in her while she whispered:
"Solar Breath."
Suddenly, as if it were a gale, a huge torrent of flames flooded dozens of meters around her, bathing the place in fire as if it were a circle of white and whitish flames.
But then a sardonic laugh flooded the scene while the symbol in Zhao's hand simply expanded revealing a creature that seemed to be a phantasmagorical parody of a fire devil.
"Dominus Sterculus."
It was big, but not as big as the Kirin surrounding her, but it had an evil aspect, as if it had come out of the most grotesque nightmares of an infant. A face similar to the skull of a beast between a bull and a reptile, covered in black flesh and fire flooding its ghostly sockets, watched the girl with malice and desire while extending its claws in the direction of the flames, devouring them with violence.
And they simply disappeared, as well as the creature that made the hearts of everyone present tremble. Before the former girl, now adolescent, could react, suddenly she was surprised to realize that at this point she could not breathe.
Stunned, she saw how the cadaverous hand of the Black Astrologer now grabbed her by the throat with supernatural force while lifting her from the ground.
Despite Zhao's considerably greater height, exceeding three meters, his hand was absurdly smaller than it should have been proportionally.
"I guess it's over, Miss Aurora," he said with an extremely cruel voice while raising his arm towards the young woman's chest.
Meanwhile, she could only close her eyes, surrendering to her cruel destiny.