It was calm and serene in this vast, golden forest.
Every tree is bathed in deep gold, not from the sunlight alone, but from the leaves that drip with pure, glowing honey extract. Its glow was a steady inner radiance. Blades and fronds lit as if divine essence charged them with an inexhaustible supply.
Deep, warm gold hue saturated the air.
Trunks rose tall and evenly spaced to form natural pillars. No shadow here feels accidental.
Cutting through this lush golden is a dirt road that was strewn with golden crystals, scattered and also embedded across the path like offerings. Unnatural bees puncture their stingers into them and insert honey that makes them grow bigger.
A big bee on its way to a nearby crystal was pinched by two fingers from the air.
It tried to struggle as it was brought before the golden werewolf’s mouth.
But it was futile.
She put more strength into her fingers and crushed the bee, catching the honey with her tongue.
loriana gulped down the honey and smacked her lips at the sweetness that spoiled her taste buds. It was quiet, peaceful, and rich in nature inside her realm, exactly as she wanted it to be. Healing her mind is best done from her own realm.
Unlike the hostile Lunirich Gods, hers and two more have a different task.
Her realm is tasked to supply energy, and thus, she always remained within absolute safety.
But danger sohow slipped through the invisible crack.
Swish—!
loriana snapped her gaze up, staring at the thick canopy. She sensed a disturbance. Noticeable even from the divine shell of her own realm. "Odd..." She muttered—Though she knew that nothing should be able to reach her, the trouble carved hard lines on her forehead. "Soone is fighting again?"
She floated upward and penetrated through the forest’s canopy.
Almost instantly, she was greeted by the dark sky.
Only the forest seed to bask in sunlight, but outside, it was a never-ending night.
A massive full moon hovered up there, the Honey Full Moon—and circling around it are smaller full moons. Eleven of them. Glowing branches connected the golden full moon to the other full moons, but one branch was throbbing, pulsating, and gradually turning faint.
It was the branch connecting her to the Blood Full Moon.
Connecting her to Kaiser’s realm.
"Kaiser is absorbing more energy than normal," loriana’s brows dipped into a frown. And she didn’t waste any ti entering Kaiser’s realm, turning into freckles of light before entering a blood-red portal with the shallow blood water on the other side.
As soon as she stepped foot inside Kaiser’s realm, she felt heat unlike anything she ever felt.
Anger, but it was more intense than normal.
"What is going on...?" She felt a knot inside her throat. Sothing was incredibly wrong, and she felt reluctant to even learn about what was happening. At least not when she was the only one in this realm with Kaiser. "I don’t like this at all."
loriana looked to the far distance.
She saw the summit right under the Blood Moon, where Kaiser should be.
But she was compelled to go the other way as the source of the trouble didn’t co from the summit.
Evaporating into golden moonlight again, she went the other way and stopped above a village.
Kaiser’s people, werewolves and monsters he raised, were now standing in a circle around their beloved city of blood. There are countless of them. The city is a massive, a scar of red light and dark iron carved into the earth for miles.
Four colossal mountains encircled it like crown peaks.
A single miniature blood moon hovered above each peak.
None of them realized loriana hovering in the sky, which should be impossible for entities with sharp senses like them. But it was the truth. And it took a second for loriana to realize that they were all facing one of the colossal mountains and were weeping.
Crying isn’t how they wept.
Most were thrashing around and punching the shallow blood water.
It was because the miniature blood moon above this particular mountain was blinking.
loriana could feel its power was being drained.
"Sothing is absorbing its divine energy...?" She rasped in shock, watching as the burning lines—all over this particular mountain dimd. Acting out of instinct, her body shimred with golden particles before she fired her own divine energy from her hands.
Only now did the people below realize her presence.
All of them realized that the Lunirich Goddess of the Honey Moon had co to help them.
Her divine energy struck the mountain and enveloped it entirely.
loriana flinched at the sensation but persevered, combing through each inch of the colossal mountain with her divine sense in search of the culprit. But even after enveloping the entire thing, she could not find the source of this phenonon.
She checked the entire mountain again and again, but the result was the sa.
It was frustrating.
Below, the gaze of countless looked at her with hope, desperate for her to make this stop.
But she couldn’t.
A frustrated bellow escaped her mouth as she bolted out of the place, rushing back to where Kaiser was.
loriana hovered above the summit, right below the Blood Full Moon. Below, Kaiser was also losing it like a rabid animal. He was slaughtering his own summoning—basking in their blood to vent out the burning anger that threatened to burst from his chest.
Now, the furs on his nape had grown longer, thicker, and swayed like a blazing mane.
She knew what that ant.
Rage had already overpowered him. But it hadn’t surpassed the breaking point, fortunately.
Summoning her divinity once again, she fired it straight at Kaiser, enveloping him entirely—and calming him down with the sweetness of honey. Kaiser retaliated, but she was able to overpower him before he could beco too strong.
A growl tore through Kaiser’s throat as he turned to face loriana.
"What is going on here?" She asked demandingly. "What is wrong with your realm?!"
Clarity could be seen behind Kaiser’s eyes. His mind was clear, and he could understand what loriana was asking, but responding was an entirely different thing. His rage was so hot that it was hard for him to even muster a single word.
But eventually, a word escaped his lips, "Mortal..."
loriana staggered backward at the word. Chaos or an attack from another God who realizes the gap of weakness that broadened within the Lunirich Gods are the things that ca to mind when she first saw what was happening.
No matter where, the stain from greed and power will always be present.
But still, this she could not believe.
"The Royal Black Prince...?" She asked again and saw the answer behind Kaiser’s eyes. "The Royal Black Prince did this? We are Gods, and he is a mortal! This is impossible. I refused to believe it. Soone is playing a trick on us!"
Even as she said those words, she didn’t sound convinced.
Her mind replayed the ti when Rex was able to free himself from the God Realm’s restraint.
Mortals should be a drop of water in comparison to the oceanic power of the Gods. No amount of struggle or suffering could make a mortal affects Gods in any way. But sohow, this happened to them. She didn’t know what made Rex special, but he could always manage the unthinkable.
’How...?’ loriana’s thoughts were scrambled. ’How can he touch us and leave us helpless like this?’
For sothing to steal power from Kaiser, there should be an entry point.
Other Lunirich Gods who were in charge of the border should be able to sense sothing.
But none of them ntioned anything.
It was almost like the stealing vacuum stemd from nothing but Rex’s will.
"No, wait..." loriana’s eyes widened. "If he’s stealing directly from you, doesn’t that an—"
Kaiser bellowed in frustration.
He allowed the anger to overtake him as he hamred the ground with his massive fists.
Blood-water splashed skyward, starting a rain of blood.
"I have scoured through the Gate of Divinity to the end of the void!" Kaiser roared. Rage made his body shake so much that it summoned an earthquake across the realm. "I’ve used everything, even sacrificing divinity to ask who is behind him, but nothing! NOTHING!!"
Crack—!
His thunderous, frustrated roar erupted, crumbling the mountain peak into pebbles.
loriana, on the other hand, was too stunned at what she realized.
For Rex to steal such a big portion of Kaiser’s divinity that one of the realm’s pillars began to evaporate can only an one thing. He was ascending to Godhood. By now, he was likely already making his way through the ranks of Demigod.
And that is nothing but trouble for the Lunirich Gods.
Kaiser sucked in as much air into his lungs until they reached maximum capacity, and then he shouted.
"WHO?!!"
His shout dragged on until his throat hurts and his voice turned hoarse.
"What are you going to do now?" loriana snapped out of her stupor—and asked. "Are you going to let him keep getting away with this? He has an entity supporting him from the shadows, yes, but does that matter?"
At her question, Kaiser held his breath. And his body beca as still as a statue.
"No," He whispered with a calm voice.
No shred of anger in his tone. No sign of the usual hostility that the Blood Moon always has. There was an edge to his voice. loriana felt sothing within him changed—sothing that had not appeared for quite so ti.
Many Gods are wary of the Lunirich Gods because of their variety.
For Kaiser, his anger was the sword that could draw blood from the other Gods.
But loriana knew him better than the superficial skin that other Gods deed to be Kaiser’s idea.
His fiery rage isn’t his anger. It was his normal state of being instead. And when the real anger appears, the hostility turns into clear ice. Right now, loriana could see the anger surfacing for real. It took a while, but it was now here.
Kaiser rose and stood upright.
The bloody mane on his nape grew longer. Like hair, it stretched until it reached his lower back.
"No matter what he did, the plan is still moving," Kaiser raised his deep red claws and ran them across his chest, cutting through his divine flesh, and drawing out his divine blood. He brought his claws to his nose and took in the sll.
Noiso. As it should be.
Kaiser brought his bloodied claws towards the Blood Full Moon.
It humd and glowed.
He closed his eyes and allowed the glowing blood to drop back into his mouth.
Responding to an unknown breed of power, his fur swayed as if the wind was blowing against him. And with that, sothing in him was awakened. Kaiser opened his eyes again, and the soul behind them is now more profound. Bearing no sign of restraint.
Kaiser turned and looked at loriana.
And seeing him plastered a smile across her face.
"The entity supporting him didn’t even consider us at all," Kaiser said. "We do not need to hold back."
...
I was a boy when I stood helpless as my world burned. Not once. But twice.
The first ti, they took my parents, and I could only watch. The second ti, I was older. Stronger. Foolish enough to believe my strength then could protect what remained, but it could not.
Loss taught the price of love. I’ve tried to pay it. Failed. Again. Again. And again.
Now, I’ve found another way for peace within .
Rex circulated the overflowing power inside him, causing it to spread and flare theatrically.
Until I can afford to protect... I will make the act of taking from infinitely more expensive.
They want my loved ones? Then they’ll have to pay with theirs.
Rex looked skyward. The raging power in his eyes reflected nothing other than anger and hatred. His feet no longer sought the ground. They hovered above it, as if the earth itself knew it was unworthy to hold him now.
Because now... I have risen up. Because now, Gods don’t scare anymore.
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