Novel Full Chapter 196: The Oath Have Been Sealed.
Chapter 196: The Oath Have Been Sealed.
The crimson ocean above them did not fall like rain.
It fell like judgement.
The entire mass of blood, an ocean vaster than any sea Raiden had ever imagined, tilted downward all at once, sinking toward the earth with the weight of an entire continent crashing down from the heavens.
There was no thunder, no roar of wind, nothing to announce its arrival except a deep, resonant silence that pressed down on every living thing beneath it.
"NO!! NO, NO, NO!!! I REFUSE!!!" the Black Dragon King screamed, his massive body thrashing wildly as he tried to detonate himself one final time, gathering every last shard of destruction left inside his dying form.
But nothing happened.
Thin threads of blood, so fine they were nearly invisible, had already wrapped themselves around every inch of his body, binding his limbs, his wings, even the destructive energy trying to erupt from his core.
He strained against them with everything he had left, veins of black light spiderwebbing across his scales, but the threads did not budge, not even slightly.
"Yourr strugglingg iss uselesss," Ruby said softly, her voice carrying none of the fury from before, only a tired, distant calm. "Thiss iss nott aa battlee anymoree. Itt iss aa sentencing."
"Aunt Ruby, please!!" Raiden’s voice cracked as he pounded weakly against the inside of the blood dome protecting him. "There has to be another way!! Please, don’t do this!!"
"Woolie Woo!!" Woolie howled, slamming his small body against the barrier again and again, thunder crackling uselessly off his horns.
Don’t go, big sister!! Don’t leave us!!
"Shaa Shaaa!!!" Neva’s cries turned into something closer to wails, her tiny legs scrambling desperately against the dome as if she could somehow claw her way through it.
Yuna stood frozen, watching the ocean of blood descend with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"This is not power humans should command..." she whispered, more to herself than to anyone else. "That is the pinnacle of Mythical Terra Beasts... I don’t think I could ever reach this even if I lived for over a thousand years."
Isadora’s hands were clenched so tightly her knuckles had gone white, her earlier excitement completely gone, replaced by something heavier. "She’s not just killing him," she said quietly. "She’s cleansing the entire horde with him. Every beast that took part in this war."
As if to confirm her words, the crimson ocean touched the horizon.
The moment it made contact with the ground, it did not stop. It spread outward in every direction with terrifying speed, swallowing the broken battlefield, the corpses, the fleeing remnants of the beast horde, everything in its path.
Terra Beasts who had been running for their lives moments earlier let out one final scream before disappearing beneath the crimson tide, their bodies dissolving into the ocean without struggle, without pain, simply ceasing to exist.
It did not stop at the edge of the battlefield either.
It kept spreading, kilometre after kilometre, swallowing forests, mountains, rivers, and everything living within them that carried even a drop of beast blood in its veins.
Raiden watched in stunned horror as the crimson wave rolled endlessly outward, past what should have been the limits of any attack, past what should have been physically possible for any living being to command.
"Sacrifice of a Million Souls..." Raiden whispered, his voice hollow. "She’s clearing everything for a thousand kilometres."
The Black Dragon King’s screams grew more desperate as the ocean closed in above him, the threads of blood pulling tighter and tighter, refusing to let him escape even a single second of what was coming.
"You cannot do this!! I am a King!! I am—"
The ocean swallowed him mid-sentence.
There was no explosion. No final defiant roar. Just silence, and then nothing where the fifty-kilometre monster had been floating only a heartbeat before.
The crimson tide continued spreading outward long after that, erasing every trace of the beast horde that had once darkened the sky with its numbers, cleansing the land.
Raiden could do nothing but watch, tears streaming down his face, as someone who had raised him since childhood turned an entire war into a graveyard with a single technique.
"Woolie, Neva," he whispered, pulling both of them close against his chest, unable to look away from the crimson horizon. "I’m sorry. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t stop this."
Neither of them answered. They simply pressed themselves tighter against him, shaking, their eyes full of tears.
High above the ruined, silent world, Ruby’s massive blood form finally began to grow still, the golden chains binding her pulsing brighter and brighter until the light became impossible to look at directly.
Her own body started to disintegrate from the bottom, turning into specks of blood and golden light as the sky claimed it.
She turned to look at Raiden, who was crying his heart out, holding two little ones in his arms.
She watched him grow up. She watched how he took his first steps. She saw him fall, stumble, struggle, and bleed. She saw him find happiness. And she saw how grown up he had become, taking on the entire burden himself.
She did not want to do this; put even a heavier burden on him. She wanted to protect him for a bit longer. But she was sure that he would do a good job at everything.
She raised him up herself after all.
"Take care of yourself Rai Rai~ Let thiss be my finall gift to you..."
Then the voice returned, echoing from every direction at once, resonant and absolute, carrying none of the affection Ruby had shown moments before.
"The Terms Of The Oath Have Been Sealed."
"The Divine Blood Empress Has Paid Her Price. The Black Dragon King And A Million Souls Have Been Offered As Sacrifice. Eternal Protection Has Been Granted."
"Let It Be Known. Let It Be Witnessed. Let It Be Sealed."
The golden chains that had wrapped around every living thing on the battlefield, around the trees, the ground, the sky itself, and most of all around Ruby, all began to shatter at once, disintegrating into countless specks of fading light that drifted upward and vanished into the darkening sky.
And then, just like that, they were gone, taking Ruby along with them.