City of Sin (Yanyu Jiangnan)

The Voice Of Destiny

Mountainsea nodded, jumping onto the pincer in front of her and taking a few more leaps to get to the top of the broodmother’s head. In that moment, she embodied the vigorous and unchanging savagery of Klandor, starting to sing an old tribal war song. There wasn’t much of a tune, but the entire song exuded an inexplicable sense of honour that resonated through the night like a strong wind in a wasteland.

The barbarian girl’s voice wasn’t pleasing, but it was strong and filled with a passion for life and freedom. It was the tenacity of the ancient barbarians that fought for thousands of years to establish a homeland, never afraid of sacrificing themselves as they knew that death was merely the start of another life. They did not fear powerful enemies, they had nothing to lose. The Klandor of today was starting to grow reticent, contemptuous, but this voice carried the pure spirit of heroism that established it all those years ago.

Time moves so calmly, a voice in the wind,

The steel sky is smiling, its primal call rings,

A light song of wind birds….

Mountainsea’s voice pierced through the night sky, breaking through layers of spacetime before ultimately ringing in the sky of Klandor. However, this melodious and bleak voice could only be heard by those acknowledged by the barbarian ancestors. A handful of Klandorians raised their heads to the sky, listening to the song in awe.

When the voice finally dissipated, Greyhawk leapt from the mountain peak and turned into a giant eagle that flew towards the Azuresnow Shrine like lightning. Asa gave up on a beast chase that had lasted half the night, soaring into the sky as well. When the two arrived, Grand Shaman Urazadzu and the Grand Elder of the Council were already present.

The four people didn’t need to discuss the phenomenon at all. Urazadzu spoke up the moment the two others arrived, “Her Highness has issued the call. Elder, please send us over.”

“Of course… Ugh!” the old man cut his palm, sprinkling hot blood on the ground that coagulated into a teleportation circle. Urazadzu, Asa, and Greyhawk walked into the flashing lights, disappearing from Klandor.

……

The trio soon walked out of a similar blood circle that had now formed next to the broodmother, freezing for a moment as they saw the enormous creature that their princess was standing on top of. Greyhawk paled, “So the rumours were true. Richard does have a broodmother, and it has also evolved to such a level.”

Asa looked up at Mountainsea, but despite opening her mouth she eventually said nothing and sighed. The Grand Shaman stared up at the girl for a minute before bowing his head low, joining the ancient tribute to his ancestors. A huge blood rune emerged around the broodmother, forming an incomparably large array that enveloped her entire body.

It took until dawn for the blood array to be completed, and Urazadzu, Asa, and Greyhawk had to pour in all of their power to get it to roar to life. A curtain of blood slowly covered the broodmother and Mountainsea, isolating their aura and souls.

The figure of the Beast God occasionally danced around the blood curtain, singing the ancient battle songs of the barbarians. Within, the fates of Mountainsea and the broodmother were slowly intertwined, finally merging into one whole. As the blood array continued to run, the gears of destiny were grinding.

Mountainsea’s parents and guardian had understood her determination the moment they heard the song, knowing that she had decided to choose her own faith. There had been no need to discuss things when they arrived at the Land of Turmoil, they only acted on the girl’s behalf. However, their hearts still stung as an aura of sorrow started to radiate from the broodmother, her temperature rising as Mountainsea’s beast blood began to merge with her own. While their souls calmly watched the process, blending together naturally, their bloodlines started competing for dominance.

Hundreds of tiny red spots started to show themselves in the broodmother’s soul, control fragments that had been implanted in there when it was first created. A small illusory beast was currently running all around and swallowing them. Mountainsea’s powerful instincts would not allow such a dangerous trap in her soul.

The beast seemed to grow stronger with every crimson mote, and the broodmother’s soul suddenly shivered in fright as a strange image appeared within. It was a terrifying insectoid creature, the lower body that of a beetle supported by thousands of limbs. The upper body was enormous, spouting thousands of tentacles that danced through the air in an attempt to strike. Even the beast had to avoid the attack.

It was at this point that the broodmother and Mountainsea joined forces, suppression the projections in their souls. The two figures paused, slowly approaching each other until they merged into one. The Beast God’s power tore a hole straight from the Azuresnow Shrine to the Land of Turmoil, pouring energy into the two and giving them the strength to force the combination.

It wasn’t long before an entirely new projection appeared, but strangely this one resembled neither type of beast. It was actually a humanoid with a slender body, armoured in a thick carapace with natural golden flowers covering the exposed sections of the body. She had an armoured tail longer than herself, embedded at regular intervals with law crystals. As she looked down at herself, the two breastplates suddenly separated to the left and right to reveal a huge golden crystal in the middle of her chest, countless small runes converging into a small cloud that eased the flow of energy. The hands of this new being were the most human-like part, but even so the five fingers were extraordinarily long with a small crystal embedded on the back of the palm.

This was a being that had never appeared in history. Neither the former Grand Scholar nor the current Grand Shaman had any idea of what it was, and its aura was strange as well. It was impossible to tell her power— there was no fierce domination— but she seemed deep and bottomless, as though there were countless worlds within her.

The phantom moved atop the broodmother, glowing so bright that even the blood curtain couldn’t block its image. Countless identical illusions suddenly appeared throughout the Land of Turmoil, and a calm yet majestic voice rang in the minds of Asa, Greyhawk, and Urazadzu, “I am Sillo, and I am also Terrathemus.”

The three people immediately understood the meaning of those two truenames. Sillo, the Master of Millions, and Terrathemus, the Lady of Creation. Everyone here had known that this joining would have unexpected results, but they hadn’t expected such a thing at all. The broodmother’s lineage seemed to have been changed, while the Beast God’s bloodline had disappeared somewhere within. Instead of being merged to form a new truename, the two had retained their original names in parallel now that they were one.

These kinds of changes were beyond mortal understanding, but the three spectators were quite confused about something else. What happened to the bloodline of the ancient beasts? Could Mountainsea still give birth to the avatar of the Beast God?

However, the ceremony was already complete, the crimson slowly starting to dissipate. The broodmother was largely the same barring some dark gold lines on her carapace, but only a phantom of Mountainsea flew down to face Urazadzu.

“Your Highness… Were you devoured?” the Grand Shaman’s voice was trembling.

The phantom shook her head, “No, we joined. I integrated into her, and our soul is the same. It’s just that I couldn’t forget the past, so I left an independent personality behind. That is what you see now.”

She watched on as Greyhawk stopped Asa from speaking, continuing to say, “The broodmother hadn’t created a special unit for her level 12 advancement yet, and we found a suitable creature called the Queen. That will be the new body of my personality, it will be how I defy fate’s arrangements.”

A rare moment of brooding appeared on Mountainsea’s expression, “I refuse to accept a destiny without Richard in it!”

Urazadzu kneeled and bowed down, his head almost scraping the floor, “If that is the case, please give Klandor a path before we leave.”