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Solar Blood Masters (53)
🕑 Added 2024-10-24 22:13:05 +0000 UTCChapter 53 - Escaping Ho Eastern
“Huff… Huff… Damn!”
Lu Jade slithered through the skies of Ho Eastern as fast as he could. On his back was a terrifying sight - the Golden Bull Thork, battered, broken, clinging to its fading embers of life.
Raphael’s golden hide, usually gleaming with a healthy vibrance, was marred with countless wounds. His golden horns were chipped. His limbs twisted at unnatural angles, barely attached to his ravaged body.
“Thank you, Little Lu, for coming back… for me…” Raphael coughed. Every syllable he uttered was punctuated by a painful wheeze as his strength flickered.
"Those attacks… they were insane!”
“Of course! We are brothersss now, remember? I wouldn’t leave you behind to get squashed by Father… especially after that ssshow earlier.” Lu Jade hissed back as he carefully navigated the sky with serpentine grace. He swerved to avoid a colossal tree.
“We owe our survival to Emperor Qi Hawk and hiss preciousss Void Eye.”
Then as if reliving those very moments they’d both almost perished within that hellscape, the scene shifted to:
…
FLASHBACK
…
Within Lu Ignis's Scorching Veil Domain.
Raphael was desperately attempting to push back against that descending trident that threatened to obliterate his very essence. However, He was failing!
CRACK!
Those sounds echoed like gunshots, a morbid countdown as his defenses crumbled and the golden glow from his hooves flickered gloomily. He felt his bones, so strong earlier, shatter beneath unseen forces as that ‘Devil Star Fruit’s’ effects wore off.
"I… can’t hold on much longer…!"
His golden barrier was fracturing, and with each crack across its magnificent surface, a piece of his sanity also chipped away!
He’d exhausted everything he had. Even Shao Jin’s ancient legacy was dimming!
And then, the unimaginable happened.
“I… I SEE IT!”
Just as the barrier was about to shatter completely and the Trident of Annihilation pierce into his soul, time slowed!
It wasn’t that crimson-orange glow that permeated his vision anymore, it was replaced by something chilling, yet familiar.
The world acquired a strange, grayish hue as everything around him – those massive black pillars, the 'Eternal Pyre’, the sizzling chasm, even the very air itself – seemed to grind to a halt, leaving him in a state of bewilderment and confusion.
It was a world frozen in time.
Only the echoes of despair from trapped souls seemed to reverberate still. They whispered urgently as if urging him to escape while he still had a breath.
“Leave… Leave… LEAVE!”
What in the heavens had happened?
"BIG BROTHER! BIG BROTHER!"
That familiar voice pierced through those grey whispers, coming from a source that was beautiful.
It was Lu Jade!
“Little Lu?" He was speechless! And immediately remembered when he watched his little buddy get launched into the chaotic hallway that was collapsing and melting from his Father’s rage. He thought his friend had already escaped, but here he was.
"What are you doing here?!” Raphael struggled to his hooves. His bleeding wounds ached so much. It was agony beyond description. His hooves trembled.
"H-how did you… How did you infiltrate this hellhole?!”
Lu Jade didn’t reply yet. Instead, he helped steady the larger golden form and quickly opened his mouth.
“It’s thanks to this, Big Brother.”
On his tongue, was that Octahedron Communicator, and the 'Rou Lin Nest', with Qi Hawk’s ‘Void Eye’ radiating a milky, white essence that felt warm and comforting.
“After I escaped Lu Ruby’s pursuit, I contacted Qi Hawk using the Octahedron Communicator and told him about the situation. He was able to remotely activate the powers of his Void Eye to locate Lu Ignis’s domain and transferred me here. but this thing is still unstable and its activation won’t last for long. Hurry brother, we must escape now.”
Lu Jade slithered around Raphael and coiled tightly. He then hissed with urgency, “Close your eyes! Now!"
Before his vision faded, a flash of silver-blue filled his sight as those echoes of terror returned:
“LEAVE! Leave… LEAVE!”
And then… he felt it.
The air shifting, ripping apart, and before him, he could smell… earth! And the familiar fragrances of trees, not those burning, charred, hellish ones that surrounded them earlier, rather the smell of freedom.
It was exhilarating!
…
A short time after they vanished through the opening Qi Hawk's ‘Void Eye’ had created, color returned to the Scorching Veil Domain.
The grey tones, the frozen cries, everything was back to their former chaotic grandeur.
BOOM!
The trident came slamming onto the spot where the Golden Bull Thork and Lu Jade were moments before, sending shards of volcanic rocks and burning dust skyward in a pyrotechnic spectacle worthy of a grand celebration, but alas, those flames were not joyful, it was filled with frustration, that of a creature denied victory.
From the depths of that steaming chasm, Lu Ignis looked on with a frown.
“That impact…” He’d poured all of his essences into that final move, he should have felt it! It was wrong!
He quickly lowered himself, and carefully examined that spot.
There was no blood, nor golden flesh as proof of his victory.
“Hmph!” He snorted in irritation, but as he was about to rage against his failure. Something strange beneath the burning rocks had his pupils contracting with a chilling realization.
It was an emerald green scale!
“Could that be…?” He knew that scale belonged to his bastard son. And there was only one way he could have infiltrated his domain.
"That damned Qi Hawk! He intervened! Hmph! Jusssst you wait."
It wasn't over. He would find that bull, and that treacherous son of his.
…
Back to the present moment…
"HISSSSS! Gotta… huff! Gotta get to Black Wind."
Lu Jade slithered with frantic urgency while carrying a barely conscious Raphael on his back.
Raphael’s injuries were horrifying. Bones jutted out at odd angles, his hide was ripped and scorched, and his horns, symbols of his power, they were broken in several places. He resembled a discarded rag doll.
But escape, it was paramount. "The mission was a success. And we made it out of Hebikuni thanks to Qi Hawk. But now we need to flee Ho Eastern before…"
Lu Jade's victory and shared relief was cut short.
"HISSS!"
"They… they’re coming! Big Brother!”
Dozens of angry hisses, fueled by a bloodthirsty hatred he’d heard countless times before, came from behind them.
Turning his head slightly, Lu Jade witnessed a serpentine horde slithering with unimaginable speed! And at their forefront, with a venomous fury burning, was Lu Pin.
“KILL THEM!”
“For our fallen sister!”
“Rip out their hearts!”
“Devour their souls!”
Those bronze scales glistened menacingly. The snakes were blinded by rage!
And Lu Jade understood their hunger for justice, even as their fangs were inches from ripping into his own flesh. After all, the rumors about what a bull and a jade serpent had done were everywhere.
“Dammit! It’s those guys again?!” Raphael groaned in pain.
This ordeal felt endless.
Lu Jade sighed. “Lu Pin and his cronies…" They were relentless, stubborn, and even though he now possessed the abilities to easily crush their leader into dust, his thought didn’t reflect reality, not with a much bigger problem fast approaching.
"Faster!" He burst forward, desperately trying to outrun his pursuers. However, his Solar Essence was depleting and their pursuers were gaining!
He couldn't escape!
Reluctantly, Lu Jade halted and swiveled around. He glared at the closing bronze serpents.
“You bunch of ungrateful, sssstupid…"
His throat began to vibrate with power while his scales glowed.
"STOP FOLLOWING US!"
Lu Jade was about to unleash a devastating fireball attack upon those pathetic followers, sending those who had the misfortune of standing in his path to an early grave, when a noise he recognized as a truly chaotic force came rushing from a far off peak.
“HRAAAAA!"
That roar, he couldn’t forget it even if he was burned alive!
He glanced back…
It was the Red Chariot!
“You bastards! Dare think of escaping ME?!”
She was coming!
The eight monstrous eels, her loyal steeds, were streaking through the sky like scarlet comets and a fiery cloud of vengeance trailing behind. And within the opened spaces of the chariot was Lu Ruby. Her eyes burned with potent hatred for her brother.
“You…” Lu Jade shivered.
Seeing his sister arrive with an imposing aura of power, Lu Pin suddenly became bolder. “Surround them! Block their path! There's nowhere for them to run now, cowards!”
Those snakes immediately encircled their enemies with arrogant hisses. This was a truly dreadful sight to behold, especially if you are on the opposing side of those fangs!
“This is bad.” Raphael concluded. “You better get going, Little Lu, otherwise she’s tear us to pieces if she catches us.”
“On it, Big Brother!”
Without hesitation, Lu Jade spun back around and began rushing toward Black Wind Ridge. Those jagged peaks, they were in the distance, a sanctuary that was inches away and yet miles to reach in this terrible ordeal!
He had to reach Qi Hawk’s territory before Lu Ruby caught up. There, within the protective winds, perhaps… perhaps… those were mere hopes against reality,
For Lu Ignis couldn’t pursue them into Black Wind without angering Void Emperor Sindoll, or triggering another brutal confrontation. But those other serpents, they had no such limitations.
