Primordial Heir: Nine Stars

The city of Dawnburgh was built amidst the gentle snows of a pristine tundra and is truly a modest curiosity. Its beauty is matched by the backdrop of a smoldering volcano which have helped shape the city to what it is today.

The materials these volcanoes brought were of great importance, but they were also influential when it came to architectural designs as the vast majority of buildings have been built with volcanic rocks and similar looking materials.

The skyline is spreading with luxurious buildings and many have clearly been built within the last decade. Recreation is impeccable in Dawnburgh and it has attracted a lot of attention but recently this beautiful city had become quieter, filled with dreads because of numerous incidents happening within its heart so someone from the academy had been dispatched to investigate the several disappearances.

°°°

A man ran for his life.

Breath was a wet burn high in his throat. Blood had soaked his clothing through, dyeing it a dark, clinging red.

Even so, he could still run. Not through willpower-the man simply wasn’t human.

He was a follower.

A new follower trying to join the Ouroboros’ organization, he was trying to join half heartedly, never he would have thought things would evolve this way during the baptism ceremony, he truly regretted his impulsive behavior but now wasn’t the moment to dwell on it, he had to, he must survive at all cost.

He veered into a cramped alley, pressing deeper into the narrow passage. It was a tight fit, but he had no choice. Out in the open, those uncanny things, they’d spot him in seconds. He choked down the breath clawing its way up his throat and forced his legs to keep moving in desperation born out of the will to survive.

”Aaaagh!”

His legs buckled. He hit the ground rolling as agony ripped through his thigh. Clutching at the mangled flesh, he forced his eyes downward with difficulty.

A shard of bone the size of his palm was embedded in the muscle.

”Gh... ngh... gahh...!”

The blood pooling beneath him was already turning the dirt slick. No time to hesitate because hesitation mean a sure death. He tore the bone free, gasped, and hauled himself upright. Limping, he staggered on.

Anything to escape. Anything to survive.

He hobbled his way to the end of a long alley and stopped dead.

Something stood at the far end.

A grotesque thing was the most fitting description of it.

It had legs like a man’s, but there wasn’t a strip of skin to be found.

Nothing but the stark exposure of bone and sinew holding the creature upright.

From its gut, entrails hung in loops, studded thick with bone shards that turned the dangling viscera into something like a bladed whip. Where a head should have been, a long, tube-like protrusion jutted out instead.

The follower knew exactly what he was looking at: a fellow follower who a moment ago was undergoing baptism to become a demonized human but thing have gone awry leading to the current situation, none of those trying the baptism had worked, turning into grotesque monsters who only slaughter everything in sight, assimilating them with them to grow, he ran after seeing hell being unleashed by them, maybe it was the organization aim to do this, to wreak havoc within the city, a new type of experiment, well it doesn’t matter right now, survival is the utmost the man thought.

The monster advanced slowly from the alley’s end.

The follower tried to bolt. The dangling entrails lashed out faster than thought than he could move.

Crack!

”Ahkk-”

The tip of the gut-whip was lined with razor-sharp bone, and it punched through the man’s stomach without resistance. The tentacle writhed, serpentine, and hurled him aside. His insides spilled across the ground in a sticky smear.

Consciousness fading, one thought surfaced.

’I’m dead.’

The writhing entrails coiled with sickening killing intent, poised to strike-

Thwack!

The monster went rigid as living flesh tore open.

An arrow made of light. A thin, needle-sharp arrowhead, like an awl.

It sank home, and the creature lifted its tube-like head-

Twack. Twack-twack.

Multiple light arrows struck simultaneously, driving it back.

Sii! Sii!

Head, tentacles, the bare shoulder where an arm should have been-all punched through. The creature reeled as its skin burned.

The follower’s heart surged. ’Allies perhaps?

The commotion must have lured someone over, this mean he was saved, right?’

Survival flared white-hot in his chest. He tried desperately to rise, to flee.

Crack!

A fresh light arrow slammed through his thigh before he could move.

Siii!

His eyes flew wide, he couldn’t understand what was happening, his brain refused to proceed the situation.

’’Ugggh!”

The scream tore out of him before he could stop it.

The arrows had been loosed almost simultaneously-too fast, too continuous, for a single archer. The figure who stepped into view at the far end of the alley was one man nonetheless, dressed in spotless white marine clothes.

Bright silver hair and silver eyes who normally were benevolent but not right now because the abomination he was facing.

The monster answered with its tentacles. The gut-woven whips bristled with bone so densely packed it hissed like a nest of razor blades.

Whish!

The tentacle came down from above -a narrow alley didn’t leave room to dodge. A vertical strike aimed at the crown of Lux’s skull. He swung his staff to meet it. It was covered in light, his Law of light, turning the short staff in ax form.

Shing!

And sheared through.

The tentacle was armored in bone so tightly clustered that cutting it should have been impossible. Lux simply drove the axe-blade between the bone shards and parted them.

He’d swung from low to high on a diagonal. He let the motion carry, shifting his grip wide and drawing the axe back behind him. A second, his other hand covered in glove made of light sank into the monstrosity, sending flying, he aimed at the flying monster to produce countless light arrows, hurtling them at the monster midair.

Twack-twack! Twack-twack!

The grotesque monster was turned into beehive before its body could fall to the ground, Lux went for the final.

’’Detonate!”

The countless light arrows riddling the monstrosity body exploded at once, sending chunk of exploded body parts everywhere, it was literally raining flesh.

But none of them landed on him as he calmly walked forward and stopped in front the runaway follower whose eyes were opened wide in disbelief because of how easily that young man that could be his son dispatched the abomination. He identified him as member of the famous academy and judged by his future he must be from the Leclair’s clan, he knew trouble had come and before he could speak, Lux with a half squinted eyes asked.

’’So mind following me for a bit and truthfully answer any query?” A question who wasn’t one, anyone smart could have guessed.

After a moment of silence, the man answered with resignation.

’’Yes!’’

Lux then smiled before dragging the man with him like a sack of potato. The latter could only hope to survive the ordeal, he was nothing but an unlucky farmer a few weeks ago.