The Primeval Era-Chapter 65: Shock and Awe! V

She had barely finished speaking when the second flash crossed the sky, another streak of blue-tinged fury that followed the path of the first and disappeared with the same impossible speed.

And moments later, another distant boom.

The Tribesmen around her had stopped their work, their faces turned upward with expressions that mixed awe and fear in equal measure. They didn’t understand what they were seeing as many blinked and looked at each other.

Grandmother Essun’s yellow-toothed smile spread slowly across her weathered face as realization dawned.

"Keep working, fools!"

She cracked her stick against the nearest Tribesman’s back.

"The Tokoloshe is doing somw training exercises, and you lot are standing around gawking like children seeing their first Primal Beast! Move, move, move!"

...!

But even as she drove them back to their tasks, her own eyes kept returning to the sky, watching each flash of blue light.

None of them knew the full scope of what terrifying thing was happening beyond their sight!

---

Far above.

On that floating landmass of stone where lightning crackled and clouds churned in patterns that had nothing to do with weather, the Saint of Stone sat upon her white throne with the pool of Mana reflecting events below.

Seconds ago, her attention had been drawn to movement on the mountain.

"Oh, Disciple, look."

Her stellar eyes had sharpened with interest as two figures emerged from the tree line.

"The would-be protectors of this tribe who likely took down the forces of this Sworn are coming out. Let’s see..."

She studied the reflection, reading the Mana signatures of the two men with the ease of long practice.

"A Bone Tempering Warrior, recently advanced by the feel of it, experienced and dangerous despite his age."

Her gaze shifted to the younger figure.

"And... huh?"

The Saint of Stone blinked, something she rarely did when assessing cultivation.

She looked at the visage of Damian as displayed in the pool of Mana, and she found that she couldn’t tell definitively what his power was!

The Holy Daughter also looked over calmly at the young man beside the old warrior.

His bearing and handsome face didn’t fit the rough clothes of Dross that he wore, the garments of an Unbound Tribesman sitting awkwardly on a frame that held itself with the unconscious grace of nobility. His dark hair moved with currents of Mana that surrounded him like an aura, and his eyes...

"Huh..."

She thought calmly that his eyes seemed to remind her of her own.

Not in their shape or color, but in the way they burned with power that shouldn’t exist at his apparent level of cultivation.

But what exactly was he doing?

They watched his movements on the pool of Mana as the Saint of Stone frowned slightly, her stellar eyes tracking how Damian positioned himself on that elevated clearing with direct sight-lines to the lands below.

"He’s looking across the tribe as if he can see the enemies approaching."

Her voice held a note of disbelief that she rarely allowed herself to display.

"But he can’t possibly be perceiving Mana at that range, not at the Circle he’s achieved, not without..."

...!

Her eyes and the eyes of the Holy Daughter opened wide with genuine surprise when they witnessed what happened next.

In the pool of Mana, they saw the young man’s body pulse with rivers of blue energy. They saw his hand sink into a log of wood as if the timber were soft clay. They saw him lift the massive branch with no visible strain and shift into a throwing stance that seemed almost absurdly inadequate for the weapon he held.

And then they saw him throw.

The log left his hand with force that created visible distortions in the Mana of the surrounding area, a shockwave of power that made the old warrior beside him stumble backward. It crossed the miles between the mountain and the hidden enemies in seconds, a streak of blue-tinged fury that moved faster than anything a Bone Tempering Warrior should have been capable of producing.

And when it connected with its target...

The Saint of Stone and the Holy Daughter watched as a Bone Tempering Warrior was simply erased from existence, his body pulverized by an impact that belonged in the realm of legend rather than the conflicts of Unbound Tribes.

They froze. They were startled.

Startled!

They weren’t entirely shocked, as they had seen many things across their lives, especially the Saint of Stone who had witnessed wars and monsters and cultivators whose power shook the very foundations of the Lands of Stone. They had seen Anointed Ones unleash devastation that leveled mountains and Warriors whose techniques defied mortal understanding.

But there was still a level of shock in their expressions, a widening of eyes, because they saw what should be considered impossible in these parts of the Lands of Stone.

A young man of uncertain cultivation, wearing the clothes of Dross, throwing logs across miles with enough force to obliterate Warriors who should have been his equals or betters.

"Interesting..."

The shining eyes of the Saint of Stone became brilliant with fascination, her earlier detachment replaced by the keen interest of someone who had just encountered a mystery worth solving.

"Power that far exceeds Bone Tempering by a significant margin, enough to pulverize a Second Circle Warrior with a thrown projectile from miles away."

She leaned forward slightly, her stellar pupils burning brighter as she analyzed what she was seeing.

"But it doesn’t fit Blood Ignition. The signature is wrong, too pure and too evenly distributed throughout his body. It doesn’t fit Marrow Crystallization either, as his bones don’t hold the crystalline resonance that stage produces. And it certainly doesn’t fit Organ Sanctification..."

She turned to her disciple with genuine curiosity.

"What do you think?"

They had found a conundrum.

The Holy Daughter looked at Damian with a serious expression, her wing-shaped pupils flickering with analytical light as she processed what she was witnessing. She watched as he threw a second log with the same devastating force, watched as another cluster of enemies simply ceased to exist, watched as he called out to his companion for more ammunition with the calm coldness of someone who had found a rhythm in destruction.

After a while, she spoke.

"It looks like...our intervention will not be needed."

...!

She said this calmly with shining eyes.

She watched as the strikes of logs curling with tendrils of lightning pierced across the skies and pulverized Warriors as if they were mere bags of blood waiting to be burst. Each throw was like a judgment from forces that mortals shouldn’t provoke.

It was as if across the Lands of Stone, the rage of spirits long dormant had finally awakened!