The Primeval Era-Chapter 91: An Eye For An Eye! II

At such words, Damian’s reply was imperious.

"Human. Beast."

He shrugged as if the distinction meant nothing.

"What difference does it make in the Lands of Stone?"

His voice carried across the distance with absolute conviction.

"When they die, their skeletons sink into the Lands of Stone and turn to dust the same. After you eat, you shit the same. When you feel heat, you procreate the same."

He tilted his head, regarding the massive Behemoth with an expression that bordered on contempt for the very question it had asked.

"I see no difference between man or beast."

...!

The Inkanyamba became silent!

The storm-clouds around its mane slowed their crackling. The lightning that had been arcing continuously between its scales dimmed. Even its breath, which had been generating gale-force winds, seemed to still.

Serala frowned as she looked at Damian, her wing-shaped pupils conveying a question that didn’t need Mana to transmit.

Did he have to mention shitting and all that as well?

Damian ignored her look.

He was focused entirely on the Inkanyamba, watching for its reaction, waiting to see if his words had any effect on this ancient creature’s fury.

At the silence, crackles of changing weather wrapped around the Inkanyamba before it spoke again.

Its voice was cold and measuring.

"The other Beast Lords have reported something similar to what I experienced nearby."

Beast Lords.

There were others like this Inkanyamba. Other Behemoths that ruled their own Sacred Mountains, that commanded their own territories, that had been attacked just as this one had been attacked. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"A Warrior at Vessel Completion Realm leading the charge on our Sacred Mountains."

Vessel Completion!

The Sixth Circle!

Above Organ Sanctification, where the body became an impenetrable vessel of Mana, where cultivation reached levels that most Warriors could only dream of achieving.

"That bitch uses a bow from a distance."

The Inkanyamba’s voice carried old humiliation.

"Even I could not get close to her before being shot down by multiple arrows."

Its massive form shifted, and Damian could now see damage that he hadn’t noticed before. Burns along its scales. Places where lightning-resistant hide had been melted by something hotter than lightning.

"So my rage turned elsewhere."

The admission was heavy with frustrated fury.

"What can you do against her? She has dozens of Organ Sanctification Warriors on her floating vessel."

...!

A Vessel Completion Warrior!

Damian’s mind raced through the implications. A Vessel Completion Warrior with a ranged weapon and dozens of Fifth Circle subordinates...

That was a small army.

That was the Murderous Saint’s reach, extended across the Lands of Stone to hunt a single girl.

But Damian’s eyes remained cold as he replied.

He pointed around him at the transformed landscape, at the mountain he had raised, at the Lands of Stone that now responded to his will.

"You’ve seen what I can do."

His voice carried absolute confidence that he wasn’t entirely sure he deserved as he began to bullshit.

"I...am a Warrior Shaman who can pull you back from even death."

The flames of the Primordial Tongue flickered briefly around his form, a reminder to himself of the power that had healed mortal wounds on the Holy Daughter, that had transformed simple logs into living barriers, that had just created a mountain from nothing but blood and will.

"If we go against that manipulator, the only way it ends is with her death."

His dark blue eyes blazed.

"An eye for an eye."

...!

His words were succinct.

The Inkanyamba stared at him silently, its ancient eyes weighing his conviction against millennia of experience with human treachery.

Before Damian, the beasts that had composed the Primal Surge began raising low roars. Not threatening roars. These were sounds of communication, of understanding, as if they grasped what was being exchanged above them and were adding their own voices to the discussion.

The silence stretched.

Eventually, the massive Behemoth’s cold smile returned.

"Humans always lie and cheat from the dawn of time."

Damian frowned.

What more did this beast need?

If they could get even with the one responsible, he would do anything. That was how things should be. If he made the rules of the Lands of Stone, the killers should be the ones getting killed in turn.

Not some innocents who happened to be in the wrong place.

Not Unbound Tribes whose only crime was existing within range of a Primal Surge.

Not beasts who had nothing to do with the conflicts between empires.

Justice should be precise.

Vengeance should be aimed.

So as he thought some more, he replied calmly.

"Then do not consider me a human."

His voice carried across the storm-torn air with finality.

"I have been called Tokoloshe recently."

A ghost.

A spirit.

Something that transcended the normal categories of living beings.

"Just consider me a vengeful ghost."

A vengeful ghost.

The Inkanyamba seemed interested in this description. Its massive horse-like head tilted, regarding Damian with new consideration. Storm-clouds swirled around its mane as it deliberated.

Moments passed.

The wind howled.

Lightning crackled.

And then...

ROOOAAARRR!

The Inkanyamba’s roar boomed out across the Lands of Stone!

But this roar was different from the ones before. It carried no fury. It carried no threat. It was a command, a signal, a message to the hundreds of beasts that had composed the Primal Surge.

And behind Damian, those beasts responded.

They calmed.

The agitation that had driven them across miles of territory, the rage that had made them trample everything in their path, the madness of the Primal Surge itself...

All of it seemed to become doused.

The beasts stopped their restless movements. Their eyes lost the wild fury that had filled them. Some even sat down, as if suddenly exhausted by the frenzy they had been caught in.

The Inkanyamba turned its massive head to focus on Damian once more.

"I will consult with the other Beast Lords of the affected Sacred Mountains."

Its voice was no longer filled with murderous rage. It was cold and calculating. The voice of a ruler considering an alliance.

"And I will let you know."

...!

The scene was surreal.

A Behemoth Primal Beast, a creature that could devastate nations, floating down from the storm-darkened sky to regard a young man on a mountain of blood-soaked stone. Hundreds of beasts waiting behind it with calm that they had not possessed minutes ago.

At this time, Serala’s voice came out again.

"If you can tell them to not trample innocent Unbound Tribes on their path..."

Her wing-shaped pupils were cold, her bearing still imperial despite everything she had witnessed.

"That would also be appreciated."

"..."

The Inkanyamba looked at her with an expression that could only be described as a sneer.

It didn’t even reply.

Its massive form turned away, moving toward the calmed beast tide. The storm-clouds around its mane began to dissipate as its fury faded, the weather slowly returning to normal as the creature’s emotional state shifted.

And Damian...

He looked ahead with a shining gaze as at this moment, everything seemed to settle down.

The wind died.

The lightning stopped.

The thunder faded to silence.

He stood atop a mountain he had created, surrounded by a section of the Lands of Stone that now responded to his will, having just negotiated a potential alliance with a Behemoth Primal Beast against forces that served the Murderous Saint himself.

And as the reality of what had just occurred finally sank in, he finally asked himself...

What exactly...had he just done?!