The Primeval Era-Chapter 98: Vorrath III

Its eyes turned to Damian.

"But then there came a human who said, hey, don’t do that. Let’s do this instead."

A cold smile formed on its horse-like face.

"Masamuk wants to hear your idea and how it is better than what we were already doing. And whether it is even feasible to-"

HUUUM!

The words of the Inkanyamba were cut short.

They crossed a certain region of the mountain, and everything turned dark.

...!

Damian became somber and serious.

He could only feel himself now, with darkness permeating all around. It was suffocating in a way that went beyond simple absence of light. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t hear. He couldn’t sense Mana or movement or anything at all!

Just darkness.

Just himself.

Just the beating of his heart that seemed impossibly loud in the silence.

Moments later...

SAA!

It faded away.

Light returned, and sound returned, and sensation returned.

The Inkanyamba seemed to breathe easier as it called out into the space before them.

"Masamuk."

...!

It seemed like they had arrived.

Around them, when Damian looked up, he actually could not see the skies anymore.

He could only see the outline of the peaks of tall Ancestral Pillars that seemed to be purposefully obscuring everything above. Their canopies had grown together, weaving into a ceiling of leaves and branches that blocked out sun and sky alike.

These tall trees surrounded everything nearby, and they seemed to be in orderly arrangement. Not natural growth, but deliberate placement. A fortress of living wood that protected whatever lay within.

And down below...

Damian saw the domain of Masamuk.

It was a regal and austere region unlike anything he had ever witnessed.

A clear white-blue lake dominated the center of the space, its waters so pure that they seemed to glow with inner light. The surface was still as glass, reflecting the canopy above with perfect clarity. Mana radiated from those waters with concentration that made his skin tingle just from being near.

Surrounding the lake, vibrant multicolored herbs and plants grew in arrangements of cultivation rather than chance. Flowers that pulsed with different types of energy. Grasses that swayed despite the absence of wind. Fungi that glowed with bioluminescence in shades of gold and purple and silver.

The concentrations of Mana around all these things was surreal as no wonder Beasts grew so powerful in these mountains.

Damian even had the thought of living in a mountain himself!

And on the lake itself...

Golden and purple lotuses floated in clusters, their petals opening toward the filtered light that made it through the canopy above. Each lotus was large enough to serve as a platform, their surfaces somehow solid despite being flowers. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

And on these lotuses and other areas around this lake...

Damian saw aquatic beasts.

Massive crocodiles with scales that shimmered like polished obsidian, their eyes following his descent with cold calculation. Mamiwatas, the old stories called them. Water-rulers. Their bodies were wrapped in tendrils of Mana so dense that they distorted the air around them.

Serpents with heads that resembled beautiful women lounged on the banks, their lower bodies coiled in arrangements that spoke of relaxation despite the danger they radiated. Their eyes locked onto Damian with swirling Mana within them, coldness and brutality evident in their ancient gazes.

Massive fish breached the surface occasionally, creatures larger than boats with scales that reflected light in rainbow patterns. Their fins cut through the water with lazy grace, but Damian could sense the power contained within those movements.

He felt pure and utter wonder as he looked at them.

The level of Mana he could sense and feel swirling within these creatures was only a bit less than the Inkanyamba.

They may just be Organ Sanctification Primal Beasts.

Fifth Circle creatures.

Any one of them could devastate entire tribes if they chose to.

And there were dozens of them.

Just lounging here watching him!

There was a heavy feeling of suffocation here. The combined pressure of their auras pressed against his skin like physical weight, making each breath require conscious effort.

But at the very center of the lake, on a golden lotus that rose up like a throne...

Was a vibrant, obsidian slime.

Damian followed the path of the Inkanyamba while reining in any potential fear.

His flaming blue cloud descended, carrying him toward the soft land filled with vegetation around the lake. His feet touched ground that was covered in grass that felt like silk, and the flames beneath his soles flickered out as he no longer needed them.

It only truly settled in right now that he was in the domain of beasts.

Because before him, seated on that golden lotus throne, was a slime that turned their way.

And his entire body buzzed.

The slime was unlike anything Damian had ever seen or imagined.

Its body was vibrant obsidian, a darkness so deep that it seemed to drink in the light around it. But scattered across that darkness were stellar blue points that glowed with inner radiance, as if its round slime body was a canvas painted with stars. Constellations seemed to shift and move within its form, ancestral stars being born and dying in the space of heartbeats.

It was beautiful, and it was terrifying.

And it had crimson eyes that burned like embers in that field of stars. Two points of red that held intelligence beyond what any slime should possess, beyond what most beings of any species could claim.

A vibrant mouth curved up into a cold smile as it looked at Damian.

"What an odd, odd thing you are."

...!

Even though it was a small slime, even though it sat on a lotus barely larger than a man, its voice was unfathomably deep and baritone.

So deep that one’s skin vibrated.

So deep that Damian felt it in his bones!

"Welcome to our Sacred Mountain."

The Slime of Chaos regarded him with those crimson eyes, that cold smile never wavering.

And this was the first time that a meeting between Damian Vakochev and Masamuk occurred.

Masamuk, the Slime of Chaos.

And someone that would later be known as...

Vakochev’s Sword!