Chapter 431 (1/2)
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Ruuuumble—
Everywhere Su-hyeun walked past, jets of blood shot up from the ground along with crimson clouds, and the closer he got to the altar, the strength of the space Kali ruled grew stronger and stronger. Although he had burned everything down with his flames, the situation didn’t improve.
To Su-hyeun, it felt like the blood flow within his body was reversing due to this space created by Kali herself.
Her authority—her power—was the power to rule “blood.”
The skies and the ground below dyed in crimson—the blood found within this space—belonged to Kali, even the blood that was not hers. You would have to exhaust quite a large amount of energy to free from her control.
However, purple-hued flames were burning vigorously within this space.
“Wow, it’s burning so well,” Su-hyeun muttered to himself while staring at the flames scorching the color of blood out of this place.
Ruuumble—
His blood, wanting to flow backward, regained its stability as if the previous matter didn’t happen in the first place. This was because the power to rule this space had been ripped out of Kali’s hands and now belonged to him.
Moooo—!
A loud cry of an ox crying broke out, which prompted Su-hyeun to turn his head to look in its direction.
Out in the middle of a mountain, quite a distance away, an ox that was probably previously grazing peacefully on grass was crying out tragically as blood poured out from all of its orifices.
Plop—
Not too long after that, the eyes of the ox rolled, and the animal collapsed to the ground. It finally died after suffering miserably from the reversing blood flow.
Without a doubt, all life forms that dared to venture into this space would suffer the same fate.
The power to rule over all blood would prove to be fatal to any life form out there—an absolute power indeed.
Fwhooooosh—
The range of the flames rapidly expanded. Soon, the area of flames Su-hyeun had created completely blanketed the terrain.
Animals found in the mountains, with blood leaking out from their eyes and noses, thrashed about in fear but soon calmed down. They seemed to have realized that the flames weren’t harming them.
Splash—
Soon after that, the blood-colored clouds covering the skies began moving. They descended and surrounded Su-hyeun. Almost at the same time, the bodies of blood, spread over a wide area, rapidly gathered in one place with Su-hyeun in the center.
This blood-colored fog began constricting his body next.
Creak, crunch—
The blood bound his arms and legs, while it tried to seep into his flesh, but right at that moment, a bright spot of light flashed above his head.
[Somersault cloud]
FLASH—!
Ka-booooom—!
Thunder roared a bit later. The streak of lightning landed right above Su-hyeun’s head.
The blood that confined him accidentally became a sort of armor protecting him. The choking heat and sharp electric current scorched the blood black, hardening it like a brittle rock before it all crumbled to bits.
Tumble, crumble—
“Hmm.” Su-hyeun lightly dusted all the blood crust off his body. Then, he shifted his gaze over to the massive altar looming largely in his view. “Miru.”
Grrrr—
“Don’t get angry at me and please listen, okay? Let me down and go back inside.”
Gya-rrrrr—
When Su-hyeun said that, Miru suddenly bared its fangs. However, the dragon wasn’t growling at him; its animosity was directed at a certain creature hiding within that altar instead.
Not too long after that, Miru did as Su-hyeun asked and neatly folded its wings before disappearing from the view. Seeing how agitated his red dragon was, Su-hyeun figured that Miru wouldn’t be dozing off anytime soon.
Land—
Step, step—
As soon as Su-hyeun climbed down from Miru’s back and landed on the ground again, he quietly walked over to the altar. Some distance was still left before he could actually reach the structure, but since it was so humongous, he thought that he might actually touch it by extending his hand right now.
“Come out already,” he challenged, but no reply came his way.
However, now that Su-hyeun was this close, he could sense Kali better and tell that she was definitely here.
“Well, if you’re scared, you can always try to escape.”
Gu-gugugugu—
Splash, splatter—
The ground rumbled quietly; then, the noise of water smashing into each other to create huge waves suddenly came to him.
This world didn’t have any oceans, so upon hearing waves crashing like this, he began to wonder what was going on here. It was only then that he noticed the walls and the roof of the altar turning bright crimson.
The entire structure was being transformed into blood; all those flowing blood was responsible for making the wave noises by splashing around.
‘The entire altar was made out of blood, is that it?’ he thought.
There was a reason why he could sense her powers so vividly here. This altar, which was last to be built and possessed the scale of a small country, was actually constructed solely from Kali’s blood.
The blood rapidly concentrated and coagulated. A portion floated up in the air, while the other portions continued to gather into a singular mass.
The gathered blood soon morphed into a figure of a slender woman.
“You said I should escape?” The blood mass was soon covered in “skin,” creating a face. The first to be completed was her lips from which a seductive voice said, “How can I do that when it’s already so much fun?”
A woman with bronze skin and whose hair was tied up finally appeared before him. She outwardly resembled Kalira, with four arms and all. Her long tongue snaked in and out, and on her bloodstained forehead, another eye slowly opened.
Not a thread covered her alluring and bare figure, but she didn’t emit any trace of sensuousness nor seductiveness at all. No, all those accessories and equipment adorning her figure in place of proper clothing imparted a bizarre and ominous feeling instead.
A monster that closely resembled a human—that was probably the best description for her.
Su-hyeun asked her, “Where are the others?”
“The others?”
“The other Predators under you. There are still five of them left, right?”
The number of Predators Su-hyeun took care of so far had been four—Brahma, Zawucheon, Anubis, and Kalira. And now that Kali was standing before his eyes, it meant that five other Predators still remained somewhere.
“Oh, you were talking about them?” Kali’s long tongue flickered as she smirked deeply at Su-hyeun’s question.
Right after that…
“Kugh… Kuwaaah…”
“K—Kali, why…?”
“Let…me go…Keugh…”
The pool of blood surrounding Kali suddenly began undulating to morph into bizarre shapes, moans of agony coming from them.
Those shapes, now taking on the forms of various monsters making tortured expressions, were none other than the Predators that had been serving Kali.
“To think that they willingly offered themselves up as sacrifices, what loyal children they are. I am truly grateful.”