Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Chapter 581: Erdania

History Repeats

Erdania disembarked from the airship, the sun shining from high above. A knot of anxiety tightened in her stomach as she followed behind Zacharia, Nahamassa and Bera. A small group of people from the Dragon Heart Sect stood waiting, their faces a mixture of curiosity and apprehension.

“Welcome to the Dragon’s Peak,” a drake with scales of obsidian metal and wings like sheets of molded steel rumbled. His eyes flickered towards Erdania with an intensity that made her pause.

“Peak Commander Ikris,” Zacharia greeted the man back. “It’s been a while.”

The drake inclined his head, the movement stiff and formal. “It has. I’ve been told of your arrival, I’m to escort you to the gathering.”

Erdania felt a growing sense of dread. The closer they got to Ryun, the more she felt the turmoil within him through their bond. It was like a storm raging just beyond the horizon, threatening to engulf everything in its path. She tried to reach out to him, to offer comfort, but his mental barriers were firmly in place, a wall of iron and ice. Selia’s worry echoed through their connection, amplifying Erdania’s own fears.

She tuned out the conversation around her and followed blindly behind the others as they were let into the city.

They understood his anger, the raw, visceral fury that burned within him. The attack, the near loss... It had shaken them all. But this self-imposed isolation, this chilling silence, was more terrifying than any outburst. And it was not how they did things.

They were halfway to the gathering hall, navigating the winding streets carved into the mountainside, when the world seemed to shudder. A wave of power, immense and suffocating, washed over them. Ryun’s presence, like a monstrous leviathan rising from the depths, filled the very world around them.

“Ryun?” She tried to reach him through the bond, her voice a desperate plea in the sudden stillness. His barriers shattered, and a torrent of emotions flooded her senses. Wrath, so intense it threatened to consume her, mingled with a bone-chilling fear that made her blood run cold.

“You were supposed to stay with Selia, keep her safe,” his voice echoed in Erdania’s head, angry at her.

“I can keep myself safe, Ryun,” Selia’s voice joined them, firm and resolute. “We both can. We were worried about you.”

“She didn’t need me,” Erdania continued. “As she said, she is fully capable of keeping herself safe. We were worried about you. Are you alright?”

Silence stretched, agonizing and heavy, before his response came, filled with a chilling conviction.

“I am more right than I had been in a long time. I forgot how cruel the world could be. How life could just end. I forgot... I forgot how easily it can all be taken away. I will not let anyone take from me again.”

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Before Erdania could respond, his power surged, a cataclysmic wave that reshaped the world around them. The top of the gathering hall simply vanished, the stone crumbling into dust. The sky darkened as Ryun’s authority disrupted the very flow of Light essence. And then Ryun gathered his being and manifested a new vessel, one in the image of a giant wolf. He loomed over the three peaks, a masked head radiating an aura of absolute power. A power greater than the peak of Cultivation or Class, something more. An echo of what it could be, but still it felt as if the heavens were looking down on everyone.

His voice boomed through the entire city. “THERE ARE NO MORE TALKS, NO MORE WASTING TIME, THEY ATTACKED ME, ATTACKED US, THEY DIE.”

Panic erupted. People screamed and fled, the orderly procession dissolving into chaos. The city’s defenses sprang to life, energy beams lancing towards the monstrous wolf. But Ryun simply swatted them aside, his power nullifying their attacks before they could even reach him. Ryun’s authority robbed them of their power, stopping some in their tracks by ending the Kinetic Essence around them, while he just swallowed up others.

“Ryun,” Erdania shouted over the link. “Don’t hurt anyone.”

His mind was completely open to her now, a maelstrom of rage and fear. She could feel his intent—to seize control of the Sects, to assert his dominance in the most direct manner imaginable.

She didn’t oppose that, it was the way of the Sects. Demonstrating superiority was within the bounds of honor and obligation. She was worried about his reaction to what was now happening around them. She could feel his emotional state, and was worried that he would react to any provocation, no matter how warranted it was. His emotions were just too raw for him to be thinking clearly.

“Bera!” Zacharia’s voice interrupted her attempts to reach Ryun, cutting through the chaos. “Let everyone know not to attack him!”

Erdania paused, realizing that Zacharia knew Ryun well enough to know how he usually reacted to attacks. Ryun, in this state, wouldn’t hesitate to obliterate anyone who dared to oppose him.

“I’ve never seen him like this before,” Erdania whispered, both out-loud and in her mind to Selia.

“I have,” Zacharia said grimly, his eyes fixed on the wolf. Essence flared around Bera, and her voice, amplified by her power, rang out across the city, urging everyone to stand down.

Erdania remembered that the woman had some powerful perks, she’d seen them in action during the attack on the tournament.

“You have?” Erdania asked, her gaze snapping to Zacharia. She often forgot that Ryun and he had a history that stretched before their arrival to the Infinite Realm.

Zacharia nodded, his face a mask. “When Melody died.”

“Oh,” Selia’s said in Erdania’s head, and she mirrored the sentiment. Understanding dawned on Erdania. They had forgotten that loss, the gaping wound that had never truly healed. Now, with the attack, the near loss of Selia and Erdania, that old wound had been ripped open, leaving him raw and vulnerable.

“You need to talk to him,” Zacharia said urgently. “He can’t do what he did before. I won’t allow it.”

“They attacked us,” Erdania countered, her eyes narrowing.

Zacharia turned, his gaze intense. “And those who are guilty, who are in charge, responsible, should and will answer. I do not dispute that. But last time… last time, Ryun didn’t make any distinction between the guilty and the innocent. He killed everyone Erdania. The old, the young, those who had no choice in the matter at all. I understand his anger, I am angry as well, but the world is not a perfect place, it is not black and white. There are people in the Exalted Empire who only follow because they have no other choice, because they were born and never knew another way. Because they were never offered a second chance.”

Erdania didn’t answer. She didn’t disagree with Ryun’s sentiment, she only cared about his emotional state. In that at least Zacharia was right. Ryun, consumed by his emotions was not acting as his usual self, and that she didn’t like.

“I’ll talk with him,” she said with a firm voice. She had to reach him, to remind him that he wasn’t alone, that she and Selia were still there, safe. As for the Exalted Empire... They would pay, they had to be taught a lesson that they would never forget.

Zacharia looked at her for a few seconds, then sighed and shook his head. He walked away, heading to where Bera was still communicating with everyone in the city. Erdania could hear her voice too, instructing everyone to stand down and not attack Ryun. It was a smart thing to do.

With a powerful leap, she launched herself into the air, soaring towards the giant wolf that was her partner in all things. He needed her, and she wouldn’t fail him.

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