Daman
patreon
TDE Book 6 Chapter 2 - Through History
🕑 Added 2024-02-28 18:37:43 +0000 UTCThe dead bark on the tree let out a soft hum, followed by an ethereal door coalescing in the center.
“Follow me.”
The Blood Titan smiled at the complicated expression on Calron’s face and walked through the shimmering door once it opened. Unlike the hard tree’s exterior, the door appeared to be made of magic and not of any physical matter.
Calron felt a strange emotion inside his heart. The Blood Titan looked at him like he was the salvation for the world, while the Martial Titan whom he’d never met until today, considered him to be his savior.
They all gazed at him like he was someone they already knew. He could sense it within the Blood Titan. It was only now that Calron realized what had been bothering him this whole time. Since the start, the Titan never treated him to be a normal path walker or a cultivator.
He looked at Calron like he was someone of the same rank as himself.
The rank of a Titan.
However, Calron knew it was not him they were looking at whenever they glanced at him. It was the shadow of the Lightning Primordial.
Calron shook himself out of his reverie and passed through the translucent barrier. In a few moments, he’d have all his questions answered.
His skin tingled slightly at the door’s threshold, but it wasn’t unpleasant. Surprisingly, the inside of the tree wasn’t much different from what normally should be there. Calron expected to be transported to an alternate dimension. Instead, his surroundings were exactly like the inside of a massive tree.
Judging from how big the inside of the walls were, Calron estimated it was roughly the same diameter as the dead tree’s trunk on the outside. That meant, they weren’t in a separate dimension. They were literally inside the same tree.
“Surprised?”
The Blood Titan seemed to have guessed Calron’s thoughts. His solemn eyes met Calron’s and the young man could detect there was some game at play here.
“Why the magic door at the entrance?”
Calron scanned the rest of the room. It was very spartan and had a measly few pieces of furniture. The most noticeable thing in the room was the long chain of bookshelves structured to the entirety of the walls. The inside was roughly circular, making it seem as if Calron was surrounded by books from every direction.
Upon closer look, Calron traced several green vines embedded into the wood and the books themselves. He could’ve sworn he saw one of the vines move, but the twitching stopped the moment he focused his sight there.
“It’s to fool everyone.”
The Blood Titan chuckled, his deep voice thrumming like the base of a mountain.
“So, this is actually the inside of the dead tree?”
Calron’s suspicions were confirmed.
“Yes. We can’t be creating dimensions and expect to be hidden for long, Calron. The mortals might not be able to detect us, but the Gods can definitely sense the disturbances in space. It’s why we hide in plain sight. Only obscured by layers of both reality and illusion.”
The Blood Titan spoke enthusiastically by pointing at the crude window on the side.
“I see…”
Calron understood the beginning of what the Blood Titan was saying, but his last sentence sent him back into confusion. But he didn’t want to interrupt the giant, as the Blood Titan seemed very pleased that they were hiding right under the God’s noses.
“Blood was always terrible with explaining himself.”
A gentle, feminine voice came from behind Calron. He quickly spun around to see who it was. His dao didn’t even alert him to a third person’s presence. Yet, he still couldn’t see anyone.
“Sometimes, the answer is right in front of you. Even if you can’t see it at first glance.”
The woman’s voice said warmly, and then Calron felt the lightest of taps on his feet.
Looking down, Calron was startled by the source of the woman’s voice.
It was a tiny dove.
The dove’s delicate wing stopped tapping Calron once their eyes met.
Where Serina’s hazel-green eyes resembled a cheery and youthful field of hops, the dove’s deep green eyes exuded the essence of an ancient forest. There was life in there that encompassed all living creatures.
“The Nature Titan.”
Calron breathed out his words and gave a polite bow to the dove. Despite her tiny frame and her beak only reaching his ankles, Calron’s dao was telling him to pay his respects. If there had to be a single dao that was individually the closest to the Grand Dao, it was the Nature Dao.
“You have a lot of unspoken questions, little one. Your eyes reveal the power you hold over blood, but it’s not just blood, is it?”
The tiny dove flapped her tender wings and flew to Calron’s eye level, her deep green irises piercing his blood-red ones.
Calron ignored the irony of the small dove calling him ‘little one’, and met the Nature Titan’s gaze.
“What can you tell me about the azure lightning? How do I get it back?”
Calron asked in haste. If he could use the azure lightning once again, it will help him face off against his enemies. He doubted the Archaic Council will stay still. Cynthia was bound to get suspicious soon, and Calron had made contact with too many path walkers to go unnoticed by the council.
He was a 4th circle path walker now, the same as a Heavenly stage cultivator. However, Calron knew the strength of a Shackle Lord, and the Ancients within the council were known to be a rank even higher than that. The 6th circle. The same as the Gods.
Calron didn’t have any delusions of thinking he could contend against an Ancient with his current power. Even the Gods hesitated to fight the Ancients inside the mortal realm.
Only the azure lightning could bridge that gap in power for him.
“Why do you think you lost it?”
The dove spun over Calron and flew to one of the bookshelves. On the side, the Blood Titan leaned against the window and silently watched Calron and the Nature Titan interact. Martial was probably lurking in the shadows somewhere, watching just like him.
Calron was intelligent, but that intelligence was a detriment to him. The young man still thought like a mortal while trying to face off against immortals. Nature was the best among the Titans when it came to teaching. She was guiding Calron in the only way he’d understand.
“When I gave up my cultivation to become a path walker, I knew I’d lose the connection to the azure lightning as well. But I knew I’d get it back someday. And now, I don’t know how to achieve that.”
Calron answered quietly, clenching his fists. On some level, he knew it was necessary to abandon the Divine Element. He needed to get the Primordials’ eyes away from him.
The dove perched on the edge of a shelf and pecked her beak on a specific book’s spine. Calron understood what the Nature Titan was trying to get at and slowly grabbed the book.
He turned it in his hands, but there was no title anywhere. Raising his head to the dove, Calron saw her silently staring at him.
She was waiting for him.
Grasping the thick cover with one hand, Calron opened the book to its first page.
“My name is Taranis Seraph. I’m the leader of the Seraph tribe, the immortal warriors of the sky. We have had many names in the past, the Divine Bird clan, the Lightning Wings clan, and many through the history of our old sector. What our name in this new sector would be, I don’t know.”
Calron continued to read the first paragraph of the book. He could feel the blood in his veins speed up as he read every word. The strokes on the paper were elegant and precise. He could feel the power emanating from the ink itself. They were also familiar.
He knew who wrote the book.
“I’m afraid the Seraphs will be hunted because of my actions. Yet, I must tread this path. My brothers and sisters have lost their purpose and are willing to trample on innocent lives. Hear my story, stranger, and let the truth live through the vestiges of time.”
Calron voiced the words, but he felt like they were his own.
“You might not know who Taranis Seraph is, stranger. But you’ll know my other name. The name which was also a title given to me when I took one of the seven thrones of eternity. I am the Lightning Primordial.”
Calron’s hands trembled as he felt the weight of the book.
The Nature Titan slowly walked towards Calron. The dove’s deep green eyes looked at Calron sympathetically. She, just like him, knew the contents of that book wouldn’t bring any joy.
“You have been asking the wrong question this whole time, little one. Before you learn how to get your lightning back, you need to learn about the owner of that lightning. You need to learn about your own past.”
====================================================================
A/N - Hi everyone, I will start to catch up to the chapters. I will release another chapter tomorrow, and there will be multiple releases throughout next week.
