578 Coming Of Age Ceremony [The Beginning]
Varian landed in a desolate world.
It was a world that lost its life.
It was a world devoid of color.
Green died when the plants went extinct. Red was erased when the last human corpse dried up. Blue was gone when the flesh of the last animal mixed into the soil.
The sun didn't rise. Stars didn't twinkle. So, the moon didn't reflect any light.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Varian walked in the desolate world. With each breath he let out, the light grey soil blew into the air and dispersed like smoke.
"What in the hell is this?" Varian felt a sense of sorrow well up inside him.
As far as the eye could see, there was only an endless grey plain. Not a single plant, tree, or even a mountain.
It was as if the world had crumbled down.
'There is something weird about this place…it is uncomfortable to even breath here.' Varian's mental sense scanned the fifty miles around him.
[Dear Scion, congratulations on reaching adulthood. Now, you will be allowed to fight against the creatures that our rivals and get to know your potential enemies.]
A voice sounded without any particular source.
"Who are they? The rivals?" Varian shouted.
Szzz.
The answer came from the soil.
No.
It was from under the soil.
A strange beast with three legs, something that resembled a tiger with the proportions of a giant bear.
"This is a rival?" Varian raised a brow.
The creature was dead.
Or at least, that's how it seemed.
There was no breath, no blood flow and his mental sense couldn't detect any other signs of life.
Moreover, the creature's flesh was also completely rotten with bones visible in most places.
[The Ativ Tribe's underling.] The voice sounded again.
"Greeh!"
A dark light burst from the creature and Varian's senses screamed danger.
Whoosh!
Without a hint of hesitation, he ducked.
Boom!
The air above him blasted into shockwaves as something passed above him in the blink of an eye.
The sand rose into the air like a meteor crashed the land and the blanket of sand blew away with the wind.ᴘᴀɴᴅᴀ-ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ
Varian heard the sound of a solid crashing on the ground behind him and his mental sense quickly spun to action.
Before he could turn and see it with his eyes, his mental sense already 'saw' it.
It was the same rotten creature. Its flesh was light grey, like ash and it certainly didn't show any signs of life.
It had no blood, no heartbeat, no neural movements.
But its eyes.
They were glowing.
Glowing with the same grey light this world was filled with. Glowing with an intensity that made the hair on his neck stand up.
'But it's dead!' Varian bent to the right.
Whoosh!
In the world of grey, a beam of black light flashed.
Like a laser beam decimating a mountain, the black light decimated the land behind Varian.
Szz!
There was only a small sound of wind breeze and like every other time, the wind dispersed the soil soundlessly.
Varian's space sense saw what was behind him.
"Gulp." It caused him to gulp.
For five miles straight behind him, there was a long and narrow canyon.
It was a terrifying strike, strong enough to wipe out your normal mid level 7.
'Aren't the enemies adjusted to our level, then why is this so strong?' Varian kept his eyes locked on the creature while he thought hard.
'Kuh.'
But a burning pain from his palm proved impossible to ignore.
While keeping his gaze locked, Varian scanned his palm through his mental sense and sucked in a breath of cold air.
His palm turned completely black and his skin started to wear out. Then, blood started to drip out bit by bit.
A blackish light covered his palm and connected with it deeply.
The droplet which was red when it exited his palm turned grey by the time it hit the ground.
Then it mixed into the soil perfectly, like any sand grain.
As he scanned the sand particles on the ground again, Varian felt his scalp go numb.
'Am I stepping on normal soil or what the people of this world had become?'
Varian sent all his aura derivatives to drive out the black energy.
At the same time, he maintained eye contact with the creature. It sniffed in the air vehemently and then turned to Varian.
Its mouth opened and it let out a joyous growl.
'It isn't smelling me…' Varian was sure of it.
Because ever since he came to this world, there was no smell. Even though there was a rotten corpse standing in front of him, it exuded no smell.
Then, what would it be smelling…?
'Life.' Varian's brows furrowed as the realization hit him. But more painful than realization was the black light covering his palm.
His aura derivatives weren't doing great. For some reason, they were simply unable to resist the onslaught of this foreign energy.
Thus, not only did they not expel the black energy out of his body, they were slowly being connected to it.
"Fuck!" Varian suddenly clenched his fist, causing the creature to jump to the side in a bit to escape his attack.
Varian made use of the opportunity and did something cruel.
Shuaa!
Brandishing his sword, he slashed it to his left palm.
Paa!
The moment his palm was separated from his body—the moment it lost the support of aura, his palm burst into a black light.
Then, it quickly shriveled. It was like going from a ripe orange to lemon to a seed. All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
By the time his palm reached the ground, it was only a skin bag of bones.
Even the bones weren't left for long before turning into sand particles.
Splurt!
Varian's left arm, right from the severed wrist was about to bleed like a broken damn.
So, he quickly blocked the space around it and morphed his hand into a branch.
Holding a sword in his only hand, Varian looked at the creature.
"Greer."
Its eyes shone black again.
