Chapter 836 Maharaja: The world Eater I
Cain and Jack flew across the sky until they reached the burning peak of a volcano. They stared at the eruption, dodging the flying debris as they looked for a landing place.
"You! It's dangerous!" Jack cried as lightning flew around, crackling as each bolt ripped trenches into the ground.
"Can't you stay silent for a moment?"
CRACKLE! A massive lightning bolt fell from the sky, heading directly toward them due to Cain's steel staff.
Cain stared up at the bolt with a smile, and it changed direction, hitting the ground. Even if he sealed all of his magic, he could still access it at will, and mere lightning wasn't going to be enough to reach them.
Thud! Cain landed, and Jack jumped down off the staff. SIZZLE! He growled, the hot ground grilling his feet. "We're at a volcano," Jack sighed.
"You're fine?" Cain stared at him, and Jack nodded, "I would have been screaming before, but compared to everything else, this is nothing," His pain tolerance had increased, and standing on the equivalent of a sizzling pan was nothing more than an annoyance.
Cain looked down from the mountain, seeing a massive black jaguar the size of the mountain itself on the ground, its body impaled with hundreds of ice spikes.
"Maharaja, the queen of the Rakshasas. Jaguar similar to that fur ball you had with you. Except for larger." Jack pointed, "A beautiful beast, isn't she."
BLAT! From behind them, a large lava devil emerged from the volcano, roaring.
Jack cried, looking back with tears flowing from his eyes, "AGGGGGGGGG!" The devil stood at almost one hundred feet tall, bulky with lava bursting from his skin like ulcers. The mere heat from it burned his hair.
Cain turned around with a smile, lifting his hand ready to blast the devil into ash.
Ba-dump! The Rakshasa queen opened one of her eyes upon sensing a slither of familiar magic. She could catch a glimpse of Cain's back at the top of the mountain. Ba-dump! Blood started rushing across her veins once again, remembering the days she walked with his head alone in the empty world, and could feel nothing but regret.
Ba-dump! Ba-dump! Her mind went black for a second upon seeing the lava devil beside Cain, ready to attack. All of her regrets froze, rapidly shifting into rage as all of what happened before started dancing above the devil's head as if he was responsible for everything.
The devil was innocent, and this was the first saw him. But to her, the mere act of attacking Cain was enough to trigger a projection. She will not allow the past to repeat itself.
CRACKLE! Golden lightning roared in the clouds, and thousands of bolts rushed across the sky and gathered above Maharaja, combining into one massive blast and falling upon her body. The ice spears binding her to the ground evaporated.
As the devil looked at Cain, ready to strike he could see the lightning bolts gather and fall. A massive lightning explosion burst behind Cain as he blinked.
ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR! Maharaja lunged at the devil over Cain, her massive jaw engulfing him whole. "What?" Cain gasped as he saw the massive Jaguar leap away with the devil, ripping it to shreds in a fit of rage as lightning fell from the sky.
As her roars shook the ground, Cain and Jack could see other devils running away as fast as they could. Maharaja's growls resonated in their chests like drums.
Not a god, not a devil, and not even boasting powerful magic, but the queen's roars terrified all beings around her. She alone is the apex predator of the hells, and everyone knows it.
CRACK! Maharaja landed on the ground, and the devil's body was nowhere to be seen. Eaten whole, he didn't stand a chance the moment she saw him as prey.
BAM! Maharaja's body waved as she fell to her side, bleeding rivers as the holes on the ice spears didn't heal.
"Let's go," Cain growled as he sat on his staff, urging Jack to hurry.
Jack lunged forth, riding on Cain's staff as they flew at high speed toward the downed Maharaja. Thud! Cain landed beside her and looked at her wounds, "Deep and cursed, they won't heal by normal means, and since she's immortal here due to the layer, she will remain hanged between life and death for all eternity."
"Cain," Jack said, staring at Cain, "This one is a true monster. You saw her. We should stay away. She wakes up a little disoriented, and we're as good as food for her."
Cain lifted his hand, "She can't harm us even if she wanted," From his fingers, powerful divine magic rushed through and covered Maharaja's wounds in warm light.
"Do what you like," Jack sighed, finding a stone to sit on. "You were a wizard last time I saw you. Now you're a cleric of some sort?"
"You could say that," Cain replied as he watched Maharaja's wounds close. "This ice belongs to Silver. He must have come here to take something,"
CLACK! Morena walked out of Cain's shadow and looked around. "From the looks of it, he wasn't able to kill her. Either due to the layer,"
"No," Cain mumbled, "He could have frozen her completely. My guess is that she no longer has what he looked for,"
"I know!" Morena gasped, "In the battle of the gods, Selena got a shard that made her almost as big as this one. That's probably what he was looking for,"
"Shard of the world eater, the power to consume anything. Probably with enough time she could even digest divine magic making her able to eat the gods." It only took Cain a few seconds to process what happened. "He wanted that power to kill me, but she sent it to Selena before he could steal it, leading to her defeat...but that doesn't make sense. She should've killed him if she had such power."
Cain approached Maharaja, touching her hide and closing his eyes. "Let's see what happened."
The moment Cain linked his mind to her, his consciousness got violently pulled deeper and deeper into darkness. The turmoil in her mind was far more violent than anything he had experienced before.
"What in the hell is going on," Cain gasped, trying to balance his magic, but he couldn't. Thousands upon thousands of years' worth of memories stained with grief and blood flooded across his mind.
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DING! In the hope of stabilizing himself, Cain stopped at the beginning of the grief in her mind.
Thud!
Selena ran across the forest chasing a three-horned deer. They had just finished stopping a dragon's attack on the human capital, and she was out hunting for dinner.
Cain, Sofia, Gracie, and Alice have remained in the capital's inn, getting themself ready to face the king tomorrow.
Thud! With one lung, she lept at the deer, biting it on the head. The poor animal didn't even get a chance to struggle and died on the spot. "The dragon burned, so we didn't get any meat. Cain would love this." She grabbed the deer by the leg and climbed a tree, hanging it to bleed as she licked her lips and paws clean.
At that moment, her ears twitched. "Cain's blood?" She could smell his blood for miles away. Her fur instantly spiked as she rushed toward the capital.
Selena shifted to her Jaguar form to run faster, blitzing through the fields.
The moment the gate's guards saw the black jaguar rushing toward them, they lifted their spikes. "Stop it! Kill it!" They screamed, pulling crossbows.
Selena didn't pay them any mind, thinking this was a simple reaction to a wild beast and nothing more.
With ease, she slipped between them and rushed into the city, chasing Cain's scent. He must be in a fight and needs help. But, as she got closer, she could smell Alice's blood, and then Sofia and Gracie. "What-gaw?" She growled, using her claws to climb one of the buildings, and stared at the city.
In the middle of the plaza, people gathered like ants, watching something with screams and cheering.
"CAIN!" She growled, jumping from one building to the other as fast as she could until she reached the end and jumped down, shifting to her humanoid form.
"Move out-gaw!" She growled, pushing people aside as she raced between the crowds. When she reached the middle, her eyes opened wide.
Cain, Sofia, Gracie, and Alice's heads hung on spikes as the guards cleaned the guillotine from poison-reeking blood. She stood there in silence for a second, looking aside to see three Green dragons morphed into humans watching with King Baltos.
"What's going on?" She gasped.
The three dragons stared at her, "That's the last one, catch her!"
A guard rushed at Selena with a spear, thrusting at her neck.
Without changing her expression, she swung her claw, ripping the guard's face off. "What's going on?" She gasped, walking toward the spikes and staring at the heads.
"Wh...Wh..." She tried to speak, but her voice crackled, changing into grunts and growls as if a jaguar was speaking. Her humanoid side quickly sunk.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRR! She slowly turned her head toward the dragons, a deep growl rumbling from her throat.
Baltos stared at the dragons, "You said you're going to kill them, go!" He shouted.
BAM! Before the dragons could move, Selena lunged at them, biting Baltos's face off.
"What?" One of the dragons gasped, "You..."Before he could attack, she lunged at his face, tearing holes in his skull in the blink of an eye.
CRACK! Another dragon punched her in the guts, sending her rolling through the crowds.
ROAR! Selena roared, and people started running away from her.
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