Chapter 142: Emperor Woolie Bows Down To No One!!
"Rai Rai~ You are heree. Let’s begin."
"Aunt Ruby??" Raiden asked in an incredulous voice.
"Yes. You need to hurry upp and divee deep into the bodyy of this old wolff and find Woolie. He is somewheree inside of him. Find him and dragg him out of here. My drop of blood will act as your compass to navigate out of theree."
A gigantic drop of blood detached from the enormous crimson serpent as it rapidly flew towards Raiden, shrinking down in the process before becoming as big as a little pinky and merging directly into his body.
"Now, go. The little one is fighting all alone inside." Her voice echoed out in the void as she constricted even more tightly against the wolf, causing him to howl in pain and thrash about, but he wasn’t able to shake her off.
Raiden didn’t hesitate after hearing Ruby’s words. The moment the drop of blood merged into his body, he felt a strange warmth spread through his chest, like a tiny living flame had been planted inside him.
Taking one last look at the impossible sight before him, Raiden swallowed and steadied himself. Ruby was still wrapped around the colossal wolf, pinning him down with absolute force, while the wolf thrashed and howled so violently that the void itself seemed to shake. Her Golden eyes were indifferent to its struggles, having him in complete control.
Raiden bent his knees and leapt straight into the wolf’s body.
The moment he touched it, the world around him twisted violently. It felt less like entering flesh and more like diving headfirst into a storm made of thunder, shadow, and raw killing intent. His body was dragged inward at once, swallowed whole by a chaos of silver, black, and violet, and his senses went haywire, making it so hard that he couldn’t tell whether he was falling, flying, drowning, or being ripped apart from all directions at once.
Yet in the middle of all that madness, he still felt it, his bond with Woolie. It was faint, but stubborn, calling out to him from the madness within. Raiden locked onto that feeling and followed it without hesitation, forcing his way deeper and deeper into the wolf’s inner world.
The places he crossed through barely felt real. He ran over cracked black plains littered with broken fangs and gigantic bones that were as big as the wolf outside, through forests of shadows where countless golden eyes kept opening and closing in the distance, looking at him like he was some sort of delicious prey, and across rivers of violet lightning that surged forth, destroying the void itself.
The deeper he went, the heavier the pressure became, pressing against his soul until every step started to feel like a burden, but he never slowed down. Woolie was here. Woolie had been here alone for three whole months.
That thought alone was enough to keep Raiden moving, no matter what sort of nightmare this place threw in his way. Soon, the pull of his bond started growing stronger, sharper, more desperate, until finally he reached the source.
What Raiden saw when he arrived made his chest tighten in pain.
In the middle of a ruined, gigantic wasteland stood Woolie, his body stained with blood and broken bones, and for a moment, Raiden almost failed to recognise him.
His wool, once fluffy and bright, was now stained red and black from old blood, fresh wounds, and dirt. Cuts, claw marks, bite wounds, and scars covered his body so thoroughly that they had begun layering over one another, as if he had been torn apart again and again without ever being given the chance to properly recover.
His legs were trembling so badly they looked ready to buckle under his own weight, and his breathing had long since turned ragged and uneven.
The divine lightning that usually danced around his body was gone. The terrifying presence he once carried was gone. The overwhelming power that made him look like a tiny tyrant favoured by the heavens was gone too.
What remained was only a bloodied, exhausted little sheep whose body looked half broken and barely functional, yet he still refused to fall.
And he wasn’t alone. Surrounding him on all sides, stretching so far that Raiden couldn’t even see where they ended, was an endless sea of wolves.
Black wolves, silver wolves, skeletal wolves, shadow wolves, giant wolves with golden eyes burning in the dark, wolves made from storm and lightning, wolves with too many mouths and wolves with too many eyes, all of them circling Woolie like an ocean of hunger.
Then all of the wolves opened their mouths together.
"Give up, little sheep. You have been fighting constantly for three months already. Your body is already broken beyond repair. You can not use your thunder powers, and you can’t even stand up straight anymore. You just need to give up and accept our power so that you can become even stronger and get out. Just accept it, and you will be stronger than before. Don’t you want to go back and see your family again?? All you need to do for it is just give up and bow down. "
Their countless voices merged into a single ancient guttural roar that rolled through the wasteland. Raiden’s fists clenched as he watched Woolie sway where he stood, his body trembling so hard it seemed impossible that he was still conscious at all. For one awful moment, it looked like he might finally collapse.
’NO!! I can’t let Woolie face that alone!! I am coming!!’
But before he could move, Woolie slowly lifted his head, his eyes fatigued but still burning with that same ridiculous, stubborn pride that refused to die no matter how much the world tried to beat it out of him.
When he opened his mouth, his voice came out cracked, exhausted, and hoarse from pain, but the arrogance inside it remained untouched.
"EMPEROR WOOLIE BOWS DOWN TO NO ONE!!!"
Raiden’s throat choked as a laugh escaped him, his tears falling after he heard the declaration, which hit him straight into his soul. It was so painfully, perfectly Woolie that even a scene as miserable as this couldn’t erase it.
This stupid, prideful sheep had been trapped inside a nightmare for three straight months, stripped of his power, buried under endless wounds, and hunted by an infinite army of wolves, yet he still stood there, his pride remaining unbroken.
Woolie tried to force himself to stand up and move forward again, but his ruined body finally betrayed him. One of his legs gave out completely, and he crashed face-first into the blood-soaked ground. The wolves began to move at once, rushing towards him in excitement. Finally, they could have their feast!!
Raiden’s laughter vanished. He stared at Woolie’s fallen body, felt the bond in his chest burn hotter, and stepped forward with fury hardening across his face.
"Who dares?!" His shout echoed throughout the planes, as all the wolves paused as one, countless golden eyes turning toward him in silence. Raiden didn’t care. His gaze remained fixed on Woolie as he took another step forward.
"As long as I am here, no one can hurt him!! If you want to get to him, you have to walk over my dead body!! No one will hurt my Woolie!!"
