I Just Want to Farm, But My Beasts Keep Evolving!!

Chapter 197: The Day Heavens Cried

Raiden watched in silence as Ruby turned into golden particles and disappeared along with the golden chains.

This was it...Ruby had finally disappeared. Raiden had thought of various ways he could save her in the future, how he could heal her using his system, but the heavens were too cruel. They didn’t even give him a chance to act, to repent.

One of the last remaining families in his life just vanished.

"It’s my fault... I caused this... Aunt Ruby..." Raiden mumbled to himself as he watched her vanish.

The next second, a golden pillar of light fell from heaven, illuminating the entire world as it landed directly on top of Raiden.

This pillar was extremely domineering, driving away everything and everyone in a 100 m radius around Raiden, leaving him alone inside it.

Raiden watched in stunned silence as a drop of blood slowly floated down in this golden pillar appearing in front of him.

Raiden could detect the familiar fluctuations from this drop of blood, causing his emotions to become even more agitated.

"Aunt Ruby..."

Then, in front of his eyes, that drop of blood seemingly merged with him, disappearing on his forehead, as he felt something shift in his body.

All the blood in his body started circulating extremely fast as a red glow appeared on his skin, cradling him inside of it. He felt as if he was in the warm embrace of a loved one.

Raiden closed his eyes, savouring this feeling for one last time, this feeling of safety as his body finished going through the changes.

The divine red glow faded a second later, merging into his body as if it were never there.

The next second, the golden pillar of light also vanished as if it was never there, leaving behind a broken man on the battlefield.

"The Divine Protection, her final gift to protect me..." Raiden muttered with shimmering eyes, gazing ahead with a blank look in his eyes.

"Was this the price of participating in the war?? Was it really worth it??" He kept muttering to himself, not paying attention to the two presences approaching him from behind.

Isadora appeared from behind him and hugged Raiden’s head, just rubbing it slowly, not saying anything.

If it was a normal situation, Raiden would have tried to take advantage of this moment, but he felt nothing, as his emotions went numb.

"It’s going to be okay, Raiden... It’s all going to be okay."

Raiden didn’t say anything, just letting her cradle him as he stared ahead blankly.

"What am I going to say to Sylvia... How can I even explain it to anyone... What have I done..."

"Woolie Woo!!"

"Sha Sha!!"

Raiden was interrupted from his musings as two Terra Beasts tackled him, crying their eyes out.

They seemed to snap him out of it somewhat as he put both his hands on their heads and hugged them tightly, letting them vent out all the pressure.

Just like that, a man and two Terra Beasts sat on their knees crying their heart out, venting and supporting each other.

Unknowingly, dark clouds started forming above them in the sky, making the entire battlefield fall into darkness. But none of them had paid it any attention until the first drop landed on Raiden’s cheek.

It was warm.

It felt warm and thicker, sliding down his skin slower than water usually did. Raiden blinked and pulled back from Woolie and Neva’s crying embrace just enough to look up, and what he saw made his stomach drop even further than it already had.

The clouds above the battlefield had turned an even deeper shade of black, swirling together into something that looked like an open wound stretched across the entire sky.

Thunder rolled through them in slow, mournful waves, feeling heavy and grieving, as if something far larger was feeling the pain. Then the rain began to fall in earnest, and it was only then that the truth of it became impossible to ignore.

It was red.

A deep, saturated crimson that stained everything it touched: clothes, skin, broken earth, all of it slowly darkening under the endless downpour.

Isadora’s arms tightened around Raiden’s shoulders the moment she noticed it too, her breath catching audibly behind him.

"It’s happening," she whispered, more to herself than to anyone else. "I’ve read about this before, but I never thought I would live to actually see it."

Yuna walked closer, her earlier composure completely gone, replaced by a solemn countenance as she tilted her head back and let the crimson rain fall across her face as she murmured.

"The Day Heavens Cried."

Raiden stared up at the bleeding sky, unable to form a single coherent thought through the haze of grief still clouding his mind. "What... What is this?"

Isadora’s hand rubbed slow circles against his back as she answered, her voice gentler than he had ever heard it.

"Each Mythical Terra Beast is an inseparable part of the world. So whenever a Mythical Terra Beast falls, the whole world mourns for it. The heavens themselves cry tears of blood in tribute, spreading across every corner of the land no matter how far, marking the moment such a being left this world behind."

"So this is..." Raiden’s voice cracked halfway through the sentence, and he had to force the rest of it out through gritted teeth. "This is the world crying for Aunt Ruby?"

Neither of them answered him, because there was nothing else that needed to be said.

The rain kept falling, steady and endless, soaking through Raiden’s clothes and mixing with the tears still streaming down his face until he could no longer tell where one ended and the other began.

Woolie and Neva pressed themselves tighter against him, their small bodies trembling as the crimson downpour drenched their fur, but neither of them pulled away, and neither did Raiden.

Above them, the thunder rolled on, low and grieving, echoing across a silent battlefield.

The blood-red rain did not stop for hours, falling steadily over every kilometre of ruined land the crimson ocean had already claimed, as if the world itself refused to let the moment pass without properly mourning what it had lost.

Somewhere far beyond the horizon, in places that had no idea what had just happened here, people looked up at their own bleeding skies tonight, feeling a faint sadness in their hearts.

But for Raiden, kneeling in the mud with his two partners clinging to him and Isadora’s arms still wrapped protectively around his shoulders, none of that mattered.

All he could think about was the woman who had raised him since he was a child, the one who had taught him how to stand back up every single time he fell, now reduced to nothing more than a memory and a single golden mark burning quietly beneath his skin.

The rain kept falling.

And somewhere above all of it, the world kept crying for her.