Crimson Eternal - Book 6 - Chapter 17 (Patreon)

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Click on the following link for the 1459 word chapter 17:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mt_AfWMd9Lf0dKkb5M15H0JhMqOKVqVEl-ePtvYEhMM/edit?usp=sharing

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Aria

And, of course, it takes less than three days for me to find myself in the form of a child again.

His first experiment runs very quickly and doesn’t exactly go the way he wanted either. I don’t even get close to turning to dust. In fact, my body doesn’t even age at all. Almost like some sort of lock is placed on me, barring me from going past my prime.

So the first experiment ends up being a major failure for him.

Which is interesting. The fact that I can age backwards before returning to normal, but I can’t age forwards.

Not that I’m complaining.

The only complaint I have is about Pestilence’s comment stating that I’ll likely be in this child form for at least a year this time around. Because that is going to get annoying real quick.

I let out a sigh as I sit on my horse following Pestilence out into space and right past the ships stationed there. With Pestilence literally not giving a single damn about them. He doesn’t even look at them.

Meanwhile the ships themselves are full of people who I can tell are rather shocked and plain dumbfounded.

Some of them are wondering why Pestilence is casually waltzing past their little blockade, and others are staring at me wondering why I look like a child right now. With a cat on my head.

Because Asher seems to find my head to be a comfortable replacement for my jacket pockets which are too small for his liking at my current size. Since I can’t wear my normal clothes right now.

So they’re just seeing what looks like a kid on an eerie crimson-energy-filled skeletal horse with a cat just sleeping draped across said kid’s head when they look at me.

And that’s kind of embarrassing.

Just a little.

Especially when I see videos of it being posted online already. Just showing me following Pestilence in the form of a small child on the back of an eerie horse with an adorable cat sleeping on my head.

Still. It’s all worth it.

Just to get a free carry through disaster systems for two months.

That’s all that matters.

I completely ignore the faint blush of embarrassment on my cheeks as I think this and follow Pestilence.

As for why we’re not just taking a Gate? He said it’s because he doesn’t want the mana of a disaster system polluting his planet and experiments. So we’re opening the Gate for travel further away from his planet.

Of course, some of the soldiers that were blockading his planet try to follow us in ships. But when he eventually stops moving and opens a Gate to pass through, the soldiers and ships are just kinda left there.

Which certainly makes me wonder.

What’s the point of this blockade when the one they’re trying to block can waltz right past it?

I shake my head at that thought before reappearing in a rather… disturbing location.

The first disaster system we enter of the two. A place no person ever dares to visit nor has visited for hundreds of thousands of years.

And it’s very obvious why just at a glance.

This particular disaster system is called the Arachnealys. And it’s a place infested with spider type mana creatures. So many of them, in fact, that the entire solar system is filled with cobwebs the size of planets. Meanwhile the spiders themselves are at least a hundred meters in length at the minimum.

All of the spiders are just crawling around the cobwebs, with plenty of them eating each other. And others eating anything that happens to enter the solar system.

Treating the solar system itself as one massive spiderweb.

As their lair.

There are even spiders that leave the system towards the surrounding systems to hunt and bring back food for the rest of them. Causing major issues for the neighboring systems.

So many issues that the Grands had to set up defensive barricades to try and stop the spiders from spreading. But even those don’t manage to starve the spiders since they just bring back the corpses of the soldiers defending against them as food.

If there’s any apocalyptic level problem in the universe, it’s the disaster systems. Places with mana creatures so strong they can’t be dealt with by anyone but a Horseman.

And that’s because the mana creatures have a different base Tier progression in these disaster systems than in other Hunter’s Spots.

Mana creatures in disaster systems tend to start out at Tier 6 at the very weakest. With there being thousands of Tier 10s across the disaster system.

But most importantly, there’s one special mana creature that rules each disaster system with a special designation Tier called Tier X.

The ruler of this particular disaster system is a spider the size of a sun. One that lives in a massive cocoon at the center of the disaster system.

Even the cocoon it lives in is denser than most materials found in nature. Tougher than an entire planet.

The only reason disaster systems like this one aren’t treated as apocalyptic level threats to the universe like Horsemen are is because the mana creatures have no intelligence. They’re just like animals, acting on instinct and defending their territory. Hunting to survive.

I actually can’t see the ruler’s cocoon from here through all of the cobwebs filling the solar system. And, if I’m being honest, I don’t really want to. Because this is a creature I may not actually get out of if I was swallowed for thousands of years.

Which would be annoying.

Anyway, Pestilence brings me to the outskirts of the disaster system. Where the spiders are at their weakest and the ruler is nowhere near.

Also, while the adult spiders are all over a hundred meters long at the minimum, the baby spiders are a different story. And there are millions of them all around us. So many that they pretty much block out my vision at some point.

They’re also known for cannibalizing themselves. But the moment we appear, they turn their attention towards us instead. No doubt wanting a meal.

“Open your court,” Pestilence declares before moving ahead of me a bit. So I do just that and open my Death’s Court all around us.

And Pestilence doesn’t waste any time at all as he spreads a thin, green smoke all around him. One created by his pestilence energy.

My eyes widen ever so slightly at the sight of the spiders when the smoke touches them. Because it’s… a rather gruesome sight.

The spiders start to melt.

Literally.

The poison – and I’m guessing it’s some sort of poison or acid – touches me as well and hurts quite badly. But since I’m used to pain, I just shrug it off, and eventually my body adjusts to it and heals before it can even do much of any damage.

More importantly, I immediately find messages flooding my vision like a tidal wave. With my Death’s Court expanding as more and more death energy fills it from the millions of spiders dying so rapidly that I begin to wonder if the System can even handle all of these messages.

[User has killed one being within Death’s Court. All Death Energy released upon death has been gathered. Requirements to reach level 601 have been updated. New requirements are as follows: 98143/500000000 beings have been granted Death.]

[User has killed one being within Death’s Court. All Death Energy released upon death has been gathered. Requirements to reach level 601 have been updated. New requirements are as follows: 98144/500000000 beings have been granted Death.]

…

[User has killed one being within Death’s Court. All Death Energy released upon death has been gathered. Requirements to reach level 601 have been updated. New requirements are as follows: 841495/500000000 beings have been granted Death.]

…

[User has killed one being within Death’s Court. All Death Energy released upon death has been gathered. Requirements to reach level 601 have been updated. New requirements are as follows: 4213015/500000000 beings have been granted Death.]

…

[User has killed one being within Death’s Court. All Death Energy released upon death has been gathered. Requirements to reach level 601 have been updated. New requirements are as follows: 7833146/500000000 beings have been granted Death.]

…

[User has killed one being within Death’s Court. All Death Energy released upon death has been gathered. Requirements to reach level 601 have been updated. New requirements are as follows: 31585234/500000000 beings have been granted Death.]

Yeah, this may be a few too many System Messages.

I wonder if I can turn them off somehow?

That would be nice.