Crimson Eternal - Book 6 - Chapter 26 (Patreon)

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Table of Contents

Click the following link for the 1395 word chapter 26:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tZl8tbE9wroVsoEQZmV1tA7UBfDbqEkZprDWadlNmQU/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

Aria

“What the fuck is this?” I mutter as I stare blankly at my café after arriving on Eternus a few days after relaxing on Vortel with Ruby and Ryan.

My first time relaxing with the kids in ages, and this is what I return to when I go to check on my café? Whatever this is.

It’s not even just my café. Everywhere on Eternus is like this.

Everyone is sick, so my café is completely empty with the exception of a couple people wheezing away wearing masks. Meanwhile the streets outside are completely empty of people with only a few exceptions. All of whom are also wearing masks.

What’s worse is that their sickness seems to be growing more and more severe by the day. And it’s apparently spread across the entire universe.

Including several of the planets I own. Not to mention several of the cafes I own.

I feel my face shifting bit by bit for the first time in a long time. As genuine irritation begins to form.

But it doesn’t take long before that irritation turns into anger.

Specifically when I go to the back to find some of the poison and virus particles filled with pestilence energy entering my wine. Some of the wine I’ve been saving for countless years.

Completely ruining the wine in the process.

I even taste test the wine to make sure that it’s ruined. And the flavor was completely destroyed.

A flavor I’ve been carefully letting develop for centuries is ruined.

“What the absolute fuck is this?!” I exclaim, startling the few patrons at the café in the process.

It’s obvious who did this, considering the poison and viruses polluting everywhere I look. And the little crusade the Grands had against Pestilence just days ago.

I feel my fist clenching at my side as I glare at the ruined wine for several seconds. Then I open a Gate to the Plane of Death and immediately move towards Zero before asking, “Please tell me how to enter the Plane of Pestilence.”

Zero looks surprised for a brief moment before immediately creating a Gate leading to a place filled to the brim with pestilence energy. So much pestilence energy that it reminds me of the Plane of Death.

There isn’t quite as much pestilence energy in there as there is death energy in the Plane of Death, but it’s still easily enough that it’s obvious where this Gate leads to.

“We death spirits may not be able to freely enter the mortal realm, but other spirit planes are a different matter,” Zero states, the Grand Death Spirit not taking her eyes off of the Gate as she speaks. And she looks just as angry as me for some reason.

I don’t really care why though. I just enter the Gate without a word with Zero following after me. Then En and Zwei follow as well, appearing out of nowhere at some point to join us.

The three Grand Death Spirits immediately overwhelm the pestilence energy filling the Plane of Pestilence due to their sheer power. Since the Grand Death Spirits are far more powerful than the Grand Pestilence Spirits.

Even after I see two Grand Pestilence Spirits arriving, the energy of the Grand Death Spirits completely overwhelm them without question. To the point that the Grand Pestilence Spirits look genuinely afraid.

I glare at the Grand Pestilence Spirits as I state, “Bring out Pestilence. Now.”

The Grand Pestilence Spirits look troubled for a moment before one of them vanishes. And just a few second later, he returns with Pestilence, who currently looks very annoyed. But the moment he sees the anger clear on my face, his irritation turns to confusion.

“Your pestilence is ruining the business at my cafes, and more importantly, it’s ruining the wine I’ve been aging for centuries,” I state while glaring at him. “Stop this bullshit right now and give me new wine to compensate my losses.”

Pestilence looks genuinely stunned into silence after hearing my demands. Then, after several seconds of silence, he eventually turns to the Grand Pestilence Spirits and asks, “Is this your doing?”

The Grand Pestilence Spirits both nod their heads while kneeling on the ground before answering simultaneously, “Yes, Lord Pestilence. The mortals are being punished for their actions against you.”

I narrow my eyes, only to feel slightly surprised when Pestilence states, “Then stop. Now.” He turns to face me again. “This has already been an unwanted interruption. I don’t want further interruptions.”

My anger begins to calm down a little now that I hear he is telling them to stop. But I still need that compensation.

“You may have whatever wine you find in my vault as compensation so long as you leave afterwards,” Pestilence declares while turning around and beginning to walk towards a large castle in the distance. “Follow me to the vault.”

A lot of the rest of my anger calms down after hearing his words. Enough that my eyes finally turn towards his missing arm.

Huh. It’s still missing.

I would’ve thought he’d have regrown it by now, considering all of the different chemicals he has to experiment with.

Although the part where it was cut off and cursed does look less grotesque than it did before. So he’s probably part-way through healing.

Anyway, I follow him to the castle, then to a large vault within it. And my anger vanishes the moment I smell some incredibly nice wine inside of the vault.

This wine… smells incredible.

I rush to follow the smell before I find a large section full of barrels of wine. Not to mention numerous wine glasses mixed in. And they’re all incredibly old and famous wines from hundreds of thousands of years ago. Ones thought lost.

Without hesitation, I begin swiping all of the wine here into my storage ring one after another. Not bothering with being considerate as I do so.

I take every last bottle, glass, and barrel here.

He did say that I could take it all, after all. So I’m taking it all.

There’s enough to last me for decades if not centuries.

Which is kinda weird. I’m not actually sure why he has so much wine here.

Maybe he used wine at one point for his experiments? Alcohol is technically a poison, after all. So that could be it.

I don’t really care at the end of the day. It’s all mine now.

With that in mind, I finish taking everything before casually walking around the Plane of Pestilence. Just taking in the sights a little bit. Since I’ve never been in any other plane before besides the Plane of Void. If I remember correctly, that is.

It doesn’t take me long to realize that there isn’t exactly much to see in the Plane of Pestilence, though. It’s just Pestilence Spirits for as far as the eye can see, along with this one enormous castle.

And all of the Pestilence Spirits are cowering in fear of the Grand Death Spirits following me around everywhere. They also don’t look particularly pleased about the death energy encroaching on the Plane of Pestilence. Which is happening because the Plane of Death is far superior to the Plane of Pestilence in power and energy.

Something tells me the death energy will continue to encroach on the Plane of Pestilence until the Grand Death Spirits leave and the Gate connecting the two closes. But it doesn’t have anything to do with me, so I’m just gonna explore Pestilence’s castle while I’m here.

So I do just that, spending a few hours just exploring his castle until I get bored. Then I finally leave the Plane of Pestilence, returning to the Plane of Death with the Grand Death Spirits in tow. And after spending a little while in the Plane of Death just talking with the Grand Death Spirits and thanking them for their help, I head back to my café. At which point I find all of the viruses and poisons in the air completely cleared.

Nice.

Unfortunately, the wine I was aging is still ruined. But it’s fine now that I have significantly better wine than before from Pestilence’s personal stock.

So I just happily hum to myself while heading over to my favorite seat to begin trying some of the new wine.