Strings Of Domination

Atop the great mountain from where everything was visible beneath, Amael stood with a straight back at the edge of the cliff, his deep crimson eyes that shone like two pairs of rubies scanned everything in the distance with a silent but sharp gaze.

Behind him, Crimson Wings stood with a stiff body, his gaze watching the proud and wide back of Amael's without daring to utter a single world in fear he would offend him or make him angry.

Time passed relatively slowly and in stillness. The wind blew from time to time from all directions, filling the lungs of the two with fresh air that made their minds calmer while making their seemingly tense muscles relax a little.

"Hm?" after remaining silent for close to half an hour, Amael's gaze suddenly turned toward the east and his eyes narrowed slightly.

"L-Lord Amael? Have you noticed something?" with a tiny bit of nervousness, Crimson Wings took a step forward to get a better look into the distance and followed the direction where Amael was looking at. However, except for the green scenery that lay everywhere, he saw nothing in particular hence why he asked his question.

Amael didn't speak and only stared quietly into the distance. Only when a slightly stronger breeze appeared from the west which blew the crimson hair of Amael's did Amael frown slightly and ask, "Which team is currently at the far east?"

"The far east?" Crimson Wing's brows lowered into a small frown upon hearing those words, but still took out a device from the pocket on his side and glanced at it.

"According to my information, it should be Team 21."

"Team 21?" Amael raised a brow and asked, "That is the weakest team out of the rest, right?"

"Yes, Lord Amael. Because that team only consist only two individual, one of them even having the weakest records compared to the rest, I have decided to make them search further away from the possible zone where the escapees could possibly hide."

After saying those words, Crimson Wings felt something was not quite right, thus raising his head he asked carefully, "If I may ask, why is this so important?"

"Because Team 21 has been decimated right at this very moment."

"What?!" Crimson Wings yelled up with shock and snapped his head toward the eastern direction.

"But how? Did they encounter a strong beast?"

"They didn't." Amael shook his head, his gaze still fixed on the spot in the distance where he felt the two weak presences suddenly vanish just now.

"Then how? Should I send the closest team there for investigation?" Crimson Wings asked with a slightly anxious tone of voice. It was obvious he felt worried as it could be said Team 21 had been annihilated because of him, because of his decision to send them there instead of another team with a stronger overall power.

However, just as he thought Amael would respond with a nod, he watched as the expression of the one before he turned stiff once again and shifted his gaze slightly to the right.

'Don't tell me...' Crimson Wing's face paled, feeling as though his heart was squeezed by an invisible hand all of a sudden.

"The closest unit to Team 21 was Team 13 and Team 19, right? Each has a total of four Infant Rank fighters."

Upon hearing Amael's question Crimson WIng glanced at the device in his hand and nodded.

"I see," Amael hummed quietly and without saying anything else vanished from his spot and appeared several miles away, at the exact spot where he has last felt a strange energy fluctuation in the air.

"Lord Amael!" after a few seconds later, Crimson Wing's figure emerged in the sky with his wings spread wide, descending quickly when he finally spotted Amael among the dense woods.

However, the very moment he landed next to Amael and wished to say something, his expression froze and his eyes widened by the sight that emerged before him.

"What... What happened here?" Crimson Wings muttered quietly, sucking in a mouthful of cold air.

Blood and organs splattered everywhere, shredded body parts lying on the ground in small pieces while some in bigger segments hung from the branches of the trees on the sides. The air was filled with the smell of iron and the whole scenery was akin to hell where a brutal slaughter have taken place without any sign of mercy!

As Crimson Wings looked at the nightmarish scenery, suddenly Amael walked before a piece of sliced hand that lay in a huge pond of blood and picked it up.

"L-Lord Amael?" Crimson Wings felt confusion, but before he could have thought anything Amael threw the cut limb back into the pond of blood and shifted his gaze toward the north.

"To think his power has grown this much already," Amael muttered and quickly said, "Go and order all teams to unite into squads and raise their guards higher."

"U-Understood!" Crimson Wings feeling the heavy atmosphere around Amael didn't dare to ask any questions and without hesitation took off into the distance.

When his figure was no longer visible, Amael shifted his eyes into a specific direction before he vanished and reappeared hundreds of meters away.

"Argh! Fuck this! Why can't we kill it? What kind of beast is this?"

"M-My arms! H-Help me! Please, help m-"

Swish!

Watching as three Sky Beasts were slaughtered and shredded into pieces in a single second by a beast that had six tails and was formed out of black solidified smoke, Amael frowned.

'An Evolved Beast? No wonder why ordinary Infant Ranks stood no chance against it.' Amael thought in his heart and summoned a silver sword into his grasp, swinging it horizontally at the beast.

Swish! Swish! Swish!...

In a flash, ten crescent sword arcs materialized in the air that cut the beast into numerous pieces, rendering its previous form into nothing but a dense cloud of black smoke! However, not even a second later, the black smoke started to move and twist, melting back into the earliest shape of the creature without showing any sign of the previous attack!

"Truly an annoying ability." Amael narrowed his eyes when he saw this and watched as the creature glared at him coldly before dashing into the distance with the obvious idea to hunt more.

"I don't believe you can regenerate infinitely!" Amael sneered coldly and without wasting any more time he began to chase after the beast, his sword swinging and cutting its body into parts in flashes.

However, it turned out his attempts were useless and he overly underestimated the beast's regeneration capability. No matter if he cut into thousands of pieces or simply sliced into halves, the creature didn't slow down even for a second and continued to run through the forest with great speed.

Of course, such a speed which was slightly faster than those in the middle phase of the Warrior Rank was nothing for Amael, who already reached the peak of the Warmaster Rank and was easily able to keep up with it.

No, what irritated Amael and what made his expression darker with each second was that the beast completely ignored him and even went to slay his men one by one!

Thousand Bloods and Sky Beasts. Let it be at the Infant Rank or Warrior Rank, all of them were killed without much difference and chance to react before getting shredded into pieces by the beast's tails!

"Can it really regenerate infinitely?" Amael wondered in his heart and was ready to move his sword once again when suddenly a small explosion together with an almost imperceptible tremor carrying a different presence appeared in the far distance.

"This..." Amael halted his chase and without thinking even for a second longer vanished from his spot and reappeared several miles away.

"L-Lord Amael... Please help m-" lying on the ground with shattered armor and a deformed right hand from where the bone was piercing out at the spot where the elbow should be located, Crimson Wings seeing Amael's figure looked slightly ecstatic before his words were silenced brutally.

Whoosh!

BAM!

With a great explosion that shattered the ground and created a powerful ripple in the air, Crimson Wings' head exploded into bits like a watermelon as it was stepped on by a young and seemingly handsome boy carrying an emerald longsword on his back.

His face was indifferent even though he just extinguished a living being's life, his blue eyes holding a hint of coldness that gradually began to form into the small seed of killing intent while his posture stood straight and proudly as if he was the king of all!

Amael examined the human in front of him with narrowed eyes, completely ignoring the fact that just now he could have saved one of his subordinates from the grip of death.

Feeling the piercing stare on his skin, Nash who just killed Crimson Wings as though he was just a mere ant shifted his gaze to the side and showed an arrogant smile at Amael.

"For a being at the Warmaster Rank, you are pretty slow," Nash said coldly and pressed his leg deeper into the smashed head of Crimson Wings, smashing the remaining piece of skull and brain matter below his feet even more.

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A/N: Hope you liked it! Make sure to vote for more!

Stay safe! <3