At first, An Fei did not feel anything peculiar regarding her body.
The fatigue encountered by an anemic physique was washed away the instant she entered the Sanctum, and An Fei had not harmed her body in any form, nor had she raised any concerns regarding her current status.
The young girl could only stare at the two floating weapons in deep thought, her countenance blank and uncertain.
She was not aware of the unusual circumstances encroaching onto her body, nor did the palace of sky-blue crystal wish to allow her to become privy to the information.
When the scarlet dragon within her Yin Heel Vessel swung back its head and released a long, soundless roar, the young girl could only remember a single statement.
Fear me, for I am the envoy of death.
The sentence throbbed at the depths of her soul, and An Fei felt her mind become paralyzed by a torrential flood of fear, cold, and a subtle familiarity.
The young girl’s heart quickened its pulse to shock the mind back into clarity, but soon found itself gazing upon a cold and unconscious owner.
Scraa!
With long and slow motions accompanied by bloodcurdling and gruesome sounds as the young girl’s body contorted and writhed on the ground, the scarlet dragon extricated itself from An Fei’s leg.
The mythical creature of pale scarlet light gripped upon the young girl’s leg as it wrenched the final segments of its tail from the smooth skin, before sweeping an impassive glance towards the interior of the armory.
The array of weaponry releasing a supernova of multicolored light simultaneously flickered with disdain towards its newcomer, the previously undiscernible and discomforting mixture of sensations coalescing into a unified blade that chopped towards the scarlet dragon coiled in the air.
Roar!
The dragon seethed with anger as it brandished its claws towards the incoming cleaver of light descending towards its skull, its head flared back to express its rage.
The crimson scales flickered with an unusual light of azure and violet, daring to directly contend against the armory of the Sanctum.
The atmosphere of the Sanctum quivered at the impact, and the dragon’s body was hurled against the walls of sky-blue crystal walls.
The sea of weaponry vibrated with contempt as the mighty and imposing dragon with crimson scales slid down the crystalline walls as though it were nothing more than a defeated slime, the sea of light swirling and coiling around the scarlet dragon’s tail and claws to pin it against the ground.
The dragon’s tail slapped against the ground in a frenzied attempt to break past the shackles of multicolored light, but found itself unable to move even a single scale.
Furthermore, a thin awl had even detached itself from its holster in the wall, and the lethal tip of its spike was aimed directly towards the delicate skin underneath the scarlet dragon’s inverse scale.
At this moment, the dragon’s aged and violent heart had been chilled with a thorough sense of horror and grave danger.
Burning the remainder of the instantaneously stored divine essence within its physique, the dragon reared its head and howled at the top of its lungs.
“The Gate of Death wishes to rebel against its envoy!?”
The holstered weapons hummed with an unrecognizable pitch as they abruptly halted their act of executing the scarlet dragon, though their lethal edges and points were aimed towards the mythical creature’s weaknesses.
Just as the dragon’s eyes shook with a deep-rooted trauma and fear, a thread of golden light swept past the interior of the armory to rest atop the unconscious young girl’s head.
The moment the golden thread manifested into existence, the weapons of the armory returned to their holsters without a single act of dissent, save for the chosen weapons that An Fei had arranged upon the crystalline ground.
As the light constricting its limbs vanished, the scarlet dragon soared into the air to stretch its aching muscles, only to hear an archaic voice smashing onto its soul.
“You may be an envoy of the Gate of Death, but only an envoy. Do not overreach beyond your limits and presume your importance – the Sanctuary of Eternal Peace has far better selections for the envoy of death than a lizard newt as you!”
The voice was harsh and wilted, as though it belonged to an old man whose vitality had withered beyond its tolerable limits. The words themselves were spoken with a crackling tone, and appeared to have been spoken in a fit of desperation – not unlike that of the scarlet dragon’s cry.
And yet, the mythical creature with scarlet scales did not dare refute the old voice’s veracity, and meekly cowed its head.
Returning to the ground and coiling itself next to An Fei’s body, the scarlet dragon pondered in thought for a long period of time.
“As an envoy, I have followed the Sanctuary for as long as I can remember,” the creature muttered in a musing demeanor.
“However, this… this does not conform to my expectations, nor does it cater to my requirements. The scarlet dragon is subservient to the Sanctum of Eternal Peace, but not a fragment of a Shattered Soul.”
The golden light atop An Fei’s head flickered incessantly for several breaths of time, and the old man’s voice rang forth for the second time.
Nonetheless, though it was suffused with the vicissitudes of time and carried forth a tinge of desolation and resolve, the archaic voice was similarly unconfident.
“That… is still the Sanctum of Eternal Peace, even if it may be a small fragment. Do not forget the devastation the Sanctuary can bring if even a tiny shard of its owner’s soul is present.”
“And if I fail to accomplish my duty as an envoy?” the dragon uttered in a wary tone.
The golden light arose from the young girl’s head, prompting the weapons to arise from their holsters to deliver a powerful salute.
The thread of light flitted towards the door leading into the first corridor of the Sanctum, before turning around to face the scarlet dragon.
A powerful, archaic aura that reeked of the primordial corruption that befell the beginning of time washed over the mythical creature, and the old man’s voice echoed in its eardrums without a shred of mercy.
“Then you should retire; the Nephilim has long since wished to achieve your position. Do not disappoint the Sanctuary with dismal efforts.”
With that, the thread vanished from sight, and the armory returned to its usual state of an intermingled tranquility and chaos.
The scarlet dragon lowered its head into a deep bow of respect, fear rushing through its heart as it glanced towards the collapsed figure of the young girl besides its tail.
The petite and delicate figure was one that could snap with a brush of his scales… though the Sanctum’s previous manifestation was no different.
“The duty of an envoy…”
…and that darned black little creature, the one that couldn’t decide on which physical appearance to take…
The scarlet dragon sighed as it curled its claws to provide itself a temporary peace of mind. The mythical creature lowered its head to the ground, approaching the weapons that An Fei had arranged and sorted prior.
[Absorb]!
A song of death and sorrow, keen with the edges of the battlefield and blood, resounded throughout the armory of the Sanctum, the atmosphere swamped with a thorough layer of scarlet light.
The dragon continued to sing as its claws reached forth to examine each weapon placed onto the ground with an unusual expression, its eyes not daring to close for even a fraction of a second.
The sea of light emitting from the weapons holstered into the wall receded to allow the flood of scarlet to wash over the swords placed on the ground, coating each of the weapons’ blades with a dense aura of malevolence and violence.
The handle-less sword and dagger were no exception, as the rivers of scarlet light pulled the weapons onto the ground to receive their baptism.
The song of death intensified as the dragon gathered its claws towards its chest, a golden ember expanding from its central scale to cover the rest of the dragon’s body. The ember was placed onto the ground at the center of the weapon’s arrangement, and the stone blazed with a radiant light that immersed itself into the sea of scarlet.
The weapons surrounding the stone all emitted a pale glow of golden light, their hilts engraving themselves with the insignia of a coiled dragon with scarlet ink.
The tang reveled at the stench of blood overcoming its core, and the channels of the swords surged with vitality and a virulent desire.
The sea of scarlet light pulsed as the dragon commanded it to recede and compress into the weaponry, engraving a secondary set of inscriptions onto the blades.
The weapons trembled as rivulets of scarlet light poured into their core structures, their blades accompanying the scarlet dragon in its song of death.
The mythical creature sighed as it couldn’t help but stare at An Fei’s slumped figure with a forlorn sigh, its expression unsightly to the maximum.
Recalling its experiences of the past, the scarlet dragon shrank its body as it returned to the Yin Heel Vessel without a further noise of complaint – though its reentry was no less gruesome and creepy than its glorious entrance.
This was one of the duties of an envoy of the Sanctuary of Eternal Peace and Tranquility – though the scarlet dragon did not know whether confining itself in a young girl’s meridian was any better than bottling itself into a small glass vial.
Was there a safer route to retirement than relinquishing its position to the accursed Nephilim?
When could he gain the opportunity to apply for labor protection rights from the Tianzun Imperial Court?
