CHAPTER 785: HERE SHE COMES

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Cedric was aware of what happened.

Ever since he learned that the Unstable Heavenly Domain was manifesting near his territory, he never lowered his guard. He was primed and ready to act whenever something happened.

Obviously, being this vigilant takes a toll on him, but if he didn’t do it, who would? Sure, he has people to command, but they’re not him. They can’t do the things he could, so he could only endure.

His vigilance was paying off, though, as it allowed him to discover what happened just now.

Once again, he was made aware of how risky Divination Laws were.

Travis was probably the most talented divination expert he had ever met, yet it’s also because of his skills that he’d become like this.

Peering into the future wasn’t easily permitted by the Supreme Will; it’s the reason why performing divination always had a price, weakness being the most common.

Insisting on seeking more future events scales the backlash to a dangerous level. Some people have died without leaving a corpse behind because of seeking too much.

And complications occur when one encounters an entity that is so powerful, they could sense and control their own past, present, and future. Similar to what happened to Travis just now.

Travis saw the Crimson Womb Mother when he peered into the future, but that wasn’t a one-way sighting because the progenitor of the Horde Race also saw him, and their meeting wasn’t a warm or kind one; it turned hostile real quick.

Cedric didn’t know what exactly happened. He couldn’t see what transpired between Travis and the Crimson Womb Mother during the ritual. And while he could technically follow the thread with his own limited divination skill, Cedric didn’t dare to do so, especially after seeing what happened to poor Travis.

But he didn’t need to see how it actually went down to know that it’s horrible.

Travis’ soul was badly hurt, and his longevity was leaking out of his body uncontrollably. Although the Supreme Will can do his, Cedric knows that it wasn’t the culprit this time. It’s the Crimson Womb Mother. She did this to him, and it’s horrible.

If nothing was done, Travis would rapidly age and die, and that is something that Cedric couldn’t allow to happen in his territory, especially not when Travis was clearly related to a councillor.

Travis was lucky that he’s unconscious right now because what Cedric needed to do to save him would be immensely painful.

He had to cauterize the wounds on his soul using spiritual fire. This was the only way to prevent his longevity and spiritual essence from spilling out of his vessel.

It’s common knowledge that any injury related to one’s soul was extremely difficult to heal. The soul is the most sacred and vulnerable part of one’s existence. Sure, as one’s life evolution advances, their soul also becomes stronger and sturdier. But the concept remains: the soul will always be vulnerable compared to the rest.

Cedric didn’t want to use this method either, but he had no other choice left, and he’s running out of time. Travis can’t die here.

Once again, he’s lucky that he’s unconscious right now; otherwise, he’d be screaming from the agony he had to endure with Cedric cauterizing the wounds on his soul.

Although this isn’t really the preferred method to save Travis now, don’t be mistaken; it takes a surprising level of skill to perform this.

Too much heat and flames will outright kill Travis; too little, and he’d just evaporate more of his longevity. Anything less than a Great Law of Fire at the peak of mastery won’t be sufficient to perform this skill.

Fortunately, that is not something that Cedric needs to be worried about.

After a long and agonizing hour, all the wounds on Travis’ soul had been cauterized. The remainder of his longevity was kept sealed and contained in his soul; he’s technically out of death’s grasp at this point, but by no means is he healed.

Travis’ soul is in agony from the operation. It pulsed, twitched, and flinched from everything it has to endure. More importantly, the aftermath of the abuse it suffered from the hands of the Crimson Womb Mother remains.

The chaotic and ominous clouds of misfortune still linger around Travis’ entire existence. Such is the terror of the Horde’s Sovereign.

Fortunately, this wasn’t a problem for Cedric.

If the Crimson Womb Mother were here in person, then maybe he wouldn’t have been able to do much. But if it’s just this, then it’s nothing he couldn’t handle.

With an exhale, his golden flames once again flared to life. The flames pulsed, filled to the brim with so much life and passion.

As the flames danced and coiled around Travis’ body, mind, and soul, the aftermath of the Crimson Womb Mother’s abuse and lingering resentment screeched in terror.

It’s like a bug being purged with infernal fire.

It tried to flee wherever it could, extremely terrified of Cedric’s golden flames. It tried to multiply itself, attacking Travis in multiple avenues, but it couldn’t have expected Cedric’s profound control over his flames.

He chased the fragments with his fire, pushing them and forcing them to reconvene as one. The lingering resentment was thinking too highly of itself if it thought it could outsmart Cedric in this little game of chase.

Surrounded and absolutely cornered, Cedric’s next move was to force it out of Travis’ body and completely purge it.

Once it’s gone, Travis will naturally heal on his own. He’d be unconscious for a long while, but it’s for his own good. The damage on his soul could be mended slowly using treasures and other materials.

He’d be safe and sound once this was over.

Alas, it seems that hoping for things to go this easily was just wishful thinking on Cedric’s part.

OOOMMM!!!

Because all of a sudden, a presence made itself known.

It’s a presence that did not hide and needed not to scream, roar, or even make a sound to be noticed or felt. It just needs to appear, and everybody will learn of its existence.

And its existence sends a deep-seated terror to everybody near it. One that is so profound that it might as well be called an existential crisis.

Cedric’s head whipped around, his eyes constricted and gleaming with profound light as his vision extended to its extreme, stretching outside of his domain and straight into the place where the origin of the presence was coming from.

"She’s here," he softly declared.

Though his words were uttered softly, with how she silenced the world with her presence, he might as well have screamed this.

Cedric didn’t dare to look at her for too long. Those people were there to entertain her. What matters to him right now is to focus on saving Travis.

Because of her appearance, the lingering resentment on Travis’ body that should’ve been easy to purge was strengthened. It fought back fiercely, occupying and claiming Travis’ soul as its home. It’s like somebody has injected it with steroids and pure adrenaline.

Cedric wasn’t surprised, though. After all, the source of this lingering resentment was here.

She, the Crimson Womb Mother, has appeared.

**

Many have speculated on what she would look like.

Some thought that she’d look monstrous, which is fair considering that she’s the progenitor of the Horde Race. They imagined her to be grotesque, large, and disgusting.

They thought that her body would be filled with bulbous growths, pustules that burst at any second, tentacles, and eggs...lots of eggs, ones that she creates out of thin air like they’re nothing.

And again, that’s fair. She was, after all, supposed to be the Bug Goddess. And her children all looked gross and disgusting; it’s safe to assume that she, as their mother, would look the same since she’s producing them.

However, reality was quite different from their assumptions.

The Crimson Womb Mother’s appearance couldn’t be further from the descriptions of ’terrifying,’ ’gross,’ or ’disgusting.’

She was drop-dead gorgeous. Sinfully, dreamily, and magically so beautiful that it’s a goddamn sin for her children to all look like that.

Her beauty was so enchanting that it could enslave anybody who stares at her for too long, and she wouldn’t even need to do anything for that.

Beyond that, she looked surprisingly like a human. The height, the shape, her features, even the way she dressed, walked, and breathed. Had her presence not been so terrifying and scary, nobody could’ve guessed that she’s the true sovereign of the Horde Race.

But whether this was her true appearance or not wasn’t important right now. That’s actually the least of humanity’s problems.

The main one being that she’s here, right inside their territory.

The True Sovereign of the Horde Race, the Crimson Womb Mother—she who’s just a step away from becoming a Primal Origin Lifeform—was here, waltzing in like she owned this place.

Every measure that the Human Council used to stop her failed. And not because they didn’t work.

It’s because they missed one tiny creature who slipped in between gaps, and this same tiny creature had become the door that allowed her to waltz in, bypassing every defense line humanity ever built on their borders.

"Well done, child. I knew I wasn’t wrong about you." Her cold yet extremely seductive voice softened a bit as she caressed the tiny bug-like creature on her bosom.