CHAPTER 351: CHAPTER 351: STRINGS OF FATE

"Priya! Stop! You’re hurting them!" N’bayé raised her voice, unable to hide the concern in her tone.

She levitated above the mass of carcasses with different runes glowing on the exposed skin of her humanoid form.

"I...Can’t!" Priya said through gritted teeth. She was on her knees, grabbing her head due to the ungodly pain she was currently feeling inside her head.

Her words were followed by a thick wave of spirit energy which spread out within the blink of an eye, hitting every single creature on the bloody field at the same time.

The spirit wave resulted in thousands of creatures crying out in pain as they felt their souls being pressed and crushed by an unseen force.

Priya’s white dress was stained by the dry bloody ground as she knelt on the floor. Her hand, which grabbed her head, had blood trickling down from the space between her fingers.

She brought her hands down, revealing a face painted in blood and anguish as well as something interesting at the center of her head.

At some point, a vertical eye had formed at the center of her head between her two eyes.

This eye was grey and emotionless, calmly staring at everything in front of it with a gaze of curiosity.

N’bayé stared down in shock, not knowing how to handle this situation. They had all been resting after spending the whole day feeling their bellies with the flesh of the fallen when Priya suddenly screamed out in pain.

Her scream had brought almost all the creatures that were present on the bloody field to their knees, making it look like they were all bowing to her.

Even N’bayé, a tier 4 Lioness, had felt serious pain from Priya’s sudden outburst. She wondered what the cause was.

And now, she was seeing a third eye on Priya’s head, an organ that made her feel extremely uncomfortable just by looking at it.

Subconsciously, she and all the lionesses nearby looked away from the eye, unable to maintain eye contact. It felt like the eye was looking into their souls and seeing all their secrets.

Priya breathed in and out heavily as she came to terms with her new vision. From the moment the spirit eye opened, she had felt as if she had just achieved enlightenment.

The world was clearer, more vivid, and vibrant to her now. This level of clarity made her act uncomfortably calm despite the strangeness of the situation.

Her perspective of the world had changed entirely. She could see everyone, but she could also ’see’ herself.

Not just their physical bodies, her vision bypassed the material and fleshy caged, and looked at the souls.

She could see her soul, N’bayé’s soul, Nalii’s soul, Zabita’s soul, she could see the soul of every creature that fell within her line of gaze.

Just a glance and she was able to roughly glean some truths about the kind of person they were.

She glanced at N’bayé, looking at the ethereal soul resting within her body with a curious expression.

Priya looked like she was in a trance, like a whole new world was exposed to her.

She had known the existence of souls for some time but she had only been able to touch up on its secrets through the brain or mind.

Now, this Spirit Eye which seemingly came from nowhere gave her full access to the souls of others.

A wide set of abilities was now at Priya’s command, all she had to do was act.

"Priya! What happened?" N’bayé asked as she floated down to observe Priya closely.

Priya shook her head as she came out of the trance-like state. The Spirit Eye automatically closed, ridding Priya of her state of clarity.

"Priya, what’s wrong?" Diane asked.

Priya frowned, "I don’t know," She said truthfully, "I just felt connected to something..."

*RUMBLE!*

A tremor spread through the land at this point, causing some of the birds and distant vultures to instinctively fly into the sky.

The ground trembled as though the Earth was about to happen, but it never did.

Just then, Olivia looked in the direction of the Peach Valley, her eyes flashing with the power of Fortune.

"Kael..." She muttered to herself.

####

In the Leonine Heavenly Realm.

"What in heaven is going on?!" A thunderous voice echoed out through the multicolored void of the lion heaven.

That voice was just one of the millions to say the same thing.

A part of heaven was in distress at this moment as the Fortune Lions and Lionesses felt the disturbance of the civilization’s fortune.

Hundreds of thousands of fortune lions roared to the skies with angry expressions, shaking the very fabric of reality as they tried to stabilize the fortune of their race.

The scales were tilting fast and occasionally moving the other way. What was most frustrating for them was that they still couldn’t tell whether it was a good thing or not.

All they could do was try to stabilize it.

All they knew was that this was likely caused by the actions of the Primordial Lion wherever he was.

The Primordial Lion alone did not and should not have the power to affect the whole civilization at such a scale.

However, his actions could scale and cause a chain of events that no one could predict. It was this chain of events that the Strings of Fate Coalition has been trying to manage.

Some roared out loud in excitement, reveling in the knowledge that change was coming and it was coming with full force.

Others were weary, worried about the future.

So many factions were acting up and ancient lions were waking up from their slumber.

Lion Kings and their clans which had previously been neutral had begun to take sides. It was either that they were against the Primordial Lion, or supporting him.

At the forefront of these new factions were King Exalon and King Ma’abu.

The civil war was close, too close for comfort.

####

At the crumbling Peach Valley.

Pillars of lava burst into the sky, giving the world a red tinge that made it feel like walking into an apocalyptic event.

"AAAAARGH!*

Constantyne yelled with pure undiluted rage as he waved his way through the tall lava fountains, chasing after a golden blur.

The golden blur faded out of existence before appearing behind him in the form of a colossal golden lion.

This golden lion was more than five meters tall and absolutely massive. He swung his paws down, his long jagged claws tearing through the spatial fabric.

Constantyne, who was now a five-meter-tall, muscular blazing tiger met the paw strike with a blow of his own.

The shockwave momentarily dismantled the surrounding lava pillars.

Magic discs sped over from above and ice spikes ascended from below, all aiming to incapacitate the golden lion.

Space twisted, and the golden lion disappeared. However, the light of magic runes flashed at different places for multiple kilometers.

Spatial lock.

The golden lion appeared not too far away rn.his original position.

Half a second after he had appeared, a magic disc zoomed through his body, cutting him into two halves.

Alas, this was just an extremely realistic illusion. The golden lion faded away like he never existed at all.

Belgrod searched from above with a keen eye, hoping to find Kael.

Only for him to feel a suffocating killing intent behind him. He turned around, causing his gaze to lock with the Spirit Eye at the center of the lion’s head.

Belgrod was tossed into a world of darkness, his life flashed before his eyes. From his birth to his present time, every action that he made was shown to him.

He felt bare, truly naked.

"I DON’T REGRET IT, NONE!" Belgrod shouted as he desperately tried to stop himself from living his life all over again.

*BOOM!*

He was brought out of the soul hold to see Kael racing down with a layer of frost on his face.

He chased after Agatha with a fierce expression, determined to end her life by any means necessary.

Constantyne had already turned into a fiery comet, blazing his way toward the lion.

Barely a second had passed.

Belgrod’s experience after looking into the Spirit Eye had left him deeply confused and very uncomfortable. With the help of his Magus Intelligence, he deciphered what was happening and reacted promptly.

Ignoring his feelings of fear, he rushed down to chase after Kael, turning into a rainbow streak.

Time was running out.

The metal structure had already risen out of the ground it had been in for eons. The main body of the Arkship was becoming clearer and clearer amidst the chunks of rising earth.

The Peach Valley was gone.

They should be running, but rather they kept on fighting, edging closer and closer to capturing Kael.

The thought of their fates if Chloe was the one manning the Arkship now was a good reason to keep on fighting.

Kael was their insurance, and they wouldn’t let him go, even if they had to kill him.