Galaxy's First Ruler

Screee-eee-echhh!!!

It was like the cry of a bird, seeing the blade of the butcher.

Except for the Golden Luan's agonising screech, there was no other sound of contact between the gigantic foot and its back. The claws that were targeted at the face of the Ancestral Divine Spirit, Vritra, missed their target. The back of the Golden Luan caved, and a deafening crunch resounded throughout the surrounding space of the planet.

CRUNCHH!!

The Golden Luan craned its neck up, and its beak pointed towards heaven. And with incredible might, it flapped its wings to resist this sudden pressure along with another cry.

Screeeechh!!!

Under it, the Vritra brought its head back thousands of miles into its coils, waiting for the chance to lunge at the Golden Luan. But the foot, which seemed like it would slam the mythical creature's spirit onto the planet, didn't stay there for long.

Tathagata World Ending Footprint wasn't a kick. It was what it meant, a footprint. The back of the Golden Luan was another earth for this foot, and it never meant to stay at one place for long. Just when everyone was coming out of their shock, the foot lifted its weight and disappeared with the same mystery with which it had appeared.

But the deed had already been done.

Aldrich extended his hand, and the Pillar of Footprints came running to it. The golden rings around his white-pupils vanished, and the Black Bull engraving on the Ancient Relic dimmed. If this tattoo like Bull's image was drawn from thick black paint, it now looked like a watered-down paint, lacking thickness.

Sigh!

Aldrich knew the moment this Bull's image disappeared, the secret techniques would become unusable. And although an Ancient Relic was much more than its techniques, Aldrich won't be able to use it to challenge Dreamers ranked higher than him.

'Any moment now…'

Aldrich thought and looked up. The golden sky had lost its majestic feeling, and the Golden Luan struggled to flap its wings. The way it kept thrashing its beak from one side to another told Aldrich the foot had seriously crippled the spirit's spine.

Hisssssssss!!!

"Ugh!"

Aldrich pressed his forehead with his left hand and let out a grunt. The hissing sound was like chaotic mumblings in his mind which even the skill Serpent-Slither couldn't make sense of. And through his squinted eyes, Aldrich saw Vritra opening its mouth and the fangs, which seemed even taller than the Everlasting Tower.

A toxic fog came out of its mouth, and before the Golden Luan could regain its senses, like a spring, it lunged at its neck.

Ktchh!!!

Scree… eee…!

It was as if someone had plunged knives into the meat. Vritra's venomous fangs bit down on Golden Luan's neck and before it could let out a painful screech, Vritra coiled itself around its entire body.

'This… yes… this is the scene. Something should happen now… Something must happen now.'

Aldrich's eyes were like that of a beast, more heinous than Vritra, and crueler than the Devil. The moment he made sure that this scene was the same as that of that prophecy, he knew something must happen at this moment. Otherwise, nothing would make sense. Neither the prophecy nor his planning.

As the two spirits entangled, the Dukes finally seeing a chance, again bombarded them with many Skills. It was like many mini suns and moons were exploding in the space like a firework at a grand scale. But except for doing minor damage, these Skills couldn't do much. None of them were extravagant enough to use Ancient Relics' Secret Techniques for something they weren't sure of getting their hands on.

Only Aldrich was frugal enough to not think about these things. For him, the present mattered the most. If he could get his hands on a part of these spirits, even losing the Ancient Relic would have been worth it.

'What's going on...'

Aldrich gritted his teeth, and his heart kept pumping blood more than it should have. As he saw the Golden Luan's Divine Spirit becoming less and less real, he knew the time was running out. Summoning an Ancestral Spirit differed from summoning Skills of RECORD. Unlike the Summon of RECORD, this summoning of Spirit couldn't be cancelled.

Whenever the Spirit thought its work was done, it could vanish as per its desire. Or if it thought its existence was in danger, like now.

'Come on…'

Nothing.

'Damn it… where is it…'

Nothing.

"WHERE ARE YOU… KING!!!"

Aldrich let out a shout, even though none knew better than him the meaning of saying; Be careful what you wish for.

The golden hue of the sky was becoming dark green as countless green veins like humongous rivers appeared on the Golden Luan's neck. And just as Aldrich thought this Spirit, which had consumed one of his secret techniques, would disappear, the world bulged towards him.

It wasn't just him, every being on the planet, and even the Dukes saw the world bulging towards them. It was as if all the space was nothing but a piece of cloth, and someone was poking it with a finger from the other side. Just as it seemed the space couldn't hold it anymore, it burst apart.

BOOOM!!!

Howling spatial winds and purple-black colored thunder came raging out of the countless fissures. But the first to react wasn't Aldrich, it was the Dukes. They were like the hyenas who had seen the Lion coming for the prey. Within the first breath of this space rupture, all of them broke into the Void and ran off.

Aldrich looked at this fissure's size in front of which even the Divine Spirits were like ants. His heart thumped with anticipation, but what came out was just a point of light. It was like a satellite on Earth's night sky, which children thought to be a moving star. This point of light was blurry and lacked the might of an object which could have created the fissure it came out of.

As Aldrich's widened eyes stared at this ordinary point of light, going towards the spirits, he got to know the significance of the prophecy. If it weren't for him making the Golden Luan weak and letting the Vritra lunge at it, this point of light's target would have been only Boudicca's Divine Spirit.

Hahahaha!

Aldrich let out a laugh and shouted.

"Sha… let's go."

A blackish hand, with sharp nails, came out of his shadow and, grabbing his ankle, pulled him in.