Destined Not to Obtain It

The Sky Beast of the Xilong family, and the Burrowing Demon Worm of the Hosen family.

Two kindred mythical lives had followed different paths of evolution. Now they clashed without restraint in the God-Descended City, as though determined to prove which of them had taken the true path.

The two overlord-class monsters terrified the people of the God-Descended City. Thousands upon thousands poured from their homes, carrying whatever they could as they fled for the open country beyond the walls.

"The south side's blocked!" someone shouted. Crowds surged through the southern quarter. Before the gates, people were trampled underfoot and armed clashes erupted.

"Quick... hurry north!" Someone wheeled around and ran the other way.

"The monsters have blocked the city! We can't get through. We can't!" One look back revealed the Ruhe Beasts locked in savage battle in the middle of the main road.

"God, is this the punishment You have sent down upon us?" Before a shattered street, someone knelt clutching the bodies of their kin and wept without end.

"Volcano Kingdom, I curse every one of you..."

"Why did the divine ever give us monsters like these? Why do such terrible things exist at all?" It never occurred to them that the divine had granted the Ruhe Beasts in the hope that the trilobite men would use them to build cities and carve out a homeland of their own.

The God-Given Land, Yesael City, the God-Descended City. One after another, every city had been built by the Ruhe Beasts.

The trilobite men themselves had turned that power toward slaughtering their own kind.

Struggling masses choked every city gate, while weeping, wailing, and roaring rang ceaselessly through the streets.

The Burrowing Demon Worm ripped through the earth and leapt. Its jaws clamped onto the low-drifting Sky Beast and tore away a vast sheet of membrane. Thick, half-translucent blood rained from the sky.

Whoosh!

The Sky Beast spat out a howling wind as hundreds upon hundreds of tentacles coiled around the Burrowing Demon Worm, keeping it from burrowing back into the earth and dragging it out of the ground.

The Burrowing Demon Worm thrashed its enormous body, smashing everything on the surface to powder.

Boom, boom, boom!

Locked in their struggle, the two Ruhe Beasts carried the battle into the Yesael Palace itself.

A vast section of the ancient, magnificent palace collapsed in an instant. Even the stone tablet bearing the legal code Yesael had erected long ago shattered into several pieces amid the fighting.

Weishi Hosen, prince of the Volcano Kingdom, cared nothing for whether the city's common people lived or died, much less for the palace King Yesael had built.

The Royal Bloodline families held sharply divided views of King Yesael. Some worshipped him utterly. Others would not spare him a glance.

The palace King Yesael had built disappeared within a cloud of dust more than ten meters high.

Star Luo Queen saw it, and the Sky Beast faltered for an instant.

Rage overwhelmed her.

As the Sky Beast drew in and expelled the howling wind, a voice issued from its mouth. The queen's fury rang undisguised in every word.

"Hosen family, you have destroyed the palace King Yesael left behind, a great relic of Yinsai."

"Are you still one of Yinsai's people? Can you still call yourself a descendant of King Redlichia?"

Weishi Hosen gave a contemptuous snort. "Was it not your Xilong family that ended the Yesael family's rule all those years ago? Why this hollow performance now?"

"Who killed King Eli? Who brought the Yinsai Kingdom to ruin?"

"You did!"

"The Xilong family."

"Hahahaha! Do you still imagine you inherited this God-Descended City by right? Did the Yesael family simply hand you this palace?"

Without the least hesitation, Weishi Hosen dredged up the old events of those years. His laughter carried across the whole of the God-Descended City.

The prince felt no reverence for that ancient king. His own ancestor, after all, had been another of King Redlichia's children.

"Better it be gone."

"The King of Yinsai is long gone. What purpose does this palace serve now?"

The Burrowing Demon Worm bit through one of the Sky Beast's tentacles after another, while the Sky Beast's sharp tentacles drove repeatedly into the worm's body, opening one terrible wound after another in its flesh.

The savage battle looked like a struggle to the death.

Yet both kept their eyes fixed on the fleeing crowd below. The lord of the God-Descended City, the high priest of the Yinsai Temple, and a large force of guards were shielding a young man with a bone tablet clasped in his arms.

Even while locked in that straining grapple, the Burrowing Demon Worm fought desperately to reach them.

The Sky Beast's tentacles held the Burrowing Demon Worm fast, refusing to let it follow.

At last, the Sky Beast released its grip.

Seizing its chance, the Burrowing Demon Worm bored into the earth and closed on the group from below.

Before the Burrowing Demon Worm could surface again, the Sky Beast glided over. Sweeping low across the earth, it opened its enormous mouth.

"Come up!"

The wind rushing into the Sky Beast's mouth swept the people up and swallowed them into its body.

Wrapping them within its air sacs, the Sky Beast drifted skyward.

In a direct clash, neither beast could overcome the other.

One could fly into the sky, while the other could burrow into the earth.

This battle was different. They were fighting over the Final Chapter left by the great poet Tito, and victory belonged to whichever side seized it first.

Fused with the Burrowing Demon Worm, Weishi Hosen burst from the ground and watched the Sky Beast rise into the heights.

He knew he had lost.

The Sky Beast had reclaimed its people and taken Tito's bone tablet with them.

Yet the Sky Beast did not leave. Its tentacles stretched farther and farther, lashing at the Burrowing Demon Worm.

Held in place by brute force, Weishi Hosen sensed danger. A thought flashed through his mind, and he immediately guessed what was coming.

"No!"

"The Sky Temple's second beast is coming."

Seven Ruhe Beasts existed in all. The Star Luo Kingdom, the Samo Kingdom, and the Volcano Kingdom each held two, while the weakest, the Sele Kingdom, held only one.

The thought had barely formed when Weishi Hosen abandoned any notion of staying.

He drove the Burrowing Demon Worm beneath the earth at once. Leaving behind a terrible pit and a hollow cavern, it vanished without the slightest trace.

Tens of kilometers from the God-Descended City, the Burrowing Demon Worm burst from a barren stretch of desert. At the prince's command, the flesh wrapped around him loosened, and he climbed down step by step to the ground.

Tito Town lay nearby, the prosperous town visible in the distance from the high ground.

Gazing toward distant Tito Town, Weishi Hosen drew out his bone tablet.

The joy he had felt upon first obtaining it had been wild. Now his bitterness ran just as deep.

"In the end, have I gained anything at all? Or have I only lost?"

That line rose again in Weishi Hosen's mind. "It is fated. You will never have it either."

He found himself murmuring along with the memory, and each repetition drove the hatred three parts deeper into his bones.

"It is fated. I will never have it either."

"It is fated. I will never have it either."

"..."

His hatred for the dead man who had spoken those words knew no bounds. Never had he hated anyone so deeply or heard words so venomous.

"Damn it!"

"You damned thing. This is all your fault."

"All your fault!"

Yet all his rage and madness could change nothing.

Dejected, he turned and started down the road away from that place.

He could already foresee what awaited his return. There would be no cheers and no glory, only wave after wave of derision and mockery.

"Star Luo Kingdom. This is not over."