The Black Swamp That Devoured the Hosen Family

Built against the mountainside, the royal capital of the Volcano Kingdom climbed upward like a vast flight of stairs.

The higher one's rank, the higher one lived. At the summit rose a magnificent palace, a succession of towering ancient castles, and the old stone lighthouse.

A hideous and terrifying Ruhe Beast sprawled above the crater, the Lava Monster.

This was the Volcano Kingdom's second Ruhe Beast. It symbolized the power of lava and of the volcano, and it represented the Volcano Kingdom and the Hosen family alike.

The creature served them just as the Sky Beast served the Xilong family of the Sky Temple.

At that moment, the king was in the forbidden indoor garden amid Sun Cups in full bloom. Several of his sons had joined him. As generals of his army, they were discussing the war against the Star Luo Kingdom.

"The Star Luo Kingdom dares not deploy its great beast. Again and again the Samo family's Desert Worm has appeared inside Star Luo territory, only a few hundred miles from the God-Servant City."

"Let the Star Luo Queen dare loose the Sky Beast. At once we and the Samo family unleash our own great beasts and lay siege to the God-Servant City."

"Out of the water, the Star of Death loses most of its fighting strength. That is why the Xilong family has always kept it to guard the Sacred Mountain."

Their own position, however, was much the same. The Sky Beast's terrifying speed and command of the air left them equally fearful of the Sky Temple and the Xilong family, and equally cautious.

One by one, the princes reported what they had recently seen on the battlefield at Sun City.

"Star Luo is pinned. Two fronts, and they cannot hold much longer..."

"The Sele family still wavers, but my own vassals are winning them over. They should come over to us soon."

"It will not be long now..."

One after another, the sons flaunted their achievements as though victory were already theirs, each casting himself as the hero who had done the most to win it.

Without warning, the ground began to shake beneath their feet.

They swayed where they stood. Some toppled outright and sprawled across the floor.

A violent shock came rolling up out of the ground. Earth and mountain heaved together, leaving everyone dizzy. Inside the palace, some flung out their hands to pillars and pressed close to the walls, while others fled for open ground.

The king rushed with his people into the open plaza and gazed across his capital.

Wooo!

The Burrowing Demon Worm once owned by the Volcano Kingdom had bored straight through the mountain. It burst from a great hole at the very foot of the capital.

It had come from below. Whatever it had bored through underground, the entire capital now heaved and shook.

At the same time, it had awakened the volcano.

"No. He is after the volcano!"

Understanding struck, and the king's expression changed at once. He did not know who was behind all this, but he grasped their purpose in a heartbeat.

The city had been built upon a volcano to raise the Lava Monster, and its danger had never been a secret, least of all to generations of kings.

Yet both the Burrowing Demon Worm capable of doing such a thing and the means of raising it had always belonged to the Volcano Kingdom. That knowledge had let the kingdom sleep soundly for generations. Never had the king imagined that the Burrowing Demon Worm would one day return as a nightmare to devour him.

He looked up toward the crater at the mountain's peak. At that moment, a tremendous roar broke over the capital.

Then the sky seemed to break apart and the earth to split open.

For untold ages, the volcano had lain silent.

Now it came alive.

Boiling magma surged from the earth's depths, spilled over the crater's lip, and raced down the slopes. Burning stones fell like meteors through thick smoke and rolling thunder.

The people of the Volcano Kingdom looked up as the mountain hurled itself into the sky. Horror beyond words spread across every face, including those of the king and his princes.

They seemed to be watching the end of the world descend upon them.

The royal family, the priests who had always stood above everyone, and the nobles who ruled the kingdom were all struck through with terror.

They poured from castles and palaces, flooded the streets, and fled toward the foot of the mountain.

They could not outrun the lava rolling down behind them. Before their eyes, the magnificent palace and towering ancient castles disappeared beneath it, little by little.

Even the lighthouse at the highest point came crashing down.

Royals raised in luxury and nobles who owned vast fisheries and slaves wailed in agony as the lava burned them all to ash.

By contrast, the commoners and slaves at the mountain's foot reacted in time. Gathering their families, they fled in great crowds toward the distant plains and desert, and most escaped alive.

Roar!

High above, the Lava Monster stirred. With a handful of royal kin beside him, the Volcano King sent it plunging downward, intending to escape this place of death.

The ground swelled and heaved. Before the king could flee, the Burrowing Demon Worm rose and barred his way.

All dignity deserted the Volcano King. He stared wildly at the Burrowing Demon Worm. "Who are you?"

"Weishi? No, that cannot be right!"

"You cannot possibly be Weishi."

A familiar voice issued from the demon worm's mouth.

"Honored King of the Volcano, to scurry away in a panic is no posture for a king."

"When his capital falls, a king should die with it. That is a king's duty."

Astride the Lava Monster, the Volcano King went still. That familiar tone finally told him who stood before him.

"It is you, Henir!"

"How did the Burrowing Demon Worm fall into your hands? Where is Weishi?"

Calmly, Henir replied, "What do you think?"

The king clenched his fists, eyes bulging. "Why? Why have you done this?"

Henir smiled. "Because I want you dead, of course!"

Rage nearly drove the king mad. This lowborn bastard, this black mud born of a commoner.

How dared he. How dared he.

"You madman!"

"Because of you, the Hosen family has lost its capital and hundreds upon thousands of its own kin."

"The Volcano Kingdom has lost all it amassed over centuries. Do you understand?"

Henir said nothing. Mocking laughter was his only answer, and the further the king's composure crumbled, the more Henir savored the sight.

Hahahaha!

The battle between the two of them was on the verge of erupting atop the volcano. At a single command from the king of the Volcano Kingdom, the Lava Monster spewed scalding red magma from its mouth.

As magma swept across the ground, the Burrowing Demon Worm bored straight down to escape its path.

But the moment the Lava Monster tried to leave the volcano, the Burrowing Demon Worm burst from the earth to bar its path. Fangs and sharp teeth closed around the Lava Monster's legs as tentacles wound tightly around them, one after another.

The Lava Monster possessed far greater offensive power than the Burrowing Demon Worm. Once, it had been the Volcano Kingdom's ultimate deterrent.

Against the Burrowing Demon Worm's ability, however, it could not bring any of that power to bear.

Henir used the Burrowing Demon Worm to pin the king and the Lava Monster in the passage down the mountain. As the king's urgency mounted, Henir grew ever more at ease.

Hummmm~

The mountain erupted again, unleashing everything it had.

Magma gushed out like a tide, raising waves tens of meters high that swept down the mountain.

Smoke billowed hundreds and thousands of meters into the air above a crimson wall tens of meters high.

The towering tide rolled down and engulfed the entire peak, closing around the Burrowing Demon Worm and Lava Monster locked in battle.

At the last instant, the Burrowing Demon Worm burrowed into the earth.

The Lava Monster was less fortunate. Terrible magma swallowed it whole, and its dreadful shrieks and roars echoed for tens of miles.

The Volcano King watched magma pour down from above as an endless stream of objects fell through the churning smoke.

One last furious roar tore from him. "Henir!"

Long ago, he had given that bastard son a name. Black mud.

Never had he imagined the mud would one day become a terrible black mire and swallow the Volcano Kingdom and the Hosen family whole.

Far away, Henir watched the scene he had orchestrated through the Consciousness Projection divine technique, and a smile rose on his face.

Ah!

"At last, it is all gone."

He gazed upon the ruined capital, now a sea of fire and magma, and watched the Hosen family scatter like smoke in the wind.

In a single stroke, he had killed nearly everyone who held power in the Volcano Kingdom.

Everyone who could have opposed him and everyone who had ever looked down on him from above had died here.

This was precisely the outcome Henir had wanted.

At the Volcano Kingdom's border, the Star Luo Kingdom held back the Samo Kingdom's vast army and great beast. The battle raging there was even fiercer than the slaughter here.

Four Ruhe Beasts and tens of thousands of soldiers clashed there, with the Star Luo Queen and the Samo King taking the field in person.

The Samo Kingdom had received word and meant to rush to the Hosen family's aid. The Star Luo Kingdom would never allow it.

Yet not one of them could have foreseen how quickly everything here would end.

"Lord Henir."

Ranks of priests and nobles stood behind Henir. Every priest carried royal blood, but each was either a bastard or descended from a collateral branch denied any real office. Henir had begun drawing them to his side long ago.

Frustrated and passed over all their lives, they were now rising alongside Henir.

The nobles were provincial lords and gentry who saw in Henir their chance to reach the heart of power.

In their eyes, Henir saw excitement, and he saw ambition, and he saw greed and desire as well.

"There is no shame in desire. To want more was never wrong."

"From this day onward, all of this belongs to us. I shall share its power and glory with every one of you."

As one, they knelt before Henir and cried out his name.

At that moment, something stirred once more near the volcano.

Every head turned toward it together.

A wild, hollow sound rang across the sky, the voice of a great beast.

The Lava Monster swallowed by the volcano had come alive once more. Its insect-like shell peeled away piece by piece, revealing the Ruhe Beast's original form.

It crawled across the land and slowly made its way into the distance.

At the end of that road lay...

The sea.

Its Ruhe brand was gone. No trilobite man would ever bind or command it again.

Henir remembered the Divine Messenger he had met and the words she had spoken.

"God will grant the trilobite men the power of creation and take back the power of destruction."

God had taken back the gift he had once bestowed upon King Redlichia.