Fenrir's Journey : I Shall Devour The Heavens!

Despite the power she had gained, Fenrir was struggling a lot more than she had expected against the group of people from the Searing Sword Palace. She found it very difficult to gather the Yin and Ice Elemental energies from the atmosphere due to the saber producing Yang Elemental flames that tyrannically pushed away other energy sources.Fortunately, Fenrir had an extremely large amount of energy contained within her body and, while it was harder to devour than other types of energy, she was able to consume the flames produced by the saber to supplement her reserves. This caused a slight burning sensation in her body but, when compared against the pain and hunger she felt as a result of her loneliness, it was like a tiny ant bite.After evading a solid beam of flames, Fenrir's jaw seemed to unhinge slightly as a beam of midnight blue magical energy caused several shockwaves at it tore through the air. She attempted to swivel her head in an attempt to chase after the flaming saber but, with reality-defying speed and agility, it was able to perform complex aerial movements to escape her attack.The longer the battle was drawn out, the more anxious and frustrated Fenrir felt. This caused her bestial features to become more pronounced, complete with jagged teeth and slit-like pupils that gave her a frenzied expression as she shaped her shroud of devouring energy into extensions of her claws, slicing through the air as she attempted to grab the flaming saber.As he was already burning the life force of his own people to push the formation beyond its natural limits, Li Shimin had bloodshot eyes as he guided the saber into a complex snaking pattern, his voice turning high pitched as he shouted, "Die, you filthy fucking animal...!"With blood now streaming from his own orifices, the speed of the flaming saber more than doubled in an instant and, though she managed to evade to the side, a huge gash was made in Fenrir's flank. Most of her right side was torn out and, due to the intense heat of the saber, the wound had already turned into a ghastly black mess of burnt flesh.Despite the pain she experienced, Fenrir's eyes only glowed with greater intensity as the burnt flesh began to flake away, revealing a wiggling mass of viscera, organs, bones, and muscle. At the cost of her reserves, she was quickly regenerating at a rate visible to the naked eye, causing Li Shimin to literally puke blood when he saw her floating in the air without any discernible difficulty.Before her wound had even healed fully, Fenrir slouched forward like a predator about to pounce on its prey as she shouted, "DIE...!" in a feral and raspy voice. The devouring energy around her body condensed rapidly and, like a tempest tearing across the sky, she began chasing after the flaming saber directly. At the same time, a blood-red moon was blazing with intense light at the center of her forehead and, though her fur was already spiky, it began to form dense clumps of sharp fur that gave her an even more terrifying appearance.With his trump card failing to secure victory, Li Shimin could only aim for a pyrrhic victory as Fenrir was just too strong and fast for him to continue fighting. Even with a large section of her body burnt to a crisp, she hadn't been slowed by the slightest amount. Rather, as the fight was continued, her speed gradually increased while his own was reduced due to the loss of his men's lives.Refusing to die with his back to the enemy, Li Shimin reversed the trajectory of the saber and, using all the energy in his Golden Core, burned his very life itself to empower his attack. His flesh began to quickly atrophy away while the few lucky survivors still maintaining the formation turned into dried up corpses as Li Shimin performed a suicide charge toward Fenrir, his own eyes with intense red light even as they sunk into his blackened eye sockets.(Fenrir's Commentary: 'GRRAAAAAAAAAAAAH...!')

With neither side holding any regard for their own safety, Fenrir and Li Shimin charged at each other with the singular intent of finishing their enemy.Having been empowered by Li Shimin's Golden Core, the flaming saber gained a golden luster that seemed capable of piercing through anything while, due to her overwhelming fury, Fenrir's energy had darkened considerably, forming what appeared to be a tempest of pure darkness.If someone were to witness this battle from a distance, it would look like the collision between good and evil, despite the truth being quite the opposite of expectations. After all, while she certainly had an affinity with Darkness, those that cultivated Yang Elemental Techniques were the source of many nightmares all throughout the four continents...With both of their energies reaching the highest point, the tip of Li Shimin's blade began to bore through the shroud protecting Fenrir's body, seemingly intent on piercing directly through her chest. This didn't deter Fenrir in the slightest but, just as she opened her jaws wide to try and devour the saber directly, time itself seemed to slow to a crawl.From within the void, a figure with tanned skin, blazing blue eyes, and somewhat wild brown hair stepped out into the world in an overly casual manner. It was a man wearing a dark black tunic that had a complex array of runes sewn into the collar, giving it a casual yet expensive vibe. However, this wasn't what Fenrir was focused on and, without her having to will it to do so, the devouring energy around her body began to retract like water being sucked down a drain.Using a speed that defied time itself, the figure casually raised his left hand and, upon contacting the seemingly unstoppable golden blade, the entire structure shattered like glass. At the same time, all of the energy in the atmosphere, regardless of its composition, seemed to muster in accordance with the man's will and, as if he had never existed in the first place, Li Shimin's body vanished into minute particles of ash so fine that they disappeared entirely within the void.Though she had withdrawn her energy, Fenrir didn't arrest her momentum in the slightest. She had continued forward, now even faster than before. However, as if there was an impossible distance between herself and the figure, she found it was impossible to get any closer to him as tears began to pool at the edge of her vision. It wasn't until the figure had turned to look at her, a gentle smile on his face that the distance between them seemed to reduce. At the same time, he extended his right hand, seemingly in slow motion, and began petting the top of her head as he said, "I'm a little late...please forgive me..."With the distance between them no longer seeming insurmountable, Fenrir pounced on the figure, wrapping her arms around his body as she began to cry in a loud and uncontrollable manner. This caused the figure to show a pained look as he wrapped his arms around her in kind before giving the top of her head a gentle kiss and nuzzling in between her large ears.While Fenrir was venting all of the pent up emotions that had plagued her for what turned out to be seven years, the man wrapping his arms around her was experiencing complex emotions of his own. In truth, it had been nearly nine-thousand years since the last time he saw the petite Vanargandr but, no matter how much time had passed, he never gave up trying to find her.Now, seeing how much pain Fenrir was in, his heart wept alongside her but, as it had been a very long time since he had shown any genuine emotions, he continued to smile comfortingly while, in the sky above, a massive palatial structure formed into existence. Several figures began to leap down from the edge of the continent-sized landmass, including one fiery-haired girl riding on the back of a massive red dragon. Unlike the perpetually smiling figure, she allowed her emotions to show fully and, with tears in her eyes, she dove down to the duo and wrapped her arms around them both, the most sincere and heartrending apology she could manage escaping her lips...After what seemed like several hours, Fenrir ultimately cried herself to sleep and, after learning what she had gone through, the figure turned his eyes skyward. There were literally hundreds of people in the air around him, including a woman with vermillion hair and an eye that blazed like the sun.With the same casual smile as before, the figure turned toward the woman, saying in a calm tone, "I do not like being lied to. Those fools decided to hurt one of my important people...they will need to be replaced. Find whatever God thought they could get away with this farce and bring them to me in chains..."Despite the calm on the man's face, an overwhelming aura seemed to descend, not just upon the surroundings, but the entire world. Those that had powerful cultivation noticed that they could no longer muster any Qi outside of their body. Some were no longer able to even sense it and, despite their best efforts, the energies in the atmosphere were now beyond their means to manipulate.Without showing any sign of perturbance, the woman with the blazing right eye just smiled in response as she, alongside several dozen other female figures, seemed to fade from existence. A few moments later, the heavens above seemed to tremble and fracture as the man, still holding Fenrir in his arms, wrapped her tightly in his embrace and said, "Let's go home..." in a soothing voice. As a result, even though she was still unconscious, Fenrir's tail began to gently wag as she instinctually nestled further into her Master's embrace...(Fenrir's Commentary: 'Master...I knew you would come for me...')(A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed this short side story. This is the official end of Fenrir's Journey as it was never intended to be a long term project. I only wanted to write something to relieve stress in between chapters of EPIC but, as people really wanted world-building and proper explanations, I lost my motivation xD. It is hard to treat something seriously that was only supposed to be a 'for fun' side project. Thus, in order to prevent having to flesh out an entire wuxia novel while writing a main series that is already near 1300 chapters, I needed to bring it to an end before things go out of hand. I hope you enjoyed the way things concluded and, while these are non-canon events, know that I did sneakily place a few spoilers here and there for the astute readers ^_^~!)

The golden scroll burned by the Grand Elder was a unique item that had a soul imprint sealed within it. When used, it could alert the person that had created the scroll that something had happened, no matter how far away it was when activated. This had been given to the Grand Elder by the Leader of the Searing Sword Palace with the intent of alerting the massive organization if someone tried to poach their new Spiritual Lands.With the soul imprint ignited, the Leader of the Searing Sword Palace, Li Shimin, immediately gave the order to mobilize their forces. He even led the group personally as, when the imprint had been released, he could feel an overwhelming sense of dread. Since he would not allow the Abyss to fall into the hands of their enemies, he would not risk sending a small force and entrusting the matter to another.What Li Shimin never anticipated was that, not even a quarter of the way to their destination, what appeared to be a violent storm made its way toward them. Unlike normal storm clouds, however, it was formed from a billowing, bluish-black, cloud which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a massive wave of wolf-like monsters, the smallest of which was more than five meters in length.For a brief moment, Li Shimin felt like he was experiencing a waking nightmare but, as the Leader of the Searing Sword Palace, his trepidation was immediately replaced by contemptuous wrath. He saw a larger wolf leading the group and, seated atop it, what appeared to be a young woman so it didn't take him long to realize who he was dealing with.Rather than charge directly to meet the horde of Demonic Beasts, Li Shimin directed his men to form a complex formation that matched an ancient constellation. He stood at the very center, serving as the core of the formation that, once active, took on the form of a massive saber wreathed in flames. It had seventy-two of the most powerful Cultivators on the entire continent floating within its light-based structure, each perfectly mirroring the actions of Li Shimin as he extended his hand toward the horde, shouting, "Burn in the flames of purgatory you foul Demon...!"Drawing a line that seemed to bisect the heavens, the saber instantly reached the horde of what they assumed to be Demonic Beasts. Due to the contrary elements, the saber was actually able to deal an incredible amount of damage to Fenrir's pack but, while many of the wolves had been destroyed, the luster of the saber had reduced along with the amount of flames.Li Shimin didn't realize what had happened at first but, after seeing the bluish-black cloud of energy corrode the structure of the saber, he realized what the wolves were comprised of. This caused his pupils to turn into pinholes and, rather than focus on the pack of wolves, he immediately turned his attention to Fenrir who, at the time, was standing in the air like a Goddess of Death looking down upon them.Understanding that it would be disastrous to draw out the battle, Li Shimin performed a forbidden technique that was unknown to the people comprising the formation. They suddenly felt their vitality waver and, in less than five seconds, many of them had started to bleed from every orifice. Despite this, they were unable to break away from the formation and, even after some of them turned into mummified corpses, they continued mirroring the actions of Li Shimin as he attempted to finish off Fenrir in the shortest amount of time...(Fenrir's Commentary: 'Disgusting...')

Chapter 99: Feral