Lord of the realm

Chapter 178: The Divine Beast

Jaenor took a deep breath, centering himself.

He’d never attempted a summoning of this magnitude before.

Ba’narussa was no ordinary spirit beast—she was ancient, powerful, and bonded to the Arkwright bloodline through pacts that predated the Separation itself. Calling her required not just power but the right kind of power, the proper resonance.

Now, finally, he had both.

He raised his hands, and his merged energy responded instantly. Golden-red light erupted from his palms, but it wasn’t simple—it was layered and complex, containing harmonics that resonated on multiple frequencies simultaneously.

The light poured upward, forming a column that reached fifty feet into the sky. At its peak, the energy began to spiral, creating patterns that hurt to look at directly. Reality bent around the column, space compressing and expanding in ways that defied normal reality.

Jaenor spoke, and his voice carried the same layered quality it had during his confrontation with Magdalyna—multiple versions of himself speaking in perfect synchronization.

"Ba’narussa!!"

The column of light exploded outward.

The shockwave flattened grass in all directions, creating a perfect circle of devastation. The air itself shrieked, unable to handle the forces being channeled through it. And in the center of the destruction, something began to take form.

It started as a shadow—darkness coalescing from nothing, growing larger with each passing second. The shadow took shape, massive beyond reason, rising higher and higher until it towered over everything.

Then the darkness solidified into flesh.

Ba’narussa manifested fully, and everyone who witnessed it felt primitive terror grip their hearts.

She was a hydra—seven heads rising from a serpentine body that could have wrapped around the entire estate twice over. Each head was the size of a house, with features that combined dragon and snake in ways that suggested intelligence far beyond animal cunning. Her scales were deep purple shot through with veins of silver that pulsed with power. Her eyes—fourteen of them, two per head—burned with ancient fire.

The heads moved independently, each swaying on a neck twenty feet long and as thick as ancient tree trunks. When she breathed, flames flickered between her teeth. When she moved, the ground trembled.

This was a Saev’n Divinic Beast—creatures that existed in legends, said to have been created by the gods themselves before mortal civilization even began. Only a handful had ever been recorded in history, and none had been seen in living memory.

Until now.

Jaenor stepped forward, showing no fear despite the overwhelming presence before him. His unified energy reached out, connecting with hers, establishing the bond that had existed since his childhood but had never been fully realized until now.

"Ba’narussa. My oldest companion. My greatest ally. I need your strength for what’s coming."

The hydra’s heads moved in what might have been a nod, a gesture of respect and acknowledgment.

She lowered her massive body, bringing her heads closer to Jaenor’s level. One head in particular—the center one, perhaps the primary consciousness—came within a few feet of him.

The head’s eyes studied him carefully.

She raised her head again.

Jaenor turned back toward the others, and his expression was somewhere between excitement and challenge.

"How about we take a ride?"

For a moment, no one moved. The sheer impossibility of what he was suggesting—climbing onto a divine beast, flying through the sky—paralyzed them with a mixture of awe and terror.

Then Rena stepped forward, her jaw set with determination.

"I’m not missing this. No chance."

That broke the spell.

Taeryn followed immediately, grinning like a madman. Morgana moved with more caution but equal resolve. Darian’s military discipline helped him master his fear and move forward. Baren limped after them, experienced enough to let something like a legendary beast intimidate him. Raelana came last, her witch’s training warring with simple human terror—and training won.

Even Emmanuelle, who’d lived for years and thought she’d seen everything, found herself walking toward the massive hydra with wonder replacing her usual pragmatic calm.

Ba’narussa lowered herself further, making her body accessible. Her scales were large enough to serve as handholds and footholds, and her neck provided a natural path upward. The climb was still daunting—thirty feet up her body to reach the point where her seven necks diverged from her main torso, where a platform of sorts existed between the bases of her heads.

But they managed it, helping each other up, finding secure positions on the massive creature’s body.

Jaenor climbed last, moving with an ease that suggested the bond between him and Ba’narussa allowed him to navigate her form instinctively. He took position at the very center of the platform, where he could see in all directions and maintain a mental connection with his spirit beast.

"Everyone secure?" he called out.

Various affirmatives came back—some confident, some less so, but all committed.

Jaenor looked down at Ba’narussa’s center head, meeting those ancient eyes.

Ba’narussa’s body tensed, muscles like steel cables contracting. Then, with a power that defied reason, she launched herself skyward.

The acceleration should have thrown everyone off. Should have killed them, really—the g-forces alone would have been fatal for normal humans. But Ba’narussa’s power protected those who rode her, creating a field that cushioned them even as she rocketed into the sky at speeds that turned the ground below into a blur.

Up.

Up.

Up past the clouds, into air so thin that breathing should have been impossible. But the protective field handled that too, maintaining pressure and oxygen even as they climbed to heights where eagles feared to venture.

Finally, Ba’narussa leveled off, her massive wings—which had emerged from her body during the ascent—spreading wide to catch currents that existed only at this altitude.

And the world spread out beneath them like a map.

To the north, they could see the dark line of the trenches, and beyond them, the wasteland where demon forces gathered. To the south, the gentler lands where human civilization thrived—cities and towns connected by roads, farmland creating patchwork patterns, rivers cutting silver lines through green and brown terrain.

To the east, mountains rose like teeth, marking the boundaries between kingdoms. To the west, the ocean stretched to the horizon, vast and blue and seemingly infinite.

It was beautiful. Terrible and beautiful, all at once.

Ba’narussa’s seven heads all roared simultaneously—a sound that echoed across the sky, that carried for miles in all directions, that announced to anyone with the senses to perceive it that something new had entered the realm’s conflicts.

Something powerful. Something ancient. Something that would not be ignored or dismissed.

they flew through the sky on the back of a divine beast, as the realm spread out beneath them in all its terrible beauty

The Flight to Drakenten

Ba’narussa soared through the sky with impossible grace for something so massive.

Her body was serpentine, easily two hundred feet from head to tail tip, covered in scales that shimmered purple and silver in the sunlight. Her wings—vast membranes stretched between finger-like bone structures—caught the air currents with practiced efficiency, requiring minimal effort to maintain flight.

But it was her heads that drew the eye.

Seven separate necks rose from her shoulders, each perhaps thirty feet long and as thick as ancient oaks. Each head was distinct—slightly different shapes, subtle variations in scale patterns, and individual personalities reflected in the way they moved. They swayed and turned independently, constantly scanning in all directions, providing complete awareness of everything around them.

But Ba’narussa didn’t speak. She was intelligent—that much was obvious from how she responded to Jaenor’s mental commands and how she navigated through the sky with purpose rather than instinct. But whatever communication passed between her and her master happened silently, through the bond they shared rather than words.

Jaenor sat at the base of her necks, where they merged into her main body. His companions had found secure positions around him, gripping scales or each other, their initial terror gradually giving way to wonder as they adjusted to the impossibility of what they were doing.

Flying. Actually flying, hundreds of feet above the ground, on the back of a creature from legend.

Morgana had one hand pressed against Ba’narussa’s scales, her senses automatically analyzing what she was touching. The energy flowing through the divine beast was unlike anything she’d encountered—ancient and pure, predating the separation between aura and origin energy. It simply was, existing before those distinctions had been created.

Rena had given up trying to maintain dignity and was grinning like a child, her hair whipping in the wind, her eyes bright with excitement. This was the most incredible thing she’d ever experienced, and she refused to let fear ruin it.

Taeryn and Darian had positioned themselves strategically, even here—watching for potential threats, hands near weapons that would be utterly useless at this altitude but providing psychological comfort anyway.

Baren simply looked tired, holding on grimly and probably wondering how his life had led to this particular moment.

Raelana and Emmanuelle sat together, both women showing more composure than the circumstances warranted. Emmanuelle because she’d spent years refusing to be intimidated by anything. Raelana because her witch training included mental disciplines that helped her master fear.