"He will be groveling at your feet in no time, keukuekue!"
Princess Ceni softly knocked Haeti on the back of his head.
"I don't need him at my feet. I will be more than happy if he can only stand beside me."
"Y-Yes, my lady," Haeti meekly replied while rubbing his sore head. He looked towards Princess Ceni to see if she was mad and saw her looking up at the sky. When he followed her line of sight his little mouth fell open.
"M-My lady, w-what is that?"
The entire sky was dyed in a shade of dark red. There was a pillar of purple light in the far distance that was ending in a vortex of the same color. It was wide enough to cover an entire direction.
The edges of the vortex were slowly shifting in color from purple to crimson and were the source of the deep red color that was permeating throughout the rest of the sky. It looked like a tornado that was hovering a few dozen kilometers above ground, slowly increasing in size and influence.
One could only imagine how it looked from outer space. Bolts of purple lightning continuously fell from the vortex, striking the ground underneath without pause.
It was too far for the sound to carry over but it wasn't hard to imagine how deafeningly loud it would be, akin to a neverending barrage of artillery fire.
Princess Ceni seemed troubled by what she was seeing. "It's something terrible," she commented.
The sound of branches breaking came from the forest below and got her attention. She let out a deep sigh while gently shaking her head, "Come, let's catch up to him."
But Haeti grabbed her hand and pulled back with a concerned expression. He spoke in quite a loud voice expressing his discontent.
"My lady, is it truly a wise decision to follow after that man even to the gathering? It is most likely a trap for you. And since you have used up most of your vital blood saving his life once again, you are still too weak to fight back. What if your brother doesn't let you leave? Will that man even care?"
Haeti was referring to what happened a couple of hours ago. Ceni had used her vital blood to power her magics and bring Hao Xuan back to his body, along with Ma Jiang. And because she did that, now her own strength had deteriorated significantly.
Seeing the worry in his eyes Ceni could not help but laugh inwardly. She bent down and lightly flicked the middle of his brow, making him flinch and almost tear up.
"My…lady…" he mumbled rubbing his forehead with watery eyes. She rubbed the underside of his chin.
"You know how you feel about me? That's how I feel about him but a hundred times stronger. Even if I wanted to I couldn't back away now. He needs me, even if he won't ever admit it. The bond that we have cannot be broken so easily. We were destined to meet and fated to be together. It is the only way."
She said those words with such conviction that Hao Xuan who was already a hundred meters away minding his business could feel it in his heart. The connection between them was so strong that even though he had no idea about it, it still managed to reach him.
'Is she talking about me?' Hao Xuan asked himself with a raised eyebrow. He had a 'feeling' that she was.
*Screech*
A high-pitched screeching noise came from below his feet. Hao Xuan looked back down and redirected his attention towards the creature that was struggling to get free from under his heel.
It was a small insect-like creature about the size of a house lizard. It had two upper limbs that ended in giant serrated hooks and four lower limbs. Overall it closely resembled a mantis from earth but unlike usual insects, this was one was bright red in color.
Its entire body was wrapped in a muscular red tissue which did not normally occur in insects. It was making a lot of noise trying to push Hao Xuan away and if he wasn't concentrating a good 20 percent of his strength right on top of it, it would have probably broken free by now.
It tried to dig deeper into the earth but Hao Xuan put even more pressure on its tiny body and rendered it immobile. Then while he was looking at it, its head turned 180 degrees around and stared right into his eyes.
It went silent and stopped struggling completely. Hao Xuan could see his own reflection within its black pupils which seemed to draw him in. He bent down a little to get a closer look and saw numerous other pairs of eyes looking back at him.
*Crunch*
With a quick and heavy stomp on its head it was crushed to dust. His brows knit together in a deep furrow as he recalled the crimson beasts. This little thing gave him the same feeling.
