Poison God's Heritage

Her words were laced with bitterness, her fists tightening at her sides as she stared at the distant signatures. There was a palpable anger beneath the surface, a festering wound that had never healed.

I could already sense where this was going. "We don't have time to worry about them," I said, pulling the ship into a lower orbit. "If we linger too long, it's only a matter of time before things get… complicated."

The Blue Sun gave me a knowing look. "You think they've seen us?"

"Probably," I said with a shrug. "But with so much debris, corpses, and wreckage floating around, they'll likely think we're just more of the same. Random space junk."

"Even if they did see us," Tao Yang added, her voice cold, "they wouldn't dare to cross into this part of space. The Rakshasa and the First Borns are too great a threat. They wouldn't risk it."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Alright then," I said, turning my attention back to the planet beneath us. "Let's get down to the surface before anything changes." I gently eased the ship into a smooth descent, the distant figures of the First Borns still towering like dark sentinels behind us.

Master Rain, who had remained silent throughout most of the discussion, finally spoke. "I wonder what killed all these Rakshasa," he murmured, his eyes scanning the sea of corpses through the ship's windows. His voice was calm, but there was a deep curiosity behind his words.

The scene outside was haunting. The corpses of the Rakshasa, usually so ferocious, floated lifelessly in every direction. They drifted as if in a vast graveyard, their bodies intact, but their life force completely extinguished. No signs of struggle. No visible wounds. It was as though they had simply stopped living.

"Mental damage," the Blue Sun said softly, breaking the eerie silence.

I turned toward her, confused. "What do you mean?"

"The Wisest Sun," she began, her eyes distant as she recalled the memory, "during our battles in the Beyond, he developed a new technique. He called it a key, inspired by your Sky Pearl Eye." She paused, as if weighing her words carefully. "It was designed to trap an enemy's mind in an endless loop of pain and suffering.

It reflects their worst fears back at them, over and over, until their mind breaks. Once their mind believes they're dying… the body follows."

I felt a shiver run down my spine. I knew exactly what she was talking about—the Sky Pearl Eye had been my creation, a tool to prevent Divine Sense from probing into my mind. But this? This was something far more dangerous. The Wisest Sun had taken my idea and turned it into a weapon of terrifying power.

"So they were killed by their own minds?" I asked, still processing the idea.

"That's my guess," the Blue Sun said. "The Confederation's formation is designed to force its targets to confront their worst nightmares, manifesting them in their minds until they break."

I turned my gaze back to the First Borns, still eerily untouched by the carnage around them. "It's not affecting them, though," I said.

Tao Yang shook her head. "Not in the same way. The First Borns are immune to Qi. When they see themselves burning, or being torn apart by Qi flames, their minds don't register the threat because they know they're immune. It's like watching a shadow. The formation keeps trying, but they're trapped in a cycle—caught between reality and illusion."

As we descended further toward the planet's surface, something caught my eye in the distance. A white Rakshasa, smaller than the others, darted between the corpses, using them as cover as it moved toward the vortex at the center of the formation.

I stopped the ship, watching intently as it moved closer to the vortex, its movements frantic, desperate. But the moment it reached the edge, it froze. Its body seized up, and a terrible, blood-curdling screech filled the air. Then, just as quickly as it had come, its life was snuffed out. Its body floated motionless, another casualty in the vast expanse of death.

"What just happened?" the Blue Sun asked, her voice filled with unease.

I stared at the Rakshasa's body, a pit forming in my stomach. "The fact that it made it that far and still died… it doesn't make sense."

"Why?" she pressed.

"How did the Rakshasa gather an army that attacked us in the Beyond if this formation can kill them regardless of what they do?" I asked, my mind racing.

Tao Yang let out a long breath before answering. "They overwhelmed the formation," she said simply.

I resumed our descent, but I needed more answers. "Explain."

"They used their numbers," she continued, "sacrificing wave after wave of their own to push through. If you notice, most of the corpses are concentrated around the vortex. It seems they received a call—a Soul Call—from the Rakshasa in the Beyond, and they followed it. Their bodies acted as shields for one another, like bait fish in the ocean."

"So they used their own dead to reach the Beyond?" Master Rain asked, his voice filled with disbelief.

Tao Yang nodded grimly. "Yes. The formation grows stronger the closer they get to its edges. They couldn't hope to escape that way. The vortex was their only chance."

I shuddered at the thought of that kind of desperation. "So this entire formation is just… a trap?"

"A prison," Tao Yang corrected. "A prison for anything that crosses into its boundaries."

"We're entering Solarous now," I said, gripping the controls tightly as we pierced through the planet's atmosphere. "Be ready."

As we descended, the vast geography of Solarous came into view, spreading out before us like an untouched paradise. The landscape was a breathtaking mix of towering green forests, blue oceans, and rolling hills that stretched from one horizon to the next.

Massive trees, their leaves a deep shade of emerald, spread out like a canopy over the land, while vibrant blue rivers cut through the forests like veins.

"What a beautiful planet," the Blue Sun whispered, her voice filled with awe.

Her admiration was short-lived. No sooner had the words left her lips than we saw what truly lurked below.

The nightmares were waiting for us.