*high five*

Top of the morning to ya guys, my name is Mugen no Tenma and welcome back to Rise of Scarlet King!

I honestly don't think I'll continue this fic, but here I am, updating a chapter. Just a little bit of snippet to give you some idea of what's to come. This might be slow but I'm definitely continuing it.

Enjoy.

Chapter 2

Scarlet

-?-

Here, silence reigns supreme.

Here, was inside an alternate reality.

Here, was a place of a salt pan several kilometers in great lengths.

Here, seven pillars stood encircling a gargantuan figure. Their girth and height were not great, but their power that kept the terrible, ruthless being in its current place for millenias untold was a testament of their mettle. Unknown words engraved on them, their meaning lost to the bottomless scarlet oblivion.

Yes, scarlet. It looks vaguely human, yet fundamentally different.

It appears to be an obese creature of immense proportions, such as if it stood fully, it would surpass the mountains and sky itself. Horns resembling tree branches sprout from its head, which lacks a lower jaw. Entire body is covered in millions of overlapping plate-like scales.

Seven heavy hooks are embedded in the entity's back, each one attached to a heavy steel chain connected to the lower end of one of the seven pillars embedded in the ceiling of the chamber. Now, six of the chains from the pillar have been broken or damaged, and only one chain remains intact.

It does not have the capability to break free from its cage, not now, but the time for the end was close. Its consciousness intact, its mind released, and its heart free. It could speak if it wants to, but seeing that there is no point of speaking and nothing could hear its voice anyway, it kept its silence begrudgingly.

Just a little bit more, it told itself. Just a little bit more and it can utterly destroy every and all creation and the suffering that comes with it. It had waited for such a long time, it could wait a little bit more… it hates and loathes everything, including itself, but it has to be patient.

It closed its tired eyes. How about some sleep until then?

"Well, well, well… look who's awake now. Little Khahrahk."

It opens its eyes in the front of something just as unfathomable as it was. The newcomer was staring at it directly, like the sun on a cloudless night. In the pitch black, it bleeds in and out of its vision without stirring, glowing without giving off any light. It demands its attention—such audacity from a coward—and strains its crimson eyeballs.

It's too big. It doesn't fit in with the suffocating darkness, murk and salt pit that it has been sitting in, the rough cage that encases its extremities. It was bulging out, yet it was blurring in. It staring at its maw, and its throat, and it can't tell where the well ends and where it begins for that entity. The darkness has been replaced by an all-consuming gray that isn't light and isn't dark.

It was a snake. It has two bulbous spots that might just be eyes, staring at it unblinking. Its unreal scales blend with the surrounding brick, shadowy gray melting into vivid green. And its teeth. They are too sharp and too close and too many and they're too much. They are disgusting like all creation in its eyes.

"It's been a while since the last time we saw each other. That old fart really did a good job sealing you with every ounce of his power and then some of yours." The snake spoke amicably, like a human trying to greet their friend. "He really brought us some time, don't you think s—"

"BEGONE."

It growled at the snake with a voice that would shake the earth with rage and hatred. The snake was not supposed to be here. The snake has cowardly fled from it for millenias untold and never to be seen or heard again, even before the seven seals bound it here. What could be the purpose of it coming here?

"Don't like me here, Khahrahk?"

The snake hissed a question that went unanswered for a moment. The snake knows very well it cannot do anything to harm it, so why did it come here? To mock its helplessness? But the snake would also knew that it would be free from its shackles very soon, being the guardian of the Tree of Knowledge.

Khahrahk, the shackled entity, silently stared at the snake. There was a human-like expression on its face that it does not like in the slightest. It was really mocking its state of being, its incapability to do anything. If it could break free from its shackles, it swore that the snake would be the first one to taste its wrath.

"Oh, well. I'm just here to greet an old friend, it's okay to be quiet all day." The snake yapped incessantly, to its irritation. "Not that I expect you to reply either, I know you just don't enjoy life. You hate it from the bottom of your soul... if you have one in the first place. So why don't you, you know, do us a favor and die on your own?"

Yes, the snake would be the first one to perish in its hands. Slowly, and painfully.

"No reply? That's boring. I expected more…" The snake did an equivalent of a disappointed sigh. "No matter. I'm here to check the seal anyway… whoa, broke six seals already? That does not bode well…"

It grinned inwardly. It feels really good to know that its enemies would dread the tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and the days after that. To live their life in fear of death and destruction, there is no better feeling that it would like to inflict upon its enemies than that. Now—

"I should accelerate my preparation then. No more dicking around, I guess." To its surprise, the snake just stated flippantly. "See ya later, pal. Hope you get some good nap before sleeping forever."

The all-consuming gray vanished, and the darkness returned just as quick as it gone. The snake has left the salt pit where it was sealed around the seven pillars. It growled as anger overtakes its mind, with nothing else inside it than the thought to tore the serpent to shreds.

"DEATH WILL BE UPON YOU… NAHASH."

When the seals eventually breaks, it will finish the job it should have done long ago. When it burned down the tree of life and took the tree of knowledge as trophy, it should have brought the snake with it and skin it alive where its followers would all dance around it and humiliate it before devouring it.

No matter. There was no point in thinking about the past. There was no point in regretting the present, where he was obstructed by his obstacle. The only thing that matters for it, was the future where it will break free and unleash its wrath towards everything under life and creation.

In the end… it will prove that it was right all along.

Hatred will sprout suspicion and doubt.

Friendships deny while allegiances die.

The taste will be sweet when it get what it has earned.

And The Emperor Beast of Apocalypse will be watching as everything burn to scarlet oblivion.

That does it for this chapter! Thank you guys for reading!

If you liked it, PUNCH that review button in the face, like a BOSS!

And high five all around! See you dudes in the next chapter!

Mugen no Tenma, out.