TDE Book 6 Chapter 15 - The Seraph Tribe

A spectrum of colors filled up Calron’s range of sight. The numerous daos and their intents float before him as he swiveled his head to locate the Geyser. Calron was searching for a ‘window’ according to Martial’s description.

“Did he drop me off at the wrong place?”

Calron muttered to himself. Besides the dao from the grass, air, earth, and other objects in the environment, he couldn’t detect anything out of the ordinary. His blood-colored eye glowed as he redoubled his efforts and extended his reach.

He looked behind to see if he missed something there.

“Damn that pig.”

Calron sighed. He did recall Martial saying that the Titans couldn’t go near the Dao Geyser, so he hoped that he wasn’t far from his destination. Resigned to the current outcome, Calron began walking ahead while keeping the Blood Sight active.

After a few minutes of the same lackluster scenery, Calron’s thoughts began to wander about as well. He turned his sight inward. Specifically, the area where his old partner lay slumbering.

Wake up.

Calron mentally nudged the sleeping electric snake with his thoughts. The azure lightning remained coiled in position and didn’t react in the slightest to Calron’s call. Initially, Calron was overjoyed that he would be reunited with the azure lightning, but the little Divine Element had been unresponsive ever since.

Calron thought it might have something to do with the time being frozen in this dimension. However, after pondering further, it didn’t make much sense. After all, the azure lightning had traveled through multiple timelines during each reincarnation stage. It should have been immune to the spacetime effects. Then why was it not awake?

He reached for his chest and felt his heart silently beating in rhythmic beats. The dao circles pulsed with energy. Everything seemed perfect, yet the azure lightning continued to lie still.

“Was the Titan core not enough?”

Calron mused. He channeled his lightning and watched as the bolts glided over his skin, filling every pore and cranny of his body. Calron stopped to take in a deep breath. The sound of thunder reverberated within his mind as he simply reveled in the feeling of lightning coursing through his body.

Blood Dao was powerful and gave him the sensation of invulnerability. But it was lightning that truly made him feel alive. He wasn’t invincible like when he used the Blood Siphon’s ability. After acquiring that ability, Calron didn’t have to worry about any injury as long as there was an enemy nearby to draw blood from.

Despite that, Lightning and Calron were inseparable. Nothing else could give him that same familiarity. Lightning was unstoppable once unleashed.

In that moment, Calron forgot about everything and allowed the chain of lightning to envelop his entire body. The bolts crackled around him, singeing the air with their heat. And when he took in a breath, the lightning this time followed the air and poured into his nostrils.

“What was that?”

Calron abruptly opened his eyes. The lightning wasn’t just inside his body; it was flowing through his lungs and entering into his bloodstream. Yet, it wasn’t uncomfortable. Calron raised his hand and watched the sparks of lightning ricocheting between his fingers. There was something different about it. He couldn’t grasp at the straws. The lightning was trying to tell him something.

“Agrh…”

Calron groaned. The lightning clashed inside his veins and the bolts led the rest of his essence towards a hidden region within his body. His dao circles triggered when the lightning began to push more of the blood towards that region. Surprisingly, the dao circles were helping the lightning pump even more blood and working alongside the element.

“Hells, stop!”

Calron dropped to his knees as the pain reached excruciating levels. It was all concentrated in a region between his shoulder blades. He grabbed his back with one hand and gripped at the mound of dirt in the other to quell the pain. Calron couldn’t figure out what had suddenly come into the Blood Dao and the Lightning. His back felt like it was about to explode.

He attempted to stop the dao circles from rotating, but then the lightning took reign and sent a dense volley of essence towards the hidden region on his back. Calron couldn’t contain himself and roared in pain. His neck whipped back, causing him to face the sky above. It was then, he noticed a small gash within the frozen sun. It was a void of nothingness. The instant his eyes made contact with the void, an explosion erupted inside his mind. A stream of sigils invaded his thoughts, and he sensed his soul about to detach itself from his body.

It was then, both the Blood Dao and the Lightning joined forces and forcefully severed the connection between Calron and the void. His head fell back down, the void no longer in sight.

That must be the Geyser. So, it was in the sky the whole time.

Calron exhaled in relief. He was not prepared to face the Geyser with his thoughts in disarray and was glad the Blood Dao and the Lightning prevented his mind from being sucked inside. Any glimpse of the dao had to be trespassed slowly and methodically, lest it devour the bearer himself.

Now that the connection to the Geyser was broken, the Blood Dao and the Lightning resumed their efforts to open the new pathways inside his body to the hidden region.

“Can you two give me a break?”

Calron gritted through his teeth. He wanted to explore the Geyser now that he found it, but his aides were busy drilling inside his flesh. Now, even his bones twisted and split off to make room for a new pair of bones. The new bones were a stark contrast to his old ones. They were dark-gold in color, unlike the ivory shade of his old bones. The new pair of bones shifted in place and realigned themselves.

It during this transition, that Calron had an epiphany. He finally realized what was different with the lightning from the Titan core compared to the original lightning he had awakened as a cultivator. Human lightning cultivators always had a weak element, their lightning only having the strength to paralyze opponents instead of killing them. It was almost like they were forcefully suppressed by the world.

Even when Calron cultivated his lightning back then, if it wasn’t for the azure lightning, it would have been impossible to surpass those limitations. The Divine Element allowed Calron to ignore those restrictions, but it didn’t mean those limitations vanished. They were still there. However, after Calron became a path walker, obtaining a new body and then merged with the Titan core, it appeared to have unlocked something inside him.

The new lightning no longer had that subtle suppression from the world. It’s why it could now freely enter his bloodstream. The old rules established for lightning cultivators didn’t seem to apply to Calron anymore.

Taranis.

Once again, Calron’s predecessor’s name popped into his mind. The mysterious enigma definitely had a hand in this matter. He’d known the Primordials better than anyone else. Taranis must’ve predicted their resulting retaliation for his actions.

Calron reached around to touch his back. There was a bulge between his shoulder blades, the same area where the pair of dark-golden bones fixated themselves.

The Blood Dao and lightning essence cleared the new pathways, paving the way for them to connect directly to the dark-golden bones. The new pathways no longer resembled the human cultivation system. The circuits for the essence to flow were now redirected towards the region between Calron’s shoulder blades.

Are they… wings?

The pair of dark-golden bones started to elongate, the two ends now piercing out of his back. Calron heard the sound of his other bones crunching as the wings shot out in a smooth motion, revealing a beautiful pair of dark-golden wings with metal feathers.

The shiny feathers shimmered under the sun’s rays as Calron involuntarily flapped them a few times. The two wings spanned nearly twice Calron’s height. Any straggling lightning that got close to the metal feathers were instantly absorbed. Calron could see bolts contained within the feathers. It was like the dark-golden wings were storing the lightning itself.

Calron stood up and glanced in awe at the majestic dark-golden wings behind him. His old golden wings when he transformed into the Divine Bird were a paltry comparison to his current set of wings. It was as if the Divine Bird of the Raizel clan was a mere imitation of the real one.

He remembered the journal Taranis left behind, and the Lightning Primordial’s full name came back to Calron.

Taranis Seraph.

The leader of the Seraph tribe.

A/N: Sorry for the chapter delay. Audiobooks are in in production so I was busy with them. Good news is that all five of the audiobooks will be released this year. The first three audiobooks will be published this summer around July-August 2024! I will reveal the narrator soon :)