Tbate-The Reincarnates

Colv: The Calamity That Rises From the Flames of Resurrection

Author's note: The chapter came out today, but later than usual because here at home there was no internet.

From Seris Vritra's point of view

My soft footsteps made no sound on the stone steps in front of me, the pale ceiling lights flickered frantically, on and off, on and off...

The walls were dark gray stone, which made the narrow staircase feel even more cramped and claustrophobic. It was as if I could feel the weight of the cliff hanging above us, tons and tons of rock and soil and sandstone all propped up at the top of these impossibly long and tight stairs...

After a while, the staircase ended in a large square of iron inserted into the wall at its base. It looked like a door, but no handles or hinges, just a glowing mana crystal on the wall. I brought my hand to the teal crystal and poured mana into it.

The wall hummed before making a noise more like an impact than noise, and the door began to lift off the floor into a gap above it.

A horrendous stench penetrated my nose when the door got tight, that didn't surprise me after all this door gave access to the Teagrin Caelum dungeon.

The floor stones and walls were occasionally stained with claw marks and ancient blood, creating a peculiar contrast. Laboratories, offices, and operating rooms opened up on either side, some closed and locked, others open, but empty and uninteresting.

Then I arrived at the Agrona laboratory.

"Between Seris the door is open." Just as I was about to knock on the door, Agrona's voice sounded on the other side.

I did as he asked and entered the lab, I carefully surveyed the room I had just entered.

Inside the ten-by-ten "room," three naked dwarf dead hung upside down by hooks on their legs. Their bodies grotesquely split open, the flesh of their bellies affixed with pins and staples to the sides, revealing that their torso had been hollowed out, all organs removed.

The small cell the lab contained was filled with the corpses of men, women, humans, elves, alacryans, mana beasts, and even a staggered, horned man I thought was a half-transformed basilisk. The cells with tables containing stacks of bills and trays of bones and other things piled up and numbered, pieces of meat and tools.

This is where the true power of the Vritra came from: they accepted no barriers to their quest for knowledge. Nothing was too cruel or inhumane for them, as long as they advanced their understanding of the world.

But something in the cell caught my attention and that was a young girl was chained to the wall. From the fiery orange color of her eyes, the way her red hair fell in feather-smooth sheets, and the gray and purple darkness of her skin, he knew she must be a phoenix asura.

Agrona's red eyes surveyed everything with an easy sweep, a placid movement that almost looked like laziness, and yet I knew in that instant that he had read everything in the room. He moved with an unhurried grace, obviously waiting for the world to stop and wait for him to arrive.

Agrona slid his hand over the female body on the gurney.

The corpse on the gurney was 178 centimeters long, her hair was a white hue and two red obsidian horns protruding from her head, her arms were covered in tattoos, I coldly analyzed the details of their faces, searching my memories for anything like this woman, but no one came to my mind.

"This is my new project I named it Colv." Agrona spoke as he walked towards the phoenix's cell, the decorative chains hanging from its horns clinking softly. His large, cold hand opened the cell, "and there's only one piece left for it to be ready."

Agrona ran his fingers over the phoenix's red hair, "poor child if Mordain had sided with me instead of running to help the rest of the djin you would have a great future ahead of you."

"Don't speak my lord's name so intimately you madman!" The phoenix growled in a weak voice, it stirred and its burning eyes focused on Agrona's.

"You're brave I like that." Agrona commented, he slid his fingers down the phoenix's body until he reached the asura's solar plexus, "I hope this comes along with your core," Agrona sinks his fingers into the young asura's flesh tearing at his body, the phoenix eyes lost their glow as Agrona pulled its core out, soul fire exploded from its free hand, burning the rest of the asura.

Agrona gently placed the core in the solar plexus of the corpse on the gurney and connected the mana channels and veins to the core, and suddenly heartbeat sounds could be heard.

"Agrona you bastard!" The corpse best telling the phoenix it had been reborn charged at Agrona with a loud roar.

Agrona's smile sharpened as he watched his adversary approach him, but he simply placed a finger on the forehead of the phoenix's new body and made it fall to the ground.

"You know, your ability to come back to life is really intriguing, do you choose to come back or is that instinctive? I've always had this curiosity, but your clan has always refused to answer me."

The phoenix didn't respond I could feel the crushing force wrapping around her throat choking her, "don't worry you'll have plenty of time to answer me." Agrona said, amused.

"Seris." Agrona didn't even look at me so I instinctively recoiled when he said my name.

"We don't need a rebel dog, train her." It was an almost perfect parable, if Agrona wanted to communicate something to me.

I took a lot of precautions in every action I took, but if there was one person who could find out about them, it was Agrona.

The High Sovereign often played his own games, some for purpose, some just for entertainment. There were times when he worked against his own purposes, perhaps just to confuse anyone he was trying to keep up with, including his allies, or perhaps because he took pleasure in not knowing exactly how things would turn out.

Here but once I realized that strength is more than a brute fighting skill, strength is also a means to an end "strength" and control.

Being strong means that you are superior to others and can impose your will on them or simply carry out your own will without hindrance or restrictions, so Agrona and kezess rule the world the way they wish as we are not strong enough to face them at all. our choice is taken from us, and the only thing left is to follow them, for in this world those who do not ally themselves with the strong are destined to be crushed like insects.

"As you wish High Sovereign."