Galaxy's First Ruler

A few moments earlier…

The Devil's last words echoed in Aldrich's ears.

Even the Devil knew the moment he would deliver these things to Aldrich, his existence would be obliterated. There was little difference between the Devil Aldrich and the White-Haired Aldrich. At their core, they were the same. The only difference was that the Devil Aldrich didn't waver from taking the steps which Aldrich thought to be inconsequential.

Aldrich did not know what the Devil had done. The moment he used that Skill, which had made everything go silent, his connection with him got broken. It was like a glitch, not long enough for it to cause serious damage. But even its presence was enough for Aldrich's rage to go haywire. Even though he did not know the planetary consequences yet, Aldrich could guess the bloodbath had resulted because of it.

When he had said to the Devil to sacrifice anything and everything, he never meant things that didn't belong to him. Even if Aldrich wasn't a saint, he abhorred the meaningless loss of life. Everything done without an exceptional potential profit was fatuous to him.

Aldrich noticed the image of the World Tree had already vanished as if presence was enough for the Devil to take care of the Marquess. At his feet, Marquess Nicholas was at his last breath. The Devil had served him with all the flavors and side dishes as Aldrich had ordered him to do.

BOOM!!!

Suddenly, a booming sound rang out behind Aldrich. His Perception was still at zero, making him turn around to see what was going on. By the time he got to see it, the twin red suns had already sent Maya flying towards the earth.

"… This."

Aldrich couldn't believe that anything could come over the Black Mist and let Harold regain his sanity for even a second. Even with his mastery of Laws, Aldrich could only keep it in check and save himself from being almost brain dead, like Harold.

But among these moments of everything becoming chaotic, Aldrich's eyes lit up. He knew this wasn't the moment to dwell on what had already happened. But this was the time he had been waiting for. It didn't matter for the next few moments how things happened and why they happened. If he wouldn't take action now, all his plans would come to naught.

Aldrich took a deep breath and looked at Boudicca. Her hairs were gradually changing to golden, much more golden than anything he had seen so far, and even golden than the Devil's hairs. Soon Boudicca's eyes turned gold, and a raging outcry came out of her mouth.

"You…"

Bang! Grrr! Houuuu! Roar!!!

"Arghh!!"

"Daddyyy…"

Countless incomprehensible voices raged Aldrich's mind, making the blood seep out from his ears and nose. But before he could lose all rationality, the Black Veil hidden surfaced and filtered out all the chaotic mumblings going on within his head. His perception returned to its original value. And before Aldrich could compare this "You" to the Law that had come out of Viscount Sugaar, a hiss took over the surroundings.

Hisssss! Hussss!!

It was as if countless snakes were hissing, cursing in their language at everything. None could understand this language. Even though Aldrich was a Generalist, understanding the language of beasts and learning it was also beyond his capabilities. It was not like he ever wanted to do it. For him, reading animals' body language was enough to know enough about them.

But…

Parselto… Ahem! Serpent Slither was a Passive Skill he had got during his last raid. And according to its description, it didn't matter if Aldrich wanted to or not. He would hear and understand this strange and mystical language, regardless.

As Boudicca shouted, blaming Maya for Eydis' disappearance, the hisses entered Aldrich's mind and became comprehensible.

"SUMMON ANCESTRAL DIVINE SPIRIT: VRITRA!!!"

Aldrich's heart thumped with anticipation as he heard the name VRITRA. Even though he had an idea about the identity of the snake from the prophecy, this was the first time all the pores in his body opened in desire for something.

As the Rumok on Aldrich's head flashed and the Pillar of Footprints came flying to him, he shouted.

"Sha!!!… Devour the head, compass, and the scroll…"

But before he could say more, Sha appeared behind him and, licking her lips, she said.

"Already done… Daddy…"

As the pair of "father and daughter" stood side by side, Boudicca also let out a cry.

"SUMMON ANCESTRAL DIVINE SPIRIT: GOLDEN LUAN!!!"

It was night. Yes, this could be called nothing else. With the moon's blurry image and the twinkling stars, none could say it was time for the sun to come up. But the Duchess had summoned her Ancestral Spirit. And a Spirit would never lose an opportunity to enter reality.

Screachhhh!!!

A cry of thousands of birds came from the east, and Aldrich saw a hint of sunrise. The sky became blue, yellow, orange, red…. and when it seemed it would stop there, a blinding golden color replaced everything. Aldrich saw a hint of an incredible golden bird on the horizon. Its wing-span had already covered the horizon, left and right, and everything which eyes could see.

But contrary to the golden color in the sky, and the coming golden wrath, the ground had become green and marshy. It was like an illusory sea had come up and had devoured everything around the Manor. The fields of roses, paths, and building structures all vanished. What was left was a snake, so big that none could see how many coils it must have taken for it to remain on the ground.

Aldrich, though in awe, had returned to his usual calm state by now. His plan had deviated in between, but now it was on track again. He knew the King and other Dukes would have noticed the spirits' presence by now. And however small the window might have left for them to come here, for Aldrich, it was enough to do what he wanted since the beginning.

Aldrich, like the caring father he was, put his hand over Sha's head. As he stroked her head gently, Aldrich asked.

"Sha, are you ready for the main course?"

Sha looked at Aldrich, like a naughty child, and gave out an ear-to-ear grin.

"Hehehe! Yes… Daddy… Dinner… time. Sha… want… snaky… slurp!!!"

A trail of drool came out from the corner of Sha's mouth, which Aldrich wiped away using his sleeves. He gestured at the Ancient Spirits and scoffed.

"Heh! Only Snake?! Why not both of them?"

"Daddy… You forgot… Sha… don't like… chickens."

1. a Vedic serpent, dragon or demon in Hinduism, the personification of drought and adversary of Indra