Chapter 19: The Legend of The Feather
By the sight of it, I was transfixed for a moment. I had completely forgotten that Cerberus was on my side as cold shivers run down my spine. The dog was far larger than I had imagined. At least twice the size of a man. Its three sets of eyes were all blood red with yellow slits for pupils.
'What is the meaning of this?'
Only one word screamed louder than anything at that moment.
Carnage!!
The attack happened in a flash. One moment I was tossed away from the first shockwave produced by the first slap, and the next one the only thing that I could see were pools of red and black blood as one seemed cold but the other, so hot that the sands burnt hard upon coming into contact with it.
The other thing that made my knees nearly give up on me was that half the arena was in shambles as Cerberus continued to rain in attacks from both his paws and its three heads.
I shivered and turned away from the sight. Only to turn back again as I knew that I had to get used to these kinds of scenes as I had a gut feeling that this wasn't the last of it.
Cerberus was a strange and terrible beast.
I continued to watch as the drooling and snarling heads of Cerberus tore through the nigh impenetrable black scales of the sea serpent.
The hound was at least twelve feet tall, each of its three heads was at least as big as the entire body of an average dog. Its muzzles were stained dark red with blood, and its three sets of foot-long white fangs dripped with drool, that burned black holes into whatever it touched.
With its poisonous saliva, Cerberus seemed to have the upper hand as he toyed with the serpent while at the same time making it know its place. At this point, everything was clear as the whole stadium stared with disbelief.
The gory scene was what everyone had thought of at first but it ended with Lucifer being on the receiving end. No one ever thought of the opposite happening in a thousand years. This was absurd.
{Master... Just accept, for your own sake...}
Cerberus's voice resounded in my head for the hundredth time as I came back to reality and saw the bird still flapping its wings steadily.
Wow!
The bird just now was by any chance only a step away from the state it was in before it burned away.
"How?" That's the first word that escaped my mouth without even noticing.
"How?.. Just say that you accept. That's all." The silvery voice answered as the bird's green luminous eyes bored into mine with a hint of curiosity.
Shaking my head as I thought from what Cerberus advised to what the bird just said, I accepted with a low voice.
"I accept."
And just like that, if the temperatures were high just a little while ago because of the fact that all the three beasts had a link to flames. Then this time, the stadium turned into a hell on earth.
The Phoenix continued to grow and I kept looking as to what were the chances of something similar happening in the next thousand years?
Nearly impossible!
At the same time that the words came out of my mouth, Cerberus seemed to stop and turned to watch as he disregarded the serpent.
Throughout the stadium, everyone's mouth fell off as they were witnessing another impossible feat. Their minds were just too impotent to just store all the things that had been happening.
Who would even believe their stories of the accounts that took place in the arena today?
No one would believe them and most would probably just be nodding their heads because it was a story worth listening to but not retelling.
On the other side, the King had a gruesome face as a few servants were currently cleaning his gold tainted robes off the blood that came out of his ears.
The look bored the meaning of his displeasure as his gaze met with that of her daughter Nevaeh. Out of instincts, she rose to her feet and moved forward a few yards, and stopped when she reached her sisters' side.
Heaven was already up a while ago. She was anxious as any master would feel when observing their pet brutally being torn apart right before their eyes. And so she was contemplating on the fact if she could interfere with the match just to help her pet to gain its footing.
She knew that with her profound knowledge of tactical operations and her mastery of being a dual sword wielder. She couldn't win against a beast like Cerberus but she would be able to buy the serpent sometime.
With that, she was still thinking of intervening when she saw a silver thread of hope when suddenly the three-headed dog stopped attacking and let its guard down. If she were the serpent, this would be the best time for it to make a comeback but to her disbelief, the serpent changed its target while letting its rival with a chance of a counterattack even before its goal was completed.
Feeling someone beside her, she watched closely from the corners of her eyes as she didn't want to get left behind from what would happen next in the arena.
"Now that you have confirmed it that you are a brat, how do you plan to salvage the situation as I know for a fact that the phoenix isn't doing anything that it's supposed to?" After confirming that it was her sister, she just posed her questions without worrying about anything.
By the way that she just stood there, silently watching. No one dared to tell her off even if she was obstructing their view. The dual broad swords on her back were a clear warning to anyone who would be dumb enough to oppose a royal.
"I have one of its tail feathers right here, with this in our possession the bird should do our bidding." Nevaeh explained with displeasure on her face as stretched her hand out revealing a magnificent glowing feather.
"Okay, burn it as this fight has dragged on longer than I had expected... And know that you'll have to face the consequences after this. This time around, you were dumber and acted out of pure emotions than to use your brain..." Heaven continued with a straight face as she looked at the arena where the serpent had taken the leap and was headed towards Lucifer.
In the whole Kingdom, only four souls knew how they had been able to keep the Phoenix under their wings for so long as it had been passed down from one generation to the next and was considered their most precious family heirloom among the others that were in their disposal.
The King, Queen, and their daughters were the only ones that knew that the Phoenix was staying by their side because they had something too important to it, the feather.
Legend passed down on the family has it that, 'if the feather were to be burned, then the holder will get a month of full spiritual command over the bird. But... after that, the Phoenix would be free from the clutches of its captures.
Hearing that, Nevaeh was still thinking of what to do next when a sickly sweet smell of burning feathers assaulted her nostrils.
Sniffing around out of curiosity while she looked around. She noticed that something was amiss as she looked at her hand only to be left with shock as she saw the feather to be already half burned.
"WHO DARES?.." A trembling cry escaped her mouth as she looked at the ones that nearest to her with a stern gaze.
Everyone looked away and she knew who the culprit was but this time around wasn't that naive to act out of her selfish desires and chose to remain silent. She knew that if she were to confront her sister in front of the whole kingdom, she would lose everything including her dignity.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!"
The Phoenix let a small chuckle as it continued flapping its wings and kept growing at a steady pace.
But this time around, a nearly transparent layer of an ever-changing flame was engulfing it completely and as it changed in color, the temperatures rose and a suffocating aura escaped from them.
Hhhiiiiiiiisssss!
I heard the loud hissing sound and I saw the serpent was only a second from consuming me wholly. It was just that the speed she was currently on, was two folds of what it had displayed earlier.
Every beast here was a monster... Maybe, except for the Phoenix who was still unfazed by everything that was happening.
Suddenly, a menacing low growl like rolling thunder consumed the whole stadium making everyone shudder to their cores.
With a series of barks like cracks of lightning, Cerberus leaped into the air and my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone