Prologue of The Red Monarch AU
Finally, after many typos, working drafts that went to the garbage and back out three times, and a whole God's new redesign, it's finally here!! Please enjoy!!
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Prologue below!!
Drifting across a faraway sky was a bright, nearly blinding outline of a butterfly, redder than blood against stone.
To the touch, if a mortal was given the chance, the butterfly would feel like a wisp of cold air on a summer day, and a bloom of heat during the most outrageous of winters. The spirit-like being was nothing and everything at the same time, a simple twitch in the mosaic fragmentation of existence. She was a twitch that would impact forever and never in the same instance.
She was blind, yet she sensed her fellow Luminaries were descending year after year. Each of them left to serve the Planet of Terror and restore its beauty. To the blind eye, the task seemed almost simple, yet the strength it took to extract a mortalās innermost energies was substantial.
Every round of descent was recorded by Lord Elumi. He was the only Luminary being that closely resembled a mortal. He possessed white, shimmering hair that smelled like the starsāashen and divine. It was told to every Luminary that Elumi had descended to the Planet of Terror eleven times across the years. What was mythic for every Luminary became possible from his brave actions alone.
She would perch herself on his finger, and frequently ask him questions about his lives.
My Spiritwielders have all been very strong. We paved the paths for young warriors. Have you heard about a clan who slays demons?
Back then, the Butterfly was shocked. Demons? Is that true, Lord Elumi? I always thought that was simply fictional.
Cease your simple thinking. Demons exist in that world. They are one of the largest destructions on the Planet of Terror. Elimination of them would be vital to its survival.
Demons. Clans. Elimination. They sounded fantastical. She found it extremely difficult to believe, but if Elumi had lived it eleven times, how could she not trust him?
Then it came her time. Every Luminary would eventually get to this point. She heard the voice of Elumi. His smooth tone filled her head with ease, and the signature whimsical melody behind it made him sound ethereal.
Red Monarch, you've been selected. The Planet of Terror requires you as assistance.
The noise in her mind had begun then.
Whatever are you referring to? I've been here for several decades. You told me I wouldn't be leaving.
Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. You must experience it. Cleanse the Planet, my Monarch.
She heard a faint sound of something like a drilling machine grinding in her conscience. She gasped, antennas flicking nervously as her wings began to flap quickly. Her colour burned brighter than a star. She was really going. It was happening.
She was descending to Earth.
My Elumi, I don't have a Spiritwielder! What will I do? You cannot thrust me onto that Planet yet! I won't allow it!
Amidst the drills and screeching in her head, the smooth voice of the Heavens spoke once again, a slight annoyance lacing his melting voice.
Enough banter, my Monarch. You will comply or else I will not hesitate to consume that Spark of yours. In regards to your Spiritwielder, one has been created for you. Consider her a gift.
Elumi!! Don't drag me from the Heavens!!
She was cut off by the drop.
And the world around her went horribly quiet.
ā
She was plummeting from the skies.
Her thin wings were damp from rainwater as she fell through the clouds quickly, a bright red blur falling into the world. The winds held her back, and she couldn't flap her wings at all. She was completely immobilized. Not every Luminary survived the drop
She may have been destined to die.
Out of options, the Red Monarch squeezed her papery wings against her thorax, worried the wind would tear the fragile veins apart. She braced for impact.
When she hit the floor, she nearly completely flattened. Her body half-squashed against the hard crunchy floor of the forest sheād landed in.
The pain was near unbearable.
The butterfly lay there for a minute, life hanging on by a thread. Her veins were torn despite her efforts to keep them intact and her legs were all broken. Her own blood was leaking out in an illuminated pool around her. She was still. Unmoving. It was like all of her life was being drained from her form. She had become physical. She was suffering through pain.
Then she twitched.
From the inside.
Her insect body convulsed again, stretching painfully. Her body arched up, yet she was unable to move and her senses were consumed with flashing warning signs. All the pain was highly dangerous in her current state, yet she could do nothing to stop it. The stretch lasted horribly long, until she no longer had a slim dark thoraxāinstead, she was a porcelain doll, constructed of bloody tender flesh.
From her elongated body bursted two long arms that tore her wings apart. They were pale and unscathed in the morning sunshine. She tingled all over, a scream tearing from her throatāface tearing open to accommodate her human featuresābig eyes, a rounded nose, and a mouth open too wide around a scream.
Her teeth sprouted from her gums and her fingernails dug into the dry earth. Her whole body was vibrating with hurt. She was screaming her throat raw, tongue unfamiliar inside of her nightmare jaws. Hair grew out of her head, breasts swelled from her chest, and her vision blurred with tears of pain..
It was bright. Everything hurt. The fallen twigs dug into her palms when she stood up on her shaking legs, feet unsteady in the mud. Who would have thought coming to Earth would be so painful?
Once she stopped shaking, she began to move. The former butterfly took a single step forward, testing her weight on her legs. They were quite sturdy, although it felt as if she was piloting a body that ceased to belong to her. She breathed on command, oxygen pouring into her lungs slowly. The breeze picked up and she reached out to feel the air blow between her fingers. Goosebumps spread across her skin, leaving behind tingles that made her wince. Her hair flew around in a flurry. She touched that too, surprised by the feeling of the weightless strands.
Everything was gone. She had suffered yet another metamorphosis. It hurt terribly, but she was stronger, tougher, tallerā¦
So much power for a spirit, yet so little for a god.
The Red Monarch took a few more steps until she noticed something out of sorts. A figure, splayed on the floor in the distance, their clothing lying in a heap beneath them. As the naked woman approached the scene, she noticed it was another female, except her body had been brutally carved and slashed by different sets ofā¦teeth and nailsā¦
The Monarch stared at the dead person for a long time. She knew what was required of her. She must decompose the body so the Earth may prosper. But she hesitated, glancing at the woman's fallen hakama robe.
It was covered in blood. Instead of wincing, the Red Monarch did not recoil. She stood over the body and slowly removed the hakama from her cold skin, peeling sticky blood and leaves from it. The robes landed in a heap at the former butterfly's feet.
Now came her sole purpose. She outstretched a long-fingered hand, channeling her energy into a blast. Her palm blazed a warm white before it penetrated the dead ladyās flesh. The Monarch sapped up her primordial qi, watching her fallen body become more and more transparent, until she was quite simply nonexistent. Beneath her, healthy grass bloomed where her blood once tainted.
It was not eliminated. It was reduced. The woman, now gone from existence forever, had returned to the world. Everything she ever left, her large footprint in the Planet of Terrorās fragmentation was gone. And Mother of Earth took back what She donated.
The Monarch smiled for the first time. She was glad the woman was finally rested, in soul and qi. She knew Lord Elumi would be extremely proud. Next, she glanced at the robes. She would wear these, to cover her fertile goods.
She was not stupid to the ways of the Planetās people. She slipped one arm into the hakama, and then the other. Her body moved as she commanded it. It was refreshing to be inside of such an amazing Spiritwielder, who melted to her every mental command.
Once the hakama was fastened at her waist, the Red Monarch began her traveling. She looked across the forest. It was desolate. The trees were thick with age, foliage swarming the trunks in messy kind of art. The Monarchās eyes scanned over the grass and sticks arrayed across the ground. Nothing out of place. The forest wasā¦orderly.
The Red Monarch walked deeper, until she was at the end of the large mountain. A waterfall was splashing down the gorge and there were tons of rocks protruding from the mountain. The Red Monarch smiled. She sensed life nearby. Birds chirped cheerily in a nearby tree, willing the woman.
Let me see what this Planet has to offer.
The Monarch turned her back and let go, jumping off of the cliff.
_
Thank you for reading!! I will organise tags and things like that for my readers! I will publish it soon on AO3, Quotev, Inkitt, or Wattpad soon!
New art incoming as well!!
I'm glad I got this one out!
Songs for this part:
