Chapter 716 Obedience Or Sacrifice Fury Kuranes had been standing shirtless on the top of the Mountain of Blood for ten years, his eyes were closed, and hundreds of small blazing pearls that turned out to be miniaturized suns floated around him. This place was a holy place where you were supposed to enter and not leave, but like all traditions it could be bent to accommodate certain needs, and it had been done a few times in history, Fury was just the latest person to bend that law, and for good reason, he thought. He looked up to the skies, his gaze unmoving as he stared at the passing stars, the wind caressing his long red hair that had remained unchanged even with his ascension to a god. He had noticed after standing here for ten years that there was something wrong with the stars. This observation was fleeting and perhaps it was because he was in this place and standing in this precise position that he noticed it. A passing thought went through his mind but vanished soon after, for a moment there he had thought that the stars were not real. Yet that was impossible, from here he could feel their heat, and if he wanted with his Intent over Heat and Force, he could drag these stars to his side, just as he had been doing for the last ten years, and the hundreds of stars hovering around him was proof that his fleeting musing was incorrect. Fury shook his head, dispersing all those errant thoughts, the distraction that plagued his mind, he was at the cusp of his destiny, the road he had been set upon since the day he was born, and now he waited on the Mountain of Blood, for his answer, he had been deceived and betrayed by the person most dear to his heart, but he hoped he was wrong with all his being. He had been waiting to challenge his mother, Empress Scarlet Sinshirin Kuranes, Daughter of the Sun and the Earth, Ruler of Trion. If she refuses to speak with him cordially, then he will take what he wants by force. He was not here to challenge her for the throne, he was only here for answers. His actions, while not unprecedented, would be considered by most to be foolish, the Empress was invincible and her will was inviolable, but Fury was no longer a mortal but a god, and his will was also absolute. Yet, that was not the true reason why his actions would be frowned upon, power was respected first and foremost in Trion and Fury was powerful, it was because of a simple reason, Fury was no longer a Dominator, and it was only because he was the Empress son that he was permitted to remain in this place. The Top of the Mountain of Blood was not large, barely five hundred feet across, and the ground was slick with blood that never dried. Every drop of blood here held incredible power and they moved as if they had a life of their own. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂 For this blood to have life was not strange, It was on this mountain that every Emperor or Empress at the end of their rule would ascend and would willingly bare their throat to their successor to be cut open. They would not resist the call of their mortal body dying and their blood would flow until it was empty, only then would the gate of the Divine Kingdom of their Primogenitor be open and they would ascend to immortality. It was now that Fury was beginning to realize everything that was wrong about this place. As a mortal he had found such a fate to be glorious, to live as an immortal beside their Primogenitor was a choice that he would pick a thousand times over, but as a god that was no longer a Dominator, he began noticing the wrongness of this entire affair. There would be no resurrection to the Divine that could be found here, only death. The blood that had stained Fury's legs up to his knees was from a million years of Emperors and Empresses. The blood of all his Ancestors was here, and in time, his blood should have graced this noble stone. Fury was not afraid of death, he was only afraid of living a life without meaning. He remembered his mother telling him, "How can a man die better, than in service to their god?" Those words should have empowered him, but they no longer did. He needed more. A wispy voice sounded beside him, "Prince of Fire, how long would you wait? Your mother has already made her wishes clear. You of all should know that the Empress never changes her mind. You failed her commands, and your hesitations are useless." Fury was quiet for a long time and it seemed as if he would not be replying to the voice which turned out to be the Empress' Royal Hand. This hooded figure that seemed to be sculpted out of darkness and as Fury realized was also a god, but one of the old ones that had been long defeated, he did not bother to learn his name. "My mother wishes for me to become nothing but a sacrifice for Kuranes, but I can become more… She has to see that. The Royal Hand looked away at something in the distance before replying, "Obedience is far greater than any sacrifice you can make." Fury's nine-colored eyes lit up like a furnace, "She gave me the inheritance of the Sky Treading Phoenix, and she expected I would be just a Minor god, yet see what I have achieved with this power. I have reached heights that would shake the very galaxy, and that is not enough?" "Oh but you are forgetting something, Prince of Fire, you were also given the Divine Spark of Kuranes so you could merge with it." "To what end?!" Fury screamed, finally giving voice to his rage, "What would my merger with the Progenitor achieve besides adding just a bit of power to his Divine Kingdom and damning me for eternity. I am capable of much more than just to be made kindling for the gods' flames.." The Royal Hand suddenly chuckled, a strange sound that sounded like the hissing of a cat, "Obviously your Empress thinks that is all you are worth." From behind Fury, a large avian head began to arise, the eyes of the Phoenix that appeared behind him were filled with so much wrath that the skies began to glow with the heat of a thousand suns.