Davis felt a great change in the mana around him. If normal Mana was a vast, boundless, tranquil ocean, the Mana around him now was something more akin to a tsunami, wave after wave rippling across the world, receding and crashing against every living thing, destroying their control over their own Mana.

It was no wonder that the more powerful you were, the more threatened you were by the Blood Moon. If being at Silver Core meant that he could barely send his own Mana to power his legs, he shuddered at the thought of what more powerful individuals were feeling. Davis himself had never experienced a Blood Moon before, as he was born only 3 years after the previous one, and he had only ever heard rumors of it before.

All people had to do was survive. That was the end goal of a Blood Moon.

There are no heroes here. Anyone who dared play savior would be ruthlessly crushed by the hordes of monsters that were sent by the Blood Moon.

Cities were the safest areas to be in during a Lunar Event. The nearest city in front of him was at least a hundred kilometers away, situated on the highest hill on these flat plains.

Suddenly, the Earth underneath him seemed to give way, as he was launched several meters into the air. A loud explosion rang to his side, Davis barely managing to catch a glimpse of a pillar of condensed Blood-red Mana, seemingly stretching infinitely into the crimson sky, burying itself into the Earth.

The Pillar filled the air with the iron smell of blood, with countless runes inscribed onto the Mana, excluding an aura of hatred and pain.

The Pillar suddenly vaporized, turning into millions of tiny red shards that scattered across the turbulent green grass. In its place, thousands of malformed entities composed of slime-like substances appeared. That form was only temporary, of course, the slime-like substance quickly hardening and turning into familiar shapes that Davis knew all too well.

Humans.

Each one was a grotesque replica of their original counterparts, with one too many limbs, mismatched parts, or even fusing and becoming a Chimera. They were all once living creatures, devoured underneath a Blood Moon and turned into hideous malformations that were an affront to all living creatures.

The ones that caught Davis’s eyes, however, were the replicas with fewer malformations. He had only heard about these before, but these were the Crimson Legion, formed by the Blood Moon’s corrupt Mana mixing with the ambient Mana of the Earth.

Davis barely had time to compose himself before the horde was upon him. The grotesque mimics hurled themselves at him, each step they took tainting the ground more crimson, filling the air with the smell of blood.

He raised Masamune and cut down the first few that had managed to cover the short distance between them, the blade slicing through their crystalline bodies easily. Using his other hand, he unbuckled the sheathed Amaterasu from his waist and used it to block one of the creature’s attacks.

Both hands acted in near-perfect sync with his mind. Masamune slashed through monster after monster, Amaterasu blocking the attacks that he couldn’t get with Masamune. Splashes of bright Crimson stained his entire body, but he ignored them. His eyes kept glancing between his enemies and the Legion just a few hundred meters away.

Seeing how they were not getting through, the vast majority snarled and made their way to the city far in the distance. More pillars of crimson mana crashed into the Earth at other locations, but not close enough to attract Davis’s attention.

Only the Legionnaires remained, limping their way toward Davis.

Their far-away silhouettes cast dark shadows that stretched for meters. One of them pulled out a foghorn and blew it. The disappearing monsters that had left for the city all stopped in their tracks and began running back, toward Davis, murder in their eyes.

A chilling sound spread across the plains, and suddenly, he found himself face to face with one of the Legion. The Legionnaire was so close that he could make out its features. It wore a strange cracked helmet that had a ‘T’ shaped opening and a plume of red flame on top that burned with no fuel. Beneath the helmet held a vague shape that was shrouded by the helmet’s shadow. Cancerous growth sprouted from a cracked side of the helmet, but it did not seem to affect it in any way.

The next thing Davis knew was a stabbing pain in his sides, and the Legionnaire disappearing from his view, now several meters behind him. Davis’s muscle memory had made him just barely dodge that.

‘Fuck!’ He grimaced. Davis had only lost concentration for but a moment, and was subsequently punished by a glancing blow to his sides. Even when empowered by his skill underneath the Blood Moon, he lacked perception.

It wasn’t fatal, and he attempted to seal the bleeding using the little bit of his mana that he could control.

His instincts screamed, and his hand reacted before his mind. Masamune swung in a wide arc, killing the Legionnaire that was dashing toward him at breakneck speed. The bisected Legionnaire spilled onto the grassy plains, nearly a hundred meters away.

The Legionnaires that were approaching suddenly stopped, all of their heads following the dead Legionnaire. Another Foghorn blew, one of the Legionnaires hoisting an Aquila that was decorated with an Owl, a 7-sided star engraved into its body, the eyes shining with a deep crimson glow.

Waves of sickening Mana washed over Davis, disorienting him and unsealing the ruptured blood vessels in his side, and before he knew it, the Legionnaires were in attacking position. He had barely managed to get some space before a thrown spear nearly embedded itself deep into his left hand, rendering it useless.

“FUCK-!” He roared, wildly slashing Masamune at the approaching Legionnaires. They had kept their distance, and now approached, quickly encircling him behind hundreds of Legionnaires. Their shields, each with an emblem of a 7-sided star began to close in, the spears peeking out from the cracks threatening to skewer him.

Davis gritted his teeth and tore the spear from his left arm. It was jagged at the edges, ripping off much of his flesh and tendons along with the spear. Blood sprayed from the wound, but Davis ignored it. With his one good arm, he took the sheathed Amaterasu and placed it on the ground.

Another spear was thrown, this time pinning his leg to the ground, the jagged edges piercing into his calf.

Using his other foot as a temporary arm, he drew Amaterasu. A soothing fire washed all over him, his vitality and lifespan slipping away with each second he held Amaterasu.

The encroaching Legionnaires stopped, confused and wary. Using this precious time, he resheathed Masamune and hung her at his waist. Davis found his Mana to be controllable once again and instantly stopped the bleeding at his wounds. Then, with a single working arm, he willed Mana to flow into Amaterasu, casting [Bloody Crescent], and slashed in an arc.

Instead of the usual arc of writhing blood, a blinding flash of flame washed over the plains, vaporizing a large portion of the Legionnaires and the approaching mimics, alongside most of the land beyond that, reducing it into charred dirt for hundreds of kilometers in a cone shape.

“Gods…” He murmured, seeing the amount of destruction a simple ability had done. Quickly snapping out of his stupor, he used this precious time to cut the embedded spear, leaving it in to stop the bleeding. Now with the empowered Amaterasu, the Mana turned into a blinding white flame that flared around the blade, instantly vaporizing any Legionnaire that came into contact with it.

His footwork, when viewed from an outside perspective, was like a dance. A blood-red aura erupted from his body, writhing outwards as if trying to escape. Even though he was semi-crippled, he was empowered, and it was more than enough for the disoriented Legion, who was still recoiling from the attack.

He dodged a spear thrust toward his left and retaliated with another swing, taking off its head. Soon, the remaining Legionnaires huddled up together, protecting the Owl seared with the 7-sided star.

Before he could finish the rest of them off, however, the Legionnaire holding the Owl blew into his foghorn. A piercing gaze seemed to slam into him from above, and Davis was forced to look up. Instead of the usual Blood Moon, with its writhing aura of crimson and the countless pillars of crimson Mana slamming into the Earth below, the entire night sky was…

An eye.

With the night as its eyelid, it unfurled itself revealing the Blood Moon as its pupil. Slowly, more eyes emerged from the Moon’s surface, until the entire night sky seemed to gaze only at him. The entity demanded his full attention, and it forced its will on him. Flesh was melted off his face as his eyes sizzled and began to deform.

Even though he was in great pain, he couldn’t look away. Even as his eyes melted into puddles, his sight remained, forced to look at the great eye above. He could not even open his mouth to scream.

“Ah. Guess I’ve been discovered.” The ethereal voice, which Davis acknowledged as Amaterasu, suddenly sighed. The white flames surrounding the blade coalesced into a familiar-looking figure.

Suddenly, the eyes above switched their targets and stared at Amaterasu’s figure, surprised, but only for a brief moment.

An aura of white flame encircled the duo, cutting off the eye’s influence. Davis instantly screamed and dropped to the ground, his hands only feeling clean bone where his face once was. “Well, guess this is the end of our short relationship together.”

Hundreds of crimson-red pillars slammed into the ground near them, each spawning thousands more Legionnaires. This time, the pillars did not disappear, instead they formed a sort of encircling array. The runes on the pillars glowed a bright crimson, as the light of Blood Moon intensified hundreds of times stronger.

What's more, these new Legionnaires were nothing compared to the one he had just fought. All of them wore armor that shone like a Ruby, with a massive commander that towered over 5 meters in charge of each. Flames of hatred erupted from each of the Legionnaires, their gaze locked onto the fallen pole that held the 7-sided star.

“My little sister’s pet… how far it has fallen-” She yawned as if the city’s worth of Legionnaires were of no threat to her. Amaterasu turned to him and eyed him up and down. “Here's the deal, human-” Suddenly, she narrowed her eyes and frowned. “No.. not quite Human- ah, whatever.”

“Less-than-human, here's the deal. Either you die here, which is already fated to happen, or, I lend you a fraction of my powers.” She smiled.

“...What's the catch,” Davis said, barely able to keep up with the amount of pain he was feeling. His flesh was literally falling off the bone, and he could barely force himself to stay conscious. Already, he could feel the eye’s influence grow, and it took every ounce of his being to not obey.

Even as his mind felt like it was going to break.

“It’s a small matter. 200 years of your lifespan, on top of the normal decay per second when you wield me. And there's also the small matter of finding my sheathe and finding what happened to Solis, though I doubt you’ll be able to complete that in your few years left.” Amaterasu clapped her hands together, still smiling.

“YES YES!” He screamed. He was already in pain, both physically and mentally, but he knew that there was no chance of him surviving this without her, and lifespan was nothing if he died here. Even with Masamune, he would die without being able to use any of his skills. Not without Amaterasu’s aura that neutralized the Blood Moon’s chaotic Mana.

He was already crippled by pain, and near crippled by his physical wounds.

“I AGREE!”

“Great! Now that my little sister’s pet knows that I am still alive, the next Blood Moon will be sped up by … mmm- 30-40ish years, especially after it realizes that you hold a major portion of her soul.”

Davis didn’t care at this point, he just wanted everything to be over. In the back portion of his mind that was still untouched by pain, he wondered if all Primals were this talkative.

“To be honest, if not for the other me trapping me inside this sword, I would’ve taken her from you already. But no matter, I’ll leave her something that can re-awaken her. In the meantime, get closer.” Davis managed to crawl his way over to her, his trembling fingers digging into the dirt. A rain of spears flew through the air, with waves of arrows following that. Each was glowing crimson, empowered by the light of the Blood Moon. Amaterasu placed the palm of her hand on Davis’s skull, and he felt power surge through every single fiber of his being.

Glowing white light erupted from his eye sockets and mouth, white flame washing over his body. In mere seconds, his flesh regenerated at amazing speeds, facial tissue wrapping around his skull, followed by his eyes and skin. A small orb of white erupted from where he stood, and expanded for hundreds of meters, vaporizing anything that stood in its way.

Once the light cleared, a figure stood in the middle of the crater created by the explosion.

Instead of the shabby rags that were on the verge of breaking, the figure was dressed in exquisite robes made of unknown material. Outlined with gold and silver, thin pieces of silk-like material draped around the robe, leaving only parts of the chest uncovered, showing off the tanned and toned abs underneath.

The figure’s hair was tied back, skewered with a golden hairpin. His eyes shone with the force of a thousand suns, while his hand was holding a blinding white blade. A white aura covered him from head to toe, with a blinding circle of white fire half the size of the man hovering just behind his head and neck.

...