Chapter 2: Prologue (II)
A little over ten years after the Crimson War of Extermination, a vast military parade occurred in the Great Star Kingdom’s capital, Neptuno. There were fireworks, music, and cheers as soldiers in blue garments crossed the streets.
Fathers raised their children on their shoulders to see the soldiers, and no one among the crowd did not smile and respectfully salute those men.
Most soldiers smiled and kept their heads high as they marched, but there was a considerable portion whose eyes betrayed the shame hidden in their hearts.
While for the Great Star Kingdom’s people, the Crimson War of Extermination was a cruel but necessary conflict to get rid of a race whose goal was to invade their lands and kill their families, the soldiers part of the war effort knew the truth.
Only one term could correctly describe the Crimson War of Extermination.
Genocide.
Suddenly, people began to exclaim with shock as they saw a young man walking on the pristine street where hundreds of soldiers were marching.
.....
No one should be in that street other than the military, but that was not really important. The young man’s appearance truly shocked the soldiers and civilians of the Great Star Kingdom.
He was a majestic and handsome young man with a fearless aura and a body that thrived with vitality. However, his white hair and red eyes were the most important features responsible for the upheaval.
No one could believe that a member of the Crimson People, the exterminated race, would appear inside the Great Star Kingdom, much less during the parade that celebrated the war in which the army eradicated his people.
The young man calmly walked through the immaculate street toward the soldiers, and as people looked at the back of his robe, they could see two words.
RED KING.
Silence reigned as some of the civilians could not adapt to the bizarre scene before them, and they were the lucky ones.
While ordinary people only saw a young man, the soldiers felt they faced a natural disaster, an emotionless force of destruction that would erase everything in its path.
A young soldier could not resist the psychological pressure projected by the Red King, and he hastily loaded his gun before firing it.
“Boom.”
The Red King stopped walking after the soldier fired the gun. Unlike what people expected, the bullet did not harm or even ricocheted out of his body.
That small piece of metal remained suspended in the air less than five centimeters away from the Red King’s head.
Under the shocked sight of soldiers and civilians, the Red King grabbed the bullet with his fingers before making it glow with a crimson light.
The Red King focused on the soldier that fired the gun at him and threw the bullet.
“BOOOM!” A blast like the one made by a tank firing its cannon occurred when the Red King thrust that crimson bullet from his hands.
Due to the bullet’s kinetic energy, dozens of soldiers, including the one responsible for the shot, were blasted to pieces.
“?AHHHHH!”
People began to cry due to that gory scene, but they did not do it for long. The Red King slapped his hand on the ground, making a crimson light cover the earth for hundreds of meters around him.
That crimson light was the last thing those civilians and soldiers saw before earth spikes rose from the ground and killed them all.
No emotion appeared in the Red King’s eyes after that carnage. He knew that was only the beginning, and he focused on fighting jets that appeared in the sky.
What happened next could only be described as a clash of military technology against supernatural powers.
Explosives, missiles, and high-power bullets rained down on the Red King, and this one responded by unleashing fireballs, lightning arcs, storms, acid rain, and many more supernatural abilities.
Like during the Crimson Extermination War, where one side controlled much greater power than the other, there was no doubt who the winner would be.
Neptuno, the crown jewel of the Great Star Kingdom, a city with fifty-five million people and renowned for the planet’s highest military power, was reduced to ashes in less than fifteen hours.
Only two people were alive in the city, and both were in the sky watching the flaming ruins. One showed no emotion, while the other had fallen into utter desperation.
Sunit the Great saw everything he held dear destroyed and could barely speak. His body had already given up, not that it mattered much since he only remained in the sky thanks to the Red King’s tight grasp on the back of his neck.
“Monster...”
The Red King turned toward Sunit, as that was the first word the Star King pronounced since the moment of his capture.
“Monster, demon, hellish creature sent to destroy my godly kingdom!” The Star King began to yell all his strength. It seemed that the shock of losing everything drove him crazy.
The Red King only shook his head as he heard Sunit’s words.
“Mysticism and fairy tales. The tools of the weak and stupid to explain something beyond their understanding.
Three days after my birth, I could already understand words and perceive my surroundings. One week later, I acquired the ability to talk and solve advanced mathematical problems.
Of course, I hid all that from my progenitors, as I knew an existence like mine could incite fear in ordinary people.
During my first birthday, I perceived the force that permeated every corner of this world. Before I was three, I learned how to use it to unleash elemental spells and strengthen my body.”
Sunit could not understand what force the Red King was talking about, but that did not matter, as the young man never expected feedback.
“You... You are a demon. God will punish your unholy existence for what you have done to my people.”
Those words provoked nothing in the Red King, and he only shook his head.
“So in your mind, ordering the extermination of the Crimson People followed God’s desires, but exterminating your kingdom goes against his divine will. Ahh, I thought the king of the largest force in the world would be better, but you are yet another hypocrite.” The Red King said nothing else before letting go of the Sunit.
“Ahhh!” The Star King of the Great Star Kingdom screamed as he fell from the sky before clashing with the ground and shattering every bone in his body.
Ten days before his fifteen birthday, the Red King destroyed the Great Star Kingdom, the mightiest power in the world and responsible for the extermination of the Crimson People.
The Red King stared at the broken city and understood he had become the mightiest entity in the world, but that only made him feel shallow.
The night had reached its end at that moment, and the sun came out. As he felt the warmth of that majestic heavenly body, a goal that genuinely passionate him appeared in the Red King’s mind.
“This world is too small for me.” The Red King stared at the mighty heavenly bodies that covered the firmament as a smile emerged on his face.