Chapter 43: Volume 2 – Chapter 12

Nine days.

It took nine days to reach Shantee, two more than the week that Lore had said when they had first met in Wildburry. Though that was with the caveat that they, ‘make good time.’ Considering all the things they encountered along the way, Peter wondered if such a thing was possible.

From a distance, Shantee seemed smaller than expected. The girth of Wildburry was quite impressive, and that was if you didn’t include the farmland surrounding it, which spanned even further in all directions.

By comparison, Shantee looked like a small fort at best. The walls were neither impressive in height nor appearance. Cracks and holes ran all along the stone exterior, so deep in some areas you could even see an exposed layer of wooden planks. A large gate sat in the middle, made up of metal bars for its grille. 

Rather than slide up or down, this one instead seemed to be pushed and pulled. At the center was a series of chains holding the two halves together. Peter spotted a few tamers and primals hurriedly attempting to unlock them from the inside.

As the maw of the gate began to open, Peter heard shouting from the right. He spotted a lone Fren, emerging from the forest and running towards them. Before he could give any order, a strange looking primal emerged from the forest, with a man riding atop.

The primal looked like a centaur made of wind, yet the upper half was wrong, no beauty could be found in its head which between curtains of wind appeared long and jutted out.

“Steel Breeze!” the man shouted while waving his sword. Whatever that did, the back of the Fren’s neck burst with blood, and she collapsed onto the grass. The man jumped off his primal with a summersault through the air and landed atop her body and pierced it. She twitched for a brief moment before going still.

The windy primal ran up behind the man, but with a wave of his hand it disappeared, fading into a gust that traveled towards the sky.

“Sorry about the scare, spotted a group of them on my way back, this one abandoned her friends and tried to give me the slip. The cowardly dog,” the man said as he approached the caravan.

“Get back!” Gaia shouted as she jumped in front of Peter. “Stay away from us!” her voice angrily screamed. 

“Gaia?” Peter asked aloud, puzzled. The man didn’t seem like a threat, though he was… different.

Hair as black as a night sky whose stars were snuffed out. His facial features were distinct, exotic if Peter were asked to say it to the man’s face. He had never met a person like this before. Perhaps he was not from this continent, was he a traveler from the Kingdom of Dezure, far away to the east across the ocean?

The man also wore black leather armor, which contrasted with the long white cloak which hung behind him. The most striking feature though, was his sword. Impressively thin yet a menacing sharpness to its look. The metal of the blade gleamed brightly in the sunlight in the moments before he placed it into its sheath.

“Ah, I mean you no harm. I'm an adventurer, just like you," he said as he stepped closer.

“I said stay back! Nature’s Beauty!” Gaia suddenly tossed a wall of powder towards the man.

“Woah. Swirling Vortex!” The man shouted while holding his arms up before him. A wall of wind appeared and knocked Gaia’s skill to his sides, protecting him. “Most don’t get that aggressive until I’m closer, you have quite the protective primals.”

“I don’t think he’s dangerous…” Kalista’s voice echoed in Peter’s mind. Trusting Gaia’s instincts, he summoned her as a precaution. She looked at him for a moment before frowning and bringing out her sword. “Peter, there’s something wrong with that man.”

“Is that?!” The man excitedly shouted. His hand reached behind him and pulled out a book, and he aggressively began to flip through the pages. “It is! A Blood Knight, what a rare find!”

“So you know what I am,” Kalista replied. “Then you should know not to come any closer to us.”

The man laughed. “I'm no threat, though I understand why you're upset. Here, what if I took a few steps back? Headwind.” With a burst of air, he jumped backwards.

Gaia and Kalista looked puzzled. “Of… of course I would feel better if you went away,” Gaia said, her voice wavering.

“I’m not going to hurt any of you, my sword is at my side. Trust your eyes, not your feelings,” he said as he began to walk towards them. The closer he got, the more visibly tense Gaia and Kalista appeared. About ten feet away, he stopped. “See? All good.”

“What… what are you?” Kalista asked in a strained voice. “Everything in my being tells me I should kill you right now.”

The man smiled. “That would be-”

“Kaze! Are you harassing my tamers again!” A loud voice suddenly boomed. The owner was a man dressed well in a large coat standing atop the gate. Even from this distance, Peter felt the man was intimidating, even from a distance. “Get those damn wagons inside, now! And close the gate, you want every feral to walk right in here?! Move!”

“Let’s go, Rena!” Lore shouted, and the wagons began to move while Peter stood still.

You are reading story Primal Dawn at novel35.com

“Just greeting the newcomers, Rand.” Kaze shouted back with a smile.

“Then keep your greetings to yourself! I don’t need the recruits bothered by you!” Rand stepped away while grumbling to himself.

“He’s just stressed,” Kaze lazily remarked. “As I was saying, it would be a mistake to try and fight me. I am Kaze, also known as The Sword of God.” As he spoke the last part, he turned his back towards Peter, showing his cloak.

It was embroidered with seven different golden circles, each of them containing some symbol within. A pair of lips, a sparkling light, a hand with the index finger pointing out, a pair of closed eyes, a set of scales, a shield, and finally, a sword. The circle surrounding the sword was different from the others. It appeared as if it was bleeding gold into the white fabric surrounding it. At first Peter thought it was just colored that way, but the golden circles all shimmerred as Kaze’s cloak swung side to side. Perhaps it was real gold.

“The Sword of God?” Peter asked, confused. “Which god?”

“Pura.” Peter made a slight frown. “Ah, yes, I am part of the church, but don’t worry, I’m not here to harass you or anything.”

“What does the church want to do with Shantee?”

“Not sure, I’m here on personal business. And this small place out in the middle of nowhere, it shouldn’t be hard to guess what I’ve come to see.”

“Dungeons?” Kaze nodded. “Why are you exploring dungeons? Are you looking for more rare primals for your book?”

Kaze laughed. “That would be grand, but I’m afraid despite all my travels across the continent, I’ve never come across a primal that’s not in here,” Kaze said as he waved the book in front of Peter.

A book containing every single known primal? Guilds typically had reference books available, most of them documenting primals in the local region. There were manuals which expanded their depth to the Kingdom as a whole, but those were hard to get access to, and normally advertised that they were not all-inclusive. And here was this man casually waving one around, and a member of the church no less. How important was he, or even more curious, how knowledgeable of primals was the church after all?

“No. I’ve come here to see if there’s a way to end this never ending war. A way to finally quell the ferals once and for all.”

“What’s there to look for? Hasn’t the church made their stance clear? All primals must be killed,” Peter said the last part in a mocking-serious tone.

Kaze smiled. “That is one way. But what if I told you there might be a way to get rid of the feral problem without any bloodshed?” 

Peter raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Without killing any of them?" He paused as he tried to come up with an explanation. "Do you plan to tame every primal?”

Kaze laughed. “That’s quite the bold idea, though I’m afraid I’m unable to tame even a single one. No, I’m looking for a way to make ferals infertile.”

“Infertile…” Certainly, if he was able to do such a thing, the feral population would slowly dwindle to nothing. “But how would you make every feral in the world infertile? And what do dungeons have to do with that?”

“I’m glad you’re curious,” Kaze smiled. “First, the events of Primal Dawn are still somewhat a mystery, but they proved that it is possible to affect nearly every monster in the world with magic at once. Who's to say such a thing could not be replicated? Second, after reading up on dungeons and speaking with divers, I noticed something peculiar. There’s no record of a primal within a dungeon ever being pregnant.”

Peter blinked. “Isn’t that because the primals in dungeons are more violent?” Peter recalled hearing that somewhere, which made dungeons especially dangerous. While typical ferals were more interested in sexual conquest, with death as an unfortunate side effect, the primals you’d find in dungeons were bloodthirsty and violent. Once tamed, they seemed to behave normally, but for whatever reason their initial nature was different.

Kaze shrugged. “Maybe. It could also be that dungeons typically don’t last long enough for their inhabitants to get pregnant before collapsing. All the same, I’m here to investigate. If there was something that could block ferals from being pregnant, perhaps it could be applied to ferals outside the dungeon. In the span of a few generations of humans, the war would be over, and finally the peace that we have been waiting for will have arrived.”

“A world without ferals,” Peter muttered while closing his eyes in thought. “But if you went through with this, all primals would die out. Once bonded, primals can’t give birth, after all.” Kalista and Gaia both looked downtrodden upon being reminded of this fact, sometimes dubbed, The Curse of Bonds. “A world with only humans in it… despite all the horrible things I’ve had to endure the past few months, I don’t think such a world should exist.”

Kaze turned serious. “Though I see primals with the cloud of desire swept away,” he said as he glanced towards Kalista and Gaia, “as a man, I can understand why that idea sounds horrendous to you. Males of this world grow up with these lusty monsters prowling the streets, their vicious bodies on display, boldly enticing desire. It comes as no surprise that men cannot fathom a world without them. Yet why should a species, whose existence is frankly parasitic, be allowed to continue? Their nature is predator to our prey. Until they are destroyed, the suffering of humanity, especially men, will continue. The ratio of women to men is fast approaching two to one. If things do not change, humanity will perish, and primals will follow afterwards."

“So either the primals die, or everyone dies?” Kaze nodded. “It’s to bleak an outlook for me. If you have magic that can make all ferals infertile, why not just make them peaceful ? The only solutions I’ve heard come from the church involve the death of all primals, one way or the other. If that’s the only answer humanity can come up with, maybe the world is better off without us after all.”

Kaze smiled. “You’re an interesting fellow. At the very least, most tamers would have told me to leave the moment they realized I was with the church. We should talk more some other time.” Kaze stepped towards Peter and extended his hand towards him. “Mister…?”

Peter scowled and abruptly stepped back. “Peter,” he replied with a confused tone, before signaling for Kalista and Gaia to follow him into Shantee.

Kaze watched Peter puzzled as the gate shut behind him.

You can find story with these keywords: Primal Dawn, Read Primal Dawn, Primal Dawn novel, Primal Dawn book, Primal Dawn story, Primal Dawn full, Primal Dawn Latest Chapter