Renard’s breath caught in his throat.
A Space elental beast!
Space elent and Ti elent were considered the two rarest elental affinities in existence. Any beast master who discovered such a creature would do anything to form a contract with it. The fact that this egg was still here seed impossible—surely the clan wouldn’t offer such a precious beast egg to newly awakened youth. This had to be so kind of mistake.
Space elental beasts were even rarer than Light and Darkness affinities let alone Thunder.
A fully developed space elental beast could manipulate space itself and travel between realms, which was reason it was near impossible to catch them and force them into a bond.
In his previous life, he had only heard rumors of space elent creatures. With House Grim destroyed, there had been no one left who had successfully reared space elental beasts.
To think one had been sitting here, overlooked by the main family and even the heirs who had co before him! And to think he had missed it in his previous life as well.
But why had this egg been overlooked by the others? Surely the Patriarch or the beast specialists could identify its true nature. Did that an there was so kind of problem with it?
The answer beca clearer as he studied it more carefully. The egg was significantly smaller than the others and had an almost mundane appearance. Most people would have dismissed it as inferior, especially since so special beast eggs entered states of hibernation and would take their own ti to hatch, often requiring specific external stimuli.
But Renard knew better. In the world of beast taming, longer incubation periods often indicated more complex and powerful creatures.
’This is it!’
He decided there itself. He had to take this egg back with him no matter what.
But there was still so more eggs he hadn’t seen yet....what if there is more amazing egg? Not willing to take any chance, he continued examining a few more eggs, but his mind kept returning to the space elent egg.
Unfortunately or fortunately, there were no more eggs that caught his attention, everything seed inferior after seeing the space elental egg.
The thunder elental egg was definitely impressive, but the space elent was in a completely different league. The thought of having a partner capable of manipulating the very fabric of space and reality made his heart race with anticipation.
After nearly two hours of careful examination, Renard found himself standing once again before the small, color-shifting egg. Every instinct he possessed, combined with the clear evidence from his Prajna ability, confird this was the right choice.
The thunder egg had been tempting—Thunder elent beasts were devastatingly powerful and much more straightforward to train. But space elent? That was a once-in-a-lifeti opportunity. The kind of beast that legends were built around.
"Space elent," he murmured, reaching out to gently touch the egg’s surface.
The mont his fingers made contact, a shock ran through his entire body. It wasn’t painful—rather, it felt like recognition. Like coming from whatever was developing inside that egg.
The egg’s surface ward under his touch, and for just a mont, he could swear he felt sothing stirring within, responding to his presence.
"Sebastian," he called out, his voice carrying clearly through the chamber.
The butler appeared almost instantly, as if he’d been waiting just outside the doors. "Yes, young master?"
"I’ve made my choice." Renard gestured to the space elent egg with barely contained excitent. "This one."
______
"Damn it, I really can’t take this anymore!"
An endless ocean of crimson sand stretched across the horizon as a man riding a weathered Ashscritch cursed while reaching desperately for his water sac. He was completely drenched in sweat and looked like he hadn’t eaten in ten days. His clothes were torn and dusty, his face gaunt with exhaustion.
The man’s face was strangely familiar. If Renard had been there, he would have instantly recognized who it was.
"Do we really have to go this far? We’ve already traveled halfway across the continent, not to ntion we are at one of the dangerous places on the continent," another man beside him complained, his situation looking even worse. His mount could barely keep moving, and his lips were cracked from dehydration.
"What do you think?" the first man snapped irritably. "We ssed with one of the eight great families. Do you really believe they’ll let us live if we’re caught?"
He spat into the sand, his voice growing more bitter. "And those damned Blood Hounds! They can sniff out your location no matter where you hide. If we lower our guard for even a single day, we’ll be dead at!"
The man was none other than the Blood Manipulator that Renard had fought—Henry!
He had been on the run for nearly three months, and every day had been nothing but hell. Escaping from Draemir territory itself had been a nightmare. The knights of the Draemirs had been hot on his trail, and as if that wasn’t enough, the damned assassin and a warrior from the Valor clan had joined the hunt.
But thanks to one of his abilities that allowed him to steal other people’s faces, he had managed to slip away sohow. But the real nightmare began when the Blood Hounds picked up his trail.
They were like damned dogs from hell!
No matter where he hid, no matter how carefully he covered his tracks, they would eventually sniff out his location. He had even reached out to the commander of Taira Castle—the very man who had given him the assassination job in the first place. But that scum had abandoned him without a second thought.
"There was no deal, and I can’t help you," the commander had said coldly.
When Henry had threatened to reveal that the commander was behind the assassination attempt, the man had just scoffed. "You think anyone in House Grim would care? If the heir isn’t strong enough to protect his own life, then he simply isn’t suited for power."
That was true enough. The damned family only believed in strength. They would dismiss the matter entirely, saying that weakness deserved no position.
But why couldn’t they dismiss his case the sa way?
The problem wasn’t that he had tried to kill Renard, heir to the Grims. The family just wanted to make an example out of him—to show the world that no one could ss with House Grim and walk away unscathed.
"I swear I’m never going to sleep facing that direction again," Henry cursed, looking vaguely toward where the Grim territories lay far behind them.
Currently, they were skirting the edges of the Great Desert—the Cursed Crimson Hell, one of the five forbidden regions of the continent. Of course, Henry didn’t have the courage to actually venture into the heart of the crimson desert. They were traveling along its borders, going around the wasteland rather than crossing directly through it.
Even this relatively safe route was proving to be a nightmare of heat, thirst, and exhaustion.
"But Captain, where exactly are we going?" his companion asked desperately. Most of their gang was dead, and the survivors had scattered to the winds just to stay alive. He was genuinely curious about their destination—and whether it was worth this suffering.
"Well, we need to hide from the Grims," Henry replied, wiping sweat from his brow. "Fortunately, there’s a mission that requires to go to a place that’s not known to the world."
"Huh? A place not known to the world? What does that even an?"
Henry’s cracked lips curved into sothing that might have been a smile. "You’ll understand once we get there. We still have half the journey left, so prepare yourself for more of this."
"What?!" his companion’s voice cracked with despair. "You’ve got to be kidding ! I’ll be dead before we arrive!"
Henry just shrugged, urging his exhausted mount forward across the endless crimson wasteland.
Whatever this mysterious destination was, it had better be worth it. Because at this rate, the desert might kill them before the Grims ever got the chance.
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