[Salvos] 733. The Progenitor (Patreon)

733. The Progenitor

***

“No!”

Edithe screamed as she dropped the scythe she had been carrying, before dashing forward down the crater. She picked up the remains of the metal sphere and tried to piece it all back together. But nothing happened. 

Her fingers trembled, and her eyes grew wide. No matter what she did, she couldn't piece together the metal sphere. It was completely broken.

“No. No. No! NO!”

Edithe screamed, dropping to her knees. She slammed her fists to the ground in anger as she closed her eyes. 

She gritted her teeth, her fingers digging through the dirt. Behind her, Centina, Willy, and Druma remained silent. They stared at her back as she whispered.

“The Archangel is really dead…”

Edithe clenched her fists and rose to her feet. She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t even bring herself to do it. She looked up at the green sky overhead, her vision blurring.

There was nothing else that she could do. She wanted to cry. In fact, she was already crying. Before she realized it, tears were streaming down her cheeks.

But why? Why was she even crying?

Because she knew she had failed. Because she knew she was going to die here in the Spirit Plane. Because she knew her friends were going to die, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Or so she thought.

Until she heard a voice whispering to her.

“...e...me…”

And Edithe’s eyes grew wide when she heard that.

***

This was Rachel’s plan.

To negotiate. 

And she wasn’t going to negotiate with just a random [Ancient Centinel]. She was going to negotiate with the Matriarch Centinel of the Bloodied Gulf.

As a child, Rachel had heard many horror stories about the Centinels. They were seen as the most terrible of the terrible of monsters— they were what nightmares were made of. After all, these Centinels came like a sea of red, destroying everything in its path. 

They were viewed like a natural disaster. They came and went, leaving nothing behind in their wake. Unlike other monsters which struck only when threatened or when they were hungry, these Centinels sought to destroy everything. 

But where did they even come from? Rachel had always wondered about it. So when she was living in the temple under William, she spent a lot of time reading history books— some of them were about general history like about the Immortal King Alexander— however she also researched a lot about how the Centinels even showed up in Secely.

And most books told the same story. They recounted the same event— when the Centinels washed up ashore in the southernmost tip of the continent. However, that didn’t answer the question as to where the Centinels came from.

It only took sifting through a dozen or so books for Rachel to find a plausible theory that wasn’t utterly ridiculous. It detailed an Elite Rank’s journey down into the depths of the Bloodied Gulf, and his encounter with a monster that was unlike anything seen before.

A monster that was beyond comprehension.

The Progenitor of the Centinels— also known as the Matriarch Centinel of the Bloodied Gulf.

It was said to be above Level 200. A monster which power was a level beyond that of an Elite Ranked threat. On its own, it would be considered an apocalyptic-level threat. Which sounded too ridiculous to be true.

After all, the Immortal King Alexander was rumored to be around Level 200, and he was said to be the pinnacle of Humankind.

So the idea of such a powerful monster lying at the bottom of the Bloodied Gulf was dismissed by many scholars. But Rachel had always considered it a possibility. And now, she it was real.

And she was going to talk to it… her… whatever.

Rachel was going to talk to the Matriarch Centinel. 

How would this go? Would she survive? 

Sally was here. She’d protect Rachel, right?

Except, Sally wasn’t even remotely close to being Level 200. So what could Sally realistically do to protect Rachel?

If something went wrong, Rachel was going to die. But that was a fact she was willing to live with— because this was a cause she was willing to die for.

So Rachel marched on as Jerome the named [Ancient Centinel] led the way. Behind her, a hundred more Centinels followed along. They practically formed a shield around Rachel, protecting her from any mindless Centinel that might have tried to attack her.

Meanwhile, Sally walked close next to Rachel, prepared for anything and everything to go wrong. While the Salvos clone had willingly gone with the young girl’s plan, there was evidently some apprehension there.

Even Rachel was nervous. She watched as Jerome led her through a dense forest that was overran with Centinels. Everywhere she looked, she saw the undulating figures skittering around, climbing up trees and speeding through the bushes. Their red shells reflected the light of the sun, gleaming and giving them an ominous flair.

But while Rachel was focused on the exorbitant number of Centinels gathered around them, Sally noticed something else.

“This place… it looks familiar…”

The Salvos clone whispered as she glanced around. Rachel blinked, before furrowing her brows. 

The young girl looked up and took in her surroundings. Many of the trees in the forest had been uprooted, and parts of the landscape were scarred with the ground opening up all around, but she couldn’t help but nod hesitantly. 

“Huh. It kind of does—”

And the earth erupted up ahead, just before Jerome. An [Ancient Centinel] emerged from the ground and shrieked. It was nearly as big as Jerome. But Rachel could tell it was a little bit smaller.

Jerome didn’t budge as the other [Ancient Centinel] glared down at him. He simply clicked his mandibles back at it, while it circled around him. Rachel realized that the [Ancient Centinel] was eyeing her as it was ‘speaking’.

Sally immediately tensed, but Jerome placed himself emphatically between them.

“Jerome is defending me…”

Rachel whispered in awe. A small smile slipped onto her face as she watched the [Ancient Centinel] back away from Jerome. 

“I don’t exactly know what he’s saying, but I think it’s working!”

Rachel piped up excitedly. And sure enough, the other [Ancient Centinel] eventually relented, moving out of the way as Jerome continued forward. Even still, Sally kept an eye on the other [Ancient Centinel] as they eventually reached a small hill.

It was only when they arrived at the hill did Rachel finally realize where they were.

“Wait, this is…”

The young girl started, only for Sally to interrupt her.

“My Lair.”

Sally stared the side of the hill with round eyes as Rachel turned to her. The two of them realized it at the same time. The Matriarch Centinel had turned Salvos’s hidden Lair into its home.

The hill which the Lair was located had been badly ravaged, its sides being ripped apart by massive holes, indicating that various [Ancient Centinels] had regularly entered and left the inside. 

Rachel pursed her lips as she faced Sally hesitantly.

“But why would the Matriarch Centinel reside in your Lair?”

And Sally just shrugged.

“Don’t know. Guess we’ll find out.”

The two of them slowly trailed after Jerome as he brought them forward, entering one of the tunnels that had already been dug open. They slowly descended down the hill, entering a blanket of darkness as the other Centinels stayed back.

Rachel glanced back, watching as no other Centinels— even those she had befriended— dared to follow them down the tunnel. She chewed her lower lip for a moment, before looking ahead. She saw a light at the end of a tunnel, opening up to a large cavernous room.

There, she saw the remnants of what had once been Salvos’s Lair, which was not distinctly different, having been ravaged and expanded almost beyond recognition. 

Rachel continued to walk forward as Sally paused, having kicked a metallic object over on the ground. The Salvos clone paused and picked up a goblet-like object as Rahcel followed behind Jerome, before she saw a figure standing in the middle of the cavernous room.

And there it was

A pink figure that looked about the size of a Human. It partially had the body of a Centinel, but its upper body seemed similar to that of a woman. A mass of spikes fell from its head like hair, but the face it wore was not that of a Human.

It was the Matriarch Centinel of the Bloodied Gulf.

The Progenitor of the Centinels.

An apocalyptic-level threat.

[??? - Lvl. ???]

And Rachel shuddered as the [Identification] results played in her mind.

Author's Notes:

What thonk?

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