The sovereign standing in the center of the colossal nest was a creature of breathtaking, ethereal beauty. This was Fengliu, the Zephyr-Tide Roc King. He was immense, easily the size of a large ship, but he carried his size with a weightless grace that defied all logic. His feathers shimmered with the iridescent, pearlescent colors of an abalone shell, shifting from sky-blue to sea-green to the soft pink of a dawn cloud.
His sharp, curved beak and deadly talons were the color of polished storm clouds, and his eyes were the color of a clear, bright sky, holding a wisdom as ancient and vast as the heavens themselves.
He stood unmoving as Spine, a being of equal, if not greater, ancient power, descended from the heavens. The great Sea-Dragon landed with the silent grace of a falling shadow on the edge of the vast, wind-scoured plateau, his own immense form a silent challenge.
The air on the mountaintop was thin and bitingly cold, the constant, whispering wind a physical presence. It flowed around Li Yu and his companions, yet it could not touch them, held at bay by the invisible pressure of the two colossal beasts.
Fengliu's sky-blue eyes slowly moved to assess the newcomers. He looked at the colossal form of Spine, and a flicker of ancient, professional acknowledgment passed through his gaze. He looked at Xylia, in her true, hulking form as a Glacial Matriarch, and then at Kui, a massive Behemoth Turtle-Snake. Finally, his gaze fell upon the small, unassuming human standing at the forefront, and his expression, which had been one of proud neutrality, instantly frosted over with a cold, undisguised disdain.
"This is my domain," the Roc King's voice was like the wind itself, a resonant, melodic baritone. "Your presence is noted, Sea-Dragon. But you have brought vermin to my nest. State your purpose, and then remove your human filth from my mountain."
The insult was so direct that Kui let out an indignant snort of steam from his draconic nostrils. Xylia simply growled, a low, menacing rumble.
Li Yu, however, remained calm, he came here with a purpose. He stepped forward, offering a respectful bow. "Honored Sovereign Fengliu. My name is Li Yu. We have come a long way to seek your wisdom and propose a partnership…"
"I do not partner with humans," Fengliu cut him off, his voice sharp and cold. "I know of your kind. You are a plague. You spread across the land, building your ugly nests of wood and stone, fouling the rivers, and killing for sport and profit. You are a fleeting, arrogant species, a brief, noisy infestation upon this ancient world."
He took a single, graceful step forward, his immense talons clicking on the petrified wood of his nest. "I have watched your kind for centuries. I have seen your wars, your betrayals, your fleeting triumphs and your pathetic, squabbling empires. There is nothing you could offer me that I would want. You are a predictable, short-lived, and uninteresting creature."
His sky-blue eyes then narrowed, a dangerous, stormy light entering them. "You have five seconds to leave my mountain. After that, I will consider your continued presence a direct challenge, and I will tear the flesh from your bones."
The ultimatum was absolute.
Li Yu's calm expression did not change. He had expected this. "You believe you know everything about the world of men, Sovereign Fengliu," Li Yu said quietly. "But the world is changing. New powers are rising. Powers that even you, from your high peak, may not have fully accounted for."
The Roc King simply let out a sound of pure, dismissive amusement. "New powers? Child, there is nothing new under the sun. Your kind squabbles, one nest of ants overcomes another, and then they too are washed away by the next rain. It is all a tiresome, predictable cycle."
He spread his magnificent, pearlescent wings, a gesture of finality and immense, intimidating power. "Your time is up. Leave. Now."
Li Yu sighed. He had tried reason, but Fengliu's pride was a wall of solid wind. "Very well," he said, his tone still respectful. He gave a final bow. "We will take our leave. We thank you for the audience, as brief as it was."
He turned to his companions. As they began to turn back towards the edge of the plateau, Fengliu spoke one last time, his voice dripping with a final, parting shot of contempt.
"And take your foolish, misguided companions with you," the Roc King called out, his gaze sweeping over Spine, Kui, and Xylia. "To think that beings of your caliber would lower yourselves to associate with a human. Only the weak, the desperate, and the foolish would choose to partner with a race of vermin. You shame your own bloodlines."
Kui and Xylia, being called weak and foolish, simply huffed. They had seen the inside of Li Yu's sanctuary. They knew the truth of his power. They knew what this arrogant bird was missing out on. They laughed it off, the insults of the ignorant meaning nothing to them.
But their master's other partner, the one who was not physically present, was not nearly so thick-skinned.
Deep within the Koi's Sanctuary, on his dark, isolated area, Khaos heard the insult. He was not Li Yu's servant; he was his partner, a sovereign being who had chosen to ally with this human for his own, profound reasons—access to the sanctuary, rare treasures, and a path to greater power. For this Roc to imply that his choice was born of weakness or foolishness was a direct insult to Khaos's own supreme judgment and power.
A wave of pure, unrestrained, and utterly arrogant fury erupted in Li Yu's mind.
"Did that feathered dust bunny… just question the wisdom of this KING'S partnership?"
Before Li Yu could even begin to calm him down, Khaos acted.
On the mountaintop, the world simply… stopped.
Fengliu, the proud, majestic Roc King, suddenly froze, his wings half-spread, his beak open in a sneer. His sky-blue eyes went wide with a pure, mind-shattering shock. An invisible, absolute power had descended upon him. He could not move. He could not breathe. The very space he occupied had become a solid, unbreachable cage. His own mastery over the wind, his legendary speed, was utterly, completely useless. He couldn't even twitch a single feather.
A shimmering distortion of pure, starless void, a vertical rip in reality, appeared in the center of the plateau. From it, the colossal, terrifying form of the Stygian Void-Crusher emerged. Khaos appeared in all his glory, his immense body blotting out the sun, the galaxies on his midnight-black shell swirling with a furious, violent light.
He looked at the frozen, terrified Roc King, his presence a weight that made the very mountain tremble. His voice was not a sound, but a crushing, mental boom that slammed into the minds of everyone present.
"This is your method of negotiation, boy?" Khaos's thought was directed at Li Yu, laced with a dangerous rumble. "You allow these lesser creatures to question our alliance? To insult my judgment? Your sentimentality is a disease. The correct way to handle such insolence is through absolute, undeniable force."
He turned his full, terrifying attention back to the immobilized Fengliu. "You are proud of your speed, little bird? You are the master of the sky?" Khaos let out a silent, mental laugh, cold and humorless. "And yet, you could not even perceive my arrival. You speak of weak and foolish partners, yet you cannot even lift a finger against a being who has chosen to ally with a human."
One of his colossal, void-black pincers rose slowly, its razor-sharp tip aimed directly at the Roc King's throat. "Now then. You will submit and join our partnership, lending your eyes and ears to my associate. Or you will die. The choice is yours. And frankly," he added, a wave of cruel, smug amusement washing over them, "I do not particularly care which you choose."