Chapter 87: Tree Of Life And The Order Of The Eternal Flame Part 2

As he gazed upon the horrifying crimson red entity, it returned his stare in full.

.....

It was as if, no matter the veneer, you used to shroud yourself from the world. Whatever darkness lay within that crimson would always look right back at you.

There was a saying that fit this situation to a T. It goes like this:

When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes right back at you.

It is a very terrifying thought to imagine the actual implications of. A thought that one would never expect to be something you would actually experience within a singular lifetime.

And, yet... Azmond felt that very feeling when he peered into that crimson darkness.

It felt like his soul could be sucked up on a whim if that crimson aura so felt like it...

He had never felt anything even remotely close to the terror that he felt when he gazed into that monstrosity. A terror so horror-inducing that he felt like throwing up as soon as he saw it.

So, why...?

Why did he start to feel something else begin to bud up inside him?

He began to feel something that he hadn't experienced in what felt like ages...

Azmond wanted to fight it!

He didn't know why; he didn't know how he would do it; he couldn't even begin to understand his own thinking process.

He knew it was an extremely reckless thing to do, but... he didn't care!

He just wanted to fight it!

He wanted to fight the beings that lay at the very apex of existence! He wanted to fight! He would lose without a doubt, and it wouldn't even be considered a fight, but...

'Is that fighting intent...?' He understood what that look was right away. After all, he had seen many such warriors wear the same look across his many years of life. However, none of those warriors ever had a good ending...

Something appeared to be fundamentally different about the expression on Azmond's face, though.

It was almost like he had the ludicrous confidence that he could actually win in a fight against the source of the crimson aura...

It didn't make sense...

How could someone so weak have so much arrogance?

'Is it just blind foolishness? Or something else entirely...?' Loki was becoming more and more intrigued by this mortal the more he interacted with him.

He wanted more than anythingto be able to unravel everything there was to understand about this mortal.

His unnerving frown from the previous release of the crimson aura turned into his usual sly smile as he looked at Azmond with reinvigorated enthusiasm. A cunning light constantly flickered in and out of his eyes.

Azmond was suddenly taken out of his battle crazed reverie when he felt a pair of green eyes digging into his back.

He turned around only to see Loki looking at him like a tiger gazing at a lost rabbit.

Azmond suddenly got a really bad feeling about that look.

He truly wasn't looking forward to the days to come

Nevertheless, despite his extreme reluctance to form any sort of comradeship with what he considered a pervert of the highest degree, He knew that he needed to put on an amiable facade.

Azmond had no choice in the matter. He would choose to be all buddy buddy with his enemies over being defiled by them any day of the year.

So, in response to Loki's intense stare, he put on the kindest smile he could manage as he looked him dead in the eye and asked, "So what is this 'Order Of The Eternal Flame?

And why did you get all jumpy when it was mentioned?" The corners of his lips were intermittently twitching, his face grimacing.

But his curiosity for the origin of that crimson aura far outweighed the apprehension he had for the sly blonde figure.