The Primal Blood Demonic Dragon

The forest blurred around him.

Every muscle in Gin’s silver-blue body coiled tight as he sprinted through the undergrowth, vaulting over roots and pushing past low-hanging branches. His breath came in shallow bursts, misting in the cool dawn air that had no right to feel so calm. It mocked him with its stillness, like the forest itself had become complicit in the silence.

Only one thought remained now, searing and sharp:

Alice.

She was the last. The only one who hadn’t moved, hadn’t succumbed to that maddening rhythm at least from what it seems, not yet. When he’d passed her canopy earlier, her presence had been eerily serene. Eyes shut. Body still. Not entwined in anyone’s arms just like since first day of his awaking from deep slumber.

Alone. And untouched.

Maybe she was resisting.

Maybe she was still herself. After all she was born from half portion of his soul, which who knows is how much more higher rank than others, of everyone present.

And maybe because Gin was also not affected by the storm of pleasure for his high enough soul to resist the anomaly without himself having that knowledge.

The vines of her canopy came into view—thinner than the others, woven with translucent moss that shimmered faintly in the morning light. The structure pulsed gently, like breath, as if it too were waiting. Gin didn’t slow down. He couldn’t slow down. Not after what he’d just seen.

He barreled forward.

The moment he reached the curtain, he didn’t hesitate. He crashed through with the force of a tidal surge, his broad wolfish shoulders tearing through the outer vines in a blur of movement. Leaves scattered in his wake. Moss snapped and fluttered. The interior light, soft and pale, bled into his eyes like moonlight behind glass.

And there she was.

Alice.

Lying at the center of the canopy.

Her body lay on its side, one arm folded under her cheek, legs curled in gentle repose. Her silver-blonde hair pooled around her like liquid silk, glinting with faint traces of dew. A single vine had coiled protectively around her waist but no more. She wore no expression, her face remained blank, as if caught between sleep and trance.

His paws froze mid-step.

She wasn’t like the others. Not yet.

But that only made the silence worse.

He moved closer, cautiously now, the urgency in his chest tightening into dread. Each step was slow, each paw gliding over the moss-carpeted floor with practiced grace. There was no rhythm here. No mating motions. No scent of frenzied heat and joining bodies. But there was still something wrong.

Deeply wrong.

’Alice...’ Gin muttered her name in head hoping for a response from, growl soft but firm, carrying the weight of his desperation.

But no answer.

She didn’t stir.

Even from this close, her breathing remained shallow and slow. Not deep like rest. Not frantic like fear.

He circled around her side, eyes locked on her face. There was no tension in her muscles, no flinch at his presence. The light of the canopy glimmered faintly over her eyelashes.

She was there... but not.

He reached out a paw and gently pressed it to her shoulder.

Nothing.

His touch was careful just a prod just like every time, one meant to shake someone from light slumber. But her body remained still, unreactive. There was no resistance, but no response either.

He blinked and added more pressure. A full nudge now.

Again... nothing.

Her body shifted only slightly with the contact, as if her flesh allowed movement, but her will refused it. It wasn’t like with Lucy-Saira or Xingning-Jean, where their forms had become physically immovable. Alice could be touched, even nudged slightly... but her spirit wasn’t in shelter.

Gin’s tail dropped low behind him, ears twitching in the stifling stillness.

No warmth of recognition. No flicker of life behind her closed eyelids. No pulse of elemental energy to push against.

He growled more from despair than anger and gave her a firmer shove, rolling her half onto her back.

Her limbs moved loosely, head tilting, lips parting just faintly. But her eyes... remained shut.

Like a doll.

Or something worse.

Gin’s breath came quicker, the hairs along his neck standing on end. He pressed his snout to her forehead, inhaling deeply.

No corruption. No sign of sickness or decay.

Just absence.

She was untouched but not safe.

Not spared. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

She had been locked away.

Trapped without motion, without agency. Not forced into the cycles like the others. But held... waiting. For what?

Gin’s claws dug into the soil beneath him as he pulled back and looked around. The canopy was too still. Too quiet. No distance beast activity sound. No wind. No beasts nearby. No sound.

He stepped back and examined the edges of the canopy. The vines that had formed this shelter were they merely shelter? Or

a cage?

He padded to one corner and pressed his shoulder into the wall of foliage.

It didn’t budge.

Not like normal vines. These pulsed faintly with energy, like veins. But with also like something living.

And suddenly he saw it.

Along the spine of the nearest vine a thread.

A thread of silver light.

It shimmered when he stepped closer, nearly invisible. But it pulsed at the same pace he had seen in the other canopies.

A rhythm.

The same rhythm.

Except here it wasn’t being enacted in the open. It was buried. Hidden.

Suppressed.

Alice wasn’t spared.

She was being held back.

Frozen.

Waiting for a trigger.

Gin’s breath caught.

This wasn’t random.

Whatever was happening whatever had taken hold of Lucy, Saira, Xingning, and Jean, this was its opposite face. The holding pattern. The dormant phase. A design.

He turned back toward Alice, now lying half-turned, her pale skin untouched, her hair draped like mist. Still unmoving. Still unaware.

He didn’t know what to do.

His strength hadn’t broken through to the others.

His howls hadn’t pierced their trance.

His presence had been ignored.

So what was left?

What could wake them?

His paws shifted against the ground as he paced around Alice, gaze wild, brain clawing for answers. ’This wasn’t physical. It wasn’t just the body. It was energetic. Deeper than muscle, deeper than flesh. It could also be ever deeper, affecting the soul of the creatures.’ He remembered about similar activity of beasts at distance.

It was elemental.

His own previous elemental energy wood responded to life, growth, nature.

But what he had just seen... was unnatural. Synchronized, yes but sterile. Not organic. A rhythm forced by something not of this place.

He inhaled sharply and pressed his paw to Alice’s chest, directly over her heart.

He pushed not with force but with intent trying to channel a pulse of his wood energy, the raw, vibrant flow of primal life. But he had forgotten that he can’t use the previous elements.

Nothing touched her, nothing came out from his energy channels.

He almost broke seeing this and then recalled him not being able to use any element. He doesn’t even know what this wolf body have element affinity towards.

He had lost all hope. No option left to do something about the situation.

Yet at this very moment something within his soul deep inside stirred.

A movement he also discovered.

The floating tree without a hold trembled slightly and with it green leaves on branch and green small roots on a big root, looking like various shaped tumors glowed together turning more greener.

Slowly Gin’s paw which was still above Alice bosom released green glow, threads of green energy soon came in contact with Alice.

The moment it touched her... her body jerked slightly.

A twitch.

Fingers curled faintly.

Eyes didn’t open.

But something responded.

Gin’s eyes widened. ’Fu*k, have i become a dismissal in distress or something.’ He really wanted to curse loudly at the tree without knowing it even has a will of it’s own, even have a soul of its own or not. But

He focused again, he had to. Concentrating his will on the the tree, and pushed another pulse not violent, not invasive. Nourishing. Calling.

And again her spine arched slightly. One leg trembled.

It was weak. Flickering. But it was real.

The trance could be broken.

Not by force. Not by sound.

But by awakening the connection between their souls like before.

Not as master and servant.

Not as leader and follower.

But as equals. Primal beings bound by the same root.

He braced himself, breath steadying.

If Alice could be reached, then perhaps the others

A deep thrum shook the air.

The vine canopy shimmered with light.

And suddenly, the thread of silver running along the vines lit up.

Bright.

Then others lit up too.

Dozens.

Hundreds.

Running through the trees, through the canopies, through the forest.

A vast, sprawling network of rhythm, hidden until now.

And all of them were pulsing.

Synchronized.

Something had noticed.

Something was aware that he had tried to intervene.

The air grew heavier. The temperature shifted.

A presence pressed against the edge of the world.

And Gin, paw still on Alice’s chest, realized:

He wasn’t just a passerby anymore.

He had become a threat. And an active prey this time.

________________________________________

To Be continued.