The Rice Seedling That Grew Well - 15 Crimson lady of flux

A peerless beauty.

This phrase is one which would immediately lead to wild thoughts as conscious beings would conjure their idealized vision of ‘beauty’. Of course, this varied greatly. A human male would (generally) take human females as their idea of a ‘beauty’. A dragon would take female dragons.. species to species, beings to their own.

Some existences take other type of existences as their idea of beauty, which would happen when their race either worshipped or protected this race… or are enslaved to their race, such as the winged ones and their lords the astral children, or the Musthounds and their adoration for the faeries.

This caused the term ‘peerless beauty’ to truly have no real standard as it differed greatly between species, races, types and existences… even then, individual standards of beauty would vary widely amongst the same ‘group’, and it would also change as ‘time’ went on and the individual or group experiences more.

‘And yet, in stark contradiction to the subjective nature of beauty, there are existences and scenery which could be considered a… universal beauty’ Yang San Shu thought.

A light which seemed to carry every spectra as it constantly fluxed from the deepest extremes of light, and then into a complete lack of colour, from violet to crimson, turquoise to lilac – and yet in site of the constant ‘flux’ which the colours seemed to represent; it somehow remained a predominant shade of crimson.

“Truly… beautiful.” The old tree unknowingly uttered.

“-Art thine thoughts due to this one’s appearance, or is it of what this one reminds thee of?”

‘..it’s familiar, yet truly different from that little girl’s vermillion.’

Basked in the light, now standing alone with him in the starry shroud domain burnt by flames of pure yang, stood an existence who’s standing stood far above gods and myths. Before him stands the child of life and time, granddaughter of creation itself, this existence is known as…

“-Flux. To what do I owe the displeasure, milady?”

“Thou truly lives up to thine less than stellar reputation, old tree..”

Flux. Change. Brevity. Her existence is testament to the marriage of life to time, and lay as the only true constant of existence so long as life exists. ‘And yet.. her existence seems weakened and unstable. Well, no wonder considering who she had just faced.’ thought Yang San Shu.

The crimson light, brilliant as it is seemed to contain wisps of darkness and appeared to be both dim and unstable. From the light came a humanoid figure, the crimson hues reflected in her humanoid form into a captivating crown of scarlet hair, drooping down to what would be her ‘waist’ like a waterfall. The brilliant lights which covered Yang San Shu’s domain cloaked into her body like a blanket and transformed into an elegant dress of a saffron hue.

“Hoh.. quite the cute little visitor I have here.”

The saffron dress and scarlet blanket of hair cocooned a doll like girl of with features of exquisite proportion. Her milky white skin seemed so soft and fragile, almost as if it would break upon contact. The pale colouration of her skin revealed needle like dark veins which seemed to constrict and slither all around the sickly pale body, the discovery of which caused Yang San Shu’s eyes to sharpen.

“You don’t look quite well, girl.” As Yang San Shu gestured, milky white flames of pure yang enveloped the girl. The dark veins shuddered and ‘vanished’ as flux was bathed in pure yang flames. “..your purifying flames lives up to it’s reputation.” As the veins retracted, the milky white flames proceeded to burn her thoroughly, the translucent flames revealing the sickly pale skin to have regained a healthier coloration as the presence of the girl stabilized.

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Still, that injury is something I can only suppress and not truly remove. To do that i’d have to exert quite a bit of effort.”

“No, to have achieved this much is already proof of your renown. Old one..” With, cold, haughty look, the crimson lady walked up to the old man standing by the blazing spire as she uttered “Parasol progenitor Yang San Shu… this lady is here to seek your-”

“I refuse”

“-assistance..” the haughty look on flux contorted into what seemed to be anger, as an awkward silence followed.

“…”

“…”

Flux stared at the old tree with cold eyes which revealed an annoyed, angry expression.

Her fair white skin

‘Yggdrasil wasn’t kidding when he said she truly represented constant flux. That little bit of provocation already annoyed her? That’s… rather cute’ Yang San Shu smirked bemusedly. ‘Moreover…’

“May I ask thee.. why?” her voice lowered considerably as flux began to shimmer in a crimson light.

‘She completely lacks manners, gratitude and respect.’ He felt himself becoming annoyed facing the adorable girl. ‘Completely unlike that gentle, loving and elegant phoenix who had once perched by me through the eons.’

“Why? well… for starters.. you really should show some proper etiquette-”

-The heaven piercing spire blazing with pure yang suddenly blazed with flames so brilliant it covered the horizon-

“-girl.”

“..!!” The saffron clad girl suddenly felt an immense pressure as if entire worlds were pressed down upon her.

“gh… you… how… ngh!!” Unable to endure the pressure, she had unknowingly took on a kneeling posture akin to the way a knights would pay fealty to their king.

*Gasp..* the air felt heavy and scarce as the girl struggled to even gaze towards the old man.

Yang San Shu approached, gently grasped her chin and..

*clutch* “!…”

..lifted her face to look into his time worn eyes, the depths of which burnt a gentle white flame.

“You… insolent..” The beautiful girl’s face revealed a blush as it contorted in cold anger. ‘Is that from shame, or anger I wonder?’ The old tree thought.

“This.. is a much more appropriate posture for a defeated to adopt when asking for help, don’t you think?”

Without realizing, the edges of Yang San Shu’s mouth lifted to reveal a mocking smirk as his eyes locked with the beautiful saffron clad girl.