Chapter 315: Origin Network’s Intention Behind The Domain Event
[Warning: Trial Guardian has entered Second Phase]
[The Obsidian Wyrm has mutated into a Hollow Beast]
[Combat Score: ???]
"T-The pressure just tripled," someone gasped. "No, it’s even worse than before. This thing... it feels like staring into an abyss."
Caelus’s expression changed immediately.
A Hollow Beast. Here. In a Domain Event.
His mind raced as pieces clicked into place.
He remembered how Candy had received different rewards from him during the earlier trials. How the rewards seemed tailored to what each participant needed most.
"So this was your intention, Origin Network," he muttered.
The Domain Event wasn’t simply meant to reward humanity.
It was meant to expose everyone to a Hollow Beast.
The Origin Network knew that Earth was being threatened by a Hollow Beast. It was taking preventative measures, preparing humanity for what was coming by giving them firsthand experience against such a creature.
This trial was training but many died in it.
The mutated creature let out a screech that pierced directly into everyone’s minds. The sound carried madness with it, an overwhelming desire to surrender and accept oblivion.
Players collapsed around the arena, clutching their heads and screaming.
Sylvia appeared at Caelus’s side, her Blood Sword Construct already in hand.
The Hollow Beast’s aura exceeded anything they had faced before. Even with all his abilities, this would be a desperate fight.
But it either die here or win the fight.
Caelus and Sylvia looked at each other and nodded.
They launched forward simultaneously.
Caelus activated Spatial Blink, appearing above the creature’s twisted form. His Ruyi Jingu Bang expanded to massive size as he brought it down with all his strength.
The staff struck the Hollow Beast’s back and bounced off harmlessly.
"What?"
The shadows writhing across its body had absorbed the impact completely. His physical attacks weren’t working.
Sylvia’s Blood Sword carved toward the creature’s side.
Crimson energy erupted from her blade, forming a massive arc of destruction.
The attack connected and accomplished nothing. The Hollow Beast’s body simply reformed around the damage.
"It’s regenerating!" Sylvia shouted.
The creature’s tail whipped toward her with blinding speed. She barely managed to dodge, the appendage grazing her shoulder and sending her spinning through the air.
Caelus caught her with Telekinesis before she could crash into the wall.
He switched tactics immediately.
[Skill Activated: Star King’s Sword Vault]
SNAP!
Golden portals rippled into existence behind him. Hundreds of starlight swords erupted forward, raining down on the Hollow Beast like a meteor shower.
The swords pierced its shadowy form but dissolved into nothing before they could cause real damage.
"My attacks aren’t working either," Caelus grunted.
The Hollow Beast lunged toward them, its twisted jaws opening impossibly wide.
Caelus grabbed Sylvia and used Spatial Blink to teleport them both twenty meters to the left.
The creature’s teeth snapped shut on empty air.
"We need to find its weakness," Sylvia said quickly.
They separated and attacked from different angles.
Sylvia summoned her Crimson Sovereign, the massive vampiric avatar materializing behind her. Its claws descended on the Hollow Beast’s head.
The creature simply phased through the attack, its body becoming intangible for a split second.
Caelus tried Origin Sever, targeting the concept of the beast’s intangibility.
[Skill Activated: Origin Sever]
The effect lasted exactly three seconds before the creature’s power overwhelmed his attempt. Its strength was simply too high for the erasure to be permanent.
The Hollow Beast retaliated with a blast of purple energy from its multiple eyes.
Caelus raised his hand, trying to break the energy construct with his Ascended Body.
The impact sent him flying backward. His palm was scorched, smoking with residual corruption.
"Hubby!" Sylvia rushed to his side.
"I’m fine," he said through gritted teeth. "That energy... it’s different. It’s not pure energy. It’s tainted with something else."
The Hollow Beast wasn’t playing by normal rules. Its attacks carried corruption that even his Ascended Body struggled to neutralize.
Around them, the remaining players had mostly collapsed. The psychic scream earlier had overwhelmed their minds, leaving them unconscious or worse.
Chad lay crumpled against his pillar, blood still seeping from his wounds. He fought to stay conscious, his vision swimming.
Lunari knelt nearby, her holy energy completely depleted. She could barely keep her eyes open, but she refused to look away from the battle.
Only the two of them remained conscious to witness what was happening.
The Hollow Beast turned its attention toward the helpless players scattered across the arena.
"No!" Sylvia intercepted it, her Blood Sword carving a slash across its face.
The creature backhanded her with one twisted limb.
She crashed into the ground hard enough to crack the stone beneath her.
"SYLVIA!" Caelus’s expression changed.
The Hollow Beast loomed over her fallen form, preparing to deliver the killing blow.
Time seemed to slow.
Caelus felt something deep within him stirring. Something that had been dormant since his transformation in the Abyss. Something connected to his identity as an Ender.
The latent authority of the Ender responded to his desperation.
Power surged through his veins like liquid fire.
BOOM!
[Half-Dragon Transformation Activated]
[HP: 284 → 852]
[CA: 284 → 852]
[Mind Power: 200 → 600]
The change was instantaneous and violent.
Caelus’s human form dissolved as scales darker than the void itself erupted across every inch of his being. His limbs elongated, his spine extended, his skull reshaped.
Where a young man had stood, a dragon now emerged.
The dragon was massive, its body covered in black scales that seemed to drink in the surrounding light. But across its entire form, intricate patterns glowed with brilliant blue light, like circuits of pure energy coursing beneath its hide.
The blue lines pulsed with each heartbeat, creating an otherworldly effect that made the dragon appear as though it were forged from darkness and lightning combined.
Its eyes blazed with sapphire fire. Horns curved backward from its skull like deadly crescents. Wings unfurled from its back, each one spanning nearly twenty meters.
This was the Half-Dragon Transformation.
A terrifyingly powerful draconic state that completely surpassed his normal Chaos Dragon Body.
Instead of doubling his base stats like the Chaos Dragon Body, this transformation tripled his HP, CA, and Mind Power. The amplification extended to his skills as well, making every ability he possessed significantly more devastating and his combat score increased by 75.
But there was a cost.
Even as power flooded through his new form, Caelus could feel his cells straining at their absolute limit. The Mystic Code of a complete Dragon Transformation was beyond what his current body could safely contain.
This was why it was called a Half-Dragon Transformation.
If he attempted to push beyond this state, if he tried to draw out the full power available to him, his body would be permanently destroyed.
He didn’t care.
Sylvia was in danger.
The black dragon moved.
One moment it hovered above the arena. The next, it was between Sylvia and the Hollow Beast.
A massive clawed hand connected with the creature’s descending limb.
BOOM!
The impact created a shockwave that shattered every pillar in the arena. The Hollow Beast was sent tumbling backward, its arm bent at an unnatural angle.
For the first time, the creature showed something resembling pain.
Chad’s eyes went wide despite his injuries.
"A Dragon...?"
Lunari equally stared in disbelief at the magnificent creature hovering protectively over Sylvia’s fallen form. The blue circuit patterns across its black scales pulsed hypnotically.
Caelus immediately begin attacking.
[Skill Activated: Star King’s Sword Vault]
Golden portals erupted around the Hollow Beast in a complete sphere.
Thousands of starlight swords descended from every direction simultaneously.
But these weren’t ordinary swords anymore.
The Half-Dragon Transformation amplified his skills alongside his physical stats. Each sword carried triple the destructive force.
The barrage tore through the Hollow Beast’s shadowy defenses, actually piercing its form and drawing spurts of black ichor.
The creature screeched in fury and pain.
Caelus didn’t let up.
Spatial Rend!
A massive clawed strike shot forward, and the attack emerged twenty-five meters away, directly inside the Hollow Beast’s chest.
The amplified strike detonated within its body, causing massive internal damage.
The creature staggered, its regeneration struggling to keep up with the devastation.
They begin clashing at a speed so high that nobody could keep up or see them in their vision.
"So this is his true power." Chad understood everything now.
Why Caelus could walk with confidence.
Why he didn’t fear a faction.
To think he would possess such unfathomable power.
A minute later, Caelus successfully clashed over a 10,000 times with the beast and With Adaptation Wheel he was able to handle the Hollow beast better.
Even with the Combat score at 75 of Master Rank, this thing was still a beast.
He really wondered, what was Origin Network thinking unleashing a beast with this combat score in here? Did it plan on killing everyone here or did it do it fully knowing he was here?
But now wasn’t the time to think that.
[Skill Activated: Origin Sever]
He targeted the concept of the beast’s intangibility.
For 10 seconds seconds, the Hollow Beast became fully solid, unable to phase through attacks.
That was all he needed.
The black dragon appeared directly in front of the creature using Spatial Blink.
Massive jaws clamped around its twisted throat.
[Trait Activated: Telekinesis]
But this telekinesis was different. Amplified threefold by the transformation, the invisible force didn’t just grip the Hollow Beast.
It began to crush it from the inside out.
The Hollow Beast’s body started to collapse inward. Its shadowy flesh compressed, its twisted bones shattered, its multiple eyes burst one by one.
It tried to regenerate, but the telekinetic force crushed its healing flesh faster than it could reform.
The black dragon poured everything into the attack.
Caelus could feel his cells screaming in protest. Hairline fractures appeared across his scales. The blue circuit patterns flickered erratically.
He was approaching the limit of five minutes. Any more and his body would be destroyed.
But he didn’t need more.
With one final surge of power, the dragon’s jaws tore through the Hollow Beast’s form completely.
Its entire existence was ripped apart, dissolving into wisps of shadow that scattered and faded into nothing.
[Ding!]
[Trial Guardian has been defeated.]
[Third Trial Complete.]
[Rank: SSS+]
The black dragon landed heavily on the arena floor.
Blue light flickered across its scales one final time before the transformation began to reverse. The massive draconic form shrank and reshaped, scales receding, wings folding away.
Caelus emerged from the transformation on his hands and knees, gasping for breath.
His entire body trembled with exhaustion. Blood leaked from the corners of his eyes and nose. The strain of maintaining that form had pushed him to his absolute limit.
[Ding!]
[Trial Guardian has been defeated.]
[Third Trial Complete.]
[Rank: SSS+]
[Calculating Rewards...]