Chapter 212: Beginning (XII)
The deafening, nuclear roar of the impact slowly died away, leaving behind a heavy, vibrating silence that rattled Erin Volter’s teeth.
Kneeling on the damp moss near the bank of the thermoregulating lake, Erin clung desperately to the thick, gnarled root of an ancient obsidian tree. Her knuckles were stark white, her lungs dragging in air that had much less oxygen as compared to earth. Gradually, the violent lurching of the inverted mountain subsided, and the floating island regained its steadiness.
However, the sky above did not return to its tranquil twilight.
The massive, pitch-black clouds that had gathered over the canopy did not disperse. Instead, they billowed higher, growing more distant, colder, and infinitely more suffocating. Chilling arcs of pitch-black lightning snaked through the dark clouds, crackling with an unnatural, abyssal static that made every hair on Erin’s arms stand on end.
Erin shivered violently, her green eyes wide with genuine fear.
’What was that...?’ she thought, her heart pounding against her ribs like a trapped bird.
In the two full months she had spent on this drifting landmass, she had witnessed strange ecological phenomena, but she had never seen anything like this. The atmosphere felt overwhelmed with an overwhelming, hostile pressure—a raw density of authority that felt vastly different from Roshhide’s usual calm, oceanic presence.
This was new. And it was utterly terrifying.
Forgetting her original intention to bathe in the lake, Erin pushed herself up from the grass. Over the past sixty days, her baseline physical capabilities had evolved far past the boundaries of a normal human.
Although she possessed no combat talents that she knew of, and had never slain a single Calamity Beast in her entire life, a fundamental shift had occurred within her body a few weeks ago. New, intuitive information had suddenly filled her mind, revealing a startling scientific fact: her newly formed core allowed her to naturally draw in the ambient dark mana of Rilth and use it to reinforce her biological structure.
Now, driven by urgency and terror, she instinctively opened those internal pathways.
It came to her as naturally as breathing. The dark mana surrounding the forest rushed into her core, flooding her nervous system with raw, kinetic strength. Erin sprang forward, her legs propelling her through the woods like a silver blur. The wind whipped her silver-white hair wildly across her face as she leaped over massive root systems and ducked under low-hanging violet branches.
Back on Earth, she had only ever seen high-ranking A-Rank and S-Rank Exterminators move with such terrifying, superhuman velocity. Now, she was executing those exact same physical feats herself.
Within blinks of an eye, Erin reached the perimeter of the island’s central district.
She ducked behind the thick trunk of a colossal tree, peering through the glowing violet foliage. Before her stood the grand, central structure—a monumental building resembling a black, rune-carved pyramid. It was the palace of the Overlord.
Standing directly in front of the pyramid’s massive obsidian doors were two figures.
Erin’s green eyes widened to their limit, her breath catching in her throat as she violently flinched.
The figure standing closest to the pyramid was Roshhide—she was certain of it. But he looked nothing like the handsome, bare-chested young man she had grown accustomed to seeing.
This was his True Form.
His body was constructed entirely of pitch-black, light-devouring material—looking like polished obsidian or a hollow shell of glass filled with swirling, liquid dark ink. Across the smooth, midnight surface of his skin, thousands of tiny, glowing white and purple stars swirled and drifted in continuous, cosmic motion. He was an eldritch, primordial terror personified—a living embodiment of the spatial void and the abyss.
A fresh wave of paralyzing horror cascaded down Erin’s spine. Her eyes remained locked onto his cosmic form, her vocal cords completely deserting her as her entire body shivered in helpless terror.
Standing a dozen paces opposite him was the second figure.
It was a woman. She was completely naked, her flawless, pale skin radiating a intoxicating, ethereal perfection. Her body was sculpted with such impossible, alluring grace that even Erin, a woman, felt momentarily mesmerized by her beauty. But the illusion of a helpless goddess was instantly shattered by her head.
Her hair was not made of strands, but of crackling, slithering streaks of pure, jagged lightning that writhed like living serpents around her bare shoulders.
Suddenly, the lightning lady shifted her weight. Her head snapped toward the forest edge, her brilliant, gem-like eyes locking directly onto Erin’s hidden position in a fraction of a millisecond.
"So the rumor was indeed true..." the lady spoke, her voice an intoxicating, melodic purr that vibrated with deadly, magnetic temptation. "...You do have a human here."
Roshhide let out a low, gravelly grunt that shook the surrounding earth. The dark, starry glass coating his form rapidly receded, collapsing inward as his body took back its modest, bare-chested human shape. His ocean-blue eyes glinted with cold, dangerous irritation.
"This has nothing to do with you," Roshhide grunted flatly, stepping between the woman and the treeline. "It is my place, and I will keep whomever I like. Just leave."
The lightning lady tilted her head back and laughed—a musical, psychotic sound that echoed like a thunderclap across the plateau.
"The Gods will kill you, you fool," she taunted, her gem-like eyes narrowing into ruthless slits. "And I will taste human flesh..."
BOOM!
Before Erin could even blink, the woman vanished from plain sight.
Moving as swift and instantaneous as a lightning strike, she bypassed the physical space between them, materializing directly in front of Erin’s face. The sheer speed was blinding, bringing with it a suffocating wave of heat and ozone.
Erin gasped, reacting purely on survival instinct as she threw her upper body backward toward the dirt.
CLAMP.
Before Erin’s back could hit the moss, a hand made of blinding, crackling electricity grabbed her firmly by the temple. The electrical current scorched Erin’s scalp, sending a agonizing, paralyzing shockwave through her skull.
"Roshhide!" Erin shrieked in terror.
Instantly, the darkness around them came violently alive. Dozens of thick, whip-like tendrils of pitch-black dark mana erupted from the earth and trees, rushing with terrifying velocity to impale and bind the intruder.
But how could shadowy tendrils catch lightning itself?
The alluring lady ignored the rising shadows, her face twisting into a mask of feral, predatory hunger. She opened her mouth, revealing razor-sharp fangs made of condensed plasma, and lunged downward, aiming to bite clean through Erin’s exposed throat.
Erin was too confused, her mind paralyzed by shock, and far too slow to comprehend the lethal reality unfolding above her.
Then... time seemed to snap.
SHHHHK!
Without a sound, the space directly surrounding the lady’s arm distorted and folded inward.
The Lightning Lady’s gem eyes widened in sudden, staggering disbelief as her bite missed its target. Her physical connection to Erin vanished, and Erin’s body began to fall freely through the air.
The lady looked down at her shoulder. Her hand was completely missing—cleanly severed at the wrist by a microscopic, invisible spatial shear!
"You pest!" the Overlord of Lightning shrieked, her intoxicating voice distorting into a deafening, furious screech.
THUNDERCLAP!
A colossal bolt of dark lightning shot straight down from the churning clouds above, striking her severed wrist. In a fraction of a second, the raw electrical energy condensed and reformed her lost hand.
Meanwhile, Erin was plummeting helplessly toward the hard ground below.
’I’m going to crash—’ Erin thought in a panic, bracing for impact.
SWOOSH.
Before her body could hit the earth, a massive, soft, and impossibly fast form intercepted her mid-fall.
Erin felt herself land gently upon a broad, muscular back, the momentum of her descent absorbed with effortless grace. Breathless and trembling, Erin slowly opened her eyes.
She found herself sitting atop a magnificent, colossal feline beast.
Erin stared in awe. The creature had the sleek, dangerous build of a panther or a leopard, but its fur was a striking, luminescent teal color that shimmered like silk. Growing proudly from the crown of its head were two incredibly long, majestic antlers shaped like flowing, deep-blue ribbons that trailed elegantly down its back. It possessed an ancient, noble presence, its feet hovering effortlessly two feet above the ground as if floating on an air current.
"Are you alright, my lady?"
A deep, resonant voice vibrated directly within Erin’s mind—polite, gentle, and laced with profound reverence.
Erin blinked, stunned to hear the beast speak telepathically. She swallowed hard and offered a stiff, trembling nod. "I... I think so..."
The teal beast—the Doom Overseer—turned its heavy head, its glowing emerald eye watching over her protectively as it glided at high speed through the forest, carrying her away from the central clearing.
Driven by instinct, Erin turned her head to look back toward the sky.
BOOM!
A massive, pitch-black dome of condensed spatial mana erupted from the earth, expanding until it completely encased the floating mountain like an impenetrable, dark shield.
High above the protective dome, amidst the howling black tempest of the sky, the true disaster began.
Roshhide and the Lightning Overlord clashed.