Then the ground quaked again.
The tremor was so violent even the Vespids wavered midair, wings thrumming in panic. Dust and ash cascaded from the canopy as the earth below split apart with a sound like the world’s bones breaking.
From the long fissure rose a serpent the size of a fortress.
Its body stretched for hundreds of ters, scales cracked and leaking black vapor. Each exhale released a miasma that corroded the air itself, turning nearby trees into withered husks within seconds. Its every motion carried a weight that pressed down on the spirit—pressure, deep and suffocating, unmistakably akin to that of an Indigo-grade spiritual creature.
But there was sothing wrong about it.
The pressure was unstable, fluctuating—like a fla starved of oxygen, flaring violently one second, guttering the next. Kain’s jaw tightened. He could feel the difference imdiately: the oppressive strength of a creature that should have had a domain, yet lacked the world’s acceptance.
’An abyssal that reached Indigo-grade power... but no domain,’ Kain thought with so happiness. ’Maybe that’s the limit for them. The world itself rejects them. They can’t form domains because they can’t integrate with the world’s laws.’
Which was a huge relief. He’d seen the difference a Pseudodomain made for Cassian and Isolde during the tournant; he didn’t want to deal with a full one.
Even so, rejection or not, the serpent’s aura was overwhelming. Its re presence warped the landscape, causing the forest to blacken and twist. Smaller abyssal serpents disintegrated just from proximity to their ’boss’, their essence devoured to feed its power.
"Guess that’s the big one," Kain muttered.
The serpent moved.
Well, it felt more like teleportation. It was a blur of darkness lashing through the air. Vauleth barely intercepted it, fla erupting as jaws t scales in a violent clash. The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the forest, igniting dead wood and scattering the snake swarm.
The fire dragon roared, unleashing large swaths of magma-laced breath that coated the serpent’s body in molten fla. But instead of burning, the black scales drank in the fire, glowing faintly as though absorbing the energy.
Kain’s pupils narrowed. "It’s feeding on heat—Vauleth, disengage!"
Too late. The serpent’s tail swept through the air, slamming into the dragon’s side and sending it crashing through several trees. The earth shook with the impact.
Aegis moved imdiately, the veins on its body lighting up as barriers rose to intercept the follow-up strike aid in Kain’s direction. The serpent’s tail collided with the tal shield, shattering it in a thunderclap that sent Kain skidding backward through the dirt.
He coughed blood and looked up in ti to see Serena already moving—her Totem Tree’s roots snaked across the battlefield, glowing with venomous silver light. The roots lashed upward, wrapping around the serpent’s body like chains and searing into its flesh. Smoke hissed from the contact, and the creature’s roar split the air.
Above, the Starweaver’s form shimred like a constellation co to life, its radiant bow forming as it drew threads of starlight taut. Arrows of astral light rained from the heavens, exploding against the serpent’s body and illuminating the forest in bursts of gold and white. Each impact left glowing fissures across its scales—but they sealed almost imdiately, black energy oozing over them like living tar. Notably, with every wound it suffered, one of its underlings would explode.
"It’s regenerating," Serena said sharply, her voice low with unease. "It’s using abyssal energy released by the death of the smaller serpents to heal itself."
Kain’s eyes darkened. "Then we don’t give it a chance to heal."
Aegis’s veins flared brighter, tal tendrils shooting from its arms to spear into the ground. The terrain shifted under its command—walls of black steel rose, forming a labyrinth around the serpent while competing with it to suck up any ambient abyssal energy.
At the sa ti, Vauleth recovered, fury igniting in his eyes that he, a mighty dragon, had been pushed back by a lesser reptile. Twin vortexes spiraled around his wings, one the typical red and the other resembling the blue lightning flas of Blue Dragons.
Since the national tournant, under Kain’s targeted training, it had developed the ability to better call upon the abilities of other dragon lines at will. Although there was still an elent of luck.
So far, perhaps due to the ti spent around the Lotus of Silent Law, the dragon had made the most progress in the skills of the lightning-attribute Blue Dragon clan. Perhaps due to the similarly aggressive and hot natures of fire and lightning.
The air warped under the heat of the combined red-blue fla, the forest canopy vanishing in a storm of burning embers. The serpent bellowed, thrashing violently, its body tearing through Aegis’s barriers like parchnt.
Kain could barely see through the chaos—shattered stone, dust, and light everywhere. He reached out ntally. Bea.
A faint psychic hum answered. Her Pale Thought Field unfolded again, this ti spreading farther, tighter—like an invisible web overlaying the battlefield. The serpents that had escaped the first clash froze mid-motion, their coordination collapsing as their minds fractured under Bea’s control. Even the colossal serpent hesitated for an instant—the fraction of a second before its rage shattered her influence.
The backlash hit like a hamr. Kain grunted, gripping his head as Bea’s ntal cry reverberated through their link.
You okay? he sent quickly.
Still intact, ca the strained reply. It’s... strong. Not controllable.
"Then just keep the small ones busy," he muttered aloud.
Serena’s Totem Tree pulsed, unleashing waves of silver mist that rolled across the ground, purifying the corruption that spread with every movent of the giant serpent. Her Elental Guardian, now in its fused fire-water form, joined the effort, streams of liquid fla spiraling outward to carve paths through the tide of blackness.
Kain saw his chance. Not just for the kill, but for a huge ’payday’.
He darted forward, Queen synced with him—green energy coating him in a buff usually reserved for her children.
When he leapt, it was like a cannon shot. A blade appeared in his hand, flaring with runes as he drove it straight into the fissure on the serpent’s neck from Vauleth’s earlier bite.
The sword plunged deep, black ichor spraying across his armor. The creature scread, its roar like a collapsing mountain. Abyssal mist poured out, trying to corrupt everything it touched.
"Kain!" Serena’s voice rang out, but he didn’t look back. The instant the serpent’s lifeforce poured out, he called upon the system, feeling the surge of raw vitality rush through him. His body trembled from the influx, and he felt the familiar conversion process—life force condensed, refined, purified—transmuting into Source energy. His blade ignited, gold against black, burning through the corrupted flesh as his Source Point reserves climbed by the second.
The serpent convulsed. For the first ti, it retreated, slamming its tail down in blind fury. Kain barely managed to disengage as the impact cratered the ground, sending waves of dirt into the sky.
Serena’s Balens and Prismarin finally joined the fray, having spent most of their ti reserving power and attacking the small-fry.
The Prismarin multiplied into dozens of mirrored hares, scattering across the serpent’s length; every movent sent arcs of prismatic light searing through its scales.
Balens’ antique fra tilted, the face on the scale appearing to mumble an inaudible wish—monts later, heavy roots, far stronger than those produced by the Totem Tree, erupted from the earth to pin the monster in place.
The scale tilted the other way, demanding a price, but Kain simply sighed and glanced around warily—only for the bad luck to skip him and fall upon Vauleth instead. The massive serpent’s flailing tail caught a large, wet clump of earth and flung it straight into the dragon’s face.
However...judging by the vile stench and Vauleth’s indignant roar, that ’dirt’ had been a huge pile of dung lying too close to the battlefield. Kain winced in sympathy, grateful the gods of misfortune had chosen soone else this ti.
Kain’s contracts, in contrast to Serena’s, didn’t attack the snake but retreated to be closer to Serena and Kain at his direction. Despite their apparent upper hand, unease prickled at the edge of Kain’s mind. "It’s weakening... but don’t relax," he muttered.
Serena frowned. "Why?"
He gestured toward the smoldering fissures along its body. "Because it’s strong, but sothing’s off. No fire skills. None. The flas back at the town—they had abyssal traces, so they weren’t made by a spiritual creature." His eyes narrowed. So far, this serpent hadn’t shown any ability to produce flas, at most it could only absorb the flas Vauleth hurled at it.
Serena’s expression darkened as realization struck. "Then whatever burned that town—"
"—wasn’t this one," Kain finished grimly.
They stood amid the ruin, both breathing hard as the serpent’s body finally gave out and dissolved into drifting ash. Aegis and Chewy stepped forward instinctively, siphoning the lingering corruption and energy the monster left behind until even its presence faded from the air.
Kain exhaled and scanned the horizon, tension refusing to ease. "If that’s what an abyssal at indigo level can do without a domain," he muttered, "I really don’t want to see one stronger or one that can use a domain."
Serena nodded, grim. "Let’s just hope the one that caused those flas isn’t any worse."
As if in cruel answer to that thought, a booming roar shattered the stillness—its pressure crashing over them, far heavier than the serpent’s had ever been.
The ground quaked again, trees bending under invisible weight, as the air thickened with raw killing intent.
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